New Romance Book Releases 16th – 22nd August 2020 : Nix’s Top Picks from the books published this week.

Top Picks is a weekly meme that I do here at Scorching Book Reviews.

In this post, I highlight the Romance books that I want to read that are released this week. I have been lazy of late with not going past Tuesday – that has changed and I now look for books up to Sunday.

They are all books on my TR pile and only books I am interested in spending money on. I do not ask people to recommend books or highlight releases for author promo. I research each book before it I put it on here to look for reviews, series connections and author bio.

I feel I have to point out that books in a series are only going to be featured on here if I have started the series or am interested in doing so.

I don’t read NA. I do not read reverse harem. I also do not read Pandemic romance.

I also don’t recommend books from authors who have engaged in awful behaviour or have bigotted views – I chose not to give them my money so you won’t find them on here. If I make a mistake and feature an author who is an awful person, tell me in the comments and the book will be removed.

I have made the decision to add amazon links and links to twitter profiles on this post however they are not affiliant links as I CBA with amazon.

Release Date : Tuesday 18th August 2020

Price (UK £) : £2.99

Amazon Buy Links : HERE

Status on the TR List : This looks like everything I want in a cowboy book and the reviews are compelling. I have pre-ordered this book to add to the massive TR pile!

Release Date : Thursday 20th August 2020

Cost (UK £) : £2.99

Amazon Buy Link : Here

Status on the TR list : This book can be read as a standalone which is what I will be doing as I haven’t read the rest of the series. I love the blurb and there are some good reviews. On the TR list.

The girl next door…

Or a grand-slam love?

When baseball hero Sutton Reed returns home and moves next door to a troubled young man, he’s determined to help – for the boy’s sake and for the boy’s gorgeous older sister, Zoey Allen.

But Zoey has no time for romance…unless Sutton can convince her this hero is here to stay…

Release date : Tuesday 18th August 2020

Price (UK) : £2.99

Amazon buy links : HERE

Status on the TR list : I have never heard of this author before but this sounds very funny. The reviews are promising … on the TR list.

She’s used to faking it. Now it’s time to get real.

It all started with a faulty elevator…

When social media influencer Frankie Paulson’s followers turn on her after an embarrassing public break-up with her perfect #couplegoals boyfriend, and she almost plummets to her death with two strangers in a faulty elevator, all she wants to do is hide.

A town with no internet is the ideal sanctuary, but Frankie has never done anything without sharing it on one of many apps she can’t live without. After all, surely it’s much more satisfying to take the perfect photograph of her breakfast than eat it?

When Fate, in the form of a new four-legged companion, plays a hand in keeping her in the town, Frankie starts to make tentative but genuine connections with the people she meets. Suddenly every rule she’s been living by seems far less meaningful and she begins to wonder if her apparently #blessed life wasn’t as real as she thought…

Love funny, romantic stories? You don’t want to miss Jo Watson:

Release date : Tuesday 18th August 2020

Price (£) : £1.99

Amazon buy Link : HERE

Status on the TR list : I really enjoyed book one of the series – I have no idea if you need to read book one though! Pre-ordered.

“I am all about those Singh brothers!”— Katee Robert, New York Times bestselling author

Rajneet Hothi built her empire with sweat, blood, and information. She knows everything there is to know about Ajay Singh, the future CEO of Bharat, Inc., as well as how crucial he is in securing her future. But she didn’t expect the passion that burst between them the first time they went head-to-head. She’d never felt anything like it before, especially during her marriage to her soon-to-be-ex-husband. When her company is blamed for her ex’s dirty dealings with Bharat, she’s forced to prove that Ajay is no match for her in the art of business or seduction.

Ajay shouldn’t trust Raj or her company. He’s on the verge of losing everything his family has worked to achieve, but he can’t stop thinking about the breathtaking way Raj opens her mind, body and heart to him. Throwing his infamous caution to the wind, he tempts the gorgeous CEO into his bedroom and boardroom. He soon realizes he wants Raj by his side and he’s willing to fight the people he’s always protected to be with her.

When Raj and Ajay discover the source behind Bharat’s leak, they must trust each other and work together to defy the odds and save the Singh legacy.

Release date : Tuesday 18th August 2020

UK Price : £3.99

Amazon Buy Link : HERE

Status on the TR list : I will admit, I have not read many Jess Michael’s historical romance books however, what I have read, I have enjoyed. I like the blurb so it is on the TR list and I will look at some reviews.

The third in USA Today Bestselling Author Jess Michaels’ latest series.

