Marie August's Blog

This YA/NA novel is the fourth book in a six-book series about Pepper Jones and Jace Wilder, whom we have previously encountered in book 1, PEPPED UP, book 2, ALL PEPPED UP, and book 3, PEPPED UP AND READY. The books in this series are not stand-alone, and it is recommended that they be read in order. Note that this review will be a spoiler for books 1, 2 and 3 if you have not read them yet.

It is Pepper's freshman year and Jace's sophomore year at the University of Colorado in Denver. Pepper is living in a dormitory dedicated to scholarship athletes, and Jace has moved off-campus into a house with fellow football players. At the start of the book, their romantic relationship is going strong, and they are madly in love. Then the unthinkable happens. Jace's alcoholic mother, who abandoned him to his father's care when he was a toddler, and with whom during the last two years he has strongly reconnected as she has been in recovery, suddenly leaves town without warning, gets back into drugs and gets arrested. Jace spirals down into an abandonment depression triggered by her defection. Due to a lack of adequate coping skills (and unwisely failing to seek therapy), he withdraws from Pepper. In a dysfunctional attempt to avoid feeling gut-wrenching emotional pain, he opts instead to feel nothing at all. He believes he cannot be with Pepper, because around her he cannot remain an emotionless robot, and early in the book he breaks up with her.

Pepper is, not surprisingly, totally devastated. Jace is the love of her life, her soulmate, and she thought she was that to him. To deal with the pain, she puts all her energy into running and her school work, and she turns for emotional support to the wonderful women who are both on her university track team and living with her as roommates and fellow residents in the athletes' dorm.

The two concurrent plots in this book are a tragic romance and a girl-power sports plot. Pepper has many wonderful female friendships, which she deeply explores and relies on in this book, and which I greatly enjoyed reading about. For those of us who are romance junkies who demand a "happily ever after" ending, I will put in a necessary spoiler: Be aware that this is a six-book odyssey. There is more to come that is hopeful and positive in the next two books, so don't give up on Jace and Pepper.

Pepper remains a very sympathetic heroine, both as an athlete and in her relationships with her friends and teammates. Because she is a dedicated and skilled athlete, the sports plot is filled with fascinating details of her struggles and victories as a sports competitor. Her grandmother, Bunny Jones, is in this book as well, and continues to be a terrific subcharacter.

The author wisely alternates points of view between Jace and Pepper in this book for the first time in this series. By allowing us to look into Jace's mind about a tenth of the total book as he struggles with angry depression, it helps prevent us, the readers, from irretrievably despising Jace for dumping Pepper. We are allowed to see that he is hurting Pepper out of his immense abandonment issues, not to be malicious, and it helps us to endure the fact that the entire romantic conflict in this book is due to his emotional breakdown. It also allows us to know that (another necessary spoiler for fans of classic romance plotting) there is, in fact, no actual cheating on his side.

This book is best suited for adults and older teens because of a realistic portrayal of underage drinking and drunkenness and underage sex (though none of it is graphic). There are some relatively minor occurrences of off-color language.

I rate this book as follows:

Heroine: 5

Romantic Hero: 3

Subcharacters: 5

Setting: 5

Romance Plot: 3

Girl-Power Sports Plot: 5

Writing: 5

Overall: 4.5 rounded to 5

This New Adult novel is the sixth book in a six-book series about Pepper Jones and Jace Wilder, whom we have previously encountered in book 1, PEPPED UP, book 2, ALL PEPPED UP, book 3, PEPPED UP AND READY, book 4, PEP TALKS, and book 5, PEPPED UP FOREVER. The books in this series are not stand-alone, and it is recommended that they be read in order. Note that this review will be a spoiler for the previous 5 books if you have not read them yet.

Pepper and Jace are now in their early 20's. Jace has recently completed his second season playing professional football as a quarterback for the Browns in Cleveland, Ohio. They have been married almost three years, but most of that time they have spent apart, due to Pepper training and competing all over the world as a potentially Olympic-caliber competitor, and Jace has been both traveling extensively with his team and for paid promotional gigs and public appearances that his control-freak agent swears are increasing his chances to transfer to his team of choice, the Stallions in Denver. Jace and Pepper want to return to their hometown of Brockton, Colorado, very near Denver. Jace's father and Pepper's grandmother have homes on the same street in Brockton, where Pepper and Jace were raised as children from the time Jace was four and Pepper three years old.

Pepper and Jace are completely committed to an equal partnership in their marriage, with each living their dream of being a professional athlete. But pursuing their demanding careers is taking a toll on their marriage. They are both sad and lonely at being so frequently apart. In the midst of their distress over the impact of their careers on their marriage, an unexpected, major life event (which it would be a spoiler to reveal) further impacts their marriage in a negative way, and it will take everything they both have to give to pull each other through it.

Fans of this terrific, girl/woman-power, sports-romance series will be delighted with this final Pepper Jones entry. As in the previous books, there is a heavy emphasis on Pepper's running ambitions, and there are many exciting and inspiring scenes in that regard. As for the romantic relationship between these two attractive, highly sympathetic protagonists, it is great! They meet many difficult challenges as a united front.

Jace has grown hugely across this series, and he really comes into his own in this novel as a truly superior romantic hero. Because of that, their relationship has matured greatly as well.

The ongoing, delightful cast of recurring subcharacters is here again to enjoy, including Pepper's quirky, loveable grandmother, Jace's father, Jace's half-brother, Pepper's best friend, and a coterie of new and old friends from Pepper's various running teams and Jace's new and old friends from football.

As a particular treat, Ms. Dean offers her fans a delightful epilogue set 16 years in the future when Pepper is 40 and Jace is 41, which means this entire series has traversed 24 years. Quite a feat!

As in the previous two books of the series, this book is written from the alternating points of view of Pepper and Jace, which is something I enjoyed very much.

There is very little drinking in this book, and Pepper and Jace are both legally of age now, so it is a non-issue that they drink socially. The few sex scenes are tender and non-graphic and are between the protagonists as a loving, married couple.

I devoured this entire series in less than a week, and I am both happy and sad that I finished the Pepper series today. Happy because I enjoyed it so much, and sad to leave such wonderful characters behind. This is definitely a series I will re-read many times in the future. These books are all "keepers"!

