Member Reviews

I have had ups and downs with the Something New series, but for the most part it's been an enjoyable series. I had no idea the author was continuing on with the books, but I was eager to learn of Head Over Heels' existence. To be honest I couldn't remember the two main characters here from the previous books. Even after I was done reading Head Over Heels I couldn't remember them! I know I have a very poor book memory but usually I'll remember as I read the book. Anyways, back to talking about the book. This is the story of Sophie and Ryder. Sophie is caught in the middle of a scandal that she had nothing to do with, but that ultimately leaves her jobless and her reputation in Chicago destroyed. She accepts a temporary short-term job in Revival, a small town, where a couple of her best friends live. Sophie is a smart woman who possesses a lot of drive and determination. She puts all her efforts into whatever task she is responsible for, and that's a quality I admired and loved about her. After being burned by love, she is also a little reserved emotionally, and is afraid to risk her heart. Enter her landlord Ryder, a handsome bad boy who also happens to be a sheriff in town. On their first meeting, Sophie decides that even though she's wildly attracted to Ryder, she dislikes him for some unknown unexplained reason. This dislike she has for him really confused me, and actually bothered me. It felt like it was done to sort of manufacture a hate-to-love romance, and it didn't work all that well for me. So even though there were qualities I liked about Sophie, her reaction to Ryder left me annoyed. I wasn't entirely keen on Ryder either. I mean he's a typical alpha her, with not a lot of anything else going on for him. The other male characters in this series have had more defining qualities to them, so I found Ryder to be very underwhelming. The romance between the two certainly had a lot of sexual chemistry. There's no doubt that Jennifer Dawson knows her way around tension between her couples. I can't exactly pinpoint why though, but even though Sophie and Ryder had a ton of chemistry together, I wasn't feeling them 100%. Maybe it's because a lot of time is spent on the actual physical aspects of the relationship over building an emotional connection? After a while, I got real tired of hearing about their sexy shenanigans, and wanted to see them connect on a more intimate level. What I loved in Head Over Heels though was seeing all the previous couples. They are all so cute, and I loved the glimpses into their lives. Head Over Heels is a very readable book because Jennifer Dawson has such a great addicting writing style, but I'm not overly impressed by Head Over Heels.

Was this review helpful?

When Sophie Kincaid's PR career comes crashing down around her the only logical thing for her to do is get out of town and head somewhere where she is a little less known, and somewhere where she can recover from this life altering mishap without prying eyes. Her best friends have stepped up and got everything covered for her, they found her a job, a place to live, now all she has to do is get to Revival, Illinois and get started on her new life. But once she hits town and meets her new landlord, who just so happens to also be her new boss, she begins to have her doubts about this new little adventure, he is gorgeous, but frustrating as hell and far more than she was prepared to handle!

Ryder Moore is well aware of the trouble that a women like Sophie Kincaid can bring, she is high maintenance. demanding, and full of sass... and so far out of his league! He doesn't have the time or patience for the trouble she is about to bring into his world, and he is certain there is no way they can survive the next six months living near one another, let alone working together. But then he sees an unexpected side to her, one that has him questioning everything he thought he knew about the sexy troublemaker... and it has him wanting to convince her stay.

Head Over Heels is a sexy little literary romp full of sass, toe curling romance, and feisty banter that will have you laughing out loud! It has been a while since my last visit to Revival and I have to say this trip was just as enjoyable as the last, from the moment I cracked the cover on this one I was hooked... it was such a good read!! I love a good enemies to lovers story and I have to say this one definitely scored a lot of points with me, the chemistry between Sophie and Ryder was undeniable, and their story left my heart happy! Highly recommend you make a visit to Revival I guarantee you love what you find!!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this title.

Was this review helpful?

5 stars! Would give more, but there's no more to give!
This book made me fall BACK in love with Ms Dawsons characters and I had to go back and read them all. Sorry for the late review :)
Ryder is a new level of smouldering and sexy that we haven't seen since James - but definitely more in-your-face and bold. Whooooooo. Sophie pulled off the brassy and brazen with a squishy underbelly so well I'm sure all readers can relate. Loved it. LOOOOOOOVED it. thank you!

