“It’s just you and me, dancing together.” “And millions of people watching on live TV.” “You’re not dancing with those people. You’re only dancing with me.”
Genre: Romance Actual Rating: 5 stars Spicy Meter: 3 fire emojis Content Warnings: Discusses racism, sexism, and emotional abuse. Contains explicit sexual content.
“Take The Lead” follows Gina Morales, a latina New Yorker that’s made it in Hollywood as a professional dancer, and Stone Nielson, a TV survivalist who’s made it to the spotlight essentially against his will. Gina is part of the profesional dancer cast of “The Dance Off”, a Dancing-With-The-Stars-esque TV show, and her partner for the season is Stone. They’re are opposite as opposites get, yet their attraction and connection are undeniable. Too bad Gina has sworn off workplace romances… Right?
This book exceeded my expectations in every way. I loved and connected with the characters more than I expected; and I was entertained and captivated by a topic I’m not particularly interested in (dancing and reality TV). I wouldn’t change a single thing about this novel.
I am a fan of Alexis Daria’s writing but I had not read her debut before. Now, with its re-publishing, I am endeared even more. Alexis was my first auto-buy author, and it seems like it’ll be staying that way.
This book is as steamy as they get, in true Daria fashion. I would highly recommend this book if you enjoy close proximity romances and opposites attract situations. Oh, and aren’t afraid of some sexy dancing and dancing, if you know what I mean.
Genre: Romance Actual Rating: 4 stars Spicy Meter: 4 fire emoji Content Warnings: Discusses parental abandonment and going viral over something embarrassing. Contains explicit sexual content.
“Not Your Valentine” follows Helen Tsang, a chemistry lab instructor, as she decides that the best way to get people to stop asking her about her relationship status after having a very public break up was to start fake-dating her high school best friend.
This book is your perfect fake-dating, friends to lovers novella. It’s also described as a grumpy/sunshine situation—I honestly didn’t see it that way, but that doesn’t mean I loved it any less. Set around Valentine’s Day, this is a perfect seasonal read for February. The cover doesn’t have much to do with the actual story and I hate misleading covers, but it’s cute so I’ll let it pass.
I would highly recommend this novella if you’re looking for a short romance that’ll give you all the spice and all the aw’s you’ll need for days.
Genre: Romance Actual Rating: 4 stars Spicy Meter: 2 fire emojis Content Warnings: Mentions miscarriages in the second trimester, childhood cancer, and cheating. Discusses fat shaming and abandonment issues after divorce and other negative romantic experiences.
“The Second You Are Single” follows Sora Reid, a freelance writer who pitches the concept of ‘Solo February’ after a series of negative dating experiences. Little did she know that it would go viral and that, in the middle of all of it, she’d run into her childhood best friend, Jack Mann. Jack, who is now a pastry chef, had the hugest crush on Sora growing up, and can’t wait to reconnect. But Sora can’t. Solo February, and all… They’ll have to wait ‘till March. Sure, that’s plausible. Unless they don’t.
Well, having been in a stable relationship for the last 7 years, I thought I wouldn’t relate that much to the Solo February challenge, but I was a tiny bit wrong there. This was still a very fun and empowering read, having Solo February branch into self cafe rather than just having it be a men-ban.
I loved all the representation in this book—from different cultures and ethnicities, to different bodies. I did feel like they went a little overboard with Sora’s love for bacon, it seemed satirical at best, but if I kind of block that out this book was near perfect. We got to see how Sora and Jack reconnect and get to know each other as adults, we see the tension and chemistry build, this wasn’t exactly some unrealistic insta-love story.
I would highly recommend this book. It feels like the perfect Valentine’s or Galentine’s Day gift, so definitely add it to your wishlists and TBRs!!
“I loved you yesterday. (…) I love you today. (…) I’ll love you tomorrow.”
Author: Sarah Ready Narrators: Erin Mallon
Genre: Romance Actual Rating: 5 stars Narration: 5 mikes Spicy Meter: 4 fire emojis Content Warnings: Describes eclampsia and memory loss after being in a coma. Contains explicit sexual content.
What happens after the happily ever after? That’s what we’re set to find out in this sequel. “Josh and Gemma the Second Time Around” follows Gemma as she readjusts to the reality that love sometimes isn’t what you think. It isn’t fireworks all the time. It isn’t a fairytale. It is hard, and it changes over time. After a critical event, Gemma is left feeling… nothing? Not even for Josh, the man (and baby daddy) who has always made her feel too much. Josh is willing to give it another go—but is Gemma?
Erin Mallon is something else. She’s slowly becoming my favorite female narrator, that’s all I’m saying. Her voice really took us through this heart-wrenching journey.