I rate this book as follows:

Heroine: 5

Romantic Hero: 5

Subcharacters: 5

Setting: 5

Romance Plot: 5

Woman-Power Sports Plot: 5

Writing: 5

Overall: 5

This YA/NA romance is the third book in a six-book series about Pepper Jones and Jace Wilder, whom we have previously encountered in book 1, PEPPED UP, and book 2, ALL PEPPED UP. None of the books in this series are stand-alone, and it is recommended that they be read in order. Note that this review will be a spoiler for books 1 and 2 if you have not read them yet.

It is Pepper's senior year in high school in Brockton, a small, mountain city near Denver, Colorado, which has an altitude of 6000 feet. It is Jace's freshman year at the University of Colorado in Denver, and he is living in a dormitory dedicated to scholarship athletes. At the start of the book, their romantic relationship is going strong. Jace has moved beyond his wild, "bad boy" days of heavy drinking, drug use and promiscuity in high school and has become downright straight-laced within his committed relationship with Pepper. Pepper herself was never much for drinking, has never taken drugs and, in spite of her romantically intense relationship with Jace, and staying overnight with him in his dorm room multiple times every week, she is still a virgin at the start of the book. Jace is determined to not push her into any intimacy that she herself does not feel fully ready to engage in.

Pepper stopped drinking any alcohol at all at the beginning of the summer after her junior year, and has drastically ramped up her training all through the summer months and into the fall. She is determined to keep improving her athletic skills in order to reach her full potential as a runner. Her main goal is to duplicate in her final year in high school the National Champion win she achieved near the end of her junior year. However, Pepper has not confided in her coach that she is going against his advice. If she were to admit to him that she has doubled her training efforts, he would have warned her that she is massively going overboard and risking injury. For a while, it seems as if Pepper is right in believing that her coach is too conservative. She feels incredibly strong and powerful due to all her extra training, and she wins a race with the best time she's ever achieved. But when pain starts in her shins and gradually gets worse, until it becomes too agonizing to ignore, she realizes her coach was right, and she has put her entire running future at risk.

On top of Pepper's emotional roller coaster with her self-created running injury, she finds herself the focus of spitefully jealous, beautiful young women at the university. They are bitterly envious of her relationship with Jace, the gorgeous, star quarterback of the university football team, to the point that Pepper begins to feel threatened. She's already had one beautiful vixen trying to break up her and Jace last year (in book 2). Is this going to be a perpetual issue in her relationship with him? If so, Pepper begins to wonder if she is emotionally strong enough to be Jace's girlfriend.

This third book in the series is as excellent as the first two. As with the previous books, I found this story so riveting, I could not stand to put it down after I started it, and I read it straight through in one day. I greatly enjoy YA/NA sports romances where the heroine is an elite athlete, especially when the author keeps a strong balance between the romance and the heroine's struggles with her sport. Once again, as in the first two books of this series, talented author, Ali Dean, has brilliantly managed this challenging artistic accomplishment. She is exceptionally skilled at writing fascinating scenes featuring Pepper's training and competitions as a champion runner, and she is extremely effective at writing romance as well.

Pepper continues to be a very sympathetic heroine, both as an athlete and in her relationships. She is a compassionate and loyal friend and a loving granddaughter to Bunny Jones, her affectionate, supportive and quirky, seventy-something, paternal grandmother, who has raised her since her parents died when Pepper was very young.

Jace continues to be a very appealing hero as well. In this book, he is affectionate and protective of Pepper, and none of the romantic conflict in their relationship is due to flaws within his character, but rather due to the actions of other antagonists.

In this book, after over a year of being together, Pepper and Jace finally consummate their relationship fully but, as in the previous books, there is no graphic sexual activity. The sexual chemistry between this attractive couple remains very strong, however. Which is always a vital feature of any well written romance novel.

This book is best suited for adults and older teens because of a realistic portrayal of underage drinking and drunkenness and underage sex (though none of it is graphic). There is some relatively minor occurrence of off-color language.

I rate this book as follows:

Heroine: 5

Romantic Hero: 5

Subcharacters: 5

Setting: 5

Girl-Power Sports Plot: 5

Writing: 5

Overall: 5

This book is the second in a soon-to-be, six-book series about Pepper and Jace, whom we first met in book 1, PEPPED UP. These books are not stand-alone, and it is recommended that they be read in order. Note that this review will be a spoiler for book 1 if you have not read it yet.

This series is set in a small, mountain city in Colorado, and the series offers fascinating local color from this lovely setting.

At the end of PEPPED UP, Pepper and Jace have just officially begun dating, after 14 years of being close friends, making book 1 a classic "friends to romantic partners" story. There is also an exciting sports-related plot in book 1, with Pepper becoming one of the top, female, high-school runners in the country. Book 1 takes place during the first semester of Pepper's junior year in high school and Jace's senior year, making her 16 and him 17 at the time. This book continues in the second semester of that same school year, and Jace turns 18 during this book.

Anyone looking at Pepper's life from the outside might assume she has it made. She's a pretty, slim, star athlete, and she's dating the school's gorgeous star quarterback, who is the most popular guy at her school. But Pepper has never cared for the type of adulation that is so much a part of her charismatic boyfriend's life. He's a natural leader, with both male and female teens hanging on him wherever he goes. Pepper is the opposite. She much prefers to stay away from parties, fade into the background in general, and at all times avoid the excess drama that seems to prevail among the partying seniors in Jace's crowd.

Unfortunately, drama is stalking her every step now that she and Jace are an item. Jealous ex-lovers of the formerly promiscuous Jace are extremely displeased that he is out of commission, and one ex-fling of his in particular, a beautiful, sexy vixen who is as popular as Jace, is determined to steal Jace from Pepper (the classic, "Evil Other Woman" antagonist). In addition to fending off scheming teenage girls, a family secret about his father that Jace has kept from Pepper for years is suddenly revealed, and she is hurt that Jace has not trusted her enough to confide in her about it long before now. And just to make Jace's parent issues over-the-top complete, his recovering-addict mother, who deserted him when he was a baby, resulting in lifelong abandonment issues within Jace, has unexpectedly moved back to town. Pepper is worried that she will suck in Jace, convincing him she can offer him the maternal affection he deeply longs for, only to leave him behind again and break his heart once more.

