By now y’all may know that I love the marriage in trouble trope. There is something so appealing to me about reading about couples who have to figure out their shit and decide to make their marriage work. I haven’t read Bailey in quite some time, I’ve kind of moved away from reading and enjoying her brand of possessive alpha heroes. But with this trope, I was never not going to read Love Her or Lose Her. I ended up having incredibly mixed feelings about this book. I will start with the good. Continue Reading
Kini’s Friday Kisses- Mini reviews for books by Kate Clayborn, Tasha L. Harrison, Roni Loren, and Emily Belden
Love Lettering by Kate Clayborn- I actually read this months ago but just waited to talk about it. I didn’t love this book. It was a good but not great read for me. It felt more like women’s fiction, but that is fine with me because I enjoy WF too. There was a lot of emphasis on the Meg’s work and it felt like too much at times. There is a subplot where Meg and her roommate/former best friend work on repairing their relationship but it also felt like this was a more important relationship to Meg Continue Reading
Kini’s Most Anticipated Reads 2020
First I want to mention that almost all of the books that I am excited about are from traditional publishers because they typically release information about new books several months in advance. If you are indie or self publishing a book, we would love to know about it sooner rather than later so we can get it on our radar! Our request form does not require an ARC. Second, most of these books are from the first half of 2020, with a few from the second half as publishing hasn’t released much Continue Reading
Kini’s Romance Wrap Up 2019
Just over a year ago, Mandi decided she didn’t want to run Smexy anymore and Angela and I jumped at the chance to do so. I have learned so much about running a blog. The biggest thing is that my relationship with books has changed. I am no longer “just reviewing” books. Now not only am I looking at them for potential review but also is it something we might want to spotlight in some other way to Smexy readers. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love it. But it has just changed things for me. Continue Reading
Kini’s Friday Kisses: Mini reviews for books by Adriana Herrera, Tarryn Fisher, and JN Welsh
Here’s a quick round up of books I’ve read recently. Although I don’t have much to say about them. It’s the end of the year, I think I will hit my goal of starting 100 books this year, but have quite a few DNFs this year. I will have more of a wrap up next week. Mangos and Mistletoe by Adriana Herrera- This is super sexy story centered around two competitors of a holiday baking show. (Think Great British Bake Off). This was my first book by Herrera, I have at least one of her Dreamer series Continue Reading
Review: Regretting You by Colleen Hoover
This is the second book I’ve read by Hoover. When I saw the description for this book I felt compelled to read it. I enjoy stories centered around a mother and daughter trying to figure things out. Add in some tragedy and I’m all for it. I have never really been drawn to Hoover’s books but I thought maybe this will be the that helps me understand her appeal to so many. Reader, this was not the one. This review will be spoilery so be forewarned. A big chunk of this review will be under a Continue Reading
Kini’s Friday Kisses- Books by Kate Clayborn, Molly O’Keefe, and Sagan Morrow
A Day in the Death of Walter Zawislak by Molly O’Keefe, pubs 12/9. This book is not a romance but does contain a love story. The story is kind of a mash up of movies Meet Joe Black and A Christmas Carol with a little bit of On Top of the World by the Dixie Chicks thrown in. I don’t want to spoil it but it is an interesting story of a man looking back on his life and coming to grips with his self worth. It has the deep emotions that is Molly’s trademark. I really enjoyed it. It also included Continue Reading
Transparency in Romance: My Thoughts
Recently on Twitter, I posted about disclosing personal relationships between bloggers/reviewers and authors. And while I wrote it to ask about disclosure, after the responses came in and other discussions with friends, I believe it is more about transparency. This is particularly relevant as we close out the year and best of/favorite lists will be released by blogs, reviewers and entertainment news sites. https://twitter.com/kinilei1/status/1196591928390930433 I think about the Continue Reading
Review: Beard Necessities by Penny Reid
I finally got the chance to read Beard Necessities by Penny Reid. It is the second half of Billy and Scarlet/Claire’s story. I was underwhelmed. Maybe I set my expectations too high after absolutely loving the sad story that was Beard With Me. In Beard Necessities, Billy and Scarlet are all grown up and are “forced” into reconnecting. The whole Winston family is in Italy. And for the first half of the book I couldn’t understand why they were there. Then I remembered Duane was there to learn Continue Reading
Smexy’s November TBR
Angela- November is when I try to begin to close out my reading year, wrap up any ARC reviews I missed in the last few months AND finally get to all those books in my TBR stack that I've been eyeing all year. This month has quite a few great releases that I'm looking forward to and I'm also planning to sneak in some books that I've had on my Kindle for awhile. Slaying Monsters for the Feeble (The Guild Codex: Demonized Book 2) by Annette Marie 11/1- I've enjoyed this author since stumbling Continue Reading