Author: professorromance

Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Tropes: instant attraction; one-night stand to more; workplace romance; teacher/student; contemporary romance

Thank you, Louise Bay, for the Cove brothers, specifically Jacob Cove: that overachieving, stick up his heiney, oldest Cove brother. Thanks to him, we are treated to almost a grump/sunshine trope when he meets and falls quickly for Sutton, the compassionate, empathic, world-wise FMC of Bay’s Dr. Off Limits. This story promises so many more delectable stories in her newest series based upon the Cove brothers. 

What did I love the most about Dr. Off Limits?

1. I love a hero who needs to get emotionally messy. This is the case with Jacob Cove. He’s standing in the shadow of his successful parents, and it’s left him on a journey of striving. However, his motivation isn’t solely focused on his love of treating children. It’s cast in the light of what he believes his parents expect of him. Through Jacob, Bay treats us to the negative impact of parental expectations. Early in his life, Jacob is pushed to perfection by his father. However, through his journey, he learns about his father’s mistake in treating him as such. His father did this out of his compunction about being a “good” father due to his absenteeism related to his job. Anyone who has ever been dealt a bad hand by a parent will feel seen through Jacob’s evolution when his father takes a moment to apologize for his early parenting errors.
2. Sutton is one of my favorite FMCs. This is a woman whose path has been littered with disappointment, and she’s been left to make her own way in the world. She has strived for the opportunity to practice medicine. And she believes she is not worthy of the rewards of her hard work. While Jacob’s family life was muddled, overall, he knows he is loved by his family. They may be messy, but they show up for each other. This isn’t Sutton’s experience, so the treasure of her journey is being on the receiving end of their love for her. As Jacob acknowledges her giftedness in treating patients, she begins to find herself. It takes the effort of several ancillary characters to get her to accept her gifts fully.
3. Obviously, this is book one of a new series, so Bay carefully uses her ancillary characters to add layers to her story. One minute, they lend humor to the story, and the next, they act as wizened guides or solace. They are also pronouncements for future stories and reminders of the past. 

One of my criticisms of Dr. Off Limits is its last two chapters. For me, the chemistry doesn’t grow enough between Sutton and Jacob. Their ending feels rushed, and it didn’t have the emotional impact I was hoping for, given their journey. Maybe it was my reading, but this seemed out of character for Louise Bay. Overall, however, I enjoyed this new book, and I read it swiftly. 

In love and romance, 

Professor A

Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Tropes: MMF leaning, Forced Proximity, Instant attraction, Stranded on an Island, Opposites attracting, Dark Romance, Shades of BDSM

“Ecosystems are rife with connections. Environments like the island, relatively untouched by humans, tend to exist in a state of balance. Everything has its equal. Its opposite. ‘That’s you,’ I tell June. ‘You’re my equal and opposite.’”

June and Carter (one of the Morellis from the Midnight Dynasty Collection) find themselves stranded on an island at the end of the prequel novella to Skye Warren and Amelia Wilde’s The Crash. They are not safe, and Carter must work to keep them so while also feeding them and finding shelter. These two are drawn to each other with chemistry for days. However, Carter knows a relationship is a dead end for them IF they can find their way off the island. 

As they trek deeper into the island, June meets with an unfortunate accident, and Carter strives to save her. When a man comes forward to help them, they find he has lived on the island since he was 8. Theo further complicates Carter and June’s situation in that they all three feel erotically drawn to each other. By the end of Warren and Wilde’s Force of Nature, the drama continues. 

At the core of Force of Nature is an elemental, erotic experience. Putting that aside, we don’t know much more about June and Carter’s capacity to leave the island. We receive tidbits of Theo’s life as the new man to the puzzle, but in the end, this book only grants a few more pieces of it. 

Is it edge-of-your-seat reading? Yes.

Is it $exually titillating as you would expect from Warren and Wilde? Indeed.

Is it more set up for the rest of the series? Absolutely. 

If you’re a fan of romantic suspense with some action and erotica, you should begin with The Crash and jump feet first into Force of Nature. It’s a quick and adventurous read that will cause you to throw your Kindle at the wall over its cliffhanger.

In love and romance,

Professor A

Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

Tropes: best friend’s ex; a bit forbidden

In a word, Roxie Noir’s contribution, “One Woman’s Ex is Another Woman’s Orgasm, to the Dissent Anthology is erotic. This is pure titillation with a side of friendship between and a quick interrogation of “woman code,” a derivation of “bro code.” This quick novella follows Bridget, Lucy, and Nora are long-time friends, and Bridget is “hanging out” with Ash, Lucy’s ex. Everything feels right between Bridget and Ash, but telling Lucy has been elusive for Bridget. As Ash and Bridget fall deeper into their situationship, Bridget knows it’s time to tell her bestie. Will she accept it and move past her hurt feelings? Read this quick nibble and find out. This one is spicy, folks. Ash and Bridget burn up the pages, and you can’t help but love the gal love of Noir’s story.

