Winners - - 2025 Favorite Books

 

The randomly chosen winners 

of a package of books from the

Favorite Books of 2025 post are:

Mollie W

Theresa Wallace-Lopez

Congratulations!

Please send your full name and mailing address to:

theromancedish (at) gmail (dot) com

PJ's Favorite Books of 2025 & Giveaway

  

I tried to list a Top Ten for this year but nope, couldn't do it. There were just too many good books that took me on unforgettable journeys in 2025. Some made me laugh out loud. Some left me in tears. A few took me on emotional roller coaster rides. There were surprises with twists that left me stunned. There were exquisitely written, deeply romantic tales that I felt deep in my soul. And...there were more than a few characters who are still living rent-free in my mind and probably will for some time to come. 

Here are my seventeen favorite books of 2025, in no particular order. 

ONE GOLDEN SUMMER 

by Carley Fortune

You know those special books that transport you to a specific time and place, speak to all your emotions, evoke memories of times gone by, and hold you spellbound from start to finish? One Golden Summer, for me, is that book. I read it in one day and once I finished all I wanted to do was go back to page one and read it again, only slowly this time, savoring every perfectly placed word designed to elicit laughter, tears, and swoony sighs.

SECOND CHANCE ROMANCE 

by Olivia Dade

Second chances, banter for days, emotional depth, laugh-out-loud humor, body positivity, slow-burn romance, a terrific supporting cast, and a lead couple who stole my heart and had me cheering them on every step of the way. Second Chance Romance is a funny, endearing, warm hug of a book that kept me engaged and entertained from beginning to end. 

PITCHER PERFECT 

by Tessa Bailey

Pitcher Perfect by Tessa Bailey is one of those unicorn books that flowed like hot maple syrup over a stack of yummy pancake perfection. It grabbed my attention from the first page, never lagged, never wavered, and kept me happily flipping pages until the final word. There's enemies-to-lovers romance, fake dating, forced proximity, unexpected vulnerability, family wilderness games (with accompanying snort laughter...and tears), banter for days, thought-provoking family dysfunction (but also love and humor), self discovery, surprising twists, delicious steam, adorable nicknames, and sigh-worthy words - and actions - of growing respect, admiration, and love. Basically, everything that makes my reader's heart happy.

THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT MIRA 

by Sonali Dev

There's something special about There's Something About Mira. It's my favorite of all the books Sonali Dev has written. I usually enjoy her stories but this is the first one that has kept me reading until 3:00 in the morning and still thinking about the characters many days later. There's Something About Mira is a beautifully nuanced story about parental expectations, social issues, fate, finding yourself, and opening your heart to both love for yourself and the love others choose for themselves.

WHEN WE HAD FOREVER 

by Shaylin Gandhi 

I read this book in January. In one day. Turned the last page around 1:00 AM then was awake at least another hour thinking about these characters, their journey, the unexpected revelations. Fell asleep and dreamed about them. Woke up thinking about them. It is now December, almost a full year later and I'm still thinking about them, about their journey. That is the impact of Shaylin Gandhi's writing. 

CAN'T GET ENOUGH 

by Kennedy Ryan

Kennedy Ryan is a force. While a book written by her is always a reading adventure, it is also an emotional, all-consuming, visceral experience. In Can't Get Enough, I didn't just read about these complex characters, I lived their journeys with them. They filled me with hope, anguish, accomplishment, fear, solid supportive friendship, chosen family, and soul-deep, enduring, hard-won love.  

CRUEL SUMMER 

by Maisey Yates

Raw. Real. Heartbreaking. Healing. Empowering. Romantic. Unforgettable. This is an immersive story of heartbreak, growth, healing, and forgiveness. It's also a heart-tugging journey of learning to value your needs, your worth, and your right to love and be loved for your complete, authentic self. I couldn't put it down.  

