Being February I read a lot of romance books this month – it is the month of love right?! Not that I need an excuse to add a few more romances to my list… I love a good romance any month of the year. I also apparently read quite a few books with sequels again too… haha. But without further ado, here are all the books I read in February and remember these are just my opinions.
The Lone City Series – Amy Ewing
The Jewel | The White Rose | The Black Key – all 7.5/10
This is a YA dystopian fiction book series (apparently I’m a fan of them as I read one last month too haha). These books are set in a world where society is divided into classes (literally… there are walls dividing them). The royalty in these books are no longer capable of giving birth to their own healthy children and rely on special girls from the lowest caste system to use as surrogates. It’s a little handmaids tale-ish but for teens. The story centres around Violet, Lot 197 as the royals call her, who gets auctioned off and bought by one of the royal families and gets embroiled in a plan to take down the system while learning who and what she truly is… and also maybe falling in love along the way. I really enjoyed this series and found myself eager to read the next book. I’d recommend it to anyone who enjoys YA novels and dystopian based stories.
The Wild Series (3 books) – K.A. Tucker
The Simple Wild 8.5/10 | Wild At Heart 9.5/10 | Forever Wild 10/10
This series was recommended to me by a friend and it had me hooked when I read it was a love story with an Alaskan Pilot haha. I knocked a few stars off the first book only because at the beginning of this book I found the main character a bit too predictable which annoyed me a tad. She’s a city girl with brand name clothes and the typical cliches often used to signify that she is high maintenance – nail appointments and hair appointments etc. She goes to Alaska to visit her estranged ailing father and of course meets a guy she can’t stand… at first. There was a bit too much “he’s so annoying and I could never see myself liking him” for me – because clearly we know she’s gonna like him and be with him soon enough so stop trying to convince me otherwise. Once I was past that part of the book though, I actually really, really liked the rest of the first book and the entire series. I don’t want to give too much away but the 3 books follow the love story of Calla and Jonah and how they struggle to adjust to their new found life together in Alaska without repeating the mistakes of Calla’s parents. Heavy on the teasing and flirting (I love when books are) and pretty steamy too. I highly recommend this series and it’s written by a Canadian Author and set partly in Toronto which is a bonus for me!
99 Percent Mine – Sally Thorne
7/10
Darcy has had a crush on her brothers best friend since she was 8 years old. But Tom has always been 99% her brothers. When Darcy and her brother Jamie inherit their grandmothers old home, they decide to renovate it before they sell it and hire Tom to do the work. Darcy is used to flying away, escaping and leaving everything behind but when her passport goes missing, she ends up being forced to stay and help her childhood crush… who apparently also likes her back but doesn’t necessarily trust that she’s being honest and that she isn’t going to fly away again. I got this book thinking it would be a cute easy read and it was; I enjoyed the book. There is heavy flirting and a few steamy scenes. I enjoyed the banter between the two lead characters and I like the way the author writes as well, I found it flirty and funny and it kept my interest. I’m so excited to read her previous book The Hating Game because I’ve heard such good things about that one.
One Day In December – Josie Silver
9/10
One day in December (hence the title haha) Laurie is sitting on a bus when she looks down and sees a man sitting at the bus stop. Their eyes meet and she instantly feels like he’s the one. But the bus pulls away and they are separated before they can even speak. She spends the next year looking for him everywhere she turns but never finds him… until (tiny spoiler) he shows up at her apartment one day…. as the boyfriend of her best friend. The book then follows these characters for 10 years as they experience love, heartbreak and missed opportunities. I really enjoyed this book and found myself rooting for these characters (even when I probably should not have been at times). There is not a lot of steam in this book if you like that in a love story but if you are a believer in love at first sight, then you need to read this book.
99 Days / 9 Days and 9 Nights (Sequel)
99 days 5/10 | 9 days and 9 nights 7/10
This one is a tough one for me. I actually enjoyed reading this book but the characters were kind of awful. A bit of a spoiler ahead be warned.
Aside from the mother (what mother writes a book about her daughters teenage love life for all the world to read?! with seemingly no regret) the other characters were hard to love too. I really wanted to like the main character Molly and I was rooting for her in the beginning but she makes some pretty dumb choices which make it hard to support her. Then the two brothers/ love interests end up treating her more like a prize to hold over the other than actually loving he (though I think they actually love her too… it just becomes very messy). Then just sort of ends and they go off to college.
I read the sequel in hopes it would redeem the characters a bit from the first novel and it actually did. In the sequel Molly runs into Gabe (her ex and one of the brothers from the first novel) while vacationing in Europe with her new boyfriend. They end up having to tour around all together (plus Gabe’s new girlfriend) for 9 days and finally hash out all that they left unsaid at the end of the first novel. I found I enjoyed the sequel a lot more than the first novel and the main character Molly actually matured and became a better person. I’m glad I read the sequel.
Accidentally Engaged – Farah Heron
8/10
I want to thank Netgalley, Farah Heron and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) for sending me an advance digital copy of this book. All opinions will remain my own as always.
If you weren’t one of the thousands of people who had a sourdough starter during 2020… you will be by the end of this book. It’s described by the publisher as “a delightful romantic comedy featuring a Muslim woman who fakes an engagement to the boy next door in the hopes of winning a couples cooking contest” but it’s so much more than that. It’s a cute contemporary romance that celebrates diversity that’s written by a Canadian author and is set in Toronto (I love finding local and Canadian writers). I loved the meddling parents and protective friends but most of all I loved the cute banter between the two main characters (I actually laughed out loud at parts – spoiler: the head lice… the 16 new sourdough starters!). They’re two loveable characters who struggle to appease their families while finding themselves and their true feelings for each other… while also trying to win a cooking contest and eating lots and lots of bread. Overall it was a really cute love story that also sheds light on topics like family dynamics, pressures of life in your 30’s, mental illness and family secrets. If you want to grab your copy it hits shelves today – March 2 , 2021. Also maybe grab some bread to eat while reading 😉
Love at First
8/10
I also want to thank Netgalley, Kate Clayborn and Kensington Books for the ARC of this book as well. All opinions will remain my own, as always.
Sometimes moments in your life, however seemingly minuscule, stick with you forever. That’s what happened to Will when he was standing on his uncle’s apartment’s balcony as a teenager and the girl on the balcony above drops tomatoes on him. Fast forward 16 years to the present day and he finds he’s inherited his estranged uncle’s apartment which he plans to turn it into a rental unit. But this building isn’t like most buildings, its filled with adorable neighbours who are more like family and who definitely do not want a rental unit and strangers coming and going in their building. Nora (the girl, now a woman, who dropped those tomatoes) heads up the neighbourhood counsel and takes charge in fighting against his proposal in some adorably quirky ways… but her and Will quickly go from opponents to something more. I liked this little story as told in the alternating perspectives of both Nora and Will and how their opposing past experiences in this building contrast and compliment their growing love story. Being a true fan of love stories where people meet more than once in their lives and find themselves with second chances, I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a quintessential love story.
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