Sophie Reads YA: 2025

Stacking the Shelves: December 6th 2025

10:00

ARC Review: Captain of My Heart (Scottish Single Dads #1) by Amy McGavin

10:00

Captain of My Heart
Series: Scottish Single Dads #1
Author: Amy McGavin
Published September 30th 2025 by Grumpy Grouse Press

Goodreads Synopsis
Losing everything in New York? Rough.

Running off to a tiny town in the Scottish Highlands? Maybe a little dramatic.

Taking a nanny job for a hot but insufferably grumpy ferry captain? Clearly I wasn't thinking straight.

Yeah, Lachlan Munro's six-year-old son is utterly adorable. Even his golden retriever, who acts like he's on a sugar high 24/7, manages to win me over. But the man himself? Ugh!

Does he look ridiculously sexy in that uniform? Maybe. Okay, yes, but that's beside the point. His surly attitude and obsessive routines have even my sunshiny optimism fraying at the edges.

At least I'm not staying in his home. No, I'm tucked away in the guesthouse out back, with a gorgeous view of the sea.

But one night he's taking out the trash, I'm getting changed, and… I may have left a crack in the curtains.

Our eyes meet. He blinks. I shriek.

I swear I'm not a flasher. Just a victim of tragic timing--and my apparent inability to shut a curtain properly.

We both pretend it never happened. Except now I keep catching him staring at me. And occasionally I glimpse something softer behind that grumpy exterior.

Well, whatever. It doesn't matter. Because there's no way I'm getting involved with my emotionally unavailable boss.
Goodreads

Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher, via BookSirens. This in no way impacted on my view.

When her firm turns her into the scapegoat for a failed AI app, Blair needs to escape New York, and where better than Ardmara. After all, the small Scottish village is where her grandmother grew up and surely no one had heard of her failure there. Blair immediately falls in love with the village, and the people there are so friendly. She needs something to occupy her, and though she's never been a nanny before, how hard can it be to look after a sweet 6 year old for the summer? The only real issue is Finn's handsome dad, Lachlan, who is grumpy personified, and who she can't stop thinking about.

This book was just what I needed. Blair and Lachlan had such a great grumpy/sunshine dynamic, and I'm a sucker for the single dad trope. There's a real found family element to this book. Finn is a bubbly little 6 year old, who's mam passed when he was young, and he takes to Blair immediately. She's not used to children, but she and Finn hit it off, and though she might not follow Lachlan's itinerary exactly, she is just what Finn needs. And for that matter, she's what Lachlan needs. She helps him to come out of his shell, to actually grieve for his late wife, and allow himself the chance of loving and being loved again. There's joy and laughter, but also a bit of angst and such raw emotion and love. A wonderful start to a series I can't wait to continue.

Dates Read:
October 30-31, 2025

Rating
3 Stars

3 Stars

ARC Review: Entangled (The Duel #1) by Mary Lancaster

10:00

Entangled
Series: The Duel #1
Author: Mary Lancaster
Published March 10th 2023 by Dragonblade Publishing

Goodreads Synopsis
A deadly quarrel, an impossible love

On his way to rejoin Wellington’s gathering army near Brussels, Major Giles Butler fights a duel with the opinionated Duke of Cuttyngham. It was never meant to be a killing affair, and yet the duke lies dead at his feet. Determined to contribute to the final victory over Napoleon before standing trial, Butler bolts for the coast. En route, he unwittingly aids the lovely young Duchess of Cuttyngham to escape her gilded cage.

Desperate to live a useful life, Rosamund has left her husband’s cold and stifling house with the intention of becoming a village herbalist. She no longer believes in love or romance, especially not for herself, and yet by the time she learns of her husband’s death – and the identity of his killer – she is already falling in love.

Hopelessly entangled with each other, family machinations, officers of the law, and an unusual pair of eloping young lovers – to say nothing of Bonaparte’s threat to the peace of Europe – Giles and Rosamund finally arrive in Brussels. But can they defy scandal and the law to be together?

After all, how can a widow love the duellist who shot her husband?
Goodreads

Review

I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. This in no way impacted on my view.