But, ultimately, this book is as heartbreaking as it is heartwarming. I am so mad at Sarah Ready for doing this to us, I legit could not handle it. But at the same time I am so grateful that she gave us more Josh and Gemma.
Throughout this book, we get to see more of the characters we loved and hated the first time around. In the first book we got to explore heavy topics like infertility, IVF, and miscarriages. In this second book we get to see what happens when life doesn’t go as expected. How “in sickness and in health” can be applied even before you’re officially married. We see Gemma land in a coma after suffering from pre-eclampsia. We see her lose her feelings. We see her come back.
I cannot recommend this series enough. Yes, it has nice tropes, like dating your brother’s best friend, etc., but it’s so much more than that. These books bring true human emotions, they explore narcissism, they describe trauma—Sarah Ready really exceeded my expectations with “Josh and Gemma the Second Time Around.”
“When you realize you love someone and that you want to spend the rest of forever with them, you want forever to start right now.”
Author: Sarah Ready Narrators: Erin Mallon
Genre: Romance Actual Rating: 4 stars Narration: 4 mikes Spicy Meter: 3 fire emojis Content Warnings: Discusses infertility, IVF, miscarriages, and parental death, and contains fat shaming. Contains explicit sexual content.
“Josh and Gemma Make a Baby” follows Gemma Jacobs as she decides to take her life and future in her own hands and have the baby she’s always dreamed of—by herself. Well, sort of. In comes Josh Lewenthal, her older brother’s best friend and a family friend since pretty much forever. Josh is easygoing and overall a good person, and was Gemma’s crush when she was younger, but those days are over. He would be the perfect donor/anonymous baby daddy. He could be as involved (or not) as he’d like, and, most importantly, he’s agreed to do it.
Erin Mallon did a great job at narrating this book. I loved her male voices and she sounded just how I imagined Gemma’s voice to be. I’ll definitely be keeping an eye out for other books narrated by her.
This book made me feel all the feels—it made me laugh and cry and it surprised me in so many ways. It was comical in a sitcom kind of way. In a way that showed that this story was highly improbable and yet so so relatable. I loved aaaall the side characters. From Gemma’s family to the IVF support group, this book had some A+ side vibes.
This is the first book by Sarah Ready that I’ve ever read and now I feel a need to go over her whole backlog. Her writing was fluid and engaging and I could not stop wondering where this story was going. This was the happiest of happily ever afters.
With a sort of childhood friends-to-lovers trope going on and some very serious double pining, you’ll love “Josh and Gemma Make a Baby” if you’ve enjoyed books where one of the main characters has secretly always been in love with the other main character. Just beware that this book brings along many serious topics like infertility and miscarrying after IVF.
“I guess loving is accepting that it’s about giving and never about taking. If you expect something in return, then love becomes a transaction and it’s not love anymore.”
“This will be so good for you, Georgie. (…) You’ll finally be able to do all the things you want to do.”
Genre: Romance Actual Rating: 5 stars Spicy Meter: 4 fire emojis Content Warnings: Discussed unhealthy relationships with parents, vandalism and crime, and being fired. Mentions drug use and fire arms. Contains explicit sexual content.
“Georgie, All Along” follows Georgie Mulcahy, a former Hollywood personal assistant, as she moves back to her small hometown to help her pregnant best friend on her last trimester and to figure out what she wants to do with her life moving forward. Whilst cleaning her besties storage room, they find a notebook they wrote right before starting high school, where they documented all the things they wanted to do back then—and then ended up not doing any of them. Georgie takes this as her sign. This notebook-bucketlist-thingy will help her find herself—and with the aid of her best friend and Levi Fanning, the older brother of her biggest teenage crush who’s crashing at Georgie’s parents’ place, she might accomplish just that.
Okay, so, thanks to this book, Kate Clayborn has become an instant-buy author for me. Like, “Georgie, All Along” was the last book I read in 2022 and yet I still know it will end up in my 2023 wrapped, right among my favorite reads of this year. It wasn’t just the spicy aspect to it, even though it was great—this book had so much character growth and development. The miscommunications are infuriating but justified. The love is not a slow-burn but it takes its time to settle in.
If you’re looking for a book that’ll make you feel things, then look no further. “Georgie, All Along”, in all its small town glory, will make you sniffle quite a bit. I don’t remember ever rooting for two characters as strongly as I rooted for Georgie and Levi. I’m all for a supportive significant other. I would legit date them both.
As Levi is a former bad boy, do expect to read about some triggering events. They don’t go into explicit details with drug use and such, but these things are mentioned, so if that isn’t your speed, maybe be careful about this one—although it, overall, isn’t the most prominent matter.
