Tag: book review

Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4.5 ⭐️ Review: Stacy Travis’s He’s A Charmer ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

Tropes: forced proximity; best friend’s sister; soccer romance; sports romance; long distance

I had the pleasure of beta-reading Stacy Travis’s He’s A Charmer. To read a book from a rough draft to a final draft is a special distinction. Noting keen changes that help the book bloom makes me excited. And this is definitely the case with Travis’s next book in her San Francisco Strikers series. 

I love a forced proximity story. In this book, this is created when Linnie, the story’s FMC, finds herself snowed in with her brother’s best friend, Weston. From the minute they meet, Travis has crafted a distinctive and slow-burning chemistry. Weston is struck by the beauty of Linnie’s eyes, while Linnie finds herself attracted to Weston’s professional athlete physique. Travis deftly draws out their attraction, building it to an incendiary fire. When they can no longer avoid each other, Travis creates fireworks in the bedroom for her couple. Unfortunately, this is short-lived, yet Travis carefully draws them back together, gifting her readers with a sweet ending. 

With the pacing on point, character development is also important. Linnie struggles with wanting to be more than just a pretty face as well as her strained relationship with her father (much like her brother, Tim). She wants her father to see her capacity as an individual, not her weakness as a woman. Weston struggles with people leaving him behind, so the fact that Linnie lives in London makes it difficult for him to consider anything with her. Due to being snowed in, Linnie and Weston must confront their feelings about these issues. Their vulnerability to each other adds dimension to their physical attraction, deepening their character development and the storyline. You must be patient with Travis’s He’s A Charmer because this is a slow burn that seems necessary for Linnie’s and Weston’s journeys.

Unlike the other books in this series, Travis’s ancillary characters play small parts in the story. Tim and Mary, Linnie’s siblings, offer moments of wisdom to help her make decisions about her future, but they are fairly silent for much of the book. Instead, Weston and Linnie grow closer with each turn of the page. Their banter and survival tasks create the excitement of the story.

Stacy Travis ends He’s A Charmer with the promise of more stories in a new series. I hope Mary gets a story because her situation is long-suffering. If you’re looking for sport in this romance, you won’t find it. Instead, you’ll fall in love with a couple thrust together in a difficult situation, finding out that true love will find you when you least expect it.

In love and romance,

Professor A

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Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4.5 ⭐️ Review: Parker S. Huntington and L.J. Shen’s My Dark Romeo ✍🏻

professorromance

Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

Tropes: marriage of inconvenience; enemies to lovers; billionaire hero; intelligent, insightful heroine

I picked up My Dark Romeo by L.J. Shen and Parker S. Huntington the night before release day. I want to be honest. I’m a huge Parker S. Huntington fan, and I’m on the fence about L.J. Shen. As I read the “Prologue” and “Chapter 1”, something interesting occurred. First the first time in a bit, I didn’t want to put My Dark Romeo down. I was hooked from almost the first page. Let me tell you all the ways “why” you should read this story and tell you a couple of things that didn’t feel necessary to the story.

The positives

  1. I’m a fan of romances where the hero is an alpha-hole. I would NEVER want to date this kind of man in the real world. I’d tell him to take a long walk off a short pier. However, in a romance, they provide the perfect set-up for a chemistry between the hero and heroine that is off the charts. And this is entirely true of My Dark Romeo. Romeo is a staid, unemotional, and unapologetic jerk. He doesn’t think highly of Dallas. In fact, he has no problem telling her his thoughts about her lack of work ethic or his perception of her intelligence. Obviously, given that he wears blinders about people, he heartily misses his understanding of her. That’s where the magic lies for this romance. This means, at some point, he will be schooled, and how he responds will melt the heart of the reader. Shen and Huntington take their time in getting to this point. Even then, there is no apology or huge emotional revelation. Before this moment, he feels deeply attracted to her and fights it for much of the story. It’s what made me fall in love with this book because the banter and the chemistry are continuously on the verge of combustion. It’s what keeps you engrossed in the story. I did nothing on release day except read this book. That’s it. There were only breaks to eat and care for pets because I HAD to know how Romeo would fall for Dallas. And he falls…HARD.
  2. This is Shen and Huntington’s version of a rom-com. It’s funny. Not over the top, goofy rom-com. But Dallas and Romeo’s journey has moments of hilarity. I found myself chuckling every time Dallas did her thing and Romeo became annoyed. It’s the foreplay of their relationship, making you chuckle.
  3. Romeo’s journey reminds us that past trauma resides beneath a hard heart and cold exterior. Romeo wasn’t born an alpha-hole; he was fashioned into one by horrible parenting and traumatic experiences. 
  4. The band of brothers’ friendship between Romeo, Zach, and Oliver “Ollie” does two things: it adds another layer of funny to the story and sets up future stories in this new world from Shen and Huntington. I’m not sure whose story I want more.

