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It’s no secret that I love life. And Dr Pepper. But also, I love a challenge. . . So when the coach of the Chicago Comets gives me the opportunity to help their star player, newly traded to their team, acclimate to life in Chicago, I’m all in. I have to be. After my last job went up in flames, I have something to prove.

It turns out that the player, Grayson Hawke, is the rudest, most off-putting, reclusive guy I’ve ever met. It also turns out that he is the beautiful stranger I kissed on New Year’s Eve.

I can do this job. I can do this job. I can do this job.

And I can. Really well. I can make Gray’s life easier, show him all the reasons to fall in love with this city, and in the process, hopefully completely forget that the amazing kiss ever happened. How hard can it be? We’re total opposites anyway.

I love people . . . and all their stories. Gray loves hockey . . . and nothing else. I love to talk. Gray only stares. I’m happy-go-lucky. Gray’s all work and no play.

There’s just one problem. The more time I spend with Grayson Hawke, the more I start to see that underneath his bristly, standoffish exterior, he’s nothing like the man everyone thinks he is. And suddenly, all the reasons for keeping my distance, staying professional, and not falling for someone again. . . are impossible to remember.

The first two Courtney Walsh books I read were pretty serious, so I was surprised to get a rom-com from her. But I’m a sucker for grumpy/sunshine AND hockey, so I was excited to read it.

This book is everything you want in a rom-com: easy to read, light hearted, sweet, and swoony. The only thing that would have made it perfect is a little more tension beyond “we can’t; we work together. ” Still, it was a delight to read.

If you like Gracie Ruth Mitchell or Jenny Proctor, you’ll like this book.

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For more rom-coms, check out:

The Accidental Text by Becky Monson
The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter

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Are you tired of falling into frustrating relational patterns in your marriage? Do you and your spouse fight about the same things again and again?

Relationship experts Milan and Kay Yerkovich explain why the ways you and your spouse relate to each other go back to before you even met. Drawing on the powerful tool of attachment theory, Milan and Kay explore how your childhood created an “intimacy imprint” that affects your marriage today. Their stories and practical ideas help you:

* identify your personal love style
* understand how your early life impacts you and your spouse
* break free from painful patterns that keep you stuck
* find healing for the source of conflict, not just the symptoms
* create the close, nourishing relationship you dream about

Revised throughout with all-new material and additional visual diagrams, this expanded edition of How We Love will bring vibrant life to your marriage. Are you ready for a new journey of love?

A friend recommended this book when she was trying to help me navigate an issue in my marriage. I’d never heard of attachment styles before, so it was a new topic for me.

I love the opening comparison–that marriage is often two people trying to dance together, but they’re each doing a different dance because they were taught different things about what love looks like and how it acts. The authors describe five common attachment types, then show what it might look like if each of those type married someone of a different type.

This goes deeper than simply showing or telling a person you love them; it’s understanding how and why they interpret your actions (even when your actions are benign). It was fascinating to read the possibilities (and odd to recognize myself and my spouse in two of the types!).

The book also includes steps for learning how to adapt and support your spouse and his/her attachment type. It was a bit annoying that several parts ended with “get the workbook for more info,” but I feel like the book gave enough info that it could help readers who don’t buy the companion.

Very interesting. Easy to read. I’ll definitely recommend it.

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For more books for marriage, check out The Power of a Praying Wife by Stormie Omartian.

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Who are you when you are forced to walk in someone else’s shoes?

Nisha Cantor lives the globetrotting life of the seriously wealthy, until her husband announces a divorce and cuts her off. Nisha is determined to hang onto her glamorous life. But in the meantime, she must scramble to cope–she doesn’t even have the shoes she was, until a moment ago, standing in.

That’s because Sam Kemp – in the bleakest point of her life – has accidentally taken Nisha’s gym bag. But Sam hardly has time to worry about a lost gym bag–she’s struggling to keep herself and her family afloat. When she tries on Nisha’s six-inch high Christian Louboutin red crocodile shoes, the resulting jolt of confidence that makes her realize something must change—and that thing is herself.

