What fun! Merry leaves America after 'jilting' two fiancées (for totally legit reasons) and soon finds herself engaged to a quite dashing English society man. Right after he proposes (and leaves her to find a card game), Merry runs into a dashing scoundrel who sets her blood to boil. Oh and he's her future brother in law. Oops.

Blaming her own flightiness, Merry vows to make it to the altar with her intended, but not if the Duke of Trent has anything to say about it.

I was surprised by the story ARC of this romance, which I love because it doesn't happen often. Very steamy, and Eloisa James' intelligent writing makes this again a clear winner in my book.

Lady Eva Hyde has an incredibly sexy encounter with a devilishly handsome American while traveling via ship to New York City. She gives him a false name and sneaks out of his stateroom as the thrice ex-fianceed due to death Eva has no desire for any further attachments. She is on a mission to build the hotel she designed under her father's name and needs all of her time and energy focused on making the project profitable and hiding the fact it was designed by a woman from everyone. Too bad the man who hired "her father" turns out to be the very sexy American from the boat. Uh oh.

I loved the time period (1890s), the setting, and so many other various details about my first Shupe novel that I couldn't help but be a little disappointed in the overwhelming amounts of plot points. There was so much going on I felt the characters didn't have a lot of time to interact besides in bed. That said, I'd still pick up the next in this series!

Thank you to Avon for the ARC!

Imagine Carrie by Stephen King, but if Carrie got out and didn't mass murder everyone. And if Carrie was aided and abetted by a hot sexy almost Catholic Priest.

Dot escapes her horrid mother, who believes she is possessed by the devil, when the priest her mother asked for turns out to be an actually good person. Killian is taking his vows in a few weeks and cannot believe the conditions Dot has lived in, her abuse, her terrible life, and promises her he can get her to better things.

The trouble is Dot and Killian grow close during their road trip back to Killian's parish. So close that Dot falls in love with Killian, the man who shows her love, religion, and sin aren't what her terrible mother taught her they were. That the feelings she feels aren't sinful, aren't ugly, and are beautiful, just not for an almost priest to take advantage of.

This wasn't my favorite story, as it is 1st person POV from Dot's perspective and I just wanted more talking between Dot and Killian. Everything is very internal and while I believed Killian was good and true, I'd have liked his side of the story too. This is really short, and I was on the edge of my seat waiting to see how these two could actually get an HEA.

Fans of Tessa Bailey's "The Academy" series finally see the smoldering tension between Lieutenant Greer Burns and NYPD trainee Danika Silva ignite and they will not be disappointed.
Greer has it bad for Danika, but he thinks she hates him because of his hard treatment of her best friend, roommate, and fellow trainee Jack. Plus there is that whole instructor/supervisor thing, so Greer tries to keep it under wraps until one day when he feels her respond to him during a training exercise.
Greer is also afraid because he knows once he makes a move, he'll want Danika forever, but he doesn't feel he is worth a relationship, to anyone.
Danika is shocked that Greer is as attracted to her as she has been to him, despite all her effort to hate him. She's been the good girl for too long and longs for Greer's dominance (in bed only!!). But, her insistence on taking care of everything alone will poke right at Greer's greatest weakness, threatening their relationship before it can even be defined.

Steamy, sultry, and just the right hint of naughty (spanking!!), this is a great series-ender.

Thank you to the publisher and Edelweiss+ for the ARC!

I picked up the audiobook because Tessa Bailey's dirty-talking heros are perfection on audio. This was no exception. I appreciated the tension between Danika and Greer even more, and really liked both narrators. Bonus points for sexy squad car banging and a really nice grovel at the end. I so love when a gruff, no-nonsense rule follower is just knocked to his knees by his love interest. Yum.

This book is delicious. This book is sexy. This book is important. This book you must read!

Rae portrays an enigmatic, kickass persona in her new home town, Ravenswood. On the outside she's strong, she's successful, she's got it going on. On the inside Rae still struggles with the woman she was before she moved to Ravenswood. The woman who gave twenty years of her life to a man, a man who cheated on her with his secretary.

The man she is now going to have to see at the awards ceremony her book just received a nomination for.

Rae doesn't want to be seen as his ex-wife, a woman to be pitied. She wants to be seen as Ravenswood Rae. And maybe that means she should take up the offer of her friend, the super hot and way younger (twelve years) man who has become her friend.

Zach Davis is also working on his personal journey. He's recently discovered he is demisexual and has vowed to himself he will no longer do things he doesn't want, just to make others happy. But he wants to make Rae happy. He enjoys every moment he spends with her, seeing her while he's on a break from the forge, hearing her stories. Having beers at the pub. He wants to know more about Rae, and he wants to help her. Even if she drunkenly made a pass at him and he had to explain he just doesn't see her that way.

Fake dating has never been so fraught, but seeing these two fall in love is the most beautiful story I've read so far in 2019.

Talia Hibbert knows how to make my heart sing, and also brings so much to the table when it comes to representation for those who's romance stories NEED to be told. She deftly weaves education into her narratives, and while I can't personally confirm that the demisexual representation is accurate, I can confirm I feel like I understand more about something I had no knowledge of. How beautiful is that?

