Stealing Our Hearts

“Can I do it now?” “Do what?” I asked with a soft voice, running my fingers through his messy hair. “Can I love you forever?” I swallowed a little emotion that had been building since I saw the closet. “Yes.”

My heart is a wreck right now. I am feeling allllll of the emotions. I thought I was confused and hurt at the end of the first book, but I’m still all over the place. I do feel like we were given good closure as the reader during the last bit of this book that was from Fischer’s POV. If we had not been given that part…I don’t think I would have been able to give this book 4 stars. 

I want to start out with the parts of this duet that I really loved. I loved the writing (as I always do with anything Jewel E Ann writes), I loved the beautiful LGBTQ representation, and I loved that our heroine takes control of her life. Reese was probably my least favorite part of the first book, so seeing her change and grow in this book was amazing. I loved that she was able to realize she could love God and herself without guilt. I loved that she released those chains holding her back and experienced life by her own rules. She was incredibly strong in this book, and I know that if I had been in her shoes, I don’t know that I would have survived. 

For me, the things I did not like about the book did not necessarily outweigh the things I loved, but they did put a pretty big damper on my ability to give it a 5 star rating. Let’s just get the big elephant in the room out of the way. Yes, there was cheating. The entire relationship between our main characters in this book was an affair. But that wasn’t what bothered me. What drove me mad was both Fischer and Reese’s ability to excuse their behavior. He had a fiancé who had no idea that he was falling in love with someone else because he never told her!! It was infuriating. I understand the circumstances surrounding why they didn’t divulge their relationship, but I wasn’t able to fully invest myself in it, because I knew shit would hit the fan and they would be heartbroken at some point. Second thing I really did not like was Rory and Rose’s attempts at protecting Reese in terms of her relationship with Fischer. Okay. Here’s the thing. I understand that Rory missed out on Reese’s teen years, but her judgment and anger about the situation with Fisher felt extremely hypocritical to me. Also, I couldn’t stand Rose’s desire to butt in and constantly patronize Reese. This poor girl just needed to live her life and make her own mistakes and these women were so toxic!! Okay, that’s it. Those were my two biggest pet peeves. Other than those 2 things, I enjoyed this duet. 4 stars!

There always has been and only ever will be Garrett for me. My life has been a mess of failed attempts and indecision, but he is the one thing I can be sure of.

This book stole my breath. I knew when I originally read Praise that I had found a new series I would become obsessed with, but I didn’t realize how madly I would fall in love with every single character. If you thought Praise was the ultimate kink romance, just wait until you get ahold of this baby! This book has everything I love: stepbrother/stepsister romance, age gap, virgin heroine, shit loads of body positivity, and a safe mental health space. I don’t know how Sara Cate continues to do it right with every one of her books, but she does! I am completely blown away again and I can’t wait until I can get this paperback on my bookshelf. 

Garrett and Mia have been step-siblings for 15 years. There is a 13 year age gap between them, so Mia has always just been Garrett’s annoying little sister until one day he stumbles upon her on a cam girl site. He suddenly sees Mia in a new light and has to have her. Mia is a cam girl because she loves it. She enjoys the power and body confidence she gets from it and it also pays well! When a mysterious man starts requesting private time with her on the app, she’s intrigued and quickly becomes attached to him. She never sees his face, but they start to open up to each other and she feels for him. Little does she know…it’s Garrett hiding behind the screen. Mia has been in love with Garrett for as long as she can remember. She always assumed he hated her because he did nothing but pick on her for years, but she notices a change in him when he shows up at their parent’s lake house for a week-long stay. These two jump into a friends-with-benefits relationship and things get hot and heavy very quickly. 

