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BOOK REVIEW: How to Cowboy (Creedence Horse Rescue #3) by Jennie Marts

December 20, 2021 / Jen / 6 Comments

How to Cowboy (Creedence Horse Rescue #3)
by Jennie Marts
Purchase on: Amazon, iBooks
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
How do you heal a broken heart?

After one injury too many, Cade Callahan gave up the rodeo for a simpler life working at his cousin's horse rescue ranch. But his life turns upside down when his estranged daughter is placed in his custody after a tragic car accident. Wanting nothing to do with her father, thirteen-year-old Allie struggles to adjust to her new life.

Newly single and living out of her mother's basement, physical therapist Nora Fisher doesn't think twice about taking a job as a traveling therapist for Cade's daughter. The trouble is, she doesn't know anything about horses, or hunky cowboys. Now both in way over their heads, can Cade and Nora find a way to help Allie, and trust in the attraction building between them?

Review:

How to Cowboy was an emotional, heartwarming tale that romance lovers will fall hard for! With a romance story I was rooting for, a child who captured my heart and animals I adored, this story was such a huge win! I couldn’t stop smiling, even with all of the emotion packed into the pages. And the tears falling at times. So if you’re a fan of adult romance, then you definitely need this book in your life!

“You okay?” Nora whispered.
Her heart tore in two as he blinked back tears. But then he slowly nodded. She wanted to go to them, to take both of them into her arms and tell them everything would be okay. But it wouldn’t be okay. Not for Allie. Not for a very long time.

Cade hadn’t spent much time with his daughter, Allie. But when Allie’s mother suddenly passed away in a car accident, Cade found himself bringing his daughter back to the ranch. Being so far away from the city, he hired a traveling physical therapist. Nora moved in next to them to help Allie recover from the accident. And nothing was easy. There was so much emotional healing that had to take place for all three of them. But with time, friendship patience, love and animals, this book sailed fabulously into a happily ever after!

She clutch the towel to her chest. “My heart is still racing.”
“Your heart is racing? Darlin’, I’m the one who just missed out on seeing a naked woman having a tug-of-war with a goat.”
That was it. A laugh burst from her, and she couldn’t stop.

I was obsessed with Cade! He was strong, sexy, seductive without even trying and he had a heart of gold! And while he was sure when it came to horses, and working on his cousin’s horse rescue ranch, he wasn’t so sure when it came to his thirteen year old daughter. He was in over his head at times and it felt like he had to walk on egg shells. Thankfully Allie quickly connected with Nora. And Cade felt something when it came to Nora too. Yes there was an instant attraction. But there was something more. With each passing moment that they were near each other, it became harder to deny the chemistry and longing between the two of them!

He leaned down and softly grazed her lips with his— not quite a kiss but enough to feel the soft catch of her breath and the delicious enticement of her mouth.
“What’s this going to cost me? ” he whispered, but he already knew the answer.
It was going to cost him everything.

I absolutely adored Nora! Her backstory pulled at my heart. And the way she helped Allie warmed my soul. She was so kind and caring. But she was definitely jaded from her past. So I was happy to see how quickly she warmed to country living and all of the animals. It was emotional to watch how she started to deeply care for Allie, as she helped her heal physically and emotionally. But I loved most of all how she kept feeling a pull towards Cade. They fit so seamlessly together. It was like they had always known each other. So when the first move was made, this book was a steamy, heartwarming read that I couldn’t get enough of!

They were all cracking up, and Allie shrieked with laughter as she tried to get behind Cade instead. “Help! Save me, Dad!”
Even through the squeals of laughter and with a shot of water hitting him in the chest, Cade heard the word and a crazy happiness spread through him. Allie had called him Dad, and the echo of it made his throat tight with emotion.

I loved being back in Creedence! Seeing familiar faces from not only this series but the Cowboys of Creedence warmed my heart. And while this book could easily be read as a standalone, I can’t recommend enough reading the previous books in this series. Each one is about a different couple, and I loved them all. With charm, humor and romance How to Cowboy was an instant favorite! I loved all of the characters, including the animal ones too. I loved how emotional it was having the animals bond with the humans. Tiny and Otis’ antics had me cracking up and the new addition of Scout, Daisy and Clementine was the best. So yes, this book was such a huge win and I can’t recommend it enough!

