-
Spoiler Alert
RECOMMENDED: Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade is $2.99! Shana reviewed this one in October and gave it a B+:
Spoiler Alert is tropey wish fulfillment, but at its heart, it is a quiet contemporary with a #couplegoals relationship where both characters offer comfort, create beautiful art, and help each other overcome insecurities. Spoiler Alert is also a love letter to fandoms, that will make you want to chase your romance novel with a shot of fanfiction.
Olivia Dade bursts onto the scene in this delightfully fun romantic comedy set in the world of fanfiction, in which a devoted fan goes on an unexpected date with her celebrity crush, who’s secretly posting fanfiction of his own.
Marcus Caster-Rupp has a secret. While the world knows him as Aeneas, the star of the biggest show on TV, Gods of the Gates, he’s known to fanfiction readers as Book!AeneasWouldNever, an anonymous and popular poster. Marcus is able to get out his own frustrations with his character through his stories, especially the ones that feature the internet’s favorite couple to ship, Aeneas and Lavinia. But if anyone ever found out about his online persona, he’d be fired. Immediately.
April Whittier has secrets of her own. A hardcore Lavinia fan, she’s hidden her fanfiction and cosplay hobby from her “real life” for years—but not anymore. When she decides to post her latest Lavinia creation on Twitter, her photo goes viral. Trolls and supporters alike are commenting on her plus-size take, but when Marcus, one half of her OTP, sees her pic and asks her out on a date to spite her critics, she realizes life is really stranger than fanfiction.
Even though their first date is a disaster, Marcus quickly realizes that he wants much more from April than a one-time publicity stunt. And when he discovers she’s actually Unapologetic Lavinia Stan, his closest fandom friend, he has one more huge secret to hide from her.
With love and Marcus’s career on the line, can the two of them stop hiding once and for all, or will a match made in fandom end up prematurely cancelled?
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! -
Certain Dark Things
Certain Dark Things by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is $2.99! I believe this is a new/updated release with a new cover, which I’m definitely digging. The previously cover was also really beautiful. This is a mix of urban fantasy and horror.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Mexican Gothic comes a pulse-pounding neo-noir that reimagines vampire lore.
Welcome to Mexico City, an oasis in a sea of vampires. Domingo, a lonely garbage-collecting street kid, is just trying to survive its heavily policed streets when a jaded vampire on the run swoops into his life. Atl, the descendant of Aztec blood drinkers, is smart, beautiful, and dangerous. Domingo is mesmerized.Atl needs to quickly escape the city, far from the rival narco-vampire clan relentlessly pursuing her. Her plan doesn’t include Domingo, but little by little, Atl finds herself warming up to the scrappy young man and his undeniable charm. As the trail of corpses stretches behind her, local cops and crime bosses both start closing in.
Vampires, humans, cops, and criminals collide in the dark streets of Mexico City. Do Atl and Domingo even stand a chance of making it out alive? Or will the city devour them all?
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 Highland Fling
The Highland Fling by Meghan Quinn is $1.99 at Amazon! This is a contemporary romance with a grumpy Scottish hero. I’ve always been curious about Quinn’s contemporary romances. Would you recommend them?
In this steamy tale by USA Today bestselling author Meghan Quinn, an American searching for her purpose escapes to a Scottish town but finds more questions than answers when she meets a brooding yet handsome handyman.
Freshly fired from her third job in a row, Bonnie St. James has lost her way. So when she and her best friend stumble upon a “help wanted” post to run a coffee shop in the Scottish Highlands, they apply on a whim. Who knows? Maybe traveling to a new place is just what she needs to figure out her next move.
When the friends arrive in the tiny idyllic town of Corsekelly, they instantly fall for the gorgeous Highland landscape and friendly townspeople. But Bonnie finds a less-than-warm welcome in Rowan MacGregor, the rugged local handyman. Busy wrestling his own demons, Rowan’s in no mood to deal with the quirky American—even if she is a bonny lass.
As Bonnie and Rowan’s paths inevitably cross, insults—and sparks—fly. Can the pair build on their similarities to help each other find purpose and direction…and maybe romance too? Or will their passionate tempers fling them apart?
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! -
Snacking Cakes
RECOMMENDED: Snacking Cakes by Yossy Arefi is $1.99! This is also a Kindle Daily Deal so grab it while you can. I absolutely love this baking book. It’s great for beginners and if you don’t want to buy super specific ingredients for a one time use. I also like the mix and match elements that let you pair cake types with topping types. I made a spice cake roll with vanilla, brown sugar frosting from this and it was so good.