When he overhears a spoiled toff disparage his commander, Major Giles Butler can't let it slide, and fights a duel with the Duke of Cuttyngham. Never intending to harm the duke, let alone kill him, when he collapses dead at his feet, Giles needs to flee for the coast as soon as possible, and return to the 'safety' of Brussels, and his men. Fraught with guilt, he can't leave without passing on his condolences to the now dowager Duchess, and just manages to be her saviour when she attempts to flee the prison that once was her home. Rosamund, Duchess of Cuttyngham, has lived a life of hell under the control of her husband. She has never been able to do anything, let alone think for herself, and her cruel husband even turned her step children away from her. Meeting Giles is the first time Rosamund has felt anything other than pain in years, but can she truly love the man who made her a widow?

This book was alright, and I liked the chemistry between the FMC and MMC. I'm going to be honest in saying I wasn't sure how a widow could fall in love with her husband's killer, but there's a lot more to the story than what you see on paper. There's a full on mystery woven into the pages of the book, and Entangled has definitely set the stage for the rest of the series. Rosamund was a lovely FMC, and her relationship with her stepchildren was a plot line I really enjoyed, and hope is explored more in their own tales. The villain of this book was extremely obvious, but that didn't detract from the story.

Dates Read:
June 22-24, 2025

Rating
3 Stars

books on my radar

December books on my radar

09:00

Not Exactly Mr. Darcy
Series: The Silver Teapot #1
Author: Carolyn Miller
December 1st 2025 by Barbour Fiction
Pride, Pemberley, and Second Chances
When history-loving Olivia Bennett’s teaching contract isn’t renewed, she is considered her family’s logical choice to care for her ailing grandmother in a tiny English village. While there, she soon finds additional work at nearby Hartbury Hall—one of England’s great houses once used as Pemberley in a filmed production of Pride and Prejudice. The head gardener there, however, proves to be anything but the gentlemanly hero of that famous book. Little does she know that behind Liam Browne’s brusque exterior is both a family tragedy and a legacy that demands truth and honor, creating a crisis that only Liv’s vivacious determination can resolve. Along the way, she may just learn that appearances count for naught. . .and that love can be found in unexpected ways.
Goodreads

Temptation Trails
Series: The Haven Brothers #3
Author: Claire Kingsley
December 2nd 2025 by Sourcebooks Casablanca
He’s hunting a killer so she won’t be next.
Single dad Garrett Haven doesn’t have time for dating. With a teenage son and a high-stakes job in law enforcement, he has enough on his plate.
Besides, he risked his heart once. He has no intention of doing it again.
Until he meets her.
Harper Tilburn brought her passion for baking to the small town of Tilikum to take over her aunt’s bakery. Anything else will have to wait, at least until her bad luck curse runs out.
Her dating hiatus is essential, and she’s sticking to it.
Until she meets him.
The sparks that fly between Garrett and Harper are instantaneous—their attraction undeniable. And suddenly, the practical, responsible sheriff’s deputy is throwing caution to the wind, boldly pursuing Harper, determined to make her his.
But when the cold case Garrett is investigating takes a chilling turn, he fears the perpetrator will strike again—and Harper will be his target.
With his career—and his life—on the line, he’ll sacrifice everything to protect the people he loves, and catch a killer before it’s too late.
Author’s note: a buttoned-up sheriff’s deputy gets thoroughly unbuttoned by a sweet as sugar baker. A hero who falls hard and fast, a heroine you’ll root for, a teenage son who will steal your heart, page turning suspense with a shocking twist, and heartwarming found family vibes with a big HEA.
Goodreads

The E.M.M.A. Effect
Series: Regals Hockey #2
Author: Lia Riley
December 2nd 2025 by Avon
Jane Austen meets Ali Hazelwood in this steamy, friends-to-lovers, STEM rom-com! He’s her best friend’s little brother and NHL forward. She’s a computer scientist used to being in control. The E.M.M.A., her elite AI training program, claims optimizing his performance requires one thing: the perfect match. According to its calculations, that’s her… Will Harriet discover that The E.M.M.A. knows best?
Harriet Smythe’s AI was supposed to create sports legends—not encourage her crush on her best friend’s totally off-limits, hot younger brother. But when funding runs dry, she has no choice but to enlist Gale Knight as her test subject. The same Gale she’s been secretly crushing on for years. The player who follows her every instruction with a knowing smirk that threatens to short-circuit her carefully maintained system.
Everything changes when The E.M.M.A. determines that finding Gale’s perfect match is essential to his peak performance. Even worse? According to its data, that match is Harriet.
Determined to keep things professional, she makes it search for new candidates. But as Gale dutifully endures awkward outings with pop stars and athletes, the chemistry between them only intensifies. And his willing cooperation during their sessions definitely isn’t helping her stay focused.
With her deadline approaching and The E.M.M.A. still playing cupid, Harriet must choose: trust in pure logic, or admit that sometimes taking control means letting go.
Maybe The E.M.M.A. knows something they don’t—even if they’re not ready to compute it yet.
Goodreads

