Her Good Side by Rebekah Weatherspoon

Summary from Edelweiss:

**A New York Times Best Romance Book of the Year** A swoony, heart-melting YA romance from beloved author Rebekah Weatherspoon about two awkward teens who decide to practice dating in order to be good at the real thing. Perfect for fans of Nicola Yoon and Jenny Han.

Sixteen-year-old Bethany Greene, though confident and self-assured, is what they call a late-bloomer. She’s never had a boyfriend, date, or first kiss. She’s determined to change that but after her crush turns her down cold for Homecoming—declaring her too inexperienced—and all her back-up ideas fall through, she cautiously agrees to go with her best friend’s boyfriend Jacob. A platonic date is better than no date, right? Until her friend breaks up with said boyfriend.

Dumped twice in just two months, Jacob Yeun wonders if he’s the problem. After years hiding behind his camera and a shocking summer glow up, he wasn’t quite ready for all the attention or to be someone’s boyfriend. There are no guides for his particular circumstances, or for taking your ex’s best friend to the dance.

Why not make the best of an awkward situation? Bethany and Jacob decide to fake date for practice, building their confidence in matters of the heart.  

And it works—guys are finally noticing Bethany. But things get complicated as their kissing sessions—for research of course!—start to feel real. This arrangement was supposed to help them in dating other people, but what if their perfect match is right in front of them?

So, I LOVE Rebekah Weatherspoon’s adult romances – super sexy, kinky, and funny. And I was super-excited to have made my one visit to The Ripped Bodice (since I don’t live in California) when Rebekah just happened to be picking up a shift. (I got my copy of Rafe signed, eeeee!) So I was really interested in Rebekah’s debut YA romance. And it sounded so cute.

Fear not! It does not disappoint! Her Good Side is an adorable but extremely relatable fake-dating romance between Bethany, a self-described late-bloomer who wants a little romance, and Jacob, the photography whiz who gets a rep as the hot guy who gets dumped. After Jacob gets dropped by Bethany’s friend for being “boring” (aka quiet and not overtly horny) and Bethany gets turned down for a date because that guy doesn’t want to be her first date (uh, sorta gross my dude), Jacob and Bethany concoct a plan. They will fake date to raise each other’s romantic profile in the school’s gossip network. Does this involve cute Halloween costumes? Yep. Does this involve joint babysitting of rebellious younger sisters? Yep. Does this involve yummy cooking exploits? Yep. And does this involved kissing for “Science”? Double-yep. And then those pesky feelings had to go and get involved.

Oh, these sweet, awkward babies. Look, I know horny teenagers are a thing, but as someone who was also very much “I don’t get the hype” and didn’t date until college because, like, idk I was more into talking and less into doing #iykyk, I heart Bethany and Jacob forever for this. Being a teenager is so weird. You could not pay me enough to go back. But also…would I have liked some “practice time” dating a cute person who wasn’t going to shame me or anything for not being experienced or super-horny or anything? Oh, for sure!

On top of the A-plot, Bethany is working through the process of figuring out who she is and who she wants to be. She’s got two moms and two sisters were/are incredible basketball players and Bethany herself is really good at it…but she doesn’t love it. And since the expectation is that she will also go off to play elite college ball and then pro, she’s so worried that it’s going to change how her family thinks about her if she quits. Her true passion is cooking (yall, her sandwiches sound amazing). The way Weatherspoon explores the process of figuring out yourself through Bethany is so good. Also a great group of diverse friends in this book which is always super fun in a YA. Definite recommend.

CW for some implied fat-shaming/food-policing because Bethany (who is plus-sized) is told she needs to fuel her body better (paraphrasing) for elite basketball.

Dear FTC: I swiped the paper galley from the bookstore.

Knockout by Sarah MacLean (Hell’s Belles #3)

From Edelweiss:

New York Times bestselling author Sarah MacLean returns with the next Hell’s Belles novel about a chaotic bluestocking and the buttoned-up detective enlisted to keep her out of trouble (spoiler: She is the trouble).  

