Dear Reader,

I have a confession. I committed a major oops last night. I was warned. I nodded that I got it. Then I turned around and did exactly what the author warned me not to do.

Let’s go to the beginning of the story….

Last night I was on TikTok. I’m on the BookTok side of TikTok, which is authors talking about authoring or other readers sharing about books they’ve read, and funny stories are thrown in the mix.

An author posted a three sentence summary of a scene from her book that hooked me.

It was one of those put down everything I’m reading an start this story now hooks.

I left a comment that I’d downloaded the book to my Kindle, which I had.

The author said in the comment stream, “Make sure you read part one and part two first.”

I replied with a heart emoji and went about my evening.

At 11:00 p.m. I curl under the covers and decide to give the book a try.

This story was intense. It had emotional drama. It had danger. The male leade was a little angry.

Then I remembered it was an enemies to lovers closed door romance. The funny thing was these people were not connecting. It was a bunch of him being angry and her proving that his anger is unfounded.

Here is a little digression that is relevant. When we lived in Arizona, I watched Spanish soap operas. We call them novelas. I learned how to speak Spanish watching novelas, primarily because the plot lines matched what I described in the above sentence and I could use context to determine the meaning.

So I told myself….Oh, this is a novela.

I was invested.

Is an unalived relative going to return? Will there be a car breaking down that results in accusations of sabotage? What is going to happen to get these two people together? I’m thinking the guy would have to go into a coma and there would be a tearful confession to get these two together.

The story unfolded. The character pivot to happily ever after was amazing.

I clapped– for the characters, for the author for being so wonderful, and for myself for choosing the story.

Then

The book jungle (a.k.a. Amazon) recommended the other two books in the series.

This first character’s story was good. I liked a couple of the other characters. I’m in. That’s when I realized– I accidentally read book three.

I did exactly what the author warned me not to do.

She had written the third story so well, I didn’t feel lost. She had written the third story so well, I loved the main character. This story was so well written, I waited for the metaphorical coma for the guy to make a change.

My chagrin was forthcoming. It said on the cover, next to the characters hands: Book three.

Color me embarassed.

So yeah. If you’re looking for a series with rich people, suspense, intense conflicts, and characters you can cheer for S.A. Thomas is an author you’ll want to check out.