Overall: 3.5 rounded (a bit reluctantly) to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑 
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥
Humor: Yes!
Perspective: Third person perspective from both hero and heroine’s point of view

Basic plot:
Disguised as a maid, Emma happens to save the Duke of Ashbourne’s nephew. And he knows she’d be entirely unsuitable for him, not that he wants to marry anyway...but when he comes across her again, this time as an American heiress, he’s intrigued.

Give this a try if you want:
- Lower to mid steam – 2 full scenes and plenty of kisses
- American heroine, English hero
- Duke hero, heiress heroine
- Regency (1816)
- Compromised (ruined) heroine
- Nice mix of humor, banter, and relationship development

Ages:
- Heroine is 20, hero is about 29

My thoughts:
I was a bit conflicted about this book! There were so many cute scenes, but the hero really came across as skeevy to me a number of times and was a bit of a jerk in certain instances.

I really loved the humor here. And I fell in love with the heroine fairly soon into the book. She was just fun, she had her own personality and didn’t have a problem holding her own. I will admit a lot of times I struggle with American characters in historical romance but I had no issues here. Emma was a complete delight!

Alex, well...he came off a woman hater to me. I never really felt his hurt or pain from the past that made him so determined never to trust a woman or marry. So while he struggles with falling in love with Emma, I did love some parts of it. But he kept just not giving me what I want as a romance hero in most of the scenes in the book and ultimately I was disappointed in him.

Still, I really loved a lot of the humor here. And it was wonderful watching Alex fall for Emma – he just couldn’t help it even though he didn’t want it to happen. And there were a lot of cute scenes with them together. I did love after she was ruined and was hesitant about marrying him (rightfully so after how he acted!), how he kept trying to get her to marry him. There was a lot of cuteness in this book and I can see why so many loved it.

I do think if consent is a deal breaker for you in romance, you will want to bypass this book. There’s a number of times Alex really pushes or even crosses this line and I don’t think you will love him/forgive his actions here.


A few other notes:

Some examples of how Alex kind of sucks

“Alex?” she asked breathily. “What-what? Are you sure? I don’t know.”
Alex silenced her with a soft kiss. “Shh, darling. I promise you that I will not” he smiled wryly at his melodramatic words-”ravish you right here on the blanket. When we make love, it will be perfect, with no hesitations or misunderstandings between us.” He continued to drop gentle kisses across her face to ease her fears as he slipped his hand beneath her undergarments and began to tease the soft thatch of hair that protected her womanhood.
Emma’s breath caught in her throat, and she tensed up against him, twenty years of proper upbringing flooding her mind and telling her that she ought not to be in such a situation. She pressed a hand against his chest, feebly trying to push him away. “Wait, Alex, I’m not sure…”
“Not sure of what, love?”
Her voice quavered with apprehension. “Of you, of this, of anything.”
“You’re not sure of me?” he asked, trying to tease her fears away. “Are you telling me you’d rather be here with someone else.


So I get it, he was teasing. But he knows she’s nervous and uncertain and this is the route he chooses? Not admirable.

And directly afterwards

Alex groaned as he watched doubt and self-recrimination pour over Emma’s face. His body throbbed painfully, and quite frankly he did not have the energy to deal with her sudden attack of feminine sensibilities.
“I don’t blame you,” Emma said quickly. “I blame myself. I lost control of myself.”
Nothing she said could have said would have made him feel worse. She was such a little innocent; she had no idea what kind of sensual pleasure he had used on her. How like his brave darling to try to assume the responsibility for their lovemaking. But despite the guilt that was beginning to invade his mind, Alex wasn’t feeling particularly charitable. His body was still begging for release, straining his nerves.
“Emma,” he said suddenly, his voice even and controlled. “I’m only going to say this once. Do not regret what happened this afternoon. It was beautiful and natural, and you were everything I ever dreamed you would be. If you continue to berate yourself you’re only going ot make yourself sick. And if you feel that we should never again share our souls as we did today, well, you’re just going to have to accept that I will probably put up quite a fight.”


Wow, okay, so you know how she’s feeling and you let her continue to feel this way and in fact put it back again on her to give in to your own feelings and needs….

And a bit later again basically thinking about how he went into the experience knowing he wouldn’t get any pleasure

-”he had felt that the thrill of pleasuring Emma would be enough. And it had been – until she had begun to doubt herself, cheapening the experience with her shame.


shame on YOU Alex! Your behavior cheapened this whole scene...I felt bad for Emma here...

