I’ll admit that this month’s TBR Challenge prompt of “Furry Friends” had me at a bit of a loss. I don’t have a lot of cutesy animal stories in my prompts. One of my friends pointed out that this didn’t necessarily have to be about pets, but I can’t say that any spectacularly furry heroes popped into my mind right off the bat either. Luckily, I found myself reading a real winner of a book, and about halfway through, I realized that it would fit the prompt quite nicely. I don’t know what made me wait almost four years to read Girl Gone Viral, but I’m glad I picked it up. As with the first book ..read more

I loved Patel’s debut The Trouble With Hating You and picked up First Love, Take Two expecting the same wonderful reading experience. Unfortunately, 33% of the way in, I gave up. I just couldn’t stand another moment. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Here is the book’s summary: On the verge of realizing her dream of being a doctor, Preeti Patel should be ecstatic. But between the stress of her residency, trying to find a job, and managing her traditional, no-boundaries family, Preeti’s anxiety is through the roof. Relationships and love aren’t even an option. Fortunately, Preeti’s finally fou ..read more

When writing historical characters who would have faced discrimination and worse in reality, be it based on race, gender, sexuality, gender identity, religion, or other categories, authors have options. Some create a fantasy world like Bridgerton’s, where real-world prejudices are checked at the front cover, but in Freedom to Love, Susanna Fraser joins authors who choose a different path, crafting an HEA for her interracial, cross-class couple in a historical setting with all the warts of the real, historical US and Britain. And boy, is it richly rewarding to watch her do it. Thérèse Bonduran ..read more

Full Exposure takes us into the heart of Mardi Gras with all of its glitter and pageantry. Two lovers find romance unexpectedly, but is what they have real enough to last? Josie Parks and Spencer Pham meet in a New Orleans urgent care center and strike up a banter-filled conversation after she whacks him in the head by mistake after trying to grab some Mardi Gras beads. Josie is a boudoir photographer who’s without a gig after her client cancels on her; she decides not to get a refund for her trip and heads into town hoping to find inspiration. Spencer is in town making a documentary about hi ..read more

It was the synopsis of Do You Take This Man by Denise Williams that prompted me to pick it up, as well as the author herself, of whom I’d heard good things but hadn’t yet had a chance to read. The set-up is quite a fun one – a female divorce lawyer who moonlights as a wedding officiant embarks on a mutually agreeable frenemies with benefits relationship with the male wedding planner with whom she butts heads. Based on these first impressions I had high hopes for this one, and it definitely met them. Lear Campbell was an event planner for a California football team before a personal crisis red ..read more

Book two in Naima Simone’s WAGs series, Scoring Off the Field stars Washington Warriors quarterback Dominic Anderson and Tennyson Clark, his best friend since a childhood they both spent in the foster care system. One time, in college, Tenny told Dom she loved him and wanted a dating relationship; Dom shot her down; they both silently agreed to pretend it was the alcohol. A decade later, Tenny is working as Dom’s personal assistant, but she’s still not over him. Determined to cut the cord, she tells Dom she’s quitting. But Dom doesn’t want to lose the only person who’s been with him thro ..read more

Sassy, warmhearted and sensual, Set on You is a really lovely book about physical fitness and true love coming in all shapes and sizes. Scott Ritchie is instantly the most annoying man that Crystal Chen has ever met; the cocky firefighter keeps stealing her favorite squat rack.  Crystal, a personal trainer and Instagram influencer, is constantly battling back Opinions from trolls and other online naysayers because she keeps a focus on fitness without highlighting weight loss. She immediately goes head to head with Scott over the rack, push comes to shove, and their one-upmanship contest ..read more

The final instalment of Vanessa Riley’s Rogues and Remarkable Women series, A Duke, the Spy, an Artist and a Lie suffers from and yet thrives upon the one thing that pushes the story forward: the utter inability of the hero and heroine to sit down and tell each other the truth. It’s the weakest of a series which started out so strongly, and yet I loved the heroine and enjoyed the hero for the most part.  The problem, however, is the romance between them. The wonderfully-named Lord Gantry, David Felton Lance (who goes by his middle name) is a spy for the Crown, assigned to work in Demerar ..read more

One True Loves is sweet, honest and touching in its portrayal of that space between being a teenager and becoming an independent college student. The delightful Lenore Bennett is brilliant, talented and no romantic – though she wants to be in love, has tried to be in love, and has lost repeatedly along the way.  She’s the opposite of her starry-eyed friend Tessa (The central character of Happily Ever Afters, the first book in the series), who thinks romance, real romance, is right around the corner for Lenore.  They stand on the brink of college (Lenore is headed to NYU with an unde ..read more

The Love Con is a fun, funny, and tender contemporary romance that takes on geek culture, con culture, and gives us a fun best-friends-pretend-dating-to-really-dating romance.  It’s delightful and warm-hearted. Kenya – KeKe – Davenport is a geek ne plus ultra.  She loves anime, fan conventions, cosplay and wants making a living  designing costumes.  That’s a disappointment to her STEM-loving parents, who thought Kenya would continue in engineering after getting her college degree.  Determined to prove herself, KeKe decides to compete on the hit reality competition Cos ..read more