Asia

TW/CW: SA, non-con

Irritated with her lack of prospective husband, Daphne Bridgerton realizes she needs help.

Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings, doesn't need every debutante and their mamas to follow him around London.

When they finally meet, they realize that they could help one another.

This as a very interesting book, although I've read better ones. I of course already watched the TV show, so it was interesting to see all the differences. I liked it, but I thought it would be more exciting and with a more character development, considering that this book series over others got adapted to the screen.

Highlights:

💎 Anthony and Simon's friendship. My god, they're so sarcastic, I wish we'd seen this relationship in the show;

💎 Anthony with any of his siblings, actually. Sarcastic, sassy, and savage. They're all super funny too, I love their scenes;

💎 Colin. That one was a surprise so CE show Colin does nothing for me. Book Colin though? Easily my second favourite character (Anthony will always have my heart);

💎 Simon and Daphne are much more interesting and witty;

Lows:

💎 the lack of Lady Danbury. I knew Charlotte wouldn't be here but I hoped for more Danbury. Same with Frederick! I hoped Simon would have a competition;

💎 the only good thing about Simon's father is that he's dead;

💎 the SA scene was both better and worse in the show. Better, because Daphne didn't plan it for the entire day and it wasn't premeditated. Worse, because Simon was drunk and couldn't consent;

💎 the lack of apology and/or grovel from Daphne;

Tropes:

💎 fake dating

💎 brother's best friend

💎 forbidden relationship

💎 marriage of convenience

4.5/5

Dani and Ezra are both lawyers who bicker, banter, and sleep together. When they both end up on opposing sides on a major divorce case, they need to learn whether they really know each other as well as they thought, and whether they can overcome their issues.

I loved this book. The sizzling chemistry, very clever banter and very, very hot spice scenes were everything I wanted and more.

Dani is still trying to come to terms with her parents' divorce; it's not so much that they're still friends, but the fact that they lied to her and sacrificed themselves for her for 17 years of her life, and she feels like it was her fault. She believed that her parents had this amazing love story that made her believe in love - only to find out it was all a lie. No wonder she has trust and commitment issues. It would have messed everyone up.

Ezra, on the other hand, has a very strained relationship with his father and is trying very hard to help his mother. We learn more about him and his family issues as the story progresses, and we get a glimpse into his mind. And we learn that not everything is as it seems.

I loved Ezra and Dani's relationship and how they grew and overcame their issues. I was partially annoyed with Ezra for allowing his father to have such a hold on his life, and I was relieved when he finally pushed back and became independent.

As much as I loved Dani, I was annoyed at her (over) reaction and inability to listen and believe Ezra's explanation. At least she not only apologized, but also helped Ezra in a major way to atone! And I'm glad we had almost 3 full chapters of fluff at the end.

I loved the romance, but also the side plot about their case. I was also invested in Dani's friends' story and I hope we'll get a book about them soon. It was my second ever Lana Ferguson book, but I will definitely read more of her books.

This book is perfect for people who love:

- enemies/ rivals to lovers

- workplace romance

- friends with benefits

- opposites attract

- spice

- he falls first

the ending game the ick. Public love confession (well, on a live stream but okay), same grey panties AND A TIME SKIP are all things that I hate lmao

4/5

Thank you, NetGalley and St Martin's Press, for providing the arc for my honest opinion.

Lottie is a lady's companion who one day knocks Viscount Wennington off his horse. And after he yells at her, she threatens to whip him. Accidentally, of course.

When her employer takes her to her nephew's house for a surprise birthday party, she's shocked to see that said nephew is the same man she knocked in the park.

Viscount Wennington despises being in a spotlight, so when his mother damnd a birthday party for him,. Guy agrees on a small soiree. He has no idea that his mother and aunt, with the help of the vexing woman he met at the park, invited a gaggle of debutantes, all vying for his attention. And he's less than impressed that the only person he wants to spend time with is Lottie herself.

I enjoyed this book. The characters and plot were well written, and I loved all the bickering between Lottie and Guy. I was giggling and kicking my feet at the obvious way the matrons were meddling to bring them together, while the main characters didn't realize that.

The writing was good, but confusing at times. There were too many internal thoughts between the dialogue (which often had nothing to do with the scenes they were in), which slowed down the plot a lot. And as the narration tried to use the stylized language to make it more realistic as a historical romance, the way the characters used modern gen-z slang that clashed with the flowery descriptions on the same page.

I enjoyed the book very much and I loved how it all turn up. While public confessions are not my cup of tea, I liked how it was written in this book. And the plot was engaging and fun and really enjoyed Lottie and Guy's story.

The book is perfect for people who love:

🐎 forced proximity

🐎 enemies to lovers

🐎 meddling mamas

🐎 grumpy & sunshine

🐎 age gap

Thank you, NetGalley and Harper Collins UK for providing the ARC for my honest opinion.

3.75/5

Oliver and Priscilla used to be friendly before he embarrassed her in front of everyone. Now, a year later, they need to join forces to make sure that their best friends' proposal extravaganza is perfect in every way. Which is difficult when they can't stop bickering...

This was a fun book. It wasn't perfect, but it was still a lot of fun.

