Two Houses by Suleena BibraContemporary Romance10/5/2021 by Carina PressARC Review by Melanie Two Houses, the charming debut novel by Suleena Bibra, is your classic enemies-to-lovers trope. Priya Gupta and Gavin Carlyle work at competing auction houses, each owned by their respective families. Having known each other for years, attending the same schools, and running in the same social circles, Priya has always hated Gavin, her long-time nemesis. But as the famous saying goes, there’s a Continue Reading
The Psy/Changeling Channel: Play of Passion
Melanie: Once again, I had very little memory of this book except for my original GR review letting me know I loved it the first time I read it, which was over two years ago. I wasn’t sure whether the book would hold up - after all, so much has changed in the past two years - but, despite a lot of pretty glaring consent issues that started right from chapter one, I found myself loving the book, loving Indigo, and absolutely adoring Drew. Melinda and I talked a lot about the fact that we both Continue Reading
Review: A Lot Like Adiós by Alexis Daria
A Lot Like Adios by Alexis DariaContemporary Romance9/14/2021 by William MorrowARC Review by Melanie There’s so much that I want to talk about with regards to this book and it’s kind of hard to know exactly where to start. While the book does give us both Michelle and Gabe’s POVs, it very much feels like a book that’s really focused on Gabe’s journey. Therefore, I’m going to use the same approach in this review. Gabe’s professional obligations are the instigating factor that drives the Continue Reading
Melanie’s Mini’s: Bidding for the Bachelor by Jackie Lau, The Dating Playbook by Farrah Rochon, and Secrets of a One Night Stand by Naima Simone
Bidding for the Bachelor by Jackie LauFong Brothers #2Contemporary Romance August 17, 2021, by Jackie Lau Books Quintessentially on brand for Jackie Lau with her trademark food and craft cocktail tour of Toronto, Bidding for the Bachelor is also her first foray into m/m romance. If you read the first book in the Fong Brothers series, Pregnant by the Playboy, you would have met both of these characters and there were hints of where the second book in the series was headed. Unfortunately, my Continue Reading
Review: Heartbreak for Hire by Sonia Hartl
Heartbreak for Hire by Sonia HartlContemporary RomanceJuly 27, 2021, by Gallery Books Review by Melanie I tried hard to like this book. I thought the premise was interesting and clever and unusual to say the least. But ultimately, it broke down in the execution and by the end of the book, I was truly appalled by the actions of the MMC and could no longer support or even care about whether these people ended up together. In the course of reading a romance, if the reader stops being Continue Reading
The Psy/Changeling Channel: Blaze of Memory
Melanie: Well, this book was a ride…the kind of ride I actually wanted to get off of long before it ended. It’s a little strange to me that in the same month that we delved into some of the Psy/Changeling novellas, we also read a book that arguably could and maybe should have been a novella. When Melinda and I were messaging back and forth during the course of reading this book, she made a comment that really resonated. “Is boring worse than asshole,” she pondered. I’m hoping that over the Continue Reading
Review: Exposed by Kristen Callihan
Exposed by Kristen CallihanVIP #4Contemporary RomanceJuly 13, 2021, by Plain Jane BooksReview by Melanie The first two books in this series, Idol and Managed, came out in 2016, and the third and most recent one, Fall, in 2018. That means it has been a 3 year wait for the fourth (though hopefully not last) book in this series and let me just begin by saying this book is more than worth the wait. Maybe a third of the way into this book, I texted Angela to say that there was a solid chance Continue Reading
Review: Determining Possession by Christina C. Jones
Determining Possession by Christina C JonesContemporary RomanceJuly 19, 2017, Self PublishedReview by Melanie I saw someone recommending this book on twitter a week or so ago and I truly wish I could remember who that person was or what they said that sold this book to me so completely because I would dearly love to thank them. This book scratches my personal romance id in a way that is so perfect, that it’s almost hard to put into words but I’m going to do my best to try. Heroine Continue Reading
The Psy/Changeling Channel: Branded by Fire
Melinda: We’re excited to be back and once again have a new dynamic to examine with two alpha changelings in a mated pair with Mercy and Riley. But first we need to give a content warning for suicide of secondary characters. We don't actually touch on that in our deep dive, but this book does have that in the plot so if that bothers you please take care of yourself and skip either all of this book or at least those parts. So we start out with Mercy, immediately being extremely horny and I Continue Reading
Melanie’s Minis: Happy Endings by Thien-Kim Lam & Talk Bookish to Me by Kate Bromley
Happy Endings by Thien-Kim LamContemporary RomanceMay 18, 2021, by Avon Up until about the last 20% of this book, I really loved it and it was a solid 5-star book for me. The female main character, Trixie, is a Vietnamese American who, much to her parent's dismay, sells sex toys for a living. It was a second chance romance with her ex-boyfriend, Andre, who had dumped her via a post it note when he learned about his mother’s cancer diagnosis (this all happens way before the book begins). I Continue Reading