romancereadinglist's Reviews (417)

A fun Christmas themed romance. The audio is great.

A perfect novella. Milan writes such unique, believable characters with real baggage and backstory. 

Charming, hot, sweet and genuinely witty novella. 

This is a really fantastic debut which I want more people to read. 

The book takes places over 72 hours as 27-year-old Charlotte attends her college reunion. She’s lost, confused, recovering from an abusive relationship and surviving a shitty corporate job with a bullying boss. The book gives you exactly the breathless, anxious, nostalgic, claustrophobic, thrilling feeling of a long-weekend college community as Charlotte reconnects with her best friends, queer community and her college rebound situationship who maybe should have been more.

It’s a profound meditation on how hard this stage of life can be, and parts of the book are dark and challenging as Charlotte struggles to overcome her trauma. But it’s also really beautiful to see how Charlotte learns to lean on her community again, and open herself up to love. There’s some really romantic moments and well-written intimacy scenes too. Ella Dawson will definitely be an author i follow closely now! 

A shot of pure unadulterated Kleypas id, in the form of a very short Christmas novella. It’s kind of insane, but I enjoyed it anyway! 

I love some of Sarah Maclean’s books, but this one bored me. I didn’t feel the connection/chemistry between the MCs, and was frustrated by the constant internal monologues. 

A really lovely novella, packing a lot of emotion, character development and plot into a beautifully rendered 88 pages. 

This is the first more recent Loretta Chase novel I’ve read (previously I’ve only read her 1990s classics). There was a lot to love here. It has a pretty unique structure and pacing: the first two thirds of the book take place BEFORE the events of the previous books in the series, and is mostly a delightful reforming rake/brother’s best friend/ second chance romance between a feisty heroine and a dissolute duke. But that ends only with a fragile and temporary HEA. The final third becomes a kind of marriage-in-trouble book, as the couple’s history and obligations catch up with them and drive them apart. I have to say, this final third didn’t work so well for me, but I think it was partly because I haven’t read the two previous books in the series. So, although I am often someone who happily dips into series, for this book I would definitely recommend reading the first two books beforehand. I will go back and read those when I get a chance. The cast of characters is charming and Loretta Chase is just a masterful writer.

Thank you to Avon for sharing this ARC via NetGalley!

Only Rosie Danan could write a werewolf book that makes me laugh, swoon and cry.