*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book, provided by the author. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

Reading Order & Links:

Amazon (click on covers), iBooks (click on titles) & Book Depository (click on book #)
***Each book can be read as a standalone, but best enjoyed in order.***

A Cowboy State of Mind #1
Reviews:
Jen

When a Cowboy Loves a Woman #2
Reviews:
Jen

How to Cowboy #3
Reviews:
Jen

#Blogmas2021 Favorites

December 14, 2021 / Jen / 12 Comments

Sophie, over at Beware of the Reader is hosting Blogmas: best reads of 2021! I’m joining in and sharing some of my favorites too! Enjoy ♥

Day 1: Romance

Amazon I Goodreads I Review
Wallflower was impossible not to devour in one sitting! This story swept me away and the pages were filled with charm, humor and romance. I loved that the story line was so much fun and that I couldn’t stop laughing and smiling. I even cried a few tears, happy and sad. And that ending?! It made my heart so happy. If you’re a fan of young adult romance, characters that will embed themselves into your heart and kissing that will make you swoon, then this is a must for your tbr!

✮✩✮✩✮✩✮✩✮

Day 3: New to Me Author

Amazon I Goodreads I Review
The Things We Leave Unfinished was an emotional powerhouse that quickly enraptured my heart. The story was hauntingly beautiful and I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to these characters. This is easily one of my top favorite reads of the year. If you love romance, epic love stories and characters that will easily steal pieces of your heart, you definitely need this book in your life!

✮✩✮✩✮✩✮✩✮

Day 6: Fantasy

Amazon I Goodreads I Review
The Crown of Gilded Bones was an epic continuation of the From Blood and Ash Series! Betrayals, lies, and secrets wove their way through this book. While friendship, love and trust were there too. I loved how it all came together and created a story that was stunningly brilliant and magnificently crafted!

✮✩✮✩✮✩✮✩✮

Day 8: Plot Twist

Amazon I Goodreads I Review
The twists were brilliant! There was so much at play, the story played out ingeniously and my mind was blown. I gasped out loud multiple times, screamed and kept whispering to myself this isn’t how the story was supposed to go. I didn’t see multiple things coming. But looking back, ohhhhhh the clues were there, I just put the pieces of the puzzle together wrong. So hold on, because this story will take you on a wild and crazy ride!

✮✩✮✩✮✩✮✩✮

Day 9: Funny Yet Thoughtful

Amazon I Goodreads I Review
This book snuck up on me and became my every thought. It was heartwarming yet powerful. Hilarious yet serious. And I loved every single minute of it! With a grumpy and sunshine vibe, fabulous banter, heartwarming friendships and steamy scenes, this book swept me away. The characters stole my heart, the story line played out like a movie and I loved every single thing about this book!

✮✩✮✩✮✩✮✩✮

Day 10: Series

Amazon I Goodreads I Review
Grace and Glory was a stunning conclusion to The Harbinger Series! With tears, laughter, friendship and love splashed across the pages, this book was such a huge win! If you’re a fan of Jennifer L Armentrout or paranormal stories then you definitely need this series in your life!

✮✩✮✩✮✩✮✩✮

At the end of this month, I’ll share some more of my favorites for #Blogmas2021. But till then, do we share any of the same? If not, then what are some of your favorites? Here’s the prompt below, in case you want to join in too ♥.

BOOK REVIEW: My Summer in Seoul by Rachel Van Dyken

December 13, 2021 / Jen / 8 Comments

My Summer in Seoul by Rachel Van Dyken
Purchase on: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
It’s not all K-dramas and happily ever afters.

Intern with Korea’s number one record label? Yes, please.
Find out there’s a huge scandal I need to help “manage”… not so much.
Add in the fact that I don’t recognize the “superstars” of the label and think they’re interns…
And my dream job quickly becomes more of a nightmare.

But I’m in Seoul, the one place that is beginning to feel more and more like home...
Except it isn’t home, and the drama surrounding the biggest K-pop group in the world, SWT, is consuming my every moment.
Spoiler alert. They hate me.
Everything I do is wrong: wrong clothes, wrong honorifics, wrong manners.
Till the leader of SWT takes pity on me.
But pity is dangerous when it comes from someone as beautiful as him.

Every SWT member is gorgeous, perfect, and cultivated to be an idol… lethal to a girl’s heart.
And sanity.
But fame plus a perfect face and voice don’t equal an easy life. As their comeback nears, the stakes rise higher.
Suicide watch…
Angry fans…
Threats…

All I want to do is survive.
But the price for survival might mean losing my heart.
And like a character in a K-drama, I’m not sure if there will be an actual happily ever after…
Or simply a lesson learned.