Persephone's Curse
Series: None
Author: Katrina Leno
December 2nd 2025 by Wednesday Books
The Hazel Wood meets Laini Taylor in this gorgeous speculative tale of sisterhood, ghosts and old family curses.
Are the four Farthing sisters really descended from Persephone? This is what their aunt has always told that the women in their family can trace their lineage right back to the Goddess of the Dead. And maybe she's right, because the Farthing girls do have a ghost in the attic of their Manhattan brownstone —a kind and gentle ghost named Henry, who only they can see.
When one of the sisters falls in love with the ghost, and another banishes him to the Underworld, the sisters are faced with even bigger questions about who they are. If they really are related to Persephone, and they really are a bit magic, then perhaps it’s up to them to save Henry, to save the world, and to save each other.
Goodreads

Melting For You
Series: Spears Players Series #1
Author: Tegan Phillips
December 2nd 2025 by Hera
In the game of second chances, can they follow the rules?
When Ellis Ainsley runs into her charming, handsome ex, NHL player Liam Ruinsky, ten years after they split, she remembers why she fell for him. Now, their lives are worlds apart and though she knows they’d never work, the temptation is too much.
It was supposed to only be one night… until Ellis sees the positive pregnancy test.
Already a chronically ill woman juggling her health and career, Ellis needs to figure out how to tell Liam he is going to be a dad. And how can they co-parent, with their chemistry undeniable?
With turbulent families, overbearing coaches, and the media wanting a slice of Liam's life, can he step up? And most of all, will they risk falling in love for a second time?
Goodreads

Dead Set on You
Series: None
Author: Lexi Alexander
December 2nd 2025 by Alcove Press
A woman wakes up as a spirit in her rival coworker’s apartment in this charming contemporary romance for fans of The Dead Romantics and The Hating Game.
As workaholic Evie Pope nears thirty, she’s determined to slow down and start enjoying the “life” part of work-life balance. With a major promotion—and the financial security that comes with it—on the horizon, she might finally have her chance. But when she wakes up as a spirit in her work rival’s apartment and learns her body is stuck in a coma, her plans are officially DOA.
Being a spirit is bad enough. Discovering that Rafael Vela—the man who used to be her friend and is now her biggest rival—is the only person who can help her? It’s a special kind of purgatory. In no position to negotiate, she strikes a desperate deal: He gets the promotion if he helps reunite Evie’s spirit with her body.
As they begin to spend more time together, Evie discovers there’s more to Rafael than his bedroom eyes and his hey-there dimpled smile. With only a week until Evie’s body is transferred to long-term care and out of Rafael’s reach, Evie must choose between trusting the man who betrayed her years ago and figuring things out the way she’s always done it: alone.
This contemporary romance with a paranormal twist blends heated banter, old grudges, and unfinished business, perfect for anyone who believes in second chances.
Goodreads

At Whit's End
Series: Wells Ranch #4
Author: Bailey Hannah
December 2nd 2025 by Orion
A single mom struggling to raise her rebellious son finds unexpected support in a kind-hearted cowboy in this spicy romance from the author of Alive and Wells.
She's afraid she's not enough. He'll make damn sure she knows she is.
Single mom Whitney Hart is, quite simply, overwhelmed. She's struggling to raise her ten-year-old son, Jonas. Her ex-boyfriend only seems to come around and help take care of his son when he's single and hoping to get back together. With Jonas acting out more than ever, Whitney enlists the help of her sister Blair to keep an eye on Jonas over summer vacation.
Enter Colt, a fun-loving Wells Ranch cowboy who is tasked with giving Jonas work to do around Wells Ranch to keep him busy. In Colt, Jonas finds a mentor and male role model for the first time in his life. And in Jonas, Colt discovers a friendship that brings a new kind of joy into his life.
Colt and Whit slowly develop a friendship of their own through a shared concern for Jonas, and over the course of the summer, it begins to spark into something more. The attraction and chemistry between them are hard to ignore, but Whit's insecurities and hesitancy to trust men causes her to pull away.
As miscommunications give way to understanding, the two will discover that sometimes you have to first be broken before you can become whole, and that there's no one way to create a family...
Goodreads

