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| 4.50
| 1,472
| Aug 06, 2024
| Aug 06, 2024
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it was amazing
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**spoiler alert** Tropes: age gap, workplace romance, grumpy/sunshine, secret relationship, werewolf/fae Feels: 4.5/5 Steam*: 3.5/5 Kinks: n/a Angst: med **spoiler alert** Tropes: age gap, workplace romance, grumpy/sunshine, secret relationship, werewolf/fae Feels: 4.5/5 Steam*: 3.5/5 Kinks: n/a Angst: medium HEA: yes Pairing: MM Triggers/potential icks/content warnings: pining, unequal feelings in the beginning 4.5 Stars Larkin is 23 and a Fae. He is a horny virgin who works as an assistant with a lot of attractive paranormal wrestlers, and he flirts up a storm with them. He wants to spread his wings and have lots of sex, but he's also nervous and afraid because of his inexperience. Seb is 35 and a werewolf, he is the bodyguard of Larkin's boss. They interact a lot. Seb is quiet and has a reputation of being a bit grumpy. Larkin decides that Seb is safe, and he asks him to be his sexual tutor and teach him the ropes. Unbeknownst to Larkin, Seb has actually had a crush on Larkin ever since they met and wants him badly. Seb agrees to this, fully expecting it's going to get his heart pulverized to have Larkin for a short time only for Larkin to turn around and use everything he teaches him to hook up with other people. At first, I was totally cringing and expecting this to end horribly because Larkin was not in a position life experience wise to commit to a relationship, so I saw this ending horribly for Seb but also I was thinking that it wouldn't be fair to Larkin either for him to have to clip his wings and not experience things in his life, and just dive into a relationship with Seb. Luckily, as they spent more time together they fit each other very well and Larkin realized he didn't actually want what he thought he wanted and they were kind of perfect together. I thought this was a really enjoyable story. Larkin and Seb were such sweethearts and they were adorable together. They were hot for each other but they also just really enjoyed spending time together. They spent a lot of time talking, they were content in each other's presence and they brought each other peace. They were comfortable in silence together and they snuggled and just enjoyed each other. I am so weak when platonic snuggling is added to the mix! I love that in a book. They were precious and they fit so well into each other's lives. They were well fleshed out characters. There was great tension between them. In the first book, there was a ton of really unsexy gross out toilet humor. And that made book one really disappoint me from a romance perspective. The same events were referenced in this book, but they were told with a lot more restraint and it was toned down. So I appreciated that, it helped my enjoyment. I had a minor gripe with the book. One random thing that I don't love about this book is how Seb chose what their lessons would be. There were multiple times where Larkin asked for something in particular, for something different (usually anal) and Seb just said no, he planned/wanted to do something else. I didn't like that because it was one-sided that it was Seb who controlled what they did. And also I didn't like that their hookups in the first 70% were never impulsive and organic, they never got swept away in desire and deviated from the planned activity. But I still found the couple so precious that I'm reading at 4.5 Stars. Some notable moments: I love their snuggling! "Despite realising that we’d been gone a pretty long time and there was a risk of someone catching us, I melted onto Seb’s big chest and sighed into his neck, my hot forehead resting on the bed and my wings opening and closing languidly behind me. I didn’t want to move. I was pretty sure my legs wouldn’t support me if I tried to stand up right now anyway. Besides, Seb’s arms had wrapped around my middle and he was hugging me tightly to him, so it was, like, my noble duty or something to stay right where I was. If he wanted me to move, he wouldn’t be doing that, right? “Mmm.” I sank deeper into him, rubbing my nose against his sweat-damp neck and subtly breathing in his scent. He always smelled so good. Warm and comforting. Like a favourite blanket." "“We’re gonna be so tired at work tomorrow.” “Yeah,” I croaked. I’d already decided to skip the gym in the morning. No way in hell was I going to wake up early and kick Larkin out just so I could go lift weights, when instead, I could have this for a little bit longer." Poor Holt. He really tried, Larkin is just dense "Holt closed his eyes and let out a slow breath, then gulped down his rum. “I tried.” “Tried what?” I asked uncertainly." *FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink. **Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Aug 09, 2024
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Aug 10, 2024
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Jul 18, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| 1944736417
| 9781944736415
| B0CKVB7K6T
| 3.88
| 1,673
| Nov 16, 2023
| Nov 16, 2023
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liked it
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**spoiler alert** Tropes: grumpy /sunshine, boss/employee, brother's best friend Feels: 2.5/5 Steam*: 3/5 Kinks: dirty talk, blindfolds, elevator sex Ang **spoiler alert** Tropes: grumpy /sunshine, boss/employee, brother's best friend Feels: 2.5/5 Steam*: 3/5 Kinks: dirty talk, blindfolds, elevator sex Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MF Triggers/potential icks/content warnings: pining, miscommunication trope, bad exes, family and friends who eat away at your self-esteem, addict parents, genius MMC (yet so dumb? Lol) Three stars, barely. This story wasn't really my jam. I liked a bunch of things about it but it just wasn't enjoyable for me. This book is about Stella, 32, and Hugo, 34. They've known each other since they were 11 and 9 years old. They met at a math camp for kids, Hugo became friends with her brother Charlie who was also at the camp. Stella was only really at the camp because it was something to keep her occupied and her brother was already going. Hugo is a math genius. They were closely in each other's lives from then until Stella turned 22 and one or both of them moved away. They've barely interacted if at all during the last 10 years. Secretly they both had massive crushes on each other in childhood. Hugo always considered Stella completely off limits as his best friend's little sister, it goes against his code of what's right to try anything with her. They live their lives. In the present, Stella has moved to his city for a job that fell through mysteriously. The company had seemed so committed to her, paid for her moving expenses, and then pulled the job away out of nowhere. And then no one else in the city will hire her for some reason, even though she's very employable. She ends up having to take a job at Hugo's company that she gets through her family connection. Once working for Hugo, they start interacting as adults and their attraction to each other because harder to ignore and the code doesn't seem as important when Stella is a grown adult. They start something up. But Stella has been hurt pretty darn bad in her past relationships and she goes into this one with Hugo with a lot of trepidation and she's trying to protect herself by keeping a certain amount of distance between them. And the type of person that Hugo is is a hurdle for their relationship, triggering her insecurities. This book was a mixed bag for me. There were some things that I liked. From a feminist perspective I enjoyed the fact that Stella lived a full life and didn't pine away for Hugo. I liked that she had relationships, it was sex positive. I liked that she was the one carrying around a condom when they needed it. It was kind of refreshing that this book didn't even talk about marriage or kids until the smallest of mentions at like the 95% mark, it wasn't limiting a woman's story to marriage and kids. I liked Stella's female friends and a few of her supportive close colleagues that she worked with. There were some nice moments of humor. The sexual tension was pretty good. But even though I liked all of those things, this wasn't really an enjoyable story for me. Here's why: - This was a Brother's best friend story that just irritated me. One thing that I hate about that trope, is when the hero prioritizes his friend over his love interest, for years and years, and his love interest suffers. This couple was mutually in love from their early teen years and there was only a two-year age gap between them. There really was no reason why they couldn't have been together. By not being together, Stella ended up with guys that hurt her and took away her light. And her brother Charlie and Hugo were very well aware of this. But for some reason Hugo would have been a worse choice?! - I didn't like how Charlie was so unsupportive of their relationship. It was nonsensical. And him flying from Japan just to tell them how he disapproved was over the top. He was deliberately hurtful. - I hated how Stella's family thought so poorly of her, that they interfered against her wishes in her life over and over again. It was so disrespectful. And they never really learned their lesson or the consequences of what they did. They needed to grovel. - There were some things about Hugo that I just did not like. He was a dumb man and he made dumb decisions even though he is a genius. Hugo also needed to grovel and he did no groveling. They would just make up by their sexual attraction driving them to have sex. And then at the end he did do one grand gesture but it wasn't apologies. They didn't really talk about how Hugo's devastating recommendation letter for her job ended up on the internet getting her blacklisted from jobs, and he didn't have to pay for it. He was dumb and unromantic for bringing her to the same hotel that he was a regular at, for bringing his other women to for hookups, and he was obvious about it - way to make her feel not special at all. And if the author is trying to sew seeds of romance - pick a place or way for them to hook up that can have some respect or specialness behind it. - I am a person that has a weakness for non-sexual touch and snuggling. If characters are going at it and having the wildest sex, that doesn't do jack for me, I might as well be reading a phone book. I need moments where the love interest is such a comfort to their person, platonic treasuring of that person, that person is my home. I also really prefer the sex to be sensual, like really involving the senses, like the characters are described as basically getting goosebumps, breath catching, sighs, senses engaged. And I didn't get any of that really from this couple. My love language was not engaged on this book. Some notable moments: I loved how everyone at work was in awe of her standing up to Hugo. People dropped off her favorite candy at her desk as a reward for her bravery. "Jane rolls up and grabs my arm. “Did you call him Mr. Roboto?” “Something came over me.” “You’re gonna get fired,” she whispers. I turn to her—I’m sure she’s bummed. We get along so well, and they really do need my help here. “Sorry—” “No,” she hisses. “You are livin’ my dream.” “You’re living my dream, too,” Tinley squeak-whispers." "The next time I glance at Hugo, he looks really troubled. Like something’s upset him. My belly flops upside down. “What’s wrong?” He points up at the Hanson brother’s poster on the wall. “What did you do to that poor guy’s mouth?” “I loved him too much,” I whisper." *FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink. **Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 23, 2024
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May 25, 2024
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May 23, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| 1944736069
| B07DY92B3B
| 3.93
| 23,013
| Jul 09, 2018
| Oct 2020
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it was amazing