The negatives

  1. Romeo’s past revelation comes VERY late in the story, and for me, it felt like a quick add-on. It was barely hinted at, and its integration didn’t seem totally organic. I liked it because it explains how he lives his life, but the timing seemed off.
  2. People will think My Dark Romeo is an allusion to “Romeo and Juliet”. The epigraph even suggests it, but this book actually has heavy Beauty and the Beast allusions. There’s a rose, a heroine who loves books more than anything in life, and a beast of a hero. It’s also a bit on the nose. I’m waiting for the day when we don’t need to rely on fairytales to tell romance stories. I didn’t think Shen and Hungtington needed that allusion to tell this one.

I seriously enjoyed My Dark Romeo. From the cover to the writing, except for a few things, I hated for it to end. I will always love stories about a difficult, emotionally unavailable hero and a heroine who brings him to his knees. And L.J. Shen and Parker S. Huntington did that well. 

In love and romance,


Professor A

Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4 ⭐️ Review: Skye Warren and Amelia Wilde’s Tropical Storm, the final romance in the Deserted Island trilogy ✍🏻

professorromance

Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Tropes: MFM romance; interconnected standalone in a series; LGBTQIA; Erotic Romance; Alpha Hero; AntiHero; Bad Boy Good Girl; Band of Brothers; Billionaire; Close Proximity; Escaping a Killer; Forbidden Love; Tortured Lead; VirginHero; Road Trip; Returning to Hometown 

Skye Warren and Amelia Wilde’s Tropical Storm does exactly what’s it meant to do: ends a trilogy in a spectacular fashion. Honestly, the Deserted Island trilogy could have easily been a duet, in my opinion. Carter’s realization about his family’s acceptance, Theo’s reconciliation of leaving the island to stay with June and Carter, and June’s understanding of her place with Carter and Theo (probably the most underdeveloped of these character journeys) could have been resolved in two books along with settling the plot line of the Russian double-agent. Tropical Storm places Carter with his parents and siblings, showing him that acceptance and love are possible in a family of “wolves.” 

There is more spice especially with Carter and Theo consummating their portion of the relationship. In fact, this overshadowed June’s place in this throuple. Thankfully, the resolution of this story and its trilogy is sweet, and it rectifies this oversight. 

Did I enjoy reading Tropical Storm? Yes. Did it feel like it was doing anything new? Not necessarily. I will always read Skye Warren; I’d simply love to read stories from her that aren’t always a trilogy.

In love and romance,

Professor A

Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4.5 ⭐️ Review: Tijan’s Hockey with Benefits ✍🏻

professorromance

Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

Tropes: sports romance; new adult romance; inter-connected series; tortured lead; mental illness; hockey romance

Tijan’s Hockey with Benefits is more than its blurb. I didn’t realize, on entering her book, that we would be re-introduced to Mara, the somewhat throwaway character from Tijan’s Rich Prick. One of my favorite characterization treats is having a vilified character humanized. In her newest tome, Tijan takes Mara, who stands as a bit of a foil to the heroine in Rich Prick, challenging and insidious, and invites us into her backstory, which is complicated and heartbreaking. After Hockey with Benefits, everything makes sense about Mara, and Tijan’s capacity for drawing sympathy and empathy around her endears us to this new story. 

Adding Cruz to the mix and the complication of their relationship creates a depth of emotion in this story. Cruz’s capacity to understand Mara’s situation is one of my favorite aspects of their relationship. It makes it so that it’s impossible for them NOT to become more than a situationship. When he protects her from the complications of her life, their tether becomes more defined and bold. Tijan makes us work through their complicated relationship in an almost tedious manner, allowing us to experience the difficulties of their lives. You can’t help but “feel” the characters’ emotions. 

Add to the decided characterizations of Mara and Cruz messages about mental illness and its impact on loved ones and the trauma and process of dealing with SA. These plot lines undergird Hockey with Benefits with a depth of story that is compelling for the reader. Honestly, I couldn’t stop reading it because 1) I needed Mara to enact boundaries with her mother, and 2) I really needed the story’s villain to get his comeuppance.  Tijan uses these story lines along with Cruz and Mara’s burgeoning and evolving relationship to engage us with her story.

My only criticism of Tijan and her Fallen Crest and spin-off stories are the sheer number of characters she infuses into an individual story. It can make it tedious to remember who is who, especially when she, as in Hockey with Benefits, vacillates between their first and last names. I love the supporting ancillary characters, but I’m not sure this book required so many. 

If you haven’t grabbed Tijan’s Hockey with Benefits, you should. You won’t be able to put it down.

