Love Scenes by Bridget Morrissey
Contemporary Romance
June 22, 2021, by Berkley
ARC
I kind of expected a soft, funny book with lots of shenanigans and on-set hi-jinks, but Love Scenes by Bridget Morrissey turned out to be a whole lot more. This an emotional read, featuring an actress heroine from a big, diverse, creative extended family who are all in the Hollywood business. They write, they direct, they do movie scores… this is a bright and fun group who has issues but love each other.
Sloane Ford is the daughter of Hollywood big wigs and has taken a made up job as a producer on the set of a family movie project after her character is killed off on her longtime weekly tv series. Her career is in a slump and she feels like she doesn’t quite measure up. The star of the production is none other than the man who made her life hell when they co-starred in a movie several years prior. Sloane hates Joseph, but she’ll make this situation work, she’ll do whatever it takes to make this movie a success.
This is an enemies to lovers romance that takes place mostly on a movie set. I was surprised at how angsty and emotional this read was. While the entire book is told in Sloane’s POV, both she and Joe each go through their own character journies. Their romance builds slowly and sweetly, full of distrust at first and then onto a true friendship and eventually love. Joe is charming and believable in his sobriety and quest to find redemption from his past behavior, and Sloane is strong, yet also vulnerable while she starts to believe in herself and find a connection to her craft again..
This was a good read. Enjoyed.
Final grade- B
Subtle Blood by KJ Charles
Will Darling Adventures #3
LGBT Historical Romance
June 23, 2021 Self Published
ARC
I won’t even attempt to dive into the mystery/suspense plot in this installment. If you’ve read the previous two books in the series then you will be pretty familiar with the ongoing search for the bad guys and how Will Darling and his lover Kim Secretan met, partnered up, and then came to be more. What I will say is that this new adventure takes things much closer to home for Kim and it threatens the wonderful relationship that he and Will have finally built.
This was the perfect way to end this series. Lots of lovely declarations, a wonderful mystery, Will reaching his bullshit limit and letting it be known HE HAS HAD ENOUGH, Kim interrogating people with intensity, MORE DECLARATIONS OF DEVOTION, the bad guys getting their comeuppance, and then a wonderful ending. Okay, okay, also some super hot, I’ve got to have you right now sex scenes thrown in between to make readers super happy.
This couple’s evolution from wary strangers who are attracted to one another, but don’t trust each other to partners who love to have lots of sex to lovers who are planning a future of their own making really, really worked for me. Kim’s character growth was especially pleasing. I just couldn’t get enough of him here. I also adored the secondary characters of Maisie and Phoebe and was thrilled with the development of a relationship between them. It all wrapped up just like I had hoped.
This was a wonderful series that I highly recommend. Very, very well done.
Final grade- B+
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