Content Warnings:

- Death of mother to illness
- Dubious consent – hero kisses the heroine after a pretty serious head injury
- Initially when the hero kisses the heroine (he’s almost 30) he believes the heroine ‘is barely 16’
- Brief mention of ‘savages’ in the Americas

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:

Pg 28 – kiss (dubious consent – heroine is injured)
Pg 71 – dubious consent kiss
Pg 176 – kisses, fingering orgasm for heroine
Pg 233 – kisses
Pg 304 – kiss
Pg 330 – kisses, missionary

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑 
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Humor: Not much
Perspective: First person from both the hero and heroine, though it’s mostly in the heroine’s head

Basic plot:
Seven years ago, the Rift occurred – the skies ripped open, dragons took over and now the world suffers in fire and ash. Claudia is one of the human survivors left. She gets caught scavenging and to pay for her illegal activity she’s left for dragon bait.

Give this a try if you want:
- Post apocalyptic world in 2023 after “the rift”
- Dragon shifter hero, human heroine
- Huge hero (described as at least a foot taller), small heroine
- Higher steam – 5 full scenes along with a shorter one/some alluded to
- A hero that’s all about claiming and providing for his mate


Ages:
- Heroine is 25, hero is an old dragon lol

My thoughts:
I was so looking forward to this book! I just adored the first book of Dixon’s Ice Planet Barbarians and was sure that dragon shifters would be even better. But, sadly, this book just didn’t work for me.

I think it had promise – and I don’t think it’s a bad book, it just didn’t work for me personally. Perhaps if it had been shorter I would have tolerated it better. But as it was I found it really repetitive and lacking in depth.

The sex was hot and that’s why it gets 3 stars. BUT I still was annoyed with parts of this because the first time Kael and Claudia have sex, he fully ‘claims’ her with a bite and she just can’t get over it. It takes over the entire story line between them, her fretting over the bite and it just go annoying to me.

I felt like I didn’t know the characters that well by the end of it. Most of the perspective is in Claudias head, so you get to know her a bit more. But she feels bad for herself a lot of the time, or blames herself for all the world problems and I didn’t understand why she felt like that. Things like


I’m bitterly furious. If I’d been here, this wouldn’t have happened. I could have kept Sasha fed with my scavenging. Amy, too. All of this was my fault.

and


The fact that she’s been put in this position because of me makes me feel helpless and awful.


But WERE you really providing for them? Or was everyone miserable? Everyone was miserable, no one had food, your friend was still selling her body...it was just absurd to me how she wallowed in all of this. I just wanted her to be more of a go getter I guess? Like Georgie from IPB…

Kael I just couldn’t love either. He had no substance. He was very MINE. CLAIM. MATE. Which, yeah, I can totally eat that up. But there was nothing else there. Every time you were in his head it’s all he said repeatedly and I just felt like I was reading the same dialogue over and over again. 

Perhaps it was my mood, I’m not sure. I had higher expectations for this one. But I would definitely try the next in the series and see if it picks up for me!

Content Warnings:

- Possible consent issues – the heroine is kind of captive/without choices though sex is consensual. She’s worried she’ll be raped and he does bite her without her permission
- Death on page
- Animal hunting, death, cooking, and eating
- Plenty of guns/shooting/gunshot injury
- Mention of physical and sexual abuse of side character
- I kind of got some fatfobic vibes here – the evil mayor is constantly described as fat, things like ‘his fat face shakes with rage’, “a short, fat man with neatly combed gray hair”, “I’ve seen the fat man walking around Fort Dallas before”, “instead of the fat mayor”, “the fat hypocrite” etc – I haven’t gotten these vibes from her other work at all but in this one I just thought it was excessive when there were plenty of other words that could be used to describe him

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:

42% - 🔥 kisses, oral for her, missionary sex on the bathroom floor
63% - 🔥 kisses, blow job
70% - 🔥 oral for heroine
74% - oral for her (short)
83% - 🔥 doggy style sex
94% - 🔥 heroine plays with herself, oral for her, missionary

Overall: 4.5 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖 (I felt like a lot wasn’t explained yet)
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑 (judged by kiss scene length)
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): only kisses
Humor: just a bit – it’s mostly sarcasm
Perspective: First person from the heroine’s point of view

Should I read in order?
This is book 1 but yes, definitely yes. Don’t read book 2 before this one as it’s a direct continuation of this story and picks up at the cliffhanger at the end.