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**spoiler alert** Tropes: grumpy /sunshine, animosity to love, secret identity, boss/employee Feels: 4.5/5 Steam*: 3.5/5 Kinks: dirty talk, role play, p **spoiler alert** Tropes: grumpy /sunshine, animosity to love, secret identity, boss/employee Feels: 4.5/5 Steam*: 3.5/5 Kinks: dirty talk, role play, phone sex Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MF Triggers/potential icks/content warnings: misunderstanding, dead parents, conman ex, b*tchy colleague at work 4.5 stars Lizzie 2 months ago lost her business and was put into a staggering amount of debt because her boyfriend was a con man and he took over control of her finances and ran off with her money. Lizzie had to close her bakery that was her dream. Now she's working in a marketing job for a very finicky a****** of a boss and she's hoping to just make it to her bonus at the 30-day mark. She desperately needs that money to pay off a loan shark that is threatening her. She's bossed around by the marketing supervisor Sasha, who takes credit for her ideas. The boss Theo is such an a****** that his early morning wake up service quits him and none of the other services will take him based on his reputation. Sasha tasks Lizzie with finding a replacement wake up service that will make the 4:30 a.m. calls to Theo. Lizzie fails to find a service and ends up having to make the calls herself and she accidentally ends up insulting him in spectacular fashion. He's absolutely fascinated and enjoying the experience and intrigued by her. He spends a huge chunk of the book doggedly trying to pursue her even though her identity is secret from him. He flirts ridiculously with her he offers her everything. And she just turns him down and takes a battering ram to all of his advances, snarking her way out of everything. But she's a weak horny woman she slip slides into phone sex with him, which only encourages his obsession with her. If he eventually finds out who she is, he's going to blow things up in her life. Things get blown up but they end up spending more time together. But there's a lot of conflict about whether they can make it work. She wants financial independence, she wants to make it on her own, she doesn't want another interfering man to get involved in her business. This was a really enjoyable book. Lizzie made a great strong heroine. She had such sass and attitude. She stood her ground too! She gave him such s*** it was hilarious to watch. I laughed so much reading this book. But it was also good relationship development because they did get to know each other well. Theo was a great man too, he was a good person, and I absolutely loved how down bad he was for her. He fell first and he fell harder and I loved that dynamic. No other man or other woman drama. First kiss at 64% so while it was a little slow burn, it was sizzling sexual tension earlier because they were having phone sex before. Some notable moments: The wake up calls were hilarious "“Wake up, you stupid motherfucker. People are waiting for whatever annoying bullshit you have in store for them today.” I’m trying not to smile. I kind of like that he’s listening. “Your hapless minions await whatever stupid bullshit flows from your meteoric mind.” A silence. “So that really is your technique. It wasn’t a fluke.”" The turnip truck girl nickname was hilarious. "Suddenly even Turnip Truck is enchanting. She wears another one of her plain dresses. Like she stepped out of a black-and-white picture, and all she needs to be complete in this life is a bonnet and a flock of ducks. Even so, she’s beautiful." Body positivity! Yay! "I kiss her. I slide my palm up her stomach. She’s not a washboard-abs girl; she’s real. She eats cookies. Like a madman, I press my face into the sexy swell of her belly. I drag my lips up over it, squeezing her hips. She’s delicious. Even her imperfections are delicious." *FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink. **Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 21, 2024
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May 21, 2024
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May 19, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| B0CVV1RHBV
| 4.08
| 283
| May 14, 2024
| May 14, 2024
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liked it
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**spoiler alert** Tropes: boss/employee, hurt/comfort Feels: 2.5/5 Steam*: 2.5/5 Kinks: dirty talk Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MM Triggers/potential icks/ **spoiler alert** Tropes: boss/employee, hurt/comfort Feels: 2.5/5 Steam*: 2.5/5 Kinks: dirty talk Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MM Triggers/potential icks/content warnings: past crimes, parolee, bad/absent parents, ill grandma, basically sexual harassment in the workplace Levi is 23 and just got out of prison where he was doing a 2-year sentence for stealing cars. He's gay. He's close to his grandma who raised him, she's ill and in a care home because she can't live on her own. Post prison, his parole officer Darien gets him a job at Darien's brother Hayden's restaurant. Hayden's age isn't specified but he must be around 30 give or take a few years. He's a successful chef who owns his own restaurant. He's a bit of a Gordon Ramsay, in that he's a real a****** and his staff respect but fear him. He's gay but doesn't have time for relationships, he hasn't prioritized them he's put his career first. Hayden is reluctant to hire Levi but once he meets he's very attracted to him. This book is probably three or 3.5 stars. Decent that it's a low angst story that gets to a happy ending and a good place. But overall it wasn't a huge fan. I didn't like Hayden for a good hunk of the book, up until Levi got pneumonia he was a real a******. He was a jerk to Levi, he came off as a big sexual harasser and like he was just using him for sex. He didn't express any desire to date him, but maybe the author just did a poor job letting us in to see Hayden's thoughts and feelings? Hayden was good to Levi after the pneumonia incident, and their relationship really got positive after that point. But I didn't really believe the love, it didn't really feel organic. Various things that bothered me: - when they had their first hook up, it felt like Levi's attraction to Hayden came out of nowhere. I don't think the author showed us enough of Levi's attraction to Hayden before that moment. - I'm not a huge fan of unbalanced power dynamics, and Hayden definitely held all the power. Hayden came off as a jerk and a sexual harasser until the pneumonia thing. - I know the author said in the notes at the beginning that this wasn't you know an accurate representation of the legal system, but I felt like Levi should be paying restitution and in debt for at minimum totaling the Porsche that he was trying to steal. - I saw it coming from a mile away what was going to go down with David. And I didn't really like how Levi handled it. He should have been talking to someone. Some notable moments: "“He said that you would act like a dick, but that deep down, you weren’t.” The truth. It disappointed me. I needed ammunition to help me look past his pleasing physical attributes, not him being straight with me. “He’s wrong,” I said. A slight frown. “About which part?” “The deep down part.” Levi gave a slow nod. “Always a dick. Noted.”" "It was awkward, his trousers and pants still tangled around his ankles and the height of my desk not ideal for fucking, which made me want to laugh once I realized it and vow to do better in the future. Can I help you, sir? What is it you’re looking for? Ample drawer space? Built in ports? Spacious surface area? No, none of that. I just need one where if I have someone bent over it, they’re at the optimal height for fucking." *FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink. **Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 14, 2024
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May 14, 2024
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May 14, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| B0CZS9RQ1F
| 4.18
| 1,989
| unknown
| May 08, 2024
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it was amazing
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**spoiler alert** Tropes: boss / employee, grumpy/sunshine, age gap Feels: 3.5/5 Steam*: 3.5/5 Kinks: n/a Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MM Triggers/potential **spoiler alert** Tropes: boss / employee, grumpy/sunshine, age gap Feels: 3.5/5 Steam*: 3.5/5 Kinks: n/a Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MM Triggers/potential icks/content warnings: homophobic parent, being in the closet for 30 years, divorce (not between MC's), sex for money, unsafe sex 4.5 stars, love the vibes, love the humour Derek is 48 years old and he's the father of Miller the MC in another book by this author. Derek has just gotten divorced from his wife of 23+ years. They had a horrible marriage. He's known as an a****** boss at work, everyone at work calls him Satan. When his latest PA quits, Wyn is pulled from his current role to that role. Wyn is 29 and a PA extraordinaire. He's also openly gay, bit of an organization kink, and feels things deeply and chaotically. Wyn is 6 months into his self-proclaimed sex sabbatical. He's tired of being used and having casual relationships, he wants to find love, have kids, be happy. Wyn hates Derek on sight, but is also ridiculously attracted to him. Miller and Ryan are getting married, and when Miller's wedding planner quits because they are horrible clients, Wyn gets tasked with planning their wedding in 3 weeks. Wyn also gets pulled into fake dating Derek, because Derek's ex-wife is bringing a plus one to the wedding and Derek is competitive and wants to win the divorce. Derek's never been with a man before, but he's actually gay and been in the closet for some sad reasons his whole life. He thinks he's not attractive enough due to his age to Wyn, so he decides the only way to get Wyn is to pay him for sexual favors, using the premise that he is a new gay man and needs someone to show him the ropes. It's actually relatively slow burn, their first kiss is at 43%. After that they run through sexual acts like it's a to do list. It is pretty smutty though a lot of it is off page as well so it's not non-stop sex. At first they think that they'll keep it to just the time away at the destination wedding, but quickly they fall into continuing their arrangement back home. I liked this book a lot. It was a fun low angst read. The characters thoughts are chaotic and unhinged and it's fun to watch them struggle with overwhelming emotions. Wyn was adorable, Derek was a hot boss man with a marshmallow centre, and together they are just what the other person needed. I wish they had started talking about their feelings earlier, I wish they had broke their professional rules and hooked up without money between them sooner. They kept their arrangement of sex for money going until 92%. I just really wanted to see them together in a more natural way sooner so that they would be a bit more of a believable and romantic couple, so I could see the development of their relationship more. But they were such a fun ride and they had a great happily ever after, I just wish they had talked more. It's pretty hilarious that Miller and Ryan got their start the same way, with Miller paying Ryan for sex. I did enjoy Miller and Ryan's story a bit more, Miller wore his heart on his sleeve and told Ryan it was love and not just sex very early on and Ryan broke his rules early himself revealing his own feelings. Some notable moments: I love that Derek did this deliberately so he could snuggle him! And Wyn just burrowed into him. "I turn onto my side, so my body weight causes the mattress between Wyn and me to dip. Wyn rolls into the dip. Swallowing and murmuring quietly as he slumps closer to me. His body presses against mine, and he nuzzles his head into my chest just like he did last night when I did the same thing." Oh Wyn, you are unhinged and I love you. "Now, between you and me, there’s nowhere, nowhere, I don’t want Derek MacAvoy to touch me. In fact, if he looked suitably stern when he asked, I’d probably pull my pants down right where I’m standing, drop to my knees, and let him rail me so hard there’d be a Wyn-shaped dent in the cobbled pathway from now till eternity. I’d let him use spit as lube, and you wouldn’t hear a word of complaint from me. I’d let him fuck me so hard he might even manage to fuck some sense into me, and believe me, he’d have to pound my ass to get any sense in or out of me now." "“I’m scared, Bridget,” I whisper. She takes my hand and squeezes it tight. “Like him that much, huh?” I don’t answer, but my jaw clicks as I nod into the pillow, hiding because as ill-advised as it is, and as much as I know it’s a stupid, reckless thing to do with my heart, I’m really not sure like is the right word anymore." *FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink. **Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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May 10, 2024
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May 11, 2024
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Apr 18, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| B0CWW6J9GJ
| 3.90
| 2,106
| Jul 05, 2024
| Jul 05, 2024
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really liked it
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**spoiler alert** Tropes: age gap, grumpy/sunshine, professor/TA, forced proximity, roommates, workplace romance, forbidden romance Feels: 3/5 Steam*: **spoiler alert** Tropes: age gap, grumpy/sunshine, professor/TA, forced proximity, roommates, workplace romance, forbidden romance Feels: 3/5 Steam*: 3.5/5 Kinks: stripper, getting off in public, toys Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MM Triggers/potential icks/content warnings: Silas is kinda icky, premature ejaculation, toilet humor, inappropriate use of the word professional, unsafe sex (seriously, people need to at least talk before they f*** without condoms) I'm conflicted about what I want to rate this. If I was reading Silas, I would give him a three. But I really loved the Cora humor and ridiculousness and sexual tension. So maybe 3.5 stars and I'll be kind and round up? Silas is 35 and he is a buttoned up reserved grumpy professor. He goes to a bachelor party at a strip club and gets a lap dance from a hot guy working there, he embarrasses himself and comes in his pants. Then he finds out that the guy 21-year-old Everly, is a student at the college he works at, and he's the TA that has been hired to work with him. Silas loses his mind anytime he's near Everly, he's an absolute horndog for him. And it turns out Everly has seen him around campus and had a crush on him for a year. So they both want each other. Silas tries to keep it professional. He tries not to give in to the attraction. He fails miserably. And it's a slippery slope for him. When he gives in to a one-time hookup, that leads to him asking Everly to live with him because Everly's roof falls down in his Hazmat apartment, and if they're living together they might as well be having more sex and they might as well be boyfriends right!? And then meeting the family. And then maybe I might want to marry this guy. There were things that I liked about this book. It's a funny and steamy Cora romp. I really like the humor in it. Everly was great. I liked the use of the side characters in this book. There were tons of moments of ridiculous humor that I just loved sprinkled throughout this book. If Silas had been more likeable as a romantic lead, this book could have been a lot better. Silas was an unhinged character, off the wall. Normally I really like unhinged characters, it's entertaining to me, it's usually humorous and it's usually an obsessive possessive love which are some of my favorite things. Silas did not pull off unhinged well. I wish Silas had been a bit more likeable as a romantic lead. He came off a bit too pervy and horny, he got boners in public at inappropriate times all the darn time and had no control over his libido, coming in his pants often in less than 3 minutes often untouched. I like when a MMC is horny for their love interest, but have a little bit of class, restraint and some propriety line so that you don't come off as skeevy. Also, I wish Silas had had more romantic thoughts about Everly. I don't think he ever actually had non-sexual romantic thoughts about Everly, so it seemed like it was just sex to him until all of a sudden at the end he said something about marrying him. Everly at least had some romantic thoughts and made some romantic gestures, though it did seem a little forced. Silas also isn't very smart, he does dumb things that will get them caught and at times he also comes off as a selfish lover. Some notable moments: Jealousy scene (Everly is faking it with a guy and Silas loses his mind) "Speaking of the big man, he shows up at the end of office hours and strides over to Everly in my office and nuzzles up against him, making my entire body stiffen in anger. Honestly, they really should get a room. If they start kissing in front of me, I will flip the table over." "“Fine,” he says, looking slightly defeated. “I will.” “You should.” Our eyes clash, and I suck in a breath, feeling my heartbeat triple just from how close he is. And then without warning, Everly is on me, his lips crashing into mine, my back shoved up against the door with a small thump. His hands tangle in my hair, his tongue pressing into my mouth unbidden, and I let him. I let him kiss me. Let him devour my mouth as I clutch onto him for dear life." The ribbon dancing scene! "“Look at that ass!” a voice suddenly shouts from the audience. My heart stutters, and I stop moving, my eyelids fluttering open. I know that voice. I fucking know it. “That’s my man! Mine!” he shouts." *FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink. **Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jul 12, 2024
