The Wife He Let take The Fall by Romy Venn

Posted October 9, 2026 by Marsha in Booksprout ARC, Contemporary Romance, Kindle Unlimited, Marriage In Crisis Romance, Series, Sexual Content / 0 Comments

Her husband ignores her warning and opens their newest luxury hotel anyway. The launch is a public disaster. And he lets his wife take the fall for his decision.

For fifteen years, Laurel Weller has built a luxury-hotel empire beside her billionaire husband, Julian. She is his cofounder and the woman who has spent their entire marriage turning his impossible ambitions into reality.

She agreed to take the blame for one disastrous opening. She never agreed to let that one sacrifice become the story of her entire career.

Months later, Laurel has been publicly disgraced, erased from the company she helped build, and replaced by a new female executive who has become Julian’s right hand.

Julian is still the brilliant billionaire founder.

And Laurel is the failure everyone believes he had to replace.

She’s done.

Done protecting him. Done watching another woman step into the role Laurel spent fifteen years building. Done being privately loved by a husband who was willing to let her be publicly erased.

By the time Julian finally realizes exactly what he has lost, Laurel is already building a life without him.

And if he wants his wife back, apologies won’t be enough.

Titles in The Husbands Who Lost Them series include: The Wife He Thought Would Understand ~ The Wife He Kept Waiting ~ The Wife He Didn’t Believe ~ The Wife He Let Take the Fall ~

This story may contain language, violence, and/or sexual situations intended for an adult 18+ audience.

Cocoa Cottage at Peppermint Falls by Liv Hollis

Posted October 8, 2026 by Marsha in Booksprout ARC, Christmas Romance, Closed Doors/ Fade to Black, Contemporary Romance, Holiday Romance, No Spice Romance, Series, Small Town Romance / 0 Comments

She came home to start over. Falling for Cal Mercer was not on the menu.

Rachel Ashby expected Christmas in Peppermint Falls to be temporary. She never expected to find the first thing she’d wanted for herself in years.

Now Cocoa Cottage is hers, and Rachel has a plan: turn her love of baking into something of her own.

Then the oven dies.

The only kitchen she can use belongs to Cal Mercer—the infuriating owner of the Cocoa Café and the man Rachel has spent years blaming for taking the future they once planned to build together.

Cal remembers things differently.

But with New Year’s approaching, he’s suddenly short a baker. Rachel needs his kitchen. Cal needs her help. One reluctant bargain means spending every night side by side, arguing over recipes, competing over pastries, and discovering the chemistry between them has nothing to do with baking.

As old resentment gives way to something neither expected, Rachel must decide whether being needed is enough—or whether she’s finally ready to choose what she wants.

Even if what she wants is him.

Titles in the Peppermint Falls series include: Mistletoe Cottage ~ Cocoa Cottage ~ Peppermint Cottage ~

This is a no-spice romance, perhaps with closed-door or fade-to-black scenes. Tension and kisses might be involved.

Marriage In Crisis Romance Genre

Posted October 8, 2026 by Marsha in Discussion Post / 0 Comments

I’m noticing a new trend lately… Marriage-in-crisis-style romance novels. Some have extremely long titles (not a huge fan of that, I’ll admit), but the story inside will always draw my attention to where it belongs.

I’ve read a few so far, some ARCs, some from Kindle Unlimited. Most have been well-written stories that show the pain that, well, indifference or being taken for granted can inflict on either partner in any marriage. Often, they involve extreme groveling or a “see the light” moment where change is the only way to save a marriage. It’s nitpicking, I know, but I’m really not thrilled with the sentence-long titles. I’m just not, but I’m ignoring that and focusing on what’s inside.

Have you tried any Marriage-in-crisis romances? What’s your opinion? I’d love to know what you think.

Code Blue Christmas by Jillian David

Posted October 6, 2026 by Marsha in Booksprout ARC, Christmas Romance, Contemporary Romance, Series, Sexual Content, Small Town Romance, Tule Publishing / 0 Comments

One injured sled dog. One old grudge. One Christmas snowstorm that turns Yukon Valley into a matchmaking minefield.

Reggie Price runs on precision because it keeps Yukon Valley Hospital’s lab humming and his sled dog team on track for the North Pole 500. With the Iditarod qualifier three weeks away, he can’t afford distractions.

Then his lead dog limps into Katz Veterinary Clinic—and bolts straight into Dr. April Katz.

April is all twinkle lights and holiday cheer this Christmas. She’s also juggling a father who thinks responsibility is a love language, a career decision she keeps punting, and the inconvenient fact that Reggie still pushes her buttons.

The town’s matchmaking network declares them a holiday project. A community festival throws them together. And a whiteout strands April at Reggie’s cabin—with a sputtering generator, a crackling fire, and one too-tempting bed.

Then race day comes, and with his dogs’ health and a promise to his brother on the line, Reggie and April must risk the thing they both cling to most: control.