Was this review helpful?

Sophie Kincaid is just the PR girl. At least, that's what she tries to tell the FBI when they come to arrest her bosses. But it's too late, her reputation is in tatters. She retreats to Revival, IL where her best friends have helped to get her a job and a rental. A rental that is owned by an uber-hot man. One that is tatted and dangerous. Sophie's catnip. The type of man she is trying to avoid.
Ryder Moore is looking for a woman to settle down with. Someone who will create a home and be a mother. Not a disgraced city girl who is only in his town biding her time. Too bad she's not only hot, but brainy, sassy, and the kind of sexy that calls to Ryder.
I didn't love the angst that was the last quarter of this book. It was just a little too much over the top for me. But I really enjoyed the book and liked that I could jump in without having read the previous four books in the series.

Three stars
This book comes out September 26

Was this review helpful?

I love, love, love Jennifer Dawson and her Something New series. I had a hard time connecting with Head over Heels. Sophie and Ryder had a case of insta-lust, which I don’t normally mind, but I never felt an emotional connection between the two. Sophie’s issues that were preventing her from committing to a relationship were also examined repetitively. Like I said, I love Jennifer Dawson, but Head Over Heels is not my favorite. I’ll definitely read her next release.

ARC provided, but this review was voluntarily and honestly written.

Was this review helpful?

I can write an extensive review but it's just not coming to me. I have really enjoyed the last book in this series, but I was just a bit underwhelmed by this one. It felt too formulaic to me and I never really liked the heroine, Sophie.

Ofcourse the writing was, as always, great. Just did not enjoy the storyline that much.

Was this review helpful?

Those two characters strike sparks right off the page!!

Jennifer Dawson created five books in her Something New series and each one of those books is a treasure! The latest novel is entitled Head Over Heels and I am head-over-heels in love with it.

This is a contemporary romance is set in Revival, Illinois, a small town located outside of the big windy city of Chicago. The heroine, Sophie Kincaid, has relocated to Revival to live down the bad press of the demise of the company and incarceration of her boss. She feels tainted and needs the support of her best friends, Maddie (Take a Chance on Me) and Penelope (As Good As It Gets) as well as her job working for the city of Revival.

What she doesn’t need is her hotter than Hades landlord, Ryder Moore, who happens to be her next-door neighbor. But sparks fly whenever they are around each other from their introduction to the very last. I was addicted to every page.

This book is captivating; the plot is well developed; and the characters are hot! Simply a wonderful, entertaining read!

Was this review helpful?

I have yet to read a book by this author that I haven't liked. And this one didn't disappoint either. I love this series and this author always gives an amazing story.

Ryder and Sophie hate each other on sight. They are exactly what the other is trying to stay away from. But their chemistry is off the charts. And to top it all of, Ryder is Sophie's landlord, the landlord who lives next door. She's never going to get a break from seeing the guy.

Ryder wants Sophie the first time he sees her. The only problem is he's vowed to change his life. And Sophie doesn't factor into that. But then the chemistry becomes off the charts and everyone who comes into contact can feel the chemistry sizzling.

Was this review helpful?

I enjoyed "Head Over Heels". it was a good solid romance.

Was this review helpful?

Really great story brimming with chemistry, humour and romance! Highly recommended.

*ARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher in return for an honest review*

Was this review helpful?

Head Over Heels goes end over end as we watch Sophie and Ryder wrestle with their off the charts insta-lust attraction as they stubbornly try to resist each other. What starts as an “I’ll look but shouldn’t touch” mantra has this main couple drooling, circling around each other, and exchanging heated glances, flirty/snarky back and forth banter, all while trying to convince themselves to keep their hearts and hands to themselves for the greater good of their futures. The problem is they both long to be oh so bad together.

Sophie is a high spirited, outspoken city girl who has put herself on a self-imposed small town exile after being caught up in a business debacle. With help from her friends, she’s determined to let the gossip winds die down and get her life back on track at the legendary windy city she calls home, Chicago. Beneath all that resilient, renegade, tough as nails persona, she is also still hurting and healing from a betrayal years ago that to this day has her questioning her sound judgement.

