May Peterson’s début novel, Lord of the Last Heartbeat, is an intricately constructed gothic fantasy with an intriguing storyline, set in a world that reminded me somewhat of eighteenth century Italy where dark secrets lurk behind the scenes, political backstabbing is rife and influential families jostle for power. Adding to that particular vibe is the…
Friends, let’s keep it real. We’ve all fallen in love with a fictional character in a romance novel, and most of us can quickly call to mind our favorites. You’re doing it right now aren’t you? Lately, my book boyfriends share a common denominator: they’re all written by the fabulous Kennedy Ryan. Grip, the titular…
In a world where there are very few romances featuring trans heroes and heroines, it’s nice to see such characters featuring in books published by a mainstream publishing house like Carina Press. When the representation is excellent – as is the case in Reverb, which is dashing, sparkly fun from the first page to the…
Jillian Cantor’s In Another Time takes us tastefully into the romance of Hanna and Max, two young people who meet and fall in love in Germany on the brink of the outbreak of World War II… and then introduces an awkward plot point that nearly wrecks the proceedings. In 1931, Hanna Ginsberg, a wannabe composer…
Off Base, the first in the Out of Uniform series, was my first military romance. Although I didn’t love that story, I liked the writing and the premise of the series, and decided to stay with it. I’m so glad I did. Over the course of seven wonderfully disparate books, the series has been reliably…
I am… not entirely sure what I just read, but I enjoyed it wholeheartedly. When I read the blurb and saw ‘Eurovision meets Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ I was hooked, and I’m pretty much the target audience for this book. I mean, come on. Eurovision in space. How could I not? And that’s exactly…
The first in a series of books exploring the Black experience throughout the decades, A Delicate Affair starts things off right, with a sweet story set in a historically accurate Washington, DC of 1902. At its heart, it’s another good girl/bad boy story, but it has more than one interesting twist to this particular trope….
Scandal at the Christmas Ball is a connected duology set at the Duke of Brockmore’s Christmas house party. He and his wife are known for matchmaking, so all four of our leads enter their stories with wary eyes. They will never marry (shall we all grin cheekily at them together, readers?) and they will be…
Holland has had a crush on Subway Station Musician for … let’s say a while. When he prevents her being shoved onto the tracks one night and saves her life, she pays him back by getting him an audition with her uncle, a Broadway bigwig. Subway Station Musician – whose name is Calvin – stuns…
Country music tells stories from a real-world viewpoint where love and loss can go hand in hand. Being a fan of the genre, I hoped Rising Star would use its Music City setting to showcase a romance worthy of a Country ballad. Unfortunately the story is more like Pop music; enjoyable but with little heart…