On this week's episode of Where I Left Off - A Bookish Podcast, I recommend romance novels to get you in the Valentine's spirit. This is the Valentine's Day special, so there won't be any thrillers mentioned in this episode. Don't forget to check your local library first to find any of the titles talked about.
Newsletters:
Sweet Romances:
Romances With a Punch:
For links to the books discussed in this episode, click the link here to take you to the Google Doc to view the list.
For episode feedback, future reading and author recommendations, you can text the podcast by clicking the "Send us a message button" above.
For more, follow along on Instagram @whereileftoffpod.
On this week's episode of Where I Left Off - A Bookish Podcast, I recommend romance novels to get you in the Valentine's spirit. This is the Valentine's Day special, so there won't be any thrillers mentioned in this episode. Don't forget to check your local library first to find any of the titles talked about.
Newsletters:
Sweet Romances:
Romances With a Punch:
For links to the books discussed in this episode, click the link here to take you to the Google Doc to view the list.
For episode feedback, future reading and author recommendations, you can text the podcast by clicking the "Send us a message button" above.
For more, follow along on Instagram @whereileftoffpod.
I'm Kristen Bahls and you're listening to Where I Left Off a Bookish Podcast. Welcome to the Valentine's Day episode. So this will release before Valentine's Day, so that way you can borrow from your library or go and buy some of the romance novels that I'm going to discuss here today to kind of get you in the Valentine's Day spirit. And they're all romance novels because this is the Valentine's Day episode. So if you were expecting something different, I am sorry, tune in the next time. I feel like I keep saying that. I'll stop talking about romance eventually. I'll add in something else eventually and, like I said, I have been reading other genres. They are coming soon.
Kristen Bahls:I honestly am reading too many books at once. I'm reading, like I don't know, six or seven, I think, right now. I mean it's a combo of, of course, like physical books, my Kindle and audiobooks, but still it's kind of a lot to keep track of all at once. And speaking of trying to keep track of it all at once, I'm not doing the best job. You will have probably already heard by now on the Love Theoretically episode that I did with Paige as my special guest. I got the male main character's name wrong, Jack. I could not. I don't know. I called Jack, Theo for Love Theoretically, and I know that I was actually thinking of Noelle and Theo in You with the View, and not Jack and Elsie in Love Theoretically. But anyway, it's because I'm reading so many books at once I can't keep everything straight and I mean, does anyone really actually remember the character's names most of the time whenever they finish a book. Probably not, but it was a great reminder to myself just to say, hey, you need to take a step back and you need to say no to something and take something off your plate. So if you are also like me and you have a lot on your plate right now and you're kind of feeling like you're just being pulled in every direction ever, maybe this is your sign to say no to something. And I know that that seems really rich coming from me.
Kristen Bahls:But I have actually said no to two things this week. I said no to two responsibilities this week and for me that's pretty great. Because I'm always thinking that something is going to be like the next big opportunity and if I say no, then I'm going to miss out on it and I don't know. That's just kind of like my thought process. So that's why I have a really hard time saying no. I mean, that's one of the reasons why I have a really hard time saying no. But I have said no to things and I'm trying not to pick up new books buying or just picking them up to read before I finish the books and I'm reading, trying to accomplish something, and I'm going to have a lot of guests on the podcast as well coming up soon, and so I'm reading their books or books that we're going to talk about, so that's kind of a little sneak peek. So, yeah, that's why I have so many books on the docket at the moment and it's really fun, but it's kind of overwhelming. So I'm trying to keep reading fun and stay enjoying it and not spread myself so thin to where then I can't even keep up with the main characters, first names. So that is kind of my where I'm at over here. But I was following I follow a lot of the authors on Instagram because, like I said, that's where you can get the best stuff and you probably already know about it. But if you weren't following her on Instagram you may not know, so I have to tell you about it.
Kristen Bahls:B. K. Borison is coming out with a new book. So a little recap on B. K. She wrote the Love Light Farm series. Love Light Farms is the first one, In the Weeds is the second one and Mixed Signals is the third. And then this summer I think in June sometime she has her next book coming out, the last one in the Love Light series, Business Casual. But she just released that she is talking about her next book. That's going to be written in 2025, early 2025 is what she said on her Instagram, and it's not in the Love Light series. But she put a little teeny, tiny sneak peek that I'm going to read to you because I'm super excited for this book. Okay, here's what she said on her Instagram.
