---

Title: Beautiful Addictions

Author: Season Vining

Page count: 282

Published: April 25th, 2024

Publisher: Literally Yours PR

Genre: Romance Comedy

Received: From the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Rating: 3/5

Josie Banks is a girl without a past. After being found unconscious with no memory, she was shuffled in and out of foster homes until the age of eighteen. An experience that left her broken, damaged, and clinging to drugs and meaningless hook-ups to numb her pain.

Tristan Fallbrook is haunted by a dark past of his own. Tristan lost his first love when Josie disappeared years ago. Now a twist of fate has brought them back together, and he never wants to let her out of his inked arms again. But reentering her life puts them both in grave danger.

The two find themselves unable to escape the gravity pulling them together. But now that they’re on the run from ruthless criminals, it’ll take much more than love to save them.

This is the second book that I have read by this author. Josie has quite a few demons and has chosen a life of sex, art, drugs and alcohol basically anything that will take away the pain of the past. Tristan has suffered his own heartaches and has a past that he wants to forget. One of the things that I loved about this was that it felt real with everything together. Well, getting to know Josie and Tristan you see the push and pull they have almost like a cat with its favourite toy kicking with their back legs. While getting to know one another again Tristin is determined to have Josie slip through his fingers again. This was a quite enjoyable read for me but I just didn’t connect as much as I would have liked.

---

Title: Hearty

Author: Carrie Aarons

Page count: 270

Published: April 26th, 2024

Publisher: Greys Promo

Genre: Romance

Received: From the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Rating: 5/5

They say you can always go home again, but for August Percy, that didn’t apply even when she had to live there until her eighteenth birthday.

After saying goodbye to a toxic childhood, she never planned to look in the rearview. Until the death of the woman who caused all her trauma forces her back to Hope Crest.

With a mountain of debt and an uncertain future, August at least has a soft place to land when her former employer and surrogate big brother offers her a house that isn’t chock full of nightmares from the past. What she never bargained for, though? The boy-turned-man she’s always crushed hard on from afar accidentally becoming her roommate.

Evan Ashton is the prodigal son who finally came home … even if he didn’t necessarily want to. As the new head chef of his family’s fourth-generation restaurant, he’s trying to build his own legacy in a line full of stubborn men. So when he ends up under the same roof as the closed-off woman the rest of his siblings seem to know so well, Evan attempts to shut down any curiosity since he can’t afford more complications in his life.

Except conversations over late night snacks, having her unexpectedly working in his kitchen, and inevitably bumping into her at every family celebration they’re both invited to only seems to bring him closer to August … until all of that tension bubbles over.

Then danger begins to close in, and it’s not even a thought of putting himself between her and the threat. But secrets beyond either of their control, and opportunities far from Hope Crest, begin to cause cracks.

And when both of them question whether their intense connection can last for longer than right now, it may just be their final undoing.

This might be my favourite book in the series. August and Evan have different lives growing up. August was able to get away from her mom and go to collage to start anew. She is needing to go back to town so that she can deal with her mom’s things, so going back was a little hard for her. Evan is the baby of the family and head chef of the family restaurant. He wants to add some changes to the restaurant, but his dad doesn’t want anything to change. August is looking for a place to stay and a former mentor Warren offers his wife Alana’s home for her to settle in and relax in, Alana is Evan’s sister so when he needs a place to go, he head’s to his sisters also to get away and relax. August and Evan are the cherry on top couple for me. They are extremely supportive, comforting and loving to one another. These two are one of my top couples, I’m going to miss them and this wonderful Ashton Family.

---

Title: I Thought of You

Author: Jewel E. Ann

Page count: 335

Published: May 2nd, 2024

Publisher: Valentine PR

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Received: From the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Rating: 5/5

I wanted to conquer the world.

She wanted to gaze at the stars.

It’s been twelve years since I last saw Scottie Rucker. A grim prognosis has upended my life, and no amount of my hard-earned money can fix it. So, after leaving a note on the nightstand, I search for my first love—I search for life.

When I find her in Austin, working at a quaint general store and living in an RV behind it, those twelve years vanish. She’s exactly how I remember her.

Scottie thinks our reunion is a small-world coincidence, and I’m not ready to tell her the truth. After we rekindle our friendship, she convinces me to work part-time at the store while she pursues her budding relationship with Koen, a welder and the grandson of a customer.

Scottie’s ability to live in the moment is exactly what I need. But how do I convince her new boyfriend that I’m not his competition? And what happens if my heart changes its mind?

Price leaves his life and his job in search of the girl that he had met and spent a crazy summer with. Scottie is someone that likes to live in the moment she’s an absolute delight to get to know. She has an incredible summer with Price, twelve years later when he shows up out of now where, she conflicted on how to feel. Price and Scottie have such a love that just transcends through time, it’s filled with raw emotion that will make you want to cuddle a pillow and cry then the next few pages I found my self laughing. This is one of my top 2024 reads.