ALONG CAME AMOR

by Alexis Daria

This one was worth the wait. Not only is Along Came Amor my favorite book of Alexis Daria's exceptional Primas of Power trilogy, Roman and Ava are one of my favorite couples this year. Complex characters, rich Puerto Rican representation, dysfunctional family, a super swoony hero, a sympathetic heroine, funny, steamy, poignant, and deeply emotional. I loved it.  

SUMMER IN THE CITY 

by Alex Aster

This book. What an absolute delight. I couldn't put it down. No, really. I read it in one day with a smile on my face the entire time. It's incredibly immersive. The chemistry, the sparkling banter, the swoony, slow-burn romance. Summer in the City is a fun, steamy, can't-put-it-down story that kept me flipping pages late into the night while dreaming of New York City pizza, champagne galas, early mornings in Central Park, found friendships, heroes who cook (yay!), cozy coffee shops, and hard-won happy endings. It has my highest, joyful recommendation.  

THESE SUMMER STORMS 

by Sarah MacLean

There's a reason readers and media outlets worldwide raved about this book all summer. I read the entire book in one day. Could not put it down. This flawed, fractured family reeled me in and absolutely refused to let me turn away until I turned the final page. I'm still thinking about them months later. These Summer Storms is immersive, superbly written, emotionally driven, frequently messy, and ultimately hopeful. I loved it. 

GOOD SPIRITS 

by B.K. Borison 

Oh, my heart. This is one of those books that leaves an indelible mark on my soul. So incredibly romantic. So immersive. I didn't want to put it down. I wanted to read faster to discover what would ultimately happen (because my heart was crying out for something that felt impossible) while also wanting to slow down to savor every single word, action, and emotion. Good Spirits is one of those special stories that I will be turning to again and again in the future whenever I feel the need for a comforting, warm hug of a book. Straight to the keeper shelf!

THE AMALFI CURSE 

by Sarah Penner

This book has it all. Italy's Amalfi Coast (If you've visited, this will take you right back. If not, you'll be aching to go.). Sea witches (I believe). Dual timeline (I was equally invested in the stories and characters from both). Intrigue. Betrayal (I did not see some of those twists coming!). Forbidden love (in one timeline). Maybe fated love in the other? Complex, well-developed characters who tugged at my heart. Shipwrecks...sunken treasure...twists...turns...and OMG, what just happened??? I gasped. I cheered. I turned the final page with a big ole happy smile, wanting nothing more than to go back to page one and read it all again.

 

THUS WITH A KISS I DIE 

by Christina Dodd

I highlighted so many brilliantly witty and downright hilarious passages in this book it would be easier to tell you what I didn't highlight than what I did. Hijinks, hilarity, danger, and a bit of romance had me gasping one second, laughing out loud the next, and begging for the next book in this series the second I turned the final page of this one. I'll travel back to fair Verona any - and every - time Christina Dodd wants to take me there. 

A NEW YEAR IN THE KEYS 

by Hope Holloway

I have so much love for these characters, for this family. I sighed, I cried, I cheered. I don't think it's possible for Hope Holloway to write a book that does not touch me emotionally but even among the many heart-tugging stories from her various book series, this one stands out. It celebrates life, love, and multiple generations of family. It's achingly romantic and, to my delight, it features soul-stirring romance for a vibrant character in her seventies.

It is never too late to fall in love. 

EARL CRUSH 

by Alexandra Vasti

So many feelings. How could I not fall in love with these beautifully depicted characters and their hard-won happy ending. In addition to emotional depth, this book has impeccably placed humor, witty banter, zebras (yes, zebras), a mystery, a bit of danger, chemistry, meddling family (bio and chosen), road romance (Yay!), and did I mention yearning? So much yearning. I laughed, sobbed, and held my breath as Lydia and Arthur navigated the ups and downs of mistaken identity, espionage, kidnapping, and falling in love. I was with them every step of the way, right up to - and through - one of the most swoon-worthy, deeply romantic, heart-tugging epilogues I've read.

