swoony-males – 🥔 The Book Potato 🥔

Athica Lane by Brynne Asher

March 10, 2023 kate22689

Cam Montgomery is a single full-time dad who knows his priorities: his kids, his job, his team, his business. Dealing with his disaster of an ex-wife is bad enough, not to mention delinquent football players and a meddlesome mother. Cam doesn’t have the luxury of time for anything more, especially a relationship. Even if it is Paige Carpino—smart and sweet but at every turn, knocks him on his ass with the unexpected.

That’s figuratively speaking of course. Paige might come in a small package, but she makes up for it in spirit. An energetic spit-fire who has some heat to her sauce, she’s dedicated to her new business, her family, and a select group of friends. She’s never put herself out there, but then again, there’s never been anyone worthy of putting herself out there for.

Until one day in a burger joint, an asshole practically enters her into a wet t-shirt contest with his drink. Who knew a disaster like that could be the beginning of your life? Or more importantly, that asshole would be your reason for being. But anything can happen when you finally put yourself out there for a single dad, ex-football player, and the hottest man you’ve ever run into. Throw in the Carpino’s, the Montgomery’s, and an eighty-five-year-old bossy woman in the mix, and it’s a recipe for something big.

Book: Athica Lane by Brynne Asher
Published: September 29, 2015
Pages: 482
Genres: Romance, Sexy Alpha Male, Athlete, Swoony Males, Single dad
Format: Kindle
Date Read: March 9, 2023
Rating: 4 Potatoes 🥔🥔🥔🥔

Holy Cannoli, why didn’t I read this book sooner?

Cam. I love, love, love him! He is stubborn and overbearing in some ways but I loved that about him. He was so sure of himself. And honestly, is there anything sexier than a dad who loves his kids? The quote below from the book speaks for itself!

Dadmire – defined by all single women admiring a man who’s hot to begin with, but his hotness quotient increases leaps and bounds by him doing hot dad things. Examples: calling his girl punkin’ pie, his boy buddy and looking like there’s nothing he wants more in this world than the two kids in front of him.

That being said – I did not like Cam’s incontrollable anger and how he disregarded Paige’s feelings on a lot of things. And I didn’t like how Paige didn’t push the issue of how she felt about things and didn’t force him to include her in things going on in her life.

I also felt that Paige was a little naïve but she is also a young adult so it wasn’t out of character at all. Other than that, I truly enjoyed her character. She was a good person and I felt like she was the perfect other half for Cam. I really enjoyed watching their relationship grow throughout the book.

I loved the kids and how family oriented both of their families were, even though they were sometimes overbearing. I can’t wait to check out more books in this series because I really did enjoy all of the characters!

Hot Mess (Love is Messy #1) by Emily Goodwin and Twice Burned (Love is Messy #2) by Emily Goodwin

February 5, 2023 kate22689

My life is a hot mess.

Single, working, and raising two daughters, it’s a miracle I get us up, dressed, and fed every morning. Forget about dating—nobody’s got time for that. Even if love hadn’t left me jaded, I’m not settling for anything less than perfect this time around.

Lucky for me, the perfect man just happens to work in my office. But there’s just one small problem: he’s my boss, and is totally off limits. But hey, if it’s meant to be, it’ll find a way, right?

Then a night out with friends turns into a night in with the walking-talking bad boy cliche of a bartender. It’s just one night. No harm, no foul, right?

Except when the hot bartender turns out to be my boss’s trouble-making brother, who wants more than just one night with me. The more I resist the spark between us, the more I find myself wanting him too. Which puts me in the middle of what could be the biggest sibling rivalry of the century.

Life is messy.

And love?

Well, love is even messier.

Book: Hot Mess (Love is Messy #1) by Emily Goodwin
Published: February 1, 2017
Pages: 266
Genres: Romance, Swoony Males, Tattoos/Piercings, Firefighter
Format: Kindle
Date Read: February 2-4th, 2023
Rating: 4 Potatoes 🥔🥔🥔🥔

I’ve been burned before.

Once by love, twice by fire.

And I don’t know which hurt worse.

For years, I’ve been playing with fire. Both in the sheets and in the streets. But after a life changing accident, something had to give. Moving from Chicago to New York to live with my estranged brother is less than ideal, but it’s only temporary. To make it through the next year without killing each other, I need to stick to a few simple rules: no dating, no drama, no getting in each other’s business. Easy enough, right?

Then I met her, and the rules went out the window.

Problem is, he met her first.

