Reviewed by Lesley Jones for Readers' Favorite

In One Last First Date by Kate O’Keeffe, Cassie Dunhill’s love life is going nowhere. She has been single for too long and decides it is time to meet The One. She and her friends, Marissa and Paige, make a pact with one another that the next man they date will be the one they marry. The One Last First Date plan is set in motion and Cassie sets her sights on Parker, a successful and handsome young doctor who ticks every box. Cassie is on a mission to make Parker fall in love with her and pop the question. Everything seems to be going to plan until the wind blows in Will Jordan, a smooth-talking, charismatic Adonis. He takes the promotion she was promised and insists on calling her Dunny. Cassie doesn’t need the complication of being attracted to Will and she certainly doesn’t need Parker's perfect ex-girlfriend to make a reappearance.

One Last First Date by Kate O’Keeffe is a hysterically funny and well-written romance story. Cassie is a great protagonist, relatable and realistic; I have friends exactly like her. The love/hate relationship between Will and Cassie is funny and heartwarming. Will is the type of character you always want around to lift your spirits; his insults and nicknames for everyone made me gasp. The chemistry is built gradually and the way Will speaks to Cassie in a cheeky, self-assured manner made me laugh out loud. Every character's dialogue is unique and shows off their personalities perfectly. The conflict throughout the story kept me engrossed. You really want Cassie to choose the path of excitement and passion and not a steady, boring future with Parker. The question of who Cassie is going to choose kept my attention right up until the end. This is a brilliantly written comedy romance and I am looking forward to reading the next book in the series.

Reviewed by Deborah Lloyd for Readers' Favorite

This captivating novel, Grannie Panties Are UnderRated by Gayle Erickson, begins with the prologue taking place in Tokyo in 1994. The main character, 24-year-old Elle, has been living in Tokyo for two years. She has a boyfriend, Tak, and she knows she is in big trouble. Move forward to 2017, describing 47-year-old Elle’s life as the perfect suburban housewife. She is married to Winston Ford Martin III, a very successful and wealthy businessman, and they have two adolescent children, Brynnie and Four. Elle spends her time living the upper-class lifestyle, managing the housekeeper and her large house, and keeping up appearances with the other mothers whose children attend the exclusive Country Day School.

There are many flashback chapters, describing Elle’s life in Tokyo, from her arrival in 1992 through 1994. From meeting her best friend, Mitch, at Tokyo’s Narita airport in August 1992, to her work teaching English to Japanese students, to her next job in a nightclub, to her involvement with the hot and shady Tak, her life in Japan took some unexpected turns. She never shared most of these experiences with her husband or her children, but focused on creating a new life.

One of the most interesting aspects of this novel is the rich character development of Elle over the decades of her life. By going back and forth between different time periods, the reader understands the motivations and emotions of this fascinating character. Author Gayle Erickson is a wonderful storyteller as she weaves in various scenes and intriguing characters over the years in Grannie Panties Are UnderRated. This is a real page-turner, and the ending is fantastic!

Reviewed by Elizabeth Butts for Readers' Favorite

Made For Me by Kathryn R. Biel follows Michele, an aspiring designer (who unceremoniously flunked out of design school) without clear direction. She is from a large, loud family, who loves her and has her back, all the while meddling in her non-existent love life. She has an on-again/off-again 'friend with benefits' who, at the start of the book, was off-again. She is disappointed with life, but has no idea what to do about it, until her job disappears overnight and she has to make a decision.

Made for Me is laugh out loud funny. Seriously. I read this book at every opportunity. Eating cereal in the morning, on the treadmill at work, before bed. Any time I had a spare second, I immersed myself in the world of reality TV, flowing materials, pins, and cutthroat competition. Kathryn R. Biel created characters you will enjoy. Even the antagonists will be fun for you, I promise. This is an easy read, one that will keep you captivated. You will find yourself imagining yourself in Michele's creations, which is so impressive considering you are only getting a verbal description of them. Seriously, though, maybe she could come and be my designer! You will enjoy this book. This is what I think of when I think 'Chick Lit.' Light, easy, fun, funny, and something I smile about every time I think of it. It will leave you wanting just a little bit more. I highly recommend Made For Me.