Kristen Bahls:Hello and welcome to Heartstrings Baltimore's romance hotline. I'll be your host, Aiden Valentine. It's like a call in radio show love radio show. It is so cute. I love. Oh, wow, my voice got really high. I was just looking at my audio levels there, yikes. Okay, I'm really excited for this. I think it's going to be a great departure from Love Light. Not that I don't really enjoy Love Light. Love Light is like a hug in a book. So if you want to hug in a book I'm not even mentioning it on this episode technically. But go read some of the Love Light Farms books. They're really well written.
Kristen Bahls:B. K. is a really strong writer.
Kristen Bahls:I just like her choices.
Kristen Bahls:I like her writing style.
Kristen Bahls:She's very descriptive, she's very flowy. It's just nice reading her books. So I'm interested to hear something a little bit different from Love Light, and this sounds like a really incredible plot line. I love anything that's like radio or broadcast or journalism or television, like behind the scenes related, because of course that's my thing, that's my degree. So that's the kind of stuff that I love, and so this plot line is really resonating with me and I am totally going to pre-order this book. I can already guarantee and I've actually pre-ordered several books since my last episode it's bad, I need to stop. I really need to stop buying books. But I don't know, it's kind of almost become a habit at this point and with the pre-orders you're like I'm gifting myself something later. So later on, I'm going to be so happy that I bought that book for myself, whenever it comes in, and yeah, so we'll see if I still feel that way when I can't fit anything on my bookshelf. But another fun thing I wanted to talk about in addition to B. K's new book. Oh, it's called First Time Caller. I can't remember if I said that, but yes, the title she said is called First Time Caller. So I'm looking forward to that, definitely going to pre-order.
Kristen Bahls:Guess what things that you can get now that are not a full book are some newsletters. So authors have like a lot of authors have newsletters. You may already know this, I may be completely late to the game on this, but all these authors have newsletters and I like them because it's like a way to get their writing style without having to wait for them to publish a full novel or a short, even a short story, and you just get to hear their voice and their writing, and half the time they give like recommendations about things that they like, and they also have been like leaking extended chapters of their books that are only available if you get the newsletter, and so that's the first person that I'm talking to you about.
Kristen Bahls:You know how much I love Sarah Adams at this point. you You it should almost be embarrassing how much I talk about her, her books, but I just love them. So I have to talk about him more. So, on Sarah Adams newsletter she just released, like I don't know for me at this time of recording. I think it was like this past week that she released an extended deleted scene from The Cheat Sheet.
Kristen Bahls:And if you know me, you know that The Cheat Sheet and Practice Makes Perfect are my two favorites Sarah Adams novels. I need to reread The Cheat Sheet because I have reread Practice Makes Perfect. I feel like Practice Makes Perfect might be my favorite, just by by a hair, but oh, I don't know. I feel like The Cheat Sheet is just right up with it. So, anyway, there's a deleted scene and it's really good and it's multiple pages and it comes in on a PDF as soon as you sign in. And I think I already said before. But there's also like a bonus extra epilogue kind of thing from Practice Makes Perfect where it goes through Will and Annie's honeym oon and then I'm pretty sure that there's also I think there's another chapter From When in Rome too, if I'm not mistaken, and I haven't even read that one yet. What am I doing? And they're only a couple pages long. But it's just nice to kind of get a glimpse of the characters because, like I said, it doesn't feel like when you close the book they're gone. You know, you're, you get to hear a little bit more of their voice from it. So if you're not already, just subscribe to Sarah Adams newsletter. You'll thank me later.
Kristen Bahls:And another amazing newsletter that I wanted to throw out there is Alexa Martin. So Alexa Martin wrote Next Door Nemesis, which I also talk about ad nauseum. I know I talk about a lot of these books and it's okay. Actually, Sarah and Alexa are both in my recommendations today. Go and follow Alexa Martin's newsletter. I love it. It brings me so much joy.
Kristen Bahls:Like I said, her writing style it's so punchy, it's so witty. I already love reading anything that she writes. Oh gosh, I'm trying to remember there was some book that I was reading that was saying like you love an author so much that you would read their grocery list. I kind of feel like that's what these newsletters are. It's basically like their conscious thoughts that they want to give us and like recommendations, and you get to know more about them as a person through these newsletters. So I think that's why I like them so much. But Alexa Martin always brightens my day. She gives a lot of recommendation. She even gets like recipes at the bottom of hers. You really get a variety of different things. I think she normally talks about what she's listening to and, yeah, I really enjoy it.