Find sweet satisfaction with 50 easy, everyday cake recipes made with simple ingredients, one bowl, and no fuss.
In Snacking Cakes, the indulgent, treat-yourself concept of cake becomes an anytime, easy-to-make treat. Expert baker Yossy Arefi’s collection of no-fuss recipes is perfect for anyone who craves near-instant cake satisfaction. With little time and effort, these single-layered cakes are made using only one bowl (no electric mixers needed) and utilize ingredients likely sitting in your cupboard. They’re baked in the basic pans you already own and shine with only the most modest adornments: a dusting of powdered sugar, a drizzle of glaze, a dollop of whipped cream.
From Cornmeal Peach Upside-Down Cake and Sweet Potato Cinnamon Sugar Cake to Salted Caramel Peanut Butter Cake and Nutty Pistachio Yogurt Cake, these humble, comforting treats couldn’t be simpler to create. Yossy’s rustic, elegant style combines accessible, diverse flavors in intriguing ways that make them easy for kids to join in on the baking, but special enough to serve company or bring to potlucks. Whether enjoyed in a quiet moment alone with a cup of morning coffee or with friends hungrily gathered around the pan, these ever-pleasing, undemanding cakes will become part of your daily ritual.
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.
I had a reason for picking up ‘Highland Fling’ the last time it was on sale, despite its ‘cannot happen in the real world’ international employment scenario, but only got about 10% in before noping out. The ditzy marginally-competent poor-judgement no-impulse-control person as romance MC (M or F) has never worked for me. (Maybe she gets better?) Also, so much cultural stereotyping. 🙁 I wanted to like it, for reasons, but no.
I’m a sucker for Scottish characters and settings and am pretty good at letting stories carry me away (though I do nope out sometimes). I’m okay with ditzy characters as I have several I know and love in real life and have ditzy times myself. I’d never read a Meghan Quinn before HIGHLAND FLING and after reading this put a bunch more of her work on my TBR. It wasn’t a squee for me, but straddled light, easy-read romance with touches of deeper issues really well. A solid B, maybe even B+ for me.
I’ve been eyeing “Snacking Cakes” for a while but had to cut out gluten completely. Has anyone tried the recipes using gluten-free flour?
I finished ‘Spoiler Alert’ but can’t give it a resounding recommendation. The heroine started out as a strong, confident woman then halfway through the story shifts and she’s this wimpy mess because her parents were concerned about her weight during her childhood and she felt it damaged her emotionally. As someone with obesity running in the family (luck of genetics), and struggles with weight issues, I wanted to fling the book across the room at that point. Surely someone so successful in life would have gone to therapy and learned to deal with everything.
For just once in my life I’d like to read a romance where the woman isn’t a stick thin waif, has a supportive, loving family, is fine with how she looks, and doesn’t lose a bunch of weight by the end of the book to get her significant other. Because the other person loves her just the way she is.
Not sure what changes she made to Certain Dark Things, but I remember her mentioning she had on Twitter. I didn’t get the impression that they were massive changes though.
I second the first commenter, Highland Fling was atrocious. Or at least the main female character was atrocious – not just ‘ditzy’, an actual parody. I’m a sucker for different country settings, and I still only made it maybe 20% before deleting it from my Kindle. I don’t DNF much, but it wasn’t even worth the sale price to get through
I read “Certain Dark Things” with an SFF book club, and the consensus opinion was that it was a disappointment for those of us who enjoyed “Mexican Gothic,” with the worldbuilding concepts being a lot stronger than the execution.
I saw an excellent review for No Strings, Lucy Bexley’s f/f romance. It’s currently on sale for US Kindle readers for 99¢.
@LouiseFromBreese if you’re willing to give her another try, you might like some of Olivia Dade’s other books. Iirc, “40-Love” should meet your criteria 🙂
Love love love Snacking Cakes – as an avid baker that about a year ago moved into a home a with a significantly smaller kitchen (ie no room for my beloved KitchenAid mixer out on the counter), I really appreciate that pretty much all the cakes can be made in one bowl, with either no need for a mixer or for which a basic hand mixer will do. Also, I love that all the recipes are for a basic 8×8 pan, but also include instructions for if you wanted to do a loaf or Bundt instead. Plus, the flavor combos – I would have never thought to grate sweet potato into a cake like you would carrots into a carrot cake, but it is freaking delicious.