#b. k. borison

[deathsweetblossoms]

I know I can be too much, but I think I’m just enough for you.

MIXED SIGNALS, B. K. Borison

Lovelight Farms (1/4)

[boundtoletters]

📖 books i read in 2023: lovelight farms (lovelight, #1) by b.k. borison

“I’m going to love her in all the quiet ways, the slow ways, the loud and obnoxious ways. My heart has been moving steadily in that direction since she fell down the steps of a hardware store, right into my arms.”

[mercerislandbooks]

Book Notes: Business Casual and the Lovelight Farms series

For all you contemporary romance readers, Business Casual, the fourth book in the Lovelight Farms Series came out the other week and I couldn’t wait to put it on my staff rec shelf! When the first book in the series, Lovelight Farms, came out a year ago this summer, I was not in the mood for its Christmas tree farm setting and holiday vibe. Despite my enjoyment of Christmas in July on Hallmark, I don’t want to be thinking about festive romance books while wearing sandals and sunglasses. But after a friend raved about how good it was, I finally picked Lovelight Farms up in the fall and was instantly hooked.

The entire series is set in the charming East Coast town of Inglewild, with all the quirks of a Stars Hollow. There’s a Harvest Festival and a phone tree and trivia night at the local bar that everyone takes VERY seriously. The series is centered around Lovelight Farms (thus the name), a rundown Christmas tree farm that Stella Bloom owns and, as the series opens, is secretly struggling to keep afloat. To raise funds, she’s decided to enter a contest held by a social media influencer. The only trouble is that single Stella lied on her application and said she ran the farm with her boyfriend, thinking that would help her story. So she asks her best friend (and longtime crush) Luka, to step in, pretend to be her boyfriend, and help her win the contest. Any seasoned romance reader will see where this steamy friends-to-lovers/fake-dating plot is going, but the little details of the town and the small town characters also made Lovelight Farms such a fun, heart-warming escape.

Subsequent books (In the Weeds, and Mixed Signals) follow the stories of Stella’s two partners, Beckett and Layla, and in Business Casual, we finally get to Stella’s half-brother, Charlie, and Beckett’s younger sister, Nova. Both of them have made appearances throughout the other books, and while I was intrigued by Nova, a tattoo artist with the ability to match a person to just the right body art, Charlie came off as a goofball stuck in a suit and a city job. Every time he’d make an appearance in Inglewood, chaos and hijinks seemed to follow. Well, B.K. Borison definitely buried the lead on Charlie, because in Business Casual, the reader gets to finally see what’s going on beneath that jokey exterior and it’s an intensely tender-hearted guy who just wants to belong and be wanted, somewhere.

Charlie’s father is a piece of work, and his affair with Stella’s mother is how these two happened to be half-siblings. Charlie has followed in his father’s footsteps, career-wise, but couldn’t be more different than him in personality. In Business Casual, while Stella and Luka are off on their honeymoon, Charlie steps in to cover things at Lovelight Farms, in addition to working his finance job remotely. He’s pretty sure he can handle everything, even if he's doing two full time jobs. What he’s not sure he can handle is Nova finally making a pass at him after he's been flirting with her for months.

Nova is on the cusp of opening her own tattoo parlor in her hometown and, while Charlie’s been very helpful as a consultant on all the small business things she needs to have in order, she’s also working all the hours of the day and in need of some “stress relief”. Maybe she’ll finally take all the flirting Charlie’s been doing with her seriously and see if he’s up for a fling. Just while he’s in Inglewild. Of course, no one can know. Not her family and definitely not the town.

Again, it’s not hard to see where all this is going, but while there’s plenty of steaminess to this romance, the parts that really stay with me are the ways in which Charlie and Nova slowly open up to each other. Their vulnerabilities and the quiet moments they share add a deeper layer to their intimacy.

I’m sad that with Business Casual B.K. Borison seems to be done with Lovelight Farms for the moment. But for those of you who haven’t tried this series yet, take heart in knowing you have four great books to discover!