Book: Twice Burned (Love is Messy #2) by Emily Goodwin
Published: March 1, 2017
Pages: 280
Genres: Romance, Swoony Males, Tattoos/Piercings, Firefighter
Format: Kindle
Date Read: February 4th, 2023
Rating: 4 Potatoes 🥔🥔🥔🥔

“Life is messy, and I think the trick is finding beauty amongst the chaos. And if you’re really lucky, you’ll find someone to notice it with you.”

I enjoyed these characters so much that when book 1 ended on a major cliffhanger I immediately bought book 2!

My favorite thing about these books was how realistic the characters were. They had hard pasts, deal with realistic issues and they weren’t rational and confronted the other with misunderstandings right away. They both reacted impulsively before having to take a step back and thinking things through. Luke and Lexi were both complete messes but fit so well, they clicked and made sense. And I loved them for it!

Luke was the ultimate swoon worthy bad boy with a good heart. For someone who didn’t have relationship experience he sure knew how to treat a lady and was a amazing with Lexi’s girls. I was so happy that all 3 of them finally had someone who made them a priority.

One of my favorite Lexi quotes that really stuck with me since the first book was- “The hardest thing I’ve ever done was accept an apology I was never given.” It just shows how strong her character is and how determined she is to give her daughters and herself the best life possible.

Will I read Coles book? I’m undecided since I don’t care for what he did through a lot of these books, even though I understand his reasoning behind his actions. But I truly enjoyed both books! Brava to the author!

Suddenly Royal (Suddenly #) by Nichole Chase

October 27, 2016 kate22689

Samantha Rousseau is used to getting her hands dirty. Working toward a master’s degree in wildlife biology while helping take care of her sick father, she has no time for celebrity gossip, designer clothes, or lazy vacations. So when a duchess from the small country of Lilaria invites her to dinner, Samantha assumes it’s to discuss a donation for the program. The truth will change the course of her life in ways she never dreamed.

Alex D’Lynsal is trying to keep his name clean. As crown prince of Lilaria, he’s had his share of scandalous headlines, but the latest pictures have sent him packing to America and forced him to swear off women—especially women in the public eye. That is, until he meets Samantha Rousseau. She’s stubborn, feisty, and incredibly sexy. Not to mention heiress to an estate in his country, which makes her everyone’s front-page news.

While Sam tries to navigate the new world of politics and wealth, she will also have to dodge her growing feelings for Alex. Giving in to them means more than just falling in love; it would mean accepting the weight of an entire country on her shoulders.

Book: Suddenly Royal (Suddenly #) by Nichole Chase
Published: April 23rd, 2013
Pages: 464
Genres: Romance, Famous Hero or Heroine, Swoony Males
Format: Kindle
Date Read: May 12 to 14, 2013
Rating: 5 Potatoes 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔

FIVE STARS! I absolutely loved this book! Alex… Prince Yummy indeed!!! Even if I didn’t love everything about this book it would get five stars just for him alone ❤

Hopeless (Hopeless 1) by Colleen Hoover

October 20, 2016 kate22689

Sometimes discovering the truth can leave you more hopeless than believing the lies…

That’s what seventeen-year-old Sky realizes after she meets Dean Holder. A guy with a reputation that rivals her own and an uncanny ability to invoke feelings in her she’s never had before. He terrifies her and captivates her all in the span of just one encounter, and something about the way he makes her feel sparks buried memories from a past that she wishes could just stay buried.

Sky struggles to keep him at a distance knowing he’s nothing but trouble, but Holder insists on learning everything about her. After finally caving to his unwavering pursuit, Sky soon finds that Holder isn’t at all who he’s been claiming to be. When the secrets he’s been keeping are finally revealed, every single facet of Sky’s life will change forever.

Book: Hopeless (Hopeless 1) by Colleen Hoover
Published: December 17th, 2012
Pages: 488
Genres: Romance, New Adult, Swoony Males
Format: Kindle
Date Read: February 23, 2013
Rating: 5 Potatoes 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔

Love, love, love this book! Holder and Sky have such amazing chemistry! For such a heartbreaking storyline I found myself smiling more often than not. Holder is simply wonderful, he truly loves Sky and wants nothing but the best for her. Not many men would think or act the same way!

Five stars without a doubt, even though it was a bit predictable at times.

Walking Disaster (Beautiful 2) by Jamie McGuire

October 20, 2016 kate22689

Can you love someone too much?

Travis Maddox learned two things from his mother before she died: Love hard. Fight harder.

In Walking Disaster; the life of Travis is full of fast women, underground gambling, and violence. But just when he thinks he is invincible, Abby Abernathy brings him to his knees.

Every story has two sides. In Beautiful Disaster, Abby had her say. Now it’s time to see the story through Travis’s eyes.

