and i dreamt of the night and you.

Rating: 4/5 Heat Level: 3.5/5 Pub Date: June 9th

My review:

There are lots of books out there being marketed as romcoms, but reading The Missed Connection might be the closest I've ever felt to watching an old 90s or early 2000s romcom on the big screen. For one, the set up is just as zany: Sasha meets a hot Italian mystery guy on a flight, and ends up accidentally emails her entire casting agency for help finding him— but that's not enough for Sasha. She decides to ask Wes, the ex-private detective who helped her with her stalker situation some years ago, to help find the mystery man too.

Which is a pretty awkward set-up! Sasha and Wes definitely had Something there, even though their paths collided years ago at a pretty rough point for both of them: Sasha was dealing with a stalker and still experiences symptoms of PTSD, and Wes was suffering from career burnout. Their reunion brings back a lot of those very mixed emotions, but Wes agrees to take her case.

In classic romcom fashion where there's two love interests, we get an healthy dose of jealousy from Wes— which veers into morally dubious territory more than once, but I thought Tia Williams did a really good job of writing a hero who is flawed but he's just So Down Bad for the heroine that you can't help but root for him. Because romance genuinely does feel like one of the last genres... last kinds of media, perhaps, where it's okay to be openly passionate and obsessed, I'll always root for characters like this, rather than conflate it with real life expectations and call this behavior *cringe* or *toxic*.

The sex:

Okay but the way Sasha kinda uses Wes for sex is actually HYSTERICAL, even though *I know* time #1 was supposed to be a *tense emotional moment* (some tragical flashback thigh-riding). Time #2 though... WOW. Who knew trying to get off to a guy's voice without... him realizing she's doing it could be so hot? I did laugh.

To be clear, there are more times than time #1 and 2, but honestly those live in my head rent-free.

Overall:

If you're looking for the perfect old-school romcom-feeling romance, complete with the classic nyc backdrop, this is your book! I'd highly recommend as a summer or beach read.

Rating: 4/5 Heat Level: 3.5/5 Pub Date: June 2nd

Premise:

Guinevere comes to London to beg *ruthless* gambling hell owner Gabriel to let her brother's debts go. He agrees... if she spends one night with him.

My review:

An indecent proposal! I'm TRASH for this kind of set up, but Julie Anne Long ended up delivering a romance that tugged at my heartstrings after the predictable outrage one feels on behalf of a heroine after she's propositioned. Which takes skill! Ultimately, the romance is soft and introspective, a JAL classic, and the simmering sexual tension keeps you on your toes until the very end.

Ginny's caught between a rock and a hard place: She can either settle her brother's debts with Gabriel, or she can settle his debts with a family friend. She chooses the latter route out of self-preservation, and what follows is a wild goose-chase across London, with Gabriel as her reluctant bodyguard. I LOVED reading her deep... I guess, CARNAL awareness of Gabriel right from the get-go— clueless virgin she is not! She's also a very-much-parentified Eldest Daughter, something Gabriel figures out early on, and accurately clocks what she might need romantically... and sexually, because of course he does.

Gabriel is, I would say, on the softer end of a bit o'rough, self-made heroes who rose from the underworld. He's older, and he's seen life and experienced the kind of tragedy as an adult (important distinction) that changes a person, and likely tempers them to some extent. As a result, he's... remarkably kind to Ginny after the initial proposition, though it still stands! He's her bodyguard and her confidante throughout their time in the Grand Palace on the Thames and even has a fit of scruples or three where it concerns her.

And this wouldn't be a Palace of Rogues book if I didn't mention the lovely PoR crew who don't have an inkling as to what's going on between Gabriel and Ginny because they have their hands full with a toddler guest who is causing a lot of them to ponder about life and raising children and whatnot.