Viscountess Aurora Lovell has been in love with one man her entire life, but life intruded and never allowed her to be with him. She came to accept it, marrying for title rather than love. Now a widow, she’s busy trying to figure out how to manage a scandal about to destroy her world when she is invited to a country party. Desperate to escape the realities of her life, she accepts.

Nicholas Gillingham has always lived his life between two worlds. Raised by a servant, but secretly the bastard son of the infamous Duke of Roseford, he never felt he belonged. Injured saving others, he is now a war hero and improbably in line to be gifted a title for his service. A way to never feel so helpless as he did when he lost Aurora the first time. But to influence the right people, he needs his brother’s help and finds himself at a country party.

Time and distance mean nothing when Aurora and Nicholas meet again. But can they overcome a tangled past filled with bitter betrayal, a scandal that could ruin the future AND a very intrusive dog in order to find their way back to each other? Or will love be just as painful the second time around?

Release date : Tuesday 18th August 2020

Price (£) : £3.10 or free on KU

Buy links : HERE

Status on the TR list : I ALWAYS enjoy this author … she writes sexy books with great characters. This particular book really caught my eye…

A former SEAL and MMA fighter, and now, newly minted bounty hunter, has to hunt down his first skip…his ex-wife… 

Former SEAL Cage Morgan thinks he doesn’t need anyone. As a rising MMA fighter, he makes enough to do what he wants and doesn’t have to answer to anyone.

Then an old friend sends an emissary, Reaper Stenberg from the Montana Bounty Hunters, to offer him a job. He agrees to meet him, but he has no intention of becoming a bounty hunter…until he hears who Reaper needs his special skill set to take down–his ex-wife.

Elaine Morgan is facing jail time due to her chosen line of work. She runs an illegal, underground fight club with her brother. Up until now, she’s always run clean, fair fights, but her brother owes money to the wrong people. As she prepares to the take the rap for his poor judgment, she misses her court date–that’s just one more stressor to add to the pile, and she doesn’t have time to worry about the consequences.

Until the night of the fight that will free her brother of his dangerous debt. Only her ex-husband shows up there, telling her he’s taking her in, and he has the friends with him to get the job done. The hunters’ poor timing sets off a chain of events that has the Montana Bounty Hunters staging a daring rescue.

All the while, Cage and Elaine revisit their past love, finding that the time apart put their problems in better perspective. As their connection grows, they both fear an uncertain future.

Release date : Tuesday 18th August 2020

Price (£) : £5.99

Amazon buy Link : HERE

Status on the TR list : I haven’t read the others in the series however Samantha Young is an author who I really enjoy. On the TR pile but I think (looking at reviews) I have to read book one first.

Nine years ago, Emery Saunders moved to Hartwell to start her life over as a bookstore owner. Her inability to trust people made it hard for her to find a place in the small community until Jessica Lawson moved to town and befriended the shy beauty.

But there was one person in Hartwell who tried to befriend Emery long before Jessica arrived . . .

Jack Devlin has his secrets. One of them is that he fell hard for Emery the moment she appeared in Hartwell. Another is that his father blackmailed him into covering up a dark family tragedy. It forced Jack to sever his relationships to protect the people he cared about. Yet, staying away from Emery has not been easy throughout the years and he hasn’t always succeeded. When Jack’s mixed signals hurt Emery once again, she puts him out of her heart for good.
Until the Devlin family secret is finally revealed, freeing Jack from his father’s machinations. What Jack wants more than anything is to repair his relationships, starting with Emery.

However, Emery isn’t ready to forgive and Jack’s not ready to give up.

And when the town’s latest scandal ties Jack and Emery together, Jack is not above using their new reality to prove to Emery once and for all that their love is worthy of the legend of Hart’s Boardwalk.

Release date : Saturday 22nd August 2020

Price (£) : 99P

Amazon Buy Links : HERE

Status on the TR list : There are mixed reviews for this however it does look cute as hell. I have pre-ordered.

Don’t miss this a charming and feel-good own-voices romance – funny, sexy and as cosy as a woolly jumper…

When his adoptive mother Joy unexpectedly passes away, Jesse Strong is committed to keeping her Harlem knitting shop, Strong Knits, open whatever the cost. But his brothers – unsure if the flakey, playboy Jesse can handle this responsibility – want to tie off loose ends and close shop.

Enter Kerry Fuller. Kerry has worked at Strong Knits for years and she’s harboured a secret crush on Jesse for even longer. Soon, she’s teaching Jesse and his brothers all the knitty-gritty parts of the business they need to know – while trying to keep her heart from getting broken.

The more time they spend together, the stronger the chemistry builds between them. Kerry, knowing Jesse’s history, doesn’t believe their relationship can last longer than she can knit one, purl one.

