Review: Fast & Reckless by Amanda Weaver

Race into a sexy New Adult romance, set in the fast-paced world of Formula One. These friends-to-lovers are about to fall . . . fast and reckless.

He’s the one man she can’t have . . .

FAST & RECKLESS by AMANDA WEAVER

Series: n/a

Publication date: September 10, 2024

Published by: Zando, Slowburn

Genre: contemporary romance

 

SYNOPSIS

Mira Wentworth knows Will Hawley is trouble. Even if he revs her engine, flirting with the handsome new driver on her father’s Formula One team is not in the cards. Mira has sworn off on-track romance after a mistake as a teen cost her everything. Now she has a chance to win back her spot in F1 as a team assistant, and she's not going to let one cheeky, bad boy driver get in her way.

She’s the one woman he wants . . .

After his party boy antics nearly blew up his racing career, Will is finally back in the driver’s seat and determined to get onto the podium. He likes to think he’s reformed, but with one look at the boss’ daughter, he’s willing to risk it all.

As the heat builds between Mira and Will, their chemistry deepens into something more. But when the ugly events of the past come to call, their fragile new relationship is put to the test. Can Mira and Will’s love cross the finish line?

Purchase your copy now!

Amazon |  B&N | Kobo

Praise for Fast and Reckless:

“Weaver delivers a smart, sexy romance perfectly paired with the high-octane world of Formula One. Whether you’re already a fan of the sport or just getting up to speed, Mira and Will’s story is not to be missed!” ―Grace Reilly, USA TODAY bestselling author of First Down

“Amanda Weaver burns up the pages in Fast & Reckless, a gripping, sexy story between F1’s bad boy driver and a straightlaced assistant trying to outrace her past. With an exciting peek into the world of Formula One racing and the angst of forbidden romance, I could not turn the pages fast enough!” ―Liana De la Rosa, author of Ana María and the Fox

“Fast & Reckless is a high-octane forbidden love story, playing out on the global stage of Formula One racing. The heartfelt romance is enhanced by the glittering locations and adrenaline-filled moments of speed and danger.” ―Adele Buck, author of Fake Flame

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Amanda has loved romance since she read that very first Kathleen E. Woodiwiss novel at fifteen. After a long detour into a career as a costume designer in theatre, she’s found her way back to romance, this time as a writer.

A native Floridian, Amanda transplanted to New York City many years ago and now considers Brooklyn home, along with her husband, daughter, two cats, and nowhere near enough space.

Follow her:

Website | Goodreads | X | Facebook | Instagram

REVIEW

Fast & Reckless: A Racing Hearts Novel by Amanda Weaver
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

   He could feel it happening, like something 

locking into place in his heart. He was 

falling for this girl like he’d fallen for 

racing: hard, fast, and irrevocably.

This book appealed to me because of the Formula one setting. I have read very, very few romances with this as a backdrop (only 3 come to mind!) so I was looking forward to something a little outside of my norm. This is also my first read by this author, so of course I had no idea whether or not I would connect with her writing style. I'm happy to report that I really enjoyed Amanda Weaver's writing-most especially her attention to detail in describing the racing world. You really get a behind the scenes look at not only some of what a driver experiences, but the support team including engineers, assistants, and principal. I don't watch racing, so it was great to learn a little bit more about this competitive field. You can really tell when an author takes the time to put in extensive research and it's glaringly obvious Amanda Weaver took that aspect very seriously. Kudos to her for bringing the characters and setting to life so brilliantly.

This book has a strong forbidden romance theme from both the male and female leads' side. Will is the new driver for Mira's father's team and he is determined to prove that his disastrous party boy ways are in his past. His reputation is still in tatters after he let fame get to his head and acted unprofessionally his first time as a driver.

   Will was the wild card, the hotheaded 

bad boy, the flashy angle they’d use 

to sell their stories.

He wants to redeem himself in the media and prove to his new boss that he made the right choice taking a chance on him. Getting involved with his boss' daughter is the last thing that would achieve that. On Mira's side, she has a lot to prove as well. She got involved with a driver from another team which caused a lot of damage to her father's team after a scandal broke out. Now both Mira and Will are looking for redemption-the absolute last thing they are looking for is an ill-advised attraction. I enjoyed this forbidden theme quite a bit, it added some tension and anticipation. There was also a sense of foreboding as they got closer to giving into their feelings because you know everything is going to blow up in their faces quite spectacularly. It's pretty much inevitable.

   Well, that extremely inconvenient blast of 

physical attraction was going straight into 

a trunk, padlocked, and dumped into the 

depths of the ocean, because there was 

no way. Not ever. He was one thousand 

percent off-limits for a million 

different reasons.