Basic plot:
Aerinne is the Lady of House Faronne and she’s been waging war against House Montague for over a decade. Her mother dead, she wants vengeance. But...the Prince is waking. An Old One hasn’t been within the Court in centuries. And all of it is connected.

Give this a try if you want:
- Slow burn – definitely a slow build of tension over the course of the book
- You’re okay with a cliffhanger (book 2 is out and the story picks up immediately)
- Low steam (in this one) – only kisses but they are developed and explicit
- Fantasy romance – Fae, humans, magic skills, avatar
- Plenty of fighting and action scenes, including death and torture

Ages:
- heroine 27, hero is like 10,000 + (I have no idea but heroine is ‘not even half a percent of his age’)

My thoughts:
I LOVED THIS BOOK!

I didn’t think I was going to, because the beginning was kind of confusing for me. But as I got into it, I really feel into the author’s writing style. I really, really loved the writing. This descriptive, angsty, slow burning, emotional prose is exactly, exactly what I love.

I don’t read a lot of fantasy – I’m pretty new to the genre. So I was a touch overwhelmed in the beginning with all these new things I was being introduced to but didn’t understand. I knew there were fae, but we also have avatars, skills, various houses with different cultures within them, a mix of high fae, low fae, humans, and Old Ones. There were references to modern things but I didn’t feel like the world was modern (I’m writing this after I have started book 2 and want to note there are definitely more details regarding these things as the story moves on). I did struggle a bit with the timeline. The book begins with a scene from about 3 weeks in the future, then goes back. I’m sure this is just me but it just made me more confused haha and I struggled with finding my grounding in this new world. I think I needed a bit more background on this world we were entering. Computers, therapists, New York is mentioned, but the lifestyle seemed very ‘historical’ feeling so I couldn’t quite get a concrete feel for what was going on here. (I have been rereading it through writing this review and it flows much better to me now and makes a lot more sense so I think it was just my personally struggling with grasping this)

Arienne I loved and got a touch annoyed by. She is so strong and I loved her confidence. I truly loved her when she was in battle – she was amazing to behold and I don’t even usually like battle scenes! She can make dumb decisions, but this is also reflected on. I do think some of her sarcasm and banter made her seem really young and immature (very ‘sassy teenager’ feeling) but other than that, I am amazed by her, intrigued, and rooting for her to conquer her demons. I’m hoping I’m going to fall for her even more in the later books in the series.

The Prince has already utterly ruined me. And we barely know him. He open his eyes and my heart beat faster. He spoke, and I began perspiring. And when you actually see him pursue, battle and banter, I was completely wrecked at his feet in love. (Also want to note that you start to get scenes from his perspective in book 2, which I don’t think happened in this book, though you still get to know him through Aerinne.)

Absolutely continuing with the series and I’ll probably reading this author’s back list as well.


A few other notes/highlighted parts:

I love this! I read a lot of HR and I feel like a man taking pride in his dancing is hardly ever featured and I ate that up!

He offered a hand once the brown of desert climes, paled by sunless centuries. “You will enjoy yourself in my arms. Warriors train to dance the way they train to kill.”

-------------------------------------------------------------
Prince Renaud lowered his mouth to my ear, his voice a breath of sound. “Do not run from me.”
“And if I do?”
“Run, and I will give chase, my halfling.”
------------------------------------------------------------
There’s just going to be endless quotes about the prince, prepare yourselves.

“Nyawira.”
How did he know my middle name? The one only my father used?
He savored my names and suddenly the hand around my throat was not a cage but a cradle. A promise of benevolent ownership, of velvet covered chains and silk sheets, of lounging in his lap while he sat on his throne, and who was I not to sink to my knees in submission?

-----------------------------------------------------------

“Why would I wish to damage what is mine, Aerinne?” So gentle, that voice. So absent mercy.

-----------------------------------------------------------
A note from Renaud to Aerinne

We have only just met face-to-face, and the nature of our meeting was not one I would have chosen. Perhaps it is just as well. I would rather you understand completely the nature of the male you challenged.
I told you I did not wake to entertain children on a playground.
I woke, Aerinne, for you.
Fair warning. I mean for you to be mine.
You may fight me if you choose – I would relish it. In the end, submission is inevitable...but not only yours.
-Yours, Renaud
P.S. Sanity is the dream of my distant youth. I beg you, tread carefully. I do not wish to kill you.

