Chelsea Abdullah’s The Stardust Thief weaves an exciting magic-laden tale with some twists & turns I wasn’t expecting & plenty of dramatic moments that propel the story forward.

Loulie al-Nazari is the Midnight Merchant. She’s also the survivor of a horrendous attack against her tribe that resulted in the loss of her entire family. After it was over, & she had only a compass remaining, a jinn named Qadir offered to be her guide.

In present-day, the Sultan discovers Loulie’s identity & she’s sent on a quest for a relic. Unbeknownst to the mercurial Sultan—who’s made it his business to eradicate jinn—is that Qadir accompanies her. So does his son Mazen who’s in disguise as his brother, head of a group of jinn hunters, thanks to a relic.

Loulie & the rest of the group find so much on their journey across the desert, including the answers to some questions that have plagued her since she lost her family.

There’s a complexity to the situation between humans & jinn, with both sides capable of violence & danger. The story is detailed & filled with stirring imagery.

For whatever reason I never became fully invested in the characters & their journey but I did really enjoy aspects of this read & I think it will appeal to many fantasy readers.

TBH the hero might have made me roll my eyes a few times or so 😆 but Rebecca Zanetti’s Unforgiven gave me the kind of uncomplicated thrills and excitement I was looking for.

With this book another member of the Deep Ops team gets his HEA—whether he accepts it or not.

Sexy Brit Jethro Hanson has had a lot of lovers but mostly of the one night only variety. When he meets ice queen professor Gemma Falls he immediately makes snap judgements about her, based on his own past.

It turns out single mom Gemma has lots of secrets & might not be as icy as he thought. But someone’s targeting both of them.

As mentioned at the beginning of the review, despite Jethro’s many fine attributes, his appearance, charm, intelligence, physical prowess & save-the-day-ness, his judgments about Gemma seem largely unfounded to me & he isn’t self-aware of them fast enough/deeply enough for my taste.

But in general it’s sweet watching him fall for Gemma & her daughter & seeing how much the team values & cares for him. The sense of found family—& the shared life they’re building in the neighborhood—is heartwarming.

This was a fast-paced read that was great for the moment & my mood—& to me that’s so satisfying.

I was influenced by Hannah Whitten’s blurb to read AG Slatter’s The Path of Thorns, an ultimately hopeful fantasy that horrified or saddened me in moments but always held me in its thrall.

Asher Todd is to be the new governess at Morwood. From the first it’s evident that Asher Todd has many secrets & those are slowly revealed to the reader in moments that are really quite satisfying.

This is a story about the nasty horrors inside people and families, & the things that even kind people are willing to do for a love that isn’t guaranteed.

It’s heavy, gothic, & emotionally unsettling; it’s eerily lovely. There’s magic: witches & werewolves & persecution of both, & the protagonist herself is complicated in what she’s done & for the reasons why she’s done it.

Though there are romantic elements on the periphery, this is not a romance.

This was a disturbing, engrossing read & I had a lot of fun with it.

Isn’t it amazing when you read an author & you immediately think, I need to read more of her books?

I loved Tanked by Mia Hopkins, a hot (!) second chance romance between two people who hooked up years three years earlier & reconnect during the pandemic.

This book has a gesture that I think will win over readers everywhere—lead Angel Rosas makes sure lead Deanna Delgado’s phone is charging when they go to sleep on multiple occasions 🥺😆.

I was more than a little in love with Angel when the book ends, he’s so sexy but also so earnest and sincere when it comes to Deanna. He manufactures a fantasy for her that is 🔥 but he also knows how to reassure her whenever she expresses vulnerability or insecurity & that is a sterling hero in my mind.

The interplay between Deanna & Angel is not only sensual as all get-out, it’s also rooted in real love & respect & loyalty. It has one of those things I love: leads standing up for each other with family—not to mention leads who communicate their needs & wants with one another. Especially when it comes to sex and Angel’s participation in underground fighting.

The stakes feel big in this one: I think it’s only the second book I’ve read that’s set during the pandemic & there are references to death & isolation. The business Angel & his family own is struggling & Deanna is laid off. There’s also just “normal” challenging family dynamics.

But this couple & the community surrounding them is strong, & I really love how Hopkins portrays both elements.

There are a couple of things that didn’t get tied up as clearly as I would like but if you’re looking for a contemporary romance that serves up plenty of steam & feels I definitely recommend this one!

📖 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 😆.

Awkward but well-meaning is part of my brand so I definitely related to aspects of Kris Ripper’s Book Boyfriend.

The narration is confessional & conversational, like I was listening to a friend tell me why he had decided to write a thinly-veiled romance expressing his secret love for a best friend—instead of just telling the best friend he loved them in person 🤭😆.

Preston Harrington the Third, aforementioned writer, has a lot to learn about expressing himself but he is a good friend. The problem for Preston is that he wants more from his relationship with his best friend, Art, ever since they kissed as drunk college students one time.

Book Boyfriend is friends & roommates to boyfriends (kissing only) romance, with a little family drama & a new friendship thrown in. Preston’s writing journey also takes center stage as his feelings for Art become the inspiration for the book he ends up eventually publishing.

This is a sweet romance & I could feel the friendship between them but also I kinda felt sorry for Preston as the book progresses.