In love and romance,


Professor A

Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4.5 ⭐️ Review: Meghan Quinn’s Right Man Right Now ✍🏻

professorromance

Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

Tropes: fake relationship; age-gap romance; sports romance; hockey romance; broken hero; fearless heroine

I am in love with Silas Taters, the broken hero of Meghan Quinn’s newest hockey romance, Right Man Right Time. The third book of her Vancouver Agitators series, I’m certain this newest story is my favorite. You might ask why.

  1. I’m a fiend for a broken hero. And Silas Taters is a broken man, complete with fortified walls against emotional attachments and a short fuse ignited by the thoughts of his cheating ex-girlfriend. Silas is a man who takes life a bit too seriously which means that Meghan Quinn must surround his character with people who add humor to his life. Even more, Silas is one of her dirtiest MMCs to date. 
  2. Enter the FMC of Right Man Right Time: Ollie. Even her name inspires a smile. She is exactly the heroine for Silas because, even though she is ten years younger than him, she brings light and life to his focused, sterile, protective life. From their first unexpected kiss, Quinn writes them as necessary for each other. She challenges and titillates him and makes him break down his emotional walls. I loved Ollie from the moment she decided to engage in a fake relationship of convenience with him. When he “forgets” her at their first hockey event because he’s fixated on his ex, my heart broke for Ollie. When she reminded him of his promise not to leave her side and she breaks down in front of him, my heart melted for her. I cheered for her when she stood up to his ex Sarah because Sarah was taking liberties with Silas. As much as I loved Silas, Ollie is the magic of their coupledom.
  3. Besides Ollie, Posey adds more light to Silas’s life as he jockeys within his “relationship” with Ollie. When Ollie isn’t providing humor, Posey is, acting as a break from Silas’s seriousness. Pacey, Hornsby, and Holmes add to Silas’s characterization in the same way, but Posey is necessary to ameliorate the pain of Silas’s characterization and offers respite from his angst and anger.
  4. Quinn’s recent books, including Right Man Right Time, are straight-up steamfests. When Silas and Ollie finally acknowledge and act upon their attraction, Quinn teases it in some of the spiciest physical scenes. These are combustible, and Quinn metes it out in sections of chapters throughout her book, turning up the heat with each new scene. It’s everything you love woven into an emotional, humorous romance.

Don’t miss Silas and Ollie. Right Man Right Time is my current favorite Vancouver Agitators…but there is always Holmes. I’m ready for his story, but I’m okay with Silas holding the title for now. 

In love and romance,

Professor A

Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4 ⭐️ Review: Adriana Locke’s More Than I Could ✍🏻

professorromance

Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Tropes; single dad with teen daughter; one month nanny; forced proximity; grump/sunshine; small-town romance

I’ve decided that there is one thing that will make my heart sing: a grump/sunshine small-town romance written by Adriana Locke. Now, I’d LOVE for her to stop writing compelling family stories because, as a reader, I want them all, a story for each new character that inhabits the pages of her books. But…but she is but one author and it takes time…time that I often hate to pass awaiting the next story in a new series of intriguing characters. This is More Than I Could, Adriana Locke’s newest story. 

Think grumpy single dad trying to parent a witty, intelligent, but complicated young woman. Add in a willful, sunshiney, intelligent, beautiful woman from the big city of Los Angeles who comes to small-town Peachwood Falls, Indiana to act as a nanny for the grumpy single dad’s thirteen-year-old daughter. From the moment they meet, Chase and Megan are combustible. Whether it’s Megan challenging Chase’s hard-headed ways or gruff communication, or it’s Chase trying but failing to stay away from Megan, they simply cannot help their attraction to each other.

Unfortunately, Megan’s situation is temporary, so Chase and Megan have to navigate their attraction while avoiding becoming serious. Best laid plans, right? This is the magic of More Than I Could. That fraught space along with Chase’s grumpiness in contrast to Megan’s spiritedness engage the reader. You don’t want to put this story down because (1) you love the characters – Megan, Chase, his brothers, the town folks and (2) you know that Locke will serve up a huge helping of a romancelandia happy ending. Which she does with aplomb. 

In her acknowledgments, Locke had hoped to craft and release a story that would allow an escape from the nastiness of the world. And she does this well in More Than I Could. It’s a story that eases along with moments of triumph for its characters that keep you suspended all the way to the sweet and spicy final page. If you’re looking for a feel-good romance with a minor side of tension, you’ll want to read Adriana Locke’s More Than I Could.

In love and romance,

Professor A

Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4.5 ⭐️ Review: Sarina Bowen’s The New Guy ✍🏻

professorromance

Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

Tropes: hockey romance; sports romance; neighbors turned lovers; hockey star and hockey trainer; mm romance

Sarina Bowen’s The New Guy is a fantastic addition to her Brooklyn Bruisers stories. Her newest book is satisfying as her characters, Hudson and Gavin, navigate professional sports life under the shadow of secrets. Bowen takes her time in drawing Hudson and Gavin together even though their chemistry is combustible from the moment they meet at the bar made famous throughout Bowen’s Brooklyn Bruisers/Brooklyn Hockey series. She carefully weaves in our favorite Brooklyn guys while introducing us to Gavin and Hudson, reminding us why we love these series so much. Even more, if she has the margin to write them, The New Guy provides a launching pad for a new series with a different hockey franchise. 

