Category: Review

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✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4.5 ⭐️ Review: Jewel E. Ann’s Right Guy, Wrong Word ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

Tropes: rom-com; insta-attraction; second chance romance

I’m fairly certain this review will be a word salad of incomprehensibility as I try to bring my thoughts to the page. Jewel E. Ann’s Right Guy, Wrong Word has acted as a conduit to so many thoughts that trying to find the words to express them in any meaningful way feels overwhelming. So let me start where it feels necessary to begin.

I read a few early reviews of Right Guy, Wrong Word, and there was a common thread between a few of them regarding, Anna, Jewel’s heroine. Several of them spoke of their annoyance with her, especially at the beginning. And I see their point, but…BUT they missed it. Anna is seemingly annoying because she becomes frustrated with Eric’s perception of her favorite book. She feels strongly about this book, and Eric’s response feels flippant. And it’s not really about the book anyways (I mean, it kind of is, but it isn’t). The first quarter of Jewel’s book is about being “seen”. If Eric can’t like the one thing that Anna loves, how can he fully accept the depths of her spirit? It’s one of the things that makes me cry in the world: the need to feel seen and understood. Where Anna might be read as frivolous in her responses to Eric’s words, the depth of that frivolity is the want to be truly understood and accepted. So it’s important that readers don’t get caught up in Anna…it’s not about the book; it’s about acceptance. 

As the book progresses, the love affair has twists and turns to whet your romance thirst. Jewel is always deft in her balance of spice and seriousness, and it’s all here. She calls this a rom-com. And it is, but it also has a depth to it that had my brain pinging with thoughts. Eric and Anna have an easy banter that develops their chemistry. My one struggle with Anna and Eric’s story was their “why” at the beginning. Eric was immediately enamored with her at a level that didn’t feel commensurate with the progression of their story. I believe this might have also coincided with his later POV entry into the story. However, Jewel eventually remedies my curiosity about this insta-attraction when she develops a depth of feeling between the two over the latter portion of the story. 

But here’s the thing I really want to get to with regards to Right Guy, Wrong Word…I believe this story is really about storytelling. I’m probably, absolutely going out on a ledge with this review to say that I feel Jewel exposes herself as a storyteller in this book. There is a metastory in this book: this is a book about the book. There is something in this about romance, about how the reality of the real world never really owns up to the fantasy of the romantic world and the disappointment in that lack of perfect love. There is a HUGE message about the perfect love of romance versus the imperfect love which makes us the most human and the most loveable. And the romance feels like a response to the way that readers respond to books. Is it possible that Eric’s response to Anna’s favorite book is Jewel’s examination of how people view her books or her peers’ books? She also highlights the futility of words to truly capture one’s feelings. I told you “word salad of incomprehensibility” with a side of a Master’s degree in English which leads me to overthink just about everything I read. 

Jewel E Ann’s Right Guy, Wrong Word is funny and witty and sad and compelling. It woke up my brain from a summer slumber, and it allowed me to escape from reality for a day. It sparked my thinking about AI and writing and the soul that will surely be missing from it because this book is an apt reminder of a person’s capacity to make us feel feelings and think thoughts. Her story highlights the reality that we are all perfect in our imperfections, and stories offer us that reminder.

In love and romance,

Professor A

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✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 5 ⭐️ Review: Meghan Quinn’s The Way I Hate Him ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Tropes: small town romance; enemies to lovers; forced proximity; insta-attraction; rockstar romance; grump/sunshine; workplace romance; cinnamon roll hero 

“She’s peace, but she’s anarchy. She’s a challenge, but she’s effortless. She’s simple…yet complicated. And I like all of it. I’ve become accustomed to her presence.”

Meghan Quinn is a puzzle. Her pieces come together into a complex work of art, yet her surface seems as simple as a 100-piece puzzle. As you delve into her stories, you find quickly that there is always more than what meets the eye. The Way I Hate Him is an emotional juggernaut that I didn’t expect. It begins light but evolves its depth into a story that will make you cry with joy and a side of pain. I couldn’t put it down.

Quinn’s main characters, Hayes and Hattie, are a paradox. At the outset, you’ll find yourself entranced with their fun banter and overwhelming chemistry. These two run hot for each other, and the fun of this book is the way they fight their attraction. Their oppositional forces make you smile and laugh. This is everything you enjoy about Quinn’s romance.

