So I loved Take a Hint, Dani Brown. How much? I joined the Bad Decisions Book Club on the reread. Which started right after I had finished it the first time. Yes. I knew exactly where the book was going to go and I could not put it down. Honestly, I’m reading it a third time. We here at the Pink Palace love Talia Hibbert. Kiki wrote a very beautiful review of the first book … Continue reading Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert
I love tropes. I could talk tropes all the live long day. But you know what I really love, when there is a trope trifecta… Office romance? Fake relationship? Marriage of convenience? Tick! Tick! TICK! This book literally ticks all the boxes. Garrett Song, the man about to be announced as CEO of Hansol Incorporated (his family’s company) is super-hot, super-driven and super-not-into-marriage. Garrett’s grandmother, the overbearing matriarch, has other ideas though and has arranged … Continue reading Temporary Wife Temptation by Jayci Lee
CW lifted from the book: The Girl Next Door includes a description of a sudden past death of a partner. I (Tara) am a Chelsea M. Cameron superfan, so I was excited when Shana asked if I wanted to review this with her. Unfortunately, although there were elements I liked about The Girl Next Door, it ultimately fell a little flat for me. Shana hasn’t read Cameron, but her catnip is small-town romances where a … Continue reading The Girl Next Door by Chelsea M. Cameron
Content warning: This book has ALL the triggers, and I’m a bit worried I’ve forgotten one, but here goes. Abusive/manipulative/neglectful/controlling parents. Alcoholism. Suicide of a parent (witnessed by the child – off page, but remembered rather vividly). Forced marriage and rape (off-page). Infidelity. Hero is orphaned at an early age and is not acknowledged by his father’s family. Plane crash. People who stress you out just showing up and letting themselves into your apartment to … Continue reading Recipe for Persuasion by Sonali Dev
CW: sexual harassment I first heard about Something to Talk About last year and said “oooooh,” because it has tropes and character types that I like a whole lot: Hollywood setting Ice queen lead Boss/employee relationship Tabloid photo fallout Jo Jones is showrunner for the hottest drama on TV and rumours abound that she is going to head up the next Agent Silver movie (I imagined an American James Bond). Jo has no interest in … Continue reading Something to Talk About by Meryl Wilsner
Content warnings: Both the hero and heroine have troubled pasts, including loss of parents, abuse, and infidelity. Also, the hero is REALLY into researching suicide cults. While this book is surprisingly sweet and light, and none of these things are described in detail, there is plenty of darkness in the backstory, so proceed accordingly. I took one look at the blurb for Beach Read on NetGalley and one-clicked so hard that they could probably hear … Continue reading Beach Read by Emily Henry
Sometimes a series is just exactly what you thought it was going to be and what you were looking for, and the josei manga series You’re My Pet! was that for me. This 14-volume manga series is comedic, soap-operatic, a little weird, romantic, and hopeful. While I can’t say it’s flawless, I nonetheless loved it. This series was originally released in the US as Tramps Like Us in the 2000s by Tokyopop (although I think … Continue reading You’re My Pet by Yayoi Ogawa
I took a chance on this book because it has a dog in it, and for the most part the chance paid off. It took a lot to make me laugh during the first days of Sacramento’s stay-at-home Covid-19 prevention policy, and while this book did the trick despite discussing a hefty amount of trauma, I need to stress some TW/CW for public hostage situations, death by gun, ableism, and domestic violence. Our story begins … Continue reading Butterfly Bayou by Lexi Blake
Content warning: Manipulative / borderline abusive families; heroine was married at 17 to a man in his mid-twenties and that relationship was also manipulative and possibly more than borderline abusive, though we see very little of it on the page. This is a fun, gentle romance that will make you hungry. Rosalie is a young, recently divorced, single mother who returns home to live with her own mother because she is out of options, and … Continue reading Love’s Recipe by Mila Nicks
CW: The story includes discussion of past experiences of child abuse, attempted murder, and kidnapping. Girl Gone Viral by Alisha Rai is full up with tropes that I’m sure are a lot of people’s favs—there’s a romance between a bodyguard and the woman he’s hired to protect! Forced proximity! Cute stray dog! Former soldier struggling to manage his PTSD! A marriage of convenience! Friends to lovers! Small town! Millionaire former celebrity looking to live a … Continue reading Girl Gone Viral by Alisha Rai
Unsurprisingly my anxiety is trending moderate to high right now, so I’ve been turning more and more to romance novels to quiet my mind. At any other time, I think I would have been a little more critical or at least skeptical of the depiction of wealth and class in Kylie Scott’s The Rich Boy, but today the idea of a Cinderella story is immensely appealing to me. Being with a super rich dude who … Continue reading The Rich Boy by Kylie Scott
