Lucca, a college basketball coach, wrestles with crippling guilt — until his small-town neighbor Hope teaches him to live again

My Thoughts - 5 out of 5 Unicorns - I loved it!!!

***Received a copy of the ebook for an honest review, but I also bought the audiobook

The cover is beautiful with the white tiger though I wish it would have looked more like a hybrid :)

This is the 9^th book in the Pride series.  I have read most of the books in this series though before I started reviewing the books I read.

I really love this series!  It always has family drama, fighting, love, conflict, and the good guys win (well kind of good….lol) which is the way I like it.  This is Livy and Victor’s story.  Livy is a strong but scary woman….err honey badger.  Victor is a hybrid, and he is interesting.  I am not one for giving plot details away which makes my reviews hard to write especially when I love the book.  Whether reading the book or listening to the audiobook, you cannot go wrong when it is written by Shelly Laurenston.  She weaves fantastic stories that are complex, and her humor always has me laughing to the point of tears.  I love her style and characters.  I also love that even though each story is unique and features a new couple; she always brings those characters you already love back so you don’t have to miss them :)

I am a huge fan of all of her shifter books.  Time is my only limiting factor :) 

I highly recommend this story and series to any shifter lover because you will fall in love with her characters and humor.

This theme is so common in Contemporary Romances I am willing to guess 1 in 10 books have this troupe.

Its okay. I love it. Why? Hmmm. Why? Well, it isn't because the early months of being preggers are so sexy that's for sure. 

I think that in these romances the couples tends to spend lots of time together and aren't getting chased around by bad guys. I like that. Sometimes it is the hero's baby and sometimes its not but its always a surprise and not a plan in this troupe. 

In this vast field of really pretty awful romances with this theme, what are the best books?

Here are some I found particularly good! 

1. Everyday, Average Jones  by Suzanne Brockmann 

2. Her Ideal Man by Ruth Wind 

3. Perfection by R.L. Mathewson 

4. Waking Up Pregnant by Mira Lyn Kelly

5. Undeniably Yours by Shannon Stacey 

6. The Pregnancy Test by Erin McCarthy

7. Black Ties and Lullabies by Jane Graves

8. Walk on the Wild Side by Natalie Anderson 

9. Seducing Simon by Maya Banks 

10. Dedicated Ink  by Ranae Rose

Do you have a favorite? Let me know!

I left off books that feature miscarriage. While realistic, they always broadside me when I am expecting a lighter kind of romance. 

Vote for the best of the best on my Goodreads list: Contemporary Romances with Unplanned Pregnancies. 

March was another busy reading month with 13 books crossed off my TO-READ list. Most were series installments, with a some stand-alones thrown into the mix for good measure. 

I gave M/M romance a go as I'm coming to a point where, after reading literally hundreds of books, I'm getting fed up with the same old tropes, themes, and/or characters in contemporary M/F romance. Note: These are only my second and third M/M romance reads, so hopefully the novelty (and the writing) will keep me engaged enough to continue exploring this genre. 

Mid-month I went on a brief hiatus from full-length romance novels. The Cosmo Red Hot Reads Harlequin line hit the spot with two short and sexy stories featuring headstrong heroines who didn't make me want to pull my hair out and heroes that didn't hit any of my feminist buttons unlike the Harlequin romances of yesteryear. 

Lastly, I tried something of the dark/non-con variety; a very new (for me) subgenre/trope that I've deliberately steered clear from in the past. It's good to step out of one's comfort zone periodically but it's still a place that I'm a bit cautious about visiting in future reads. 

Deliver by Pam Godwin - 4.5 stars

Wait For Me by Elizabeth Naughton - 4.5 stars

Double Full by Kindle Alexander - 4 stars

*Cake* by Lauren Dane - 4 stars

*Crazy, Stupid Sex* by Maisey Yates - 4 stars

Cut & Run by Abigail Roux - 4 stars

Tied With Me by Kristen Proby - 4 stars

Frenched by Melanie Harlow - 3.5 stars

*Uncaged* by Harper Sloan - 3.5 stars

Hold On To Me Me by Elizabeth Naughton - 3.5 stars

The Pairing by Katie Ashley - 3.5 stars

Take A Chance by Abbi Glines - 3 stars

Love's Suicide by Jennifer Foor - 2.5 stars

*covers not shown*

Summary

Mia is unceremoniously dumped via text by her fiance, Tucker, one week before their wedding date. Tucker was perfect by Mia's standards -- tall, always impeccably groomed/dressed, clean-cut with a perfectly chiseled body.  Not to mention Tucker is a reformed playboy and he's rich.  Mia had gone all out by planning the wedding of every girl's dreams to prove to everyone that together she and Tucker make the perfect couple regardless of the fact that Tucker is a selfish and inattentive fiance in and out of the bedroom. 

After a week, Mia's friends are fed up with her hiding away in her bedroom so they convince her to go to Paris on her all-expense paid honeymoon alone.  After a day of moping around Paris solo, mourning the loss of her dream wedding and all her perfect plans, enters Lucas; the half French, half American, musician, sometimes bartender, psychology professor who is nothing like Mia's ideal man...GASP!! 

Mia and Lucas embark on a whirlwind tour of Paris and so it begins...

Review

I was attracted to this book mostly because my GR newsfeed was ablaze with positive reviews of late.  Also, it made me reminisce on my own solo trip through Paris.   

Now let's talk about Lucas...

He may not have been Mia's ideal man but he was dreamy on all the fronts that matter in a good romance novel; therefore, he made me forget I had any issues with Frenched.  Lucas is the universe's way of sending Mia what she needed, not what she thought she wanted. 

Mia was the main source of my issues with this book.  The storyline is full of her inner musings where she waffles between "live in the moment" and "OMG, what does all this mean for the future?" and incessant list-making.  I'm pretty sure these quirks were meant to add to the levity of the story and make Mia seem cute and endearing.  Sadly, they failed to accomplish that for me; I was more annoyed by it than anything.  

Then there was the fact that the MCs declared their ILYs within a week of meeting. On principle, I'm just not a fan of the insta-love plot.  

Although a satisfying HFN ending makes sense for these two, I would have liked an epilogue.  I'm just greedy like that.  I always want to know how a couple fares into the future.  But I do understand why there wasn't one here being that this book is the first installment of a series. I assume (and hope) we'll get an update on Lucas and Mia in future books for Mia's best friends Erin and Coco.  

Don't misunderstand, this was not a bad book. To the contrary, Frenched is a very enjoyable read.  Frenched is a well-executed story with fully developed and realistic characters. Overall, a light-hearted, humorous and very steamy story that I'd recommend to anyone despite the issues I had with it.