35. The Love Haters by Katherine Center

listened on Libby (TPPL)

320 pgs.

2025
Adult CRF/Romance - Chick Lit
Finished 7/22/25
Goodreads rating: 3.85
My rating: 4.5
Setting: Contemporary Key West, Florida

My comments: 4.5  This is a just-plain-feel-good book.  You KNOW that all the bad stuff that happens will end up okay, and there's so much humor, even in the serious places, that you're chuckling the whole way through.  You have to let go of some of the feelings of disbelief (would this really ever happen?) as well as a little of the protagonist's SEL ramblings (which are explained really nicely by the author in the afterword of the book).  I loved Frank Bailey, 170-pound Great Dane extraordinaire, which is saying a lot because I'd never be considered a "dog person."

Goodreads synopsis:  It’s a thin line between love and love-hating.

Katie Vaughn has been burned by love in the past—now she may be lighting her career on fire. She has two choices: wait to get laid off from her job as a video producer or, at her coworker Cole’s request, take a career-making gig profiling Tom “Hutch” Hutcheson, a Coast Guard rescue swimmer in Key West.

The catch? Katie’s not exactly qualified. She can’t swim—but fakes it that she can.

Plus: Cole is Hutch’s brother. And they don’t get along. Next stop paradise!

But paradise is messier than it seems. As Katie gets entangled with Hutch (the most scientifically good looking man she has ever seen . . . but also a bit of a love hater), along with his colorful Aunt Rue and his rescue Great Dane, she gets trapped in a lie. Or two.

Swim lessons, helicopter flights, conga lines, drinking contests, hurricanes, and stolen kisses ensue—along with chances to tell the truth, to face old fears, and to be truly brave at last.

69. Funny Story by Emily Henry

listened on Libby

395 pgs.

2024
Adult romance
Finished 8/4/2024
Goodreads rating:  4.23
My rating: 4.25
Setting:  Contemporary

My comments: A definite meet cute story that was quite enjoyable and ... well, cute...

     When Daphne is jilted the night of her fiancé's bachelor party, she is pretty devastated, as you'd expect.  That he jilted her to be with his best friend, a girls he's known since childhood, particularly upset her.  And having no place to go, she ended up moving in with the also-jilted boyfriend of the so-called best friend.  And it goes on from there.  Daphne is a children's librarian and loves her job, but has a lot of hangups.  Miles, her new roommate, also has a lot of hangups.  And they seem to fit together just like two pieces of a perfect puzzle.  He's too good to be true, actually.  With a cast of bizarre characters that are a lot of fun and a narrator who is one of my favorites, I totally enjoyed listening to this book.

Goodreads synopsis:  

Goodreads Choice Award

Winner for Readers' Favorite Romance (2024), Winner for Readers' Favorite Audiobook (2024)

A shimmering, joyful new novel about a pair of opposites with the wrong thing in common, from #1 New York Times bestselling author Emily Henry.

Daphne always loved the way her fiancé, Peter, told their story. How they met (on a blustery day), fell in love (over an errant hat), and moved back to his lakeside hometown to begin their life together. He really was good at telling it... right up until the moment he realized he was actually in love with his childhood best friend Petra.

Which is how Daphne begins her new story: stranded in beautiful Waning Bay, Michigan, without friends or family but with a dream job as a children’s librarian (that barely pays the bills), and proposing to be roommates with the only person who could possibly understand her predicament: Petra’s ex, Miles Nowak.

Scruffy and chaotic—with a penchant for taking solace in the sounds of heart break love ballads—Miles is exactly the opposite of practical, buttoned-up Daphne, whose coworkers know so little about her they have a running bet that she’s either FBI or in witness protection. The roommates mainly avoid one another, until one day, while drowning their sorrows, they form a tenuous friendship and a plan. If said plan also involves posting deliberately misleading photos of their summer adventures together, well, who could blame them?

But it’s all just for show, of course, because there’s no way Daphne would actually start her new chapter by falling in love with her ex-fiancé’s new fiancée’s ex... right?

36. Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron

listened on Audible
357 pgs.

2021
Adult contemporary romance
Finished 4/13/2024
Goodreads rating: 3.71
My rating: 5
Setting: Contemporary Toronto

My comments: One word: delightful.  Want to giggle and be thoroughly entertained?  In a reading slump?  This is the book to read.  Set in contemporary Toronto, this romantic comedy packs humor, family love and strife, and the love of cooking and baking into one very enjoyable story.  A huge plus for me was being able to peek into the culture and foods of the Indian Muslim community.  Note:  no actual gratuitous "steam", but the author does what she needs to get her point across....

Goodreads synopsis:   Reena Manji doesn’t love her career, her single status, and most of all, her family inserting themselves into every detail of her life. But when caring for her precious sourdough starters, Reena can drown it all out. At least until her father moves his newest employee across the hall--with hopes that Reena will marry him.

But Nadim’s not like the other Muslim bachelors-du-jour that her parents have dug up. If the Captain America body and the British accent weren’t enough, the man appears to love eating her bread creations as much as she loves making them. She sure as hell would never marry a man who works for her father, but friendship with a neighbor is okay, right? And when Reena’s career takes a nosedive, Nadim happily agrees to fake an engagement so they can enter a couples video cooking contest to win the artisan bread course of her dreams.