Mira and Will both have their own individual struggles causing internal conflicts. Mira feels a deep sense of shame over her past foolish involvement with a man who used her horribly and ruined her reputation. She was a rebellious teenager who made a stupid decision and that choice almost destroyed her father's team as well as her own chance at a career in Formula 1. The man from her past is still around, and never fails to taunt her with her personal demons. Will is struggling to prove to the media as well as his team that his head is 100% focused on winning. More than that, he wants to become a success to finally make his snobby parents proud. He was always a disappointment to them for not joining the family banking business, and their approval is never within reach. I do wish this conflict was explored as much as Mira's was, but that's nitpicking if I'm being honest.

Mira and her father's relationship is damaged, but slowly, gradually, they begin to work their way back to a stronger place. There is a definite lack of communication between the two that has led to some hurt feelings and misunderstandings over her past mistakes. Mira is upset that her father seemingly judges her bad decisions and that there is still distrust on his side that she can be responsible. He is not the most expressive, open person so there is a bit of a wall between them. Their fragile relationship added another layer to the forbidden romance between Will and Mira because she did not want her actions to ever negatively impact her father again.

I thoroughly enjoyed this one and would definitely read another by this author in the future. Even if you're not a fan of Formula 1, there is a lot to appreciate with this romance and I'm sure you will find the detailed racing world immersive. There were hints that one of the secondary characters named Violet will be getting her own story told next, and I'm fully on board for continuing on with the series with that installment.

FOLLOW SMOKIN HOT BOOK BLOG ON:

View all my reviews

Read More

Blog Tour With Excerpt: No One Does It Like You by Katie Shepard

College sweethearts reunite to restore more than just an old inn in this new romance by Katie Shepard, author of Sweeten the Deal

NO ONE DOES IT LIKE YOU by KATIE SHEPARD

Series: n/a

Publication date: September 3, 2024

Published by: Berkley

Genre: contemporary romance

 

SYNOPSIS

When’s the best time to tell your ex that you want them back?

Probably not in the middle of a Category 3 hurricane. But when Broadway actor Tom Wilczewski is about to dive into the floodwaters to rescue his co-lead, he calls the ex-wife he hasn’t seen in ten years to swear he still loves her and ask for a chance to make things right.

Two months later, Rose Kelly is tired of seeing pictures of her ex-husband Tom rescuing Hollywood darling Boyd Kellagher. Not that she’s jealous. Of course not. She’s far too busy taking care of her elderly aunt and worrying about the storm damage to the family B&B on Martha’s Vineyard to miss the love of her life. But after belatedly hearing Tom’s voicemail, Rosie asks him to follow through on his promises for once by helping her fix the inn. Thinking this is the perfect way to win her back, Tom agrees.

When they get there, things are…less than ideal. Rosie expected the inn to be in better shape. She expected it to have more beds. And she expected more help from her actual family—not from Tom and the rest of his Broadway cast. But Rosie begins to wonder if maybe the life she expected isn’t the one she really wants. If she and Tom can repair the inn together, can they possibly repair the damage to the relationship they both thought was long gone?

Purchase your copy now!

Amazon |  B&N | Apple | Google Play

EXCERPT

Rose clenched her jaw when she saw the article her aunt was reading.



"That newspaper is three months old," Rose informed her aunt.



  "Oh? Well, like you said, I have short-term memory loss. It'll be new to me," her aunt said with purposeful sweetness.



   Rose recognized the picture on the page because she couldn't mentally erase the image of her ex-husband's distinctive Greek-god nose smooshed up against the equally distinctive profile of Boyd fucking Kellagher.



   As if she needed something else to deal with! This was the year Tom had to make the national news with his tongue in someone else's mouth!



   If the Times article was to be believed, Rose had at least another year of news ahead of her about Tom smooshing faces with Boyd Kellagher onstage. And, hell, probably offstage too, based on the equally pervasive image of Tom dragging the movie star out of the floodwaters, the other man clinging to Tom's neck like a giant, chiseled damsel in distress. Rose did not want to see it again. Those photos gave her the same uncomfortable feelings as real estate listings for homes she could never afford or other people's holiday cards, pictures that made her quickly turn the page or close the card.



   It wasn't that she begrudged Tom his first big Broadway role in ten years. Or kissing Boyd Kellagher. Or even Boyd Kellagher kissing Tom. She was unsurprised he had a gorgeous boyfriend now. But if Tom was going to get everything he ever wanted-love, fame, professional success-could Rose not get just one thing? If not Tom, if not a family of her own, why could she not at least get a couple of happy weeks of vacation every year spent preparing extravagant meals and group photo shoots in matching sweaters? It didn't seem like too much to ask for.



   "I've seen it already," Rose said, trying not to sound as stressed as she felt.



   "So handsome," Max cooed, and she could have been referring to either Tom or Boyd. "I always liked him."



   "No, you didn't," Rose retorted, snapping at the bait before she could stop herself. This was revisionist history. "None of you did. You told me not to marry him."



   "Telling you not to marry him is different from liking him. I thought he was a nice boy. You should have waited for him to grow up."