Duke
Series: Lucky River Ranch #4
Author: Jessica Peterson
December 2nd 2025 by Bloom Books
One chance meeting on a Texas ranch.
One wild, too-charming cowboy.
One snowed-in night that changes everything.
Wheeler Rankin isn’t here for romance—she’s come to Lucky River Ranch to visit her best friend, wrangle a business deal, and prove herself to everyone who ever doubted her. But when she collides with Duke Rivers—resident heartbreaker, restless cowboy, and brother to her best friend’s new flame—sparks fly hotter than a Texas summer.
Duke has always dreamed of more than dusty trails and small-town life. He’s itching to see the world, but one unforgettable night with Wheeler changes his course. When a blizzard and a business road trip leave them stranded together, their no-strings flirtation ignites into something deeper.
But passion brings complications—and unexpected news threatens to upend everything Wheeler’s built. As family pressures, old wounds, and new dreams collide, Duke is determined to stand by her side, ready to forge a future neither of them ever imagined.
Can two fiercely independent souls trust in love, face their fears, and find home in each other’s arms? Or will the ghosts of the past keep them apart for good?
Goodreads

The Bodyguard Affair
Series: None
Author: Amy Lea
December 2nd 2025 by Berkley
A secret romance writer discovers that the hottest story of summer might just be the one happening between her and the Prime Minister’s bodyguard, from the international bestselling author of Set On You.
Andi Zeigler lives a double life. By day, she’s the no-nonsense, steadfast personal assistant to the Prime Minister of Canada’s wife. By night, she slips out of her heels and writes romance novels under a top-secret pen name. But when her steamiest book, The Prime Minister & Me, unexpectedly becomes a bestseller, rumors of a real-life affair between her and the PM start swirling out of control.
Enter Nolan Crosby, the PM’s new close protection officer (aka bodyguard) – and Andi’s failed one-night stand from three years ago. Nolan’s in town very temporarily to care for his mother, who’s battling early-onset Alzheimer’s. But when the scandal erupts, Andi ropes him into a fake-dating plan.
As loyal employees, they’ll pretend to date for the summer, just long enough to put the scandal to bed and save their boss’s reputation. In an unexpected plot twist, Andi and Nolan discover that keeping their romance strictly fictional might be easier said than done.
Goodreads

A Taste of Gold
Series: Miracles on Harley Street #5
Author: Sara Adrien
December 4th 2025 by Dragonblade Publishing
Her silence protects the man she loves and hides the woman she is.
Miss Maisie Morgenschein is very good at pretending everything is fine. Guardian to an orphaned marquess, she remains calm and protects a dangerous nobody must know her real name—which makes it impossible for her lost love to find her, and that’s what she wants most. She still writes him letters she can’t send, not knowing where he is. A connection to her might lead the villain to him.
Dr. Felix Leafley, Harley Street’s most sought-after dentist, uses an English alias to keep his patients—and the other doctors at the practice—safe. Years ago, he was a medical student with Maisie in his arms. When circumstances tore them apart, they vowed to find each other. But passion refuses to stay polite, and secrets refuse to stay buried.
She can’t use her real name to find him. He can’t use his to be found.
The result? A duel of aliases, near-miss letters, and one dangerously perfect kiss.
But just as Felix and Maisie dare to speak their names, the villain closes in—and the truth may cost them the one thing neither believed a future together.
Goodreads

A Highlander's Bride
Series: The Mackenzies of Castle Leod #1
Author: Callie Hutton
December 6th 2025 by Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.
Two lasses, one laird. Laird Daniel Mackenzie receives a royal edict to choose a bride. But how can he comply if neither wants a husband?
Laird Daniel Mackenzie, Clan Chief of the Mackenzie clan has ignored his advisors to seek a wife, so they take it into their own hands and invite two lasses and their parents to Castle Leod so he can make a choice.
Like buying a horse? he asks.
Lady Beth Munro is happy to wave her visiting numerous nieces and nephews off so she can have her nice quiet life back again. Then her da announces that the king has invited her and another lass to Castle Leod so Laird Daniel Makenzie can choose between them for a bride.
Like buying a horse? she asks.
Goodreads