On top of all the people problems weighing Pepper down, she is also enduring trouble with her passion, running. She feels immensely pressured by perceived high expectations of her now that she is a national champion, and for the first time her intense joy in running has vanished, and her competitive spirit in track races along with it, due to her angsting over the possibility of becoming a failure.

I found this sequel just as compelling as book 1. So much so, in fact, that I could not stand to put the book down after I started it, staying up long into the night to read it straight through. I am a big fan of YA/NA sports romances where the heroine is a dedicated athlete, especially when the author keeps a strong balance between the romance and the heroine's struggles with her sport. Once again, as with book 1, PEPPED UP, talented author, Ali Dean, has pulled off this difficult artistic feat.

Pepper is a very sympathetic heroine, and I appreciated Jace's important emotional growth arc within this book, as well. I especially enjoyed the loyalty and protectiveness both Pepper and Jace display toward each other. I also felt that, in spite of there being no graphic portrayals of sexual activities--and no intercourse--between this attractive couple, that the sexual chemistry between them is very strong. Which is always a big plus in a romance novel.

Pepper's loving, eccentric grandmother, Bunny, who raised her after her parents died when she was a baby, remains a central figure in this novel, and is a wonderful addition to the series. I also love Pepper's dog, Dave, her frequent running partner whom she describes as a "multi-colored, short-haired mutt."

This book is best suited for adults and older teens because of the underage drinking, underage sex (between various teens), and illicit drug use of many of the teen characters. Importantly, though, within this book, Jace is drastically abstaining from all three of these troublesome activities compared to his behavior in book 1. Pepper remains a virgin who respects her body enough to avoid drugs and drink very little alcohol, especially compared to most of the other hard-drinking teens in this series.

I rate this book as follows:

Heroine: 5

Romantic Hero: 5

Subcharacters: 5

Setting: 5

Girl-Power Sports Plot: 5

Writing: 5

Overall: 5

Thirty-year-old Gabriel Hawkins Vance, known to the world as Gabriel Hawkins, is the disgraced grandson of a British admiral. He was cashiered out of the British Navy at age 18 after six years of service during which he worked up the ranks from a cabin boy to an officer. His stiff-rumped grandfather disowned him, refusing to allow Gabriel to justify an act that the Navy labeled dereliction of duty (it would be a spoiler to reveal what Gabriel did that got him into trouble). As a result, Gabriel has spent the past 12 years attempting to redeem himself by captaining his own merchant ship and using it to run blockades during the Napoleonic Wars and the War of 1812 in America, both of which have recently, in 1815, come to an end. His most recent mission took him to America to rescue a stranded English widow (a previous book in a series of books that this novel is part of which is called, "Rogues Redeemed"). At loose ends with the declaration of peace in Europe and America, Gabriel is pondering what he will take on as his next challenge when he is approached for an errand of mercy, rescuing the daughter of a British Earl from captivity in Algiers, where she is being held by Barbary pirates.

It seems to be a nearly impossible mission, because the ransom demand is an extortionate 50,000 pounds. The woman's family have scrounged together less than half that amount, and worse, Gabriel has a dangerous past history with Barbary pirates and has no desire to go anywhere near their strongholds. Thus, Gabriel is on the verge of refusing to help, until he is presented with a miniature portrait of the captive and feels such an immediate, powerful attraction to the golden-haired, young beauty, that he cannot bear the thought of leaving her to a terrible fate. If no one rescues her, she will be sold as a slave and live out her life imprisoned in a harem.

Twenty-two-year-old Lady Aurora Octavia Lawrence, is called "Rory" by her friends and family, and is notorious among the British ton as "Roaring Rory Lawrence" due to her unconventional, hoydenish ways. She has spent the past four years traveling the world with Constance Hollings, a widowed female relative, as her sole companion, utilizing an inheritance from a great uncle to fund her adventures. In addition to traveling, Rory and Constance have written multiple romantic novels together, featuring intrepidly self-sufficient female protagonists. Unfortunately, as they were heading back home to England, they and the entire crew of the sailing ship they were on were captured by pirates. Months have passed since their captor sent a ransom request to England, and Rory and Constance have almost given up hope of rescue when Gabriel Hawkins arrives.

To Gabriel's dismay, he has a dubious history with Rory's captor, Malek Reis, known as "master of the Middle Seas." And it is initially dangerously unclear whether the pirate will kill Gabriel for a past transgression against Malek or make a deal with Gabriel for Rory's release.

This is a fast-paced and engaging read. For readers who love stories involving brave sea captains fighting off pirates, this book will be a real treat. The pirates are Barbary corsairs from the Ottoman Empire, operating out of North Africa and based primarily in the ports of Tunis, Tripoli, and Algiers, an area referred to in Europe at the time as the Barbary Coast. The setting is colorful and authentic and extremely well drawn.

Overall, the plot poses a series of story questions that keep the reader racing forward through the pages to discover the answers. The odds seems impossibly stacked against a positive outcome in this story--a vital element of any well-done action-adventure plot--and the ultimate resolution of the action-adventure plot is extremely satisfying and well written.

As for the romance portions of the book, Rory and Gabriel are sympathetic, admirable and very strong protagonists. They are well matched as to integrity, compassion, intelligence and backbone. I loved this classic, romantic conflict dramatically stated by Gabriel to Rory soon after they meet:

"Whatever is between us may be fleeting and sparked by circumstance, but it is real. And it is impossible for us to act on it."

There is a lovely, secondary romance between Constance and Jason Landers, Gabriel's 26-year-old, American first mate. These two are also extremely sympathetic and admirable characters.

For romance fans who prefer non-raunchy, slow-burn sexual relationships, this book fills the bill. The sex scenes for both of the romantic relationships are tenderly sensual.

I particularly enjoyed a delightful subplot involving a gaggle of exotic, miniature animals, and Gabriel's affectionate and hard-working, rat-killing ship's cat, Spook, is also a terrific addition to the story.

All in all, this is an extremely enjoyable historical romance.