I loved the dynamic between our two main characters. Garrett wanted to support Mia’s cam girl career but was also fighting with the secret that he was the mysterious “Drake”. Mia only wants to be there for Garrett but he keeps everything so close to his chest. Garrett struggles with depression and has never been to therapy or been diagnosed. It’s pretty clear that this sweet man needs support, but he’s just never received any. His mom loves him, but she doesn’t know how to handle him. Mia is the perfect woman for him. She calms him, focuses him, and keeps him at peace. I thought his struggles with depression were very well written and extremely accurate. As someone who struggles with depression, I felt the depictions of what Garrett experiences were eloquently thought out. It wasn’t romanticized or embellished for the novel, which I found so refreshing. It was an accurate representation of how, more often than not, someone struggling with depression CAN go to work. They CAN go out with friends. It’s the “off days” that get you. I loved this book so much. My heart is so happy. 5 stars!!

TW: depression and anxiety, accidental overdose/drug use, mention of eating disorder

“It isn’t death that’s scary. It’s living without actually living at all, breathing without purpose, existing without essence.”

Oof this was a tough one. This one hit hard. I knew going in (thanks to the blurb and my lovely bestie Megan) that this one was very heavy on mental health issues. Our hero Emery, fights depression throughout the entire novel. A road trip romance is RIGHT because this book is a JOURNEY, friends. 

Where do I even begin with this couple? They are so special, so unique. Emery is on a road trip, driving from his home in Florida all the way up to Washington. When he stops in Mobile, Alabama to get breakfast at a cafe, he meets our heroine Cooper. Cooper is the sweetest girl. She’s so endearing. This girl spoke to my heart from the first page through the end of the novel. Cooper grew up with neglectful parents, in a run down town with no way out. But she has big dreams. She has been saving up to move to Washington and attend her dream school. When Emery invites her on his road trip with her (after knowing her for like 5 minutes LOL) she throws caution to the wind and jumps at the chance to get out! I was so proud of her. This incredible girl, who’d been dealt a horrible hand, was finally given a break. It brought tears to my eyes. The other big thing to note is that Cooper has a prosthetic leg. She was in a horrible car accident and lost one of her legs, and she’s a little self conscious about it still. Emery brings out an inner light in Cooper that was precious to witness. 

As these two make their way on the road trip, Cooper starts to notice Emery’s mood swings. She sees the shifts he goes through and how some of his days are great and some not so great. It was hard to read. I have depression, so I was able to empathize with both sides in these scenarios. Sweet Cooper just wants to reach Emery. She just wants to support him and show him that someone is there for him. Emery, sadly, is sometimes unreachable. Sometimes he can’t talk, he can’t do anything but lay in bed and stare at the ceiling. It’s ultimately Emery’s choice to fight the battle every day; Cooper can’t do it for him. I adored that Emery was able to find strength in himself through his ever growing affection for Cooper. Their relationship was gradual, and there were definitely some growing pains and some parts of their story were hard to read, but it was worth it in the end. 

This was a beautiful read and a breathtaking journey. I cannot wait to own a paperback copy for my bookshelf. Kandi Steiner has a magical way with words that speaks to my soul every single time I pick up one of her books. Bravo! 5 stars.

“Perfection is impossible. Most mathematical truths can’t be proved. The vast majority of mathematical relations can’t be known. But you…standing here in your bare feet in that dress…you’re perfect.”

Okay so before we dive into how amazing and incredible this book was, we need to address the elephant in the room…that is the book cover. Cassandra is supposed to be plus size/heavier than what was considered “appropriate” back then per the commentary in this novel. The picture on the cover of this book is gorgeous, don’t get me wrong, but that woman is very thin. She’s stunning and has the perfect hair and complexion for Cassandra, but she needs to be curvier or else it feels like a disservice to our heroine. This was the only part of this novel that I was disappointed in. Moving on.

Tom and Cassandra’s meet-cute might be my favorite thus far in all of Lisa Kleypas’ books. Cassandra is speaking with her cousin West, privately, at her sister’s wedding. She is crying about how much she will miss Pandora now that she’s married and is leaving her, but she’s also extremely uncomfortable because her corset is too tight. She’s telling West that she will never find a man to marry because, even though she had plenty of proposals last season, none of those men seemed like someone she could grow to love. In a moment of weakness she begs West to “be her oyster” if she hasn’t married by the time she’s twenty-five. She asks him to marry her because she doesn’t want to be alone. This is when Tom, who has been listening in on their conversation the entire time, pops up and declares that he will be her oyster and she is perfect no matter what size she is. When I tell you that I swooned and was jumping up and down as I read this!! You should see all of the notes I took in the first 10 pages of this book LOL. It was so perfect. 

