It may be September now, but around this time last month, I was in the process of slowly losing my mind.
A week-and-a-half on vacation was yielding its way towards one last run at freedom, before prep for a double-header of flights down to LA and ferry rides to Roche Harbor, two weekends in a row. Temperatures were dropping, thoughts of Summer were plummeting sharply without any sort of mercy, and I was facing an abrupt, vicious ending to those lazy sunshine days, by somehow being forced onto a slalom course of social engagements, family expectations, and packed luggage, without poles.
Now I'm still here, slowly losing my mind, on the other side; my personal distress has resolved itself into a defeated state of exhaustion. My sleep schedule, digestive system, and extroversion threshold are completely wrecked, and for every meeting that gets added to my calendar, another month is taken off of my life. The only trips I plan on taking for the foreseeable future are to Costco; the only pictures I want to post to Instagram are of my cat.
And yet, we must press on.
While I was busy covering my ears, with Summer's swan song blaring through the open windows, I decided that I really should hurry up with the whole Reading Challenge thing. Unwilling to sacrifice so much of my season without even a bingo to show for it, I decided to spend a week powering through, with the project goal of finishing at least three before I left for vacation.
I ended up reading six books total across the course of one week, and five Romances specifically, over five days.
So while I'm still sucking down water to recuperate from the dehydration caused by persistent, unregulated stress, I figured I might as well send off some reviews. If I end up dying from prolonged social exposure - by being forced to leave my house, and into unforgiving environmental conditions that wore on my psyche - at least you'll have something to remember me by.
You can't always talk about a Romance without dishing on a few important plot points, so heads up: here thar be spoilers.
SPL Bingo Square: "Audiobook or EBook"
Ripped Bodice Romance Square: "Kissing for Science"
(note: I don't really think this matches this square, based on the narrative; I simply saw someone else who had marked it as this choice and thought, "Well, if it's good enough for them, it's good enough for me," and moved on. I mean, there are equations on the cover!)
A math whiz with Asperger's seeks to "cure" her aversions to a sexual relationship, by hiring on a pro to help navigate her through the basics... but gets more experience than she bargained for, when she falls for real. Will this illogical pair find a way to make their love last in the real world, or is the outcome just too improbable?
This particular Romance feels like it comes unilaterally recommended across the internet fandom for Romance in general. Its sequel gets high praise, too, for its heart, humor, and #OwnVoices perspective (but from what I understand, the third in the series doesn't so much). Romances with an autistic heroine are unfortunately few and far between; same for an Asian-American couple as main characters. The fact that the novel is also well-written makes for what should be an obvious draw: as romances happen with people belonging to these communities out in the real world, shouldn't they also be lovingly rendered on paper?
Ironically enough, the reason I didn't quite like this novel was because of how unrealistic it was. Yes, she was autistic... but also came from absurd wealth, is obsessed with performing a high paying skill in a lucrative field, owns a nice house and drives a Tesla, is abundantly remarked upon being beautiful and petite, and occasionally becomes so consumed by work, she just forgets to eat. He, on the other hand, is an escort... but also a gifted tailor and aspiring fashion designer, who drives a motorcycle, is very accomplished in martial arts, and is so good looking, that it is regularly commented on in the context of how other people respond to his beauty. It was like all of those other desirable factors were there to somehow, for some reason, make up for the fact of her being autistic, or him being a sex worker. You don't have to be dripping with wealth or carved from marble to be worthy of respect and love.
I also really didn't love the very patriarchal bullshit present in his eventual courtship of her, at the end. Stalking, sending lavish gifts in a public space, continuing to show up to her place of work, getting jealous about the other men in her life... very deeply strange, especially when stood up against an undesirable rival who also refused to take no for an answer.
I can totally get why people liked it... it just wasn't for me.
Two and a half stars.
SPL Bingo Square: "Recommended by an Independent Bookstore"
Ripped Bodice Bingo Square: "Vigilante S#!t"
The Duchess Deal, Tessa Dare
A seamstress trying to collect on payment for a wedding dress, sewn for a bride who never made it to the altar, is propositioned by a disfigured duke: quietly marry him, and bear a male heir, and she will be taken care of for the rest of her life. However, it becomes clear that there is more going on with the Duke of Ashbury than his gruff and straightforward demeanor would suggest... and that Emma is unlikely to follow his orders without testing his limits, too.
