​Things are pretty brutal on a large scale IRL & yet somehow Claire Kent’s post apocalyptic romances hit the sweet spot every single time.

I was talking with a friend about these books & what we love about them recently:

🌻 the steam (so good, especially because Kent really plays with the idea of people hooking up in the secret hours & there aren’t any feelings involved, definitely not ;) ).

 🌻 The hope, even though the old world is gone & the new world is uncertain every day.

 🌻 The voice. These are just so readable!

In Princess, Olivia, the daughter of a billionaire techie, has been living in a bunker for five years—since right before a major asteroid hit Earth, destroying life as they knew it.

She’s there with Grant, among others. He’s given her the impression that he’s unmoved by her again & again but one day they turn to each other, set the room on fire, & repeat repeat. But are those pesky feelings one-sided?

Though this book isn’t my fave of her post apocalyptic collection—that goes to Haven—it’s got everything I love about her books. The steam is great, the tension & the romance arc feel developed for my maximum enjoyment ;), & there’s a nicely portrayed conflict between his wish to protect her—like he’s done since they’ve known each other—& her desire to be viewed as equal.

Definitely check this series out if you’re looking for something dark but soft where it counts!

Anytime anyone is asking for recs in the Ilona Andrews-ish mode, I rush in shouting *Jessie Mihalik’s series.*

Hunt the Stars was a fun introduction to the crew of Starlight’s Shadow & to the general tension that lingers post-intergalactic war & Eclipse the Moon, this upcoming release out 07/12, continues both of those trends with a sunshine & the grump story this time.

Sunshiney data genius Kee has had feelings for grumpy Varro, a Valovan, since after he arrived on her ship in the last book. But he’s apparently resistant to her charms.

So in an effort to remove herself from (supposedly) Unrequited Pining Central & also to get some much-needed data regarding the intergalactic threat they all used to work for, Kee stays on a planet by herself.

Which prompts Varro to risk his own life if he isn’t also allowed off-ship by their Captain so that he can protect her. Me-ow.

This story, with its confessions of mutual pining & feeling, with his multiple displays of protective feeling (including him sleeping outside of her room & the aforementioned threat of airwalking through space to chase after her!), does satisfy romantically on an emotional level.

Their mutual care for the other comes in handy when his honor as a protector comes into question & the slow burn is always a nice touch!

But I do wish that in addition to the romance that plays out on the pages they also established more of their past with the other. & with me 🥴😆. As it is, it just feels a little superficial to me, like a lost opportunity.

This series has been entertaining & interesting. Check it out if you’re looking for something with high stakes & quite the (anticipatory) wait for spice!

Serving Sin was my first time dropping into Angelina M. Lopez’s Filthy Rich series but as soon as I saw bodyguard romance I said helloooooo there.

Roman Sheppard & Cenobia (Cen) Trujillo met about 13 years ago when he was a former Army Ranger, newly turned private security CEO who rescued her after she was kidnapped.

Now, at a special celebration in Monte del Vino Real, Spain, where Roman now lives with his half siblings & serves as adviser to the king & a freaking prince, Cen reveals (1) that it was actually her who led the initiative to help their struggling country out of a financial bind, not her father as he thought & (2) she’s receiving violent threats as her huge car production company prepares to launch its first car.

Roman wants to keep her safe, even as he knows how challenging it’ll be to be around the stunning woman he’s spent the last several years avoiding.

Well, call me a Lopez fan because this book has so much of the good stuff:

⭐️ Cen knows her shit. Her business acumen🏻. Her drive, her stubbornness, her tenderness.
⭐️ age gap
⭐️ Roman is just in awe. Would also like to add that he doesn’t see himself as worthy of anything & while this is very sad that’s also my catnip.
⭐️ really interesting consideration of misogyny
⭐️ throughhhh sex scenes that aren’t clinical in the slightest.
⭐️ so much respect between leads
​
There are a couple of moments where I came out of the story a bit due to how those plot points are presented, but overall, Serving Sin has great steam, characterization, & heart, & I really enjoyed my time with it!

Hey everyone! I literally get anxiety sometimes about lines (where should the line go when it branches off, do people know I’m in line, is it okay that I’m walking forward before I’ve been officially waved up??? etc) because RULES but yes, I do enjoy romantic suspense books with rule-breaking and chases and major threats to life.
 
Juno Rushdan is a romantic suspense author I discovered last year and I am a big fan. Until the End features Castle Kinkade, a Dwayne Johnson-esque member of the Gray Box, an off the books government ops team, and Kit Westcott, a striking woman who funds the Outliers, a hacking group that angers government orgs like the one Castle belongs to. They’re brought together when Castle’s boss believes Kit is passing on critical info to bad people via drives & Castle witnesses someone trying to kill her.
 