With her headful of wild curls and wilder ideas and an unabashed love of experiments and explosives, society has labeled Lady Imogen Loveless peculiar…and doesn’t know she’s one of the Hell’s Belles—a group of vigilantes operating outside the notice of most of London.

Thomas Peck is not most of London. The brilliant detective fought his way off the streets and into a promising career through sheer force of will and a keen ability to see things others miss, like the fact that Imogen isn’t peculiar…she’s pandemonium. If you ask him, she requires a keeper. When her powerful family discovers her late-night activities, they couldn’t agree more…and they know just the man for the task.

Thomas wants nothing to do with guarding Imogen. He is a grown man with a proper job and no time for the lady’s incendiary chaos, no matter how lushly it is packaged. But some assignments are too explosive to pass up, and the gruff detective is soon caught up in Imogen’s world, full of her bold smiles and burning secrets…and a fiery passion that threatens to consume them both.

Thoughts and prayers for Tommy Peck, right? Every time there’s an explosion, Lady Imogen Loveless seems to turn up. Whether she set the explosion or is investigating it, it doesn’t matter. She’s a thorn – a very attractive thorn – in Detective Inspector Tommy Peck’s side. When Imogen’s heretofore oblivious older brother shows up to decide that, well, she’s too odd and he needs to marry her off, somehow Tommy inveigles himself into the role of bodyguard. (Ha. What’s Moneypenny’s line from The World is Not Enough – bodyguards are in front or behind, never on top? Hahahahaha.)

This is all very inconvenient for Imogen. Bad people are setting explosions at businesses that front for services used by people (often women) in need – networks to get women out of bad marriages, bad employment situations, medical services, abortion providers, and so on – and Tommy, while delightful for practicing her banter on, the attractively stoic man is, unfortunately, another male person getting in her way. And after he’s depicted in the papers “rescuing” her from a collapsing building, a situation that wouldn’t have been necessary at all had the infuriating man listened to her in the first place, well…her “friends” are all more than happy to “help” her to Tommy’s…you know…because that man has been gone for her since she blew up his jail in Bombshell.

And when it looks like a rogue element within Scotland Yard appears to be behind the explosions and Imogen’s life is endangered…#TOMMYGOBOOM.

SO GOOD. No fucking notes. I basically read this in one sitting as soon as the galleys became available on Edelweiss. Pippa from One Good Earl Deserves a Lover is my forever-fave of Sarah MacLean’s science girlies but Imogen Loveless Does. Not. Fuck. Around. (Oh, my god. Can you imagine the Pippa and Imogen meeting? Pippa would be all “we should repeat this experiment, for science” and Imogen would be like “yes, let’s, because more explosions!!” Ahhhh.) And this is also such a good cross-class romance, with shades of Lisa Kleypas’s Dreaming of You (Tommy isn’t of the born-in-a-drain-pipe-to-casino-owner pipeline (ha) hero mold) and Hello, Stranger (but he does work so hard to keep his family off the streets and rise in the newly formed Scotland Yard).

Look, if you watched Miss Scarlet and the Duke and felt cheated that a) not only did they not kiss at all (I quit watching after Season 1 for that reason) but b) that they did not make any sort of creative use of his massive desk, you will want this book (no desk at the Yard, but there is a table at a party and only one bed and also a spectacular role-play/hide-from-the-villains scene in a brothel that is so hot, whew). Also, you’ll want all the luxurious dress fabrics because Imogen’s frocks are so beautifully described. (And the Epilogue – the epilogue, ahhhhhh. So many ways this could go for Duchess’s book.)

Knockout is out today!!!!

Content warnings: all the inherent misogyny that comes with a historical romance set in the nineteenth century as the Victorian period is getting underway, physical threats to women’s lives

Dear FTC: (I can’t believe we still have to do this for books but whatever.) I read a digital galley of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss. But also had a copy pre-ordered on my nook. And a copy pre-ordered with an indie bookstore so I could have a signed copy.

American Royalty by Tracey Livesay

Summary from Goodreads: In this dangerously sexy rom-com that evokes the real-life romance between Prince Harry and Duchess Meghan Markle, a prince who wants to live out of the spotlight falls for a daring American rapper who turns his life, and the palace, upside down.

