Spicy_Book_Connoisseur's Reviews

Overview
Thomas, decorated competitive skier, is off to the Olympics at the end of the World Cup Calendar, when a chance encounter with Katharina throws him off-kilter. Will Thomas regain balance, or let his dreams slide?

The Verdict
Carve My Heart started off strong. The chemistry was electric from first sight and the spice started early. Unfortunately, the chemistry reduced to a smoulder from there.

Over the years, I have read so much sports romance and I was very excited to sink my teeth into professional skiing. This book outlined and explained heaps about the sport. It was evident that the author is super passionate about competitive skiing and everything it has to offer. Unfortunately the same enthusiasm didn’t apply to Katharina’s PR job. I couldn’t quite figure out her value to the team, leaving me with questions about why she was there.

Thomas and Katharina struggled to communicate, and there were multiple interactions between them we heard about after the fact, instead of joining them for the ride.
Eg. 'Because when she congratulated me earlier, just a murmur by the sponsor wall, she looked at me like I was myth made flesh.'
This (and similar moments) would have been a perfect moment to show some really important character, relationship and chemistry development. The character development as a whole seemed to be very surface level, and the backstories did not feel like they were fully explored.

The spice was well written, but some word choices were interesting. There was an entire section, post-coital, they started taking about ‘copulating’.... While this is a fantastic word, it seemed out of place when the C-word was used a few sentences before. The juxtaposition was just too much.

Carve My Heart was full of potential and had some great ideas. It just seemed to need another draft to tighten the story and further develop the characters.

This was read and reviewed as an Advanced Reader Copy through Pen Pinery.

Tropes to Expect
- Sports Romance
- Forbidden Love
- Work Romance
- Slow-burn

⭐ Rating: 2/5
🌶️ Spice: 2/5

Consumed via: Ebook
POV: Dual – MMC & FMC
Series: The Carve Series

Overview
After an incident at work, Anabel finds herself in the midst of a work-mandated holiday. To try and find her spark of joy again, she decides to revisit the small town in Italy where the love and passion for her job began.

Will she find happiness, or find the pieces (and person) she ran away from in the first place?

The Verdict
'The Second Chance Summer' was everything I want in an easy-to-read contemporary romance.

It was beautifully paced. I loved the flashbacks and love love LOVED all the romance and the overall relationship progressions. There wasn’t too much spice, but the book was also on the shorter end, at around 255 pages.

I don’t want to delve into the romance much more, because I don’t want to ruin it for you. All I can say is proceed with caution, because the attraction and yearning are next level 🔥 But who needs a second chance when there might be something new on the horizon? 🤔

'The Second Chance Summer' only lost one star because it needed just one more round of editing. There were a few typos, and I honestly couldn’t tell if the name used to describe the corner shop owners was something that was meant to be replaced and forgotten, or a joke.

The rekindling of friendship was lovely to see, and how she ended up spending her summer helping her friend was so heartwarming ❤️

If you’re looking to escape for the summer and visit a small town in Italy, this is the book for you.

This was read and reviewed as an Advanced Reader Copy for Pen Pinery.

Tropes to Expect
- Second chance romance
- Holiday romance
- Found family

⭐ Rating: 4/5
🌶️ Spice: 2/5