COVER REVEAL -- Faking Ms. Right by Claire Kingsley

Title: Faking Ms. Right

Author: Claire Kingsley

Genre: Contemporary Rom/Com

Release Date: May 28, 2019 Cover Design: Kari March

“The covers moved, and I felt his weight slide onto the mattress. Oh my god, I was in bed with my boss.”

Everly Dalton is a walking, talking, martini-drinking dating disaster. Forget kissing frogs. She can’t even get past the first date. It’s enough to make even the perpetually optimistic Everly want to give up on love.

At work, however, she’s a badass—the longest-running assistant the intimidating billionaire Shepherd Calloway has ever had. Her coworkers wonder how she handles the big bad wolf—and never gets bit. 

When Shepherd comes to her with a completely inappropriate offer—pose as his live-in girlfriend for a few months—she agrees. Live in his palatial penthouse and go on fancy dates with her sexy as hell boss? Why not? She can totally survive a few months of faux romance.

Unfortunately, Everly’s terrible dating luck extends to her new fake relationship. Shepherd is supposed to be a single-minded, unemotional robot boss. Not an actual human being with a heart and morning wood. Between the awkward bed-sharing and tingly fake dates, lines are blurring. And as she gets to know the real Shepherd, she discovers there’s more to the man behind the bank account.

So much more. 

Their relationship is fake—every touch and heated glance just for show. Everly is not going to fall for her boss. There’s too much at stake.

Until faking it gets all too real.

Heat, Heart, & Happily Ever After

Claire Kingsley writes sexy contemporary romance and romantic comedies. She loves sassy, quirky heroines, swoony heroes who love their women hard, panty-melting sexytimes, romantic happily ever afters, and lots of big feels.

She can’t imagine life without coffee, her Kindle, and the sexy heroes who inhabit her imagination. She’s living out her own happily ever after in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and three kids.

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Review of Gaining Miles: A Miles Family Novella (The Miles Family Book 5) By Claire Kingsley

Gaining Miles: A Miles Family Novella (The Miles Family Book 5) 

By Claire Kingsley

Release Date 4/5/2019

Purchase or read for free with Kindle Unlimited here.

Bookish Stacy Rating *****

Oh my goodness! What can I say about this book besides it was everything?
From the moment we met Ben and Shannon in Broken Miles, I just knew these two would be absolute perfection together. I've thoroughly enjoyed watching them interact and inch closer together in the previous books of this series. Watching it all culminate in this final Miles family book was just a joy, and Claire Kingsley went far above my expectations with their story.

Ben is the groundskeeper who has worked for the Miles family at their vineyard for 26 years and has probably been in love with Shannon for almost that long. He is just the swooniest! He spent more time parenting the children than their own father did. I mean, the man waited for decades, never knowing if or when he would get what he really wanted. He was just content to stay in the background and love on this family, that he considered his own, with everything he had.

"Shannon had been the name my heart had whispered for a long time."

Shannon is the matriarch of the family that she has put first for her entire life, barely stopping to remember that she is also just a woman. As a woman with grown children, I was so very happy to see her find her way back to herself in this book.

"I'd lost so much of myself over the years. In pouring everything I had into my family and our business, I hadn't saved much time for me."

So, now that their clocks are finally in sync, this is the story of them realizing that they both deserve so much more than what they've been given. I loved every bit of this story. Even though it is a novella, it ties up everything and ends this series just beautifully. The author did a wonderful job in making sure this story had just the right amount of sweet and heat (and many laughs, courtesy of Cooper) and left me with happy tears and a big swoony smile on my face. The epilogue had me over the moon and the bonus epilogue has me hopeful that we will see more of this family in her next series, The Bailey Brothers (which I have grabby hands for,) where Grace's story will be told. I couldn't love this family or this ending more!

"After everything we'd been through, we had each other. We had this. And that meant we had it all."

This book really needs to be read after the previous books in the series, which are best read in order. While each book is a complete story about a different couple, there is an ongoing backstory.


You can purchase (or read for free with Kindle Unlimited) the complete Miles Family series here.

 

Review of Lament by Lynsey M. Stewart

Lament by Lynsey M. Stewart

Release Date 3/22/2019

Purchase or read for free with Kindle Unlimited here.

Bookish Stacy Rating *****

Dear Grief Fairy,

I’ve met a man who encompasses grief. Alexander Blayren, a brooding cellist with a body I crave and a soul I ache to know better. He’s rude and bold, brash and sharp, but I see the lost soul underneath. Crying out. Surviving grief for the sake of his daughter. Just.

