Jeff Jarvis

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an unbias review.

This is the first book from Julie Cannon I have read and I found that I really like her style. Her character development in this book between Lowe and Faith is wonderful, with the story bouncing back and forth from each character's point of view. The overall story was well done and I enjoyed the couple dealing with their feelings and the tension building until they were finally together.

One minor gripe is the constant complaining about Lowe's parents, how they are so snooty and above everyone else. It seemed that the beginning few chapters hammered this home again and again and again until it became tiresome. I also wanted more out of the ending of the story. It was an abrupt ending. I don't know if there will be a follow-up novel, but it would be good to know where there go with the couple, how they were able to work things out and spend forever together. It left me wanting more at the end.

3.5 stars

I wish there was a way to give 1/2 star ratings here. I would give this a 3.5 instead of just a 3. I very much enjoyed the storyline and it is a very cute holiday novella. With it being a novella, the storyline is rushed a little bit. The main characters hate each other at the very beginning of the book, but it seems like their turn toward friendship takes a hard and fast turn. It felt like more needed to be told to get the characters into that friendship role than was presented. I did enjoy the gradual melting of Brooke's attitude toward the town and toward Christmas. I wish there had been more backstory as to why she disliked both so much apart from struggles with her mother growing up. There are not any hot sex scenes, but I did very much enjoy the kissing scenes.

I believe the story would have been better if it had been extended into a full-length novel to fill in some additional story elements. That said, the story is very sweet and is a good holiday read.

I was provided with a free ARC of this book by NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Jae has such a fantastic writing style with long, slow burns and that trend continues with The Roommate Arrangement. The characters are so well developed and their relationship takes a long time to fully come to fruition. But anticipation builds along with it and when the two finally kiss it is like fireworks going off. It is stunning and beautiful and worth every bit of time you spend reading or listening to the book. I listened to the audiobook for this one and Lori Prince knocks it out of the park with her narration. I'll definitely be listening to this one again.

One of the best lesfic novels I've ever read/listened to. The characters are so well developed and their emotions are palpable. For the audiobook, Lori Prince does such a fantastic job of bringing the words to life. I can't recommend this book enough.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

Perfect Partners is the first book I have read from Maggie Cummings, but it won't be the last. Her writing style is wonderful, allowing characters to develop over time without having you learn everything from the start. Her building of the relationship between the main characters Izzy and Sara was great, a slow build that had me wanting more and more until they finally were together.

It is a sweet story of a police officer, Izzy, who has been given an opportunity to take part in the K-9 training course that Sara is a lead instructor of. Sparks are evident from their first meeting and build as the training goes on. Sara resists her feelings because she has lost so much in her life and if she were part of a relationship with a cop, there would be the risk of losing her too. Over time, her feelings can't be stopped and the two come together and their relationship develops. I won't go into further points in the story so readers can get the full enjoyment of the story themselves.

This is an enjoyable story and one I would recommend highly.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an unbias review.

Emily's Art and Soul is an enjoyable story about a 35-year-old woman who is just coming out of a divorce where she wondered why she was in the relationship in the first place. Her mother has recently died and she is now in charge of taking care of her sister who has Down's Syndrome. Her life has been turned upside down. This is when she meets Andi, a fellow teacher, and becomes friends with her. Over time, Emily begins to realize that she has been hiding who she really is, that she is gay. After playing the field and experiencing some lesbian encounters, she can no longer hide her feelings for Andi and their relationship takes off.

I found for the most part that the story was enjoyable. There were times in the book where I felt the story was too formulaic. The pacing of the story was varied throughout, with some parts being covered almost moment by moment and others were covered at breakneck speed. The last few chapters seemed much too fast, almost like the author was trying to come up with a way to end the book as fast as possible. The interaction with Emily telling her father she was gay, him blowing up at her, the whole fiasco that creates with Andi and then 2 days later her father is ok with her being gay seemed very unrealistic and is part of the pacing issues the book has.

Overall the story is good and I enjoyed the character development between Emily and Andi. It just didn't flow as well as I would have liked and the ending chapters just seemed to fly by way too quickly. It is a good quick read, but not ones of my favorites.

I'm a big fan of Georgia Beers and this book was no exception. SoL was a different style for Beers, going person by person through the lives of people in a town as they interact with one another. In one chapter, you get to know the character, their thoughts, where they are in their life, what they want or need in their life. Somewhere in each chapter, they interact with another person, who you will get to know better in the next chapter. This progresses throughout the book and I found myself looking forward to meeting the next person, even looking to find who that next person was going to be. It was a light read, but it gave me a lot to think about, about how many people we encounter in our routine lives and how those interactions shape other people. I highly recommend this book.