In love and romance,

Professor A

DR. OFF LIMITS 

Dr. Off Limits? I have a fever and I think you might be the medicine I need.

I’ve sworn off men to focus on my dream job that starts on Monday. But my best friend talks me into a final night of fun—a blind date.

I only agree because the guy is going to work as a doctor in Africa.

It’s the best date of my life. Dr. Africa makes me laugh and swoon and I want to give him a thorough physical examination.

He turns into Dr. One Night Stand, and I’m not sad about it.

Monday morning, I’m enthusiastic and excited, until I bump into . . . you guessed it.

Apparently Dr. Africa got his brother to fill in on our date, and now I work at the same hospital as the guy I got naked with on Saturday.

Did I mention he’s my new boss?

I need to go right to the Emergency Room and find a cure for my crush on Dr. Off Limits.

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Force of Nature by Skye Warren & Amelia Wilde is now live!

Carter Morelli survived a violent childhood and dangerous missions. After he emergency lands the small aircraft, he faces something even worse: having someone depend on him. Geologist June Porter wants to study rocks. She didn’t plan to be stranded on a deserted island.

They aren’t alone on the island. A man hides among the broad leaves. He’s almost feral, this man. But he provides them shelter and food.

There are secrets in his hidden cabin. Desire, too.

Carter doesn’t want to care about the bookish, beautiful June.
But he doesn’t like this strange man’s interest in her, either.
Simmering chemistry wars with the need for survival.

Will they be found before they give into temptation?

Download today on Amazon, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Google Play, Kobo!

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Meet Skye

Skye Warren is the New York Times bestselling author of dangerous romance such as the Endgame trilogy. Her books have been featured in Jezebel, Buzzfeed, USA Today Happily Ever After, Glamour, and Elle Magazine. She makes her home in Texas with her loving family, sweet dogs, and evil cat.

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 Meet Amelia

Amelia Wilde is a USA TODAY bestselling author of dangerous contemporary romance and loves it a little too much. She lives in Michigan with her husband and daughters. She spends most of her time typing furiously on an iPad and appreciating the natural splendor of her home state from where she likes it best: inside.

Connect with Amelia

Website: https://awilderomance.com

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Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

“You were never the tightrope. You were Kody’s anchor and Lavender’s shield.”

H. Hunting’s newest series, Lies, Hearts, & Truths, has an edge. Born out of her Pucked and All In series, Little Lies and Bitter Sweet Heart reveal the truth about families: they are messy and fraught. To date, Little Lies has been my favorite of the two books. After reading Bitter Sweet Heart, Maverick’s story, it still holds that claim, but BSH is beautifully wrought and a reminder that our future trajectories can change and family trauma impacts more than the person directly involved in the trauma. H. Hunting’s Bitter Sweet Heart is another example of Helena Hunting’s capacity to pivot her storytelling, finding a new space to inhabit for herself. 

Here are my own truths as a romance reader uncovered after reading Hunting’s Bitter Sweet Heart:

**I love a hero who ensures consent. Honestly, it doesn’t seem romantic, but I love a hero, one such as Maverick, who checks in with his heroine. In my mind, it equates to compassion and care. The MMC can be a burly, alpha-hero and still ensure the FMC’s boundaries are being honored. In fact, it’s downright sexy to read. 

**Maverick is nothing like I thought he’d be. He has spent most of his life caring for others at the expense of himself, and even in the end, he continues to do it. Yes, he’s gorgeous, but his compassion and thoughtfulness actually make him more attractive. Additionally, it doesn’t detract from his masculinity; it adds depth to his character. He is not fun-loving, although he has fun. He is an old soul in a young body.

**I think I’m a fan of reverse age-gap stories. Yes, they have shades of the forbidden, only because our minds are often turned by decades of patriarchal rule. Hunting carefully curates Maverick and Clover’s relationship, infusing him with maturity while keeping Clover youthful. Their physical relationship combines eroticism and responsibility, so it never reads wrong. There is something very right about Maverick and Clover together.

