A feel good, sweet romance from Beers. I didn’t enjoy this one quite as much as Hopeless Romantic but this definitely cemented my enjoyment of Beers’ work for me. I liked this took place in the same universe as Hopeless Romantic and I’m hoping there’s more to come from this town.
Brooke has recently moved into town for a new job with a real estate agency. She’s well thought of in her field and is leaving behind family disappointment. Macy is a home stager who happens to work with the company Brooke has started with.
I liked Macy’s animal menagerie and the delicate way that Beers wrote her exploration of how to meet someone whilst dealing with the death of a previous partner. I loved her clumsiness and reactions to both Brooke and her family. I also really enjoyed her interactions with her nephew.
I really identified with and liked Brooke. I appreciated that Beers included a character that was both bisexual and of faith. I thought both of these and the reactions of the characters to these things were written really well. From the quick reading of the blurb I did I was expecting Brooke to have a lot more control issues than she actually did. Her moving and settling into a new job, whilst meeting someone she likes and trying to keep control makes things interesting.
I liked that both characters were intriguing with careers and pasts that made sense with regards to how they react to each other, which made the book a compelling read.
Fans of Beers will love this, and all romance fans will enjoy this too.
I received an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I’m not sure why but this one really surprised me. I try not to dwell on the book blurbs – only reading them when deciding which ones to review – so whilst I remembered that this was about a musician, I wasn’t expecting a second chance romance with as much passion and chemistry as I got.
The book opens with a lot of heat. We meet Sofia and Maddie at the point of the band they are both in breaking up due to Sofia making the decision to go solo. They don’t want to break up but it feels like a lost cause. I have to admit after that much steam I wasn’t quite sure where you could take the rest of the book – but Binfield does a great job of keeping up the narrative.
When we cut to the present day, Maddie is no longer in the business, she’s running her own interior design company. By chance she’s contracted for a job that ends up being for Sofia’s house. The universe bringing them back together forces Sofia to look carefully at the career she’s made for herself and whether she’s happy with her life choices.
I loved the push-pull of them getting back together. There’s lots of feelings between the two, from love, to hesitance and everything in between. The normally annoying lack of communication makes sense in this narrative.
There’s quite a cast of secondary characters – the majority of which all of have cringeworthy moments. Maddie’s son is absolutely adorable and I liked how the other band member we meet, Daya, is honest about the past with both Sofia and Maddie. I also really enjoyed the few moments Maddie has with her sister Ashley.
I really enjoyed the romance and narrative of this story even though it does fall into some of the typical tropes. I think all wlw romance fans would find something enjoyable in this one.
I received an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
My third book from Bold Strokes this month that approaches the traditional romance book differently. I enjoyed the writing, the book construction and the narrative of this one.
We start in the present day with Samantha, an ER doctor, who is being sued. The hospital is providing a lawyer, who turns out to be the woman Samantha had a relationship with in college – Kirby.
A large chunk of the book takes place in 1993, when the pair originally fall for each other in their early twenties. Some of this has a stereotypical homophobic parental trend, but it isn’t done in an overly dramatic way. I enjoyed that we got to know the characters a little in the present day before we made the cut back to their origin story and I liked that we got to see the beginning and the end of the relationship journey at that point.
We don’t spend anytime with them as a couple in the present day except for the epilogue which is a bit of a shame, but nonetheless I felt like the pacing was about right as they explored getting to know each other again. It’s nice to have older characters in wlw fiction. I enjoyed the maturity of the discussions when they reconciled and in the present day discussions around the lawsuit. The tonal difference between the present day and the past to illustrate how both women had grown in themselves was also done really well.
I’d recommend this to any wlw romance fans. It’s structure makes for an interesting read, especially as by not having a traditional chronological structure it escapes the 90% breakup.
I received an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This was another book that surprised me on this months slate of releases. A mystery romance that gets a high three stars from me.
Juliet is a cop who had a son with her best friend. She’s called to a murder in her town. Sienna is a victim’s advocate and the step mother to Juliet’s son. The murder pushes them together. I enjoyed that the main characters had known each other and been in each others lives for quite some time. It was refreshing to have two people notice each other as their true selves, rather than a storyline with two people just meeting.
I liked how Stiling dealt with the breakdown of Sienna’s marriage and the impact it would have on her husband and step son for her to fall for their best friend/mother respectively. I appreciated that Stiling didn’t make either Sienna or Juliet oblivious to the implications of their love on others and that there was no automatic presumption it would all just be ok.
With it being a mystery this book came with a slew of additional characters. I thought this added to the depth of the book, as due to the nature of the MCs knowing each other already, there aren’t a lot of scenes added to allow us to get know the characters as part of the natural process of dating. I liked Juliet’s friends and thought Declan the son/step son was written wonderfully.
The mystery was interesting. I didn’t find it riveting, but it moved along at a pace that kept me somewhat interested in who had committed the crime and why. There were some parts that I felt were missing to explain some of the situation but I think it was mainly because by the time the crime is resolved we’re full into romance mode.
There’s lot about this to enjoy and I think anyone who enjoys wlw romance would enjoy this.
I received an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
This wasn’t what I was expecting when I picked up this book based on the blurb, but I’m glad this book was more than the blurb suggested. It’s a book full of unexpected depth and humanity. I can imagine it will probably divide people but I really enjoyed the approach.
Emily is a horror writer. She’s had a difficult past and uses her writing to maintain some control of her life. She keeps her friends, if you can call them that, at arms length, has no close family and believes she isn’t deserving of more.
Beck had a traumatic brain injury in her youth. She’s never left her hometown, still lives with her mother and takes odd jobs here and there. She longs to buy a boat and follow in the footsteps of her father.
I really appreciated how Morrison manages to illustrate that trauma does different things to different people. Both MCs have experienced trauma and loss that has made them who they are and her characterisations almost depict the two opposites of possible reactions, Emily pushes people away through mean words in an effort not to be hurt, Beck tries to bring people closer to her. Having them fall for each other despite the many things they have to work through makes for a really good read.
I don’t have experience of traumatic brain injuries, but I felt like Morrison explored Beck’s injuries in a way that is both understandable to the reader, but that also expresses Beck as a really great character. Her mother’s worries about her and the way Emily refuses to treat her as anything other than an adult works really well. Morrison also manages to express the additional impact Emily’s harsh words would have on Beck without making the reader feel sorry for her.
I am sure that Emily probably won’t be a popular character, but I can completely understand why she is written the way she is. Her journey is one of my favourite parts of the book, and whilst she falters, making for a hard read at times, it’s a worthwhile narrative to explore.
The pacing of the story works really well – the twists are effective and provide empathy for both characters. I found myself not wanting to put the book down as I needed to know how it would turn out. There are also cats – a definite bonus in my book.
This isn’t the easiest book to read, the trauma both have experienced can be a difficult read and there are flashbacks and nightmares on the page. There are times when discussions are downright mean. There are also incidences of discrimination towards Beck, both for her sexuality and her injury.
This is Morrison’s first foray into contemporary romance, and I hope this continues. I’d definitely recommend giving this book a go as it brings a different approach to romance than I’ve personally encountered before in the wlw arena and for that reason alone it’s worthwhile giving it a try.
I received an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
LGBTQ+ Reader 