Monthly Book Recs | March 2025
Suddenly very into billionaire romances.
I fell a bit behind on reading this past month, so in an effort to maximize my time, I tried to prioritize books I thought had a higher chance of getting a four-star rating from me. In the end, only two of them made the cut. But the good news is I unlocked a new trope I love: billionaire romances. I’ve read a few CEO romances and romances in which the hero is a millionaire, but now I fully understand how adding those three extra digits in his net worth can make the difference between a character quirk and a full-fledged trope. Now that I’ve been enlightened, I’m itching to read more. If you have any billionaire romance recs, please leave a comment!
Summer in the City by Alex Aster
★★★★☆
March 25
Alex is a new-to-me author so I wasn’t tuned into the whole Lightlark drama, and thus went into the novel blind. I was surprised how much and how quickly this book gripped me and didn’t let go! The romance is just so heart-achingly perfect — it made me swoon, it made me agonize, it made me not want to read the ending because I just wanted to stay inside the story forever. I didn’t realize until I read this book that there is a very specific alchemy of characteristics my perfect love interest needs to have, and this hero checks all the boxes: a Darcy-esque, high-powered CEO who’s a tad introverted, a lot private, and will move mountains just to see the heroine crack a smile. I couldn’t put this one down and couldn’t stop thinking about it.
I’ll take a Goodreads reviewer’s word for it when they said “It’s not a billionaire romance if it’s not a little bit ridiculous.” The story starts when a budding screenwriter shares an electric moment with a stranger in a nightclub — only to realize he’s the successful CEO of a tech company and exactly the type of person she’s spent her life hating. Two years later, they meet again, this time as temporary neighbors for the summer, and just like that night, they can’t seem to stay away from each other. Instead of fighting it, they strike a pact to help each other out for the next few months, her with his public image, him with her latest screenplay. There is a tiny hint of Elizabeth and Darcy vibes here, with all her judgement and all his helpless grand gestures. My advice: ignore the more unrealistic details of the plot (the fact that she becomes a successful screenwriter while still in college… the fact that he doesn’t know her last name for half the book…) and focus on the romance.
Story of My Life by Lucy Score
★★★★☆
March 11
Lucy strikes again with another feel-good, small-town romance — the first in a new series revolving around a family of brothers. I might be the only reader of hers to say this, but Lucy’s small-town series aren’t my favorites. I much prefer her standalone novels, but that’s because I’m generally not a person who loves books connected in a literary universe (definitely a topic I want to explore in depth soon). That being said, this book delivered exactly what I come to Lucy for: laughter, low-stakes plot, charming side characters, and general merriment. You know exactly what you get from Lucy and her consistency alone deserves four stars. It’s an easy, escapist read to turn to when you want to give your brain a break.
A recently divorced and dejected romance novelist hits rock bottom and decides to purchase a historical house sight unseen in a small Pennsylvania town where she hopes to start over. After all, if her fictional heroines can thrive in small towns, she can too, right? Unfortunately, it only takes the first day in her new hometown for her to realize the house is crumbling and her new townsfolk hate her — no one more than the contractor she’s forced to hire to renovate the house. But inspiration is everywhere she looks, and before she knows it, she’s writing a new book not-so-secretly based on the people around her. The meta plot certainly injects some humor into the story and pokes a bit of fun at the cheesy dialogue and predictable story arcs of romance novels — like when the alpha hero utters something ridiculous that the heroine acknowledges as ridiculous while at the same time frantically jotting down to include in her manuscript later.
I really, really wanted to like Unlikely Story. I’ve enjoyed Ali Rosen’s previous books (Recipe for Second Chances is cute!), so I was surprised when after the first 30 pages, I felt compelled to set the book aside to revisit later, perhaps in a different head space. Revisiting it didn’t make it better. While the writing is respectably good, the pacing is too slow for my liking, without evoking a strong enough emotional reaction to keep me engaged.
Code Word Romance is a fun action romance that I rated 3.5 stars. The writing is good, it’s decently entertaining, and it’s a quick read. However, I didn’t feel invested in the characters and felt like the action didn’t really kick in until the very end when I was expecting the story to wrap up. The prologue teases a car chase scene, and it’s not a great sign when you get to the second to last chapter and the scene still hasn’t played out.
I thought campy werewolf romance Fan Service would be a good time, but unfortunately it didn’t wow me. There are some fun moments in the plot, the hero makes some hilarious remarks that had me laughing out loud, and I appreciate that there’s no insta-love (for once the skeptical hero needs to warm up to the heroine), but I ultimately felt like the story dragged, especially with chemistry that feels manufactured at times. I might be in the minority with this one, though — the rating is high on Goodreads!