It’s that time of year again for romance books. This year I have picked four books that I think are perfect to read during the month of February or whenever you want some romance in your life.
Love Redesigned by Lauren Asher
This is the first book in the “Lakefront Billionaires” series. Dahlia Muñoz leaves San Francisco after a tough breakup. She returns to Lake Wisteria, her childhood town. Dahlia only plans to stay temporarily while she needs time to heal and figure out her next steps.
While home, Dahlia reconnects with old friends and family and tries to find peace. However, her arrival stirs up old conflicts and she crosses paths with Julian Lopez, her childhood rival. Julian and Dahlia have a history of pranks and rivalry. Their encounters are filled with banter and despite this, Dahlia feels a strange pull towards him.
Both of them are afraid of getting hurt again. Dahlia fears repeating her past mistakes. Julian worries about complicating their partnership.
This book is definitely one of my favorite romance novels. It was a very quick read for me and it felt like time went fast while reading. The banter between both Julian and Dahlia was fun and exciting.
The beginning was good and the way both characters encountered each other, I didn’t expect them to meet right away. Their banter and the pranks that they pulled on each other were hilarious to read about.
Both of their families are close, and the parts where they have lunch or dinner together are wholesome. It made me happy while reading them. Overall, I really liked all of the characters and they each had their own charm and it was interesting to read about Julian and Dahlia’s backstories.
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
This book tells the story of Olive Smith, a Ph.D. student who is trying to convince her best friend that she’s dating her lab’s renowned but arrogant professor, Adam Carlsen, and pretends to be in a relationship with him.
As their fake romance unfolds, Olive and Adam unexpectedly begin to develop real feelings for each other, forcing them to navigate the difficulty of love within a professional setting.
This book was adorable. It’s smart, extremely funny, full of sass, and at times, swoon-worthy. I particularly liked the focus on being a woman working in STEM and the barriers that Olive faces as well as dealing with the topics such as workplace harassment.
This book had me hooked from the beginning. Some of the reasons that Olive and Adam entered their fake relationship were a bit shaky, but as the novel went on, it felt really natural. Overall, this was a decent romance book and the characters were very likeable and entertaining.
Flawless by Elsie Silver
This book is the first in the “Chestnut Springs” series. The book follows Summer Hamilton, who works at her father’s public relations company after she is tasked to follow around Rhett Eaton, a professional bull rider whose recent remarks generated a lot of controversy.
Eaton is less-than-thrilled that Summer is acting as his babysitter throughout the season; however, the more than the two spend their time together, their professional relationship veers towards a personal one.
For this book, the author does a great job of developing the characters. They both have good backstories which make their motivations and actions reasonable for their characters.
Based on their experiences, both have strong views about the world and relationships. Summer and Rhett challenged these ideas in each other which makes their relationship a lot more interesting.
This book was quick and easy to read which kept me engaged throughout the story. Sometimes, the writing can be a little cringey, but it doesn’t take away from the overall story.
Icebreaker by Hannah Grace
The story follows Anastasia Allen, who is an aspiring Olympic ice skater. After an incident at college, she’s forced to share an ice rink with the school’s hockey team.
When Anastasia’s partner is injured, she must team up with Nathan Hawkins, the hockey team captain in order to train for an upcoming competition. Despite Anastasia’s aversions to hockey players, she develops feelings for Nathan along the way and is torn between what to do for herself and for her career.
This book seemed to have scenes that either centered around popular tropes or situations that you would find in a romance novel, but the scenes weren’t necessarily connected to each other.
Nathan and Annastasia start a relationship fairly early in the novel, which decreases tension throughout the story. The scenes in the book didn’t offer anything unique in comparison to other books in the romance genre, so I never felt incredibly close to the characters. While reading, I felt as though the book was being dragged on forever. The plot was quick but it felt like there wasn’t much happening besides Nathan and Annastasia practicing for the ice skating competition. Overall, this wasn’t my favorite book, but it had potential.
