Bookish Thoughts

This book was a ton of fun, which is all I want from a romance. The hero and heroine - Jon and Reggie - are well matched. They're both intelligent go-getters who of course have some issues. Meeting each other inspires them to work on their issues. And I actually really appreciated that at the end of the book they worked on their issues independently before reconnecting and committing to each other. It made the happy ending feel more earned and like it would last longer, as opposed to just being a vacation fling that would never survive contact with the real world.

 After taking two weeks to read my first book of 2022, I needed something quick. Romance novels always do a great job of filling that urge. They're easy to read, happy, and usually a perfect little palate cleanser. And this one definitely lived up to all those expectations. But as a romance novel it was sort of middle of the road. I liked Makeda a whole lot more than Beznaria, which probably comes down to Makeda getting the lion's share of the chapters. Her journey was more compelling and satisfying, and I was really rooting for her. Beznaria felt a bit more sketched in to me, and she went through a bit less growth. Not that she didn't change, but I have no real confidence that those changes were permanent. Which is a weird place to be with a romance novel. I also felt like the ending was a bit too abrupt. I could have used another few chapters to tie up some loose ends or an epilogue to assuage my fears that this relationship would never last in the real world. They had a ...

I just adore Alisha Rai. She's become an insta-buy for me. Every time one of her books comes out, I have to get it because I know I'll love it. She writes wonderful, warm, smart romances with killer sex scenes.  This one kicks off a new series that I'm very excited about. It's adjacent to the Forbidden Hearts series that I finished earlier this year. The heroine's brother was in the last of those books. But now we get out of that stifling small town in upstate New York and out into huge, anonymous LA. I'm glad that there's still a little bit of crossover from the characters in those books, even as Rai's moving into a different series. Really I just love Alisha Rai and all her books. I'm always happy when I'm reading them.

This is the book I was reading when I got the call that my husband was probably going to die. I'd been expecting to finish it that afternoon. But my life came off the rails, and it ended up taking another week to finish. I'm sure my mental state affected my enjoyment of this book, especially since the imminent death of my husband cast a pall on the romance genre in general. But I did finish it, and I even mostly enjoyed it. This was the last book in Rai's Forbidden Hearts series, which was more serial than I'm used to from romances. I appreciated that there were secrets and mysteries from the first two books that were finally tied up here. It gave me more of a reason to keep pushing through this book, since I was less a fan of the main couple. But that's mostly because of my own aversion to May/December romances than anything about these particular characters. I'm really looking forward to reading more of Rai's work. The heroine of the next book, The Right S...

This was an adorable romance novella that I positively inhaled. There were a ton of geeky references. Enough that it might have been annoying had it not played directly into my wheelhouse. I understood them all, so I loved them all, and I felt closer to the characters because of it. Alyssa Cole is just so good at writing fluffy, fun, inclusive romances. Rumor has it that she's also really good at brutal, angsty romances, so I'll have to check out her historical stuff when I'm up for it. In the meantime, I'm sad to have finished this series and excited that the first book in a spin-off series is due out soon.

Alyssa Cole is one of the best writers in the romance genre today. She definitely has the best covers. In fact, I love her covers so much, that I kept putting off reading this book because I wanted a physical rather than a digital copy to display on my bookshelves. Until the coronavirus finally convinced me to just download the book (can't download a virus! Or, not that kind of virus). And I wish I'd just sucked it up and read this book sooner. This is a very sweet second-chance romance that plays with the established structure a bit. Likotsi's chapters are all in the present, detailing her second meeting with Fabiola months after their all-too-brief relationship ended. Fabiola's chapters take us back to that whirlwind romance and her reasons for deciding to break it off. It's a sweet story about love at first sight and how frightening that intensity can be.

Sometimes you find a book at exactly the right time. In the wake of my husband being admitted to the hospital, I reached for a romance novel. I needed something light and cheery to escape in to. This certainly didn't let me down on the fluff or the happy ending. It did hit a lot closer to home than I was expecting it to, though, and I ended up crying a whole lot. In a good, cathartic way. See, the heroine of this one, Sadia, is a single mom. I'm lucky enough not to have her money woes, but I do have her hectic schedule. Her all-consuming worry about her kid, her need to drop everything when her kid is sick and her inability to actually do that, her simple pleasure in just snuggling up with her kid to watch a movie. I plan everything down to the last minute, just like she does. I do my best to snatch time for myself whenever I can, and I've trained myself to recharge off of 10 or 20 minutes of me time, because that's all I can put together. And then one thing goes wr...

I enjoyed but didn't love The Wedding Date when I read it last year. I didn't feel a pressing need to read the sequels - there were other romances I liked more and my TBR is already way too long. But when a friend bought this for me as a gift, I had no reason not to read it. I went in expecting a fun, quick romance whose characters struggle with racism and sexism and that's exactly what I got. Maddie and Theo were both interesting characters, especially because they managed to bring out both the best and the worst in each other. It was a fun dynamic, especially as they swung from seeing the worst in each other to seeing the best. They have the same problem Lizzie and Darcy had - they're too similar to see each other clearly at first. It's a classic for a reason. My only complaint, and the real reason that I'll never be totally sold on Jasmine Guillory, is that her sex scenes fade to black to quickly. Part of the reason I read romance is for the steamy sex s...

