-
The Ones Who Got Away
RECOMMENDED: The Ones Who Got Away by Roni Loren is 99c! I really enjoyed this one and its portrayal of people living with trauma. I gave it a B+, but as it deals with victims of gun violence, I completely understand why readers may want to avoid it.
If the subject matter doesn’t scare you off and your catnip is friends to lovers, slow burn-y goodness, The Ones Who Got Away is highly worth the read.
It’s been twelve years since tragedy struck the senior class of Long Acre High School. Only a few students survived that fateful night—a group the media dubbed The Ones Who Got Away.
Liv Arias thought she’d never return to Long Acre—until a documentary brings her and the other survivors back home. Suddenly her old flame, Finn Dorsey, is closer than ever, and their attraction is still white-hot. When a searing kiss reignites their passion, Liv realizes this rough-around-the-edges cop might be exactly what she needs…
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
This book is on sale at:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks! -
The Liar’s Dice
The Liar’s Dice by Jeannie Lin is $2.99! This is part of her Lotus Palace mystery series, which has been a huge hit here at the Pink Palace. However, the description mentions is was in an anthology, so I’m unsure if it’s more novella length than a full novel.
***First published in the GAMBLED AWAY: Historical romance anthology****
THE LIAR’S DICE is a novella in the Lotus Palace series, taking place after the events of The Jade Temptress. Length: ~100 pages
Tang Dynasty China, 849 A.D.
Lady Bai, called Wei-wei by her aristocratic family, has always been the perfectly obedient daughter–but only on the outside. Inwardly she dreams of freedom. When she dares to pay a forbidden visit to a public tea garden in men’s clothing, only Gao looks close enough to notice her borrowed robes. Alas, looking closely at the enigmatic Gao tells Wei-wei only one thing: he’s a scoundrel.When the pair witness a fatal stabbing, Gao surprises her by staying at her side as she investigates the brutal crime. Together they uncover more secrets, somehow tied to her brother and the seedy gambling dens he’s been visiting on the sly. Gao seems to know far too much about the brutal ways of the street, but Wei-wei is drawn to him and his habit of seeing through all her disguises.
Wei-wei revels in her newfound independence and her growing feelings for her mysterious companion, but all too soon she’s faced with a cruel choice — discover the truth and bring the killer to justice, or protect her family at all costs.
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
This book is on sale at:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks! -
Off the Ice
Off the Ice by Avon Gale and Piper Vaughn is $1.99! This is a very steamy M/M romance with a hockey player hero going back to school to finish his MBA, and having a major crush on one his professors. There is a bit of a taboo element with the teacher/student dynamic, though the hockey hero is older than your average student. Your mileage may vary with this trope.
He’s hot for teacher
NHL star Tristan Holt may be at the top of his game, but he’s already thinking one play ahead. Hitting the books in the off-season means he’ll have a business degree to fall back on when it’s time to hang up his hockey skates.
But his straightforward plan is complicated by his undeniable attraction to his sexy sociology professor, Sebastian Cruz.
Impressed by Tristan’s brain as well as his brawn, Sebastian can’t help lusting after the gorgeous jock. With tenure on the line, Sebastian won’t break the rules by becoming involved with one of his students—at least, not until the end of term. Once final grades are posted, though, their naughty mutual fantasies can become reality.
Tristan’s not sure he’s up for being the poster boy for openly gay hockey players, but Sebastian’s never been the type of man to keep his sexuality—or his relationships—in the closet. For Tristan, being with Sebastian might mean risking more than just his heart.
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
This book is on sale at:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks! -
Bears Behaving Badly
Bears Behaving Badly by MaryJanice Davidson is $1.99! This is also part of today’s KDDs and the first in a new series. I liked the social worker aspect of this one, but I fully admit that Davidson’s over the top, somewhat goofy tone doesn’t really work for me. Are you a fan?
These social worker bear shifters give the term “mama bear” a whole new meaning! Bestselling author MaryJanice Davidson is back with this brand-new paranormal romance series featuring a foster care system for at-risk shifter babies and teens.
Werebear shifter Annette Garsea is a caseworker for the Interspecies Placement Agency. When a selectively mute and freakishly strong teen werewolf is put in her custody, Annette has to uncover the young girl’s secrets if she’s to have any hopes of helping her. And not even the growling of a scruffy private investigator can distract her from her mission…
Bear shifter David Auberon appreciates Annette’s work with at-risk teen shifters, but he’s not sure if her latest charge is so much a vulnerable teen as a predator who should be locked up. All that changes when he, Annette, and her motley band of juveniles find themselves dodging multiple murder attempts and uncovering a trafficking cartel that doesn’t just threaten the kids, but risks discovery of the shifters by the wider world of homo sapiens.
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
This book is on sale at:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!
Don't want to miss an ebook sale? Sign up for our newsletter, and you'll get the week's available deals each Friday.
This might not be the best place to post this question, but are there any contemporary sports romances that aren’t quite so hot? I don’t mind a well-detailed banging scene once in a while, but sometimes would rather the verbiage were spent on other things.