**I am the biggest fan of taking Hunting’s wildly popular Pucked and All In series, reminding readers of our favorite characters, ones who have doled out laughs and tears and familial camaraderie. When you finish a series such as Pucked and All In, you remember the humor of it, the off-the-cuff inappropriateness of Violet, and the quirkiness of the other characters. However, entering the Lies, Hearts, & Truths series, readers are met with the repercussions of trauma in the younger generation. These kids are messy, forcing you to consider that seemingly perfect worlds in romance don’t always mean the same for future generations. While Maverick is thoughtful, compassionate, and the perfect older brother who takes care of his younger siblings, it comes at a cost to himself. Hunting crafts this reality beautifully in his character, showing the ramifications of living life making others happy at the cost of his own happiness. Thankfully, Hunting creates parents who want to remedy the sins of their past. My favorite parts of Bitter Sweet Heart are Maverick’s dealings with his parents, especially his father, as he reconsiders his future. All of it reads messy and realistic, and I was engrossed in his struggle. 

Bitter Sweet Heart is engaging, erotic, and emotional. It’s layered, and you lose yourself in Maverick’s struggle to live a life in his own light. The humor of the Pucked and All In series floats through his story, but BSH is meant to provoke your thinking about familial trauma and its aftermath. When you finish H. Hunting’s book, it feels like you’ve endured a journey of a thousand miles while surrounded by your favorite people.

“I love you.”

“And I love you. Every minute of every day until forever ends.”

In love and romance,

Professor A

“The heart, the raw authenticity, the original lens, this has become my favorite series of the year and I’m begging for more!” ~ Catherine Cowles, USA Today bestselling author

Bitter Sweet Heart, a steamy, reverse age gap, hockey romance from New York Times bestselling author Helena Hunting writing as H. Hunting, is now available!

From the outside looking in, I live a charmed life: hockey legend for a father, my own promising future in the league, a great family, awesome friends. It’s not untrue, but it’s not quite that simple either.

My dad’s advice has always been to make hockey my number-one priority—at least until I make it to the pros. So, going into my senior year of college, I have a plan. I’ll put in the effort required to pass my classes, play hockey like my life depends on it, and avoid relationships. All I have to do is stay focused on the end game, and I’ll walk away with a degree and into a career in the NHL.

It should be easy.

But when a woman literally floats into my dock, just before summer ends and my senior year begins, I can’t resist one last hookup. What harm could a one-night stand do? It’s not like we even exchanged numbers.

Everything is fine until I run into her on campus.

It’s a big school. I should be able to avoid her.

Except she happens to be in my class.

And she’s not a student.

She’s my professor.

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About H. Hunting

NYT and USA Today bestselling author, Helena Hunting, writing as H. Hunting, lives on the outskirts of Toronto with her incredibly tolerant family and two moderately intolerant cats. She started her writing career with new adult angsty romance and branched out in sports romance and romantic comedies that will make you laugh and swoon. But sometimes she likes to serve up a little heartache on the way to the happily ever after.

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Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Tropes: second chance romance; enemies to lovers; a bit romantic suspense; fated lovers

“It was in the darkness where my love for him endured. Words I would never say. But the truth of it screamed through my veins.”

A.L. Jackson’s Never Look Back, the third book of her Redemption Hills series, is a whirlwind of emotion. It follows the youngest of the Lawson brothers. Much like his older brothers Trent and Jud, Logan’s past comes back to trouble him. However, this trouble is an opportunity to reunite with the love of his life, Aster. How this occurs makes for a journey of a thousand tears, but in true A.L. Jackson fashion, they eventually find their happy ending. Unfortunately, you must walk a broken road to get there.

Logan and Aster’s story is one of second-chance romance. They are fated souls who have been separated by seven years. This makes for a slow-burn story because, at their reunion, they despise each other due to the hurt perpetrated on them. Jackson uses dual points of view and flashbacks to provide her readers with the depth of their story. There are nuances to it that require the reader’s complete understanding of their background as a means to accept their choices. As such, this book is a sleepy read. I usually read romances in a day to a day and a half. This one took me longer than my average because Jackson doesn’t hold back on the details. 

Aster’s characterization requires her to be reticent to reunite with Logan. There are keen reasons for it, and Jackson asks you to be patient with her acceptance of him back into her life. However, the pull between the two makes it difficult for her to continue to say “no.” She is tenacious and resilient, and she doesn’t allow Logan to push her around too much. 

And Logan’s is a complex rendering in that he hides his vulnerability about Aster behind his seemingly easy-going, comedic nature or stern exterior. However, don’t be fooled by his facade. Deep inside Logan is a reservoir of pain. Their journey of reconciliation exposes it, allowing him to be eventually vulnerable with Aster. This dichotomy of Logan’s identity provides complexity to Jackson’s story.

Additionally, Jackson’s style is poetry once again. Her fragments, the incorporated poems at the hand of Aster, and the marriage of fragments with complex sentences create the ebb and flow of the story. Jackson’s voice is distinct, poetry in motion. It sets her apart from most romance authors.

