Captivating Romance Books: May-August Reading Wrap-Up

You know I was a fan of Icebreaker so you better believe I was reading this one too. I had heard a lot of people say that this one was better than Icebreaker and I agree with that wholeheartedly. Yes this book had some spice, but I thoroughly enjoyed the chemistry between Russ and Aurora. This book had me laughing to myself throughout and I couldn’t get through it fast enough enough. 4 stars for me on Wildfire.

This book was one of my favourites I’ve read so far this year. It tells the story of a two friends who hook up and how they work through that as friends while also pursuing dates on dating apps. I found this to be a super quick read and I enjoyed Millie and Reid’s story as it unfolded. They had great banter and lots of chemistry and I was hooked from the first chapter. Well written, engaging, and overall a 4.5 star read for me.

This was a story about a woman who found her husband cheating and left him then met a firefighter (while she was burning her husband’s possessions). I felt like the love story here fell a little flat for me. It just wasn’t one of my favourites. The story was okay, but I didn’t feel like it was anything special. 2.5 stars on this one for me.

I always love stories that have a tie to Canada in some way and it was one of the things that led me to ready this book. This story was an absolute favourite of mine. I loved the family story that evolved and enjoyed the development of the relationships between Calla and Jonah. It was hard not to fall for these characters as they grew and developed throughout the story. Loved this story and it was absolutely a 5 star read for me!

This was a cute story about a girl who moved to Italy to spend some time with her estranged father after her mother passed away. It was a cute little story as she discovered more about her story and learned the things that her mother didn’t share about her life through her mom’s old journal. I gave this one 3 stars, it was a very simple story, but I did enjoy it and it was a really quick read for me.

I enjoyed the first book in this series so I was excited to finally dive into the second one and let me tell you this story did not disappoint. Hands down, my favouite book of the year thus far. The banter was amazing between Ryan and Indy and it was a love story that I quickly fell in love with. No doubt in my mind this was an easy 5 star read.

I was excited to read this story. It tells the story of an elopement between Elsie and Ben. Ben passes away very shortly after they are married and the story follows Elsie through her grieving journey alongside Ben’s mother (who she had never met before). I honestly felt like this story fell a little flat for me. I’ve enjoyed the other Taylor Jenkins Reid books I’ve read, but I would say this was not one of my favouites. I felt like the story was very repetitive and the same things kept happening over and over. I do get that is a part of grief, but I just didn’t feel like I connected with this story all that much. I gave it 3 stars because I didn’t think it was bad, it just didn’t capture my attention as much as I thought it would when I read the back of the book.

If you haven’t picked up on this yet I love to read series, and I’m stubborn that if I start one I want to finish it. It took me a little bit to pick this one back up. It’s not that the first one was bad, but I didn’t think it was anything special, however, I was pleasantly surprised that I enjoyed this one significantly more than than first one. I wasn’t sure how I felt about Evan’s character in the first book so that may have also contributed to me struggling to pick this one up, but this was a great story and I quickly changed my tune. 4 stars for this one.

Because the second book exceeded my expectations I jumped right into the third one and it was hands down my favourite story of the three. I was captivated with Cassie and Tate’s story from the beginning and I think I read this one in like 3 days. My favourite in the Avolan Bay series by far. 4.75 stars for this one and higher on my list of favourites this year.

So I enjoyed the first two books in this series, but took me a bit to go back to it because although I enjoyed them I didn’t find an enormous amount of depth in the first two books. But this one changed it all for me. This had a deeper story and I was captivated from the start. I loved how the relationship between Jax and Elena developed but it was the stories underneath of both of them as independent characters that kept me hooked throughout. 4.75 stars for me…I loved this one.

I’m not going to lie…I put this book off for a long time and I think it was because I was afraid that it wasn’t going to live up to the hype that it gets. And guess what…I had nothing to worry about. This one truly is in the top 5 books I’ve read this year and I feel like I wasn’t even finished it before I was looking forward to reading it again! Such a beautiful story! 5 stars for me on this one!

This book was something that I picked up looking for something fun after the emotional journey that was the last book I read. This book was cute, but ultimately it wasn’t anything crazy or special. The story was cute, but to be honest, I wasn’t really all that believable in my opinion. It wasn’t a bad story, but it wasn’t one of my favourites. 2.75 stars on this one for me.

This was another one that I was excited to pick up, but was definitely questioning the hype around. I will say it didn’t disappoint. I think Hannah and Garrett’s story was cute and captivating and had be from the first chapters. This was a quick and easy read for me…4.25 stars!

