Introvert’s Book Club
Still working towards that personal pan pizza🍕Blog Post Archive
- September 2025 6
- August 2025 9
- July 2025 11
- June 2025 3
- May 2025 8
- April 2025 9
- March 2025 11
- February 2025 5
- January 2025 4
- December 2024 6
- November 2024 5
- October 2024 10
- September 2024 21
- August 2024 9
- July 2024 6
- June 2024 7
- May 2024 3
- April 2024 12
- March 2024 4
- February 2024 10
- January 2024 14
- December 2023 3
- November 2023 1
- October 2023 6
- September 2023 7
- August 2023 8
Check Out the Booksta
The Goode Girls of Maple Lane by Jacqueline Firkins
Publish date: September 16, 2025
Rating: 5/5
Spice: 1.5/5
Plot: 5/5
Primary Genre: YA Sapphic Fantasy Romance
Blurb:
🐕🐕
A struggling vet student and a rescue golden retriever save each other in this heartwarming, Fall-themed rom-com about second chances, found family, and the wholesome side of the internet.
Cameron Goode is on the verge of giving up her dream of becoming a vet. Buried under debt and juggling two jobs with a full course load, she’s utterly overwhelmed. Then a local rescue organization reaches out about a neglected golden retriever in desperate need of help.
The last thing Cameron needs is another responsibility. But something inside her shifts when she looks into the eyes of the dog, who is so obese that she can barely move. Cameron is Aggie’s last chance. And she’s not going to let her go.
Cameron brings Aggie home, where the promise of Autumn is in the air. As the leaves begin to change, so do both Cameron and her rescue, whose recovery she chronicles on a TikTok account. Aggie’s resilience inspires Cameron to open up to the neighbors in her building, including Everett, the guy next door who dropped everything to help Cameron save Aggie. He also happens to look really good in sweaters.
When the account goes viral, Cameron finds herself faced with a choice between monetizing the best thing in her life or struggling to make rent and care for Aggie. Will Cameron be able to accept the help of a newfound family, including the first guy she’s fully given her heart to?
Let's Give 'Em Pumpkin to Talk About by Isabelle Popp
Rating: 4/5
Spice: 1.5/5
Plot: 4/5
Primary Genre: Contemporary Romance/Halloween
Blurb:
She’s a little edgy. He’s a lot of sunshine.
Love’s about to catch them completely off gourd…
Textile artist Sadie Fox did not sign up for this. When she agreed to come home to Pea Blossom, Indiana, it was to care for her father’s beloved pumpkin patch. The deal was that—just for the summer—she would grow a ginormous pumpkin, win the Indiana State Fair's pumpkin contest and finally win back her father’s (grudging) respect. Instead, a horde of wild hogs destroyed the. entire. patch. Which is precisely when the annoyingly sexy, sunshiny next-door neighbor shows up. Josh Thatcher is a tech millionaire who traded in the office for growing gourds, including experimental squash hybrids. And for the life of her, Sadie can’t understand what he sees in her sweary, tattooed, prickly self—or why he’s offering to help his biggest competitor. But a storm-fueled kiss proves there’s definitely something growing between them. Maybe it’s just attraction. Maybe it’s more. Whatever it is, it’s already bigger than Sadie’s fast-growing pumpkin…or the secret that Josh has been hiding. From showing up to glowing up, the characters in Afterglow Books are on the path to leading their best lives and finding sizzling romance along the way.
Friends To Lovers by Sally Blakely
Rating: 5/5
Spice: 0
Primary Genre: Contemporary Romance
Plot: 5/5
Blurb: Always each other’s plus-ones, but never each other’s real dates, two childhood best friends have one last summer wedding to fall in love in this dual-narrative debut—a grown-up The Summer I Turned Pretty .
Best friends Joni and Ren have been inseparable since childhood. So when Joni moves across the country for her job, the two devise a creative way to stay in they’ll be each other’s plus-ones every year for wedding season, no matter what else is happening in their lives.
It’s a tradition that works, until a line is crossed and the friendship they once thought was forever is ruined.
Now Joni is back at their families’ shared summer home for her sister’s wedding, and she’s determined to make the week perfect, even if it means faking a friendship with Ren—and avoiding the truth of why they have to fake it in the first place. How hard can it be to pretend to be friends with the person who once knew you best?
