Book Reviews: The Naughty List series

I tend to read smaller books so the reviews fit nicely in areas like Facebook and Instagram but the longer books and series will only be listed here.

Last year a variety of romance writers came together and wrote individual holiday themed novellas for the 12 Days of Kissmas. This year those same writers (a couple writers changed from last year to this year) brought us The Naughty List. All of my reviews are listed on Instagram but I decided to consolidate them here as well.

First let’s talk about this year’s theme of the Naughty List!

The series has started out strongly with “Check it Twice”. I mean friends to lovers is an old favorite of mine (considering I have my own friends to lovers romance for the last 13 years) but I adored this book. I absolutely loved it! It gave me holiday movie vibes. There was just enough spice to make me want more (and make me look around so I wouldn’t get caught reading it until I realized I work from home now). But page 111 was just so good, so so good!

“Lovestruck” has annoying protective older brothers, motivated young woman who works her butt off, a handsome police officer with puppy dog energy, and a touch of real world issues. Kat and Hunter, who are secretly in love with each other, both see Hollie Berry’s #claimyourcoal interview and decide to take the chance by asking each other out. It leads to a surprisingly well written scene that involves in front of a mirror. Granted, there are other great moments but that one made me realize that it really is the quiet ones who are secret freaks in the sheets. But behind it all, there are the real life issues of confidence, anxiety, and work which Julia actually puts a sensitivity note in the front of the book I truly appreciate when authors do that for their readers.

Honestly, I could probably just skip all the words and just say yes to this book. Literally just say yes, go get it, read it and you’ll understand why. But I said I wouldn’t do that and I feel I need to give you more. So here are the reasons, I am saying yes to this
1. Katie is an art teacher and it later comes out that she wanted to do something wonderful for her student and risked her career for it.
2. Griffin is an asshole family lawyer who is stupidly hot and also stupidly tends to stick his foot in it.
3. Blind date gone wrong.
4. Major smooches under mistletoe (chapter 3)
5. And counter $mut! If my husband had been paying attention, he would have seen me practically jumping for joy at the end. Perfect amount of enemies to lovers, drama, redemption arc, and the detail.

So this may be a bit TMI but office romance is kind of a thing for me…you know what I mean. And what did give us….that’s right an office romance! We have Promise who is working her butt off to provide for her son while her dick of an ex does nothing. She’s worked so hard that little things like a hot coworker who just wants to help her and love her takes the back burner…that is until things become boiling hot. I’ll admit that I wasn’t a big fan of Drake initially. He sorta felt like a guy who just wanted Promise because she told him no and had other priorities besides him. But then he did something that just turned it around for me on page 27 and I knew there was more to him. Plus, the epilogue for them was the chef’s kiss of the book for me. It gave me exactly what I wanted for Promise.

Same as last year with Lumber Snack is that I love the setting of this book. It feels like a place I would enjoy and considering I live for the little festivals that happen in my own area, the fact that the main characters meet in an artisan festival is awesome.
I wanted to read more of these characters. Maggie makes these interesting wood sculpture pyramids and Gabe creates and shapes candles. Their first meeting was clumsy and comical but sweet and it led to Gabe doing everything he could to be with Maggie and learn to communicate with her from learning ASL to arranging to work next to her at the festival. And don’t even get me started on the friends because I will cackle. Give me more of her friends, And there were so many scenes that I had to pause because they were straight up fire. You’ll know what I mean when you get to chapter 8 and specifically page 57.

Ah…a second chance romance. How can you not love a second chance romance with two people who had secret crushes on each other in school and the universe keeps bringing the idiots together until it finally sticks and someone claims their woman! That was a really long sentence. I like that the couple show growth through the story starting from the short time in school and early adulthood before they grow into their own people. I like seeing their individual success as well as what could be their success as a couple. I enjoyed the dialogue. I tend to gravitate towards dialogue heavy books and I feel this fits into that category with so much of the story being in the dialogue between the characters and the dialogue within the characters’ own consciences. Good quick read. Oh and fyi, if you like steam, this has it.

Wow what a roller coaster! And like one of those good ones that starts out super exciting then makes you cry and then by the ending you’re grinning and laughing from the loops that you want to go again! So if you watched my previous post you’ll know that I like food and while my book baby involved a baker and her billionaire, this is a sassy lovable baker (with a kinky side) as our heroine and a super sexy slightly older fire chief who has a Grinch like attitude (and a naughty talented mouth). They end up together in a true holiday movie fashion, by “accident” and with the perfect amount of drama, small town nosiness (of which I am personally very aware of), and some really well written mental images I now have, I really want cupcakes and cookies. And because I am feeling a bit silly, he calls her cupcake and he licks the icing.

