Seas and Greetings

               

Title: Seas and Greetings

Series: Christmas Notch #2.5

Author: Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone

Published: Avon Impulse, July 9, 2024

Pages: 148

Genre: LGBT Romance

The Rules:

No roaming off alone.
No secrets.
No bodyguard/client fraternization.
No olives.

This is Krysta Morton’s last job. She’s done with being a bodyguard and is ready for a real nine to five where work stays at work. But when Addison Hayes’s manager offers Krysta a ridiculous amount of money to keep the high-maintenance singer-turned-influencer safe on a cruise, Krysta can’t make herself say no. Not when the money means that she’ll be able to set her grandma up at the nicest senior living community in town. (It has a brand new pickleball court! And a juice bar!)

Addison Hayes is at the top of her game. After a long and healthy career as a B-list celebrity, she’s successfully made the transition to lifestyle brands and her dream of expanding her empire into hotels and cruises is within reach. With her first branded cruise about to disembark, she’s in dire need of hired security while she curates the passenger experience and oversees the debut run of The Lion and the Lamb, her first attempt at producing a musical (and her ode to all things Twilight).

With Krysta’s no-nonsense attitude, Addison is certain her newly hired bodyguard loathes her. Then a steamy shore excursion reveals that Krysta’s icy shell is hiding a simmering hunger. And if this bodyguard isn’t careful, she might start breaking her own rules…

I know the whole series has queer rep. But....I do find the pattern of featuring MF relationships in the novels and MM and FF relationships in the novellas to be....interesting.

Ratings

Stars: 3/5

Spice: 3/5

My Lady Jane

        

Title: My Lady Jane

Series: The Lady Janies

Author: Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, Jodi Meadows

Publisher: HarperTeen, June 7, 2016

Pages: 474

Genre: YA Historical Fantasy

In My Lady Jane, coauthors Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows have created a one-of-a-kind YA fantasy in the tradition of The Princess Bride, featuring a reluctant king, an even more reluctant queen, a noble steed, and only a passing resemblance to actual history—because sometimes history needs a little help.

At sixteen, Lady Jane Grey is about to be married off to a stranger and caught up in a conspiracy to rob her cousin, King Edward, of his throne. But those trifling problems aren’t for Jane to worry about. Jane gets to be Queen of England.

Like that could go wrong.

I watched the show that was recently released on Amazon Prime, and I HAD to see what the book was all about. The show was very good, but it certainly wasn't a faithful representation of the book. The book was fine. Much more YA than the show would lead you to believe. I will say, Guildford was just as big of a baby in the book as in the show. But he overcame it more quickly in the book, which helped in finishing it. But while I hope for a second season of the show, I don't think I'll continue these books.

Ratings

Stars: 3/5

The Prospects

      

Title: The Prospects

Author: KT Hoffman

Published: The Dial Press, April 9, 2024

Pages: 386

Genre: LGBT Sports Romance

Hope is familiar territory for Gene Ionescu. He has always loved baseball, a sport made for underdogs and optimists like him. He also loves his team, the minor league Beaverton Beavers, and, for the most part, he loves the career he’s built. As the first openly trans player in professional baseball, Gene has nearly everything he’s ever let himself dream of—that is, until Luis Estrada, Gene’s former teammate and current rival, gets traded to the Beavers, destroying the careful equilibrium of Gene’s life.

Gene and Luis can’t manage a civil conversation off the field or a competent play on it, but in the close confines of dugout benches and roadie buses, they begrudgingly rediscover a comfortable rhythm. As the two grow closer, the tension between them turns electric, and their chemistry spills past the confines of the stadium. For every tight double play they execute, there’s also a glance at summer-tan shoulders or a secret shared, each one a breathless moment of possibility that ignites in Gene the visceral, terrifying kind of desire he’s never allowed himself. Soon, Gene has to reconcile the quiet, minor-league-sized life he used to find fulfilling with the major-league dreams Luis inspires.

This triumphant debut romance reveals what’s possible when we allow ourselves to want something enough to swing for the fences.

Sports, second chance, friends to rivals to lovers, queer, etc. What more could you need?! Gene and Luis are SO cute. Gene is one of the most positive characters that is somehow not completely obnoxious! Luis is a very anxious baby. Who has the best emotional support dog in the world. I love them. You will love them.

Ratings

Stars: 5/5

Spice: 3/5

The Rom-Commers

         

Title: The Rom-Commers

Author: Katherine Center

Publisher: St. Martin's Press, July 11, 2024

Pages: 325

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Emma Wheeler desperately longs to be a screenwriter. She’s spent her life studying, obsessing over, and writing romantic comedies—good ones! That win contests! But she’s also been the sole caretaker for her kind-hearted dad, who needs full-time care. Now, when she gets a chance to re-write a script for famous screenwriter Charlie Yates—The Charlie Yates! Her personal writing god!—it’s a break too big to pass up.

Emma’s younger sister steps in for caretaking duties, and Emma moves to L.A. for six weeks for the writing gig of a lifetime. But what is it they say? Don’t meet your heroes? Charlie Yates doesn’t want to write with anyone—much less “a failed, nobody screenwriter.” Worse, the romantic comedy he’s written is so terrible it might actually bring on the apocalypse. Plus! He doesn’t even care about the script—it’s just a means to get a different one green-lit. Oh, and he thinks love is an emotional Ponzi scheme.