I rate this book as follows:

I rate this book as follows:

Heroine: 5

Hero: 5

Subcharacters: 5

Setting: 5

Romance Plot (Main Romance): 5

Romance Plot (Secondary Romance): 5

Action-Adventure Plot: 5

Writing: 5

Overall: 5

This contemporary novel is a mature-content, young-adult (bordering on new-adult), romantic drama. The story is told exclusively from the first-person point of view of the female protagonist, Piper Barlow. She and the romantic hero, Roman Lombardi, are both 17, almost 18, years old. They live in a small town near Adelaide, in South Australia. They are in Year Twelve (the equivalent of 12th grade or senior year in high school in the USA). Piper has a deep, dark secret that she refuses to reveal to anyone: she suffers from crippling social anxiety. Her entire life is a continual, uphill effort to never inflict her inner pain on anyone or disappoint anyone's social expectations of her. As a result, even though she has loving parents, a loyal best friend and a coterie of lesser friends and friendly acquaintances as a popular girl at her school, she feels excruciatingly lonely.

To everyone besides herself, Piper appears to be a beautiful, sweet-natured, innocently fragile girl. Two of the most attractive boys in her school, fellow seniors, Roman and another boy named Mason Carter, seem to be utterly fascinated with her--or so her best friend Hadley assures her, because both boys constantly stare at Piper. Hadley informs Piper that Roman in particular has been "eyeing" her for years, in between dozens of casual "hookups" with other girls, all of which involve a one-night stand and a casually cruel brushoff afterwards. He never buys any of these unfortunate girls so much as a slice of pizza, because he won't commit even to a single date. Mason is much more conventional than Roman, in that he actually does date, and he has been committed enough to be sequentially monogamous. But he doesn't have extraordinary staying power in that he has had five or six girlfriends over the course of only three or four years. This, however, is acceptable "good boy" behavior because, miraculously in Piper's opinion (and mine!), none of these girls seems to bear the ultra-desirable, gorgeous Mason the slightest resentment after these breakups.

Given that these two boys seem to be Piper's only choices for dating (for unspecified reasons), Hadley pushes virginal Piper, who has barely ever dated and possibly not even been kissed, toward Mason, whom Hadley feels is more Piper's slow-and-cautious speed than Roman. Hadley claims that she herself is the female version of Roman, and she could easily handle what he is offering, hot, casual sex, but Piper definitely could not. Hadley, in fact, has no hesitation examining their male classmates and analyzing their private anatomy and potential as casual, sexual-intercourse hookups in a manner very similar to the crudest remarks made by misogynistic men sizing up women as possible bedmates.

In the normal course of events, Piper would have continued waiting, indefinitely it seems, for pleasant, studious, athletic Mason to finally ask her out, and never had anything to do with raunchy Roman. Until Roman, his divorced mother, and his older sister's five-year-old, illegitimate daughter move in next door to Piper and her parents in a quiet neighborhood outside the city limits with no other nearby houses. Suddenly, Piper is running into Roman every day. He owns his own car, but he rides the bus with Piper instead, walking the half-mile to and from the bus stop in the morning and afternoon, and she views approvingly the tender way he interacts with his little niece. In the process, Piper gradually learns that Roman isn't the heartless cynic he appears to be. He sees beyond Piper's smiling false front to the insecure anxiety beneath, and he doesn't judge her for it. Instead, he goes out of his way to cheer her up, including making her laugh and, wonder of wonders, laughing along with her. Then comes the night that they accidentally meet at Piper's favorite de-stressing place, by the shores of a lake near her home. And their unlikely friendship really begins to take off.

I had just read Keeping Up Appearances by this author prior to reading this novel and was expecting it to also be a PG romantic comedy without sex. It was a bit of a shock, therefore, to find that this book is written very much in keeping with the norms of the New Adult subgenre of romance--heavy on internal angsting and containing multiple sex scenes. However, because these protagonists are still in high school and the author has marketed this book as "mature young adult" fiction, the sex scenes are not remotely as graphic, or as frequent, as in a typical NA romance. But since I had never before now read this degree of sexual description in a YA romance, I was quite taken by surprise when the first sex scene happened. Hopefully, other potential readers will do what I did not do and carefully read the clear warning that the author responsibly provides in her description of the novel: "Not recommended for younger readers due to mature content."

Roman is a dark YA hero of the sort typically found in "edgy" YA fiction. He is a brooding, "rebel without a cause," James Dean hero who views the world with a heavy-lidded, cynical sneer, and mood-alters his angry alienation with cigarattes, drunkeness, sex with groupie-like girls, brawling, and vandalism. He has been frequently arrested for disorderly conduct, both for his own misdemeanor crimes and taken in for questioning about the misdemeanor crimes of his best buddy, Rio, who is as Byronically dark-natured as Roman. To date, though Roman rarely attends class, and constantly flunks tests, he has never been held back a grade in school, and even seems in line to graduate high school. We are given to understand this is because he has always been bailed out of his educational and legal difficulties by his wealthy, emotionally distant father, whom everyone in his town is in awe of. Roman's mother is sweet and loving, but no more willing or able than Roman's father to make sure that Roman receives the anger-management therapy he so obviously, desperately needs. His only relatively harmless angst-relieving activity is skateboarding. (Which seems an oddly, geekishly boyish pursuit for a macho male.) I personally am not a fan of romance protagonists who smoke and drink to excess--whether in YA, NA or adult romance. This book, in fact, is the first one I've read in over 25 years with a smoking hero. However, the author attempts to mitigate readers' being repelled by Roman's smoking, and its inevitable health and hygiene issues, by having Piper not be repelled by it. She comments, midway through the book, "Funny how he smoked so much but never smelled like it."

I also personally enjoy a classic, "us against the world" plot where two disaffected loners find a home in each other, and this story certainly delivers a strong version of that plot.

Ms. Stevens is a very talented writer and particularly excels at presenting a romantic hero who, while displaying an obnoxiously alpha, choleric disposition to the rest of the world, interacts with the heroine like a lovable, beta male who is sensitive, affectionate, a good listener, and basically, very nurturing.

Ms. Stevens also writes a traditional romance-novel structure, which we diehard romance fans adore: the essential romantic conflict of distrust slowly evolving to trust through a personal-growth arc of one or both protagonists, and a happily ever after (HEA) ending which is, of couse, in protagonists this young (and likewise for NA romance) more of a "happy for now" ending.

