Welcome to another TTT! How is it March already!? We’re coming up on a year of COVID, which feels like it began both yesterday and 35 years ago. What is time right now?

Anyway, this week’s topic is Characters Whose Jobs I Wish I Had. This could seriously be spun in any direction, so I hope people get really creative with this! Maybe you want to be a Duchess because of a historical romance you read and loved. Maybe you want to be a guardian of gifted, magical children or a pirate or a rock star. Maybe you want to be someone’s cool co-worker or the enemy of that hot guy in marketing in the enemies-to-lovers workplace romance you just finished. Or perhaps you read a memoir that mentioned a cool sounding job. Whatever the case may be, forgot about working from home and masking up and being socially distanced and pick some fun jobs or workplace environments you’ve read about and would like to become a part of.

1. Bailey, Dr. Russell’s surgical assistant (from Hotshot Doc by R.S. Grey)
Dr. Russell is a dreamboat, so…

2. Heidi, the receptionist at an audiobook recording company (from Heidi’s Guide to Four Letter Words by Tara Sivec and Andi Arndt)
Bookish environment, celebrity narrator encounters, free reading material, and tons of really cool workplace stories to share with friends? Yes.

3. Liv, amateur documentary director and Atlantis hunter (from Love & Olives by Jenna Evans Welch)
I don’t think this needs much of an explanation, but I’d be happy exploring Greece and looking for Atlantis, all while dressing people up, staging scenes, and falling in love with the cameraman.

4. Henley, cruise line marketing manager (from Shipped by Angie Hockman)
Yes, I’ll go on a cruise of the Galapagos in order to find inspiration to develop a new campaign for the company and hopefully get a promotion, boss. Even if it means I have to work alongside a smokin’ hot social media manager fighting for that same promotion.

5. Stacey, Renaissance Faire actress (from Well Played by Jen DeLuca)
Renn Faire sounds like so much fun, but to dress up in period clothing and play a role? Yes. Plus, I’d get to fall in love with a man in a kilt which is really not a bad thing, in my opinion.

6. Angel, chef at a research station in Antarctica (from Whiteout by Adriana Anders)
I’m solely interested in this job because I’d love to go to Antarctica! And think of the people she met and the things she learned!

7. Victoria, scientist aboard a research vessel in the Mariana Trench (from Into the Drowning Deep by Mira Grant)
I can’t say I’m excited about the idea of going on a voyage where imminent death by murder mermaids is what I’m looking for in my life, but I would like to go on a ship to visit this location and learn about the sea life there. It just sounds so interesting.

8. Nani the travel blogger (from Christmas at Frozen Falls by Kiley Dunbar)
I just want to travel, ok? I want people to pay me to travel and write about it. Ideal job right there. THAT’S the dream.

9. Maddie, owner of adorable book store (from Dating By the Book by Mary Ann Marlowe)
I love book stores, and owning one sounds amazing. I’d love to talk books with people, host fun events, and flirt with the cute regulars.

10. Gracie, jewelry designer in NYC (from The Gem Thief by Sian Ann Bessey)
What a cool job!! AND when a beautiful piece she designed was replaced with a forgery, she has to go on a mission with her rich client and that rich client’s sexy FBI agent grandson to solve the mystery. She gets an all-expenses paid vacation around the Mediterranean! What a hard job… I’ll take it.

Which jobs have you read about in books and wish you had?

 

Welcome to another TTT! And thank you to Claire @ Book Lovers Pizza for suggesting this fun topic! I love books that make me laugh, so this topic is right up my alley. It should surprise no one that my books are all romances… because it’s not even worth reading a book unless there’s romance in it (except I do love mystery/thriller, but those are rarely funny).

Twice Shy and You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle
Sarah’s kind of humor is my kind of humor. Just follow her on Twitter and you’ll get a taste of it, but both of these books have so much heart and had me laughing so, so much. Maybell in Twice Shy has some of the best inner monologues. She’s so funny. And the relationship is YDEO is full of hilarious sabotage and shenanigans. Both books have such deep concepts as well, so they’re well rounded and wonderful.

Hotshot Doc by R.S. Grey
Josie is the young teen sister of the heroine. I don’t think I have ever loved a kid in a book more. She is so, so funny. She sees and hears everything, and she really loves her sister. Her relationship with Matt is so cute. One night, he stays over at their place because the weather is bad and he can’t drive home. He sleeps on the couch, and Josie is so concerned that he’s going to have to go to bed without a book to read that she forces The Hunger Games on him.

Call Me Maybe by Cara Bastone
This is on audiobook only, and I loved it! The narrators used the best tones of voices to convey humor and sarcasm, so I laughed even easier than I would have if I’d just read it. Vera is a character, too. She’s so funny and kind of dramatic.

Heidi’s Guide to Four Letter Words by Tara Sivec & Andi Arndt
Heidi is hilarious. She’s super awkward, and would rather roll into the bushes and hide after falling than just get up and face her hot neighbor… which is what she does. And when she tries to read a sexy scene in a book? Gold.

The Christmas Pact by Vi Keeland & Penelope Ward
This was such a fun listen! I love a good fauxmance (as you know), and this one was delightful. The two main characters share a name, but in reverse. He’s Kennedy Riley, and she’s Riley Kennedy. They also work for the same company, and keep getting each other’s emails. She politely forwards his along, but he gets nosey and reads them all… and then forwards them along with his comments/thoughts/musings. I just loved it.