For me, though, it’s the latter portion of the story where Hattie’s sunshine becomes the foil to Hayes’s grump, exposing his soft underbelly. It’s there where the romance morphs from hot lust and fireworks to something more significant. Quinn walks us through themes of grief and familial trauma. She humanizes Hayes, creating vulnerability in him that matches the feelings of grief in Hattie. In that moment, I shed a few tears for their hurts, but Quinn deftly weaves her story into a space of healing, culling her main characters’ happy ending into something with depth. The ending does not go the way of its beginning, and Quinn leaves her readers sated by Hattie and Hayes’s happy ending. 

Finally, the ancillary characters of The Way I Hate Him add layers to this roller coaster of a romance. I fell in love with Hattie’s siblings, Ryland and Aubree, her best friend, Maggie, and Ryland and Hayes’s friend, Abel. Hayes’s grandmother adds humor to the story, but she acts as Hayes’s wizened guide. And the piece de resistance is Hattie’s relationship with her sister, Cassidy. It’s one of the most special portions of Quinn’s book. 


Meghan Quinn’s The Way I Hate Him stole my heart. It was one of my favorite reads to end the month of July and begin August. If you love enemies to lovers with witty banter and spicy fun, grab this one FAST! It’s a great beginning to, what I hope, is a new series. There are too many exciting characters whom I want their stories.

In love and romance,

Professor A

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✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4.5 ⭐️ Review: Catherine Cowles’s Glimmers of You ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

Tropes: brother’s best friend/best friend’s little sister; small-town romance; hate to love; second chance at love; romantic suspense; forced proximity

“Kissing Grae was like downing a shot of whiskey set on fire. She burned through my system in a way that would leave scars in its wake.”

This is what Catherine Cowles does: she marries gorgeous prose with the type of romance that burns. Glimmers of You, the third book of her Lost & Found series, envelopes you like a warm blanket while you bear the brunt of the cold. Grae and Caden’s romantic journey is one fraught with unrequited love, familial trauma, and an outside threat. This is what Catherine Cowles does so well: she ingratiates her characters into your soul that you hate to leave her stories. Even more, other than the details of Caden’s wealthy family, her characters are relatable. 

The crux of Grae’s story lies in her Type 1 diabetes diagnosis. Cowles deftly shows the impact of this diagnosis throughout the book. It not only affects her physically; diabetes has changed her familial relationships, causing her to strive toward greater independence. Cowles highlights the overprotectiveness of her family and early in the story, Caden’s; yet, she uses Caden’s early awareness of Grae’s frustration to help develop the awareness of the larger group. This is thoughtful in that it cultivates a stronger bond between Grae and Caden.

Additionally, Cowles’s pacing of Caden and Grae’s attraction feels “just right” for this romance. While the reader waits on tenterhooks for Caden to allow his love for Grae, it never feels overly wrought. It blooms under Grae’s empathy and understanding of Caden’s pain derived from the relationships with his father and brother and the death of his sister. Cowles shows us the power of love to heal these hurts as Grae shows she knows Caden better than anyone.

If I have any criticisms of Cowles’s storytelling, it’s the sometimes repetitiveness of her story elements, Her heroines, in general, tend to bear the trauma of her stories which can be predictable. That each of her small towns is rife with a variety of nefarious individuals could be perceived as problematic (I mean, who wants to live in a small town with so many violent individuals?). Lastly, while she does an apt job of disguising her villains, if you’re familiar with her romances, you know where to look to find them. 

Even with those thoughts, Catherine Cowles is always a must-read for me. She suspends me in the time of her books, and she makes me fall in love with her characters. I pine for her stories, impatiently waiting for the next book to come.

“Loving people means exposing ourselves to the worst kind of pain […] But it also gives us the greatest beauty we’ll ever experience.”

In love and romance,

Professor A

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✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4.5 ⭐️ Review: J. Saman’s Irresistibly Wild ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

Tropes: forbidden relationship; fake relationship; single dad/uncle; he falls first; one bed; standalone in an interconnected series

J. Saman’s Irresistibly Wild continues the delectable storytelling of her Irresistibly Yours series. The first two stories of this series, Irresistibly Broken and Irresistibly Perfect, dutifully set the stage for this series. Irresistibly Wild adds another layer of emotion to the lives of this band of brothers. J. Saman intertwines a hero who absolutely adores his heroine from the moment they meet with a heroine who has a prickly exterior. I didn’t read this as a grump/sunshine trope; rather, Callan is a typical romantic hero, and Layla is nursing a broken heart as well as trying to find her place in the world. Saman throws everything at Callan and Layla: an age gap that sets them at different phases in life; Callan taking over raising his niece; and a forbidden relationship with Callan as Layla’s interim professor and her supervisor at the hospital. Callan and Layla must transcend several obstacles to be together which means that Saman has deftly drawn a main male character who will only ever love Layla. The angst of this romance lies in Layla admitting and accepting her feelings for Callan. Saman carefully builds this tension until, as a reader, you almost grow tired of Layla’s emotional walls. Saman is careful to balance that tension so she doesn’t lose her reader.