Can Kerry and Jesse keep Mama Joy’s legacy alive, save Strong Knits and get their happy ending, all in one summer?

Release date : Tuesday 18th August 2020

UK Price : £5.25 or free on KU

Amazon buy Link : HERE

Status on the TR List : I have book one on my KU downloaded list but I haven’t read it yet. I will get to it… this is the last in the series and they have to be read in order.

Paranormal Women’s Fiction with a bit of class, and a lot of sass, for anyone who feels like age is just a number!

She’s feeling the heat. Or it might be a hot flash. Sometimes it’s really hard to tell.

It’s been four years since Monica lost the love of her life to a sudden and devastating heart attack. She’s held her family together and picked herself up with the love and help of her two best friends. Now Monica has a new business, a new wardrobe, and a new vision for the future.

As in actual psychic visions. Dreams that manifest in reality? Monica’s still not sure why or how it happened, but she’s been seeing everything from unexpected visitors to visions of fire and destruction.

Separating premonitions from morbid imagination is proving harder than Monica expected, and no one can tell her if these new, violent visions will become a reality.

Added to that, there’s a new fire investigator in town, and he’s more than a little suspicious about the anonymous and frighteningly accurate tips someone is calling in. Monica is feeling the heat… or is that a hot flash?

Is their town about to feel the burn of a serial arsonist, or can Monica, Robin, and Val figure out the dangerous secret smoldering at the heart of Glimmer Lake?

Psychic Dreams is a standalone paranormal women’s fiction novel in the Glimmer Lake series by USA Today best seller Elizabeth Hunter, author of the Elemental Mysteries and the Irin Chronicles.

Release date : 18th August 2020

UK Price : £4.29

Amazon Buy Links : HERE

Status on the TR List : I can’t make my mind up on this one. It has mixed reviews – I do think there is enough there for me to mark it as TR and wait to see if there are reviews from trusted reviews.

Will scandalous secrets stand in the way of a second chance at love?
 
Miss Jane Quayle excels at invention. How else could the sheltered daughter of an English gentleman create lurid gothic novels so infamous someone wants their author silenced forever?  Fortunately, Jane has taken steps to protect herself, first by assuming a pen name, and second, by taking up residence at remote Dunnock Castle, surrounded by rugged scenery that might have been ripped from the pages of one of her books. Her true identity remains a secret, until one dark and stormy night . . .
 
After years of spying for the British army, Thomas Sutherland doubts the Highlands will ever feel like home again. Nevertheless, thanks to a quirk of Scottish inheritance law, he’s now the Earl of Magnus, complete with a crumbling castle currently inhabited by a notorious novelist. When the writer turns out to be the woman Thomas once wooed, suspicions rise even as mutual sparks reignite. As danger closes in, can Jane and Thomas overcome their pasts to forge a future together?

Release date : Monday 17th August 2020

UK Price : £1.99

UK Amazon Links : HERE

Status on the TR List : This one looks cute as hell. Again, the reviews are mixed… I’ve put in on the list to look at some reviews.

Grown-up life in Dublin hasn’t worked out quite as planned for school friends Melissa, Steph and Eilis.

Melissa has a successful career as a journalist, but inside she’s a mess of insecurities.

Stay at home Mum, Steph is lonely and lost, walking on eggshells around her philandering husband and angry teenage daughter.

And Eilis, a hardworking A&E doctor, is just going through the motions with her long-term partner Rob.

A wonderfully warm debut, about friends you can’t live without and about choosing the life you really want.

Release date : Tuesday 18th August 2020

Price (£) : £4.00

Amazon buy links : HERE

Status on the TR list : I rate Carrie Ann Ryan’s writing so I will always feature her stuff. That being said, I am behind on her series and need to catch up 🙂

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Carrie Ann Ryan continues her sexy new contemporary stand-alone series with an enemies-to-lovers office romance.

Paris Trissel is in a dating rut. Despite the pact she made with her friends to find someone to share her life with, she’s throwing in the towel after only a few blind dates. Add in the fact that the new hire at the job she used to love happens to be the Brady brother she can’t stand, and Paris is having a terrible year.

Prior Brady’s life seems pretty perfect from the outside. He has a wonderful, caring girlfriend, a family he’s never been closer to, and a new job he can’t wait to sink his teeth and talents into. Too bad the woman he has to work with for hours a day hates him on sight.

Once the two are forced to find the balance between chemistry and temptation, however, they’ll realize they’re stronger together than apart. Except when Paris’s past comes back with a vengeance, bringing terror, pain, and horror with it, both she and Prior will have to lean on each other.