Lady Christina Barclay is incredibly shy and hates being the center of attention, but her parents have forced her into the social circles of New York City in the hopes of catching a rich American to pay off their familial debts.

To find calm amidst the chaos and frightening prospect she will soon be married off to whomever her parents choose, Christina sneaks into the gardens of her cousin's reclusive neighbor for morning strolls. No one is the wiser until Christina is inadvertently knocked out by the neighbor's large dog.

Oliver Hawkes is aghast that this lovely woman has been brought into his domain. Having lost his hearing as a teenager, Oliver has taken himself out of society and prefers to focus his life's work on patenting a hearing device to help those who still have partial hearing. Oliver protects himself with his large fortune and by keeping everyone in his life at arm's length.

But, Lady Christina turns out to be a warm, kind, and interesting person. Someone who Oliver finds himself wanting to talk to, to teach sign language, and to share his work with. And, when he finds her weeping in his garden, about to be married to an octogenarian with suspiciously many dead wives, he agrees to marry her for one year, in name only.

Christina agrees, but is sad that the marriage will be in name only, as she too finds herself falling for the hard-working, gentle, and beautiful man who lets her make her own choices and is her friend, a man who sticks up to her verbally abusive parents.

While these two fall in love, outside forces threaten Oliver's livelihood and freedom, as society in the 1890s did not take kindly to those who were differently-abled.

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!

A very sweet, sensual slow-burn of a romance that made me hold my breath in a bit of fear, not for worry of the couple's love for each other, but for SPOILER ALERT Oliver's fate after being thrown into a terrible insane asylum. Content warning for physical abuse, historical accurate psychological torture, and historically accurate bigotry towards the deaf.

Shupe does a marvelous job with the historical details of the period, Oliver's invention, and the conditions of "insane asylums" of the time period, referencing her research on Nellie Bly's account.

I also adored how Shupe handled Oliver and Christina communication. They used a variety of methods, including verbal speech, signing, lipreading, and pen on paper. Oliver often expresses his discomfort with how other perceive his voice and his frustration when people refuse or forget to make sure he can see their faces when they speak to him, as he can read lips.

Excellent to see a main character with a disability that isn't magically cured by love or some other means. Oliver is deaf, his hearing aid project is not meant to cure his deafness but to help others.

I also appreciated the time Oliver took to become friends, then lovers, with Christina. He doesn't insist on consummating their marriage. When he does feel more for Christina, he moves slowly, he constantly checks in that she is on the same page as he is, and he tells her how to get him to immediately stop if she doesn't want to go further, especially since he cannot hear her if he's not looking at her face. Swoon. Oliver also uses the "pull-out" method when they do make love, and it isn't seen as a

Darcy Barrett's life is slowly spiraling out of control, but one thing she is sure of is that no one will ever measure up to Tom Valeska, the perfect man. The gentle giant who she'd like to climb like a tree, but who's engaged to someone else.

Darcy is perfectly content in her mess until Tom shows up to renovate the dilapidated cottage left to Darcy and her twin brother. Tom's arrival means Darcy can no longer hide, not her deteriorating heart condition, her drinking, or her completely overwhelming feelings.

Renovation, regret, and raw emotion lead to deliciously slow-burn friends-to-lovers romance. For readers who loved Thorne's debut novel, The Hating Game, they may at first find Darcy's bluntness and stream-of-conscious inner monologue a bit overwhelming, but by the end they'll love her just as much as they love hunky, lumbering, and swoony Tom Valeska.

Raj was abandoned as a small child but adopted by an amazing and loving family. Focused on tradition, Raj is allowing his family to arrange the perfect marriage for him until he encounters a beautiful siren.

Little does he know his siren is Nayna Sharma! Nayna is also from a traditional Indian family, which Raj discovers the next day when their parents set them up!

Beautiful, hot, and full of heart.

What a fascinating glimpse into modern, 21st century arranged marriage. The Hard Play series, which so far appears to just be two books spun off of a different series, features super hot, hunky, strapping heroes who tumble hard and tumble first for the women they love (see Cherish Hard for Sailor Bishop, swoon).