I would highly recommend this book to readers who enjoy close proximity tropes and former-bad-guy vibes, and who aren’t afraid of some spiciness in their reads. The chemistry between Georgie and Levi is undeniably, and they’re making it everyone’s business (and I’m here for it).
“Have faith in the power of true love, my dear, it conquers all.”
Author: Helena Hunting Narrators: Stella Bloom and Jason Clarke
Genre: Romance Actual Rating: 4.5 stars Narration: 5 mikes Spicy Meter: 3 fire emojis Content Warnings: Discusses age gap relationships, parental death, death during childbirth, dysfunctional relationships, and gaslighting. Contains explicit sexual content.
“Make a Wish” is the third and final installment in the Spark House series, and it follows the youngest Spark sister: Harley. She used to be a live-in nanny for a toddler named Peyton, but that was until she tried to kiss the girl’s widowed father, Gavin, and they upped and left to the other side of the State. Harley never saw them again, she moved on to work with her sisters in their boutique hotel, and that was that. Until Gavin and the now 9-year-old Peyton move back and they naturally reconnect. Will Harley get over what happened years ago and be able to move on to what the future could hold? Or will her embarrassment win this time around?
Hear me out: this book is part of a series, yes, but it works so so well as a standalone novel. And you can trust me with this one, because I have not read any of the other Spark House books and I was not only able to understand what was going on, but I was able to love the novel and all the characters as a whole.
And then when it came to the narration of this ARC audiobook—it was simply perfect. Stella Bloom’s voice was soft and really expressed Harley’s quirkiness, and Jason Clarke… Oh, Jason Clarke. His voice was so so deep. It was absolutely immaculate. I recently found out all the other audiobooks for this series are narrated by this pair and I can’t wait to get my hands on those.
The age difference and change in power dynamics was a bit weird, I’m not going to lie. I sometimes doubted Gavin’s intentions and really thought all he wanted was another live-in nanny. Also, that 9-year-old acted more like a 5- or 6-year-old, it got to be a bit annoying, yet I still honestly enjoyed this book—hence the aaaalmost perfect star rating.
I can’t speak for the rest of the series, but I would highly recommend “Make a Wish” if you’re looking for a romance that leans more towards the complex. Touching topics like childbirth death and losing both parents at a young age, this is a bit of a heavy read—but it still finds ways to be heartwarming.
If you enjoy age difference and second chances at love, then “Make a Wish” is most definitely for you.
“A die-hard, emotional romantic and a guy who only believes in one kind of happy ending? That’s a recipe for disaster if I ever saw one.”
Genre: Romance Actual Rating: 5 stars Spicy Meter: 3 fire emojis Content Warnings (as given by the author): Emotionally abusive ex, on-page gaslighting, portrayal of child with illness, mentions of deaths of loved ones, and deliberate use of the word crazy throughout. —I’ll add that it contains sexual content.
“Exes and O’s” is a heartwarming story that follows Tara Chen, a NICU nurse and bookstagrammer, as she tries to find her own second chance romance by contacting her exes with the help of her forever-single-but-never-alone firefighter roommate, Trevor Metcalfe. Little did they know that looking for secondhand love, they’d find it in each other.
The duo Christina Lauren portrayed it just right in their cover art endorsement: you’ll be laughing out loud with this one. I rarely find rom-com books funny, but Amy Lea really did it with “Exes and O’s.”
The main characters were so likable yet realistically imperfect. Tara was just the right amount of annoying and clingy to get the point across, but she wasn’t obnoxiously undesirable to the point that you wanted to skip her dialogue. The contrary was true, actually, I loved Tara and Trevor’s banter and Tara’s inner monologue in general.
The chemistry between the main characters slowly builds and it literally killed me in the process—I’m not the biggest fan of slow burn romances, but Tara and Trevor were worth the wait. In my opinion, they both deserve the world, we must protect them at all costs.
Mark my words: “Exes and O’s” will be between the best romance books of 2023.
If you enjoy books with grumpy-sunshine character pairing, then you’ll love Tara and Trevor, and if you’re a fan of the close proximity trope, then “Exes and O’s” is the perfect romance book for you.
ARC provided by NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review.
Publication Date: January 10, 2023
“I don’t need another man who makes elaborate promises he can’t commit to, Trevor. I need someone who’s going to be open and honest with me. I want someone who is willing to try.”
(…) “If there’s anyone in this world I want to try for, it’s you.”
Genre: Romance Actual Rating: 3.5 stars Spicy Meter: 2 fire emojis Content Warnings: Discusses death of parent/foster parent, grieving, breakups, struggling to make ends meet, potential homelessness, and an honest addiction to an ex.