Hadley is a familiar BFF confidante found in the "erotic romance" genre since Harlequin Blaze first started, back in the 90's, offering the now very familiar plot device of a good-girl heroine encouraged by her down-and-dirty BFF to be more adventurous about sex. Given that this is YA, Hadley is a less extreme version of this type of BFF in that she doesn't push Piper to have sex, and she herself seems to be more talk than action regarding engaging in sex herself.

I was glad to see Piper, in particular, work beyond a self-protective over-reliance on the stereotypical female role of people-pleasing doormat who lives to fulfill the every need and demand of the people in her life. As for Roman, his major defining attitude and life motto is the self-fulfilling prophecy, "What you see is what you get with me....I can't be changed." This declaration sounds obnoxiously egotistical, except for the fact that his chief virtue is wrapped up inside it: He has no desire to try and change anyone else because he doesn't believe other people can change and grow either. Piper accepts his world view when they are together, and is liberated by it because it gives her the freedom, for the first time in her life, to act in a way that she otherwise has always considered terrifyingly risky in that she has believed it will inevitably bring judgment and rejection. She tells Roman that they are "two people having an extended pity party" together. This ironically is healing for both of them, because it allows them to externalize their deepest blind spot--that they both are suffering from anxiety due to unconsciously wallowing in self-pity and resentment--un-enmesh from it, and thereby begin to grow beyond it. As the two of them for the first time, with anyone, share their deepest hopes and fears with each other, this acts to deliver the most significant element that the very best romance novels manage to achieve: The romantic conflict between the protagonists is the clash between their socially created, false selves, which cover up and hide their authentic, true selves. Only if they can reveal to each other their true selves--which is the ultimate sacrifice to "earn" true love--can they become worthy of true love.

For fans of angsty, sexy NA romance, this book will be a fun read.

I rate this book as follows:

Heroine: 4

Hero: 4

Romance Plot: 4

Social Drama Plot: 3

Writing: 4

Overall: 4

This is Book 4 in a series of contemporary romance novels that remind me of the Harlequin novels that used to be called "Harlequin American" and these days are called "Harlequin Heartwarming." Per Harlequin guidelines, these are novels in which "romance, family and community are strong features of these stories." This series is set in an imaginary small town called Wishful, Mississippi. Because this series is light drama with touches of humor, small town life is presented in a very positive light. The link between the books are continuing characters and the town itself. However, the books can be read independently of each other. I myself read this particular book without having read any others in the series, and I had no problem following the story.

I learned from the backstory presented in this book that the two protagonists, Piper Parish, age 29, and Myles Stewart, age 31, appear in a previous book in which they fall hard for each other when they co-star in a community theater production of White Christmas, the classic 1954 musical comedy movie starring Bing Crosby and Rosemary Clooney. Myles plays Bob (Bing's part), and Piper plays Betty (Rosemary's part). Having mistaken real romance for the fake romance of a play in the past, Piper informs Myles that she has a firm rule that she will not date her leading man ever again until at least three months have passed after the close of the play. This will, theoretically, allow fakery to fade away sufficiently to allow her to make a clear-eyed assessment if any attraction worth exploring remains. (Note: According to the blurb of this book, Myles and Piper are in the play White Christmas in BE CAREFUL, IT'S MY HEART, and Piper also appears in ONCE UPON A SETUP.)

Piper's day job is at a local doctor's office as a nurse. Myles has a master's degree from prestigious Columbia University in New York, and had been living up north in New York City until about a year ago, when two things brought him home. He missed small town life in his hometown, Wishful, and he had a chance to fulfill a major life ambition, buying the local newspaper and becoming the editor-in-chief. He invested all his savings, but the purchase ultimately was only possible because of a crucial loan from of a mysterious, anonymous investor.

Myles has been counting off the days until he can finally date Piper, and his attraction has only grown. The fact that he has been willing to patiently wait for Piper, and not date anyone else in the meantime, has definitely increased his real-world appeal to her. During those three months they have seen each other in group settings, especially doing karaoke performances together at the local bar, and they have also been texting each other. So they've had a chance to develop a friendship. As the book starts the three months are just now up and Myles is ready and eager to ask Piper out and move from platonic friend to romantic partner. Their dating life gets off to a very promising start until Miles suddenly develops overwhelming financial problems.

The lawyer representing his unnamed investor notifies Myles that the investor is calling in the loan because the investor has lost faith in Myles's ability to bring the paper out of the red. If Myles doesn't repay the loan in full within 45 days, the investor will take over ownership of the paper. Myles has no desire to humuliate himself by asking his wealthy parents or his even more wealthy paternal grandmother for money, because they don't support his dream, and he is positive they will turn him down. He jokingly tells Piper that the only hope for him is to head to Las Vegas and bribe a showgirl to marry him. This would allow him to access a trust fund set up for him by his deceased paternal grandfather, which can only happen if he gets married. Piper surprises him by taking him seriously and volunteering to participate in a marriage of convenience, for which she says she would insist on signing an ironclad prenuptual agreement, and promises that they can get divorced down the road, no muss, no fuss.

Piper's plan is that after a quickie, courthouse marriage, they would carry on dating, because they both think they have potential as a relationship for the long haul. But they would tell no one about the marriage and not live together, because that would endanger the natural development of their romance by rushing it. Unfortunately for them, on the day that they get married, a friend of Myles's grandmother spies them coming out of the courthouse of a neighboring town. She figures out they just got married, reports it to his grandmother, and the proverbial fat hits the fire. The secret, fake marriage must now appear real, requiring the acting job of both their lives, as they fake marital bliss to their families and the entire, gossipy town.

I've been a big fan of White Christmas and have watched it as a family ritual every year for decades. Therefore, I personally found it fun that this story echoes the romantic conflict of that 1950's movie. In addition, Piper's mother often sounds like a stock character from other typical 1950's movies, with her maternal advice to Piper that she should keep her home a haven for Myles as her husband and not bother him with her petty, female problems. Myles's grandmother is also a classic Southern matriarch right out of an old movie.

I liked the theme that both Myles and Piper see themselves as outsiders in their own family who are not like everyone else. The idea of "us against the world" is an ever-green staple of romantic comedy.

In terms of graphic content, this too is similar to Harlequin Heartwarming. There is no coarse language, and the sex is very limited and only happens after they are legally married. The sex is tender rather than lusty, and it's not at all graphic. There is a lot of drinking and some drunkenness.

