Love Flushed by Evie Mitchell

After reading and loving KNOT MY TYPE, I was super excited to dive into LOVE FLUSHED, especially since the heroine has Crohn's. I don't have Crohn's but I have a serious food intolerance that often causes me to have intestinal cramping, vomiting, and diarrhea. I have had to experience bathroom anxiety and bowel incontinence for years, due to problems with my diet, and it is the actual worst. And there's a lot of shame around talking about it, because it's gross, and people don't want to hear about it, which is why I snap up every spicy tummy book I can get my hands on. I want to support the cause.

Annie owns an eco-friendly toilet paper company inspired by her bathroom struggles, but she needs a supplier-- her current ones don't share her ethics, not when they can compromise them for a better deal. Cue Linc, the owner of a papermill and her ex-lover. After he betrayed her in the worst way, she can barely stand to be in the same room with him, but since their friends are getting married and they work in the same industry, it's hard to avoid each other. Especially when they each have something that the other needs.

I didn't like this book as much as the first one, but it was still really, really good. I loved the way that Mitchell included Annie's chronic illness in the book and it was all just so beautifully done, and made me feel really seen. The backstory between them also made sense, and even though I'm not usually a fan of second chance, I felt like this was a pretty solid way of going about it without making one of them the bad guy. I just wished they had a little more chemistry between them. I usually love Daddy kink but I wanted more from it than what I got here. Frankie and Jay melted those pages. Linc and Annie felt barely warm.

That said, this was a very cute, short read and I'm always a huge fan of male and female friend groups that actually uplift each other. If you're looking for something sweet and somewhat low-angst (apart from the sob-sob backstory that nearly did make me cry), this is your book. 

3.5 out of 5 stars

Because the Night: A Vampire Romance by Kylie Scott

I was overjoyed when Kylie Scott offered me an ARC of her new vampire romance, BECAUSE THE NIGHT, because vampires are one of my favorite things of all time and I've been craving a good paranormal romcom to fill the void that Ali Hazelwood's BRIDE left in my soul. After powering through this book, I can safely say that BECAUSE more than filled that craving. In fact, reading it was a nostalgic hearkening back to the paranormal boom of the aughts, when I was blissing out on the Sookie Stackhouse series.

This was an absolute delight.

Skye is an ordinary human who does ordinary human things, until she ends up in the basement of a house in the Hollywood Hills where a vampire is waiting to turn her world completely upset down. One minute, she's working an underpaid job and thinking about the mounting bills, the next she's playing tour guide to her vampire "daddy" as his latest creature of the night DIY project.

This is largely an ensemble cast story with a character-driven storyline, and that makes it super easy to get into if you love books like that. I enjoyed reading it before bed because it wasn't too complex and I could just enjoy the characters bantering with each other until it was time for sleep. Henry was my favorite, with Benedict coming in as a close second. But number one in my heart was obviously Lucas: we stan a grumpy, arrogant, and slightly homicidal vampire king who's very "touch her and die." In a world full of Draculas, be a Lucas.

This book is relatively short for a novel, and when I put it down, I still wanted more. I hope there's going to be a sequel because I would happily spend more time in this world. 

Thanks to the publisher/author for sending me a copy!

4 to 4.5 out of 5 stars

She’s a Grinder by Tember Sapphire

I liked SHE'S A GRINDER even more than I did the first book in the series. The writing of the story was significantly more polished (helped by the fact that it was longer, I think, and the author had more time to develop the relationship and the characters). Also, I adored Catherine, who was a workaholic introvert after my own heart.

This is a reverse grumpy sunshine pairing with fake dating. Tijjani is a Nigerian-Canadian hockey player who needs some help with his career. Catherine needs a fake boyfriend to keep her West Indian family off of her back. It seems like a match made in heaven, except that their relationship is kind of forbidden, and when they catch feelings for each other, things could be bad if their sex life got out...

