Improbable Meet Cute Second Chances
I grab all of the Amazon romance novella series. I think they are fun little reads, even though they never live up to full-length books. Both the kindle and audiobooks are free in Kindle Unlimited, and the ebooks are free with Prime! I will say, this was my favorite romance collection of the four I’ve read. The theme that tied them together, besides Valentines Day, was 2 comets that were supposed to meet in the sky for the second time ever on Valentines. It was mentioned in each book but not really incorporated well for most. Read on for the individual reviews.
Accidentally Yours by Christina Lauren
Narrated by Dominique Salvacion and Andrew Gibson
I LOVED THIS AUDIOBOOK!!! SO MUCH!!! It’s rare that these audiobooks give me a 5-star experience, but Accidentally Yours by Christina Lauren was everything I love and told a full story despite how short it was.
Veronica works in marketing and was just laid off. When interviewing, she accidentally gets into the wrong meeting on Zoom, where a bunch of tech bros are pitching marketing plans. She pops in, with nobody knowing who she is, and completely eviscerates them.
Jude has just taken over his brother’s tech company and realizes that someone like Veronica is exactly what he needs. He tracks her down and offers her a remote position, which she refuses. They begin text flirting and negotiating. Meanwhile, they each have a crush on a resident in their building, which of course is one and the same.
Epistolary romance books are my fave, stories told through emails, texts, letters, etc., and this one just hit the mark perfectly. Both narrators were new to me, and I loved them too!
5 Stars all around!
Accidentally Yours by Christina Lauren
Kindle | Audible
Time Will Tell by Hannah Bonam-Young
Narrated by Victoria Connolly and Maxim Reston
Time Will Tell is another epistolary novel. When Georgia, a history teacher in Toronto, inherits a letter from her grandmother pointing to an old buried time capsule and a secret forbidden romance, she digs it up and discovers she needs the key from the lost love’s grandson in England.
They communicate via email at first, until it turns into more. The narration was great, with Maxim Reston having a British accent. I enjoyed this one a lot! Despite being short I liked the slow progression to romance.
4.25 Stars
Time Will Tell by Hannah Bonam-Young
Kindle | Audible
Second Act Romance by Julie Soto
Narrated by Thérèse Plummer
I’m a theater kid, so I liked the setting and a few parts, but overall this book was a bit of a miss for me. When food poisoning from shrimp tacos, and believe me they repeated shrimp tacos so many times I can never eat them now, takes down almost the whole cast of Oklahoma, including the understudies, only the lead actress is left standing.
TV star CJ Turner played in the show prior to becoming a star, so he is brought in to fill in for the lead male. Unbeknownst to them both, they had played these parts together eight years earlier, had great chemistry, and he had gotten her name wrong, so he never found her. Until now.
Third person, single POV definitely didn’t help things for me. I will say Thérèse Plummer did a great job, especially as sick cast members with her about to barf mid-sentence lol. I think theater people will enjoy this the most because it really got into the production, but the third person perspective really held it back for me.
3 Stars
Second Act Romance by Julie Soto
Kindle | Audible
A Play for Love by Trilina Pucci
Narrated in duet by Jesse Vilinsky and Stephen Dexter
I honestly wrote all of my reviews for this series and forgot this one until I was adding them to Goodreads, if that says anything. It starts with Rory being forced by a friend to take a college drama class, and the midterm is to perform a Shakespeare scene. She goes on and on about the losers in her class she’s scared to be paired with. Then the hottest guy on campus walks in, and they perform the kiss scene from Romeo and Juliet together. Fireworks erupt.
Years later, they see each other in NYC just as she is about to move away. He shows her around the city in one big romantic night. The duet narration was the best part of this one. Otherwise, I found the FMC to be shallow and the story to be pretty unmemorable. I didn’t dislike it, it was fine to pass the time, but I forgot about it minutes after listening.
3 Stars
A Play for Love by Trilina Pucci
Kindle | Audible
Death to Valentine’s Day by Catherine Cowles
Narrated by Erin Mallon and Connor Crais
Catherine Cowles is one of my all-time favorite authors, so I was excited for this one, and Catherine delivered a mini Catherine Cowles book. I really enjoyed it, but I felt like it didn’t need the murder part. That’s Catherine’s genre though, so I’m not sure it would be a CC book without it.
Maia was betrayed by her cheating ex, and her friends dragged her to an anti-Valentine’s masquerade party. When she sees her ex with the woman he cheated with, she grabs the closest masked man and starts making out with him. It turns out to be her brother’s best friend, who was always into her.
When Maia discovers a body and the snowstorm closes all the roads, we get a classic Catherine mystery, with misdirection and secrets. I understand that Catherine wanted to represent her style in this little novella, but I feel like I wouldn’t want people to judge her based on this. It was cute and fun, but the murder took away from the romance, which would have stood alone just fine in such a short story.
Erin Mallon and Connor Crais are all-time faves, and I loved their narration. This was the first one with spice in this series. It was a great little story, but it felt like it needed to be a little longer to fully explore both the romance and the mystery.
4.25 Stars, 3 Flame
Death to Valentine’s Day by Catherine Cowles
Kindle | Audible
Valentine’s Slay by Navessa Allen
Narrated by Allie Piper and Alastair Haynesbridge
I love Navessa’s dark romcom style. Valentine’s Slay was a super fun story that had lots of spice but very little chemistry. Noah Evans grew up working at his dad’s cemetery, so of course he wasn’t very popular in school. While covering the grave of his former high school crush, who had just died, he hears her screaming from underground.
After struggling to dig her up, I guess she was so happy to be alive that she needed to get laid, because it’s all she wanted. They figure out how her husband accomplished her “death” in between getting it on, and the connection does grow and get better.
Allie Piper was a great narrator, but I wasn’t a huge fan of the male narrator. All in all, this was a fun, dark, spicy short story, but it felt a little more like a physical connection than a love connection.
4 Stars, 3.5 Flame
Valentine’s Slay by Navessa Allen
Kindle | Audible
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