The Boss (Managing the Bosses, #1) by Lexy Timms Review

This is a spoiler-free review! 

I have read a few books by Timms, including Banking on Him and Gambler.

Our female lead has one of the nastiest book families that I have come across. Jamie's sister is engaged to her ex-boyfriend... need I say more? Her mother and sister are essentially vultures, circling and hovering over her at every second of the day, complaining that she has a new job when her sister is getting married in six months. Absolutely insane to see them hound on her and treat her new job as an inconvenience to them, as they expect Jamie to drop everything to help out with the wedding, and by help out, I mean organize the entire celebration.

Jamie's ex, Stephen, is a little rat, plain and simple. He was dating Jamie and then hopped right on over to Christine without a second thought, and now every time he comes in contact with Jamie, he acts like a total creep. Christine is too lost in her own ego to see that Stephen does not care about her, and is so obsessed with insulting Jamie at every chance, that she completely deprives herself of a personality. Stephen lurks around like a snake and pops up at every event like someone said his name three times in a mirror.

When Jamie is introduced to Stephen's old friend Alex, she has the chance to get away from her toxic family and be independent. Alex being a billionaire and a decent human being... now those are just the perks. Becoming Alex's personal assistant that is at his beck and call twenty-four hours a day may take a toll on her, but it is definitely the best thing to happen to Jamie that lets her get away from her horrible family members. Alex is kind and understanding, while still being able to put his foot down and defend people when the time calls for it -- which unfortunately for Jamie, tends to be a lot.

There is just a touch of spice in this book and the author clearly states that it is not erotica, which is certainly the case. Clocking in at just under two hundred pages, this short introduction to the series allows readers to get to know Jamie and Alex without throwing them together in the first chapter. I wish Jamie was able to stand up for herself more, because it became increasingly more difficult to defend her train of thought as she let her family members berate her every single chapter.

Not a super big fan of the ending -- I understand that books end on cliffhangers, but when the chapter ended, I was sure that my copy must be missing pages. The book basically cuts off after one event and readers are expected to pick up the next installment, when book one and book two could probably be fused together to make one typical-length romance novel. I finished this book in about thirty-five minutes... that should give you enough context on how short the story is, and it left me feeling unsatisfied.

If you are looking for a quick chic lit book to read in between lengthier books, this book may be the fun filler you need to get you back on track with your reading goal. It was entertaining for about thirty pages, but the constant harassment from Jamie's family members had me praying for this book to be over. I may return to this series if the second installment is available for free, but for now, this chapter is closed.

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Coming Home (Boston Billionaires, #1) by Samantha Sky Review

This is a spoiler-free review!

I am a sucker for interconnected standalone books, so when I saw the first two books in the Boston Billionaire series available for free on iBooks, I knew I had to download them. It has been awhile since I have dived into an interconnected standalone, but the premise of this first installment had me intrigued -- what is so mysterious about Scarlett's past? Why is Shaun so drawn to her?

Shaun and Scarlett's age gap is slightly larger than Christian and Ana's from Fifty Shades of Grey, but nonetheless is okay with me since Scarlett is twenty-three years old. Scarlett is put off by their age difference at first, but lasts about two chapters before throwing that train of thought out the window and throwing herself into his arms. Shaun is immediately infatuated with Scarlett when he notices her on a flight to Boston, and as fate has it, they continue to run into each other and Shaun becomes even more desperate to learn more about her.

The chapters move pretty quickly and with dual perspectives, the plot moves just as fast. Scarlett's chapters seems to focus mostly on her trying to overcome her traumatic past as she finds herself in a new country, and Shaun's chapters are full of him batting off women as he basically stalks Scarlett every chance that he gets.

I enjoyed the romantic thriller aspect to this book -- it reminded me a lot of the plot of Fifty Shades Darker in the sense that there was more to the story than Shaun and Scarlett's relationship and occasional spicy chapter. It definitely picks up plot-wise about two thirds of the way through the book, and I found that the story was more cohesive once the plot became more thrilling. As interesting as Scarlett and Shaun's relationship was becoming, I was starting to get a little bored after reaching the halfway mark.

The side characters made Shaun's character a touch more interesting, but after finishing the book, I still feel as though we did not get to learn about him or his past. He mentioned a few details to Scarlett here and there, but his character could have used some more development. Shaun's character felt a little one-dimensional, not to mention the fact that he basically was stalking Scarlett until he could actually have a conversation with her. I am all for a dark romance stalking plot line, but this was not the book or the genre for it. 