Kristen Bahls:But the amazing thing that she just started. So okay, she just started this thing. It's a series called the Real Housewives Real Housewives of Romancelandia and so there's this fictional Romance landia, and you know all the romance authors are on it and she basically got popular romance authors like Denise Williams, Sarah Adams and there are so many more of them to write taglines, just like Real Housewives, and I was smiling at my phone like an absolute idiot because they were 20 million times better than anything that has ever been written as a tagline on that franchise. I loved them. I loved them. It was amazing and so more to come. I've only seen the newsletter with the tagline, so I'm pretty sure they haven't really got into it, but I cannot wait to follow this series and it's literally from an email newsletter, but it brings just as much joy as if she would have released a new book. And you get to see like kind of who, which authors are friends with each other and their interactions and it's hilarious. So I am so excited.
Kristen Bahls:I'm linking both of their newsletters in the show notes. So just make sure that you subscribe. Do yourself a favor. You get so much extra content and it's free. There's not a cost associated with both of their newsletters. I mean, I'm sure there is if you wanted to get a specific tier or something, but as far as I know, they're free. I've been on the free version of both of their newsletters and I've gotten immense value from both. So this is my PSA to follow Alexa Martin and Sarah Adams newsletters. Go ahead and just sign up for them and any author that you love. Check and see if they have a newsletter, because it's just hilarious to get to see, I don't know, like the recommendations, what they think their little writing style. It, I don't know, it brings me a lot of joy. So if you want some joy in your inbox, go check and see if your favorite authors have a newsletter. Now we're actually getting into the Valentine's Day recommendations. So I have a lot. I'm starting, okay. So I kind of broke them up into two categories where it's like sweet and swoony romances, like what you think of when everything could Valentine's Day, and then I have some romances that pack a punch in the second half. So if you want something that's maybe not quite as sweet and packs a little bit more punch, then I have that for you as well.
Kristen Bahls:With all of these books, it's a combination of books that I have talked about before and books that I have not talked about before. I did read a couple specifically for this episode, so you will hear some titles that you haven't heard before. All that to say, if it is a book that I have talked about before, I am actually just going to tell you the subtropes of it, so that way, I'm not saying the same things that I said before and going into the entire plot summary that I wrote. I just gave you like little sub tropes. This is what you're going to get from this book and, of course, I just may kind of gush about it a little bit in general, but all these books are so good and I feel like I'm almost having to scream it from the rooftops. Read these books, put them at the top of your TBR.
Kristen Bahls:If you like any of my suggestions and you think that we have similar reading preferences, just try it. This is also how I got Paige to read Practice Makes Perfect. I just, I kept, I kept at it, I kept at it and she, she did, she read it and she loved it, and now she loves Sarah Adams. So I feel like I should just be Sarah Adams' marketing team. I can be half these authors marketing teams. I can just hype them up all day. Their books are so good and they bring a lot of joy. So all of these recommendations, just just do yourself a favor and get them. Just get them.
Kristen Bahls:Okay, starting off with our first sweet and swoony romance I have and I don't know if I've talked about this on the podcast before. Have I said it in passing or have I actually broken it down? I don't know. So I did break this first one down a little bit more, because I just really can't remember how much I've talked about it. I think all of the episodes are just starting to blur together in my brain at this point and I I don't know, and I've had so many conversations with people about books also that I can't keep up. So Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez is awesome. It is a really great book. I would say it's one of my top favorites that I read last year. I read some amazing books last year in the romance category, but this one is definitely at the top, towards the top, like it's. It's on level with the top. Okay, so I was trying to describe. I'm sorry, I'm going off on another tangent here, so I'm just going to have to talk a lot today, I guess.
Kristen Bahls:But whenever I rate a book, five stars, I okay. So here's how I consider it. It says if I am in charge of a pro football team and my five star reads are my starters, they're who I'm going to recommend to anyone and everyone. They're the books that I'm just going to constantly give out If someone's asking to borrow a book from me in the romance category. They are, they're just my starters, they're my go-tos. I'm never going to forget the main characters. For the most part, well, okay, I may forget their names. I'm never going to forget the titles or the authors of the books and I'm just always going to recommend them they're, just without a doubt. Amazing in every way, shape or form, no matter your reading preferences. And then those four stars, like they may not be the starters, but they're still on the team, so they still made the pro team. They're there, they're getting paid, they're getting playing time sometimes, because I will still lend them out and I'll talk about them and I'll say how good they are. They're just not quite starters. So that's kind of where Yours Truly is. Yours Truly is a starter. It is fantastic.