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Jul 13, 2024
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Apr 09, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| B0CJDN2LX8
| 4.06
| 935
| Apr 08, 2024
| Apr 08, 2024
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liked it
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**spoiler alert** Tropes: actors, enemies to lovers, miscommunication Feels: 2.5/5 Steam*: 1.5/5 Kinks: n/a Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MM Triggers/potent **spoiler alert** Tropes: actors, enemies to lovers, miscommunication Feels: 2.5/5 Steam*: 1.5/5 Kinks: n/a Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MM Triggers/potential icks/content warnings: dead parents, homophobic parents, misunderstandings 3.25 stars Jacoby is 29, gay and very closeted. Roman is 24, bi, and closeted but open to coming out. They are both long time actors. They are cast as gay lovers in a angsty and sexually explicit Hollywood movie. They both secretly had a crush on the other. But there is animosity between them. Roman thinks it's because he accidentally dated a woman that Jacoby was fake dating at the time, so he thinks Jacoby blames him for his girlfriend being faithless. But really that's not it, Jacoby heard from a friend that Roman said some homophobic s***and trashed Jacoby. Really it was a dumb miscommunication, Roman was just in the closet and trying to stay there. I wasn't impressed by Jacoby's refusal to tell Roman why he was mad at him, that's deliberate miscommunication trope being thrown in. Jacoby can't rightfully be mad at Roman when he won't have a discussion about it and tell him why he's mad or give him a chance to defend himself. This book got off to a really slow start chemistry-wise. When I'm reading a book in my Kindle app, I use the highlighter in a color-coded way. I highlight passages that I enjoyed with yellow. Plot points I want to remember in blue. And passages I disliked in red. I think it says something when the first passage that I highlighted in yellow was on page 7. And the next passage that I enjoyed enough to yellow highlight wasn't until the 72% mark. This book had a lot of wasted opportunity during the first 55% or so of the book. There wasn't a lot of chemistry between the characters. They were kind of like cardboard cutouts together. They didn't seem very attracted to each other, there wasn't a sensuality between them or any real sexual tension. Which is crazy because during that time period they were filming a romantic movie that was full of very explicit sex scenes that they filmed. So they were being all up in each other's business but there wasn't a spark between them at all. And to some extent that is a positive because they were able to be professional working together and they weren't sexually harassing each other at work. But I think the author really missed an opportunity to convey growth of feelings, awareness of the other person, pining for the other person, and attraction. During the first 60%, all we got was the occasional case of them telling the reader they liked the other person, but the author wasn't showing us that - there were no moments of hitched breath, prolonged eye contact, or any kind of sensuality. After the first 60%, they met again and they decided to give what they had together a shot. And they started regularly having sex. So with that naturally the reader could see their sexual preoccupation with each other. And as they started talking more and opening up about their past and meeting each other's sisters, and talking about some of the things that were important to them, you could see that there was a compatibility between them and that there were feelings developing. Again it was more the author telling us than showing us, she didn't really convey things subtly. Things I liked: - Finally some sensuality between them at 61%! Licking lips and staring, sharing significant eye contact. Finally! - I liked the banter between them - I liked the close relationship they both had with their sisters. Their sisters seem like cool people, supportive - I liked that Jacoby trusted Roman when it came to Emerson. Emerson was a current friend and former f*** buddy of Roman's who clearly was in love with Roman. There was a moment where Jacoby could have listened to paparazzi gossip and gotten jealous, but he just talked to Roman and I thought that was mature and a good sign that he trusted Roman. - I liked how supportive Jacoby was when it came to Roman's dead parents. There were some real emotional moments between them around that. Things I didn't like: - The absolute lack of chemistry during the first 50% or so of the book - It was really hard to tell when we were getting Jacoby's versus Roman's POV. Their voices were far too similar. And they both had sisters and colleagues/friends that they were talking to, I had to keep reading back passages carefully to figure out whose POV I was reading. It's tiring to do that and reduced my enjoyment. - At one point, Roman was telling Jacoby about how before they had ever met Roman was falling for Jacoby. And the use of the term falling for just rang my bullshit alarm, you can't fall for someone who's just an actor that you've seen perform. You don't know them, it's just a crush. And Jacoby just jumped on the use of that phrase as if it was some big meaningful thing, and I was just giving them the side eye. - They are so cringe in how they hit on each other in their early relationship (e.g. page 108). And the way that they used the word experiences when asking about their same sex relationship history. Asking things like "have you had many experiences", just rang my cringe alarm. They used the word experiences multiple times and it just didn't seem like natural conversation. - Page 163 - that was a perfect example of the lack of sensuality that this author writes with sometimes. They were about to have sex. The moment they get on the bed they go straight to applying lube to dick and hole. There's no sensuality at all, no hard breathing, no touching, no foreplay. - Comment at 48% that made it obvious to the reader that these guys didn't have strong enough chemistry or feeling for each other: "We’re not in love. Sometimes I feel like we hardly like each other. We’re simply attracted to each other." And then at the 51% mark "“I don’t know if he’s who I should come out for.”" - Their coming out to their professional people before they came out to the public was very dry and cardboard like. It was like a paint by numbers moment of actions. I haven't read a lot of books by this author, but just from multiple instances within this particular book, I think the author has a bad tendency to tell rather than show and to not be subtle. I was happy with their public coming out. I liked the message that they were trying to convey about not making their sexualities a big deal. I thought it was meaningful as a message. I liked their statements. Also when they refused to come out when they were being rudely questioned about playing a queer character as a straight actor, I liked how they responded. I am a big proponent of not making assumptions about people's sexuality or gender identity or health or mental struggles. You never know what that person is just not telling people. And I think you should make everyone feel safe and welcome and not judged. How Jacoby's parents were with him and his sister being gay angers me. Standing on my soapbox, you shouldn't have a child unless you're willing to love them unconditionally, and for it not to matter if they are queer or trans. Some notable moments: "“Funny that you see the word douchebag and automatically assume I’m talking about you.”" "“You want to wine and dine me?” He dips his chin. “I do.” “Okay, but you’re spoiling me a lot today. I should do something for you.” “Like what?” I shimmy down his legs until my knees hit the ground near his feet. “I’ll think of something, but for now…” Jacoby puts his hands behind his head and spreads his legs. “By all means.”" *FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink. **Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 11, 2024
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Apr 11, 2024
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Apr 09, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| B0C9KFRDJW
| 3.63
| 2,817
| unknown
| Aug 23, 2023
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liked it
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**spoiler alert** Tropes: boss/employee, dark romance, rich/poor, insta-own Feels: 4/5 Steam*: 3/5 Kinks: exhibitionism, blood play, dubcon, knife play **spoiler alert** Tropes: boss/employee, dark romance, rich/poor, insta-own Feels: 4/5 Steam*: 3/5 Kinks: exhibitionism, blood play, dubcon, knife play, degradation, dirty talk, spanking Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MM Triggers/potential icks/content warnings: unsafe sex, murder, violence, drugging Seb is 25. He's in a massive rut. His parents were killed a couple years ago and he jumped into an engagement with his girlfriend Katie that he regrets because she's toxic, cheats on him, and spends all his money. He's poor. He lost his job recently. He gets a new job at a bar run by disreputable people. He thinks he's straight but he's in for a bi awakening. At his new job he catches the eye of one of the owners, Dima. Dima is 29 and pan or bi. Dima is instantly obsessed with Seb. He's intent on possessing and owning him from first glance. I wouldn't call it instal love, it's kind of a insta-own and instalust. He doggedly pursues Seb for a month or so before Seb gives in. But then a threat targets Seb and puts them in danger. This was a decent story. I do like a possessive and unhinged MMC. And Seb was a feisty guy who wasn't going to roll over and give in easily to Dima. I liked that he talked back even though Dima was clearly a murderer. There were some good things going on in the book. There was some nice moments of humor. There were a bunch of things though that I didn't love: - The most annoying thing was the way the book was written sentence wise. You know how elementary school kids write simple sentences and basic thoughts? At times the book felt really juvenile and how it was written. (Update: just finished the second book in this series and I was happy to see book 2 didn't have this issue) - It's out of character that Dima let Seb brush him off for over a month. Dima's personality is much too forceful for me to believe that he would have left Seb alone. - At one point, they have sex in front of some homophobic people they're going to kill. While putting on the show, Dima used really degrading language to refer to Seb. When you use the same degrading terms that the homophobic assholes use, it's like you're degrading Seb yourself and agreeing with the homophobic assholes. So I don't think it came off the way the author intended it to, poor choice. - Very unsafe sex. They don't use condoms, they don't talk about STDs or condom usage. They use the blood of another person who's portrayed as a skanky cheating s*** as lube. So unsafe. Some notable moments: "“D, you can’t do this, it isn’t normal. People get choices in relationships…unless I'm your prisoner?” I sigh, this is hopeless, so I decide to try and reason with him. “I need to go home and think. Look, I promise I’ll be in for work tonight, but I need some space. What happened last night was huge, not to mention it was with you. I need to process.” “Space? Fuck that. There is plenty of space here. You’re not leaving me. You belong here. I think you need reminding.”" Ha to Dima threatening his brother for ogling Seb. "And off I trot, but also add an extra sway of the hips for Dima since his eyes are bound to be on my ass. They practically live on it, so may as well tease him and give a show when I can. “That’s a hot ass,” Lev mumbles. The mumble is followed by a sharp slap! “Shut the fuck up, Lev before I rip your eyes out,” Dima threatens." "I’m about to move when the door opens and Zayn walks in. I release a sigh of relief only for Zayn to punch me in the gut. I collapse back on the floor gasping for air. Well, I think we have found the rat." *FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink. **Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 08, 2024
