Some secrets are meant to be kept, but love will find a way. Hearts and Hidden Secrets explores the bonds of family and the mysteries that lie just beneath the surface. Whether it’s single parents, surprise pregnancies, or long-lost connections, these heartwarming stories show that love can heal even the deepest wounds.
Dandelion Diary by Devney Perry
Where It Begins by Helena Hunting
Stud Finder by Lauren Blakely
Jonah Bennett by Tijan
Dandelion Diary by Devney Perry is a really cute, “your favorite English teacher” (#iykyk)/single dad romance. Jeff’s daughter Katy is just the cutest, and the diary entries we get at the end that she writes about her dad and Della, her favorite teacher, are freaking adorable. This somewhat-forbidden (until the school year is over, at least) romance is #2.5 in its series Maysen Jar) but it worked just fine as a standalone–and yes, books 1 and 2 are now on my TBR. 🙂
Rating: 4 stars / A-
Where It Begins by Helena Hunting
OMG, this novella! I’m pretty sure I snort-laughed more than once. And pretty much swooned at least twice. And recoiled in horror immediately after one of them…not going to spoil anything, you’re going to have to read it yourself. (No worries, everything turned out fine in the end. But just the thought *still* makes me shudder)
Why you should read this: it has a swoony widower hero, a completely relatable single mother heroine, and their two teenage children (who have their own POV chapters and also happen to be future series MCs) who get into their own kinds of trouble and may also add to the absolute EPIC c*ckblocking that goes on for a good chunk of the book (don’t worry, Sid and Syke *absolutely* make up for it later!) See also the aforementioned swooniness and laughter…oh, and it’s hockey adjacent, so wins all around 🙂
Where It Begins is a must-read for fans of Ms Hunting’s Pucked series, and for those who are new to the series, prepare to increase your TBR by six books and a handful of bonus novellas…
Rating: 4 1/2 stars / A
Stud Finder by Lauren Blakely is a cute, flirty, and fun novella–a perfect little reading snack for when you’re too busy for something longer but have to get a quick book in. Its characters have connections to characters from other books, but it absolutely can be read as a standalone.
Dylan’s the perfect blend of sweet, slightly socially-awkward, but sexy geek, and Evie’s his made-for-him match, even though at first they don’t think they have much in common. It’s a lot of fun watching them figure it out along the way. There isn’t a lot of heavy drama and conflict–it is a novella–mostly miscommunication, which goes on just as long as it should to make the story both believable and satisfying.
Favorite bit of internal dialogue:
She looks like a naughty princess. Wait. She only looks naughty because I’m thinking of her naked. So that’s on me.LOL!
Rating: 4 stars / A-
Jonah Bennett by Tijan is a #1.5 in the Bennett Mafia series. Mafia romances aren’t my favorite, but Jonah’s not actually in the family business–he’s a doctor. He gets dragged into mafia drama, however, when a rival family has his fiancee killed in front of him. The heroine of the story is the forensic technician who is running tests(!?) on the fiancee’s corpse, and when Jonah walks in, Carson is immediately attracted to him.
Yep.
For both the hero and heroine, there’s a whole lot of instalove going on here–also not my favorite–and a bit of ickiness with the dead fiancee
It’s my first from this author and perhaps not the best one for me to start with…it does have a lot of tropes I’m not a fan of, so it absolutely could be a “me” thing here. It’s not enough to make me write the author off entirely, but it definitely doesn’t inspire me to add their entire backlist to my TBR right now either.
Rating: 2 stars / C-
Overall anthology rating: 4 stars / B+