November 2021 was amazing because unlike last year, I actually got to be with Mum on her birthday, I published my latest novel, Five Things (which I’m incredibly proud of), we were able to travel abroad for the first time in 20 months (masked, double-vaxed and Covid-negative) and I was able to reconnect with the mothership (aka Barnes & Noble) and restock my bookshelves.
Unfortunately I didn’t have any Five Star Reads in October but the 5 for November (including Five Things) were:
Ache for You (Slow Burn #3) by J.T. Geissinger
In this fairy tale with a sexy twist, she’s a penniless San Francisco seamstress. He’s the king of Italian couture. Who’s got designs on whom?
Boutique owner Kimber DiSanto has seen better days. She’s been dumped at the altar by Prince Charmless, her business went up in flames (literally), and now she’s stuck in Florence, Italy, with an ice-queen stepmother, to try to save her late father’s failing dress shop. Only one thing could make it worse: another man in her life. The arrogant Italian fashion tycoon offering to buy her father’s shop is as rich as he is sexy, and their attraction is off the charts. But Kimber’s not about to get burned again.
Women don’t say no to Matteo Moretti—and certainly not with Kimber’s stinging precision. With all the heat and fury sparking between them, Matteo can’t resist baiting the gorgeous American. His plan? Win her over one scorching kiss at a time.
Kimber tells herself it’s all just a game. That her broken heart isn’t in danger, and that Matteo’s touch does not make her Lady Land dance with joy. But sometimes it takes the fieriest of enemies to turn a fantasy into a real-life romance.
Five Things (Ohana Girls #5) by Louise Hall
I’m Sierra Warner and this is the latest in a long line of things that aren’t supposed to happen to me.
Didn’t whoever’s up there read the script?
My brain should not be broken, I should be blazing a trail through college and my boyfriend definitely shouldn’t have humiliated me by making a freaking sex tape with another girl while we’re supposedly on a break.
Sierra Warner’s got the perfect life… hasn’t she?
A big, crazy family and the support of her fellow Ohana Girls. High-school valedictorian, accepted into her first-choice college in L.A and a famous soccer player boyfriend.
Underneath all that perfection however, she’s hiding a dark secret. She’s struggling with chronic anxiety, has been stealing prescription meds and is on the verge of flunking out of college.
The road to recovery will take her from Miami to Seattle, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires and Manchester. Along the way she’ll realise that it’s OK to ask for help, a broken hip isn’t that different from a broken brain and sometimes love comes with a helping of homemade chimichurri.
Walk of Shame (Love Unexpectedly #4) by Lauren Layne
IT’S 5 A.M.
HER NIGHT IS ENDING.
HIS DAY IS BEGINNING.
SPARKS FLY WHEN THEY MEET…
Pampered heiress Georgianna Watkins has a party-girl image to maintain, but all the shopping and clubbing is starting to feel a little bit hollow – and a whole lot lonely. Though Georgie would never admit it, the highlights of her week are the mornings when she comes home at the same time as her uptight, workaholic neighbour is leaving to hit the gym and put in a long day at the office. Teasing him is the most fun Georgie’s had in years – and the fuel for all her naughtiest daydreams.
Celebrity divorce attorney Andrew Mulroney doesn’t have much time for women, especially spoiled tabloid princesses who spend more time on Page Six than at an actual job. Although Georgie’s drop-dead gorgeous, she’s also everything Andrew resents: the type of girl who inherited her penthouse instead of earning it. But after Andrew caps one of their predawn sparring sessions with a surprise kiss-a kiss that’s caught on camera-all of Manhattan is gossiping about whether they’re a real couple. And nobody’s more surprised than Andrew to find that the answer just might be yes.
The Blush Factor (The Hawthornes of New York #2) by Deborah Bladon
Dear Diary,
I lucked out this morning in a BIG way.
Dr. Hawthorne left his apartment just as the elevator was about to leave our floor.
Bonus fantasy points for the fact that he was talking on his phone as he sprinted toward me. Technically, he was racing to catch the elevator, but I was standing front and center in it.
Whenever I hear him speak it’s like liquid pleasure in the middle of an orgasm drought.
The velvety rasp in his voice was the cherry on top of the visual delight I was witness to.
Dr. H was on his way out for a run, so it was no shirt, muscles for days, tattoos, and my imagination running circles around his half-naked body.
As always, he didn’t even glance in my direction, but a virgin can dream, right?
-F.U.
That’s just one of the many entries in the diary I found last night.
It belongs to the woman who lives across the hall from me.
Faith Upton.
The pink-haired beauty has no idea that I’ve read every single word she wrote about me in that diary.
The right thing to do is to forget what I read, slam the diary shut, and return it.
But, there’s no way in hell I’m doing the right thing.
The Cosy Cottage in Ireland (Romantic Escapes #8) by Julie Caplin
Talented lawyer Hannah Campbell is after a change in her workaholic Manchester life – so on an uncharacteristic whim she books herself a place at the world-renowned Killorgally Cookery School in County Kerry. But on her first night In Ireland, sampling the delights of Dublin, Hannah can’t resist falling for the charms of handsome stranger Conor. It’s only when Hannah arrives at her postcard-pretty home at Killorgally for the next twelve weeks that she discovers what happens in Dublin doesn’t quite stay in Dublin…
Nestled amongst rolling green hills and breath taking countryside, the cookery school throws Hannah and Conor together again–for better or worse.
My Month in Books (November 2021):
5
11
5
New-to-Me Authors (Excluding Non-Fiction): J.H. Croix & J.T. Geissinger
My Month in Books (October 2021):
1
5
6
New-to-Me Authors (Excluding Non-Fiction): Rachel Lacey.
Until next month, Louise x
Louise Hall 
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