Reviewed by Jack Magnus for Readers' Favorite

Vegas to Varanasi: Fortytude Series, Book 1 is a contemporary romantic chick lit novel written by Shelly Hickman. Anna's first and major love had been Luke. They were best friends who went the next step, fell in love and got married. Anna, who had never been intimate with a man before, had no real reason to suppose that the perfunctory and slightly impersonal lovemaking they occasionally indulged in was anything really out of the ordinary. After their second child, however, she realized, without him saying a word, that Luke was gay. She avoided any real relationships with men after their amicable divorce, not wanting to subject their two kids to a boyfriend until they were older. Then Anna met David, a client at the physical therapy center where she worked, and their relationship grew to the point that David came to live with Anna and her now grownup children. But David, a tenured professor and aspiring novelist, became increasingly reticent and reclusive, and was finishing off a significant amount of booze while writing his great novel. Their parting seemed almost a relief to the two of them. Then there was Kiran. Impossibly lovely to look at, and still holding tight to a crush he had had on her from when they were briefly in school together years before. Too good to be true? Anna's optimism has taken a few too many bumps and bruises along the way, but Kiran is quite enticing.

Shelly Hickman's contemporary romance novel, Vegas to Varanasi: Fortytude Series, Book 1 is a heartwarming and humorous look at life after forty. There's the worries Anna has about her kids and their prospective partners, and her own fears about growing old on her own, but Hickman's Anna is more than simply a woman going through a midlife crisis. She's a genuinely likable and compassionate soul, and the reader can't help but hope that she and Kiran will get to live happily ever after. Along the way, Kiran invites Anna to travel with him to India to visit his ailing grandmother and his aunt. Anna's always dreamed of going to India and surprises herself by assenting. Reading about their experiences in India is marvelous! Hickman makes every crowded street in Varanasi and holy ceremony by the Ganges come alive with the flowing and detailed descriptions one would usually expect from a travel writer. Vegas to Varanasi is a quirky, warm, and entertaining novel that is most highly recommended.

Reviewed by Marta Tandori for Readers' Favorite

Gorgeous Eddy is reeling from a recent split with the no-good Andreas, who made a career out of being unfaithful during their entire relationship. She has kicked him to the curb and sold their apartment in Stockholm and has made the decision to move back to New York. Bookish lawyer, Henrik, split with his two-timing fiancée a year ago and hates coming home to an empty apartment, despite the fact that he now knows he hadn’t really been in love with her in the first place. He has rented the beach house on Niva Bay for the entire summer, the same rental he had the year before, and looks forward to celebrating Sankthansaften with his cousin and best buddy, Mads, his fiancée, Laney, and their baby daughter at the beach house. Shortly before they’re about to leave, Mads calls Henrik and asks if it’s okay that Laney has invited her cousin, Eddy, to come with them. Henrik remembers meeting Eddy briefly during the crisis that ensued during the birth of Mads’s baby and remembers thinking how beautiful – and how out of his league – she had been. He agrees to Eddy joining them, but when she arrives at the beach house, Henrik is once again bowled over by her looks and her easy-going demeanor. After countless shots of schnapps, and some innocent flirting between the two of them, the situation becomes charged with electricity when a half-drunk Eddy runs over to the edge of the beach, strips off her clothes and invites Henrik to join her. Abandoning all vestiges of common sense, he quickly takes off his clothes and jumps in after her. Needless to say, one thing leads to another, which inevitably leads to some incredible, explosive sex. However, the sex was the easy part. What follows afterwards is a lot more complicated…

Maybe Tomorrow is another sizzling romance in the Maybe series by Kim Golden. It has plenty of conflict and substance to keep even the most jaded of romance lovers rooting for the requisite Happily Ever After. Honest yet complicated is the best way to describe the romance between Eddy and Henrik. Golden’s protagonists are today’s modern couple. Both are somewhat jaded about the concept of love, thanks to bad experiences that have left them more than a little burned. Add to that the fact that Eddy is set to be going back to New York and you’ve got the makings of a modern-day relationship between two people who are clearly attracted to each other, like each other, and yet have to figure out how to make what seems to be an impossible relationship work. Golden does a great job building the sexual tension which, in turn, keeps the reader glued to the story as she puts both of her protagonists through their paces. Her prose is fluid, her dialogue natural, and she has a wonderful ability to perfectly capture the nuances that give a relationship life and substance. Long distance relationships require a lot of work as well as compromise by one of the parties involved. And let’s be real here. One doesn’t necessarily agree with all of Eddy's or Henrik’s choices throughout the book. Far from it. However, it’s this push and pull, this give and take, as well as the hurt or be hurt mentality that give the story its meat. Maybe Tomorrow teaches its readers that sex is easy – the relationship, the trust and the love require incredible amounts of work and commitment if there’s to be a Happily Ever After. If you’re looking for a realistic romance with substance, look no further.