As cooking at home together brings them closer, things turn physical, but Reena isn’t worried. She knows Nadim is keeping secrets, but it’s fine— secrets are always on the menu where her family is concerned. And her heart is protected… she’s not marrying the man. But even secrets kept for self preservation have a way of getting out, especially when meddling parents and gossiping families are involved.

5. Love Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood

listened on Libby (borrowed from the library)

2023
389 pgs.
Adult Rom Com (w/steam)
Finished 1/19/24
Goodreads rating: 4.15
My rating: 3.75/4
Setting: Contemporary MIT (& other Boston Colleges) Academia

My comments: The physics department at MIT, where Elsie is up for a coveted position, has two branches, theoretical and experimental physics, which are very much at odd with each other.  And Jack, the darling (and head) of the department falls for Elsie the first time he sees her, when she is "fake dating" his brother to earn extra money.  This sort of comedy of errors is fun to read.  My biggest problem with the book is that the audio reader, Terese Plummer (who's quite good) is also the reader for one-of-my favorite series (Casey Duncan), and every now and then it would throw me off because I was taken to another place and setting just hearing her voice!  Fun book to read.

Goodreads synopsis:  The many lives of theoretical physicist Elsie Hannaway have finally caught up with her. By day, she’s an adjunct professor, toiling away at grading labs and teaching thermodynamics in the hopes of landing tenure. By other day, Elsie makes up for her non-existent paycheck by offering her services as a fake girlfriend, tapping into her expertly honed people pleasing skills to embody whichever version of herself the client needs.

Honestly, it’s a pretty sweet gig—until her carefully constructed Elsie-verse comes crashing down. Because Jack Smith, the annoyingly attractive and broody older brother of her favorite client, turns out to be the cold-hearted experimental physicist who ruined her mentor’s career and undermined the reputation of theorists everywhere. And that same Jack who now sits on the hiring committee at MIT, right between Elsie and her dream job.

Elsie is prepared for an all-out war of scholarly sabotage but…those long, penetrating looks? Not having to be anything other than her true self when she’s with him? Will falling into an experimentalist’s orbit finally tempt her to put her most guarded theories on love into practice?

52. Call Me Crazy by Melanie Harlow

Kindle Unlimited

2021

320 pgs.
Adult Romance
Finished 5/21/2021
Goodreads rating: 4.34 - 6848 ratings
My rating: 4 (Well, just check out the guy on the cover, lol....)
Setting: 

First line/s: "There comes a day in a man's life when he enters a room with hope in his heart and a ring in his pocket, fully prepared to get down on one knee."

My comments: A delightful love story following "the outline" of most romance novels, but I loved it anyway.  Fake marriage that turns into real love with the added "bonus" (if you want to call it that) of trying to get her pregnant at the same time that he ensures being the recipient of his father's contracting business.  Lots of Italian family and busybody/caring friends.  Nothing new, just a fun read.

Goodreads synopsis:  It was the perfect plan.

          I needed a wife—temporarily—in order to inherit the family business.
          And she needed a favor—the kind that takes nine months to deliver.
          We had it all worked out, from the no-touching policy on our wedding night (her rule) to the no-falling-in-love decree (mine). She’d marry me, I’d give her the means to have the baby she’d always wanted, and one year later we’d amicably part ways with no hassle, no demands, and certainly no regrets.
          After all, Bianca DeRossi and I are experts at infuriating one another—we’ve been doing it since we were kids. Trouble is, she grew up gorgeous and feisty, and she still knows exactly how to get under my skin.
          And that wedding night? Well, it doesn’t exactly go down hands-free.
          Then she moves in with me, and I really start to lose my mind. From her sexy little pout to her wicked sense of humor to those meatball sandwiches she makes just because she knows they’re my favorite . . . I find myself wanting to break every rule we put in place.
          Our story was never supposed to end with happily ever after.
          But call me crazy, I just might be in love with my wife.

78. The Christmas Pact by Vi Keeland & Penelope Ward

listened to audio via Audible Escape
narrated by Andi Arndt & Sebastian York
Unabridged audio (2:54)
2019 audio, 2020 Kindle
161 pgs.
Adult RomCom (clean)
Finished 5/17/2020
Goodreads rating: 3.57 - 6324 ratings
My rating: 3+

My comments: Just the kind of soft fluff that I need in these ultra-depressing gray days.  A clean rom-com, the type of book that for my previous sixty years I totally refused to read and would never ever admit that I liked them, isn't that a riot?   This was a cutie fake boyfriend book, on of the tomes that I fund delicious.

Goodreads synopsis:  Heat up the holidays with this sizzling new novella from New York Times best-selling authors Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward!
          Riley Kennedy’s emails keep getting crossed with her colleague, Kennedy Riley.
          The infuriating man forwards them along with his annoying commentary and unsolicited advice. At least she never has to see him in person since they work in different locations…until they come face to face at the office holiday party. As luck would have it, Kennedy turns out to be gorgeous…though still a jerk. Yet somehow he’s able to charm her out on the dance floor—and convince her to participate in his crazy scheme: He’ll go home with Riley for a Christmas party and pretend to be her boyfriend if Riley agrees to be his date to a wedding.
          It sounds easy enough. But little by little, the act they’re putting on starts to feel like so much more than a Christmas pact—and Riley’s about to learn there’s more to Kennedy than she ever imagined.