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Apr 08, 2024
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Apr 08, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| 1950155625
| 9781950155620
| 1950155625
| 4.18
| 5,051
| Oct 10, 2023
| Oct 10, 2023
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it was amazing
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**spoiler alert** Tropes: opposites attract, grumpy/sunshine, hockey player & interior designer Feels: 4/5 Steam*: 3/5 Kinks: bondage, light dominance A **spoiler alert** Tropes: opposites attract, grumpy/sunshine, hockey player & interior designer Feels: 4/5 Steam*: 3/5 Kinks: bondage, light dominance Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MM Triggers/potential icks/content warnings: homophobia, divorce, financial struggles Tommaso is a gay, closeted hockey player. He's never let himself be with a guy though, because he was raised by a single mother (supportive and loving) but with the financial help and constant presence of his extremely homophobic and abusive uncle and cousin. Bianca was a former pro hockey player. The cousin is a current NHL player, who Tommaso was on the same team with until a recent trade. Tommaso used to be married to a woman who was more of a friend to him than a lover, and their relationship imploded because of their physical incompatibility. His mom has been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing treatments for it. He has purchased a house now in the city that he plays and it has no furniture, he needs to get the house ready so that he can live in it but also have his mother over for Christmas. He hates shopping, he's a grump. Tommaso runs into Carter at a shitty furniture store and hears that Carter is in the decorating business. He's attracted to Carter from first glance but also really needs his services, so he takes his card. Carter is in a really rough spot. His ex-boyfriend was his business partner in the business, and they had a client stiff them for $15,000 worth of furniture purchased on his personal credit cards. The relationship imploded. And the ex-boyfriend left him with $15,000 debt on his own and 100% of their renting costs. He gets evicted and is couchsurfing. Tommaso hires him, and they get to know each other and grow their attraction to each other over about 6 weeks. This was a lovely story. I really needed to immerse myself in a fun read like this. I felt like a lot of the potential books that I wanted to pick up recently had extremely toxic dynamics and characters were hurtful to each other. This book hit perfect for me. Carter is not a sports fan at all. He's oblivious to Tom being a professional hockey player. He only realizes because he hires a painter friend of his (Rigo) to paint some rooms and he & his Military husband are big fans. I loved the interactions with Rigo and his husband, every mention of them served a purpose to the story, progressing the plot, adding comic relief. Really, all of the interactions with side characters like Tom's teammates and his family all added value. Lots of little moments of humor and getting to know more about the characters. I liked that Tom's mom and sister were supportive and loving to him, they had his back even though he hadn't confided in them, they had suspicions but they waited for him to talk to them and were just openly supportive in the meantime. I really loved the dynamic that Tom had with his coach. Throughout the whole book Tom was in character, he was closed off, he didn't share more than he needed to because he's an intensely private person, and he was grumpy and rough. And his coach misinterpreted some interactions as him being homophobic when you knew that that wasn't it at all and Tom was actually a victim himself of homophobia. So you see this big pot of trouble brewing, and then the wind absolutely is taken out of the coach's sails when it's finally pointed out to him that Tom is gay himself. The coach sees everything with a different lens then. I loved how in character it was for Tom to not even bother defending himself. I liked that even though Tom was a baby gay, he never made Carter feel bad deliberately. He never used him as an experiment, or talked down to him or hurt him. He was decisive about how he felt about Carter and he had feelings as well as sexual attraction towards him. Tom was a really loving person, he wasn't a partier, he wasn't about appearances, he just wanted someone to be with in the quiet moments and Carter fit so well with him and made him happy. It was so sweet how every time Tom came home and saw that his lights were on (i.e. Carter was in the house, it made him so happy. Some notable moments: "“Huh,” Stoney says, skating up to me and a couple other guys. “If I kiss a dude, will they chant my name? Anybody wanna test that out with me?”. “You score a goal in the first five minutes, I’ll kiss you myself,” Kapski says. “Get a hat trick tonight, and I’ll even give you tongue.”" Omg, I love Tommaso's mom! "But when Tommaso is sent to the penalty box for tripping somebody, and Brooklyn gets a power play, I start stress-eating the fries. “That was a bullshit call, ref!” Emilia shouts. “Does your wife know that you’re fucking us?”. I choke on a French fry. “Sorry,” Tommaso’s mom says, patting me on the back. “I’m from New Jersey.”" Stoney (Tom's teammate is so funny) "“Do you think I look good enough to vote for?” He actually bats his eyelashes at Carter. “I’m in third place, and I could really use your support.” Carter gives me a confused glance. “There’s an online competition going on at Sportsballs,” I explain. “Hottest local athlete. Stoney wants the title bad.”. “It’s the sexiest local athlete,” Stoney corrects me. “Don’t you think I deserve to win?”. “Sure, man.” I point at the bottle of red wine a waiter is offering and wait as he pours some into my glass. “As long as you realize you’re volunteering yourself for the spank bank of every queer dude in Colorado.”. “Work it, Stoney,” Newgate says. “Work it hard. Someone’s going to win. Why not you?”. “That’s right,” Stoney says. “Why not me?”" *FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink. **Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 31, 2024
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Apr 2024
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Mar 31, 2024
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Paperback
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| 3.94
| 31,861
| May 02, 2022
| May 02, 2022
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liked it
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**spoiler alert** Tropes: workplace romance, mafia, age gap, secret identity Feels: 3/5 Steam*: 2.5/5 Kinks: n/a Angst: medium HEA: yes Pairing: MF Triggers **spoiler alert** Tropes: workplace romance, mafia, age gap, secret identity Feels: 3/5 Steam*: 2.5/5 Kinks: n/a Angst: medium HEA: yes Pairing: MF Triggers/potential icks/content warnings: violence, murder, parent death, graphic attempted SA on page, sexual harrassment, unsafe sex, heart attacks Liam is 39, Kiara's 24. He is the head of the Irish mafia. She is the secret daughter of one of his men, her father wanted to keep her out of the mafia life. She's successfully stayed oblivious to her father's role in the mafia until her father has a heart attack and she decides to seek a better job and ends up employed at Liam's legitimate business. Liam sees her from time to time and he feels attraction and protectiveness towards her, which is unusual for him. Liam's evil stepbrother Finn is her boss there and he has his slimy eyes on her. He starts harassing her and escalating his sexual harassment upon her. Liam hears a woman screaming at work one day and walks in on Kiara badly beaten and fighting off Finn. He shoots at Finn as he runs away but stays and gets her medical attention. It's too bad he didn't kill Finn then, because Finn is a real threat for the rest of the book, he wants to make a power grab and steal the power from Liam. Liam takes Kiara home after she's out of the hospital and protects her. But he also realizes he's falling in love with her and he's not willing to let her return to her apartment. Finn being a threat and still out there gives him an excuse to keep her with him. And she starts to fall for him. It's a slower burn, the first kiss is at 64% but they quickly hook up after that. This was a decent story. I liked that Liam cared about his men and warned when they passed away. I like that Liam fell first and that he told her pretty soon about his feelings. He didn't play any games with her, he was in it. Kiara was a nice enough FMC, a little underdeveloped personality wise, but she seemed kind to people, friendly, a little too accepting of being owned by a man but she did put boundaries on the relationship for her sake so that took some strength. I liked that there was no other man or other woman drama. There were some things that I didn't like too: - Liam has some phobias. He can't stand physical touch and he can't eat food prepared by other people. I didn't like how his phobias were handled. We got to the 55% mark before there was any attempt to explain. I didn't really get how a person could be so phobic around physical touch but it didn't prevent him from having sex. Kind of makes you wonder what kind of a lover Liam was, he must have been extremely selfish before Kiara, and that's a bit of an ick. I disliked how all of his phobias evaporated when it came to Kiara, she was just a magical exception to the rule. And as soon as he touched her the first time and didn't have a negative reaction or ate something she gave him the first time, he just with 100% confidence leapt to thinking that every time after would be fine and she would always be an exception for him. He never reacted badly to her so that ended up being true. But this wasn't a realistic representation of phobias and it got on my nerves because of my parallel personal experiences. - It's kind of weird how they go from such danger, so many deaths to talking about raising kids and getting married. It's not safe. There should be some hesitance and discussion of safety. It was missing depth. They just glazed over that reality. And there were some other moments too where Kiara just accepted danger and Liam's dark side too easily, so easily that it made her seem dumb to just fall in line. I would have liked more complexity, more internal turmoil. Some notable moments: "Will tilts his head. “So Collin told me you hugged him.” I let out a silent chuckle. “Just happened in the moment. I was glad the kid survived.” “But you won’t fucking hug me,” he says, all disgruntled. My eyebrows fly up. “You want a fucking hug?” “Oh no. Don’t want you to feel uncom–” I grab hold of his shoulder and yank him to me." Ha! Liam yelling at the bodyguard to hold his wife's damn hand when she's giving birth! "“Kiara’s havin’ contractions. You better come. I don’t know what to fuckin’ do. I wasn’t trained for– You’re breakin’ my fuckin’ hand!” “Don’t shout at me,” Kiara yells, then she growls, “Don’t you dare let go.” “You hold her fucking hand, Declan. I swear I’ll shoot you in the knee if you let go,” I threaten him as I take the emergency stairs down because I don’t have time for the elevator." *FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink. **Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 18, 2024
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Mar 18, 2024
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Mar 18, 2024
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Kindle Edition
| |||||||||||||||||
| 4.01
| 22,616
| Jun 20, 2022
| Jun 20, 2022
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really liked it
