Her Secret Life. Tiffany L. Warren. 2017. 320 pages. Kensington Books. [Source: ARC provided couresty of NetGalley.] It’s been awhile since I’ve been so conflicted about a protagonist. To say that I wanted to see Nikki lose isn’t entirely accurate, but I definitely wasn’t rooting for her happily ever after, either. Nikki is portrayed as a flawed, yet persistent woman. I can always understand her choices, even if I didn’t always respect them. Her Secret Life follows Onika “Nikki” Lewis through her young adult years, alternating between her high school graduation and early years of college to her post-graduate mid-twenties. In vivid flashbacks, Warren dredges up painful memories of a drug-addicted mother and grandmother who is too consumed with her daughter’s “sickness” to love and nurture the granddaughter who’s left behind. Nikki’s escape comes in the form of a full scholarship to the prestigious Robinson University in Atlanta, a beacon of excellence for the most promising black scholars. It here where Nikki opts to create a new identity. No longer known as the daughter of the town whore, she vows to become successful and sophisticated.

Madly. Ruthie Knox. 2017. 273 pages. Loveswept. [Source: ARC provided courtesy of NetGalley.] Ruthie Knox has, once again, created a story that snatched me in from the beginning. What’s not intriguing about a young woman jetting off to find and drag her mom back to Wisconsin from New York when she’s disappeared … yet again? The story then follows Allie’s nuanced relationships with her family and the new relationship with Winston, whom she runs into in a bar while spying on her mother. The budding relationship, while significant, actually doesn’t overpower the overarching story about Allie’s search for her mother. There is a great deal of connections between Winston and Allie, which serve to push the story forward in exciting ways. I never completely knew what was going to happen next, and found I was often skeptical when the characters seemed to be certain of what was going on around them.

You Can’t Win them All, Rainbow Fish. Marcus Pfister. 2017. 32 pages. NorthSouth Books. [Source: ARC provided courtesy of NetGalley.] There’s a reason Rainbow Fish is so beloved, and this continuation of the story is a perfect example of why. In You Can’t Win Them All, Rainbow Fish learns an important lesson about sportsmanship and skill. While playing hide and seek with friends, Rainbow Fish is dismayed that he can’t immediately find his friends, and even more disappointed when he is quickly found in his own hiding space. However, with the help of his friends, he begins to understand what it means to sometimes win, sometimes lose, but always have a good attitude toward the game.

The Things We Wish Were True. Marybeth Mayhew Whalen. 2016. 209 pages. Lake Union Publishing. [Source: Kindle First Program.] Have you ever read something that can only be described as being on the tracks when a slow-motion train wreck is about to happen? The constant feeling of “it’s going to happen, I can’t stop it, and it’s going to be really bad” gripped me while I read The Things We Wish Were True, but in the best way. I was compelled to finish reading nearly as soon as I started, and I wasn’t disappointed along the way. On its face, this is a story of a quiet southern town, Sycamore Glen, N.C., where families spend all year looking forward to afternoons spent together at the neighborhood pool. Everything has its place, and everyone knows what to expect. But this town is gilded, and its secrets bubble just below its surface. What is more enticing, however, is the intricate way in which each family’s secrets are intertwined with the others.

Not Quite Perfect. Cathernine Bybee. 2016. 332 pages. Montlake Romance. [Source: ARC provided courtesy of NetGalley.] In full disclosure, I’m a huge fan of the Not Quite Series from Catherine Bybee. Book 5, “Not Quite Perfect,” continues by focusing on psychology Mary Kildare and her strained history relationship with Glen Fairchild — at least, it would be a relationship if either of them would make the first move. There’s plenty of chemistry between them, but Glen’s playboy past makes Mary leery of opening up to him. Add to that the fact that the pilot/co-owner of Fairchild airline lives on the opposite side of the country – there’s enough to give Mary pause than just their antagonistic first impressions. “Not Quite Perfect” did not disappoint. As always, Bybee gives the reader an enticing courtship between intriguing characters. I found myself constantly wondering whether Mary would be her own biggest hurdle to a successful relationship and whether Glen would actually commit to a relationship, rather than a fling.