   Tom's age had nothing to do with it. "We just ended up wanting different things." That was her standard line on their divorce, one that assigned no blame while obscuring the painful truth that Rose, specifically, had not been one of the things Tom wanted.



   "And you didn't even send us a wedding present," Rose said, certain that would get her aunt off the subject.



   Max raised her eyebrows, unimpressed. "I'm sorry, but we all assumed you were in a family way and too embarrassed to admit it before the wedding. I was going to get all your nursery furniture."

       Rose stiffened her shoulders in familiar hurt because she'd known what her family thought, but nobody had ever given her the chance to set them straight. 

   She hadn't married Tom because she was pregnant, then or ever, or for tax reasons, or to get him on her health insurance, or for any of the other reasons people had speculated about their marriage at twenty-two.

She'd married him because he'd asked her and because she'd loved him-she'd been utterly, stupidly in love with him-and she'd thought it would last forever. Which had made their breakup only a year later much more embarrassing than an unexpected baby would have been.



   But that was a long time ago now. What was really embarrassing was that she was still having feelings about it at all, which she decided she would stop doing at once.



   "Well, I wasn't. Obviously. And I'm happy he's finding success. He's a very talented actor, so I'm not surprised he's working with people like Boyd Kellagher," Rose said, getting herself in hand and saying the things the kind of person she wanted to be would say.



   "Are you going to see his new play?" her aunt asked.



   "It looks like I'm going to be busy over the next few months," Rose said dourly, checking the time again. Her family's tardiness did not bode well for their contributions to fixing up the inn.



Excerpted from No One Does It Like You by Katie Shepard Copyright © 2024 by Katie Shepard. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

Praise for No One Does It Like You:

"Shepard’s authentic, imperfect characters lend credibility to the possibility of second chances. Readers will cheer for Rose and Tom to find their way back to each other."—Publishers Weekly

"Shepard's No One Does It Like You is a gorgeous, heartwarming look at love and second chances, and an unforgettable story about family (both the ones we're born into and the kinds we make for ourselves). It's full of both laugh-out-loud moments and scenes that made me cry, with the sort of prose you want to savor forever. I loved every second and can't wait for whatever Shepard writes next!"—Jenna Levine, USA Today bestselling author of My Roommate Is a Vampire

"The coziness of small town meets the yearning of second chance in No One Does It Like You. Shepard brilliantly stirs together the comedy of fandom personalities and the creativity of an HGTV show into a swoony love story full of lovable characters."—Julie Soto, USA Today bestselling author of Forget Me Not

"No One Does It Like You is pure brilliance: equal parts tender and sharply funny, and layered with a constant subtle wit that kept me hooked from the first page to the last. Second chance is my favorite trope, and Katie Shepard delivers it on a PLATTER with Tom and Rose's story. I gobbled up every word with my heart in my throat."—Jessica Joyce, author of You, With a View

"No One Does It Like You is a beautiful second chance romance from an author who writes with wit and profound emotional depth. Katie Shepard has a knack for making me laugh on one page and tear up the next, and I absolutely adored reading about divorced college sweethearts Rosie and Tom as they renovated an inn, wrangled a bizarre yet earnest Hollywood heartthrob and his erotic-art-drawing fangirls, and slowly rekindled their relationship. Shepard's characters are nuanced and lovable, and it was a delight to see these two rediscover how well they fit together. A powerful and sweet love story, sprinkled with hilarious jokes and winks at fandom culture."—Sarah Hawley, author of A Werewolf's Guide to Seducing a Vampire

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Photo credit: Katie Shepard

I write love stories. I write about people whose jagged edges happen to match up with someone else’s. I write love stories because I wanted to make happy endings for people who are afraid they won’t get them. 

I studied Soviet history and worked in human rights law before burning way, way out and achieving professional tranquility as a simple country bankruptcy lawyer. It’s just as exciting as it sounds!

I live in Texas with my husband, kids, and elderly rescue cat, but am often found hiking in the mountains of Montana or the virtual woods of Thedas.  

Follow her:

Goodreads | Website | X |  Instagram

Read More

Review: Viscount in Love by Eloisa James

Two eccentric orphans bring together a grumpy viscount and the free-spirited heroine who steals his heart in the first novel in Eloisa James’s new Accidental Brides series, in which haughty aristocrats find themselves married to the wrong women. 

VISCOUNT IN LOVE by ELOISA JAMES

Series: Accidental Brides #1

Publication date: July 23, 2024

Published by: Avon  

Genre: historical romance

 

SYNOPSIS

He wants a nanny, not a bride…

Suddenly guardian to twins, Viscount Dominic Kelbourne is luckily betrothed to a suitable lady—until she elopes. With no time to woo, Dominic decides to marry his fiancée’s unconventional sister. Torie isn’t perfect, but their kisses are so passionate that society thinks he’s actually chosen her.

