Category: Reading this Week

Reading this Week – August 18

I’m a couple of weeks behind so this will be a long list.

  • Trashed by Mia Hopkins – m/f, contemporary. See my full review of this one here.
  • The Weight of It All by N.R. Walker – m/m, friends to lovers. This was a great story that included a hero with a less-than-perfect body. There is a lot of discussion of exercise and weight loss, but it was from a healthy perspective. No fat shaming. It was a really sweet story. I loved the characters.
  • Team A.L.P.H.A. Books 1-4 by Susi Hawke – m/m, mpreg, wolf shifters, fated mates – These are light, goofy stories that I tore through in no time. I don’t know why I enjoy male pregnancy books so much, but I do.
  • Facing West by Lucy Lennox – m/m, enemies to lovers. This was the first in the Forever Wilde series about a family made up of mostly gay guys, and I liked it. These books were good. Enjoyable, quick reads. Nothing earth-shattering.
  • The DILF by London Hale – m/f, age gap, best friend’s father. Meh. This was a book. Mostly just a lot of doin’ it.
  • Felix and the Prince by Lucy Lennox – m/m, royalty. Another Forever Wilde novel. Enjoyable. I’m glad it was on KU.
  • Wilde Fire by Lucy Lennox – m/m, second chance. This Forever Wilde novel was super sweet and had a little mystery.
  • Hudson’s Luck by Lucy Lennox – m/m. Another Forever Wilde. Guess what? That one brother you thought was straight, nope. Totes bi. Falls for a cute femme ginger.
  • Flirt by Lucy Lennox – m/m, age gap. Forever Wilde novella featuring the young bakery guy and the salt-and-pepper fire chief.
  • His Saint by Lucy Lennox – m/m. Most unusual pairing of the Forever Wilde series. Ex Navy SEAL with small antiquities dealer. There was a mystery in this one too.
  • Wilde Love by Lucy Lennox – m/m, friends to lovers. The story of the grandfathers of the rest of the Wilde boys. Includes a section during the Vietnam War and the death of a wife. It’s a really touching love story too.
  • King Me by Lucy Lennox – m/m, enemies to lovers. Final Forever Wilde novel to date. Good stuff, but Dirk Falcon is a terrible name.
  • Scales and a Tail by Stormy Glen – m/m, mpreg, dragon, bunny, paranormal. This book was funny and fun. A quick read. Another excellent addition to my dragon collection. And there’s good grovel here too.
  • Spells and Bananas by Joyee Flynn – m/m, witch, spider monkey, mpreg. Funny book in this midnight matings series.
  • Hot Ride by Lucy Lennox – m/m, age gap, virgin hero. Cute story about two dancers who fall for each other.
  • Fire and Ash by Gabrielle Evans – m/m, phoenix, fae. Another goofy midnight matings book.
  • Grounding Griffin by Lucy Lennox – m/m – Another family series by this author. Good stuff.
  • Jumping Jude by Lucy Lennox – m/m, workplace. Sweet story of country music star and his bodyguard. I liked the bodyguard character a lot.
  • IRL: In Real Life by Lucy Lennox and Molly Maddox – m/m, enemies to lovers, secret. Funny, cute story from dick pic to true love. I really enjoyed this one.

Reading this Week – August 4

  • Her Christmas Cookie by Katrina Jackson – Somehow I missed this one when I was reading the Welcome to Sea Port series. It’s a continuation of the throuple in From Scratch where they meet each other’s families. m-m-f, happily ever after.
  • Dirty by Kylie Scott – m/f, contemporary This was funny and cute. A quick read.
  • The Client by Meghan O’Brien – f/f, former bully. This was a quick, steamy story. I have trouble with the former bully trope, but it was well-done here. I wish this had been longer and gone more into their relationship and a true HEA instead of the quick HFN.
  • By Fairy Means or Foul by Meghan Maslow – m/m, magic, dragons, fairies. This was an adorable and funny book. The first in a series and I am looking forward to reading more.
  • Brazen and the Beast by Sarah MacLean – m/f, historical – This was an amazing story with an AMAZING heroine! It is indeed the Year of Hattie and I am here for it! Whitt was an excellent hero as well. I don’t always love the grunt-y heroes, but this totally worked for me. I already bought the paperback for my keeper shelf.
  • Man vs. Durian by Jackie Lau – m/f, fake relationship. OMG, I loved this book! My review will post on the 27th, release day. Another that I’ll have to track down in print for the keeper shelf. Peter is total book boyfriend material.
  • Swallow by Piper Scott and Virginia Kelly – m/m, dragons. This is a spinoff of the bananapants crazy series that I loved so much by these authors. It’s about the dad dragon and his HEA. Major age gap. Something like 1,000 year-old dragon with a 20 year old. haha. This wasn’t as bananas as the original series but I still enjoyed it and loved seeing some of my favorite characters from the original series pop in.
  • Loving the Secret Billionaire by Adriana Anders – m/f, disability rep, age gap, virgin hero. This was a good story. Older heroine (I don’t remember if it ever says how old, but I’m guessing late 30’s) falls for a 23 year old billionaire hacker.
  • Endless Stretch of Blue by Riley Hart – m/m, grief, friends to lovers. This was a sweet story of two straight guys who both lost siblings in a bar fire and they meet and fall in love.
  • The Beast in Him by Shelly Laurenston – m/f, wolves, wild dogs, shifters, paranormal, friends to lovers. Like everything from this author, this was a funny read with enough steam and some original characters. I really hope the hero’s sister gets a story in this series. She’s mean and crazy, but kind of my favorite.