On the other hand, Scarlett had a decent amount of character development and was more intriguing to read about compared to her leading man. However, her thought process continues to slightly irritate me as the story moved on -- she did not sound like a twenty-three year old, but rather still sounded like a high schooler at many points during the book. Shaun is no better, as a man in his mid-thirties, he still thinks like a frat boy when it comes to women, and of course the second he sees Scarlett, he matures ten years.

This book definitely had potential to be really intriguing, and if Shaun had been more mysterious, I think it could have been a very exciting read. Coming Home falls short to make me fall in love with its leading characters, which is unfortunate because the book has a lot of promise, it could just use some touching up. The spicier scenes were short and felt as though they were thrown in there to make the story more romantic, but it just felt like a more PG-13 rated Hallmark movie. 

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Escort by Skye Warren Review

This is a spoiler-free review!

My enjoyment of browsing the free book section on iBooks will continue to make me put off my own TBR pile for a new read at least once a month, and Escort is no exception. Told from Hugo's point of view, we see the perspective of a male escort as he comes in contact with Bea, a young woman who is not the typical clientele to hire an escort.

If you watched Toy Boy or Diary of a Giglio on Netflix, this quick standalone will be right up your alley. This book would make such a fun Passionflix adaptation, especially since it is few and far between that we get to see the male escort perspective in romance novels. I am not a super big fan of first-person perspective, but I was pleasantly surprised on how much I enjoyed reading Hugo's story. The way he views himself and the way he slowly allows Bea to become a presence in his life was well-incorporated throughout the book.

Bea is a shy twenty-something that lives alone in a very large penthouse when she hires Hugo for the night -- she is not the typical penthouse resident, with a quiet personality and well-lived in furniture, Hugo is immediately intrigued. Warren does a pretty decent job of giving us a look inside Hugo's thoughts as he begins to meet with Bea over time, especially when it comes to linking his present job to his childhood past. While we are only given Hugo's point of view, the author was able to capture a lot of Bea's emotions through Hugo's eyes.

Hugo's past was interesting to get into and certainly moved the story forward regarding why he does what he does, but it came to the point where I no longer wanted to read about his past, and wanted the story to move on with him and Bea. Their mutual connection provided somewhat of a plot point to the story and a wedge in their relationship, but it was resolved so quickly I thought I imagined it myself.

Both of the leads are gentle in their own ways, and even though they are very much opposites of each other, they compliment one another very well, and it was a couple that I was rooting for from the beginning. I enjoyed how their dynamic slowly began to form and emerge the longer they knew each other, and their characters each had their own development that was not just for their partner, but for themselves.

There were a few things here and there that could have been left out of the book to make more room for Bea and Hugo's growing relationship, but overall the story pieced together nicely. I do wish it was a touch longer, especially as a standalone, because I felt like I was left hanging at the end. A few more chapters would have done their story well, especially because we only saw some glances of Bea and Hugo's relationship. I would have loved to see more of Hugo's friends to be quite honest -- they seemed interesting enough that I would read books about them if this was an interconnected standalone series, but alas it is not.

I would not go as far to say that this qualifies as erotica -- it is pretty tame spice compared to other romance books, and has just enough scenes to make it interesting but not push it over the edge. This was a fun and quick read, but I expected a little more from the story than what was given. If you are looking for a somewhat spicy fluff romance, then this is definitely the read for you.

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The Summer I Turned Pretty (Summer, #1) by Jenny Han Review

This is a spoiler-free review!

As a preface, I have seen both seasons of The Summer I Turned Pretty on Prime Video before reading this book, so I knew what I was getting myself into from the start. I still cannot get over the fact that our main character's nickname is Belly -- if that was me and someone decided that Isabel needed to be shortened to Belly, I would go insane. 

I am a Team Conrad girlie for life -- no amount of convincing could ever make me change my mind and end up rooting for Jeremiah. That boy is always up to something and only became interested in Belly when he realized that Conrad was into her, because he has this weird urge to one up Conrad on getting into a relationship with Belly, even though it is obvious that Conrad has been in love with her for years.