The New Zealand setting is phenomenal, but I was a bit irritated that the audiobook narrator dropped all of the Kiwi accents for this book (she also narrated Cherish Hard and I listened to them back to back).

I also enjoyed that Singh includes a full cast of characters who are all important to the plot, even if their overall page time is small. While there is one 'villainous' character, she isn't portrayed as a stereotype.

SPOILERS

Raj is a virgin! I kind of figured, but you were slowly led up to the big reveal. It was nice to see two lovers exploring each other and enjoying learning each other without it being exploitative or yucky. I also loved that Nayna wasn't willing to compromise on her desires for a mate, for a future, and for a life. I loved that Raj was able to adapt his expectations of what marriage should be, for what it could be.

Knox was a heavy-weight MMA fighter until the sudden death of his brother in the ring. He now owns and operates "Hard Knox Ink," a premier tattoo shop. Knox lives with a heavy burden of guilt. Guilt that his brother is dead because he didn't prevent him from taking that fight and guilt for coveting his brother's widow. He wants Eden, but he promised his mother he would never touch her, out of respect for his brother.

Eden has pulled herself out of depression and is starting to feel like she is ready to live again two years after the death of her young husband. She's been living with her in-laws which has been a blessing, but Eden is ready to move on. But, she's also been having craving's for her brother-in-law, her boss, cravings she hasn't felt for a long, long time.

Eden doesn't know that Knox has wanted her even while she was married to his brother, but their growing chemistry finally explodes after Eden asks Knox to give her a tattoo.

What follows is angst-for-days forbidden romance between two people who are risking a lot to be together. While novella length, the character development, pacing, and scorching heat are off-the-charts good.

Content warning for discussion of depression, discussion of secondary character death, and a man-bun.

Miss Diana Highwood is supposed to marry a lord. She's beautiful, she's perfectly mannered, she's ready to be a lady. At least, that is what Diana has been told her entire life.

Now that Diana has been living in Spindle Cove for two years to help her asthma, she's learned that maybe it is time she takes the reins. She doesn't want a lord, she wants Aaron Dawes, the Spindle Cove blacksmith.

Aaron has been secretly in love with Diana ever since she helped him during a fairly unpleasant medical procedure. The beauty he was too afraid to touch showed her steely backbone and her true grit, but he knows she isn't for him. So why is Diana constantly showing up at his smithy with broken trinkets?

When the stoked flames of both their desires finally flare up, these two are set for an epic romance sure to scandalize the entire town.

Love, love, love this novella. Plus, sex on an anvil! Huzzah!

A multi-media experience extraordinaire. This is the future of print-publishing. Please make all of my books have margin notes, inserts, and napkin maps. The bonus, the totally real old book smell!

Besides the awesome packaging of S., the novel and the story that plays out in the margins between Eric and Jen is so enthralling, yet leaves just enough to the imagination to keep you wanting more. Now that I have finished, I'm doing a lot of message board surfing to see what I missed. I will definitely be ordering a copy soon and will need to do a re-read (many times over).

Massive spoilers in this review proceed with caution.

Adele had a huge teenage crush on Pete, one of her dad's employees, even though he's far older than she. When she turned 18 some booze and a flash of boobs ruined her friendship with Pete, almost lost him his job, and turned her into a big huge joke.

Flash forward six years later, and Adele is returning to her dad's hometown to participate in his wedding. And she has to stay with Pete. Adele's now into one night stands, casual dating, and lots of sex. She's determined she won't let her past mistake with Pete ruin her vacation but he's a total jerk as soon as she arrives. Plus, now her dad wants her to join his and Pete's building company, and Pete doesn't seemed thrilled about it.

As Adele finds out, Pete is actually attracted to her "now that she's a woman" and they eventually hookup. Pete handles it poorly, but after some conversation they decide to give it a go. Until Adele's dad again catches them...

Pete can't decide what he wants, so Adele leaves with maybe just a little more than a broken heart...

Ugh. I was intrigued by this forbidden, May-December, "I'm super into my dad's friend," romance but found myself very annoyed. I was intrigued enough to finish but I could just not get over how awful Pete was. He's in his late 20s (I think?) when he starts "hanging out" with Adele as a 16 year old. Pete basically fills in for her dad who is too busy to take her places when she stays with him for six weeks each summer, okay, but wierd her dad has no issue with this or their "best friendship" that develops. Pete also takes Adele on his dates to prevent his dates from thinking he wants more? Gross.

