Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.TL; DR Review: often funny, w/ two leads who do the work. This one made me feel very positive about my vulva (is that TMI?). Uptight & agent of chaos is one of my fave couple combos *she says very nonchalantly & not as if she has a major internal squee nearly every time she encounters it.* Karelia Stetz-Waters’s Satisfaction Guaranteed does it really well. Starchy gallery owner & manager Cade Elgin doesn’t really know how to lighten up—which makes her a bit of an anomaly in her free-spirited, unconventional family. Selena Mathis is a celibate sex educator who is trying “to get her shit together on her own.” An artist who isn’t making art, she’s haunted by her last relationship—which was emotionally devastating & the aftermath of which led her to make some decisions she’s still wrestling w/. Cade’s aunt leaves her home & struggling sex toy shop Satisfaction Guaranteed to both of them. On the surface it seems that Cade has the business savvy & Selena has the heart & passion but as the book explores, maybe they’re both more than that. This romance offers a real sense of growth for both leads & a winning sense of humor. It’s sex & body positive & really exciting seeing Cade (& Selena!) learn more about their wants. I stan honest convos about female orgasms & in Cade’s case, love seeing how she can finally experience an orgasm with Selena but also how it’s not a guaranteed situation & that’s okay too. Throughout the latter half of Satisfaction Guaranteed there’s a real hopefulness in where things are going between them & where each character is going on her own & a celebration of bravery—taking a chance. It hits so many of the right notes for me. 4.5 ⭐️. Release date: 06/01.CW:
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Thanks to the publisher for the complimentary finished copy and the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.SYNOPSISOne night wasn’t enough. Danny Ip walks into every boardroom with a plan. His plan for struggling tech company WesTec is to acquire it, shut it down, and squeeze the last remaining revenue out of it for his Jade Harbour Capital portfolio. But he didn’t expect his best friend's younger brother—the hottest one-night stand he ever had—to be there. Tobin Lok has always thought the world of Danny. He’s funny, warm, attractive—and totally out of Tobin’s league. Now, pitted against Danny at work, Tobin might finally get a chance to prove he’s more than just Wei’s little brother. It takes a lot to get under Danny’s skin, but Tobin is all grown up in a way Danny can’t ignore. Now, with a promising patent on the line and the stakes higher than ever, all he can think about is getting Tobin back into his bed—and into his life for good. If only explaining their relationship to Wei could be so easy… Jade Harbour Capital Book 1: Hard Sell Book 2: Going Public MY REVIEWSibling’s best friend is one of those tropes that really gets to me in a good way so Hudson Lin’s Hard Sell’s synopsis had me eager to dive in. Danny Ip is a private equity investor who visits a tech start up so he can make his offer. When he arrives he realizes that Tobin Lok, one of his closest childhood friends & also the brother of his best friend, & *also* the man he hooked up w/ 7 years ago & hasn’t talked to since, is working w/ the company as a consultant instead of a potential buyer. Danny knows that nothing can happen between himself & Tobin. Nothing. Can. Happen. *pause for smooching. Simply put, there are some things that work & don’t work for me about this read. The chemistry between Danny & Tobin is intense & the ways they’re also tender & nurturing are lovely. There’s a real sense for me that they’re special to each other & that their bond is both enhanced by their long history together but that they both respect each other now (thanks to Alexandria Bellefleur’s Hang the Moon for helping me see that part of this trope in a new way). But some aspects of the way the sibling’s best friend trope are done here don’t totally work for me. It’s a little strange how Danny refers to Tobin in his head at the beginning of the book. Maybe “kid” or trying to think of Tobin as a sibling are distancing mechanisms but also Danny hooked up with him 7 years ago so I think that ship has sailed... In addition—& this is something I’ve benefited from in reading other people’s commentary on the trope—Tobin’s brother’s extreme agitation at their relationship doesn’t feel fully nuanced to me. I needed more from that storyline if that’s the direction this trope is going in. & in general, some of the humor just doesn’t work for me. The backstories are engaging, I rooted for both leads, & I definitely wanted their HEA. Moreover, I’m really looking forward to checking out another read from Lin; I just have some quibbles with this one. 3.5 ⭐️ . Release date: 5/25.CW: ABOUT THE AUTHORHudson Lin was raised by conservative immigrant parents and grew up straddling two cultures with often times conflicting perspectives on life. Instead of conforming to either, she has sought to find a third way that brings together the positive elements of both. Having spent much of her life on the outside looking in, Lin likes to write stories about outsiders who fight to carve out their place in society, and overcome everyday challenges to find love and happily ever afters. Her books are diverse romances featuring queer and disabled people of color. When not getting lost in a good story, Lin hosts a podcast, interviews queer people of color, and a does bunch of other stuff. Connect with the Author Website: https://www.hudsonlin.