This Week In Romantic Reads
Oh hey, it’s me. Late AF with my weekly download. Immediately, my gut reaction is to ADHD it up and OVER-explain the why. Which ultimately does not matter. I had a big week and writing was not a priority. Pretty simple.
I truly read a little of everything this week. Paranormal, contemporary (including a snoozer of a billionaire-workplace romance), and you guessed it: historical. I’m not sure if I am trying to work out a better balance between work, reading, and blogging as a hobby and life but things feel oddly heavy right now. Coupled with that my physical health has been uncooperative at best, which really kills the vibe. I did however get my new glasses, so look out y’all I can REALLY see where I’m heading.
Alright getting to it…
Down and Dirty by Mari Carr
A down on her luck and housing insecure mother falls in love with best friends that frequent the diner she works at. Almost a week after reading it, I can’t tell you if I liked it enough or thoroughly disliked it. There is some pretty brutal attempted SA on page that I did not love, but FMC’s kid is pretty cute. Plus two hot guys, so I guess not all is a wash. If this is for you, a reminder that this book deals with housing insecurity, polyamory and has some assault on page.
An English Bride in Scotland by Lyndsay Sans
This was my first ever Lyndsay Sans foray and you know what I am not mad at it. This is a pretty standard take on the medieval forced into marriage trope and gave me slight Honor’s Splendour / Never Seduce a Scot Vibes. Sweet in-fit-in-able Annabell and extremely swoony Ross make for a legitimate coupling. Third act nonsense with her estranged sister seemed a little over the top /contrived but overall this was a sweet, delightful read with some funny moments (thank god it’s Thursday).
The Heiress Hunt by Joanna Shupe
I can’t believe I am writing this, but I was so disappointed by this one. JS was such a stand out find for me this year and I LOVED her Uptown Girls series, but OOF this one did not resonate. I felt like this had all the components to be something really swoony (pining, loved you forever, childhood best friends etc etc) and I spent most of the book wanting to throttle Harrison. This coupled with some weird secondary plotting that never really resolves itself left me feeling oddly let down. Hoping the second book in the series is a little better. Maddie, girl he was kinda a ding dong and you deserved a little better.
A Scot in the Dark by Sarah MacLean
Ah more Scottish love interests! Ok I let an Apple Books Review get the best of me here, and put this off for much longer than I should have. I really loved this one. Alec who thoroughly believes himself to be this huge monstrous beast and unworthy of love and Lillian, who only wants to be thoroughly loved made for a great pairing. I did feel like there was some unneeded swirl, but we did get to the very satisfying HEA in the end. That coupled with some delightful cameo’s made for a great read! Oh, plus some great banter and dogs!
Hot Blooded by Heather Guerre (Free on KU)
This was pretty popular over on r/romancebooks in the past couple weeks, and thought why not. I will say I didn’t LOVE book 1 in this series and headed into it expecting more of the same, but y’all this book was SO good. Amos is a friggen babe and so smitten with Tessa. I loved how much he loved and protected her. And Tessa, how open she was with Amos right from the beginning, including her “desires”, made for a quick, fun, steamy read with a legit plot.
From the Top by Jaqueline Snowe (Free on KU)
Two of my fave romancelandia twitter follows have been sharing screenshots of quotes about this one for weeks and when it finally released I had to grab it for myself. And it absolutely lived up to the hype. This is a great hot-popular-girl-and-nerdy-guy romance I needed. Freddie and Cami are legit soul-mates and seeing their friendship deepen, then turn to love just slayed me. 10/10, no notes.
Say Yes to the Boss by Olivia Hayle (Free on KU)
I think I sometimes suffer from choice paradox on Kindle Unlimited. Wherein (much like with Netflix) browsing becomes the activity. So after feeling the strain of trying to choose and not being enamoured with anything on my From my Library was calling my name, I grabbed this Billionaire romance and what a snooze fest. Don’t ask why I chose to slog through this one but lord was it a little boring. Plus the MMC’s name is Victor and it just wasn’t working for me.