Even if I joined the readathon, I don’t want to stress about books since I know that my life will be stressful with work. So, I’m trying to read the longest books on my TBR in June so I have an easier time in July. I’m still pretty proud that I reached 350 books read in June. For today, I was going with one-word reviews, but I will share some of my favourite self-published books. Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Artsy Reader Girl, who has a new weekly topic.
Goodreads Blurb:
A best-selling author. A mother. A murderer…
Mackenzie Casper is a brilliant student. But she is best known for her mother, a best-selling author whose dark, twisted thrillers have a dedicated worldwide fanbase.
When her mother dies in an accident, fans across the world are left grieving, and the investigators are asking: Was that really an accident?
The day of the memorial service, Mackenzie gets the first mysterious envelope, signed,
From #1 fan. XOXO
Inside are the pages of her mother’s diary that start with the lines:
Want to know a secret?
Love, Mom.
What Mackenzie reads leaves her in shock.
But then comes the second letter.
And the third…
Mackenzie starts her own investigation and stumbles upon secrets that her family has lived with for years.
Quickly, she realizes that her mother’s path to stardom was etched with sinister lies that might have caught up with her.
Sometimes fame is worth a murder. Or worse.
Soon, Mackenzie will come to find out that there are worse things than murder…
Goodreads Blurb:
So I said the wrong name during my vows…
It’s my twin sister’s live, televised circus…I mean wedding, and my brilliant techie best friend West is the only thing keeping me sane. Our “just one time” stress-relieving tryst becomes “just one more time.”
As it turns out, one more time is never enough.
But Dad would have a second heart attack if I ended up with country-club-averse West and not the New York attorney poised to help me take over my father’s firm. Plus, West is vying to become the next reality TV heartthrob to save his family’s store.
So friends with benefits it is! But why am I finding Dad’s hand-selected Suit lacking? And why does it mean everything when West encourages me to pursue my hidden passion for baking?
Or that when he touches my body, it feels like I’ve found my forever?
But I keep my feelings a secret.
Until a chemical peel gone wrong forces me to go from bridesmaid to stand-in bride for my twin, where I vow to love and cherish…West Quinn. AKA, not the groom.
Sweet mother. Now what?
Goodreads Blurb:
Following a distinguished career as an American spy, Nathan Grant is ready to part ways with the CIA. Unfortunately, his adversaries aren’t as eager to let him go. After a final mission ends in the deaths of two Russian spies, Grant is a marked man. To stay one step ahead, he must uncover the identity of a mole buried deep within the CIA. After traversing the globe in search of clues, the truth will shock him to his core. Now it is Nathan Grant who will to stop at nothing for revenge.
Goodreads Blurb:
My life was on track until my boyfriend stole my research paper and then had the nerve to accuse me of plagiarism. Now I’m a grad school dropout.
Time for a new plan:
Step 1 – Go to cooking school in Italy.
Step 2 – Never fall in love with an academic again.
Sound great, right? One teeny-tiny problem—fellow cooking student, Niles Whitaker. Yep, you guessed it. He’s a history professor who is just as pretentious and ambitious as my ex was.
But his gorgeous blue eyes and nerdy smile are making me weak in the knees. How am I going to make it through the next four weeks without falling for him?
Goodreads Blurb:
Happily married to her college sweetheart, Poppy lived a blessed life with the husband of her dreams. Then everything changed. She is no longer a wife. She is no longer the envy of her single friends. Now, people look at her with pity as they whisper a single word behind her back.
Widow.
Years after her husband’s tragic death, years of pain and sorrow and wishing for the life she’ll never get back, Poppy decides to finish Jamie’s birthday list. She’ll do the things he wanted to most. Because maybe, just maybe, if she can complete his list, she can start to live again.
Poppy expects going through the birthday list will be hard. She expects it to hurt. But what she doesn’t expect is Cole. Could the man who delivered the news of her husband’s death and shattered her heart be the one to help her put it back together again?
Goodreads Blurb
Local loner and hopeless romantic Iris Clarke is single, again, on Valentine’s Day. During the annual Cupid speech before the grand lover’s day, Jaya comes across Iris’s file. Unable to look away from those beautiful brown eyes, Jaya chooses Iris for her imminent mission.
When the winged woman shows up at Iris’s house and tells her she is going to find her a partner for the day, Iris can’t believe it. With some tweaks to their official agreement, the two find themselves wandering the city to complete Iris’s list of dream dates, so that she can get the opportunity to finally experience the romance she always dreamed of.
But what will happen if the feelings between the two of them become a little too real, and their agreement is only supposed to last one day?
Goodreads Blurb:
When I decided to join the Army, I never in a million years believed it would cost me the girl I loved.