The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare
It actually really surprises me that I didn’t review this one, because I had so many happy feelings from it! I loved our animal-loving heroine and our hero who is reluctant to admit he’s got a soft, squishy core. It was also so funny. Tessa really hit it out of the park with this one!

The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
I absolutely could not ever leave CLo out of a topic like this one. After the entire wedding party except Olive and Ethan gets food poisoning and there’s still a non-refundable honeymoon to go on… why shouldn’t they go together? A free trip to Hawaii is worth putting up with your enemy, right? Watching these two people who really hate each other pretending to be newlyweds is so much fun.

Save the Date by Morgan Matson
The family in this book is so, so funny. And oh my, everything that could possibly go wrong for this wedding pretty much does! It’s hilarious, if not a little unbelievable how unlucky this family is! There’s a suit mix-up, electrical problems, gardening problems, and more. There’s so much going on at once that I found myself tearing through the pages to figure out how each issue was resolved. Honestly, this book would make such an amazingly fun and funny movie.

The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
I was bound to mention this one. It’s perfect and hilarious and swoony and deep. All the things I love.

What books have made you laugh out loud?
And if you have any romancey funny books, tell me!
I need more rom-coms and funny characters in my life.

Happy Mardi Gras (or maybe where you live it’s called Carnival)! Today is Mardi Gras in the USA, and since I used to live in Louisiana as a child I love to think back on the excitement of this holiday. I loved going to parades to catch beads, and I loved getting King Cake at school and hoping to find the little plastic baby in my piece. It was also fun to see all the decorations. Some houses and businesses were decorated with more lights and sparkle than Christmas! Mardi Gras colors are purple, yellow, and green so I thought it would be fun to share books with any/all of those colors on the covers! I tried picking books that had all three, but that got to be way too hard so I’m just going to share a mix of all three. I’ve learned that yellow is a REALLY popular color for book covers right now! Who knew? And surprisingly, I’ve read (and loved) all the yellow books mentioned here and the others are on my TBR.

Well Played by Jen DeLuca
Accidentally Engaged by Farrah Heron
New York, Actually by Sarah Morgan
Gentlemen Prefer Nerds by Joan Kilby
Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory
Love at First by Kate Clayborn
The Unhoneymooners by Christina Lauren
My (Not So) Perfect Life by Sophie Kinsella
New Orleans Rush by Kelly Siskind
Twice Shy by Sarah Hogle

Do you celebrate Mardi Gras/Carnival where you live?
What did you do with this week’s topic?
Have you read any of these books? What did you think?

Welcome to another TTT! This week’s topic is a Valentine’s Day/love freebie! I’m excited to see what you all did with this topic. The possibilities were endless, but I decided to share books from my collection that have hearts on the covers! Some of these books are favorites, and others are on my TBR.

Boomerang by Noelle August (LOVED this.)
Heidi’s Guide to Four Letter Words by Tara Sivec and Andi Arndt (Definitely a favorite!)
Lucky Suit by Lauren Blakely (Super fun, especially on audio.)
The Honey-Don’t List by Christina Lauren (Not my favorite of theirs, but still really enjoyed!)
The Anatomical Shape of a Heart by Jenn Bennett (LOVE Jenn Bennett)
Listen to Your Heart by Kasie West (TBR)
Heart-Shaped Hack by Tracey Garvis Graves (SO good. I need to read the sequel!)
RomeAntically Challenged by Marina Adair (TBR)
By the Book by Amanda Sellet (TBR)
Unbreak My Heart by Melissa C. Walker (A long-time favorite.)

Have a happy Valentine’s Day this weekend!
I will be eating pasta and lemon cream cake and reading a really great book. :)

Welcome to another TTT! And happy February! I can’t believe we’re already a month into 2021, but also… how are we only a month into 2021? I dunno. What is time right now?

Anyway, this week I’m sharing books that aren’t new releases! I feel like, as book bloggers, many of us get caught up in all the new shiny books. We’re always going after ARCs and trying to be one of the first to read a highly anticipated novel. There’s blog tours and cover reveals and pre-order gifts and so much excitement surrounding these new books, but what about the older ones that maybe have gathered a little dust on the shelf? Let’s talk about those ones today. Actually, let’s talk about the books that pre-date us altogether. I was born in 1987, so I will be sharing books from my TBR that were written in 1986 or earlier. This should be fun, and will hopefully renew my excitement for these books that have been on my TBR for a while! Thank you to Davida Chazan at The Chocolate Lady’s Book Review Blog for this fun topic idea. It’s time to dig deep!

The King of the Castle by Victoria Holt (1967)
The Other Side of Midnight by Sidney Sheldon (1973)
Down a Dark Hall by Lois Duncan (1974)
Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors by Piers Paul Read (1974)
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (1936)
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen (1813)
Mary Poppins by P.L. Travers (1934)
The House Of The Whispering Pines by Anna Katharine Green (1910)
Stillwatch by Mary Higgins Clark (1984)
A Cry in the Night by Mary Higgins Clark (1982)

Have you read any of these? 
What books would you like to read that were written before you were born?