what I’m reading – HEA or GTFO

Cheer Up

I received an eARC of Cheer Up: Love and Pom Poms by Crystal Frasier, Val Wise, and Oscar Jupiter from Netgalley and Oni Press in exchange for an honest review.

This is a light and sweet graphic novel about two cheerleaders discovering first love and learning more about themselves. Bebe is trans and the team treats her like a token or mascot. Annie is a grumpy iconoclast who needs cheerleading to pad her college applications. They used to be best friends and it’s never clear why they fell out of touch but they reconnect through cheerleading. They crush on each other and they smooch. The ending wraps up a little too quickly and nicely. The cheer team magically realizes they were treating Bebe badly and her parents suddenly accept her and give her more freedom.

I give this four fizzy feel-good stars. I really enjoyed this graphic novel and the art was great.

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.

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!

Reading this Week – April 14

Three-Way Split by Elia Winters – fun m/m/f. I’ve decided that I prefer m/m/f to m/f/m. I like for everyone to be in love with everyone in my poly-romances.
Love Will Always Remember by Tracey Livesay – m/f romance. I am not always of fan of one of the MCs being in a relationship when they get together with their True Love, but I was able to get past that because the writing was so gorgeous and the hero was so wonderful.
Picture Perfect Cowboy by Tiffany Reisz – short and sweet m/f. My first exposure to Tiffany Reisz was the totally bananas The Red. This was a fun one with some D/s in there.
Single AF by Sherelle Green – clever, funny m/f. This was one of my better finds on KU.
Before Girl by Kate Canterbary – 35+ m/f. I enjoyed reading about a couple that’s my age and older. The hero called the Heroine “sweet thing” and that took me out of the story every single time.
Cocky Cowboy by Jamila Jasper – m/f with a mystery attached. I didn’t love this one, but I didn’t hate it either. I liked the Heroine. She was really strong. I guess I just had trouble believing their relationship because they didn’t really get to know each other much.
An Unseen Attraction by KJ Charles – m/m with a mystery attached. The relationship was sweet but the mystery was kind of boring to me until the very end, when it was solved and hinted at further mystery that comes along later in the series.
That Kind of Guy by Talia Hibbert – m/f, last in the Ravenswood series. I have been anticipating this one like crazy and I got an ARC from the author. It comes out May 2, and I’ll post a full review that week. I have squee for this book.
28 Dates by Stacey Lynn – m/f, sort of second chance, friends with benefits to friends to true love. This book has a horrible cover on the ARC but it was a sweet story.

Damn, I read a lot this week. But I didn’t do any rereads and a lot of these were 2 hours or less.

Reading this week – March 23

This week I had to do a lot of work so I didn’t get to read as much. And when I did I focused on shorter books. But there were some awesome ones in there!

Misadventures of a Curvy Girl by Sierra Simone – Very steamy mmf with body positive, fat heroine
Never Sweeter by Charlotte Stein – Enemies to lovers, very intense feels
Can’t Escape Love by Alyssa Cole – Geeky, sexy fun. There were some great lines in this one. Probably my favorite of the Reluctant Royals series so far.
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang – I feel like I was the last person to read this and I’m so glad I finally did. It was so sweet. Great consent.
Inheritance by Katrina Jackson – Sweet, exhibitionist love
The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory – Another one I’m late to the party on. I didn’t like this as much as The Proposal, but it was fun to get Drew and Alexa’s story.

Rereads

The Heart of Devin MacKade by Nora Roberts – The first romance novel I remember reading, from my mom’s stash of Harlequins. Still very sweet.
Grumpy Fake Boyfriend by Jackie Lau – Awesome grumpy hero. I’m a sucker for a writer character.
Dragon Actually by G.A. Aiken – I freaking love this book. Read it.

Hopefully next week, I’ll have time to post a real review, but I’m enjoying writing about what I’m reading, even if it’s just these short, quick posts.