The Weekly Recap

Well, well, well, if it isn’t the weekly recap blog that I post every Sunday. Update on the motivation front: we’ve made incremental progress, like a 2% improvement. I’ve been essentially living under a heating pad, trying to get some relief, taking my meds every 4-6hrs for the last 2.5 weeks, because what is my life without a never ending flare up. HOWEVER, I did get an ARC of The Plus One from one of my 2022 faves Mazey Eddings, AND the queen of reddit’s slow burn trash league, Mariana Zapata pulled a Beyoncé and dropped her new book on KindleUnlimited on Friday. What a week.

Okay here’s what I read this week…

When Gracie Met the Grump by Mariana Zapata (Free with KU)

Slow burn trash league assemble! Mariana Zapata has written 4 of my most comfort of comfort reads of all time, and her slow (read: slooooowwww) burn romances seem to always have a “love them” or “hate them” designation. I had no idea she had a book in the pipeline, so when it randomly dropped late last week I knew what my weekend plans were gonna be. Listen, the Zapata greatest hits (grumpy, feels too much, only communicates in grunts and monosyllabic words) is alive an well, in this *wait for it* SUPERHERO romance. I’m not sure how I feel about it, even a day after finishing it, were there parts I enjoyed? Yes. Were there parts that I felt could have been cut or moved along, also yes. Will I probably change my mind about this book another 15 times before the end of the year? Absolutely.

Make You Mine by Laura Pavlov (Free with KU)

If you like Melanie Harlow romances, Laura Pavlov will be your girl for real. This is essentially the single dad romances that feature heavily Harlow’s Cloverleigh Farms series. Including a much younger long time family friend who is helping out as the nanny. Cute kids, make up for some slower moments, over all enjoyable and will def be back to read the others in this series.

False Start by Elsie Silver (Free with KU)

Here’s another small town age gap romance from recent KU author find Elsie Silver. This is one of the later books in another series she’s written and you know what I liked this one just as much as Flawless. Lots of growth from both the MMC and FMC, including a “actually this makes sense” separation (that won’t be any less painful for you to read).

His To Protect by Elena Aitken

Grizzly shifter romance, wherein the writer makes a real choice to have the “bad” guy be a gay man, including some super problematic characterization of being gay. Don’t read.

Kiss of the Highlander by Karen Marie Moning

Time travel, highlander romance (book 2 or 3 in this series, if I remember correctly). I loved this one. Drustan (giant muscly, highlander lord with great hair) is ensorcelled and put to “sleep” for 500 years and is awoken accidentally by Gwen. From there these two need to figure out how to send him back to his time, save his recently murdered brother and stop his attack. The tension with time travel romances always hit me in my heart hard, and this one was no different.

Falling Hard by Kaylea Cross

Romantic suspense, featuring a woman trying to prove herself by doing an ultra-marathon, her older brothers best friend, an unhinged murderer, some legit physical trauma, and some weird passive aggressive narrative moments about PSTD and seeking treatment. This was ok, and definitely not memorable (i.e. I forgot I read it), but clearly entertaining enough.