Through Gavin and Hudson’s stories, Bowen interrogates fear from the perspective of a widowed single father wanting something for himself while negotiating a new life in Brooklyn and a staid hockey player who has hidden his true self from the world, hoping to find a team who will keep him. This means The New Guy has Gavin and Hudson moving one step forward and three steps back for much of the book. While their attraction flies off the page, building any relationship between the two is fraught with lots of starts and stops. Bowen uses these spaces to develop more than their attraction as they learn about each other and themselves. She waxes poetic about facing and overcoming fears when she writes, “maybe there’s something holding you back, too. Maybe you’re dyslexic, or depressed or carrying around some burden I can’t see. Let me just tip you off that holding it in doesn’t make it go away. Please learn from my mistakes. The time and energy I’ve spent on my fear could have been put to better use…” Bowen reminds us that we stagnate if we don’t face our biggest challenges, and it becomes impossible to find an abundant life if we live in constant fear.

This truth, returning to past Brooklyn Bruisers players, and the sincerity, sweetness, and spiciness of Gavin and Hudson made for an engaging and entertaining read that made it impossible to put down.

In love and romance,

Professor A

Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4.5 ⭐️ Review: Penelope Ward’s Toe the Line ✍🏻

professorromance

Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️


Penelope Ward’s Toe the Line is the epitome of epic romance. This book spans years and is a gorgeous mix of spice, heart-rending drama, and tug-a-war chemistry-laden moments. Penelope Ward has written a rich, angsty romance using the trials and tribulations of Noelle and Archie, as their timing misses over and over again. She reminds us that the stars align at the end of a romance to bring a fated couple together, but the journey forward is fraught with other relationships, missed opportunities, and fertility issues. Penelope Ward has dreamed up this epic romance into one that will tug at your heart and leave you satiated at the end. Just know that she will put you through your paces before you get there.

In love and romance,

Professor A

Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4.5 ⭐️ Review: K.K. Allen’s Blanket of Stars ✍🏻

professorromance

Overall Grade: 4.5 ⭐️

Tropes: opposites attract; forced proximity; virgin hero; MMC falls first; small-town romance; neighbors-to-friends-to-lovers

If you haven’t yet journeyed into K.K. Allen’s Camp Bexley series, right now is the perfect time to jump in. With her latest release in this series, Blanket of Stars, Allen deftly ends this series under the sparkle of stars reticent of a good romance. 

In this final book, we are introduced to Cayson Bexley, the youngest of the Bexley brothers, and quite frankly, he is the most innocent and empathic of the brothers. Even with his years in the Air Force, a usual masculine endeavor, there is something pure about Cayson, and it doesn’t make him a “beta-hero;” rather, he acts as a foil to his FMC’s typical boyfriend type. It creates this great complication and the ultimate struggle between Cayson and Olivia. K.K. Allen must reconcile Cayson’s immediate adoration and eventual love for Olivia, as she determines her worthiness of Cayson’s love. All of this is deliciously wrapped in a steam-fest that begins with Cayson’s innocence and ends with his control of their physical relationship. I know some readers might not appreciate a virginal hero; however, something about it feels female-forward, as Olivia teaches Cayson how to pleasure her. Allen is careful to balance a potential emasculation with Cayson’s growing confidence in the bedroom, so, while at first their experience is uneven, it eventually becomes a balanced partnership.

If you’re a fan of a compassionate, thoughtful good guy hero and a heroine who has enough moxie for both of them, then you’ll love K.K. Allen’s exclamation point with Blanket of Stars. She took all the threads of this series and tied them into a bow of pure romance completion.

In love and romance,

Professor A

Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 4 ⭐️ Review: Lex Martin’s The Baby Blitz ✍🏻

professorromance

Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Tropes: Enemies to lovers; childhood friends; brother’s best friend; surprise baby; sports romance

Maggie and Olly bring all the spice to Lex Martin’s The Baby Blitz. This book has it all: the tension of enemies to lovers, the forbidden quality of a brother’s best friend, the angst of a surprise baby, and the underlying drive of a sports romance. Martin does an apt job of juggling Maggie and Olly’s story, highlighting the difficulty of balancing familial responsibilities with a complicated pregnancy, a football dream, and unexplored feelings from the past. The Baby Blitz is a constant tug-a-war of tension and chemistry as Maggie and Olly work toward their happy ending. After a laundry list of issues, Martin gifts her readers with the type of happy ending that will make you sigh. Olly and Maggie find their partnership, resolving their litany of issues. 

In love and romance,

Professor A