Tom is immediately in love with Cassandra the first moment he sees her. She’s everything he’s ever dreamed for in a woman, so he is determined to make her his. Unfortunately, Cassandra wants to marry for love and that is something Tom claims he can never give her. Tom has a very difficult time with emotions. He claims to only have 5 emotions; he’s extremely logical and sees everything black and white. As our novel progresses and he starts to feel more for Cassandra, he becomes increasingly uncomfortable because he cannot name the emotions. He struggles to feel at peace with himself because he has a constantly clawing in his chest when he’s around Cassandra. Their romance is a very slow burn, but it was everything I could have ever wanted. Cassandra is patient and understanding. She’s empathetic but also very curious and has a great desire to learn new things. She wants to help people and make an impact in the world. These two are the ultimate power couple, in my opinion. I am obsessed with them!! 5 stars!

“There are no limits to what I would do for you.”

Do you have any triggers? If so, proceed with caution when entering this world. 

WOW. This review is going to be very short and sweet. I am feeling a lot of emotions right now. Honestly, more than I really know what to do with. I almost gave up on multiple occasions while reading this book because even though child abuse usually doesn’t trigger me (THAT much), it definitely did while reading this book. I read the prequel novella first and definitely got the idea that I might be getting in over my head with this series, but I needed to try it anyway. I cannot tell you the number of times I cried while reading this. My heart was breaking for so many characters. This is a tough one, guys. Just know that going in.

We meet Raphael in the prequel novella, at least ten years before this book takes place. We see the horror that all of our boys had to live through, and we know they have been busy getting their serial killing process up and running (LOL). I will admit that I was a bit nervous, knowing that the first guy we would dive in deep with was the one who fantasized about killing women. That is difficult to accept as a reader. Literally for the entire novel, Raphe’s only goal was to kill Maria. Even as he was falling in love with her, his ultimate goal was her death. Her acceptance of that it what pushed me over the edge and had me crying buckets. It was SO WELL WRITTEN. I felt like I was living in this world with these characters. Captivating and devastating as it may be. 

I don’t want to say much more about this one because it’s very easy to spoil this book, so please just (if you like dark romance and are able to stomach it) read it. It’s such a phenomenal story. A beautiful love story about two scarred souls finding peace together. My heart feels like it’s breaking all over again as I write this review. I will never forget this book! 5 stars! I’m downloading and starting book 2 now! Also – does anyone know if there is a projected release date for book 3? I couldn’t find anything on Tillie’s social media pages or website. Xoxo!

I really loved this book. I loved the concept. I loved the characters. I loved the pacing and the phrasing. I even loved the surprise baby that we get towards the end (spoiler). The one thing I did not like AT ALL was how much fatphobic language and body-shaming there was throughout the entire book. I wished that all of the love and respect Ashleigh had for Christopher, despite his face, could have been turned inward. I never felt like she ever truly loved herself in her body, even though she claimed to in the end.

Our heroine Ashleigh, is a plus size, WOC who has just been dumped by her boyfriend of 3 years at the start of our novel. She knew he was cheating on her for the last 6 months of their relationship, but she was so uncomfortable with her weight, that she turned a blind eye and let it happen. When this a**hole leaves her, she decides that it’s time to bite the bullet and convinces herself that if she could just get skinny…she would be worthy of a handsome boyfriend. There is so much wrong with that way of thinking. It hurt my heart exponentially. Ashleigh starts waking up every morning to go to the gym at 5:30am where she first sees our hero. Christopher is a loner. He’s also a special ops Marine. *swoon* He was born with a cleft palate and other facial deformities that his parents were too poor to get fixed until it was almost too late. Christopher is also referred to as “Beast” by his teammates. He’s very shy and has suffered a lot of rejection because of the way he looks. When Ashleigh firsts sees him, she is horrified. But after he offers to help her with her exercises at the gym, a friendship is formed, which then turns romantic. I absolutely adored how easy it was for Ashleigh to fall in love with Christopher for the person he was. I also loved how Christopher NEVER once commented on Ashleigh’s weight. Even as she got smaller and smaller – he never made any comments. This is super important as you continue to read and find out that Ashleigh suffers from an eating disorder.