This is a fun read with very little melodrama.

I rate this book as follows: Heroine: 4 stars Hero: 4 stars Subcharacters: 4 stars Romance Plot: 4 stars Small Town Plot: 3 stars Writing: 4 stars Overall: 4 stars

Heroine: 4

Hero: 4

Subcharacters: 4

Romance Plot: 4

Small Town Age Plot: 3

Writing: 4

Overall: 4

Maya Rivero attends a prestigious, private prep school, Briarwood High. She is one of the top students in her class, and more than that, she is that comparatively rare female who specializes in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) studies. She has been early-accepted to Harvard and cannot wait to leave high school behind less than six months from now. The social life on offer in high school bores her because it is filled with mindless pursuits such as sporting events, booze parties, and a swirling cesspool of teenage angst precipitated by a neverending parade of romantic relationships that are unthinkingly formed and melodramatically broken. Unlike her overemotional peers, Maya has chosen a rational approach to romance. During her freshman year, she met a boy whom she dispassionately determined would be a good match for her because they share the same interests. They mutually agreed on a practical relationship with little romance and no passion involved (which is why Maya is still a virgin). After three mildly pleasurable years together, last summer they placed their relationship on indefinate hiatus because Brandon is a year older and away at college. They have mutually decided that they may, or may not, choose to resume dating when she is in college too, if it doesn't interfere with their studies.

Maya's fellow senior, Luke Perona, is a tall, handsome, well-built athelete with an outgoing personality and, unsurprisingly due to these traits, is quite popular. Trading on that popularity, he has a history of casually dating a string of eager girls throughout his high school career and has had sex with what he terms, "his share" of them. There are multiple girls with whom he currently "hooks up with on and off" who, conveniently for Luke, seem to be as uncomplainingly satisfied as he is with meaningless sexual encounters.

Maya has never forgiven Luke for leading his buddies in incessantly teasing her throughout middle school and junior high. But today, due to his obsession with competing at every turn, he has transformed himself from merely an irritating jerk into an arch nemesis. As the entitled, charming and verbally persuasive captain of the school's swim team, Luke has beaten her out for a grant she had hoped would be used to provide much needed funding for STEM programs at Briarwood. Instead, Luke has coaxed the grant committee into using it to pad the bottom line of the school's already more-than-adequately funded, championship swim team.

In short, in every way that sensible, self-contained Maya can imagine, she and the impulsive, intrusive Luke are dead opposites. Until Maya's mother discovers the one thing Maya and Luke do have in common--the fact that their mothers are both divorced--and turns that knowledge into a second, disastrous thing that she and Luke have in common. Their mothers become friends.

Maya's mother is an outgoing, compassionate woman with a huge soft spot for fellow divorced single mothers, but her befriending of Luke's recently divorced mother, Patty, runs far deeper than her usual, casually nurturing support of her sister divorcees. They become best friends. Maya would not have begrudged her mother an important friendship if her mother and Patty had kept their friendship to themselves. Instead, her lovably gregarious mother invites both Patty and her children, including Luke as well as his two little brothers, to their home for one of her mother's "famous" taco nights, as she playfully calls them. Maya doesn't mind the little boys, who are quite sweet, but Luke is the last person she wants to associate with. She's barely begun to accept that nights like these might become a regular event when, out of the blue, her mother makes the situation disastrously worse.

Without consulting Maya, and without telling her until the very day it happens, her mother has invited Patty and her kids--once again, including Luke!--to join Maya and her mother for their annual Christmas trip. It has been their tradition for many years at Christmas to spend a quiet, restful week at a small, cozy, beachside resort in Puerto Escondido, Mexico. It is very near where Maya's mother grew up, though she no longer has any family living there. Maya's first indication of this debacle is when Patty and her boys join them at the airport, and Luke greets her with a smugly cheery grin.

I have recently read several of Maggie Dallen's young adult (YA) novels. I have enjoyed them all and have been delighted to find her novels, because she writes what is, sadly, relatively rare in the YA genre, G-rated romantic comedies. Ms. Dallen also writes adult romance novels, and I am happy to report that she uses the two, main, expected conventions of romance plots found in that genre in her YA romances: once the two people who are the subject of the romance meet, there is no cheating, and there is a believable happily ever after (HEA).

I don't personally like romantic triangles if they present a true dilemma, that is, a choice between two almost equally viable, enthralling possibilities (we have Twilight to thank for the prevalence of this in YA). It might seem on the surface that this book has a romantic triangle, but it is not a true triangle, because there is no real dilemma. Though Maya technically has a boyfriend, it is apparent from the start that they aren't really together and have made no vows of fidelity. Further, their relationship sounds more like a business deal than a romance. Thus, this is what I personally see as a false triangle. It merely exists as a means for the heroine to grow beyond the very limited perspective she previously had of what constitutes a healthy, happy romance and move toward something far deeper.

In a classic romance plot of "enemies to lovers," which in this G-rated version is "enemies to romance," when done well, as is the case in this novel, the plot contains a staple of excellent character-driven fiction, a solid growth arc for both the romantic protagonists. They each have to evolve beyond their socially created "false self," in this case the cliche Nerd and Jock roles, to a deeper, unique, "true self." This process allows them to earn the fulfillment of True Love. This path is the ideal every romance novel, by definition, hopes to deliver, but very few actually do.

One of the reasons I tend to look for G-rated or "sweet" romances without overt sex is that far too many romance writers fill their books with sex at the expense of creating a believable emotional connection between the romantic protagonists that contains tenderness, understanding and a true connection of the mind and heart. When the lion's share of the book's focus is on lust and body parts, sexual obsession is inevitably presented as if it is romantic love. At the other end of the spectrum, in G-rated novels, if romance authors are not skilled at developing the emotional and mental connection between the romantic protagonists, especially when the book is billed as "romantic comedy," such books become more chick lit than romance, because they are overloaded with embarrassing, slapstick scenes to make up for the missing sex.

