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Book Review:: Maybe It’s Fate | Heidi McLaughlin

Oh, how I adored every single minute of this book, with tears in my eyes the entire time. My heart was in my hands through the whole unfolding of this story, and it hurt so dang good.

Maybe It's Fate by Heidi McLaughlin Book Cover

Toni and Miri have been friends forever. Not just friends — sisters. Miri hasn’t had the easiest ride through life, and when she calls Toni with her latest crisis, she drops everything and goes to her, like any sister would.

Miri has two kids, great, wonderful, beautiful kids, and she has cancer. The bad kind (as if any could be good). As the entire family, including Toni and her mother, who also love Miri, and the community of the little town she lives in, adjusts to this new reality, emotions are flying all over the place. Well, they were for me.

I had to pause and set down this book, kind of frequently, because my heart just hurt too much. When I say I was on the edge of tears the whole time, I mean it. As a mother myself, this was hard to fathom…but I promise you, it’s worth all the heartache.

This is an uplifting, positive book. It’s about hope and the beauty of love as much as it is about loss and acceptance. It’s about finding your path, even when it looks entirely different than what you always imagined it to be. It’s about community and support and the most beautiful parts of humanity.

It’s really quite stunning.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: Maybe It’s Fate
Author:: Heidi McLaughlin
Genre:: Contemporary Romance
Publisher:: Montlake
Length:: 306 pages
Published:: April 1st, 2026
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

Colton Gentry’s Third Act | Jeff Zentner
Promise Me Sunshine | Cara Bastone
32 Days in May | Betty Corrello
Swept Away | Beth O’Leary

Book Review:: If Only You Knew | Ellie K. Wilde

Man, sometimes you gotta go back to a genuine sports romance novel, and If Only You Knew by Ellie K. Wilde really fits the bill (also it’s part of a standalone series so if you like it, there’s more).

If Only You Knew by Ellie K Wilde Book Cover

Parker and Summer are the ultimate friends to lovers indulgence. They’ve been friends forever, but for their own reasons, have never really considered that they may just be exactly who they’re looking for.

Physical therapist and competitive surfer Summer is sick of dating, starting to think there was nothing but duds out there. Parker has a reputation and has never been one for a serious relationship.

Their story finding their way to one another is full of twists and turns and a little bit of heartbreak, and starts when the agree to help matchmake one another. Who knows them better than their best friend, after all?

Like the rest of the books in this series (and indeed the sports romance genre in general), this book is very spicy. Like, four cayenne peppers spicy. Very explicit! There, you’ve been warned.

Wilde is really good at matching up her heroes and heroines, and their backstories always play into unlocking them to love. It’s such a satisfying feeling for the reader.

So, do I recommend? Absolutely! Grab yourself a copy to bring some sunshine into your winter blues.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: If Only You Knew (Oakwood Bay #3)
Author:: Ellie K. Wilde
Genre:: Sports Romance
Publisher:: Atria Books
Length:: 400 pages
Published:: February 17th, 2026
The Litertarian Rating:: 4-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

Checking it Twice | Kendall Ryan
Revolve | Bal Khabra
Pitcher Perfect | Tessa Bailey

Book Review:: The Nantucket Inn | Pamela Kelley

Last year I read a book called The Christmas Inn by Pamela Kelley and I LOVED it. It was such a nice, engaging, wholesome novel about family and friendship and community. Naturally, I was quite excited to dive into another story by this same author.

The Nantucket Inn by Pamela Kelley Book Cover

The Nantucket Inn centers around another family unit, a mother, three daughters, and a fleeting son, who helps his mother turn their generous Nantucket home into an inn after the death of the family patriarch.

Everyone is going through something a little bit different. There are relationships ending, relationships beginning, relationships on pause…but at the center of everything is the core connection of the family.

I find books like these so cozy and pleasant. There’s plenty of drama, but because of the solid support systems underneath, nothing ever feels desperate, you know? You can read the whole thing without your heart in your throat. A good one to dip in and out of, even.

While I did enjoy The Nantucket Inn, it wasn’t quite as touching to me as The Christmas Inn. If your heart is feeling a little tender, I think Pamela Kelley is a good bet to sink into for a safe escape.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title::The Nantucket Inn (Nantucket Beach Plum Cove)
Author::Pamela Kelley
Genre::Women’s Fiction
Publisher::Piping Plover Press
Length:: 324 pages
Published::February 3rd, 2026
The Litertarian Rating:: 3.5-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

The Christmas Inn | Pamela Kelley
Overdue | Stephanie Perkins
The Heartbreak Hotel | Ellen O’Clover

Book Review:: The Re-Do List | Denise Williams

Willow is broken and broken-hearted as her brother ships off on deployment, but he leaves his best friend Deacon behind with instructions to look out for her while he’s gone — and boy does he!