Tina's idea for a proposal was so over the top it was funny to me. I'm more like Priscilla - instead of a flash mob and fireworks, I'd rather have only my partner there. But it was perfect for Tina, who wanted to recreate her mother's proposal and add her own spin on it.

Priscilla was an interesting character and I enjoyed her. She was standing her ground when her parents disapproved of her starting her own business (I hoped we would have something more about them later on, but still), and she started to work hard on it almost immediately.

Oliver was fun, cocky, a generic MMC, but I enjoyed him a lot. He was so down for Priscilla from the start, and poor girl never noticed, even though it was so obvious. I enjoyed that he tried tot ell her how he felt and she was so oblivious, she thought he was only pretending.

Same. I would have done the exact same thing as Priscilla and be obtuse about what's in front of me. That spoke to me on a spiritual level.

She was also "obsessive" about something for short amounts of time, and I can relate to that too. Honestly, Priscilla is me and I am Priscilla.

I loved the relationship between Oliver and Priscilla and how they started to trust each other again. The spice was great and the bond between them was so good.

I also loved their friendship with Ryan and Tina.

This is a great book for everyone who loves enemies to lovers who have to be partners in crime.

Thank you, NetGalley and Avon, for providing the ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Gabe and Emmy work for the same baseball team in the same data analyst department. They hate each other with passion and always compete. When a chance of promotion appears, they both try to one-up one another.

At the same time, Emmy receives a text from an unknown number, and she and the stranger start texting every day. And when she realizes she needs a date for her sister's wedding, Emmy leaps at the chance.

But things grow complicated when the stranger she falls for turns out to be Gabe.

I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, it was well-written, emotional, with mostly well-rounded characters and a compelling story; on the other, Emmy irritated me in the first half, and I almost didn't finish the book. And the grand gesture at the end had me cringe.

Her "woe is me, it's so hard being a woman" complains and constant use of the phrase "Boys Town" was really irritating, the fact that she hides her femininity by choice and she constantly whines about how she can't werar hills or dresses to work - even though her female boss proves to ehr every day that she does and she can, had been irritating and annoying. Emmy sounded more like a whiny child most of the time, as if her "I work in the men's field" was her entire personality.

She got better, thankfully. We got to see her being an amazing sister and friend, and someone with ambitions and drive to make her reality come true. She finally believed in herself, and guess what? Turns out she was always part of the team. She just had to open her eyes.

Gabe has been a fantastic character since the beginning. Infuriating and handsome, I loved how much he loved Emmy from the beginning. I also loved how accepting and open he was to their connection. And I loved how they kept meeting each other.

I enjoyed the book for the most part, and I cried at a few scenes as well. But the ending wasn't for me - the grand gesture felt really out of character, and the third act breakup seemed to be there only for drama's sake, while it didn't really bring anything to the story.

DNF at 25 percent.

I disliked everything about the book. The main female character acts like a naive child who has to be told what to do every second of every day, despite being 34 years old and somehow the CEO of her own PR company. She's scared of her own shadow, and yet she's in charge? Please.

Her backstory is murky and I don't understand any of it. So she got placed with her foster family at age 10, but somehow her bio dad is married to her foster mother? Where was he when she was placed with her? Does she even share blood with any of her siblings? They have another bio dad, but FMC's bio dad and the foster mother are married.... And her foster mother had a child a year after FMC was placed there. Who's the father? What is her father doing there in this foster/adoptive home? Where was he when she placed him there? She has a bio-grandfather who was mentioned once. But why did she have to be placed in a foster family in the first place? No idea. If this is explained later, great, but I'm not sticking around to find out.

The writing is dense, it slows down the plot, and I can barely get through it. We're in the middle of the scene, and someone asks her a question, and instead of answering or moving the scene along, she starts to describe the room they're in with every little detail. Or there's a surprise flashback that has nothing to do with the scene, and when we get back to the present, I already forget what was happening in the present. It's frustrating, and I can't get through it.

Thank you, NetGalley, and the publisher, for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

DNF at 25 percent.

I disliked everything about the book. The main female character acts like a naive child who has to be told what to do every second of every day, despite being 34 years old and somehow the CEO of her own PR company. She's scared of her own shadow, and yet she's in charge? Please.

Her backstory is murky and I don't understand any of it. So she got placed with her foster family at age 10, but somehow her bio dad is married to her foster mother? Where was he when she was placed with her? Does she even share blood with any of her siblings? They have another bio dad, but FMC's bio dad and the foster mother are married.... And her foster mother had a child a year after FMC was placed there. Who's the father? What is her father doing there in this foster/adoptive home? Where was he when she placed him there? She has a bio-grandfather who was mentioned once. But why did she have to be placed in a foster family in the first place? No idea. If this is explained later, great, but I'm not sticking around to find out.

The writing is dense, it slows down the plot, and I can barely get through it. We're in the middle of the scene, and someone asks her a question, and instead of answering or moving the scene along, she starts to describe the room they're in with every little detail. Or there's a surprise flashback that has nothing to do with the scene, and when we get back to the present, I already forget what was happening in the present. It's frustrating, and I can't get through it.

Thank you, NetGalley, and the publisher, for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.