Perfect Rhythm (2017) Jae (Fair Oaks) Leontyne Blake grew up wanting nothing more than to escape the small town where she grew up, and now she has that, as pop start Jenna Blake. But at the end of her tour she receives a call from her mother, that Leo’s father has suffered a stroke and […]
The Heartbreak Bakery (2021) A.R. Capetta Syd is finishing up high school while working full time in the Proud Muffin–the bakery and community space that is a second home for so many LGBT teens and adults in Austin. But when Syd is dumped by their girlfriend, the accidentally bake Break-Up brownies which not only breaks […]
A Marvellous Light (2021) Freya Marske (The Last Binding) Set in England prior to The Great War. Maybe 1906 or 1907. After his parents were killed ina car wreck, Robin Blyth has to pick up the pieces of the life they left him and his sister. “You don’t talk about your parents much.” “I am— […]
Outcrossing (2018) Celia Lake (Mysterious Charm) Set in alternate England in 1922. Rufus returned from The Great War unscathed, to a village that doesn’t understand why he returned when their sons and brothers and fathers didn’t. (T)hey found him even more suspicious and – just wrong, one of the wives had called him. “Nothing natural […]
The Quid Pro Quo (2021) A.L. Lester (Bradfield Trilogy) Set in England in 1920 Walter met Sylvia when they were both working at the same hospital at Royaumont. They only got the worst cases here now… had done for a while, since the brass had worked out that the lady doctors had a better surgical […]
A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Mayhem (2020) Manda Collins (A Lady’s Guide) Set in England in 1865 Lady Katherine Bascomb inherited The Gazette after the death of her husband, and has come to thoroughly enjoy running it–including writing articles of her own. Two years ago, her husband, George, had been alive and making her […]
The Fog of War (2021) A.L. Lester (Bradfield Trilogy) Set in England in the summer of 1919. Dr Sylvia Marks returned to the village where her father had been the local doctor, after the end of the war and her time as a surgeon at Royaumont, where she was later joined by Walter, a nurse […]
Learned Behaviors (2020) Jayce Ellis (Higher Education) JaQuan Reynolds has dedicated the last 18 years of his life to his daughter. For four years, Tanisha had begged Santa to give her a new mommy, and had stopped believing in him not long after that. Now that she is off to college, he is faced with […]
Faces (2021) A.M. Rose Dorian was born blind, but that blindness came with a gift–the ability to draw the soulmates of those whom he touches. The portrait I draw is the image of the soulmate the way they look when the person sees them for the first time” Hayden knows that soulmates exist–his parents were […]
Sweetest in the Gale (2020) Olivia Dade (There’s Something About Marysburg) This is actually three novellas, all set in the town of Marysburg: “Sweetest in the Gale”, “Unraveled”, “Cover Me” “Sweetest in the Gale” Griff Conover has worked with Candy Albright since moving to Marysville, and he’s always had his eye on her. But his […]
Galaxies and Oceans (2018) N.R. Walker Apparently my brain things I need to be having feelings. Grief was like the great Southern Ocean; it moved in ebbs and flows, often turbulent and rough, or peaceful and settled, and even over time when I could navigate the waters, the tide never stopped. “(S)ometimes you have to […]
Rend (2018) Roan Parrish (Riven) Matt Argento was abandoned as a child, and from that moment on has never felt himself to be enough. To be deserving. He has a job he loves, but in the back of his mind he still expects everything to be taken away. “You were so used to things being […]
Riven (2018) Roan Parrish (Riven) This book is full of so many strong feelings and so much angst, yet bits and pieces of it kept tugging on my mind, so I decided to reread. “Don’t ever apologize for doing what you need to be okay,” he said. But still the shame trickled through me like […]
Open Hearts (2020) K. Evan Coles (Stealing Hearts) Jae-seong Bak love his job as a Nurse Anesthetist, but the swing shifts are starting to get to him as he gets older. For now, he’s back in Boston, where he grew up, and getting ready for his brother’s upcoming wedding. What he didn’t expect was to […]
The Love Study (2020) Kris Ripper To say that Declan has commitment issues is an understatement. He left his boyfriend (and best friend) at the altar, and refuses every offer of permanent employment he receives, preferring to remain with the temp agency. What I especially like about temping at offices: never feeling like I’m trapped […]
Bodyguard (2021) Dassy Bernhard (The Bodyguards) An orphan. With secret superpowers. Who works as a bodyguard. Tang Jun-young had hoped that saving the K-Pop boy band he was guarding flew under the radar, with people paying attention to the musicians rather than the nameless man who saved them. But no such luck, as the chairman […]
The Charm Offensive (2021) Alison Cochrun I am having a really hard time writing this review. Because I keep diving back into the book and reading passages an getting sucked back in. Charlie Winshaw was forced out of the company he helped found, and now he’s hoping to rehabilitate his image by appearing on a […]