The Re-Do List by Denise Williams Book Cover

Willow and Deacon’s story had just the right amount of tension. They were clearly falling for one another, but there were very real circumstances that made it a very satisfying slow burn. Together, they heal in all the right ways and have us cheering for them the whole way.

While this was quite a good romance story, there were a few elements that rubbed me a little funny. The voice led me to believe the character would be younger than she was, and the opening sequence didn’t hold a lot of narrative weight, ultimately, in my eyes.

I will say it is hard to make the ‘lessons in dating’ trope feel organic, but this one mostly succeeds. By the finale I was fully invested. If you’re looking for a new romance to sweep you off your feet this summer, this one ain’t half bad!

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: The Re-Do List
Author:: Denise Williams
Genre:: Contemporary Romance
Publisher:: Berkley
Length:: 432 pages
Published::January 27th, 2026
The Litertarian Rating:: 4-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

PS I Hate You | Lauren Connolly
Lizzie Blake’s Best Mistake | Mazey Eddings
A 5-Letter Word for Love | Amy James

Book Review:: You Make It Feel Like Christmas | Sophie Sullivan

What do you do when your one-night-stand turns up at your family’s Christmas celebrations at a picturesque Christmas tree farm? Turns out, he’s the proprietor’s brother, so they’re stuck together for a week. The thing is, things didn’t end well after their night of bliss, months ago, and now they’re forced to confront it.

You Make It Feel Like Christmas by Sophie Sullivan Book Cover

Nick is a hockey star, but she didn’t know that when they slept together. He’s had an off season, benched with an injury that isn’t healing as fast as they used to. He’s in a bit of a personal crisis, and that one-night-stand was atypical behavior for him. But she never got out of his head. Maisie Smart. His dream girl.

Being bundled up close to your family is a stress test that Maisie hates. She’s always felt like a failure to her parents who respect academic and financial success. Maisie is successful in her own way as a photographer, and she’s come to accept that that’ll never be good enough in their eyes, even with the recognition and opportunities she’s gotten.

It doesn’t take long for Maisie and Nick to realize that the spark they had that night are still there, and it doesn’t take long for him to apologize for his behavior afterward (we love a guy who can admit his mistakes).

This is a holiday romance that will keep you reading for the steamy sexual tension, and the sweet and genuine care these characters have for one another. It has that dash of sports romance that seems to come with guys with soft, devoted hearts.

It’s a book with heart, and healing, and the best kind of heart-warming romance.

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: You Make It Feel Like Christmas
Author:: Sophie Sullivan
Genre:: Holiday Sports Romance
Publisher:: St. Martin’s Griffin
Length:: 320 pages
Audio Length:: 10h 25m
Audiobook Narrator:: Patti Murin
Published:: September 23rd, 2025
The Litertarian Rating:: 4-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

Happy Christmas | Kelsey Humphries
Yours for the Season | Emily Stone
Christmas is All Around | Martha Waters
When Alec Met Evie | Jenny Proctor

Book Review:: Meet Me At Midnight | Max Monroe

What happens when you’re trying to save your new boss, who is your best friend’s big brother, from being sabotaged at work? Turns out, you accidentally fall in love.

Meet Me at Midnight by Max Monroe Book Cover

This new internship is mostly a vanity job for Juniper, who is already loaded, but still, she wants to prove herself (unlike her best friend who blows it off almost completely). But this is Beau’s business. He is a rockstar there, and when a competitive bid contest comes in and Juniper catches wind that someone else is keeping too close an eye on Beau and his work on the project, she decides to let him know…anonymously…through the dating app their company is launching.

The secrecy of it is a catalyst. As he tries to guess who it is he’s regularly communicating with, it gets flirty. The tension building is *exquisite*.

What I didn’t like was the backdrop. This is a billionaire romance (or at least, close enough), and these kids are spoiled absolutely rotten. The best friend was a caricature of a flighty bougie nepo baby who literally trots off to her nails done instead of work. A little too gross to just gloss over and really enjoy the book. But others may not mind that as much.

Overall, the romance of this book snaps, crackles, and pops. If you’re in the mood to not get real deep into every aspect of the story and just enjoy THAT? Then absolutely, add this one to your TBR!

