 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.
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   SummaryA disillusioned millennial ghostwriter who, quite literally, has some ghosts of her own, has to find her way back home in this sparkling adult debut from national bestselling author Ashley Poston. Florence Day is the ghostwriter for one of the most prolific romance authors in the industry, and she has a problem—after a terrible breakup, she no longer believes in love. It’s as good as dead. When her new editor, a too-handsome mountain of a man, won’t give her an extension on her book deadline, Florence prepares to kiss her career goodbye. But then she gets a phone call she never wanted to receive, and she must return home for the first time in a decade to help her family bury her beloved father. For ten years, she’s run from the town that never understood her, and even though she misses the sound of a warm Southern night and her eccentric, loving family and their funeral parlor, she can’t bring herself to stay. Even with her father gone, it feels like nothing in this town has changed. And she hates it. Until she finds a ghost standing at the funeral parlor’s front door, just as broad and infuriatingly handsome as ever, and he’s just as confused about why he’s there as she is. Romance is most certainly dead . . . but so is her new editor, and his unfinished business will have her second-guessing everything she’s ever known about love stories.  My ReviewWow, Ashley Poston’s The Dead Romantics blew me away & had me freaking crying before taking my kids to gymnastics the other morning 😆. This book engaged me emotionally on every level—it kind of has a Book Lovers effect in that way. The story weaves in happiness & grief, joy & sadness, laughter & tears in a most affirming way—as the book makes us aware time & time again, that weaving is life itself. The sour sometimes but always the sweet too. At the beginning of the book ghostwriter Florence Day asks to write the last book on her contract as a non-romance bc according to her, “romance is dead.” (Ok, Florence, check back in with me later 🙄🤣). The editor Benji Andor, a hottie who clearly turns cold by her ask, says no. Shortly thereafter, Florence’s beloved dad passes & Benji Andor, her editor, arrives at her family’s funeral home as a ghost. Good thing that Florence can communicate with them—even if that actually made her infamous in her small town. This book obviously deals with some tough topics, including the loss of Florence’s dad, but it handles them so lovingly, so eager to see the possible beauty left in the world even through tears & wrenching sadness. I missed Florence’s dad even though he was only alive on page for a short portion of the book. Just as I was happy for her happy memories & the moments she shares with Benji—because Florence’s narration reeled me in & I could feel the fullness of her, of her family too, as a person. Quirky, funny, loving, hopeful, this book hits every note & I loved living in it for a while. Every character in The Dead Romantics feels special & precious. More books like this one, please. 5 ⭐️. Release date: 06/28.
 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. Fantasy with kissing is one of my fave genres & Emily Thiede’s This Vicious Grace does it so well. If you like the thought of: 🍊 forbidden love! One lead is a Finestra—a protector of her people—& the other is her bodyguard. Also there’s a *teeny tiny* extra plot complication related to how she must save her people that’s related to their relationship 🤐. 🍊 danger & intrigue! 🍊 & demons are trying to destroy them all 🍊 Plus some friendship sweetness as boundaries between enemies / competitors / resented saviors & the saved break down 🍊 & an ending that will leave you wanting more maybe you should check this one out. Enthralled by this unique fantasy with romantic elements & the possibilities of where Thiede will go next, I can’t wait for my questions to be answered in a sequel! 4.5 ⭐️. Release date: 06/28.
 Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. 📖 Q: do you have a favorite royal couple? I’m team Harry + Meghan all the way! The stunning cover of American Royalty—& the premise, of a white future prince of England & current duke falling in love with a Black American rapper named Duchess—had me pressing request on this one really fast. While the basic premise is great (with a nod to Harry & Meghan), the book’s celebration of a female rapper also trying to amp up her skincare line is something worth cheering for, & there are some 🔥 sex scenes (including 🍑 action!), I also feel like things between the leads moved quickly & the hero sometimes comes across as judgmental & uptight (& not in a way that I appreciate). Rapper & businesswoman Dani “Duchess” is in England to perform at a memorial concert for the King. Pretty much immediately Duke Jameson acts like a jerk, mainly because he judged her based on her music videos & because he’s secretly so attracted to her. Forced proximity fans might rejoice when they realize they’re going to be spending so much time together on Jameson’s estate… I noted what does & doesn’t work me earlier but on the whole this book just feels uneven to me. On one hand Jameson can be an awkwardly adorable & cerebral beta hero; on the other, he makes weird, sexist judgments about how much cursing he might expect from Dani based on how she’s dressed (like women might be expected to curse more or less just because of how they’re dressed), as an example. The couple doesn’t meet until 27% in which feels late to me, then they get physical a little too fast for me, & then there just isn’t enough emotional intimacy to have me falling in love. But this was a fast read for me, largely because I found Tracey Livesay’s writing to be entertaining & enjoyable to consume & I had a lot of fun meeting Dani. In the end this wasn’t an unqualified win for me but I’ll definitely try Livesay’s writing again! 3.5 ⭐️. Release date: 06/28
 Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.The pining in this one. Oh my gosh. The yearning. Sometimes (all the time) I want to read about a hero lying in his bed, wanting the heroine & wanting her to be happy but not sure about a path forward or about whether he should pursue it if there is. For this & for a hundred other reasons, Julie Anne Long’s YOU WERE MADE TO BE MINE is fantastic. With this upcoming release we’re back at the Grand Palace on the Thames, this time following Lady Aurelie Capet & former spymaster Christian Hawkes. After three years in prison, Hawkes has recently been released by Aurelie’s fiancé, an Earl who says he’ll also pay Hawkes to find the missing Aurelie, who’s vanished not too long after an argument they had. Though he hates the man, Christian accepts the job & tracks Aurelie to London & the Palace, where he soon meets her & is knocked FLAT on his gorgeous face by LOVE. But both of them have secrets. The writing in this one—like in the others in the series—is exquisite. I mean that. You can feel every emotion, as well as the love Julie Anne Long as for her characters & for people in general, I think. Not only do I love the main couple, I always love how JAL renders the secondary characters as well. I mean seriously, I’ve written this before but it remains true: I would like to live at the Grand Palace, amongst so many great friends & stellar drama. I think I would spend a lot of my time chuckling & saying “oh Dot,” like I did in this one—some of these passages are soo funny! With a riveting, tender, passionate love story whispering & yelling across the pages, a story about hurt & finding someone to share that hurt with, to nurture hope with, YOU WERE MADE TO BE MINE is beautiful & luminous & if you haven’t read this series yet, please, you must. 5 ⭐️. Release date: 06/28.
 Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. 📖 Q: who was the last new to you author you tried & was it love, dislike, or indifference? 😬 I can be pretty daring and/or reckless depending on how you look at it 😆 about requesting ARCs so I decided to take a chance with Julia Whelan’s Thank You for Listening without having read My Oxford Year. Initially I was caught off-guard by the opening—which is the heroine listening to a passage from a badly written romance novel—& by her disdain for a genre that I love. But I figured better things were coming and they did, as said MC, Sewanee Chester, learns what romance novels have to offer readers & what romance IRL has to offer her. Thank You for Listening features two audiobook narrators who meet & connect IRL under misleading or vaguely given identities & then reconnect via email & text for a big romance audiobook job without realizing they’ve previously hooked up before. So feelings—& half truths & lies—get pretty messy in this one, although everything eventually works out for that Happy Ending I was hoping for. Thank You For Listening deals with heavier topics like Sewanee’s eye loss from a plane propeller accident, her grandmother’s memory loss, her father’s past cheating etc. but there’s a great, supportive friendship & sweet moments between the leads—as well as a cute epistolary exchange—that balance those with lightness. This book wasn’t love for me but I do think there’s a lot to appreciate! 4 ⭐️. Release date: 08/02.
