Xpresso Reads

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

Cover Reveal: Saving Kimi by Brooke Stanton

Posted by Giselle • 4 Comments

Saving Kimi
Brooke Stanton
(Forbidden Romance, #4)
Publication date: October 13th 2020
Genres: Adult, Historical Romance, Western

In 1906 Oklahoma, nineteen-year-old Kimimela Wallace has always been an outsider in her small town. With a white father and Indian mother, she’s never been fully accepted into either world. Her childhood friend Chayton—Soaring Falcon—sees only the beauty in Kimi, whom he’s pined for his entire life. But an unexpected turn of events pulls Kimi away from Chayton and towards her new boss, widower Alex Randall. Then tragedy strikes, and Kimi must risk everything to save two very different men. But will giving her heart to one of them mean stripping away the one thing she values most—her freedom?

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Author Bio:

After her own misadventures in New York City, LA, and London, Brooke Stanton now lives in Dallas, Texas. She’s the bestselling and award winning author of the Bloom Sisters and Forbidden Romance series. Visit her website brookestantonbooks.com.

Get a FREE copy of the prequel, IGNITE, here: http://ilovemyfans.info/ignite-download/

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Not a Good Addition to the Series: Alone in the Wild by Kelley Armstrong

Posted by Rashika on 01/29/2020 • 4 Comments

I’ve been a longtime fan of Kelley Armstrong and in particular love her mysteries. While I didn’t pick up City of the Lost as soon as it came out, when I did, I was unsurprisingly sucked into this new world Armstrong had crafted. Since picking up book 1, I’ve consistently kept up with the series and eagerly anticipated every new installment. So, I was very very excited to dive into Alone in the Wild. There were a lot of exciting things that happened in the Watcher in the Woods and I was looking forward to seeing how Armstrong would deal with those threads. I ended up being pretty disappointed. It isn’t that Alone in the Wild is inherently a bad book on its own but its not a good installment in this…

A Mixed Bag: Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim

Posted by Rashika on 01/20/2020 • 1 Comment

Scavenge the Stars wasn’t entirely what I expected it to be. I think it is being marketed as a fantasy which it was decidedly not. I am not sure I can even pinpoint any fantastical elements? But I am making an educated guess here and assuming that the sequel will have a lot more of those elements.

Reading this book was fine. Just fine. I liked the story enough and kept flipping the pages but always felt like there was something missing that would draw me more to these characters and make me feel more invested in what was happening. It wasn’t until the last 20% of this book where I actually felt like I couldn’t stop reading, which is also why this book ended up being a three star read…

Light-Hearted and Thoughtful: The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai

Posted by Rashika on 12/18/2019 • 1 Comment

The Right Swipe was easily one of my most anticipated romances of the year and yet general existential issues meant I didn’t get around to it before it was released or even immediately after. Alisha Rai became an auto-read author for me after I fell head-over-heels for the Forbidden Hearts series. The Right Swipe is definitely a departure from the general vibe of those books and if you come into this expecting angst and drama and lots of emotions, you won’t get it. What this book is is a light-hearted, incredibly thoughtful rom com. It may seem like a 180 from what I am used to from Alisha Rai but it also seems very quintessentially her.

Rhiannon Hunter is at the top of her game. She revolutionized the dating world…

Romance Mini Reviews #5: Trio of Contemporary Goodness

Posted by Rashika on 12/10/2019 • 2 Comments

The Bromance Book Club Lyssa Kay Adams

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The first rule of this book club: You don’t talk about book club.

Nashville Legends second baseman Gavin Scott’s marriage is in major league trouble. He’s recently discovered a humiliating secret: his wife Thea has always faked the Big O. When he loses his cool at the revelation, it’s the final straw on their already strained relationship. Thea asks for a divorce, and Gavin realizes he’s let his pride and fear get the better of him.

Welcome to the Bromance Book Club.

Distraught and desperate, Gavin finds help from an unlikely source: a secret romance book club made up of Nashville’s top alpha men. With the help of their current read, a steamy Regency…

A Promising Spin Off: Sapphire Flames by Ilona Andrews

Posted by Rashika on 10/31/2019 • 2 Comments

While I was incredibly taken in by the world that Ilona Andrews had built with the Hidden Legacy series, I was still somewhat skeptical about how I’d take to having a new main character at the helm and especially a younger main character (Catalina is only 21!) As soon as I started reading though, all those doubts I had faded away and I instantly fell in love with these characters and the world again.

I thought I would spend most of the book missing Nevada and Rogan, and while I certainly missed them, Catalina brought something new to the table and I really enjoyed watching her journey unfold.

Three years have passed since Wildfire and Catalina is now head of house. The three protected years that Baylor house had are…

Pulls No Punches: Deadly Little Scandals by Jennifer Lynn Barnes

Posted by Rashika on 10/24/2019 • 1 Comment

HOLY FUCK THIS BOOK. Omg. What the fuck are words anyway??? This book does not pull any punches whatsoever. There are many many MANY twists and my head is still spinning from trying to figure out what I just read. Jennifer Lynn Barnes is known for her mysteries and her mysteries are why I keep coming back to her. Deadly Little Scandals, in my opinion, is unlike some of her previous stuff in terms of how major plot points unfold and the punches we are thrown. I cannot quite decide if this is a good thing or a bad but it is definitely a thing.

Little White Lies took me a while to get invested in but by the time I was 10% into Deadly Little Scandals, my eyes were…

An Adorable Rom-Com: Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren

Posted by Rashika on 10/09/2019 • 2 Comments

I am not entirely sure what I expected diving into The Unhoneymooners but I ended up absolutely loving it. Christina Lauren’s books are extremely hyped but I never felt a particular need to read them until I saw the synopsis for The Unhoneymooners. My general distrust of hype made me worry I’d end up not liking the book, especially because I had just DNF’d another hate-to-love romance. INSTEAD, I was cackling and swooning and generally having a great time.

Olive and Ami may be identical twins but are opposites in every other way. Ami is the lucky twin whereas Olive can never seem to catch a break. When, at Ami’s wedding, everyone but Olive (and the bridegroom’s brother, who she hates) gets extreme food poisoning from eating bad seafood, it…