After I finished reading The Seat Filler I had two important questions: 1. WTF did I just read and 2. Is Adam Driver ok? The Seat Filler turned out to be a self-insert RPF (real people fiction) about actor Adam Driver and it had the most ridiculous conflict ever. It had moments where it was genuinely cute, but I couldn’t get over the squickiness of the RPF angle or the fact that the conflict could easily … Continue reading The Seat Filler by Sariah Wilson →
This is a weird book, y’all. It opens with raunchy pining, segues into creepytown, and ends with a full-throated critique of Catholicism. What did I just read? As a devoted veteran of tortured priest love stories, I was curious to see if this book could avoid the potential minefields in the pairing. The first couple of chapters made me think I was getting an edgy romcom with steamy high-conflict angst. By the end, the book … Continue reading Hot Under His Collar by Andie J. Christopher →
Claudia and Shana both love historical romances, but Shana loves Milan’s prickly heroines and puns, while Claudia’s catnip is the cozy charm of Balogh’s love stories, the fewer puns the better. Shana convinced Claudia that To Love and To Loathe’s “enemies to hookup to lovers” storyline would pull us out of our reading slump. She now owes Claudia a million lemon bars because this book was a tropeopcalypse. So much potential, but so poorly executed. … Continue reading To Love and To Loathe by Martha Waters →
The Virgin and the Rogue is the sequel to The Duke’s Stolen Bride, a book I enjoyed immensely. Unfortunately I had a few issues with this novel, in part because the hero and heroine don’t spend as much of the book together as I would expect, and also because I doubted the heroine’s ability to consent the first time she engages in sexual activity with the hero. Charlotte Langely has spent her entire life making … Continue reading The Virgin and the Rogue by Sophie Jordan →
TW: Miscarriage, infertility The Heir Affair is the follow up to 2015’s debut The Royal We, a book I enjoyed immensely. Unfortunately, while the humor and the narrator’s voice still worked for me, there was no character growth at all in The Heir Affair. A lot of things happen in the book, but the three main characters, Bex, Nick and Freddie all end up at pretty much the same place they started at. First of … Continue reading The Heir Affair by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan →
I’m a huge fan of Gothic and of creepy shit in general, so I was super excited to read The Companion. While this book has Gothic elements, it doesn’t follow the Gothic convention of having the heroine vindicated, and frankly it turned out to be a depressing read in general. Part of the book takes place in 1855 as Lucy Blunt awaits the verdict of her murder trial. While she is imprisoned, Lucy reflects back … Continue reading The Companion by Kim Taylor Blakemore →
CW: The death of a child, sexual assault, suicidal ideation The Lost Ones by Anita Frank lured me in with the promise of a Gothic set in WWI, but the pacing was massively slow and the characters largely unlikeable. As a result, I only finished the book because I needed resolution on the ghostly portion. This book actually made me grind my teeth, and at one point my cat, Dewey, shut the book on me … Continue reading The Lost Ones by Anita Frank →
What I Like About You is a terrific example of how a book’s flaws can overwhelm the good parts. It has engaging writing, stellar #ownvoices rep of Jewish teens, and nuanced exploration of grief. It also enraged me enough to slam my tablet down and seethe for a good hour after I finished. My initial grade was an F but I upgraded my rating after a few days of introspection (see the above good parts). … Continue reading What I Like About You by Marisa Kanter →
Content Warning: Sexual Harassment, #MeToo and the costs of reporting Undercover Bromance is an enemies to lovers story that plays with traditional romantic tropes in some clever ways. I have very mixed feelings about this book. I really enjoyed reading it, and I think it was trying to do some fairly interesting and ambitious things. And it succeeded in some of them; the recurring theme of fantasy/perfection as a romantic hero versus the authenticity/respect for … Continue reading Undercover Bromance by Lyssa Kay Adams →
Caution warnings: In MJ James’ debut Out of the Ashes, Alex Porter loses everything when the bookshop that he rebelled against his wealthy family to build goes up in flames. His overbearing mother insists that a fire marshall be called for, so Matt Fields has to drop everything and devote himself to the case, and Alex. I wanted to like Out of the Ashes. Queer mysteries are my wheelhouse, and I’m always looking for new … Continue reading Out of the Ashes by MJ James →
Heiress Gone Wild is the fourth book in the Lady Truelove series. It stands alone – I have read the first book in the series, but not the others, and while characters from the previous books make appearances in the book, you certainly don’t need to know their stories to read this one. The story starts when Jonathan Deverill goes to collect his new ward, the daughter of an old friend, from her school in … Continue reading Heiress Gone Wild by Laura Lee Guhrke →
