4.75⭐️ 2.5🌶️ 4.5🎧

Relationship dynamic: MF

Tropes/Microtropes/Vibes/Reps:

🏡 Small town

💰 Billionaire

🛏️ One night stand

🤝🏻 Forced proximity

❤️‍🔥 Hate to love

Publisher: Brilliance Audio

Narrators: Cicely Meadows + Troy Duran

Narration type: dual

Writing perspective: first person, dual POV

Standard length: 8:18

Listening speed: 2.2x

Listened via: NetGalley

ALC provided by: Laura Pavlov + VPR + NetGalley

📖 I love a story set in Alaska! Laura’s books are always hits for me. Myles and Montana were such a great wild meet cute turned one night stand turned hate to love turned friendship turned swoony love fest. The banter and tension in this were *chef’s kiss*! And PORKY! Who couldn’t love that lil cutie 🫠 Bravo! Give me more, I’m ready!! 

🎧 Cicely Meadows is new to me and she did a great job voicing Montana. Her upbeat voice and snark at times really fit Montana’s vibe. Troy always delivers a great performance and he did so for Myles—deep, rugged, and rich sounding. 

I think I would have enjoyed this a bit more with duet audio, but that’s just personal preference. It was a great listen!

4.75⭐️ 2.5🌶️ 

Writing perspective: first person, dual POV

Length: 338p

Reading format: Kindle

ARC provided by: Nikki Castle

Relationship dynamic: MF

Tropes/Microtropes/Vibes/Reps:

🥊 MMA

🚫 Forbidden

🤝🏻 Forced proximity

🩼 Injured fighter x physical therapist

🌤️ Grumpy x sunshine

💔 Broken boy 

🔥 Slow burn

🧑‍🦽‍➡️ Disability rep

📖 I absolutely adore Liliana and Roman and everything about this story. I loved that we started out in Roman’s POV, and really got to see what he was like before his accident. I also loved that early on he’s self aware enough to realize that he’s been a real dick while in PT post accident, and he’s worried about being a dick to Liliana since he really likes her. But not worried enough that he’s willing to give up the chance to work with her as his PT… because with Liliana seems to come hope. Liliana goes above and beyond for all of her patients, and she works so hard for Roman, knowing when to push and when to back off. I loved seeing them get to know each other and develop such trust between them. 

I mean broken boy is my fav trope, so it shouldn’t be surprising that I ATE THIS UPPPP! It’s less spicy than Nikki’s other stuff, but I thought it was perfect for this story. This was more emotional and about recovery and she handled all of that really well. 

5⭐️ 2.5🌶️ 5🎧

Book Publisher: Red Tower

Audio Publisher: Tantor

Narrators: Samantha Brentmoor, Jason Clarke

Narration type: solo, with short feature

Writing perspective: first person, single POV

Standard length (pages): 666p

Standard length (time): 19:51

Listening speed: 2.5x

Listened via: Audible

Read via: Kindle

ARC provided by: Devney Perry

(Audio purchased myself)

Relationship dynamic: MF

Tropes/Microtropes/Vibes/Reps:

🏰 Romantasy

👑 Arranged marriage

⚔️ Enemies to lovers

🔮 Magic + myths

🔥 Slow burn 

📖 WOW! This really blew me away! I’ve read and loved quite a bit of small town Devney but this was truly on another level. I’m a romantasy fan, and have come off of reading some awesome ones lately, so I had a pretty high bar. She met and exceeded it! On one hand I think this will be the place a lot of new to romantasy readers dive in as they are branching over from Devney’s contemporary, and on the other hand, I wouldn’t necessarily call this a beginner romantasy. With robust, if not complex (in a good way) world building, set across a landscape described in vivid detail that came to life in my mind, and the 600+ page word count, this could be intimidating to some. This might just be where the magic is, friends of mine who have never wanted to read fantasy now have an interest (yay!), and this wasn’t so simplified down to brass tacks that it was boring for the every day romantasy readers! 

I really don’t want to give anything away, but I will say that I read this monster in one day. So for me, it was unputdownable! The characters and story grabbed me from the start and had me in their grip until the last page. I’ll be anxiously anticipating the next book, and probably doing a reread or two until then. This is going to be one of my favs 🫶🏻

🎧 Samantha Brentmoor was fabulous as our solo narrator in this epic romantasy. I could seriously listen to Sam for hundreds of hours, so this nearly 20 hour audiobook flew right by. She was the perfect Odessa, with a full, warm, expressive voice full of curiosity. She has an amazing range and was easily able to shift to other tones and pitches for other characters, making this incredibly easily to follow. I love her male voice too, she’s basically competing with my fav male narrators for fav deep, sexy voice. GO LISTEN TO THIS NOW!

