Audiobook Review for The Heist Before Christmas by Lucy Score, Natalie Duke (Narrator)

 

Riley Thorn #5

The Heist Before Christmas by Lucy Score, Natalie Duke (Narrator)

Published:  November 10, 2026 by That's What She Said Publishing,Inc.

Genre:  Christmas, Romance, Cozy Romance

Taken from Goodreads:  #1 New York Times bestselling author Lucy Score brings a psychic twist to Christmas in this hilarious all-new Riley Thorn adventure, the fifth in the romantic mystery series.

'Tis the season for mayhem, mistletoe, and one very unfortunate mall uniform.

Engaged. Overwhelmed. Running a small business with a purple-haired octogenarian who thinks "Rhonda El Bano" is a convincing alias. For reluctant psychic Riley Thorn, the holidays are less "magic in the air" and more "fire in the living room." Between the backlog of invoices, a PI license teetering on revocation, a disapproving grandmother lobbing ominous predictions about the upcoming wedding, and the fact that Riley cannot see a single thing about her own future with Nick Santiago, she just wants to survive until December 26th.

Nick Santiago doesn't do "mellow." He does Christmas. Hard. He's the man who owns a twelve-foot inflatable Santa and feels no shame about it. So if closing out the year means going undercover at the East Shore Mall to catch a slippery theft ring―even if it costs him one truly terrible security uniform and several shifts with the world's most punchable assistant manager―fine. The sooner he catches the bad guy, the sooner he can haul his fiancée under the mistletoe and convince her everything is going to be fine.

Between mall chaos, psychic guild parties, warring families descending for Christmas Eve dinner, and one stray kitten who has personally destroyed two rooms and a dog's dignity, they have five days to catch a thief, save a license―

And figure out why the future looks so suspiciously blank.

 

My Thoughts:  I just listened to a comedy!   I laughed, I cringed, and I enjoyed every single moment.  It is all about trying to figure out who is robbing stores at the mall at Christmas time.  The PI hired has a crew of misfits that work with him and nothing seems to go their way.  

The Heist Before Christmas has just the right narrator, Leslie Duke.   The tones used to tell this story were perfect.   The story came to life for me while I was listening to the audiobook.   Her voice managed to bring the story to life sharing the adventures of The Heist Before Christmas characters.

If you are looking for a cozy romance with a ton of fun antics, this is the book for you.

Thank you to Hambright PR for a copy of the book in exchange for my honest review.

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Release Blitz for Smolder by Kimberly Kincaid

 

Smolder by Kimberly Kincaid is now live!

He studies monsters. She shares DNA with one. Now they're hunting a copycat killer determined to finish what her twin brother started.

 

As a former rescue squad firefighter, Dallas Garrity knows danger when he sees it. As the newest behavioral analyst for the Remington Police Department, he knows evil when he sees it, too. When a body turns up with all the signatures of the city’s most notorious serial killer, Dallas knows he must break the case and bring Ezekial Murphy’s copycat killer to justice.

 

He just never expected he’d have to work with the one person who almost broke him to do it. Wren is rapier sharp. A highly dedicated police officer. Passionate. Fierce. Gorgeous.

 

She’s also Ezekial Murphy’s twin sister.

 

Wren Lennox is no stranger to hard work. After all, she had to bury herself in it just to prove her worth after her brother murdered a dozen rookie cops five years ago. Being paired with Dallas to catch a copycat isn’t ideal, but she’s hidden her feelings for him before. She’ll do whatever it takes to get this job done.

 

No matter how much Dallas knows about her past. No matter how much she still wants him now.

 

As secrets unravel and their chemistry burns hotter than ever, Dallas and Wren must stay a step ahead of not one killer, but two. Before it’s too late for them both.

  

Tropes include:

·         Firefighter/cop

·         He falls first

·         “Who hurt you”

·         Protector hero and heroine

·         Forced proximity

·         Workplace romance

·         Second chance at a first chance

  Download today!

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Meet Kimberly Kincaid

USA Today best-selling author Kimberly Kincaid writes romantic suspense that sizzles and contemporary romance with heart and heat. Equal parts action and emotion, her firefighters and first responders always save the day.

When she's not finding adventure with her husband, three teens, and naughty Whippets, Olive, Daisy, and Jack. She can be found practicing obscene amounts of yoga, whipping up anything from enchiladas to éclairs in her kitchen, or curled up with her nose in a book.

Kimberly's series include Remington Medical, Station Seventeen, the Line series, Cross Creek, and her brand-new Intelligence Unit series. All titles stand alone for easy reading.