-----------------------------------------------------------

“To dance, not for you to fuck me standing up in public.”
“When I fuck you, Aerinne, you won’t be capable of standing.”

------------------------------------------------------------
YES SNIFF THE HAIR

His arms c aged me as he angled his head to study me as if I were an alien creature.
“Your scent reminds me of…” He lifted a curl from my shoulder, running the stands through his fingertips as if tasting me through touch, and even lifted the lock close to his face to inhale.

------------------------------------------------------------

“You kissed me,” I said, and accidentally bent the handle of my spoon. I set it down carefully.
Renaud stilled, then his velvet voice rubbed against my bare skin. “I did. I’ll kiss you many more times, Aerinne.”

------------------------------------------------------------

Renaud reached out and took my fingers, lifting them slowly to his lips, not even trying to be discreet. I snatched by hand away. He caught and pressed it against the table, under his own – as if it were our bodies, and his bed. I felt heat in my cheeks, and silently cursed by ability to blush, knowing my skin tone mostly hid the tell-tale color.
I could eat you, Aerinne.”

--------------------------------------------------------------

Renaud leaned toward me, his lips at my ear. “Cease eye-fucking my cousin, or I will take steps to demonstrate the consequences of such behavior.”

--------------------------------------------------------------

“By the gods, I highly doubt you’re that good in bed. You’re a Prince. No female would require you put in the effort.”
“A challenge,” he purred, tilting his head. “I can have you swearing I am your god in minutes.” The small table between us was no protection. “Only give me leave, Aerinne.”

--------------------------------------------------------------

After allowing me a moment of respite, he took my hand and brought me to the table, pulling out a chair. “Sit.”
“I don’t want - “
His eyes flashed. “Sit.”
I plopped down, crossing my arms over my chest. “You’re so damned bossy.”
“I am going to enjoy fucking that defiance out of you.”

Content Warnings:

plenty of death on page
both characters slap each other in the face

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:

52% - kiss
89% - kiss
93% - kisses

Overall: 3.5 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔 
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑  
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥
Humor: Just a bit
Perspective: Third person perspective from both the hero and the heroine

Should I read in order? 
You don’t have to – but the series has 7 lovely novellas featuring diverse characters so I highly recommend picking them all up!

Basic plot:
Juliana is told by her guardians she must choose a husband herself by the end of the season, or marry a distasteful man 3 times her age. Colin, the man who broke her heart 4 years ago, champions to help her find a husband.

Give this a try if you want:
- London setting
- Regency (1817)
- Second chance romance
- Novella length
- Diversity featured – black heroine (British father/free woman of color from Jamaica mother) with a hearing impairment
- Bargain/repentance  – hero wants to atone for his actions to he says he will help her find a husband
- Lower steam – 1 full scene
-Prodigal hero returns after 4 years away


My thoughts:
I really enjoyed a lot about this story and I would definitely try more from Gabrielle Carr, as this was my first by her. I loved the Juliana and was really rooting for her happiness throughout the story. Colin, well, I enjoyed him but we’ll say that I thought his reasoning for doing what he did was bologna and I wouldn’t have forgiven him nearly as easy! 

I do wish a bit more had been spent on featuring Juliana’s deafness as it kind of stopped being mentioned half way through the book or so (I have a son with speech apraxia and we are learning sign language and I have a friend with a deaf son and I just love seeing that featured in HR!)

Overall, a pleasant little novella!


Content Warnings:

Small scene with a PTSD episode triggered by fireworks
Brief mentions of racism/albeism (implying no one would marry the heroine due to her darker coloring/deafness)

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:

80% - kisses, missionary

Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑 
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥
Humor: Yes!
Perspective:  Third person from both hero and heroine’s perspective


Should I read in order?
It’s not necessary for this one, but you’ll get a better background of the family and characters if you read book 1, A Reckless Match. Plus it’s delightful so I think you should read it!

Basic plot:
Scandalous and enticing Carys Davies is doing everything she can to avoid marriage. Long term rival families, she never lets go of an opportunity to bait proper Tristan Montgomery. And when he finds out her dark secret and they strike a bargain about lessons, things really heat up.