Huge trigger warning for the eating disorder. She is bulimic and has on-page binging episodes. My heart was breaking for Ashleigh during this entire book because even though she is surrounded by loving and supportive friends and has a great job, she still wasn’t happy. It was wonderful to see her blossom under Christopher, though. I didn’t love that our author felt the need to add that Ashleigh went from a size 20/22 to a size 12/14 because I think that can do more harm than good for some readers. BUT it is extremely important to note that this book was written 10 years ago in 2012. A lot of things have changed since then, the body positivity movement being one thing, so what was written then may not have been seen as problematic as much as it might be today. All in all, I loved this book, truly. I felt so much for both Christopher and Ashleigh and am so glad I decided to buy this ebook. I’m a sucker for a wounded hero and Christopher checked all of my boxes. Plus he was a red-head! YES!!! ❤ My heart is so full. I’m looking forward to reading another Pepper Pace book in the future! 4 stars!

“I’m home when I’m in your arms,” I whispered.

Kit and Lara. Oh my lord. Where do I even begin? I think we need to tackle the massive shift in tone in the climax of this book. This review is going to be riddled with spoilers, so if you haven’t read this book yet, stop reading now. Okay, so I’m someone who loves when justice is served to the villains in a novel, don’t get me wrong, but WHAT HAPPENED IN THIS BOOK??? Okay let’s break it down. Lara is a 21 year old blind woman, who lives alone, and has no family. Her mother died of cancer, and her father and brother died serving in the military. She is extremely capable and smart and creative and makes a living as a sculptor. Kit is a reclusive man who lives on the outskirts of their town with wild wolves as companions. No one knows a single thing about him, but he puts out an ad at the local library looking for a blind reader…I was SUPER confused about what that was when I first read it. It is exactly as it sounds. A blind person who can read. Lara’s best friend convinces her to call him about the ad and she ends up going to his house a few times a week to read him a book. He has scars covering half of his face and body from an accident in the military, and he doesn’t like people to stare at his face. 

Okay so things get hot and heavy pretty quickly with these two. It’s instalove for Kit. The moment he sees her for the first time, stepping out of her best friend’s car to come to his house, he falls in love. I was dying. I loved their dynamic and I was freaking obsessed with his wolves. Then things start to get weird. We meet a man named Sawyer. Lara used to have a massive crush on him, but he got engaged to someone else and that was that. But apparently he has been in love with her all this time and when he finds out about her and Kit…he goes off the deep end. The conflict in this book was almost laughable, it was so ridiculous to me. I know I gave this story 5 stars…and that’s because I absolutely loved it and was totally into every single second of it, but you reeeeally have to suspend your disbelief for this one. Sawyer goes crazy and starts hunting with a bow and arrow and then a bunch of shit happens and then we find out that Kit is actually an undercover operative for the military (we thought he was discharged after the accident that scarred half of his body) and has to leave and go on a mission and almost dies. Shit gets CRAZY. And THEN suddenly justice is served in the most INSANE way. I know I’m writing a spoiler filled review, but I can’t tell you what happens at the end because it’s so INSANELY wild that you have to read it for yourself. I ate that shit up. LOL. I also cried MULTIPLE times during this book. I was so invested. Bravo to our author because I did not see this book coming. I’m buying this shit in paperback. Loved it. It’s an acquired taste for sure. 5 stars. 

“When you trust, good things happen.”

