Tag: book review

new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Reviews: Kristen Ashley’s Avenging Angel ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: A

Two truths are self-evident about Kristen Ashley and her brand of romance: she writes the found family trope better than just about everyone, and she is the queen of writing a girl gang. Over and over again, whether it’s the Rock Chicks, her Dream Team ladies, or MC babes, Ashley wins her readers over with the characteristics of her writing that matter to her readers: community and depth of storytelling. Her latest book, Avenging Angel, of her spinoff Rock Chicks series, Avenging Angel, is no different. If you’ve read her Rock Chick/Hot Bunch series or her Dream Team series, you’ve read this story before: quirky, independent FMC, attractive, protective MMC, and a plot infused with past characters, suspenseful moments, and pure romance. Avenging Angel is no different. Well, except that it is in a way. 

Reading Avenging Angel was like going home after a long stay away. Ashley recognizes the interests of her readers, and the Rock Chicks/Hot Bunch/Dream Team have been her bread and butter, so to speak. While she has written several novels in that series, there are beloved characters, the next generation, that have piqued the curiosity of her fan base. Sniff aka Julien Jackson aka Cap has found keen interest from readers. To grant us access to his story, set it in Phoenix (also connecting us to her River Rain series…), and bring back characters such as Mace, Lee, and the rest of the Hot Bunch, is a dream to many of us, her dedicated readers. Here’s where Ashley deviated with this story, where I think she has listened to readers or read reviews. It can be hard to accept a true alpha hero today. Some might consider it toxic masculinity. While she could write that type of hero ten or so years ago, it’s a hard pill to swallow today. This is where her genius lies with this new series. Julien (“Cap”) has learned from the best: the Hot Bunch but also his adopted mother, Shirleen. As such, Ashley gifts us with a modern-day hero, one who is both protective and possessive but also acknowledges and respects Rachel aka Raye’s choices. Cap and Raye work together acknowledging each other’s strengths and personal choices. We can still fall in love with Cap’s want to protect Raye, while also recognizing her autonomy and authority. This reads like growth in these beloved Kristen Ashley universes. And I’m here for it. 

Even more, Ashley has gifted us with more of her universe. The rest of the Angels are coming, Tito and Tex as protective father figures, and the potential for connections to the River Rain gang means an opportunity for more stories like Cap and Raye’s. The overall story behind this series, a dangerous element threatening the local community, is the thread between the books. Ashley’s focus on the plight of $ex workers and human trafficking lends gravity to her newest romance. Her allusion to Charlie’s Angels makes for a titillating read especially if you were raised on Kelly Garrett, Jill Munroe, and Sabrina Duncan. These were women who were both beautiful and intelligent. And this is the foundation of Kristen Ashley’s Avenging Angel series. In 2024, a romance such as this one is needed, showcasing the strength of women with men at their backs to support their choices. 

Thank you, Kristen, for reminding me, once again, why your stories are supreme. Avenging Angel did not disappoint. It holds all the best of the Rock Chick/Hot Bunch world with its own signature of female authority and power.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Reviews: Meghan Quinn’s Bridesmaid for Hire ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: A- / B+

Tropes: one bed/forced proximity; brother’s best friend; best friend’s little sister; fake relationship

Do you ever start reading a book because you want to escape life? You find yourself lost in the pages, both laughing and crying in equal measure. Meghan Quinn’s Bridesmaid for Hire is the type of book to deliver you from the doldrums of life. Maggie, the best friend of Hattie, the FMC of The Way I Hate Him, is the FMC for this story, and I am so thankful Meghan Quinn found a space for her. Quinn has a way of writing characters’ misfortunes that will make you belly-laugh. Unfortunately, Brody, the MMC and best friend of Maggie’s brother, Gary, is the target in BFH. Everything that can go wrong for Brody, does, and it makes the reader laugh out loud. 