Additionally, the attraction between Callan and Layla is complete fire, and she uses much of the romance to build their physicality. If I recall correctly, this might be some of the dirtiest of this series. The spice of Irresistibly Wild simply accentuates the development of Callan and Layla’s feelings, and it seems organic to these two. 

Finally, the marriage of the Boston Billionaire Bachelors with the Irresistibly Yours guys builds both nostalgia and excitement for this book. There are cameos galore as Layla is the sister/daughter of Oliver and Autumn of the BBB series. If you’ve been reading J. Saman for any length of time, Irresistibly Wild allows you to reconnect with characters from her former stories.

Callan and Layla’s romance in J. Saman’s newest Irresistibly Yours series book continues to make this series irresistible. I’m absolutely ready for the next book, Asher’s story. Saman teases a bit of it at the end of this endearing, spicy new read.

In love and romance,

Professor A

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✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4.5 ⭐️ Review: Elle Kennedy’s The Summer Girl ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

Tropes: virgin heroine; player hero; good girl/bad boy; summer fling; new adult; band of brothers/found family; small-town; insta-attraction; standalone in an interconnected series

Elle Kennedy’s The Summer Girl, book 3 of her Avalon Bay series, is the perfect summer read. Set in Avalon Bay, a small town with a townies/tourist vibe, it’s the type of book you find yourself reading on the beach. I haven’t read the first two books of this series, but this is Elle Kennedy, and I dived into this book without a look back. Thankfully, Kennedy makes it easy on her first-time reader to this series, introducing us to the broader group of characters and offering nods to the storylines of the first two books. In fact, The Summer Girl has prompted me to read those first two books because the story between Cassie and Tate is just too good. 

The chemistry between these next-door neighbors is a four-alarm fire. Kennedy deftly takes her virgin heroine, Cassie, and pairs her with Tate, despite all of their attempts to keep their friendship platonic. However, any reader can see and feel their attraction. Kennedy carefully draws out their inclination for each other until just the right point. Then, she crafts a complication that comes from right field which makes your head spin. The entire time, she has you rooting for Tate and Cassie, but an Elle Kennedy coupling is never easy. She draws you in so deeply, and she forces you to wait until the very end for their happily ever after. 

Add to this the reality of families. Tate’s character represents a loving family. In contrast, Cassie’s family dynamic has created a skewed sense of self and family history. Tate helps Cassie find her voice and draw appropriate boundaries, allowing Kennedy to underscore the psychology of families and their impact on our construction of self. One minute, she has you swooning for her characters’ romantic journey; the next, she’s emphasizing the power of forgiveness and letting go of people who bring us harm. Kennedy has curated a balance of fun and thoughtfulness through her story.

If The Summer Girl is any indication of the texture of the Avalon Bay series, I’m excited to read more of the stories in this steamy enclave.

In love and romance,


Professor A

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Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4 ⭐️ Review: Jolie Vines’s Touch Her and Die, book 1 of her new McRae Bodyguards series ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Tropes: bodyguard romance; grump/sunshine; forced proximity; forbidden-esque; found family; band of brothers; romantic suspense

Jolie Vines’s newest story, Touch Her and Die, harkens back to her earlier Wild Scots and Wild Mountain Scots series. Having spent the last year gobbling her darker romance series, Dark Island Scots, it was refreshing to jump into Touch Her and Die, the first book of her newest series, McRae Bodyguards, because it reminds us what Vines does well: craft heroes who fall hard and deep for their heroines and heroines whose emotional intelligence brings out the best in their heroes. This story takes us into the world crafted by Gourdain, the second eldest brother of Vines’s popular Marry the Scots series (see Hero – one of my favorite of her stories in that series). Vines’s hero is Ben, a character who has shown up in prior stories as a background character, and she makes him shine in this one. Throughout Touch Her and Die, Ben must work through the trauma of his past and the unresolved feelings he has for his birth mom. These issues hinder his ability to have a meaningful relationship with the story’s heroine, Daisy.  Vines deftly creates grump/sunshine personas for her main characters which allow for a balanced story.