Okay, wow. There is a lot to unpack in this book. Before I dive into all of that, just a little bit of back story. I have always loved Karina Halle’s writing. I think the first book I ever read by her was, My Life in Shambles, shortly after I started this blog in 2019. I was immediately swept away by the story and captivated by Karina’s writing. She has this brilliant way of riding the very fine line between humor and drama. Her stories will without a doubt make you laugh AND cry. You always come away feeling a full spectrum of emotions. I love her for that. I actually won a giveaway in 2021 for the third book in this series, A Nordic King. The bookstagrammer who sent me the book said that it was one of her favorites of the year so I immediately started reading it. A royal romance about a King and his daughter’s nanny? Umm yes please! 

Long story short, I ended up downloading book 1 on Kindle Unlimited, but got caught up in other books before I could get to it. By the time I did, the books had been taken off of KU so I ended up buying the paperback editions of this book and book 4, The Royal Rogue. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The reason I took away half of a star was for the fourth act conflict. I knew it was coming, it felt super predictable, but our heroine’s reaction is what really set me off. It broke my heart and I was so fearful for the remainder of the book. You see, this story is about Prince Magnus and Princess Ella. Magnus is known for his playboy ways, and when a sex tape scandal almost destroys his family’s faith in him, Magnus’ mother comes to him with an ultimatum. Abdicate or marry. Magnus chooses Ella from a stack of eligible women that his mother presented him with. Ella is smart, shy, and extremely passionate about the things she cares about. When Ella and Magnus first meet, she wants nothing to do with him. Unfortunately, she has some daddy issues and ends up giving Magnus and herself a 2 week trial run before she will agree to marry him or not. It’s a very dynamic, exciting story. Magnus is extremely lovable and precious. Although he’s a playboy with a dirty mouth, you warm up to him very easily and are rooting for him the entire time. I was rooting for Ella too, don’t get me wrong! She showed up – her strength and stubborn heart unmatched throughout the book. That’s why her reaction in the 4th act killed me. Don’t worry, though! Our couple gets their well deserved HEA. ❤ It all works out. I loved the epilogue too. My heart is bursting! I cannot wait to read book 4. It is much smaller than this book, though – maybe half the size. I also haven’t read the blurb yet so I’m not sure who it’s about. Wish me luck! 4.5 stars! 

They say love is ten percent falling and ninety percent picking yourself back up. What they never tell you is how quick that ten percent passes and how long the ninety percent lasts. Judging by how fast I’d fallen for Tate Marchetti, when we reached the end of our shelf life, I’d be totally, utterly fucked.

Alright, folks. Here we are. Hopefully you’ve already survived this book and are now reading this review, but if not, if you are trying to still decide whether you should read it or not…please be warned. There are so many wonderful, beautifully written stories where a character dies by suicide, but this is more than that. Suicide itself is one of the main focal points of this book. If that’s a trigger for you, you deserve to know ahead of time and make the decision whether or not you’re capable of reading this novel. This suicide isn’t glossed over, either. You meet, and fall in love with, Kellan Marchetti YEARS before he jumps off of the roof of his school. Charlie meets him the night of her fourteenth birthday. It’s Valentine’s Day. And she’s planning to kill herself. Kellan is there, on top of the school building, where they both are trying to escape their lives. We get chapters of this novel from Kellan’s POV. As the reader, knowing he would ultimately die no matter how hard Charlotte tried to save him, I attempted to keep his character at arms length. Did it work? Of course not. Kellan was tortured and beautiful and still a boy. He died right before he turned eighteen. And there is nothing to do about it. You know it’s going to happen from page one, but the knowing doesn’t makes it any easier. It doesn’t make it any less painful. 

This book is broken up into 3 parts. In part one, we only get the POVs of Charlie and Kellan. We watch them over the years as they grow up. We see Charlie heal from her parent’s death and find a purpose in her school work and in learning. We also see Kellan slowly fade away and wither into nothing. Because these are the only two perspectives we get, I knew that there was a lot more going on behind in the scenes in Kellan’s life that we weren’t privy too. When we meet Tate in part two, I knew we were supposed to hate him from the first moment. But I couldn’t. All I saw was a man who was still hurting from the death of his brother. Tate is in his thirties while Charlie is only in her early twenties making this an age gap, but it never felt like it. Tate was so lost in his grief that he almost reverted back to childish ways of dealing with his life. Charlie was the strong one. My heart constantly broke for her – always giving so much of herself to others and never getting anything in return. Part two was where I really lost myself in my emotions. 

