dermkat's Reviews (2.11k)

As always, another lovely story from Bridget Morrisey. This one took me a little bit to get into because even though I'd read the blurb at some point, I think I had assumed what was going to happen based on another book I read with a similar influence. This book is also sort of inspired by The Holiday (a movie I love) and in the other one the characters who switch homes eventually fall for each other so I figured they would here too, but this is more true to the source material where each person has their own love story and they interect. Once I did get more into it I enjoyed finding all the similarities (the older neighbor from show business, the other one falling for a sibling in the smaller town, etc.) but I loved how this one was the queer version! Eleanor leaves NYC after a mishap has her fired from her job, and she ends up in small town Illinois where she meets her swap mate's sibling Carson. Carson is NB and Eleanor has always enjoyed the company of anyone she finds attractive, and they connect immediately (aka hook up and then it builds to more). Tatum goes to NYC with June, who she's had feelings for for a long time but never acts on. There, she starts to feel less stuck than she has living in her hometown, like she wants to have a purpose. And she finds out June likes her too. The trips end and we get a bit of a time jump, and then another one after things resolve and I appreciated that since my one complaint about The Holiday is that it ends and we have no answers on how these people from across the ocean are going to make it work. Overall, not my fave by this author but still really enjoyed it. Also, it took me until literally 72% through to remember that all her books exist in the same universe and that I'd met some side characters before... so that was fun to figure out once I realized. 

This is one of the two I'm going back to read because it's the parents of characters in the new series. Here we get Jonas's parents as they become a pack. Liv has loved her brothers best friend Dean since they were kids, even more so since she designated as an Omega. But that's when he started to ignore and avoid her for reasons she doesn't understand. Turns out her brother warned him away because their father is a dangerous man and threatened them since Dean is bi. Even so, Liv meets and interacts with River and then Greyson, the Beta and Alpha Dean has formed a trial pack with. He's with both men and when her dad finds out he kicks her out, and she goes to live with the men. Eventually her first heat happens and they help her through it at the Heat Haven center, with Dean finally on board. Then they have to deal with her dad and the problems he causes. This one is a little more high stakes, with some light stalking and klepto behavior between leads (they all know but pretend not to know, which made it seem less creepy), and then more intense suspense for a bit due to dear old dad. I enjoyed the story and didn't notice quite as much of the same grammar issues (still there but not to the same degree), and I look forward to reading the next book since it has singer Deja Fox and her bodyguard, who I believe eventually become parents to Elliot, who I'm fairly certain will be a lead in the next book of the new series, alongside Jonas's sister. 

I really enjoyed the story in this Omegaverse romance as far as the characters, situations, etc. but I haven't wanted to heavily edit a book for sentence fragments, comma splices, word tenses, etc. in a long time. It didn't ruin the reading for me but it was noticable and I don't remember that in the last series by the author that I read a month ago. Shiloh is an Omega and has just left the pack she's lived with for two years after they've finally said they won't bond with her and make things official because their band is famous and it's not a good look. She's on a budget flight across the country to get home to her Gram when she goes into heat and one of the pilots, Cole, ends up helping her until they land. His pack, made up of his younger brother Mack and their best friend Jonah, both fellow alphas, meet them and go to the Heat Haven center to help her through the heat. There's a slip in the shower that leaves her with a broken ankle so when things are done she goes to stay with them as she heals and they all fall in love, then have to deal with her awful exes later. I liked the characters and discovered that Jonah's family as well as some other side characters who will obviously get books in this new series, all their parents have books in an earlier series so I'm going to read some of those. 

Second book in this series I wanted to like more than I did. I didn't dislike it by any means but I wasn't drawn into it and was fine taking may breaks, which isn't my usual. The beginning actually confused me; it starts like a movie where we see part of the big action scene later on and then backs up and that was fine, it was the next bit where the leads meet, I believe only for the second time and act as thought they've known each other for longer (I thought maybe I was forgetting something from the last book but I checked it and they are introduced and that's it). Ivy's let go from her job when they downsize, Lincoln has just moved from London and brings her to a masquerade fundraiser art show, where she tells each person a different story of who she is, including telling his mother she's Lincoln's girlfriend without realizing. They decide to fake date a while but he's also the new landlord of her building so they hang out a lot. It frustrated me with how both of them wanted it to be real for so long and could have just talked about it but kept putting it off, prolonging their own angst. Ive especially felt like she was keeping herself in denial and I wanted to shake her often and say, "no one is around when he's treating you like this, of course he isn't just faking!" I enjoyed the ending a lot once we got into it with his family, and I've loved everything else by Dani before this series so I'll certainly keep reading what she writes. 

