bandherbooks's Reviews (3.65k)

I cannot stop thinking about this book. What a knockout. So very hauntingly sad, yet somehow managed to lift my heart back up into my chest?

An epic slowburn by the way, which I typically only allow Kate Clayborn to do to me, but welcome Diana Biller to the team.

Amelie St. James, prima ballerina, with her focus on being a "saint" to maintain an image to allow her to keep her and her sister in their home. Discussions of gentrification and the aftereffects of social upheaval in Paris. Young sweethearts who stole one kiss before ripping their hearts out of their chest. Competence porn from both Amelia and Dr. Benedict Moore. My goodness.

This is incoherent but basically I feel like the discussion of grief, loss, and sadness combined with the romance was so exquisitely portrayed.

I need to do a reread soon.

CW - pain, medical stuff, injuries, depression, war PTSD, drinking, discussion of drugs, threat of sexual violence, ghosts, murder, dead bodies

Heiress Alice Lusk wants to become a siren to escape her fate of being married solely for fortune. She's also secretly becoming an excellent chef thanks to the tutelage of her family's hotel chef. Her connection to this master of cuisine (and her own secret prowess) land her into a sexy pact with rake and party boy Christopher “Kit” Ward, who is looking to start his own supper club. He'll exchange siren lessons for recipes, discovering along the way he's entered a bargain that will cost him his heart.

While I did not connect with The Heiress Hunt, I ate up The Lady Gets Lucky like one of Alice's babkas. Serious chemistry, painfully delicious pining, and oh so much steamy goodness, I loved it. Shupe also deftly interwove a difficult plotline involving Kit's friend's alcoholism.

CW: emotional abuse from a parent, parental manipulation, alcoholism, death of a secondary character

Thank you to Avon for the advance copy.

Whew. I knew going in this wasn't a romance, thank you to author content notes!

This was a super spicy and unsettling revenge retelling of a soul snatcher myth between a woman wronged and the revenge she was willing to take. Oh, and a very handsome stranger with a startling red gleam in his eyes and truly intense erotic energy.

Be careful with those scary books your friends hand you, they might just come loaded with a curse.

I don't know if I liked this? But I read it and it kept me o.O, so definitely a good spooky season read if you want to feel scared and unsettled!

CW: blood, knife play, biting, murder

I don't know, I started and everything is too intense and I just don't feel like continuing on right now. Maybe someday.

A very atmospheric and vibe-y short story featuring a thruple, one of whom was taken by a curse (along with their head). A sexy and steamy bite. The imagery of the pumpkin head looking upon the trio as they bone was truly something else.

There is a lot to unpack in this 1998 historical tome, and the frustrations of reading it in 2021 and seeing how little has been done to address the wrongs of the past is only one of them.

Just an overall absolute delight. Alex and Lauren's banter is spot on and the slow build up to their relationship made me just have all the feels (ha ha ha). I wasn't expecting the road trip portion of events and it was my absolute favorite part of the book.

The audio narrator did a fabulous job bringing our delightful asshole Alex and harpy Lauren to life. Unpacking Alex and Lauren's emotional baggage along the way was masterfully done and while I worried about them both I knew I was in Olivia Dade's gentle hands.

Was also so happy to see Lauren being a total bombass babe in the sack with body of the god's Alex. Delicious.

Thank you to the publisher for the early eARC and the ALC. I am also pals with the author on Twitter.

Anyway - Love, Laugh, Lich was super fun and steamy. Hit my humor aesthetic in a fabulous way, hoping there will be a bonus chapter/epilogue.

Some of the office dynamics was a bit eeee, I'm worried about consent/HR stuff here but then I reminded myself b, this is an actual dark lord and the world is not what we know here. Just go with it, and I did, and I had fun.

The last chapter ended SO abruptly mid-coitus that I was left a titch grumpy, so do be warned.

CW: office dynamics, office sex, ritualistic sex (discussed and thought to have happened), fangs, horns, tri-penis?

Not my favorite Tessa Dare short-story. I enjoyed the eerie/gothic setting of the house-party and the search for the were-stag in the woods, but the romance itself didn't quite work for me. Cecily and Luke didn't have enough backstory besides their one kiss before he deployed to the Napoleonic Wars to make me believe in a HEA/HFN, especially when Luke is clearly suffering from depression and PTSD.

CW: drinking, gore (animal attack, killing of an animal in self-defense), wound tending

Quick read about an established polyamorous couple who fall in love with the same woman. Delicious and steamy, with all the feels.