For the Love of April French by Penny AimesLGBT Contemporary August 24, 2021 by Carina AdoresARC Review by Melinda This is a debut by trans author Penny Aimes for Carina Adores and there is so much to love about this book! As a trans woman April French has been through so much in her life. Luckily, she has a safe space she does go to quite a bit for kink and that is where she meets Dennis right at the beginning of the book. But it turns out that he is the new big important boss at her Continue Reading
Review: Best Laid Plans by Roan Parrish
Best Laid Plans by Roan ParrishGarnet Run #2LGBTQ Contemporary RomanceFebruary 23, 2021 Carina Adores Review by Melinda When I want to recommend a book with great mental health representation I immediately go to Roan Parrish because she has yet to fail me in this area. Her books almost always have characters who have depression, anxiety, or panic attacks - or a combination of all three. And Best Laid Plans is no different - Charlie has a lot of anxiety, particularly around other people's Continue Reading
Melinda’s Minis: Just Like This by Cole McCade & The Beautiful Things Shoppe by Philip William Stover
Just Like This by Cole McCadeAlbin Academy #2LGBT Contemporary RomanceNovember 24, 2020 by Carina Adores The follow-up to Just Like That takes place at the same academy for young boys as the previous one. What I love about McCade’s writing is the emotional development between the characters. Rian and Damon are extremely different teachers with different backgrounds coming together to try to help a student in trouble. Their relationship is both steamy and a bit of slow-burn simmering Continue Reading
Guest Post: Writing Single Parent Romance by KD Fisher
I love reading romance epilogues. I adore the cozy feeling of everything settling into its place, the sureness of the couple having overcome the challenges standing in their way. In the epilogue the characters have figured out their life together. Oftentimes epilogues are where you can find the true happily ever after. There’s always some kind of lasting commitment: a new house together, marriage, or, perhaps, even a baby. When I started writing The Secret Ingredient, I wanted to write a Continue Reading
Review: Better Than People by Roan Parrish
Roan Parrish writes some of the best mental health rep there is in all of romance and Better Than People is no exception. The meet cute in this book is super cute as Jack has an accident in the beginning of this and needs to find someone to exercise is sizable dog pack - and one cat - for him. He finds Simon on an app where people are seeking pets to walk or cuddle because they can't have them for one reason or another. I liked this take on the app hookup idea. One of my only quibbles with Continue Reading
Excerpt: Just Like That by Cole McCade
Just Like That by Cole McCade is available now at all e-tailers. “Why are you attracted to me?” Fox asked. And Summer laughed. He laughed, quick and startled, a short light thing that made Fox think of mayflies startled into taking flight. Wide blue eyes darted to him, then away—very firmly away, Summer turning his head to stare across the grass, toward the stark cliff edge that led down the other side of the slope, into dense forest. His mouth pressed to his upraised shoulder, Continue Reading
Excerpt: The Hideaway Inn by Philip William Stover
Author Introduction I’m going to lean into the Smexy brand here and share my skinny dipping scene. What is smarter or sexier than skinny dipping? When you don’t wear a swimsuit you don’t have to worry about drying it so that has the added bonus of not needing to do laundry which is probably good for the environment. So all that is firmly in the smart column. Now for an M/M romance with a skinny dipping scene in a crystal clear spring-fed stream we are going to have to deal with a word I like Continue Reading
Guest Post: Small Town Romance Recommendations by Chelsea M. Cameron
Chelsea's new book, The Girl Next Door, will be released on May 26. She stopped by to give us some recs for some other small town romances. Thanks Chelsea! I’m from a small town. When I say that, I don’t think a lot of people have a concept of HOW small I mean. I’m talking less than 3,000 people. I went to the same school for kindergarten through eighth grade. Many of the teachers I had are still teaching there, some of them with friends of mine who are now teachers themselves. Our town Continue Reading
Top Ten – January 24, 2020
We made it another week y’all. Happy Friday! 10. We are basically a Cheer fan account now, so I felt compelled to share this with you. Buzzfeed has a round-up of celebrities tweeting about Cheer. 9. But have you seen their whole Daytona performance? I've watched it several time. 8. Idol by Kristen Callihan has been turned into an interactive story. If anyone has tried this out, please let us know how it works. 7. Do you love the Ice Planet Barbarian books by Ruby Dixon? Do Continue Reading