First Comes Love Archives - Proud Book Reviews

June 3, 2022June 4, 2022

Sweet Love and Country Roads – Camilla Isley

This book contains:

Mentions of the death of a parent
Sick parent.

Samantha is an Executive Producer for a film company who’s dedicated to her career and her life in Manhattan. She’s fiery, sassy, takes no prisoners and makes sure she does it while looking amazing in Manhattan style and shoes, regardless of where she is.

Travis is the Mayor of his small town and he’ll do pretty much anything to help his town improve and survive. After the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on the economy and almost every industry his mission while a movie is being filmed in his town is to use them to get as much revenue and improvements into his town as possible. Even if Samantha hate’s him for it.

Samantha has to leave her comfortable Manhattan lifestyle to head to the small town in rural Indiana where her latest movie is being filmed because there seem to be some issues with staying on time and within budget. When she gets there, she meets Travis and pretty quickly things turn sour between the two.

As Samantha gets her movie back on track, Travis always seems to be around and it’s infuriating for Samantha who just wants to get back to Manhattan as soon as possible.

Camilla writes some really fun contemporary romances, and this is no exception. With an appearance from Christian and Lana, we’re back in the First Comes Love series. Following the almost typical for this series trope of enemies-to-lovers, Samantha and Travis need to overcome a lot to find their way together. And not just their competing motivations, but also the distance between their homes.

With Samantha’s endless supply of inappropriate (for the rural town) clothing and shoes, there were so many moments that had me laughing. Those little moments of Samantha being so out of her element in the rural setting compared to Manhattan that made some of the small and seemingly inconsequential funny were what made this book what it is.

Continue to read further down to find out about the author.

Author Bio

Camilla is an engineer who left science behind to enter the whimsical realm of romantic fiction.

She writes contemporary rom-coms. Her characters have big hearts, might be a little stubborn at times, and love to banter with each other. Every story she pens has a guaranteed HEA that will make your heart beat faster. Unless you’re a vampire, of course.

Camilla is a cat lover, coffee addict, and shoe hoarder. Besides writing, she loves reading—duh!—cooking, watching bad TV, and going to the movies—popcorn, please. She’s a bit of a foodie, nothing too serious. A keen traveler, Camilla knows mosquitoes play a role in the ecosystem, and she doesn’t want to starve all those frog princes out there, but she could really live without them.

March 1, 2021February 17, 2021

Opposites Attract – Camilla Isley

This book contains:

teen alcohol use
blackmail and bullying.

Vivian is our female lead. As a divorce attorney with a teenage daughter and the father isn’t in the picture. Thanks to the father’s actions she’s extremely tough on men and struggles to trust them.

On the other hand, Lucas is our male lead and he’s a couple’s therapist. Unfortunately, they don’t have the best of meetings when they end up with offices right next to each other.

We start with Lucas and discover that he’s a lovely guy who’s off to a bad start to his morning. The cause of his bad start?

Vivian.

When we swap to her side, we miss everything that Lucas has already experience and enter the mind of an extremely self-centred, strong, independent woman who doesn’t take crap from anyone.

Since they have offices next to each other we see their hate grow until it’s palpable. It finally reaches a head when it turns out Lucas poaches one of her clients and interferes with her daughter. Only, they have a bet about who can find love first, yet Lucas finds he’s not interested in the bet anymore as soon as he realises he might lose.

A hate to love trope done really well. Once Vivian calms down enough to be a normal human being rather than a semi-murderous psychopath I found myself starting to root for her. But it was a struggle getting through the first roughly third of the book with her because her personality really isn’t one you can take a liking to.

Lucas on the other hand was every woman’s dream man. How could she possibly hate him?!

He’s good looking, friendly, he can listen (why is this such a hard skill for men?) and he stand by his promises. He’s a lot of women’s dream man which is partly why it’s so much harder to like Vivian.

By about the halfway mark we start to really understand why Vivian is the way she is, which makes a lot of sense. But I also don’t think anyone should think it’s ok to behave that way (especially a mother of a teenager) and think blaming it on their past is an excuse. Sorry, no. You’re an adult, grow up and learn how to play nicely.

My only other concern (because the love story playing out was excellent and perfectly timed!) was how they tackled the daddy issue. I really wished both Vivian and her daughter had done that in person. But I also respect the restraint they displayed by doing it the way they did.

Continue to read further down to find out about the author and any extra giveaways available.

Author Bio

Camilla is an engineer turned writer after she quit her job to follow her husband on an adventure abroad.

She’s a cat lover, coffee addict, and shoe hoarder. Besides writing, she loves reading—duh!—cooking, watching bad TV, and going to the movies—popcorn, please. She’s a bit of a foodie, nothing too serious. A keen traveler, Camilla knows mosquitoes play a role in the ecosystem, and she doesn’t want to starve all those frog princes out there, but she could really live without them.

Giveaway – Win 3 x e-copies of the Beach Reads box set (open internationally)

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July 27, 2020January 30, 2021

You May Kiss the Bridesmaid – Camilla Isley

Welcome back everyone, do you remember From Thailand with Love? I reviewed it earlier in the year and it’s the book in the First Comes Love series that made me go back and buy the first few books I’d missed.