Let Me Show You (2019) Becca Seymour (True-Blue) Carter Falon inherited his grandfather’s house and decided to uproot himself to the Kirkby. Unfortunately, the house needs a lot of work. towel. In my haste to get myself together and then answer the door, the dodgy floorboard didn’t even register until my foot slammed through it, […]
Trailer Park Trickster (2021) David R. Slayton (Adam Binder) Do you know what I hate? Cliffhangers. Do you know what this book had? Yup. A cliffhanger. Adam and Vic have had no chance to work things out, because Adam took off for Oklahoma in an attempt to save his aunt. He didn’t save his aunt. […]
Paladin’s Hope (2021) T. Kingfisher (The Saint of Steel) The third book in the Saint of Steel series. Piper is the lich-doctor (think coroner) for the White Rat. He’d worked with several of the paladins of the Saint of Steel in solving the a series of murders. Now it looks like there is another murderer […]
The Lion Tamer (2018) Dahlia Donovan (The Sin Bin) As noted throughout the series, Scottie us a wreck, who is incapable of being a functioning adult. Scottie sat up slowly and glanced around to find the scenery had changed quite significantly. “Why the fuck am I in a hospital bed?” Taine placed a hand on […]
The Unexpected Santa (2017) Dahlia Donovan (Sin Bin) This story is is a glimpse of the start of the relationship between Scottie and Gray. Scottie is a mess. He’d never possessed the tools to deal with the chaos of emotions in his life. It always funnelled into anger. The rage burned in him. Seriously, he […]
The Royal Marine (2017) Dahlia Donovan (The Sin Bin) Akash Robinson moved to Cardiff to open his own bakery after working at his parents for years. Unfortunately, running his own bakery means he has no time for the social life he had hoped to develop with the move. (H)e’d never brought a date home once. […]
The Botanist (2017) Dahlia Donovan (The Sin Bin) This story takes place over the course of about two years, and opens with Aled being rescued by Wyatt. (The damage to Aded all occurs off the page, by Wyatt is there for the immediate aftermath.) Although it is a romance, most of the story is about […]
The Caretaker (2017) Dahlia Donovan (The Sin Bin) Freddie Whittle is a cancer nurse. It’s an incredibly hard job, and he puts too much of himself into it, but he doesn’t want to do anything else. Taine stood silent while the nurse gathered himself. He squared his shoulders, took a deep breath, and exhaled slowly […]
The Wanderer (2017) Dahlia Donovan (The Sin Bin) This is a romance. With cancer. Graham languished in his bungalow on the water for two days. He never got sick, which made him the worst patient in the world. One of the things that makes this story so good is that it is unflinching in looking […]
Not So Cookie Cutter (2019) Aidan Wayne This is a sideways sequel to Making Love, in that Jerrell is Carla’s target at the end of that book. It’s also about a baker. Maybe he could try some for tomorrow. And it would take way less time than cheesecake. Pumpkin-cheesecake inspired mousse, though? Or trifle cups! […]
After the Scrum (2016) Dahlia Donovan Francis Keen is perfectly happy living in Looe with his grandmother. He doesn’t want to leave her alone, and if it helps his anxiety, that’s not a bad thing either. And since he is a somewhat successful interior designer, it’s pretty good. He hated leaving his small workspace in […]
A Gathering Storm (2017) Joanna Chambers (Porthkennack) Set in England (Cornwall) in 1853. Edward Fitzwilliam has spent the past year destroying his reputation as a scientists, in an attempt to reach and speak to his dead twin brother. He believes that Porthkennack is the perfect spot to recreate the conditions where he saw and heard […]
The Lights on Knockbridge Lane (2021) Roan Parrish (Garnet Run) Adam had always wanted to be a father. What he didn’t expect was to end up a single parent, back in the hometown he ran away from as soon as he graduated, relying on his sibling to help him with child care. And Adam is […]
Making Love (2017) Aidan Wayne Carla is a cupid, and she wants nothing more than to go out into the world and find True Love matches for humans. But as good as her aim is, Carla is terrible at seeing possible chemistry between people. A cupid’s arrow only held the Spark of Interest. It got […]
Team Phison Forever (2019) Chace Verity (Team Phison) Tyson Falls loves Phil and wants to propose. But the discovery that he has a half-sister–and a sister who is apparently loved by the father who disowned Tyson–makes him doubt the concept of family and his own suitability for having one. “Things are good the way they […]
Gilded Cage (2019) KJ Charles (Lilywhite Boys) Set in London in 1895 Templeton Lane fell far from his noble birth to become a notorious jewel thief. A matched set of black opals, Jerry had said scathingly. Really. Was there also an advertisement placed in the paper for the attention of Templeton Lane? Susan Lazarus has […]
