Thanks to Harlequin Publicity Team for the complimentary finished copy and the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.I’ve been so excited to read On the Hustle by Adriana Herrera since someone first started listing its tropes. In the end this book really satisfies, with a “he chases her bc he’s secretly had feelings for her,” plotline & a FMC who doesn’t take shit from our demanding, authoritative hero & makes him re-evaluate some very necessary things. Alba Duarte is such a great lead. She actually designs spaces for bibliophile-lovers (is this a real thing someone can buy for me, thanks) & when she’s given a chance for a big design in Texas while she’s visiting her BFF Julia she decides to stay there, throwing the boss she’s just given notice to—who happens to secretly have been lusting for her for years— in a tizzy. Said boss Theodoro is soon given a chance to film a reality tv show in Texas which will one, allow him to help his business, & two, eventually allow him to win Alba over once he gets her hired to design the space he’s working on for the show. It’s fun seeing how Theodoro opens himself up once he’s no longer Alba’s boss & how she makes him question some of the things he thought about her & his own life. The beginning starts off really strong for me, & the steam is so good, but the ending is a little wobbly. It feels like at least one thing is wrapped up pretty quickly. There are also moments when it’s a little challenging for me to understand how Theodoro could be so cold as her boss & then magically switch a flip to someone warmer, something Alba has some issues understanding as well. But I love the book references, how she doesn’t magically fall into his arms, how he defends her, & how the FMC is the workaholic with extreme ambition in this one. All in all another fun, steamy powerhouse contemporary from AH. 4 ⭐️. Out now![ID: Jess, a white woman in a bright yellow coat with brown buttons, holds the book in front of a green tree with some red & orange leaves.]
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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 Partner @bibliolifestyle for the complimentary finished copy and the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.Every time I open a Jenny Holiday contemporary I’m reminded of how much I like her books. So This Is Christmas really got me going with: ❄️An uptight hero—Matteo Benz, an equerry to the king of Eldovia—who wears three piece suits on the daily, tries to be professional at all times, but is very much annoyed by the heroine. To quote the book: “He looked like a millennial dressed up as a boomer.” ❄️A business-oriented heroine—American Cara Delaney who’s visiting Eldovia & serving as a business consultant for the King. She & her job immediately rub Matteo the wrong way. ❄️Both leads recognizing that there’s more to the other lead than their initial impression & slowwwwly coming to call each other by their first names. ❄️a fun glimpse back at previous characters ❄️Holiday’s deft hand with emotions & nuance & pacing. I feel like I’ve been really blessed on the holiday romance reading front this year & this is another adorable book that warmed my heart. If you haven’t checked out Holiday’s Eldovia series yet I really recommend it—especially book 2 which is a fave. 4.5 ⭐️. Out now!CW: heroine’s mother forced out of home after unwed pregnancy. Cara assaulted at 16 & she fended him off using her high heel shoe.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 the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.Claire Kent is giving us so much post apocalyptic romance this year & I’m grateful for it. I’m such a fan of how she captures a post-asteroid world, where there's so much sadness and uncertainty but love is still possible. Embers flirts with forbidden love, featuring Rachel, who’s in her early 20s & Cal, who’s in his mid-40s or so & happens to be her former boyfriend’s grumpy father. Their relationship goes through quite an arc throughout the book, with them meeting when Rachel is 17 & her boyfriend still alive, to the two of them living alone & becoming closer, to becoming something more—a span of 5+ years. Despite the progression of their physical relationship (or maybe because of it?) Kent ramps up the angst in this one. While there’s so much to enjoy about Embers—the voice, the heroine becoming more independent as the book progresses, and the story of two lonely people connecting, in general the premise is not my fave, especially since Rachel is 17 when she first moves into Cal’s home. Nothing physical or romantic happens until Rachel is 22, but I’m kind of with Cal in this one: the potential power dynamics are somewhat troubling here. I just wish some of the details had been written differently because the way they *are* written it doesn’t feel like they’re on totally equal footing—something Cal suggests. Not to mention that there’s a speech Cal makes when Rachel is 22, referencing his feelings for her & their history together, that gives me somewhat ick, uncomfortable vibes. While Embers isn’t an unreserved win for me I am excited about the author’s next release in December. 3.5 ⭐️. Out 08/09.Lots of CWs including death, violence.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.God bless my fellow bookstagrammers & book-lovers for spreading the word about books you’re adoring. That’s how I found Megan Bannen’s The Undertaking of Hart & Mercy, & it delighted me so hard. From the first pages, when the hero & heroine haven’t actually seen each other in person yet but the author has so perfectly captured their antagonism, I was ALL in. Marshal and demigod Hart Ralston & undertaker Mercy Birdsall do not like each other. But they must work together at times. Then one day Mercy gets a letter from “a friend.” That friend is actually Hart, who didn’t think his letter would actually get delivered to someone. It’s a You’ve Got Mail-ish situation, people! Only add fantasy. This is so wonderfully & inventively written, the chemistry between leads—& their slow & then fast fall into attraction & feelings—is compelling & lovely, & it all comes together so heartwarmingly at the end MY GOD. It was just so good. The dance scene, the epilogue . Other things I loved: a grand p*%#> declaration, a taciturn hero who also cries, stunning final lines. Check this one out!! 5 ⭐️. Out 08/23.CWs: Death. Violence. Reference to cheating & death of family members. Parental abandonment in past and current fears over parent's health. Hart is somewhat self-conscious about being a demigod due to how others have treated him in the past.
