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A Dirty Business by Tijan is now live!

When Jess Montell meets Trace West at a hockey game, she doesn’t know his name or occupation. What she does know is there’s an instant attraction that’s impossible to ignore–or forget. And forgetting is exactly what she wants to do when she learns he’s not just a successful Wall Street suit but the heir to one of New York’s biggest Mafia families.

The last thing Trace needs is a romantic anything with law enforcement, and parole officer Jess has trouble written all over her. Too bad he likes trouble. Especially when it’s a brunette bombshell with attitude and legs for days.

She’s an absolute spitfire, and he wants to stoke that flame.

Trace didn’t ask for the Mafia life. Jess doesn’t want any part of it. They both know it’s safer to stay away, but the temptation is too hard to resist—no matter how great the danger.

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Meet Tijan

Tijan is a New York Times Bestselling author that writes suspenseful and unpredictable novels. Her characters are strong, intense, and gut-wrenchingly real with a little bit of sass on the side. Tijan began writing after college and once she started, she was hooked. She’s written multi-bestsellers including the Fallen Crest series, Ryan’s Bed, Enemies and others.
​She is currently writing many new books and series with an English Cocker she adores.

Connect with Tijan

Website: http://www.tijansbooks.com/

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4851199.Tijan

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Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Tropes: hate to love; new adult; close proximity; menage; one bed; LGBTQIA

Warnings for you as you enter Nikki Sloane’s newest Nashville Neighborhood romance, The Frat Boy:

1. Do not enter it with delicate sensibilities. If you can imagine it, you become desensitized to the $exiness of this romance. Oh, and by the way, there is nothing wrong with that. 
2. Don’t let the blurb for this romance fool you. Yes, a frat boy named Colin plays heavily into the *ahem* erotic romance. However, it’s sorority girl Madison who steals the show in this book. Colin is everything you love about a Nikki Sloane hero (male character), but Madison, for me, is the true star.
3. If you’re like me and you either have a college-aged child OR you teach college-aged people, just…suspend your disbelief or feign ignorance. Just look through the fingers of your hand as you would a horror movie.

Now, that aside, I enjoyed just about every moment of Nikki Sloane’s The Frat Boy. I mean, the premise of it is troubling (only in so far as Madison and Colin are desperate to find relief from their situations so they choose to star in adult entertainment), so, again, suspend your disbelief, but this is Nikki Sloane’s Nashville Neighborhood, where turning the page of the stories, adds steam to your glasses…or other places down south (wink wink). But this book is ultimately about choice, about one’s autonomy to make decisions for themselves beyond societal expectations. Sloane takes this concept and plays with it throughout the stories of her Nashville Neighborhood romances. She asserts this the deepest, I think, in The Frat Boy. She also elaborates on the consequences of choice, and she uses Madison and Colin’s characterizations to drive the emotional impact of them. 

I asserted above that Madison is the star of The Frat Boy. Namely, it’s because she takes a journey of $exual freedom. After personal heartbreak, she realizes that she had hoped to experiment more in college. With her college days dwindling, she recognizes an opportunity to live out her erotic bucket list. She finds herself through this experience, aside from finding a mate in her adversary Colin. Colin’s characterization acts as a foil for Madison through the first half of the story, but, like her, he comes into his own as well, forgoing his parent’s expectations for him as a way to live an easier life. Their journeys are juxtaposed against the politics of the Nashville Neighborhood, led by pesky, mean-spirited, rules-driven Judy. Like Madison’s ex-, like Colin’s parents, like Riley, Colin’s nemesis, Judy represents the stricture of societal expectations. Throughout this series, various characters push against it, and Judy’s reaction becomes more authoritarian. It’s easy to get lost in the eroticism of this book and the series, but it’s Sloane’s insistence for her readers to consider what the eroticism is pushing against, and it’s the restriction of choice. You can almost hear the sentence, “if it isn’t hurting you, why do you care?” whispered over the pages of The Frat Boy and its predecessors. Sloane takes erotic romance and grafts an argument for choice into it. 

The Frat Boy is titillating and enticing. I picked it up intent on reading a few pages before putting it down again. Before I knew it, I had finished the book, beguiled by Nikki Sloane’s storytelling. If you love the thrill of $exual freedom, this is the book for you. Oh…and the neighborhood finally gets its day.

In love and romance,

Professor A

The Frat Boy by Nikki Sloane is now live!

Colin Novak is the big man on campus. Huge—if the rumors are to be believed.

Nearly every girl at Davidson University has had a ride on him . . . everyone, except me.

Which is fine. This frat boy may be irritatingly hot, all carved muscle with a deceptively wholesome smile, but that’s irrelevant. He’s a Sig.