Sexy, driven rapper Danielle “Duchess” Nelson is on the verge of signing a deal that’ll make her one of the richest women in hip hop. More importantly, it’ll grant her control over her life, something she’s craved for years. But an incident with a rising pop star has gone viral, unfairly putting her deal in jeopardy. Concerned about her image, she’s instructed to work on generating some positive publicity… or else.

A brilliant professor and reclusive royal, Prince Jameson prefers life out of the spotlight, only leaving his ivory tower to attend weddings or funerals. But with the Queen’s children involved in one scandal after another, and Parliament questioning the viability of the monarchy, the Queen is desperate. In a quest for good press, she puts Jameson in charge of a tribute concert in her late husband’s honor. Out of his depth, and resentful of being called to service, he takes the advice of a student. After all, what’s more appropriate for a royal concert than a performer named “Duchess”?

Too late, Jameson discovers the American rapper is popular, sexy, raunchy and not what the Queen wanted, although he’s having an entirely different reaction. Dani knows this is the good exposure she needs to cement her deal and it doesn’t hurt that the royal running things is fine as hell. Thrown together, they give in to the explosive attraction flaring between them. But as the glare of the limelight intensifies and outside forces try to interfere, will the Prince and Duchess be a fairy tale romance for the ages or a disaster of palatial proportions?

Tracey Livesay writes Back Breakers in the Sack. UNF.

LOVED IT. Many stars, lots of chili peppers.

I keep trying to rec this to customers who liked or are interested in the Marry Me movie, but alas, this comes out in June! *womp womp* I was so sold on this two famous people who don’t really like the privacy intrusions/shit you get for being famous who are also from completely different worlds but who also fit together really well.

CW for his family being an absolute garbage fire except for his mom and she’s got some tough family history plus a shitty up-and-coming pop star internet bullying her/stalking her coattails. Also, racism bc British royalty.

I do want to talk about this cover bc she looks AWESOME and he looks nothing like I thought he did in the book. *shrug*

American Royalty is out today!!

Wicked Beauty by Katee Robert (Dark Olympus #3)

Summary from Goodreads: She was the face that launched a thousand ships,
The fierce beauty at the heart of Olympus,
And she was never ours to claim.

In Olympus, you either have the power to rule… or you are ruled. Achilles Kallis may have been born with nothing, but as a child he vowed he would claw his way into the poisonous city’s inner circle. Now that a coveted role has opened to anyone with the strength to claim it, he and his partner, Patroclus Fotos, plan to compete and double their odds of winning. Neither expect infamous beauty Helen Kasios to be part of the prize… or for the complicated fire that burns the moment she looks their way.

Zeus may have decided Helen is his to give to away, but she has her own plans. She enters into the competition as a middle finger to the meddling Thirteen rulers, effectively vying for her own hand in marriage. Unfortunately, there are those who would rather see her dead than lead the city. The only people she can trust are the ones she can’t keep her hands off—Achilles and Patroclus. But can she really believe they have her best interests at heart when every stolen kiss is a battlefield? A scorchingly hot modern retelling of Helen of Troy, Achilles, and Patroclus that’s as sinful as it is sweet.

God I fucking love Mess. And this is messy as hell.

(Maybe could have used a weeeeee bit more air in this relationship to make it workable – the timeline is very compacted – but that’s really just personal preference)

Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron by Julia Quinn, illustrated by Violet Charles

Summary from Goodreads: From #1 New York Times bestselling author Julia Quinn comes this irresistible treat, a charming and jaunty graphic novel, based on story snippets peppered throughout a number of her books. Originally mentioned in It’s in His Kiss—one of the Bridgerton novels which inspired the smash Netflix series, Bridgerton—Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron is finally told here in its entirety for the first time.

A madcap romantic adventure, Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron has appeared in several Julia Quinn novels and enthralled some of her most beloved characters. Now, this delicious tale of love and peril is available for everyone to enjoy in this wonderfully unconventional graphic novel.

