bandherbooks's Reviews (3.65k)

i um, listened to this while playing zelda breath of the wild and have zero memory of what happened so, i guess why am i even marking it read? lol. I'll come back i swear!

Christina C Jones is really a master of the short romance novella format. So much is packed in this tight and delicious story about woman falling for the florist she discovers made the beautiful arrangement her dud one night stand sends to her work (when she pitched it in the trash and went to buy her own I fell in love). I've read a few in the Heights series but will definitely be back for more.

ALSO can we please talk about August's grandma posting sexts on her FB wall for all to see? I was dying! I need her story please!

this was a whole lot of fun for me, even if it did drag a bit in the middle. i do love american heiresses wreaking havoc on society, and this duke was definitely one to fight for.

i wish a little more had been explored with his fighting (and that beard too!) but i was glad he gave her the space to choose her future without him, once his financial woes actually sorted themselves.

what didn't work for me was the blase, sort of gross convo RE her father's business plans for India and her awful parents were just really really grating.

I'm looking forward to continuing on, and glad i'm trying this new to me author.

(i received an ARC a million years ago but read a copy I checked out from the library)

I have had this novellette on my kindle forever, and I finally jumped in. It was short and sweet, and a great bedtime read I could enjoy in one sitting.

This was an interesting experiment as I truly did not explore what this story was about beyond the cover, so my expectations were quite different from what I actually read, but that is not the fault of this story at all. the blurb was very clear, so no this was not a 90s set story, but a contemporary one that used the 90s song LAY YOUR HEAD ON MY PILLOW as the inspiration (I thought the title was 90s Kind of Love as I did not see the title on the cover ooops!

So reviewing on the actual story, it was a sweet and sexy slight age-gap (about 6-7 years) between a school counselor and the famous muralist hired to paint at her school. In the new awesome time of Abbott Elementary it gave me some of those same feelings (the school setting especially). I appreciated that he was not that much younger, and had a crush on her when she was a teen and he was a young teen too.

another romance i've been hoarding like a dragon, but i went ahead and got the audiobook too because i wanted a laugh, and this one absolutely delivers!

Jaclyn Love is a bit of a disaster and i'm a sucker for a disaster; she messed up her cheating ex's car and got caught, and her nemesis of a judge who's plagued her since childhood gave her hundreds of hours of community service. And it doesn't help the only place she can get her hours in is a vet clinic where the man she ran into, nekkid, in her sister's apartment (he's subleasing it) works too.

There's a sassy cat, ice cream shenanigans, and desk sex. Also great humor and hijinks and a great set down of some snippy meanies.

I had a blast!

New York Ballet principal dancer Heather Hays has it all, until discovering her fiancee and golden boy dancer who claims to have brought her up from nothing is caught cheating by Heather's bff. Heather wants to escape the shadow of Jack, who she increasingly recognizes as controlling and manipulative, and takes a temporary position at The Australian National Ballet.

Heather is scared, but excited to explore Sydney and her new home, and especially excited that the head of the company has progressive views about dancers' rights. Heather is less enthused about being assigned injured Australian dancer Marcus Campbell as her guide to the city, since from the moment they met sparks have flown, and the company's rules make dancer relationships forbidden.

As for Marcus, slowly recovering from a traumatic Achilles tendon injury, he is both thrilled and scared at the feelings for the determined and beautiful dancer that Heather is.

What follows is a lyrically beautiful romance about two hurt lovers who find healing together, even if they might have to risk it all to keep it.

I super appreciated the content warnings for this prior to jumping in (see front matter from the author) AND from the back copy. While dealing with heavier subject matter, the author makes the romance shine as the main plot while also filling your imagination with ballet moves and song (even if you've never been to a ballet).

I especially appreciated how Heather confronts the no-exceptions policy on relationships; her previous employer and her new employer both were handling things in not the best way, and ultimately both were hurting their dancers. Also, as someone who is sensitive to food // dieting this story does a great job of not glorifying unhealthy eating disorders OR diet culture, which is wonderful to see in a ballet romance.

PLUS, Sydney and Australia are wonderful characters in their own right in this story, and I loved the camping 'glamping' chapters so much (no thank you to hard camp mattresses) ahahh.

Thank you to the author and edelweiss for the arc.

CW: Cancer (in the past-secondary character died of); injuries (ballet injuries on page, marcus's injury described in the past * surgery mention), domestic abuse (gas lighting, controlling, scary encounters but no physical violence) - cw'ed by author.

SO yes, I think this might be my favorite ever Kate Clayborn. I got a print ARC and used up one whole, brand new sharpie highlighter on it and made so many hearts.

What the author does best, for me, is the repetition in allusions and moments. Georgie is EXPANSIVE; Levi & Hank are like an owner//dog pairing from 101 Dalmations. The callbacks! The robe! THAT ENDING (THE BOWTIE).

I am interviewing Kate for work on 2/15 and I'll hope to have better words to write about this story after that, and when I have my annotated copy in front of me, but seriously, I just adore this romance so much.

Did I just read my new favorite Kate Clayborn? I mean, Zoe & Aidan supremacy 4eva, BUT BUT Georgie & Levi, maybe just maybe have joined them on that top tier??