Book: Walking Disaster (Beautiful 2) by Jamie McGuire
Published: April 2nd, 2013
Pages: 433
Genres: Romance, New Adult, Tattoos/Piercings, Swoony Males, Sexy Alpha Male
Format: Kindle
Date Read: April 02 to 03, 2013
Rating: 5 Potatoes 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔

TRAVIS MADDOX! Five stars! That is all. I mean really, what else do you need to know? Its Trav!

If You Stay (Beautifully Broken 1) by Courtney Cole

October 20, 2016 kate22689

24-year old Pax Tate is an asshole.

Seriously.

He’s a tattooed, rock-hard bad-boy with a bad attitude to match.
But he’s got his reasons.

His mother died when Pax was seven, leaving a hole in his heart filled with guilt although he doesn’t understand why. What he does know is that he and his dad are left alone and with more issues than they can count.

As Pax grew up, he tried to be the kid his father always wanted; the perfect golden boy, but it didn’t work. His dad couldn’t overcome his grief long enough to notice and Pax couldn’t keep up the impossible perfect façade.
So he slipped far, far from it.

Now, he uses drugs and women to cope with the ugliness, the black void that he doesn’t want to deal with. If he pretends that the emptiness isn’t there, then it isn’t, right?
Wrong.

And it’s never more apparent than when he meets Mila.

Sweet, beautiful Mila Hill is the fresh air to his hardened frown, the beauty to his ugly heart. He doesn’t know how to not hurt her, but he quickly realizes that he’d better figure it out because he needs her to breathe.

When memories of his mother’s death resurface from where he’s repressed them for so long, Mila is there to catch him when the guilt starts making sense. Mila is the one…the one who can save him from his broken troubled heart; from his issues, from the emptiness.

But only if he can stop being an asshole long enough to allow it.

He knows that. And he’s working on it.

But is that enough to make her stay?

Book: If You Stay (Beautifully Broken 1) by Courtney Cole
Published: February 7th, 2013
Pages: 351
Genres: Romance, New Adult, Tattoos/Piercings, Swoony Males
Format: Kindle
Date Read: February 10 to 13, 2013
Rating: 5 Potatoes 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔

Love love love this book! For a good portion of it I just wanted to hug Pax and take all of his pain away. Poor kid.

Ahhh Pax. He truly was an asshole (especially in the beginning). He was also funny, sexy, romantic… Pax was everything all rolled up into one effed up ball. But, you couldn’t stop yourself from rooting for him and wanting him to get his act together, for his sake as well as Mila’s!

As I write this I still have tears in my eyes from the feelings this book brought out in me. Pax and Mila are the epitome of the phrase, “opposites attract” but it worked for them! Such chemistry! I loved this book so much, it had it all – a couple who truly are two halves of a whole, a fascinating storyline that wouldn’t let me put the novel down and flawless editing that made it such an easy read.

Wonderful book from start to finish. Awesome job Miss Cole! Brava!

Dante's Girl (The Paradise Diaries 1) by Courtney Cole

October 20, 2016 kate22689

I have spent every summer since I was ten years old with my father in London. Every summer, since I was ten years old, has been uneventful and boring. Until this year.

And this year, after a freak volcanic eruption strands me far from home, I have learned these things:

1. I can make do with one outfit for three days before I buy new clothes.
2. If I hear the phrase, “You’re not in Kansas anymore, Toto,” even one more time, I might become a homicidal maniac.
3. I am horribly and embarrassingly allergic to jellyfish.
4. I am in love with Dante Giliberti, who just happens to be the beautiful, sophisticated son of the Prime Minister of a Mediterranean paradise.
5. See number four above. Because it brings with it a whole slew of problems and I’ve learned something from every one of them.
Let’s start with the fact that Dante’s world is five light-years away from mine. He goes to black-tie functions and knows the Prime Minister of England on a first name basis. I was born and raised on a farm in Kansas and wear cut-off jeans paired with cowboy boots. See the difference?

But hearts don’t care about differences. Hearts want what they want. And mine just wants to be Dante’s girl.

My heart just might be crazy.

Book: Dante’s Girl (The Paradise Diaries 1) by Courtney Cole
Published: June 22nd, 2012
Pages: 224
Genres: Romance, New Adult, Swoony Males
Format: Kindle
Date Read: January 23 to 24, 2013
Rating: 5 Potatoes 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔

This book was just what I needed today – a lighthearted romantic comedy. Reece and Dante are just too cute, I loved them. So perfect together! And Dante? *fans self* What a romantic gentleman! If only they still made guys like that! Haha.

Check this book out, you won’t be disappointed!