Entering A.L. Jackson’s Never Look Back requires you to gird your emotional loins. Aster and Logan’s story is angsty, emotional, and heartrending. As you open the book to its first pages, grab those tissues and prepare yourself for an impassioned journey infused with eroticism, agony, and abiding, abundant love.

In love and romance,

Professor A

Never Look Back

An Enemies-to-Lovers, Close-Proximity, Second-Chance Romance from A.L. Jackson

Available Now on Amazon and Free with Kindle Unlimited

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DETAILS:

TITLE: NEVER LOOK BACK

RELEASE DATE: AUGUST 29TH, 2022

Synopsis

From NYT and USA Today bestselling author A.L. Jackson comes an enemies-to-lovers, close-proximity, second-chance romance…

Logan Lawson won me in a bet.

The second I saw him sitting at the illegal card table, I knew I was in trouble.

Years ago, he sealed my fate and condemned me to a life I didn’t want to lead.

Yet he’s filled with untamed fury and thirsting for vengeance against the husband I hate.

Aster Costa is everything I never should have wanted.

The second she showed with her pompous, prick of a husband, I should have gotten up and walked.

But there’s no looking away from the woman who wrecked me.

Worse, I can’t stop myself from plotting to get her back.

I want nothing more than to be free of my husband.

I’m afraid Logan Lawson is the only one who can make that happen.

He might hate me for our past, but now it’s me on my knees begging for help.

Finding each other in the middle of it wasn’t supposed to be part of the bargain.

But once Logan touches me, I’m gone.

A torch is rekindled. A fire is lit.

Aster Costa has always been mine.

And this time, no matter the cost, I won’t give her back…

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A.L. Jackson is the New York Times & USA Today Bestselling author of contemporary romance. She writes emotional, sexy, heart-filled stories about boys who usually like to be a little bit bad.

Her bestselling series include THE REGRET SERIES, CLOSER TO YOU, BLEEDING STARS, FIGHT FOR ME, CONFESSIONS OF THE HEART, FALLING STARS, and REDEMPTION HILLS novels. Get her latest enemies-to-lovers, second-chance romance, NEVER LOOK BACK, available now!

If she’s not writing, you can find her hanging out by the pool with her family, sipping cocktails with her friends, or of course with her nose buried in a book.

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Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Tropes: Forbidden romance; alpha- hero; playboy; insta-attraction/love; soulmates; scars; age-gap

“But from almost the moment I got there, I realized I had nothing without the people I love. You, my dad, Rafe. The people you love are what life is about, not a place.”

Forbidden. Intense. Driving. All of these adjectives describe Penelope Ward’s newest story, Moody. Dax and Wren’s story covers a spectrum of emotions, landing on humor one moment while gutting you the next. Ward puts her readers through their paces. It takes much of the book to feel safe about Dax and Wren’s coupledom. There is much I’d love to say about this book, but to do so would be to ruin it, to reveal this book’s secrets. 

What did I like about it?

*I’m a massive fan of the broken MMC, the one who bears the wounds/scars of his past on his soul. He covers them with a fierce facade, but underneath it, he’s wounded and surviving. He hides behind work and impulsive hook-ups. Deep down, though, he wants more, even though he must be coaxed into it. This describes Dax Moody. He also loves hard when he allows himself that measure.

*Unlike Dax, Wren is insightful and intelligent. She’s interesting as she’s both a massage therapist and a gifted cello player. One of my favorite moments involves Wren telling Dax about the power of sharing stories from a third-person perspective. As Wren weaves the tale of her past, she forces him to consider his own story while also creating THE moment (I believe) when begins to fall in love with her. While she is younger than Dax, she’s much more intuitive about relationships than him. She carries her own wounds, but she’s found a way to move beyond them, while he is still tethered by them. 

*The big secret of Moody is compelling, although I figured it out before its revelation. Also, it’s the driving force behind Dax and Wren’s inability to be together even though they love each other desperately (something that Ward crafts beautifully in her story).  It is also where my most considerable criticism lies with this story because I struggled with the believability of the reasons for forgoing a relationship. Maybe my ethical filter is too gray, but I think Ward misses on developing those reasons in a way that could be believable for her readers. 

*The supporting cast of characters in Moody provides layers to their story. They are all flat characters, but they act in specific ways to provide a gradient of color to this book. 

Penelope Ward’s Moody is sometimes torturous, mainly because she writes two characters who seem reasonably real. She invests you in their story, making you want them to be together. Unfortunately, she asks you to wait on it, so you find yourself emotionally wrecked by their choices. It is never too overwhelming, but it’s angsty enough that, by the book’s end, its sweet HEA provides the perfect salve.

In love and romance,

Professor A