Seemed like a very basic story that was over in a flash. The characters weren't developed and were very 2 dimensional. I wanted more out of this story.

This is a wonderfully romantic love story that takes place around Christmas. It is atypically for me to start a book and not be able to put it down, but that was the case with this one. I read it in less than a day and felt so good reading it the whole time. It is definitely worth reading if you are looking for a good FF love story.

This was a little atypical from the FF romances I have been reading and listening to lately. When I first started reading I actually stopped for a bit because it just wasn't what I was looking for at the time. It seemed like it was going to be a darker book than I was interested in. But I am so glad that I went back to it. While it is a dark story with the main characters dealing with the loss of loved ones, it was also about dealing with the sadness and learning to move on with life and learning to live again. The characters were well developed and the story very realistic, which is always a plus for me.

I do encourage readers to make sure to read the end part that Eliza Andrews includes about this being her first book writing and developing strong butch FF characters. I applaud her for this and I found it interesting to think about just how Amazon and Audible have changed things for not only FF stories, but for romance stories in general. We are now in a period of time where every kind of romance can be found online and we can all enjoy stories that touch us and excite us when authors take that chance to write for a waiting audience.

I had the pleasure of receiving an ARC of Pretending in Paradise from NetGalley in exchange for this unbiased review. This is my first time reading a novel from M. Ullrich, but it definitely will not be the last. Her writing style is fantastic and in this book, she kept me engaged the entire time I was reading.

Pretending in Paradise is a fake romance to a real romance novel. Emma is a writer for a travel website who likes to have a little extracurricular activity on her trips. This gets her in trouble as one of her “activity participants” sues the company after Emma writes a bad review of the property. In comes Caroline, a PR rep that has been recently hired to take care of the issue. Emma looks to be suspended for 2 weeks without pay when she gets a tip about a new couples only resort that is opening in Miami that she can get an instant scoop on. Her boss agrees to her taking the trip, but Caroline must go with her to supervise and make sure that she doesn't get into trouble. Since the resort is couples only, Emma and Caroline must pretend to be a dating couple for the next 10 days.

Without giving anything else away, the pacing of this novel is perfect. It is a very slow build as the two go from enemies to civil friends to more in the span of just over a week. I loved the way Ullrich allowed little pieces of each character's pasts to be brought out through their different activities. The sexual tension increases over time and the end result of the build is amazing! The emotions that are built for these characters had me in tears a couple of times, including the last chapter.

This is such a well-rounded romance novel and I am sure I will be reading it again in the near future. I hope an audiobook version will be coming as well. The story is one that I could easily see made into an excellent romcom movie. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a good romance. It is a very special read.

What Happens When is an enjoyable coming of age book about a high school senior, Molly, who kisses a girl over the summer and finds that she is a lesbian. As she returns to school, she deals with the struggle of being gay and how she handles it with others in the school. One of her friends turns on her and bullies her, telling her that her lifestyle is against God. The girl that Molly kissed, Lily, begins going to the same school as Molly because of the problems she had being gay at her past school. While it seems like an easy match for the two girls to be a couple, Molly isn't ready to be seen with a girlfriend at school. Instead, Molly finds another girl that is out of school, Zita, who she feels a connection to. The problem is, Zita is straight and has a boyfriend.

I liked that the author told the story in the first person perspective of Molly, allowing the reader to get a full idea of the thoughts of the character. I enjoyed the build-up to the Molly/Zita relationship, but I also found it a bit shallow. Molly seems to never be willing to talk to Zita about anything more than wanting her to dump her boyfriend and get together with her. It left me wanting more. Toward the end of the book, things drag a bit and it seems the story could have been sped up to get to the ultimate conclusion.

Overall it was an enjoyable story and for younger readers it will be a good read.

I received this ARC for free fro NetGalley in exchange for an unbias review.

This is the first novel I have read by MJ Williamz. While I liked the potential of the storyline, the overall storytelling was just not my style. I found the character development to be very shallow, very surface-level. I also found parts of the story to be very repetitive. For example, the character Ronnie is very early on established as a womanizer. Over and over throughout the book it is reiterated how much of a womanizer she is. As a reader, once I am told a main fact about character, I don't feel like I have to be reminded of this over and over again, especially not directly being told.

I found the sex scenes to be bland and very rushed. It was as if there was no build up to the scenes. In some cases, the scenes were no more than 4-5 lines of text. Clothes off...fingers in/out...touch the happy spot...massive orgasm. Similar scenes were established many times as well.

