Kate Clayborn
Beginner’s Luck

Beginner’s Luck

This series opener centers Kit, a steady scientist who, because of her peripatetic childhood, wants to use her winnings to create a home for herself and develop roots in her community. So when Ben shows up in his role as recruiter her to entice her to leave it all behind and move to Texas ... well, it's a disaster. But as they keep talking, their connection grows. I loved watching Ben and Kit work through their respective baggage over the course of the story, and the large cast of well-developed secondary characters give this series life.

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Love Lettering

Love Lettering

A funny and moving contemporary romance about love, friendship, and the ways we make a place home. Hand-letterer Meg designs custom journals and sees the world in fonts and signs. In fact, she first fell in love with New York City by walking every inch of it, drawing inspiration from the omnipresent custom signs. Meg also sees the signs other people miss, like the time she wove a secret message into a doomed couple’s wedding invitations. She didn’t count on the groom to notice—or for him to track her down one year later and demand answers after his relationship dissolved. Meg is desperate for his forgiveness, especially because her creative well has run dry—and so she impulsively invites Reid to accompany her on her walks through the city. He turns out to be nothing like the callous Wall Street type she’d expected, and their tentative friendship evolves into a slow burn romance. Open door. For fans of Clayborn’s Chance of a Lifetime series and Emily Henry’s Beach Read.

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Love at First

Love at First

With winning characters, a multigenerational found family, and a fun Chicago setting, this romance is going to make a whole lot of readers happy.  Will and Nora live two floors apart from each other, where late night balcony chats bring them closer together—and their clashing plans for the building spark a surprising rivalry. I expected an absorbing plot and engaging characters from the returning SRG author’s Romeo and Juliet-inspired second-chance love story; I did not expect it to get me right in the feels. (Open door.)

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Missing Christmas

Missing Christmas

MMD team member Leigh says: "After reading Beginner’s Luck, I was curious whether Ben’s best friend Jasper would ever get his own story and I’m delighted he did in this Christmas novella. Jasper has been in love with his business partner Kristen for 6 years but he doesn’t want to jeopardize their relationship so he has rules about not acting on his feelings. Until she tells him to kiss her after they close a deal. This is pure Kate Clayborn perfection, a heap of feelings wrapped around some of my favorite tropes: forced proximity, snowed in, and only one bed. (Closed door.)"

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Georgie, All Along

Georgie, All Along

Author:

I enjoyed this one! It was a 2023 Spring Book Preview selection. From the publisher: "Longtime personal assistant Georgie Mulcahy has made a career out of putting others before herself. When an unexpected upheaval sends her away from her hectic job in L.A. and back to her hometown, Georgie must confront an uncomfortable truth: her own wants and needs have always been a disconcertingly blank page. But then Georgie comes across a forgotten artifact—a “friendfic” diary she wrote as a teenager, filled with possibilities she once imagined. To an overwhelmed Georgie, the diary’s simple, small-scale ideas are a lifeline—a guidebook for getting started on a new path. Georgie’s plans hit a snag when she comes face to face with an unexpected roommate—Levi Fanning, onetime town troublemaker and current town hermit. But this quiet, grouchy man is more than just his reputation, and he offers to help Georgie with her quest. As the two make their way through her wishlist, Georgie begins to realize that what she truly wants might not be in the pages of her diary after all, but right by her side—if only they can both find a way to let go of the pasts that hold them back."

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