- 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.
Tag: romance reader
Review: Teach Me
I received an e-ARC of Teach Me by Olivia Dade from the author in exchange for an honest review.
Teach Me is a fantastic m/f that falls under “seasoned romance” because the hero and heroine are in their 40’s.
Rose is a teacher with a twenty years of experience at her school, and Martin is a new teacher who is brought in and assigned to her favorite class to teach. Martin is immediately drawn to Rose, but he grows on her slowly. She makes the first move and he turns her down due to insecurities, not lack of interest. Then he realizes what a dumb move that was and goes about trying to thaw her out. They both work on their insecurities. They let each other in. They find happily ever after.
What I loved about this book was the ease and gentleness of it. There was no dramatic gestures or big romantic overtures or aggressive pursuit, just a grown ass man respecting and listening to a grown ass woman. Blurbs bill it as an ice queen and a cinnamon roll and that’s accurate. But he’s not a sickly sweet cinnamon roll covered in too much icing. He’s iced just right. I loved the writing from his perspective when he realized he loved her. I would quote it but I don’t want to spoil it.
I give this book 4.5 stars and I highly recommend it. They both accepted each other and appreciated each other for being exactly themselves. I think that’s my biggest romance catnip — respect and acceptance and seeing someone for who they really are.
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!
Reading this Week – May 12
- Sinner by Sierra Simone – m/f, fake relationship, age gap. I didn’t like this as much as I wanted to.
- Just Past Two by Elia Winters – m/f, open marriage. I’ve got a flash review on this one coming closer to release date.
- Raze by Roan Parrish – m/m, age gap, so sweet. I’ve got a full review of this one coming closer to release date.
- Feels Like Summer by Six de los Reyes – m/f, cute story.
- Alpha Awakened by Piper Scott – more m/m, dragon, mpreg craziness. I can’t resist.
- Alpha Ablaze by Piper Scott – m/m, dragon, mpreg, second in this series. This was probably my favorite of the four.
- Alpha Deceived by Piper Scott -m/m, dragon, mpreg, third of the series. unexpected omega.
- Alpha Victorious by Piper Scott – m/m, dragon, mpreg, age gap. I probably would have abandoned this one if I hadn’t been curious about what happened with the bad guy. I don’t like it when the hero is called “daddy.”
- My Lady’s Choosing by Kitty Curran and Larissa Zageris -m/f and f/f. Choose your own adventure meets romance. This was such a fun book! It took me back to reading those choose your own adventure books, which I loved. All the HEAs were satisfying.
Reading this Week – May 5
- Never a Bride by Megan Frampton – m/f, historical, fake relationship fun. I’m posting a flash review of this book tomorrow. The Goodreads review was actually quoted by the author on Twitter and I died.
- The Lion, The Dragon, and Their Unicorn Omega by Lorelei Hart and Ophelia Heart – m/m/m shifter mpreg craziness. Just a fun, silly read.
- The Hottest Daddy: After She’s Gone by Michelle Love – m/f, contemporary, somewhat suspense. It was ok.
- Halfway Girl by Tessa Bailey – m/f, contemporary. This was virgin hero catnip fun.
Reread this week
- Bond by Piper Scott – m/m, mpreg, dragon craziness. This is the bananas series I read last month and I was in the mood for it again.
Review: From Heiress to Mom
From Heiress to Mom by Therese Beharrie is a really sweet, emotional romance. It’s not super sexy, which was a little disappointing, but as I got more drawn into the characters’ journey, I didn’t mind so much. There’s a secret baby, but *twist* it’s not the heroine’s! The baby belongs to the one night stand of her ex-boyfriend, who asks her to help care for the baby while the mom is finishing school. At first I was like, Hell no…how selfish can you be, and I wanted to throw my Kindle across the room. But I stuck with it and I’m glad I did.
The book really digs into the pair’s insecurities and feelings. We don’t get much of a sense of what their previous relationship was like, but we get a lot of their feelings and why they broke up. Seeing them work through all of their issues, with a front row seat to their inner monologues, was worth reading. But fair warning – this book is very much in their heads. They both have a lot of crap to work through. I cared about both of these characters by the time I was halfway through the book so I was very invested in their HEA. I also got curious about the first book in the series, her sister’s story, which I’ll have to track down at some point.