-- Lori

[muatyland]

Lovelight. Amore impossibile (Lovelight Series Vol. 2)

Lovelight SeriesEvelyn St James non è il tipo di donna che si dimentica facilmente. Beckett lo sa bene. È bastato un solo, incredibile weekend nel Maine a farlo innamorare di lei. Come sotto l’effetto di un incantesimo, adesso non riesce a smettere di pensare al suo sorriso, ai suoi occhi, alle sue labbra. Così, quando Evie appare improvvisamente alla fattoria Lovelight, in cui Beckett lavora, è…

[maddiesflame]

Business Casual headers

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[inlovewithquotes]

"How much have you had to drink?"

"Not enough. Cause I still think about kissing you all the damn time."

-In The Weeds

[shayna365x]

Sunday, 2/25/24. One of my girlfriends recommended this, so I’m enjoying it on a lazy Sunday.

[skyeconch]

“How much have you had to drink?”

“Not enough. Cause i still think about kissing you all the damn time.”

[justapayneaway]

This week I’m reviewing Business Casual by B. K. Borison 🍁

Follow me on IG at @ritasbookclub for more content!

[princessofbookaholics]

AUGUST TBR

this is solely to hold myself accountable; going to strike off as i read

the dragon republic by r. f. kuang - read

the burning god by r. f. kuang - read

ink blood sister scribe by emma torzs - dnf at 46%

the familiar by leigh bardugo - dnf at 48%

riley thorn and the dead guy next door by lucy score - unhauled

mile high by liz tomforde - read

dead silence by s. a. barnes - dnf at 75%

business casual by b. k. borison - read

1984 by george orwell - read

the women by kristin hannah - read

the final curtain by keigo higashino - read

added during the month:

pretty girls by karin slaughter - read

blue sisters by coco mellors - read

a line to kill by anthony horowitz - read

independence by chitra banerjee divakaruni - read

delicate escape by catherine cowles - read

library books i borrowed:

love story by erich segal - read

the other side of midnight by sidney sheldon - dnf at 65%

the goldfinch by donna tartt - currently reading (spilled over to next month)

i don't know who i think i am reading all my longest books in one month

[deathsweetblossoms]

It’s okay if it takes you some time to find (happiness) again. And it’s okay if you find it just to lose a bit of it here and there. That’s the beauty of it, yeah? It comes and goes. Not every day is a happy one and it shouldn’t be. It’s in the trying, I think.

IN THE WEEDS, B. K. Borison

[boundtoletters]

LUKA????????????????????????

[mercerislandbooks]

Book Notes: Cozy Holiday Reading

When we’re tired out from trying to find the perfect gift or calculating just how long we can procrastinate on sending packages without actually missing Christmas, it’s nice to escape into the pages of a cozy holiday-centered read. Here are a few that I’ve finished this holiday season that are helping me get in the spirit.

While Lovelight Farms by B. K. Borison begins in the fall, it takes place at a Christmas tree farm and runs all the way through the festive season. A very fun friends-to-lovers steamy romance with some fake dating thrown in, I quickly devoured it and then read the other two in the series, In the Weeds and Mixed Signals (fair warning, these two are not set during the holidays). Adorable and cozy with small town quirkiness and recurring characters, but also definite heat in the romance department and thoughtful emotional depth.

Beth O'Leary's The Wake-Up Call is the ultimate in cozy Christmas. Izzy and Lucas agree on two things, they love their jobs and work family at Forest Manor Hotel. And they can't stand each other. But with Forest Manor Hotel on the brink of collapse, they'll have to work together (or compete, same difference) to save their jobs. Full of romantic tension!

Love, Holly, by Emily Stone, is a December to December year in the life of Holly, who is estranged from her family and finding connection with others in a similar situation by writing "Dear Stranger" letters at Christmas. Except this year, Holly's Dear Stranger letter takes her back to the place where her life changed forever, giving her the chance to take unexpected steps towards reconciliation. And fate also keeps throwing a handsome man in her way. 