Reviewed by Rosie Malezer for Readers' Favorite

Summer At Sea is a romance novel written by Beth Labonte. Afraid to break her mother’s heart, Summer Eve Hartwell still lives at home with her parents. At 26 years of age, Summer is determined to get married, enabling her to leave home and escape being under her mother’s thumb. When her brother, Eric, buys luxury cruise tickets for the family, thanks to the fortune he’d made inventing a Fart App, Summer pins her hopes that Mr. Right will be found on the luxury liner. At the last minute, however, Eric cancels his own ticket, sending his fortune-from-flatulence business partner, Graham Blenderman, in his place. Graham’s objective in going on the cruise is to try to make Summer’s parents lighten up a little (or, rather, a whole lot), whilst simultaneously trying to help Summer stand up for herself and gain some self-confidence. Being aboard a cruise ship means that the likelihood of Summer running into her parents while on the hunt for her future husband is high, whether she is poolside, at a bar or on the dance floor. The events which take place during the cruise rattle Summer quite a bit, as her parents seem set out to embarrass her at every turn. Throughout all of the hilarity and the drama, whether real or imagined by Summer’s parents, one thing’s for certain: this is a cruise that none of them will ever forget.

Caution: Do not read this book in public where noise is forbidden, as laughing out loud is inevitable. Beth Labonte’s tale of a young librarian who is desperate to be liberated from her parents’ strict rules is one of the funniest books I have read to date. With Summer’s parents being more than 40 years her senior, they are very old fashioned and set in their ways. Unwilling to permit their daughter to leave home until she is married, Mr. and Mrs. Hartwell give the reader many-a-cause for an eye-roll or three. If you are having a bad day, Summer At Sea is just the therapy you need. Not only does it show how utterly humiliating two parents can be, but it also sends shock waves through your funny bone, causing those around you to stare as you giggle uncontrollably. I can personally say that the images left in my head of what can possibly happen during a relaxing massage have shaken me and are impossible to erase... I couldn’t be more thrilled! While there are a few darker moments in the book, showing how underhanded people can be when they think you have a lot of money, each dark event fits perfectly in place within the story line, teaching the reader a lesson or two at the same time. I cannot express enough how much I enjoyed Summer At Sea, and recommend it to readers over the age of 15 years who like romance, suspense, drama and hilarity, all wrapped into one small, perfect package.

Reviewed by Anne-Marie Reynolds for Readers' Favorite

Mixing It Up by Tracie Banister is a hilarious tale of one woman’s bid to lead her life as she sees fit. Cecily was born to a well-to-do family, but has disappointed them with her choice of career. She has her own TV show, Serving Romance, where she demonstrates French cuisine and she thought it was successful. Until the network is taken over and shaken up by Devlin Hayes. He wants to change the show and bring it into the present, but his plans don’t sit well with Cecily. She tries hard to get along with her new co-host, Italian chef Dante Marchetti, but they have history and it isn’t a good one. Cecily must fight to keep the integrity of her show intact and finds herself stooping as low as her new boss and her co-host to get what she wants. But is this really where Cecily belongs? Wouldn’t she be better off doing what she loved best elsewhere? And is her boss really “all that” or is it just part of his ploy?

Mixing It Up by Tracie Banister was a fantastic story and is a must-read! It is a funny, sassy, and energetic story with plenty of go in it – I can assure you there are no dead bits here! Ms. Banister has written some incredibly clever, likeable, and interesting characters here and I absolutely loved them all. Each one brought something new to the story, another dimension that just added to the depth and direction the plot was going in. Each character is well developed, especially the main protagonist, Cecily, a woman that I couldn’t help but like. I found myself rooting for her so many times, indignant on her behalf so many times, and cheering for her as well. This isn’t a straightforward tale and you will certainly be taken on a roundabout way to the explosive finale. I absolutely loved this book, it is an addictive read and I will be looking for more books by this wonderful author.