 

Connect with Kimberly

Website | https://kimberlykincaid.com/   

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Release Blitz for Icy Control by Carly Robyn

 

Icy Control by Carly Robyn is now live! A spicy brother’s best friend, hockey romance where one burning attraction may be the thing that shatters his icy control… Jake Reid has spent years earning every shift, goal, and ounce of respect in the Boston Bobcats’ locker room. Then his father buys the team and suddenly he’s no longer the hardworking player who helped his team win Stanley Cups, but the new owner’s son who hasn’t earned his place. The spotlight is brutal, the pressure to prove he belongs is relentless, and Jake’s carefully controlled world is starting to crack. Sophie Davies has spent years waiting for the right time, the right guy, and the right moment to stop watching her life happen from the sidelines. Or more accurately, from the stands cheering for a hockey player she’s never let herself want out loud. But when she loses her apartment and needs a place to stay, Jake offers his spare room. Starting over pushes Sophie to do the one bold thing she’s never dared to do… ask Jake for exactly what she wants: a secret fling with no strings and no feelings. Except living together makes it impossible to keep things simple. What’s supposed to be casual starts to feel a lot like falling. As the season intensifies and Jake fights to prove he belongs, the one thing he can’t control is how much he needs Sophie. But will the girl who’s never asked for anything fight for forever with the guy who was never supposed to be hers? In a world where control is everything, sometimes the only way to win is to stop playing it safe. Icy Control is a spicy hockey romance with heart, heat, humor, and a guaranteed HEA. This is the third book in the Boston Bobcats series and can be read as a standalone, although reading in order is recommended for the best experience! Download today or read for FREE with kindle+ Visit Carly Robyn's website for buy links, or search Icy Control by Carly Robyn on Amazon. Don't forget to add Icy Control by Carly Robyn to your Goodreads TBR! Amazon: https://a.co/d/00nzJGLc Goodreads: https://bit.ly/4clXgbn

Book Review for Peregrine Hill by Nina de Gramont

 

Peregrine Hill by Nina de Gramont

Published:   November 10, 2026 by Simon & Schuster

Genre:  Historical Fiction

 

Taken from Goodreads:  By the New York Times bestselling author of The Christie Affair, a novel set in Gilded Age New York about a desperate mother and headstrong daughter navigating a world built on men’s appetites and women’s silence

At the dawn of the twentieth century, widow Isabelle Bishop still believes in love—but she knows only money can save her. After losing her husband and three of her children in a shipwreck, she has one chance to rescue what remains of her family: her daughter Mariah and her elderly mother. When Isabelle captures the attention of John Whitten, one of New York’s wealthiest men, she dares to hope that fortune might finally favor her.

But Whitten’s interest is not in Isabelle—it’s in eighteen-year-old Mariah, still reeling from a romantic but disastrous scandal. When Whitten discovers the secret mother and daughter have tried to keep buried, he uses it to his advantage, threatening to expose them unless Mariah accepts his proposal. For the sake of their survival, Isabelle makes a devil’s bargain: she will urge her daughter into a marriage she knows could destroy her.

Mariah quickly realizes her husband’s home is a gilded cage. Yet even under his watchful eye, she begins to carve out passions of her own, finding an unexpected ally in her ambitious maid, Hetty, and daring to imagine a life beyond her constricted world. Together, she and Hetty risk everything to claim a measure of power and self-determination in a world that denies them both.

From the glittering parlors of Gilded Age New York to the windswept cliffs of Rhode Island, Peregrine Hill is a novel in the tradition of Edith Wharton and the Brontë sisters, about unlikely love affairs and the impossible choices women have always been forced to make.

My Thoughts:  I love reading about the Gilded Age in New York.  Nina de Gramont is one of the best authors for this genre.  I have read others book by her and love them all.   I was so excited for Peregrine Hill that I devoured it and was sad when it ended. 

Isabelle and Mariah’s story is a tough one.  The idea that as a widow Isabelle had to find a way to support herself and her daughter.   The options available to her were extremely limited and none of them would keep her in the station she is used to.   It broke my heart to learn what had to be done.   Mariah, the daughter, is a strong character.  Her choices were limited but she managed to stay strong and true to herself. I like that she had people in her corner, willing to help her find her way. 

Thank you Simon & Schuster for a copy of the books in exchange for my honest review.

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Meet the Author(taken from her website):  Nina de Gramont was born in Englewood N.J. on September 3rd, 1966. Her novel The Christie Affair was an international and New York Times bestseller, and the Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick for February 2022. The Christie Affair has been translated into more than twenty languages. Nina is also the author of a collection of short stories, as well as the novels Gossip of the Starlings and The Last September. She has written several YA novels (Every Little Thing in the World, Meet Me at the River, The Boy I Love, and — under the pen name Marina Gessner — The Distance from Me to You). Her next novel, Peregrine Hill, is forthcoming in November 2026. Nina teaches creative writing at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

 

Audiobook Review for The Frosty Fiancé by L. Steele

 

The Hamiltons #2

The Frosty Fiancé by L. Steele

Published:  November 5, 2026

Genre:  Marriage of Convenience, Romance, Audiobook

Taken from Goodreads:  A Forbidden Father's Best Friend Romance. A Marriage of Convenience Under the Mistletoe.

He was my father's best friend, until my father betrayed him. Ten years later, he walks into my life as revenge with a wedding proposal wrapped in tinsel and bad timing.

Tristan Hamilton is the silver fox billionaire lawyer my father once called a partner. He's Scrooge personified. I'm the woman who starts decorating before the leaves have finished falling, who treats every London Christmas market like sacred ground, who believes mistletoe, fairy lights, and a cup of mulled wine can fix almost anything.

