If Hallmark genre decided that they wanted to go edgier with dirty talk and sex on the page, you would have A Princess for Christmas. It was delightful, and I was surprised by the amount of "dirty" in this book, sure it took to 60 percent of the book to get there, but it got there, and I was surprised. I went into this book, thinking it was a wannabe Hallmark movie script. But the fact that they do make fun of Hallmarkness of the whole story and do subvert standard tropes, I found myself laughing.

Marie, excuse me, Princess Marie of Eldovia (a small country near Germany and Leitchensen, if you wanted to know), just finished giving a speech at the UN, and it was a smashing success, and now she has to do one of the few things she hates - parties. Parties are when people don't like you, snub you and verbally remind you that they don't want you. It's hard being a Princess, and to make matters worse for Marie, her car service canceled on her to get her to the boat party. Luckily, a cab pulls up with a driver, a preteen girl, and a dog called Max.

Leo Rucci from the Bronx is having a hard day. He is trying to connect to his younger sister whose mood-swings are neck injuring, he is just finishing up with cab run, but his sister insists that they help this woman that looks like a princess in a white party dress. Leo does, and then he gets roped into picking her up and saying yes to being her driver for the rest of the time she is in NYC.

One thing leads to another, and Leo and his sister Gabby are going to Eldovia for Christmas. Things happen; love inconveniently happens. Leo, not sure how he can get out of this situation, nor does he want to. Marie willing to abdicate the throne to have a life she wants. What will happen in this Christmas tale?

I received an ARC from Edelweiss and Avon for an honest review.

Teenagers in love. Love triangles. One man off to war. What makes Raymond Radiguet work exciting and worth reading is that he was sixteen when he wrote it, based on his life when he had an affair at 14 and his lover, she lives to tell the tale, unlike the tragic death at the end of this novella. Radiguet lives until the age of 20.

It's Romeo and Juliet in real-time, forbidden love affairs, a boy sneaking out of his house to visit the married love of his life.

I received an ARC from Edelweiss and Penguin for an honest review.

Originally published in the 1950s, but at the time timeless capturing the past. If I remember correctly, the first author to write the everyday life in Egyptian vernacular. Hemingway jumps to mind when I read these stories, simple language that moves the reader and brings experience to your face, whether you like it or not. These are not modern stories in terms of sexism, and he writes about dominating women, but at the same in his real life, he worked for social justice. Three stories stuck out to me for a different reason. "The Queue" reminds me the most of Hemingway writing. "All on Summer's Night" has a dark undertone of impending doom covered in the hope that you keep reading that what you are reading is what is going to happen and then plot twist. The last one, and the most painful and saddest of them all, is "The Shame," which I find fascinating about the belief of women truths in a man's world is so honest and real, and I had to remind myself that a man in 1950s wrote it, it doesn't end well because the truth isn't pretty.

Recommend.

I received an ARC from Edelweiss and Penguin in return for an honest review.

When I got the email that I had access to this ARC, I got excited. I enjoyed the first two books in the series and was looking forward to the next.

That last unmarried Bow Street agent Bachelors and tri-owner of a gaming hell Sebastien Wolff, Earl of Mowbraywhich, has become lonelier due to his friends moving out of the gaming casino and into the arms of their wives (Book 1 and Book 2 of the series). The opening of the story, he was on the way to a night of fun but got sidetracked with an investigation of a dead Russian. His night was not going to be what it thought it was going to be.

Russian Princess Anastasia Denisova (Secretly-a-Princess trope but with good reason) has been hiding in London as a Secretary to a Dowager Countess and goes by Anna Brown. She spends her days being a secretary, and a few nights a week, she pops over to a brothel to help the girls learn essential skills so they can leave the business if they choose. However, this particular night, some male opens the door, see hers, and his willingness to pay her 500 pounds to sleep with him, thinking she worked at the brothel. Misunderstandings and bewilderment happen with a kiss, and then it was over. She knows who he is because he is the nephew of her employer, Sebastien Wolff, but he doesn't know her because their paths have never crossed.

Sebastien gets cranky about this woman that turned him down, and all of a sudden, he wants no one but her. She realizes that she is not safe anymore in London, because people are looking for her, like a very aggressive want to be fiancé. She attempts to leave the city, but kidnappers try to take her, and at the moment, Sebastien is riding upon his horse. He decides he is the only one to protect her and keep her safe, with the blessing of his Grandmother (I love her by the way).

