I read a total of 20 books in December which I am very happy with by I am aiming for 400 books in 2022 so I need to read 33 books a month for that.
The Pool Boy by Nikki Sloane - Nothing says happy birthday like catching your husband in a compromising position with his boss. His male boss. Why, hello, midlife crisis. I’m starting over, but this time I’m doing it right. Or at least I’m doing what I want. Taking the day off from work to hang out poolside? Yup. Do I leave the swimsuit in my house? Sure. Does my very hot, twenty-something pool boy happen to catch me naked? Oh, yeah, he does. And he likes what he sees… a lot. My best friend keeps telling me to have a fling and get back out there. But I’m not so sure she meant for me to do it with her son.
The Architect by Nikki Sloane - On the surface, my new boyfriend is a stiff, buttoned-up architect. He plans every detail of his life while carefully maintaining the walls he’s built around his heart. But when the biggest project of his career pulls him away, Clay’s solution is both temporary and unconventional. It even comes with a name—Travis. This handsome stranger is sweet and thoughtful. He’s only meant to be a stand-in, to fulfill my needs under Clay’s watchful direction, yet these two men couldn’t be more different. The one thing they share? Well, I guess that would be me. One gets off on my pain, the other on my pleasure, and it awakens a desire none of us knew existed. But it can’t last. Eventually I’ll have to choose. And it’s going to destroy us all.
Tender Is the Flesh by Agustina Bazterrica - His wife has left him, his father is sinking into dementia, and Marcos tries not to think too hard about how he makes a living. After all, it happened so quickly. First, it was reported that an infectious virus has made all animal meat poisonous to humans. Then governments initiated the “Transition.” Now, eating human meat—“special meat”—is legal. Marcos tries to stick to numbers, consignments, processing. Then one day he’s given a gift: a live specimen of the finest quality. Though he’s aware that any form of personal contact is forbidden on pain of death, little by little he starts to treat her like a human being. And soon, he becomes tortured by what has been lost—and what might still be saved.
Genesis by Seven Rue – Like Seven Rue’s other books this is a taboo romance following an uncle and niece.
Comfort Food by Kitty Thomas - HER: The first day of my captivity was like being born... or dying. They're both kind of the same thing with the long tunnel and the bright light at the end. Maybe it wasn't like either, actually. Maybe I'm remembering it wrong because for me that day all there was was darkness. HIM: Today I found something beautiful and decided to break it. I wanted to see it shatter in my hand and crumble at my feet. Her name is Emily Vargas.She's bright and educated and stunning. Articulate. She'll want someone to talk to her.
Jack by Layla Fae - Suzy is feeling lonely on Halloween. She performs a love spell, hoping to summon a nice, perfectly safe Mr. Hunky to keep her entertained… but she fails. The creature that answers her summons is neither nice nor safe, but oh boy, is he hunky! Jack-o’-lantern is a devious ancient monster who once tricked the devil himself into granting him immortality. Now, Jack is here, a grinning pumpkin in the place of his head and a thing out of this world in his very bulging pants. The monster will have Suzy in every way he pleases, filling her close to bursting with his fertile seed… and nothing can hold him back.
Forbidden Fling by Kat Taylor - It was supposed to be a romantic vacation. A last chance to connect with my boyfriend before we take jobs in different cities after graduating college. Apparently he didn’t get the memo, because when we arrive in paradise, it’s to find a bunch of his friends and his dad. His very serious, very stern, very sexy dad. I won’t pretend I haven’t held a secret flame for Mr. Jones since I met him. He’d older and has his life together and something about him just makes my thighs clench. One night, after my boyfriend passes out drunk, that secret flame ignites into an inferno when Mr. Jones kisses me… And it doesn’t stop there. I know I shouldn’t do it, but I can’t help myself. Every time he touches me, I forget that I’m supposed to be a good girl who doesn’t cheat on her boyfriend. I just need one more touch, one more kiss, one more illicit embrace. Just one more. Then I’ll stop. I promise.
The Horseman of Sleepy Hollow by Rebecca F. Kenney - Katrina Van Tassel. Katrina the flirt, the coquette, the tease—so called by the Sleepy Hollow villagers because she hasn't given her hand to one of her eager suitors. Everyone expects her to choose the muscled, handsome Brom over lean, studious Ichabod—but Katrina has objections to both of them. One autumn night, a harvest party at the Van Tassel house ends in a violent confrontation, and Katrina comes face to face with the most horrifying myth ever to haunt Sleepy Hollow—the Headless Horseman himself. Taken prisoner by the Horseman, Katrina is forced to confront her own prejudices and expectations as she discovers a deeper world of intrigue and magic.
Jack Frost by Rebecca F. Kenney - When I get separated from the other members of my Antarctic expedition, I meet a strange, pale, beautiful man who saves me from freezing to death. He says he's the actual Jack Frost, and he's pretty much an ice god, which totally messes with my scientific worldview. I'm all too happy to leave his fine frosty ass at the South Pole and head back to the States where things are messy but not magical. Too bad the charming ice god follows me home. Guess he likes me, or he's magically attracted to me or something? Jack is the last thing I need now, right when I'm starting a new job; but I can't help being curious about his powers and his ongoing war with the fire goddess Auxesia. Too bad my association with Jack puts us both in more danger.
The Gargoyle Prince by Rebecca F. Kenney - When Noémie, Third Princess of Normandy, is forced to accept a gargoyle as her bodyguard, she is determined to hate him. But a series of assassination attempts brings the pair closer together, and she begins to realize that there is much more to her bodyguard than stone and bat-wings and magic. Together, Noémie and Gideon begin to process the grief and loss that each of them has endured. Slowly they unravel the mystery of his origins and uncover secrets that could affect the outcome of the war.