But as sunny beach days together turn into starry nights, Joni begins to question what her life is without Ren in it. And when the wedding arrives, bringing past heartaches to the surface, she’ll be forced to decide if loving Ren means letting him go, or if theirs is a love story worth fighting for.
Sing Me Home to Carolina by Joy Callaway
Rating: 3/5
Spice: 0/5
Plot: 5/5
Primary Genre: Contemporary Romance
Blurb: A small town girl turned big city businesswoman returns home to help her parents, only to find her heart being tugged between her old flame and the town’s mysterious new guy. This witty and effervescent novel is perfect for readers of Viola Shipman and fans of Sweet Magnolias and Hart of Dixie. Event planner Hattie Norwood only came back home to Mountain View, South Carolina to support her parents as they receive word that the family peanut farm is infertile. This news doesn’t come as a surprise to Hattie, and she plans to return to Charlotte at the weekend’s end. But then the town councilwoman begs Hattie to use her event planning prowess to help Mountain View put on a musical benefit to stop the construction of the new Carolina Panthers stadium—a project Hattie is actually in favor of, much to the dismay of the locals—and she finds herself agreeing to stay until the town’s Founder’s Day celebration a week later, just as her old flame, former MLB standout Lee Lockhardt, materializes in town after a career-ending injury. When the hunky and mysterious new owner of Fox’s Hardware, Fox Ryan, suggests the Founder’s Day celebration be moved to the Norwoods’ barn in an attempt to reinvent the failing farm as a music and event venue, Hattie agrees, unaware this move will thrust the town, her love life, and the brewing tension over the stadium into a very public spotlight. Fans of small-town romance and quirky casts of characters will be rooting for Team Lee or Team Fox as Hattie decides if love, like most music, is meant to fade or last forever.
It’s A Love Story by Annabel Monaghan
Rating: 5/5
Spice: 0/5
Plot: 5/5
Primary Genre: Contemporary Romance
Blurb: From the USA Today bestselling author of Nora Goes Off Script, a novel about a former adolescent TV punchline who has left her awkwardness in the rearview mirror thanks to a fake-it-till-you-make-it mantra that has her on the cusp of success, until she tells a lie that sets her on a crash-course with her past, spending a week in Long Island with the last man she thinks might make her believe in love. Rules for a love story: There are none. It’s all a lie. Jane Jackson knows that true love is a lie. Laughter is the only truth—you can’t fake a belly laugh. Jane should know, she spent her adolescence as "Poor Janey Jakes," the barbecue-sauce-in-her-braces punchline on America's fifth-favorite sitcom. Now she’s a Creative Executive at Clearwater Studios and she’s living by a new mantra: Fake it till you make it. Except, she might have faked it too far. Desperate to get her first project greenlit and riled up by pompous cinematographer and one-time crush Dan Finnegan, she opened her mouth and a big fat fib fell out. She claimed that Jack Quinlan, hottest popstar of the moment, has promised to write an original song for the soundtrack. Jack may have been her first kiss—and greatest source of shame—but she hasn’t spoken to him in twenty years. Now, Jane must turn to the last man she’d ever want to owe: Dan Finnegan. Because Jack is playing a festival in Dan’s hometown on Long Island, and Dan has an in. A week in close quarters with Dan while facing down her past is Jane's idea of hell, but Dan just might surprise her. While covering up her lie, can they find something true?
Faking Summer by Jess Bryson
Rating: 5/5
Spice: 3/5
Plot: 5/5
Primary Genre: Sports Romance
Blurb: Reese Carrington, Bayside’s golden boy, has the town wrapped around his finger—rich, smooth-talking, and the star pitcher everyone is obsessed with. But Caroline Matthews? She’s immune. Too focused, too smart, and too guarded to get caught up in his orbit. This is until Reese makes her an offer. Fake dating the town heartthrob might be her ticket to getting exactly what she wants. The only problem? Reese always plays to win. The more time they spend together, the harder it gets to tell what’s real and what’s just part of the game. His casual smirk and effortless charm has no business unsettling her. Her icy defenses shouldn’t intrigue him. And falling for the guy she swore she couldn’t stand? Absolutely off-limits. But in a town like Bayside, even the best plays don’t always go according to plan.
