Dog-Eared Daydreams

Playing with Trouble (The Players Club Sinners #2) by Erika Wilde Release Date: October 28, 2025 About Playing with Trouble One scorching look. One sinful night. One man who ruined me for anyone else. I wasn’t looking for anything more than a night at The Players Club to forget my troubles. But then Ford Perish crashed into my life with a body made for sin and a smoldering stare that promised things no man ever dared to offer me. When trouble at work turned into a full-blown threat, Ford became more than a temptation. He became my full-time bodyguard. My living, breathing, test of control. Living under the same roof as this infuriating man was delicious torture. He invaded my space, my mind, and my body until there was no part of me he didn’t own. The danger closing in was real, but nothing terrified me more than the way Ford touched the places inside of me I swore no man would ever reach. He didn’t ask me to be perfect. He didn’t try to fix me. He wanted the real me—the t...

If You Were Mine (The Cage Family #3) by Carrie Ann Ryan Release Date: October 27, 2025 About If You Were Mine The last words I said to my best friend were “I trust you.” Then the world went dark, and I nearly lost everything. While my best friend’s little sister lost even more. I promised him that I’d take care of her—but if he knew my current thoughts when it came to Harper, he’d have never trusted me. She’s too young for me. Too bright to my shadows. And too tempting. Now I’m stuck in our small town, and I can’t escape her. I’d rather hide in my cabin, restoring what was once lost. Only Harper won’t let me. I’ve already held onto more secrets than my family knows. I don’t know if I can keep what I feel about her secret too. She sees beyond my scars and anger, and I know she hides her own just as tightly. When one kiss changes everything, there’s no going back—even if it shatters everything in our wake. If You Were Mine is an age gap, best friend’s little sis...

Note: An advance reader copy (ARC) was provided by the author. We're back in Cage Lake, Colorado for the third novel in Carrie Ann Ryan's Cage Family  series.  If You Were Mine  is Dorian Cage's book, and it's a falling-for-your-best-friend's-sibling romance, with Harper Wellesley as his female counterpart. When the plane being piloted by his best friend, Joshua Wellesley, unexpectedly encounters problems and crashes, Dorian is left with numerous life-threatening injuries but lives, while Joshua...does not. The thirty-one-year-old owner of four high-end clubs in Denver has spent the past year recovering, but his life has changed a great deal since Joshua died. He swore he'd keep an eye on Joshua's younger sister, but he's barely been able to do that, adding on to the guilt that he's already living with. But the twenty-three-year-old bakery owner is no longer a girl needing protection. Harper misses her brother immeasurably while also regretting t...

Note: An advance reader copy (ARC) was provided by the author. When I heard that Kayley Loring had a holiday romance and that it was a standalone in her Name in Lights  series, which is the first series I ever read from her, I cannot begin to explain how excited I was. Of course, this also meant that my expectations were high, but I needn't worry because Merrymaker  did not disappoint! This fast-paced novella is about a second chance between a grumpy film producer and a merry-making theater performer and sometimes elf. Oh, and did I mention that our male main character also happens to be a single father to a seven-year-old budding matchmaker? Plus there may be a few familiar "faces" who brought a grin to my face once they first made their presence felt via text (naturally). Cleo James, a twenty-eight-year-old theater performer and children's party entertainer, getting hired by a seven-year-old to show up to a party may seem strange to some, but there was no way sh...

Note: An advance reader copy (ARC) was provided by the author via Gay Romance Reviews. Two for Holding  is the first book in the new Minor Penalties  hockey romance from S.B. Barnes, published through NineStar Press. My introduction to this author's writing came by way of her Hudson Valley  series, which was more romantic suspense, so naturally, I was curious to see how she would handle a romance set in the world of professional ice hockey. The team at the center of the series is the San Francisco Sea Lions, with the main characters in this series starter being Jaxon Grant and Tom Crowley, the former being twenty-four, center, and recently traded by Philadelphia Magpies to San Francisco, and the latter being thirty-two, winger, and the captain of the Sea Lions. Jax also happens to be gay, openly so with his family but while not exactly hiding it from everyone else, he isn't shouting it from the rooftops either. When he's caught by his team captain escorting a male after-h...

Note: An advance reader copy (ARC) was provided by the author. May Archer's new small town romance series welcomes readers to Winsome, Vermont and to the Axford family, with the brothers being the main characters throughout their eponymous series. Kiss My Axe  features the eldest among the siblings, thirty-six-year-old Beckett, who's been at the helm of Axford Lumber, the family business, ever since his father suffered a heart attack, forcing him to retire. He's shocked when he finds out that the property beside the forest they own now belongs to a New Yorker named Griffin Mercer. It seems the thirty-year-old has inherited said property--the same property whose driveway Beck uses to get to his forest. While Beck had an agreement with Griffin's Uncle Jim, it was nothing that was formalized with a signed piece of paper that's filed with the town. And after the not-so-stellar first meeting between Beck and Griff, it looks like the latter isn't as willing as Jim Gra...

Note: An advance reader copy (ARC) was provided by the author via Neon Rainbow ARC Reviews. The Best Parts of Him  is the first book in the Vermont Trailblazers  series from Amy Aislin, and it's a companion novel to the author's earlier release this year, A Touch of Maple , which was part of the multi-author Love in Maplewood  series. If you've read the aforementioned book published in May, then you'll recall meeting Ryland Zervudachi, who is the brother of one of the main characters and the rival of the other. Twenty-nine-year-old Ryland plays for the Columbus Pilots and is the youngest among the Zervudachi siblings, with Jason and Brie working on the family-owned farm alongside their father. It's also no secret that Ryland has had a crush on the captain of the Vermont Trailblazers for quite a while now. Thirty-two-year-old Kyle Dabbs is part of a Stanley Cup-winning team, has two younger sisters and a mom who support him, and adored his two dogs, Cosmo and Cas...