Today's flashback is The Burrows series by Tara Brown. I read this back in 2016 and back then it was titled The Single Lady Spy series. It's an exciting book series full of suspense, action, and one heck of a kickass heroine. Per the synopsis: Betrayed by her husband. Sold by the government. Owned by a mortal enemy. Underestimated by everyone. It’s been one hell of a week for Evie Evans. And it’s only getting worse.

Each book is told from Evie's perspective, but it's done so well that you get a feel for all of the characters involved.

Have you ever read these books? Are you interested?

Please Note: I only read the first 3.5 books of the series. For some reason, the fourth book eluded me, but I don't really feel like I'm missing anything. If you think I am, please let me know and I'll search for that book so I can read it :)

1. The End of Me

Twelve years ago Evie left behind a dangerous job to be a full-time mother and wife. Now widowed and left to raise her children alone, Evie is prepared for anything. Well, almost anything. There are actually two things she isn't prepared for at all. The first being a sexy young counter intelligence agent named Coop. The other is an arms dealer named Servario. But the world of espionage has changed and unfortunately, so has Evie. The minivan-driving mother of two couldn't be further from the woman she once was and doesn't have time to catch up. At every turn there seems to be a secret or betrayal awaiting the inexperienced spy.

2. The End of Games

See you at Christmas!

The words are still burning a hole in Evie Evans' mind and undergarments. Not that she really has time to think about it. Not with the world ending, as always, and the kids' school starting back up.

But when Evie and the team stumble upon something no one expected, her and Servario are reunited much sooner than anticipated. Only the reunion is not the one they had planned.

Once again she finds herself in the arms of the bad guy and making alliances with the wrong side.

2.5 The End of You

Evie Evans is a spy—she’s just not a very good one.
Years of soccer mom duties have softened her in all the wrong places.
But being thrust back into the spy world and forced to join an elite team of assassins has hardened her up in a hurry.
When the team is sent to Dubai to stop a trafficking ring, she isn’t sure she can stomach the life she is being forced to live.
Of course the affection from the sexy man in her life, Coop, her younger superior officer, should make it all just a little bit more bearable.
But Evie isn’t a girl anymore.
She’s a woman who’s smart enough to know her own heart. She just isn’t sure about the decisions it has been making as of late.
One in particular.

3. The End of Tomorrow

Just as things start to settle into a bit of a routine, a single phone call from a certain arms dealer halts everything. Evie's spy instincts kick into gear, putting being a parent on the back burner. But it's not the only thing taking a backseat to the mission. Evie's love life also takes a hit when Coop decides not to trust Servario's latest tip from the underworld, and accuses her of feelings Evie isn't sure she can deny.

But when Servario's information is confirmed by an attack on a major city, the team is once again swept up in the chaos that comes with protecting the Burrow.

Only this time the mission isn't saving the burrow from the usual suspects. This time it's saving the world from a young woman on the verge of creating something so deadly Evie isn't sure the Burrow should have it either.

But could you end an innocent's life to stop them from ending everything, including tomorrow?

"I'm fighting for you, Emily. I don't even mind the fight because I know in the end that you'll see I'm the better man. But what I won't do is fight for someone who won't even be there in the end. Someone who'll fade away trying to be like everyone else. I won't fight for someone who won't even be the girl I want by the time she chooses me."

Girl Meets Boys by Ari Reavis

Standalone
Release - January 15, 2021
Genre - New Adult Contemporary Romance/love triangle
Heroine POV - 1st person
Heat Level - 4 out of 5/several scenes
Format/Source - eARC provided by the author
Length - 249 pages
Publisher - Indie

Girl meets boy, they fall in love, and live happily ever after. But what happens when, instead of meeting one boy, the girl meets two?

With Emily starting college, she figures it’s the perfect time to break out of her shell and have a new beginning. She doesn’t expect that in rewriting her story, it would include a love triangle.

First she meets Julian. She can’t help but notice his shirts with quotes on them, that match his quirky personality, his crooked smile and ruffled hair. He understands her in ways few others do. That’s what makes her afraid to let him get too close.

Then she meets Will. He’s from a different world, different crowd. When he goes out of his way to show her just how well she fits in his life, she finds herself getting swept up all too easily. Sometimes though, opposites really shouldn’t attract.

