Weekly Spotlight - Favorite ARC's of 2024 (So Far)

The Duchess

The thrilling second book in New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan’s amazing new high concept series, The Scandalous Ladies of London, which chronicles the lives of a group of affluent ladies reigning over glittering, Regency-era London, vying for position in the hierarchy of the ton . They are the young wives, widows, and daughters of London’s wealthiest families. The drama is big, the money runs deep, and the shade is real. Life is different in the ton . “I liked my husband well enough … but I like him even better dead.” It’s been a year since her wretched cad of a husband died and Valencia, the Dowager Duchess of Dedham, is finally her own woman. Flitting from party to party, freedom is sweet and life should be perfect. Until the new duke surfaces.  Nothing like the haughty noblemen who populate the  ton , Rhain, the newly minted Duke of Dedham, is a big brawny Welshman with an accent that makes Valencia’s knees go weak as he boldly moves into  her  home with his six wild unwed sisters. The rude and humorless usurper thinks her vain and spoiled. But with a pittance to her name, Valencia needs his support to remain in London and enjoy all the pleasures her new position as a merry widow has to offer.  So a bargain is struck. Valencia will usher his sisters into Good Society and see them happily betrothed. In return, he’ll give her the financial security and independence she craves. But the more time they spend beneath the same roof, the more she realizes it's not safety she wants but the dangerously seductive Rhain. Valencia has vowed never to risk marriage again. And yet how can she resist the tempting man when he might be the greatest adventure of her life?  

My Review

Wayward Son

She’s the only girl he’s ever loved.

Zowen Archer has been in love with Aston Wheeler for as long as he can remember.
She’s perfect, except for the glaring fact that she fell in love with his best friend instead of him. For years, he loved her from afar with zero expectation. He told himself that as long as Aston was happy, his feelings for her didn’t matter.

However, Aston isn’t nearly as happy as she seems. And by the time Zowen figures things out, his life takes a drastic turn for the worse.

Now that Aston is single and laser-focused on making up for the lost time between the two of them, Zowen is doing everything in his power to avoid her. He’s convinced that if she never wanted him when he was at his very best, there is no chance in hell she could care about him now that he’s at his absolute worst.

He’s the only boy she’s willing to wait for.

Time has never been on Aston Wheeler’s side.

She spent too long pretending to be someone she was not. She lost herself in a first love that everyone, except her, thought was perfect. She wasted a lot of time trying to convince herself that she should be happy when she was anything but. She watched for years as the one person who made her feel like her true self drifted further and further away.

Finally, when she’s ready to reach out and grab the one-of-a-kind love that Zowen Archer has always silently promised her, it’s too late. Zowen is taken away, and when he reappears in her life, he makes it clear there’s no going back to whatever they might have been.

Good thing for Zowen that Aston is patient and doesn’t mind waiting for him to have a change of heart. It’s the least she can do after all the time he spent waiting for her.

My Review

Draw Down the Moon
by P.C. & Kristin Cast

New York Times bestsellers P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast return with a new duology set in a dark and magickal world filled with incredible danger and irresistible romance.

Wren Nightingale isn't supposed to have any powers. Born of magickal parents but not under a moon sign, she was destined for life as a Mundane—right up until she starts glowing on her eighteenth birthday. In a heartbeat, Wren's life is turned upside down, and she's suddenly leaving her home for the mystical Academia de la Luna—a secret magickal school on a hidden island off the Seattle coast.

Lee Young has always known about his future at the Academia. He has one goal: pass the trials, impress the Moon Council, and uphold his family's reputation. But he wasn't expecting to be attending alongside the girl he's been secretly in love with for as long as he can remember.

As Wren and Lee are thrown into the Academie's gruelling trials, they quickly learn there's something different--and dangerous--about the school this year. Wren will have to navigate a web of secrets, prophecies--and murder. And Lee will have to decide who to protect--his family's legacy, or the girl he loves.

My Review