For some, this style may be exactly what they are looking for. I had a hard time getting through the book since it did not hold my interest and was in a style of storytelling that I don't gravitate to.

I was provided a free ARC of this book in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

I went into this book blind as I decided to not read the blurb about the book in advance. I had read good things about Missouri Vaun's work in the past and decided to try her newest work with no background.

The beginning of the book was a nice slow pace with good character development and vivid depictions of the Pacific coast area. As the story progressed, I found the romance parts a bit quicker paced than I personally like, but they were enjoyable. I prefer a long slow build instead. The end of the book was a very quick pace with a satisfying ending to the story.

I would recommend this to anyone that is not familiar with Vaun's prior works as a good entry point to her writing. I will definitely be looking at other books she has written.

I received an ARC copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review.

I had the pleasure of receiving an ARC copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

Carsen Taite is outstanding as a writer and working in real-life law situations. Practice Makes Perfect is another winner in this category. Instead of giving a rundown of the story, which you can read in the description of the book, I prefer to focus on the aspects of the book that I enjoyed and what made the book special.

Taite does an excellent job in character development between the 2 main characters, Wynne and Campbell. I could easily picture both women in my head and how they would react to certain situations. Campbell has all of the confidence in the world, being out on her own and forming a new law firm with two of her friends. Wynne is miserable in her position with her firm, but feels like that is the only way she can get ahead.

The sparks fly between Wynne and Campbell as they have to work together on a case while at the same time competing for future business. Campbell shows that she is on top of her game and that her new company should get the future business of their joint client until Wynne's boss finds out about the 2 lawyers getting close with each other. He pulls an underhanded trick to steal the business away and at the same time driving a wedge between the two lovers.

The ending is somewhat predictable, but sweet as well. It is a happily ever after. This is definitely an enjoyable read and well worth picking up and enjoying.

My review is for the audiobook version of this book.

This is the first work from T. B. Markinson that I have experienced and I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. I loved the first-person narration from Cori's point of view. The sass of that character was fantastic and I fell in love with her instantly. She was snarky, no-nonsense, sometimes very blunt and direct. Her girlfriend, Kat, was so sweet and supportive. While in my mind the couple seemed like they would not be compatible, I came around to seeing the opposites complement each other. I thought a different type of story was going to be coming early on between Cori and Sam, and I am sure that was the intent. But as the story and characters developed, I could see the real romance between Cori and Kat and that true love between them was not going to be broken.

I have listened to several Lori Prince narrated novels before, but this to me was her finest work. The voices and personas she added to each character brought them to life in my head. She did an amazing job throughout, with Kat being my favorite character that she did.

There are lots of quick wit throughout, making the book very entertaining. I cannot recommend this book high enough for anyone looking for a well-done story with some twists and turns along with some well written deep love between two characters.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from the author in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

I received this book for free via NetGalley in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

I very much enjoyed the overall story in “All of Me”. I loved the main characters, Rowan and Galan, and the development of their relationship.

One thing I was a bit disappointed in was the pacing. The first half of the book seemed like the story was building up to the couple being together, but possibly having to deal with Galan's father and repercussions of having a boss/employee relationship. After Galan tells her dad that she is in love with Rowan and that was just how it was going to be, her dad never appears again in the book and that part of the story never comes up again. It made me wonder why so much time was spent building that up with no satisfying conclusion.

The story at that point takes a 90 degree turn into dealing with Rowan's boyfriend that she had taken a break from until she dealt with her attraction to Galan. It seemed disjointed like there were 2 stories being told, but neither completely coming through. The engagement between Rowan and Brian seemed very forced, way too fast, and wasn't very believable.

Overall I enjoyed the story. Maybe a follow-up covering the relationship after getting back together, the tension between Galan and her father, and what happened to Brian after getting dumped would help round things out.

I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am not usually a fan of police novels, but this one may make me change my opinion. The characters were very realistic and were developed well. The attraction and love story were delicious to read and the ending was very satisfying. I am hoping this will be made into an audiobook because the story would be great to listen to and hear it come to life.

I found this book to be average when I wanted it to be so much more. I liked the characters, Tessa and Marci, in the way they showed strong women accomplishing things. But, it also showed these women as irrational and unable to communicate with each other to resolve an issue. I get that when you have had your heart broken, that you want to hide yourself off from the world and you become bitter and angry. But Marci's character is an extreme of this. The trust issues that existed between Tessa and Marci threw up red flags for me for that relationship. Even if the sex was earth-shattering (which I wish had been described in more erotic detail), the trust issues signaled doom to that relationship throughout.