Kristen Bahls:Love this book and it's by Abby Jimenez and it has fake dating in there. It has the most adorable love notes that they pass back and forth and it does have a very strong female lead. So your main character, Dr. Brianna and Dr., or Dr . Brianna Briana and Dr. Jacob. And Brianna she's newly divorced. She also feels responsible for trying to find a kidney donor for her brother who is in kidney failure and she's not in the best place right now. So whenever Dr. Jacob does come to the hospital, they pretty much get off to a rocky start and Jacob ends up sending her like a note to apologize and puts it on her little desk at her doctor's station office thing, and it's to apologize and it ends up turning into them, putting notes on each other's desk and kind of like passing these love notes almost throughout their shifts. I mean, obviously they turn into love notes and he ends up needing her to fake date him and the rest is really history.
Kristen Bahls:I'm purposefully leaving out so many other little plot points because I just didn't want to give anything away and if I started saying one thing that yeah, then it would lead to another. So please read it, just trust me, just read it. Yours Truly, Abby Jimenez, that's the first on my sweet and swoony romances. It does start out to wear their adversaries a little bit, but it's so brief that I still considered it more sweet and swoony because of all the adorable little like love notes that they passed back and forth. So that is recommendation number one.
Kristen Bahls:Recommendation Number two in the sweet and swoony category we have The Cheat Sheet by Sarah Adams. No one's surprised to see this on my list, but The Cheat Sheet it's fake dating. Okay, I classify this as fake dating. It is, they are, they are. For a little bit it doesn't seem as like heavy of a fake dating trope as maybe some of the other ones do, but technically they are fake dating.
Kristen Bahls:And this is a friends to lovers story. And then also it's a story between two athletes. Bree, the main character, is a dancer and then a football player. So you actually have both of them are athletes, pro football player and dancer. Bree's not a dancer anymore because she got injured, but she does own her own dance studio and she does dance at her own dance studio and choreographs. So even though she may not be a professional dancer, that's actually like dancing and shows. She does still dance and she is still a professional and she owns her own studio. So story between two athletes, I love this. I just love this one it's it could just be made into a movie tomorrow.
Kristen Bahls:And with all of Sarah Adams books I feel like I've said this before, but if you haven't tuned in, you got to hear it. So the way that Sarah Adams writes and this is how she's kind of described her own writing style is that she writes for what she needs, so she doesn't have like third act breakups and anxiety inducing third act breakups or miscommunications or anything crazy like everything is a little bit softer. It's just not so intense. Again, it's like a hug in a book. It's like a hug in a book, but it still packs the punch because there's always such great banter between all of the characters. She creates really interesting, intriguing characters that play so well off each other and, like I said, this could be a romcom tomorrow. It's that well written. The pacing always moves great in her novels. So what she lacks in third act breakups and random spice, she makes up for in banter, character development, plot development and everything else which we know. I don't like third act breakups, so I really appreciate that she does not include them in her novels.
Kristen Bahls:The cheat sheet is amazing. I feel like everyone goes for Practice Makes Perfect, which, yes, is a fantastic book, but do not forget about The Cheat Sheet. The Cheat Sheet is fantastic and after having read a few more sports romances, they can be really intense. This one is not. This one is like the perfect level, and by intense I mean they can have a lot of spice. So if you're looking for, you know, a sports romance that doesn't have an insane amount of spice, that would be this one. This is technically closed door, so the spice level on this one is going to be low. And I think I forgot to say the spice level.
Kristen Bahls:On Yours Truly, there's a little bit. It's open door. I'm trying to think of how I would, how I would rate it on the scale. I don't know. I'm kind of blanking right now on Yours Truly. It's been a second since I've read it, but Yours Truly is open door, The Cheat Sheet and Practice Makes Perfect by Sarah Adams, are closed door, which leads me into my next one, Practice Makes Perfect by Sarah Adams. So Practice Makes Perfect
Kristen Bahls:It is actually the second book in the When in Rome series. So When in Rome is the first book. This one's the second. I read Practice Makes Perfect first, before I read When in Rome, and I'm fine with doing it that way If you really want to. Yeah, you might get a small spoiler, but it's not that shocking because they're both romances, so you kind of know who's probably going to get together. So I didn't feel like I had anything just vastly ruined for me by reading Practice Makes Perfect first, and I like Practice Makes Perfect better. I still do like When in Rome. It is still a good book. I just loved Practice Makes Perfect. There's just something about that book that just gets me every time. So Practice Makes Perfect is my favorite, but it is technically number two in the when in Rome series. Oh, and then I forgot to mention The Cheat Sheet that I just talked about. I'm sorry. I'm trying not to go back and forth, but with The Cheat Sheet, the, it is the first book in the series. And then The Rule Book, which is coming out in April, is the second book in the series. And again, with Practice Makes Perfect, it's the second book in the series. And the first book in the series is When in Rome. So Practice Makes Perfect has opposites attract.