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. 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 and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. #SundayShelfie + Review You know that thrill you get when someone’s writing is just really, really good? I had it often when reading Cat Sebastian’s The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes. Sebastian is someone who’s writing I just *delight* in, to an extravagant amount. There are so many lines in this ARC that I wanted to share as evidence of how good it is—like one about cake & religious icons—so many moments when I felt a smile growing & also greedily thought, I *H A V E* to get a copy of this for my shelves. This book picks up action-wise during and after The Queer Principles of Kit Webb, taking Marian Hayes and Rob Brooks as its focus. After shooting her duke bigamist-husband, Marian “kidnaps” the charming Rob Brooks (formerly a highwayman who has been presumed dead for a year) & they travel to visit her sick father & prepare for any fallout from the shooting. TPCoMH is a rich & sexy cornucopia of tropes: 🖤 Road Trip 🖤 Some Epistolary 🖤 Forced Proximity 🖤 Oops I blackmailed you to lovers 🖤 A tiny bit of the forbidden (though that’s not really a big dissuasion bc our leads have big IDGAF energy) 🖤Some Deception Plot & a dynamic between MCs that honestly makes my wings soar & my whole reading persona lusty: she is severe & uptight & authoritative & he LOVES IT & thinks she is PERFECT. When I tell you I loved how this became part of their intimate moments... There’s so much to love about this romance: the humor (honestly I cracked up all the time), the care (from both of them), Marian’s fierceness & what this book says about motherhood & parenting in general, the found family this group makes 🥺🥺🥺🥺🥺, & what it means to choose yourself. I loved it & adored it. 5 ⭐️. Release date: 06/07.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. Just a little bit of chaos in this shot as my daughter runs nearly out of frame with her raincoat fluttering on her back & I hold a tablet like it’s a stinky bit of laundry 😆. Only another day around here 🤪. 📖 Q: if you had to get rid of one of these three FOREVER—historical romance, contemporary romance, or fantasy romance / fantasy with romantic elements—which would it be? I was really excited to get my hands on Hannah Whitten’s For the Throne, a daring follow-up book to For the Wolf that focuses on Red’s sister, Neve. Neve, a former queen & now kinda villain who took herself to the Shadowlands (ie The Bad Place) & now finds herself in the company of a once-king & god named Solmir who is even more villainous. But don’t worry: Solmir has a plan to take out the group of evil kings also inhabiting the Shadowlands & he must have Neve for the plan to work. If she can trust him that is. If this sounds appealing to you: 🖤 Complicated characters (these two leads have made some mistakes! but I love it) 🖤 Steam & a big sense of the forbidden 🖤 Fantastic chemistry—he basically snarls a romantic declaration & my heart went pitter patter 🖤 Books that say over & over again how important sisters are 🖤 Solid worldbuilding with high stakes 🖤 Chunky books You might really like this duology! Each book focuses on a different sister though we see the same characters populating each one. For the Throne is just as cinematic at book 1 but on the romance front I wanted more (mostly because book 1 set such a precedent). But this is another great fantasy & you can count me as a fan of Hannah Whitten’s work. 4.5 ⭐️. Out 06/07. |
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