Tag: Olivia dade

romance, series, Series I love

Romance Series: There’s Something About Marysburg

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Given that the new Willow Creek book came out yesterday, I thought it would make sense to do an if you like that try this type series post today, so I had a think and also took to trawling the “readers also liked” section of goodreads for each book. And a couple of authors kept coming up over and over again – one of which was Olivia Dade and it got me to thinking that although I’ve written about some of her books, one thing I haven’t done is write about her There’s Something About Marysburg series of small town romances.

We have three books here: Teach Me, 40-Love and Sweetest in the Gale. They’re linked together by the fact that they’re linked by the town’s High School. And basically the theme of this series could be: No Stupid Drama. There’s no high stakes/high adrenaline stuff here, just a group of slightly older (as in 30-something or 40 soemthing) characters finding love.

Teach Me is a lovely romance between a newly divorced Dad and the teacher whose world history class he’s unwittingly stolen. Rose has reasons why she doesn’t trust people and why she won’t let people in. Martin has issues around his self worth. But there’s no big misunderstanding that could (should?) be resolved by a simple conversation, it’s all about two people working out if they are right for each other beyond just chemistry, and then starting to negotiate life together. And it’s very, very romantic despite – Dade is proving you don’t necessarily need high stakes drama to make a satisfying romance.

40-Love was a Book of the week back in 2020 and was the first of this series I read (yes I read them out of order as per usual) and that’s about Tess, a feisty assistant principal and Lucas a flirty Swedish tennis pro almost fifteen years younger than her. They start a romance while she’s on holiday at the resort that he works at while he’s coming to terms with the premature end of his career on the pro-tour. But can the two of them breakdown their defences to find out if it could be more than just a holiday fling? I’m not usually an age gap romance person, but Lucas’s years on the tennis tour make him more sensible and mature than your normal late-twentysomething. As I said back then the conflict here entirely about is whether they’re going to work together when they get to know each other and get beyond the (just) the chemistry. Funny, flirty and sexy.

And finally Sweetest in the Gale is three linked novella length romances set in Marysburgh – two in the school, one with an ex-teacher – and three different tropes. There’s a widowed teacher, an opposites attract and a marriage of convenience/friends to lovers. There’s something bittersweet in all of them and I really enjoyed them. So if you want something slightly lower profile than Dade’s Spoiler Alert series, with some small town vibes tht you also get from the Renn Faire books, then these might be your jam.

These are at the pricier end of the Kindle and Kobo range as I write this, but that’s probably the easiest way to find them as I don’t think i’ve ever seen them in stores. But if you do want cheaper Olivia Dade options The Spoiler Alert series and former BotW At First Spite are in Kindle Unlimited at the moment.

Have a great weekend!

Book previews

Out This Week: New Olivia Dade

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By the time you read this, my final* pre-order of the year will have dropped through my front door because Olivia Dade’s Second Chance Romance is out in the world. I ordered this back in March, but I’ve been waiting to see what Karl the Baker’s deal is since I read the first Harlots Bay book At First Spite back in February last year. According to my reading plan, I’m meant to be reading Christmas books this month but there is a fairly high chance that this will be jumping right to the top of my to-read list.

*Unless I’ve forgotten one!

romantic comedy, Series I love

Series I Love: Spoiler Alert

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Happy Friday everyone and I have a romance series for you this week, because all three of these are in Kindle Unlimited at the moment and so now is an ideal time to read them if you haven’t already.

So Olivia Dade’s Spoiler Alert series is three connected romances featuring cast members from a TV show that is somewhat Game of Thrones inspired. God of the Gates has been wildly popular but some of the actors (and the fans!) aren’t happy with the turn that the plots have taken. In Spoiler Alert, one of the stars is taking out his frustration with that by anonymously writing fan fiction, which is how he meets April although of course she doesn’t know who he really is. Then – both unknowingly – they meet in real life when Marcus asks April out after one of her fan costumes goes viral because she is plus size. When they start dating, he realises who she is and how is he going to detangle that one. All the Feels was a BotW, so there’s a full review of that already but it sees Alex assigned a minder by the show runners to keep him out of trouble until the final season airs. And Shipwrecked finds two actors who had a one night stand who find themselves co-stars and stuck filming together on a remote island for the duration of the series (because their characters are shipwrecked there) and so really need to not do anything that could end up in them hating each other and still having to work together. But when the series ends, they finally give in – but the trouble is they both have very different plans for the future.

You don’t really need to read these in order – but they do all take place at basically the same time (or at least parts of them take place at the same time) which makes for a really fun experience if you do read them all even if not in the proper order. Olivia Dade writes rom coms – these are funny as well as sexy and I like her characters who aren’t cookie cutter romances heroes and heroines. She was one of the first romance authors who I read who was regularly writing plus sized heroines or slightly older couples, by which at this point I mean in their 30s or up*, and I appreciate that too. I think I’ve re-read the first two twice each now – and probably the only reason I haven’t re-read Shipwrecked is because I own it in paperback so it’s not handy on my Kindle in the same way. They make great sunlounger books, so if you’re planning a late summer trip, these might be a good choice for you.

These are available in paperback as well as on Kindle Unlimited, and surprisingly given they are in KU at the moment, they are still on Kobo, although they are somewhat pricey there and they aren’t linked together as a series, so here is Spoiler Alert, All The Feels and Shipwrecked over there too.

*which given the amount of romances that have early 20s or college age characters at the moment is very welcome to me. New Adult seems to have subsumed the who genre.

previews

Out this week: New Olivia Dade

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The third book in Olivia Dade’s Spoiler Alert series came out on Tuesday so I couldn’t help myself but post about it. I wrote about All The Feels last year and I can’t remember why I didn’t make Spoiler Alert book of the week, although I did also write about 40-Love so that might be why. Anyway this is a story about two actors who had a one night stand and then end up working together on a fantasy TV show (think Game of Thrones) for six years. But one the last night of filming that one night stand thing happens again and this time he doesn’t want to let her go. And that’s all I know – because my copy is a hard copy and it’s arrived at home after I have left for nights away. But we all know what I’m going to be reading when I get home later in the week. And the only reason I’m not reading the kindle sample in the mean time is because I know it’ll annoy me that I can’t carry on reading – and I really can’t justify buying the kindle edition when I have the paperback at home!