Puck the Halls
Series: The Chicago Hawks Hockey Series #0.5
Author: Mariah Jolie
December 8th 2025
Sadie has two rules:
#1 Never date a hockey player.
#2 If you accidentally break rule one, run.
Too bad Liam Stonemore, Chicago’s golden boy and walking sin in skates, doesn’t take rules seriously.
When a gossip-hungry reporter corners him about his “womanizing ways,” he does the unthinkable… points to Sadie and calls her his girlfriend.
Now the cynical bartender who swore off athletes is stuck fake-dating the league’s most charming disaster through the holidays.
He needs a wholesome image.
She needs a foot in the door of her dream job with the Hawks’ medical staff.
It’s the perfect deal—until late-night texts, Christmas galas, and one very real kiss blur every line between pretend and too-damn-real.
She’s still haunted by the hockey player who broke her.
He’s still nursing scars no one can see.
But when the lights fade and the world stops watching, there’s no faking the heat between them.
Because this Christmas, she might just break her own rule…
and fall for a man she swore she’d never touch.
Goodreads

A Lady's Handbook of Espionage
Series: None
Author: Katrina Kendrick
December 9th 2025 by Aria
He is Her Majesty's most lethal weapon.
Ronan Callahan shed his criminal past to rise through the ranks as the Crown's deadliest spy. But for years, he's always been a step behind the elusive thief known as Spectre, cunning woman who has led him on a cat-and-mouse chase across the globe.
She is the underworld's most wanted mastermind.
Isabel Dumont clawed her way from the gutters of Paris to become the Syndicate's most skilled operative. But when she betrays the very criminal empire that forged her, she's forced to ally with the spy she once outwitted.
Thrust into an uneasy partnership, these rival operatives plunge into an undercover mission to dismantle the Syndicate. As bodies pile up and the passion ignites, they navigate a world where loyalty is a death sentence and trust is a fatal weakness-and the price of failure is paid in blood.
Goodreads

Bed Chemistry
Series: None
Author: Elizabeth McKenzie
December 9th 2025 by Alcove Press
Chemistry teacher Ashleigh Hutchinson knows better than anyone that love and lust don’t mix. The feelings come from different hormones, they trigger different responses, and they demand different reactions. Which is why she doesn’t date. She hooks up. No catching feelings required.
When Ashleigh is fired from her job without notice, she signs up to participate in a month-long sleep study, which will pay her enough to cover rent while she job hunts. It seems easy enough—until she walks into the clinic and finds herself staring right into the gorgeous eyes of Xander Miller, the only man to have ever tempted her to abandon her no-relationships rule.
When Xander and Ashleigh realize the study is only looking for couples, they agree to pretend to be together—which means sleeping in the same bed every night for the next few weeks. How hard can it be to keep their cool under the covers?
Goodreads

Shutout
Series: Rules of the Game #2
Author: Avery Keelan
December 9th 2025 by Bramble
He's the tall, tattooed stranger I hooked up with on Halloween... and now he's my new roommate.
After a sudden cross-country move, I’m stuck crashing with my older brother and two of his hockey teammates for sophomore year. I'm not thrilled about shacking up with three athletes and their stinky gear, rotating door of hookups, and tendency to inhale every snack in the house. Just one reason of many that hockey players aren't my type.
When I walk in the front door with an armload of boxes, however, I'm faced with another problem.
My anonymous fling from two months ago is Tyler Donahue, the superstar goalie for my brother’s team.
We both agree to pretend it never happened, but it quickly becomes clear neither of us can forget. Before I know it, we're exchanging heated glances from across the room, sending spicy texts at all hours of the night, and stealing kisses behind closed doors.
Since my overprotective brother would freak out, we decide to keep things between us a secret. There’s no point in rocking the boat when I don't want a boyfriend, and Tyler doesn't have time for a girlfriend with his grueling hockey schedule. But as our no-strings arrangement turns into something deeper and more meaningful, I begin to see a softer side of the broody, closed-off goalie. He's gentle, protective, and giving in every sense of the word. Despite what I told myself going in, I'm falling hard and falling fast.
We said we'd keep things casual, but hearts have a way of breaking all the rules.
Goodreads

