I’m back! I’ve read a few books lately but haven’t quite felt like talking about them. Sometimes even writing mini reviews can feel stressful. Review content warnings: references to emotional abuse, abortion, grief/death Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes- Although not a straight romance, more fiction with romantic elements, it does have a happily ever after. CW: grief, emotional abuse by an intimate partner & parent. The heroine, Evvie like Chevy, is a widow but she is not Continue Reading
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Weekly Wrap Up
Here's what happened on Smexy this week: New Release Monday Angela’s Tuesday Thoughts- Give Up the Ghost by Jenn Burke and TBR update Release Day Excerpt: Waiting For Tom Hanks by Kerry Winfrey Guest Post: Queer Romance Recs for your Pride Month Reading by Layla Reyne Once Upon a Wedding- Guest Post by Barbara Samuel Kini’s Friday Kisses From Kini: What's Happening in Romancelandia? I went on a road trip last week to visit my family in Lincoln, Nebraska. The Midwest is Continue Reading
Smexy Deals
Bittersweet by Sarina Bowen- This is a new cover for a great book. I have enjoyed this whole series. The last person Griffin Shipley expects to find stuck in a ditch on his Vermont country road is his ex-hookup. Five years ago they’d shared a couple of steamy nights together. But that was a lifetime ago. At twenty-seven, Griff is now the accidental patriarch of his family farm. Even his enormous shoulders feel the strain of supporting his mother, three siblings and a dotty Continue Reading
Smexy Deals
Hard Hitter (Brooklyn Bruisers) by Sarina Bowen He’s a fighter in the rink, but he’s about to learn that playing nice can help you score... As team captain and enforcer, Patrick O'Doul puts the bruise in the Brooklyn Bruisers. But after years of hard hits, O'Doul is feeling the burn, both physically and mentally. He conceals his pain from his coach and trainers, but when his chronic hip injury becomes too obvious to ignore, they send him for sessions with the team’s massage Continue Reading
Smexy Deals
Brooklynaire by Sarina Bowen. Kindle You’d think a billion dollars, a professional hockey team and a six-bedroom mansion on the Promenade would satisfy a guy. You’d be wrong. For seven years Rebecca has brightened my office with her wit and her smile. She manages both my hockey team and my sanity. I don’t know when I started waking in the night, craving her. All I know is that one whiff of her perfume ruins my concentration. And her laugh makes me hard. When Rebecca gets hurt, I Continue Reading
A Note From Mandi
*waves* It's been a hot minute since I've posted! I'm still alive! I'm still reading! I'm just not blogging at the moment. A few factors have played a part. In two months, Smexy turns ten years old. Holy crap! When I started this blog, my youngest son was three and I always thought, the older my kids get, the more time I will have to do stuff! While I'm done bathing them and putting them to bed, teenagers present a host of new problems LOL. Y'all - I'm tired! And honestly, burnt out from Continue Reading
Kini’s Friday Kisses
I finished two ARCs for upcoming releases, DNF one older book from my TBR, and I am 70% on another book. Snowy weekends allow lots of reading time. Overnight Sensation by Sarina Bowen- This is part of her Brooklyn Bruisers hockey series, which I have mostly enjoyed. This was a miss for me. Not enough that I DNF it, but I can’t say I truly enjoyed it. I did like seeing, even minimally, some of the characters from previous books. Heidi, the heroine, is kind of a Mary Sue. She is a Continue Reading
Guest Author Kelly Jensen
Science fiction will always be my first love. I particularly like reading far flung futures where humanity still has a role to play in the galaxy, and tales set after the apocalypse, when we’re building something new. In between, I read almost everything, but I have a deep love for contemporary romance, especially stories set in small towns—which might seem odd when set against my science fiction preferences. But to me it’s quite simple. I love reading stories about humans being human, and we’re Continue Reading
Feature: Christmas Lane by Amy Aislin
Thank you for joining me to celebrate the release of my newest m/m contemporary romance, Christmas Lane, and thank you to Smexy Books for having me today! If you’ve never read my books—or even if you have—here’s a fun fact: most of them are set in a small town. The Play of His Life, As Big As the Sky, and Ballerina Dad are all set in my hometown of Oakville, Ontario, Canada. Picture Winter is set mostly in Toronto, but with parts in the town of Puslinch, Ontario. On the Ice: the fictional Continue Reading
Kini’s Friday Kisses
I read some better books in the last week, but my reading is still meh. It is hard to not let the events of the world bleed in to how I feel about reading. Fireworks by Sarina Bowen. (Pubs 11/13) There is a note in the beginning of the books that says “For every survivor everywhere”. Take that as a content warning. There are mentions of verbal and attempted sexual assault in this book. They are strong in this book. It was heavy and at times, it was hard for me to read. But I did mostly Continue Reading