 Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own. From beginning to end The Blonde Identity by Ally Carter is pure fun: MCs dangling underneath bridges, playing fake marriage on a river cruise ship, trying to solve the mystery of who the amnesia-stricken heroine is. It’s a rom com with the com—so many moments are madcap & funny & the book (and reader) delight in all of it. The heroine is quirky imaginative sunshine & she shakes our unflappable operative/spy hero Jake Sawyer down to his sexy feet. Books where the leads are out being badass—making plans to take down baddies, essentially Home Alone for adults, I’m realizing right now —win my adoration & this one is just C U T E while it does it. Mal @talesofabookbug shared in her review that this is Fade to Black. I’m glad I had that insight & when the moment came I was just happy with how things were moving between them & that they were sated & also ready for more if you know what I mean . This one is so great & it was perfect for my mood. Check it out! 5⭐️. Out now!CWs: Attempted murder; murder; previous heart surgeries. Lies.
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 Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.I’m always here for a thief/con artist romance rec & if it’s paired with an uptight lead: SOLD. Like with every other Beverly Jenkins book I’ve read To Catch A Raven has a standout, resourceful, & irrepressible heroine, an intriguing amount of historical detail & info, & a hero who goes “what just happened?!” when the heroine blazes into his life. This book has an interesting premise: Raven Moreau & Braxton Steele must pretend to be husband & wife—& servants—to a South Carolinian Senator & his wife. Meanwhile they’re actually there to search for a stolen copy of the Declaration of Independence. They’re not there by choice, either. Instead, they’ve been forced to engage in this dangerous plan by the Pinkertons, who are aware of the activities Raven & her family, & once-upon-a-time, Braxton’s father, are/were up to. Fascinating layers abound in this book. Braxton is a wealthy, law-abiding tailor from Boston; Raven, an ex-convict who’s fiercely devoted to her family, frequently runs cons with the rest of the on-the-edge-of-a-respectable-life Moreaus in Jim Crow New Orleans. Braxton doesn’t take to the con/heist life right away & that nicely builds up some tensions between the two leads. As they travel throughout the South & then make their way North & Jenkins explores what their expectations are of each place—like, for example, how safe it’s expected to be for the Black leads—& the complicated people inhabiting each locale. These “older” leads are fun to watch & there are many poignant moments too, like when Braxton—who isn’t accustomed to manual labor—takes on extra tasks like washing because he knows it will help Raven. He has a real tender, loving side, & so does Raven for him. Really the only quibble I have is how Braxton’s almost engagement is incorporated into the story. But overall, To Catch a Raven is lovely historical romance! 4⭐️. Out 08/23. CWs: Jim Crow trains. Reference to human trafficking. Reference to attacks against Black people, especially in South Carolina. White supremacist parade. Miss Helen wants them to “pretend as if you weren’t” free before the war. Miss Helen’s husband, Aubrey, trashes the house they’re living in & their things. Reference to some of Braxton’s war experiences. Reference to death, including from yellow fever. Helen murders her husband.
 Thank you, Partner @bibliolifestyle @williammorrowbooks for the complimentary finished copy & @avonbooks and Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own. Wow, Sarah MacLean doesn’t play around with Heartbreaker. Honestly it feels like she took some of *my* favorite things & wrapped them in a stunning package & said “please knock yourself out with good feelings, Jessica” . I’m trying to think of how this book could have been any better & it’s just not possible to me. From its seemingly mismatched leads—a thief from the rough & tumble part of London & an uptight duke—to its “chase me” vibes, to its badass group of Belles & the ways said leads show they care over & over again…it’s quite a one-two- to infinity punch. I adore how Adelaide Frampton is written & how Henry, the aforementioned duke, is so aware of her strength, courage, & effectiveness. This isn’t a book where the hero is sleeping on the heroine’s attributes . & Henry is basically a perfect hero. Or at least perfect for me. Coming at the reader with big “not like other toffs energy,” his background gives him empathy, a sense of fun, & sportsmanship & it’s easy to see how they work together despite their difference in status. Who could have suspected that a thief & a duke would be so good together? Okay me. I suspected . Powerfully written, sensual & hot & passionate, funny & romantic & trope-tastic, filled with moments where the leads try as hard as they can to protect each other, Heartbreaker both packs a heart wallop & had me grinning. I’m pretty sure this one’s going on my best of 2022 list! In conclusion this is the first time I’ve been sexually attracted to the name Henry. 5 ⭐️. Out 08/23.CWs: violence. Horrible rich white people—mostly men—only caring about themselves. It’s implied that Adelaide’s father “all but insisted” that she become physically intimate with her former fiancé, who was of his choosing. Kidnapping. Probably others.
 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 & 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. Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.This rule follower loves the thrill of a heist romance so I grabbed It Takes a Thief by Sloane Steele as soon as I read the description. While I have some quibbles with the execution of this one the steam is applause-worthy & I see potential in the series, particularly for fans of authors like Katie Reus. Jared Towers is a wealthy, sort-of fixer, and also the son of a Ponzi scheme runner who fled the country after stealing from people. Jared & his cousin Mia—whose father is also guilty—come up with a scheme to steal artwork that their fathers own before their fathers can liquidate them. So Jared hires “Data," a hacker he's worked with in the past, who turns out to be Audrey. Audrey knows nothing about Jared's real identity or his motivations behind the theft & she has her own reasons for wanting to be involved. Fast forward to sparks between them erupting into flames & Audrey finding out Jared’s secrets... The premise of this one is intriguing, the steam is delightful, & Jared is a devoted hero. On paper everything is there for me, but the romance loses a lot of power after the conflict, which seems to drag on for a considerable amount of the book & which I didn’t entirely understand (or maybe buy?) the reason for. Some aspects of their relationship also feel rushed to me, particularly at the beginning, when I would have enjoyed more build-up. Overall the romance could have been tighter but It Takes a Thief is a fun read. 3 ⭐️. Release date: 04/27 |
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