I think I will need to re-read a dozen times to make sure, so stay tuned. That said, I've read this ages before y'all can, I'm so sorry, but this is going to be my favorite romance of 2023. Yup, I called it already. Everyone else can go home (jk I still want to read your books).

Somehow the author writes the romances of my heart, including moments that are so absolutely personal to me yet must be universal to a slice of people in the world like me. Her words make me feel seen and also make me feel the absolute love the characters have for each other too. The sentences? I die. I highlighted the heck out of my digital copy, I would love to have an annotated edition of this cleverly crafted romance.

Levi, his dog, and Georgie; the friend fic, the friends. The {redacted] & [redacted]. SO MUCH MORE.

Thank you to the publisher for the early copy.

Content note: secondary character, a friend of the heroine, lost her mother to cancer. It is mentioned, but is not a major part of the story beyond explaining the heroine's connection to her best friend's life.

re-read via audio.

Beyond a slight quibble with the inconsistency in Will's mild southern accent between the two narrators, I loved loved loved Chick Magnet on audio. Just a thoroughly gorgeous book, that while Sad™ is also gloriously romantic, and at the end, uplifting. I know I initially reviewed this as being a great way to handle the pandemic, and I will revise that statement to say that I truly don't envy contemporary romance writers the task of what do with our ongoing pandemic state. the pandemic is NOT over as of 2023, but looking around me the world is acting like it is. So, I'm a little torn, but how does one try to cover the dissonance in fiction? truly a hard ask, and i appreciate the effort to try, even if that might not succeed for all readers. I am going to choose to believe this book is set in a time when the pandemic has faded, although not in the minds or financial // real world realities for our protagonists.

i purchased the audio on my own AND will receive an advance copy for reviewing for Library Journal.

what can i say a sad boy veterinarian with a heart of gold but grumpy and depressed about his failing business is my catnip. add in a sparky chicken 'influencer' who's horrid ex gaslit her into stardom, then flung her away for a new, shiny and you've got all the mix-ins for a perfect contemporary romance.

I loved this a whole lot. so much so i'm struggling to put it into words? I have a print arc and i need to sit and soak it all in, again.

Also THIS was an amazing way to include our current world. This is a world where the pandemic is ebbing, but has really ruined someone's tenuous business, and spirit, but Barry does an amazing job stitching it all up into a hopeful, but not falsely positive HEA for all.

ALSO SO SEXY. Chick Nick and those shorts? Go get it.

CW: pandemic references, depression, animals that are hurt/in danger, descriptions of putting animals asleep, animal injuries, grief to animals lost during procedures (all of this is off page, but thought about). Hurt chicken (she lives).

Thank you to the author for the print ARC and Netgalley for the eARC.

Mildly spoilery, avoid if you don't want that!



So, for being based on the Britney and Justin conflict this was really boring for me. Everything read very cerebral and not emotional, and the characters were really not described or fleshed out enough for me to believe in the HEA. The single POV also did not help, and the push and pull between Katee // Kathleen's before and now segments that still tried to make me, the reader, feel there was some mysterious reasons behind her big breakup with Ryan (clearly she fucked Cal) didn't really work for me.

ALSO ALSO I never felt Cal really took ownership for how Ryan threw Kathleen completely to the wolves and the whims of the media for what they both did, together. Cheating takes two, and he should have stood with her if he actually did love her, career be damned. Ugh, and I don't feel like he really earned her forgiveness and definitely not mine.

Overall this felt very enamored with its smartness instead of making me emotionally invested in the relationship, and def not a b romance for sure.

*reviewed from a complementary copy provided by LJ

i keep thinking about Alexei and Ben even though I finished this book a spell ago. I want to share this one with my spouse, who I think would really really appreciate the utter awe the author brings to the characters as they trek the Pacific Crest Trail. The little details that appreciate the beauty, the risk, and the sense of accomplishment that can come from tackling such an epic quest. He'd really connect with that, and I think so many readers will too.

As a VERY lapsed Catholic, I found Alexei's connection to his Christian faith one that is lovely, and what I hope folks who find comfort and belonging in their religion also feel. He has been hurt by his parents' religion, but he still finds his place in his way, with time and distance and healing. Alexei isn't fully healed from the traumas and rejections of his past, but he's working on it.

As for the romance, Alexei and Ben's relationship was so soft and so wonderous, and horny in a very fun way. I loved how they opened up to each other over the course of the book, and really loved Ben's family so much - and while it hurt to see Alexei hurting over how open, loving, and accepting Ben's family (both blood and found) is, seeing that struggle and the culminating HEA was worth the pain (if that makes sense). Ben's struggle with school, his career//life choices, being a "slut" as his friends' described him, it was great to see him too finding his way and believing that he is worth everything, and not to accept less.

There's an epistolary element at the end that I won't spoil, and a tattoo as well, and really this one will stick with me for a long while.

I did start by listening to this, and the narrator did a decent job (not my fav ever) but for a single narrator doing two distinct characters it did work. I did switch over to print to finish.

Thank you to the publisher for the ARC