The Brazilian's Blackmail Bargain by Abby Green

When Maggie was young, her abusive stepfather mined her attraction to the rich tycoon, Caleb Cameron, by forcing her to seduce him so he could ruin him. I'm not 100% clear how this was going to work, but Caleb figured out the plan and brutally humiliated Maggie before sending her back home, broken-hearted, to her cruel stepfather.

Years later, stepfather dies, and Maggie thinks she's home-free. Except, oh whoops, Caleb is still angry about the whole seduction thing: he's bought up all her stepfather's properties and the house she shares with her mother. As one last stake in the humiliation coffin, he'll let her mother live in the house, but only if she sleeps with him.

For a blackmail romance, this is actually pretty gentle and not-too-dubconny, which will be nice for people who want a book with the themes of dark romance but not the brutality. I actually liked Caleb, who was just cruel enough to be hot, but not cruel enough to be irredeemable. This is also one of the few big misunderstanding romances that actually worked, and I could see where both the hero and the heroine were coming from, which was quite refreshing.

I wish there had been more blackmail and that the heroine had been allowed to pocket her riches, rather than leaving with her head held high as she returned to her third-act breakup noble poverty. But I'm awarding bonus points for not having the heroine be a virgin and some genuinely spicy dialogue.

I would read more from Abby Green!

3.5 out of 5 stars

Public Wife, Private Mistress by Sarah Morgan

Ugh, this was so frustrating because parts of it were really good and I thought the ending was quite satisfying, but this has one of the most annoying TELL HIM THE TRUTH big misunderstandings that I've encountered in a while. Stasia is the British wife of the Italian millionaire, Rico-- until he caught her in bed with a naked man while they were on vacation with his younger sister and banished her, pending their divorce.

Now said sister is in the hospital with amnesia because of a horse-induced head injury, and when she finally wakes up, she thinks the two of them are still newlyweds on their honeymoon. Furious, Rico informs Stasia that they must now pretend like they are still married, so as to not upset his amnesiac sister (who didn't even like Stasia at first??? but now, apparently, she does??), although of course, he still expects the hate-sex because he is a man with #needs.

Deus-ex-head injury aside, the cause of the big misunderstanding is so FRUSTRATING because it could have been resolved with a single sentence and even though it was great that Rico apologized, he only did so after treating the heroine like shit for 90% of the book and calling her a slut. We also never see the sister grovel, and she needed to-- even more than the hero. Because holy shit, that was basically SA.

Anyway, while the sex scenes were spicy and I thought the writing was good, this had way too many tropes that were not for me and I did not personally like the way they were combined.

2 to 2.5 out of 5 stars

Powerful Italian, Penniless Housekeeper by India Grey

India Grey might be one of my new favorite Harlequin authors. POWERFUL ITALIAN, PENNILESS HOUSEKEEPER might have a silly title but it's a beautiful story about feeling uncertain in your thirties and rediscovering your passions when life leaves you cold.

Sarah is the awkward, plain daughter in her blended family. Her half-sister, Angelia, is pretty and popular, and her wedding is making Sarah, as a single mom, feel like a miserable failure. These feelings are amplified when Angelica and her cruel friends decide to humiliate Sarah for sport at their bridal shower, forcing her to do a scavenger hunt, like finding an eligible bachelor and ordering a "screaming orgasm" from the bar, and basically just being total assholes.

That's how she meets Lorenzo, eligible bachelor and film director extraordinaire, who is less than impressed with the way that Sarah is being treated. They have an instant connection, but Sarah, because of her insecurities, sees him as a chivalrous Italian man just exerting his charm. She doesn't expect to see him again, so obviously she does.

The core conflict here is that we learn, early on, that Sarah is the daughter of the deceased author who wrote Lorenzo's favorite book; he hopes to make a film of it by getting the rights, but the owner of said rights (his daughter) rejects everyone on principle. By the time he realizes who she is, he's already half-fallen for her, and this makes his seduction of her sharp with guilt: is he only doing this to create the magnum opus he's always dreamed of? Or is Sarah the woman he's been searching for all his life?

The writing is exquisite and Sarah was such a well-done character. Loved a non-virgin single mother heroine in her thirties, and also loved that the hero had infertility that WASN'T miraculously cured in the epilogue (I was worried). This author has a knack for introducing tough subjects in this book and handling them sensitively, but I've been burned too many times. Apparently, I needn't have worried.