Full of Jojo Moyes’ signature humor, brilliant storytelling, and warmth, Someone Else’s Shoes is a story about how just one little thing can suddenly change everything.

2.5 stars out of 5

I LOVED “Giver of the Stars” by Jojo Moyes, so I was excited to read another of her books. For that reason, I gave this book 120 pages before I stopped reading and started skimming pages.

I like the idea behind this book, but it wasn’t pulled off in a way that engaged me. The book opens with a lot of repetition and it doesn’t move anywhere quickly. After 120 pages, not much had happened so I started skimming chapters. (It also annoyed me that Nisha was supposed to be American but used so much British slang.)

I think the story idea has merit, but the execution didn’t work for me.

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For feel-good women’s fiction, check out:

The Good Part by Sophie Cousens
The Way Home by Heidi Chiavaroli

What if the thing Jesus wants most from you isn’t your effort, but your company?

You love Jesus. You read your Bible, you pray, you serve, you show up. And yet underneath all of it, there is a sense that you’re doing so much for Him that you’ve somehow missed being with Him.

You’re not imagining it. There is an enemy who knows he can’t talk you out of your faith, so he settles for keeping you so busy doing things for Jesus that you never actually sit down with Him. Activity becomes a substitute for intimacy. The to-do list grows. The relationship thins.

But Jesus never asked you to produce your way into His presence. On the night before the cross, He talked about a vine and its branches and offered an invitation: Abide in me. Stay close, the way friends keep company with one another.

In these pages, you’ll discover:

• What it truly means to “abide” in Christ
• How being captivated by Jesus changes your whole perspective
• Simple, sustainable practices that create space for real connection with Jesus
• How to remain rooted when life gets hard, dry, or disorienting

This is not a new program or a heavier load. It’s permission to lay the striving down and rediscover the One who has been waiting for your company all along.

Who should read this book?
The person who’s been a Christian for years and doesn’t feel the peace and love they read about in Scripture.
The new Christian who wants to jump right into relationship without wasting years in religion.
Any Christian who’s ever thought that there must be more to Christianity than just going to church and reading their Bible.

Well written and easy to read, Hoy’s book challenges the reader to pursue more than just a passing knowledge of Jesus. She encourages them to desire more, then gives them questions and suggestions to help them figure out how to get there.

A great resource for anyone who’s ever felt like there should be more to their relationship with Jesus, but they weren’t sure how to find it.

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For more spiritual growth books, check out:

Telling Yourself the Truth by William Backus and Marie Chapain
Beauty in the Wilderness by Lindsey Weber

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Dragons are common in the backwater kingdom of Bellemontagne, coming in sizes from mouselike vermin all the way up to the fabled Kings, which haven’t been seen in an age. Gaius Aurelius Constantine Heliogabalus Thrax (who would much rather people call him Robert) has recently inherited his deceased father’s job as a dragon exterminator, a career he detests with all his heart. Things turn from bad to worse when Robert is hired by the royal family to disinfest the entire castle, as Princess Cerise is determined to receive Crown Prince Reginald with the shabby château looking its best.

What happens next is not the fairy tale you may be expecting.

A slice-of-life cozy fantasy, this isn’t high adventure or pace-breaking fiction–it’s a look at a young man’s life and struggles.

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book, but I found it delightful. The author just jumps into the story as if the reader will understand everything about life with dragons, and I loved the immediate immersion into the world. I also loved the sly snarkiness throughout the book.

There’s quite a bit of adventure in the story, but that’s not the main focus. There’s some romance (lots of princes trying to woo a princess), but that’s not the focus either. The focus is Robert and how he is living life verses how he wants to live it.

My one complaint is that it did end too abruptly for me–I would have liked to see more of how Robert accepts and lives with his developing role with dragons. Instead, he discovers new things about dragons, then the story ends. It could definitely have used another chapter or epilogue to show more of that.

Overall, a fun read. Kind of YA, but there’s a little more swearing than you’d expect in YA.

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For more YA fantasy, check out:

Lament by Laura L. Zimmerman
Head Over Tails by Brianna Tibbets