Long Shot
Long Shot by Kennedy Ryan is 99c! This is the first book in the Hoops series and features a basketball player hero. Basketball is a severely underrepresented sport in romance and I’m always happy to see more of it. Readers warn that there is a character background involving domestic abuse, but it’s handled very well according to reviews.
A FORBIDDEN LOVE SET IN THE EXPLOSIVE WORLD OF THE NBA…
Think you know what it’s like being a baller’s girl?
You don’t.
My fairy tale is upside down.
A happily never after.
I kissed the prince and he turned into a fraud.
I was a fool, and his love – fool’s gold.
Now there’s a new player in the game, August West.
One of the NBA’s brightest stars.
Fine. Forbidden.
He wants me. I want him.
But my past, my fraudulent prince, just won’t let me goAdd to Goodreads To-Read List →
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Hidden by Rebecca Zanetti is $1.99! This is the first book in her Deep Ops romantic suspense series and I’m very curious about it. It has a 4-star rating on Goodreads, which is impressive. However, if you’ve tried Zanetti’s books in the past and have mixed feelings, readers definitely suggest trying the sample first.
Hide. That’s all Pippa can do to escape the terror chasing her. But now that she’s off the grid in a safe house, she finds plenty of interesting things to watch through the window. Like her new neighbor, with his startling green eyes, killer smile, and sexy bad-boy tattoo . . .
Run. Malcolm West is fleeing the hell he unleashed in his last assignment as an undercover cop. A backwoods bungalow sounds like the perfect place to start over. Until he discovers he’s been set up . . .
Fight. Someone’s gone to a lot of trouble to bring them together. No matter how much he resents that, and his own driving needs, Malcolm will have to dig deep and let loose the banished killer inside himself, or Pippa’s fears could come true faster than the flip of a bolt in a lock . . .
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My Wicked Prince by Molly O’Keefe is $2.99 at Amazon! O’Keefe tends to be an auto-buy author for me, but one of my biggest peeves is book descriptions written in first person. For me, they tell me absolutely nothing and I’m less likely to pick it up. Have you read this one?
He was my stepbrother.
My Prince Charming.
My fairy tale gone totally wrong…My mother marrying the king was supposed to give my mom and I our happily ever after. But my life has never been a bedtime story and no prince with a fancy shoe is turning me into a Cinderella.
I had big plans outside of my small but powerful country. But Gunnar, the wicked prince in a gorgeous package, was temptation too strong for me to resist. His sweet lies and sweeter kisses pulled me back into his arms over and over again until his cold cruel heart finally broke mine for good.
But now he’s going to be King and he wants me back in his country, his palace…and his bed.
And we all must bow to the King.
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Noble Pleasures by Anthea Lawson is 99c! This is an odd little collection as I had to research which titles were novels and which were novellas, and where the heck they came from. There are two full-length novels and three novellas, all of which come from a variety of series. It’s not a full set of one series.
Enter an era of dashing dukes in disguise, secret-keeping viscounts, and earls trying (and failing) to resist temptation! This sampler collection of novels and novellas from RITA-nominated, USA Today bestselling author Anthea Lawson is full of spicy (and a few sweet) delights.
FORTUNE’S FLOWER – To claim his family estate, James Huntington embarks on an expedition to find his grandfather’s missing journals. He’s at odds with his fellow traveler, the wellborn Miss Lily Strathmore – but even as they succumb to temptation, danger awaits.
THE VISCOUNT’S SECRET – Anthony Blake, Lord Percival, is renowned throughout the ton for his handsome face and foppish ways. Only a select few know that beneath his foolish exterior is a keen intelligence in service to the Queen. Nobody suspects his secret until he meets a quiet young woman who sees far more than she should.
THE PIANO TUTOR – Widowed Lady Diana Waverly finds love and passion in the most unlikely of places when a new piano tutor arrives at her door.
MISTRESS OF MELODY – With her future in jeopardy, a young woman must turn to Morgan Trevethwick, the Earl of Silverton, for help. He cannot refuse a lady in distress, though she threatens to overturn his entire carefully-planned future.
A DUKE FOR MIDWINTER – After a gentleman rescues her from a winter storm, Miss Selene Banning finds herself snowbound with Sir Jared Kendrick, a baronet who is not precisely who he claims to be.
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“one of my biggest peeves is book descriptions written in first person. For me, they tell me absolutely nothing and I’m less likely to pick it up.”
Hear, Hear.
I am absolutely with you on hating first person book blurbs. To me, they always sound like a manifesto. Especially when they are present tense first person from the man’s POV. “From the first time I saw her I knew I had to have her. She doesn’t know it yet, but she will be mine.” Stuff like that makes me feel like I’m reading the last FB entry of a guy who went out and did Very Bad Things and I don’t like it at all.
Re: “My Wicked Prince” – that -uh – hair; more like an over-baked croissant someone took a bite out of. Also, it is probable that the h’s* fingers would be permanently stuck in that pompadour if she tried to ruffle his hair (too much product, or construction glue: you be the judge).
*did we ever come up with a 21st century-appropriate replacement for using “H/h” (and “h/h”, “H/H”)? That was a thing in these comments a while back, but I don’t recall a solution… and I would like one. Thanks.