A Vow from a Viscount
Series: Vows in Vauxhall Gardens #3
Author: Daphne Quinn
December 9th 2025 by Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.
A vow made beneath the glittering lamps of Vauxhall Gardens. A chance encounter that could change everything.
Years ago, on a summer evening at Vauxhall Gardens, Laurence Walsham swore to his father that he would marry and secure the family line — anything to keep the title from falling into the wrong hands. But after years of rakish living, the new viscount finds himself unprepared to keep that promise.
Miss Anastasia Carrington believes her brother’s invitation to Vauxhall is a rare act of kindness — until he announces her engagement to the elderly Baron Brett. Furious and desperate, she flees into the shadowy corners of the gardens… straight into the arms of a stranger.
When Laurence finds her sobbing, whilst trying to avoid a past dalliance of his own, he tries to comfort her. And when the meddling Duchess of Tewkesbury comes across them and insists, they wed, is it the answer to both of their problems?
Or only the beginning?
Goodreads

Of Dukes and Forbidden Words
Series: Dashing Rogues and Ruined Librarians #1
Author: Sandra Sookoo
December 11th 2025 by Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.
If ancient words don’t land them into scandal, their forbidden attraction in a library after hours surely will.
It’s the Christmastide season of 1816 and more than the weather is uncertain. When Barrington (Barr) Combes-Mead, Duke of Scarborough does some renovations to his London townhouse and unearths a book of erotic, Egyptian prose, he immediately wishes to have it translated. If the book proves valuable, he will certainly sell it, yet part of him hopes the book might inspire him to reclaim the excitement he’s missing in his life… somehow.
Miss Catherine Pickwick used to make her living as a governess, but after whispers of scandals, she changed her focus to that of a librarian, because research and study made her happy. As the daughter of a university professor, she is no stranger to ancient cultures and literature. When a duke of some consequence visits her lending library with the request to have an interesting and quite indecent book translated, she can’t wait to take up the challenge. Knowledge was power… wasn’t it?
Perhaps it is the words within the book or a natural attraction, but as the duke and Catherine spend long hours together because of the text or impromptu Christmas preparations, desire bedevils them. Acting upon it only ramps that delicious thrill, but when a series of troubling incidents arise, they assume the book is cursed. When silly antics on Christmas Eve end in assumed disaster, they each must face truths they’ve been avoiding, and perhaps they might find everything they want… if they’re fortunate.
Welcome to the Dashing Rogues and Ruined Librarians series, where adventure, books, intrigue, and spicy romance will be found amidst the stacks in Regency London.
Goodreads

A Most Worthy Husband
Series: The Lucky Ladies of London #3
Author: Faye Delacour
December 16th 2025 by Sourcebooks Casablanca
When she picks the most unsuitable bachelor in London to ruin her reputation with a kiss, neither of them counted on her mother making a gentleman out of him....
Perfect for fans of Evie Dunmore, India Holton and Bridgerton .
Hannah Williams would never want a marriage like her parents'. She'd be perfectly happy to spend her life as a spinster and support herself by helping to run her sister-in-law’s gambling club. But no matter how many schemes Hannah hatches to repel suitors, her mother won’t accept defeat. To wrest back control of her life once and for all, Hannah takes drastic measures. She’ll ruin herself with a man so unsuitable that no one will force them to the altar, making her unmarriageable forever. What could possibly go wrong?
Silas Corbyn is nothing but trouble. Disinherited by his family and dishonorably discharged from the Navy over a fight with his sadistic superior, the ton has dismissed him without hearing his side of the story. When an old friend from the Navy gives him work as a dealer at a lady’s gambling club, Silas doesn’t intend to repay the favor by compromising the man’s little sister on his first night, but Hannah offers him an obscene amount of money for just one kiss. Money that he could use to build a new life for himself.
Neither of them counted on Hannah’s mother deciding to salvage her daughter’s reputation with a hasty marriage. Now they need to find a way to call off their engagement before it’s too late. Unless they lose their hearts first.
Goodreads

