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Monday 2 August 2021

🍺 THE SPEAKEASY TAPROOM 🍺 #5 + #6 🍺 The World of True North 🍺

 ©  Bianca ✰ Janeane 




The Speakeasy Taproom Series is a complete standalone series, but it is part of the new World of True North Series and slightly connected aka a spin-off to Sarina Bowen's True North Series!
So if you're weird like us - read #Bittersweet first ☺


wildflower
Mae Wood

• Book #5 in the Speakeasy Series
 • 2 August 2021
• Standalone Sexy Small-Town Romance


★★★★
4.4 Stars

When the prize is love, sometimes you get stung. But if you’re lucky, you just might hit the sweet spot…

Juliana Burton needs a medal at Speakeasy's beer festival to push her brand-new, woman-owned brewery into the spotlight. She thinks she knows just how to do it, too--with a beer made exclusively from Vermont ingredients. Hops, check. Barley, check. But what she really needs is the best honey in the state. Too bad the only thing standing in her way is six feet tall, smokin’ sexy, and her secret high school crush.

After a very public disaster in Boston, Riggs Lyon is home with his teenage son in tow.  Riggs is taking over the family beekeeping business with an eye to offload it and start life over somewhere where "Lyin' Lyon" isn't a joke. Selling honey to Juliana doesn't make business sense. She can't afford the high prices Lyon honey fetches in specialty shops and farmer's markets. But somehow, he’s having trouble saying no to anything she asks him for, whether it’s in the hive or in the bedroom.



ARC received for an honest review
 
Yaaaaass b*tches! We're back in the True North-verse, and I can't get enough!
 
And not only are we back in Vermont, we are back at the Speakeasy.

Firstly,I am loving the older characters in these books - nothing wrong with the younguns except I am an old fart and it can get hard to relate to the youngsters at times - listen to me, I am one breath away from saying "back in my day!"

And I am loving the vibe of the women forging their way in very male oriented business.

I love the way Juliana is still crushing on her high school crush Riggs.  I adore Riggs with his son.

And the snark and bite between our lovelies as they fight their attraction to each other heats up the pages.

I really enjoyed this installment of the Speakeasy series, and could read stories like this for years to come. 





Juliana + Riggs

Juli is finally this close to her dream: opening her own brewery with her three friends. The first female-owned Vermont brewery.
Riggs is the guy who has the expensive honey she needs for one of her beers.
And he's also her lifelong crush - ever since she was 14 years old!
He left town and got married in the big city. But now he's not married anymore and he's running his family's honey business ...

LET THE FUN TIMES BEGIN! 



 
Adorable!
Another very sweet and vermonty romance. And a very mature one again - I love that.
We get so many cute beer and honey moments!
I really enjoyed reading this.
Juliana and Riggs were really adorable together. A kind of crush to enemies to lovers kind of romance. Really funny and sparky! And of course a bit heartbreaking and sad and we didn't have the easiest way to our happily ever after! But we got there!

And like I say in all my World of True North reviews ... I could read these kinds of books every day for the rest of eternity!

I also wouldn't mind seeing this whole world on Netflix one day!

Can't wait to get more Vermont soon!

WILDFLOWER was an adorable + funny + very Vermonty mature romance! I loved reading it! Run to your nearest amazon for your own Riggs - he'll be sold out in no time!

 
 LINKS TO THE BOOK
 

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firefly
Krystyna Allyn

• Book #6 in the Speakeasy Series
 • 2 August 2021
• Standalone Sexy Small-Town Romance


★★★★
4.125 Stars

It’s my last night in New York. And the woman of my dreams is three feet away, expertly twirling a bottle of vodka behind the bar and making the perfect pour. I’ve never seen anyone as beautiful as Melody, with her enigmatic eyes and a gorgeous smile. All I have to do is introduce myself. And then...


I choke. And my chance for something--anything--with her is gone.


Months later, I think I’m dreaming when I see her doing bartender tricks here in Vermont. Now all I can think about is having those long, beautiful, fingers performing their magic on my body.


But I’m pretty sure she’s hiding something. It’s painfully obvious she’s keeping me at arm’s length just when I need to hold her close. She brings out my protective instincts, but I’ve got problems of my own. If I’m not careful, I’ll destroy everything I’m trying to build.


Losing her again might break me this time, because now I can’t imagine life without the light of my Firefly.




ARC received for an honest review
 
Want to meet me at the Speakeasy (really, you do) want to meet me at the Speakeasy, No ifs or buts about it.
 
I mean, who doesn't want some Cocktail-esque entertainment while they drink.
 
Trevor does, that's for sure.  I loved that they found each other in Vermont. I liked that they acted on the spark - eventually.
 
But ugh, communicate people! This hiding stuff from each other just asks for drama, and it was drama for drama's sake in my opinion.  You say you love each other but can't talk about this - ugh, it got me not liking the story as much.  I disliked most of the last 25% because of it.
 
But this is just a me thing, it won't bother most people I am sure.
 
I did like that they did eventually remove heads from sphincters and TALKED to each other hahah

I say it all the time, but these books would be a great Netflix series that I would watch the sh!t out of!






Melody + Trevor

Mel is a bartender. She's going to college and dreams of having her own bar one day.
But her family life is horrible and she has to escape her mom's Brooklyn house. So she ends up in Vermont working at Speakeasy.
Trevor was in New York for a few months for a job. But now he's back home in his beloved Vermont, trying to get his own company started.
And then he sees her at a bar. The girl he never had the guts to ask out back in New York ...

LET THE FUN TIMES BEGIN!!! 



 
Adorable!

I really liked reading this. It was cute and funny and sparky. I just didn't love the way it developed. You just know that her insecurity and his not telling her about his life would break them up. They were so immature and idiotic. I hated the last 30% - well not the very end. But it was just not my type of drama. I want creative drama if there has to be any drama at all.
I still liked reading it, but I got so mad at everything toward the end.

But still - like I say in all my World of True North reviews ... I could read these kinds of books every day for the rest of eternity!

I also wouldn't mind seeing this whole world on Netflix one day!

Can't wait to get more Vermont soon!

FIREFLY was a sweet + funny + sad + frustrating romance! Run to your nearest amazon for your own Trev - he'll be sold out in no time!

 
 LINKS TO THE BOOK
 

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Books by Sarina Bowen:

🍎🍏🍎 True North Book #1 🍎🍏🍎


🏳️‍🌈 Wes & Jamie 🏳️‍🌈

Good Boy


The Company Book #1
  


Hockey #5

  


YA Rockstar Romance-ish

   





Sarina Bowen writes steamy, angsty Contemporary Romance and New Adult fiction from the wilds of Vermont.

She is the author of The Ivy Years, an award-winning series set amid the hockey team at an elite Connecticut college.

Waiting for more Ivy Years? You can read more about upcoming volumes in the four book series at http://www.sarinabowen.com/theivyyears

Also, the Gravity series.

Sarina enjoys skiing, espresso drinks and the occasional margarita. She lives with her family, eight chickens and more ski gear and hockey equipment than seems necessary.

To be kept abreast of new releases, please feel free to sign up for the mailing list at http://www.sarinabowen.com/contact.

Or visit the her Facebook page, or tweet her @sarinabowen.