A quick comment about Long Shot, I would say that it is a big TW/CW for domestic abuse and sexual assault as it is written in the present and is a significant part of the story. It is a very well written book however not an easy read.
The cover model on LONG SHOT is certainly gaze-worthy; at the same time, I appreciate your warning, @Amy. And MY WICKED PRINCE is trying too hard to be Crowley in Good Omens. Only David Tennant could carry that off, IMO.
I don’t mind first person book blurbs.
But I can’t stand the one liners.
With ominous adjectives.
Especially when they end in dots…
On another note, some books by Molly O’Keefe I really liked, some less, and My Wicked Prince even less. From what I remember the story’s pacing really was a mess (was there lots of back & forth between past and present?) and the conflict keeping them separated was flimsy.
MY WICKED PRINCE, despite the first-person blurb, is very good. It’s well-written with some excellent world-building regarding the Nordic-Scots mashup kingdom where the characters live. However, the story does involve adult step-siblings, if that’s a no-go for you.
I agree with Amy that Long Shot needs a big TW. It’s just brutal at times. I am usually fine with reading abuse, but I nearly didn’t make it through. It’s a good novel, but I would have liked less time spent on torture and more time spent on recovery.
Agree on the first person blurbs written in one lines. Comes across as lazy and describes nothing about the plot. However, it probably wouldn’t put me off unless the POV from the man comes across as rapey (which in PNR with wolf shifters is usually the case).
“Manifesto” is the perfect way to describe that vague unease those descriptions give me, omg. As if it’s a speech being delivered with an unnerving amount of eye contact.
Wicked Prince didn’t work for me—I took a flier on it despite disliking modern royalty plotlines and step-sibling relationships, though, so this is mostly a “me” problem. I think anyone who likes O’Keefe’s style (angsty misunderstandings, intense sexual tension) and doesn’t have problems with those things might enjoy it. I agree that the worldbuilding around the kingdom and its politics was neat.
“My mother marrying the king was supposed to give my mom and I our happily ever after.” (O’Keefe blurb)
Maybe I’m overly fussy, but it’s not a good sign to me when book blurbs contain grammatical/spelling errors.
@Susan: Hear, hear! *holds up lighter*
Look people, if you’re confused whether to use I or me, take out the other person from the sentence:
Me and BFF went to the mall —> me went to the mall. …Did ya really?
Big Sis yelled at BFF and I —> Big Sis yelled at I. …Did she really?
When in doubt, check with Grammar Girl. She (and her associates) can give you the answer and tell you why you’re confused: https://www.quickanddirtytips.com/education/grammar/why-do-people-mix-up-the-pronouns-i-and-me
For what it’s worth, I couldn’t cope with the intimate partner violence in Long Shot, and I read a lot of crime thrillers. It’s not badly written – the abuser is never presented as a hero – but it’s just a lot.
@Susan: I just went and checked on Amazon. The blurb now reads: “My mother marrying the king was supposed to give my mom and me our happily ever after. But my life isn’t a bedtime story and no prince with a fancy shoe is turning me into a Cinderella.” The blurb quoted above must be from older material. I remember when MY WICKED PRINCE was first released, there were complaints about the blurb using “I” instead of “me” and it was at some point corrected.
I don’t like blurbs in first person, but then I rarely like books in first person, especially first person present tense. First person past tense makes some sense, but first person present sounds like someone narrating their life, which is boring and awkward. It takes a very skilled writer to make me forget I’m basically reading an unending monologue.
That princely pomp is very hipster. I didn’t think royals were allowed to show any signs of life.
I have to agree with all the CW/TWs on Long Shot. I read the book unaware of just HOW brutal it was going in. I finished it, it was good, but I would never reread it. It was just too much.
I really liked Hidden when I read it ages ago. I’ve read the next one in the series, and have the third, and am IMPATIENTLY WAITING for the 4th.
Adding another HUGE trigger warning on Long Shot. The blurb says it’s a character background of domestic violence, but the entire first half of the book is her abusive relationship, including multiple scenes of explicit sexual violence. This book was more triggering to me than any true crime. It is really bad.
Sarina Bowen’s novella Blonde Date features A basketball player hero; it’s one of my favorite works by her. If interested, it can be found in Extra Credit: Three Ivy Years Novellas.
I also hate first person blurbs and book POVs. A book has to be great for me to get past this.
Thanks to everyone for the warnings on Long Shot – going to avoid it.
Long Shot was domestic violence porn. The actual romance was a small fraction of the book, and didn’t even make sense. The hero and heroine meet one night, he is obsessed with her for no clear reason, and he is forever waiting in the wings through years of maniacal evil on the part of the heroine’s husband. It’s all just bizarre, and more a tawdry, graphic thriller than anything that could be called romance.
It’s been said a bunch in the comments already but yes to Long Shot being horribly graphic. I like Ryan’s other work that I’ve read but this book made me so angry (the blurb and cover give absolutely no hint of the graphic sexual violence that occurs).
I tried to read _Long Shot_ and noped out. Even after reading a long, warning note from the author at the beginning. It was just too freaking painful to read and the payoff didn’t look worth it.