Totally Engaged by Mina V. EsguerraContemporary RomanceMay 14, 2021, Self PublishedARC Review by Melinda I think Mina V. Esguerra is such a talented writer and generally I pick up anything she writes. But this book is really up there with one of my favorites of hers. Rose is a fashion entrepreneur who is pretty happy with her life and what she has. However, her mother is not as happy about any of it. Rose's entire immediate family immigrated to the United States, but Rose had aged out of Continue Reading
#RomBkLove 2021 Day 12: Weird and Wonderful Powers
Paranormal romance is the subgenre of my heart for so many reasons, I return to it when I’m stressed, when I’m happy, when I need comfort...so basically all the time. My theory is the genre and the subgenre you originally grew up reading is the one you subconsciously return to. I grew up reading Christopher Pike and Anne Rice so I love paranormal the most. One of the things I enjoy the most about paranormal books is the different powers they get to utilize. I love to see the unusual talents Continue Reading
Melinda’s Minis: Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma Jalaluddin & Farm of Fancy by Julianna Thorn
Hana Khan Carries On by Uzma JalaluddinContemporary 4/13/2021 by Harper Avenue There is so much about this book that I enjoyed! There is a podcasting FMC that I just loved so much. I listen to an intense amount of podcasts so this made me fall for Hana early on. And Hana was just lovely and fierce from beginning to end. I also really enjoyed her family, who owns a hala restaurant and are her biggest fans. I loved watching them basically believe she could do anything she wanted. And the Continue Reading
Review: Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee
Meet Cute Diary By Emery Lee Contemporary YA May 4th, 2021 by Quill Tree Books Reviewed by Melinda I love the hell out of this concept. A teen has come out as trans recently and his brother has a little too enthusiastically embraced this fact, and they spend the summer in Denver together. Noah runs the Meet Cute Diary blog where he posts trans meet cutes and presents them as true HEAs. He begins to have online people come after the diary at the same time this summer - and the book - Continue Reading
Melinda’s Minis: The Conductors by Nicole Glover and The Hate Project by Kris Ripper
The Conductors by Nicole GloverHistorical MysteryMarch 2, 2021 by John Joseph Adams This book was really so inventive from concept to completion and I was interested in it from the second I heard about it. This is a post Civil War-set fantasy where some Black people have magic they can perform based on constellations - this magic is brought over from Africa - and white people need wands to perform magic. The book deals with incredibly difficult topics - obviously with the post Civil War Continue Reading
The Psy/Changeling Channel: Mine to Possess
Before we dive into this month’s Psy-Changeling recap, a quick note: this month’s book features a character who as a child was abused by her foster father. The abuse is in the past and mostly off-page with a little bit of recalling things that happened in the past. There’s also a secondary character who is abused on the page. We want to make sure if you’re following along with us and haven’t read these books yet, that you be made aware of anything that may trigger you. Melanie: That Continue Reading
Audio Review: Sweet Talk by Cara Bastone
Sweet Talk by Cara BastoneApril 22, 2021 by Audible OriginalsContemporary Reviewed by Melinda Sweet Talk is the follow up to Call Me Maybe, which was also an Audible Original by Cara Bastone. I’m not sure if there are other series that have been originals like this in the romance area because I haven’t followed many beyond Alyssa Cole and now Bastone. I know Alyssa has mentioned The A.I Who Love Me will be a series as well but I can’t think of any others. As an audible Continue Reading
Series Review: Irons and Works by EM Lindsey
Irons & Works series by EM Lindsey Contemporary Romance Self Published Reviewed by Melinda There is almost nothing better than finding a new author to you and then loving their writing. The only thing better is when there is a whole series to binge! One of my favorite tropes in romance is found family, I gravitate to books and series that have even a hint in them, and The Irons and Works series is just teeming with found family. This series starts with Free Hand, where we're introduced Continue Reading
Melinda’s Minis: Sun of a Beach by Mia Sosa and Abel by Katee Robert
Sun of a Beach by Mia SosaContemporaryApril 8, 2021, by AudibleARC This is another audible original, which seems to be more and more of a trend with romance authors. Donovan and Naomi are given an assignment for the swimsuit edition of the magazine they work on and things are interesting since they dislike each other. Naomi began the novella in an ‘I would never date a co-worker’ frame of mind and changed to ‘I am in love’ mindset in the length of 24 hours basically. Donovan changes from Continue Reading
Review: Twice Shy by Sarah Hogle
Twice Shy by Sarah HogleContemporary RomanceApril 6, 2021 by G.P. Putnam Review by Melinda I am a huge fan of Hogle’s debut, You Deserve Each Other, to the point that I was unsure how I’d feel about her next book, which is unfair to Hogle, but I wanted to love this one just as much. But Twice Shy is completely different from YDEO - in such a wonderful way. Because YDEO has an incredibly distinctive voice and you either love it or hate it, and Twice Shy has a much quieter voice, but one Continue Reading