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**spoiler alert** Tropes: Cinderella retelling, workplace romance, mafia, age gap, hurt/comfort Feels: 3/5 Steam*: 2.5/5 Kinks: n/a Angst: medium HEA: ye **spoiler alert** Tropes: Cinderella retelling, workplace romance, mafia, age gap, hurt/comfort Feels: 3/5 Steam*: 2.5/5 Kinks: n/a Angst: medium HEA: yes Pairing: MF Triggers/potential icks/content warnings: abuse, violence, murder, references to characters being sex trafficked or SA'd, dead parents, trauma Gabriel is 38. He is the head of the Turkish mafia. When he was 8 years old, his parents were murdered in front of him by Tymon Mazur. Gabriel wants revenge, he's wanted it his whole life and he's plotted. He's just waiting for the right time. And it's now, he's ready to make his move. Lara is 22. She has lived in Tymon's house her entire life. She is the daughter of one of his servants. She started working for him when she was 12 years old, when her mother got sick and suddenly was disappeared. Lara was abused horrifically. She was never allowed to have relationships or friendly exchanges with her fellow servants. She had the fear of God drilled into her, that any error or slight would be met with fierce punishment. Tymon regularly killed his servants for their perceived failures, and sometimes for his own entertainment. She was whipped fiercely regularly. She's scarred. She's a virgin. She is a sweet soul, but she cowers in fear, she's delicate emotionally because of her trauma. When Gabriel attacks Tymon's house trying to kill him, Tymon escapes. Gabriel accidentally shoots Lara. He decides to take her as a hostage to interrogate because he thinks she may know things. She has a bit of a long recovery / interrogation period. And then he realizes he needs to either kill her, send her back to Tymon, or set her free. And he decides to hire her as a maid himself. She's a very hard worker. She quickly earns the affection and respect of the family servants that are very close to him and his grandmother. She is so incredibly vulnerable. She is so full of fear. Everybody wants to protect her. Even Gabriel. Lara isn't the most attractive of women, she's a bit plain, she's actually grateful for that because it meant she didn't end up raped. There isn't an instalust relationship between Gabriel and Lara. They interact a lot and gradually he becomes protective of her, she comes out of her shell and starts to trust him to keep her safe, and once she starts feeling safe she starts being aware of her sexuality and being attracted to him as a man. From the beginning though Gabriel has been disarmed by her and preoccupied with thoughts of her, which is nice. And it's nice that he wasn't perving on her from the beginning. She was not ready for anything like that. Overall this was a enjoyable book. I usually prefer my female characters to be a bit more badass and a bit more sassy, but Lara was just so pure hearted and had been through so much trauma and she was trying to hold herself together. And it was entertaining to see her earn everyone's affection, turn everyone protective of her with no guile whatsoever. There were some things I didn't like but they didn't impact my overall enjoyment much, so I didn't ding this book in the Stars much: - It's a bigger age gap than I prefer. - There was a scene where he gave her permission to have a crush on him. And that was just awkward as f***. Dumb. - At one point she buys him a $5,000 fountain pen with the money he has given her. It's out of character for someone who has never had any money to make a luxury purchase like this - I didn't like Gabriel's attitude towards her virginity. The feminist in me rebelled and recoiled. At one point he gives her a vibrator and tells her to get herself off with it while he's out of town, but he drills into her to not break her hymen because he wants to. You know how a toddler will stare you dead in the eye as you beg it not to throw food off the high chair, and it will just release the food on the floor as if they are dropping the mic? If I was her, I would have a toddler reaction, stare him dead in the eye and pop my own hymen as an FU to him. - In this series, every MMC gets to a point where they have to reach out to Viktor / the Priesthood alliance for help. It's a little repetitive from book to book. It's always the same cycle! Some notable moments: "Her eyebrows knot tighter together, and she looks extremely vulnerable. The sight makes my heart melt. Now I understand why this woman has Nisa wrapped around her little finger. Hurting Lara would equate to kicking a puppy. Suddenly I have the urge to set her at ease, not because it’s what Nisa wants, but because I don’t want this innocent creature living in terror." *FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink. **Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 20, 2024
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Mar 21, 2024
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Mar 16, 2024
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| B0CKQ54HBW
| 4.29
| 623
| unknown
| Mar 06, 2024
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really liked it
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**spoiler alert** Tropes: workplace romance, sports romance Feels: 4/5 Steam*: 3/5 Kinks: n/a Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MM Triggers/potential icks/conte **spoiler alert** Tropes: workplace romance, sports romance Feels: 4/5 Steam*: 3/5 Kinks: n/a Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MM Triggers/potential icks/content warnings: bit of pining This book starts off with Grant tutoring Deacon the football player in college because he's failing statistics. Grant is 2 years younger but ahead of him in college because he skipped grades because he's a genius. They were both attracted to each other back then, but neither of them made a move. The chance for them to become something more after the tutoring was done, it was cut short when Grant left university early because an investor wanted him to launch the tech software he was working on sooner, not willing to wait for him to graduate. The offer was too good money-wise an opportunity wise for Grant to say no. It was the right decision for him, he became a billionaire with his technology software. Deacon became a successful NFL player too. 12 years later, Deacon's NFL team is mired in scandal. It became a real toxic environment because of bad people in power. Those people have been ousted but the team is in chaos and needs to be rebuilt. Deacon is 35 and ready to retire, burned out from the negative experience. Grant hears in the news about what's going on, he's followed Deacon's career all this time, and he doesn't want Deacon to retire in scandal and have a spoiled Legacy. He swoops in and buys the Condors, his team. He says it's an investment, but really it's about Deacon. He convinces Deacon to stay and work with him to rebuild the team. He wants Deacon to give it a year and then retire on better terms. They spend time together, they work together, they become work partners and trust and respect and like each other. That sexual tension that they didn't acknowledge before is under the surface simmering. They don't talk about it at first but they both know that it's mutual be attraction but that they shouldn't do anything about it because there's too much scandal already with this team. They spend a good portion of the book platonic. But then some circumstances press the right way and the next thing they know they're not platonic anymore and they're deeply in love and committed to each other. They have to keep the change in their relationship a secret but they fail and then they have to deal with a lot of NFL drama. I do really enjoy this author's books. She creates characters with a lot of depth and she creates an intense emotional connection between the characters. They usually have very mature communication and a healthy partnering relationship between them. Low angst. Good sexual tension built up a nice steam. There's a lot of things that I appreciate! I loved how deeply Grant and Deacon cared about each other. And they always trusted and had faith in the other. There was no misunderstanding trope between them which was refreshing. I also enjoyed the friendly dynamic between the team. It was funny and cute how everybody saw that there was something between Grant and Deacon before anything had even happened. They had heart eyes for each other and everyone could see it and teased Deacon about it. On the negative side though, I do think she makes too many references to couples from past books that appear. The odd reference would be endearing and a fond revisit, but there's just so many couples that she references in one book that you can't keep track of all the characters, or even if you can it's a bit distracting and it takes up pages unnecessarily and doesn't add a ton of value to the story. It also is long past the point of being believable, how many lgbtqia+ couples are in the NFL. It's not even that I want "believable", I'm happy for representation in sports and a lack of homophobia and toxicity! But it's gotten to the point where you can't ignore the elephant in the room. I also think the pace of this book was off a little bit. It took too long for plot things to happen, the story was conveyed in more pages than it needed to to progress the plot. Probably could have shaved 100 pages off of the book and it would have seemed a bit more natural of a pace. Felt a bit like things were plodding along at times. Some notable moments: "“He told me he loved me,” Grant said shyly, turning around and seeing Darcy’s face light with joy. “Oh, honey,” she said and in a second she was across the kitchen, wrapping her arms around him. “I’m so happy for you.” “Yeah?” Grant’s voice cracked. He was so happy for him. “Yeah.” “We’re gonna make sure you can keep this, keep him,” Darcy said in a no-nonsense voice as she pulled back. “Promise me you’re not going to give him up, not when he makes you this happy. No matter what happens. How hard it gets.”" "“If you want me to leave, at any point in the future, you’re gonna have to say so. Because I won’t. I don’t ever want to.” “Even if—” “No,” Deacon said. “Just no?” Grant turned in his arms and pinned him with a look. “I love you,” Deacon said." "“You bet on us getting together,” Deacon stated bluntly, standing up and striding over to where Carter was very absorbed in whatever was on his phone’s screen. Deacon plucked it out of his hands before Carter could react. And yep, sure enough, there it was. A list—practically of the entire fucking team, quite a few staff members, and even Darcy—Grant was going to shit a brick when he saw this—of everyone who’d bet on them." *FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink. **Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Mar 06, 2024
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Mar 07, 2024
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Mar 06, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| B0CRGGYYR1
| 4.02
| 3,767
| Feb 22, 2024
| Feb 22, 2024
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it was ok
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**spoiler alert** Tropes: mafia, enemies to lovers, second chances Feels: 1/5 Steam*: 3/5 (there was a lot of sex but it was just smutty and not really **spoiler alert** Tropes: mafia, enemies to lovers, second chances Feels: 1/5 Steam*: 3/5 (there was a lot of sex but it was just smutty and not really romantic or sensual) Kinks: n/a Angst: medium HEA: yes Pairing: MF Triggers/potential icks/content warnings: forced marriage, cheating (but not between FMC and MMC), violence, murder, alcoholism, miscarriage, repeated unsafe sex Full disclosure, I didn't like this book. And I can't really review it without spoiling a whole bunch of things. Because I want to vent about them. So fair warning this is a spoiler filled review. Alistair is 34 and a lawyer to a lot of sketchy clients and powerful families. Eloise is 29, she is the daughter of a mafiaso and a lawyer herself but she hasn't been practicing recently for various reasons. They met in college and they had a enemies / bullying relationship. Their tension culminated in them having a one-night stand. But things between them got f***** up due to people interfering and misunderstandings. They both blamed each other and have hated the other person since. In the 10 years since then, Alistair has had a successful life and moved on. Eloise hasn't had as good of a run. Alistair got her pregnant 10 years ago, then she miscarried and nearly died, and he ghosted and blocked her because he thought she slept with some other guys, which she did not. Eloise has avoided men for eight or nine years. Then she was forced into an arranged marriage a year ago. But she doesn't have sex with her husband. Then in the present she meets Alistair when her husband becomes a client of his law firm. Her shitty husband wants Eloise installed as an employee as a condition of him becoming a client, because obviously he wants to use her at the company to do something sketchy. Anyone with common sense would realize that interference in their cases is coming and people are at risk of losing their cases and being disbarred if Eloise touches anything for her husband. But nobody foresees any problem and they all just agree. Alistair and Eloise bicker at work when they're forced to work together but quickly start f******. And then criminal s*** goes down with her husband. But Alistair and Eloise are in love... Lol. This book was ridiculous to me. I honestly do not see how they could have fallen in love either 10 years ago or in the present. There were some comments thrown in about how the other person feels like home to them and there was a cheesy recurring theme of them asking each other "tell me something that no one else knows about you", but they didn't spend time together in a non-sexual way and they didn't actually ever behave towards the other person in a kind way so there was no believability to them developing any real feelings for each other. Honestly, the characters just seemed really attracted to each other and not having any feelings. These guys just had wild f*** fests when they were in each other's company, it was really stupid because it was in dangerous locations and they were so likely to get caught, that it just made me think they were stupid and unprofessional. I didn't like how many flashbacks there were in this book. It seemed overly used. These lawyers did a lot of s*** that could get them disbarred. I didn't like the the way the author handled Eloise's sexuality. Alistair was the only person that she ever had sex with. She was a virgin before him when they hooked up when she was 19. It seems unrealistic and patriarchal to say that she wouldn't have sex in the 10 years after that. They had her say she was traumatized by her miscarriage, but I I think it's misogynistic to make her stay celibate. And it was unrealistic that her mafioso husband who f***** other woman and killed people in front of her wouldn't have raped her/forced her. Though I'm happy she escaped that fate. Then Eloise gets butt hurt when she's confronted with texts from another woman that Alistair had sex with, and she s*** shames him for being with tons of women. I don't think he did anything wrong, she has no right to be hurt by his sex life when they weren't together. But it does piss me off that they had an unequal experience during the 10 years when they were apart, where she kept herself celibate and he f***** his way through women, she should have just gotten to live her life and have her own experiences. Alistair didn't deserve 10 years of celibacy from Eloise. Something else that was really stupid was when Eloise was hiding out from her husband at the hotel. This woman is delusional to reality. She's so relaxed during this time. She has a murderous Mafia husband in the background ready to kill her and everyone she loves at any moment and she's just chilling as if this isn't going to bite her in the ass at any moment. I didn't have a lot of moments I liked during this book, but here's one funny one... "“Whatcha doing here, T?” I ask. She gives me a funny look. “You mean aside from the fact that my husband runs the joint?” She shrugs. “Not much. Just making sure my kneepads are in the glory-hole booth for later.”" *FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink. **Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Feb 22, 2024