SPILLING THE TEA 

by Brenda Jackson

Brenda Jackson has written 150 books, hitting both the New York Times and USA Today Bestseller lists in the process. Spilling the Tea, in my opinion, is one of her best and one of my all-time Jackson favorites. This author has a way of luring readers into her stories with intriguing characters, relatable circumstances, and emotional engagement. In this book she seamlessly interweaves the stories of two couples using flashbacks of the past with unfolding events of the present and the unlikely twists that bond them together. The end result is an emotional dual-timeline story with strong family dynamics, heart-wrenching emotion, sensual romance, closely-held secrets, and another Madaris HEA.

A TROPICAL REBEL GETS THE DUKE 

by Adriana Herrera

Adriana Herrera saved the best for last. A Tropical Rebel Gets the Duke, book three in Herrera's Las Leonas trilogy, is a steamy, compelling, endearing, action-packed story that I did not want to put down. A Caribbean woman in Paris, fighting for her independence and right to care for other women. A Caribbean man determined to avenge his father and honor his mother's memory by claiming his rightful place in the peerage (fiery Black duke for the win). Adversaries to lovers. Danger around every corner. Found family of the heart. Hard-won happily ever after. This book has everything I love...and then some. 

Those are my favorites. What books had you jumping for joy this year? 

Two people who post a comment before 11:00 PM, December 26 will each receive a surprise package of books from my stash. 

*U.S. only

*Must be 18

 

Second-Chance Winner - - The Secret Christmas Library

 

The giveaway of

The Secret Christmas Library by Jenny Colgan

was not claimed so I have randomly drawn another name.

The second-chance winner of

a print copy of The Secret Christmas Library is:

Penney W

Congrats!

Please email your full name and mailing address to:

theromancedish (at) gmail (dot) com

Winner - - The E.M.M.A. Effect

 

The randomly chosen winner

of a print ARC of

The E.M.M.A. Effect by Lia Riley is:

Cherie J

Congratulations!

Please send your full name and mailing address to:

theromancedish (at) gmail (dot) com

Review - - Her Time Traveling Duke

Her Time Traveling Duke

by Bryn Donovan

Publisher: Berkley

Release Date: December 9, 2025

Reviewed by Hellie

Rose Novak, a free-spirited museum employee who dabbles in magic, has had her share of disappointments. So when she tries a little spell for a romance with an “old-fashioned gentleman,” she doesn’t really expect it to work…especially literally. And yet, the duke from a painting she admired at the museum is now standing in her apartment, demanding to know who abducted him.

A man of science and truth, Henry Leighton-Lyons, the Duke of Beresford, has searched tirelessly for a way to turn back time and be with his late wife again. Instead, just as he’s about to pose for his portrait, he’s ripped centuries forward by a feckless, scantily dressed—and utterly bewitching—woman who believes in nonsense like magical crystals and astrology.

Unable to immediately reverse her spell, Rose vows to help Henry return to his own century, even though disguises and high jinks are required to get their hands on an enchanted astrolabe and master the art of time travel. But it’s hard not to fall for the irritable yet honorable duke.

Little does she know that he’s starting to wonder: did a reckless love spell get it right, after all?

Hellie’s Heeds:

I snatched up this frothy feel-good book after having had the opportunity to read Donovan’s debut, Her Knight at the Museum (November 2024), and it did not disappoint. For fans who loved the swoony rom-com, Kate & Leopold, as well as for those of us who wish we could bring the real Mr. Darcy into the modern-era to bypass all those Tinder ads–this is wish-fulfillment at its finest. 

Tropes: Grumpy and Sunshine, also Mr. Rational Science Guy with Miss “I Perform Magic in my Nightie while Sipping Chardonnay" and a little Marvel Universe hilarity with a secondary character named Jason, who I would love to know more about in future books–and I hope there is more time-traveling books to come–or even a time-traveling damsel for Jason–that’d be fun. If you read the first book, you get to meet up with some beloved characters there as well, but you don’t need to have read the first one to enjoy this one. (There are other secondary characters that I wouldn’t mind learning more about–but Jason really stands out.) 