Cannot wait to read even more from this author.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Cheer for Me by Savvy Rose

Sapphic stalker romance, anyone? CHEER FOR ME is a psychologically dark romance riddled with 90s nostalgia, set in a small bedroom community. Mary, one of our heroines, is a disturbed young woman who moves to a new state to make a fresh start-- or so we think. Ava, our other heroine, is a cheer coach married to a teacher. Both of them are cheating on each other and their marriage is a shambles, but they're putting on a good show for their public image.

I'll be honest, student x teacher is not usually something I gravitate to, but I liked that this was set in college instead of high school. I also liked how feral Mary is, as the younger person in the relationship. Because she's the driving force, and Ava is-- to some extent-- trying to escape it, it makes the story feel less predatory than a lot of student x teacher romances do. I also like how it's always fully clear that this is not a romanticized relationship: they both have issues, and I liked that.

If you like dark romance and have been craving the F/F version, you'll really enjoy this. Apparently there's another book in the series coming out soon called ONE DARK CANDLE.

3 out of 5 stars

Lore Olympus: Volume One by Rachel Smythe

Absolutely worth the hype. Hades and Persephone is one of my favorite Greek gods pairings, and this is such a cute, soft version of it. Love the portrayal of Persephone as a sheltered girly-girl and Hades as a grumpy reluctant playboy. As far as how "accurate" this is, I'd say it's on par with Disney's Hercules, but that's okay, because we're not here for accuracy, are we? We're here for the vibes, and Hades' 5+ dogs. (Can I say I LOVE Hades as a Dog Daddy?)

I bought this impulsively while I was at the store and I think I might have to "impulsively" order the rest of the series as well.

5 out of 5 stars

A Vengeful Deception by Lee Wilkinson

Christmas romance but make it revenge.

Snowed in trope but make it revenge.

Idiots in love trope but make it revenge.

I think you get the idea.

A VENGEFUL DECEPTION is the story of Anna and Gideon. Anna has secretary training but her goal is to work in a library or own a bookshop. Gideon is the man she meets by almost running him over after coming back from the liquidation sale of her small business.

After offering him a drive home, her car breaks down (ofc) and the power is out, and wouldn't you know it? He doesn't have a cell phone. So they do what anyone would do, they have stir-fry and indulge in some heavy-drinking while he asks her some rather disturbing questions about her personal life that kind of suggest that he knows more about her than he's actually letting on.

At first, this book takes a pretty progressive stance on the virgin heroine trope, and I liked how the heroine pointed out that part of being a modern woman is being able to say "no" to sex without judgement too. It lost points at the end, when the heroine later tells the hero-- and us-- that if a man can "seduce" a woman, she probably wanted it. Uhhh. But this is a Harlequin and not a feminist treatise, and a lot of the books in the Presents line are kind of rapey, especially if they're older. That's part of their appeal to their fans.

Were these two characters both total knuckleheads? Yes. Was the hero an unlikable cad? Yes. Did I want to medevac the heroine out of his lair of seduction? Yes. Was I incredibly entertained with this Die Hard excuse of a Christmas novel where the only holiday trappings were brandy and a tree? Absolutely I was. 

I wouldn't recommend this book to like 99% of people, but I found it very amusing.

2.5 out of 5 stars

The Pumpkin Spice Café by Laurie Gilmore

I honestly don't get the hype with this one. I was expecting a spicy cozy mystery with romcom vibes, but it didn't really deliver on the mystery or the romance end. I could see this making a really cute holiday movie, like Hot Frosty, but on paper it fell flat, at least for me. I'm a little worried because I bought the whole series because of the hype, but one of my TikTok friends was saying that CINNAMON BUN BOOKSTORE blows this one out of the water, so I'll be trying that one before I give up, because I really want to love these books.

I think I want to live in that cover, though. 

2 out of 5 stars

The Fox Wife by Yangsze Choo

THE GHOST BRIDE is one of my favorite books of all time, so when I found out that Yangsze Choo was writing yet another fantasy novel bordering on magical realism that was steeped in Asian folklore, I was super excited. And THE FOX WIFE did not disappoint: set in both Japan and China, it deftly weaves together two storylines: Bao, a man who was supposed to die, except that one of his kindly servants said a prayer for him that changed his life, and Snow/Yuki, a fox woman who is posing as a servant while looking for a man.