Recently Ryder has become just as determined to reform from his former bad boy ways and embrace marriage, stability, and a family of his own. Yeah, this hot deputy sheriff is on the right side of romance now and is committed to being a better man. His brain knows Sophie’s time in town has an expiration date, but other parts of his body are still trying to convince him to make the most of it and pursue her anyway. As they get to know each other, it becomes even more difficult for them to resist their “simmering like a volcano” attraction.

A little past the halfway mark, their relationship takes a whole new turn and that’s where you might need to brace yourself for some hot, steamy, at times public, smexy scenes with lots of lusty language, folks. Turns out Ryder is one naughty, dirty talking cop who likes to be in control. Sophie seems more than up for it though and definitely can handle whatever he dishes out. In fact, she would have it no other way.

I must confess I started to feel a little exhausted and impatient for these two meant to be together knuckle heads to stop living in denial and figure out how to make things work long term. Mainly after they were finally intimate. It took quite a bit of hand wringing and self-reflection before the romantic but pretty predictable HEA wrapped things up. Surprisingly, the slow burn build up which took up the first half of the book was not frustrating at all.

Overall, you could say insta-lust and chemistry are what bind this main couple at first sight, though they fight it tooth and nail. Then once they give into temptation there is no going back. Angst and hand-wringing sets in for quite awhile but at least one of them lays it all on the line and forces a decision to be made.

Title: Head Over Heels, Series: Something New (Book 5), Author: Jennifer Dawson, Pages: 352, stand-alone but part of a series, former bad boy who now wants the real deal/good guy cop hero, sassy/feisty/wild side streak heroine, no cheating, one double date scenario, no love triangle, VERY steamy scenes with lots of lusty language (some of them public).

Book 1 – Take a Chance on Me, 2/4/14, Pages: 351 (Maddie & Mitch) - 4 stars
Book 2 – The Winner Takes All, 12/2/14, Pages: 371 (Shane & Cecelia) - 4 stars
Book 3 – The Name of the Game, 9/29/15, Pages: 352 (James & Gracie) - 4 stars
Book 4 – As Good as New, 3/29/16, Pages: 320 (Evan & Penelope) - 2 stars
Book 4.5 - She’s My Kind of Girl (Darcy & Griffin), 9/26/16, Pages: 102
Book 5 - Head Over Heels, 9/26/17, Pages: 352 (Ryder & Sophie)

(I received a free advanced reader copy provided via NetGalley in exchange for a fair review. No type of compensation was given to this reviewer. There is no relationship/affiliation between the reviewer and the author/publisher/NetGalley.)

Was this review helpful?

Wow, this book is so full of sexual tension I could almost feel it. A great night time or weekend book to read.

Was this review helpful?

Three and a half stars.

Sophie Kincaid's dream PR career in Chicago goes up in flames when her boss embezzles money from the firm to feed his coke habit, as a Vice-President she is tarred with the same brush and overnight her name is mud. She retreats to small town Illinois, Revival to be precise where one of her best friends has got her a job in city government assisting the town revitalisation project. Her friend has also found her a house to rent for six months. And that's where the problems begin, because the guy living next door, Ryder Moore, has bad boy written all over him and there's one thing that Sophie has learned is that bad boys are catnip for her - and it always ends badly.

Ryder moved to Revival to get away from wild and crazy girls and his new neighbour, and tenant, has wild and crazy written all over her. He knows he should stay away but there is something so very tempting about arguing with her...

Sophie is less than pleased to find out that no only is Ryder her landlord as well as her neighbour but he is also the deputy sheriff AND technically her boss on the town square grand opening project! Can't a girl catch a break?

Inevitably lust trumps logic and Sophie and Ryder enter into a no-holds barred friends-with-benefits relationship, time limited by Sophie's often expressed intention to return to Chicago after six months. Ryder is small-town through and through, there's no way he would ever want to be a big city cop.