When I catch his fraternity cheating at the Greek Week tournament, he denies it–causing our rivalry between houses to escalate. Colin and I may have started the mud fight, but it grows into an all-out war, and ends with us expelled from our houses.

Now I’m homeless and it’s all his fault.

So, while answering an ad for a leading role at an adult film company wasn’t part of my career path, the work comes with a lot of perks. Steady salary. Accommodations close to campus. A safe place to explore my fantasies.

Except when I show up for my audition, my partner is none other than my new archenemy—Colin. And our sexual chemistry is explosive.

We hate how attracted we are to each other, and I despise that I want every scene to be with him. Because the longer we live together, the more I see he’s not who I thought he was.
This frat boy was so easy to hate . . . but what if he’s even easier to love?

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Meet Nikki

USA Today bestselling author Nikki Sloane landed in graphic design after her careers as a waitress, a screenwriter, and a ballroom dance instructor fell through. Now she writes full-time and lives in Kentucky with her husband, two sons, and a pair of super destructive cats.

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Connect with Nikki

Website: https://www.nikkisloane.com/

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Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Until recently, Rebecca Jenshak’s Valley U world has granted us a ticket to her basketball players, her hockey players, and her golfers. With the first book of her Holiday with the Players duet, she introduces her readers to the world of Valley U football. In the first book, Snowed In with the Player, we meet twins, Holly and Stella, sisters to Felix, the QB of Valley U’s football team. Holly and Teddy, Felix’s friend and fellow teammate, fall in love and find their happy ending. In Jenshak’s second book, Sneaking Around with the Player, Stella meets Beau in an airport and eventually discovers that he is the cornerback for Valley U’s nemesis. This is a problem because Felix holds a grudge against Beau and has for much of their football careers. Unfortunately, Stella and Beau cannot help their feelings for each other, and the book follows their journey. 

Sneaking Around with the Player is a sweet story with a spicy side. Stella and Beau come into their own as they text back and forth, given their distance. This reads like a friends-to-lovers romance, even though there is an instant attraction between the two. I appreciated that Jenshak gives them the space to get to know each other through texting and phone conversations, but my criticism of the story is how quickly Stella and Beau sleep together. To be fair to Jenshak, this book is a novella, so I understand the constraint of space, but, when Stella and Beau finally meet face-to-face again, their quick consummation, to me, didn’t match their burgeoning chemistry. I would have liked for Jenshak to light a stronger fire for their chemistry before jumping them into the back of Beau’s truck. 

I also appreciate the special nature of Holly and Stella’s relationship. It acts as a balm to the friction between Stella and Felix. One of the upsides to Sneaking Around with the Player is Stella’s backbone in confrontation with her brother. Often, with a forbidden relationship trope wrought by an older brother, little sisters back down, but Stella stands firm in her feelings for Beau. This novella ends well when everyone acts like mature young adults, and Stella and Beau find their happy ending. 

I’m not a fan of holiday stories. I’m sure that’s an unpopular opinion. However, Rebecca Jenshak’s Holiday with the Players stories feel like the candy cane in your stocking, sweet and spicy in one little package. I HIGHLY recommend reading Sneaking Around with the Player and its predecessor because it’s a jumping-off point for a future story in Jenshak’s Campus Wallflowers series.

In love and romance,

Professor A

 Sneaking Around with the Player by Rebecca Jenshak is now live! 

It was supposed to be a quick conversation with a cute boy at the airport while I dodged my ex and his new girlfriend.

We weren’t supposed to trade numbers.

He wasn’t supposed to be a football player.

And I definitely wasn’t supposed to fall for him since he’s attending a college a thousand miles away.
I saw past his jersey. And he saw past my last name.

Now it’s semester break, and by some Christmas miracle, he’s going to be close. So close.
I want to meet him again, but there’s just one problem.

My older brother can’t, under any circumstances, find out I’m dating his rival.

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 Meet Rebecca

Rebecca Jenshak is a USA Today bestselling author of new adult and sports romance. She writes sexy, feel-good stories with lots of swoon-worthy moments.

Rebecca lives in Arizona. When she isn’t writing, you can find her cheering on local sports teams, hanging out with friends and family, or curled up with a good book.

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Connect with Rebecca

Website: https://www.rebeccajenshak.com

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She’s Charmed, He’s Sure

Witcha Gonna Do by Avery Flynn is now live!

An unlucky witch and her know-it-all nemesis must team up in the first of a new, spicy romantic comedy series from USA Today bestselling author Avery Flynn.