Born into a happy family that is tragically ravaged by smallpox, Miss Priscilla Butterworth uses her wits to survive a series of outlandish trials. Cruelly separated from her beloved mother and grandmother, the young girl is sent to live with a callous aunt who forces her to work for her keep. Eventually, the clever and tenderhearted Miss Butterworth makes her escape… a daring journey into the unknown that unexpectedly leads her to the “mad” baron and a lifetime of love. Delightfully illustrated by Violet Charles, told in Julia Quinn’s playful voice, Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron is a high-spirited nineteenth-century romp that will entertain and enchant modern readers.

I think Miss Butterworth and the Mad Baron is going to be a very different graphic novel from what people are generally going to expect. I think those of us who’ve read enough Julia Quinn books to know what Miss Butterworth is (smallpox! mad pigeons! wild boars! vile relatives! coincidences! dastardly cousins!) will expect what is basically the Monty Python version of a Gothic novel/Northanger Abbey/Murder She Wrote mashup and we’ll get it. It is goofily delightful. However, I think the average reader who just picks this up on a whim because they’ve heard or watched the Bridgerton show but not read a lot of Quinn’s backlist is going to be very much “WTF?” (Heads up for a lot of in-panel character deaths)

I loved the art style, all youthful pastels. So sad that Violet is gone.

Dear FTC: I bought my copy of this book from my store.

Book Lovers by Emily Henry

Summary from Goodreads: One summer. Two rivals. A plot twist they didn’t see coming…

Nora Stephens’ life is books—she’s read them all—and she is not that type of heroine. Not the plucky one, not the laidback dream girl, and especially not the sweetheart. In fact, the only people Nora is a heroine for are her clients, for whom she lands enormous deals as a cutthroat literary agent, and her beloved little sister Libby.

Which is why she agrees to go to Sunshine Falls, North Carolina for the month of August when Libby begs her for a sisters’ trip away—with visions of a small town transformation for Nora, who she’s convinced needs to become the heroine in her own story. But instead of picnics in meadows, or run-ins with a handsome country doctor or bulging-forearmed bartender, Nora keeps bumping into Charlie Lastra, a bookish brooding editor from back in the city. It would be a meet-cute if not for the fact that they’ve met many times and it’s never been cute. If Nora knows she’s not an ideal heroine, Charlie knows he’s nobody’s hero, but as they are thrown together again and again—in a series of coincidences no editor worth their salt would allow—what they discover might just unravel the carefully crafted stories they’ve written about themselves. 

Do you wish that Nora Ephron was writing current RomComs? Can you quote You’ve Got Mail and When Harry Met Sally?

Then you need to read Book Lovers. (And also, if you loved Beach Read and People We Meet on Vacation. You need to read this one, too. Obviously.)

The book opens as powerhouse literary agent Nora Stephens (*heart eyes*) is meeting literary fiction editor Charlie Lastra for a business lunch. Charlie would like to acquire a book from one of Nora’s authors – midlist, not blockbuster sales, so they’re shopping for a new publisher – but he has…notes. For one thing, it’s setting in Sunshine Falls, North Carolina, is unrealistic. The author, Dusty Fielding, has probably never been to Sunshine Falls. Besides, Charlie only picks winners and he doesn’t think this is a winner. Nora is already having a bad day – her current boyfriend just broke up with her by phone because he met a girl on a trip to Texas and now he’s dumping his Heartless Ice Bitch City Girlfriend – so she’s preparing to go Full Shark on Dusty’s behalf. She and Charlie verbally skirmish over lunch, exchange some email banter, and then…that’s it.

Two years later, and that book, Once in a Lifetime by Dusty Fielding, is a runaway bestseller. (HA!) It’s going to be made into a movie. (Double-HA! Take that, Charlie Lastra!) Her younger sister Libby has surprised her with a sister vacation so they can have some relaxation time before Libby’s third baby arrives. The destination? Sunshine Falls. (Libby is a huge fan of the book.) It’s not a great time – Dusty’s next book is due and she’s having some writer’s block issues – but as a literary agent Nora can work remotely. The other problem is that Nora is a City Girl. Very City. Loves it all. Is definitely Not a Small Town Girl. She’s the woman who gets dumped for the Small Town Girl Who is a Very Sweet Baker/Librarian/Gardener. But she loves her sister. So she goes. (Libby has a whole “Small Town Romance Novel Experience” bucket list planned.)