Kristen Bahls:There is it's okay, it's kind of fake dating. It's more like date coaching. But they do go on practice dates around town and everyone assumes they're dating when at that point they are not, and so I would basically consider that fake dating. It's like maybe fake dating, adjacent slash, slightly fake dating. Also, it happens in a small town and there's forced proximity and then you have grumpy and sunshine and you also have some emotional scars.
Kristen Bahls:Yes, I did Google like romance tropes before I made this episode while I was researching. So those are all the tropes you're going to find in P ractice Makes Perfect. Just read it. Same with The Cheat Sheet. Just read it. You'll thank me later.
Kristen Bahls:And last in the sweet and swoony category is It's a Date Again by Jeneva Rose and this is her debut romance novel. You may recognize her name for all the thrillers that she has written. I'm actually listening to one of her thrillers right now and it's taking me on a bit of a wild ride, so I will be able to update you that on, update you on that soon. But this one has three different tropes that I can remember. So it has amnesia slash mistaken identity. There's second chance she has to date all the guys again after she gets her injury. She basically has an injury where she gets hit by a car and then she has amnesia and she was on her way to tell someone that she loved him and she doesn't know who that is. And three different guys claim to be her boyfriend but she doesn't know which one she was telling that she loved, telling them that she loved, and so she has to date them all again and the supporting characters are just as great as the main characters and it's amazing. And there's a marriage pact in there for another sub trope.
Kristen Bahls:There are a lot of tropes in here, but they kind of like makes fun of itself. Yeah, there are several times where it almost kind of makes fun of itself and it's like why are there so many romance tropes in here? So, anyway, the way that it's written is really really well done. I feel like all of these books yeah, honestly all the books in the sweet and swoony category, really all the books probably in this episode in general could be written into a romcom tomorrow and I think they would be fantastic. So you know, they need to take note. Hollywood needs to take note. They need to put these into some romcoms. We haven't had good romcoms in a while. It's few and far between for modern romcoms right now. We need to come back, take some of these amazing books, just make them into romcoms and make us happy. Come on, why not? So that is my. That is my list of sweet and swoony romances.
Kristen Bahls:Next I'm going to give you some romances with a punch, which normally tend to be my favorite, and I love the first section of this podcast. I love all of those recommendations, but I also love a punch. I like banter. I like enemies to lovers or friends to lovers, where you know they just already have that the like comfortable relationship with each other because they know each other already and it's not so much of a do you like me? Do I like you? I don't know. So that's why I really love the romances with the punch. I tend to read stuff with the punch, especially when I'm reading so many romances lately. Like I said, I had to do some research for this episode and I think I've just burned myself out of romances really bad, and so the ones that stood out were the ones with a punch, that didn't feel like they were 99.9% like romance novel. I need a punch.
Kristen Bahls:Speaking of a punch, this is a book I have not talked about before and I will get into it more in the future, in a future currently reading episode, but this book is so good. Okay, it's called Exes and O's by Amy Lea, and oh, it's so good. I'm just smiling already. I love it. Oh, okay, let me tell you a little bit more about the plot summary that I wrote so far. I would like to preface it with I am not done with this book. I am over halfway, I do believe, but I have not finished it yet. So here is my plot synopsis from reading the first half. It was a larger book than I thought. I think it was like over 300 pages. Of course, like all of these are around 300. So this is what it's about.
Kristen Bahls:Tara takes over the lease of her best friend's significant others apartment, which means that her new roommate is an attractive firefighter named Trevor who has a phobia of committed relationships, and Tara is a nurse by day and a social media influencer by night. And when she has her grandma on her show to talk about her adorable love story, she ends up getting the idea to re date all of her ex boyfriends and she is just absolutely convinced that one of them is the one that got away. And Trevor is dragged along for the ride and, reluctantly, he does give her some dating advice along the way. So can Tara find a boyfriend in time for the Valentine's Day formal at work? Oh no, you're gonna have to read to find out. I'm gonna have to read to find out because I am not done with this book.
Kristen Bahls:But Tara's personality is amazing. It's just. She's so different from all of the other characters I've read lately. And she describes herself okay, I'm gonna try to get this right. I'm not quoting the book exactly and I'm trying to get this as close as I can, but she described herself as like the over eager dad on a trampoline that jumps on the wrong part of the trampoline and falls through and she is very, that is, she's very I wouldn't say loud like she. Just she has really strong feelings about everything. Over eager, I think that's how she described herself in the book very over eager. I would say that that's the truth. It is just hilarious to hear because she's the main character and so she's kind of narrating through. It's a narrative of her and so you get to hear her inner most thoughts and feelings, of course, and it's just hilarious to see how she like reasons things out and she's over eager, she's talkative and she just doesn't. She cannot chill at all. And it is so hilarious.