She wants to marry for love…

Torie has never been able to make sense of words on a page, so she has turned her talents to art. She longs for a man who values her as she is… but marries for the sake of the twins. She doubts Dominic is capable of love, let alone respect, but as their heated debates turn into something more, Torie begins to imagine a life as a wife, not a nanny. 

But when the arrogant viscount finds that his viscountess has stolen his heart, he’ll have to give all he has to win her love.

Purchase your copy now!

Amazon |  B&N | Apple

Praise for Eloisa James:

“Eloisa James writes with a captivating blend of charm, style, and grace that never fails to leave the reader sighing and smiling and falling in love. Her style is exquisite, her prose pure magic. Nothing gets me to a bookstore faster than a new novel by Eloisa James.” — Julia Quinn

“Bestseller James’s fun third Would-Be Wallflowers historical romance (after The Reluctant Countess) sets itself apart in the depth of its interpersonal complexities. Lovers of historical romance will delight in these well-rounded, flawed characters learning to live their best lives.” — Publishers Weekly on Not That Duke

“The third smartly sexy and sharply witty addition to James’ Would Be Wallflowers series offers everything fans could hope for and expect from this romance genre luminary.” — Booklist on Not That Duke

“This enemies-to-friends-to-lovers romance uses humor to show how a match that looks perfect on paper may be no match at all when it comes to chemistry… a compelling and delightful read. Enjoy this light and humorous historical romance.” — Library Journal on Not that Duke

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

New York Times bestselling author Eloisa James writes historical romances for HarperCollins Publishers. Her novels have been published to great acclaim. A reviewer from USA Today wrote of Eloisa's very first book that she "found herself devouring the book like a dieter with a Hershey bar"; later People Magazine raved that "romance writing does not get much better than this." Her novels have repeatedly received starred reviews from Publishers' Weekly and Library Journal and regularly appear on the best-seller lists.

After graduating from Harvard University, Eloisa got an M.Phil. from Oxford University, a Ph.D. from Yale and eventually became a Shakespeare professor, publishing an academic book with Oxford University Press. Currently she is an associate professor and head of the Creative Writing program at Fordham University in New York City. Her "double life" is a source of fascination to the media and her readers. In her professorial guise, she's written a New York Times op-ed defending romance, as well as articles published everywhere from women's magazines such as More to writers' journals such as the Romance Writers' Report.

Eloisa...on her double life: 

When I'm not writing novels, I'm a Shakespeare professor. It's rather like having two lives. The other day I bought a delicious pink suit to tape a television segment on romance; I'll never wear that suit to teach in, nor even to give a paper at the Shakespeare Association of America conference. It's like being Superman, with power suits for both lives. Yet the literature professor in me certainly plays into my romances. The Taming of the Duke (April 2006) has obvious Shakespearean resonances, as do many of my novels. I often weave early modern poetry into my work; the same novel might contain bits of Catullus, Shakespeare and anonymous bawdy ballads from the 16th century.

When I rip off my power suit, whether it's academic or romantic, underneath is the rather tired, chocolate-stained sweatshirt of a mom. Just as I use Shakespeare in my romances, I almost always employ my experiences as a mother. When I wrote about a miscarriage in Midnight Pleasures, I used my own fears of premature birth; when the little girl in Fool For Love threw up and threw up, I described my own daughter, who had that unsavory habit for well over her first year of life.

So I'm a writer, a professor, a mother - and a wife. My husband Alessandro is Italian, born in Florence. We spend the lazy summer months with his mother and sister in Italy. It always strikes me as a huge irony that as a romance writer I find myself married to a knight, a cavaliere, as you say in Italian.

One more thing...I'm a friend. I have girlfriends who are writers and girlfriends who are Shakespeare professors. And I have girlfriends who are romance readers. In fact, we have something of a community going on my website. Please stop by and join the conversation on my readers' pages.

Follow her:

Website | Goodreads | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram

REVIEW

Viscount in Love by Eloisa James
My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I have quite a few Eloisa James books under my belt at this point, some have been enthusiastic five star reads, some have been just middle of the road. Despite not knowing which way things will fall each time I pick up a new book by this author, I keep coming back for more. Typically she pays meticulous attention to historical detail. Her cast of characters in each series are ones that I'm eager to revisit to watch find their personal HEAs. The dialogue is witty, and the backstories typically well fleshed out.

Unfortunately a lot of the things I usually love were missing in this new release and I felt the absence of that magic to the point that I almost DNFd. With the exception of Torie's best friend and Dom's 11 year-old wards, every single character is infuriating and unbearable. The romance was frustratingly inconsistent, lacked any true chemistry, build, or anticipation. As well, the reader is left in the dark about the hero's internal conflict until late in the book leading you to almost despise him at points due to not understanding what drives his thoughts and intentions. The heroine is similarly not fully shown to her full potential until the end and I don't understand why this was done.