Girl meets boys and soon the choice isn’t which one of them is better, but who she’s better with.

You know that Ari Reavis is a talented storyteller when she can get me to read one of my least favorite tropes ever - the love triangle! I tend to stay away from these types of stories, usually because I end up hating someone (the heroine) and I'd rather save myself the pain and the pressure. But I find it hard to resist this author's writing. So here I am and here are my humble thoughts.

Emily was a young woman trying to find herself. Tired of being the shy one, the one hiding in the shadows, she decided that her first year of college was going to be different. New look, new day, new attitude... same girl. She immediately realizes that nothing was going according to plan, however, she did meet a charming boy named Julian. He was a lot like her, he made her feel free to be herself, and he seemed to adore her for just who she was. But she needed more.

Enter Will. He's the campus bad boy, he comes from money, people seem to flock to him like he's the new Messiah, and Emily is instantly captivated. No matter what he does, she can't seem to get enough. He's the one to pull her out of her shell, to get her to try new things, to become a different person. He offers something that Julian cannot provide. Which girl will Emily be in the end?

This story in no way swayed me to start enjoying love triangles, especially when they involve young people. I'm over teenage angst and drama. Growing up is hard and Emily had to take some hard knocks in order to see the light. I'm happy with who she chose, but dang, she made it hard for herself! The author didn't shy away from illustrating the hurdles and hormones and doubts and insecurities that young people face when she created Emily. She also showed how beautiful it is to find oneself and love oneself for all of one's faults and favors.

“Love recognizes no barriers. It jumps hurdles, leaps fences, penetrates walls to arrive at its destination full of hope.” - Maya Angelou

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Ari Reavis is a wife and mother of five. Born in New York and raised in New Jersey, she enjoys staying in, devouring books and watching movies. Her kids are running around, her husband is trying to show her martial arts moves, and she's trying to write. Her day in a nutshell.

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My name is Sage Cross.

I’ve got it all—the man, the money, the mastered dream.

I wasn’t supposed to fall for him. Jacob Storm—Manhattan’s well-known womanizer. It was worth it, though.

The darkness.
The trial.
The scandals.
The secrets.

The world came at us. Against us.

But I’ve worked too hard to lose it all. To get to where I always wanted to be.

Would our love unite us? Or would our empire crumble to the ground—two broken people who know nothing about love succumbing to its perfect poison—darkness.

My name is Sage Cross.

I've got it all-the beauty, the brains, the bank account.

Women hate me. Men want my Louboutins around their necks.

And I blame my father for everything. It's his fault I'm swarming through powerful men in suits while I'm stuck posing as a useless, jobless photo op.

Until he sends the perfect weapon my way: Lincoln Black. Mark my words, I plan to use him. In more ways than one.

What I don't expect coming my way is Jacob Storm, a beautiful, possessive, millionaire who sexed his way through Manhattan.

I spread my legs. My black heart however remains on lockdown.

You've been warned.

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Never again would I allow my heart to become the plaything of someone else.
Never again would I let a man (or men) come between me and my goals.
Never again would I love without feeling the fullness of that love in return.
Not until I knew it was real. And if that took me a lifetime to find, so be it.

Those were my vows, and after all that had happened with Connor and Weston, I was determined to keep them. To protect my heart.
And then he came home, and my vows became his promises.

He held my heart in his hands with reverence and care.
He helped me find my soul’s greatest purpose in life.
He loved me with a love so pure and vibrant, I knew I’d never feel anything like it in a hundred lifetimes.
It was real.

Until it wasn’t.
Until it all came crashing down when I discovered the deep love I thought I’d found was nestled in a web of lies—so soft and silken I hadn’t noticed it was there.
Until it was too late.

I fell for Connor Drake. I didn’t want to; I fought against it, but I fell in love with him anyway. With his words. With his poetry. With him. The gentleness and beauty of his soul that speaks directly to mine. He writes as if he can feel my heart, hear its cadence and compose the exact right lyrics to accompany every beat and flow.