I loved Until You by Jeannie moon. There was sex but it definitely swet and Tender
@Kate: Check out Julianna Keyes’s Charleston Thrashers baseball romances: TEAM PLAYER and BENCH PLAYER. There are sexytimes, but plenty of other things are going on too. However, I will say that it’s been my experience that sports romances (whether m/m or m/f) tend to be on the sexier side. Perhaps writers don’t want to waste the potential of having fit, athletic characters and not using them in some hot scenes!
Liar’s Dice is free on Amazon CA! Woo-hoo!
Is MaryJanice Davidson still doing the “I’m not racist, I have black friends!” thing in her books?
I liked her writing style and at one point, I was in a place where I could overlook that because it wasn’t a major, central part of the book or story. I’m in a different place where it isn’t the kind of thing that I can just read around – it’s a deal breaker for me.
If she, too, has moved to a different place, it might be nice to read one of her books again.
Thanks, DiscoDollyDeb & Jcp! Hockey and baseball are my sports wheelhouse 🙂
@Kate, Sarina Bowen has a number of hockey romances that are quite good. Her Brooklyn Bruisers series were mostly 4 star (out of 5) reads for me.
Petition to nominate Bears Behaving Badly for the next Cover Snark
The Gambled Away anthology (wherein one could find the Lin story) also has novellas by Rose Lerner and Joanna Bourne, two of my personal favorites. Definitely novella-length (or short story length? I don’t know the cut-off between those two, actually). I don’t think it’s still available, but if you can find it, it’s worth snapping up!
Ilona Andrew’s Fate’s Edge is a kdd today. It’s only 1.99.
I love the whole Loren series but I agree, it might be super triggering for some readers. I think RL has a trigger list posted somewhere attached to the series but I can’t remember where.
Lin always writes amazing books, and Avon Gale and Piper Vaughn are unstintingly good as well.
@Kate, you might also consider The Wall of Winnipeg and Me plus Kulti, both by Mariana Zapata.
Liar’s Dice is a prequel novella to Hidden Moon, the third book in the Pingkang Li series. It’s about the same couple, so don’t expect a HEA at the end of Liar’s Dice, but it’s still totally worth it (and then go read Hidden Moon!). I love the whole series a lot—in my experience, it works for both romance readers and historical mystery readers, and as someone who loves both, it’s my catnip.
That whole Roni Loren series is so so good. They really stuck with me long after I finished each one. May have to give the whole series a re-read.
I agree with Emily B. The Roni Lauren series is deeply emotional – friendship, regrets, surprises, memories, love – I am so glad I took a deep breath (preparing for a shower of sorrow) and read them. All. IN ORDER.
What Annie Kate said — read Liar’s Dice and then Hidden Moon immediately afterward, treat them as one beautiful, extended narrative, and then send a virtual chef’s kiss in the direction of Jeannie Lin.
Seconding everything about The Ones Who Got Away and the Pingkang Li series. Both are excellent.
@GradStudentEscapist, YES! That bear looks possessed…should be an interesting cover.
Roni Loren series that starts with” The Ones Who Got Away” was absolutely wonderful to me. It helped me understand how to possibly think of the recent shooting tragedy at Parkland High School in FL. The way she told the 4 stories in the series with the women at hand was wonderful and relatable. I did not go through any of this, but she told their stories in such a way that at the end of it all I felt as though I had and that golden writing to me. My absolute favorite is the last one..The One For You. Not to be missed, but really if possible they deserve to be read and when done you have a better understanding at least for me what the psychological may be like and getting through to the other side so you can begin to heal if possible.
Although “Off the Ice” might be steamy, it is also a good book, and definitely my favorite of the trilogy. I must admit I much prefer the earlier series, Scoring Chances, about the minor league players.
Definitely a YMMV point, but I hit a real issue which made this set of Avon Gale and Piper Vaughn books totally meh for me (or at least did this for the first two, after which I stopped trying). This was a writing issue where I felt that the authors were leaning on bad professional decisions by people who apparently were not incompetent at their professions in order to drive up the romantic tension.
Spoilers for plot points…
In book 1 of this set (the book featured above), there’s a dramatic misunderstanding about a plagiarism allegation which ignores the whole tertiary education apparatus to detect and manage this. There is a stolen essay where the copying is somehow so rudimentry as to be unmissable, but the professor does not have a university policy to follow about it (which would not be ‘call people in to a room one-on-one and believe the first story you’re given’).
Then in book 2 (more spoilers), an apparently professional back-office decides to manage staff communication so badly that they create major and unnecessary stress for the two main characters by putting them in an untenable degree of uncertainty about their professional standing for an extended period. This was the one which really annoyed me – it was a plot point to keep them in an ongoing competition with each other and have an extra step to have to work through to their happy ending, but it wasn’t a well-grounded one. I could just about accept this behavior by the office if we were told the team’s managers were inexperienced or had some other driver which justified bad personnel decisions (they had a reason to mess with one or both characters would do). But in the end it was just rolled out as if it’s a perfectly normal leadership and change management arrangement by an apparently professional back-office.
Basically, I couldn’t get over the fact that the basics of professional behavior were being ignored in order to force certain plot tensions.
I did not have this issue with Avon Gale’s earlier hockey books, which made the hockey part come alive for me and which were why I picked up these books. I was sorry to not to find the same well-rounded backgrounds here.