Short and extremely sexy novelette, a woman celebrates a big accomplishment by hiring a professional chef who turns out to be as willing to feed her as he is to eat her. Delightful.

Bonus points for creative use of a kitchen counter.

Truly, Cara Bastone is a wizard. When I discovered that main character Serafine was determined to be a foster parent, no matter what, and Tyler with the loafers and ironed shirts and pressed trousers never wanted to be a father or have a family, I was concernedTM.

BUT trust the this author to make me so fully invested in this romance that I couldn't stop reading it until I got to their beautiful HFN. I do so love an opposites attract, and Fin with her clairvoyance, her crystals, and her reading of people, plus her firm take down of Tyler when he asked her out was so good. I also loved seeing tightly wound and seemingly image-focused Tyler get real with why he always maintains a "perfect" exterior.

Plus, Bastone gifted me with multiple soft pretzels AND when this slow-burner finally got up to a wonderful boil, Fin and Tyler chose to leave the bed to bang on an honest-to-goodness chaise longue. Readers, I weep of perfection.

CW: complications of grief, parental abandonment (in the past and with Tyler's 14yo sister), use of ableist language (of note, crazy, insane, etc).

Some spoilers

*loved how Fin sussed out why she wanted to be a foster parent, and why she was okay if it never actually happened with Tyler. Tyler and Fin also both never want to be bio parents.
*Kylie was a well-rounded teen and a great secondary character, I loved how her relationship with her brother was showcased, and her friendship with Fin.

*I checked out a copy from the library

Pants-feelings rule the day in this forbidden romance, where two very hot people find each other very hot and eventually succumb to the hotness, consequences be damned.

Father Patrick Dooley is "not like those other priests" and fights to keep a queer teacher at his pre-K program, swears, works at a bar, and has other friends and family who live lives counter to the Catholic Church's tenants. It felt clear Patrick chose this path because of his dying mother's wish and fear of being rejected ever again from an emotional relationship (he's dumped by his girlfriend for embracing religion after his mother's death), and his attachment to the Church felt very situational to me. Being with Sasha didn't make him closer to his faith (see Priest by Sierra Simone). Patrick likes being "the guy who helps."

Sasha's terrible family was also quite a ride. From her accepting her parents' paying for her condo and lifestyle, and funding her company, putting on this act to continue pleasing them, it was uncomfortable to read. I hope for the best for Sasha after she tells them off, but going from this damaging relationship to living with the man who "gave up his collar for you" was a big jump, and I'm not sure I bought the HEA.

I'm glad abuses of the Church were mentioned, but wish more work had been done to address these and how being a part of that system, even if Patrick made "the choices of his heart" also made Patrick complicit.

As a severely lapsed Catholic, I did find some resonance, but overall this felt more like a shallow revel in the taboo.

thank you to Netgalley for the ARC.

This was super cute and full of amazing food and bread descriptions. I appreciated that this "rom-com" was funny and mostly light-hearted, fitting what I would expect from a rom-com romance novel.

There was a lot of plot packed into this story, and since we only get Reena's POV I was hoping for more time with her and Nadim together, on-page. Reena's family is big, messy with secret keeping, and also very much involved in gossip and nemesis-having, which was fun but also at times overwhelmed Reena and Nadim's fake relationship reality Tv show plot.

Despite all this, the family felt loving if overbearing, and this was fun to read. For a close-door romance, it was nice to still feel the heat and chemistry between Nadim and Reena, and I was not expecting the foot fetish!

Recommended to me as part of my #bHeath21 read, this was a bit out of my comfort zone as an American Historical set post-Civil War. I wasn't aware before reading it (or at least didn't think through it), but the hero and heroine were both living in the Confederacy as children during the Civil War, and are dealing with PTSD ten years after. That said, the only mention of slavery is that the heroine lived in the slave quarters after her family's plantation was taken over during the war.

Also, big CWs for PTSD, grief, trauma, rape (off-page, heroine's mother and sisters were raped while she was hidden), snake bite, scary nature situations

The relationship between Houston and his brother's intended mail order bride is quite epic. Houston is sent to retrieve Amelia after his brother breaks his leg, Houston is grumpy and mad and afraid she'll be afraid of his scars and his eyepatch. He refuses to wear the floral embroidered ribbon she sent for the hat his brother was supposed to wear so she could find him at the train.

I loved the road trip aspect of this story, and watching these two bozos fall completely in love with each other along the way. Houston watching her bathe through the tent, how naughty!

I was not sure how Heath would wrap this one up, especially since Amelia does indeed marry the brother!! but then gets it annulled.

Lots to unpack here, but for more notes check out my twitter thread.

Light hearted Hades/Persephone retelling, I laughed and liked the steam.

Really thoughtful and horny small town second-chance romance featuring two 40-something former childhood sweethearts.

I loved seeing Cynthia and Marcel reconcile as he renovated her future B&B, and how they came to realize the hurts of the past and the years separating them gave the time they needed to grow as people. If they had stuck it out as teens they would have eventually broken their hearts because they wanted different things, especially Marcel wanting children, which he had with his now ex-wife.

James does a lovely job of balancing the romance with the secondary characters. I especially loved how much love Marcel showed for his family and the care he takes to ensure Cynthia is welcome by his kids and his ex, who he has a good relationship with.

Thank you to the author for the advanced reading copy!

CWs : death of parent (in the past), abortion, toxic parents, grief

#mekajames #alwaysreading #bookstagrammer #instabook #bookrecommendations #bookreviews #alwaysreading #booknerd #booksofinstagram #romancereadersofinstagram #kissingbooks #contemporaryromance #romance

I got this from the digital library because I did truly enjoy Anthony's arms in the TV show, but alas it just wasn't holding my interest so I kind of browsed through to figure out what the heck a mallet of death is, and to read the bee scene. I've released this book back to the MASSIVE library holds list, happy reading dear library patron.

What can I say? This was super fun to read, I loved seeing SJM embrace the sexiness, Cassian is an excellent dirty-talker, and I ate this up like the treat it was. Nesta is super prickly, and I loved seeing her find a group of friends who appreciated her for being her, not for being Feyre's sister or for being magical.

Also, while I adore Feyre and Rhys, they were a bit irritating in this book, and the story could have used a good round of editing. The last 1/4 descending into a Hunger Games-esque battle to survive in the wilderness was completely skimmable, and how Feyre's pregnancy was resolved didn't hit right for me.

But, for the emotions and feels between Cassian and Nesta? A+ scorching content. Looking forward to seeing how Elaine's story plays out.