I read this title because I was intrigued with the heroine's learning disability and how it would affect her life in the 19th century. Torie has dyslexia in the year 1800 and I was excited to read this fresh plot point going in. It's obvious that a woman would face prejudice about the inability to read as part of the upper class. That is certainly a realistic representation, but the verbal abuse was constant from everyone around Tory in almost every conversation. Little jabs about her being "addled" with pitying looks and disparaging comments about her worth. At one point her father compared her to livestock. It felt very overdone to have the prejudice that constant and extreme when she is clearly a well-spoken woman perfectly capable of carrying on a well-informed conversation. She has a strong vocabulary, an eidetic memory, and she's a gifted painter. She just learns through experience or verbally rather than textually. Yet she's treated as if she's a babbling loony without a thought in her head at all times. It could have been shown without beating us over the head with it.

  Why shouldn’t a lady be frivolous? Why should 

a woman read or write? It’s like asking a pig to 

sing opera.” Torie didn’t flinch. It wasn’t as if 

she hadn’t been compared to livestock before.

She is so used to the verbal abuse from everyone around her that she lets it roll right off her back and ignores it. Her sister and father make these humiliating comments in front of other people and she never gets angry or upset. That's just the tip of the iceburg of what her father does to her. 

Dominic's character was so incoherent. In the beginning of the book he is portrayed as a very serious sort with no sense of humor to speak of. He's described as intimidating to others due to his temper in the House of Lords, but we aren't really shown that-it's more that he's stern and emotionless. When he's engaged to Leonora, he has no passion or affection for her. He simply chose her based on her perceived intelligence and refinement. He goes from very little personality or emotion at all to flirting with sexual innuendos once he's jilted and sets his sights on Torie. How does he go from one extreme to the other literally overnight? He goes from seeing Torie as silly and shallow with a lack of intelligence (and ZERO sexual attraction after three years) to lusting over her and getting offended at people's rude comments towards her in one day. I found his outrage so hypocritical due to his own insulting internal dialogue about her.

   It had taken him several months to find a lady 

who could be a true partner and offer an intelligent 

assessment of current events. Most ladies fell into 

Torie’s camp. Granted, she kept the nursery 

laughing with her wry observations about 

Odysseus’s adventures, but that wasn’t 

the same as sharing lucid analysis.

  Torie was charming, fresh, and 

funny. Useless, perhaps, but enchanting.

True, he had hoped to marry a woman who 

would challenge him intellectually, 

but he could reconcile himself.

These are the thoughts of someone with honor? He jumps from cold to flirty and back again without the reader having a deeper understanding of why. On top of that, he had fully intended to keep his mistress when he was engaged to Leonora and was outraged when confronted by Torie about it days before their wedding. He literally got angry when she demanded that he be monogamous because he doesn't like being told what to do. I wanted to drop kick him so hard I almost rage quit. It isn't until MUCH later that he finally explains himself over this and a certain humiliating situation that occurred two days before they married. Even though it did ease my anger some, he still acted clueless and insensitive towards his wife. When an 11 year-old child is more insightful and intuitive about your wife than you...you have a problem. He doesn't start to genuinely see his wife for the brilliant, talented woman she is until after 80% in the book. *sigh*

The sexual scenes didn't work for me because we are led to believe they have instant chemistry overnight after completely platonic interactions and thoughts for three years. It just comes over them like an epiphany that she is a "buxom" beautiful woman, and he is her preferred buff, bulky, muscular body type. It was like flicking a switch with them. The dirty talk and spice comes off as very artificial when they consummate their marriage one day after the wedding. Not to mention, Torie is supposed to be a virgin whose only knowledge of sex is having seen rabbits copulate and yet she jumps on him with no timidness or lack of skill. She does things that she wouldn't even know existed in bed. We are just told that she may be incapable of the written word, but when it comes to this, she's a "natural." It doesn't work that way! It made everything so unrealistic and unbelievable. 

This book was a little under 400 pages and it was really noticeable. The page really dragged, especially in the middle of the book. I kept checking the percentage constantly only to see that barely any progress had been made. I think the lack of connection to the couple and the two MCs separately made a big contribution to that. Their communication issues over important matters and very little time spent understanding each other outside of bed caused their relationship to feel very superficial to me. Dominic did redeem himself late in the book a little bit, but overall the characters were just messy and unsatisfying. Unfortunately, this one was a miss, but I have faith that others in this new series may win me over.

FOLLOW SMOKIN HOT BOOK BLOG ON:

View all my reviews

Read More

Blog Tour with Excerpt: The Backtrack by Erin La Rosa

Life, rewound…

THE BACKTRACK by ERIN LA ROSA

Series: n/a

Publication date: July 16, 2024

Published by: Harper Collins

Genre: romance, magical realism, time travel

 

SYNOPSIS

From the author of FOR BUTTER OR WORSE and PLOT TWIST comes a new speculative contemporary romance. One woman is sucked into the past—and shown glimpses of what her life could have been—as she listens to nostalgic hits on her old CD player. For fans of Rebecca Serle and Allison Winn Scotch.