So I had a very long day and finally got to finish what I started this morning and that sorta goes with this second chance small town romance. I can’t help but picture Jake as my old high school crush who was super popular, a jock and annoyingly handsome (all before I met my now husband). And of course, he has been in love with his beautiful creative friend Lia and of course, he has to break her heart in the guise that it is what’s best for her. And what would it be if that didn’t turn both of them into raging horn dogs? Lia left the small town life to pursue her dreams or was it running away from her broken heart because the person who had it was an idiot and crushed it? Well, you’ll have to read it to make your own opinion (it’s a bit of both in mine) but Jake and Lia have a deliciously quirky happily ever after. But I have an important question: where can I get a cinnamon buttermilk muffin?

I absolutely loved the immediate flirtation and chemistry between Slade and Jacey. I felt this story was really about Jacey embracing everything about herself. I think she realized that there was no reason to feel like she was too heavy, too curvy, too loud, too busy, whatever. For Slade, she was more than enough and he seemed in awe of her. I genuinely enjoyed that the story was relatively drama free (there is a small moment that involves a child with an injury but very lightheartedly written) and it was about steamy sweet fun. I could definitely read more Slade and Jacey.

Don’t let the picture fool you, this story is seriously hot and the only thing cold about it is that Jamie is a stone cold silver fox. That’s right people, it’s an age gap romance mixed with workplace romance. Jamie Reilly is a tough but wonderful man who has dealt with his fair share of life events. One of them is one of my biggest fears as a parent and it is very brief but the loss of a child is mentioned and it gave me as the reader some insight as to why Jamie is so protective of other people that he cares about. One of those people is Sarah who is not only his talented and intelligent employee but also almost two decades younger than him. Sarah is ticked off with the hot and cold of Jamie, who at one point wasn’t just her boss but also a friend. It finally turns out that he acted the way he did not because he didn’t want her or even so much that she was an employee but that he thought he couldn’t offer her what she may want. I’m pretty sure the girl wanted multiple orgasms from a successful handsome as heck man willing to send a guy to another hotel just for talking to her inappropriately. But maybe that’s just me.

I particularly liked this one. I came from a family that had a long running restaurant. We had it for 35 years before we sold it and now it is actually a house one of my former coworkers. It made me a tad emotional because of it. Lusanne and Owen both had family businesses, it was easy to understand the level of seriousness (in a fun way) of what was going on with Lusanne moving away from the family. But she wasn’t stressed because of the new location she put herself, it was the man she stupidly let get away that her new coffee shop was directly across the street that stressed her out. But thankfully that awkward, stressed out, don’t know how to act around each other doesn’t last long because we like happily ever afters over here. It’s an easy read and I can’t decide whether I want cinnamon donuts or a man like Owen

Damn if I didn’t just fly through this one! Granted I flew through it really late last night so here the review is a bit late but this is definitely a fun read. Lilah and Evan are musicians in the same band and the company that supports them has a very specific clause:a non-fraternization policy. And for two people trying to hide their serious attraction for each other, that won’t work out too well. And if you read this, once Lilah and Evan had their hands on each other the way they wanted to, it was hot, hot, hot. The dirty talk is top notch and there is an elevator scene that definitely didn’t disappoint.

There were parts of this story that touched me because I remember the first time after I tried getting pregnant and I wasn’t. I’m saying this part first because I know from that experience and the knowledge of those close to me that it can be the simple things as a pregnant or un-pregnant character can affect those who are trying to conceive. It’s easy to put ourselves into characters that are experiencing things in a fictional world like we do in our real world. That being said, I stand by what I put in the story that I like that this isn’t a secret baby or unplanned pregnancy romance. Those are great but I like a switch. Justice decides claiming her coal is realizing she wants a baby but not necessarily a relationship that can create one. So she asks her closest male friend Corbin (the handsome, intelligent, witty man right in front of her eyes) to be a donor. Well, something snaps in place with him because it definitely didn’t go the way Justice thought it would. There is some pain along the way because emotions are flying high as these 2 stubborn people take their blinders off. But don’t worry, only HEA here.

Maybe it is just me but I personally think Chelle Sloan has a way of finding sentences that just get me. Either they have me smiling or they have me going oh damn that hit different but it’s a good thing and she did it again. So we finally get to Hollie’s story and we meet this woman who has literally signed her life over to be controlled by the network that made her famous. We’re talking down to her actual name! So she’s stuck inside watching reporters set up outside her door until a friend rescues her. The great escape leads to Trent Rudolph, a yummy man that calls her sunshine and is tired of fading into the background (yep middle of page 20 hit me for some reason). He gives it all he has to give her a Christmas better than her movies.