I have to hand it to Ms. Donovan–she had me scared. There was a Black Moment where the hero really futzed it up and I thought, “Oh, my girlfriend is not going to get over this! What was he doing?” But fortunately–ruining it for all of you–they work it out. You’ll have to read it to see how though. 

I took this book with me on a trip–and I was supposed to go and look at art museums and eat out in a big city–and I refused to leave my hotel room so I could keep reading it. It makes you forget whatever is happening outside of you–which is the best recommendation I can have about a book. My husband would return from work and I’d be like, “Listen, listen, I’m going to let you talk about your terrible day, but isn’t this the funniest thing you ever heard?” and would read a scene to him. And it did make his day a little better. And I had the best vacation, staying in the hotel, in bed with this delicious novel. (I also recommend a chocolate bar–that also upped the experience too.)

I’m recommending this to all my rom-com readers this holiday season. Please rush out and put it on your last minute stocking stuffer because once the presents have been torn through, you deserve a little me-time to dream about stuffy dukes from England and modern day wallflowers who deserve a happily ever after.

Review - - Santa Cutie

Santa Cutie

by Jenny Alexandra

Cherryville - Book 1

Publisher: Jenny Alexandra

Release Date: November 11, 2025

Reviewed by PJ

This Santa is more of a Scrooge...

Melody Whitaker doesn’t just love Christmas—she worships it. After fleeing a holiday-hating cult, she’s gone all in: thousands of twinkle lights, a storage unit of trees, and more sparkle than a Hallmark movie marathon.

This year, she’s signed up to play Mrs. Claus at a local nursing home, eager to spread some holiday cheer—until she meets Eben Golding: a brooding, grumpy, Christmas-hating hottie. Maybe it’s the mistletoe, but Melody can’t stop flirting with this surly Santa...

Falling in love with someone who sees your sparkle—even the parts you thought you had to hide—might be the greatest gift of all. But when the nursing home pageant goes ho-ho-horribly, Melody is left wondering if her Christmas spirit can really save the season...and thaw Eben’s frosty heart.

PJ's Thoughts:

Grumpy, Christmas-hating Santa (he has reasons) meets over-the-top, Christmas-loving Mrs. Claus (reasons here too) and the two end up stuck with each other as volunteers at a retirement home bubbling over with frisky, mischievous senior citizens? Sign me up!

This one was fun. I love the grumpy-sunshine vibe and Eben and Melody certainly bring it. There's plenty of humor, spice, and holiday cheer but it's not all holiday shenanigans, though there are plenty of those. There's also an emotion-driven, serious underpinning that gives the story depth to offset the fun. 

Eben and Melody both have emotional trauma and complicated family dynamics in their past and present. It gives a nice balance to the delicious spice and snappy banter between them. As they slowly open themselves to one another it allows for personal growth and the development of a relationship where they can each be - and be appreciated for - their true selves. I enjoyed both aspects of their journey.

Back to the fun side of things. The antics of the residents of the retirement home are some of the best scenes in this book. The Christmas talent show in particular is hilarious. I strongly recommend not eating or drinking anything while reading that chapter. It's snort laughter from start to finish.

I'm looking forward to book two in the Cherryville series and hoping it will feature Melody's best friend. I'm already invested in her and curious to discover what her future holds. 

Review - - Christmas at the Ranch

Christmas at the Ranch

by Julia McKay

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons

Release Date: September 23, 2025

Reviewed by Nancy

She hasn’t been in love in ten years, but she’s about to get back in the saddle.

With the holidays around the corner and her father recently imprisoned for financial fraud, disgraced journalist Emory Oakes doesn’t know where to turn. She’s only certain of one thing: She needs to get away.

