Tag: sarah adams

Book Review: ‘When in Rome’ by Sarah Adams

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You know that feeling when you find a new book that will continue to be the book you re-read to get you out of a book slump?

When in Rome by Sarah Adams is that new book for me 💖

It’s been a hot minute since I last had a book that I just simply NEEDED to spend my whole Sunday reading. When in Rome had me hooked from the moment we open the first pages and Amelia is in her beat up car driving off into the middle of nowhere, in an effort to just escape the overwhelm that is her current celebrity life.

Amelia, or better known as Rose Ray, is a pop superstar with T-Swift levels of fame. Her singing career is at its peak but her wellbeing is not. Her relationship with her Manager is overbearing. Her mum only wants her to pay for extravagant trips around the world. Her dating and true friendships are basically non-existent because of the grinding life she leads.

Deciding that the only way to clear her head and get a little perspective, Amelia drives to Rome, Kentucky in an effort to loosely recreate her favourite Audrey Hepburn film, When in Rome (that’s Rome, Italy, but sadly her scheduling cannot allow for that plane flight).

15kms out of Rome, Kentucky, Amelia’s car decides that it’s had a good life and it’s ready to call it a day … right on Noah’s front lawn. That’s right, we have a good old grumpy X sunshine trope goin’ on and I was stocked about it!

Noah has returned back to his home town of Rome after a heartbreaking relationship that upended his life. He’s just starting to resettle into country life again. He’s opened and is running his family pie shop with the help of his sisters and is certainly NOT in the mood for romance. Noah immediately recognises Amelia and assumes she a spoilt, rich and stuck up superstar who expects to be treated like royalty. But that is certainly not the case. Amelia is reserved, shy and uncertain of the fame and stardom that is her current stressor. And this experience in Rome, and with Noah, could be just what she needs.

Their bickering, joking and heat is so well paced and I adored Noah for all his grumpiness! He’s the protector in his family, has emotional intelligence (at times) and ends up opening his world to Amelia + we have the addition of his sisters! Gosh I loved them! And it you want more of their stories, read Practice Makes Perfect by Sarah Adams.

I do hope we see these small town characters again in future Sarah Adams’ novels because this was a ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5/5) star for me!

💫 Mini Review 💫

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Small town florist Annie, or Sweet Annie, as her family calls her, is desperate to have a successful date. She just wants to fall in love, keep life simple and keep her path linear.

Enter, Will Griffin. Temporarily back in Annie’s small town to protect her soon to be sister in law & pop super star as her body guard.

These two have tension and the spicy kind of tension that has you wondering just how long it will take before their lives come crashing into one another!

Annie believes that Will could be the perfect teacher of ‘what not to do’ on first dates because her track record is looking pretty poor. Will is looking for any opportunity he can to be around Annie, but he is determined – do not fall in love! Will even struggles to identify what love is and this is an interesting aspect to his character.

Not falling in love with Annie … what a good joke Will 😉

Practice Makes Perfect was a great, chummy weekend read for me! I am writing this in retrospect as a few months have passed since finishing it and I can still feel the smile pulling on my face thinking of Will and Annie’s storyline.

To buy your own copy, click here!

💫 Mini Review 💫

~ melreviewsherbooks ~ 2 Comments

The Cheat Sheet by Sarah Adams is your new smutty book on the block ✅

I can promise that in 48 hours, you will snavel this novel up and will be continuing on your book buying binge for ALL other Sarah Adams books. (click me and you can see them 😉)

Bree and Nathan have been best friends since high school. Nathan dreamt of becoming an NFL superstar and Bree dreamt of becoming a professional ballet dancer. Sadly, only one of their dreams came true. After having a few years apart in collage, Nathan and Bree have reconnected and their friendship is stronger than ever. It is also particularly threatening to any of the women Nathan’s chooses to dates, mainly as all of these woman can see the unrequited love between the two of them that neither care to admit.

This friends to lovers trope takes a great turn when Nathan’s celebrity stardom approves of Bree as a potential cutesy girlfriend after yet another breakup goes wrong. Que, the two of them in a fake relationship and oh how this is entertaining to read!

Okay positives and contrary aspects:

+ve’s:

  • Written as if the author is talking to you in conversation which makes the novel extremely easy to read
  • Friends to lovers trope
  • Characters are really warm and loveable
  • Dual perspective
  • Bree is so quirky and cute that she is what every girls dreams the main character is in these smutty novels (… or maybe that’s just what I enjoy reading!)
  • The whole premise of this book happens over quite a short period of time

Contrary:

  • Not a lot of depth to the environment or back story of each character. I wanted a little more historical detail surrounding Bree and Nathan’s teenage years and friendship bond back then
  • Wasn’t long enough … I was invested 🤗
  • There wasn’t a big dramatic peak as there usually is in 80% of novels in this genre. I was kind of waiting for a big secret to be exposed or a disagreement to happen over something minuscule and then have the main characters make up … but it didn’t really happen. In a way this was kind of a positive as the character’s didn’t resent, argue or disagree with one another. The novel just ended in a peachy kind way which was warm and fuzzy.

All in all, this smutty read is perfect for a rainy day, with a nice hot cup of tea!

Purchase or download your copy via this link: The Cheat Sheet by Sarah Adams