Book Boyfriend by Kris RipperLGBTQIA Contemporary RomanceCarina Adores PressApril 26, 2022 by Kate H. I had to adjust my expectations a lot as I read Book Boyfriend, and I expect most readers may not have the patience. Written as an inner monologue with all the verbal habits, like “like” and “you know” intact, it tells the story of PK or Preston Kinglsey Harrington III. Like many “the thirds” he has the benefit of generational wealth, and he lives in a New York apartment with a Continue Reading
Review: Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman
Funny You Should Ask by Elissa SussmanContemporary RomanceApril 12, 2022 by Random House - Ballantine, DellARC Review by Kate H. Chana Horowitz is a busy writer in LA, in her thirties and newly divorced. Her successful career as an essayist and interviewer was launched by an interview with Hollywood movie star, Gabe Parker. A decade ago she was given unprecedented access to the actor, and she spends much of a weekend learning about the heart-throb who has been controversially cast as Continue Reading
Review: Dating Dr. Dil by Nisha Sharma
Dating Dr. Dil by Nisha SharmaIf Shakespeare was an Auntie #1Romantic Comedy/Contemporary RomanceMarch 15, 2022, by Avon and Harper Voyager Review by Kate H. For me, one of the best things about Dating Dr. Dil was that as a romantic comedy, the humor was in the situation and the snark, and not in the characters. Both main characters are fully drawn and easy to identify with, even when I didn’t agree with them. Kareena Mann is a thirty-year old who provides legal counsel to women Continue Reading
Review: Mr. Wrong Number by Lynn Painter
Mr. Wrong Number by Lynn PainterContemporary RomanceMarch 1st, 2022 by Berkley BooksReviewed by Kate H. If you go into Mr. Wrong Number looking for tropey fun, I think you’ll enjoy it: Texting relationship between strangers; enemies to lovers; the old crush on the brother’s best friend. For one moment in the middle of the book, I thought the book was going to go Cyrano de Bergerac on me, but Lynn Painter reigned it. And of course, there is the trope of the rock bottom Continue Reading
Review: The Good Girls Guide to Rakes by Eva Leigh
The Good Girls Guide to Rakes by Eva LeighLast Chance Scoundrels #1Historical RomanceFebruary 22, 2022, by Avon Reviewed by Kate H. This book felt like it took a lot of time to get going. It starts with a bride being jilted at the altar and the groom, Dom, being aided in his departure by the two groomsmen, Kieran and Finn Ransome. As a result, all three men, or rather rakes, are saddled with getting married or being cut off by the Ransome patriarch. Dom's Continue Reading
Review: A Perfect Equation by Elizabeth Everett
A Perfect Equation by Elizabeth EverettThe Secret Scientists of London #2Historical RomanceFebruary 15, 2022, by Berkley Reviewed by Kate H. The Perfect Equation is a well-paced Regency-era romance that features a bluestocking heroine, a mathematician no less, as well as a bottled-up hero ready to be uncorked. The opening of the book begins with a street protest by the Guardians of Domesticity, part of the noisy and disturbing backlash against women working and Continue Reading
Review: Season’s Change by Cait Nary
Season's Change by Cait NaryContemporary Romance, LGBTQ+February 1, 2022 by Carina PressARC Review by Kate H. I am not a hockey fan, but I am a fan of hockey romances. I can’t explain it. I’ve never even seen a game. Maybe it’s the way the sheer physicality of hockey juxtaposes with the more intimate aspects of the romance that makes it such a great setting for romance. Season’s Change, by Cait Nary, is my new favorite in this Continue Reading
Review: Getting His Game Back by Gia De Cadenet
Smexy has new reviewers! I'd like to welcome Kate H.! Getting His Game Back by Gia De Cadenet Contemporary Romance January 25, 2022, by Random House - Ballantine, Dell ARC Review by Kate H. The main characters in Gia De Cadenet’s debut novel have a lot on their plates, and that’s even before they meet each other. Vanessa is a dynamic app developer and entrepreneur who is doing well in an industry unused to black women’s leadership. Khalil is the co-owner of a local barbershop Continue Reading