Yes, Preston makes some bad decisions, yes, he’s oblivious sometimes, & yes, it feels like he should just be able to say the words😆 but I don’t feel like the other characters are always fair in how they assess Preston. Not to mention that Art doesn’t always come across as a perfect friend either but there doesn’t seem to be enough consideration of that to me 🤷🏻‍♀️.

In the end Book Boyfriend is a quick read that’s often adorable & personable but it also feels uneven.

📖 Q: have you ever lived in a small town? I’m currently living in a town that has around 1,000 residents. If you have, did you like it?

Casey McQuiston’s I Kissed Shara Wheeler is wild—I had no idea what was going to happen—& it was so fun & unexpected (but maybe should have expected since McQuiston is always serving up something new!).

The book basically opens with Chloe Green—who’s long been competing with Shara for valedictorian—realizing that before “Perfect” (said sarcastically) Shara disappeared, she kissed her & Shara’s neighbor Rory—not to mention Shara has a boyfriend, Smith.

Chloe has enough questions about all of this to fill an investigative reporter’s notebook.

Shara only encourages the mystery, leaving a trail of clues on pink stationary that Chloe, Rory, & Smith work together to find.

I feel like I’m still putting together this book, which explores what makes some teen girls come across as perfect & approachable versus scary & mean. That feels really important to me, not to mention how the book addresses Christian hypocrisy, being non-binary (& recognizing & celebrating that), & living—and being happy in a small towns—especially when you’re not what some of those “Christians” want.

(Like maybe if you’re a Pomeranian—like Chloe’s parents suggest—& the people around you only want poodles.)

The book’s incisive & also soo funny, with quips about vampire hunters & Phantom of the Opera & much more, & heartwarming moments as Chloe finds friends in people she wasn’t expecting. Seeing Chloe—a very smart person—realize her own feelings for Shara (& vice versa) is amusing & relatable.

On the whole the book is both cutting & warm, hard & sweet.

My only quibble with this one is just that at the end of the day, I still didn’t feel like I entirely knew Shara. She still feels somewhat inscrutable to me.

But this is another mega-talented offering from Casey McQuiston—honestly I think the author can write anything.

Cute, fun, & film-centric, Timothy Janovsky’s Never Been Kissed is an estranged BFFs to renewed friends to romantic partners NA romance featuring a drive-in loving lead who has—as the title suggests—never been kissed.

I’ve never been to a drive-in but it’s a setting in this romance that evokes feelings of nostalgia & summer lightheartedness.

22 year old Wren Roland has worked there for the last 8 years. This year he’s manager & forced to work with his once closest friend, Derick, whom he almost kissed & who dropped him like a bad book in college.

Things I really enjoyed about this book: the demisexual rep, the somewhat nerdy leads (said by a nerd herself), & how Wren & Derick work to repair their relationship & improve how they talk to each other.

Less solid for me is the portrayal of Derick, whose actions aren’t always understandable. This is a case where I feel like I would have particularly loved dual narration.

Never Been Kissed is an easygoing read that I think some readers will be really moved by, but in the end for me it was enjoyable but not a read I fell in love with.

Books with lots of magic or just a hint of it are things I seek out & I’ve long been a fan of Sarah Addison Allen’s swoony & magic-tinged fiction with romantic elements. So I’m sad to say that Allen’s upcoming release Other Birds unfortunately doesn’t work for me.

This book takes place on Mallow Island, a beloved place immortalized in a famous piece of literature authored by a now-semi-reclusive writer. There’s a set of condos on the island where various people & ghosts—the narrators of the book—come together to live & grow & eventually solve a mystery or two.

Featuring a couple of twists, a unique Southern setting, & found family, Other Birds also has Allen’s distinctive voice. I love how she renders the world full of possibility.

But the stories never fully come together for me in a way that’s moving. The characters feel somewhat flat for me & I was never fully invested in the story.

I’ll look forward to more books by the author in the hopes that I’ll love them more but this one isn’t a fave.

(1) Basically every time I see an old house for sale I want to buy it, (2)characters looking for (and finding!) a home is one of my fave romance themes EVER, (3) & I happen to think that charmer heroes who love to tease & walk around with their baseball hats on backwards are all kinds of cute so…did I love this book? Yes. Yes I loved this book.

In Lucy Score’s Maggie Moves On YouTube sensation + house renovator Maggie Nichols has just temporarily relocated to small-town Idaho to renovate the dilapidated home of a famous writer. She hires Silas Wright, local hottie & talented landscape architect, to redesign the grounds.

Their dynamic is so good. (Stopping myself from repeating “so good” for emphasis.) From their first meeting he comes at her with his charm full-force & she is so matter-of-fact with him, so casual in ignoring his flirting. Flirting that still feels genuine bc he’s a genuinely good guy.

This book is wholesome & got me hot, it’s funny, there’s a cute dog & a mystery or two, there’s found family & relationships that are strengthened. The hero is all-in for the heroine from the beginning—he refers to her internally & to her face as his “future wife” soon after meeting her—& the heroine is a major force with a hammer.

My biggest quibble is that some of those aforementioned relationship issues are resolved too quickly for me, they feel too pat & easy, & I don’t even know if all of those various threads are entirely necessary.

But overall this book is a total delight & I’m really happy I read it.