Name Your Price by Holly James
Rating: 4/5
Spice: .5
Primary Genre: Romantic Comedy
Plot: 4/5
Blurb: Sparks ignite as a pair of broke exes get locked in a house together on a reality show for a chance to win a million dollars, a second-chance romance that perfectly captures the absurd sincerity of made-for-TV love. Olivia Martin and Chuck Walsh have chemistry. Too much chemistry, perhaps. Their every interaction as a couple either lights the house up with sexual tension or burns it down with anger. After one huge, very public fight, they finally break up for good. Or so they think. Someone was filming their dramatic argument in the street and—because Olivia’s parents were Hollywood royalty, and because Chuck’s an actor whose star is on the rise—the video goes viral. When Name Your Price, a reality game show, sees the footage, they invite Olivia and Chuck to shoot a very unusual Live locked in a house together for one month and they will be paid a million dollars. Each. Olivia really needs the money if she's going to keep her beloved grandmother in her nursing home, and Chuck is desperate for any chance to win Olivia back. So the game is on—even as the show tries to pluck every nerve with only one bed, one bathroom, and a set of rules that will lose them money if broken—including no touching. With stakes that have never been higher and their explosive chemistry at a fever pitch, can Chuck and Olivia keep it together (and their hands off each other) for one month? Find out next week on Name Your Price!
Just One Taste by Lizzy Dent
Rating: 3/5
Spice: 1
Primary Genre: Contemporary Women’s Fiction/Romance
Plot: 4/5
Blurb: Olive Stone is about to spend four weeks in Italy with the most beautiful man she’s ever hated. When Olive Stone and her Italian pseudo-celebrity chef father fell out fourteen years ago, annoyingly handsome Leo Ricci slipped right in as his surrogate son and sous-chef. No one is more surprised than Olive when her father wills her his beloved (and now failing) restaurant. Or that his dying wish was for Olive and Leo to complete his cookbook…together. She’s determined to sell the restaurant. Leo is determined to convince her not to. As they embark on four weeks in Italy, traveling from Sicily to Tuscany to Liguria, they’ll test each other as often as they test recipes. But the more time Olive and Leo spend together the more undeniable their attraction grows. Olive finds herself wondering whether selling the restaurant might be running away, and what it might be like to try Just One Taste of Leo Ricci. Because he isn’t who she expected, and this trip might reveal more about who Olive is than she’s ready for.
Summer in the City by Alex Aster
Rating: 4/5
Spice: 1.5/5
Plot: 3/5
Primary Genre: Contemporary Romance
Blurb: From #1 New York Times bestselling author Alex Aster comes her adult debut novel Summer in the City—a swoony, fast-paced rom-com set in New York City in which a screenwriter and a sexy tech CEO go from lovers to enemies and back to lovers again… Twenty-seven-year-old screenwriter Elle has the chance of a lifetime to write a big-budget movie set in New York City. The only problem? She’s had writer’s block for months, and her screenplay is due at the end of the summer. In a desperate attempt at inspiration, Elle ends up back in the city she swore she would never return to, in an apartment she could never afford (floor-to-ceiling windows, skyline views, and a new coffee shop to haunt included). It’s the perfect place to write her screenplay…until she realizes her new neighbor is tech “Billionaire Bachelor” Parker Warren, her stairwell hookup from two years ago. It’s been a lovers-to-enemies situation ever since. When seeing him again turns into a full night of hate-fueled writing, Elle realizes her enemy/twisted muse might just be the key to finishing her screenplay... if she can stand being around her polar opposite. She writes anonymously, and he’s on the cover of every business magazine. He frequents fancy red carpeted events, and she doesn’t like leaving her emotional support five block radius. One summer. One wall apart. He needs to fake a buzzy relationship during his company’s precarious acquisition. She needs to write a movie around a list of NYC locations. Both need a break from their unrelenting schedules, and a chance to rediscover the skyscraper glimmering, pizza crusted, sunlit charms of the city. Summers always end, and so will this agreement. It’s all pretend. Promise. Until it isn’t.