One of the challenges of this book is building the chemistry between Maggie and Brody. And quite frankly, it takes some time to accept their attraction to each other. Meghan Quinn spends much of the first two-thirds of the story building the back story for Brody wooing his boss so that, at times, Maggie and Brody’s burgeoning attraction can get lost. Eventually, after some serious hardships and mishaps, Brody and Maggie find their stride, only to have Quinn upend their path forward. Thankfully, Meghan Quinn knows how to craft a happy ending for her characters, and Maggie and Brody find theirs. However, Quinn leaves her readers until almost the very end for that gift. 

Meghan Quinn’s Bridesmaid for Hire is the book that will save you from the stress of life. Honestly, I laughed out loud so many times at Brody’s misfortunes that I hated for the book to end. This is Quinn’s superpower: finding humor in the midst of a difficult world. 

In love and romance,

Professor A

Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Reviews: Skye Warren’s The Professor ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: B / B-

Tropes: student/teacher; interconnected series of standalones: forbidden; romantic suspense

Any time Skye Warren announces she’s returning to her storied Tanglewood, I’m in. The dark romances wrought from this universe have been some of my first and favorite romances. When she announced a spin-off series set at Tanglewood U, I jumped for joy. Like her earlier stories in Tanglewood, I found myself engrossed in the “cat and mouse” chase of Professor Stratford and Anne Hill. As with her other romances, The Professor is sensual and erotic. There is a darkness underpinning Anne’s journey to know herself. Warren guides us through their story through the POV of Anne which automatically makes her an unreliable narrator. This affords Skye Warren a surprise ending that leaves us on a cliffhanger and the promise of more in her next book. 

Here are my criticisms:

  1. I need Warren to stop writing trilogies. I don’t know her direction, but I often feel like her stories would work as duets. 
  2. There are places in the stories where the editor missed continuity issues as though scenes had been removed and the remaining scenes were spliced together. The story is not seamless.

Skye Warren has a craftsmanship issue, and I believe her stories could be stronger with a better editor. However, her storytelling entices me enough that I want more stories from her. I need to understand Professor Stratford’s real motivations; I need Anne to bring him to his knees and stand in her power; and I need another HEA for another couple in the Tanglewood world. It may take her three books to do so, but she always leaves us with exactly what we need in the end. I’m certain The Professor is simply a step in that direction.

In love and romance,

Professor A

Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Reviews: Adriana Locke’s This Much Is True, the next Marshall Family series romance ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: A-/B+

There are two things I know: Adriana Locke can continue to write small-town romance and second-chance romance, and this reader will be content. Her latest book, This Much Is True, showcases her strengths in crafting these types of stories. She invests us in Laina and Luke’s enduring love, fraught with misunderstandings, misgivings, and feelings of inadequacy. At the core, though, Locke has written two characters who mutually respect and love each other. What this gifts her readers is a story to get lost in. As Laina stands in her authority, making choices that benefit her, you cannot help but cheer her on. She is loveable, albeit naive to her father’s management of her life. And Luke is fun-loving, but also serious. He becomes her protector and confidante, drawing them together. Locke sprinkles spice throughout their story, but it never borders on smut or detracts from their evolution. The tension of This Much Is True is mild, never devolving into anything too angsty. 

Adriana Locke’s version of romance feels like a warm blanket on a cold day. This Much Is True is a promise, a reminder that romance can be so many different things, but in the end, it leaves us filled with hope. That’s the gift Adriana Locke offers her readers with each of her stories.

In love and romance,

Professor A

Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Reviews: Laurelin Paige’s Brutal Arrangement ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: A-/B+

Laurelin Paige’s Brutal Arrangement is a romantic interrogation of old-moneyed family dynamics set against the world of popular music. As Paige has so deftly done with the other stories in this series, we are treated to erotic tension between a Sebastian and his brother’s former girlfriend, turned fake relationship. Paige is a queen of spicy romance, making nothing off limits between her characters. The tension between Riah and Alex in Brutal Arrangement engages the reader and draws us into this world of familial machinations. As I read this story, I listened to Alex’s brother’s story, Brutal Secret. What compels me to continue to read about these privileged billionaires is the realization that family trauma is the cornerstone of the Sebastian family. These stories interrogate the older generation’s stilted politics in the face of the younger generation’s message of “can’t we all just get along.” I find this compelling. In Brutal Arrangement, Riah and Alex’s journey ahead against the stricture of Alex’s brother Hunter’s machinations makes for an exciting read. Every step forward for Riah and Alex is met with complications, creating tension throughout most of the story. I love how these Sebastian men fall hard for their FMCs, ameliorating their power and laying it at the feet of an FMC such as Riah or any of the former FMCs in this series. I am most excited for Adly’s story, teased in Brutal Arrangement. 