Juno tackles big issues—past abuse, a heart problem, PTSD, murder, bioweapons—without dragging down the compelling plot. The attraction between Castle & Kit is immediate—despite what Castle & his team suspect her of—and both steamy & adorable, & the book overall is sex positive. I was caught up in the story, loving Rushdan’s storytelling and suspense finesse.
 
This is probably largely the result of the current political climate, but sometimes I have a hard time seeing how people with very different political ideologies, including those related to national security, can come together without losing sight of who they are. Though Juno does a fine job of showing how Castle & Kit come first for each other & how they’re both willing to re-assess when their partner pushes back, I’m still a little skeptical of how it works for this couple, especially how it relates to one Outliers project.
 
I enthusiastically recommend Juno’s books and can’t wait to see where this series is going next. The (very) good news is that her books are full of very attractive, very smart, & brave characters and she’s. not. afraid. to. go. there.

Q: what’s your favorite space romance series?

Imagine the culture that allowed the Medicis to flourish, put it in space, add in some good people determined to be better than their parents, & some kissing (v. important), & voila: you have Jessie Mihalik’s The Consortium Rebellion series.

In Chaos Reigning, the last book in the series, it’s Lady Catarina von Hasenberg’s turn at bat. The youngest member of one of the most powerful Houses on Earth, Cat’s known for being charming & not terribly bright—a persona she wears in public to survive. She’s going to use that reputation on a fact-finding mission into who kidnapped her older brother. Though Cat’s got a plan, her interfering older sister Bianca hires the mysterious Alexander Sterling as Cat’s bodyguard without her consent. Will they be able to find the answers they need without destabilizing things further in the Houses?

Mihalik crafts a story that feels fresh & exciting, that I don’t think that I’ve quite read before. She seems to delight in the big & small details that constitute the Consortium, & while some of the more technical sci-fi language isn’t my fave, I respect the heck out of it because her care & attention is how new worlds are created.

Besides the top-notch world-building, I’m here for the people. Cat’s journey to seeing herself as a leader, as capable of achieving big things & as an integral part of her House and family, is heartwarming. The bond between the von Hasenberg siblings is all the more touching because of how very mercenary their parents are.

And the relationship between Cat & Alex is slow and sweet with a dirty finish, just my style, especially since there’s a bodyguard involved. A thumbs up for nice heroes, particularly when they’re invested in their romantic counterpart’s consent, repeatedly share their feelings, & aren’t scared off by the perception of their upper-class/lower-class social divide.

As much as I liked this book, there are some aspects of Cat’s story that need more deliberation. I didn’t feel like there’s ample evidence of Cat’s incompetence/lack of intelligence at the beginning of the book--to me, events like her mother’s luncheon overtly show her skillful maneuverings.

And while Chaos Reigning isn’t marketed as a romance, the relationship between Cat & Alex mostly fits the bill--but it’s also somewhat superficial if you probe too much. There’s no real sense of conflict between them (it’s all external), & more important, no real consideration of their relationship, how their insecurities and pasts might relate to being together. Shouldn’t Cat have been more suspicious of Alex’s intentions, for example, given her background and parents?

TCR is a great way to spend some time and I recommend it to anyone who wants sci-fi meets romance meets women harnessing their power. It’s not perfect, but it is really fun, original and romantic, and I can’t wait to see what Mihalik writes next.

Wow. When I first heard that Talia Hibbert was releasing a sibling’s best friend, unofficial bodyguard, age gap, forced proximity novella I slammed my hand on a buzzer and said THAT. I WANT THAT.
 
Guarding Temptation immediately sucked me in, opening after the two leads have had a naughty moment that the hero regrets. Nina’s 23 and the founder of a magazine that pushes people to think critically about politics, social matters, and human rights. Brexit has raised the stakes of the conversation and Nina starts receiving death threats from some readers who aren’t too happy with her take.
 
That’s the only reason she contacts James, 30, after the hook-up he regrets, despite the fact that they’ve been friends for years. She knows he’ll protect her.
 
This book. *stops to catch her breath. This book is so incredibly sexy. It’s a novella that packs the sexual punch of a bomb or an Idris Elba…doing anything. Do you understand?
 
It’s also smart and a little mad (as in angry), and I loved it because I feel some of that same anger. There’s some political commentary that will be familiar to many readers, including some frustration over the “faux woke” and white society’s stringent expectations regarding black women. How strategically they must navigate public spaces, even spaces where they’re describing being threatened.
 
The political emphasis in this novella is definitely secondary to the romance and fits Nina’s interests and personality, but the resolution of this aspect of the plot could have ended more smoothly. The structure of its resolution doesn’t really work for me.
 
Still, this novella is a thing of beauty. It’s trope catnip, it’s competence porn, it’s fantastically sensual (see above paragraph), JAMES IS AN ABSOLUTE DREAM, and I loved it.