The Games We Play. Alexandra Warren. 2018. 247 pages. [Source: Kindle Unlimited.] Chance is only back in his hometown for a brief stint to help his mom remodel what everyone calls her trap house.  The best laid plans often go awry, though, and things get complicated almost immediately.  Londyn is the younger sister of Eric, Chance’s best friend. What they both thought would be a one-time, discreet hook-up, turns into something they both struggle to ignore.   Chance and Londyn have chemistry. They definitely have physical compatibility that sparks flames. But their personalities hit it off, sometimes to a fault. The Games We Play found a good balance of telling the story from both perspectives.  Too often, romance tells a story from just the woman’s perspective, leaving gaps in the plot as well as preventing the reader from connecting fully with the characters. Here, however, you’re able to better understand both Chance and Londyn, including their motivations and hesitations in dealing with each other.  To be fair, there’s enough at play to keep them from dealing with each other seriously.

Before I Let Go. Marieke Nijkamp. 2018. Sourcebooks Fire. 372 pages. [Source: ARC provided courtesy of NetGalley.] Small towns don’t often take kindly to outsiders. Sometimes, they don’t even take kindly to their own. Such is the story of Before I Let Go, which follows Corey as she seeks the truth about the sudden — and suspicious — death of her best friend, Kyra.  Corey grew up in the small town of Lost Creek, Alaska, and was nearly inseparable from Kyra. When Corey’s family moves away, the two girls make a promise to stay connected; while Kyra writes regularly, Corey leaves the letters unanswered. Nonetheless, she’s distraught when she learns just seven months later, that Kyra fell through what is normally a frozen over lake.  In returning to Lost Creek, she can sense that things have changed, but just how far these changes have gone aren’t anything she’s ready for.

  Anonymous Acts. Christina C. Jones. 2017. 364 pages. [Source:Kindle Unlimited.] ​As always, I devoured a great new book from CCJ. I had been reading samples leading up to its release, but was still pleasantly surprised with the plot twists and turns of Anonymous Acts. The book focuses in Monica Stuart’s legal woes, both for her once-thriving cosmetics company and for herself, as she faces murder charges in the death of her estranged husband. As much control as she exerts over the quality of her nail polishes, she can’t figure out why she’s getting nothing but bad reviews for her upcoming “Wicked Widow” line. This is followed, coincidentally, by the vicious murder of her philandering husband, leaving people to guess whether she took her new product line a little too literally. To make matters worse, her virtual friend with benefits, whom she’s never met, is arrested on suspicion of the murder.

Stay With Me. Alexandria House. 2017. 194 pages. Pink Cashmere Publishing. [Source: Kindle Unlimited.] As the first book in the “Strickland Sisters” series, Stay With Me introduces the lively bunch while focusing in on Angela’s most recent foray into romance.  She’s a naturalista turned Youtube starlet, but can’t seem to get it right in her love life.  When the ever-so-gorgeous Ryan Boye rents the vacant half of her duplex for a 6-month business stay, she’s put to the test. Ryan, admittedly, “ain’t shit.” He’s a playboy who has no intentions of settling down, let alone with his short-term landlord. Alas, fate has a funny way of challenging you. Angie and Ryan had an undeniable attraction from the start and their chemistry only grows over time. They do a song-and-dance about not complicating their relationship as landlord-tenant, but that obviously wasn’t going to last.  It didn’t come as a shock that they hooked up, but the question remained about whether they could actually have a functional relationship despite Angie’s insecurities in love and Ryan’s resistance to commitment. 

Heated Harmonies. Alexandra Warren. 2017. [Source: Kindle Unlimited.] A weekend of great reading continued with the release of Heated Harmonies. It’s centered on pop icon Zalaya as she tries to redefine not only her image but also her sound.  She fixes her sights on unknown producer Gabriel, but instead of jumping at a chance at stardom, he wants nothing to do with Zalaya or the music industry. Zalaya is used to getting her way. Being harshly rejected by a “nobody” is a bitter pill to swallow, so she doesn’t. In fact, she’s a bit relentless — if not reckless — in getting Gabe on her musical team. However, in trying to find musical chemistry, they actually find a nice amount of personal chemistry as well.  It really stands out that their “relationship” actually started from platonic (even if it doesn’t always stay that way).