 Thanks to the author for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. 📖 Q: are you a true crime fan? I don’t read or watch a lot of it but I would like to check out I’ll be Gone in the Dark one day! Tessa Bailey is one of those authors I’m so grateful for. Mostly because she consistently delivers blisteringly hot romances with typically smooth heroes who are rendered BEWILDERED by the depth & power of their totally unexpected feelings for the heroine. Bewildered I say. My Killer Vacation offers both of those things in spades with second grade teacher Taylor going on a vacation with her brother, realizing someone at the beach house they’ve booked has been murdered, & encountering the bounty hunter / private investigator asked to check into the case, a hottie named Myles, as she tries to do her own murder solving. Though the narration was at times a little stiff for me—mostly in the beginning—& the mystery could have been a little tauter, this book delivers where it counts: it’s a sexy, escapist read that I enjoyed soo much (& honestly that counts extra right now). There’s one scene toward the beginning of Taylor & Myles’s acquaintance where he licks her stomach (!) & one memorable scene in a church. Plus more. Tessa adds to the sexual chemistry burning up the pages by giving me more of what I want: Myles is supposedly worrying about Taylor catching feelings after sex but instead after their first time she’s casual & he’s like WHAT, DIDNT THAT ROCK HER WORLD TOO? I eat that up. Not to mention the ending, which is just superb as far as gestures are concerned. This isn’t a total, unqualified 5 ⭐️ for me, especially if I consider it as a romance with a mystery. But it is sooo good & sooo fun to read—& I’m thankful to Tessa for delivering another book that put a smile in my lustful heart 😆—so after waffling a little it’s 4.5 ⭐️ from me! Release date: 06/06
 Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. After loving Neon Gods & not getting to Electric Idol book yet 🙈 I’m slipping back into the Dark Olympus series with the positively scintillating Wicked Beauty. It’s high action, high heat, high everything it does because this book is not tame. I *definitely* picked that up as soon as Helen & Achilles have wild hate sex 😅. Eventually this is a book about a couple becoming a throuple as someone in the book says, with Helen becoming part of a relationship that Achilles & Patroclus already have & forming something new. But it’s also about more than that, as Helen tries to wrestle control over her destiny & transform herself from the “prize” of a tournament to its victor. To the next Ares of Olympus. With Wicked Beauty Katee Robert writes something so hot. Does it even need to be said? Let me just tell you that I was engaged. It’s an interesting story too, as Helen navigates the cutthroat world of Olympus & tries to forge a new place for herself. Where it falls a little short for me is in emotions. First of all, I wasn’t expecting the tension that develops between Achilles & Patroclus & how Achilles potentially threatens that beloved relationship by his actions with Helen. It gave me partnership in trouble vibes & not in a good way. And second I always want the romance, the declaration, the big words, & maybe that’s not what this story is about but I wanted more of that anyway 😅. This is a lot of fun & I’m so glad Katee Robert is writing it. Now I have to go back for Electric Idol! 4 ⭐️ . Release date: 06/07
 Thanks to the publisher & Edelweiss for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. I grew up loving Julie Garwood’s historicals & I really wanted to like Grace Under Fire, her upcoming romantic suspense release, but this one just doesn’t work for me on multiple levels. The MCs Isabel Mackenna, a recent college graduate, & Michael Buchanan, who’s no longer a SEAL & currently in between jobs, have had a mildly antagonistic relationship before reconnecting at the beginning of the story. They’ve only met once, at Isabel sister’s wedding (to Michael’s brother) & they didn’t hit it off. But things are *a little* friendlier now, if only because Michael comes to Isabel’s rescue when she saves a man’s life & shoots another man who shoots at her first. What follows is quite a lot. The plot of this one feels pretty sprawling to me, with Isabel becoming a singing superstar, traveling (including to Scotland to get her inheritance), trying to avoid being killed, & more. While I can love a clueless hero &/or an alpha hero & I’ve loved some of Garwood’s other heroes, Michael frequently comes across as excessively so. There isn’t enough for me to love about him & his tone or comments in some moments are grating. The characterization of Isabel sometimes grates too. It feels like she’s often oblivious & not in a way that the book itself is aware of. She frequently ended up just annoying me, like when she thinks she’s a slut after enjoying her make-out session with Michael so much. I hate to say it but there are other examples of when she veers into TDTL territory for me. It’s cool seeing other Buchanans again, & on paper I can totally get behind a story about beautiful and brave people falling in love, but this one disappointed me. While I’ll always love Garwood’s historicals, I think I’m not really a fan of her contemporary romantic suspense in general and might not read any future ones. 2.5 ⭐️. Release date: 07/19.
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