When pilot Sam Leto jet-setted out of small town Georgia, she promised she’d never be back—even though it meant leaving behind her best friend, Damon Rocha. Now on a forced vacation home to pack up her childhood house (and help her injured grandmother), Sam is unexpectedly hit with nostalgia from her teens--especially her bedroom, perfectly preserved from the time she left all those years ago. Sam discovers an old CD player among her teenage possessions, and in listening to the burned disc inside, she receives flashbacks from her past life--senior prom, graduation, leaving home. But the memories aren't as she remembers them. They show an alternate past. What could have been. If she never left Georgia all those years ago, would she now have the life (and love) she always wanted for herself?

Purchase your copy now!

Amazon |  B&N | Kobo | Bookshop.org

Ripped Bodice

EXCERPT

Prologue

   At fifteen years old, Sam Leto knew a few things: humidity was not her hair’s friend, she was going to graduate valedictorian of her class and music was life. 

   “‘I Will Follow You into the Dark’ was by far the best song of last year.” Sam tucked her thumbs into the loops of her jeans, narrowly avoiding the spiky knobs of her metal studded belt. The spider-web chain she’d bought from Hot Topic slapped against her thigh as she walked across the asphalt of the Tybee Island High School parking lot.     “It’s mesmerizing and so poetic, and Ben Gibbard—” 

   “What are you talking about?” her best friend, Damon Rocha, interrupted. He threw his head back to get a strand of long dyedred hair off his forehead. He’d smudged dark black eyeliner all around his eyes to the point where he looked like he was cosplaying as the Hamburglar. She’d told him as much, but in the loving way they told each other everything. They walked so closely that they lazily bumped into each other, as if swaying to music only they could hear. “‘Sugar, We’re Goin Down’ reignited the genre.” 

   Sam blew air out through her lips to suggest her disagreement, then added, “That song is tight, but there are way too many words in the chorus. You can’t even hear what Patrick Stump’s saying.”

   “It doesn’t matter what he’s saying.” Damon hoisted his snare drum backpack higher on his shoulder. Night had settled, but the fluorescent glow from the football field lit their way to his car. “They owned that melody.” 

   But Sam knew why Damon was making such a hard push for Fall Out Boy. “You just want me to like Pete Wentz so those dyed red tips make sense.” She gave him a half grin. 

   “Whatever,” he said, holding back a smile of his own. Sometimes they agreed on music, but when they disagreed it was even more fun. And Sam knew she was right about this one. “I read in Kerrang! that Ben wrote the song in fifteen minutes. Can you believe that?” Sam looked off, knowing that if she was in a band, she’d be talented like that, too. 

   “Yes,” Damon said. “I believe it only took fifteen minutes, because it’s not the best song of 2005.” 

   She was choosing to ignore that dig. “What he wrote is totally romantic. To love someone so much that you’d follow them into the afterlife. It’s cool, don’t you think?” Sam realized she sounded a little ridiculous, but Damon always made her feel safe enough to say anything. 

   “Yeah, or pretentious.” Damon pursed his lips. 

   “Whatever,” Sam mimicked his sullen tone back. Then she jabbed him with the corner of her sticker-covered clarinet case. 

The sky was inky-black, and her arms prickled against the brisk air. Fall in Tybee was hard to plan for. The air was almost always balmy, because they were so close to the ocean, but it occasionally cooled down, as it had tonight. Still, she’d nearly sweat through her graphic skull T-shirt as their marching band played Beyoncé’s “Déjà Vu” during the football halftime show. 

   Now, though, they weren’t marching across a field lit by hot lights, and she shivered. Damon pulled her in close as they walked. He’d often tuck her under his arm this way. Sam was tall, close to six feet, but Damon always made her feel delicate in those moments. It was something she got unexpected comfort from, but didn’t dare tell him.

When she looked up, Damon looked down with the most genuinely sweet smile she’d ever seen. His mouth quirked up as they reached someone’s Ford Explorer. 

   “Hope you don’t hate Fall Out Boy too much, because I put one of their songs on this.” He pulled a CD sleeve out of his back pocket and handed it to her. His slanted writing and doodles were visible through the clear plastic, and Sam bit her lip. 

   They were constantly trying to impress each other through music—a kind of unspoken game of who could make the best mixes. And while Sam prided herself on finding obscure bands, Damon had the uncanny ability to put together songs that made her feel something. She wanted to listen immediately, but wouldn’t show her excitement that easily. Before she could think of something nonchalant to say, he brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. 

   Sam was taken aback by the gesture and nervously touched the spot his fingers had just left. She’d spent nearly a half hour flat-ironing it that morning, but now it was frizzed and tangled. As her fingers clumsily tried to untangle a knot, her earring fell to the ground. Before she knew what was happening, just as Sam went to reach for her earring, Damon closed the gap between them. 

