#TNReads: Real Quick Reviews for Lazy Readers featuring Alexa Martin

Other than a one night stand while they were on a break, Marlee Harper has been with her NFL receiver boyfriend since high school. Unfortunately for her (but fortunately for us readers) that one-night stand ended up being Gavin Pope, the newest QB for her boyfriend’s team and my new book boyfriend. When Marlee’s relationship falls apart she has to start all over and a new man isn’t in her plans. Good think Gavin Pope is used to getting what he wants.

Author Alexa Martin used her life experience as the wife of a formal NFL player to inform her debut novel and I am grateful. The dynamics between the wives and girlfriends of the NFL players was fascinating. The pressure of the media and fans was terrifying. But her way of describing how Gavin looks in his football pants could only be the result of a woman with experience and taste.

You’re going to like this one.

In Another Time tells the untold story of Scotland’s lumberjills: young women that volunteered during WW2 for the Women’s Timber Corp and logged forests for the war effort. It’s main character is Maisie McCall, a teenager who left school, and her disapproving parents, to serve her country and gain some much-needed independence and confidence. Being a lumberjill is no easy task, but it thrills her when she tackles and succeeds at new challenges.

Maisie encounters handsome but stand-offish lumberjack John Lindsay at a dance, and as their friendship grows Maisie suspects that there are deeper feelings between them. But John is hiding something from her, and his secrets lead their fledgling feelings down a long and heartbreaking path.

This book was a lovely little surprise. I guess I went into it not knowing how dark the subject matter would get, but it made for a wonderfully redeeming end. It tackled the dark, emotional toll of living with disabilities and the healing that can be found. It was really cool learning about the lumberjills in Scotland. I know it was very physically demanding, but the author created such a vibrant group of characters that I wished I could have been there too!

Jemma Pears is just your normal girl in London, making a poor living doing theatrical makeup and living in the basement of her hippie parent’s building while avoiding her mom’s peyote-laced baked goods. As one does. But everything changed when her snobby grandmother died and made her a billionaire. The only catch is that she has to marry a man with a royal title to cash the check.

Meanwhile, uptight Ashford, Duke of Burlingham is in financial trouble and in desperate need of a miracle. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for him he’s single and his attorney also happens to represent Jemma Pears. What comes next is a marriage of convenience and hilarity.

How (Not) to Marry a Duke has a shrew of a Mother-in-Law, football hooligans, the Heimlich maneuver, mean girls, enemies, lovers, enemies again, and then the happily ever after we deserve. I loved every page.

Zadie and Emma have been friends since high school summer camp, but when the past comes back they must revisit one of the most difficult years of their lives. Medical school is hard enough, but for Zadie and Emma, their third year is the one they don’t talk about. Secrets will be revealed and loyalty tested as friends and enemies must work through the consequences of past decisions and present situations.

Romantic entanglements, risky medical procedures, and the comedy and tragedy of life permeate the debut novel from emergency medicine doctor Kimmery Martin. The Queen of Hearts reads like a season of Grey’s Anatomy, with all the on-call room hookups, drama and laughs you would expect from a Shonda Rhimes production. Martin’s passion for medicine and literature come together beautifully. Let’s hope she plans to do it again. Buy it.