Reread this week:

  • A Boy Called Cin by Cecil Wilde
  • S.O.S. by Arabella Faith
  • Getaway Girl, Runaway Girl and Halfway Girl by Tessa Bailey

Reading this Week – July 23

The reading slump is over!

  • Wound Tight by Tessa Bailey – very sexy m/m between a CEO and his security guy. I like stories with two alpha dudes falling in love.
  • Toxic Desire by Robin Lovett – crazy-pants m/f alien romance. It’s a planet full of a toxin that will kill you if you don’t have sex regularly. First in a trilogy. Naturally, I’m reading them all as fast as I can.
  • Captivated by Tessa Bailey and Eve Dangerfield – m/f, neighbors. This was good. Funny and dirty.
  • Heat Wave by Ceri Grenelle – m/f, neighbors, friends to lovers. This quick read was cute.
  • Building Up to Love by J.V. Speyer – cute enough m/m. See full review here.
  • Written on His Skin by Simone Stark – m/f, epistolary, plus size heroine. This quick and dirty read was good.
  • Drilled by Brill Harper – m/f, age gap, plus size heroine, brothers bff – The author describes it as trope soup and that’s accurate. This came up in KU recommendations and it was ok.
  • Captive Desire by Robin Lovett – m/f, enemies to lovers, aliens – Second in the crazy-pants sex planet series. More wtf sexytimes. Very entertaining.
  • It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time by Kylie Scott – m/f, age gap, surprise baby. This was cute and funny, but I was let down by the ending. Still, I enjoyed the author’s style enough to know I’ll read more of her stuff.

Reading this Week – July 14

Another two weeks together. The reading slump is somewhat better. I read more but I wasn’t super enthusiastic about it.

  • Obey by Piper Scott – m/m, omegaverse, mpreg, billionaire, bdsm. No shifters in this one, just regular old human omega men who can get pregnant. haha.
  • Theirs for the Night by Katee Robert – m/m/f, good enough menage novella
  • S.O.S. by Arabella Faith – m/m, sweet, writer hero. I enjoyed this one a lot.
  • Runaway Girl by Tessa Bailey – m/f, funny. You can always count on some good old Tessa Bailey dirty talk to bust a reading slump.
  • Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey – m/f, funny, brothers best friend. I loved this one. Tessa Bailey can do no wrong to me.
  • Wound Tight by Tessa Bailey – m/m, workplace. This story was intense and somewhat uncomfortable because both dudes were so alpha. But I liked seeing how they worked it out.
  • Tied to the Tycoon by Chloe Cox – m/f, wtf sexytimes. I read this one from a Romancelandia friend’s WTF sex scene spreadsheet. They do butt stuff while the heroine is suspended by ropes off a skyscraper in Manhattan. Totally nuts.
  • Smoke Signals by Meredith Katz – m/m, dragons! This was a new type of dragon shifter and I loved it. His hoard was comprised of every game in existence. So cute.
  • All Grown Up by Vi Keeland – m/f, age gap. This older woman, younger man romance was a cute, fun, quick read.

Reading this Week – June 30

This is actually the past two weeks. I’ve been in a bit of a reading slump.