Before we met, Alexander didn’t believe you could survive grief. Loss had painted his life black, dimming the bright lights and quietening his music. But I didn’t agree with the man I heard play out his demons through his notes. The man I find myself infatuated by. I found my way through grief, because I had a channel for my pain. When I lost my mother and sister, dance was my therapy. Movement my recovery. Could music be his? Could the haunting melodies be his reprieve? The cry of a bow across the strings his lifeline? Or could his journey to survival begin through me? Through my body, the one he studies as I dance, through my cries of pleasure under his fingertips or his undeniable arousal at my willing restraint...

Grief Fairy, you understand me better than anyone. Please help me to relieve his lament.

Yours
Nat. 

When I read that blurb, I knew I had to get my hands on this book.

This is my first Lynsey M. Stewart and I'm completely blown away. I now have to go read everything she has written immediately, while kicking myself for not doing so earlier.

Nat is a dancer who has struggled with grief for years. She first sees Alex at a concert where he is playing the cello, and the piece goes straight to her heart. She can't stop thinking about what Alex must be going through to be able to play such sad music from so deep within. When she moves back home, she comes face-to-face with Alex, who is also living in the small town with his young daughter and they both feel an instant connection.

I highlighted so many passages in this book that were just so beautiful, it was like reading poetry. I don't want to give too much away because everyone needs to experience this book in their own way, but I want to share just a few quotes that made my breath hitch.

"Death is the end of a journey you didn't choose to go on in the first place."

"Grief is like trying to paint a sunset when all you have is black paint."

"I'd been dead inside for so long. It was like I was witnessing the first dawn, the astounding peek of vivid pinks and bright purples behind dark clouds."

It really is the story of two people learning to live again while trying to get through their grief the best way they can. It is haunting and raw and real. It is beautiful and healing. And even through all of this, it is funny, heart-warming, and really freakin' hot.

Lament is probably my top read of the year so far and I would give it more than five stars if I could.

"Love is a symptom of loss. But love is also a symptom of life."

Review of Detour (Bounty County #5) by Maren Lee

Detour (Bounty County #5) by Maren Lee

Release Date 3/14/2019

Purchase or read for free with Kindle Unlimited here.

Bookish Stacy Rating *****

This book. Gah. I've been sitting on this review for over a week now trying to come up with words that do this book justice. I'm still not sure I have them, but I'll do my best.

I was introduced to Maren Lee back in 2017 when someone suggested her Bounty County series in a Facebook group. I read the first three books in the series back to back in as many days and fell in love. I've been a fan ever since.

I've been waiting what seems like forever for this fifth book in the series and let me tell you, it was worth every minute for this return to Imminence, Montana. Detour is, in my opinion, Maren Lee's BEST BOOK TO DATE. This one is much deeper and has a more serious tone than the previous books. If you have triggers, please make sure that you read the warning at the beginning of the book. This book includes some really difficult topics.

"Stay low. Don't get too close. That had been Anne's mantra for the last five years."

Without spoiling anything, I'll just say that Anne went through some horrifying things that would break most people. She's carrying a lot of baggage and secrets and tries her best to not bring anyone else into her life because of that. She has a big heart and so much courage, it left me in awe. I love strong heroines.

"He wanted to be her barrier from the outside world, from whatever it was that was scaring her."

And Smitty! That man is definitely swoon-worthy. He's a deputy. He coaches the high school football team. And. He. Is. A. Cowboy. He's also the type of hero that I love--sweet, hot, alpha, protective, dirty--all wrapped up in a pair of Wranglers? Yes. Please. And it's worth mentioning over and over--he gets an A+ in dirty talk. Then he goes and says something like this:
"You'll be safe with me, I swear to you."
and I about melted on the spot.

I loved watching Anne and Smitty's relationship grow. Their chemistry was off the charts and had such a great mixture of hot and sweet. It was also nice to see all of the Bounty County crew again. I love the bromance between Smitty and Wesson.. Wesson and Sierra gave a lot of needed comic relief to the book. And if you have read the previous books, yes, there are plenty of new Wessonisms to keep us giggling. And, like all Maren Lee books, this one is hot enough to melt your e-reader. We also get a glimpse of a new character and a little teaser of his book, which of course, I'll be waiting not-so-patiently for. After this book, Maren Lee is really going to have to up her game--it will be hard to top this one.

While this can absolutely be read as a stand-alone, I feel like it will be enjoyed more after reading the first four books of the series.

You can purchase (or read for free with Kindle Unlimited) the previous books in the Bounty County series by Maren Lee here:

#1 Ride-along
#2 Changing Lanes
#3 Gridlocked

#4 U-Turn