   “You look really great.” He longingly admired her face. Damon reached for Sam’s hand and squeezed her open palm. 

She instinctively squeezed back, but her heart raced. Damon and Sam were best friends. They had been since middle school. Yes, Damon was inarguably cute. He understood her like no one else did, and she had already admitted to herself that she had a crush on him…but he was also all she had, in so many ways. Her mom had left her a year ago. Damon was her only friend.

   Sam knew that what he was doing might lead to a kiss, and she needed to stop him before he said something that would change them forever. She couldn’t lose his friendship, but if he tried to make them more, then she’d have no choice. Because she wasn’t going to end up stuck in Tybee. 

   Before she could find the words, he tilted her chin up gently with an index finger. His eyes locked on to hers as he asked, “Can I kiss you?” 

Sam sucked in a deep breath to slow the intense rush of adrenaline that flew through her at his words. Damon wanted to kiss her. And her heart soared at that fact, until her mom’s voice broke through. 

Don’t end up stuck in this place. 

   That’s what her mom, Bonnie, had told Sam right before she’d left.       And Sam had taken the warning to heart. 

   She was getting out, even if that meant she had to leave Damon behind. 

   As Damon searched her eyes, Sam silently implored him to stop. They could still be friends, couldn’t they? If she gave him another few moments, maybe he’d take the words back, or say he’d just been joking. 

   She waited, but he was waiting, too. And she was going to have to answer him, even if what she said irrevocably changed them. 

She took a step away and looked down at her Converse sneakers. She’d have to lie. She’d never lied to Damon before, but now she would. Her lower lip trembled, as unsure of the words as she was.           “Actually, I’m not feeling well.” 

   And she didn’t feel well. She felt nauseous from this whole situation and the confusion that flashed across Damon’s face. 

   “Oh,” Damon said. “Let’s, uh, let’s bounce, then.” He ran a hand through his hair and avoided her eyes. 

   As Damon turned toward the driver’s side of the car, Sam instinctively reached for him. Maybe she should just do what her heart wanted and kiss him. Because what if not kissing him meant he wouldn’t want to be her friend anymore? 

   But then, she also knew Damon. Knew that he wanted to stay close to his family. Knew how much he loved Tybee. And knew that if she didn’t break him now, she’d do it when she left. 

   Sam pulled her hand back and hoped that he could forgive her. She held on to his CD so tightly she was sure it would snap in half, but it didn’t. In fact, the CD seemed to pulse in her hand with the throbbing of her heart. As she walked herself to the passenger side of the car, she tried to forget how the light in his eyes dimmed just before he’d turned away from her.

Excerpted from The Backtrack by Erin La Rosa, Copyright © 2024 by Erin La Rosa. Published by Canary Street Press.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

ERIN LA ROSA is the author of For Butter or Worse and Plot Twist, and on her way to writing romance, she’s also published two humorous nonfiction books, Womanskills and The Big Redhead Book. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and four daughters (two humans, two felines). Find her on Twitter and Instagram @erinlarosalit and on TikTok @erinlarosawrites.

Follow her:

Goodreads | Website | X | Facebook | TikTok | Instagram

Read More

Review: A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston

A professor of literature finds herself caught up in a work of fiction… literally.

A NOVEL LOVE STORY by ASHLEY POSTON

Series: n/a

Publication date: June 25, 2024

Published by: Berkley 

Genre: contemporary romance, magical realism

 

SYNOPSIS

Eileen Merriweather loves to get lost in a good happily-ever-after. The fictional kind, anyway. Because at least imaginary men don’t leave you at the altar. She feels safe in a book. At home. Which might be why she’s so set on going to her annual book club retreat this year—she needs good friends, cheap wine, and grand romantic gestures—no matter what.

But when her car unexpectedly breaks down on the way, she finds herself stranded in a quaint town that feels like it’s right out of a novel…

Because it is.

This place can’t be real, and yet… she’s here, in Eloraton, the town of her favorite romance series, where the candy store’s honey taffy is always sweet, the local bar’s burgers are always a little burnt, and rain always comes in the afternoon. It feels like home. It’s perfect—and perfectly frozen, trapped in the late author’s last unfinished story.

Elsy is sure that’s why she must be here: to help bring the town to its storybook ending.

Except there is a character in Eloraton that she can’t place—a grumpy bookstore owner with mint-green eyes, an irritatingly sexy mouth and impeccable taste in novels. And he does not want her finishing this book.

Which is a problem because Elsy is beginning to think the town’s happily-ever-after might just be intertwined with her own.

Purchase your copy now!

Amazon |  B&N | Apple

Praise for A Novel Love Story:

"“A romance lovers dream of a book. Whimsical, romantic and packed with charm, Ashley Poston is the queen of high concept love stories.” 