Reviewed by Divine Zape for Readers' Favorite

Presley Benson might have thought she’d found the best strategy to move on, but when she meets her ex, now the new Vice Principal at a school where she teaches, things cease to work as she’d planned. Were they really over each other or was their rupture just a getting-to-know-each-other phase of a powerful romance? How to Get Over Your Ex in Ninety Days by Jennifer Peel is a romance that is well-crafted to offer readers great entertainment. Moving on can be more difficult and complicated than many people think and, no matter how beautiful or rocky the relationship has been, one still carries part of someone they have loved with them; the beautiful memories, the hurts, the lies, the betrayals. Walking past all of these can be a huge challenge because the heart learns to attach itself to people that come into one’s life, and letting go can feel like severing a part of one’s person.

When I picked up this book, I thought it would be self-help, but it turned out to be something more than I imagined. How to Get Over Your Ex in Ninety Days is a tantalizing read for fans of modern romance. Narrated in the first person, it is absorbing with a strong story line and a lot of drama. The reader is immersed in a stream of emotions as they explore the characters. The writing is beautiful and the characters as real as they are interesting, well-developed and perfectly carved into their respective roles in the story. Jennifer Peel is a master at leading readers into the complex world of the human heart and emotions, and her book will make for a satisfying read.

Reviewed by Maureen Dangarembizi for Readers' Favorite

Groupie by Susan Daugherty revolves around a developing romance between Dr Lexie Travis and music sensation Jack Morgan. Lexie doesn't appreciate Jack's brand of country music much and has a low opinion of his lifestyle. When Jack has an accident on stage and hurts his leg, Lexie is brought in as his therapist. Turns out Jack Morgan isn't the uncouth womanizer she believed him to be. Their healing sessions bring them closer and Jack is forced to take a good look at his life since his stardom. For Lexie, travelling with Jack on his tour is a dream come true. Jack may just be the man to make Lexie hope again. Just one problem; she didn't believe in true love and Jack is ready to jump all in.

When it comes to exploring a character's emotions, Susan Daugherty hit the nail on the head. I felt the fear, the excitement, and the love between Lexie and Jack. Both characters have been scared by the past and are scared to commit, but as they get to know each other better, their friendship turns into something more meaningful. This book is filled with "awww"-inspiring sweet moments and nail biting suspense (sometimes more than I could take). I especially loved that it still managed to convey the romantic atmosphere without the overblown sex scenes so prevalent in romance books nowadays. The book ends in a cliffhanger, but was totally worth the read. I can't wait to read the conclusion of Lexie and Jack's story in Muse. Fans of Colleen Hoover will definitely enjoy Groupie.

Reviewed by Lisa McCombs for Readers' Favorite

“On the day Jennifer Green was born, a pile of stones was placed alongside her scale of life.” The Keeper of the Scales was glad to see into Jennifer’s future: married to Drew Bishop, mother of Brooke. The Bishops were destined to lead a happy, fulfilling life. Unfortunately a similar prognosis was not possible for Tom Coggan. His scale was not balanced; instead, it came crashing down around Jennifer Bishop, dislodging a happy balance that she desperately tried to maintain with a travelling husband and a young child at home. Words could not soothe the pain that Drew and Brooke would face that fateful day Jennifer did not return home from the drug store. Their lives turned a ghastly corner that even the Keeper of the Scales could not control. When Drew is forced to sell his home and relocate miles away to Memory House, he finally sees that his daughter might survive her devastating loss and he could possibly find the hope that his heart would also be repaired.

Silver Threads: Memory House Series Book Five by award winning author Bette Lee Crosby is a fast paced romance of an unusual breed. Although the story line is contemporary, there lies a constant reference to an almost supernatural superior being in control of the characters' destinies. Crosby flawlessly merges two themes in this fifth book of her Memory House series. As the Keeper of the Scales's presence is apparent, this element of fantasy does not interrupt the beauty of a solid love story, sure to stay with you beyond the last page.