Review:

I went to Seoul searching for my heart— and found my destiny instead.

My Summer in Seoul was brimming with emotion and swept me away. I had absolutely no clue what I was getting into, since I don’t know anything about K-pop. But that didn’t even matter. At the heart of this story was friendship, love, trials and trust. And each aspect was so emotional and powerful. So if you’re a fan of enemies to lovers or romance stories with someone famous, then you definitely need this book in your life!

It was always the pretty ones that were the most complicated.
And mean.

Rachel Van Dyken always has the amazing talent of putting me directly into someone else’s shoes and feeling every single thing they do. So of course I loved Grace! She wanted to get into the music industry and her Uncle offered her a job to intern at his number one record label. In Korea. Grace jumped at the chance, but it definitely wasn’t what she thought it would be. Yes it involved coffee runs and other similar tasks. But she had to help oversee the largest K-pop group in the world. And she started her first moment with them, thinking they were interns. Whoops.

Well, if he wanted war.
He’d get it.
Because I wasn’t quitting.
I wasn’t leaving.
And I would stay even if it killed me.

Lucas, Rae, Sookie, Jay and Kai were a formable team in SWT. But they hated Grace. She was loud, bubbly, wouldn’t stop talking, and had no clue what she was doing. Especially when it came to customs. Thankfully Rae, the leader, took pity on her. But it still wasn’t easy, especially with Lucas hating her the most. And while Grace tried her hardest again and again, it still was never enough.

I didn’t look over my shoulder, even though I wanted to.
And I didn’t check on her again.
It wasn’t my place.
And she wasn’t mine to begin with.
Plus, she was the last girl in the world I would go for.
Dead. Last.

Grace was motivated, persevered when others wouldn’t and had the hugest heart ever. And while she started figuring out how to handle the guys in SWT, Lucas still gave her all the hatred. It didn’t matter what she would do or how kind she was to him. He still hated her with a passion. And as someone who loves enemies to lovers, Grace and Lucas’ story was fabulous! It was a roller-coaster of emotions with the most fabulous angst! And while my heart broke for Grace countless times, it also started to break for Lucas too. Once we started to have chapters in his head too.

It was wrong, sneaking around, making her lie to everyone, bringing her down with me, but I couldn’t stop it any more than I could stop breathing.

Lucas was struggling. The music industry of K-pop was beyond intense and brutal. Fans controlled how high they climbed and how low they crashed with a scandal. So as we started to learn more about Lucas, he earned my empathy. Even if he could be a total asshole lol. That’s because I loved how Lucas felt deeply. I loved how passionate he was about music. And I even loved how he messed with Grace at times. But most of all, I loved when Lucas did something that allowed Grace to see more of him. Lucas was drowning at times, and I kept hoping Grace could help him. Somehow.

I still tasted her mouth; I still felt her skin on mine.
I still wanted her so much it hurt.

The way Grace and Lucas developed eeps, I loved it! They made my heart pound faster! And I’m not saying any more about them besides read this book! On top of Grace and Lucas was an industry that was all consuming. Intense isn’t even a strong enough word for it. And we also got to know Rae, Sookie, Jay and Kai. Oh you guys. They slowly found a way into my heart and I didn’t ever want to say goodbye to them. I’d be sooo happy if each of them got their own story! Please ♥.

She had saved me. It was my turn. To save her.

My Summer in Seoul was an enemy to lovers tale that romances lovers will passionately fall in love with! This story played out like I was watching a tv show unfold on Netflix, it was impossible to put down! And while there was a lot of drama and emotion throughout this story, I laughed a ton too. The bears?! Oh I can’t even! So yes, I loved this book and can’t recommend it enough!

Son of a bitch! I was killing them all! ALL OF THEM!

PS What I gasped over? I was just as mad, right along with Grace! Even though I guessed it. Still. Poor Grace ♥.

*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book, provided by the author. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

BOOK REVIEW: Iron (The Queen & The Assassin #1) by Lisette Marshall

December 7, 2021 / Jen / 6 Comments

Iron (The Queen & The Assassin #1)
by Lisette Marshall
Purchase on: Amazon
Add to: Goodreads

Synopsis:
The Queen

Two years ago she poisoned her violent husband. Now Tamar, Queen of Redwood, rules her kingdom on her own, with an iron fist and a closely guarded heart. Surrounded by scheming nobles, she can never afford to lose control of her court – or of herself. But when an infuriatingly handsome assassin breaks into her room one night, her careful web of authority shatters at once.