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Feb 22, 2024
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Feb 22, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| B0CTMH8B8T
| 4.11
| 2,013
| Feb 16, 2024
| Feb 16, 2024
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really liked it
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**spoiler alert** Tropes: workplace romance, grumpy/sunshine, forced proximity Feels: 3/5 Steam*: 1.5/5 Kinks: n/a Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MM Triggers **spoiler alert** Tropes: workplace romance, grumpy/sunshine, forced proximity Feels: 3/5 Steam*: 1.5/5 Kinks: n/a Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MM Triggers/potential icks/content warnings: none This Novella was about Ash and Dominic. They've been working together for three and a half years and share an office. Dominic is a grump, Ash is the sunshine in this relationship. They bicker, banter, and insult each other all the time, that's their dynamic. But they're both secretly attracted to each other. When Ash finds out that Dominic knows sign language, Dominic signs something at him mysteriously. And Ash eventually figures out that it was something about wanting him. And that makes Ash aware of his feelings and have to contemplate making a move, whether it would be worth the risk to their working relationship. Spoiler, it is. LOL I have to say first of all, I have a complex relationship with novellas. I generally don't like them because they're just not long enough to tell a decent story most of the time. I can't compare a novella to a regular full size book in a fair way. So when I'm judging novellas, I always judge them according to lower standards, what I call novella standards. So with that in mind I would say this is a 3.5 star read for a novella. It was cute but kind of syrupy. Unrealistic and kind of kitschy with the repeated sign language references. But I did like the grumpy/sunshine element and their banter. Some notable moments: "How did I not realize Dominic was tense about giving his presentation? The signs are all there. The tightness in his jaw. The small crease in his brow. The way his eyes keep darting around the gathered crowd. I lower my voice. “What do you need? Do you want me to grab you a cup of coffee? A glass of water? Vial of the tears of twenty unicorns?” His lips quirk up slightly. “While I’m interested to see your unicorn procurement skills, a glass of water would be great.”" "My ears roar in the stretched-out silence before he finally speaks. “Are you seriously asking me to marry you while wearing Spandex?” The vice around my chest loosens. “We kissed for the first time when you were wearing your Where’s Waldo hat. I figure we don’t have much of a standard to live up to.”" *FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink. **Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Feb 26, 2024
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Feb 26, 2024
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Feb 16, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| B0CRBG178F
| 4.22
| 7,843
| Apr 18, 2024
| Apr 18, 2024
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it was amazing
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**spoiler alert** Tropes: friends to lovers, idiots to lovers, double bi-awakening, workplace romance Feels: 5/5 Steam*: 4/5 Kinks: praise kink, liking **spoiler alert** Tropes: friends to lovers, idiots to lovers, double bi-awakening, workplace romance Feels: 5/5 Steam*: 4/5 Kinks: praise kink, liking taking orders, dirty talk, toys Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MM Triggers/potential icks/content warnings: fear of parents being homophobic Five stars! This book is definitely a keeper and future comfort reread for me! Top tier! It had everything Miles is 24. He is a goalie who is finally in his rookie year in the NHL after doing his time in the lower leagues. He is very close to his parents and his team is in his hometown so he lives with his parents, happily because he's so close to them. He's also afraid they're homophobic because they've always said things like Love The sinner, hate the sin. He's always identified as straight but really it's out of fear of homophobia from his parents. When he was in college he was part of the frat group in the frat wars series and he saw a bunch of his frat brothers coming out. It opens his eyes, made him curious, made him try pegging and love it which should have been a sign. Miles is a very friendly guy. He introduces himself to his team by bringing everyone friendship bracelets he made them. He's quirky, he has pet rocks that are his lucky charm but he talks to, and he names the net and talks to her. He gives off the frat boy / idiot vibe. Cody Bilson is 31. He's been divorced four times. He didn't have a good relationship with his parents and he's always seeking a serious relationship to compensate, but he jumps too fast, gets desperate, ties people to him and is clingy and then realizes they aren't a good match. He's swearing off women even as casual hookups to prevent himself from glomping on and repeating his cycle. He's a veteran NHL player but he moves to Miles team to escape Seattle where all of his exes are. Miles and Cody instantly have a connection. They become fast BFFs and get a bromance going. They fit well together, somehow they are exactly what the other person needs in their life. Miles volunteers to keep Cody from giving into temptation with women and becoming clingy. But that accidentally morphs into them hooking up with each other so that Miles can get someone to peg him and Cody can get someone to have sex with him that he won't immediately propose to. But they care about each other so much that there is no way this ends with them not falling in love. But there's complications of course with their relationship because their teammates they don't want to come out and create all kinds of media attention and miles is afraid that coming out will blow up his relationship with his parents and he wants them to be part of his life. There's so much I love about this, so here's the things I loved, kind of in chronological order: - Aleks and Gabe are my babies! I love them from their own book. Them, Ezra and Anton, and now Miles and Cody are my favorite Puckboys. At the start of the book they appeared a bunch because Cody was on their team. And every time they spoke they ate, they had beautiful effortless zingers. The way they just tolerated Cody's antics with a sigh. - The way I clapped with all the Frat Wars references! I loved that series and I was so happy to see the friend group continuing to pal around and be supportive of each other. Love those glimpses into their lives. - I love humor in my romance books and this had laugh out loud moments of hilarity sprinkled throughout it as well as deep emotional moments. The humor just fit right in place, it was a natural part of all the character relationship dynamics. I enjoyed every minute. I'm going to have a tough time picking my favorite moments to highlight at the end of my review because there were so many of them. - I love Cody's ugly dog - Slutty tapeworm. These guys are so romantic. Not. Lol - I loved every single moment with Lucia. Damon would be proud of her. She's basically a female Damon. Also, good on the boys for communicating openly with Lucia. They made her question her life decisions. But they weren't that bad of a PR nightmare, they kept her in the loop, more TMI than she wanted, but she was prepared! - Cody weaponizing his bisexuality against Tripp and Dex - Tripp still having to put up with being called Human Tripp. I mildly feel bad for all the readers who haven't read the Sadenverse and are not getting the inside jokes from other books. But I enjoy them so much, Saxon and Eden keep going please I beg! - I love that I never thought these guys were going to hurt each other deliberately. There was never any miscommunication trope or artificial external villains. I'm not the kind of reader that enjoys sitting on pins and needles, anxious about when/whether one MC is going to do something that hurts the other MC terribly. It's a horrible, anxious headspace. I much prefer a book like this one, where the characters care about each other so much that they wouldn't intentionally hurt them. I love when the tension in a love story is not lack of care. I have such a weakness for that. - I love that Cody knows Miles well enough to read him. He knows he's worried about his parents and not hesitant or regretful about their relationship - I loved how Miles came out to his parents. What he said was beautiful and and his parents reaction was a pleasant surprise to me. I wish all humans treated people who were different from them as if the most important person in their life could turn out to be that difference. I think there would be a lot less hate in the world, a lot more acceptance and understanding. - I loved how Miles and Cody came out to their teammates. And then the world in the next moment. It was hilarious how it happened as them having a conversation in front of their teammates and their poor teammates struggling to compute what they were hearing as the bromance transformed into romance in their heads. And them immediately offering support. - Ezra and Anton, my OG mother fucking babies. Loved every elements of their appearance in the book. Ezra was so Ezra. The attempted lesson about docking. I'm just so happy with this book. I had 50 annotations in this book and they were all good moments. I have no negative notes for this book. Which is kind of crazy for me because I am a critical person and in my reviews I like to state what I enjoyed and what I disliked just for my record. So even if I enjoyed 98 out of 100 things in a book, I will still list the two things that I didn't like even though they were minor in comparison to everything I liked. Also, people, I think it's happening! I've been wanting a Puckboy book to feature a hockey player and ref. It would be gold. I just know they would do it so well. And in this book Easton AKA middle Kiki made reference to his brother's best friend being a ref and how his brother would not let them hook up. Gimme, gimme. Now. Some notable moments: "“I’m telling you, we could be fucking center ice, and they’d still be all, ‘Aww, that’s a bromantic pregame ritual.’ I really don’t think we have anything to worry about with the media, maybe not even with the team."" "I don’t look up as I force all the feelings out of me. “So I’m bi, and I think I have known for a while, but I’ve never given myself time to think of it as an option because the last thing I ever wanted to do was disappoint you. Or make you love me less. But then I met Bilson, and there was no way to stop myself from falling for him, and now that I know what it’s like to be loved without bullshit expectations, it’s made it pretty damn clear that I can’t change who I am. You’re the ones who have to change your mindset. If you want me in your life and if you love me how I’ve always thought you did, you need to figure it out fast. I’m not straight. I’ve never been straight. And I know that queer people scare you or make you uncomfortable or whatever the hell the Bible teaches, but please. Please try to remember you love me, a real person you made, more than some imaginary dude in the sky.”" I love Saxon and Eden for giving us scenes like this. "Miles knocks, and as soon as Lucia answers, he turns on his boyish charm. “I have bad news for you, Chia.” She slumps. “What have you two done now?” “Nothing. Everything. Nothing bad, I mean.” Miles loses some of his confidence. “It’s that your and my impending marriage is off.” “Oh no,” she deadpans. “How will I cope? Please, tell me why we could never be?” “I’m a taken man now.” She glances between me and Miles, and she slumps. “You two didn’t run off and get married, did you?” “Why do I feel like that’s directed at you?” Miles asks me." Little D chirping on Ezra as per usual. And Anton not even able to defend his man. "Asher rubs his jaw. “I wish I could say this was a new low for Ezra, but sadly, this is just a new medium for him.” Anton agrees. “I should protest on my man’s behalf, but I really can’t. He peeled a carrot in the shape of an uncut dick.”" *FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink. **Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 19, 2024
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Apr 20, 2024
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Feb 13, 2024
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Kindle Edition
| ||||||||||||||||
| B0CTD3GCDG
| 4.19
| 2,791
| Feb 09, 2024
| Feb 09, 2024
|
liked it