While I enjoyed the first book in this series, the second one fell a little flat. I wouldn’t say it was bad by any stretch, I just didn’t feel as pulled into the story as I did for the first one. Although the story was cute, I didn’t feel as attached to Logan and Grace’s story. I gave this one 3 stars, it wasn’t bad, but wasn’t my favourite.

This one definitely picked back up again. I didn’t feel like Dean and Allie’s story rivaled the first one, but I felt like it was close. I feel like the relationship between Dean and Allie but something I enjoyed more. Without giving spoilers, there was a story line that I appreciated in this book towards the end. Something that I was able to relate to and I feel like it’s not always talked about in the college age group. I gave this one 4 stars.

I’m not going to lie to you…early on in this book I wasn’t sure that I was going to care all that much for it. I just didn’t really feel an initial connection between Sabrina and Tucker, but boy did Elle Kennedy prove me wrong. The further into the book I got, the more I feel in love with the two of them and their story. I wasn’t sure that anything could top the first book, but this one definitely came in right there with it. 4.25 stars on this one too!

This was a quick and easy read, but I did love the fact that we got to check in with all these characters after a few years! While I didn’t feel like any of these stories were earth shattering, I did like the fact that you got to see them down the road. Sometimes you’re left wondering where the characters would be now and I liked that this book gave you a chance to see that. 3.5 stars

I had been waiting for a while to read this book after hearing so many good things about it (I had the second and third one, but didn’t have this one). And let me tell you this one lived up to the hype. This was a great love story between Alexis and Daniel that left you feeling happy and believing in love again. I loved the way this story ended and it shows that love wins out in the end. This one was a 4.75 star read for me without question!

I had incredibly high expectations going into this book right after reading the first. That and I have yet to see anyone not rate this book 5+ stars so I had hoped that I hadn’t overhyped it in my mind. When I tell you that this book delivered the way that I had hoped it would I mean it! The anxiety portrayal in this book was the most outstanding thing I’ve ever read and how Bri dealt with the anxiety in a partner was inspiring. I’ve heard people rate this book infinity stars and I’ve going to do the same. The story was absolutely perfect. I wouldn’t have changed a single thing.

This was another one with a large amount of hype around this one as well and it always makes me a bit nervous going into a book. Although I loved this book, I actually think that the second one was still my favouite. This was a cute story and I was glad that I had read the books in order when I got to the end of it but it still didn’t out do Yours Truly for me. Watching the relationship develop between Justin and Emma was beautiful to watch and I did enjoy this book enough to give if 4.75 stars…I just didn’t think it was the best in the series.

My absolute favourite book of the year. I enjoyed this series from start to finish, but this was hands down my favourite in the series. I enjoyed the first two books in the Dirty Air series, but after reading the third one and this one, I felt like the first two fell a little flat from the storytelling perspective. I absolutely loved Santiago and Chloe’s story right from the start and read this book in 2 days. An easy 5 star (or more) read for me. If you’ve started this series and didn’t feel over the moon about the first two books I would encourage you to stick through it to the last 2 books. This is one I will absolutely re-read down the road!

I loved the first book in the Simple Wild series so I was excited to finally dive back into the series and follow deeper Calla and Jonah’s story. While the first quarter to half of this book fell a bit flat for me, the ending did make up for it. I felt like the story in the first book was better, but I will say that as this book went on the story did resonate and I was happy that I read it. 4 stars!

I loved this little novella, mostly because it gave you another look at Calla and Jonah’s life together. I was happy to be able to follow on their journey for a little bit longer and watch them get the ending that they did. 4 stars and a quick read!

I’m not going to lie…I almost didn’t bother picking this up because I wasn’t sure how I felt about Marie based on the first 3 books. But I’m also not one who wants to leave a series unfinished so I knew I wanted to give it a try and I’m glad I did. I very quickly fell in love with Marie’s character and watching her love story unfold with Tyler was both heart-wrenching and beautiful at the same time. They’re stories worked perfectly together and I was very glad that I did read it in the end. 4.5 stars.

After my last series I was looking for something a bit different and although this is a hockey romance (which I’m a sucker for), I did enjoy that this was a bit of a different story. There was a bit of mystery and an interesting plot that hooked right from the first chapter. The spice was also plentiful in this book, but there was still a good story to go along with it. I’ve heard that this series only gets better so I’m excited to continue the series. I enjoyed this one and gave it 4 stars.

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