Titles in the Yukon Valley, Alaska Hospital series include: Dr. Alaska ~ Paging Dr. Breakup ~ Five Alarm Love ~ Code Blue Christmas ~

This story may contain language, violence, and/or sexual situations intended for an adult 18+ audience.

Halloween at the Bear’s Den by Thea Shaw

Posted October 6, 2026 by Marsha in Booksprout ARC, Contemporary Romance, Kindle Unlimited, Series, Sexual Content, Small Town Romance / 0 Comments

“Ten years I’ve kept every secret in Grizzlyclaw, hon. Yours is the one I hung under the bell.”

One year ago, on the worst night of her life, Nora Calloway drove 200 miles from Anchorage and stopped at the only lit door in Grizzlyclaw, Alaska. Her fiancé had just sold her restaurant out from under her. Her grandmother’s recipes went with it.

A bartender poured her a whiskey on the house, ran off to the drunk two stools down, and told her she’d keep. She left before last call. She left her grandmother’s jacket on the stool.

This Halloween she’s back to settle the tab and take the jacket home. Ten minutes, in and out.

She hadn’t planned on Booker Whitlow.

Big, quiet, and grumpy as a locked door. Army, two tours. Single dad. Ten years behind the bar at The Bear’s Den, the saloon on the corner of Main and Ridge Road where every hard night in Grizzlyclaw gets poured. He’s kept the whole town’s stories, heard every Hollister brother fall across that wood, and never once told his own.

Now his cook has quit five days before the Grizzlyclaw Halloween Festival, and on Saturday the whole town eats out of his kitchen. So he gives her the week. The warm room over the kitchen. Cash. Done by Halloween. Her coffee hits the bar before she orders it. His flannel ends up around her shoulders. His solemn eight-year-old slides her a coaster like a deed.

But she has a start date in Anchorage. And Grizzlyclaw has had about enough of both of them. Mae Hollister is done waiting for him to pull the rope. Posey Hollister will trade cherries for a yes. Beth Proctor is sending day-olds “for the boy,” and Sheriff Vasquez has noticed whose truck is backed in nose-out.

She came to Grizzlyclaw to settle a tab. He’s going to make her the whole ledger.

Titles in the Grizzlyclaw Brothers series include: The Mountain Man’s Blueprint ~ Towed by the Mountain Man ~ The Mountain Man’s Lodge ~ The Mountain Man’s Inspector ~ The Mountain Man’s Lesson ~ The Mountain Man’s Last Vow ~~ (related to series) ~ Halloween at the Bear’s Den ~

This story may contain language, violence, and/or sexual situations intended for an adult 18+ audience.

Before the Bell by Mara Webb

Posted October 5, 2026 by Marsha in Booksprout ARC, Cozy Mystery, Mystery, No Spice Romance, Paranormal Cozy Mystery, Series / 0 Comments

A locked door, a hidden tower, and a cat who happened to be watching. The guild couldn’t have picked a worse witness to overlook.

Monty lives a simple life. He sunbathes, catches mice, and minds his own business. He’s been doing it for centuries, so naturally he’s perfected it. When something threatens to disturb his peace, he’s determined to ignore it, but ultimately his curiosity takes over…

Then someone in a cloak opens a door that’s stayed shut for generations. Monty follows before anyone thinks to check for a shadow at their heels.

It’s probably nothing. Whatever is going on behind the door in the secret space he’s discovered is someone else’s problem. The incantations could be meaningless. The runes on the ground might always glow like that. He notices a tray of moonstones is missing, but they’ll show up. Probably.

Then the magic in the air starts to sputter. It’s failing. Something inside the tower is coming undone, and for once, Monty can’t pretend not to notice.

He should tell somebody. But most of the witches he knows wouldn’t believe a word out of his mouth — and by the time they might, it could already be too late.

Before the Bell is a prequel novella to The Wicked Witches of Whisperwood series, narrated by its least cooperative, least reliable, most immortal witness.

Titles in The Wicked Witches of Whisperwood series include: Before the Bell (prequel) ~ A Whisper of Witchcraft ~

This is a no-spice, Paranormal Cozy Mystery.

Stop Showing Me Off Like a Trophy by Roselin Brown

Posted October 3, 2026 by Marsha in Booksprout ARC, Contemporary Romance, No Spice Romance, Series / 0 Comments

“You like the attention, right?” my husband said. I almost laughed. Six years, and he still didn’t know me at all.

BARBARA

Every Thanksgiving for six years, I got it right. Down to the last detail. And on the last one, I watched him comfort his high school sweetheart instead of me. That was the night he called it “attention.”

I used to think it was one bad night that broke us. It wasn’t. It was six years of small cracks, and he just happened to be standing there when the whole thing finally came down.

I told myself it was love — burned hands, shelved dreams, and a little less of me every year so he could shine. He paraded me like his best asset. He never once called me his equal.

Now I’m done playing the supporting cast in my own life.