Confessions on the 7:45 by Lisa Unger - Selena Murphy is commuting home on the train when she strikes up a conversation with a beautiful stranger in the next seat. The woman introduces herself as Martha and soon confesses that she’s been stuck in an affair with her boss. Selena, in turn, confesses that she suspects her husband is sleeping with the nanny. When the train arrives at Selena’s station, the two women part ways, presumably never to meet again. Then the nanny disappears. As Selena is pulled into the mystery of what happened, and as the fractures in her marriage grow deeper, she begins to wonder, who was Martha really? But she is hardly prepared for what she’ll discover…
Kingdom of the Wicked by Kerri Maniscalco - Emilia and her twin sister Vittoria are streghe -- witches who live secretly among humans, avoiding notice and persecution. One night, Vittoria misses dinner service at the family's renowned Sicilian restaurant. Emilia soon finds the body of her beloved twin...desecrated beyond belief. Devastated, Emilia sets out to find her sister's killer and to seek vengeance at any cost-even if it means using dark magic that's been long forbidden. Then Emilia meets Wrath, one of the Wicked-princes of Hell she has been warned against in tales since she was a child. Wrath claims to be on Emilia's side, tasked by his master with solving the series of women's murders on the island. But when it comes to the Wicked, nothing is as it seems...
Kingdom of the Cursed by Kerri Maniscalco - After selling her soul to become Queen of the Wicked, Emilia travels to the Seven Circles with the enigmatic Prince of Wrath, where she's introduced to a seductive world of vice. She vows to do whatever it takes to avenge her beloved sister, Vittoria . . . even if that means accepting the hand of the Prince of Pride, the king of demons. The first rule in the court of the Wicked? Trust no one. With back-stabbing princes, luxurious palaces, mysterious party invitations, and conflicting clues about who really killed her twin, Emilia finds herself more alone than ever before. Can she even trust Wrath, her one-time ally in the mortal world or is he keeping dangerous secrets about his true nature? Emilia will be tested in every way as she seeks a series of magical objects that will unlock the clues of her past and the answers she craves . . .
Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid - Malibu: August 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer Mick Riva. The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself, who never wanted to be the center of attention, and who has also just been very publicly abandoned by her pro tennis player husband. Oh, and maybe Hud—because it is long past time for him to confess something to the brother from whom he’s been inseparable since birth. Jay, on the other hand, is counting the minutes until nightfall, when the girl he can’t stop thinking about promised she’ll be there. And Kit has a couple secrets of her own—including a guest she invited without consulting anyone. By midnight the party will be completely out of control. By morning, the Riva mansion will have gone up in flames. But before that first spark in the early hours before dawn, the alcohol will flow, the music will play, and the loves and secrets that shaped this family’s generations will all come rising to the surface.
Call Me By Your Name by Andre Aciman - Andre Aciman's Call Me by Your Name is the story of a sudden and powerful romance that blossoms between an adolescent boy and a summer guest at his parents’ cliffside mansion on the Italian Riviera. Each is unprepared for the consequences of their attraction, when, during the restless summer weeks, unrelenting currents of obsession, fascination, and desire intensify their passion and test the charged ground between them. Recklessly, the two verge toward the one thing both fear they may never truly find again: total intimacy. It is an instant classic and one of the great love stories of our time.
Find Me by Andre Aciman - In Find Me, Aciman shows us Elio’s father, Samuel, on a trip from Florence to Rome to visit Elio, who has become a gifted classical pianist. A chance encounter on the train with a beautiful young woman upends Sami’s plans and changes his life forever. Elio soon moves to Paris, where he, too, has a consequential affair, while Oliver, now a New England college professor with a family, suddenly finds himself contemplating a return trip across the Atlantic. Aciman is a master of sensibility, of the intimate details and the emotional nuances that are the substance of passion. Find Me brings us back inside the magic circle of one of our greatest contemporary romances to ask if, in fact, true love ever dies.
The Final Girl Support Group by Grady Hendrix - Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre. For more than a decade, she’s been meeting with five other final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, working to put their lives back together. Then one woman misses a meeting, and their worst fears are realized—someone knows about the group and is determined to rip their lives apart again, piece by piece. But the thing about final girls is that no matter how bad the odds, how dark the night, how sharp the knife, they will never, ever give up.
The Loop by Jeremy Robert Johnson - Turner Falls is a small tourist town nestled in the hills of central Oregon. When a terrifying outbreak rapidly develops, this idyllic town becomes the epicenter of an epidemic of violence.
Dipped in Holly by Dana Isaly - Less than a week before Christmas. In public. Dressed as a slutty Mrs. Claus. All she wants is to hide in the bathroom and have a breakdown in peace. But the Silver Fox who owns the bar has other plans. The moment Nick takes in Holly’s grey eyes and sassy attitude, he’s hooked. There’s no denying the attraction that has sparked between them. And when that tension finally snaps, he finds himself taking Holly to bed. A kinky one night stand later, and they’re left questioning if it was enough.
Melt for Us by Molly Doyle - After going to a cabin in the woods, Quinn finds herself stuck in the midst of a blizzard with her three masked men. As they spend the holidays with one another, Quinn is left captivated. Christmas and New Year’s Eve will never be the same. Tis the season for giving, and receiving. Holy, not so silent, night...
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