Category Archives: Romance

Do Me a Favor by Cathy Yardley

Willa Lieu-Endicott moved from California to the Pacific Northwest to start over. Since her husband’s death, she’s been struggling to get back her old career as a cookbook ghostwriter. Unfortunately, her latest project—ghostwriting for a viral cooking sensation known more for his washboard abs than his meals—has her stuck. Until she meets her new neighbour. Hudson Clark, the handyman next door, lives on a farm with his parents and two adult children. He’s the opposite of everything she’s ever known. His happily chaotic life includes biker barbecues, an escape artist dog, and adorably menacing goats. He’s also got a sinfully… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Grief & loss depiction (theme)
  • Death of a husband due to diabetes-related complications

Role Playing by Cathy Yardley

Maggie is an unapologetically grumpy forty-eight-year-old hermit. But when her college-aged son makes her a deal―he’ll be more social if she does the same―she can’t refuse. She joins a new online gaming guild led by a friendly healer named Otter. So that nobody gets the wrong idea, she calls herself Bogwitch. Otter is Aiden, a fifty-year-old optimist using the guild as an emotional outlet from his family drama caring for his aging mother while his brother plays house with Aiden’s ex-fiancée. Bogwitch and Otter become fast virtual friends, but there’s a catch. Bogwitch thinks Otter is… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Biphobia & public outing (on-page)
  • Sexism discussed
  • Divorce discussed
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Physical injury (broken foot)
  • Death of a parent from cancer recounted
  • Fatal car accident recounted

Gouda Friends by Cathy Yardley

Tam Doan dumped her boyfriend after he threw away her gourmet cheese. Sure, it’s a little more complicated than that, but the point is, he had it coming. Newly single and unemployed, Tam calls up her best friend from high school and utters the emergency code word—goldfish. Next thing she knows, she’s on a plane back home. Josh O’Malley was a troubled, unconfident teenager. Now he’s the successful owner of a multimillion-dollar ghost kitchen. Tam, his high school BFF and fellow member of the Nerd … Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Fatphobia
  • Cheating*
  • Emotionally abusive relationship
  • False allegations of sexual harassment

* Context : The protagonist witnesses her boyfriend having sex with another woman.

Driven to Distraction by Olivia Dade

Constance Chen is not the demure kind of librarian. Sure, her high-horsepower ride is Big Bertha the Bookmobile, but Con swears a blue streak, does her own home improvement, and wears steel-toed boots. She has a tight circle of friends, a demanding, beloved sprawl of a Chinese-American family, and a strict hookups-only policy when it comes to men. Her life is just how she wants it. Except for one maddeningly sexy footnote. Sam Wolcott, her friend’s baby brother and the library’s IT star, has been throwing sparks with Con since he moved to town. To everybody… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Parental abandonment mentioned
  • Grief & loss depiction
  • Death of a parent

Desire and the Deep Blue Sea by Olivia Dade

Thomas McKinney has never wanted a woman the way he wants Callie Adesso. Since she started working alongside him at the Colonial Marysburg Research Library, he’s spent his desk shifts fumbling pencils, tripping over his own feet, and struggling to remember both the Dewey Decimal System and the existence of her inconvenient boyfriend. Now, however, Callie is suddenly single–and in need of a last-minute faux-boyfriend for an episode of HATV’s Island Match. Thomas is more than happy to play the part…and in the process, convince Callie that a week together isn’t nearly long enough. Callie has never… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Anxiety
  • Alcohol consumption

All the Feels by Olivia Dade

Alexander Woodroe has it all. Charm. Sex appeal. Wealth. Fame. A starring role as Cupid on TV’s biggest show, God of the Gates. But the showrunners have wrecked his character, he’s dogged by old demons, and his post-show future remains uncertain. When all that reckless emotion explodes into a bar fight, the tabloids and public agree: his star is falling. Enter Lauren Clegg, the former ER therapist hired to keep him in line. Compared to her previous work, watching over handsome but impulsive Alex shouldn’t be especially difficult. But the more time they spend together, the harder it gets to keep her professional… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Fatphobia
  • Domestic violence discussed (off-page, secondary character)

The Demigod Complex by Abigail Owen

When Lyleia Naiad was head-hunted by Brimstone, Inc., for her job as Executive Assistant to a high-powered billionaire demigod, she was given one directive—do NOT fall in love with Castor Dioskouri. Doesn’t matter if he’s the son of Zeus and can electrify a room with a single glance. As an ex-nymph, she possesses a unique ability—a gift from the goddesses to protect nymphs from the randy gods—to resist her boss’s charms. Or so she thought. He insists she accompany him to an alpha wolf shifter mating ceremony, an event where the pheromones fly, and so do clothes… Read more.

Goodreads

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Sexual assault recounted
  • Sexual harassment
  • Boss-employee relationship
  • Infideity recounted
  • Alcohol consumption
  • Murder of a pregnant wife by being burning to death recounted
  • Death of a mother recounted
  • Murder & attempted murder
  • Drowning
  • Stalking

Trashed by Mia Hopkins

My name is Eddie Rosas, but everyone calls me Trouble. Since I got out of prison six months ago, I’ve had one goal: find my father, whatever the cost. My older brother says I need to move on. He also wants me to leave our gang, East Side Hollenbeck, and go straight, but I can’t–not until I uncover the truth about our family and its missing piece. One problem? I’m distracted. My distraction’s name is Carmen Centeno. Smart, passionate, and tough as hell, Carmen is a woman from the neighbourhood who’s… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence recounted
  • Alcoholism
  • Substance addiction & recovery
  • Drug use
  • Gang violence
  • Gun violence
  • Car accident mentioned

Deep Down by Mia Hopkins

Resilient and disciplined, tsunami survivor Eve Ono moves to California from Japan looking for a position as a sushi chef. When she’s suddenly fired from her restaurant job, desperation drives her to find work on a fishing boat despite her fears of the ocean. To make matters worse, she’s stuck in close quarters with her new captain—a man whose raw physicality drives her out of her mind with lust. Free-spirited and roguish, Sam Lamont is a commercial fisherman aboard his own dive boat, the Bravado. When he makes a bad deal with a deadly loan shark who threatens to… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Hospitalisation
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) & trauma
  • Panic attacks (on-page)
  • Death of grandparents in a tsunami recounted
  • Shark attack (on-page)

Tanked by Mia Hopkins

A fighter without a purpose. A crusader with nothing to lose. Can she trust him with her heart, or is he just another lost cause? Angel: By day, I do all the grunt work at my family’s struggling L.A. brewery. By night, I blow off steam at an underground fight club. I never thought the pandemic would bring Deanna Delgado back into my life—the woman who ghosted me three years ago after one unforgettable night. But the brewery needs a miracle to survive. And that miracle could cost me the only person who’s ever had faith in me. Deanna: My family calls me an… Read more.

Goodreads • The Story Graph

Trigger and Content Warnings

  • Domestic violence recounted
  • Dieting & body-shaming discussed
  • Post-partum depression
  • COVID-19 pandemic discussed