The Assassin

Raised in the treacherous Taavi Empire, Runo knows every rule of survival. Don’t love, don’t get attached. Kill, and live. His newest target may wear a crown, but thanks to a traitor offering him an easy way into her rooms, even the Iron Queen of Redwood will have to make peace with her mortality soon. Except that Tamar turns out to be everything but the easy prey Runo assumed…

A Dangerous Alliance

But as they play their deadly game of survival, a far greater danger looms. With a nameless traitor now out for both their lives, the queen and the assassin have no choice but to close an uncertain alliance. And as shadows of the past draw them deeper and deeper into a tangle of deceit, sizzling hate turns into something much more dangerous…

Iron is the first book of The Queen & The Assassin, a steamy fantasy romance trilogy taking place in the dangerous, passionate world of the Five Kingdoms. Perfect for readers of enemies to lovers fantasy and adult fairy tale romances, it tells a story of deadly intrigue, dark secrets and sizzling forbidden love.

Review:

Iron was a dark and luscious story that fantasy lovers will devour! With castles, a queen, an assassin and so much up in the air, this enemies to lovers story will keep readers hooked! I definitely need to go back and binge all of Lisette Marshall’s backlist!

Don’t get attached. It was the first rule of his world.

Runo, a paid assassin, received orders from his Empress to kill Queen Tamar. Yet from the moment Runo showed up to murder Tamar, things didn’t go as planned. It all ended up going a little bit sideways, especially since neither of them could deny the intense chemistry between them. The desire. The fact that they felt something, which is rare in both of their lives. Yet at the end of the day, they were from two different worlds. But fate doesn’t always follow the simplest of paths.

Something stirred in her, and she feared it wasn’t hate alone.

Queen Tamar put up a good facade. Those around her listened to her and followed her orders. All because people feared her, since she ruled with an iron fist. She was driven and cold on the outside, but entirely different on the inside. My heart hurt for how lonely she was. She truly didn’t have a friend in the world. She was a good and fair ruler and we got to see how her past shaped her into who she was today. The moment Runo waltzed into her life, it allowed us to see a completely different side of Tamar. And I ended up really liking and respecting her!

He smiled. He couldn’t help it. A warped triumph was rising in him, a sensation like that last, expectant turn before winning a game. A dangerous feeling to allow, sitting in a cell and staring down a queen not particularly known for her mildness.

It should be no surprise that I fell hard for Runo. He was a paid assassin. A murderer. He was to have no heart and do what he was told. But from the moment he met Queen Tamar, she made him pause. We got to see his humanity and all of the other sides of Runo that he kept buried. He was so resourceful and clever, and I loved that his arrogance knew no bounds. But he too lived a lonely life. And the more time he spent around Tamar, the more he wanted to not follow his orders. For the first time ever.

‘As a general piece of advice, don’t expect assassins to care about your wellbeing.’
‘I didn’t—’
‘Sure you didn’t.’

Any moment that Tamar and Runo were together, the sexual tension was intense. I loved that they both weren’t what the other expected and that they also got under each other’s skin. Tamar should hate Runo for what he was to do. Runo should feel nothing towards Tamar and do his job. And them ever being together was forbidden. But what unfolded instead was a web of clues, deceit, trust and the start of something so much more. The stakes become higher as each page passed, since a traitor was after both of their lives. They were forced to team up and I loved how this story unraveled and played out!

In his arms she felt like everything he ever held dear in his life.

Iron was an extremely seductive tale filled with twists and turns. Sexual tension dripped from the pages and consumed me. And while I did start out this story confused and lost, once Runo and Tamar met I was hooked! There was so much passion and heat between them. Ohhh I have to say I should have put the clues together, but I devoured this book way too fast and ended up being shocked with how something played out. Eeps. Now I’m trying to patiently wait for the next book in this series. While it stopped at a spot that calms my heart, there was way too much up in the air to know what will happen next. I can’t wait!

*I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book, provided by the author. All thoughts and opinions are my own.*

Christmas Romance Books: Recommendations for What to Read This Holiday

December 6, 2021 / Jen / 14 Comments

Every year I love reading Christmas books! Snuggling up next to the fire and finding my next favorite Christmas story makes my heart so happy. Hopefully some of these books will make your holidays merry and bright. Enjoy♥!

♥Click on covers to go to Amazon.
♥If there is a star after Review * or My Choice *, that means the book is on Kindle Unlimited.
♥Updated 12/10/2025

It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year: 5 Stars