Laurelin Paige proves once again that she writes the “heck” out of a billionaire romance. Whether it’s the guys from Reach, Hudson Pierce, Edward Fasbender, or any of the Sebastians, you know a dirty, difficult road ahead leads to a wallop of a happy ending. What I find the most intriguing of Paige’s newest books is her capacity to write alpha-hole MMCs while testing the autonomy and authority of the women in her books. I’m ready for more of the Sebastian family.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Jillian Liota’s The Echo of Regret, the final book of the Cedar Point series ✍🏻

professorromance

Overall Grade: B

Tropes: second chances; pro baseball MMC; artist FMC; small town romance; opposites attract

The Echo of Regret is the first book I’ve read from Jillian Liota. Something about the blurb attracted me to this story, even though it’s the final book of her Cedar Point series and I hadn’t read the earlier books of the series. With all of that, I was pleasantly surprised that I chose well with this story. Often when you read a story in a series, you feel as though you missed out on a bigger sense of the story. I never felt this way reading The Echo of Regret. Did it pique my curiosity for the other stories? Of course, but I also didn’t feel compelled to pick them up immediately to read them. 

Bishop and Gabi have different intensities throughout the book. At first, Bishop reads as almost indifferent to the reason for their break-up. It is underplayed in contrast to Gabi’s disdain for him. Even more, Liota ameliorates this pretty quickly which is one of my criticisms of this book. Bishop moves from indifference to intense interest in reconciling. At 61%, Bishop and Gabi are already moving towards reconciliation, and I thought they needed more discussion of the past before doing this (my second criticism). I’m certain Liota didn’t want her readers to wait too long for it, given Gabi tended to cycle through her feelings for Bishop quite a bit (almost repetitively – my third criticism). Still, Liota remedies it through Gabi and Bishop moving forward. Bishop recognizes that Gabi will never be more important than baseball, the mindset of a man four years older and wiser. 

Jillian Liota’s The Echo of Regret reminded me of Laura Pavlov, Devney Perry, and that ilk. It’s sweet and spicy small-town romance that uplifts after putting you through a juggernaut of emotions first. If this is your jam, you should grab this one!

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Hit Me with Your Best Shot ✍🏻

professorromance

Overall Grade: A

I have recently spent quite a bit of time reading sports romance. It has slowly taken over my Kindle, and I enjoy the stories. Hit Me with Your Best Shot, an anthology of 6 new sports romances from some beloved authors, is a wonderful surprise. The stories in its pages are engaging, entertaining, and exciting. 

My favorite of the lot is Saffron A. Kent’s “Love Made Me Do It,” a short story from SAK’s St. Mary’s Rebels and Bad Boys of Bardstown series. It’s actually a story I didn’t even know I needed until I found myself lost in its pages. It follows Riot Rivera, a fellow soccer player on the New York FC soccer team and the nanny of his daughter, Sophie, Meadow. If you’ve never read SAK, it’s imperative to know that she has a specific style, a pared-down, almost stream-of-consciousness way of writing, and her signature is all over this story. Even more, she writes forbidden angsty romance like it’s her job (which it is), and her MMCs cannot help their obsession with the FMC and vice versa. It’s stylized, engaging, and messy. And this reader loves it. The way that SAK decidedly and deftly develops tension between her MMC and FMC (in this case, Riot and Meadow) intrigues me every single time. She hides the attraction fo the MMC to the FMC, drawing you deeper into her story, anticipating its revelation. In the short space of “Love Made Me Do It,” SAK reminds us of her writing voice while enticing us with Riot and Meadow’s love journey. It isn’t necessarily a surprise, especially if you know SAK’s storytelling, but it’s a delight to be introduced to these characters and reminded of some of her beloved ones. 