Give this a try if you want:
- Regency (didn’t see a year listed, but book 1 took place in 1815)
- Ex soldier hero (fought against the French for 2 years)
- Mid steam - 3 full scenes
- A bit of enemies to lovers feel (They don’t come off as true enemies but are long term rival family members so there’s lots of baiting banter)
- English hero, Welsh heroine
- Small part with heroine disguised as a lad
- Lessons – hero and heroine come to an agreement on lessons for Carys to decide what she’s missing on by not getting married

Ages:
- Hero is 27,

My thoughts:
With an opener like


While kicking and biting, love develops…


HOW CAN YOU NOT LOVE IT??

I just really want to yell repeatedly “This book is f***ing perfection!” repeatedly for my review. Seriously. It’s so amazing. HOW does Kate Bateman keep getting better? I didn’t think it was possible after reading and loving so many of her novels. But not this takes the new spot as favorite.

Her characters have such heart and depth. I just fall into their entire world and want to stay there. They are bright and funny and wrap their way around your heart and don’t let go. You’ll cry for them. You’ll love them.

Carys is such a wonderful character. Hurt and betrayed early on in her society exposure, she has taken to acting outrageously to protect herself. But she has a heart of gold – the way she cares for her family and her rescue animals just made me melt. To see her with Tristan’s love is so beautiful.

Tristan is amazing. Steady, proper, he needs Carys to rile him up and mess up his perfectly tied cravat. He knows he has loved her but refused to admit it. This enemies to lovers is truly unrequited love at its core.

I adore books with lessons in them – Carys and Tristan strike a bargain to be enemies with benefits when Tristan realizes she was treated wrongly by her prior one night stand. And it gives them lots of reasons to be together and exploring each other and I just gobble that up.

This book was funny, the banter delightful, the steam and tension breathtaking. Bateman is officially an autobuy. So, so good.


A few other notes:

I LOVE when a hero loses it over a heroine. Love Love Love.

Tristan forced his shaking hands into his pockets and tried to calm his raging pulse.
Had he completely lost his mind?


This is so sweet

No, he did nothing to dampen her desires. If anything, he was the wind, fanning the flames. She’d read a quote like that recently, by a French writer. “Absence is to love what wind is to fire; it extinguishes the small, it inflames the great.”


He’s amazing

“I’m not...thin. Or willowy.” she warned, suddenly desperate to temper his expectations. He was looking at her as if she, too, were a goddess, and while she might have pretended to be Diana for the ball, she knew she was far from perfect.
“No,” he agreed huskily. “You’re not thin. Or willowy. You’re delicious. And I’m a starving man who wants to feast.”


He loves her so much!

She could have been seriously hurt. She could have been killed.
His stomach clenched. God, he couldn’t imagine a world without her in it. He would have fought that beast with his bare hands to protect her. He would have died for her.
It was that simple. And that complicated.


It’s fucking beautiful

Tristan’s jacket strained over the muscles in his back as he shoved Howe again. A couple of leather volumes thumped to the floor.
“Her name will never pass your lips!” he growled. “If I hear even a whisper that she’s not a virgin I’ll know exactly where the rumor came from. I will find you and hurt you, Howe. Extensively. Do you understand? There are worse things than death, you bastard. You’ll be praying for it when I get through with you.”
The absolute certainty in Tristan’s voice sent a shiver down Carys’s spine. She had no doubt that he would do exactly as he’d threatened.
Howe, it seemed was coming to the same conclusion. He blanched, his eyes wide.
Tristan leaned in even closer, so his lips were almost level with Howe’s ear. “And you’re wrong about her never finding a husband. She’s going to be my wife.”
Carys’s mouth dropped open in shock, but Tristan gave Howe another shove for emphasis.
“You hear that? I’m going to marry her, and I don’t care how many men she’s slept with. If anyone questions her virginity, I will swear on my mother’s grave that she came to our marriage untouched. It’ll be your word against mine. Who do you think they’ll believe?”
“You’d lie for her?” Howe spluttered, incredulous.
“I’d die for her,” Tristan said coldly. “And I’d kill for her too. Believe it.”


I didn’t think I could love him more!

“Any potential husband will expect you to be chaste.”
“Not every potential husband!” Tristan growled. “I don’t care if she’s slept with an entire cavalry regiment.”