Penelope Miller was my best friend and the love of my life. It was love at first ponytail tug.
Yet joining the Army changed everything.
A decade later, I’m home, and Penny is starting the life we dreamed of…with another man.
At least she was until I found her hanging from a cliff on her wedding day.
Still in love with me, she left her fiancé at the altar.
I’m no longer the man who left Willow Falls and joined the military. I’m not the man she remembers.
I’m broken.
Unworthy of Penny and the love she has to offer.
I would never let her settle for less than she deserves.
But how do I walk away from the one person my heart beats for? The one and only woman I’ve ever loved?
Goodreads Blurb:
Easy summers lead to hard falls in this Grease meets Mean Girls contemporary romance…
When seventeen-year-old Renata Carpenter hijacked her stepdad’s classic car, she hadn’t planned on totaling it and landing her best friend in a cast from hip to heel. She definitely hadn’t planned on being sent to a work program in New Orleans as punishment. And she certainly hadn’t planned on falling in love. But Ren’s summer of forced manual labor has a bright side: her name is Brit, and she’s everything Ren never knew she needed.
First love becomes first heartbreak when their summer romance comes to a crashing close earlier than anticipated. Adding insult to injury, Ren’s break-up with Brit is followed by a big move to a small town.
As if starting senior year completely alone isn’t bad enough, Ren soon discovers that the Hell on Heels mean girl who rules Sun Ridge Prep with an iron fist and a vicious tongue is none other than her first love. Too bad this Brit is far from lovable.
But Ren knows the girl beneath the façade, and she refuses to give up on rekindling their relationship. Secretly, the girls pick up where they left off, falling deeper in love and risking it all to be together. But when their affair is exposed by Brit’s boyfriend, Ren and Brit are faced with the ultimate choice: love or acceptance.
Because they certainly can’t have both.
Goodreads Blub:
You can’t really grasp the full essence of the word “mortified” until you’ve stood face to face with the former love of your life—covered head to toe in soot and cobwebs. – Cinda Brown
She’s risen from the ashes of heartbreak…
As a single mom, I’m not looking for Prince Charming. The last time I fell for a handsome, sophisticated, wealthy guy, he left me at the worst possible time without a look backward or even a word of explanation.
He did leave me with a lovely parting gift though… which arrived nine months later.
With no way to reach him, I picked up the pieces of that shattered glass slipper and moved on. Now I’m running my own business—the Fairy Godmother Cleaning Agency. My hands—and all my hours—are more than full managing my employees (including my two hapless stepsisters) and keeping my four-year-old son happy, healthy, fed, and clothed.
It’s not easy doing it all on my own, but I have zero interest in a new relationship. And who has the time? My high society clients expect their Eastport Bay, Rhode Island mansions to be sparkling—on schedule—come hell, high water, or hurricane.
So when a flu epidemic sweeps through my agency the day before the royal family of Aubernesse is to arrive in Eastport Bay, I put on a uniform and pick up the slack, working furiously to make sure their gorgeous vacation home is immaculate and ready for the elaborate ball they’re planning to throw.
He’s looking for the perfect fit…
I’m back in Eastport Bay for the first time in five years—and not exactly happy to be here. There’s a reason I’ve stayed away so long.
The place lost its magic for me long ago—the night the only girl I’ve ever loved proved beyond a shadow of a doubt she didn’t feel the same.
But this trip is non-negotiable, a matter of duty. I’m planning to fly in, attend the ridiculous ball my mother is so insistent upon, then get back to my life in Europe as quickly as possible.
That is until I arrive at the family estate early and catch the cleaning crew still at work.
And get a look at the woman beneath that coating of dust, ash, and spiderwebs…
Goodreads Blurb:
Why am I fake-dating this hot, grumpy billionaire? Blame it on cake!
My horrible landlord just kicked me out of my apartment. All my dreams of making it as a chef in this city are ruined—until my grumpy boss offers me his luxury penthouse kitchen. The price? Living with Luke Abbot, the steely-eyed devil in a seven thousand dollar business suit.
He wants us to fake-date so he looks like a “family man” to his investors.
I’ve got no choice. I need his large, throbbing, perfectly proportionate…. kitchen to win a once-in-a-lifetime recipe contest! How bad can it be?
Well… I just walked in on his six pack, wet and dripping after a shower…
And now he’s rolling up his sleeves and cracking eggs for me, as my very own arrogant sous-chef. What’s worse is how he sees the fake cheerfulness I show the rest of the world and demanding to know the real me.
I can’t open up and risk my heart. Especially when everyone keeps saying he’s a ruthless liar, just buttering me and my cake pans up for his business deal.
What’s happening between us can’t be real, right?
Alex
Mybookworld24 