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Playing House
RECOMMENDED: Playing House by Ruby Lang is $2.99! The entire series is price as $2.99, so I’m unsure if this is actually a sale or normal price. Aarya gave it a B:
It’s a must-read for the summer if you’re looking for an adorable, empathetic, and joyful romance.
I encourage you to pick up Playing House to transport you into another world for a few hours. It might be the escape you desperately need; it certainly was for me.
Romance blossoms between two city planners posing as newlyweds in this first in a bright new series by acclaimed author Ruby Lang
The last thing Oliver Huang expects to see on the historic Mount Morris home tour is longtime acquaintance Fay Liu bustling up and kissing him hello. He’s happy to playact being a couple to save her from a pushy admirer. Fay’s beautiful, successful and smart, and if he’s being honest, Oliver has always had a bit of a thing for her.
Maybe more than a bit.
Geeking out over architectural details is Oliver and Fay’s shared love language, and soon they’re touring pricey real estate across Upper Manhattan as the terribly faux but terribly charming couple Darling and Olly.
For the first time since being laid off from the job he loved, Oliver has something to look forward to. And for the first time since her divorce, Fay’s having fun.
Somewhere between the light-filled living rooms and spacious closets they’ve explored, this faux relationship just may have sparked some very real feelings. For Oliver and Fay, home truly is where their hearts are.
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Mine Till Midnight
Mine Till Midnight by Lisa Kleypas is $2.99! I don’t think we’ve ever featured this one on sale. It’s book one in The Hathaways series, which I remember enjoying over a decade ago. Be warned, the hero is part Romani, though the book uses more offensive terminology. Honestly would love an updated version.
Two hearts steeped in scandal . . .
When an unexpected inheritance elevates her family to the ranks of the aristocracy, Amelia Hathaway discovers that tending to her younger sisters and wayward brother was easy compared to navigating the intricacies of the ton. Even more challenging: the attraction she feels for the tall, dark, and dangerously handsome Cam Rohan.
Wealthy beyond most men’s dreams, Cam has tired of society’s petty restrictions and longs to return to his “uncivilized” Gypsy roots. When the delectable Amelia appeals to him for help, he intends to offer only friendship—but intentions are no match for the desire that blindsides them both. But can a man who spurns tradition be tempted into that most time-honored arrangement: marriage? Life in London society is about to get a whole lot hotter . . .
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The Virgin Who Bewitched Lord Lymington
The Virgin Who Bewitched Lord Lymington by Anna Bradley is 99c! This is book four in The Swooning Virgins Society series and the most recent. I think I made this comment before, but as far as I know, none of the heroes are “swooning virgins” and I’d love to see one of them in the series. But I haven’t read any of these, so maybe I’m wrong.
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The Wall of Winnipeg and Me
READER RECOMMENDED: The Wall of Winnipeg and Me by Mariana Zapata is a 99c! At a previous RT (RIP), SnarkyWench and I gushed about sports contemporaries over some wine for a good twenty minutes, and she highly recommended this book. Readers loved the slow burn between the hero and heroine, but found it a little too slow. Any Zapata fans in the Bitchery?
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Mariana Zapata’s most beloved book, The Wall of Winnipeg and Me—now with new exclusive content!
Vanessa Mazur refuses to feel bad for quitting—she knows she’s doing the right thing. The thankless job of personal assistant to the top defensive end in the National Football Organization was always supposed to be temporary. She has plans for her life, and none of them include washing extra-large underwear one more day for a man who could never find it in him to tell her good morning, congratulate her on a job well done, or wish her a happy birthday—even when she was spending it working for him.
The legendary “Wall of Winnipeg” may be adored by thousands, but after two years Van has had enough.
But when Aiden Graves shows up at her door begging her to come back, she’s beyond shocked. Mr. Walled-Off Emotions is actually letting his guard down for once. And she’s even more dumbstruck when he explains that her job description is about to become even more outrageous: something that takes the “personal” in personal assistant to a whole new level.
What do you say to the man who is used to getting everything he wants?
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The Wall of Winnipeg and Me launched me into a Mariana Zapata discovery, glom and auto-buy listing. But newcomers to Zapata must take the warnings seriously. Her books are very long and make you wait for the payoff till the climax. As a soccer fan I can particularly recommend another of her books, Kulti. It’s a story told from the standpoint of an up and coming star in women’s soccer, who’s being coached by grouchy, Pele-level retired German soccer player. That book also provides a sobering look at the challenges facing female athletes in all sports. By all means, try out Wall of Winnipeg to find out if you have what it takes (patience, stamina, optimism that the payoff really is ahead) There is a lot to like in Zapata’s books.
I have also enjoyed a number of Mariana Zapata books.
Thirding the Mariana Zapata recs. Her books are looong and the burn is indeed slow, but her character-building and story-telling skills are sterling. How much I like a particular book often depends on the background of the novel. She’s set books within the worlds of several sports, porn conventions, auto body shops and I’ve enjoyed them. Motorcycle clubs–not so much. One other caveat: the editing in her early work was pretty terrible; it’s improved over time, but I still occasionally stumble over a distracting error. E.g., misusing passed and past. On the other hand, while that sort of thing can be an auto-DNF for me, I’ve read all 600 pages of nearly every one of her books with zero regrets.
I wonder how Mine Till Midnight has aged? I remember feeling out of sync because I really didn’t like it back in the day – the hero was too arrogant for my taste even then.