I enjoyed this one as well but heads up that it's a bit different than the other two. The leads are in a BDSM arrangement before they find out they work together at her new job (and he's the boss's son), and end up keeping that up while they both develop feelings outside of their scenes as well. Plus, the FMC has dealt with a lot of familial loss in her time, and the immediate family she has left doesn't love her like they should. They're mad she left Mormonism and even before that they put her through (and continue to now at 27) religious trauma, shame, and blame after she's sexually assaulted in high school by an older man in the church. Her cousins are her true family, along with her found family of her best friend and their other queer friends. Emma's also has dealt with depression and anxiety (largely ignored by her family growing up) and most likely is autistic. (Sidebar, there's a line about her type of neurodivergence not being the really smart and good at math kind but rather the shudders at velvet, etc. kind because it's the devil's material and oh my word ME). Ben is grumpy, keeps to himself other than his close immediate family, just does his work and occasionally goes to the club to find release as a Dom. I appreciated how even when he was trying to keep it business, he listened and paid attention to her, and later was there when she needed him and stood up to her family when they go back to Utah for her grandpa's funeral. I very much like Emma as a character, the good and the "bad", and it breaks my heart a little that I know so much of her story comes from the author's own experiences. It was fun seeing Elli & Wes, and Hannah & Morgan again, and getting to know cousin Talmage more, especially since I think his book is next. This book did have two of my least fave pet names but within their context they didn't bother me as much as usual. 

I liked this one more! Hannah is Elli's cousin, divorced at 27 after being married 8 years (marriage at 18 because Mormonism), having 7 miscarriages, and being dumped by her absolute jerk of an ex because her body changed and he didn't find her attractive anymore (after also being entirely selfish in bed and leaving her alone during the losses of their pregnancies). She is back living with her parents, which is the main reason she hasn't officially left the church yet since she needs somewhere to go and to be more stable on her own first. She receives a wrong number text and ends up chatting with the person, eventually meeting Morgan after thinking he was a woman but he's really the hot flower shop owner she saw recently. He's a single dad to a 9 year old girl and was becoming super into his texting buddy and the woman he saw at his store, so he's pleased they're one and the same and agrees to be friends (for now) but also offers to fake date her to stop her parents from setups. Her feelings soon grow to match his and it's about their time together dating, dealing with her hurts and religious trauma and his drama with his kid's terrible mother. I liked their dynamic, that the ten year age difference didn't bug them (since she's not a teenager....) and that we got some bi rep with him. It's definitely insta-lovely again with him but I think as long as you know going in that this author writes plus-sized women and the men obsessed with them, it's fine. On to the next!

I've followed this author for a little while but hadn't read her books yet and I'm glad I've started now! I hadn't realized until recently that she herself left a high demand religion and writes that into some of her character's storylines. As some one fascinated by cults and survivor's stories I was intrigued. In this one, Elli moves from home in Utah at 26 after her boyfriend dumps her and then marries an 19 year old two months later. The reasons? Elli is fat, wouldn't make a trainable wife, etc. because they're Mormon and the dudes have "standards" (she says sarcastically). She moves to Texas so her younger sister can come visit and see her long distance boyfriend, and that's how she meets Wes. He's got long hair, piercings and tattoos, and is a musician. People always assume he's a bad boy because of his mother's drug history and his image, but he's not. The story is about them living life together, him helping her discover who she is outside of what she was raised to be and falling for her, and her falling for him. They take a trip back to Utah at one point and deal with him potentially going on tour. I thought the friend group was fun and was curious to see who the next books are about but discovered they're about Elli's two cousins, not people in the friend group so we shall see how they go. My only real complaint was that they maybe overused pet names with each other once they started. They weren't named that icked me out but the frequency within a convo was a lot and would bug me in real life I think. 
•fat rep
•anxiety rep (medicated)

I really enjoyed this one, too! I wasn't sure how Lucas and Piper were going to be as book two since chronically they were together already when book one started. But we got to go all the way through their story in order since they met at age 7, then fell in love as teens but we're separated by a traumatic loss, then back in university had to deal with their feelings, what had happened, and eventually end up together. Since I read book three first and everything out of order, I noticed more things than other people would re: timeline and plot consistencies but this one actually filled in a lot of the gaps I had, so I would recommend reading them in order. The epilogue is one I would have expected to happen at the end of the 3.5 novella but it was good and it made what happened then that felt a little like a weird spoiler to not be one anymore (I assumed it might). I do hope there will be one more book and we'll get Misty's story because it was hinted at in book 3. But if not, I enjoyed this series more than I expected to and found out the author cowrites Omegaverse with another author so I may check those out at some point. 

Okay, now that I've gone back to book one and read it, I can confirm that the author seems to be a little willy nilly with her epilogues and keeping track of timelines. So that's always annoying as a reader who always tends to catch those things easily. That said, I still enjoyed the story and felt all of the emotions. The series starts when they're in college and many of them meet. We get to see how Jax and Sidney end up together and how she earned her nickname Trouble. I liked their banter, the way the reason they start studying together flips the usual cliche on its head, and seeing more of the origin story for the eventual throuple in books three and 3.5 that I've already read about. I'm a little confused on how Lucas and Piper are book two but I'm going right into that next because again, it may just be a wonky timelines thing and now I need to know. Also, heads up if you don't like a 3rd act breakup cuz the one in this book was heartbreaking for a little while. 

This novella comes after book 3 and is the end of the series as far as I know (I can think of one other couple who could get a book) and some people might have been annoyed by potential spoilers since the whole crew is there in the end, I didn't mind. It was mostly still about Alex, River, and Mia and happens between the end of their book and it's epilogue, and is mostly spicy with a little plot. Something at the end of this one might not have been mentioned in that last epilogue, which doesn't make sense, but I'm not sure if it was something that was skirted around on purpose, a continuity error, or something I don't know from the earlier two books (maybe the book about that couple has an epilogue after this one even and explains it).Regardless, this was fun.