Welcome to the What to Read Next podcast.

Today we have a special episode for Valentine's Day.

We have my friend Francesca who's sharing some of her recommendations for novellas

that are all Valentine's related.

This episode was originally recorded as part of our Novel Hour, which is our live

show that's every Thursday at 12 o'clock.

We also do a gossip session every other Monday at 12 o'clock.

And it's available on YouTube, and it will later air here on the Unknown Podcast.

So now let's go to the recommendations.

Bye!

Today I actually decided to go for Valentine's theme, just because

we're doing romance this week and we're doing friendship next week.

So you guys are going to get some fun books that most of

them are actually novellas.

So they're gonna be quick.

They're gonna have the vibes of the holiday season so you can pick

them up and read them this week.

Next week.

They're perfect for right now.

Some are contemporary and some are paranormal.

And for the most part, they're all available right now with

like a couple of exceptions.

So I'm going to start actually with the new releases.

And the first one is the Kiss Lottery by Ilsa Madden Mills.

So this one is so much fun.

It actually comes out February 11th and it will be available on Kindle

Unlimited, both on ebook and audiobook.

So you can.

Listen as well.

I actually listened to the audio book, which was really good as well.

And this one is really fun.

I am a fan of Ilsa Madden Mills.

Her contemporaries are always kind of really cute.

They have lovable characters.

They're really addictive.

So it's really fun.

This one in particular is about two childhood best friends.

So Beckett and Everly.

And they were best friends growing up through teenage, and

she actually had a huge crush on him, and she never acted on it.

He never acted on it either, but they were always together, and she ends up

dating his best friend in high school.

And she had decided that she was going to do something to get his attention.

And she accidentally quote unquote, leaves her diary out for a friend to find.

And this diary goes everywhere.

Everybody in the school knows that she has a crush on him, but it kind

of implied that she was cheating on her boyfriend with him in a way.

And that all came out right before the big game of the season, which

made them lose the game, which, in a small town, that's like a big no.

So that made her kind of like a pariah in the town.

And after high school, she just left.

She never looked back.

She doesn't want anything else to do with it.

And that also ruined her relationship with Beckett.

So, he kind of took the side of telling his friend that he never did

anything and nothing ever happened.

So she felt like he was just not interested.

So she's gone on to have her career.

She is Actually she has, she actually has a podcast and now randomly she

gets an invitation to come back to the small town to participate in the kiss

lottery, which is this event that they do all the time in their small town.

And she doesn't know who sent it to her, but she decides that she's

going to make content out of it.

So she goes back to the small town and she's going to create podcast

episodes around the kids lottery and around the town and interview

people and all of that stuff.

But she's of course, wary of.

everybody again.

Becket has now become a very popular author and he actually made her

a villain in one of his books.

So she's not really looking forward to interacting with him.

But this is just basically them reconnecting kind of getting that second

chance at love that never really happened.

And it is obviously the kiss lottery is centered around the holiday of

Valentine's so that the setting is there.

It is really cute, really adorable, and it's such a fast sweet read.

A little bit of spice as well.

So really fun.

The second book is a super short novella, and it's The Fall Risk by Abby Jimenez.

This one comes out March 1st, but if you are a Amazon first reads

like if that's available to you, you can actually get it now.

So that is available for you if you have that.

And it is really short, but it's really fun as well.

So in this one, we have two neighbors and the heroine has basically

self isolated herself in her apartment because she has a stalker.

So she's had this stalker, she's changed different apartments

cause he keeps finding her.

So now she's living here.

She's working from home.

So she's.

She doesn't talk to anybody hardly and whatever.

And the neighbor is somebody that she meets after the stairs in the

apartment building collapse and they get trapped basically on this

second floor where they both live.

Because there's no way that their building can get any of that fixed.

So they're basically stuck there until that happens.

And it's basically them kind of getting to know each other.

He is also very, he has trust issues.

He's kind of like a mountain man, but he's freshly divorced.

So he has his own issues as well.

So they both have some trust things to get through, but they are forced.

They are forced proximity.

