Two Wrongs Make a Right is inspired, very loosely, by Much Ado About Nothing. It lacks most of the conflict of the play, but has its own charm. What you really need to know is that this is a cute book with neurodivergent characters and a fake-dating romance that is endearing if not fully believable. For each thing I liked about this book there was something I felt grumpy about. Here we go! Our heroes … Continue reading Two Wrongs Make a Right by Chloe Liese →
Tara: A few weeks ago, Sarah slacked me with the following: Tara Season of Love is so good It’s so freaking good. So, I did what any other smart person would do and started reading it. And guess what? She was completely and totally right. Sarah: I do like it when I’m right. Tara: Miriam Blum lives in Charleston with her fiancee, who she loves but is not in love with, and she’s weeks away … Continue reading Season of Love by Helena Greer →
Love in the Time of Serial Killers is an enjoyable book, but I struggle to classify it purely as a romance because so much of the novel is spent on the heroine overcoming her anxieties and struggling to move forward in her adult life. By contrast the hero really has no obstacles to overcome; he just has to wait for the heroine. Phoebe Walsh is busy working on her dissertation about rhetoric and genre theory … Continue reading Love in the Time of Serial Killers by Alicia Thompson →
There are a few reasons that this book and I were destined to meet. I love hockey romances, specifically m/m hockey romances. This book uses one of my favourite tropes: fake relationships. Catnip! I was specifically on the hunt for books similar to ones that I’ve loved as I was heading for surgery and needed the comfort of the familiar but the excitement of something new. Distracting yourself is a fine art. So that’s three … Continue reading Contract Season by Cait Nary →
Amy owns a restaurant on the brink of failure. She’s done everything she can think of to save her dream, but even hiring a reality-show runner-up as her chef isn’t enough to save it. Sure, Sophie’s even hotter in person than she was on TV (and she was plenty hot there), but she’s turned out to be quiet and uninspiring in the kitchen. If Sophie’s learned one thing from the spotlight, it’s that she just … Continue reading The Romance Recipe by Ruby Barrett →
TW: Sexual Harassment The Stand-In is a celebrity romance that also celebrates female friendships, openly discusses the stigma against mental illness, and allows the main character the space to explore the complexities of being bi-racial. It does all of that without feeling unbalanced or taking away from the romance that’s the center of the plot. I listened to this on Audible and the narrator, Philippa Soo, does a wonderful job of delivering the story. Gracie Reed … Continue reading The Stand-In by Lily Chu →
tw/cw: antifat bias, manipulation, abuse Flirting With Fifty is a contemporary romance between Paige, who turns fifty about halfway through the book, and Jack, who is a few years older. Full disclosure: I’m the same age as Paige, and, like Paige’s daughters, I’m the adult daughter of an alcoholic father and a mom who divorced said father late in life, and my personal experiences very much colored how I perceived the book. There’s not a … Continue reading Flirting With Fifty by Jane Porter →
Tara: When this duology was announced two years ago, I was not okay. I’ve been equal parts terrified and thrilled since then, because my favourite fanfic of all time was being turned into original fiction. Could it hold up? Truth and Measure is THE definitive Mirandy (Devil Wears Prada [DWP]) fic in a still-thriving fandom. I’ve probably read it a dozen times in the last 5 years and I’ve often referenced it as one of … Continue reading Keeper Shelf: The Carlisle Series (Truth and Measure & Above All Things) by Roslyn Sinclair →
When the opening pages of a book demonstrate the writer’s deep fluency and familiarity with romance tropes, even by being extremely meta about it, it’s a signal for me that I can trust the book I’m reading to fulfill the expectations I have. If Book Lovers were a person, it would probably be wearing a t-shirt that read, “I am your catnip, Sarah,” and would politely ask if it could hug me. Because this narrative simultaneously … Continue reading Book Lovers by Emily Henry →
The Birds of California is a celebrity romance which is totally my jam, but there was a big problem with the book’s ending. Specifically we learn about a trauma the heroine has survived at the very end of the novel, which gave me as a reader no time to process that trauma (even if the heroine already had). There’s no way to review this without being spoilery, so I’ve put more specifics in the spoiler … Continue reading The Birds of California by Katie Cotugno →
Machi has been going along with what other people want for as long as she can remember, but she’s so sick of her parents nagging her to find a husband that she’s ready to marry someone they’d hate to spite them. She wasn’t expecting her best friend Hana to volunteer for the role though! Yep, we’re skipping the fake dating and going straight to marriage. That’s how we roll here. I Married My Best … Continue reading I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up by Kodama Naoko →