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**spoiler alert** Tropes: monster/human, paranormal Feels: 2/5 Steam*: 1.5/5 (there was a lot of sex, but it wasn't sexy or really romantic, so I'm rati **spoiler alert** Tropes: monster/human, paranormal Feels: 2/5 Steam*: 1.5/5 (there was a lot of sex, but it wasn't sexy or really romantic, so I'm rating steam low) Kinks: monster sex, toys, kinky creative acrobatic sex Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MM Triggers/potential icks/content warnings: cheating ex, hating your job, immaturity, potty humour 2.5 stars, but rounding up because I love the author. This book is about 39-year-old Taylor and 36-year-old Holt. Taylor is an office worker stuck in the dead end job that he's not excited for. He was dumped 4 years ago by his cheating ex and he hasn't moved on. He lives a very boring life and he's one bad day away from flying off the handle and making a spectacular scene at work and rage quitting. A case of mistaken identity drives Taylor and Holt together. People think Taylor is the stripper Holt hired. After the misunderstanding is cleared up, they hang out and open up to each other. Holt is a monster that runs a secret paranormal wrestling business. They start hanging out more and they like each other. Pretty soon they're dating. My brain is kind of all over the place after reading this book. I love the author. She's written a lot of books I've loved. But I didn't really enjoy this book a lot. It's not a romance really, it's not romantic or sensual or sexy or book boyfriend escapism. It's really over the top monster humor book with tons of potty humor and a side of monster erotica and slow building feels. It's not my typical read. And I think it was just too much potty humor for me. It could have used a bit more restraint. I'm a fan of unhinged humor, but this was a whole other genre. Thoughts I had reading.... - The characters were interesting but they weren't as endearing as some of her other characters. And there was just too many characters, there were so many names I couldn't keep track of them. A lot of the characters had two names, their real name and the wrestling name and sometimes even a third nickname. - There was a bit of world building, but the story in the background wasn't anywhere near as compelling as her Folk and Monstrous worlds. - I got sick of Taylor mentioning that it's been 4 years since he's been with anyone. He mentions it over ten times. Over and over again while he's in sexual situations with Holt, and it just takes away from him thinking about Holt. - Page 167 - ew. Why would Holt want to hang out all afternoon wearing cum crusted on the inside sweatpants? How uncomfortable! There were a few moments of questionable cum stuff in the book - I liked some of the humor. There was some great funny moments in there. But it was just so much potty humor, gross too often for me. - I am intrigued by Seb and Larkin. I do want to read their story but I hope that it's not as slapstick as this book was. - SPOILER. The scene at the end where a character quits their job... is Lily okay? does she have a lot of past job trauma to work through? This takes the cake a bit as far as quitting your job goes. But it's also just ew, grotesque and immature character behavior. Some notable moments: I wouldn't say this was a good moment, but it is representative of the potty humor, I'm kind of the lack of sexiness and book boyfriend qualities! "“Did we, um, leave a mess in your office?” I let out a shaky snort, then finally had a sip of water before setting the bottle down. “A little. You’d changed the sign to say HotSex Corporation. And we, um, farted in Chase’s office.” “Oh god, yeah, I remember.” Holt cringed. “I’d had one brewing for a while, so that was definitely my idea.”" "“I think they’re a little too into it, though.” Larkin pushed the door open. “Walked past their dressing room yesterday and heard them in there saying, ‘That’s right, baby, fly toward that lightbulb. Fuuuuck, you’re a dirty little bogong moth, aren’t you?’ I mean, I guess they could’ve been talking about an actual moth in the room, but still. Kinda hot in a weird way, I guess?”" "Seb was leaning against the wall beside the door reading the paper. He glanced up and went still when he saw us, his face remaining expressionless even as his eyes flicked down to the erection straining the front of my slacks. “Seb.” I gave him a brief nod without breaking my determined stride. Wordlessly, he opened the door for us and stepped aside." "I laughed, pure joy bubbling in my chest. “It’s appropriately extra. Still romantic, but at least it’s not the wrestlers spelling it out with the letters painted on their asses.” He froze, then huffed in exasperation. “Fuck, that would’ve been so much better. This is why I hired you as our marketing manager, babe.”" *FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink. **Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Feb 12, 2024
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Feb 13, 2024
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Jan 27, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| unknown
| 3.86
| 13,693
| Jul 28, 2022
| unknown
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really liked it
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**spoiler alert** Tropes: workplace romance, baby making deal Feels: 3.5/5 Steam*: 2.5/5 Kinks: n/a Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MF Triggers/potential icks/ **spoiler alert** Tropes: workplace romance, baby making deal Feels: 3.5/5 Steam*: 2.5/5 Kinks: n/a Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MF Triggers/potential icks/content warnings: parents that mess up 3.5 Stars Ava is 36 years old. She was raised by single mother who is a bit of a hippie, who's always protesting or advocating for a cause. And Ava needs to be the adult in the relationship. Ava works as an editor of a beloved children's book series. She doesn't have a lot of faith in relationships or men and she's decided she wants to be a mother. She's looking into artificial insemination options. Her work Nemesis is Myles. He's 43 and works as an editor at the New York publishing company that bought out the company she works for. They've interacted virtually occasionally since then. But now he has come to her office because of a work crisis. He finds out that she's trying to have a baby, and he offers to be her donor. And it turns into more. This was a sweet little story. The characters were likeable. There were some nice side characters. There were some funny moments. It was a little predictable. And I didn't really believe how fast Myles went from not wanting to be an active dad after all the work he did with raising his brothers to wanting to be a dad. A little too easy, a little too light. Some notable moments: "“I know how to dodge somebody running for me,” I tell him. “I did it enough times with the cops growing up.” He holds his hand up. “I’m going to park that thought for a minute. We’ll come back to it later, because I want to know why you were running from the cops.” He takes a deep breath. “If you play, you’re on my team and you keep close at all times.”" "“You need sugar,” Lauren says. “And lots of it.” “We ate all the donuts.” Ryan looks apologetic. “Sorry.” Lauren rolls her eyes. “It’s okay, I own a donut shop.” She looks at me and Sophie. “Want to get out of here?” “Yes,” the two of us say in unison. Ryan frowns. “You’re getting more donuts? Can I come along?”" *FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink. **Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 24, 2024
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Jan 25, 2024
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Jan 22, 2024
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| B093XYJMRJ
| 4.26
| 3,147
| Jun 03, 2021
| Jun 03, 2021
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liked it
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**spoiler alert** Tropes: workplace romance, insta love on one side, paranormal, found family Feels: 3/5 Steam*: 2/5 Kinks: paranormal species as a kin **spoiler alert** Tropes: workplace romance, insta love on one side, paranormal, found family Feels: 3/5 Steam*: 2/5 Kinks: paranormal species as a kink kind of, toys Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MM Triggers/potential icks/content warnings: violence/murder, war, species/world extermination, abusive/neglectful parents This series is marketed as standalone, but I disagree with that. I don't think readers will be happy if they read this series as a standalone, you get no resolution to the plot until the end of the series and even in the last book over the series it likely won't make sense if you read it without the context of the other books. I did what I usually do for non standalones, which is hold off on reviewing until I've read the whole series and can put it in context. Know that I have read the series. This book follows David, a 463 year old sorcerer. He is second in command to the Lucifer Percy, he's basically number 2 in the CSG organization. He is anal about being organized and on schedule. He is such a dedicated worker he sometimes sleeps in the office rather than going home. Caolan is a 10000 plus year old elf from another dimension that falls instantly in love with David at first sight and wants to woo him. They end up working together as representatives of their species because Caolan's dimension is dying and the people need to migrate to David's world to survive extinction. At first their relationship is forbidden because it would be a distraction but later on they are given the go-ahead to give in to their chemistry and eventually their relationship becomes a PR move, an example of how well the species get along together. 3.5 stars. Yay, we finally get plot closure as this is the final book in this series. I think it's important to say this as a starting point on my review (I said this on other books in this series too)...This author's style of writing has me feeling very conflicted. There are some things that I really like: I like the outrageous wacky funny moments - they remind me fondly of the chaotic OTT humour that Cora Rose uses. I enjoy the found family and the fact that there is an interesting plot outside of the relationships (once I got over the fact that these books are misrepresented as standalone). But there are some things that I really dislike as well, and I've actually decided after reading the 4 books that this author isn't for me, I am not going to read the spinoffs. I'm open if I hear good reviews of her future books, but I'm not interested in the romantic relationships in this world she built. Here's why I don't enjoy her romantic relationships in this world (no real spoilers, but this really is true for all couples): - The relationships come off as casual on one or both MC's side for the majority of the book. Too much of the book happens while the characters just don't like or feel about each other, it doesn't get me invested - The writing style doesn't evoke the senses, it's not got any true sensuality to it. There's some UST but it's more talk then show, yawn. The sex scenes come off as physical rather than having true emotion/senses/longing behind it. - One or both of the characters are hundreds of years old, and some make reference to past loves (completely understandable). Their lifespans are often different as they are different species. The current relationship the book is the subject of comes off as nothing special, as something casual, a footnote in their lives. There's no sense of "this person is it for me". Even when they go into the paired souls concept, the author still makes it seem like there are multiple special people that you can be compatible with, so even then the relationships aren't special. - The author doesn't dive deep into the backgrounds of the characters, she keeps it light and casual, but often you feel like you just read an entire book & you don't know much about the characters, so again, not interested or invested. Some things of note for this review, you can see how I'm all over the place, liking and disliking: - First kiss at 42% - hee hee, I love that Gideon is still such an intimidating grump of a character who only cares about Sam his love interest even four books into the series whenever he's mentioned. Love his resting b**** face - Page 182 - They are only like 2 weeks into their relationship. Seems a little early to be talking about toys livening things up. - Page 200 - He's a powerful sorcerer and he can't even eat up his coffee? Did the author forget she was writing David as a sorcerer? - I'm a little unimpressed by the employees of CSG overall in this series. They kind of suck even though they are so powerful. They keep losing / getting beaten by the bad guys. They don't often use all these powers that they have. It's sometimes comes off as more of a government intrigue given they aren't as actively using powers to win as they could. It makes me think of like Harry Potter and how he was such a special magician, always saving the day. That doesn't really happen in this book series. - Even with the paired souls thing, I don't feel like the relationships are anything special/fated. I know these characters are hundreds of years old so they have to have past relationship history, but the way they talk about past relationships and put so little emotion into the current relationship, the relationships don't feel special. Like, who was Ailise (a paired soul Caolan loved) and what happened to her? The characters are just casual and not sentimental at all. It doesn't feel like there's one fated love and that these characters are going to get to live their lives happily ever after together. It doesn't feel like their life spans are going to align and whatever they have is just temporary. I don't like it. Some notable moments: Ha ha. Another species first thought at getting a phone is give me your trash cute kitten game. "“Wonderful,” Garin says, nodding. “I would like one with the kitten bubble exercise, if that’s possible.” I frown at him. “What kitten bubble exercise?” And how did he learn about it? “Same question,” Sam says. “And also, what even is a kitten bubble exercise?” “Alistair showed it to me. His phone has it. There are kittens in bubbles, and the purpose of the exercise is to return them to their parent cat. It requires strategic thinking.”" "He laughs. “They are hooligans, aren’t they? Even the levelheaded ones. Did you see what Sam did to Alistair? What am I supposed to do about that? Obviously we don’t want people thinking they can just stab their coworkers with pencils—or other office supplies—but on the other hand, there isn’t a person on this plane or the next who hasn’t felt an overwhelming urge to stab Alistair at some stage.”" "Watch out for the piñata, though,” he warns. “I’m not actually sure what’s in it, but they were way too gleeful about it.”" *FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink. **Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 03, 2024