Gaming Hells is becoming one of my favorite locations (looking at Joanna Shupe and Sarah MacLean) and men who are a bit crusty around the edges that dislike balls as much as I like reading about them. I want action, and I got action. I like a bit of mystery or intrigue in my romance because it helps with plot and character development and forces characters on the page to express feelings in situations that don't happen on standard regency romance with ballrooms and proper dukes.

It was a fun read that took only a few hours after downloading it to my Kindle.

Tropes: Secret Royalty, Mystery, Friends to Lovers, Kidnapping attempts

I received an ARC from Netgalley and St. Martin's for an honest review.

I am not sure how T.L. Swan did it, but I was laughing out loud while reading this book. This is my first book from this author, and I don't think it will be the last. I have not read the first in the series, and I am looking for after I finish this review.

It's long, as in 450 pages that I read in one sitting, other than getting up to get another cold package of Reese's Peanut Butter Cups. Yeah, I enjoyed it.

Claire is a widow with three boys and now runs her late husband's media group, Anderson Media, and it is not doing well financially. She finally gives into a meeting with a competing media group, Miles Media, and Tristan Miles dares to offer to buy the company right then and there. Claire refuses and walks out of the room. She even turns in down for a date a few hours later.

Move a few months later, Claire is in France on a Mind Retreat, but she is there to clear her head and just relax. But the opening guest speaker is none other than Tristan Fucking Miles. She attempts to leave, and Tristan recognizes and calls her out to sit down in front of everyone, and she just walks out of the room.

Tristan is an asshole and comes off overbearing, and he gets what he wants. But he does grow or let down his facade the more he pursues and takes care of Claire and her three sons (the pranks they pull on him are hilarious). It's a messy story with lots of starts and stops, but it felt realistic in terms of relationships.

Overall, it was a fun read. The banter was great. Surprisingly, the number of pages for the sons didn't bother me and forced the main characters to show other parts of themselves, which I thought was a good move. Both characters fight to keep what they want but are willing to compromise.

There is a ridiculous amount of sex and the use of motherfucker that only harks back to SNL for me. I am not one for a MILF romance, but I enjoy it. I usually don't enjoy children on the page of a romance, but if the author does it well, I tend not to mind it.

Tropes: Enemies to Lovers, MILF, Family

I received an ARC from Netgalley and Montlake for an honest review.

This book is an important work; it collects all the known stories of female husbands, women who dressed to became a man and married as a man to another woman in the eyes of the public. No one was wiser until something happened, and the truth came out, and depending on the time and place, that would be death or acceptance.

I found the book a bit repetitive, especially after each example, as the author was trying to justify their existence and what could have been the actual story. Also, labeling them "they," which I understand because we don't know how they would have preferred to be called. Lastly, most of the info is secondary information, not much original works happening, so there is already a bias in the stories. They are an exciting and scandalous topic, so writers added salacious untrue details to their stories. Most of these stories were about women who wanted to live a life better than they had, or left that gendering themselves as a man was a better option during a time in history that being a man was everything. But I understand why, I thought, the author struggled, because we are so ingrained with gender norms and fluidity is hard to wrap around in the words we have. No matter who we try, it comes off clinical, impersonal, and hard.

I also an ARC, so perhaps all my issues were fixed during the final book. I received an ARC from Netgalley and Cambridge for an honest review.

Review for Audiobook. I received an arc copy of the audiobook from NetGalley and Spectrum Audiobook for an honest review.

The audiobook was fine, the story is sweet, and the two narrators did an excellent job capturing their character voices.

Story - It was a sweet, second-chance hockey romance, a drama that was happening wasn't super drama. After finally having their one night, Jude left the next morning to play pro-hockey while Kate finishes her PT schooling and stays in Chicago. Five years later, Jude injured himself and sent home to Chicago, where family and doctors and physical therapists can take care of him.

There is a lot of "what could have been" thoughts between both characters, but they didn't talk to each other about them, like five years ago. There is a lot of internal drama with the characters that if they just told each other their thoughts and have adult conversations, ergo gone. The drama that Katie has is serious, but not if specific steps taken. It was overall a sweet, enjoyable hockey romance. Quick listen/read. (Audiobook is over 5 hours).

I think my faith restored in modern fiction short stories with the nine short stories from the perspective of Black Women and Girls that center around the community and trying to live their lives. They have a thread that connects them to another story, but they are also stand-alone and read in any order, but I like the flow from starting to beginning to the end.

I would read one and then sit in the quiet compilation and then read one more. Repeat.

I think all the stories reminded me of moments in my own life that I could relate to and the continual struggle to have faith in everything.

I don't want to ruin it for you, you should read it.

I received an ARC from Netgalley and West Virginia University Press.