Betsy’s Book Nook

📚: Anything for You by Emily Silver

Tropes:

👉 Small Town

👉 Age Gap

👉 Single Mom

TWs 😟:

Main Takeaway 🏹: Father’s best friend with endless chemistry!

Synopsis 📜: As a single mom, I’ve had my fair share of dates with guys who are all wrong for me. But there’s no one more wrong for me than Sam Shaw. My dad’s best friend.

I love my life, but some days, I wish I had a partner. One to share all of life’s ups and downs. But after too many losers on dating apps, I should give up.

Until Sam swoops in and rescues me.

I know I shouldn’t be attracted to him, but I can’t help it.

And when he looks at me the way he does, I know he returns the feelings.

Until it all comes to a head. One time and we can’t get enough of each other. Being with him is dangerous. No one can know.

Being with my dad’s best friend is too complicated. I should break things off. Find someone easier.

But when he treats me—and my son—like we’re treasured?

It makes me want to throw caution to the wind.

📚: Until I Found You by Erika Kelly

Tropes:

👉 Small Town

👉 Football

👉 Single Dad

TWs 😟: FMC’s mother is toxic

Main Takeaway 🏹: Surprise single dad and high powered lawyer find love in a small town

Synopsis 📜: Decker McKenna lives for football—but a three-year-old with big blue eyes is about to rewrite his playbook.

Willa Holland came home to restore her family’s inn, not to get tangled up with a grumpy quarterback. But watching him try so hard—and stumble so sweetly—at being a father makes it impossible for her to resist.

Late-night baking. Small-town charm. And a little girl who shows them what really matters.

📚: Dust and Desire by Daisy Jane

Tropes:

👉 Small Town

👉 Fake Marriage

👉 Single Dad

TWs 😟: Cheating ex, mentions of previous spouse’s death

Main Takeaway 🏹: Comeback story in more ways than one!

Synopsis 📜: Landry

I’m back on the bronc circuit for one reason: the prize money that’ll keep the ranch from foreclosure and my six-year-old daughter Sadie out of her grandparents’ custody. The same ranch I bled dry fighting my wife’s cancer. Then Quinn Farley shows up—24, city-sharp, camera rolling for her documentary “The Comeback Rider.” She wins Sadie over in minutes and starts cracking the walls I’ve kept up for years.

Desperate, I offer her a deal: fake-marry me for the courts, get the raw footage you need. No feelings. No strings.

Except every morning she’s on my porch with coffee, every night Sadie begs for “Quinn stories,” and every brush of her hand sets me on fire. I’m falling hard—and terrified I’ll lose her the second she sees how broken I still am.

Quinn

I came for the story of a comeback legend, and to rebuild myself and my worth. I never expected to fall for the quiet, scarred cowboy or his little girl, and I certainly never expected him to look at me like I’m the first person in years who really sees him.

When Landry proposes a marriage of convenience to protect Sadie and the ranch, I say yes for the film… and maybe to see if the chemistry between us will last.

Fake vows turn real fast. Ranch chores become excuses to touch. Training sessions turn into foreplay. Nights in his bed burn hotter than any arena.

Until his buried secrets and my own scars explode right before his make-or-break ride, and I walk away thinking it was all just a convenient deal for him.

Was it?

📚: Ruin the Friendship

Tropes:

👉 Hockey

👉 Friends to Lovers

👉 Accidental Pregnancy

TWs 😟: FMC’s parents are horrible, FMC’s baby daddy is the worst

Main Takeaway 🏹: Great start to the series

Synopsis 📜: My life is a mess.

After a one-night-stand turns into a lifetime of single-motherhood, my already tenuous relationship with my parents only dissolves further under the strain. Their disapproval becomes too much to bear, and the only person left to turn to is my very attractive, very famous roommate.

Fletcher Graff is the Captain of the Minnesota Blue Herons hockey team, but to me, he’s always been my best friend. When the stick turns blue and my life turns upside down, Fletcher is ready to stand by my side—as my partner, and a father to my baby. He’s always wanted more with me, but held back, following my lead. Now, he’s ready to ruin the friendship, regardless of the consequences.

📚: Fourth and Falling by Susan Renee

Tropes:

👉 Football

👉 Reverse Grumpy/Sunshine

👉 He Falls First

TWs 😟: mentions of past mental abuse

Main Takeaway 🏹: Shepherd is goals!

Synopsis 📜: As quarterback for the Portland Rush, I make split-second decisions under crushing pressure. I read defenses like books. I adjust. I fix. I lead. I always do.

But Sutton Price, the opinionated bartender who glares at me like I’m everything she hates?

She’s the one play I can’t read.

When she looks at me across the bar, those dark brown eyes cut through my carefully constructed image. To her, I’m just another privileged athlete while real people, like her, struggle. She doesn’t see me, she sees what I represent.

