Remarkable Reads for 2018, Part Nine

This has been an exhausting summer, between completing manuscripts and helping to clear out the family home. I still have a lot of editing to do and “stuff” to find homes for, but my habit of eating while reading made it possible for me to finish three books this month.

His to Save: Her Secret Billionaire by Julia Keanini
Heathcliff Family Romances, Book 1
Earlier this year, I read the first two in Julia’s Princes of Valdoria series. I managed to get on her review team, so I received this book before it was released. It took me a little more time than usual to finish reading it, but I’m so glad I made the effort. This is a lovely romance, entwined with a great mystery. Several red herrings lead the reader off in various directions, and the budding romance between Lottie and Leo takes a beating, since their families are engaged in a bitter dispute. This is a well-written story, and I’m looking forward to Book 2!

 

Late for the Ball by Heather Gray
I purchased this short story when it was first released five years ago, and finally made the time to sit down and read it. This begins like a typical regency romance – Myra rushes off to a party, where she is about to meet the man her parents have arranged for her to marry. But so many questions popped up as I read. Why was she going alone? Why hadn’t she ever met this man? Did families really handle marriages this way? She meets her intended at the ball, and although others seem to be familiar with him, she’s not. This is a short story, and I wondered how Myra would either fall in love with her fiancé in just a few pages. But the ending is quite unexpected and fun. Unfortunately, the story is no longer available on Amazon, so you’ll have to take my word for it!

Blind Tasting by Angela Ford
This is another book that’s been languishing in my TBR pile. I “met” Angela in an online group, for which she was an administrator. I noticed she was quite prolific, so I purchased Blind Tasting because it was part of a multi-author series that included other authors whose names I recognized. But things got busy and it languished in my Kindle library for almost four years. This past week I went looking for something quick to read and found it, so I started reading. I got caught up in Becca’s journey and her decision to give up her fast-paced job as an ER physician in New York and move to the small town of Vine Grove. She quickly becomes part of a group of women who decide to make a change in their single status by creating the Love List, in which they select potential mates for each other. The story was short and sweet, and there were relatively few errors. The conflict is minimal, but the interaction between the characters is cute.

What have you read lately?