If you look past the intentionally laugh inducing title, Nico Rosso’s historical romance novella Unsolicited Duke Pic actually has a lot of substance and interesting plot ideas; enough that I was pleasantly surprised and pleased with the end result. When Thomas Halsey, Duke of Lighthorn, loses a bet, he’s required to have a picture of…
Adriana Herrera’s Dreamers, a series about a group of four Afro-Latinx friends who live and work in and around New York, seems to get better and better with each book. American Love Story is the third instalment and I loved it. It’s complex and romantic while remaining grounded in reality; the two leads are principled men…
Camilo, or Milo, is a social worker with a heart of solid gold and a sass factor of eleven, while Tom is a billionaire funding a new project through Milo’s agency. Before that relationship is established, though, they happen to have an… er… intimate encounter at a fundraiser and neither can get the other off…
Searching for Sylvie Lee, the beautiful, mesmerizing new novel by Jean Kwok, has been named a ‘Most Anticipated’ book by Marie Claire, Good Housekeeping, and a host of other publications. I’ve been anticipating it since I finished her excellent Mambo in Chinatown in 2014. While this story doesn’t quite match the romantic, effervescent charm of…
Khai Diep has no feelings. Well, he feels irritation when people move his things or contentment when ledgers balance down to the penny, but not big, important emotions – like grief. And love. He thinks he’s defective. His family knows better, that his autism means he just processes emotions differently. When he steadfastly avoids relationships,…
Rogue Nights is a multi-author anthology featuring seven new novella length romances, stories of women and men fighting back against political ideologies that seek to disenfranchise women and minorities through racist and oppressive policies. It’s part of the Rogue series that came about as the result of the backlash to recent political events. Featuring people…
House Girl has been nominated for the Edinburgh First Book Award and is listed as one of The Observer‘s “New Faces of Fiction”; one of The Millions‘ “Most Anticipated Books of the Year” ; one of The Guardian‘s “Best Summer Books” and one of Library Journal‘s “Books to Anticipate.” It’s safe to say it is one…
One of my favorite things about the Top 100 Romances reader poll is all of the suggestions that come in. When I first started reading romance it was my go-to place to find the most beloved books in the genre, and I continue to look forward to it as a chance to hear from our…
Leah Franqui’s America for Beginners takes a disparate group of Indian-American immigrants (and one white woman) on a trip to California. They each have a different goal, and they all must stick together to survive the concrete wilderness before them. Pival Sengupta is a woman on a mission. She’s going to cross America, from New…
What We Were Promised is both a look at life in modern day China and an observation on the unchanging nature of humanity. “No man is an island entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main” John Donne told us. This book shows that as a universal…