Review: The Next Best Thing by Kristan Higgins

The Next Best Thing by Kristan Higgins

Genre: Contemporary romance

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Barnes & Noble

Indie Bound

Synopsis from goodreads

Lucy Lang isn't looking for fireworks...

She's looking for a nice, decent man. Someone who'll mow the lawn, flip chicken on the barbeque, teach their future children to play soccer. But most important... someone who won't inspire the slightest stirring in her heart...or anywhere else. A young widow, Lucy can't risk that kind of loss again. But sharing her life with a cat named Fat Mikey and the Black Widows at the family bakery isn't enough either. So it's goodbye to Ethan, her hot but entirely inappropriate "friend with privileges" and hello to a man she can marry.

Too bad Ethan Mirabelli isn't going anywhere. As far as he's concerned, what she needs might be right under her nose. But can he convince her that the next best thing can really be forever?

My thoughts

Have we establish the fact by now that I am in love with contemporary romance, specially when it's Kristan Higgins'. 

I confess I was a wee bit reluctant to read this because well with miss Higgins' books and me goes something like this, LOVE LOVE LOVE, meh ahh whinie noises, GAHH SO GOOD I WANT MORE, huh okay, BAM WOOOOOAHHHH. Does that at all make any sense? *cricket cricket* Well I guess not. However I enjoyed reading this book very much. Most of the contempt books I have read is far from the angsty stuff that's one of the main reasons for me to love this genre. But with 'The Next Best Thing' miss Higgins tried a bit of angst while it was still fluffy the angst just made the book more appealing as I went on. Again another record while reading this, yes I stayed up all night and finish it even though I had classes at 7 and had to work till 7 in the evening afterwards. Ahh good ol' times. 

End verdict, I love Kirtan Higgins and if you have seen me raving about her books trust me they are all good with a bit of bumpy rides.

I give this

Other Kristan Higgins I have read

All I Ever Wanted 

Just One Of The Guys

My One And Only

Too Good To Be True

About the author

Kristan Higgins lives in a small Connecticut town with her two children and husband. She is a contemporary romance writer, she loves to write books about relationships, since the search for love and security is one of the driving forces of life. 

Find out more about Kristan Higgins from her  goodreads/website/blog

Review: Too Good to Be True by Kristan Higgins

Too Good to Be True by Kristan Higgins

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Buy Links

Barnes & Noble

Indie Bound

Synopsis from goodreads

When Grace Emerson's ex-fiancé starts dating her younger sister, extreme measures are called for. To keep everyone from obsessing about her love life, Grace announces that she's seeing someone. Someone wonderful. Someone handsome. Someone completely made up. Who is this Mr. Right? Someone...exactly unlike her renegade neighbor, Callahan O'Shea. Well, someone with his looks, maybe. His hot body. His knife-sharp sense of humor. His smarts and big heart.

Whoa. No. Callahan O'Shea is not her perfect man! Not with his unsavory past. So why does Mr. Wrong feel so...right?

My Thoughts

Before I go deep into my incoherent ranting I would just like to point out that from the four books I have read from Miss Higgins, this is the second book I loved. Now that is out of the way lemme tell you why I loved it. 

First, this is more of a how the characters first met and fell in love sort of story so comparing the previous books from Kristan Higgins I love reading about a boy meets girls and the process along the way of falling in love rather then they were already in love for years just didn't say it out loud. 

The story in general is pretty nice. Grace take on how she had lied about her 'boyfriend' is pretty hilarious,  and reminded me a lot about my sixth grade. Yeah we all do it once to get into those social circles which  later becomes rather awkward to talk about. Callahan O'Shea is not the typical boy next door we read so much about but in a way he also sort of is. 

Must read.

I give this

Other Kristan Higgins I have read

All I Ever Wanted 

Just One Of The Guys

My One And Only

About The Author 

Kristan Higgins lives in a small Connecticut town with her two children and husband. She is a contemporary romance writer, she loves to write books about relationships, since the search for love and security is one of the driving forces of life. 

Find out more about Kristan Higgins from her goodreads/website/blog

 

Review: My One and Only by Kristan Higgins

My One and Only by Kristan Higgins

Genre:  Contemporary romance

Buy Links

Barnes & Noble

Indie Bound

Synopsis from goodreads

Divorce attorney Harper James can’t catch a break. Bad enough that she runs into her ex-hubby, Nick, at her sister’s destination wedding, but now, by a cruel twist of fate, she’s being forced to make a cross-country road trip with him. And her almost-fiancé back at home is not likely to be sympathetic.