Kristen Bahls:I was actively trying not to laugh when I was sitting in the allergist office Because of course I bring a book and you know when you're in, like a doctor's office, and it is just completely silent and everyone's just waiting for you know their shot time to be over. I was trying so hard not to laugh and I was smiling like an absolute idiot at this book. I'm pretty sure that everyone thought I was a complete loony tune because I was just smiling at my book because it was so hilarious. I mean, I'm just laughing like every other page, literally every other page. So that's just how amazing this book is. And I'm not even finished with it. But I love it.
Kristen Bahls:And, like I said, I think I'm slightly sick of rom-coms because I've been reading too many contemporary romances. I need a break. But this did not get lost in the shuffle shuffle. This is an amazing book. I can't say that enough. Please just go read Exes and O's. You've probably seen the cover, so just take a chance on it. It is so hilariously funny. You will love it, absolutely love it. I am. Next, on my romance with a punch.
Kristen Bahls:This is a short story and I've teased this a little bit before whenever I was talking about them before they released and they are available on Kindle Unlimited. This is Kindle Unlimited or you could buy it on Amazon if you wanted to. And it is The Worst Wingman Ever by Abby Jimenez. It's my favorite short story so far. I haven't read all of them. I've heard that Christina Lauren short story is amazing. Like I said, I haven't read anything by her, I just bought the Unhoneym ooners, so I'll have to try that out, but I loved this one by Abby Jimenez. It's a short story. I think it's like roughly around 60 pages. You can finish it in like an hour or two. So if you're in between books and you just want something really good, or maybe you just read a thriller and you're in between thrillers and you need like a really short, small palette cleanser, this is the book for you. Go, Abby Jimenez, you killed it again.
Kristen Bahls:I gave this five stars and there isn't any specific on page spice and oh, I didn't say yeah, I didn't say the spice level on Exes and O's because I don't know yet. I haven't run into anything yet, but we'll see. So I can't tell you that on Exes and O's, but on The Worst Wingman Ever there's not any on page spice, but overall the language is just maybe a little bit more crass than her full length novels is the best way I can describe it. It's hilarious. I laughed through this entire audio book. I listened to it on audio book. I just couldn't stop laughing at some of the things. There's this thing where they're talking about like shopping for guys and Home Depot, and just there, oh, it's hilarious.
Kristen Bahls:The way that she writes the, her pacing, it's awesome. I enjoyed every step of this and this book is not. It's sweet but it's also kind of sad because the subject matter, so there is a little bit of death happening here and she the main character, she's the hospice nurse for her own grandma, so there is that kind of like underlying sadness in the book. But then you also have the love story, which is really cute, which is actually kind of similar to Yours Truly in the way that they end up leaving notes on her car for each other and they talk back and forth that way. Like I said, I laughed the entire way through.
Kristen Bahls:I found it really enjoyable and it felt very well developed for a short story slash novella. Normally whenever you have a short story slash novella, especially in the romance genre, it kind of almost feels like you're getting whiplash because it's just like I hate you and then I magically love you five seconds later, or I love you and now I'm kissing you five seconds later because it's a short story and you don't have a lot of time for character development. Not the case with this one. I felt like this was really one of the best short stories in this like Valentine's Day collection. So I really enjoyed the development that it went through like it took me on a full ride as if I were reading a full novel. So, I think that says something in itself. And ultimately the kind of underlying story is that, like I said, so the main character, she's a nurse and she's taking care of her sick grandma. She's a hospice nurse and she gets this note that's left on her car that's actually not meant for her and it spurs this whole like note exchange with the apartment maintenance guy and of course she doesn't know who he is for a while and I'm not going to tell you how it all ties together at the end. But it all ties together at the end and it's so, so cute. So read this short story. It's super short, it's on Kindle Unlimited. Worst Wingman Ever by Abby Jimenez. Five stars, would recommend.
Kristen Bahls:The punch is another short story from this same collection that's available on Kindle Unlimited and it is, With Any Luck, by Ashley Poston, and this one I would give four stars. I think, yeah, I think I pretty set it four stars. It's not that it's bad, it's not bad at all. I do not regret reading it. I enjoyed getting a little again like a little story. Like you're reading these little short story slash novellas, but they almost feel more like novels. This one didn't have quite the same character development as Abby Jimenez's short story, so I could only rate it four stars because it wasn't quite as good in my opinion, but I still really enjoyed it. And I got to listen to Ashley Poston, her writing style again and I loved Seven Year Slip by her. Fantastic! So this one is just again a nice little novella to be able to hear from her.