He can't stand carols, cheer, or anything wrapped in tinsel.

Yet somehow, with the advent calendar counting down and my father's law firm, now my responsibility, drowning in debt, Tristan is the one man with enough money, and enough motive, to save it before my debtors close in, before Christmas Eve arrives.

The Christmas Clause: My hand in marriage. No prenup. No exit clause, ever.
The Payoff: His fortune to save my company and my family name before the holidays are over.

It's supposed to be simple. A transaction dressed up in snow and bad timing, somewhere between the fake proposal, outings to Winter Wonderland and the real wedding under a canopy of holly.

Except amid the mistletoe and the mulled wine, and a festive themed dinner on his yacht, I start wanting this marriage to be more than a deal.

Just two people trapped by a contract, thrown together for the entire festive season. His townhouse strung with fairy lights. His family's Christmas Eve lunch. His bed, snow gathering on the windowsill outside.

Then a freak snowstorm strands us overnight with nowhere to sleep but one room, one bed, one flickering fire, and a decade of tension neither of us can outrun anymore.

He thinks he can marry me under the mistletoe, ruin my father through me, and never once fall for the woman he married to do it. He's wrong.

And this Christmas, with the whole city glowing gold and the countdown to midnight running out, I intend to make him admit it.

This is Tristan Hamilton & Opal's story. There is no cheating, and a very satisfying festive-season HEA.

My Thoughts:  There is so much to this book.  The age gap is interesting as it also has the dad’s ex-best friend trope tied to it.  The control that Tristan has over Opal when having steamy moments made me blush.   Marriage of convenience without a way our had me wondering how their relationship would work out. 

Tristan was not always a likable character, but I never actually disliked him.  Opal seemed naïve and went into situations without having a way out or an anticipated outcome.   This set up the marriage to be run by Tristan with Opal just doing as told.  I struggle with this but it seems to work for them.

I listened to this book, so I must mention the narrators, Aaron Shedlock and Zara Hampton Brown. They are wonderful.   I enjoy dual narration; it is my preferred listening.  These two narrators have the perfect voices for Tristan and Opal. 

Thank you Hambright PR for an ALC via Bookfunnel in exchange for my honest review.

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Release Blitz for Now We're Even by S.J. Sylvis

 

Now We're Even by S.J. Sylvis is now live! The only thing worse than living with a hockey player? Pretending to date one. Callahan Grant is the top hockey player at Wilder U and has the entire student body eating out of the palm of his hand. He’s impossible to ignore–and it has nothing to do with his infuriating smirk and everything to do with the fact that he’s my new roommate. Neither of us is thrilled about it. Especially me, considering I currently despise hockey players. But when Callahan and I strike a deal, I start to wonder if maybe I’ve judged him too quickly. He’ll pretend to be my boyfriend long enough to get my ex to back off, and if it works, he gets the room to himself at the end of the semester. Desperate to move on from the scandal that landed me at Wilder U in the first place, I agree. The rules are simple. Fake date. Fool my ex. Survive living together. And by the end of the semester, Callahan and I will be even. Except Callahan makes fake dating feel a little too real every time his arm slips around my waist and his mouth brushes my ear. And somewhere between pretending not to want him and desperately trying not to, I forget why I hated him in the first place. Because the problem with making a deal with Callahan Grant isn’t that he might break it. It’s that when the semester ends, I’m not sure I want him to keep it. Maybe that means we won’t be even after all. Download today or read for FREE with kindle+ Visit S.J. Sylvis's website for buy links, or search Now We're Even by S.J. Sylvis on Amazon. Don't forget to add Now We're Even by S.J. Sylvis to your Goodreads TBR! Amazon: https://mybook.to/Wilderu2 Goodreads: https://bit.ly/4xEjQEQ

Now Live!! Wherever You Are by Erika Kelly

 

Wherever You Are by Erika Kelly is now live!

Brother’s Ex-Wife. Christmas in Paris. Forced Proximity.

After Vivienne Archer left her marriage to Jack Holland’s brother, the entire town sided with her ex—including her children.

Now she spends Christmas in Paris running a vintage fashion booth far from the whispers waiting back home.

She just never expected Jack to come with her.

One hotel suite. Snow-covered streets. Forbidden chemistry. And the rugged innkeeper who never treated her like someone to be ashamed of.

But when old rumors follow them all the way to Paris, Vivienne must decide whether she’s willing to keep running from her old life…or finally fight for a new one.

Steamy small-town romance with magical Christmas markets, forbidden tension, and a second chance at love.

 Download today or read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited!

Amazon: https://bit.ly/4qEmrMa      

Goodreads: https://bit.ly/45RMyWm 

 

Meet Erika Kelly

Award-winning author Erika Kelly writes sexy, passionate, and emotional contemporary romance. Married to the love of her life and raising four children, she lives in the southwest, drinks a lot of tea, and is always waiting for her cats to get off her keyboard.

 

Connect with Erika

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