Reading Round Up June 21st-30th

The Marriage Game by Sara Desai – 4 Stars Love a good enemies to lovers trope and this one did not disappoint. Layla Patel moves back home after a bad break up and her father says she can use the office above the family restaurant for her new business of helping people finding job placements. That night her father has a heart attack and is not able to tell the person who previously rented the office that he will need to find somewhere else to work. They both show up to work and neither is going to back down. To make matters more interesting Layla finds a list of suitors her father picked out on a Desi match website. Layla decides to go on the 10 dates and Sam her new office mate goes along as a chaperone. This book was fun to read and I love Layla’s family.

Real Men Knit – by Kwana Jackson – 3.5 stars Real Men Knit was a fun read about 4 foster brothers who just recently lost their adoptive mother and are trying to come to terms with the loss and what to do with her knit shop located in Harlem. One of the brothers, Jesse wants to keep it open and with the help of longtime friend and employee of the sho, Kerry. Together with the reluctant help of the other brothers they try and make a go of keeping the shop open. I enjoyed the story but didn’t really feel the chemistry between the two characters. I did enjoy the writing and will definitely be picking up more from Kwana Jackson in the future.

Head Over Heels by Hannah Orenstein -3.5 Stars Head Over Heels follows Avery who was once an Olympic hopeful but suffered an injury that cut short her career. Struggling with life after the injury, Avery returns home after her boyfriend broke up with her. After returning home she gets a call from a fellow gymnast Ryan who is now coaching an Olympic hopeful and needs Avery’s help with coaching her. Taking this job really pushes Avery and helps to get her life back on track. Things are going well till Ryan decides he wants to work with Avery’s old abusive coach, he was verbally and emotionally abusive and she is still trying to come to terms with how this effects her even now. I really enjoyed this book, it was a very fun and fast read. I liked the journey that Avery went thru to get herself back on track, she talks about how when your entire life is focused on one thing and then it goes away you are left floundering. I enjoyed the relationship with her and Ryan and how they both came from the same background so they got each other. My one critique would be that I didn’t enjoy the extreme detail in the gymnastic routines. I appreciate the depth that the author went into with this but I personally could have done with a little less. This book also deals with sexual assault, it is not one of the main characters but more on the side characters. Over all I really enjoyed this one and if you are looking for cute read I would recommend this one. Thank you Netgalley and Atria books for my copy to review, my opinions are my own.

If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane – 4 Stars Another fun rom com read! This one has a mix of fake dating trope and a little enemies to lovers. Laurie was recently dumped by her long time partner who also happen to work at the same law firm, to try and get back on her feet she helps fellow co worker Jamie who is need of looking like he is in a stable relationship so he can make partner. I loved their relationship so much! Both trying to figure out who they are after being someone else for so long. Can’t wait to read more by Mhairi McFarlane.

The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon – 3 Stars We start out in this story with the main character Samiah listening to her sister read about a disastrous first date on twitter. Samiah soon realizes that this is her boyfriend on another date at the same place he had just canceled theirs for, she then decides to go confront him and soon learns he was playing her and two other woman at the same time. The three woman soon form a friendship and decide to take some time off from men and pursue something for themselves. Immediately after this Samiah meets Daniel, the new guy at work and instantly there is an attraction between them. Samiah struggles with this attraction as she is also trying to focus on an app that she is creating. Overall, I was a little underwhelmed with this book, I didn’t really feel the chemistry between the two main characters. The setting is also set in the tech industry and uses a lot of the terminology and I wasn’t really into that. I do appreciate seeing a woman in a stem field as we don’t get that all the time. The friendshipbetween Samiah and the other two women was also nice to read, instead of blaming each other the banded together and helped support each other thru difficult times in the book. Daniel’s story line was also a fun part to read in the story and I found that to be more interesting than the romance. I did enjoy the author’s writing style and will definitly check out more books from her in the future. Over all the book was enjoyable and I loved the audio narration for it. If you are looking to read books with more women in stem I highly recommend this one. Thank you Netgalley, librofm and Forever Publishing for my early copies to review, my opinions are my own.