Today’s Steals and Deals at AAR…..

We enjoyed Mr. Wrong Number!

Lynn Painter’s Mr. Wrong Number is the first in a new contemporary romance series. If you like the older brother’s best friend trope, this one will definitely work for you.

After setting her apartment on fire, being dumped by her boyfriend, and getting fired from her job Olivia has been having a rough couple of days. She arrives at her brother Jack’s apartment with only the clothes on her back and Jack reluctantly agrees to let Olivia (Liv) stay with him as long as she does one thing: Stay out of Colin’s, his roommate and childhood friend, way. This, however, proves easier said than done.

The trouble begins almost immediately. On Liv’s first night, she is trying to fall asleep when she gets a text from a wrong number asking “What are you wearing?” She texts back a snarky response and thus begins a hilarious, hot, and highly entertaining banter between Mr. Wrong Number and Miss Misdial. You can see where this is going to go and it does so wonderfully.

Meanwhile Liv has mini disasters happening all around her. She jams the printer, spills Colin’s expensive hair products, sneaks naps on Colin’s bed (after losing sleep on her air mattress) while hoping no one – i.e. Colin – will notice. Liv is sure Colin is an arrogant, nerdy jerk who, somewhat upsettingly, happens to be super hot. Painter is a very funny writer and Liv’s mishaps had me laughing out loud.

For his part, Colin remembers Liv as his brother’s annoying little sister but even though she’s kind of a roommate nightmare, he soon finds her so attractive that she takes his breath away. When he realizes that the wrong number he’s been flirt texting is Liv’s he has to decide if it’s better to tell her or ghost her. He is convinced that Jack would NOT take kindly to Colin’s hitting on his baby sis.

The chemistry between Liv and Colin is steamy and well done and I liked both leads. Liv, though she is a super klutz with a tendency to make bad choices, is fun loving and comes across as real. Both she and Colin have interesting issues with their families. Colin’s father wants him to take over the family law firm but Colin doesn’t want to do it – he loves his job in finance. Colin’s dad argues with Colin every time the two are in the same room – I felt genuinely sorry for Colin. I also felt badly for Liv – her mother is endlessly critical about Liv’s life choices despite the fact that Liv is just twenty-five and trying to figure out who she wants to be.

It’s on sale at Amazon for 1.99 here.


Maggie gave this one a DIK.

If you’ve missed Nina and her friends from The Bookish Life of Nina Hill you absolutely must read Adult Assembly Required. It’s a sequel featuring a different couple who know Nina, Polly and company, and it is absolutely fantastic. If you haven’t read Nina Hill yet, rush out and pick up both books now. They’re wonderful.

When graduate student Laura Costello walks into Knight’s bookstore, she is soaked and sobbing. Getting caught in a torrential downpour was just the icing on the cake of what had turned out to be a very bad day. Not only had she not gotten the job she desperately needed, the apartment she just rented caught on fire. The entire building is uninhabitable and all her belongings have literally gone up in smoke. She’s only been in Los Angeles a short time but it’s looking more and more as though the city wants her gone, pronto. Luckily, Knight’s is exactly the right place to go when you’re in a crisis.

Before Laura quite knows what’s happening, clerk Polly has found her a place to live (the boarding house where Polly stays), Nina has lent her dry clothes and bookstore owner Liz has given her hot tea and comfort. Polly’s boarding house turns out to be an entirely lovely place, where proprietress Maggie rents out rooms, doles out excellent advice, and feeds guests who are in obvious need of some loving care. The other tenants are a delightfully eclectic, quirky bunch who make Laura feel right at home. Well, except Impossibly Handsome Bob. He makes her feel flustered and has awakened feelings Laura was quite sure she had beaten remorselessly into submission.

This is the setup for Adult Assembly Required and I laughed out loud, completely uncontrollably, several times as we get to the point where Laura is settled into Maggie’s house. And the hits kept coming – giggles galore accompanied my perusal of this sweet, charming love story about finding your place – and your people – in the world.

It’s on sale for 1.99 here.


We haven’t reviewed this one by Ashford but readers give it 4.4 stars. Here’s the blurb:

Charlotte Deeping needs something to keep her occupied now that she’s back home after her first London season. She misses solving local intrigues with her school friends, but they’ve all gone off and gotten married. Then Laurence Lindley, the Marquess of Glendarvon, comes for a visit, and drops a mystery right into her lap.

When Charlotte’s brother makes her promise not to interrogate the marquess, she agrees. But that only means she’ll have to find subtler ways to learn about the mysterious marquess and his past. The more time they spend together, the closer Charlotte gets to finding answers, and to Laurence. That is, until Charlotte’s digging rouses an old vendetta and Laurence has to delve into his own history to help the young lady he’s come to love.

It’s on sale for 1.99 here.


We loved this one big time. (Here’s our DIK review.)

