• ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    Finding a Keeper by Nicole Pyland | ARC Review

    30th October 2020
    Cover of Finding a Keeper (Nicole Pyland)

    Finding a Keeper (Sports #4) by Nicole Pyland

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    Content warnings: death of parent, mention of conversion therapy, disowning

    This is my eighth Pyland novel, and I have learned by now to never start reading her books on a busy day because they are impossible to put down. Clear your schedule, and get ready for Sloan and Marley’s cute, slow-burn, best-friends-to-lovers romance.

    Sloan Rossi (18, 1/4-Black) has just moved back to the US from the UK to attend college for soccer. As a striker in U18 Premier League (stated as EPL Youth League in the book), she doesn’t want to be a goalie. But when her new friend junior goalie Marley Nichols (20, lesbian) injures her rotator cuff, Sloan becomes the backup goalkeeper. With their strengthening friendship over the course of a year as they both stay by each other’s side through difficulties in life, Sloan and Marley become virtually inseparable. When people start assuming they were dating, Marley could only wish they really were as Sloan reevaluates her own sexuality and what Marley truly means to her.

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  • ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    Beyond the Lights by Nicole Higginbotham-Hogue | ARC Review

    14th October 2020
    Cover of Beyond the Lights (Nicole Higginbotham-Hogue)

    Beyond the Lights by Nicole Higginbotham-Hogue

    Content warnings: mention of death of a side character’s parent

    Beyond the Lights is a cute novella with great potential. I liked the premise but the writing style threw me off a little and the plot was a bit more absurd than I had expected.

    Sawyer Johnson (23) is convinced that she is in love with actress Amy Mitchell, whom she has never met before. When she announces her plan of going cross-country to find Amy, her best friend Autumn Thompson (~23, lesbian), who is secretly in love with Sawyer, decides to tag along, hoping for some quality time together. All plans go out the window as they run into Amy filming a movie in a small town in Montana.

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  • Book Reviews,  Fiction

    The Best Lines by Nicole Pyland

    25th September 2020
    Cover of The Best Lines (Nicole Pyland)

    The Best Lines (Chicago #1) by Nicole Pyland

    Dr. Eva Dash has just lost her job as a professor at her alma mater. That seems to leave her with no choice but to leave the city she considers home. When restaurant owner Ember Elliot shows up in Eva’s life, Eva is fascinated by this mysterious, former player. The preamble to their connection is a napkin note that leads to more notes. As both struggle with their unknown professional futures, what will become of their relationship?

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  • ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    While My Heart Beats by Erin McKenzie | ARC Review

    20th September 2020
    Cover of While My Heart Beats

    While My Heart Beats by Erin McKenzie

    CW: war, off-page deaths of family

    This is a beautiful historical romance across classes set in WWI Great Britain and France.

    Ellie Winthrop is high-born, a feminist, and holds big dreams during a time women cannot even vote. Her mother is eager to marry her off at twenty-two, but Ellie enlists in Volunteer Aid Detachment. At the hospital, she meets Johanna Lennox, a working-class, twenty-four-year-old nurse with a no-nonsense attitude. As the pair gradually become friends, they can no longer resist their yearnings for each other’s bodies. But with Ellie’s mother pestering Ellie with marriage, Johanna wonders if she, being poorer and a woman, could ever be good enough for her.

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  • Book Reviews,  Fiction

    Fresh Start by Nicole Pyland

    19th September 2020
    Cover of Fresh Start (Nicole Pyland)

    Fresh Start (Chicago #0) by Nicole Pyland

    Alyssa Masters had sat in prison for two years for a double-homicide she did not commit. The news of her case is all over the country. So even though she is now a free woman without criminal records, it is very hard to live a normal life. Then Hannah Granger shows up for rental viewings at Alyssa’s workplace without knowing who Alyssa is. Hannah is relocating after traveling for three years and just losing her mother. Will their friendly encounter develop into something deeper with Alyssa’s past hanging overhead?

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