Content Warnings:

- There’s a bit of a difficult sexual scene remembered in the beginning for the heroine – it’s not rape, but she clearly was taken advantage of by the man and then abandoned afterwards
- Animals in cages at a fair/mentions of animal abuse occurring other places/in the past
- Mentions of villain’s wife cheating on him

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:

8% - remembered sex scene of the heroine where she was taken advantage of 
28% - kiss
38% - kisses, breast play
52% - 🔥 oral for her against a rock
62% - 🔥 kisses, hand job for him, missionary sex
77% - kiss
82% - 🔥 thank god you’re alive sex, doggy style

Overall: 3.5 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔 
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑  
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥 
Humor: Yes, a bit of clever banter!
Perspective: Third person from both hero and heroine’s perspectives


Should I read in order? 
I did not read the first book and I’m not sure if it’s related to the characters in this one. This one felt fine to pick up as a stand alone!

Basic plot:
Garrett is a reporter that has come to do a story on doctors for his Black newspaper out East. He wants to interview Colton Lee, but meets his sister, Spring, and is attracted right away.

Give this a try if you want:
- Wyoming territory in the post Civil War America
- Heroine nurses hero back to health
- Reverse grump and sunshine feel (happy, talkative hero and prickly, closed off heroine)
- Childless HEA and contraception used regularly
- Instalove/lust feel here

Ages:
- heroine is 33, hero is around 32 (These are done from context clues about the amount of time passed from prior events so I could be off)

My thoughts:
I found this romance so refreshingly unique in so many ways! Black characters taking the stage and owning their lives – the strength in both of them is so admirable. The fact that contraception was used and the heroine was adamant that she didn’t want children and didn’t budge on that for ‘true love’. I also enjoyed the reverse sunshine/grump feel – Garrett is just such a joy and as much as Spring pushes back on him initially, he of courses melts her opposition just by being is amazingly endearing, cheerful, gentle self.

I did struggle a bit with the actual romance/sexual tension in this book. There is a feeling of instalust here and they were ready to jump each other pretty quickly. I just didn’t feel the tension building up between them and so their romantic relationship fell a touch flat for me. 

This was my first by Jenkins and I was impressed with her writing style and would definitely try more from her!



Content Warnings:

Mentions of slavery, measles outbreaks, racism, abuse against blacks and indigenous populations, slurs used (n*****)
Heroine was raped and in an abusive relationship prior
Toxic family relationships
Childbirth death of side character mentioned, child abuse of side characters children remembered
Guns used, gunshots, bullet wounds

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:

36% - kiss
39% - 🔥 kisses, breast play, fingering orgasm, skipped over blowjob and oral for her, (sponge used) sex but not detailed enough to tell what position
50% - 🔥 kisses, breast play, fingering, her on top
66% - kisses and the beginning of bedroom play but Garrett is recovering from an injury and stops due to pain
89% - 🔥kisses, oral and fingering that leads to a quick summation of sex

Oof I’m conflicted about this one.

Pros - 
- loved most of the art
- loved that it’s not g rated (yeah it’s porn 😂)
- loved the idea behind the story - childhood friends become lovers, fireman hero 

Cons 
- way too much sex and too fast. What? I know. Who am I? But really it broke all the tension that I adore in these books. I want that build up of butterflies and longing. THEN I want sex
- definitely dubious consent at best. Dubcon doesn’t bother me but he comes off as a total womanizing jerk. There were only a couple scenes/thoughts they stopped me from hating him (and I’m VERY tolerant of jerks!)
- I didn’t like how wet everything was 😂 wetness…yes, but like squirting everywhere and drool? I would have loved it toned back a touch I guess? Our heroine looked like she was dead and drooling in every scene 😆

Am I reading the next one soon? Yup! I did peek at some reviews and it looks like there might be a touch less sex and more character depth which would really help this one for me.

If consent is a requirement for you I would not touch this novel.

Steam: super high! I’ll count the sex scenes later but there’s like 5-6

I can’t say I loved this one! I know it’s setting up the story but I just didn’t connect with either character and there’s a lot of distance between the characters. Will continue with the series for a bit though!

Steam: none

I liked this one more than book 1! More movement in their relationship, some jealousy shown, another possible love interest introduced.

I don’t like that the hero uses the word idiot :( especially when the heroine does something, well…dumb.
I also don’t love that she’s in high school and he’s living on his own - but I’m ignoring that because that isn’t going to go away 😂 I’ll just pretend she’s in college 😂

Steam: none

This one was super cute!!! Lots of time with Riku and Ten and getting some more background on Rikus history, which is interesting. Funny and sweet!

Steam: hand holding and kisses