*The books eligible could be published in any year, they simply had to be read by me in 2017.
Clicking on book cover brings you to my review if I wrote one or GoodReads page if I didn't.
Nominees:
1. Know Me Well by Kait Nolan
"Remember, I'm the librarian. I know your reading preferences. He pretty much fits your hero type to a T." She gave Riley a knowing smirk.
Riley pointed a finger at her. "You know perfectly well that's confidential. You're supposed to be like a priest."
2. Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn
He looked at her in wonderment. She was so much more than he'd ever allowed himself to see.
3. Too Scot To Handle by Grace Burrowes
"You are a bonfire in disguise," he said, smoothing a hand over her hair."An ambush of a woman, and you have polite society thinking you're the quiet one."
*Honorable Mention
"Now you know what the ladies put up with year after year," Miss Anwen said. "We're seen as nothing more than half of an attractive couple, good breeding stock, decent settlements. Nobody refers to us as gorgeous settlements, even if a lady is an heiress. The higher praise she'll garner is 'decent settlements'. Be patient with the ladies, Lord Colin, for they are very patient with the gentlemen."
4. Beauty and the Mustache by Penny Reid
"Poetry isn't for civilized society." Drew said this suddenly, breaking the moment, but then saying no more.
I decided to prompt him when I sensed he would not continue without a push. "How so? I've read plenty of safe-for-work poetry."
"I'm not talking about greeting cards and sentimentality, not the stuff that gently warms your heart or makes you feel nostalgic." He lifted his eyes to mine, his expression stark and sober. "I'm talking about the kind that burns you, leaves scars, the kind that you regret reading because you can't forget it. It's a wild, feral thing. It has claws and it bites."
5. Barefoot in White by Roxanne St. Clair
"Listen carefully, okay?"
Another nod.
"Every single time you doubt your beauty or worth or value or sex appeal?"
She didn't answer, but only because the lump in her throat was growing to fast. How did he know she doubted that stuff? How did he know she fought demons daily that told her she had none of that? She hadn't told him.
"You remember that just looking at your goddamned ear gives me a hard-on."
6. Bound by Temptation by Lavinia Kent
That did not make his words less painful now. Clara did flirt. She did smile and flaunt and use every bit of her feminine wiles to control a situation. It was the only way to survive. She wished it were not so. Women who managed to survive without using those tarnished resources earned her greatest admiration. There were so few of them. Men criticized a woman for using her femininity and punished her for not. It was the way of the world.
7. The Unexpected Husband by Lindsay Armstrong
'Go to hell, Joe Jordan,' she whispered. 'And don't expect me to do the dishes!'
8. Cajun Crazy by Sandra Hill
There was something about a man removing his glasses while he stared at a woman that was beyond sexy, sort of a signal that he was about to get down to serious business.
Naughty business.
9. A Lady's Code of Misconduct by Meredith Duran
It would be difficult, after working alongside the poor, to forget them in the halls of power. Impossible, too, to think of politics as a game, rather than the machinery through which real lives could be saved or squandered.
10. Shooter by Dahlia West
"Maybe he doesn't want to move on. I mean, people say that all the time. Move on. And what they really mean is they want you to forget. So they can forget. But there's no forgetting, Chris. You cover it up with your shirt, but he can't do that. He can't go one single minute without remembering what happened. When everyone around you wants to forget, you can get...isolated. You feel like you're the only one holding on to something important. Maybe it hurts him that you pretend it didn't happen. Maybe all he wants is for you to tell him that you won't forget."
Winner:
I can't tell you how close the "go to hell and I'm not doing the dishes" quote came to winning the honors; it just felt so very 2017 to me.
Alas, the sheer romance, knock your freaking socks off charm/hotness, and make me melt into a puddle emotion from this compliment the hero pays the heroine took the crown.
Have a favorite line that has stuck with you from this year?
Next time, Favorite Heroine and Favorite Hero...
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