Somewhere between our late-night talks at the bar, and a few shared moments together, something shifts. I’m falling for her, and falling hard, but the weight she carries—the double shifts, that wall of mistrust, the shadows that cross her face when she thinks no one’s watching—is heartbreaking. I wish I could ease her burdens, but when my world collides with her past, I learn one of my hardest lessons.

There are some plays in life I simply can’t call and problems I can’t fix.

I know I can’t shield Sutton from the inevitable rain but I can stand beside her in her storm. I can be the safe harbor she’s never had, the one person who won’t walk away when the thunder comes. And God help me, I’ll wait through a thousand storms for her.

She may not believe in safe spaces, but I’ll spend every damn day for as long as it takes proving she’s found one with me.

📚: My Whiskey Redemption by Melissa Foster

Tropes:

👉 Forbidden

👉 Redemption

👉 Small Town

TWs 😟: mentions of past violence

Main Takeaway 🏹: Birdie was worth the wait!

Synopsis 📜:

Birdie Whiskey has spent years watching love find everyone else. She has a successful chocolate business, an incredible family, and a full life. All that’s missing is someone to share it with. When she gets swept up in a single, unforgettable night with a mysterious stranger, she believes it’s finally her turn. But the man who knocks her off her feet is the last man her family would ever accept.

Four years ago Crew Hendricks shattered the Whiskey family and went to prison. Now he’s standing on Redemption Ranch, desperate to make amends for what he’s done and trying to forget the one woman he can never have.

📚: Prospector’s Peak by Emma Slate

Tropes:

👉 Accidental Pregnancy

👉 Age Gap

👉 Small Town

TWs 😟: mentions of past violence, FMC gets lost in the woods

Main Takeaway 🏹: Emma Slate knocks another one out of the park!

Synopsis 📜:

I swerved off a mountain road into a ditch to avoid a moose.

And then a rugged cowboy in a beast of a truck comes to my rescue.

Brooks Keel.

The quiet loner at Elk Ridge.

The cowboy-biker who looks devastatingly good on a horse and a motorcycle.

Ex-con.

As a jobless twenty-three-year-old virgin, I have no business getting involved with a bad boy.

But between his hard-won smiles and protective streak, my heart—and my body—hunger for him.

We’re in a chrysalis of paradise and Huckleberry Hill is starting to feel like home...

But then the truth about Brooks’ MC past is revealed, and my world explodes.

And now I don’t recognize the man I fell in love with.

I don’t recognize my baby’s father.

📚: Sincerely, Mr. Braden by Melissa Foster

Tropes:

👉 Workplace

👉 Mistaken Identity

👉 Billionaire

TWs 😟: mentions of parental abandonment

Main Takeaway 🏹: The perfect mix of angst and swoon!

Synopsis 📜:

When the chance to finally meet my virtual assistant arises, I jump on it. Imagine my surprise when I find his beautiful sister Eleanor in his place.

The moment I meet Ellie Mitchell, my world shifts.

What was supposed to be a brief hello with my assistant turns into an unforgettable weekend with an incredible woman.

I’ve spent a lifetime keeping people at arm’s length and walking away unscathed, but Ellie obliterates every wall I’ve ever built.

What I learn next shatters my world.

I don’t know which betrayal cuts deeper: The lie she told me or the truth that I still want her.

📚: Sap & Secrets by Daphne Elliot

Tropes:

👉 Surprise Baby

👉 Forced Proximity

👉 Small Town

TWs 😟: Violent Crime, Fertiltity Issues, Emotional abuse from parent

Main Takeaway 🏹: This fell flat for me

Synopsis 📜: Nine months ago, I had one perfect, reckless night with Jasper Lawrence, the tall, tattooed firefighter who made me feel fearless. I told myself it was a mistake I’d never repeat.

Then he finds me at the Maple Festival… in labor with our surprise baby…I had no idea I was pregnant with.

Now Jasper is everywhere.

And he doesn’t just step up, he moves in.

He pitches a tent in my backyard and sleeps outside so he’s never faraway from us.

He’s a shirtless, helpful menace who cooks, cleans, and cuddles our son.

He makes me feel safe, seen, and wanted.

And I hate how much I love it.

Every time I shove him away, he shows back up, golden retriever energy and all, with coffee and pastries.

I came to Maplewood, Vermont, to discover my independence. But it’s hard to keep my distance when the town’s been shaken by danger, the scars from my past refuse to stay buried, and the firefighter I should absolutely avoid keeps setting my world on fire.

Turns out the biggest threat to me in America’s most charming small town might be the man who won’t stop rescuing me.