The entire story is in Adele's 1st person POV, which made me hate Pete even more because I could never tell what he was thinking. He was drunk when they finally had sex and leaves her alone on the floor to sleep in his room, but then is confused at why she is crying and leaving the next day? Gross. He refuses to define his relationship with her, refuses to discuss his feelings, and sends mixed messages.

And then the story had to take the freaking pregnancy route. There is no sufficient groveling from Pete, who handles being caught by Adele's father while going down on her very poorly. Adele does make him 'date' her for like two seconds before agreeing to just be with him to raise their baby, but overall I just didn't buy it. There was no chemistry between the two and this story either needed to veer more into kinky "daddy" territory or utilize the age gap in a different way. I just didn't buy their love.

For all of this, I did like Adele's character. She wasn't some innocent, blushing virgin who was swayed by some creep. She went after what she wanted, I just felt bad who she wanted didn't deserve her.

I read A Wrinkle in Time as a kid, and I didn't love it then and I didn't fall in love with it as an adult. The final way to defeat IT came about so suddenly and the ending was very abrupt.

The characters were my absolute favorite part, especially Meg.

Read for my Book to Art Club and we created paper 'tessellation' projects inspired by the story.

After enduring another round of questions regarding her single-status during her beloved cousin's wedding (Natalie Chin-Williams from Not Another Family Wedding), Iris Chin is simply looking for a hot one-night stand.

She finds him at a local brew pub. Alex Kwong is hot hot hot, and he's also DTF.

Alex, despite agreeing to one night only, is still a bit stung when he finds Iris has disappeared the next morning. He can't get the beguiling, funny, and smart woman out of his mind, or it seems, out of his workplace!

Iris is the lead structural engineer on the hospital job Alex is the foreman on, and they both have trouble keeping it professional.

Neither Iris or Alex ever thought they'd want a relationship, especially one that both of their traditional Chinese families would love, but these two just can't help falling for each other.

Lovely, cute, and full of amazing secondary characters (especially Ngin Ngin!!) that is the trademark of a Jackie Lau romance.

Content warning for off-page death of a family member due to cancer, which I wasn't expecting.

“That’s why I don’t come back very often. There’s nothing to do, and it’s a long way from Ottawa. Plus, it burns a lot of fossil fuel to get here.” He took her hand in his. “It turns me on when you talk about fossil fuel emissions.” “You have a serious problem,” she muttered as he bent to kiss behind her ear."

Recommended and gifted to me by an author I follow on Twitter (THANK YOU), this was a sweet, contemporary romance between two friends who become lovers during a tense wedding weekend.

Natalie Chin-Williams is a 36 year-old climatologist and professor. She's had her share of heartbreak and has basically given up on dating. Natalie decided long ago she would never have children and she is tired of being told "the right one" will change her mind.

But, Natalie would like a date to her much younger sister's wedding, someone to be a buffer between her and her mixed bag family. Her racist grandmother and uncle are set to attend, and her Chinese grandmother won't relent in asking when Natalie will be getting married and having babies.

Connor has been friends with Natalie for well over 15 years, so he is happy to be her date to the wedding, even if it is far away. Heck, he once had a crush on Natalie, but time and various other relationships including his now failed-marriage meant he never acted on it.

As the wedding weekend progresses, Connor finds himself falling for Natalie as he learns more about her, her family, and her role in raising her little sister. Natalie also starts to see Connor in a new light and after some extremely unpleasant news rocks the festivities, they find themselves in bed together.

What follows is an endearing exploration of finding her perfect someone, despite the odds.

I loved that Connor was the first to fall and the one to fight for their relationship. I loved that both main characters were older (late 30s) than most romance novels, and I loved that they were both firmly in the no-kids camp. My only wish for the story was a bit more of Natalie and Connor together on page, as there are long sections with Natalie and her family.

Content warnings for divorce, mentions of miscarriage, abortion mention, and cheating (not between the main couple).