But Emma’s not going down without a fight. She will stand up for herself, and for rom-coms, and for love itself. She will convince him that love stories matter—even if she has to kiss him senseless to do it. But . . . what if that kiss is accidentally amazing? What if real life turns out to be so much . . . more real than fiction? What if the love story they’re writing breaks all Emma’s rules—and comes true?

They tell you don't meet your heroes, right? They mean Charlie Yates specifically. He is such a butthead. I mean. Sure, he's been through a lot. And he does have a really cute, if emotionally high-maintenance guinea pic. But he's also kind of how you'd expect an oblivious and highly successful man about Hollywood to be. But don't worry. Quirky Emma will get to the heart of it. I'm really not giving this the credit it deserves in this review. I love a trope, and this book is very meta and very trope heavy. It's a love letter to the rom com. And I love a rom com, in book and movie form!! 

Ratings

Stars: 4/5

Not in Love

     

Title: Not in Love

Author: Ali Hazelwood

Published: Berkley, June 11, 2024

Pages: 394

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.

Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through—and he’s a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can’t stop thinking about. The woman who's off-limits to him.

Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business—one that plays for keeps.

I love the one night stand trope. Especially when you find out your last night lover is your new boss the next day! I do think it's interesting that this book strays from academia, but only to an extent. We've entered the private research sector, Hazelwood fans! But don't worry. It is just as rampant with intrigue as ever. These scientists are shady as heck. 

Ratings

Stars: 4/5

Spice: 3/5

Surviving Skarr

     

Title: Surviving Skarr

Series: Ice Planet Clones #2

Author: Ruby Dixon

Publisher: October 31, 2023

Pages: 300

Genre: Sci-Fi Romance

Overnight, my life has changed to one of sheer survival.

I wake up on a strange alien world covered in ice. I have no memories of myself, not even my name.

And I've resonated to the biggest braggart on the planet. Skarr is a chest-beating alpha male gladiator with lizard genetics and an intense case of self-love. He tells everyone within hearing distance how amazing he is. Bleh.

I want nothing to do with him, but according to the khui, we're soulmates. This means we're bound to have babies and live our lives out together...forever...

Not if I have anything to say about it.

To survive, I'm going to have to figure out who I am, what I am...and what to do about the man who won't shut up about how incredible and perfect I am.

It has to be an act... doesn't it?

As you can guess from the series title, these newbies to Not Hoth are clones. The issue is, a lot of them are illegal clones that don't have the knowledge of being a clone. So they have some access to their "original" memories, but they get to deal with the existential crisis of discovering that those aren't actually things that they have done. They haven't done anything. But some of the clones, specifically the gladiators, do know they're clones. I love it here.

Skarr is a lizard splice, and as you can imagine this does not work well on a frozen planet. He is also an egomaniac, so he's not the most popular guy. And yet, he is the first gladiator to resonate. 

Vivi really struggles with her clone-ness. A crisis of identity if you will. BUT. She was cloned from a woman with a survivalist father and a lot of really useful skills. She is also extremely shy and socially anxious. Which is the exact opposite of Skarr. He is not shy and he wants everyone to know he's the best. My favorite part of this was the way that they care for one another. They pick up the slack for each other and it's perfect. I can't wait to get to know Rem'eb!

Ratings

Stars: 3/5

Spice: 4/5

The Seven Year Slip

       

Title: The Seven Year Slip

Author: Ashley Poston

Publisher: Berkley, June 27, 2023

Pages: 348

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Sometimes, the worst day of your life happens, and you have to figure out how to live after it.

So Clementine forms a plan to keep her heart safe: work hard, find someone decent to love, and try to remember to chase the moon. The last one is silly and obviously metaphorical, but her aunt always told her that you needed at least one big dream to keep going. And for the last year, that plan has gone off without a hitch. Mostly. The love part is hard because she doesn’t want to get too close to anyone—she isn’t sure her heart can take it.

And then she finds a strange man standing in the kitchen of her late aunt’s apartment. A man with kind eyes and a Southern drawl and a taste for lemon pies. The kind of man that, before it all, she would’ve fallen head-over-heels for. And she might again.

Except, he exists in the past. Seven years ago, to be exact. And she, quite literally, lives seven years in his future.

Her aunt always said the apartment was a pinch in time, a place where moments blended together like watercolors. And Clementine knows that if she lets her heart fall, she’ll be doomed.

After all, love is never a matter of time—but a matter of timing.

I don't know what it is about 2024. I have been proposed to this year, and yet somehow grief is sneaking into all of my books this year. And they're all very very beautiful. But here is me manifesting that the grief remain entirely fictional. 

But Clementine is going through it. Grief is weird and it hits her in a big way, and she just sort of stops. She stops so much that she even slips backward in time, exactly 7 years if you hadn't guessed. And it's only then does she seem to start moving forward again. I love a dual timeline book, and this book was definitely that. Maybe even more than that when you get down to it. Maybe it's a Celtic knot of a timeline.

I love the magical realism in Ashley Poston's books. At least the 3 that I've now read. Check your trigger warnings for this book. I highly recommend it, but it deals with some heavy topics. 

Ratings

Stars: 5/5

Spice: 1/5