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Jan 04, 2024
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Jan 03, 2024
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Kindle Edition
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| B0CMQ62PB3
| 4.02
| 90
| Dec 18, 2023
| Dec 18, 2023
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liked it
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**spoiler alert** Tropes: workplace romance, animosity to lovers Feels: 2/5 Steam*: 2.5/5 Kinks: n/a Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MM Triggers/potential icks **spoiler alert** Tropes: workplace romance, animosity to lovers Feels: 2/5 Steam*: 2.5/5 Kinks: n/a Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MM Triggers/potential icks/content warnings: minor injury Miles is approximately 27. He works as an NHL mascot and a part-time dance instructor. He's been doing the mascot thing since high school. Scott is around the same age, maybe a little older. He works in PR for the NHL team that Miles is the mascot for. He's only been with the company for less than a year whereas Miles has been doing his job for 5ish years. Scott starts sending emails to Miles trying to give him suggestions for how to do his job. But one he starts off emailing the wrong email address and then getting aggressive about not getting replies and then two the suggestions that he sends come off as bossy interference to Miles. This starts off an animosity filled relationship between the two of them as colleagues. Then Miles gets hurt at work and Scott jumps in to help him out and spend time with him. Next thing they know they're in bed. I think the author made a poor decision with how they wrote this novella. This is a novella and it only has limited pages to it. I get that the author wanted to build up the sense of antagonism between the two characters, rather than drop them immediately into a sexual relationship. But the author should have laid the bread crumbs for the sexual tension between Miles and Scott. But she didn't, like, at all. We got to the 41% mark and they are still basically strangers at that point. The author didn't show Miles thinking of Scott in any personal, romantic, sexual way at all until the 45% mark. He's thinking of him as an annoying fly. We finally got the first hint of sexual attraction between them at the 45% mark and the first kiss at 65%. I am completely fine with even more slow burn than this book was, but I needed to see the bread crumbs of chemistry between the characters earlier! Putting that aside, once they started having sexual tension between them, they had a nice dynamic. Not fully developed of course because this is only a novella and they were already basically halfway through. But there were some decent moments. I liked the humor of their colleagues reaction to them coming out with their relationship. Some notable moments: "“Dude, you know Miles is, like, one of the best mascots in the business, right?” She shook her head and continued to reprimand me. “I mean, I know why my PR guy is always up on my ass. I’m pretty much the cause of all his recent gray hair and I definitely owe the dude money to pay for his ulcer medication. But Miles… Man, he really doesn’t need you sticking your nose into how he mascots. Seriously.”" "Finally, Carina looked away from her phone and up at me. A few blinks and then… “Oh. Are we supposed to be surprised by this? I figured you’d get around to telling us sooner or later.” It was my turn to show all the shock that they weren’t. My mouth dropped open as the words ‘what the hell?’ resounded in my head. “Oh, yeah. We’re so superdy-duper surprised, Scott,” Arved stated sarcastically. Then he added, “Actually, wait. I am a little surprised…by the fact that Blue…uh, Miles, is into you, Scott. I mean, I think everybody in the damned building was aware that you had a thing for him, but for him to actually reciprocate and to be willing to date you… That surprises me a little.”" *FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink. **Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Apr 24, 2024
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Apr 25, 2024
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Dec 12, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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| B0CKBHQQVX
| 4.04
| 5,187
| Jan 18, 2024
| Jan 18, 2024
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it was amazing
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**spoiler alert** Tropes: secret relationship, taboo relationship, stepbrothers Feels: 4/5 Steam*: 3.5/5 Kinks: n/a Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MM Trigger **spoiler alert** Tropes: secret relationship, taboo relationship, stepbrothers Feels: 4/5 Steam*: 3.5/5 Kinks: n/a Angst: low HEA: yes Pairing: MM Triggers/potential icks/content warnings: one on page sex scene with other before the MCs get together 4.5 stars, I enjoyed this Darcy and Wren are 29, separated by weeks. When is the secret illegitimate first born son of Warren Ritcherson, a billionaire businessman. The world thinks Darcy is Warren's son, but really he's not Warren's biological son. They are basically stepbrothers. When Warren dies, Wren is in his will and reluctantly comes to the funeral, and gets involved in the business, with Darcy showing him the ropes. Darcy is a workaholic and very concerned about the company's reputation. He knows Wren is not his brother. Wren starts having suspicions Darcy is keeping a secret and that it's to do with someone's parentage. Both of them are out and gay, and there's a forbidden attraction growing between them. Once Wren forces the truth out of Darcy, that they are not brothers, they pounce on each other because the attraction has been simmering. They decide to keep hooking up in secret, hoping to f*** it out of their systems, trusting that no one will get suspicious because everyone thinks they're brothers. But then they go and fall in love with each other, and it's super hard for them to choose each other when it will create such a scandal and complicate inheritances and the family business. But of course they work it out by the end and get their happily ever after! I liked this book. Wren and Darcy were a good team, a good fit. The tension between them was hot and feelings deep. They were very emotionally wrecked for each other. There was an entertaining push pull dynamic. I loved all the funny moments between friends and brothers and cousins. And the unexpected game of hot potato near the end. Some notable moments: I like the moments of humour "I cast my gaze over the three of them. “You know, this morning, I’d assumed I was all cried out and would be able to get through today without splotchy-faced images all over the news, but the three of you are dangerously close to making me weep. With despair for humanity.”" "My gut hollows because everyone knows nothing good ever follows we need to talk. It’s never followed up with “I bought you a puppy” or “I have a new butt plug to play with.”" This scene! The moment of, we're broken up and I'm miserable without you, and the moment we see eachother again we're angrily and desperately throwing our clothes off! "And as I walk up to my front door, thinking I’m strong as fuck and my resolve won’t break, I see him. Sitting on my porch. Looking like shit. He hasn’t shaved. His eyes are red, hair messy. He’s every bit the same disheveled, heartbroken man I am. “I needed to see you.” The last thread holding on to my strength snaps, and when he stands, I can’t hold myself back. “Inside,” I growl. Darcy’s right behind me as I unlock my door, and we head inside. He doesn’t speak a word. He doesn’t have to. Darcy takes his jacket off as we walk. His tie goes next. By the time we’ve made it to my bedroom, we’re both shirtless." *FYI about steam: I rate steam based on a combination of quality & quantity. I note kink separate from steam because I don't want to underrate steamy reads that don't have much kink. **Note about spoilers: I like to comment on the plot of a book in reviews, so I almost always mark my reviews as containing spoilers. But I try to avoid spoiling the big dramatic moments! As a reader, I personally like to know what I'm getting into before I read a book so I know more about the content and if it's to my taste/mood, so I try to give that information in my reviews for myself when I'm considering rereading and also for other readers. ...more |
Notes are private!
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1
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Jan 20, 2024
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Jan 20, 2024
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Dec 11, 2023
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Kindle Edition
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Jane aka Coughy019
>
Books:
workplace-romance
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| 4.50
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it was amazing
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Aug 10, 2024
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Jul 18, 2024
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| 3.88
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liked it
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May 25, 2024
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May 23, 2024
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| 3.93
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it was amazing
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May 21, 2024
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May 19, 2024
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| 4.08
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liked it
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May 14, 2024
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May 14, 2024
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| 4.18
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it was amazing
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May 11, 2024
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Apr 18, 2024
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| 3.90
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really liked it
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Jul 13, 2024
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Apr 09, 2024
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| 4.06
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liked it
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Apr 11, 2024
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Apr 09, 2024
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| 3.63
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liked it
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Apr 08, 2024
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Apr 08, 2024
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| 4.18
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it was amazing
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Apr 2024
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Mar 31, 2024
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| 3.94
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liked it
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Mar 18, 2024
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Mar 18, 2024
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| 4.01
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really liked it
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Mar 21, 2024
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Mar 16, 2024
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| 4.29
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really liked it
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Mar 07, 2024
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Mar 06, 2024
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| 4.02
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it was ok
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Feb 22, 2024
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Feb 22, 2024
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| 4.11
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really liked it
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Feb 26, 2024
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Feb 16, 2024
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| 4.22
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it was amazing
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Apr 20, 2024
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Feb 13, 2024
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| 4.19
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liked it
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Feb 13, 2024
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Jan 27, 2024
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| 3.86
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really liked it
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Jan 25, 2024
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Jan 22, 2024
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| 4.26
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liked it
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Jan 04, 2024
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Jan 03, 2024
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| 4.02
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liked it
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Apr 25, 2024
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Dec 12, 2023
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| 4.04
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it was amazing
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Jan 20, 2024
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Dec 11, 2023
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