They're forced there to have to connect and like, get to know each other.

And it was just a really fun.

relationship that develops between the two of them, how they go into

each other's apartments and this and that, and they get to know each other.

So it's a really fun Valentine's Day theme as well, and it does have

kind of an empowering message in the end when it comes to the heroine

also, like on a personal note.

So I really enjoyed it.

The third book.

It's my paranormal pick, and it's Petty Cupid by Sarah Blue.

This is part of, it's book one in the Love in the Veil series.

And the series actually just touches on different holidays, so this is the

Valentine's Day paranormal in that series.

And it's basically a Cupid romance book, which I think it's so fun.

I have read a couple of these in my days.

So I'm excited to be reading this one.

And actually, if you are participating in our League of Lusty Ladies Book Club, this

is the bonus romance pick for February.

So if you come and read it, you can come to the live show in December.

That's going to be the first week of March, but you can also come and chat over

on Substack about it in the Substack chat.

So this one is super fun because the heroine is a Cupid and

the hero is the Grim Reaper.

So he's death himself and the heroine has to go to a Valentine's Day ball.

And she actually tells her ex boyfriend that she has a date for this ball.

So.

She doesn't.

So she has to quickly find somebody that will kind of be her fake

date for the event and In comes Death himself, and fills in for

the role, which is really fun.

I think that just the matchup between a female Cupid and the

Grim Reaper, it sounds like so much fun because you have like, love

and death, a little bit of both.

So I think it sounds really fun, and really And I can't

wait to actually read this one.

So that one is on my TBR for this week.

And then the next book that I have is another contemporary.

So this is another novella.

It's Puck Shy by Kayla Gross.

So this one is book two in the Brother Puckers series.

It is a hockey romance.

It's also a Valentine's novella, and it's super fun.

It starts off at a Valentine's Day masquerade ball.

So I guess there's a few of those on this list.

And the hero is a hockey star, obviously, and also like a big celebrity.

And he meets this woman at the masquerade ball wearing this beautiful red mask.

And eventually he realizes who she is.

And she is actually the, his twin brother's partner's sister.

So he decides that, he had such a connection and so much chemistry

with this woman that he's going to get closer to her and kind of

like push that situation to happen.

So he, they ended up working together.

Of course, she's like, I'm not mixing business with pleasure.

And He wants more.

And it is just a really fun literally fun story.

It's also novella, so it's also really short, but it is super spicy.

There's plenty of, like, voyeurism, there's wax play, there's all kinds

of fun stories and things there.

So if you're looking for a spicy one, this is probably a good choice for that.

And I have another spicy one to close out and it's Electric Idol by Katie Roberts.

So the, this is book two in the Dark Olympus series.

And these are Katie Roberts, like modern day retellings of Greek mythology.

So in this one, we are doing kind of like an arrows and psyche retelling.

So it's loosely inspired by that.

And actually I have another post that I'm going to share with you guys,

which is all about arrows and psyches retellings, modern day retellings.

But this one is kind of fun.

If you've read neon gods, which is the first book in the series,

there's a lot of like the politics aspect of the gods, but for mortals.

So that's kind of how the series is based.

And in this one Aphrodite, which is Eros mother, decides that he's going to send,

she's going to send Eros to kill Psyche.

And immediately he's like, I'm not doing that.

And the only way that he has to save her is to marry her.

So, it's a really fun take on the myth.

but also really spicy.

If you'd know Katie Roberts, she writes really spicy and fun stories.

So if you're looking for an erotic romance, then this

one is a great one for that.

So yeah, that's the recommendations all like Valentine's themed

and perfect for the week.

Those sound awesome.

I have to say the novella though, the Petty Cupid sounds interesting.

I know you said it's for the book club.

So I might see if I'll join.

That one sounds really fun.

Yeah, it sounds fun..

Thanks for joining me on this episode of The Watcherinex Podcast.

If you enjoy our bookish conversations and want more recommendations, don't forget

to subscribe so you never miss an episode.

Also, head on over to The Watcherinex blog for a list of

books mentioned in today's show.

Happy reading!