Love List – Dress for Family Photos and Mob Romances

This week’s Love List I’m sharing the dress I got for family photos, a cookbook, and a few of my favorite mob romances, let’s dive in:

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• Are you signed up for my newsletter? I send a weekly newsletter with seasonal recipe suggestions and I do a monthly faves overview – here is Septembers!
• Sams absolute favorite thing ever? This loofa and Mario soap! If you’re looking for a small ish gift for boys, cannot recommend a loofa and this soap more. Sam loves it and can give himself a bath!
• Got this dress for family photos, how cute, and it was on sale for like $45. We’re doing navy this year (one person gets to pick the color, and then everyone dresses that color. Last year it was black.

• I got this cookbook called Oversharing at the library to see if I liked it, loved, going to buy it!
• Mob romances – I love them. We just recorded a podcast (I share a podcast with my bestie Lynn so it’s the PhiLynnIt podcast) about them for next week. And just to clarify, I know absolutely NOTHING about actual organized crime. I’m here for the fictional obsession, extravagant gifts, and men who would burn down the world for their women. Not the criminal activity. Obviously.

• Here are a few of my favorite mob romances:

  • Bad Bishop by L.J. Shen – This was my gateway into mafia romance, and WHAT an introduction. A deaf heroine forced into an arranged marriage with a completely unhinged mafia man? The things Tiernan does are absolutely outrageous, and somehow I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.
  • Twisted Pawn by L.J. Shen – I loved Bad Bishop, but this second book? ABSURDLY MUCH. Achilles is ruthless, obsessive, and completely devoted, but it’s those unexpectedly tender moments that absolutely got me. Five stars, an incredible audiobook, and one I’ve already revisited.
  • Beautiful Things Obey by K. Webster – A feisty mortician who works for the mob and a dangerous man who is completely captivated by her. She demands $10,000 for breakfast, he agrees, and honestly, I was sold. Dark, wild, and impossible to put down.
  • Captive Audience by Julie Weaver – This man is a stalker, deletes her dating apps, adds his credit card to her phone, and counts her freckles. In real life? CALL THE POLICE. In fiction? Apparently I gave it four stars. I even asked Nick if he’d counted my freckles, and his answer was hilarious.
  • Fallen Rook by L.J. Shen – An MM mafia romance that’s equal parts spicy, emotional, and surprisingly sweet. Enzo and Tomcat absolutely won me over, and I loved the tenderness underneath all the danger.
  • Dangerous Men by Evelyn Ward – A why-choose mafia romance featuring a woman who owns a café/bookstore and several very dangerous men. It’s spicy, entertaining, and has some genuinely funny moments. I immediately started the second book because I needed more.