Hello fellow book lovers, or those of you who have been enticed by the word “Smutathon,” happy end of February! I hope you all had a great month! Now first and foremost I didn’t get to read as much as I’d have liked this month, largely down to a stint of night shifts and on-call which left me rather knackered and a lot of zipping between Preston and Sheffield for various things which meant reading got thrown by the wayside a little. However, I did manage to read a few books this month, and in doing so decided to take part in the “Smutathon.” For those of you who have never heard of this concept (because I hadn’t!), it is essentially a month where you focus your reading time and attention on books of the romance genre. It usually takes place in February because it ties in nicely with Valentine’s day and was the brain-child of some popular book-reviewers who I often look to for bookish inspiration. If you want to get hard-core into it, then there are challenges etc that you can aim to complete and hundreds of recommended book titles to sink your teeth into. I just figured it was a great month to get stuck into some easy-reading romance novels, so that’s what I did! So without further ado, here are the books I read as part of the Smutathon…

**Disclaimer… Before anyone gets too excited /  disappointed; although it is called the “Smutathon,” none of the books I chose to read were particularly eyebrow raising, so if you want fifty shades style shinanigans it’s not what you’ll be finding here…

THE WRONG KNICKERS – BRYONY GORDON

This is like the real-life version of Bidget Jones! This book is laugh out loud funny, cringingly embarrassing and I struggled to put it down. I honestly thought this was purely fictional but nope, these are in fact the hilarious and humiliating real-life memoirs of the author. This book takes you on the journey of the author in her quest to find love and become a successful 21st-century woman with all the disasters and short-comings along the way. This book is relatable rambunctious and at times downright hysterical. For anyone who is a Bridget Jones fan or finds her a relatable character, I recommend you pick up this book!

P.S. I Still Love You – Jenny Han

This is the second in the ‘To all the Boys I Loved Before’ trilogy which I decided to pick up as I loved the recent Netflix movie and unexpectedly really enjoyed the first book in the series. Once again, there’s a lot of teen angst, cute young romance and many relatable scenes for the reader making you want to laugh an cry. It was a nice easy read after a hard day when I wanted to pick up something that wasn’t going to fry my little brain and I was excited to hear that Netflix has recently announced that this book is due to become a movie too! I’ll most certainly be keeping my eyes peeled for that and in the meantime will probably find the time to enjoy the third and final book in the series.

Roomies – Christina Lauren

This was my first time reading a book by this author and I actually really enjoyed it. Once again an easy, humorous read but with quite a bit more steam than Jenny Han’s books which are definitely aimed at a younger audience. It follows the story of Holland a young woman in New York who’s struggling to find her purpose in life and Calvin, an Irish, Julliard graduate with an expired VISA who is now busking to make ends meet. The two find their stories become entwined when Calvin is given a shot as the lead musician in Holland’s Uncle’s Broadway musical, and in order to work legally in the USA, he needs to get hitched. Safe to say Holland is the very willing volunteer and feels this is surely a way for everyone to get what they want, or is it…? This is a great holiday read so if you’re heading off for some winter sun I recommend you pack this to take along.

Can You Keep A Secret? – Sophie Kinsella

Sophie Kinsella has always been one of my go-to authors for a light-hearted, laugh out loud funny, romance read. I always take a Kinsella novel on a beach holiday to keep me entertained and so far, they have never disappointed. I really enjoyed this stand-alone book about a woman who spills all her secrets to a stranger on a plane during a spot of turbulence only to find he’s actually the head of the company she works for. Needless to say a lot of embarrassment, hilarity and eventually romance ensues. Definitely a great read for a cosy night in.

So there you have it, my Smutathon reads. This book list won’t be for everyone, especially those who avoid romance novels like the plague, but I like a good sizzling read every once in a while so I make no apologies for that! If this sort of thing Is for you, or you have any smutathon reading recommendations, pop them in the comments below. March will be back to a bit of everything again so those of you who aren’t fans of the old steamy reads can tune back in at the end of next month!

 

***DISCLAIMER – I do not own the pictures of the books in this post and the images are therefore referenced. ***