  • A Boy Called Cin by Cecile Wilde – m/nb, billionaire, age gap. This was a super sweet romance with fantastic trans rep (according to trans reviewers on Goodreads, as well as my cis perception). The main characters are a bi trans man and a bi genderqueer man. Cin is one of the best characters I’ve read this year. I absolutely loved him.
  • To One Hundred by Melissa Blue – m/f, professor/student (but she’s older and just finishing a couple of credits, not a coed). This is the first in the Dirty Sexy Geeks series, and I loved it. I think Melissa Blue is highly underrated.
  • Three Nights with a Rock Star by Amber Lin and Shari Slade – m/f, rockstar. This was just ok. There was some manufactured angst that never really felt true. But it was steamy.
  • Perv by Dakota Gray – m/f This was my second try of this book and I was much more in the mood. The hero has an oral fetish so you really have to be in the mood for that. This book is filthy, in the best way.
  • Once Upon a Bad Boy by Melonie Johnson – m/f, second chance. See my previous post for the full review of this sweet book. I just love this series.
  • Being Neighborly: A Close Proximity Romance by Meka James – m/f, neighbors. This was a quick, one-handed read. I got it because I think the cover is hella sexy (see below) and it did not disappoint.
  • Where’s My Hero anthology – I read this for the Lisa Kleypas story featuring Derek and Sara Craven’s daughter. It was ok.

Re-read over the past two weeks

  • Want Me by Neve Wilder – I can’t stop with this book.
  • Dreaming of You by Lisa Kleypas – tried to bust the slump with an old favorite.
  • Misadventures with a Professor by Sierra Simone
  • Nine Rules to Break when Romancing a Rake by Sarah MacLean – another old favorite that failed to bust the slump.
  • A Rogue by Any Other Name by Sarah MacLean – Got this lovely one on sale and had to reread.
  • So Sweet by Rebekah Weatherspoon

Reading this Week – June 16

  • All Hours by Andie J. Christopher – This m/m was sweet and steamy. Full review coming.
  • Natural Enemies by Roan Parrish – Another feels-y m/m from this wonderful author. Great descriptions of plants and the love story was super sweet.
  • Mr. Hotshot CEO by Jackie Lau – This m/f had excellent depression representation. Almost too good in fact. Her descriptions of depressed feelings nearly bummed me out.
  • Misadventures with a Professor by Sierra Simone – m/f, age gap. This author is hot, hot, hot.
  • Somebody to Love by Aurelia Fray – m/f. This was not my favorite. Full review already posted.

Reread this week

  • Middle of Somewhere by Roan Parrish
  • Out of Nowhere by Roan Parrish

Reading this Week – June 9

  • Hardcore by Dakota Gray – m/f, workplace, sort of second chance. This was first person narration from the hero’s point of view, which I feel like is hard to do well. First person of anyone is hard to pull off, but I’m always impressed when the hero’s POV is done well and it was here. He was a dirty dude though. Wow.
  • Want Me by Neve Wilder – m/m, college. Definitely the most explicit m/m I’ve ever read, but it also had these moments of true sweetness from the two alpha bros who fell in love. Typically, I don’t love an alpha bro, much less two, but seeing these guys come together was lovely. So.Much.Sex. though. So if you’re looking for lots of plot and dialog, probably want to skip this one. I loved it though. I’ve already read it two more times.
  • Dedicated by Neve Wilder – m/m, workplace, friends to lovers – Another sweet one from this author. This one had more conflict and less sexytimes, but it was still really good.
  • Knight’s Fire by SJ Himes – m/m, paranormal, DRAGONS! I fucking love dragons. I don’t know why, but I do. This mythology was a little different. Rather than a human/dragon shifter, the dragon was a true shape shifter and could assume any shape. He preferred to assume the human shape so he could get it on with the knight. I’m looking forward to the next in the series, about their wedding and resolving the Big Bad.
  • Jericho Candelario’s Gay Debut by R. Cooper – m/m, friends to lovers, virgin hero – This was the sweetest, most precious (in the best sense of the word) love story. Jerry is my favorite. And I loved Lincoln’s dad bod.

Reread this week:

  • Band Sinister by KJ Charles – My #1 go-to comfort read. And fitting my theme of only reading LGBT books the rest of this month for Pride.