I’m in love with Connor…so why do I feel an inexplicable pull to his best friend, Weston? Grouchy, sullen, brooding Weston Turner, who could cut you down with a look. Fiercely intelligent with a razor sharp wit and acid tongue, he’s the exact opposite of Connor in every way, and yet there’s electricity in the air between us. The thorny barbs Weston wraps around himself can’t keep me away.

But the more time I spend with these men, the more tangled and confused my emotions become. When they both sign up for the Army Reserves during a time of increasing strife in the Middle East, I fear I’ll never unravel my own heart that sometimes feels as if it will tear straight down the middle…for both of them.

It was never love with Daniel and I never thought it would be.
It was only lust from a distance.
Unrequited love maybe.

He’s a man I could never have, for so many reasons.
That didn’t stop my heart from beating wildly when his eyes pierced through me.
It only slowed back down when he’d look away, making me feel so damn unworthy and reminding me that he would never be mine.

Years have passed and one look at him brings it all back.
But time changes everything.
There’s a heat in his eyes I recognize from so long ago, a tension between us I thought was one-sided.

“Tell me you want it.” His rough voice cuts through the night and I can’t resist.
That’s where my story really begins.

Some lives end unfinished, and some transcend time.

After a horrific incident, Swayze finds herself trapped between two lives. Patchy memories and fear for her own safety thrust her into a gut-wrenching journey to uncover the truth.

Will she let her dreams slip away to seek retribution and find the missing pieces to a puzzle that existed a lifetime ago?

“I’m not going to watch you self-destruct. I’m not going to watch you fall in love with another man.”

Or will she discover the only truth that matters?

Epoch pushes the boundaries of what we believe and what we know. It redefines fate and proves that the only thing separating the heart and the soul is an infinite timeline.

“I think a part of you will be mine to love in every life.”

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“In another life, she was my forever.”

An unexpected tragedy leaves Professor Nathaniel Hunt a widower alone with a newborn baby.

He hires a nanny. She’s young, but well-qualified, with a simple life, a crazy name obsession, and a boyfriend she met at the grocery store.

Over time, he discovers she knows things about him—things that happened before she was born—like a hidden scar on his head, his favorite pizza, and how he cheated on a high school Spanish test.

She speaks familiar words and shares haunting memories that take him back to over two decades earlier when he lost his best friend in a tragic accident.

“I’m afraid of what’s going to happen when you realize I’m not her.”

Transcend is a sexy, mind-bending journey that uncovers possibilities, challenges beliefs, and begets the age-old question: is there life after death?

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All I’ve ever wanted was for someone to choose me. My mother didn’t. My father didn’t. The beautiful boy next door, who grew up to marry me, didn’t. Neither did the next man with whom I thought my heart was safe.

Back in the Bay area, three thousand miles from New York City, I can start fresh. Become one with the sea again, rise or fall on the tide of my own choices. But on the first day of my bright new life, the darkest shadows of my past follow me through my office door. The two men whose names are definitely not on my five-year plan.

If I let it consume me—my need for one man, my love for the other—the darkness will swallow me whole. I can’t let that happen. Not again. This time, the waves of emotion crashing against my heart won’t drown me. This time, I get to choose my happy ending.

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“You promised me forever: You lied.”

Tia was five years old when she fell in love with Atticus Kraus. She didn’t care about the castle he lived in, that he was the heir to a vast empire, or that she was the daughter of his housekeeper. She cared about the boy who made her smile, the boy who defied his mother to make her his friend, and the boy who made her feel less alone.

Atticus made it crystal clear her place was right beside him—in play, in life, and in love. He promised her forever, and she promised to wait…

As she turns eighteen Tia is excited with the plans she’s made with her first love and soul mate. Her studies at a top college will ensure she finally moves away from Atticus’s judgemental family and her own toxic mother. With Atticus at her side, she feels the first sense of true happiness.
When suddenly accused and found guilty of stealing a Kraus family heirloom, Tia is sentenced to six years in prison, and her world falls apart. Abandoned and betrayed, this is just the beginning of her nightmare, as once again she finds herself very much alone. How could this happen?
Prison changes her, but it also gives her time: time to forge new friendships, time to learn new skills, and time to plan her revenge. Her life was destroyed by Wicked Little Games, and she knows exactly who’s going to pay…

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