A recently relocated lawyer meets cute with a generically handsome white guy at her hotel bar, gushing over there love of basic desserts. She regrets not having a one night stand with him, but soon discovers via the nightly news he's the famously hot new California junior Senator. After another run in at a local board meeting, Olivia and Max agree to start dating, agreeing to keep it on the down low. Olivia's reluctance to be thrust into the spotlight and Max's tendency to jump head first into anything he believes in without though lead to struggles in their romance.

I found this romance dull. Olivia and Max spend most of the book apart and in their heads, and the times they do spend on page together are repetitive and lack any spark of real chemistry. The description of the copious amounts of cake, donuts, and food the characters eat are more exciting than the couch cunnilingus scene. DO NOT tell me this is the first time you've read a couch cunnilingus scene.

Also, I am tired of political romances refusing to name political parties. The only allusion to Max's party is that "his date should be wearing blue, not red" and Olivia looking up his stance on the "Black Lives Matter" movement. Max is a Democrat, take a stance.

I'm sure this story will be wildly popular. The cover is cute and the marketing dollars will be pushing it in this 2020 election season.

*official review for LJ will be posted after publication.

*I received a free copy for review for LJ

Lady Janet Fraser is told she must leave the court and travel to her new estate along with the formerly convent bound Lady Marjorie Hepburn, now Janet's ward. To ensure they arrive safely the king assigns his champion Sir Lachlan "the Beast" Ross to guide them hence.

Janet, once the king's lover, and recently-ish widowed, has always had a tender for the Beast, but is also finding the virginal Lady Marjorie quite alluring. What is a domme to do when she also discovers they both are eager to kneel before her feet? Why find a sturdy chaise and engage a delightfully delicious love affair of course.

But the queen is still angry with both Janet and Marjorie, and a plot to wed Marjorie off to a much older man means Lachlan must marry if she is to stay, threatening all of their lives as they defy the king.

So entirely sexy, I ate this one right up. I always appreciate Davidson's care in her characters and the care they take of each other. This becomes truly a match of equals once they navigate some prickly issues, namely Marjorie's willingness to have children and Janet's inability to become pregnant.

*I received an ARC from Netgalley for review.

Jasmine is nervous but excited to start her new starring role on a groundbreaking bilingual romantic comedy TV series on a Netflix-esque streaming service. She's hoping to put the drama and tabloid gossip surrounding her recent breakup with a very famous musician behind her and let her work carry her forward, no dating allowed.

Part of her excited nervousness comes from the fact she'll be co-starring with the telenovela superstar Ashton Suárez, someone her family, especially her beloved grandmother, very much admire.

Ashton is also hoping this new role and show will spur his career forward, giving him more Hollywood clout and get him out of the acting box he feels stuck in.

But what neither of them planned on were the very real feelings that seem to be developing along with their characters' chemistry. But Ashton's utmost desire for privacy and his fear of Jasmine's notoriety after her messy break up lead to some challenges ahead.

Oh what a story! I have been eagerly awaiting this one for so long, having fallen in love with Daria's work in her Dance Off series. Daria has a way with deftly weaving in the characters' careers and the magic and mayhem of the TV industry with sparkling and sensual romance. It is perfectly balanced and absolutely breathtaking to read.

Additions of bright secondary characters and touches like an intimacy coach that makes the actors learn how to give consent and voice discomfort are so welcome and important.

A must read, will definitely be a contender for romance of the year!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

CW: drinking, stalking (in the past), child endangerment (fear of, incident in the past), some scary hospital stuff

When a video of thick-thighed campus security guard Zafir Ansari carrying PhD student and teacher Dani Brown out of a campus building like a super hero goes viral, launching #DrRugbae as the best ship of the season, the two friends who already had decided to have some fun and absolutely CASUAL sex decide why not take advantage of their new notoriety for the sake of Zaf's kids' charity? IT IS FOR THE CHILDREN.

Of course when two idiots who are already in love decide on a sex pact, it doesn't take long for the feelings to start becoming clear. But Dani is definitely not interested in any sort of relationship. Nope not at all. Even if Zaf seems to be absolutely in love with her as a whole, quirks and all.

Hibbert just nails it every time and god I loved this one. Dani's academic drive and the stress that comes along with it is perfectly captured. And Zaf? What a babe.

The author includes CWs at the beginning of the story.

Thank you to Avon for the advanced reading copy!

Office Hours perfectly captures the sheer surge of emotions one has when realizing the object of your eternal crush is also completely enraptured with you, wrapped in an academia setting.

Jackson never ever disappoints, building a world you can taste and see while also deftly forming amazing characters to put in it. I ate this up! It is probably for the best there was not a tall, jacked three-piece suit wearing proff of this deliciousness running around any campus I've ever been on, but lord it was fun to read about.

