Reviews by Kayne Spooner
I had so much fun reading The Love Wager. It has the wonderful humor I’ve come to love from Painter’s stories and I could feel the sparks fly between Jack and Hallie. It's a terrific romcom.Jack and Hallie meet at Colin and Olivia’s wedding (from Mr. Wrong Number) where Hallie is ba ...
B+
Powerless takes place in the beautiful Canadian Rockies and is Book 3 in the Chestnut Springs series. The story opens with Jasper coming to Sloane’s rescue when she decides to leave her fiancé on their wedding day. Jasper and Sloane have known each other for many years. This is a fun friends t ...
Off the Map is the third book in the Beck Sisters series. In it, leads Carla and Eamon travel across a gorgeously rendered Ireland to reach Anna and Keane’s wedding (Float Plan). This is a love story about two people learning to follow their dreams. I liked it, but it's not as marvelous as the fir ...
In Best Served Hot, our leads, Julie and Bennet, debate the question: Which is better, a restaurant review from a food influencer or a review from a professional newspaper critic? Best Served Hot is a light-hearted, mouthwatering story and I was thoroughly entertained.Julie Zimmerman, also kn ...
B+
Begin Again is a wonderful coming of age YA story that follows Andie Rose, as she starts over at her dream school. It’s great fun to watch her build new friendships and discover more about herself as she takes on new challenges. I also love the good-natured humor that runs throughout the story as ...
The Twisted series by Ana Huang is a TikTok sensation and Twisted Lies is the fourth and last book of the series. It is a long, dark, spicy, slow burn romance and I didn’t want to put it down. Each story in the Twisted series is based on a different friend from a group of women that were colleg ...
Butt-dialing the Billionaire is an undercover boss romcom. It’s lighthearted with fun characters and made me happy, annoyed, and then happy again with its wonderful ending. It has a found family, workplace humor - much more than I would have expected from a romance novel about a billionaire boss w ...
I've been excited for The Do-Over, Painter’s new YA novel ever since I read and loved Better Than the Movies (2021) and I’m happy to share The Do-Over was just as good, if not better. It reminded me of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off mixed with a little Groundhog Day and I was quickly swep ...
I picked up Elizabeth O'Roark's A Deal With the Devil after I saw a reader comment about it on a blog here at AAR and I'm so glad I did. My first impression was great! I immediately got pleasantly sucked into the smart, witty banter between leads Natalia (Tali) and Hayes and I didn't want to put the ...
Lynn Painter's Mr. Wrong Number is the first in a new contemporary romance series. If you like the older brother's best friend trope, this one will definitely work for you.After setting her apartment on fire, being dumped by her boyfriend, and getting fired from her job Olivia has been having a ...