Fate takes the wheel, leaving her stranded in snowy Evergreen, the picturesque town where she spent her happiest Christmas as a teen — and chronicled every moment in her journal as she fell in love with handsome local, Tate Wilder, at his family’s idyllic horse ranch — until it all went wrong.

Emory isn’t ready to face Tate, but kismet and Christmas magic have other ideas. As the love they’ve denied for a decade rekindles, the betrayals that kept them apart resurface, as does Emory’s family scandal. Yet Tate Wilder and his ranch feel more like home than anywhere ever has. Will Emory and Tate’s alchemy fizzle or will their Christmas wishes come true?

 

Nancy’s Thoughts: 

Christmas at the Ranch is a delightful second-chance holiday romance about two engaging people. I enjoyed the story very much, but I had some problems with the book’s structure. 

I’ll save the structural issues for last and start with the setup and the characters. Emory is easy to root for. In her wealthy, society-oriented family, she often felt like a changeling, so she makes her living as a freelance journalist and doesn’t touch her large trust fund. The scandal of her father’s arrest, however, tanks her journalism career. That and family pressure related to the scandal cause her to flee. She’s well on her way to Evergreen when she realizes where she’s headed. 

Her failed romance with Tate Wilder a decade previously makes Evergreen a less attractive refuge than it might’ve been, but she has nowhere else to go. She figures she doesn’t have to see him. A combination of unfortunate circumstances, however, traps her at the Wilder ranch, where Tate’s father insists she stay in Tate’s house, which is empty because he’s away at a trade show. 

Of course, Tate returns early, and their reunion is beyond awkward. He doesn’t seem to hold any ill will from their long-ago past, though. He and Emory reconnect over the Wilder horses, but the past is always a stumbling block, and Emory attributes any withdrawal on his part to unpleasant memories of the past coming between them. That’s not always the case, though. 

Tate is courteous and friendly. There are lovely, emotional moments where he and Emory connect again, even though they both retreat afterward. Their shared love of the ranch’s horses and Emory’s pleasure in riding again help bring them together. He’s responsible, kind, and concerned that Emory not leave town until she has somewhere to go. 

The book is written in first person, present tense, so we have only Emory’s viewpoint and excerpts from the diary she kept ten years before. The present-tense form is not a favorite of mine, but I’m aware many readers enjoy it. 

My main problem with the story is in its use of the diary. The book opens with a diary entry from ten years previously that tells us how Emory and Tate met. As a prologue, this works. This entry, like all the others is beautifully written. This one shows us the immediate attraction between Tate and Emory in a believable way. The action then skips ten years to Emory’s family scandal. Flashbacks in the form of lengthy diary entries are interspersed in the story. Every one of them stops the forward action and, for me, slows the pace. 

Despite all this looking backward, we don’t know until nearly the end of the book exactly what happened between Emory and Tate that has her so sure he would never want to try again. Emory obviously remembers what happened, and we spend the entire book in her point of view. Yet that information isn’t shared until late in the story. If I had known what happened between them, I would’ve been more sympathetic to her qualms and more inclined to share them. 

Emory refers a couple of times to a book by the author bell hooks, who does not capitalize her name. Because I had never heard of her, seeing the name made me wonder each time whether the book was about hooks for bells. I couldn’t figure it out until I resorted to a Web search. I’m not quibbling with hooks’s choice about capitalization, but I do question McKay’s choice to use the name in a novel where readers might not be familiar with it and so might be stopped by it, as I was. 

The resolution to the romance was satisfying and also tied up some of Emory’s longstanding family issues as she dealt with her father’s scandal. The descriptions of small-town life and of trail rides in the snowy woods were very well done. Aside from the diary flashbacks, the story moved at a good pace. The townspeople had distinct, varied personalities, and the hesitation some of them felt about Emory’s return was believably grounded in her father’s actions years before. And Tate and Emily had me rooting for them from the beginning. 

