5⭐️ 3🌶️ 

Writing perspective: third person limited

Length: 429p

Reading format: Kindle

ARC provided by: The Nerd Fam

Relationship dynamic: MF

Tropes/Microtropes/Vibes/Reps:

😈 Monster romance

💕 Size difference

💘 Fated mates

💍 Arranged marriage

💜 Troll x human

🍆 He’s pierced

📖 I absolutely fell in love with Ragnar and Maia and the entire troll culture and society she created. This book had so much depth that you may not realize looking at the cover or reading the blurb... It showed how women should be treated (and how they shouldn’t), how looking and being different can lead to cultural divides, but also how those divides can be overcome by the desire to understand paired with a dose of kindness. Don’t get me wrong though, the romance was absolutely there too! The progression from hate to dislike to annoyance to acceptance to interest to yearning to love, all while blanketed in complex feelings of devotion and protection from the start. Troll culture is beautiful and if I could move to Trollveggen tomorrow, I would. I cannot wait for the next book!! So I’ll just be over here dreaming about my broken boy troll and his book 🫶🏻

4.75⭐️ 3🌶️ 🎧4.75

Relationship dynamic: MF
Tropes/Microtropes/Vibes/Reps:
🏡 Small town
🏈 Sports (he’s a coach)
🧢 Brother’s best friend
🫶🏻 Childhood friends to lovers
💖 Second chance
♾️ It’s always been you 
💞 Mutual pining
🧎🏼‍♂️He falls first and hard 
🤫 Secret relationship 
🏕️ One tent

Book Publisher: Atria
Audio Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Narrators: Carly Robbins + Teddy Hamilton
Narration type: dual
Writing perspective: first person, dual POV
Standard length (pages): 431p
Standard length (time): 12:38
Listening speed: 2.5x
Listened via: LibroFM
Read via: Kindle
ARC/ALC provided by: Atria + NetGalley / Simon and Schuster + LibroFM

📖 I loved this book! ‘It’s always been you’ is one of my fav tropes and Ellie absolutely slayed here with Zac and Melody. Zac really, really epitomized the idea of pining and he hit the “he falls first” twice over. And after what Melody went through she deserves someone like Zac to absolutely worship her. I loved their friend group, and Mel’s sneaky twin. The camping trip at the start of the book is truly exceptional! I laughed so hard, I had second hand embarassment, and I also had to fan myself. This book had all the vibes!

🎧 Carly and Teddy sounded amazing as Melody and Zac. Carly has such vocal clarity while maintaining a softness to her sound. She also has such a great pitch range, with a rich medium tone that can easily drop lower for male voices and also goes higher for female dialogue.
Teddy sounded naturally cast as Zac and did a fantastic job expressing Zac’s grumpy demeanor and complex emotions surrounding his job and Melody. I highly recommend giving this a listen or diving in for an immersive experience!

4.25⭐️ 2🌶️ 4🎧

Relationship dynamic: why choose, RH

Tropes/Microtropes/Vibes/Reps: 

😈 Paranormal

💘 Fated mates

🐺 Wolf shifters

🤫 Hidden identity

🫣 Heroine in hiding

❤️‍🔥 Hate to love

❤️  Alpha heroes

🩸 Touch her and d!e

🔫 Mercenaries

🐱 Cat daddy

💻 Hacker

Producer: Lyric Audiobooks

Narrators: Vanessa Moyen, Connor Crais, Jason Clarke, JF Harding, Teddy Hamilton, Shane East

Narration type: dual

Writing perspective: first person, multi POV

Standard length (pages): 242p

Standard length (time): 6:29

Listening speed: 2.4x

Listened via: BookFunnel

Read via: Kindle

ARC/ALC provided by: Tessa Hale

📖 This was a fun kick off to this series. We have Wren, the new girl in town, who draws the interest of Kingston and his pack. They notice something is a little different about her, some of them thinking it’s what makes them drawn to her, some of them getting suspicious… as we learn more about her, we find out exactly why they are drawn to her, and why they might also be suspicious. And of course all hell breaks loose. This is a trilogy, so expect cliffies going in! The world building is pretty basic so these would be good starter paranormal books for people.

🎧 The audio cast for this is amazing, so no complaints with the quality of voices! I did find myself wishing that this one was duet multi cast from time to time. I sometimes find that when there are large casts, dual style can be a bit harder to  listen to and follow along easily, as each narrator voices all characters slightly differently. This is likely personal preference. With that said, everyone sounded incredible, talk about an all star cast! I love who was cast into each role also—Kingston: Connor, Puck: Shane, Brix: Teddy, Locke: JF, Ender: Jason, and Wren: Vanessa. 

4.25⭐️ 2.5🌶️

Relationship dynamic: MF

Tropes/Microtropes/Vibes/Reps:

🏡 Small town

🏈 Football

🎀 Single dad

🙅🏻‍♀️ Forbidden

⚡️ Age gap

This series is so much fun! Henley is a such a cute girl dad to his three daughters and usually a charmer… until he goes papa bear mode on a teacher, the wrong teacher. Tru is equally irritated and impressed, because she loves teaching his daughter. And so begins the fun of Tru and Henley… and the we shouldn’t… but we really want to… let’s just not tell the kids… they are adorable! The are also some really heart felt moments, great disability representation, and hilarious scenes with the guys!