While Ben works to avoid his attraction and instant chemistry with Daisy, Daisy’s journey involves finding her own space in the world. Escaping a mafia-esque family to pursue cleaning houses, Daisy must continue to make choices that are best for her. Even more, Vines’s adding in her love for helping people clean their homes to create order ingratiates her to readers. Daisy reminded me of the character in the movie, Maid, in that she recognized the power of bringing order into people’s lives that felt disordered. It’s impossible not to love Daisy’s character in this story. 

Another broader stroke I enjoyed in Touch Her and Die is the inclusion of the McRaes into this series. While they played small parts in the Dark Island Scots series, it was tertiary at best. In this book, we are reminded of how much we love Gourdain McRae and the greater McRae family. Connecting us back to the original characters whom Vines made us love breathes a touch of nostalgia into her story.

As a total addendum, I loved the small graphics at the start of each chapter. I know it’s a minor detail, but it shows the care that Vines takes with all aspects of her story.

If I had ONE criticism, it would be the inclusion of Ariel’s point of view in this book. It detracts from Ben and Daisy’s journey, especially at its beginning. I understand it to be set up for Ariel’s story, but it does nothing more than distract the reader.

I’m excited about the future McRae Bodyguard romances. If Touch Her and Die is any indication, I predict another successful series.

In love and romance,

Professor A

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Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4 ⭐️ Review: Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone’s Snow Place Like LA, a Christmas Notch in July novella ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Tropes: second chance romance; forced proximity; working with an ex; Christmas in July feels; mm romance; miscommunication and misunderstandings

Snow Place Like LA begins where Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone’s A Merry Little Meet Cute leaves us. Angel and Luca have enjoyed themselves thoroughly in Christmas Notch, but it’s time to return to the “real world,” and Luca is curious and anticipatory about his future with Angel. However, at the airport, at the last minute, Angel seems vague. The two separate with Angel going to Paris and Luca returning to Los Angeles. When Luca tries to connect with Angel via messaging and hears nothing, he doubts their connection. When he finds an incriminating photo on social media, he makes the heavy decision to block Angel, and he feels heartbroken.

Snow Place Like LA is a deliciously dirty rom-com highlighting the disastrous effects of misunderstandings and spur-of-the-moment actions. Set in the backdrop of Teddy Ray Flectcher’s “corn” business, Murphy and Simone use the epic Pretty Woman to craft moments of hilarity for their story. They incorporate many of the characters from the first book of the Christmas Notch series as a way to connect readers who loved that book to this expanding world. When Angel and Luca are forced to work on the “corn” version of Pretty Woman, Luca’s anger and heartbreak create tension in the story, but it never overwhelms its rom-com designation. Unfortunately, Angel and Luca cannot keep their hands off each other.

When Angel and Luca finally talk about their falling out, it becomes clear that there were misunderstandings. As these two reconcile, Murphy and Simone use Luca’s emotional journey to highlight the impact of past traumas on present-day choices. Luca shows us that feeling misunderstood and not being accepted by his family has left him to create walls with the people around him. He uses humor to mask his feelings. When he doesn’t feel “seen” by Angel as they leave Vermont, he recognizes it replicates his feelings to his family’s disinterest in him. Just when it feels as though they will find their happy ending, Angel has more news, and he invites Luca into a future with him. However, Luca’s love for the people who have loved and accepted him makes it difficult to choose Angel’s proposition. Murphy and Simone deftly walk us through Luca’s journey of self-awareness, and Angel and Luca find their happy ending.

Snow Place Like LA is irreverently funny. It’s impossible not to love Luca and Angel, and there are truths in this book that feel necessary for us to read and apply to our own lives. I cannot wait for more stories from Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone’s Christmas Notch series.

In love and romance,

Professor A

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Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4.5 ⭐️ Review: Devney Perry’s The Dandelion Diary, a 1001 Dark Nights romance ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

Tropes: single dad; insta-attraction; teacher/parent; interconnected story

I am certain that Devney Perry’s Maysen Jar series is my sentimental favorite of her book list. The delicate gravity of her stories in The Birthday List and Letters to Molly socks you solidly in the stomach, and you can’t help but fall in love with her characters and their stories. That she, a couple of years later, gifts us with the delicious nibble of The Dandelion Diary, a 1001 Dark Nights novella, is a treasure to behold. Its perfection lies in its simplicity and its poignancy. The Dandelion Diary is an apt reminder of why I love this series so much. 