Jackson also doesn't hesitate to bring light to the difficulties facing Black professors, especially Black women, in higher ed, but entirely balanced with the relationship building between Deja and Alejandro.

There were quite a few typos in the first half of the book, which I would not normally note, but I hope they can be caught and fixed for an update.

Big city doctor Nora Walsh relocates to Paradise Cove after discovering her boyfriend is cheating on her, with a much younger resident. Thinking a couple years break from the massively busy ER AND dating will refresh her, Nora isn't counting on stoic, size of a mountain local Jake Ramsay to become both her best friend and eventually her lover. But they both agree, it will never be anything more.

A deeply poignant romance with a current of extreme grief running underneath it all, Paradise Cove is much more than a light beach read.

I was absolutely loving this one until

Nora misses a few days of her birth control after her grandmother's death/funeral and becomes pregnant. She, a physician, thinks her five minute best orgasm of her life might also be why. She decides to keep the baby, abortion is on the table and I'm glad it is discussed and is a viable option and her friends support her, but it made my heart hurt to see Jake getting told, him reacting badly because well, his baby died, and then they have to come back from that. It was a lot after a quiet and slow build of their romance. I'm personally finding pregnancy plot lines hard to deal with right now so this is my personal bias/issue

CW cancer, death of a family member (on page), death of a child (in the past), pregnancy issues, on page medical descriptions

Gosh, that was so good.

I'm just going to sit here with my feelings.

Re-read for #ButDoTheyBang in March 2022 - still a fav of the series for me. I love seeing an uptight starchy man get unraveled and taken over by love. Lady Isabel is such a babe.

Thief of Shadows is the book which inspired my current Maiden Lane binge. Sold to me simply as "Virgin Batman," I was breathlessly awaiting my copy of which I ordered from Love's Sweet Arrow (I could NOT wait six months for my Overdrive hold).

If you have not read the other three ML books and want to remain unspoiled for the identity of the masked Harlequin, stop reading here.

CW: Violence involving stabbing, guns, blood, wounds. Child endangerment (most implied, some described but in the past, discussion of children being sold for sex), miscarriage (in the past). Discussion of difficulty in pregnancy, use of "barren."



Still with me? Okay. The last pages of Scandalous Desires revealed the identity of the "Ghost of St. Gile" as WINTER MAKEPEACE. I had my suspicions from the start, as the stoic, sober, and buttoned up Winter definitely had some secrets he was holding repressed from his family and friends. Ho ho ho. Does he ever.

I was also very intrigued by he and Lady Isabel's verbal banter in the previous book, and it paid off big time in this story. A classic opposites attract, how could Hoyt ever pull off an HEA for a worldly, aristocratic widow with the vigilante VIRGIN commoner? How?!

How indeed. You'll have to read to find out, but this story was absolutely everything. Isabel is the epitome of exasperated, prickly over it all-ness but with a huge heart of gold, who can pick up a almost dead body off the road and plunk it in her carriage. She has pistols hidden under her cushions, but also loves a luxurious gown. She's hiding behind a mask of genteel womanhood and fun, while also protecting the very real hurts she experienced trying to have children.

And Winter. Oh Winter. I loved watching him unravel for Isabel, fearing she was falling for The Ghost of St. Giles, the Harlequin, but never himself, hidden under many of his own masks.

There are so many great lines and I have a print copy so it was hard to write them down, darn guess I'll need to reread.

What else did I love? Oh, the behind the curtains blow job, the delicious sex scene in the carriage, Winter and Isabel figuring each other out in bed. Winter holding Isabel after she tries to scare away his love. Winter being annoyed he finds Isabel's silly clock adorable. Oh so much. Definitely going on the keeper shelf!

Rival moonshine distillers Hannah Hawkins and Javier Meza get married to present a united front against their common enemy, a band of vicious new players on the scene in their hometown of Harlan, Kentucky.

Hannah found herself at the helm of her recently deceased mother's empire and this is really the last thing she needs, but Javier is the heir to his father's business and could prove to be an amazing partner in the fight to come, and perhaps for a future neither of them dared dream of.

So absolutely delicious. The setting of Black Appalachia is a character in its own right and has opened up a whole new world to me (a white reviewer). The drama comes not from the romance, as it is pretty clear both Hannah and Javier are very much into their "fake" marriage from the start, but from their actions to ensure their family legacies and business. I loved the slow-burn but absolutely steamy development of Hannah and Javier's physical relationship while they teamed up to take down their enemy. The scene on the hood of Javier's car is FIRE.

Slaughter is a new to me author, and I cannot wait to read more!

CW for gun violence, parental death (off page), cancer death of a minor character, kidnapping (of adults).