“The Rom-Com Agenda” starts with a rejection. Eli is proposing to Victoria, is utterly turned down, and Leah is there to witness it all. Talk about secondhand embarrassment. Now, months later, Eli and his friends are trying to have Eli go through an extreme makeover in order to win Victoria back when she comes back to the States, all with the help of Leah, who volunteers to help him after befriending Eli’s sisters. Little did they know, they were lowkey made for each other. Through rom-com movies and mishaps, Eli and Leah get to really know each other, and question all about the future they envisioned apart—and how that might look if they were together.
I have to be honest, throughout this book I defaulted at times to just reading the dialogue. Eli’s back and forth was driving me insane. His sisters’ and friends’ obsession with meddling with his life felt so forced and unrealistic. Take this book as a true fiction romance—this could never happen in real-life.
I was so hyped for this book and I just simply didn’t vibe with it. The jokes weren’t funny, the dialogue was iffy, and the romance was alright. Leah and Eli seem like a good match, I just hated how they got there.
I would recommend this book, perhaps, as a palette cleanser between tough books. It’s lighthearted mostly and is an easy read. The pop culture and rom-com movie references were awesome—it just wasn’t as life-changing and heartwarming as I was expecting it to be.
“I don’t think I’m as amazing as you think I am. (…) But thank you anyway, for thinking it.” “You’re right. (…) What you are is even better than that.”
Genre: Romance (advertised as LGBTQIA+ as well, but I did not see it tbh) Actual Rating: 5 stars Spicy Meter: 5 fire emojis Content Warnings: Discussed unhealthy relationships, abandonment, chronic illness in a parent, and child neglect. Contains explicit sexual content.
“Back in a Spell” is the third installment in the The Witches of Thistle Grove series, and it follows Nina Blackmoore, of the Blackmoores that used to essentially own Thistle Grove and all its magic for decades, as she goes for a one night stand after being pretty much left at the altar by her ex. What she did not expect was that she’d end up being magically bonded to said one night stand, Morty Gutierrez, a normie who lowkeyloki hates the Blackmoores because they keep trying to buy off his family’s business.
Well, this was the first Lana Harper book that’s made me cry, I’ll give it that. Like literally sob. That’s how much and how deeply I connected with the main characters, Nina and Morty.
But there is one thing I need to disclose pretty early on—Morty is described on the summary of the book as nonbinary, but it isn’t really addressed much throughout the advanced reader copy of the book. Perhaps that changed in the final copy, but I still felt like it was something that I had to bring up. Tho, the fact that his nonbinary expression was overlooked didn’t quite stop me from loving this book.
“Back in a Spell” has been my favorite The Witches of Thistle Grove book so far and that really caught me by surprise because I hated no founding family more than I hated the Blackmoores, I swear. Yet Nina truly stole my heart. And then bring in Morty, a normie we already learned to love in the other books, and I fell in love with his humor and true admiration for all things magic. I think their match was meant to be, beyond them being bonded by a goddess.
I would highly recommend this series as a whole, but I would like to remind everyone that these books, although part of a series, still work pretty well as standalones. Lana Harper makes sure to give you the context and background in every single story she’s told, and it’s been truly awe-inspiring. I really wish I could live in Thistle Grove, even if I fell under the glamour that makes all magic seem normal for us normies.
If you’re a fan of close proximity romance, aren’t afraid of things getting too explicit, and you enjoy books with monumental personal growth and character development, then “Back in a Spell” is for you.
ARC provided by NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review.
Publication Date: January 3, 2023
And finally, Lana Harper isn’t a new found love for me—she’s been one of my favorite authors ever since I grabbed her books for the first time. So, here are some excerpts from my reviews of the books in this series, just so you can get a sense about how wonderful The Witches of Thistle Grove series is:
About “Payback’s a Witch” “I was essentially in a reading slump and this book is entirely responsible for me getting out of it.” “I would recommend this book to any readers who enjoy LGBTQIA+ romances, witchy books, and who like series like Riverdale and the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. This book is fast-paced and dynamic, you’ll definitely finish it in one sitting if you have the time.”
About “From Bad to Cursed” “Thistle Grove is such a cozy, warm setting. I personally wouldn’t mind living there—or reading 10 more stories set in it either.” “Sadly, “From Bad to Cursed” does not have the LGBTQIA+ aspect that the previous book had going for it, but I must say the romance aspect of this second installment is still heartwarming and fun.” “I would recommend this book to fans of the close-proximity troupe and for all who enjoyed the character dynamics and setting of the first book in this series: “Payback’s a Witch”.”
andrea's galley 