“Tears are the language of grief. And grief is the language of love.”

This story is so much more than words will ever be able to define. I’ve tried reading other reviews on it and no one can do this novel justice. There’s this warm feeling in the pit of my stomach that happens when a book truly resonates with me, when it hits and lands perfectly and that’s exactly what this story did. It was so angsty and brutal. But it had to be. Without ripping your heart to shreds, you never would have truly experienced this story. This is a book that I will cherish forever. One that I will continue to recommend to my friends for the rest of my life because it is one of those stories that will never age. It will always feel like the first time. The pain never truly goes away, just like in grief and healing. You learn to live with the pain. Tate and Charlie were exactly what I need. Their love and their journey into a healthier life has scarred my heart. I will never forget. I never want to. 100 stars. 

“I realized, with depressing clarity, that she wasn’t the venom at all. She was the antidote. But the quantities were all off.”

“I would do anything to fix this for you,” he says quietly, “and it kills me that I can’t. Tell me what to do.” It takes me a minute to reply. “You already make everything better,” I tell him. “And you’re the only one who ever has.”

**please note: I read did a re-read of this book (and wrote this review) on 2/10/22 and have since read and reviewed a few other books by Elizabeth O’Roark.

I don’t think I’ve treated myself to an Elizabeth O’Roark book since 2019 and that fact makes me unbelievably disappointed in myself. When I started my romance reading journey in 2018, she was on of my go-to authors. Back then, I didn’t know many authors, so when I found one that I loved, I read the entire backlist. That’s precisely what I did with Elizabeth O’Roark, but then let her slip away! I’m back now and ready to read all of the newer novels that she has written!! 

This book was just as incredible, if not more, the second time around. I fell head over heels in love with Olivia and Will’s forbidden relationship when I first read this book, but this second read-through solidified just how incredible this novel really is. The first thing I thought as I dove deep into this novel again was “Wow…Will really fights hard against their chemistry for a very long time.” Will is only a few years older than Olivia, having graduated from college just two years prior to the novel starting, so it’s not so much an age-gap romance as it is a forbidden love story. Olivia is a transfer student, coming from Austin, after she is kicked off of their track team for attacking a fellow teammate. We find out later that the attack was not unprovoked and she had every reason to fight back.  The reason this novel is called Waking Olivia is because she suffers from PTSD that bleeds out in the form of sleep-running. That’s right – running, not walking. She runs for MILES without waking up. Do not ask me how she hasn’t been hit by a car. Olivia experienced trauma so severe in her past that she cannot control her sleep-running. She knows that it happens more frequently when she is under intense stress, but she can’t stop herself. Her coach, Will, ends up taking her under his wing and their relationship develops from there.

I want to call this an enemies to lovers romance because Will and Olivia do not like each other one bit when they first meet. They bicker and argue all the time, and it never really goes away. The thing is, I don’t think that Will ever really views her as his enemy because he cares so deeply about her and wants her to succeed. Their relationship is complex and angsty. Will had a girlfriend for over half of the novel and she is the absolute WORST. Yuck. I hated her. Will’s mom is one of my favorite characters. She’s sweet and takes such great care of Olivia, even when she hardly knows her. She knows that Will has fallen in love even before he admits it to himself. She’s a guiding light through the book. 

The novel does have a layer of suspense throughout the entire thing because of Olivia’s past. We aren’t privy to the details of it until much later into the book, so the reader is left to speculate for a very long time. When parts of her past are revealed and things start to get scary, there isn’t much for the reader to do except hold on and hope for the best. We aren’t given much to go on, but that’s what makes it so exhilarating. I LOVED THIS BOOK. I just purchased the paperback and I can’t wait to add it to my collection! 5 stars!