Come Dancing
Come Dancing by Leslie Wells is 99c! This is book one of the Jack & Julia series, and it’s got a 3.7-star average. Many of you have mentioned this book favorably in the comments, too. It’s a contemporary set in New York in the 80s, and there’s some serious catnip in the description, too.
It’s 1981. Twenty-four-year-old Julia Nash has recently arrived in Manhattan, where she works as a publisher’s assistant. She dreams of becoming an editor with her own stable of bestselling authors—but it is hard to get promoted in the recession-clobbered book biz.
Julia blows off steam by going dancing downtown with her best friend, Vicky. One night, a hot British guitarist invites them into his VIP section. Despite an entourage of models and groupies, Jack chooses Julia as his girl for the evening—and when Jack Kipling picks you, you go with it. The trouble is … he’s never met a girl like her before. And she resists being just one in a long line.
Jack exposes her to new experiences, from exclusive nightclubs in SoHo to the Chateau Marmont in Hollywood; from mind-bending recording sessions to wild backstage parties. Yet Julia is afraid to fall for him. Past relationships have left her fragile; one more betrayal just might break her.
As she fends off her grabby boss and tries to move up the corporate ladder, Julia’s torrid relationship with Jack takes her to heights she’s never known—and plunges her into depths she’s never imagined.
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The Sea of Tranquility by Katja Millay is $1.99! This is a YA novel with romantic elements and it also deserves a trigger warning. Readers said this was a very emotional read, but admit that it took them a whole or a couple tries to really get into it. The Sea of Tranquility has a 4.3-star rating on Goodreads.
I live in a world without magic or miracles. A place where there are no clairvoyants or shapeshifters, no angels or superhuman boys to save you. A place where people die and music disintegrates and things suck. I am pressed so hard against the earth by the weight of reality that some days I wonder how I am still able to lift my feet to walk.
Former piano prodigy Nastya Kashnikov wants two things: to get through high school without anyone learning about her past and to make the boy who took everything from her—her identity, her spirit, her will to live—pay.
Josh Bennett’s story is no secret: every person he loves has been taken from his life until, at seventeen years old, there is no one left. Now all he wants is be left alone and people allow it because when your name is synonymous with death, everyone tends to give you your space.
Everyone except Nastya, the mysterious new girl at school who starts showing up and won’t go away until she’s insinuated herself into every aspect of his life. But the more he gets to know her, the more of an enigma she becomes. As their relationship intensifies and the unanswered questions begin to pile up, he starts to wonder if he will ever learn the secrets she’s been hiding—or if he even wants to.
The Sea of Tranquility is a rich, intense, and brilliantly imagined story about a lonely boy, an emotionally fragile girl, and the miracle of second chances.
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The Marriage Bargain by Jennifer Probst is $1.99! This is a contemporary romance with a fake relationship/marriage of convenience plot. While readers loved the marriage of convenience trope in a modern setting, some also had trouble becoming invested in the hero and heroine. Have you read this?
A marriage in name only…
To save her family home, impulsive bookstore owner, Alexa Maria McKenzie, casts a love spell. But she never planned on conjuring up her best friend’s older brother—the powerful man who once shattered her heart.
Billionaire Nicholas Ryan doesn’t believe in marriage, but in order to inherit his father’s corporation, he needs a wife and needs one fast. When he discovers his sister’s childhood friend is in dire financial straits, he offers Alexa a bold proposition.
A marriage in name only with certain rules: avoid entanglement. Keep things all business. Do not fall in love. The arrangement is only for a year so the rules shouldn’t be that hard to follow, right?
Except fate has a way of upsetting the best-laid plans…
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No One Lives Twice by Julie Moffett is 99c! This is the first book in the Lexi Carmichael Mystery series about a computer nerd suddenly entrenched in espionage. Readers found the characterization and action a big farfetched, while others loved the blend of humor with elements of romance and cozy mystery.
I’m Lexi Carmichael, geek extraordinaire. I spend my days stopping computer hackers at the National Security Agency. My nights? Those I spend avoiding my mother and eating cereal for dinner. Even though I work for a top-secret agency, I’ve never been in an exciting car chase, sipped a stirred (not shaken) martini, or shot a poison dart from an umbrella.
Until today, that is, when two gun-toting thugs popped up in my life and my best friend disappeared. So, I’ve enlisted the help of the Zimmerman twins—the reclusive architects of America’s most sensitive electronic networks—to help me navigate a bewildering maze of leads to find her.
Along the way, my path collides with a sexy government agent and a rich, handsome lawyer, both of whom seem to have the hots for me. Hacking, espionage, sexy spy-men—it’s a geek girl’s dream come true. If it weren’t for those gun-toting thugs…
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A trigger warning for what kind of triggers?
@Jacquilynne: I’m not sure because several reviews I read on Goodreads were very vague: tragic pasts, trauma, great loss, and it’s been shelved as “sociology > abuse” and “dark.” Maybe someone who has read the book can shine some light on this?
How far back does ‘contempory’ go? 1981 is thirty-five years ago.
Good grief I’ve know my OH for thirty-five years!