Love in Winter Wonderland by Abiola Bello, was a delightful read (and the featured book on the holiday gift guide)! Trey’s family has owned Wonderland, the bookstore in Stoke Newington, for several generations, but this might be the year that ends. Wonderland is in trouble, and Trey will have to lean on his friends—old and new—to come up with ways to save his family bookstore. Meanwhile, sparks start flying between Trey and the bookstore’s newest employee, Ariel. Short chapters kept the pages turning. I loved the hopeful energy of Trey and his friends and their creativity in trying to keep Wonderland afloat.

Laurie reported she read A December to Remember by Jenny Bayliss and said “it’s a slow burn but I really enjoyed it, especially the funny complicated relationships between the three sisters.” She added that there’s a male character who is a knitter, which definitely piqued my interest!

So I’ll have to add it to my still to-be-read pile, along with Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan (the follow-up to The Christmas Bookshop) and Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien, a new edition of a 1920 classic. Plus I’ll squeeze in my annual re-read of Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher. 

Come check out our selection of holiday books, from classics and romances to mysteries and cookbooks, to find something to cozy up with this month!

— Lori

[ash-and-books]

Rating: 2/5

Book Blurb:

For fans of B. K. Borison and Sarah Adams comes a cheeky, small-town romantic comedy about finding yourself in the weeds . . . only to find love, too.

It took exactly twenty-four hours for Atlanta publicist Emma Walters’s life to go from near-perfect to a monumental disaster. One day to break up with her boyfriend, get fired and inherit a farm. All that’s left is for her to take the still-smoking remains of her dignity and flee to her new farm in Green Acres, Georgia.

However, Emma’s new country life is anything but peaceful. The quirky locals seem to inexplicably dislike her, and farming proves way messier than she expected. Adding to her frustration is Dan Pednekar, the farm’s infuriatingly handsome manager, who doubts her ability to handle even the simplest tasks.

Emma soon discovers that the farm isn’t exactly what it seems. It doesn’t sell anything, making her wonder if it's just a glorified petting zoo or if Dan is hiding something much bigger. With suspiciously named shops like Four and Twenty Blackbirds lining Main Street, it’s clear that the whole town might be in on a secret.

But when the farm—and the livelihood of the townsfolk—is threatened, Emma must come up with a plan to save it. Because when you farm around, it’s just a matter of time before everyone finds out.

Review:

When a woman inherits a farm moments after breaking up with her boyfriend and getting fired the last thing she expects is to start living on said farm with a hot farmer... who happens to also be farming weed. Emma is a publicist from Atlanta and she expected her life to go a certain way but when she gets fired and breaks up with her boyfriend, she discovers that her grandparents had left her a farm in Green Acres Georgia.... but then there is also the matter of the farm manager, the extremely hot British guy named Dan who has her hot and bothered. Emma soon discovers that the farm isn't just any old regular farm.... but something much bigger, a weed farm that caters to the town and helps out, it's the town's biggest secret. Yet Emma has to find. away to save it when the farm is threatened... all the while dealing with her ex who won't leave her alone and her new feelings for Dan. This one just didn't really catch my attention in the way I was hoping it would. The premise is fun and unique and the small town vibes were nice, but I just didn't find myself all that invested in the romance or the characters. It's a fine small town romance and I do think that someone else might enjoy it, but it just felt lacking to me and I just didn't get drawn in the way I was hoping I would.

Release Date: November 12, 2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Forever (Grand Central Publishing) | Forever for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

[muatyland]

Lovelight. L'amore al primo posto | B.K. Borison

Lovelight SeriesStella Bloom sa bene che non basta servire tazze di cioccolata calda fumante e accendere lucine scintillanti per salvare dal fallimento la sua piccola fattoria di alberi di Natale. Così, decide di partecipare al contest indetto dalla famosa influencer Evelyn St. James. Oltre alla visibilità e alla pubblicità gratuita, in palio ci sono ben centomila dollari, che potrebbero risanare…

[maddiesflame]

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