Harper can’t help that Nick has come blazing back into her life in all of his frustratingly appealing, gorgeous architect glory. But in Nick’s eyes, Harper’s always been the one. If they can only get it right this time, forever might be waiting—just around the bend.

My thoughts

Kristan Higgins' contemporary romance is one of my favorite. Specially when I need fluff I get one of her books. After reading Just One Of The Guys, I was pretty reluctant to read another Kristan Higgins but all in all it was a good read. I felt en-synced with the entire scenario.

I liked Harper's character, she felt real for one thing and like the previous romance novel I have read from Higgins, this too had the strong female character. She doesn't believe in the entire happily ever after thing, I guess that explained the divorce attorney part! Nick, ahh he is really sweet, he is the guy you would take home to meet the folks. I started reading this around midnight and I could not put it down down till the next day.

If you are contemporary romance lover and read anything from Kristan Higgins, you won't be disappointed.

I give this

Other Kristan Higgins I have read

All I Ever Wanted 

Just One Of The Guys

About The Author 

Kristan Higgins lives in a small Connecticut town with her two children and husband. She is a contemporary romance writer, she loves to write books about relationships, since the search for love and security is one of the driving forces of life. 
Find out more about Kristan Higgins from hergoodreads/website/blog

Review: ARC - The Genius and the Muse by Elizabeth Hunter

The Genius and the Muse by Elizabeth Hunter

Genre: Contemporary, Romance 

Release: April, 2012

My copy: Provided by the awesome author of the book

Buy Links
Amazon
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Synopsis from goodreads

Kate Mitchell knew what she wanted: to finish her degree from Foothill Art Institute and break into the art world on her own terms. Just when she thinks she has it all figured out, new insight into a mysterious photograph by her artistic idol will lead her on a journey through the past.


A photograph. A painting. Lost dreams and secret pain. One clue leads to another, and Kate learns that pieces of the past might leave marks on her own future, leading to a love she never could have predicted.


One portrait may hold the answers, but learning its secrets will challenge everything Kate thought she knew about love, art, and life. A single picture can tell more than one story. In the end, a young artist will discover that every real love story is a unique work of art.

My Thoughts

I love Elizabeth's writing to bits. Her paranormal series, Elemental Mysteries is one of my favorite. So when E asked me to read this, I just had to have it. And as you might have noticed I am in a contemporary high lately, so The Genius and the Muse by Elizabeth Hunter was an awesome edition to my contemporary read-fest.

Miss Hunter's writing style always connects me to her stories, her characters. Ever read something like, you know when you get invested in it so much that it's hard to put down? Well her writing is that way for me. The Genius and the Muse is one of those stories which I just couldn't put down till I was done. The storyline the characters are all so compelling that when I started reading it at 4 in the morning I couldn't stop. I had to finish. Took me about a little over 12 hours or so. Absolutely worth it.

What I LOVED the most was, Kate and Javi, hands down. The story started off with Kate, a grad student at Foothill sort of obsessed with the famous photographer Reed O' Corner. I have to admit for a page or two I thought there might be something between the two. But as I read further it was clear that Kate's curiosity about Reed was not in any way romantic. Her search to find out more about Reed's personal life leads her to Javi, a tattooed sculpture/artist/mechanic. Javi doesn't give the look of a nice guy, he is more of a rude anti-social person. In spite that Kate and Javi's attraction towards each other was undeniable. The time frame change was a bit disconcerting for my taste. Other than that this was a sweet, amazing read. Recommended to readers with a taste for contemporary romance.

About the author

Elizabeth Hunter is the author and publisher of the Elemental Mysteries Series. She is a graduate of the University of Houston Honors College in the Department of English (Linguistics) and a former English teacher. A native of Central California, she now lives in Southern California with her husband, son, and an assortment of dogs. She enjoys reading, writing, travel, and bowling. Someday, she plans to learn how to scuba-dive. And maybe hang-glide ... but that looks like a lot of running. A Hidden Fire is her debut novel. 

Find out more about Elizabeth Hunter from her 

Website / Twitter / Goodreads