Reviewed for Library Journal. Will link to review when live.

After surviving friend Elise's wedding, including watching her best friend Jane get her heart broken AND mended in a surprising 24-hour turn of events including a Hercules costume, Wendy isn't sure she's ready to be the maid of honor for Jane's wedding.

But, she'll be damned if she won't be the BEST maid of honor ever for the "low-key" but really not actually "low-key" wedding Jane is intent on having. The worst part about Jane's wedding is that it will definitely include Noah, Jane's brother, the man who stood Wendy up at prom and placed her firmly in the anti-relationship camp, the man she's been actively avoiding for over fifteen years.

Noah, unaware of Wendy's hurt, is delighted his little sister is getting married. He's also determined Jane will have the best wedding ever. He's also never forgotten the spark he's always felt for his longtime friend, especially when they compete.

When these two high powered attorney's go to battle over who will make Jane's wedding the best, it will bring the past and the present together, with both Wendy and Noah having to come to terms with their hangups over relationships.

Not quite as delightful for me as the first book, but still loved Wendy and Noah's story. Can't wait for Gia's!

Read for #FallForJoannaShupe

Uber rich Gilded Age magnate who pulled himself up by his bootstraps falls for the beautiful and stock market savvy society good girl who bets she can double his investment if he'll back her business. The sex scenes were deliciously steamy but overall I just found myself skimming the rest. Emmett ruthlessness in getting what he wants in business was off putting to 2020 me, and I didn't like that Lizzie kind of used insider trading to win the bet? Also I really don't care about the stock market.

So Tools of Engagement popped up when I was lurking on Edelweiss+ in the late hours of the night and um, oops I read the whole thing already?

Readers, I laughed and I loved it. Full review to come closer to the publication date (September 2020 sounds like a lifetime away). Wes is a smitten kitten and a sexy stud all rolled up in a hunky cowboy wrapping and I felt very seen reading about overthinking Bethany.

Thank you to Avon for the advanced reading copy!

So I read this right before our first lock down here in the states. What a different world that was. I originally rated this five stars, but am rounding down to 4 after listening on audio. I very much enjoyed the narrator, and Wes is an absolutely delicious cowboy who can ma'am me anytime please and thank you. I have a very big soft spot for Bethany, and her journey to realizing masking her insecurities with a big case of perfectionism isn't healthy or the right way to be. Then entire concept of the flipping TV show was basically a throw-away and really didn't need to be there (could have simply competed amongst themselves and had relators appraise the flips to determine who won), but again, I'm a huge Tessa Bailey fan and basically I'll read whatever she puts out.

Review is of Her Virgin Duke - by Nicola Davidson only

The very rich and very powerful Madame of a pleasure club is retiring, at the age of 28, in order to gain a life and a future, maybe even a husband and family. But as her days near the end at the club, a virgin Duke stumbles into her establishment, and into her arms.

The duke, while a virgin, apparently has an authoritative and commanding sexuality under his starchy cravat just waiting to be educated...and to find a wife. But the infamous owner of said club couldn't possibly hope to ever marry a Duke...could she?

Read while sprawled on a fur rug by a roaring fire (or set up your YouTube aesthetic stream as such) and delight in this wonderfully steamy Christmas novella!

*I received an advance review copy from the author

A widow trying make a new life and write an interior design book escaping an abusive husband finds out the house she has purchased to fulfill her dreams is haunted. The only way forward is to allow the pesky, nerdy, and sexy inventor who's been begging her to investigate the phenomenon into her life, and perhaps into her heart.

Delightfully swoon worthy and full of tender moments, this is a gothic-lite romance perfect for the Fall spooky season. I was absolutely thrilled when I discovered this is also quite steamy. I've never read such an absolutely sexy scene where a lover knows to stop and re-check in for consent (CW panic attacks). My heart grew five times.

Also, I adored Sam, his family, and their messiness and their heart, and how much love they immediately gave to Alva. She's so lonely and so deserving of love and it was truly beautiful to see.

The overall mystery with the ghosts was so inconsequential to me personally because the romance was just that good.