—Sophie Cousens, New York Times bestselling author of The Good Part

“Ashley Poston has done it again. I fell into these pages just as effortlessly as Eileen tumbles into Eloraton. Whimsical, emotional, and tender, A Novel Love Story is another enchanting romance from Poston."

—B.K. Borison, author of Business Casual

“This slow-burn love story from Poston is as much an ode to romance novels and friendship as it is about romantic relationships. Fans of small-town contemporary romance will sink easily into quaint Eloraton.”

—Library Journal

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ashley Poston is the New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of The Dead Romantics. 

After graduating from the University of South Carolina with a bachelor’s in English, she spent the last decade working in the publishing industry before deciding to pursue writing full-time.

When not writing, she likes trying various arts and crafts (she’s currently addicted to building miniature rooms) and taking long walks as an excuse to listen to Dungeons & Dragons podcasts. She bides her time between South Carolina and New York, and all the bookstores between.

Website | Goodreads | Instagram | Twitter

REVIEW

A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

When I read the synopsis for this novel, I couldn’t wait to read it. It’s a gloriously original plot which is hard to come by nowadays. More importantly, it’s every book lover’s fantasy with a bibliophile heroine we can all see a little bit of ourselves in. What’s not to love? But let’s be real, I absolutely adored Ashley Poston’s The Seven Year Slip, so I would have read the follow-up with zero hesitation regardless of the synopsis. Once again, Poston weaves magical realism into this love story that takes place in the fictional town of Eloraton that has come to life right out of a romance novel series.

This reader had many questions along the way: how did Elsy transport herself into this place that only should have existed in the pages of her favorite book series? Why is Anders there if he wasn’t in any of the books? How does he seem to know more that the townspeople do about the curious things going on, and how is any of this happening? These things, among others, were running through my mind while reading but it wasn’t an urgent mystery that needed to be solved. My main focus was on the charm of the small town characters and Elsy’s budding interest in a certain grumpy bookstore owner. One of the things I loved was that we get to jump right into the quirky town of Eloraton almost immediately without having to wade through intro chapters of heavy character background first. The action begins simultaneously with the character development making it very easy to get settled in.

  My story wasn’t that interesting, anyway. 

A three-star read at best. I could imagine 

the trade reviews—Though she tackles the 

mundane of her life with aplomb, nothing 

happens to Eileen Merriweather. Angst-ridden 

backstory told in deeply regrettable prose. 

An utterly skippable read.

Elsy has just gone through a pretty heartbreaking and brutal two years after a nasty breakup. She’s been feeling stuck, depressed, and unable to move on after being blindsided by the man she thought she’d be spending the rest of her life with. Now that he has officially found his happily ever after with someone else, she’s been clinging to hope that the retreat with her best friend and their book club will help bring her a little happiness. After all, the book club dedicated to all things Eloraton and the love of reading is her true happy place. As a teacher of English 101, she gets to work in a classic literature related career, but romance novels are where her true passion lies.

When everyone backs out the trip, she ventures off on her own to the cabin where they had planned to meet-only somewhere along the way, her GPS blanks out and she somehow enters a town that seems oddly familiar. Everything, that is, except Anders, the man she almost ran over on the way into town.

That didn’t exactly start them out on the right foot, and her upbeat personality didn’t exactly mesh well with his prickly attitude. She never let him get to her though, I don’t see how anything could when she was reveling in meeting all of the fictional places and characters that she knew so well. It was fun imagining myself in her shoes as she swept through town giddily taking in every familiar detail. She was surrounded by some mysterious magic that for a little while helped her to forget her problems. Unfortunately, she soon started to see that all of the couples’ HEAs weren’t as perfect as they appeared to be in the books, and some were suspended in time-frozen. All of her efforts to solve everyone’s problems only seemed to make matters worse as she waited for her car to be repaired so she could leave town and back to real life. But the closer she grew to Anders as they got to know one another, the less she wanted to leave. Could she stay here in her ultimate happy place, or start on a new path that led her to being the main character in her own story in the real world?

  She was the main character, and I was along 

for the ride to bask in her glow. Her heart 

never led her wrong—not once. I 

wished I could say the same about my own.

I enjoyed the premise of the book very much, and it wasn’t without its charm, but I just didn’t feel the chemistry with Elsy and Anders that I should have. Anders is left quite mysterious (for a reason) and I didn’t quite understand who he was or his motivations because of that. When his history was finally explained later on, at that point an emotional disconnect had already set in for me because it took so long to understand him. Even though they were very sweet together in the end, there was something missing for me. When it came to Elsy’s self-exploration that was addressed well, and I think her character in general was wonderfully three-dimensional. Overall, it was a good read, though it did fall a little below my very high expectations. I think many would still love this one for its unique storyline, and I’m excited to see what this author has in store for us next.

FOLLOW SMOKIN HOT BOOK BLOG ON: 

View all my reviews

Read More