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hudsonlinauthor Twitter: https://twitter.com/hudsonlinwrites Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hudsonlinwrites/ Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/17681173.Hudson_Lin Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Hudson-Lin/e/B07B6RKS72 Thanks for joining me on my stop! To see more of my bookish adventures, you can follow me here.Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.M. A. Grant’s Rare Vigilance hit a real sweet spot for me: it’s a paranormal romance between the bratty but secretly compassionate wealthy heir to a finance throne & the gruff bodyguard who resents his charge...at least for a little while. Bodyguard Atlas Kinkaid doesn’t talk about why he was involuntarily discharged from the armed forces. Regularly stricken with migraines, Atlas is just trying to get by. But then his sister & boss Bea puts an opportunity in front of him: working his preferred hours & guarding the son of the most famous businessperson in their community. His protectee is Cristian Salva. (Whom I imagined as a Theo James type 🤩. Prob not necessary info for this review ). But despite his attraction for Cristian, things happen & Atlas finds himself with BIG stressful decisions to make. Rare Vigilance is a fun ride that kicks off what I think will be a series focusing on the same couple. There’s some kissing, one scene where things go further, & a cliffhanger. Grant sets up things for this couple well—Atlas’s efforts to resist Cristian & the way he tests his control are delightful—& it was an escape to sit inside this world for a while. I won’t ruin the PNR aspect of the book but I love how it plays out amidst a story of capitalism & power & how it’s complicated by Atlas’s awareness that working class people (& maybe others too) are suffering. There are some aspects of this book that don’t feel thoroughly developed to me—I wanted more subtlety & clarity in the transition of Atlas’s feelings toward Cristian, for example—but I’m really excited to have discovered this author & to read her backlist! 4 ⭐️. Release date: 6/22.Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. When I saw who the author of this book is—not to mention the delightfully soft seafoam cover & read the synopsis—I wanted it fiercely. Cat Sebastian books are one of my love languages. The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian did *not* disappoint. It gave me everything I was looking for: outstanding chemistry, emotional intimacy, & smooching, *&* even some things I didn’t know I was looking for, & it’s a big HURRAY for me. There’s a ballad about an indomitable, almost heroic highwayman, Kit Webb. He actually exists, minus some of the song details. But after a leg injury took him out of the highwayman business, he’s a coffeehouse owner. That doesn’t stop him from being tempted though—in more ways than one—when Edward Percy Talbot, supposed heir to a dukedom, invites him to rob his father the Duke of a precious book he carries in exchange for funds. You see Percy has just learned that his father is a bigamist & he’s being blackmailed to keep it a secret. But he & his stepmother, who grew up close, have hatched a plan that the supremely reluctant Kit Webb can help them pull off. The magnetic attraction between Kit & Percy from the get-go gives me butterflies: two intimidating, seemingly unreachable people who can’t help but stare at the other. Can’t help but want. I love how Percy is bratty—I believe the text says—but lovable, & how Kit gives him hard truths about what his family’s wealth has cost & is costing others. How the legacy Percy is so tied to has tied down others & thrown them away when they’re deemed useless. The scene at the estate Percy faces losing is so moving to me. (With that being said, I do feel feel the text’s two references to the Duke’s “property” in the West Indies & the deeds of manumissions Percy later commissions are too briefly considered.) Overall the dynamic between Kit & Percy is everything I love in romance. Kissing because they can’t help but kiss each other / emotional truths between people who just can’t keep it casual / & a HEA kind of love. 5 ⭐️. Release Date: 06/08
Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.An intoxicating slow burn fantasy w/ romantic elements set in a forest that’s grasping & hungry, Hannah Whitten’s For the Wolf, book 1 in a trilogy, put stars in my eyes. Redarys, or Red, is the second daughter of the Valleydan queen. As such, soon after turning 19 a mark will appear on her skin & she’ll be dispensed to the Wilderwood—a place where the monsters & five kings are held—as a human sacrifice. Maybe the sacrifice will free the kings, maybe not. Either way, this long established custom of sending second daughters of the queen has held Valleydan and its neighboring countries together & fulfilled the initial terms set by the Wilderwood forest & a couple—the Wolf & the first Second Daughter—long ago. Red will be delivered to the Wolf because of who she is. But what her beloved twin sister & others don’t know is that Red is ultimately okay with going. That she possesses a violent power she lives in fear of, given to her by the Wilderwood. What does that mean for the Wolf? Watching the relationships change in this book—seeing the characters change—is captivating. The fierceness of them, the uncertainty, the hope. The terrifying slide of one major secondary character into her worst nature—a slide that initially starts out of love. The rapturous tension between the two leads as they fall, despite the forest’s waiting eyes & limbs. & speaking of the forest. The imagery in For the Wolf has a power, a punch that propelled me through the pages. A sinister quality that’s complicated by Red’s growing awareness of what the forest is & what it wants. A beauty & the beast retelling that entrances, For the Wolf is a 5 ⭐️ read for me. 5⭐️. Release date: 06/01.
