 Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own. Q: if you had to put these in order of preference how would you do it?: historical romance, contemporary romance, paranormal romance. This is actually an impossible question I think . It would be contemporary & paranormal tied for me & then historical. Well KJ Charles’s The Secret Lives of Country Gentlemen was basically a little slice of heaven. My enemies to lovers greed was quenched by this lovers to vague dislike to lovers again story, I got my steam wants met, & I think this is definitely one of the more romantic KJ Charles books I’ve read… All of which makes for a very happy Jess. Gareth Inglis & Josiah Doomsday are anonymous lovers who have a bit of a bitter break-up thanks mostly to Gareth’s past trauma. Then they unexpectedly meet again when Gareth—now a baronet after the death of his father—moves to his family home & into the life his estranged dad left behind. Unbeknownst to him, his former lover is the leader of a smuggling family within his new community & Gareth has gotten himself involved in a bit of a mess. I just adored how sweet the relationship between Gareth & Joss is. They both want & need certain things from each other & it’s lovely how they make their relationship into a refuge—or maybe just embrace it as one. There are some lovely speeches & a symbolic gesture with pieces of grass *weeping* & it was all what I wanted. There’s plenty of family drama & thrills in this one too & Charles captures this life & these characters so vividly. Can’t wait to return for more books—this was a good one! 5⭐️. Out 03/07.CW: attempted murder. One of the leads was abandoned by his father. Reference to losing loved ones and grief. Child abuse on page. Reference to rape & assault is threatened against secondary character.
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 Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.I know I’ve said this before but the more I read by Alexis Hall the more I’m in awe of how versatile of a writer he is. A Lady for a Duke is just masterful, Paris Daillencourt is like being inside my own brain in some of my most anxious moments, & then Glitterland—which is being rereleased—is another emotional powerhouse. Dark, hopeful, & hilarious by turns, it deals with the topics of depression and a past suicide attempt, among others, offering a book that I think will move & maybe resonate with a lot of readers. At the beginning of Glitterland writer Ash meets model Darian in a one night stand that ends in a rather panicked exit afterwards. They meet again thanks to Darian’s pluck & what follows is the beginning of a relationship, as Ash starts to relax some into his mystifying connection with Darian & how Darian makes him feel. This is not an easy, emotional read despite the moments of hope & the bursts of humor. In the end, Ash is not “cured” of his depression or totally rid of uncertainty. But he can see & feel happiness in that moment & he has found love with someone who is so generous & lovely. So this book isn’t for everyone but, for me, it was another reminder of how much we all need & deserve love, no matter what our brains might sometimes tell us. 5⭐️. Out 01/17.CWs: Suicide ideation. The lead refers to himself as being bipolar, depressive, & having anxiety and describes emotions relating to those. References to past cutting. The lead ceased an RX before the book began bc it made him gain weight. Reference to something being “Not like black urban. Just urban urban.”
 Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.A single parent chef + a smartass businessman temporarily down on his luck & back in the hometown he left as soon as he could. On paper that combo speaks to me. But sadly Kosoko Jackson’s A Dash of Salt & Pepper didn’t live up to my hopes, offering a story of growth & some steam but also one that doesn’t lay solid enough groundwork for the arc of the relationship or of one of the lead’s change of heart. What I think Kosoko Jackson does compellingly in this romance though is portray a titanium-strength friendship between Xavier—said businessman—& his BFF Mya, & give some insight into why Xavier why wears his glib armor. While A Dash of Salt & Pepper doesn’t totally work for me—I found myself skeptical of where the story was taking me—there are still things to appreciate here—including that adorable cover & the dislike to love premise that always has me sitting up & paying attention. 3⭐️. Out 12/06.CW: loss of job, possible failure of business, a joke about JonBenet Ramsey.
 Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince by Timothy Janovsky totalllly surprised me. There was so much to be delighted about in this New Adult novel & I shall enumerate it below in hopes of convincing you to give this one a try: The tropes. Money difference, hate to love, fish out of water, only one bunk bed. All wrapped up in a male male holiday romance that had me singing “all I want for Christmas is you.” A rich guy who’s kinda rude & undergoes a transformation of the heart after he’s cut off by his parents & sent to live with his grandparents. Mental health rep. Matthew Prince Jr. has generalized anxiety disorder & experiences panic attacks on page. When he does, the other lead Hector Martinez helps calm him. I didn’t fall in love with Janovsky’s first book but I’m so glad I gave this one a shot because it was everything I could have wanted. The hate to love arc is wonderfully rendered, with both leads not being at their finest coupled with assumptions they both make, & then a moment of kindness & realization that turns things sweeter between them. This one hit me emotionally on several levels & offers so much holiday goodness. 5⭐️. Out now!CWs: Generalized anxiety disorder. Parents aren’t the most supportive or involved.
 Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC and the publisher for the complimentary finished copy. All opinions provided are my own.If I’m looking for soft & cozy Roan Parrish is always a good bet & the title of this upcoming release--The Rivals of Casper Road—(not to mention those adorable FREAKING PUMPKINS on the cover!!) sucked me in. Give me all the fall stuff. This ended up being everything I said in the first paragraph: soft, cozy. Sweet. Pumpkin-y ;). The basic set-up of this one is that after suffering a big heartbreak Bram Larkspur has moved to Garnet Run, Wyoming, home to some of Parrish’s other beloved characters. His new neighbor is prickly Zachary Glass, a stiff, reserved type who has won the neighborhood Halloween decorating competition several years in a row. Thanks to a couple of unfortunate moments they end up as rivals for a brief moment, & then they become something else (hint: something with smooching). This is just a fast, heartwarming read between a prickly & the sunshine one with an epilogue that ended things on an awww note. I’m really happy that these two Harlequin releases of Roan’s just go for it & these covers make me all kinds of happy. 4⭐️. Out now!CWs: references to former anti-Semitism & bullying. Zachary has self-consciousness and insecurities about appearance now. Zachary’s sister disappeared when they were teens. Bram was cheated on in past.
 Thanks to author KD Casey for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.Baseball? In real life I don’t know ya 😆. But serve it to me in bookish romance form & I am one very excited person. KD Casey & Lauren Blakely have released another MM sports novella, Dirty Steal, & it offers a satisfying hookup ➡️ teammates ➡️roommates ➡️ lovers again arc. Derek Miller & Adam Chason are two baseball players who hook up one night, neither of them exactly looking for something permanent. Later, Adam is traded to Derek’s team & they unexpectedly become apartment-mates. Awkward forced proximity, anyone? 🤣 These leads have a sweet & winning love story with some steam thrown in. While I didn’t feel the zip, the zest, as much in this one as I loved in the first novella, this one too is sure to please so many of us looking for that lovely trifecta of sports + kissing + novella. 4⭐️. Out now![ID: an ebook sits on a wooden desk. To the upper left is two orange zinnias in a vase & a red prayer plant. Centered above is a woven brown pumpkin.]Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. This book isn’t quite Assassin Lite but there are so many things that got to my heart nonetheless. 🌻 Like a deliberately annoying lead + the lead who gets exasperated by him. 🌻 A grumpy & the sunshine combo. 🌻 Forced proximity. 🌻 I have to trust you (even though I shouldn’t) if I want to survive. 🌻 Let’s make a home together. In N. R. Walker’s The Kite Harry & Asher are both assassins who go on the run together once they realize that hits have been put out on both of them. Neither man is quick to trust so that makes the inevitable walls coming down all the better. The steam had me fanning my cheeks, the caretaking scenes grabbed at my heart, & I was genuinely happy to see them at the end, forging a new, safe life separate from the violence of their past. Be warned: there’s a lot of violence in this one & lots of deaths, some committed by the leads. In an effort to establish their own safety Harry also threatens a villain’s family in front of the villain only & while I think he was bluffing I prefer my leads to make less threats against possibly innocent people please & thanks. But on the whole The Kite really satisfied. 4.5 ⭐️. Out now!
 Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. Ahhh this book. If you haven’t read a KD Casey book you must! Please 🥺. KD Casey is rapidly becoming one of my fave writers & for me the author shares many of those characteristics I love so much about Kate Clayborn’s writing: they’re deceptively quiet-ish plot wise but they’re absolutely stunning stories with so many romantic, smaller moments that add up to huge incontrovertible proof that two people have found their person 🥺🥺🥺. Oh yeah, & there’s baseball 😅. In Fire Season Reid Giordano, a recovering alcoholic who’s trying to find his way back professionally to the pitching he was once capable of—is traded from the minors to the Oakland Elephants. There he meets Charlie Braxton, a star pitcher who’s known for not saying a lot & who’s keeping his impending divorce a secret. They become friends & eventually more in the midst of stresses like Reid possibly being temporary in Oakland, Charlie’s experiences with anxiety, & Reid’s continual work toward maintaining his sobriety. Despite the last paragraph the overall tone of Fire Season is of hope & growth & making deliberate choices to try to be better & stronger. I absolutely love this book & I think its romantic moments—like them dancing together in a kitchen—will live with me rent free. Please check this author out! & then come chat with me 😆. 5 ⭐️. Release date: 07/19.
 Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. I’ve seen people recommend Josh Lanyon before & a 1940s, atmospheric read with a murder mystery seemed like a good place to start. It feels difficult to sum up my feelings on Snowball in Hell but basically: on one hand, the book’s portrayal of how dangerous it was for queer men in the 1940s feels authentic to real life but on the other, from a romance-reading perspective the book is darker than I expected it would be. And while I think this is book 1 in a series, I didn’t totally appreciate how I felt hopeful but not necessarily settled about where the leads are together or separately at the end of this one. In Snowball in Hell Lieutenant Matt Spain is tasked with finding who murdered the son of a wealthy man & left his body in a tar pit. Also helping him investigate, but on an unofficial level, is reporter Nathan Doyle. Bringing in some lingering trauma from their respective war experiences, their various perspectives on their sexuality & the shame & in Matt’s case, denial, about some aspects of it, & the homophobia of the time period in general, Snowball in Hell is not a light read. The murder mystery aspect is fun, & seeing Matt & Nathan connect, particularly while they’re basically cut off from the world on Christmas Eve & Christmas, is touching. I hope that the next books will allow both men to come to some peace in how they view themselves & their sexuality & carve out a space for their relationship that feels relatively safe. 3 ⭐️. Out now!
 Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. 📖 Q: what’s your ideal amount of angst in a romance using stove burner terminology? I am low to medium 😆. I see people recommended Rachel Reid’s romance Heated Rivalry all the time. *ticking off boxes* It’s a MM sports romance between on-going enemies who are sexxing each other up anytime their teams are in the same town. The Long Game, Reid’s upcoming release, follows that same Heated Rivalry couple—Ilya & Shane—now that they’ve said “I love you” but while they’re still keeping their relationship a secret from pretty much anyone because of the fact that they’re widely known as (supposedly) hating each other on & off the ice. I have two different ways of responding to this book (and the series overall). I recognize that it’s a strong romance & I can see why it’s beloved. I gave The Long Game 4.5 stars bc of reasons outlined below. But I think this is a classic not you, me situation bc these books hit me hard on the angst-meter & that’s not my fave romance-reading sensation in general. Though Ilya & Shane are a couple in this book they still have a lot of issues to work through, including what they think will happen if they are to reveal that they’re a couple, what each of them wants, & challenges Ilya is experiencing with his mental health. I found some parts of this book emotionally difficult to read & TBH as much as I was happy for this couple & enjoy Reid’s writing I was also feeling a little feelings cloud about picking it back up 😅. Setting aside my feelings cloud & returning to my review opening 😆, this duology is great. The chemistry between Ilya & Shane is off the charts, they’re convincingly built up as characters who love to compete *and* kiss, Ilya is hilarious & always pushing the envelope, I love how much they obviously care about the other despite their missteps, & the ending is satisfying. But it hurt me to get there 😆. 4.5 ⭐️. Release date: 04/26
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