Kristen Bahls:I will say that this one does have on page spice. It's not horrible, but it is there and then it does have crass language, just like Abby Jimenez. And again, I feel like both of the short novella stories had just I don't know the language, the crass language just seemed to be kind of like taken up a notch versus their novels and maybe I'm just saying that because I was like whoa, because I was listening to it versus whenever you're reading it. You know, sometimes you can just kind of like skim past that on a physical book. So listening to it on audiobook may definitely had something to do with it. But as far as spice level I probably rate it like maybe a two. I'd say maybe a two. But overall I'm really glad that I listened to it and I enjoyed it.
Kristen Bahls:And the narrator on this one wasn't my favorite, so maybe that's also why I didn't enjoy it as much. I don't know, I don't know. It was hard to tell, but it's also coming from my little tinny Kindle speaker, so that, yeah, may not even be the narrator, may just be my Kindle, I don't know. But anyway, I wasn't a fan of the mailman character in this one. I don't. I'm just trying to think of like how to describe him. I don't want to give everything away or like give you plot points and ruin the whole thing. So I'm just going to say, like he he's just, I don't know, he's not my favorite. Yeah, he, he's not my favorite. He's an okay person, but he's he's not as great as some of the other mailman characters and other novels or even other short stories in this collection, and I feel like, ultimately, like they tried to take you one way and they ended up going another and I felt like it almost kind of wasted time, because I think this one was one of the shortest and was only like 40 pages.
Kristen Bahls:So I feel like, had you spent that time not leading it, not not faking us out and leading us that other way, you could have spent a little bit more time on the two main love interest and maybe some more character development, but it was shorter. So I get that you're trying to, you know, kind of like give us a plot twist. So I think that's what, ultimately, what Ashley was trying to do a little bit. So it's her best friends wedding and she is the best woman and the man of honor yeah, so that means that the male main characters, the man of honor for the bride and she is the best woman for the groom. There you go and they're trying to find the missing room that they can't find anywhere the day of the Valentine's Day wedding. So that is kind of like the ultimate premise that's going on there. And again, it was cute. It was cute, I liked it.
Kristen Bahls:But if you're going to pick, if I only had to pick one novella or short story based on what I've read so far, I would pick Abbie Jimenez's right now. I just really like the character development and the humor. But with Any Luck, Ashley Poston was still good too and I do not regret reading it and I'm glad I did, and it took me on a little bit of a ride. So I would recommend it for the most part. But, like I said, I gave it like four stars. The way I'm talking, I almost feel like maybe I should say three and a half, but I don't think that it's three and a half because I feel like it's better than that. So I don't know, take it for what you will. It's a short story, it's only 40 pages. If you don't like it, you can just stop listening to it. So there's that one, and next I have the Love Audit by Anna Conwell. This one I actually okay, I feel kind of curmudgeonly. I gave it three stars but all the Goodreads gave it like five stars. All the reviewers on Goodreads gave it five stars. So maybe this was at the height of my
Kristen Bahls:I burned out on romance novels and I'm trying to read some for the show. This one I also listened to on audiobook and the characters are very Southern, they're Georgia peaches and so you know the narrators. They had the Georgia accent a little bit at the end of like every little stanza and I mean I'm in Texas, I don't think I have a country accent. I don't know, I may have a twang, I may have more twang than I think I do, but it was just kind of funny to listen to the narrators a little bit, but they, I mean they did a good job. I'm tired after like a day of work, but anyway their accents didn't get in the way of the audiobook for me, and you know how I feel about audiobooks. Now I can have a hard time finding narrators that I like, so I actually didn't mind it too much. I just wanted to point that out, so that way you kind of know, going in, okay, they're gonna have, they're gonna have a little bit of a fake-ish accent, but it's really not that bad. So, overall, this was cute. It was really cute.
Kristen Bahls:So, basically, the main character, Parker, well, her name's Charlotte Parker, but they call each other by their last name. So if I slip up and say Parker, it's cause they literally call each other by their last names. So you have Charlotte Parker and then Sterling is the male main character, and I'm blanking on his first name, it's something with a C, but I know that his last name is Sterling. Cause, like I said, they just kept calling each other by their last name. So Charlotte Parker, she's the auditor, she's like the auditing manager, and then Sterling, he is the developer, and so he's developing a mobile banking app, and then Charlotte is the one that is the auditor for the app, and so they have to work together and they're really frustrated Cause, of course, no one likes the auditing team.
