Susan’s Book Blog

  The Sizzle Paradox by Lily Menon This book is out TODAY! Read my full review of it HERE 📋 🗒 📊 👩🏼‍🏫  Cute, fairly run-of-the-mill contemporary romance. The writing is a little cheesy and so is the basic premise but it’s also charming and the love story is sweet. I liked the academic setting and I loved Lyric & Kian’s friendship. I was definitely rooting for them! I thought how the story came to a head in the final parts of the third act was well done and compelling. The grand gesture was sweet and the epilogue was so great. dual POV academic setting friends to lovers fake dating  “we need to get it out of our systems” Very cute and enjoyable! 3.5 stars out of 5 Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing the digital arc.

  American Royalty   by Tracey Livesay This book is out TODAY! Read my full review of it  HERE . 👑  👑  👑  In theory, this is right up my alley. I love royal romances! I was excited that it was an interracial couple, intrigued by the similarities to Harry & Meghan. But in practice, I was bored stiff. Major yawn. I could not get into this. I ended up DNFing at 50%. I wanted to like the characters but never did, just didn’t enjoy the story, and thought the technical aspect of the writing could stand some improvement. It felt a little rudimentary and didn’t do anything to elevate the material. There were no romantic parts in the first half of the book and the sexy parts were… weird. I never got to a point where I wanted to root for these people to get together. Once they started having a sexual relationship, I still couldn’t understand why they were interested in one another. Circling back to the royal comparisons, if The Royal We gave us Will & Kate fanfic, this one is defin

  The Bodyguard by Katherine Center pub date: July 19, 2022 🌺 4.5 Stars out of 5 🌺 She’s got his back. Hannah Brooks looks more like a kindergarten teacher than somebody who could kill you with a wine bottle opener. But the truth is, she’s an Executive Protection Agent (aka "bodyguard"), and she just got hired to protect superstar actor Jack Stapleton from his middle-aged, corgi-breeding stalker. He’s got her heart. Jack Stapleton’s a household name—captured by paparazzi on beaches the world over, famous for, among other things, rising out of the waves in all manner of clingy board shorts and glistening like a Roman deity. But a few years back, in the wake of a family tragedy, he dropped from the public eye and went off the grid. They’ve got a secret. When Jack’s mom gets sick, he comes home to the family’s Texas ranch to help out. Only one catch: He doesn’t want his family to know about his stalker. Or the bodyguard thing. And so Hannah—against her will and her better judg

Fangscreen   by Ellen Mint ebook Pub date: July 19 //  4 stars out of 5 // 🏖 🏖 🏖 🏖 This was SO cute and SO funny. Jareth, a lonely, love-starved, slightly misanthropic vampire (who may also be running a little low on self-esteem) is stranded miserably on ocean-front property on a hot, sunny (read: vampire-unfriendly) tropical island paradise. He is NOT having fun. Having to navigate communications with an emotionally manipulative ex, occasional Zoom calls with his small band of vampire cohorts, wanting to be left alone but finding himself crushing hard on a local, and discovering the possibility of a vampire hunter on the island. Not exactly what he wants out of his undeath.  Jareth’s romance with Laiken is sweet, sexy and a lot of fun. And so romantic! Both main characters are absolute cinnamon rolls - they are adorable. The side characters are a riot. The relationship dynamics and dialogue are hilarious. I enjoyed this a lot. I definitely recommend this for a fun summer/beach rea

  This gorgeous book is out TODAY! Happy book birthday to How To Fake It in Hollywood - Ava Wilder’s amazing debut novel!  👉🏼 Click here to read my full review! 👈🏼

  Booked on a Feeling by Jayci Lee Pub Date: 7/26/22 📚 4 stars out of 5 📚  One burned-out lawyer + one directionless number cruncher + a bookstore in need of saving = Booked on a Feeling. This is the adorable third installment in Jayci Lee's A Sweet Mess series that uses small family-owned businesses as the backdrop for the story. A bakery, a brewery, and now a bookstore. Each one centers on members of the same family but can absolutely be read as standalones. The couples from A Sweet Mess and The Dating Dare have small roles in this one but you don't need knowledge of them to get into this book. The premise: Lizzy Chung has developed a crush on her lifelong best friend Jack but doesn't want to risk their friendship by telling him. And Jack Park has a crush on his best friend Lizzy but... well, you see where this is going. I really liked both Jack and Lizzy and loved how their relationship developed alongside them each exploring what makes them happy in their professio

 Cat Sebastian’s follow-up to The Queer Principles of Kit Webb is finally out on Tuesday! Pick up The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes if you want excellent characters, witty, intelligent humor, and eat the rich vibes. (My full review from January is below!) Release Date: June 7, 2022 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 4 stars out of 5 Cat Sebastian has such a way with words, her writing never ceases to impress me. The writing is tight, engaging and highly entertaining. And the romance was rather unorthodox but I really liked that about it.   This is the follow-up to Kit Webb which I have not read yet (but is on my TBR)… The book can stand on its own without having read Kit Webb first but I do feel like I missed the meaning of several references and didn’t understand some conversations that I would like to have been clued in on. I think this will be a very rewarding reading experience for Kit Webb fans. (I do recommend reading Kit first.) It starts out with the most hilarious epistolary (and antagonistic) back-an