However, Sunshine Falls isn’t quite as picturesque as promised. Also, there’s a guy in line at the coffee shop (name: Mug+Shot, love it) who looks disturbingly like Charlie Lastra. In fact, when Nora does some covert emailing from behind a shelf, she realizes it IS actually Charlie Lastra. Why in the hell is New York City Editor Charlie Lastra in Sunshine Falls, North Carolina?? (Then there’s some hilarious email banter about Bigfoot Romances, lol.) Turns out, Sunshine Falls is his hometown. (More Banter. More Sexy Banter.) And then…Charlie comes on-board as Dusty’s editor.

Of Dusty’s new book. Which turns out to be titled Frigid. With a main character named Nadine Winters who appears to be a thinly-veiled version of Nora. It’s not a…flattering…version. So now Nora and Charlie have to work together – and try not to banter (oh they banter) – and not make out (OH, DO THEY MAKE OUT) to make Dusty’s next book a blockbuster. They definitely do not date colleagues. Ever. Besides, they’re both making different life decisions. Maybe. Or maybe, they are 110% Perfect For Each Other.

Y’ALL, Book Lovers is so fucking good, I’m mad about it. Absolutely enraged. It has no business being this good. But it is. It’s like a Nora Ephron Movie in book form, beamed straight into my brain. I want this made as a movie immediately. The banter. Sexy banter. The RomCom tropes and in-jokes. The RomCom Easter Eggs There’s a Small Town Bookstore in Need of Saving. I was crying in a cold bath by the end, think a “Kathleen Turner at her typewriter in beginning of Romancing the Stone” tears+snot situation.

The sister relationship between Nora and Libby is so good. Part of Nora’s over-arching goal in life is to ensure that Libby doesn’t go without. It’s a little bit of holdover from when their mom died unexpectedly, when Nora had to step up and be “mom” for a couple of years and has never been able to completely let Libby be her own woman, wife, and mother. Nora and Libby learn to re-negotiate their sister relationship over the course of this book and that is almost as satisfying as the A-plot romance between Nora and Charlie.

But what I really liked most, was that Nora does not drastically change her life in this book. This is not Heartless Bitch Goes to a Small Town, Grows a Heart, and Finds Love. This is Super-Competent Awesome Adult Woman Learns to Let Her Past Go, Be a Little Vulnerable But Continue Being Super-Competent and Awesome, and Good Things Happen for Her. And Charlie…Charlie is damn near perfect. He’s wickedly sarcastic, reads Bigfoot pr0n (even if it starts on a dare, he reads the whole damn thing), and is trying so hard to balance what he wants to do, with what he thinks his family needs, and with what he thinks Nora needs. (If Tom Hiddleston gets cast in this would-be movie in my brain, I might plotz.)

This is my new favorite Emily Henry book.

Book Lovers is out today!

Dear FTC: I read a digital galley from the publisher via Edelweiss. We’re calling an audible: the Teen Book Group at my store is going to read this in May, so I’m definitely buying and re-reading a copy, too.

Devil’s Daughter by Lisa Kleypas, read by Mary Jane Wells (The Ravenels #5/The Ravenels Meet the Wallflowers #2)

Summary from Goodreads: Although beautiful young widow Phoebe, Lady Clare, has never met West Ravenel, she knows one thing for certain: he’s a mean, rotten bully. Back in boarding school, he made her late husband’s life a misery, and she’ll never forgive him for it. But when Phoebe attends a family wedding, she encounters a dashing and impossibly charming stranger who sends a fire-and-ice jolt of attraction through her. And then he introduces himself…as none other than West Ravenel.

