ONCE UPON A BAD BOY (SOMETIMES IN LOVE #3)

NEVER SAY NEVER

Sadie Gold is ready to take her career to the next level with the role of a lifetime. Finally, she can shake her reputation as a pretty face with more wealth and connections than talent. But Sadie is not prepared for the wild turn her own life is about to take. The man in charge of training Sadie for her most demanding role yet is none other than her first real boyfriend—the one who took her heart and ran away.

WHEN IT COMES TO LOVE

Bo Ibarra is as good-looking and irresistible as ever. Maybe even more so, now that everything once worked against them—Sadie’s pampered and privileged upbringing and Bo’s childhood in a family struggling to make ends meet—is in the past. But the future is still unwritten…and getting there, together, means coming clean about painful secrets and slashing through nasty tabloid rumors while trying to control the attraction that crackles between them. Maybe it’s finally time for them to walk off into the sunset and into a true and lasting love?

Release Date: June 25, 2019

St. Martin's Press

Sometimes in Love #3

Contemporary Romance

Review copy provided by publisher

Liza's Review:

Once Upon a Bad Boy is the 3rd book in the Sometimes in Love series. We finally got Sadie's book with Once Upon a Bad Boy. I really enjoyed the first 2 books in this series and wanted to love this book as well, but sadly I didn't connect with Sadie and Bo as well as I did other characters in this series.

I really wanted to love this story, but I couldn't get past the secrets that were mentioned over and over from the beginning of the story once Sadie realized she was going to be working with her one-time best childhood friend and teenage lover. The secret overshadowed the entire story for me and took away my enjoyment of this story. I love nothing more than a reunion romance, and I had high hopes for the romance between Sadie and Bo, as I did feel the chemistry between them. I just felt like they had grown apart in the years since they had dated as teens.

I will also say I had no issue with the secret Sadie was keeping once it was revealed. It is a pretty big spoiler in the story, so I won't reveal the secret, but I really wasn't too surprised by it to be honestly. I wanted to love this book, but unlike the connection I had with the first two books, I struggled just to finish this story. As I enjoyed the other books in this series, I would totally give future books by Melonie Johnson a shot. While this story and particular characters didn't work for me, I feel like it could work for others.

Rating: 3.5 Stars (C)

SMITTEN BY THE BRIT(SOMETIMES IN LOVE #2)

DEFINITELY, MAYBE...OR LOVE, ACTUALLY? 

English professor Bonnie Blythe expects her life to play out like her favorite novels, especially now that her long-term boyfriend has finally proposed. So when a shocking discovery leads Bonnie to end her engagement, she decides to close the book on love. But the plot thickens when a brand-new character enters the scene—and quickens Bonnie's heart.

With his brilliant blue eyes, sexy accent, and irresistible charm, Theo Wharton is like a romantic hero straight out of a Jane Austen novel. When fate places Bonnie in England for a summer—conveniently close to Theo—she realizes a hot friends-with-benefits fling is exactly what she needs to start a fresh chapter. Just as Bonnie begins to believe she's falling in love, an eye-opening revelation into Theo's life makes Bonnie feel like she's wandered into one of her favorite books. Will Bonnie have the courage to risk her heart and turn the page with the dashing Brit to find her true happy ending after all?

Release Date: May 28, 2019

St. Martin's Press

Sometimes in Love #2

Contemporary romance

Review copy provided by publisher

Liza's review:

Melonie Johnson returns with the second book in her Sometimes in Love series of books with Smitten by the Brit. I won't lie, I wanted Bonnie and Theo to get together from the moment they met each other. Even without meeting her fiancé Gabe, there was just something about Bonnie and Theo I loved. 

I enjoyed Smitten by the Brit a great deal. I already liked the characters from meeting them in the first book. I have to say I did feel that Bonnie was a bit naive about many things, but overall it was an endearing quality rather than a negative. I have to say I wanted to throat punch her ex when I saw what he had been up to, and thought Bonnie handled the entire situation way better than most. Her dad offering to kill Gabe made me laugh out loud while I was reading at work. Honestly, I liked Bonnie when we first met her, but loved her after seeing her pick herself up and move on after her well-ordered world was destroyed.

