Writing as Gracie Leigh, well-known queer romance author Garrett Leigh ventures into m/f romance with What Matters. I liked it, though What Matters is a particularly apt title. I’m grading it based on what matters most to me, versus some specific problems I think some readers will have. (Spoiler: the principals forego condoms when they…
I’ve enjoyed previous books by this author, and the concept of this one definitely intrigued me – a female cab driver who meets a sexy billionaire? Yes please! As it turns out, I’ve got mixed feelings about the execution. Yes, some of the sex scenes are super hot, including ones where Reid’s best friend Dylan…
I’ll start with a disclaimer: I don’t find magic in the charm of Southern hill people’s poverty. I don’t find ignorance endearing. I don’t find struggle necessarily enlightening. I think to enjoy this book you would have to appreciate all three. Abel Shifflet is used to things not going his way. A young man with…
Here’s an unexpected, unheralded treat of a novel, set in the fondly remembered but long-closed Palisades Park in New Jersey. Focused on the Stopka family, who run a French fry stand in the park’s busy, colorful environment, our protagonist is seven-year old Antoinette, who insists on going by the moniker Toni and who dreams of…
Anne Hood’s encapsulation of life spanning four generations of the Rinaldi family starts out admirably. Dreamy-minded teenaged spitfire Josephine is married off to Vincenzo, a man with some prospects, who plans to emigrate soon to America. These initial chapters are extremely amusing, as young Josephine plans to poison her husband and protests the marriage by…
This one is perfect for fans of Sophie Kinsella – the humor and cultural settings are very similar. Liv and Adam’s Mexican holiday is sure to end in an engagement, or so Liv thinks. They’ve been dating for an age and surely, SURELY, he wouldn’t take her from England to Mexico without a real purpose,…
The Mad, Bad Duke has a little more of the paranormal elements that Ms. Ashley is known for but these prototype Shifters are more feral and tribal than they are a subsect of a progressive kingdom. The intriguing part of the story is how it recasts the former villain into a romantic hero by shattering…
I’ll admit that I bought this and another in the series because I was really in the mood for a fantasy and Jennifer Ashley has been promoting the re-release of her Nvengaria series as being chock-full of magic and romance. She’s a go-to author for me so I figured they would be a hit. Unfortunately I…
Andie J. Christopher’s début romance novel begins on New Year’s Eve in Miami. Growing up in a traditional Cuban family, Alana Hernandez has to work harder and longer than the men in her family to prove that she deserves a top place in the family business. It’s particularly galling because her brother Javier, recovering from…
In Fall we see the repercussions of incidents that occurred toward the end of Rise, when rock star Zander, the lead singer of Rage, stopped the band’s tour in order to have surgery on vocal polyps. The rest of the band and Dimity Graham (the band’s PA) are still waiting to find out if Zander…