A big thanks to Berkley for gifting me a complimentary copy of the ARC and inviting me to be part of the tour; all opinions provided are my own. SYNOPSISNamed a Most Anticipated Book of 2021 by Newsweek ∙ Oprah Magazine ∙ Marie Claire ∙ Parade ∙ PopSugar ∙ BookPage ∙ BookBub ∙ Betches ∙ SheReads ∙ Good Housekeeping ∙ BuzzFeed ∙ and more! Two best friends. Ten summer trips. One last chance to fall in love. From the New York Times bestselling author of Beach Read, a sparkling new novel that will leave you with the warm, hazy afterglow usually reserved for the best vacations. Poppy and Alex. Alex and Poppy. They have nothing in common. She’s a wild child; he wears khakis. She has insatiable wanderlust; he prefers to stay home with a book. And somehow, ever since a fateful car share home from college many years ago, they are the very best of friends. For most of the year they live far apart—she’s in New York City, and he’s in their small hometown—but every summer, for a decade, they have taken one glorious week of vacation together. Until two years ago, when they ruined everything. They haven't spoken since. Poppy has everything she should want, but she’s stuck in a rut. When someone asks when she was last truly happy, she knows, without a doubt, it was on that ill-fated, final trip with Alex. And so, she decides to convince her best friend to take one more vacation together—lay everything on the table, make it all right. Miraculously, he agrees. Now she has a week to fix everything. If only she can get around the one big truth that has always stood quietly in the middle of their seemingly perfect relationship. What could possibly go wrong? MY REVIEWI knew Emily Henry’s People We Meet on Vacation would be a beautifully written way of messing with my heart. Poppy Wright & Alex Nilsen are opposites attract unlikely best friends who have spent almost every year since college going on one major summer trip together. But two years ago, in Croatia, something happened that caused a divide between them, & they haven’t spoken since. After prompting, Poppy realizes she can trace her “last” happy moment to being w/ him, so she reconnects & asks him to go on a trip to Palm Springs. She hopes that she’ll be able to find her lost travel-journalist mojo & rekindle a beloved friendship she’s missed. But of course even when he says yes it’s all more complicated than that. There’s so much to love about PWM: Alex is really nice & dependable & wear khakis & is also a secret weirdo, but only around Poppy. Their relationship is built on inside jokes & moments when they’re only themselves around each other. On tenderness & respect & the more than 1, less than 15% of Poppy’s feelings that are romantic in nature. Yeah right . It’s an ache & a tenderness to see all of the ways they’ve been in love for so long. Their HEA, told from present day & a series of flashbacks, is hard won, & Henry really builds up that tension, showing how they both wanted (want??) different lives. But maybe there’s some overlap. I read each chapter with bated breath, frequently checking how long the chapters were because I wanted to move ahead in the present day story & get them to kissing . By the end, I felt assured that they really knew each other, that figuring things out might not be the easiest thing in the world but the only thing for people who love each other so much. Funny, emotionally lovely & also difficult for someone like me , this book is poignant & as beautiful as I thought it would be. I hope that Alex & Poppy are enjoying a (vaccinated) summer trip soon. 5 ⭐️. Out today!CW: ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Thanks for joining me on my stop! To see more of my bookish adventures, you can follow me here.Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.Sarah Suk’s Made in Korea is a cute enemies to kissing YA contemporary that focuses on the tension between personal dreams & parental expectations. Senior Valerie Kwon is very business-oriented, focused on how she can keep her student-run business V&C K-BEAUTY the most successful at her school. She’s saving her profits from the business she runs with her cousin so she can take her Halmeoni on a trip to Paris. & maybe also so she prove that she’s talented & accomplished in her own right to the mother who constantly compares her to her older sister. But she runs into some competition from Wes Jung, who’s new to her school & decides that selling some K-pop products his mom has gotten from her job (some of which she offered to him personally; none of which she has approved to be sold at his school) is a way that he can finance his music education hopes. He’s a saxophonist at heart but try telling that to his parents, especially his dad who wouldn’t approve of a music career in the slightest. So Valerie & Wes are competitors, each of them eventually trying on some behaviors that aren’t quite aboveboard, but for reasons that would be relatable to many. Of course they’re also attracted to each other & respect each other, which makes their competition a little more confusing for them. Three cheers for a heroine who isn’t immediately “likeable” to everyone; who is ambitious & driven (occasionally cutthroat ;) ) & who makes some mistakes & not-so-great decisions because not only is the business her priority ambition-wise; it’s also related to some family pressures. I did want to see a bit more evidence of growth from Valerie—I wanted that part of the story to be