THE WALL OF WINNIPEG was a struggle for me. I liked much of it, but Aiden was such an asshat for TWO YEARS that one of us was going to need therapy. Not sorry I read it, but as others have said, patience is key.
free:
The Bachelor Duke by C. Rene
Second Chance Charmer by Brighton Walsh
Not Until Noah by Lisa Henry
Tempted Beyond Reason by Christa Wick
Grace by Beverly Watts
An Eternal Love to Conquer All by E. Shields
Chiming in to say I adore Mariana zapata’s sports romances despite not being a sports fan. If you read wall, read Wait for It, which centers on a supporting character from wall of Winnipeg. Loved it.
Just FYI, Playing House by Ruby Lang is a novella/short book clocking in at just over 200 pages. I read it a while back and thought it was well done and cute, but an event near the end made me wonder about the HEA a bit.
I didn’t care for Not Until Noah by Lisa Henry (listed by @jcp) – m/m romance between a movie star and his male nanny. It’s the first in her new m/m series pairing stars with non-famous, everyday guys.
Here’s my GR review:
3/5 stars. I wanted to like this more than I did. I had trouble getting past the imbalance of power between the h/h and I was really not a fan of the portrayal of the ex – she’s a drug addict, has bipolar disorder, is shallow and ambitious, is described as a train wreck, etc. and it was just too much.
Agree with everything said re Zapata but from what I remember from the few I’ve read, there’s a lot of casual slut-shaming and the heroines seem to fall somewhere between a Mary Sue and ‘not like other girls’, just my .02 since I haven’t seen it mentioned yet.
I tried a couple of books, but I am not a fan of Zapata. There was A LOT of slut shaming and the main characters didn’t even get to the romance part until the last 20 pages (possibly a slight exaggeration). I tried multiple books because she’s recommended so often, but all I remember from them is that all the heroines weren’t like those loose women running around and the actual romance was left for the last chapter or two.
“The Hathaways” aren’t great. The one with the brother was a DNF for me, and I hardly ever do that. I can’t remember the trope that made me hard newp, but it was there. The Romani books were hard to get through – lots of other-ing.
This is probably my favorite book by Zapata. I also remember loving this Kleypas series. Most especially book 4 (Married by Morning) and 5 (Love in the Afternoon.
To chime in on Zapata, I really loved WoW the first few times I read it, and really, really loved Kulti (great soccer romance with interesting background about women in the sport) on first reads. But they have not held up well after several re-reads, so much so that I made a note to myself on my copy of WoW to remind me to never read it again. The length of her works just gets enraging the more often you encounter it and it becomes more apparent that a lot could have been cut out. ALL THIS TO SAY, I really got so much enjoyment out of these 2 books at first, and think I would be able to enjoy their memories more if I had not read them so many times or glommed all of her other books, which suffer the same too/slow burn-too long issues but aren’t quite as engaging as these. So just, you know, don’t feel like you have to re-read too often or read her whole backlist.
@ sparetimereader Your comments about rereading books you enjoy hit a familiar chord. I found that rereading books too soon definitely decreased my pleasure in them. I have to let them sit for as long as several years in between, although there are some beloved exceptions. And indeed, some favorites do fail entirely to live up to my memories. I’ve had the dismay of rereading a book and wondering where the heck the great dialog went or how I could ever have failed to miss gaping plot holes. Still, having successfully reached a point in life where memory is forgiving and time to read is readily available, it doesn’t happen too often. I just reread Kulti last spring and will dutifully wait a good while to increase the likelihood of enjoying it again later.
A glommed Zapata a few years ago and kind of burned out. I don’t like the slut shaming and I also started to wonder why any of her heroes were worth waiting for. Most of them act completely indifferent to or even kind of mean to the heroine until like 10 pages from the end when they declare their unending love and everything wraps up. I need more give and take to really be invested.
I struggled with the Hathaway one and never read any others in the series. I read it years ago and how the Romani characters were handled bothered me back then. I doubt those parts would look better with time.
@ Mzcue Jo Walton describes that effect as a visit by the Suck Fairy. It’s particularly common with books read in childhood, where our imaginations filled in a lot of background and detail that wasn’t in the actual narrative. Add the changes in standards and critical reading skills and it can be pretty disappointing.
The Lang book was DNF for me. Instead of getting fonder of the characters, I started to dislike them, and the incident where they start making out in the bathroom of a show house while the agent is elsewhere and actually pull down the shower curtain just did it for me. So disrespectul and thoughtless, and the story wanted me to think it was cute.
I had trouble with the ‘not like other girls’ trope in the Zapata books too. The heroine always seems to be hated by other women who are mean girls and also, just jealous and slutty. It gets tiresome.
I recently re-read one of my favorite Regencies from back in the day, Edith Layton’s THE ABANDONED BRIDE (published in 1985). As I wrote in WAYR, I think the time had passed for the book—especially a scene where the hero slaps the heroine and the overall presentation of a gay character as making selfish decisions that hurt the heroine very badly. I loved the book 30-plus years ago, but the suck fairy had certainly visited that one in the intervening years!
Ι’m not fond of the Hathaways series either apart from the last book (Love in the Afternoon) that I reread often. It has a wonderful heroine who loves animals and I like how the love story develops even though the hero has some alpha tendencies. It deals well with trauma and I always love stories where one part of the couple takes a while to realize their attraction.