 Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own. This blog post includes affiliate links.Fall for Him by Andie Burke delivered a delicious & much-appreciated palate cleanser for me after the last few longer books I’ve been reading. Warm, sometimes funny/sad/inspirational/& relatable, sexy…this book feels like it has it all, & it read so quickly for me. The book opens with Dylan falling through the ceiling of his belowstairs housemate, Derek. Derek has apparently hated Dylan since the beginning of time, something Dylan is confused by. Forced to live together during renovation, the two develop an appreciation for the other despite their occasional misunderstandings, questions, etc. This book got to my heart & I was cheering at some moments, like when Derek defends Dylan with his family (! Love that moment!). The last lines are so cute & perfectly wrap up this winning story about two lonely people appreciating each other for what & who they are & making a home together. Maybe check out content warnings before you start bc this book does cover a lot of tough topics, but it’s still an uplifting book that I enjoyed so much. 4.5⭐️. Out 9/03. CWs: ADHD rep; intrusive thoughts; anxiety; panic attack; grief.
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 Thanks to the publisher, Netgalley, and Edelweiss for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.Here We Go Again is one of those books that has a great romance & a hopeful story but also comes with a big trigger warning. The estranged best friends to lovers arc doesn’t have too much angst…but then you add in the sub-story of a former teacher/parental figure/best friend figure who is dying of cancer & of course everything gets much heavier & emotionally devastating. ~~ Logan doesn’t believe in commitments. She also doesn’t like her ex best friend and current coworker Rosemary Hale, although she spends a lot of time thinking about her. Despite their discord, they both have strong relationships with their former English teacher, who asks them to drive him across the country so he can die at his Maine home. Their relationship goes on a believable & wonderful path, I think, as they let down their guards, reconnect, & allow themselves to be vulnerable. With great anxiety and ADHD rep, this book is all about acceptance, love, & appreciation. But the impending loss of their teacher is a big storyline, & while some parts are heartwarming, hopeful, & funny, there are also some very sad moments, graphic scenes, etc. that might be difficult for readers, particularly those that have suffered a comparable loss. HWGA is a romance, but it’s also a story about losing a loved one to cancer. I think the book is really great, but it’s also a hard read in moments & even thinking about it now makes me—someone who lost a beloved family member to cancer—feel a bit of everything. 4.5⭐️. Out 04/02.CWs: Former teacher & mentor has cancer and dies during the book. Reference to alcoholism, parental abandonment, homophobia, toxic masculinity.
 Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own. You know those feel good sports movies where you are rooting for the honorable underdog team & they finally win & you’re like YES, YOU DID IT, LOOK AT YOU GO!?! That’s how I felt reading The Prospects by KT Hoffman, with the added loveliness of rooting for one player extra hard, a trans hero named Gene who’s loved baseball for years & is shining on his minor league team. An old college teammate is traded to Gene’s team & what is initially annoyance & frustration turns into deep friendship, understanding, affection, & love. This book has so many sweet moments & they had my heart singing. Gene & Luis show so much care for each other—I had every sense that they completely had each others’ backs whether it came to the team they played on or in non-sports life. With anxiety rep, trans rep (including a scene where Gene injects himself with testosterone), strong friendships, & about a thousand other things I love, The Prospects is truly a stellar mix of hug-in-a-book-emotionality meets joie de vivre! 5⭐️. Out 04/09. CW: please see a trusted reviewer’s list of CWs.
 Hi and welcome to my blog tour stop for Ashley Herring Blake's Iris Kelly Doesn't Date! I've been loving the Bright Falls series and this is such a good conclusion. Summary.Everyone around Iris Kelly is in love. Her best friends are coupled up, her siblings have perfect partners, and her parents are still blissfully married. And she’s happy for all of them, truly. Iris doesn’t want any of that—dating, love, romance. She’ll stick to her commitment-free hookups…Except no one will just let her be. Everyone wants to see her settled down, but she holds firmly to her no dating rule. There’s only one problem—Iris is a romance author facing an imminent deadline for her second book, and she’s completely out of ideas. Perfectly happy to continue ignoring her problems, Iris goes to a bar in Portland and meets a sexy stranger, Stefania. A night of dancing turns into the worst one-night stand Iris has had in her life. To get her mind that terrible night, Iris tries out for the lead role in a local play, a queer retelling of Much Ado About Nothing, but comes face-to-face with Stefania, whose real name turns out to be Stevie. Desperate to save face in front of her friends, Stevie asks Iris to play along as her girlfriend. Iris is shocked, but when she realizes the arrangement might provide her with some much-needed romantic content for her book, she agrees. As the two women play the part of a happy couple, lines start to blur, and they’re left wondering who will make the real first move....  [ID: Jess, a white woman wearing a blue sweater with embroidered flowers on its sleeve, holds the ebook in front of a screen painted blue & white with a pink flower on a panel.]My review.I’ve been such a fan of Ashley Herring Blake’s Bright Falls series & Iris Kelly Doesn’t Date offers more time with the wonderful group of friends we met in book 1 & in particular irrepressible, vibrant Iris. But despite her passion & her confidence Iris can still be hurt & that’s something that’s definitely explored in this book, as Iris navigates expectations from her family & friends & meets & falls for Stevie, an actor who’s been struggling to get her big break & has problems with her own confidence. Fake dating shenanigans followed by the leads trading lessons in sex & romance ensue & of course added to all of this is the fact that our leads are catching feelings for each other even as they’re starring in a play together. There’s a nice amount of tension in this book as Stevie & Iris wrestle with those aforementioned expectations & how they butt up against their own desires, wants, & needs. The steam is also balanced by the sweetness of their relationship, their moments of bravery balanced by their moments of vulnerability. Stevie’s Generalized Anxiety Disorder is also beautifully explored & something that as an anxious person I’m always excited to see. Though I wish that at one later point of the plot Stevie takes more initiative, overall both leads end up taking a risk in this book & you love to see it. The ending wraps everything up very sweetly with this group of loving friends together again, doing what they do: being there for each other & appreciating each other. 4.25⭐️. Out 10/24.CWs: Iris has some trauma surrounding an ex who lied to her about being married & having a family. She runs into that previous lover on page.  Have you read any other books in this series? Let me know and thanks for stopping by!   Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.My heart . Before starting 10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall I saw a few things that kind of set my expectations accordingly: (1) similar-ish in style to Boyfriend Material, (2) really good, (3) & Alexis Hall shared that this is grumpy & the sunshine if the sunshine is reckoning with trauma (or something like that. My apologies if I’ve twisted that in any way!). That’s all so true. This book is charming, it’s so funny, & I got Office vibes from the office scenes in the book & While You Were Sleeping vibes from any scenes featuring prickly boss Jonathan Forest’s family. So it’s very endearing, in short. As is protagonist Samwise “Sam” who kind of stumbles, kinda dives into a fake amnesia situation with his horrible boss Jonathan Forest in an effort to save his branch from being fired. But after he’s made to live with Jonathan for a while—he has to, given his presumed injuries—he realizes that Jonathan is grumpy but that’s not all of him & also grumpy is kind of attractive on him. I adored this book, these characters, this family. Watching Sam & Jonathan engage with others & seeing their very obvious discomfort & yearning & their wrestling with their insecurities is sad & heartwarming. The deception reconciliation feels a bit skimpy to me—but overall I just wanted these two leads to be together & for them to get back to the family unit they had made. Ahhhhh! Also I wanted two epilogues instead of one because my heart wanted more . Such a great book; I loved it; I hope the two of them are living the happiest of lives with their ugly cat in Croydon. 5⭐️. Out 10/17.CW: previous death of family members, including parents.
 Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own. A road trip romance with some let’s-snuggle-to-stay-warmer & mutual rescuing moments?!?! One Night in Hartswood by Emma Denny is a character-driven romance with some big moments at the end that really amp up the action & the dramatic gesture quotient for each lead. The book opens with Raff, the son of an Earl, traveling to the home of his sister’s intended, William, who is a nobleman she will soon marry to shore up an alliance between their families. But William leaves before the wedding, before Raff and his family even meet him, & when Raff is tasked with tracking William, he enters Hartswood Forest and finds only the servant Penn that he met in the forest a day or so before & kissed. Seeing that Penn needs assistance with his own escape from the keep, Raff says Penn can accompany him on his journey North & find another way home & employment on the way. So, in short, Raff & Penn are on a journey away from the keep together, both of them keeping secrets that will soon blow up in their faces. This book is soft, with several moments where the leads try to protect each other. Both leads are loyal, steadfast, & brave, and both show how they’re willing to face pain for the sake of the other. Moreover, there’s an emotional consideration to the protection too, as Raff worries about the social dynamics between him & Penn, the man he believes to be a servant. ONIH is a great historical romance & I adore how these two are able to make a happy, safe life together because they made it happen. 4.5⭐️. Out 11/07. CWs: Penn’s past abuse. Reference to death, family exile.
 Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own. Whew, Stars In Your Eyes by Kacen Callender hurt. But it’s also a really good adult romance with so many wonderful things about how it’s written & what it has to say about self-love & loving others. Logan Gray & Mattie Cole are costars in an upcoming queer romcom. Their director & others ask them to engage in a fake dating romance to drive up positive press & attention for their movie & both agree, thinking it will help their reputations. Logan is known publicly as a Bad Boy. IRL he doesn’t have any friends & he’s living with trauma from childhood as the son of a Hollywood Important Person & a child actor in his own right. Mattie has a rep as being so nice that he’s seen as boring. Despite neither of them liking the other, they engage in a fake dating romance, both learning along the way that there’s more than meets the eye when it comes to their costar. Be advised that this book deals with heavy topics including sexual abuse, & specifically sexual abuse that’s been permitted & even facilitated by a parent. Understandably, that gives a very sad tone to the book & as the narration makes clear, that is not trauma that disappears immediately, even after falling in love. In addition to the emotional strength of this book, Callender writes it so well, using what the characters are doing/thinking in the film Logan & Mattie are acting in to mirror & help explain what they might be feeling IRL. Both characters grow so much throughout the book but like I said, it’s not an easy read. But that’s part of the point: like Callender writes in one moment, people who are living with trauma can fall in love & be loved & love themselves & be part of healthy relationships, too. They shouldn’t be excluded from stories of finding Their Person. 5⭐️. Out 10/10.Please see a trusted reviewer’s list of CWs.
 Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.A coven of deathwalking witches who have to set themselves on fire in order to patrol the Veil; a terrifying Warden who uses his army of soulless, half-masked soldiers to control it all; a heroine who sets herself on fire so she can save her sister… Tonight, I Burn by Katharine J. Adams is such an inventive story with so many striking elements that viscerally hold you in check. Penny, the protagonist, is a deathwalking witch who finds herself going farther against the Warden than she ever suspected she would in order to protect her sister & the other people she loves. As she plans in secret & then with the help of others, she also develops feelings for two different people, a man & a woman, & she opens up some of the closed-box tension surrounding her own family. This book is very much leading up to another which is good because it feels like some things are left unfinished. I would have liked more with Penny’s romantic relationships, which do get steamy but which also feel separate in a way I didn’t totally appreciate. But witch fans, rejoice, here’s another witchy offering for us to celebrate the glorious season of fall. 4⭐️. Out 11/07.Please see a trusted reviewer’s list of CWs.
 Hi and welcome to my blog tour stop for Tori Anne Martin's This Spells Disaster! A big thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.Summary.Morgan Greenwood may be an incredible potion maker, but she’s convinced she was hexed at birth. A self-proclaimed “messy witch,” it comes as no surprise when she finds herself drunkenly offering to fake date the woman of her dreams for the biennial New England Witches’ festival. Enter Rory Sandler, a spellcasting champion and brilliant elemental witch, who just so happens to accept the offer for reasons unbeknownst to Morgan. All those good luck spells must have worked after all! But as Morgan and Rory prepare to fool everyone at the festival, their relationship starts to feel very real—that is until Morgan realizes she might have screwed up the common relaxation potion she made for Rory and given her a love potion instead, breaking one of the most sacred Witch Council Laws. To fulfill her promise to Rory, Morgan must somehow keep playing pretend while under the watchful eyes of Rory’s family and legion of fans. But to break the love potion, she’ll also have to prove how incompatible she and Rory really are. For a screwup like herself, ruining their relationship should be easy—except every day, Morgan is becoming more bewitched by Rory herself.  [ID: Jess’s white hand holds the ebook in front of a garden of zinnias. Trees & a yard are on the right side of the image.] My review.An unrequited crush, a coven, a newt festival, a fake dating situation, a love potion… Wait. Recently I posted about tropes I’m weird about & one of them is love potion—a plot point in This Spells Disaster. With that being said author Tori Anne Martin addresses the lack of consent with those in the author’s note & one FMC’s awareness of it prevents her from moving physically forward with the other lead so it worked a-okay for me. This sapphic witchy romance is ca—ute! (Is that how you spell it if you say it like that?) The book is set in a cozy town in Maine (never been but it makes such a great romance backdrop!), there’s queer rep, that aforementioned consideration of consent & love potions, a fun newt festival (can I go?). Morgan is a potions-witch at her family shop; Rory is a very well-known witch who abruptly left the spotlight to become a bartender at Morgan’s small town. When Rory’s parents try to pressure Rory to return to the spotlight, she & Morgan begin a fake dating situation that gets complicated by their real feelings & also the love potion Morgan accidentally made that she thinks Rory has ingested. On one hand I grew a bit frustrated with how lead Morgan was trying to “How to lose a guy in 10 days” Rory because of the accidental love potion she made & gave to Rory, but on the other the conflict kind of made sense given how everything was set up for & about the characters earlier in the book. Witchy reads are the bomb.com & this is a fun one. 4⭐️. Out now! Please read a trusted reviewer’s list of CWs. How do you feel about a love potion read? Let me know what you think about this one and thanks for stopping by!   Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.A small magical community where dangerous things can happen, a prickly MC & her half-Fae lover, a nurtured grudge & a forbidden spell. In Charm’s Way by Lana Harper has all of this & while I have my quibbles with the book, it’s also fun & atmospheric & the premise gives me those witchy romance vibes that put roses in my cheeks. In true Jess fashion I hadn’t read the three previous books in the series & this book definitely relates to previous events within the series. With that being said, after a bit of initial confusion surrounding who the romantic interest was (*my fault entirely*) I was just fine. Witch Delilah Harlow is having a tough time after losing her memory. Many of the memories have returned but others have not / do not, & in a moment of escalated emotion she decides to issue a spell from a taboo book. This sets off a series of events including getting to know Catriona Arachne Quinn, a half-Fae monster hunter, better. With danger, intrigue, & complicated friendship dynamics, this book serves up an entertaining Halloween-appropriate supernatural tale. I adore the premise & the Queer rep in the primary & secondary characters but I wish the book had been a bit tighter in execution in moments. Have you read this series? 3.5⭐️. Out 08/22.CWs: Catriona was abandoned by mother; childhood was difficult given that she’s half-Fae. Deception. Violence, death of supernatural creatures.
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