4.5⭐️ 3🌶️ 4.5🎧

Relationship dynamic: MF

Tropes/Microtropes/Vibes/Reps:

🏡 Small town

🎀 Single dad

🌤️ Grumpy x sunshine

❤️‍🔥 Hate to love

💞 Mutual pining

🐴 Boss x employee

💔 Broken MCs

⚡️ Age gap

🧲 Opposites attract

❤️‍🩹 Emotional scars

Audio Producer: One Night Stand Studios

Narrators: Savannah Peachwood + Gregory Salinas

Narration type: dual

Writing perspective: first person, dual POV

Standard length (pages): 456p

Standard length (time): 9:39

Listening speed: 2.4x

Listened via: BookFunnel

Read via: Kindle

ARC/ALC provided by: Natasha Madison

📖 I am absolutely loving the Dream series! I didn’t think the last book in the series could be topped for me, but I loved this one just as much, in a totally different way! Emmett was such a great grumpy, broken boy that stepped up in the biggest way for the daughter he didn’t know anything about—Lucy was such a sweetheart and so brave. I love that she bonded with Lilah right away, adding to her support system. Lilah and Emmett had some serious pining going on, and when they finally let themselves go the happiness they exuded seeped right off the page. Until Emmett got right in his own way and Lilah’s own demon’s came calling… The romantic suspense element in this one was so fun! 

🎧 Savannah and Gregory have narrated this whole series and have been doing a great job! Savannah has such a lovely voice with a soft, calm timbre. She has a great male voice, dipping into a gruffer, lower pitch. 

Gregory was a great Emmett, really pulling off that serious grump, while simultaneously being a panicked new dad falling in love flipping between happiness and guilt. He did a fantastic job showing off the full spectrum of emotions. Charlie was also a prominent character and Gregory did a really great job differentiating between the male characters during their dialogue. 

4.75⭐️ 3🌶️ 5🎧

Relationship dynamic: MF

Tropes/Microtropes/Vibes/Reps:

🏡 Small town 

🧢 Best friend’s brother

💘 Instant connection 

🔫 Heroine in danger

🐄 Cowboy x 🩰 ballerina

🐕‍🦺 Faithful companion

🔗 Found family

📖 He reads to her

🇮🇪 Irish heroine + her fam 

Producer: Lyric Audiobooks

Narrators: Stephanie Németh-Parker + Connor Crais

Narration type: dual

Writing perspective: first person, dual POV

Standard length: 8:45

Listening speed: 2x

Listened via: BookFunnel

ALC provided by: MLA

📖 This is one of my fav Kristen Proby books so far! I absolutely ADORE Skyla and Beckett. I am typically not one for instalove, and I wouldn’t say this is a typical instalove setup, but they definitely had an instant connection and once they gave in it was 0-60—pedal to the metal. Here’s the thing though—it fit them, and felt authentic. Riley was absolutely a highlight of this book, the goodest boy! I love the friend/family dynamic in Bitterroot Valley, what an awesome group of people to hang out with. But even with awesome friends and family, I love that Beckett let everyone know; not caring if they had known Skyla longer, were a relative of hers, or if they had just been joking when making a comment; that he would not tolerate anyone speaking in a negative manner to his girl, ever. 

And omg I cannnnnnot wait for more on Billie and Connor!! I kind of fell in love with Connor in this book… so let’s keep the Irish coming back to Montana!! 

🎧 THIS AUDIO IS FIIIIRREE🔥🔥🔥! Stephanie did an incredible job as Skyla, using a gorgeous Irish accent with a full, warm timbre and expressive emotions. She also had a great male voice and awesome Russian accent as well! 

Connor was wonderful as Beckett, really using the softer side of his voice when wooing the girl. Connor also excelled at the accent work, especially sounding great as Skyla’s brother Connor! 

I would definitely give this one a listen!

4.75⭐️ 2.5🌶️ 4.5🎧 

 

Relationship dynamic: MF 

Tropes/Microtropes/Vibes/Reps: 

📚 College 

🏒 Sports (hockey) 

💖 Friends to lovers 

🔥 Slow burn 

📖 Athlete x tutor 

👩🏻‍💻 Woman in STEM 

 

Book Publisher: Atria 

Audio Publisher: Simon and Schuster 

Narrators: Caitlin Elizabeth + Bradley Ford 

Narration type: dual 

Writing perspective: first person, dual POV 

Standard length (pages): 461p 

Standard length (time): 14:01 

Listening speed: 2.5x 

Listened via: LibroFM 

Read via: Kindle 

ARC/ALC provided by: Atria + NetGalley / Simon and Schuster + LibroFM 

 

📖 Matty and Ro… they are so easy to love. I fell for them both almost instantly. Yet, they didn’t feel lovable for so long. I could feel their loneliness coming right off the page. They were both broken in very different ways and they needed each other’s friendship so badly. And then they needed more. They needed each other to learn what a healthy, trusting, loving relationship looks like and Peyton handled all of that with such care. Matt and Rosalie were each other’s biggest advocates. I LOVED the scene where Ro stood up for Matt in the academic review for his math course. The hate I felt for their respective exes was next level… 😡 

 

🎧 This dual audio performance was enjoyable all the way through! Caitlin Elizabeth is a new to me narrator and I thought she did a great job! She has a medium to high pitch female voice with a clear distinction between her inner dialogue and speaking voices and a nice lower pitch for her male voices. She expressed such a wide range of emotion and kept me so engaged! 

Bradley Ford was also a great pick for Matty. He pulled off that broken boy masking as a golden retriever so well and you could just feel the emotions through every word in the angsty parts. Bravo to both narrators!