Recent Reads #25: Favourites So Far in 2021

- This post contains a Netgalley arc - 

I have been doing so much reading this month that it's a little bit ridiculous if I am being honest! As of writing this post, I have read 21 books and almost all of them I have highly rated. Act Your Age, Eve Brown - Talia Hibbert

''Eve Brown is a certified hot mess. No matter how hard she strives to do right, her life always goes horribly wrong - so she's given up trying. But when her personal brand of chaos ruins an expensive wedding (someone had to liberate those poor doves), her parents draw the line. It's time for Eve to grow up and prove herself - even though she's not entirely sure how . . .

Jacob Wayne is in control. Always. The bed and breakfast owner is on a mission to dominate the hospitality industry - and he expects nothing less than perfection. So when a purple-haired tornado of a woman turns up out of the blue to interview for his open chef position, he tells her the brutal truth: not a chance in hell. Then she hits him with her car - supposedly by accident. Yeah, right.

Now his arm is broken, his B&B is understaffed, and the dangerously unpredictable Eve is fluttering around, trying to help. Before long, she's infiltrated his work, his kitchen - and his spare bedroom. Jacob hates everything about it. Or rather, he should. Sunny, chaotic Eve is his natural-born nemesis, but the longer these two enemies spend in close quarters, the more their animosity turns into something else. Like Eve, the heat between them is impossible to ignore - and it's melting Jacob's frosty exterior.''

This book doesn't come out until March so I'm not going to say too much as I will have a full spoiler-free review up at the end of next month closer to release. But oh my god. Talia Hibbert as done it again! I have given all three books in this series five stars now. This one is so sweet and swoony as well as being VERY steamy and laugh out loud funny. 

The Best of Us - Kennedy Fox

''What happens when the biggest blizzard of the year hits and you’re trapped in a cabin with your best friend’s brother? You take every opportunity to spend time together and make him fall in love with you.

The Best of Us is a best friend's brother, opposites attract, and snowed-in together standalone romance.''

This was a pure TikTok book recommendation and I really enjoyed it! It's on the shorter side and very steamy which is always a theme in my romance books. I loved the whole snowed in trope as it always speeds things along when the main characters are forced to be around each other. This was my first book from the authors and it won't be the last!

Play Along - T.L Swan

''I met him, the man of my dreams.

On the worst day of my life.

Catching my boyfriend out was bad.

Coming of the club in a daze, I stumbled upon a situation which was worse.

Much worse.

And it would have been deadly too,

If he wasn’t there to save me.

My unsuspecting hero.

He was rugged, wild and powerful.

The way he looked at me set me on fire.

He was wrong for all the right reasons, a bad man with a good heart.

And I fell, way too hard.

Things started to go amiss and pieces of the puzzle are missing.

Why was he there that day, who is he really?

I’m so confused.

My head and heart are in a battle to the death.

Do I leave with my head.

Or stay and love with my heart.''

This is a romantic suspense book and I would say this is one of the most insane books I have ever read and I did love it? This book should have a lot of trigger warnings so please look them up beforehand as there is a lot of things that go down in the book that could be triggering. She does fall in love with her kidnapper and there's some murdering and what not all at sea. What's not to love?

Revelry - Kandi Steiner 

''Wren Ballard is trying to find herself.

She never expected to be divorced at twenty-seven, but now that the court date has passed, it’s official. The paperwork is final. Her feelings on it aren’t.

Spending the summer in a small mountain town outside Seattle is exactly what she needs. The peaceful scenery is a given, the cat with the croaky meow is a surprise, but the real kicker? A broody neighbor with nice arms, a strange reputation, and absolutely no interest in her.

Anderson Black is perfectly fine being lost.

He doesn’t care about the town’s new resident — he’s too busy fighting his own demons. But when he’s brought face to face with Wren, he can see her still-fresh wounds from a mile away. What he doesn’t see coming is his need to know who put them there — or his desperation to mend them.

Sometimes getting lost is the way to find yourself. Sometimes healing only adds a new scar. And sometimes the last place you expected to be is exactly where you find home.''

I think this is the first book I have read from this author and I really liked it. It was a little more angsty than I was expecting and it could have been a little shorter but other than that I really liked it! The characters are older than what I had been reading recently as one is divorced and the other has had a troubled past but I liked seeing how she bought him out of his shell and back to life almost. 

What have you been reading recently?

<3