Bria Lou Reviews

  Maya is 23 and figuring out her life, Conor is 38 with everything figured out. When they become forced together to celebrate Maya's brother's destination wedding, Maya can't help but feel that a summer romance with Conor is exactly what she needs - even if it's problematic. I'd heard good things about this book, and as a Hazelwood fan it was always going to be on my list. That being said, because I didn't love the first book in the series, Not In Love, I was a bit sceptical. Unfortunately I didn't love this one either. That being said, I did like being back with the characters from the first book, particularly because we got to hear more from people who were only mentioned a few times in the first book. Though there were still some supporting characters that I wanted to hear more from. I also really liked the setting. The idea of taking the characters away from academia and work, and seeing a different side to them in a new environment was really interesti...

  Rue is happy with her life as a biotech engineer with few friends and no repeat hook-ups until she meets Eli, the extremely attractive man trying to take over the company she works for. Torn between loyalty and an ill-advised connection, can Rue make the right decision to save her company and her heart? I'm a huge fan of Ali Hazelwood, so this book was high on my most anticipated books for this year. She always writes romance really well so, even though there was a disclaimer at the beginning of this book stating that it's different from her other works, I was sure I'd still enjoy it. And while I did enjoy it, I was also disappointed with it. But like all of Hazelwood's books, it was really easy to get into. I picked it up to skim the first page and ended up reading the whole first chapter because I was already hooked. I felt like I knew Rue just from that and really liked being in her head. It was also just an easy read all the way through. Even when I wasn't lik...

After chess destroyed her family four years earlier, Mallory Greenleaf decided to never play again. But when helping out a friend in a charity tournament, she wins against Nolan Sawyer, the current world champion. And suddenly Mallory finds her chess skills in demand - in exchange for desperately needed cash prizes. But can she keep her family separate from the game she vowed never to play again? I'm a big fan of Ali Hazelwood's books. Even when I'm going through a romance slump, I always know that I'll like whatever she writes. So while I didn't love the plot of this one, I knew that I'd probably still like it. And that's true for this book. I liked it, but because I didn't love the plot, it definitely wasn't one of my favourites of Hazelwood's. The book gives us a good first impression of Mallory. We like her instantly which makes her a good protagonist to follow throughout the story. It took a while to really get into the story. There was a lo...

When Bea gets a job working for NASA she is thrilled - even if that means working with her grad school nemesis, Levi. But when her equipment starts going missing, and no one listens to her, she finds that Levi starts to become an ally and, even more shockingly, a friend. But is friendship the only thing on Levi's mind? I bought this book last year after reading and absolutely loving 'The Love Hypothesis' by the same author. I liked it so much I wanted to check if it was a fluke, or if I just love this author. Thankfully it was not a fluke, because I loved this book too! At first I felt like I was reading about the characters from TLH, and that was a bit jarring (it was almost like reading fanfiction about them), but it was also nice because it allowed me to have a level of comfort with the characters from the very beginning. But eventually this feeling went away and this story became its own thing entirely, while being equally enjoyable. It was very predictable, but that...

I've had this book for a while but I haven't been interested in reading romances lately. After reading a couple of darker books in a row, I was looking for something more fun and light-hearted, and came across this. Ph.D. candidate Olive is trying to convince her best friend Anh that she's in a relationship. To keep up the charade, in a panic, Olive kisses the first man she sees. Unfortunately, that man happens to be Adam Carlsen, the harshest professor at the university. So it's a surprise when he agrees to be Olive's fake boyfriend. But as the pair spend more time together to keep up the illusion, Olive finds that maybe she doesn't want the relationship to be fake anymore. I loved this book. I honestly didn't even expect to like it, so the fact that I completely loved it was a huge shock to me. From very early on I liked the characters more than I thought I would. And while I really liked Olive as a character, I loved Adam. Like, I was (and still am a litt...