Category: Top Ten Tuesday

Top Ten Novels Featuring the Fauxmance Trope

Posted March 10, 2025 by Jana in Top Ten Tuesday / 16 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic was submitted by Alice @ The Wallflower Digest and is: Books that Include/Feature [insert your favorite theme or plot device here]. Examples include unreliable narrators, coming of age, darkness vs. light, time travel, metafiction, a specific romantic trope, good vs. evil. cliffhangers, flashbacks, plot twists, red herrings, loose ends, stories within stories, meet cutes, symbolism, etc. You know me, I love romance novels! I’ve decided to share ten of my favorite romance novels featuring my favorite trope: the fauxmance. What’s a fauxmance, you say? Fake romance! This means fake dating, fake engagement/courtship, and fake marriage. You’ll probably notice that some of these titles are frequently mentioned in my TTT lists, but that’s because they’re some of my favorite books of all time! Books with asterisks after them indicate that the romances are closed-door. Here we go!

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
A Week to be Wicked by Tessa Dare
I Temporarily Do by Ellie Cahill
Date Me Like You Mean It by R.S. Grey
The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood
Lovelight Farms by B.K. Borison
The Cheat Sheet by Sarah Adams*
Faking Christmas by Cindy Steel*
My Phony Valentine by Courtney Walsh*
First to Fall by Jenny B. Jones*


Top Ten Funny Things Book Characters Have Said

Posted March 3, 2025 by Jana in Top Ten Tuesday / 10 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic is about things that book characters have said. Maybe a character said something really profound or romantic or hilarious or heartbreaking. You could share witty one-liners, mic-drop moments, snippets of funny dialogue between multiple characters, catchphrases, quotes that have become a part of pop culture–like “May the odds be ever in your favor.”, etc. I’ve decided to go with funny things! Some of them are conversations and some are just funny one-liners.

1. “There’s no such thing as an old maid.”
“Wh-what would you call a middle-aged lady who’s never married?”
“A woman with standards?”
― Lisa Kleypas, Chasing Cassandra

2. “Did you . . . Did you just kiss me?” He sounded puzzled, and maybe a little out of breath. His lips were full and plump and . . . Kissed. There was simply no way Olive could get away with denying what she had just done.
Still, it was worth a try.
“Nope.”
Surprisingly, it seemed to work.
“Ah. Okay, then.” Carlsen nodded and turned around, looking vaguely disoriented. He took a couple of steps down the hallway, reached the water fountain—maybe where he’d been headed in the first place.
Olive was starting to believe that she might actually be off the hook when he halted and turned back with a skeptical expression.
“Are you sure?”
― Ali Hazelwood, The Love Hypothesis

3. “She laid a row of cushions down the center of the bed, carefully dividing it into two sides: His, and hers.
“Is that truly supposed to stop me?” He fell back on the bed, on his side-peering over the pillow wall at her with amusement. “I fully intended to have my wicked way with you. But now there’s this cushion, so…”
She burrowed under the coverlet, drawing it up to her neck.
“Now that you mention it,” he went on, “I dinna know how this strategy escaped Napoleon’s notice. If only he’d erected a barricade of feathers and fabric, we Highlanders wouldna have known how to get over it.”
“I don’t expect the pillows to keep you out,” she said. “They’re merely a guard against anything accidental happening.”
“Ah.” He drew out the syllable. “We canna have any accidental happenings.”
“Exactly. I might roll over in the night, and I know how you feel about cuddling. I should hate to take advantage of you.”
“Minx.”
― Tessa Dare, When a Scot Ties the Knot

4. “Wounded male pride has caused the world more destruction than the Black Death and the Great Flood put together.”
― Tessa Dare, The Wallflower Wager

5. “I have four uniforms, but only one f–ing flight jacket, and I”—punch—“hate”—punch—“sewing!”
― Rebecca Yarros, Onyx Storm

6. “You can count the number of cricket chirps per second to calculate the outside temperature.”
“Unless the outside is on fire,” Caz said. “How fast do they chirp if it’s all on fire?”
― Sarah Beth Durst, The Spellshop

7. “What’s it like having a twin?”
“What’s it’s like not having a twin?” I reply, and he laughs.
“Touché.”
― Christina Lauren, The Unhoneymooners

8. “Google career options for tired girls who still want to afford their nice apartment.”
― Catherine Walsh, Holiday Romance

9. “There may be plenty of fish in the sea, but most of those fish are bottom-dwellers with weird lanterns hanging off the front of their faces.”
― B.K. Borison, Mixed Signals

10. “Technically, I went to bed at 10 pm, but in girl-with-a-Kindle time, it was actually closer to 2 am,”
― Cindy Steel, Faking Christmas

I hope you laughed at some of these!
What’s the funniest book you’ve ever read? I could use some laughs!


