Tag: Romance

Night Life – S.J. Hartsfield

~ lgbtqreader85 ~ Leave a comment

Rating: 4 out of 5.
A solid book from a debut author. I had forgotten the blurb for this when I finally had the opportunity to sit down and read, so it was a nice surprise to find this storyline. It turns out I’m actually quite fond of books with escorts in.

I really liked Ronnie, but I wanted to know more about her. The book doesn’t provide many opportunities to see Ronnie in any other situations besides work and the supermarket, so I would really have liked her character to be developed further. Diana feels more developed as a character and I liked that Ronnie seemed to bring her into her own and encourage some of the confidence she needed.

There’s some mirroring of narrative in the first and second halves of the book which I found enjoyable and the resolution of the inevitable angst was done well.
I really welcomed the way the sex scenes were done in this book. Nothing felt overplayed or read numerous times before. You could feel the connection between the two MCs, both in and out of bed, so the ending felt natural.

I’d definitely be interested in a book continuing the series based on the epilogue – there are a couple of characters that could be cultivated and we could still hear about Ronnie & Diana.

I received an e-ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Presidential – Lola Keeley

~ lgbtqreader85 ~ Leave a comment

Rating: 3 out of 5.
I found this easy to read and somewhat charming, but it didn’t quite hit the spot for me. There were some aspects I really enjoyed and things I was missing. It’s about a three and a half stars for me.

After spotting Lex’s updated review of this I decided to watch The American President for the first time (before reading the book). I’m a big Sorkin fan (the scripts anyway) so whilst I was reading I just couldn’t help drawing the direct comparisons. I’ll be honest, I’ve never read much fan fiction, so in general I found the similarities amusing. Despite this though it limited any major connection I could have with the narrative.

I really enjoyed the only other Keeley I’ve had a chance to read and much like Slammed I found Presidential to be well written, it was just missing some things for me. I wanted and needed more politics in the book. I’m a big fan of a series by another author with a female president and an age gap romance, so I think this probably coloured my impressions of this book too.

About three quarters of the way through the book I realised I didn’t really connect with Emily, I sympathised with some of her experiences but was missing the thing the necessary connection with an MC that for me makes books five stars. Connie on the other hand I really enjoyed spending time with, despite that lack of in depth politics. I also appreciated the family connections in the book – both MCs relationships with Connie’s son Zack and Emily’s relationship with her sister Sutton.

The epilogue did leave me smiling.

All in all I would recommend this and I’m sure there are many people out there that will love this book. I’m glad I read it, it’s just not an auto add to the reread pile, which I had great hopes it would be.

I received an e-ARC directly from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Finding Home (Your Way #2) – Jamey Moody

~ lgbtqreader85 ~ Leave a comment

Rating: 4 out of 5.
I’ve not really had the opportunity to read very much in the last couple of weeks and to be honest I’ve missed it a lot – so it was nice to try and get back into the swing of things with this one. I have an ARC for the second part of this series – Finding Family – and I didn’t want to read it without having read Finding Home first.

I really enjoyed the main characters in Frankie and Olivia – but as is normal with me I most enjoyed the friendship group around them and how the characters interacted with each other. I enjoyed getting to know both MCs through the friendship discussions and it made things seem much more believable when they got together.

The addition of the ex-girlfriend worked from a story point of view but frustrated me none-the-less.
The body positivity messages throughout the book are great and I appreciated that whilst there could have been a source of angst towards the end of the book it wasn’t treated that way.

I’m looking forward to reading more of Moody and reading more about this friendship group.

Finding Family (Your Way #2) – Jamey Moody

~ lgbtqreader85 ~ Leave a comment

Rating: 4 out of 5.
This is the second part in the Your Way series and Moody produced something I actually slightly enjoyed more than the first instalment of the series – Finding Home. This could be read alone, but I would recommend Finding Home first as it sets up key details about the lives of the minor characters in this storyline.

I loved both Desi and Erin as main characters and enjoyed being able to read progression of Frankie and Olivia’s relationship from the first book. It was also good to read about more of the friendship group and I’m hoping there will be at least one more book so that we have Stella as a main character. It was fun reading about the kids in their respective families too.

As someone who has experienced the stereotypical meet, fall for each other, move in, get married in a short period of time, I felt this storyline was written really well. The family pushback was also aptly incorporated. The pace of the relationship was matched well by the pace of the book – but key elements of the narrative were explored in appropriate depth so it was clear why the MCs loved each other.

The ex-girlfriend trope is quickly dispatched expertly by Erin and any angst/turmoil for the remainder of the book is created through life events rather than the often typical desire to split the MCs close to the end just to get them back together. I found this refreshing as it makes the book a sweet romance tale of two people falling in love and getting everything they could ever dream of.

I would recommend this series to anyone who enjoys wlw romance but particularly to anyone who enjoys a series about friendship groups. I’m hoping there isn’t too long to wait for book three.

I received an e-ARC directly from the author in exchange for an honest review.

Everything We Never Wanted – Sienna Waters

~ lgbtqreader85 ~ Leave a comment

Rating: 4 out of 5.
This is my third book by Waters and whilst I didn’t enjoy this one quite as much as the others I’ve read, this is still a really good book. Waters is rapidly becoming one of my favourites.

Alex has recently taken on custody of her niece Libby. Kat works as Libby’s teacher at her new school. They don’t see eye to eye on anything regarding Libby’s education, making this an opposites attract romance.

I found the book to have an interesting storytelling technique in that a lot of things happen off-the-page. At first I found this very confusing when the scene jumped but once I’d got used to it I actually enjoyed the way the approach moved the story forwards.

The reason the inevitable relationship difficulties come about felt fresh to me personally because I haven’t encountered it elsewhere, so that was refreshing. I also really appreciated the depiction of the realities of being a teacher and the financial decisions they have to make.

I didn’t particularly connect to either MC, which is what makes this a four star rather than a five for me, but I would still recommend this to any lovers of wlw romance.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.