Theo Wharton is not only a super sexy Brit, but an actual Duke as well! OMG he was completely swoon-worthy from the very first. However being the Duke of Emberton comes with many responsibilities, and sadly he normally has to put his desires on the back burner to take care of his family and all the families that depend on their estate for their livelihoods. However, when Theo is with Bonnie, he can just be Theo and have some happiness. She doesn't care he is a Duke and honestly was attracted to him long before she knew anything about him.

I enjoyed watching Theo and Bonnie fall for one another. I do wish the story had moved along a little bit faster, as it did seem to drag at times. I loved how much chemistry was there anytime they were together and found myself falling in love with them as a couple. I also loved getting to spend time with all of Bonnie's friends again in this book, and meeting all of Theo's sisters. Overall, Smitten by the Brit was an enjoyable story and I look forward to reading the third book in this series.

Rating: 4 Stars (B-)

GETTING HOT WITH THE SCOT

IT’S TIME TO FLIRT WITH A MAN IN A KILT 

Cassie Crow, a pop-culture reporter for a TV talk show, is focused on becoming a “serious” journalist. But when she stumbles into a kilted Highlander with a killer accent, Cassie decides that taking one night off from work and spending it with a sexy Scot couldn’t hurt. . .

Logan Reid has built a career on his charm, hosting a series of off-the-wall hijinks on the Web. But when the Scottish prankster meets the all-American, equal parts intelligent and irresistible Cassie, Logan realizes that one night of fun won’t be enough. Could it be that this career-focused, commitment-phobic couple is finally ready to take a chance at true and lasting love? 

Release Date: April 30, 2019

St. Martin's Press

Sometimes in Love #1

Contemporary Romance

Review copy provided by publisher

Liza's Review:

Getting Hot with the Scot is the first book in the Sometimes in Love series from Melonie Johnson. Cassie Crow and her best friends are on a dream European vacation when Cassie meets Logan Reid in a Scottish castle when he is doing a tv show/hidden camera prank as a time traveling Highlander.  As Cassie kissed Logan before realizing who he is, she is less than pleased when he ask her to sign a release so the video can be uploaded to his website. When Cassie refuses to sign the release waiver, Logan does everything possible to change her mind.

I enjoyed Getting Hot with the Scot, but will say I felt like it started out a little slow. I think part of it was keeping up with all of Cassie's friends. I honestly kept getting them confused in the beginning. I did enjoy the romance between Cassie and Logan and the amazing chemistry between them. Seriously they were smoking hot together. I didn't love that Logan wasn't completely truthful with Cassie about little things like staying in the same hotel and the fact that he really wanted her to still sign the release waiver. It kinda broke my heart with Cassie found the waiver, however I liked her choice on handling it. Logan ends up in the state soon after Cassie leaves and as luck would have it, his tv show is taping in Chicago, where Cassie lives.

I really liked watching Cassie and Logan find their way once they were both in Chicago. I did think they both should have been more open with one another along the way, but did see them both mature and grow over the course of the story. As Logan had total commitment phobia thanks to the death of his father, I knew it would take something big to help him see he needed Cassie in his life. I honestly think that was the moment I finally saw growth with his character.

Getting Hot with the Scot was a fast and easy read. It was a very enjoyable contemporary romance that set up the second book in the series, Smitten with the Brit very well. 

Rating: 4 Stars (B-)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

A Star Wars junkie and Shakespeare groupie who quotes both Yoda and the Bard with equal aplomb, award-winning author Melonie Johnson—aka #thewritinglush—is a two-time RWA Golden Heart® finalist who loves dark coffee, cheap wine, and expensive beer. And margaritas. And mimosas. And mules. Basically any cocktail that starts with the letter m. She met her future husband in that most romantic of places—the mall—when they were teenagers working in stores across the hall from each other. They went on to live happily ever after in the suburbs of Chicago with two redhead daughters, a dog that’s more like a small horse, and a trio of hermit crabs. After earning her Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude from Loyola University Chicago, Melonie taught high school English and Theatre in the northern Chicago suburbs for several years. Now she writes smart and funny contemporary romance and moonlights as an audiobook narrator under the pseudonym, Evelyn Eibhlin.

Buy this book: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250193094

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