CW: domestic violence, threats of violence, gas-lighting (none of these by the hero), atmospheric scariness, panic attacks, sex (consensual)

Re-read in 2020 and I bumped up my 4-Star review to a full 5 because I just love this darn book so much. Sam is such an amazing romance hero, he just sparkles on the page, and oh, I'm so glad my dear Alva is wrapped up in her perfect HEA with him.

This also remains the best example of a love interest stopping sex as soon as they notice their partner dissociating. What fantastic example of consent and care, and I urge everyone to read this for it.

Lady Delilah has an epic one night stand with a mystery man who turns out to be the Duke engaged to her former daughter in law! GASP, scandal!

I was hooked in with this premise, but ultimately was not won over by the romance.

The overall arc, going from epic night of love making, to discovering both Elliot and Leela are connected by the young woman Elliot intends to marry, and fighting their pants feelings for each other never made me feel like they actually got to know each other or were actually in love, not lust.

Elliot didn't earn his HEA with Leela, and ultimately I was not thrilled with the way some of the other plot points played out, and I found myself skimming to get to the end.

CW: cheating (depends on how you view it), attempted sexual assault on page, racism, vomit, pregnancy

The rest of this review is spoilery

Spoiler

Leela is a biracial heroine, and this is an "own-voices" author. I cannot comment on the rep, but the way Elliot thinks about Leela's looks were often in juxtaposition to his feelings about Victoria's looks (a described pale English rose). Victoria is also very young, and I liked her relationship with Leela, but I did not like that it was suddenly okay for Elliot to take Leela as his mistress because Victoria eloped with his title-less friend. Leela's ex-step-son (they are the same age) also attempts to force himself on Leela to make her his mistress and black mail her so he can keep lands/a house left to her by his father and her now dead husband. She cuts his cheek open to make him have a scar, then sits and has tea with him? The incident is kind of brushed off as a "one-off." Leela is also self-described as barren throughout the story, she and Elliot take no precaution during sex, and Elliot needing an heir is something "he gives up" so they can be together. Then the epilogue comes and she's had his baby. I'm tired of this plot point.

Thus, I enjoyed learning about Leela's character but I did not enjoy the romance.

I received an ARC from the publisher for review, and checked out a copy from the library.

A fun Halloween novelette that features a date gone perfectly wrong, but maybe perfectly right thanks to some meddling friends, a love potion, and allergies.

This is my first work by the author and I found the voice compelling and readable, and a lot of sexy fun. This is more of a happily for now, as the two love birds have some delightful shower sex to rinse off the hay dander and the love potion, and leave their date feeling optimistic for the future.

A contemporary romance pairing a rabbi, hot as he may be, with a former porn star now CEO Of a sex education video service is absolutely and utterly compelling and the relationship to root for in 2021. Rosie Danan hits her follow-up to THE ROOMMATE out of the park with this thought provoking and compelling read. Naomi is my true hero, and I'd fall on her exploding dynamite any day of the week.

A slow-burn with all the heat and fire that made me desperate to see these two get everything they wanted and more. Loved it.

Thank you to the publisher and Edelweiss for the free advanced review copy.

Well, Lakewood truly and utterly compelled and disturbed me. What a book to happen to be published in 2020. Giddings is truly masterful at making you doubt, second guess, and feel so anxious, and if you are searching for something to challenge you in these ways please read!

The horror in this tale is that Lena "consents" to a medical experiment without actually knowing what she is consenting to. She does it to help her mother, who is disabled and needs health insurance and care more than anything. As part of the experiment Lena needs to move to "Lakewood" where she is given a fake job at a bland and nondescript corporate office. She has to pretend to work this cube job while also undergoing the various experiments, some of which she is aware of and some who knows! juxtaposing this fake job so many folks work at in real life and the medical experiments is a real ride.

Throughout the story you are with Lena's thoughts as she tries maintain a steady calm. Lena is a Black woman, and we see how her ever day life outside of this awful experience is also fraught and dangerous. All of the doctors/staff of Lakewood are white.

There is a lot of excellent work going on in this story, and I'm glad I read it even though it seriously creeped me out.

CW for violence, gruesome/gross physical violence and side effects described, gas lighting, anxiety