Jeremiah is one of the most pick-me boys I have read in fiction, neck in neck with Mal from Shadow and Bone, and continued to annoy me throughout the entire book. He never really looked after Belly, he would only become protective after Conrad would protect her. He and Belly may have had one or two semi-cute moments, but they were brief and I spent the entire time begging them to end. He was more oblivious and not present in the book compared to season one of the show in my opinion -- I actually enjoyed him more in the show.

Taylor throughout her time in the book was something so incredibly agitating to me and it was solely because she was giving me whiplash every other page. One minute she is telling Belly that she likes Conrad, and then two chapters later she is completely over that and now is interested in Jeremiah. It felt irrelevant to have her mention to Belly that she was interested in both of the boys, especially when it was obvious that Belly was definitely struggling with her feelings.

I high-key felt bad for Cam throughout the entire book -- he could tell that Belly was not really into him as much as she was into Conrad, and the way that she treated him was more like a placeholder than a boyfriend. Belly may have been battling her emotions over Conrad and Jeremiah, but she basically used Cam as a pawn during the summer to make them jealous and then continued to deny it for nearly three months.

The "flashback" chapters definitely aided the story's development regarding helping readers understand how Belly felt about the boys since she was younger, but I found myself getting bored of essentially reading the same scenario of how she would feel left out when Steven, Jeremiah, and Conrad would exclude her from things, only to have Jeremiah or Conrad find her later and "make up" for it with a two minute conversation. I wish we got to see more summer romance in the second half of the book with either of the boys (preferably Conrad) rather than Cam, but I can imagine that will be in store for the rest of the series.

It was incredibly obvious that Conrad was really going through something, and even though Belly acknowledges to herself multiple times, she still treated him horribly when she did not get her way. She basically expects him to confess his undying love for her just because she finally decided that she was ready to acknowledge her feelings after nearly six years of falling for him.

Belly seemed to exchange all of her brain cells to get tan over the summer, because that girl was not using a drop of common sense the entire book, and she sounded very self-centered for the majority of the story, making her as a main character insufferable at times. There was so much back and forth with Belly on who she liked... Jeremiah in one chapter and then Conrad two pages later because he glanced at her for two seconds... back to Jeremiah because he wanted to go to the boardwalk too... Belly girl, stand up!!!

This is a super quick read that is perfect to get you back into that summer mindset as we make our way further into fall. It certainly was a good choice to read over a rainy weekend, and it was a light read that can pull you out of a reading slump. I was a big fan of the To All the Boys I've Loved Before trilogy back in high school, so it was nice to revisit a fun little romance.

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Cruel Beginnings: A Blackmore University Prequel by Cora Kent Review

This review contains spoilers fro Cruel Beginnings.

A super quick read clocking in at under forty pages, this novella sets up for the first installment of the Blackmore University series, Cruel Intentions, with Kaye and Xavier's story. I downloaded this on Stuff Your Kindle day and did not even realize the page count was that of a short story, but I have been in a reading slump for nearly two weeks and needed something to get me back into the groove of things.

When Xavier returns home from France, he finds his parents fighting over the fact that his father is leaving her for another woman, a client nonetheless, that he helped get a divorce from an abusive man. His father gives him the choice to move in with his new girlfriend and her daughter, but Xavier is anything but excited by the prospect. After showing up to this woman's house, he causes a scene and his father quite literally knocks some sense into him, really adopting the "these hands are rated E for everyone" lifestyle by punching his own son. Ridiculous.

You can tell that tensions are going to be high for the rest of the series, especially between Xavier and his father, but most importantly between Kaye and Xavier. He really has set his eyes on this new person in his life, essentially just collateral damage in his wave of destruction to retaliate against his father. I do wish that this novella was a touch longer and covered a little more on Kaye -- we learn a lot about Xavier in this short installment, but barely get to know anything about Kaye except for her age and a little backstory on her mother.

Xavier is about to start college and well, Kaye... is fifteen. Nothing happens between them in this novella that is more than a kiss, but this series is definitely leaning on the more taboo side of romance. Right off the bat, Xavier wants nothing to do with Kaye and her mother -- after all, her mother is the reason that his parents are divorcing. He essentially makes it his mission in this prequel to tell Kaye that he is going to make her life as complicated as possible because of what her mother has done.

This prequel definitely has me intrigued on what happens next in Cruel Intentions, and I may find myself revisiting this series in the future. If you are a fan of bully romances, I would recommend the Saint View High series by Elle Thorpe and The Dare by Harley LaRoux.

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