What is there to love about this nugget of a romance?

  • A protective single dad who adores his daughter. Perry hasn’t drawn her hero, Jeff, with too much complexity. He is a simple man living his life to love and care for his daughter. As you read, you can’t help but fall in love with him as he calls her “dandelion” and he treats her respectfully and fairly in all things. In the shadow of his complicated and tumultuous relationship with his ex-wife, he ensures his daughter is able to love her mother while being a respectful co-parent. Quite frankly, Jeff is a dream hero in all his rugged handsomeness.
  • Like Jeff’s characterization, Perry doesn’t craft Della to be anything more than Jeff’s soulmate. Through her journey, Perry wants her readers to think about the idea of being loved and treasured. Those truths have been missing in her life, at least until she meets Jeff. When she meets him, they complete each other, filling Della’s need to be adored and adding layers to Jeff’s complicated life. 
  • I love the easiness of Jeff and Della’s relationship in the shadow of its forbidden element. Perry creates the perfect tension between its forbidden nature and their responsibility to “do the right thing.” Perry doesn’t overwhelm her readers with the angst of this balance, rather she moves the story along by having her characters take responsibility for their actions.
  • As she does so well in all of her stories, Devney Perry ends The Dandelion Diary with a future brighter than first believed possible. There is beauty in the future lives of her characters, and she adds a touch of surprise as the finality to her romance.

The Dandelion Diary is quintessential Devney Perry. It’s a perfect addendum to her beautiful Maysen Jar series, gifting a little peek back into this world that we adore.

In love and romance,

Professor A

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Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 5 ⭐️ Review: Kandi Steiner’s Meet Your Match ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Tropes: enemies to lovers; opposites attract; hockey romance; sports romance; forced proximity; workplace romance

After reading Kandi Steiner’s Meet Your Match, two things are very clear: Steiner is an impassioned and emphatic romance writer. Every word, every sentence, every plot point or beat is a pulse driving her readers into the rabid consumption of her story. Meet Your Match is dramatic and spicy and energized from the beginning to the end. 

You can’t help but gobble Maven and Vince’s story from their meet-cute at the gala when Maven turns her nose up at an enigmatic, but enticing Vince, to the drama of their possible end. We learn through their journeys several lessons: never judge a book by its cover (a bit pedantic but an important reminder), past relationships can inflict traumas that undermine future relationships, people need to be honest with their feelings, and opposites can find a harmonious and beautiful happy ending.  

Steiner creates such delicious tension between Maven and Vince, one that pushes and pulls readers through their journeys. One minute, they can’t keep their hands off each other (and quite frankly, this book reads like one of Steiner’s spiciest), and the next minute, they struggle to find common ground. I love that Steiner makes them work for their happy ending. It is hard fought and almost lost in the end, but that’s the genius of Steiner’s storytelling: she doesn’t make her stories easy on her readers. It’s why her fan base is rabid for her romances. 

I’m “over the moon” for Steiner’s new series, the Kings of the Ice, because the potential for compelling romances has been set with Meet Your Match. She teases the next story at the end of this book, and I can’t wait for it to hit my greedy hands. Once again, Steiner has reminded us why she’s so beloved: she brings the drama and wills us to fall in love with her characters. And she does it beautifully.

In love and romance,

Professor A

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✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4.5 ⭐️ Review: Vi Keeland’s Something Unexpected ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

Tropes: contemporary romance; enemies to lovers; hate to love; banter as foreplay; cinnamon roll hero; angsty

Vi Keeland is sneaky. Reading her blurbs for upcoming books is a bait-and-switch act. You believe you’re getting a rom-com, but 60% in, you realize her romances are more gut-punching than gut-laughing. 

Her newest book, Something Unexpected, is an unexpectedly emotional read that reminds you about the transitory nature of life. Wading through the enticing banter of her hero, Beck, and her heroine, Nora, their steamy chemistry, and their journey to falling in love, you’re met with the gravity of her story: that we must live each day to its fullest because we aren’t promised tomorrow. 

Keeland’s message is wrapped in the broad character development of Beck and Nora, an expected journey for each, and the requisite happy ending. Her prose is simple, but her story is the prize. 

One of the reasons I will always read a Vi Keeland romance is the knowledge that her stories will always be more: always 4 flame steamy, always starts with a hook that makes you want to read it, always a reminder that loving someone requires more than a first glance – love requires a depth that makes us uncomfortable, but always makes us better people.

In love and romance,

Professor A