NOLAN

I was wrong. It just took me far too long to see it. I called myself her partner — and left her to fight alone. I called myself her provider — and never saw what it cost her.

I called myself faithful — and never noticed the line I was standing on. It took another man buying her painting — a stranger who saw her before I ever did — to finally wake me up.

Whatever it costs me, I will fix what I broke. I will become the man worth coming back to.

Titles in the Begging for a Second Chance series include: If You Forget Me ~ Talk to Me ~ Stop Taking Me for Granted ~ Stop Treating Me Like a Footnote ~ Stop Showing Me Off Like a Trophy ~

This is a no-spice romance, perhaps with closed-door or fade-to-black scenes. Tension and kisses might be involved.

The Two of Us by Lori Foster & Maisey Yates

Posted October 3, 2026 by Marsha in Contemporary Romance, Kensington Books, Kindle Unlimited, Series/Duet, Sexual Content, Small Town Romance / 0 Comments

Nothing beats the unconditional love of a rescue dog or their ability to bring people together.

The Odd Couple * LORI FOSTER
Ford Caruso agrees to an unusual favor—playing the part of new boyfriend for his adamantly single, irresistibly sexy neighbor Skye Fairchild, whose clueless ex refuses to accept his fate. But as Skye starts dropping by to use Ford’s pool, and even plan dates, the charade begins to feel satisfyingly real, complete with choosing rescue dogs together—a giant mutt and a fierce little chihuahua who adore each other. From one odd couple to another, some things are destined…

Force of Nature * MAISEY YATES
Rescuing animals is in Lydia Clay’s blood, so when a mournful old cattle dog named Hank shows up at the shelter, she knows exactly where to take him: to cattle rancher Remington Lane, her brother’s hot, and usually grumpy, best friend. Hank belonged to Remy’s estranged father, which is one strike against him, but when Lydia offers to help the man ease into dog ownership, he can’t say no. And as he and Lydia work together, it looks like an old dog can actually teach this brooding cattleman some heart-warming new tricks…

~Standalone 2-1 novel~

This story may contain language, violence, and/or sexual situations intended for an adult 18+ audience.

The Fixer’s Confession by Stephie Rose

Posted October 1, 2026 by Marsha in Booksprout ARC, Contemporary Romance, Kindle Unlimited, Series, Sexual Content / 0 Comments

He was hired to bury my story. He moved me into his house instead.

Eight weeks in a Beacon Hill townhouse with a locked door on the fourth floor. One truth a night, at nine, in the kitchen under the street. He picks which one.

I’m an investigative reporter, and Ronan Doyle is the man who buries stories like mine. He ruined four people this month, and nobody in this city can tell you where he was standing.

I came here to take him apart.

By the second week, I was going down those stairs early, sitting close enough to feel the heat coming off him. He’d stand on the other side of that counter with his sleeves shoved up and tell me things nobody living had heard, then look at my mouth about a second too long and send me up to bed.

Night twenty-eight, he didn’t send me to bed.
He came around the counter and took me up to his.

He told me he was in love with me, and I said it back before he’d finished the sentence, because that man has never lied to me.

Then he answered a question I should never have asked.

Now I have four thousand words that will end him, every one of them out of his own mouth.

And there’s no version of this where I keep the story and keep him.

Titles in the Devils We Keep series include: The Fixer’s Confession ~

This story may contain language, violence, and/or sexual situations intended for an adult 18+ audience.

Mistletoe Cottage at Peppermint Falls by Liv Hollis

Posted October 1, 2026 by Marsha in Booksprout ARC, Christmas Romance, Closed Doors/ Fade to Black, Contemporary Romance, Kindle Unlimited, No Spice Romance, Second Chance Romance, Series, Small Town Romance / 0 Comments

Merritt Ashby came home to Peppermint Falls for one last Christmas. She has no intention of staying.

At fifty, newly divorced and facing an empty nest, Merritt has a plan: restore the Vermont cottage her grandmother left her, sell it as soon as the will allows, and get back to her life in Hartford.

Then she finds Nate Holloway standing in the driveway.

Nate was Merritt’s first love—the man she left behind when she chose a future outside their tiny hometown. Now he’s fifty-one, frustratingly handsome, and the contractor her grandmother secretly hired before she died to restore the family’s three Christmas cottages.

Nan left one final condition: the cottages must be made whole before Merritt or her sisters can sell. Which means spending the weeks before Christmas repairing Mistletoe Cottage alongside the one man Merritt has spent three decades trying not to remember.

But as Christmas draws closer, old traditions return, and Mistletoe Cottage begins to feel like home again. She came home planning to sell a cottage and return to Hartford. Instead, she may have found the one thing she never expected—a reason to stay.

Titles in the Peppermint Falls series include: Mistletoe Cottage ~ Cocoa Cottage ~ Peppermint Cottage ~

This is a no-spice romance, perhaps with closed-door or fade-to-black scenes. Tension and kisses might be involved.