Hit Me with Your Best Shot is a MUST-read if you love sports romance. The authors represented in this anthology are next-level, and they remind you why you LOVE to read their stories, even ones laden with sports.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Tia Louise’s A Little Naughty, the final book of the Be Still series ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: A-/B+

Tropes: small town romance; marriage of convenience; bad guy/good girl; found family; he falls first; touch her and die

Tia Louise’s Hamiltown Heat series had all the angsty feels mingled with a huge helping of spice. Coming out of that series, I needed some levity, and she didn’t disappoint with her Be Still series. From the first book of the series, A Little Taste, I found myself engaged with Tia Louise’s rendering of small-town couples finding love against the odds. It is a lighter series than her Hamiltown Heat series, but its power lies in the sometimes light-angsty nature of the couplings. 

Her final book of the series, A Little Naughty, is the perfect exclamation point to the series. It happens to be my favorite. Jemima and Raif are magical in that they know they want each other from the start, and they don’t allow outside forces to keep them apart. Even more, Tia Louise has drawn Raif as a good man from a “bad” family, and the protectiveness that Jemima shows him draws you into their relationship. The complications of Raif proving to people he isn’t his family makes you fall hard for him, but it’s also how he falls hard for Jemima, protecting her at all costs that really cements it. To me, this is the lightest feeling book of the series, and I believe it’s because Tia Louise brings Raif and Jemima together and keeps them there. A Little Naughty sets out to offer you a marriage of convenience, and she has underscored the found family/community of the special small town of Eureka. That’s really the gem of this story. As the happy ending unfolds, you cannot help but be filled with all the good feelings. Tia Louise’s Be Still series is a feel-good series of special romances that will absolutely steal your heart.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Stacy Travis’s Love You Anyway ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: A-/B+

Stacy Travis’s Love You Anyway, the second book of her Buttercup Hill series, promises so much for this continued series of siblings. Stacy Travis has written about the undeniable chemistry between Colin, an astrophysicist hiding from scandal, and PJ, the youngest sister of the Corbett family. Some suspense is a running thread thus far in this series, although Travis treats us to a surprise in this second book. Colin and PJ’s “cat and mouse” foreplay drives the reader forward into the story. The age gap, the “will they/won’t they”, and the almost forbidden-esque nature of their coupling make for a story that keeps you engaged to the last page. 

I’m excited about the future stories in this series. I can’t wait to find out more about what’s lurking in Kingston Corbett’s mind. Stacy Travis’s Love You Anyway moves us decidedly and beautifully forward into this world of grapevines and casual living.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Skye Warren’s Blue Moon, a Smoke and Mirrors novella ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: B-

If you’ve invested any time in Skye Warren’s Smoke and Mirrors (Cirque des Miroirs) trilogy, take a moment and read Blue Moon, a nibble of a novella based on the enigmatic and charismatic showman, Emerson. As the “villain” of the trilogy (or seemingly so), Warren situates him in a more morally gray position in Blue Moon. He’s responsible for finding a new act for Circque des Miroirs as penance, and he finds it with Luna, a gorgeous acrobat. Throughout the novella, Emerson shows the complications of his character as he saves Luna from an abusive situation while wanting to covet her for himself. There is definite chemistry and team between Emerson and Luna, a cornerstone of a Skye Warren story.

However, Emerson’s novella is wildly underdeveloped, leaving us with questions at the end of Blue Moon. Maybe it’s because Emerson is an important character in the Smoke and Mirrors trilogy, but I was hoping for more from his story. Warren may have more for him in store later, but Blue Moon feels like mostly a start, not an end for Luna and Emerson. I know that 1001 Dark Nights and Blue Box Press stories are short-form; however, I’ve read several of them to know that I wanted more from Warren for this story.

In love and romance,

Professor A