This is very spicy and I liked the power exchange elements, especially after reading Ali Hazelwood's deep-end. The representation of Nigerian and Saint Lucian cultures was also really cool, especially with the language interspersed (Tijjani calls her "princess" in Nigerian) and so many food descriptions that you will leave this book salivating. I'll definitely be checking out more from this author.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Blind Obsession by Lee Wilkinson

I bought BLIND OBSESSION because one of my trusted reviewer friends really liked it. I couldn't get around to reading it for a while but I finally did-- and guess what? I liked it, too! BLIND OBSESSION is one of those dark romance adjacent Harlequins that really do it for me, because they're a perfect blend of tension, dark feelings, and passion.

Autumn and Saul used to be childhood friends-- sort of. Except he was seven or eight years younger, so when she met him as a teenager, he was already a full-grown adult that she had a crush on. When she was eighteen, however, their relationship went awry after a big argument, which resulted in him having a car accident after he drove off in a rage. The accident left him blind-- and vengeful. And obsessive.

Hence the title.

For SOME REASON, Autumn thinks a great way of getting closure would be working for him under a different name and lying about the way she looks. But Saul is not the man she remembers and his expressions suggest that he knows more than he is letting on. But how could he possibly suspect? And what would that mean for her?

Okay, so this is ridiculous. And possibly offensive because (SPOILER EVEN THOUGH IT'S OBVIOUS), he's pretending to be blind just to fuck with her (although he was, in fact, actually blind). It was ridiculous and I love it. This is the sort of ridiculousness I eat up with a silver spoon. And as soon as I found out he planned to blackmail her into sex, I was just like, yum, yum, yum. FEED ME.

Autumn is also a hilarious heroine. She's surprisingly spiteful, in a way that I don't often see in Harlequin Presents outside of a Charlotte Lamb novella. I loved her so much, especially when she was being "unlikable." It was incredibly entertaining and really, they're both so twisted and manipulative and utterly entrenched in their own stubborn, illogical-logic, that they're actually perfect for each other. Although EW, apparently he fell in love with her when he was fifteen and tried to hide it by getting with another woman. That's such a red flag, but in an HP novel, I choose to be colorblind: all flags are green. (But girl, ew.)

The writing is also very poetic in parts too. I read another book by this author and only liked it but I put it in a Little Free Library when I was done. This one is a keeper. I will have to find and read more by this author because I just love her dark heroes. They fit her stories so well.

4.5 out of 5 stars

A Vision of Moonlight & Other Stories by Tamara Jerée

At the time of my writing this review, A VISION OF MOONLIGHT only has one rating on Amazon, which is honestly shocking to me, because this queer collection of dark fantasy and sapphic horror is evocative of authors like Tanith Lee and Poppy Z. Brite. I'm not going to go through every story in the collection but my two favorites were the high fantasy stories set in Vel. I would read a full-length novel about that elemental-based magic system and the toll it takes on the body. I also loved the emotions in these work, and how even though death and destruction of the body played such a focal role in all of these stories, the primary message seemed to be that life persists.

I recently read and enjoyed this author's sapphic werewolf romance, A WOLF STEPS IN BLOOD, and I really liked it, but I honestly think that I may have liked this more. Anthologies can be tricky because sometimes the way that the stories are curated isn't so great, or the quality vacillates wildly, but this was an incredibly cohesive collection with surreal, terrifying, and poignant stories.

This author needs to be read by more people, because my god.

4 out of 5 stars

Deep End by Ali Hazelwood

I spite-purchased the special edition paperback of this book because, as per usual, people were being especially heinous to Ms. Ali Hazelwood, and even though I'm sure she spends most of her days laughing her way to the bank in between reading all of the smut she could possibly want to read (I mean, I would imagine), I was unimpressed enough with the way people were talking about the anxious and emotionally traumatized heroine and the kink rep to snap a copy of this book up like lobster claws at a cruise ship buffet.