Well this is the NEXT book in the series! I’ve yet to go back, but this was coming on tour so I had to jump on board!

We’re still following the Knowles twins. Both in the sense that the female protagonist is Summer Knowles, and because it’s set at Winter’s wedding. We finally get to see what happened with Summer and Lana’s ex from Summer’s perspective, and boy was I not expecting that!

I never expected to feel sorry for Summer and yet I did. Maybe not so much for what she did to Lana. But for the treatment she receives from everyone else. That is, everyone except Archie.

Meet cute where Archie thinks she’s Winter and we’re off!

He protects her from the worst of the cattiness the girls try to throw her way while somehow making himself out to be the best possible boyfriend material in front of her parents. Obviously without them knowing what’s going on!

The way Winter interferes with their relationship is comical. And yet it gives Archie the shove he needs for their romance to take it to the next level. Unfortunately, the timing wasn’t the best it could have been. Although, that’s kind of the point of a romance isn’t it? For you to be left going “NOOOO!!!!” about the timing?

When it all finally comes together Camilla was able to surprise me yet again! I won’t spoil it for you, but I wasn’t expected that ending!

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this review, on Friday I‘ll be reviewing the final book in the Bluebell Castle trilogy, Starlight Over Bluebell Castle by Sarah Bennett. Continue to read further down to find out about the author and any extra giveaways available.

Author Bio

Camilla is an engineer turned writer after she quit her job to follow her husband on an adventure abroad.

You can check out Camilla on Bookbub, Pinterest and the below socials.

March 2, 2020January 30, 2021

From Thailand with Love – Camilla Isley

Welcome back everyone, after having to force myself to finish the last book I read I had a great time jumping into the fifth book in the First Comes Love series. Of which I read and reviewed the 4^th book, To the Stars and Back last year.

Within 2 pages I fell in love with Winter and the antics she was getting up to. By the time I finished reading the first day (can’t remember how many chapters that was…) I knew I was going to love this book. How could I not when I found myself laughing so much in such a short period of time?

As I got further and further into the story, I loved Winter more and more. She’s so sassy, confident and focussed against all odds. How could I not love it? Even some of her plotting had me cracking up coz it’s exactly what I’d do in her position.

Logan’s side also had me chuckling. Yet once they’re out on their expedition and the exciting stuff happens, I found myself loving him as well. I don’t want to ruin the book by talking about how exciting this is. But I’d like to compare it to Indiana Jones, maybe a bit of the Mummy in there too.

I flew through this book and didn’t even care that my partner wanted to watch a YouTube video and the next morning stay in bed rather than be with me while we were at a hotel celebrating our 8-year anniversary. Why? Coz it meant I got to read some more!

After finishing this book, I made the decision that I needed to read the rest of the series and went and bought the collection of the first three books. Sometime in the future you’ll see those reviews. I’m just not sure when that’ll happen just yet.

If you love romance, humour and action/drama in your stories then you need to go and buy this and read it RIGHT NOW. Each book in the series is a standalone. There is a minor detail in this book that would slightly (not really since it’s a romance) ruin the 4^th book. But otherwise you don’t need to worry about reading them in order.

Just go and get this and read it now! GO!

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this review; on Wednesday I’ll be introducing a new series of posts and on Friday I’ll be reviewing Breathe of Passion by Lisa Kessler. Continue to read further down to find out about the author and any extra giveaways available.

Author Bio

Camilla is an engineer turned writer after she quit her job to follow her husband on an adventure abroad.

You can check out Camilla on her various social media accounts including BookBub and Pinterest.

June 17, 2019January 30, 2021

To the Stars and Back – Camilla Isley

Welcome back everyone, from the wilds of Tanzania we’re back to western countries. Specifically, Los Angeles in America with a nobody engineering professor and a famous Hollywood actor.

I started this one on a Friday night after writing up a bunch of stuff for my professional blog and some more notes for my assignment. By Sunday morning I was finished. And no, I didn’t read all day Saturday, I was actually busy studying!

I think after the emotional intensity of Outlander and Game of Thrones finishing, I just needed something light-hearted and easy. And this fit into that need perfectly.

It had the girl at the lowest point in her life having a chance meeting with a famous actor who she doesn’t even know exists. He falls for her quiet beauty and the fact that she doesn’t know who he is. Romance blossoms. He stuffs it up royally in an attempt to protect her from his world.

And of course, the grand gesture and pursuit to make it all work out in the end. But what I loved about this gesture was that he did the little things that count. Not some big grand showy thing that money buys. He did things that were meaningful to her.

Why can’t more guys be like this?

I definitely needed this break in something uplifting before jumping into the next book, coz that’s another heavy one. So this was a great break, quick, easy win for me that just worked on so many levels for me. Including the fact that the writing just felt so natural that I didn’t feel like anything was forced.

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed this review, next week I will be reviewing Heart of Stone by Ben Galley thanks to a Write Reads tour! Continue to read further down to find out about the author and any extra giveaways available.

Author Bio

Camilla is an engineer turned writer after she quit her job to follow her husband on an adventure abroad.

You can find her on the socials below as well as BookBub and Pintrest.