I've see-sawed to and fro on my rating for this book. I'm a sucker for big city girl moves to small town stories and I love enemies to lovers stories but I had two issues with this book:

1) the naughty bits - it took me a while to realise what felt off about the sex - there was more fade to black than actual sex. There's lots of mentions of all the depraved and possibly illegal things that Sophie and Ryder do but not an awful lot of seeing them do those things. The only thing they seem to do is have a lot of exhibitionist alfresco sex. (view spoiler)

2) both Sophie and Ryder were too willfully blind, I appreciate that a romance novel doesn't really work unless one or both of the characters cant see what is right in front of them but purlease!

I also, just a little bit, wished that the ending had been less predictable, it was done well but part of me wanted either the end to be ambiguous or for it to work out differently.

This is, apparently, the fourth book in a series. I had no problems reading this as a stand-alone although it was clear from all the recently paired-up, disgustingly good-looking couples in the book that this was part of a series.

Was this review helpful?

This was a really fun read. The heroine, Sophie Kincaid, has lost her job in Chicago and so has retreated to a small Illinois town where she joins friends and stars of earlier Dawson novels. She regards the time there as just a temporary stopover before she can return to the city. However, the house she’s renting is owned by and next to the hot and hunky deputy sheriff, Ryder Moore. The two are instantly attracted to each other, however both of them recognize that this would be a bad idea, a very bad idea. She’s only there temporarily and Ryder is ready for a more serious relationship. And Sophie is afraid that she’ll fall into the trap of falling for a bad boy. Been there, done that.

But it turns out that Ryder really isn’t a bad guy. He is a really nice and thoughtful guy who happens to be hot and hunky, ride a Harley, and own a classic Mustang. Their resistance to each other lasts only a couple of days and soon they’re doing it everywhere and in every which way. But the clock is still ticking on Sophie’s time in the small town.

I enjoyed the snarky dialogue overlaid on the sweet, small town romance novel vibe. You know a book is good when you want to read all the other books in the series.

I was given a free ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Was this review helpful?

This is one sexy wild ride from beginning to end. The explosive chemistry between Ryder and Sophie was depicted perfectly so that you could feel their fire. Even though I hadn't read any of the previous books in the series, the back stories were interwoven in to add to, not distract from the story. Now I find the need to go back and catch up on the series just so I can further enjoy all the couples stories.

This ARC book was complimentary, provided by the Publisher and NetGalley. I am voluntarily providing my honest review.

Was this review helpful?

It wasn't the greatest romance ever. But it wasn't the worst either. I did have many feelings as always of course when I read romance books, the relationships make me so emotional. It had one of my fave tropes which was dislike/hate turns to love. I missed the gang so that was fun to read about again!

Sophie and Ryder were so wild, it was so fun to read! I love that they were neighbors because you know that something will happen or one of them will stay in the other one's house because it's so simple to just change houses in the morning or something. So it was very fun.

Still I did have some issues and as I said, it wasn't any different from the other in the series. White people kissing and falling in love. This is something that I'm like "why" because it's a large group of friends and probably the next in the series will always be about white main characters, which it's like ????? Isn't there like a POC in this town or what. It's hard to believe. So that's that.

Was this review helpful?

I did not get a chance for finish this novel. Based on the description, I was very intrigued but upon reading the story my expectations just fell kind of flat. I wish that the story had more to it. This was not one of my favorites and I hate to mark it on my DNF shelf. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to read and review.

Was this review helpful?

I do not know about this book. The beginning left me salty. I do not know why. However, I do not think I wil read from this author again.

Was this review helpful?

Can anyone say 10 stars. This book was pact full of comedy, romance, snarkiness, and obstinance. This book was added to my have to buy as soon as it comes out book list. I read this book and the connection between Sophia and Ryder was so electric, so fun that I couldn't help but become hooked by this book. Sophia is so funny and snarky with just the right amount of sass; it makes it impossible not to cheer her on when she faces off against Ryder. Will Sophia's past stop her from finding what has been missing or will Ryder be enough to show her?
Thank you NetGalley and Jennifer Dawson for allowing me to read and review this book.

Was this review helpful?

Oh god this was so good. I loved Sophie and Ryder, they were great characters and their romance was so hot, angst-y and heartwarming. I loved this book, I need my own copy asap.

Was this review helpful?