Bad Rep (Bad Rep 1) by A. Meredith Walters

October 20, 2016 kate22689

“Who gives a damn about their reputation? Oh, that would be me! Especially since mine had gone straight to hell in the span of thirty minutes”.

Maysie Ardin is soaking up the summer before her junior year of college, shopping, hanging by the pool and shopping some more. But when her black belt in spending lands her in trouble with her parents, she is forced to take a second job at a local bar to dig herself out of a deep financial pit.

She thought she’d be miserable. But then Maysie didn’t count on Jordan Levitt, the hot, pierced and tattooed, drum playing bartender who also happens to be very interested in her. And the feelings are totally mutual.

It had the makings of the perfect romantic set up. Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. Boy has girlfriend? Okay, maybe not.

But attraction is a hard thing to ignore and soon Jordan and Maysie find themselves in the middle of a gossip induced firestorm. Maysie has to learn whether she can set aside her fear of public disapproval in order to be with the one she wants. Or will she let the opinions of others dictate her life and her heart?

Book: Bad Rep (Bad Rep 1) by A. Meredith Walters
Published: December 21st, 2012
Pages: 444
Genres: Romance, New Adult, Tattoos/Piercings, Swoony Male
Format: Kindle
Date Read: January 01 to 02, 2013
Rating: 5 Potatoes! 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔

I was only going to give this book 4 stars but I loved Jordan so much I decided he’s worth more!

Mays really pissed me off, the only thing that kept me reading was Jordan. I understand her hangups and its easy to see why she’d have all of her insecurities but enough is enough. Jordan did everything he could to reassure her and it still wasn’t enough!!!! At one point I wanted him to stop fighting for her and find someone worthy!

*spoiler alert* Thank God they got their acts together in the end! When things were good between them they really were a perfect couple, such chemistry! So yeah this book gets five stars simply for the fact that I loved Jordan so much! He’s so yummy! This book was worth the read just for him alone so check it out!

Beautiful Disaster (Beautiful 1) by Jamie McGuire

October 20, 2016 kate22689

The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University’s Walking One-Night Stand.

Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby needs—and wants—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.

Book: Beautiful Disaster (Beautiful 1) by Jamie McGuire
Published: May 26th 2011
Pages: 319
Genres: Athlete Hero, Romance, Tattoos/Piercings, Sexy Alpha Male, Swoony Male
Format: Kindle
Date Read: September 26 to 27, 2011
Rating: 5 Potatoes! 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔

Love love love! I laughed, I cried and I yelled with this story. So good.

So um, where can I get a Travis?

ETA 2016: I have re-read this book quite a few times since my original review and I love it more each time. It’s a book I rate all of my books against and I always end up coming back to it and thinking of different parts at any given moment. I’d give it a more than 5 star review if such a thing was possible! I love Travis and Abby… I don’t think I’ve ever loved a book more. Movie, please!!

Hunted (Brides of the Kindred 2) by Evangeline Anderson

October 20, 2016 kate22689

A desperate girl on the run with nowhere to hide… A warrior who has made a vow never to claim a bride… Sophia Waterhouse is being Hunted and the only man who can save her is the one she fears the most…

Sophia Waterhouse has always been afraid of needles and vampires so there’s no way she wants anything to do with a modern day Count Dracula—even if he does come wrapped in the package of a huge Kindred warrior with blond hair and ice blue eyes. She’s only on the Kindred Mothership to participate in her sister Liv’s wedding and that’s all.

Sylvan is a Tranq Kindred who has made a sacred vow never to call a bride. After a devastating rejection on his home planet, his heart is a block of ice no one can melt—or so he thinks until he meets Sophia.

When their ship is forced down in the middle of a rugged mountain range Sophia and Sylvan are stranded. Running for their lives they have only each other to depend on. Will they give in to the intense attraction between them or will the evil hunting Sophia take its toll?

Book: Hunted (Brides of the Kindred 2) by Evangeline Anderson
Published: April 29th, 2011
Pages: 466
Genres: Paranormal, Romance, Erotica, Sexy Alpha Males, Swoony Males
Format: Kindle
Date Read: May 21 to 22, 2011
Rating: 5 Potatoes 🥔🥔🥔🥔🥔

I didn’t think I could like this type of book more than I did the first one but Hunted proved me wrong! Someway, somehow I like this one even better than the first!!!

It was so easy to fall for Sylvan and Sophia – both have been hurt before, both so afraid to open their hearts! Sylvan was just the perfect alpha male – protective, sensitive, honorable and so freaking hot! *sigh* Where can I get my own Sylvan?

I loved this book from start to finish and I can’t wait to read the next one in the series!