Kristen Bahls:So I thought that this was really different, that it takes place in an office setting. So if you're looking for something that's maybe a little bit more realistic, that's in an office setting, you have this. It is closed door. I don't even think I could give it a spice level, because it's not even okay. I guess it's not even really closed door cause it doesn't fade to black, it just doesn't have anything. Think there's only kissing. So you're not gonna have, you're not gonna have like any spice at all in this one. So it is a clean book, so you do have that as an option. Like I said, I listened to this on audiobook. Overall,
Kristen Bahls:did I say I would give it three stars? I would give it three stars. I thought it was cute, I enjoyed it, I listened to the whole thing. If I didn't enjoy it then I wouldn't have listened to the entire audiobook, but I did and, like I said, I thought it was cute and I liked the premise and how different it was, taking place in the office setting. But for me it took too long for them to get together and then there was some underlying like saboteur kind of in there and it was clearly obvious who they were. And yeah, I don't want to ruin it, but that kind of felt just a hair flat for me because it was so obvious and they didn't really talk about many other characters. So I was able to piece that together pretty quickly.
Kristen Bahls:It is technically enemies to lovers and you also have forced proximity because they're working on the same team and, like I said, it's very southern because it's in Georgia and so if you want a cute office southern Georgia romance and this is, I believe, the first in the series because she has roommates and I'm pretty sure you get the love stories of all the other roommates. It was cute, I you know if you're just looking for something to kind of pass the time, a cute romance, I would possibly consider picking this up and now going back to some tried and true favorites, romance with a punch. What's punchier than the last two? I don't know, I love these books. Okay, You with a View by Jessica Joyce. You know it's my favorite. I talk about it a lot all the time, actually. I can't wait for Jessica's new novel to come out. This was her debut novel. Man, if anyone could have a kickbutt debut novel, apparently it's Jessica Joyce, because I just love You with a View and I just want to talk about it some more, so I am.
Kristen Bahls:It has enemies to lovers. They are high school nemesis, nemesis, nemesis. I don't know, they're each other's high school nemesis. And it also has forced proximity because they go on this whole road trip together and it is just the cutest, coolest premise. I love it. I know I've talked about it so many times, so I'm only telling you enemies to lovers, high school nemesis and forced proximity those are going to be your sub tropes. Just read You with a View. Again, it's one of the best books I read last year. I've included so many of the best books that I've read last year. So just trust me. Just trust me and just read it. Just read You with a View. I don't even I shouldn't even have to talk about it anymore. Just pick it up, read it. You'll thank me later. The banter is incredible.
Kristen Bahls:Oh, the spice of all on this one, is this the spiciest book of all that I'm talking about today? I'm like mentally scrubbing through. Yes, I would say this. So this one is probably the spiciest book. I I don't know. I would give it maybe like a four out of five on my scale. Yeah, I would give it a four out of five on my scale. It's a little bit closer to an Ali Hazelwood versus being over on the Sarah Adams side of spice. So just know that going in, it is pretty spicy, but it is good. It is so good. I would highly recommend it. Please read this book. If you read anything, read this. Read Sarah Adams. Just just read half the books on this list. And I am ending also with a bang. I wanted to give you romance with a punch.
Kristen Bahls:I have also talked about this book before, and it is Next Door Nemesis by Alexa Martin. It's just so good and it's just so funny and so I wanted to talk about it again. So I'm gonna only tell you the sub t ropes, and I'm trying really hard not to just like get excited and let my voice get super loud and high pitched with some of these because I just love them so much. This is another one. okay, Next Door Nemesis. You have enemies to lovers again. High school nemesis. It just they just want me to say nemesis and mess that up again. You have second chances. There is an HOA competition that it all centers around, which is really unique and different, and then you have a strong female main character, Nate and Collins forever. I love them. And on the spice level, I would say that this is probably in the middle. Yeah, I would say it's in the middle. So maybe like a three of five. I would say a three of five. Yeah, that seems right. Okay, so that's where I would rate The Next Door Nemesis.
Kristen Bahls:Read Next Door Nemesis by Alexa Martin. Just read it. You'll thank me later, like I've said with half of these. So if you've taken anything away from this episode is that these are some really good romances and you just need to read them. I can't stress that enough. Just put them at the top of your TBR pile. You will thank me later. That's it for today. Those are all the books I'm recommending and that's it on Where I Left Off a Bookish Podcast. Next week, Paige is going to be back with me and we are going to discuss the indie romantic fantasy slash, slightly supernatural novel called Ghosted.