I am a huge fan of Tessa Dare, and have read numerous other titles of hers, to varying degrees of success. She will forever be one of the first ever authors in the Romance category I really became a fan of, when I first started reading them back in 2018, and so carries that estimation whenever I encounter her newer material. I really enjoyed Books #2 and #3 of this series, but have been saving #1 for a rainy day, being that it is generally the favorite amongst them as determined by fans.Well, maybe not a rainy day... but what about a sunny, late-August one? After all, The Ripped Bodice Book Bingo Card had an "Alliterative Title" square, as well as the one I ended up choosing. Being that the Ripped Bodice itself is an independent bookstore, I felt it was more than appropriate to use on both cards.
This selection from the series was generally enjoyable, but it was just that something kept me hanging back from falling all the way in love with it. The banter was funny and consistent, the side characters were a lot of fun, and it was silly and campy in the way that Dare writes very well.
Maybe that was the problem? It felt too much like Dare's other works, and her other foibles I've encountered in my extensive readings of her work already. The dynamics and general conceit were over-the-top unbelievable, the sex scenes felt repetitive and weirdly male-gaze-y, the repeated misunderstandings between characters required just a little too much mental contortion to make fit. By the time it got to the reveal of a "real" wedding ring at the end - a ruby, cut into the shape of a heart, set into a gold band - it all felt almost juvenile.
Maybe I've finally outgrown one of the first Romance authors I really fell in love with in the first place?
Three and a half stars.
Ripped Bodice Bingo: "Swimming"
Him, Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy
Four summers ago, Wes made the biggest mistake of his life, by pushing Jamie too far during a friendly bet at hockey camp. The two haven't spoken since. When a chance run-in during a tournament in their senior year of college inspires a reconnection, they find themselves sharing a bunkroom at the same place they trained as teenagers. Maybe they can go back to the way things used to be... or even something better, if one of them can just manage to break the ice.
What on earth is it about Gay Hockey Romances Written by Dual Authors that manages to so easily reinvigorate my faith in the Romance genre as a whole? As not a gay man, nor a hockey enthusiast (or even a sports fan, in general), nor someone who generally enjoys co-author situations, I really shouldn't have such strong feelings about these kinds of books... but somehow, both Him and Avon Gale & Piper Vaughn's Goalie Interference have easily become some of my favorite Romance reads ever, let alone from the past year.Each was an incredibly caring and nuanced portrayal of a relationship forged in a subculture that isn't always welcoming, and has rigid structures around perspectives of masculinity and patriarchal values. They depict two people genuinely learning how to care for each other in a not-always-comfortable environment, with other kinds of people and relationship dynamics to consider, and social expectations about how they can and should behave. They call into discussion issues around greater topics, like class, family values, and more.
And yeah, they're pretty steamy. Really great heart, but absolutely scorching heat. These are very much still Romance novels, after all.
What sets Him apart is that it really feels interior and earnest; thanks to a trade-off POV for each of the main characters, you feel very intimately aware of Jamie and Wes' emotions, their past traumas, and how their actions are informed by those experiences. They're two people who genuinely care about each other, but are still figuring out how their lives fit together in an organic way, particularly in how they navigate a relationship with that shared harm behind them. It's a person learning how to let someone in, whose walls might not have been built to endure this kind of heartbreak again, and another figuring out that what he thought was his guaranteed life plan suddenly feels a lot more subject to uncertainty. Both are vulnerable in ways they haven't had to be before, and are not only learning how to cope, but help each other move through it... together.
And, again. Spicy as hell.
Four stars.
SPL Book Bingo Square: "True Crime or Crime Fiction"
Ripped Bodice Bingo: "We Have the Same Job"
Wolf at the Door, Charlie Adhara
The bodies keep stacking up at a remote state park, and Cooper Dayton's on the case to track down the killer for the BSI, a department of the FBI specializing in crimes of a... different nature. It's his first chance to prove himself on his own merit, away from his legendary partner; too bad he's been attached to the reserved and mysterious Oliver Park, who has his own paranormal perspectives to offer. Can the two work together to catch a killer? Or will Dayton's past come back to bite him... literally?
