Did you read anything this month?  I have started tracking what I'm reading not only by year but also by month and have been having so much fun seeing what I end up reading. Some months are busier than others but I was able to read quite a few during February!  I have soccer coming up for the next few months so I know my book number will probably be lower but that's okay! It's about having fun reading not the amount that you read. 

I don't know about you but I am a sucker for sports romance books.  It all started when I read The Deal - Elle Kennedy,  part of the Off Campus series, and instantly fell in love. I immediately read the Briar U series after!  I will have to say hockey romance probably has my heart (I grew up playing hockey so I have some bias here) but after that is baseball and football.  If you haven't read Meghan Quinns Brentwood Boys series - FREE in KU *SPICY* I highly recommend if you are dipping your toes into the sport romance world as well. 

My most recent hockey romance read was Icebreaker by Hannah Grace. I loved Nate and he’s the main reason for the four stars I gave this book. I was sick and read this book in a day. Overall I expected this to be a fluff romance read with spice (oh she brought the spice, don’t you worry), but it kind of dragged on. I feel like it did that because there was a lot of time invested in side characters. I want this to be a series because I too am invested in Henry (and Russ), but I felt like a lot of this could be cut. It was also lot of their day to day living, like I get building the story but we could have cut a lot of that and saved it for other books in the series, etc.

But anyway. I enjoyed Anastasia even though she did annoy me. She and her figure skating partner Aaron drive me crazy, he is the worst kind of person where he projects his trauma on his “friends” and she hangs onto him for soooo long. She has done a lot of therapy for herself but even though she is blunt and direct with her feelings she can’t ever seem to do that with Aaron. I don’t know if annoyed me but probably because it’s more realistic that way too. Also I like she is direct with her no attachments but also what about Ryan? Unless we get his story I’m going to feel like he will always be jealous of Nathan now because that situation was a little off — hookup buddies, just friends that cuddle…., just friends? But; her becoming friends with all the hockey boys was great. We love a girlfriend that is also friends with hers friends and like to piss each other off (I.e. JJ).

Nathan was obviously my favorite character because of how much he wanted her. I love it when the guy falls first and boy did he. Here is where you will find all the spice, falling from this sweet, romantic, supportive, filthy mouthed man. “Can you be a good girl and be quiet?”
Need I say more?

TLDR: predictable yet cute story, grumpyxsunshine reverse, slightly too long, read it for Nathan

Happy Valentines Day friends!  I decided that I would give you all some fun romance recs in case you want to spend some time this month reading about love.  Some of these I have read and others are on my TBR (to be read) list as well.  

Hey friends, I hope you're having a great start to your New Year!  I haven't made a set goal of how many books to read a month, just a yearly goal of trying to read 100.  I am definitely ahead of schedule though because I have already read 13 books this month and only one DNF. 

I love the holiday season but I've never been one to get sucked into the holiday movies or books.  Which I realize now seems odd since I love all that cheesy romance.  But, this year I snagged a few holiday books from Target and the Kindle store and wanted to share my thoughts and recommendations if you're looking for a holiday read! 

I figured I should cover the sweetest of the stories first. This book is definitely PG, and is a classic feel good Christmas miracle type book.  Samantha is a writer, her ex dumped her by just leaving, and now she is afraid of pretty much everything which is the opposite of her main character who is a daring spy type that goes on all sorts of adventures.  She ends up going to spend Christmas at an old Dude Ranch that her publisher is hosting and while there meets Drew. I'm sure you have an idea where the story goes so I won't spoil it for you but this one was cute.  I will warn you, apparently I've only been reading in first person so the third person threw me off a bit. But, once I got into story I enjoyed it. Great for romance lover that isn't a fan of spice and I did enjoy the authors colorful imagination and the references to Native American Culture as well.

I made a goal to read more books this year, but I didn't give myself a set number to achieve.  I wanted to read more than last year but wasn't sure how many books I would be able to read.  Last year I read 37 so I figured maybe I would hit 50, in no way did I intend to read 119 but here we are! I greatly attribute my Kindle for helping this reading addiction and definitely going to pitch Kindle Unlimited (KU) to you as well because it is so worth it!  I realized I needed to stop just buying books, and the library app (Libby) didn't always have what I wanted available, so Kindle Unlimited was so nice to be able to search for books and borrow them!  It's also a huge bonus when your friends also have it so you can do a mini book club together! 