Brandon Alexander Fiennes, the brand-new Duke of Kingston, has inherited an impoverished estate and has no idea what to do about it.  He desperately wants to restore Lyon House to its former glory, but with his tenants suffering, the roof leaking, his fashion-obsessed mother demanding more money and one sister threatening to elope for love and the other having rejected an elderly nobleman, he can’t find the money.  It’s his best friend and cousin, Freddie, Lord Hewitt, who suggests he enter a marriage of convenience that will solve his money problems, and thus they take off to go fortune-hunting in America.

Miss Adeline Black is a businesslike, fashion-conscious seamstress who sees clothing as a woman’s sole means of independence and conveyance of opinion. She dreams of becoming a dressmaker with her own shop, but in the meantime, she works for Madame Chalfont’s dressmaking establishment, attending fittings and applying fine details, hoping to ask clients if they’d rather use Adeline’s more modern designs instead of Madame Chalfont’s old fashioned ones.

When Adeline literally bumps into Brandon in the elevator of the hotel where she has an important meeting scheduled, she takes closer notice of his fashion sense than his blandishments, and brushes him off to get to her meeting  – and he falls in love at first sight with her while presuming her to be one of the upper-class ladies who reside at the hotel. The last thing Adeline wants is to settle into happy, blissful domesticity with anyone  – and she doesn’t trust money-seeking Brandon not to simply discard her after he’s had his fun.  But while considering his offer to take a stroll in Central Park with him, she glimpses the front page of the society rags so beloved by her employer – and realizes that if she’s seen with a duke, her fashions will be reported about in all of the newspapers.  It’s the opportunity to show off her more daring ideas, and gain the free publicity she’s been looking for, so she corners her fellow shop-girl Rose to pose as her companion and proceeds to pretend to riches.

Brandon and Adeline realize they’re of opposing ideals right from the start – she’s sharp-tongued and independent of mind, and unafraid to contradict him, he’s old-fashioned and clinging to the ways of his ancestors.  When Adeline bumps into Brandon at the home of her disgraced but upper-crust new client Harriet Burnett, both of their pretensions die away – and Adeline is later fired for falsely-presumed impropriety with the Duke.  Soon she finds herself swept up in a women’s labor movement organized by the Ladies of Liberty, which provides her with the money necessary to finally open her own shop.  When Brandon finds her, he desperately wants to see her again, and ends up employing her to guide him about New York society to help him find a suitable bride.  She agrees – again, in order to show off her fashions.  Soon she’s drowning in orders for her pocket-bearing dresses, and Brandon is courting the virginal Miss Van Allen, an heiress whose money will fix all his problems.  But Brandon and Adeline still ache for one another.  Can they resist temptation?  Will Brandon find a solution to his money worries without strip-mining the land around his beloved home and displacing his tenants?  And can Adeline’s business-minded pursuits ever make way for real love?

It’s on sale for 1.99 here.


We loved this Mimi Matthews.

Mimi Matthews tops herself with the first novel in what appears to be a fresh and brilliant new series with The Siren of Sussex, the tale of an independent horsewoman and the tailor who vows to make her the most talked about equestrienne in all of England – both of whom suddenly discover love in the most unexpected of places.  The beautiful romance and wonderfully drawn characters at play here effortlessly make this my favorite Matthews yet.

The strong-willed, plain spoken country girl Miss Evelyn Maltravers is looking for a tailor. Not just any tailor, but the sort of person who can make her an outstanding, eye-catching riding habit – something that will bring her to the notice of every fellow in the vicinity as she shows off her formidable equestrian skills.  Evelyn, you see, is in want of a husband – the family estate has tumbled into bankruptcy and she struggles to enter into society in order to save her sister’s future from further ruin.  Figuring that her riding skills and her love of fashion are her truest interests and believing both will land her a mate, she enters Mr. Doyle’s millinery shop looking for someone who can rival even the Pretty Horsebreakers – a team of former courtesans who have become the talk of Rotten Row with their outfits and daring moves on horseback –  and falls to her destiny.

Half-Indian Ahmad Malik happens to be the very tailor whose designs are sported by the Pretty Horsebreakers, and the notion of designing Evelyn’s wardrobe for an entire Season is a challenge that’s too tempting to resist.  Ahmad is a determined survivor – he took up tailoring to support the care of his cousin, Mira, whose wastrel father – a British soldier – drank himself to death, leaving Mira homeless and poor, and both of them  feel adrift – not accepted by their white British neighbors or their Indian country-people alike.  Ahmad knows he has talent enough to succeed and hopes to open up a dress shop, but he needs a good model to do those things – and Evelyn’s entrée into society seems to be as good an eye-catcher as any – especially because she plans on making her début on horseback while riding down Rotten Row.  With Evelyn becoming the toast of the broadsheets, Ahmad sees his dream coming true – but his truest dream just might be landing in his Evie’s arms, cultural and social differences be damned.

What a wonderful romance!  I loved these characters,  the simple and beautifully done plot, and the slow-burning tension between Ahmad and Evie, who go from intrigued acquaintances to impassioned but seemingly star-crossed lovers over the space of the book’s three-hundred plus pages.

It’s on sale here for 1.99


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