LOL I know, 1981 is practically historical now.
Also, I roll my eyes at 21-yr-old heroines who have been hurt so many times they are too fragile to trust. Please. You’re 21. “One more betrayal might just break her”?? As in, this guy I’ve dated for (what, six months?) dumped me for somebody else and my heart will never heal? Pssh.
Status Update by Annabeth Albert is one dollar right now. I read it a while back (bought it in a carina sale) and liked it so much I was willing to buy another copy so it’s easier to use on my kindle.
Lord of Scoundrels continues to be $1.99
I second the Status Update rec – I think Annabeth Albert is a very promising relatively new mm author and Status Update is one of my favorites so far. It’s a road trip romance – the set up requires some suspension of disbelief but it’s so cute I didn’t care.
Jefferson Blythe, Esq. is onsale for .99 cents on amazon. Pretty sure I read about it here somewhere but all I could find was the DABWAHA nomination. Anyway, I got it, read it, and thought it was pretty cute.
I enjoyed Come Dancing very much. It was a fresh and original surprise of a story which shot straight onto my “favorites” list and hasn’t budged.
Chacha1, so nice to read that mine are not the only eyeballs rolling at descriptions of late teen and early-20s heroines (or heroes) who were too hurt by a breakup to ever trust again.
As a pediatrician, I have met 21 dos who are that damaged, childhood survivors, too many foster homes, too much current abuse, two children they swore to love but don’t know what to do with. But these are not the sorts of women who show up in most romance novels. A reasonably well off early 20s with education and parents who still talk to her may be heartbroken but, yes, not that damaged/fragile.
The Sea of Tranquility was one of the first indie books I read. I loved it. It is a quiet book with a slow build. I have not re-read it and am curious if it would hold up.
On the trigger warning.
She is attacked on the street, not raped, but severely beaten.
Stuck Landing by Lauren Gallagher (aka LA Witt) is .99 at Amazon and Kobo today only (Friday the 17th). It’s #11 in The Bluewater Bay series, is supposedly standalone (although one MC appeared as a supporting character in other book) and it’s the first f/f in the series (the rest were m/m).
It’s an f/f between a bi woman and a lesbian (who has to overcome her biphobia to get her hea). GR reviews were divided – some readers really hated Anna (the lesbian and narrator). I haven’t read it but I’ve read a few others from the series and in general I trust LA Witt – she’s bi and she’s written other bi characters I resonate with.
I’ll try to remember to post this in today’s deals too.
I am totally 3rd-ing Status Update! I am on a major m/m bender and Annabeth Albert is one of my favs so far.
Also re: The Marriage Bargain – (SPOILER ALERT) fair warning that the H is going to be an asshat about an unplanned pregnancy, assuming h did it on purpose to trap him and get his money. And he makes this asinine interpretation after knowing her most of his life, and being in a relationship with her for 5 months. Yes there is other stuff in play (insecurity, history of women doing that to the men in his family) but that ruined the book for me 🙁
I second recommendations for Come Dancing – I picked it up when it was last on sale for 99p, and really enjoyed it. I love rockstar romances, but normally I get frustrated with the excess of New Adult rockstar romances with wangsty 20-somethings and their dark-ity dark pasts.
Come Dancing was a good fast read with likeable characters and was blissfully free of the above wangsty dark tropes. Although I was a bairn in the eighties, so don’t remember much about it, it felt like a nicely done time capsule – definitely one to read with your favourite 80s Spotify list playing in the background.
@ Jazzlet.
1981? 35 years? Yikes! I was in high school.
Rwa.org states:
Contemporary Romance: Romance novels that are set from 1950 to the present that focus primarily on the romantic relationship.
Wikipedia says from 1970 and most contemporary romance novels contain elements that date the books, and the majority of them eventually become irrelevant to more modern readers and go out of print.
Also from Wikipedia:
Contemporary romance is a subgenre of romance novels, generally set contemporaneously with the time of its writing.
I feel it’s subjective. I shelve some contemporaries under historical because I feel they should go there. But I am a rebel bibliophile. I make my own bookshelf rules lol. 🙂
Thanks Kelly M!
We met at university, we didn’t actually start going out together for another five years, my first meeting with me was … ummm … a bit intimidting, but that’s a whole other story. We’ve been together thirty years come January 12th 2017 🙂
I think of contemporary as any time period I can remember personally, so for me that would start at around 1960 when I turned 5.
I also agree about the heartbroken 21-year-olds but I remember (barely) that everything felt tragic at that age.
@Jazzlet: It’s nice to see someone else who has been together a long time! I met my husband exactly 38 years ago today, and we had our 37th wedding anniversary a couple of weeks ago.
@ Jazzlet. 30 years is awesome, congrats!
I have been married 23 years and have been together almost 27 years. I initially went out with my husband because my friend wanted to go out with his friend. They didn’t work out, but they both stood up for us at our wedding 🙂
@ SusanE
Happy Anniversary! I agree with contemporary as any time period I can remember personally. That would be anytime after 1972 when I was 4. But it really depends on the book and the author for me.