Sometimes a book is pretty much exactly what you think it’s going to be, and that’s not a bad thing! When I started reading After The Gold, I was expecting a high-drama sports romance with lots of angst both about sports and not-sports, and this book totally delivered. After the Gold follows a figure skating pair team, Katie and Brendan, who are trying to figure out what to do both personally and professionally now that … Continue reading After the Gold by Erin McRae and Racheline Maltese →
Content warning: Grief and loss, neglectful parents Love at First is a contemporary romance about community and healing from grief, and what makes a home and a family. The story centres around a block of apartments in Chicago, and its two newest residents. Nora inherited her apartment from her Nonna about a year ago, but having spent all her summers there as a child, she views it with the affection of a resident of more … Continue reading Love at First by Kate Clayborn →
(Trust) Falling for You is a fun, sweet novella about two college professors with very, very different personal and teaching styles falling for each other on a Team Building retreat in the woods of Wisconsin. This retreat, incidentally, sounds both like an HR nightmare and the sort of thing guaranteed to result in multiple letters to Ask a Manager, and also precisely like something that someone in academic administration would decide was a brilliant thing … Continue reading (Trust) Falling for You by Charish Reid →
Content warning: Emotional and physical abuse of a child (off-page but discussed by protagonists), alcoholism and resulting neglect of another child (off-page, but discussed by protagonist), character orphaned by the Bali Tsunami Much Ado About You is a contemporary romance in what I can only describe as the wish-fulfilment genre. Evie, fresh off an online dating disappointment, ups sticks and moves from Chicago to the tiny village of Alnster in Northumberland, responding to an ad … Continue reading Much Ado About You by Samantha Young →
Content warnings: Lots and lots of grief and loss, also death of a secondary character Dearest Josephine is an epistolary novel about grief and coming of age, disguised as a paranormal gothic romance. It is a sweet, clever, beautiful book, and I adored it. In 1820, the recently orphaned Elias Roch meets Josephine DeClare at an inn, and falls instantly and passionately in love. But in the morning, she is gone, and he has no … Continue reading Dearest Josephine by Caroline George →
When I started Siri, Who Am I? I did not like it. I was grumpy, because I expected some realism and good detecting, neither of which are in this book. Then I settled into the story I was actually reading, which is as enjoyable and sparkly as one of the slushies that the protagonist enjoys. This is a goofy but also sharp romantic-comedy with a lot of references to pop culture, nerd culture, and the … Continue reading Siri, Who Am I? by Sam Tschida →
The Ex Talk is an enemies-to-lovers fake relationship romance set in the world of public radio. It is also something of a belated coming of age story. Shay Goldstein has been working at Pacific Public Radio for ten years, beginning as the ‘wunderkind’ intern, and rising to the role of producer of the station’s flagship show, Puget Sounds. She loves public radio for its ability to tell stories that connect personally with listeners, and for … Continue reading The Ex Talk by Rachel Solomon →
Mr Right Across the Street is a very sweet, very hot, slow-burn romance. Mia Abbott is building a new life in Manchester, where she has moved after her last relationship ended in the kind of unpleasantries that lead to changing cities and phone numbers. For the first time in her life, she is living alone and far from her family, and she is enjoying the opportunity to rediscover herself as an independent woman. She is … Continue reading Mr. Right Across The Street by Kathryn Freeman →
CW/TW: The hero’s client is a piece of work, who sexually harrasses his assistant, among many, many other women. This happens off the page, but we do see the fall out, and it isn’t handled as well as it could be. Proceed with caution. The Way You Hold Me is a gentle, low-tension, second chance romance between publicist Skye Palmer and crisis manager Garrett Steele. They dated ten years ago, but then Garrett’s mother died, … Continue reading The Way You Hold Me by Elle Wright →
Her Pretend Christmas Date is a novella comprised almost entirely of Catherine catnip. I am an absolute sucker for White Christmas settings, I love me a Fake Relationship (especially when they come with Only One Bed), I adore a buttoned-up hero who gets completely unravelled by a messy heroine but do you know what I really love? A Christmas gathering that devolves into a gingerbread house making competition that is run, commentated on and judged … Continue reading Her Pretend Christmas Date by Jackie Lau →
CW/TW: abortion consideration, biphobia from parent Finn is out of prison, building a new life for herself far away in Austin. When she visits a low-income clinic to get a prescription for migraine meds, Finn runs into the one person she least expects to see: Vivi, the nurse Finn worked alongside for two years at the prison’s pharmacy. Finn was devastated eight months ago when Vivi stopped showing up for work one day with no … Continue reading Get It Right by Skye Kilaen →