This book makes none of those mistakes. The prime goal of a truly excellent romance is to put the two protagonists on the stage together as much as possible--and this book does that a whole lot--and allow them to interact with each other, fighting it out in a specific way. Their personality differences, especially their flaws, become rough stones rubbing away the harsh, false edges in order to reveal the smooth and delicately vulnerable, hidden, true self. That true self has suffered pain from past rejection, and it resists trusting due to fear of present and future rejection. Even so, it longs to connect in a profound and loving way. This romance ideal is what the author achieves with these two protagonists.

Both Maya and Luke start out with irritating flaws, but as their virtues begin to be slowly and surely revealed within their amusing, and often moving, interactions on the beach in Mexico, they become very sympathetic, likeable protagonists whom I enjoyed spending time with.

It is also a big plus for me personally to read a YA novel in which the teenage, Mexican-American protagonist is portrayed as an intelligent, responsible, ambitious girl, rather than a teenage male who is an Alpha, macho guy who is, at the least, in trouble with the law, if not an outright gangbanger. Now I'd very much like to see Maya's male counterpart in a YA novel. I also appreciated it that Maya and her mother are both presented as bilingual (a huge accomplishment for anyone to achieve), and that they are justly proud of their heritage.

On the downside, as a personal complaint, it is a huge cliche that has been epidemic in romance novels for the past 40 years, such that most romance authors include it automatically, to describe the gorgeous, desirable romantic hero as having gotten his "share" of sex in the years prior to meeting the heroine. The actual meaning of this appalling term is that the hero regards fellow human beings as objects and possessions to be used at will for his own selfish, sexual gratification. Romance authors include this trope to give the hero enough sexual experience to supposedly make it believable that he is fabulous in bed. But how does a man become a sensitive lover when he has dehumanized his sexual partners? Secondly, romance authors disguise this seamy underside of the promiscuity of their heroes by portraying them as firmly believing they have never harmed any of their conquests because the women they use sexually "know the score." That they accept freely, with no reservations, that they are nothing but warm bodies to the hero before he abandons them and flits merrily away to his next conquest. It is no better ethically that in the past 15 years or so, many romance authors have made their female protagonists equal opportunity sexual users. The truth is, there is no such thing as anyone (unless drunk or stoned and unable to truly give consent, or extremely emotionally or mentally damaged) who "knows the score," that they are nothing but a vessel to be used to slake the lust of fellow human beings who arrogantly and callously believe they are owed sex on demand as a social perk of their beauty and/or wealth.

It also is rather unrealistic that a prestigious, private prep school, like the fictional Briarwood High of this YA series of books, would contain the teen-movie cliche of "jocks vs nerds" (sexy-and-dumb vs sexless-and-smart) civil war which, if it exists at all, would be far more believable in a public high school. The whole point of paying the astronomical tuition of a private prep school is to improve one's chance of not only getting into a university, but an Ivy League university at that. This challenging goal cannot be achieved by being cavalier about one's studies. Therefore, virtually everyone at a prep school is, by virtue of the very fact of their acceptance into the school, a "nerd," if that derrogatory term is defined as taking one's studies seriously.

Parental Guidance: No sex, only kissing. No drinking, drugs or wild parties. Only slightly PG in the sense that the hero muses about the fact that he has been sexually promiscuous in his past life, before he becomes involved with the heroine.

I rate this book as follows:

Heroine: 4

Hero: 4

Subcharacters: 4

Unusual Setting: 5

Romance Plot: 4

Writing: 4

Overall: 4

Beatriz Blake is 24 and a virgin, mostly because she's never met a man she trusted enough to become that vulnerable to him outside marriage, and her sole serious relationship ended in her being dumped several years ago, when her boyfriend could not accept marrying her as a package deal with responsibility for her mother. Her mother became a paraplegic after a car accident when Bee was four. Her callous, wealthy father could not hide that he is revolted by any kind of disfigurement or disability, and Bee’s mother gracefully bowed out, agreeing to a divorce so he could marry again. Her father has supported her mother for the past 20 years, purchasing her a disability-accommodated house, paying to maintain it and the salary of a live-in carer. He also paid for Bee’s post-secondary schooling, which has allowed her to have a career as a second-grade teacher. But now her father angrily informs her that he is in major financial trouble, and he wants Bee to marry Sergios Demonides, a Greek billionaire interested in purchasing his hotel chain, so he can get a better price from the sale.

Sergios's beloved cousin recently died and left him guardian of his three, very young children, and Sergios wants a wife of convenience to basically care for his home and raise the children, while he carries on his life as if he were still single. Sergios was married once before, when he was very young, and after that disastrous mistake, he never wanted to marry again, until compelled to do so when the problem of raising his cousin’s children arose.

There is no way that Bee would submit to such an outrageous arrangement except for the fact that her father cruelly declares that if she doesn’t convince Sergios to marry her, he will stop paying for her mother’s care. Bee knows that on her meager salary she can’t afford to pick up the slack, and she would never abandon her mother. So, in desperation, she meets with Sergios and has a very frank discussion with him about what her father has said and what she can offer his children as a stepmother.

Sergios is impressed by her honesty, which is rare in his world, and her good sense and obvious intelligence. But he is surprised, and dismayed, that he is very attracted to Bee’s voluptuous figure as well. Most importantly, because getting into a sexual relationship with a convenient wife would bring all sorts of messy, emotional complications that he has no desire to wade into. But also because a sexual pull toward a woman like Bee is very out of character for him, and he hates anything in his life that is unpredictable. He normally likes primped and polished, rail-thin beauties, and by those standards Bee is plump and, worst of all, to a sophisticated man of the world, she is downright frowsy with her plain clothing, unstyled hair and lack of makeup. Bee is anything but fat, however. Hidden underneath her loose clothing, she has an hourglass, Sophia Loren type figure, and she has kept in shape the past three years since her boyfriend dumped her by pole dancing.

When Bee meets Sergio’s young wards, she is immediately drawn to them. Eleni is a baby girl who seems poorly responsive and whom Bee soon realizes needs to be tested for hearing problems. Milo is a clingy, fearful toddler. And Paris is an angry, resentful seven-year-old who is struggling at school. Sergio soon realizes that Bee, with her training as a teacher and heartfelt tenderness toward his wards, would be exactly what these children need, and they soon strike a bargain to be married.