Note:: I received an early copy of this book from the publisher through netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Details

Title:: Meet Me at Midnight (Midnight #1)
Author:: Max Monroe
Genre:: Workplace Romance
Publisher:: Mox Monroe (Indie)
Length:: 354 pages
Published:: November 8th, 2025
The Litertarian Rating:: 3-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

A Winter Wedding Adventure | Leonie Mack
Leave Before I Love You | Max Monroe
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Book Review:: The Ex Vows | Jessica Joyce

I get it now, the intense hype for Jessica Joyce. The Ex Vows is an angsty, emotional story about childhood friends who once took a shot at love and missed, coming back together for their best friend’s wedding and finding the embers still burning deep.

Georgia and Eli had a connection ever since they met as kids, which manifested in a tight-knit friend group that never wavered. That is, until they finally recognized deeper feelings one summer at the vineyard, and that changed everything. But they were young, and stupid, and were too good at ignoring their problems until they were too big to handle. Fast forward a few years, and their third wheel best friend Adam has found his person and they’re getting married. It’s not the first time Georgia and Eli will see each other since the breakup, but nine days? It might as well be an eternity. With a wedding that is cursed with the worst possible luck, and Georgia and Eli as the fixers, the two of them are seeing far too much of each other to maintain the careful avoidance they’ve practiced for years. It’s time to finally face the truth.

I should probably only give this book five stars, but this is a case of the prose making it impossible to rate it lower. Jessica Joyce can write, y’all. The way she builds an emotionally wrought scene in the present while pulling backstory and flashbacks in those same moments without losing focus is immaculate. It’s the kind of writing I want to do. So yeah, five stars.

My problem with the story itself I think stems from Georgia’s personality? It’s consistent, at least, but she gives herself so many problems by being a people-pleaser at any cost, especially to herself. She feels like she has to earn her relationships, that if she doesn’t invest in them consistently, smooth out any discomforts that might arise, her friends might realize they don’t need her and she’ll lose them. It’s a deep hurt that stems from her family life, and it’s still a very real part of her daily life.

This book explores a prioritizing friends culture I’ve never experienced. For these folks, friendship is everything. It covers a lot of versions of friendships being tried and tested. It’s something very important to Georgia. Maybe too important? But that’s probably being conflated in my mind with her aptitude as a major pushover.

Aside from that, this story has heaps of swoon-worthy romance. As I mentioned before, she uses just enough of the history between Georgia and Eli to make us burn and yearn for them in the present. I really appreciated that these flawed characters in the end earned their happy ever after.

Read it for the prose, read it for the redemption, read it for learning from clumsy mistakes. Read it for the immersive summer vineyard vibes. Read it because this is the kind of love story that demands a place in your thoughts for a long time after you’re done turning the pages.

Details

Title:: The Ex Vows
Author:: Jessica Joyce
Genre:: Contemporary Romance
Publisher:: Berkley
Length:: 390 pages
Audio Length:: 11h 10m
Audiobook Narrator:: Kyla Garcia
Published:: July 16th, 2024
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

Book Review:: Mile High | Liz Tomforde

Welcome to the best sports romance series I’ve read. In the Windy City series, Liz Tomforde has created an irresistable cast of characters you can’t help but love. They’re eclectic, they’re flawed, they’re possessive, quite spicy, and you want to be friends with every last one of them. The first in the series is probably the sassiest and perhaps the most transformational of them all. In my opinion, every book only gets better than the last, and you can’t ask for better than that!

Zanders is the ladiest of ladies men. As in, he’s got numbers for ladies in every city his professional hockey team visits. Multiple ladies. In every town. He’s a player, and he’s not ashamed of it. But when their new flight attendant, Stevie, refuses to take any of his shit, he’s curious, and then obsessed with cracking through her tough shell. Too bad she’s completely unimpressed with professional athletes since her twin brother is one of the biggest NBA stars in the country.

“You following me?”

What do I love about this book? Both of these characters are challenged and go through a lot of big growth. I appreciate that Stevie can be insecure about her body, and I absolutely love that Zanders only has heart eyes for every inch of her. There are bumps and bruises along the way, but they both really get a quick sense of each other and are able to care for one another intuitively from pretty early on. Not only do they grow together, they go through their own personal transformations, too, that pave the way for a healthy relationship.

I love that these books are so long and detailed. Everything feels very connected and weaved together, and not splotchy and clumsily tied together. You really get to spend a lot of time with the characters and their world, so you get a really great payoff in the end when things finally click into place.

Any fan of romance should give this series the good try. I haven’t seen a single person who disliked them yet. There are FIVE books to enjoy (I can’t wait to enjoy the last one after my reread of the rest!), and I cannot wait to see what Liz Tomforde comes up with next! Let’s get it girl!