If I didn't like a book I put a note next to it so if you're browsing for your next book take a look below. I organized by series and then category the best that I could. I think next year I will organize my list in my phone better for this! Leave me a comment if you want to know more about one of the books I read or have another recommendation.
*Links are affiliate and I will earn a small commission if you make a purchase at no cost to you*

Do you  get easily sucked into books?  I sure do, and the Avalon Bay Series was so good I read them both in a few days!  I had read Elle Kennedys Off-Campus series and loved the way she wrote, so I decided to try our Good Girl Complex.  Of course after I finished I immediately had to get the next one in the series because I wanted both brothers stories. 

I've been on such a reading kick this year and have been loving trying new authors and genres.  I never used to read any type of romance novel and now I just can't stop!  I first found Elle Kennedy on my Kindle and then stumbled upon these at Target. Her writing is just so easy to read and her stories just suck you in!  At first I was unsure about Good Girl Complex because when reading reviews I saw quite a few people compared it to After but I wouldn't compare them at all.  Yes they both start with a bet but After is much more cruel and a very intense love story with a lot of humiliating and extreme situations. Good Girl Complex starts with Cooper making a bet to get back at Mac's boyfriend for getting him fired.  The small townies don't like the "clones" aka rich kids that come for school and this is where the story begins. So obviously this is the one correlation between the stories, but this is a much more lighthearted and has closure all in one book instead of needing four.  I do wish there was more of an epilogue but I was okay when I started reading Bad Girl Complex because then you get more of Mac and Cooper along with Evan (Cooper's brother) and Gen's story.  I loved how Elle Kennedy gives you both perspectives of the story and I am even more excited because I saw that coming this summer the next book in the series is coming out The Summer Girl and I cannot wait to see yet another part of the story of Avalon Bay.  She is the granddaughter of the woman that sold Mac the boardwalk hotel that she is redoing (I assume) so I can't wait to see if all these stories get intertwined!  Check out below to read the overview of the stories and let me know if you're read them or if you have any other recommendations!

I've come to find that when I find an author I like I'll do an instant buy if the book sounds good or is on sale. This was true when I saw My Killer Vacation by Tessa Bailey.  I read it Happened on Summer and  Hook Line an Sinker immediately after because I just loved the stories.  Her writing is so easy to read and her characters get you hooked.  The same went for My Killer Vacation. 

"​It was supposed to be a relaxing vacation in sweet, sunny Cape Cod—just me and my beloved brother—but discovering a corpse in our rental house really throws a wrench into our tanning schedule. Now a rude, crude bounty hunter has arrived on the back of his motorcycle to catch the killer and refuses to believe I can be helpful, despite countless hours of true crime podcast listening. Not to mention a fulfilling teaching career of wrangling second graders."

Where the Crawdads Sing- Delia Owens - This was one of our book club reads and I absolutely loved it. The writing still of The Marsh vs the courtroom was so good. The descriptive writing made me really be able to visualize everything I was reading, I loved seeing the growth of Kya and how she learns and survives through her life and relationships. Plus the ending was just absolutely amazing
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

It Ends with Us- Colleen Hoover - I heard this book was great; I went into reading it without totally knowing what it was about and I got wrecked. Oh my goodness this story was amazing. It’s about breaking the cycle of abuse and the ending was just amazing and I cannot wait for her to continue this story. Ps some people I saw reviewing this said they didn’t like it at all because of how the abuse (how she kept going back, making excuses etc), was but it was actually based on her parents and what it takes to walk away.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️?

“Bound as one to love, honor, or burn.

Two years ago, Louise le Blanc fled her coven and took shelter in the city of Cesarine, forsaking all magic and living off whatever she could steal. There, witches like Lou are hunted. They are feared. And they are burned.
​
Sworn to the Church as a Chasseur, Reid Diggory has lived his life by one principle: thou shalt not suffer a witch to live. His path was never meant to cross with Lou's, but a wicked stunt forces them into an impossible union—holy matrimony.

The war between witches and Church is an ancient one, and Lou's most dangerous enemies bring a fate worse than fire. Unable to ignore her growing feelings, yet powerless to change what she is, a choice must be made.

And love makes fools of us all.”

Ok, is this predictable? Yes. Did I read the series anyway? Also yes. I wrote down my thoughts as I was reading and wanted to share with you about what I thought of this series. 

​Serpent & dove
The plot was what you would expect and gave plenty of hints where you could guess what was going to happen next. There was one sexy scene also so be warned if you don’t do the spice. The ending was actually pretty good, and has a few “twists” in there that made me want to read the next book to see if what I predict is going to happen. ​