The sex:

Sex-wise this is slow-burn. Gabriel and Ginny are very much in love when they sleep together, though they're both laboring under the delusion that their connection is temporary. It has to be! So they think. The running gag in this story is the suggestion that Gabriel is into some kinky shit— tbd on that BUT we do get an EMOTIONAL blindfolding sex scene.

This is a stalker romance, technically, but it has little to no hallmarks of the dark romance genre. The story is quite melancholy, but it is not... dark. Even their third-act breakup is quite civilized, all things considered. So simply buying into the hero's insta-obsession without a) reading it happen, and b) the hero barely giving any explanation other than him feeling like *she's someone who god speaks to* feels off, considering this book is not operating with dark romance logic.

Priest, the first book in the series, pinpoints the exact start of the hero's obsession. And it's not some *deep connection*; It's quite superficial (from her voice, and the things she says in that confession booth), but the scene makes you understand that this is the beginning of obsession, passion, and love. Without that beginning here, I was questioning how and why he made every choice he did in the seven years between that first fateful interaction, and meeting again.

Rating: 4/5 Heat Level: 3.5/5 Pub Date: May 19th

Premise:

Nomi is ready to open her cannabis dispensary in the small town of Sparrow Nook, and she has the necessary permits from the town council in the bag... until former high school rival Dr. Julian D'Angelo derails them because of a lifelong aversion to weed.

My review:

This is a DELIGHTFULLY romp-y romcom with excellent slapstick humor that also captured alllll the Jersey summer vibes— Pot Shot truly is the contemporary romance I didn't know I needed.

So. Julian and Nomi have a History, the kind that involves high school rivalries and furtive post-debate tournament make-outs. They didn't end on particularly good terms and now Julian is back..... and has to get up close and personal with Nomi's vaj when she accidentally cuts herself while shaving. It's a CRISIS and by crisis, I do mean untimely arousal on both ends, and Julian attempting to panic-quit his job. And this follows the general tone of the book— there's plenty of wacky shenanigans all the way through the end, and it works!

It'a easy to like Nomi— both her wacky stoner side and the fact that she's clever, compassionate, and uses her own experience with chronic illness and medical marijuana to help her community. On the other hand... Julian is a burnt-out doctor on probation and exiled to a family clinic in his hometown. He's snappish and uptight and it's understandable to some degree, but that man needs to Fix Himself— luckily, most people in the story agree with that.

I'm always a little leery of books where a man is fucking over a woman's career, but I think this was handled about as well as it could have, because Julian is made to repent for his bad-faith complaint against Nomi's dispensary pretty early on— shock collars are involved (lol), and he is made to understand the consequences of his actions by shadowing Nomi, and seeing from both a medical and social perspective that the town would be worse off without her and her business.

The sex:

Considering the insta-lust, the sex actually took a minute to get to! There is a marathon sex session that's basically like... three sex sessions in one, and that's all we really get. Still, it was solid, and I thought it was hilarious that he actually took a second to check if there was scarring from the time he stitched up her labia (there wasn't; he's a good doctor) before going to town on her.

Overall:

I thought this romance was hysterical, but I do think there is a bit of a trade-off here— sometimes this book really does read like a sitcom, and buying into the bickery, at times shout-y dynamic between all the characters, especially Julian and Nomi, means you have to suspend your disbelief that these people are in their early thirties. Still, I had a lot of fun with this book and found myself constantly laughing out loud— something I can't say about a lot of other new releases billed as romcoms.

The following month, we read a dark romance where the hero (who briefly met the heroine while she was dating his friend/roommate and became obsessed with her after she started commenting on his kinky online account where he wears a mask but no shirt) uses his near-supernatural hacker skills to put secret cameras in her house and otherwise stalk her. Her reaction is "this guy is fucking insane and probably dangerous...but this is really hot and actually I have a feeling he's not dangerous." Which is validated by the story. The handling of the dark subject matter is basically a shrug before a continuous jerk-off sesh. And the book club LOVED this story. Everyone was like "oh, he's not really a bad guy and this is barely a dark romance."