📚: In Plain Sight by Alice Daniels

Tropes:

👉 Fake Engagement

👉 Forced Proximity

👉 Age Gap

TWs 😟: Violent Crime

Main Takeaway 🏹: Beyond relatable characters

Synopsis 📜:

𝐎𝐧𝐞 𝐛𝐲 𝐨𝐧𝐞, 𝐈’𝐯𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐦𝐲 𝐛𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐡 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐧𝐞𝐫𝐬. 𝐈 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝𝐧’𝐭 𝐛𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐢𝐞𝐫 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦, 𝐛𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐦 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐧 𝐥𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐦𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐲𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐲 𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐨𝐧, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲, 𝐈 𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤 𝐈’𝐯𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐫.

Hannah Pearson is perhaps the sweetest girl I’ve ever met, so asking her out on a date is the easiest thing I’ve ever done.

Everything feels like it’s falling into place, until it all comes to a screeching halt. A threat on my life by a nefarious drug ring I’ve been investigating surfaces, and I’m encouraged to go into protective hiding to ensure my safety. Before I know what I’m doing, I tell the investigators Hannah is my fiancé. I need to keep her safe, too.

Together, we’re hiding in plain sight, convincing everyone we’re a happily engaged couple. With every day that passes, I realize I don’t want this to be a part we play for only a short time. I want it to continue when we get home.

Is there any way she could feel the same?

📚: What If It’s Too Late by Susan Renee

Tropes:

👉 Secret Child

👉 Second Chance

👉 Hockey

TWs 😟:

Main Takeaway 🏹: Connor is hysterical!

Synopsis 📜:

Ring around the rink once more, love came back and changed the score.

I thought I knew heartbreak.

I thought I knew what it meant to feel unimaginable loss.

When Harper Richardson walked away just before I was drafted into the league, my world shattered. I wanted a future with her more than I wanted hockey. She was the one. I would have chosen her over everything.

But she didn’t give me that choice.

Ten years later, she’s standing in front of me like we’re strangers. Just a devoted mother to a boy in my youth hockey program. A ten-year-old boy who, come to think of it, looks an awful lot like…me.

Her confirmation hits me like a punch to the chest.

Ten years gone.

Ten years of missed firsts, of being a father I never knew I could be.

If I had only known…

But I can’t rewrite the past. All I can do now is fight for our future.

For the woman I love.

For my son.

For the family I didn’t know I was meant to have.

This is my second chance. My chance at a love I never wanted to let go of,

and a chance at a family I will fight for every single day.

📚: Competitive Advantage by A.K. Landow

Tropes:

👉 Accidental Pregnancy

👉 Enemies to Lovers

👉 Secret Marriage

TWs 😟:

Main Takeaway 🏹: I could not put this book down

Synopsis 📜:

Kennedy

DO YOU BELIEVE IN HATE AT FIRST SIGHT?

That’s what happened when I met Daylen Humblecut, the walking embodiment of every red flag I’ve ever carefully cataloged.

He might be the fun-loving football superstar who plays for my father, but I loathe every ridiculous word that comes out of his annoyingly attractive mouth.

As the toughest professional basketball player in the league, surely I can handle spending time with the most obnoxious, worst-dressed man on the planet, right? I have no choice—our teammates are friends.

When one of those teammates plans the trip of a lifetime to Sin City for all of us, I happily board the plane and vow to stay far away from Daylen.

They say what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. But I’m here to tell you, that’s not always true.

After the craziest weekend of my life, I return to Philly with… a husband. Guess who it is. Yep, Mr. Red Flag himself.

When I'm forced to spend time with him to get an annulment, our verbal sparring becomes a thing of beauty. Sparks fly from our mouths as we exchange jabs at every opportunity. I’ve never met a man who can go toe-to-toe with my snark, but Daylen manages to do exactly that with a smile on his goofy face. And then…

Things begin to shift. Those sparks turn into flames. The flames bring about the most unexpected situation of my life.

I’m used to taking care of myself, but suddenly there’s someone there to help me.

The red flags slowly change to a different color—one that looks a lot like green.

📚: Lavender Lake by Emma Slate

Tropes:

👉 Accidental Pregnancy

👉 One Night Stand

👉 Small Town

TWs 😟:

Main Takeaway 🏹: I could not put this book down

Synopsis 📜:

One night. All passion. No names.

I’ll never see him again.

But when I get on a plane home to Huckleberry Hill for a family emergency, my one-night standsits down next to me.

Cas Bowman.

Famous bull rider.

And my future brother-in-law’s best friend.

No one can know we hooked up—not even my sister. And I vow never to let it happen again.

But then I remember the feel of him against me and the taste of him on my lips . . .

Suddenly, a thousand-acre ranch is too small to contain our lust, and it takes only a spark before we fall into bed again.

A future together is impossible. My life is back in New York and he’s destined to return to the rodeo circuit.

Then the stick turns pink . . .

Cas is a famous bull rider—but now he’s in for the wildest ride of his life.