Besides Zach being on the asexual spectrum, Hibbert also includes other small details and happenings that normalize sex things that I've never seen in a romance before. Rae experiences vaginal dryness, and isn't "sopping wet" like I've always read. There's so much sexy consent!! Ugh, more of this please and thank you!

You'll absolutely want to own a copy of this beautiful book!

Thank you to the author for the ARC!

Bad Blood is a 2019 RITA Award nominee, one of the only nominees written by an author of color.

I may be wrong in my thought process, but wonder if this story would have received a nomination if the cover didn't have a White guy on it and if the main couple weren't also White. I'm pretty sure they were both White...

Any way, the story was fine, if bland. Lots of talk about an off the page encounter of the two main characters at a sex club that never panned out in the story. There was a lot of talk about wild sex and the female lead wanting to experiment but not as much on page action as I'd hoped based on the conversations between the leads. Georgie's older brother King obviously had his own story in this series, which I didn't read, but he was such a stereotypical older-brother interfering character.

That said, for a novella the world felt completely built and I was able to sink into the emotions. I enjoyed it and would certainly read more of the author's work!

Camilo Santiago Briggs doesn't believe in fairy tales. He believes in working hard and making things happen for yourself, a lesson he's learned from his mother and from his career as a New York City social worker.

So when Milo finds out the mystery man he shared the hottest hookup of his life with is in fact billionaire Thomas Hughes, and is in fact going to be funding the project Milo's in charge of at his non-profit job, he is completely skeptical. Knights in shining armor don't exist, and hot men in expensive tuxes who seem to good to be true are exactly that.

But Tom is going to show Milo just how real fairy tales can actually be.

Hot, hot, hot, and so incredibly swoony! I ate up every word of this delicious big city contemporary. I especially love a romance that sees the two main characters hooking up in the first chapters, then fighting their feelings for each other and trying to resist doing it again! Good luck!

Herrera is a talent to watch and her Dreamers series is A+ romance at its finest!

Content warning for discussion of domestic violence, but nothing is on page.

I received a free ARC in exchange for a fair review. Thank you!

This was everything. I don't even know what to say about it right now, so I'll try again later.

I started on audiobook, ended by reading the last 1/4, and now finishing up the last bit on audio. If you haven't read this series. DO. IT. NOW.

2019
I re-listened to The Raven King on audio in honor of St. Mark's Eve, and it is still everything. This series gives me all the feelings and I am in love with the Raven Boys, with Blue, the ley lines, and their magic. I cannot wait to read [b:Call Down the Hawk|31373184|Call Down the Hawk (Dreamer Trilogy, #1)|Maggie Stiefvater|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1550860945s/31373184.jpg|52062040] this fall.

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC! I nominated this title for LibraryReads 2019!
Helen Hoang follows up her sparkling debut, [b:The Kiss Quotient|36199084|The Kiss Quotient|Helen Hoang|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1527983633s/36199084.jpg|57828311], with a story just as swoony and captivating as her first.

Accountant Khai Diep cannot fall in love, because he doesn't have feelings. Sure, he respects his often overbearing family, they do mean the best, and he gets annoyed when people touch him without warning, but those aren't emotions. He's felt this way most of his life, but especially since the death of his cousin and best friend.

But Khai's mother is intent on proving him wrong, going so far as to travel to the slums of Vietnam to find the right woman who'll show Khai he can love. Or just marry him, giving him children and a family life.

Esme Tran never dreamed she'd be traveling to America, but the opportunity posed by Khai's mother is really a win/win. Esme never knew her American father and now she has the chance to find him while also hoping to gain a better future for her young daughter, who she declines to tell Khai's mother about.

Esme knows it is her job to teach Khai how to love, but as she falls for him, she won't sell herself short when it comes time for her to decide whether she'll stay with a man who says he doesn't love her or go to protect her heart.

Both of these characters journey to their happily ever after is poignant, funny, and will make you just want to keep reading into the wee hours of the night (which I did). So pleased to see Khai's autism as him just being him, not a condition to be "fixed." Khai needs to realize he DOES have feelings, he just experiences them differently than others. The delightful cast of family members is an extra treat on top of an already delightful confection.

I hope Hoang continues writing in this world, as I'm dying for Khai's brother Kwon to get his happily ever after.

Nate knows what he wants and he knows how to get it. He's straightforward with the women he's with, he never remembers their names. He's DTF as long as he gets his fix, and he knows he'll be the best they've ever had.

But Nate gets a hit of his own brand of bad medicine when he encounters "Stealth" at a dance club. She struts up to him, let's him have a taste, and she throws him under the bus. He's hurt her friend and Stealth is out to make him pay.

But Nate can see she's more affected by what he can offer than she's comfortable with him knowing. Game on.

I picked this one up for a fun Christmas read (why not, treat yo'self) based on a Twitter recommendation about Romance and about letting us all enjoy our smut. And yes, this is delightfully dirty smut. But then it will cold-cock (haha) you right in the face with emotions. There is a ton going on in this novella and I love when an erotic romance can take you to such an emotional place.

Bonus points for featuring a Southern good boy falling for a Black woman, with all aknowledging that yes, Nate's ancestors may have been slave owners, consensual fun times, and so much cunnilingus.