If you’re looking for a sweet love story that is high on feels and really creates a mood, then you will enjoy this book. I give it 4 stars.
This is the first time I’ve received an ARC directly from the author so I was really excited to get it!
Review: That Kind of Guy
This is a m/f that features an interracial, age-gap couple with friends to lovers and a fake relationship. There was excellent representation of mental health and demisexuality, and there’s a giant, sweet dog.
Zach and Rae are friends and Rae is nervous to go to a writers’ conference because her ex will be there with his new wife and their baby. Zach decides she needs a fake boyfriend and he volunteers. They get to the hotel and *gasp* there’s only one bed! They both have lots of feelings. There’s a misunderstanding. They talk about it like adults. They live happily ever after. (Given the title of this blog, I don’t think that’s a spoiler.)
The relationship between Zach and Rae grows from friends to lovers slowly and organically, and it’s very believable. Zach admires Rae and she appreciates him for who he is. When they hurt each other, they apologize. And there were some awesome cameos of previous Ravenswood characters.
I give this book 5 Big Heart-Eye-Emoji Stars. I absolutely loved this book and it will probably go along with A Girl Like Her as one of my go-to comfort reads. I received an e-ARC of this book from the author. I am a major Talia Hibbert fangirl so I was really excited to get the chance to read this early. You need to go buy this book right now.
Review: American Witch
I received an e-ARC of American Witch by Thea Harrison from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This is the first book in a new trilogy and it’s set in the Elder Races universe. I loved Dragon Bound so much so I was glad to be in that world again. However, this was in an entirely different part of the country and I didn’t see any characters I recognized from the three Elder Races books I’ve read, but I think there were mentions of some characters from her other books.
Molly Sullivan is in an unhappy marriage to an asshole lawyer. She discovers he’s cheating on her and she leaves him in spectacular fashion. She also discovers she has awakening Powers. She meets Josiah, a very old witch, and he gives her some training. Molly is extremely powerful and learns quickly. There is a mystery involving some shady business dealings of her ex-husband’s and a centuries-old feud between Josiah and an ancient witch. Molly and Josiah don’t hit it off right away but there’s an attraction and they develop a relationship. Magical and mundane stuff happens. It’s all very enjoyable and drove me to devour the book in one day.
I enjoyed Molly’s journey of self-discovery. She is a strong woman who had let herself be beaten down by a bad relationship and getting free from her husband opens her up to explore a positive future for herself. Josiah is controlling and overbearing, but somehow still likable to me. I think what I appreciated the most was that Molly stood up to him and he respected her for it. He acknowledged when he was being a jerk, and he really grew to care for her. When he drops the first “I love you,” I believed it. And I liked that he was willing to (mostly) abandon his quest for revenge to be the guy that Molly deserved.
I give this book Five Big Magical Stars, and I can’t wait for the next one in the trilogy. This book reminded me how much I enjoy Thea Harrison’s world building and characterization and just her writing in general. I wonder which of the secondary characters will be featured. This book introduced lots of people but didn’t give a strong hint to any other relationships. Which I appreciated. I hate it when there’s a big neon sign pointing to the next book. It feels like an advertisement.
Reading this Week – April 28
- A Prince on Paper by Alyssa Cole – Full review coming on Tuesday!
- Shaft by Krista Gold – This was a cute m/f novella. Not exactly happily ever after but it leaves you with the potential for happy. I wanted more.
- Under His Protection by LaQuette – This was a really great m/m romance with forced proximity and second chance love. I loved the cop character.
- Rebel Hard by Nalini Singh – Five stars, all the heart eyes, diverse m/f love story. This book was my catnip. Two virgins falling in love over time and learning to chase their dreams together. So good.
- Cherish Hard by Nalini Singh – This one was good too, but anything was bound to be a letdown after Rebel Hard.
Reread this week:
- One Dance with a Duke by Tessa Dare – This book just keeps growing on me.
- Dragon Bound by Thea Harrison – I was in a bad mood this week and needed some funny dragon shifters to cheer me up.
I’m very excited because my first full review is going live tomorrow! Come back and check it out and squee over books with me!
HEA or GTFO 