📚: Irresistibly Wicked by Melissa Foster

Tropes:

👉 Marriage of Convenience

👉 Small Town

👉 Age Gap

TWs 😟: Depictions drug addiction (non MCs), mentions of bad parenting

Main Takeaway 🏹: Zander made me swoon

Synopsis 📜:

Zander Wicked lives life fast, on his bike, on the job, and with women. But one split second shatters his world and forces him to face truths he’s spent a lifetime outrunning. His family doubts he can change, but Zander knows better, and when the woman who helped save him needs more than a little help herself, he sets out to prove everyone wrong.

Shauna Flores knows what it means to fight for survival. As an EMT and a person in recovery, she’s rebuilt her life piece by piece while carrying the weight of a best friend she refuses to give up on. The last thing she expects is to end up bound to a man like Zander Wicked, or to find herself in a marriage of convenience that blurs every line between right and wrong.

Two people with checkered pasts, an arrangement that ties them together, and a future neither sees coming—one that will test their limits, their loyalties, and the lengths they’re willing to go to for the people they love.

📚: Jingle Bell Fling by Susan Renee

Tropes:

👉 Grumpy/Sunshine

👉 Holiday

👉 Fake Dating

TWs 😟:

Main Takeaway 🏹: Holiday and dirty talk are a heavenly combination

Synopsis 📜:

Love was never part of their holiday build plan

I moved to Snowberry Hollow five years ago to be left alone in the silence and solitude of the mountains. But when Sunny Camden blows into town in a storm of Christmas chaos, my quiet life is thrown into festive flux.

With her candy-cane striped tights, reindeer earmuffs and boots with literal jingle bells, she’s hired to coordinate the town’s annual Christmas festival, but she’s way too much enthusiasm for my taste. So, when the President of the council volunteers me to help Sunny build the booths for the Christmas Market, it’s the last thing I want to do.

She’s irritatingly loud, annoyingly bright, and impossible to ignore. Everywhere she goes she leaves a trail of tinsel, gingerbread and holiday happiness. And now the longer I’m stuck at her side, the more I catch myself waiting for the next laugh, the next smile…the next way she’ll surprise me.

I make things even worse when I tell everyone Sunny and I are together in an effort to dodge a blind date set-up. Now we’re fake dating in front of the entire town, pretending we’re the perfect couple.

She was supposed to be temporary. A holiday storm I just had to weather. But Sunny Camden is giving me something I never thought I’d find again.

Hope.

And for a guy who stopped believing in hope years ago, that’s dangerous, because if I fall for Sunny Camden, there’s no faking my way out of it.

📚: Cooper by Lexi James

Tropes:

👉 Teammate’s Ex

👉 Single Dad/Nanny

👉 Hockey

TWs 😟: Horrible Ex

Main Takeaway 🏹: I love a good Single Dad/Nanny romance!

Synopsis 📜: One month with my son’s new nanny. What could possibly go wrong?

Ally Sullivan is off-limits.

She’s my son’s nanny.

She’s my coach’s niece.

She’s the kind of woman you don’t touch, especially when you’re trying to hold your life together.

But Ally is more than just a beautiful complication. She’s quick-witted, fiercely kind, and the only person who can make my kid belly laugh before breakfast. And somehow, she’s made herself at home in our lives like she’s always belonged here.

The longer she stays, the harder it gets to remember why I’m supposed to keep my distance. And the more I crave her, the more impossible it becomes to let her go.

This was supposed to be thirty days. No strings. No mess. Just a temporary solution.

That was the plan.

Only now? She’s everything I didn’t know I needed.

Problem is—Ally’s a runner.

At the first sign of trouble, she bolts.

What she doesn’t know?

I’ve never lost a chase I was determined to win.

📚: Wrapped Around My Heart by Mikayla Christie

Tropes:

👉 Accidental Pregnancy

👉 Brother’s Best Friend

👉 Hockey

TWs 😟: Some mild stalker vibes (not the MCs)

Main Takeaway 🏹: In case I haven’t mentioned it, I love an accidental pregnancy!

Synopsis 📜:

It was just meant to be something fun. A quick fling with someone forbidden.

Arianna Sinclair

I didn’t hook up with my brother’s best friend because I was looking for a relationship. It was supposed to be a fling to scratch an itch. But no matter how hard I fought his pull; I always fell back into his bed.

…or his hotel rooms.

…or into a supply closet.

Our secret was fun, but it won’t be long until the truth begins to show.

Dean Hayes

If I was a better man, I would have been able to resist my best friend’s little sister. But Arianna Sinclair is my greatest temptation.

If I was stronger, I wouldn’t have slept with her the first time.

…or the second.

No matter how much I tried, nothing could stop the way I fell for her.

Not even two pink lines.

Now, with our secret coming to light, we need to learn how to navigate the changes ahead together, even if those closest to us don’t approve