Mr. Winterbourne’s Christmas (2018) Joanna Chambers (Winterbourne) Set in England in 1823 Lysander and Adam have been content, living as a steward and landholder by day and lovers at night. Except neither has used that word: Love. When both are invited to Lysander’s family home for Christmas (Adam’s brother is married to Lysander’s sister) multiple […]
The Ghost Wore Yellow Socks (2008) Josh Lanyon This is an interesting story in a lot of ways. First, I think this is one of her earlier books, and the writing isn’t quite as smooth as I’ve come to expect from her. Secondly, it’s set in that weird time where before DADT ended and before […]
Love, Marriage, and a Baby Carriage (2016) CS Poe I love this story. I mean, it’s like someone dared her to put every single trope she could think of into less than 40 pages, and she made it perfect. I was attending a singles’ convention for special people like me to find their forever penguin […]
The Remaking of Corbin Wale (2017) Roan Parrish After his life blew up around him, Alex headed back to his home town to take over (and reinvent) his parent’s coffee shop. Down a boyfriend and a job in forty-eight hours, Alex hadn’t been sure which had been the bigger blow. Everything about this story is […]
The Rat-Catcher’s Daughter (2019) KJ Charles (Lilywhite Boys) Set in London in 1893. Christiana is in trouble. She got into debt, then her debt was purchased by Kammy Grizzard, and she failed to follow through on what he wanted. She is surprised when two strange men break into her dressing room before Bad Things start […]
Any Old Diamonds (2019) KJ Charles (Lilywhite Boys) Set in England in 1895. Alex wants revenge upon his father and step-mother, and he is going to get it however he can. So he decides to seek out the Lilywhite Boys–some of the best jewel thieves in London. Consider me the antithesis of a Romish priest. […]
Homicide in Hardcover (2009) Kate Carlisle (Bibliophile Mystery) A mystery about books! Sounds like JUST my thing! It was not my thing. I ended up rage reading to finish it. Brooklyn is the child of hippies and a book restorer who is good enough to have set up her own independent business. She has been […]
All the Wrong Places (2016) Ann Gallagher (Bluewater Bay) I needed to read an ace romance, and I feel like I’ve reread them all recently, so this one it was. Brennan is a semi-pro skater who has had terrible luck with all his girlfriends and doesn’t understand what’s wrong with him. Zafir is a single […]
Not Even a Mouse (2015) Dahlia Donovan Kat is a shifter. (T)he feathertail glider shifter— not a mouse, thank you very much. She has also been in love with her older brother’s best friend for years. Not that she’d ever tell him. Declan has spent his adult life studying genetics, trying to determine the genetics […]
The Bellingham Mystery Series Volume 2 (2015) Nicole Kimberling One Man’s Treasure Birds of a Feather Pentimento Blues This book starts in 2011. Which is important since events changed quickly in the world (specifically the legality of gay marriage). “But,” Kjell continued, his brow still crumpled in confusion, “am I supposed to have card?” It […]
The Bellingham Mystery Series Volume 1 (2015) Nicole Kimberling Primal Red Evergreen Black Cat Ink Like Grilled Cheese and Goblins, the story is fun and enjoyable. In addition to writing articles, Peter was in charge of circulation, which meant that every Thursday morning he drove bundles of the free weekly to various locations in the […]
Grilled Cheese and Goblins: Adventures of a Supernatural Food Inspector (2018) Nicole Kimberling This is such a fun book. I mean, supernatural food inspector! Keith could have epitomized the word “average.” Not good-looking or bad looking. Brown hair and eyes. Nothing beyond that to report. He was the kind of man nobody noticed for very […]
Hither, Page (2019) Cat Sebastian (Page & Sommers) Set in England in 1946. Leo Page works for a government agency that kept him going all over the continent–first to try and keep England from war, and then trying to help get them out of it faster. He has no illusions about what he does, and […]
Best Laid Plans (2021) Roan Parrish (Garnet Run) This is another story where both characters have dealt with a lot, but we see they learned healthy ways to deal with their shit. He looked at the situation and chose to acknowledge all the dimensions of it. Dimensions (as he thought of them) weren’t positive or […]
Better Than People (2020) Roan Parrish (Garnet Run) One of the things that resonated so strongly with me was the misery of being laid up after a bad break that requires you to stay off your feet. Every day had dilated to a month, every night to a year, and Jack found himself wishing for […]
The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows (2020) Olivia Waite (Feminine Pursuits) Set in England in 1820 Let’s start with what I loved about this story: The history. The politics. George had at the same time enjoyed a cheery reunion with his mistress, Lady Coyningham, whose husband had recently been elevated to the Privy Council […]
The Ruin of a Rake (2017) Cat Sebastian (The Turner Series) Set in London in 1817 All Courtenay really wants is to see his nephew. But his past (and other circumstances) have made it so Radnor is refusing to allow him any contact. Courtenay was effectively stranded in London, a city populated by people who […]