This book has the usual intensity that is an enjoyable hallmark of Lynne Graham’s romances that draws me back to them again and again, even though there is no other Harlequin Presents author that I enjoy, and the only type of billionaire romance I tend to read (Jill Blake’s Without a Net was a recent exception). This is a well-done redemption romance. Both Bee and Sergios have abandonment issues from difficult childhoods and from each having suffered a previous, bad romantic relationship. But Bee, by personality and due to a loving mother, has retained compassion and an ability to love and nurture others. Sergios has instead withdrawn into himself and given up on love.

While Lynne Graham (LG) does include fairly explicit sex scenes in her novels, she never uses crude language or includes gratuitous sex. It always contributes to the growth of the relationship and/or creates conflict between the protagonists. This particular book is a “slow-burn” romance, one of my favorite kinds, where the protagonists do not instantly leap into bed, but rather they have time to develop a relationship before the sex begins.

I also always enjoy it when LG includes children as the inciting incident for the start of the relationship between the romantic protagonists, and these children are adorable.

I was particularly happy to note that both the hero and heroine in this novel have earned the beautiful, fit bodies that are an expected component of any contemporary romance. Sergios has a gym in the basement of his fancy, London townhouse and, as mentioned, Bee does intensive workouts. I also liked how LG utilizes the unusual type of exercise that Bee engages in to further the sexual side of the convenient marriage in this romance.

It is a very common trope in an LG romance that there is an unplanned pregnancy that leads to a marriage of convenience. This is one of the rare books in her 100-plus body of work in which that does not happen, which is a nice change. I like her work in spite of the unplanned pregnancies, not because of it.

Finally, Bee is one of LG’s more assertive heroines (not quite to the degree of the heroine of Bond of Hatred, my all-time favorite LG novel, but close). She frequently goes toe-to-toe with Sergios, and most of the time comes out on top. This is also not a “King Cophetua and the Beggar Maid” type story, which is not my favorite type of billionaire story, as Bee is initially introduced as the heiress to a rich man.

I rate this book as follows:

Heroine: 5

Hero: 4

Subcharacters: 4

Romance Plot: 4

Children Plot: 4

Writing: 4

Overall: 4

The protagonists of this delightful, young-adult, romantic comedy, Xander Bowen and Holly Aberdeen, are both 17 years old. They live in in Adelaide, the capital city of the state of South Australia, and they attend a secondary school called Maple Ridge Grammar. They are in Year Twelve (the equivalent of 12th grade or senior year in high school in the USA).

After a weekend of peptalks and rehearsals with Nancy Milligan, Holly's best friend for the past five years, Nancy has convinced Holly it is way past time that she proclaim her true feelings to Jason Thomas (AKA "JT"). Jason is Holly's long-time crush and best friend of ten years' duration, and Nancy has assured Holly that she is positive that Jason will reciprocate her feelings. But when Holly approaches Jason at school, bright and early Monday morning, she is stunned to encounter him hugging and kissing Nancy. Her sense of betrayal is overwhelming. Not only is she apparently the last one at school to find out that her two best friends are now a couple, but they have been together since early last weekend--a full day before Nancy began encouraging Holly to approach Jason! The sneer on Nancy's face when she catches Holly's eye makes it obvious that Nancy's intent was to cruelly set Holly up for public humiliation, basically sticking in the knife and then giving it a twist.

Desperately blinking away tears, Holly pushes her way through the crowded, school halls, blindly seeking a place to be alone and cry her eyes out. When she randomly shoves open a door and plows into a half-naked, very buff male body, she suddenly realizes she's alone in the boy's locker room with none other than the "King of the Bows" AKA "King Douche." Xander Bowen is the star striker for the soccer team, and one of the two most gorgeous and popular boys at her school--Jason being the other. Each leads a clique of attractive and popular followers. Xander's followers call Jason's friends, "JT's minions," and Jason's followers call Xander's, the "Bows," The two boys are bitter enemies and, in fact, for many years, out of loyalty to Jason, Holly has taken it as a given that Xander is a worthless "manwhore" and everyone in his clique is a horrible human being as well.

Holly is understandably surprised and suspicious when Xander suggests that if they pretend they are dating, both of them could achieve mutually beneficial ends. Xander is tired of girls throwing themselves at him, wasting time he needs to dedicate to soccer and his studies; Holly's pride could be saved and a mild retribution achieved by making Jason jealous, and Xander would definitely enjoy helping her stick it to that "git," Jason.

At first Holly has no intention of taking up Xander on such an outrageous offer, but when Nancy brazenly taunts Holly one too many times at school, right in front of Jason, and he makes zero effort to stand up for her, Holly has had it! Revenge, even if it's the rather doubtful possibility of making Jason jealous, is too inviting to resist. And so begins the agreement that she and Xander will be indefinitely "Keeping up Appearances" that they are a couple who are mad about each other.

I am a huge fan of romantic comedy novels, and sadly, there are far too few of them written for either adults or teenagers. This YA novel is a brilliant example of rom com, and the author, Elizabeth Stevens, is highly skilled at creating the best kind of comedy, based on witty repartee rather than the humiliation humor of slapstick. She also is outstanding at writing romance, utilizing the very best themes of a long tradition within adult romance novels, including: a terrific Meet Cute, no cheating, the essential romantic conflict of distrust slowly evolving to trust, a powerful personal-growth arc of both protagonists, and a happily ever after (HEA). Holly and Xander are both extremely sympathetic characters, and so are many of the subcharacters among Xander's close friends, the Bows.

As a brief parental warning, I would rate this story PG-13 because there is a lot of frank talk between Xander and Holly, with a bit of semi-coarse language and multiple somewhat risqué discussions of teen-male sexual attitudes and behavior. However, there is no more sensuality between the protagonists than a few kisses. If this were an adult romance novel with sex, I would call this a "slow burn" story, because it takes most of the book before they engage in the G-rated version of sex, kissing. Also, refreshingly for the YA genre, though there is mention of underage drinking, there is none onstage.

My only mild complaint is that it is not entirely clear what the geographic location of the story is, other than the use of British slang, until halfway through when the author finally mentions Adelaide. It would be nice if there had been more attention to setting by providing a bit of local color.

I rate this book as follows:

Heroine: 4

Hero: 5

Subcharacters: 5

Romance Plot: 5

Comedy: 5

Writing: 5

Overall: 5