considered a bit more & maybe a little earlier in the story—but in general I’m excited to see more rep of teen girls like this & appreciate how it’s balanced by her softness toward her grandmother & eventually Wes. & Wes is a sweetie, awkward & kind, as Valerie eventually realizes, & the way that he comes to see Valerie’s honesty & confidence as things to emulate are lovely. Suk compellingly offers common ground between them—the judgment they face from their parents, the feeling of not always feeling completely “at home” because Valerie is Korean American & Wes is a Third-culture kid. While there’s a lot to savor about this one, the engagement between leads feels somewhat lacking to me. I didn’t totally buy their romance because I just didn’t feel that they had enough meaningful interaction spread throughout the story. All things considered, Made in Korea was a fun way to spend my time & introduced me to a talented writer, but it also falls a little flat in some respects for me. 3.5 ⭐️. Release date: 5/18. Please read Own Voices reviews.Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.I’ve seen so many rave reviews of Kerrigan Byrne’s Tempting Fate & honestly I don’t know that I can add anything to the conversation . But if you love beauty & the beast/she’s an angel on Earth & I will do anything I can to protect her & keep unpleasantness from her door/virgin leads/a redemption arc, etc. this book is good to snatch up. Felicity Goode is a shy, beautiful, bespectacled heiress who must marry an aristocrat to fulfill the terms of her parents’ will. But she must find a bodyguard first, someone to prevent further threats & attacks against her. Enter Gareth Severand, who is actually Gabriel Sauvageau, former leader of the criminal Fauves. Extremely scarred & with a disfigured face, Gabriel faked his own death, took on an alias, & went through a series of facial surgeries. He’s about to leave England but he’s hired by Felicity when she mistakenly believes him to be an applicant. She has no idea of his real identity, a blessing Gabriel thinks, since she fainted from terror during his previous rescue attempt. Gabriel’s feelings for Felicity are STRONG from the beginning. She is everything to him & she sees him both imperfectly—she has horrible vision & her spectacles are initially broken—but also very well indeed—as someone who can protect her & use his violence & physical prowess for good. This is classic Kerrigan Byrne to me (and therefore quite enjoyable!): an absolutely devoted hero who’s possessive & uber protective & a heroine who is such an ideal that she can bring him into the light somewhat. Make him someone who can feel joy. I’m all about drama but there are moments when the prose feels somewhat heavy-handed, & I felt surprised & a little disconcerted by the ease of the shy Felicity’s intimate emotional revelations with Gabriel. Or maybe just her lack of awareness/surprise of how revelatory she was being. But I really enjoyed my time spent with these two sweeties, especially the Epilogue, which is sweet & lighthearted & made me happy for Gabriel. 4 ⭐️. Release date: 5/11.Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.⭐️ Q: what do you feel like is your most common star rating? A sapphic heist romance between a pianist & a weaver, Olivia Waite’s The Hellion’s Waltz has some sentences that really stand out to me in that wow kind of way 🤩, an intriguing premise, & two leads who find ways to make use of their great talents for the good of others. That sounds divine to me. Ultimately I didn’t swoon as much as I might have hoped for this one but I did find *a lot* to appreciate about the story. Sophie Roseingrave & her large, musically-inclined family have just moved from London to a much smaller town after being taken advantage of by a conman who used musical instruction to pull off his scheming. She hasn’t played piano in the months since, & she’s anxious at the thought. So when she sees a beautiful stranger—who turns out to be Maddie Crewe—apparently trying to pull one over on a local fabric shop-owner, she’s determined to stop it. It turns out, however, that Maddie & a crew of members from the Weavers’ Library are working together to right injustice & take down the fabric shop-owner, who’s been taking advantage of people who have no legal recourse to fight back. Sophie wants to help Maddie. She also wants to kiss her & vice versa. What works for me in The Hellion’s Waltz is first its consideration of social issues & how it includes some pertinent items of material history. Through Maddie & the other members of her library I learned more about factory conditions, the lack of options available to the women who wished to protest them, & Combinations (a term I had never heard of before). Similarly it was cool learning more about pianos & weaving. Emotionally, Sophie has an intriguing arc, facing her anxiety & being brave thanks to applause-worthy moments like her mom’s speech. Later Sophie herself has a fantastic speech about making mistakes & it’s so good I could envision it celebrated on a motivational embroidery hoop. When it comes to the relationship between leads, the pacing was a bit off for me. First, I wanted to see the leads together more & later, when things start really moving they rush a smidge for my taste. But ultimately The Hellion’s Waltz is well-written, wise, & soft & I recommend it. 4 .5 ⭐️. Release date: 06/15. |
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