Where It all Began
Series: Blue Moon #7
Author: Lucy Score
December 16th 2025 by Bloom Books
"This would be a lot easier if you had a sense of humor."
"This would be a lot easier if you were a man."
John has plans for these two hundred rundown acres. He sees a farm, a family, a future here. He's not about to drag someone in on the ground floor, not before he's put in the work to turn rubble into home. But his nosy neighbors have other ideas. Now, he's saddled with a grad student who's supposed to lend a hand. Hell, she was also supposed to be a he, not an opinionated, smart-mouthed woman who does nothing but question his every move.
She's ruining his nice, quiet life. And if she doesn't finish her thesis and get out of his guest room soon, he's going to have to scare her off.
Phoebe desperately needs this degree and the money it will bring. What she doesn't need is this stubborn farmer's attitude and his pathological need to avoid her. She's trapped in this tiny hippie town, trying every trick in the book to get the stalwart John to open up. Her future is on the line. Her family needs her. And no farmer is going to stand in her way.
Goodreads

How My Ex Stole New Year's
Series: Village of Yule #3
Author: Kate Callaghan
December 16th 2025 by CallaghanWriter
Welcome to Yule, where the lights sparkle, the gossip travels fast, and second chances are harder to resist than warm gingerbread.
Mia Mulrooney has everything she could ever want: her thriving bakery, her cosy village, and a peaceful life free of August, the brooding guitarist who ghosted her two years ago on New Year’s Eve.
But August is back in town for a New Year’s wedding, and a fierce snowstorm traps them together for the weekend in Yule’s oldest castle. As the storm rages outside, their undeniable chemistry ignites. Amid stolen kisses beneath twinkling mistletoe and whispered confessions in the dead of night, Mia’s frozen heart begins to thaw. Yet, as midnight approaches, she must confront her feelings: can she forgive him and find the courage to let love back into her life?
Goodreads

Tainted Love
Series: Billionaires of London #3
Author: Laura Carter
December 19th 2025 by Boldwood Books
I loved Gregory Ryans with all of me.
And it still wasn't enough.
He was everything I wanted, but I should have known better. After all we’ve been through, he still didn't trust me with the truth.
I walked away from him, but Gregory Ryans is not one to give up.
Now he's offering me the deal of a lifetime: his heart. All his secrets. Him. Forever.
But at what cost?
Yes, there are things he’s kept from me. But there are also things – dangerous things – that even Gregory doesn’t know.
His enemies are still coming for us, and this time, we'll have to fight together. To save what we've built. To show that love like ours can't be destroyed.
I believe that.
But if he doesn’t, then it won’t only destroy us. It’ll destroy everything.
The heart-pounding finale to the Billionaires of London series - a story of obsession, redemption and a love powerful enough to burn the world down.
Goodreads

Lady Fearful
Series: A Series of Senseless Complications #7
Author: Kate Archer
December 19th 2025 by Dragonblade Publishing, Inc.
She is afraid of her own shadow. He likes to sail his sloop at night and harass the French. No two temperaments could be further apart.
Lady Valor Nicolet is the last daughter the Duke of Pelham will launch out of his house. While some daughters might leap at the chance to take their place in Town, this particular daughter has been holding on tight to her childhood home. She even went as far as pretending to be consumptive, though it proved to be so boring she had to stage a miraculous recovery.
Now she is on her way, and brings her own ideas to locating a husband. She is determined to find a quiet, unambitious baron who prefers the countryside and collects…well, she does not really know what he might collect. It just seems to her that a gentleman who collects things cannot be dangerous.
Weston Nicolet, cousin to Lady Valor and heir presumptive to the duke, has been raised by Lord Ledderbey on the Cornwall coast since his parents died. Lately, he and his valet have been taking his sloop, The Athena, out at night to harass French frigates. After word gets back to him that the French might make a landing to put an end to his adventures, he realizes he must get Lord Ledderbey away from the danger.
He need not look too hard for a house, as the Duke of Pelham, who has never once bothered to write to him, has gone so far as to rent him a house on Grosvenor Square. Weston does not like it, but to London they will go.
A lady wishing to remove all danger from her life and a gentleman who regularly sails out to find it could not be less suited. But on the other hand, perhaps both of them have some things to learn about life.
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What has caught your eye for December? Have you read any of these? Let me know :)