I've been reading a ton of historical romance lately as I made my way through Sarah MacLean's backlog. So it was a nice change of pace to pick up a contemporary romance. I've been hearing great things about Alisha Rai for a while, and this book did not disappoint. It was sexy and angsty and everything I want when I pick up a romance. The story follows Livvy and Nicholas. They dated once upon a time and seemed destined for marriage. Until bad blood between their families trickled down and forced them to break up. They've been meeting in secret once a year to have sex. But when Livvy decides to break the pattern and stop showing up, everything else changes too. I loved the second chance at love trope. The history between the two characters made every ache hurt that much more and every cute moment that much sweeter. There's a lot of pain that the two need to overcome to find their way back to each other, not to mention the judgement of their respective families. Bu...

I definitely haven't read widely enough to make the following sweeping statement, but I'm going to make it anyway: Alyssa Cole is the best romance author working today. I say this after reading a mere three of her books. But those books are just so good. And she's clearly incredibly versatile (contemporary romances about modern royalty, historicals set during the Civil War, a series of dystopian romances, novels and novellas and compelling characters from every sort of background you can imagine). So even though I have a lot of her backlog left to get through, I'm gonna go ahead and say she's one of the best in the business. I just finished her most recent release, A Prince on Paper . Sheltered Nya and Playboy Johan find themselves thrown together in a fake engagement to distract the press while they both figure out some stuff. Nya is dealing with the fallout of her traitorous father and trying to break free from the image he crafted for her. Johan is trying to di...

Helen Hoang's second novel turns it's focus to Michael's cousin, Khai, and the woman his mother brings over from Vietnam to be his wife. While she doesn't quite force an arranged marriage on the two, giving them a summer to decide if they want to get married and allowing for the possibility that Esme might choose to return home at the end, it still all seems a bit old-fashioned. But the book does what it can to address the throw-back trope and ultimately everything works out. I didn't end up liking this book quite as much as The Kiss Quotient  (though to be fair, I couldn't put The Kiss Quotient  down), but it was still fun and entertaining. Esme is a force to be reckoned with. She wants to come to America and provide a better life for herself and her daughter, but her definition of better life also means not compromising her values. She won't agree to a loveless marriage, and when things with Khai start to fall apart, she quickly shifts her focus to educa...

When life's getting you down, reach for a romance novel. Even better, reach for a romance novel by Alyssa Cole. A Duke by Default  is the second in Cole's Reluctant Royals series. It follows "Hot Mess" Portia as she travels from NYC to Scotland for a 3-month internship with a sword-maker, the latest in a long line of attempts to get her life on track. Approaching thirty and with a bunch of degrees and internships but no real career prospects, Portia is hoping to make a fresh start and discard her worst habits. Those habits include drinking, having sex with random guys, and failing to follow-through on projects she's starting. But her resolve to avoid sex is sorely tested when she meets her new boss and sparks immediately fly. Said boss, Tavish McKenzie, is a gruff Scotsman with a heart of gold. He's stretched thin, running a community center out of his armory, and he's hoping that an apprentice will ease some of the burden. That all goes out the window...

I gotta say, I'm actually glad that I wasn't completely in love with this book. I started adding romance novels to my regular rotation earlier this year. I've loved them so much that I was starting to worry that I wasn't being objective about it. (Then again, who really wants to be objective about romance novels? The point is to love them whole-heartedly.) But it turns out that I was just that good at doing my research. I did enjoy this story about a fake date that quickly becomes a whole lot more. Alexa and Drew are both driven, career-focused people who get completely caught off guard by their feelings for each other. Their meet-cute was adorable (and obviously in an elevator). Their friends were totally supportive. Their obstacles were a nice mix of internal (commitment issues) and external (living in different cities). It was a sweet book. But I really struggled with the pacing. Guillory tended to jump forward in time with no warning. The sex scenes were vague an...

I inhaled this book. I took a long lunch because I couldn't put it down. I cried on the metro to the point that I had to dig kleenex out of my purse. I let my kid watch Sesame Street so I could keep reading. I stayed up past my bedtime to finish it. I loved this book. The Kiss Quotient  is about Stella: an autistic econometrician (she writes the algorithms that drive internet ads) whose mom is making noise about wanting grandchildren. But Stella's never had much luck with men and dating and particularly sex. So she does what she's always done when she needs to master a new skill: she hires a professional. Enter Michael, a male escort who's trying to earn money to pay for his mom's medical bills. Stella engages him for a series of sessions to help her get better at sex so she can enter the dating pool with confidence and find a husband to make her mom happy. But it quickly becomes apparent that the problem isn't Stella, but all the assholes out there. And tha...