This had everything-- drama, romance, revenge, and magic. For a while, I was wondering how the two stories would converge, and I was very pleased with how they did. The pacing in this book is definitely a lot slower than it was in GHOST BRIDE, which felt more like what you might expect from a romantasy. This book, on the other hand, felt literary and almost plodding: it took a while to get where it was going to go, and you really got the sense that you were going on a lengthy journey alongside these characters, for better or for worse.

If you are okay with a slow-burn plot and prefer your fantasy novels to be primarily character driven, with strong female characters and not too much romance, you'll enjoy this book. I hope they make a movie of it: it would make a great animated movie or limited series.

Can't wait to see what this author writes next.

4 out of 5 stars

The Last Raven by Helen Glynn Jones

I'm actually shocked that the average rating is so low because I feel like this book has a lot in common with romance-heavy new adult fantasy books, and this reminds me a lot of books written by Tracy Wolff and Kate Golden. This is a futuristic AU dystopian set in our world, where vampires have taken over and started using humans as livestock. If the humans are lucky, they're free-range courtesans used for blood in the palaces, but if they're not, they're relegated to "safe zones" where they're forced to provide blood for safety.

***MILD SPOILERS TO FOLLOW***

Our heroine slash narrator is Emelia, the human-born daughter to two royal vampires. Because of her, ahem, condition, she's seen as inferior by a lot of other people in court and she's been kept in relative isolation. But now that she's an adult they're trying to roll her out slowly, and in a controlled way, so she can take on her duties as heir when she comes of age... even though both of her parents will outlive her (which is weird, but okay, why not lol).

Enter Kyle, the love interest: sexy bodyguard vampire who is charged with guarding her body but who also wants to do way more to it than that. He's more than what he seems, but so is Emelia, and when whispers of a rebellion begin circulating, the matter of her safety becomes a particularly thorny issue because the call is coming from inside the house and now she doesn't know who-- or what-- to trust. Everything she knows might be a lie.

The writing style was very breezy and I really liked the beginning, although because of the cover I was thinking this was going to be a high fantasy, so I was surprised that it was more paranormal dystopian. The jumpscare I experienced when I saw "Mercedes" mentioned. I feel like this is a book that is probably geared more to teens, because it gave strong Vampire Academy vibes, and I think all the kissing would have really appealed to my inner romantic back then. There's only one or two sex scenes and they aren't particularly detailed, so I think this would be fine for older teen readers. I also liked how the author tried to address some questions readers might have, such as why Emelia's parents didn't just TURN her.

I do feel like the ending was confusing, especially with regard to perhaps future plot twists and love interests, and that seems to be what people took issue with. Maybe it would help to think of this less as a romance than a romantic fantasy but then I reminded myself that individual books in the series don't have to have an HEA, as long as the last book does. There's something so nostalgically 2012-feeling about this book, that it fits right at home amongst the other YA releases in the dystopian boom canon, and if you love books like that and don't mind a little bit of comforting predictability, you'll love this.

I am definitely interested in reading more books from this author!

3 to 3.5 out of 5 stars

A Waltz with the Bone King: A Short Macabre Romance by Amanda Cessor

A WALTZ WITH THE BONE KING is a beautiful novella featuring the death and the maiden trope. Lorelai, a sickly and beautiful woman with morbid interests, meets the King of the Dead while walking in the woods. He has fallen in love with her and wants to court her, but every meeting with him carries a risk of death. Little does she know, she's been living on borrowed time already, and like Jareth, he has reordered time and turned the world upside-down for her already...

The Victorian goth-punk vibes of this reminded me a lot of Corpse Bride and Adalyn Grace's BELLADONNA, especially with the message that all of us are living on borrowed time at every moment and that while death is the true end to every story, it is nothing to be feared. The ending of this book made me cry because it made me think of my dad, who was ill with a terminal illness for almost six months. He was so at peace at the end, after going through so much discomfort and pain, and so much of what Lorelai had to say about her thoughts on death and living reminded me of him.

If you like cozy whimsigoth stories, you'll love this book. Especially if you love respectful skeleton daddies and the death and the maiden trope. I can't wait to read more from this author. I really like her writing style.

Thanks to the author/publisher for providing me with a review copy!

4 out of 5 stars