Maybe Baby. Andrea Smith. 2014. 500 pages. Meatball Taster Publishing. [Source: personal copy.] I wanted to like this book, but it fell short in a lot of ways for me. The premise was intriguing for me – Tylar has a strained relationship with a mom who was more interested in her own romantic life than the well-being of her child; her father was never in the picture. Now, she’s on her own and pursuing her dreams in equine science, thanks to a trust fund from her absent dad. She’s working at the Sinclair ranch, which is being run over the summer by tightly-wound Trey Sinclair. Within the first chapter, I began to dislike Tylar. She comes across as incredibly timid to the point of being a push-over (no pun intended). Her youth, both in age and maturity, is shown right off the bat when she chugs a bunch of coolers, plays a drunken game of chicken in the Sinclair pool, and ends up with a concussion. That starts a running theme for me – she’s a borderline alcoholic before the book is even half-way done, and generally seems to have piss-poor judgment in everything she does. Even when I wanted…

Yummy Addictions. Belle Davis. 2015. 145 pages. BD Books. [Source: ARC provided courtesy of NetGalley.] I had so much fun reading Yummy Addictions!  I’m not sure if it was more because of the main characters’ playful, sensual rapport, or the decadence of the Parisienne  vacation the main character is one. Either way, it makes an unfortunately short book more fun to enjoy. Vale is a fun and relatable character.  She’s been burned in the past and has turned over a new leaf in how she looks at herself and her relationships. I feel like I’ve seen parts of her personality and approach to life and love in myself and friends. I also enjoyed how authentic her vacation felt – I was enjoying a French vacation along with her, taking in more common as well as lesser-known destinations. The progression of her relationship with Jason is unexpected, but enticing. I definitely understood her attitude toward him (for better or worse) and caught myself getting excited or apprehensive along with her. I definitely recommend this for a fun, flirty read, and I’m ready to read the rest of this trilogy.

Hideaway Cove. Anna Sullivan. 2014. 316 pages. Forever. [Source: ARC provided courtesy of NetGalley.] I really enjoyed this book, and now I am going back to read the other books in the series. Hideaway Cove is one of those sleepy towns where the townspeople know everyone and the gossip mill is more pervasive than air. While outsiders try to find the heir to a missing millionaire in the sleepy town, the true heir is in life-or-death danger. Jessie just wants to raise her son Benji to be the good man his father wasn’t ready to be. Along the way, Hold is researching her genealogy, as well as the path to her heart. Add in meddling townfolk who have no problem scandalizing Jessie and Hold, and the resurgence of Benji’s father Lance, and you’ve got a recipe for disaster.

Switched. Cassie Mae. 2013. 262 pages. Flirt. [Source: ARC provided courtesy of NetGalley.] Kayla only has eyes for Talon. Too bad he’s in love with her best friend Reagan. Poor Wesley, he wants to be with Reagan. Unrequited love hurts, but it’s also messy with these four. Instead of watching from afar, Kayla and Wesley team up to make their dreams come true … the question is will it actually work. Switched is a fun, messy, and cute love story all wrapped in one.

Yours to Keep. Serena Bell. 2013.  324 pages. Loveswept. [Source: ARC Provided courtesy of NetGalley.] Yours to Keep intrigued me because it had an undocumented woman as its protagonist. This is definitely off the beaten path of what I typically read, so I was excited to see how Ana’s story played out. It is your typical romance in that “boy and girl meet but things can’t work out but they have to because love happens.” However, it does venture into more than that by factoring in Ana’s precarious residency in the United States. At times I felt the plot was predictable, but it didn’t always play out in the timeline nor pacing I expected. That was refreshing because it wasn’t a simple “happily ever after.” It was a bit messy at times, and had peripheral stories that were just as engaging to me as the courtship of Ana and Ethan. To the author’s credit, she did highlight some of the nuances of life for undocumented families. The concerns about identification to do something that so many take for granted was humanizing.