Overall, my feelings about DEEP END are pretty positive. BRIDE is still my favorite Hazelwood book but this one is right up there, mostly because of Lukas, who is literally the perfect dreamy Book Boyfriend. I also loved Scarlett and all of her insecurities, and how she was still learning to process through all of her emotions and allow herself to cry. As someone who feels the same way, that was huge for me, and seeing that sort of representation on page meant a lot.

The kink was also beautifully done. I wouldn't call it a handbook for a real life BDSM relationship because all romances are fantasies, and everyone is different, but it was very, very clear that the author had done her research and taken care to portray what she considered a healthy, happy, normalized relationship with kink and I honestly don't think enough people are approaching the book with that kind of framework. When readers think of kink, it's often within the context of a dark romance, like FIFTY SHADES OF GREY or an even darker book, which is totally fine (I love that, personally), but seeing it in contemporary romances is great, too. That said, I wouldn't really call this book a romcom. It was heavy on the rom but pretty light on the "com." If anything, it's kind of like a more progressive version of one of those new adult romances that were so popular in the early 2010s, where the heroine was college-aged and going through it.

My biggest qualm with the book was actually with Pen. ***SPOILER, TURN AWAY NOW IF YOU DON'T WANT A SPOILER***

I do not think she should have been forgiven for what she did. Given how emotional abuse was such a trigger for Scarlett, this was an especially cruel thing for an alleged best friend to do. And I'm usually an advocate for supporting unlikable heroines, but the way that this played out was super weird. Like it wasn't actually that big of a deal. The douchey guy who kept trying to hit on Scarlett got more of a telling-off than Pen did, and I'm not sure what kind of message that sends. It's important to set boundaries with romantic partners in a power-exchange relationship to ensure that they don't really hurt us-- but why did Scarlett not have to set those same boundaries with Pen, who went out of her way to hurt her? Multiple times? And she was so manipulative, I really did think the set-up was going to be that she had some kind of personality disorder and that was why some of the other girls were so cold to her; because they recognized the behavior patterns. The endgame with Pen literally shocked me and not in a good way. 

Despite that, and the epilogue that kind of felt tacked-on, I did really enjoy this book. Hazelwood is getting better with each book she writes, in my opinion, and I love that you can see her progression with each book. BRIDE is still my favorite but now I'm even more excited for its sequel-- and for whatever this author writes that comes after or before that, too.

My pre-review of the book:

WHY AREN'T MORE PEOPLE TALKING ABOUT THIS???? I'M SO EXCITED

My prediction: He's a big angry shark of a man and she's a teeny tiny little minnow of a girl

She thinks he hates her but he's been obsessed with her for YEARS

Hijinks ensue

 (I guess I was kinda right?? LOL)

3.5 out of 5 stars

She's a Keeper by Tember Sapphire

SHE'S A KEEPER really is a keeper because it made me like several tropes I normally avoid at all cost (e.g. second chance, third act breakup, miscommunication). It also starts out in a really unusual way: with the hero breaking up the heroine's wedding... to another man.

From there, we go back in time and see them, first as children, and then as teens navigating their first love, and all their other firsts, together. We already know that they're going to break up but not how or why, so the saccharine sweetness of their puppy love is tinged by the bitter knowledge that it isn't going to last.

I loved that this was set in Saint Lucia and the author implemented Saint Lucian Creole (with translations!). The fact that the hero and heroine were both in sports was also fun, because it made them feel more like they were on a level playing field (hee!) and also infused it with some girl power, Bend It Like Beckham vibes.

This is a novella and I do think that affected the pacing a little. The beginning really starts off with a bang, but then it felt a little draggy in the middle. I get that the author was setting up the relationship between them, and showing why they worked, and why Lionel was the perfect boyfriend, but the flashbacks didn't always work for me. Props to Ms. Sapphire for having a twist that actually made me gasp out loud, though.

I'm launching immediately into SHE'S A GRINDER, and I can already see how much the author has polished her writing style and improved her craft from here. But still, this was fun. 

3 out of 5 stars