Details

Title:: Mile High (Windy City #1)
Author:: Liz Tomforde
Genre:: Sports Romance
Publisher:: Indie
Length:: 603 pages
Audio Length:: 16h 48m
Audiobook Narrator:: Winston James and Mari
Published:: June 4th, 2022
The Litertarian Rating:: 4-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

Play Along | Liz Tomforde
The Graham Effect | Elle Kennedy
Gloves Off | Stephanie Archer

Book Review:: Lovelight Farms | BK Borison

I think we can all agree that BK Borison is great at what she does: swoony contemporary romances with heart and spice and all the feels. And it started all the way back with her debut, Lovelight Farms. If you’re a romance reader and haven’t read BK Borison yet, literally what are you doing. STOP, pick this up, and begin your education on what an excellent contemporary romance can be.

Lovelight Farms by BK Borison Book Cover

To be honest, I did not fall for this book the first time I read it. There is a bit of a mystery storyline that distracts from the angsty longing that cracks and sparkles between Luca and Stella which is the real star of the show.

These two ran into each other years ago and became fast friends. He lives in New York though, which is close enough to visit often, but a little unrealistic for a serious intimate relationship. Besides, Stella has abandonment issues that keep her from being outright with her feelings. Now though, she’s in a pinch. She’s told a social media influencer she owns her Christmas tree farm with her true love to pump up their story and win the contest she desperately needs to win to stay afloat. Trouble is, she and Luca have only ever been friends, and now she has to tell him what she did so that he can play along. What could go wrong? It’s just acting, right?

This is the perfect time of year to pick up this book. It’s about a Christmas tree farm. They’re always buying each other coffees. It’s a small town. It’s cozy as hell. But that’s just the ambiance. To me, the romance is everything and the friends to more trajectory is just so achingly sweet. Stella and Luca absolutely won me over, and look at that stinkin’ cute cover!

If you find yourself here in holiday season 2025 and still haven’t read this book, seriously, add it to your reading list. I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Details

Title:: Lovelight Farms (Lovelight #1)
Author:: BK Borison
Genre:: Holiday Romance
Publisher:: Berkley
Length:: 336 pages
Audio Length:: 10h 15m
Audiobook Narrator:: Pippa Jayne
Published:: June 6th, 2023
The Litertarian Rating:: 4-Stars

If you liked this book, check out…

Christmas Is All Around | Martha Waters
Mistletoe & Mr Right | Sarah Morgenthaler
First Time Caller | BK Borison
Business Casual | BK Borison

Book Review:: The Hating Game | Sally Thorne

I have heard The Hating Game referred to out in the bookish ether for years, but never really thought ‘hey, that’s a book I really need to read’. What I haven’t seen is anyone specifically gushing about how phenomenally good this book is. I heard of it, but I didn’t see hype, if you get my meaning. Well, I saw it in an Audible sale at some point and grabbed it just to see, and finally got around to listening. Can I just say…

Let me be the hype.

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne Book Cover

Lucy is in the fight of her life every single day against Joshua. After a merger between their two publishing houses years ago, they work at the same level, in the same office, in perfect view of one another. He is the grumbling stick-in-the-mud manager, and she is a pathological yes-man. They’ve gotten under one another’s skin since the beginning and the only way they can be somewhat civil to one another is to turn everything into a game. Games based on their mutual hatred. Mean games. Games that have HR complaints flying back and forth. But…mostly civil. When a change in the company structure means only one of them can be promoted, a new kind of game begins, and this one will end in one of them resigning to end the nemesis olympics once and for all.

Holy crap. This book. This book! I was not prepared.

Lucy truly believes Josh loathes her, and she can’t understand why. She’s the ultimate people pleaser and I think that’s the root of her fixation on his behavior. But we all know why kids tease each other on the playground…

I absolutely got that warm tingly feeling that comes in all great romance novels. The feeling that keeps you flying through the pages wincing a little bit because you don’t really want to finish it. It’s a wild dichotomy. It has everything you could possibly want in a romance and does them so friggin well.

There is so much I could say about all the little moments, but I’m so conflicted! I don’t want to spoil anything for a new reader. Half of the magic is in the discovery! Just trust me when I say this book is required reading for any romance lover out there. I’m convinced this book could cure diseases. Probably.

If you’ve been sleeping on this book like I was, this is your sign to wake up and finally…metaphorically…smell(?) The Hating Game. You won’t regret it.

Details

Title:: The Hating Game
Author:: Sally Thorne
Genre:: Contemporary Romance/Romantic Comedy
Publisher:: William Morrow
Length:: 365 pages
Audio Length:: 12h 18m
Audiobook Narrator:: Katie Schorr
Published:: August 9th, 2016
The Litertarian Rating:: 5-Stars