From a couple that was so sex hungry, it seemed like their sex was pretty repetitive and not that outside of the box. I would have expected more adventurous sex between them with toys and other accessories. Instead, the sex was pretty much isolated to tongues, fingers, and a glossing over of what happened during their times together. I wanted much more in this category.

Overall, the story is ok, but it could have been so much more.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

I absolutely adore this book for so many reasons. While I love HEA endings to stories, this story had the heart-warming, yet tragic tale of a teenager's first love. It tells a story to two girls who deal with their realization that they are gay in different ways. One accepts herself and who she is, despite all of the negative reactions from classmates and those in the small community she lives in. The other cannot accept who she is and spirals into the depths of denial and depression. In many ways, I felt like I was reading the thoughts and actions of many a person that finds they are gay. The love that the girls have is passionate and filled with such emotion, as are the times when they are apart.

I found it difficult to deal with Robin's emotional swings. She has someone in front of her that loves her so much and wants to do anything for her, yet she pushes her away, not once but twice. Asher fights so hard with her emotions, her love for Robin, but in the end knows when their time is at an end. The bittersweet ending capped off a wonderful book that I am sure I will read again in the future.

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair and unbiased review.

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Cupid's Bow is an adorable short story of two women who meet in a bar, who appear to dislike each other in their first few moments together, and then find themselves falling for one another. This is a great quick read that teases at sexual tension without ever getting there. It allows the reader's mind to wander after the story ends to what happens between the two. It is a nice read, especially leading up to Valentine's Day. Worth checking out.

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. The cover of the book was what drew me to it initially. I am a fan of BWWM stories and the description of the storyline was intriguing. While the story as a whole was predictable and everything was wrapped up in a nice neat package, the main point I wondered about what how the impending conflict was going to be handled. How was Alex going to react when he found out that Gemma had killed his wife? It left me wondering what I would do if I was in this situation. Would I be able to fight the hurt and anger and be able to forgive?

There were segments of the book that were a touch long and the pace could have been picked up to keep the story flowing. That said, overall, I enjoyed the book. I would love to hear an audiobook version of the story where the story could come to life more.

I have read other Cassidy Storm novels in the past and she always does such a great job with making steamy stories. Team Mom is another of those steamy novels. If you are a baseball fan, you may have to suspend reality for a little while in order to fully enjoy the story. In a nutshell, Bridget's son is trying to make the local minor league baseball team when she is approached by the team's trainer/assistant, Kelsi. She tells Bridget that she can ensure her son makes the team if she agrees to sign on as the Team Mom. Bridget signs on without reading her contact which covers all of her responsibilities, the main one being to keep up team morale.

I'll say that Bridget isn't the brightest bulb in the box. While she seems to indicate that she has never done anything like this before and can't believe what she is doing, she certainly turns into a sex fiend very quickly. It seemed odd to me that she never went back, even after the first sexual encounter, to read the entire contract of what she signed up for. Seems like she wasn't as worried about that as her inner thoughts indicated since she never did it.

The sex scenes are amazing and if you are looking for a lot of hot steamy encounters, you will love this book. If you know baseball, some of the writing there is a bit odd. It is more like a little league setup than a minor league pro setup. Things like single games instead of 3-4 game series, teams that all sounded like they were local, one playoff game where there were over 30,000 people at a minor league game. I could easily overlook these because I could see them as just background to get to the next encounter. But, those plot points are very weak for anyone that knows baseball.

If you are looking for a relatively quick read with lots of encounters, lots of hot sex, and lots of different types of sex, you will enjoy this book as I did.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

I received a free ARC copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for a fair, unbiased review.

This short story from Renee Roman is an excellent quick read filled with really hot sex from page 1. Sharon Lane gets caught by her roommate Case Austin while pleasuring herself. Instead of being shocked or uncomfortable with the site before her, Case shares with Sharon that she had wanted to be with her for a long time. After a night of wonderful sex, Sharon wakes up with the fear that their friendship will come to an end and that Case will see her the way she sees herself, someone who is fat and not confident, someone she would not want to be with. Case goes on to show Sharon that she is exactly who she wants and has wanted for a long time.

I loved the hot sex scenes, which makes this a story I will come back to. The author left the story open at the end and I hope she will turn this into a longer series building on the couples' relationship, maybe looking at their past and how they got to this point. I felt for Sharon, who saw herself in such a negative way. I could relate to this feeling and the author did a great job of building those feelings in a very quick story.

I thoroughly enjoyed the beginning of this series. Enough breadcrumbs were left to build the story and relationship further in future episodes, which I look forward to reading. Very erotic sex scenes were another plus.