Overall, as I said, I enjoyed the story a lot. I highly recommend it.

~Nancy

Review - - Love Letters for Other People

Love Letters for Other People

by Shaylin Gandhi

Publisher: Canary Street Press

Release Date: December 9, 2025

Reviewed by PJ

When mathematician Aubrey MacLean’s career implodes, she has no choice but to return to her rural Indiana hometown, at least temporarily. But small towns have long memories, and so does she, especially when it comes to Nick Thacker, the boy who broke her heart.

Nick’s life is routine: long shifts at the steel mill, plus a side business writing love letters for other people. It’s enough to numb his regrets—until his first love returns, stirring up a past he thought he’d buried.

Aubrey is focused on rebuilding her career, until she falls for a man whose love letters feel achingly familiar. But as their connection deepens, so does her sense that she’s been here before. The similarities must be a coincidence, right? Because if not, Aubrey may have to choose between the life she’s built and the love she left behind…

PJ's Thoughts:

After reading Love Letters for Other People and When We Had Forever by Shaylin Gandhi, what I've come to expect from her books is beautiful writing, complicated relationships, deeply emotional stories, boy-howdy-I-did-not-see-that-coming twists, and layered characters who linger in my mind long after I turn the final page.  

Love Letters for Other People takes us to rural Indiana and a story that pulled me in and refused to let go. Gandhi expertly crafts a tale of heartache, betrayal, long-overdue reckoning, forgiveness, and second chances but nothing on this journey will be easy. There are so many twists in this book, some I sniffed out in advance while others took me by surprise. 

Many characters are layered, with flaws that I could understand even if I didn't agree with their actions. There's a Cyrano de Bergerac plotline that had me worried but works out without going too far (for me). While some of the secondary characters had me ready to do some cliff tossing, Nick and Aubrey (and Nick's daughter) are characters who won my affection and support. My heart hurt so hard for what they had been/were going through but celebrated the joy of their hard-won second-chance happiness. 

If you enjoy an emotional roller coaster ride with complex characters, a hard-won happy ending and a few surprises along the way, I recommend picking up a copy of Love Letters for Other People. It's another winner from one of my favorite new authors, Shaylin Gandhi. 

Review & Giveaway - - The E.M.M.A. Effect

The E.M.M.A. Effect

by Lia Riley

Publisher: Avon

Release Date: December 2, 2025

Reviewed by PJ

Harriet Smythe’s AI was supposed to create sports legends—not encourage her crush on her best friend’s totally off-limits, hot younger brother. But when funding runs dry, she has no choice but to enlist Gale Knight as her test subject. The same Gale she’s been secretly crushing on for years. The player who follows her every instruction with a knowing smirk that threatens to short-circuit her carefully maintained system.

Everything changes when The E.M.M.A. determines that finding Gale’s perfect match is essential to his peak performance. Even worse? According to its data, that match is Harriet.

Determined to keep things professional, Harriet makes it search for new candidates. But as Gale dutifully endures awkward outings with pop stars and athletes, the chemistry between them only intensifies. And his willing cooperation during their sessions definitely isn’t helping her stay focused.

With her deadline approaching and The E.M.M.A. still playing cupid, Harriet must choose: trust in pure logic, or admit that sometimes taking control means letting go.

Maybe The E.M.M.A. knows something they don’t—even if they’re not ready to compute it yet.

PJ's Thoughts:

Part STEM, part hockey, and full-on best-friend's-younger-brother romance, Lia Riley has crafted a funny and emotionally complex romcom that kept me entertained throughout. 

I love the best friend's brother/sister trope. This one gave me the tried and true plus interesting twists that made it original. It was fun to watch Gale and Harriet dance around the attraction between them. Their interactions are endearing, sometimes awkward, sparkling with chemistry and at times, a bit frustrating. 