Could it possibly get any worse than having absolutely no magical abilities when you’re a member of the most powerful family of witches ever? It used to be that I’d say no, but then I keep getting set up on dates with Gil Connolly whose hotness is only matched by his ego. Seriously. I can’t stand him. Even if I also can’t stop thinking about him (specifically kissing him) but we’re going to pretend I never told you that part.

So yeah, my life isn’t the greatest right now, but then it goes straight to the absolute worst hell when I accidentally make my sister’s spell glitch and curse my whole family. And the only person who can help non-magical me break the spell? You guessed it. Gil the super hot jerk.

Now we have to work together to save my family and outmaneuver some evil-minded nefarious forces bent on world domination. Oh yeah, and we have to do all that while fighting against the attraction building between us because I may not be magical, but what’s happening between Gil and I sure feels like it.

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Narrated by: Sarah Pesek & Adam Gold

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 Meet Avery Flynn

When Avery Flynn isn’t writing about alpha heroes and the women who tame them, she is desperately hoping someone invents the coffee IV drip. She has three slightly wild children, loves a hockey-addicted husband, and has a slight shoe addiction. Find out more about Avery on her website, follow her on Twitter, like her on her Facebook page, or friend her on her Facebook profile. Also, if you figure out how to send Oreos through the internet, she’ll be your best friend for life.

Connect with Avery

Website: http://averyflynn.com

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Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

Tropes: single mom; former MLB baseball player with a secret; small-town romance; insta-attraction

One of my favorite parts of reading romance is reaching the end of a book and finding a fulfilling HEA or HFN, the kind that makes your heart swell and threatens to put a perma-smile on your face. This is the case with Adriana Locke’s The Sweet Spot. Adriana Locke has found her niche in the world of romancelandia, and she continues to create stories that make you pine for her characters even after the book has ended. In this newest story, Palmer and Cole simply and effectively steal your time because you hate to leave them to their love affair. There are some intentional and important choices that Locke has made in her story that make it effectively a time guzzler.

Palmer (what a great name for a heroine) has lived a life where the people in her past and present have stolen her hope. She lives her life raising a son who is a great citizen and human being, but his father has done very little to contribute. As many single moms know, it falls on her to bear the burden of raising her child. She does this with aplomb, but given her experience with an alcoholic father and an absentee ex, she isn’t hopeful that she would ever find a man to love her as she needs to be loved. She knows that she wants to marry a man and have another child, but she’s reticent to believe she will ever find what she needs. Palmer is every woman, and vulnerability and trust don’t come easy for her as it doesn’t for many of us.

What Locke does so brilliantly is craft a hero in Cole Beck who is not interested in relationships to act as a foil to Palmer. What’s profound about his characterization is he’s been raised to be a relationship-type of guy. His parents are incredible examples of love and marriage. He’s lived a fairly idyllic life, and he cares for people. Post-baseball, he doesn’t know himself. He also harbors a secret that Locke does well to hide for much of the book. Palmer and Cole’s character arcs side by side look like a potential trainwreck, but, with her writing prowess, Locke shows us how a single mom can grow hope through the careful actions of a stalwart hero. Together, they grow into each other, and their journey looks like a fairy tale. They are both loveable and extraordinary and likable.

Add to their pairing Cole’s parents, Palmer’s tween-age son, Ethan (by the way, probably the wisest person in the story), and Palmer’s best friend, Val. These people conspire to hold Palmer and Beck’s feet to the romance fire so to speak. They also provide carefully placed wisdom and humor to the story’s plot. It would be fun in the future for Val and Ethan to receive stories in Locke’s idyllic small-town world, but The Sweet Spot is so good on its own that I feel replete at its end.

Adriana Locke is a small-town romance force of nature. Every time I enter her stories, I’m astounded at her ability to woo me with characters so loveable you want to know them in real life. This is definitely the case for The Sweet Spot. Using an oft-used baseball metaphor, she hit a home run with this one.

In love and romance,

Professor A

THE SWEET SPOT by Adriana Locke

Release Date: 11/29/2022

Genre/Tropes:

Single Mom, Baseball Pro, Small Town Romance

THE SWEET SPOT by USA Today bestselling author Adriana Locke is NOW LIVE!

Grab this all-new small town romance TODAY!

NOW AVAILABLE! FREE IN KU!

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Blurb:

She wants forever. He plays it day by day. They’re both wishing for the best in USA Today bestselling author Adriana Locke’s charming and sexy hopefully-ever-after romance.

Single mom Palmer Clark will not be sidelined by the new man in town. Sure, the honey-tongued baseball legend is gorgeous, loves puppies, and has charmed his way into the community’s heart, but Palmer craves stability. Nothing about Cole says forever. So why is he so hard to resist?

