On My Radar: Titles I Can't Wait To Get My Hands On

On My Radar

Title: The Wish
Author: Nicholas Sparks
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Genre: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary
ISBN: 9781538728628
Release Date: September 28, 2021

Description from Nicholas Spark's website:

From the author of The Longest Ride and The Return comes a novel about the enduring legacy of first love, and the decisions that haunt us forever.

1996 was the year that changed everything for Maggie Dawes. Sent away at sixteen to live with an aunt she barely knew in Ocracoke, a remote village on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, she could think only of the friends and family she left behind . . . until she met Bryce Trickett, one of the few teenagers on the island. Handsome, genuine, and newly admitted to West Point, Bryce showed her how much there was to love about the wind-swept beach town—and introduced her to photography, a passion that would define the rest of her life.

By 2019, Maggie is a renowned travel photographer. She splits her time between running a successful gallery in New York and photographing remote locations around the world. But this year she is unexpectedly grounded over Christmas, struggling to come to terms with a sobering medical diagnosis. Increasingly dependent on a young assistant, she finds herself becoming close to him.

As they count down the last days of the season together, she begins to tell him the story of another Christmas, decades earlier—and the love that set her on a course she never could have imagined.

Review: A Real Cowboy Always Protects by Stephanie Rowe

Title: A Real Cowboy Always Protects

Series: Book 8 - Wyoming Rebels Series

Author: Stephanie Rowe

Publisher: Authenticity Playground
Genre: Contemporary Romance
ASIN: B08Q2X26YY
Release Date: June 1, 2021
Rating: 4/5 - Really Liked It

Blurb from Stephanie Rowe's website:

Is it really a second chance at love if a hot, charming cowboy proposes marriage only to protect you from being killed by a CIA assassin?

Haunted by shadows that will never let him go, CIA agent Logan Stockton walked away from his cowboy past ten years ago. But when his sassy, adorable neighbor gets targeted by his enemies, he'll do whatever it takes to protect her…including taking her back to his hometown as his fake fiancée to hide out.

Skylar Jones has lost too much, and all she wants is to bury herself in her work and forget...but there's one man Skylar can't help but notice. Fortunately, her handsome, brooding neighbor is no more interested in dating than she is...which is exactly how she wants it.

But when Skylar stumbles into the middle of a botched attempt on his life, her safety becomes his responsibility.

Sparks fly hot and fast when Logan takes Skylar back to his Wyoming hometown as his fake fiancée to protect her. But can they stay alive long enough to find love, especially when his matchmaking family has plans for the two workaholics who are afraid to trust again?

Review:

Skyler Jones's character is witty, funny, and hard working.  Her past has made her want to seclude herself from everyone. She has no friends, and no lovers, and she prefers it that way.  The only person she keeps in her life is her mother, who is in just as much pain as herself.

Logan Stockton is a tall, gorgeous hunk of man.  He's not as strong as his body portrays him.  He's had a rough life, and is afraid to let anyone in that could hurt him, or that he could hurt.  He's spent the past decade working for the CIA so he can focus all of his pain and anger into his job, and he's been a force to be reckoned with.

Skyler and Logan live right across the hall from one another, for the past two years.  They've felt the attraction, but their pasts have made them want to keep themselves hidden from the other.  When some armed killers come into the building and force Skyler to be bait to get them into Logan's apartment, everything changes.

Their adventure starts pretty quickly into the book, and it's filled with action, hot cowboys, and temptation.  Rowe describes Logan so well, I could feel the heat rushing to my own cheeks as I read about him.  He most definitely comes off the pages as the sexy, mysterious cowboy she wanted her readers to imagine.

Unlike Logan, Skyler came off the pages as petite, mousey, and full of fear.  She played it off really well though with her quick quips and the way she used humor to hide her fear.  She was the perfect piece that Logan had been missing his whole life.  

Their connection was swoon-worthy.  This is one of those books that sates that taste for romance that most of us women in the world wish they could get their hands on in a real man.  It was most definitely a guilty pleasure just to devour these pages.

I'd never read a Wyoming Rebels book before, or anything by Stephanie Rowe to be completely honest.  Normally I like to start a series from the very beginning, so I don't miss anything of importance.  Thankfully every book in the series can be read as a stand alone story so you can read them in any order.  I most definitely will be going back to the beginning to read about Chase, Logan's sexy older brother, and Mira in A Real Cowboy Never Says No.

I'd LOVE to thank Stephanie Rowe for giving me the opportunity to read this in ARC form before release date.  I know I'm just getting back into reviewing again, but I'm incredibly honored she would give me the chance.  I really look forward to reading more of her books in the future, and hopefully I will be lucky enough to continue to stay on her ARC review team! 

I received an advanced reading copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.