Nobody is more frustrated than E.M.M.A, the AI creation of Harriett and her team. E.M.M.A. is a shining star of this story. I loved how she gradually evolved throughout the book, gaining surprising insight and capabilities not only into Gale, the subject of Harriet's testing but into Harriet as well. She may be AI but she's a pivotal character in her own right and surprisingly believable. 

Harriet is brilliant, accomplished, and totally lacking in relationship self-confidence. She also has control tendencies, in and out of the bedroom, which have not been appreciated by past boyfriends. Hence, her current rock-bottom dating self-worth issues. But, then there's Gale, her best friend's younger brother, her secret crush, a man who, unbeknownst to Harriet, is more than willing to relinquish bedroom control to the woman he's been half in love with since middle school. Bring on the spice. And the kittens. Can't forget the kittens. 

If you enjoy STEM, hot hockey players, younger men, adorable kittens, spicy romance, humor, emotional depth, and sassy, know-it-all AI computers, check out Lia Riley's The E.M.M.A Effect. 

Have you read Lia Riley yet? 

Do you enjoy take-charge heroines in the books you read?

What are your favorite animals in books? Kittens? Puppies? Something else?

One randomly chosen person who posts a comment before 11:00 PM, December 15, 2025 will receive a print ARC of The E.M.M.A. Effect.

*U.S. only

*Must be 18

Review - - The Love Audit

The Love Audit

by Lucy Eden

Publisher: Forever

Release Date: December 2, 2025

Reviewed by PJ

 

  There are three things that PR strategist Jasmine Morgan knows for sure: One, she’s damn good at her job. Two, she’ll do whatever it takes to save her team from looming layoffs. And three, Derek Carter will always be her archnemesis—even if the man is ridiculously fine. Unfortunately, she and Derek end up on competing projects in Miller’s Cove, a small town highly suspicious of corporate outsiders. To gain the trust of the locals, she’ll have to ditch her blazer and pose as a “honeymooning couple” with her mortal enemy.

Derek isn’t about to let Jasmine best him on the venture that will seal their fate during this company audit. But wherever he goes, she’s there—in his hotel suite, digging for the same research, and even stealing the loyalty of his dog (traitor). Worse, her tempting performance as his fiancée has him torn between killing her career or kissing her senseless. But as the two get deeper into their charade, they discover little Miller’s Cove has a lot of big secrets. Secrets that could save their careers . . . but at what cost?

PJ's Thoughts:

This was my first book by Lucy Eden. It won't be my last. 

So many of my favorite tropes have center stage in this story. Derek and Jasmine were childhood friends who parted amidst bad feelings and haven't spoken in years until they are reunited only to discover they are workplace rivals for the same position at a newly merged company. Enemies to lovers: one of my favorites. But it doesn't stop there. We have fake newlyweds, forced proximity, small-town romance, spicy chemistry, one bed, and...oops...one gets sick and the other nurses them back to health. Not to mention a heart-stealing, matchmaking dog (you won't convince me otherwise). 

There's more to savor in this book than just Derek and Jasmine. Eden also dips into the multiple layers of the town of Miller's Cove, its citizens, and its origin story. Rising from the grief of an actual historic event in Tulsa, OK, this small Florida town is zealously guarded by the people who call it home, especially those descended from the founding families. I really enjoyed this aspect of the story and the hope rising from the ashes of an attack not enough people know about. 

Then there's the dynamics stemming from Derek's and Jasmine's families, once best friends and business partners, now bitter enemies. Their history has played a significant role in Derek's and Jasmine's feelings over the years as well as their currently deepening emotions for one another. I was surprised by the truths that were revealed. I also hope we'll get to see more of Derek's brother and a certain doctor. 

If you enjoy a friends-to-enemies-to-lovers romance with heart-tugging emotion, humor, multi-layered characters, spicy romance, a dog who steals not only scenes but also hearts, and a happy ending, not only for our main couple but the town as well, pick up a copy of The Love Audit. It has my enthusiastic recommendation.