West is a man with a tarnished past. No apologies, no excuses. However, from the moment he meets Phoebe, West is consumed by irresistible desire…not to mention the bitter awareness that a woman like her is far out of his reach. What West doesn’t bargain on is that Phoebe is no straitlaced aristocratic lady. She’s the daughter of a strong-willed wallflower who long ago eloped with Sebastian, Lord St. Vincent—the most devilishly wicked rake in England.

Before long, Phoebe sets out to seduce the man who has awakened her fiery nature and shown her unimaginable pleasure. Will their overwhelming passion be enough to overcome the obstacles of the past? Only the devil’s daughter knows…

After reading Hello, Stranger I jumped back for a re-read of Cold-Hearted Rake, because I was having trouble squaring how we got Devon and West. And this was very helpful when reading Devil’s Daughter because now West Ravenel gets his own Happily Ever After with Phoebe, daughter of Sebastian, Duke of Kingston, formerly Devil in Winter, and the widow of Lord Clare.

The competence pr0n exuded by West Ravenel in this book is bananas (even if he is the only person who can’t see it because toxic childhood). I’m not usually a fan of bully romances, but this one really makes it clear fairly early in the book that he knows he did bad and is trying to make amends for how he behaved as a child/teenager. Although, I’m not quite sure this works well for the reader unless you’ve read Cold-Hearted Rake and have seen on-page Soused!West to compare with on-page Competent!West. I also really liked how this was a historical romance with a widow who did not have a traumatic first marriage experience and was happy in it, despite the care and emotional work she did caring for a husband with a terminal illness, and has already considered what she might want in a future marriage. (And there are so many call backs to small moments in Devil in Winter, the shaving scene especially.)

I did today, however, have to sit in the car for about 15 minutes once I’d got to work with the audiobook speed kicked up to 2x because there was only 30 minutes left in the entire book and we’d had our black moment and good Lord how was Lisa Kleypas going to fix this situation? (She fixed it with “Deus Ex Sebastian, Duke of Kingston,” that’s how, oh my god.)

Dear FTC: I borrowed the audiobook from my library via the Libby app.

Hello Stranger by Lisa Kleypas (The Ravenels #4), read by Mary Jane Wells

Summary from Goodreads:

A woman who defies her time: Dr. Garrett Gibson, the only female physician in England, is as daring and independent as any man—why not take her pleasures like one? Yet she has never been tempted to embark on an affair, until now. Ethan Ransom, a former detective for Scotland Yard, is as gallant as he is secretive, a rumored assassin whose true loyalties are a mystery. For one exhilarating night, they give in to their potent attraction before becoming strangers again.

A man who breaks every rule: As a Ravenel by-blow spurned by his father, Ethan has little interest in polite society, yet he is captivated by the bold and beautiful Garrett. Despite their vow to resist each other after that sublime night, she is soon drawn into his most dangerous assignment yet. When the mission goes wrong, it will take all of Garrett’s skill and courage to save him. As they face the menace of a treacherous government plot, Ethan is willing to take any risk for the love of the most extraordinary woman he’s ever known.

Continuing on my Ravenels read on audio – I really dug this romance between the doctor and the spy from the previous book, Devil in Spring. The medical research Kleypas did for Dr. Gibson – who was practicing at a time when technical advancements in medicine were really starting to jump forward – was excellent. And who could resist Ethan and his sexy Irish brogue? (sorry, Welshman Rhys still wins the sexy accent competition) I loved how they trapped the villain in the end.

A weird note in the audiobook production: Mary Jane Wells is spectacular as usual, but there was an odd moment (in the trainyard, when Garrett is escaping London with Ethan to the Priory) where I would swear the speaker was West Ravenel, who is voiced as a very blustery/jolly-ish English toff, but Rhys’s Welsh accent pops in for about two paragraphs. And he was present earlier in the scene, but I had thought the character left the scene prior to this conversation. I rewound and listened a few times, but I couldn’t figure it out.

The next book in the series is Devil’s Daughter but I’m thinking I might have to pause and jump back to Cold-Hearted Rake because I can’t quite remember how we got to this competent, very capable version of Devon, Lord Trenear.

Dear FTC: I borrowed a copy of this audiobook from the library via Libby.