Top Ten Books Set in Another Time

Posted February 24, 2025 by Jana in Top Ten Tuesday / 22 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic is “Books Set in Another Time”. These books can be historical, futuristic, alternate universes, time travel, etc. You could also share the titles of books set in other worlds, where timing is not measured by our world’s standards. I was going to narrow this topic down more for my list today, but then I thought it would be fun to have a little of everything! These are some of my favorite books set in another time!

A Week to be Wicked by Tessa Dare
Devil in Winter by Lisa Kleypas
Desert Island Duke by Kate Bateman
Never Blow a Kiss by Lindsay Lovise
The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn
The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin
What the Wind Knows by Amy Harmon
Cinder by Marissa Meyer
Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir
Degrees of Wrong by Anna Scarlett

What’s your favorite book set in another time?
Have you read any of my favorites? If not, I highly recommend them!
See you next month! (How is it that March starts this week??)


Ten Books I Never Had Time to Review

Posted February 17, 2025 by Jana in Top Ten Tuesday / 12 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! Today I’m sharing ten books I never reviewed on my blog and what I thought of them. I did not receive these books for review, which is why I don’t feel bad for deciding to not review them in more detail. Since 2025 is the year of sharing my thoughts on every book I read, regardless of whether I got it for review or not, I thought it would be fun to go back and talk about some of the books I didn’t have time to review in recent years. Things have gotten fuzzy on many of them, so I might only mention my star rating in those cases.

Just Friends Forever by Martha Keyes
I love the friends to lovers trope, and this one was really cute. Troy is very sweet, and even though I don’t usually like the celebrity/famous person character I ended up really liking Stevie as well. Lots of emotions with this one! And I love a closed-door romance that can feel sexy and swoony without the steam. This one did just that!

A Deal with the Elf King by Elise Kova
I saw “Beauty and the Beast” vibes and was immediately intrigued, but the enemies to lovers was just too brutal in this one (namely because it went from hate to love SO fast). I did like the writing style, so I might try this author again someday.

My American Duchess by Eloisa James
I really, really loved this one and it’s the book that made me an Eloisa James fangirl!

The Bridge Kingdom by Danielle L. Jensen
I quickly grew obsessed with this entire series, and binged it all. I’m hoping to start the 5th one soon! I love the audiobooks.

An English Bride in Scotland by Lynsay Sands
I’m not usually one for Highlander romances, but I loooooved this one! It was witty and funny and so romantic. I also really enjoyed the audiobook narration.

Love, Loss, and Pasta Sauce by Stephanie Taylor
I think about this book a lot. Sunday runs off to Italy and buys a major fixer-upper of a home and falls in love with the country and the people. It’s so heartwarming and happy! A true escape. Plus, there’s a segment that takes place at Christmas and I loved it.

The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin
A STUNNING WW2 historical fiction that I adored. I highly recommend the audio, but I also own it in paperback and on Kindle so I’m set for whatever my heart desires when I decide to re-read it. lol.

First to Fall by Jenny B. Jones
Oh my goooooosh this is such a good marriage of convenience closed-door rom-com. I’m obsessed with it.

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn
Another really amazing WW2 book. It’s so exciting and ahhhhh.

A Court of Frost and Starlight by Sarah J. Maas
I feel like I’m in the minority on this one, but I really love this festive novella in the ACOTAR series.

Do you review everything you read, or do you take a break for non-review books?


Top Ten (more) Books with Hearts on the Cover

Posted February 10, 2025 by Jana in List, Top Ten Tuesday / 21 Comments

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic is a love freebie in honor of Valentine’s Day, which is this Friday! Come up with any topic you’d like that falls under the “love” umbrella. I’ve chosen to feature ten more books with hearts on the cover. I did this same topic four years ago (see my post here) and thought it would be fun to do it again! I love hearts. I also did my best to include Valentine’s Day books where I could. I’ve only read one of the books on my list today, so that’s fun! All the rest are on my TBR.

I’m interested to see what topic you came up with this week! I’ll be jumping around the Linky to see what your creative mind has come up with. You never know, I might even steal your topic for a future TTT topic (with credit to you, of course)!

1. Summer in the City by Alex Aster
2. Recipe for Second Chances by Ali Rosen
3. My Phony Valentine by Courtney Walsh (Read and loved this one!)
4. Miss Matched by Wendy Million
5. Valentine’s Day in Venice by Stephanie Taylor
6. Exes and O’s by Amy Lea
7. Dumped for Valentine’s by J. Sterling
8. You Lucky Dog by Julia London
9. Book Smart by Amanda Pennington
10. The Fall Risk by Abby Jimenez

Hope your week is filled with love!

What topic did you come up with for this week?