Cole is swinging through town to visit his parents when he meets the kind of down-to-earth distraction he’s been looking for since retiring from the majors. True, his long-term relationship score is zero. But even though raising his average with Palmer seems impossible, it’s worth a shot.

As promising as the summer nights are, fate turns small-town dreams upside down, and some lessons are learned the hard way. But having faith in love and choosing hope over fear might get Palmer and Cole to the sweet spot they’re looking for.

About the Author:

USA Today and Washington Post bestselling author Adriana Locke lives and breathes books. After years of slightly obsessive relationships with the flawed bad boys created by other authors, Adriana has created her own.

She resides in the Midwest with her husband, sons, and two dogs. She spends a large amount of time playing with her kids, drinking coffee, and cooking. You can find her outside if the weather’s nice and there’s always a piece of candy in her pocket.

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Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

“‘I am many Adelaises, and I like being many Adelaises. And it’s not that any one version of me feels wrong or anything, it’s only that there are so many of being me that feel right. But I can’t choose every day who I am depending on what feels right. I have to be what other people expect.’ Adelais thought a minute. ‘I suppose that’s why I choose to be the Wolf as often as I can. When you’re a story, then people expect you to be different, at least. And maybe that’s as close as I can get.’”

The last story of Villian I’d Like to F…”The Conquering of Tate the Pious” by Sierra Simone offers this quote. After reading Joanna Shupe’s, Eva Leigh’s, Nicola Davidson’s, and Adriana Herrera’s, along with Sierra Simone’s,  offerings to this anthology of delicious villainous romances, this quote reminds you of the true nature of people. It made me think on Lady “Viper” and Mr. Molineaux, Blake Evans, Billy Baxter, the bootleggers Camden and Vincenzo, and the Wolf. How each of these “villians” was painted as such by a society based solely on their deeds. Yet, what made them a villain? Are the social norms the issue? Through many of these stories, that’s the means for villainy. Even more, each of the characters crafted by the ingenious authors of this anthology comes with baggage, some trauma that has shaped their worldview. This, dear readers, is where they steal your heart. Do they engage in shady business practices? Yes. Do they terrorize others? Indeed. However, as this anthology shows, those are identities crafted by pain and forged by an unforgiving society. 

As with the former anthologies by these authors, the eroticism of this book entices you to keep reading. I know romance readers love spice, and it’s turned to high in this book. But what I love more is the promise of this book: that even the big baddie can be loved. That it takes an incredible person to see past the facade that frightens the average person because there is more to a person. There are different identities in all of us. Finding the space to live our truest self, all of them together, is where love can be found. Oh, how I love Shupe and Leigh and Davidson and Herrera and Simone. If they write it, I will come…

In love and romance,

Professor A

Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

Tropes: dark romance; instant attraction; extended family trials; cinnamon roll hero; romantic suspense

“Camden and I were destined to crash into each other and leave scars.”

Jolie, you good? The newest series from Jolie Vines, Dark Island Scots, is a departure from her Highlander-loving Scotsmen of her earlier series, and it’s exciting and compelling. Now, for three books, she has enticed her readers with a prolonged storyline, wrought through plot ups and downs. That she compels her readers to dive into the books of this series is a testament to her capacity to keep her readers engaged. There is just something intriguing about her characters, Struan, Sin, Scar, and Burn. This found family that is actually blood-related pulls you into the story. However, it’s the running plot through the stories that drives readers forward. By the end of Scar, the newest story, there is no telling where the overarching story is going. We left with three complex heroes finding love amid the chaos of their lives. Woven into the fabric of this series is a delectable dark erotic spirit. 

In Scar, we meet Camden “Scar” and Breeze who are brought together through the astounding events surrounding the men’s creep of a sp*rm donor. From the moment they meet, Breeze entrances Camden. Like Vines’s heroine, Cait, in Obsessed, Camden, unlike his brothers, has never felt $exual towards anyone. Yet, from seeing Breeze bound on a bed, he’s enthralled, much to his chagrin. Vines plays with the idea that kink is passed down through genetics throughout this series. Thankfully, she understands how to write heroes who transcend their pasts and parentage, so it’s safe to say that the heroes of this series might enjoy some pain, a little breeding, and bondage, but they lack the sinister of their birth father. I love how Vines questions this idea.

Scar is a literal twist and turn of a story. Leaving one chapter and going to the next absolutely sends you into chaos. Undergirding it, however, is a love affair between two people who simply want to be loved and find it in each other and their found family. This binds the entire story together and keeps you engaged when you’re nervous to turn the page for the action ahead of you. I’m excited about Burns’s story. I can’t wait for the villains to get their comeuppance finally. Jolie Vines – you have created a series that is a delectable prolonged series of erotic fireworks.

In love and romance,

Professor A