This book was just... the happiest surprise.Take, for instance, the fact that for over half of its narrative, it reads straight out of a gritty crime procedural, like in a True Detective kind of way. A series of mysterious disappearances have been ravaging a tourist town, two unidentified corpses have been unearthed in a secluded forest, and yet another missing local seems to have heralded yet another death, if something isn't done in time to stop it. Cue the entrance of two polar opposite detectives, called to partner up across different departments, in order to collaborate on putting an end to the killings once and for all.
The only difference that separates this from any other run-of-the-mill Thriller, is that it's actually, definitely, a Romance. The two detectives - cue the shock and awe - end up stripping down and getting REAL interdepartmental around the 62% mark through the book.
Well, that, plus the fact that one of them is also a werewolf.
That's right, this whole dark-and-dangerous tale also takes place in a world where not only are werewolves real, but there's a whole secret subdivision of the FBI dedicated solely to werewolf-related crimes. One of our lovebird detectives is a human, used to simply hauling in the nearest wolf to the crime in handcuffs; now, the nearest wolf is a hunky past-English-professor-turned-werewolf-Trustee-agent who he just can't seem to keep his own paws off of.
And it's SMART. The entire thing is a well-written-and-carefully-structured metaphor, about conflicts between the greater justice system and persecuted populations, who have been historically forced under the thumb of unfair governmental prejudices. It's for anyone who's had to hide who they were and are. It's like every other person is either gay, or a person of color, or a werewolf, or all of the above. It's GREAT.
I'm so glad I already own the sequel, because I don't know how I'd get through this Book Buying Ban if I didn't. I'm already planning it for my TBR for October, so I can enjoy it the week of my Birthday.
Five stars.
Ripped Bodice Bingo: "It Was Supposed to Be One Night"
The Rake Gets Ravished, Sophie Jordan
After her dissolute, social-climbing, ne'er-do-well brother barters the whole of their family lands on a game of cards - literally betting the farm - during a drunken night out in London, Mercy decides to secure the deed back by breaking into the personal quarters of a gambling hell kingpin. She definitely didn't plan on distracting him with an unexpected night of seduction. And she certainly didn't account for him following her home. He claims he's only interested in protecting what's his, and she has her mind set on doing the same... but maybe what she should be protecting, is her heart.
Okay. So. Talk about starting with a literal bang, and ending with a metaphorical whimper.This book got off to such a blistering start that I was giggling and kicking my feet in the air like a teenager at the back-and-forth banter. I read up to the 48% mark in one night, and went to bed completely won over by what was, at the time, blisteringly hot pacing that verged on the Erotica genre.
Unfortunately, things were not as sexy in the light of day. It seems as though Jordan decided to do nearly the whole plot backwards: by having the main characters experience their hottest scene the second they meet each other, there's no way the tension or stakes are sustainable throughout the rest of the narrative. By the end of the novel, hearts are expected to flutter at the fact that they're kissing in bed, having finally made it to the happily-ever-morning-after for the first time? I don't think so.
Additionally, by beginning on such a spicy note, it makes the main heroine seem a little flighty and disingenuous by the end of the novel. That goes double for when she catches her younger sister in the same compromising position she's indulged in numerous times throughout the plot already, and totally flips out; her 17-year-old sibling, whom she was responsible for raising, is totally warranted a bit of a teenage meltdown about it.
Not that she's warranted to much else. Both of the heroine's siblings are utterly infuriating: Grace was undoubtably supposed to come across as a spirited and romance-minded menace of a young woman, but ended up an egregious flirt and an unrepentant brat, while Bede was so intolerable that up to about the 95% mark I genuinely thought that there was no possible way the book could have a happy ending without him dead (He ends up getting shipped off to New Zealand instead).
Not to mention the hero's own threadbare excuses for pretty much any of his actions, which was also incredibly frustrating.
Three stars.
But that was last month; now, we're well into September, and I've had the same books staring at me from my coffee table since before I left for LA at the end of August. What on earth will I read next?
Well, there are some OTHER Romance novels that require my attention...
Did you read any good Romances this summer? Let me know, in the comments below!
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