Reading this Week – June 2

  • Seriously H*rny by Piper Scott and Susi Hawk (m/m, dragons and unicorns) – Another bananapants KU find. Piper Scott and crew write crazy shifter mpreg romances that are so ridiculous. I love them.
  • Dangerously H*rny by Piper Scott and Susi Hawk (m/m, dragons and unicorns) – Not as good as the others by this author but I still enjoyed it.
  • Renaissance Man by Tessa Baily (m/f, instalove) – This was a really cute novella.
  • Bad Habit by Charleigh Rose (m/f, new adult) – Angsty. Friends to lovers to enemies to lovers. I wasn’t really into it but at the same time I wanted to see what the misunderstanding was that made him he hate her so much. It’s weird for me to read about people that young getting sexy.
  • Lucky Charm by Chace Verity (m/m, disability rep) This novella was the sweetest! Set just before the great depression when talking films were just starting out. A deaf actor loses his place in Hollywood and hooks up with an old friend to get revenge on his former director/lover. It was so cute and sweet!
  • Disturbing His Peace by Tessa Bailey (m/f, workplace) – Ok, Tessa Bailey is so good at dirty talk. This was a great story. I loved the heroine. The hero was alpha and really walked the line between sexy and too obnoxious but he stayed on the right side of the line.
  • Hardcore by Dakota Gray (m/f, workplace) – Fun, very steamy read. Hero is kind of annoying.

Reading this Week – May 27

  • The Learning Hours by Sara Ney (m/f, college) – I don’t usually like stories about douchey college students, but in this one, the girl was the douchebag and the guy was a sweetheart. It was a nice change. And I always enjoy Sara Ney’s writing.
  • American Fairytale by Adriana Herrera (m/m, billionaire) – Second in the series and I love it! Camilo and Tom are the cutest and I will fight anyone who says otherwise. I will probably have to buy this book in paperback as well for my keeper shelf. It’s sooooo good. Squee!
  • Create a Life to Love by Erin Zak (f/f, cw: domestic violence) – I have a full review of this one coming up soon.
  • The Major’s Welcome Home by Tessa Bailey (m/f, virgin hero) – I love a contemporary virgin, especially the hero. And Tessa Bailey writes steam and dirty talk so well. This one was fun. And it’s on Kindle Unlimited!
  • A Slice of Honeybear Pie by Jacqueline Sweet and Eva Wilder (m/f, paranormal bear shifters, plus size heroine) – I heard about this sweet series through #RomBkLove and it is fun! And it’s on Kindle Unlimited.
  • A Taste of Honeybear Wine by Jacqueline Sweet and Eva Wilder (m/f, paranormal bear shifters, plus size heroine) – Second in the series. Another cute one.
  • Thirsty by Mia Hopkins (m/f, contemporary) – This is the first in a series and I have an ARC of the second one so I wanted to read this first. I don’t usually go for gang stories, or mob or motorcycle club or any other organized group devoted to nefarious purposes, but I’m so glad I read this. It’s a sweet, very sexy story about a man trying to change his life and he falls in love with a good woman who encourages him to be his best self. But she doesn’t take any shit either. Great book.
  • Wrapped: A FIT adjacent Christmas Novella by Rebekah Weatherspoon (m/f, plus size heroine, ginger hero) – This story was catnip on catnip. So much fun. I loved it.
  • The First Sinners Club by Kate Pearce (m/f, historical, erotic) – This novella was enjoyable.

Reading this Week – May 19

  • Playing with Fire by RJ Blain – m/f, urban fantasy. This was a bananapants crazy world with shifters and gorgons and phoenixes and angels and succubi and basically every paranormal creature I’ve ever heard of. The romance was very low heat so that was my only complaint. The banter between the main characters was funny and I laughed out loud at least once.
  • Teach Me by Olivia Dade – m/f, workplace romance. I’ve got a full review of this one coming next week.
  • Launch the Hunt by Mia West – m/m, shifter. This was a fun read. An eagle shifter who can turn humans into shifters with his magical sperm.
  • Surrender the Chase by Mia West – m/m, shifter, age gap, second in this series. This one was two wolf shifters. It was good too. Also the first romance I’ve read where one of the heros had a less than perfect body. Dadbod for the win!
  • Embrace the Beast by Mia West – m/m, shifter, more dadbod! This friends to lovers was another fun read.
  • Smitten by the Brit by Melonie Johnson – m/f, sweet, funny romance. I’ve got a full review of this one coming soon.
  • So Sweet, So Right, So For Real by Rebekah Weatherspoon – m/f, series of novellas, age gap. I love this author and I loved this series. Kayla is a great heroine.
  • Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure by Courtney Milan – f/f, seasoned romance. This one took me a long time to finish. I just never got into it. But it was really well written and I wanted to like it more than I did. Which is usually how I feel about this author’s books. I can see she’s good at what she’s doing and I enjoy it, but the magic isn’t there for me.
  • The Principle of Desire by Delphine Dryden – m/f, dadbod, bdsm. I will forever sing the praises of dadbod in romance! We get heroines with less than perfect bodies, why not heros too!