After I heard this was a delightfully warm and comforting novella featuring a 40-something married couple who fall in love while planning their daughter's Christmas wedding, I had to have it. And it sure didn't disappoint. I'm a sucker for a gruff sea captain, especially when he really just loves his wife a lot.

Highly recommend.

CW: discussed past forced kiss/fear of assault

Hot Rabbi blew me away, for being so entirely sexy and so emotionally impactful. A total slump buster, got me out of a bad spell post-election. Rabbi and single dad David is a total dream boat. He listens! He is really into oral! Whew.

A messy heroine is my favorite, and this one is no exception. Also the discussion of religion and belief is exceptional, along with the complications of grieving someone who you truly loved but who also really did some lingering damage to your mental health.

Highly recommend.

I enjoyed this a lot more than i thought I would! If I'm going to read WWII literature, make it tightly focused on characters living during that time and on the homefront. This was a bit noir-ish with the mystery of Anna's father and the "mobbish" work he and another character do to make ends meet, but the shining star of the story was Anna's drive to learn to dive.

I received a complementary librarian ALC from LibroFM, thank you!

The husky voiced narrator was the perfect complement to this unnerving story spanning decades and with a large cast of queer "heroines." This is a long listen, and despite bumping it up to 1.5x it took me almost two months to get through it due to pandemic times. I feel like this would be better listened to as a re-read, as I've been told here are extensive footnotes in the print edition, and I admit I struggled to keep characters straight in my brain.

That said, the enjoyed this story quite a bit, and it was creepy enough to keep me interested but not too scary that I couldn't listen to it.

The narrator made the heroine's love interest and her father sound almost exactly the same, leading to some confusion on my part. For a short holiday romance novella, this still felt like a slog nor was I expecting to have both the hero and heroine grieving over his brother and her friend, nor worrying about the heroine's dad's impending divorce. And honestly, besides them being on a holiday during the holidays, this really had nothing to do with Christmas/the holidays.

Thank you to LibroFM for the free ALC for review.

Internet besties finally meet in real life at a cozy ski chalet style resort for a fun NYE celebration vacation, and realize they are both wildly attracted to each other too. Throw in only one bed, some sexy lingerie and sex toys, and Amanda and Wren have all the party favors they'll need to explore their new sparks while also realizing they want more than just this trip.

Super delicious, fun, and sparkly, this was a wonderful novella. Erin McLellan is my favorite author writing romance in this format and I never ever feel like I'm reading a shorter romance. There is also such care and tenderness taken for her characters without ever sacrificing the heat and tension. Bonus points for the hottest hotel balcony sex on a chaise I've read in recent memory and luscious descriptions of both Amanda and Wren's clothes and lingerie styles.

Also of note, Amanda has breast implants and they are part of her and it was great to see this portrayed in this way. Wren has difficulty orgasming without a vibrator and it is so fun to see how enthusiastically Amanda just hears this and accepts it. These novellas make me feel so taken care of.

Thank you to the author for the advanced reading copy!

I've been hearing such wonderful things about Corbin Wale and I finally got the chance to read it for myself, and it is truly lovely. Sumptuous descriptions, big emotions, bakery!!! I really liked this a lot and wish I had smarter things to say, but just read it, and enjoy.

Jerusha's next door neighbor Karl chases off her shitty date and discovers he not only has major pants feelings for the much younger woman but also she wants him to teach her everything about sex. See, Jerusha grew up in a conservative religious family that made her feel ashamed of her sexuality and her desires, but now that she's an artist making her way in her own right, and with friends who help her to see she's wonderful in so many ways, she's ready to explore.

After fighting some misgivings about their age-gap (Karl's in his 40s, Jerusha is 24 and acquaintances with his daughter), Karl soon finds himself outlining a sexual education that will also lead to discovering he and Jerusha share a very satisfying kink, and also just might be falling in love along the way.

The eroticism in Daddy Crush comes not from pushing the filth boundary but from these two fully exploring and embracing, with glee, their desires and kinks. The throbbing emotion (yes yes I said throbbing) is what made me blush along with the "yes, daddy's" and the truly best use of a beard in romance 2020.

More like this please!!

**the daddy stuff stays strictly in the bedroom and is not age play

Uneven for me, my favorites were the Eva Leigh and the Nicola Davidson stories, both featuring inexperienced love interests being tutored in the art of passion by their new lovers. I especially enjoyed the vicar's daughter's aunts who made sure that she understood sex and pleasure and helped pave the way to her liaison with the titular duke. The dirty talk in Shupe's story was superb but I struggled with the age-gap in this one. Simone's story was forgettable.

I received an ARC from the authors for review and also purchased a copy from Amazon.