new release, Review

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

Overall Grade: A

“You make my soul breathe fire, my beautiful dark desire.”

Parker S. Huntington and L.J. Shen’s newest book, My Dark Desire, begins with a content warning: “this is a dark romance and may contain triggering content.” Anyone who’s read dark romance from either of these two authors knows that their dark can grow dark quickly. Like its partner in crime, My Dark Romeo, My Dark Desire finds its darkness in its MMC’s behavior. When one is rich and powerful, one’s scruples can become gray…and Huntington and Shen’s MMC, Zach, is the grayest of grays. 

My Dark Desire is a modern-day Cinderella story with an FMC in Farrow with more backbone than your average dark romance FMC. What I loved the most about this story is Farrow’s capacity to bring Zachary Sun to his knees. It’s always my favorite part of a romance when the MMC seems like the most indomitable character in the room, but it’s clear from the moment this type of MMC meets his FMC, all bets are off. Huntington and Shen have imagined one of my favorite MMCs in this book: a seemingly impenetrable, robot of a man. This only means he will fall hard…and Zach Sun does just that. He becomes obsessed with Farrow. 

Thankfully, Huntington and Shen understand the chemistry between an MMC obsessed with his FMC and an FMC who simply cannot help herself when it comes to the MMC. Farrow and Zach are pure chemistry from the start. Their banter, push and pull, and fire set this story’s path—and it’s a blazing one. In fact, Huntington and Shen have written so much story in My Dark Desire that it’s 428 pages of a cat and mouse chase. 

What’s most compelling about My Dark Desire and by extension, My Dark Romeo, for that matter, is the creation of Romeo, Ollie, and Zach’s band of brothers trope. Usually, in dark romance, there is very little to save you from the wretchedness of the powerful character towards his/her prey. In this book, Huntington and Shen save you with the humor between these “brothers.” The choice to interrupt the narrative with text messages that will absolutely make you laugh out loud provides a respite from the growing tension between Zach and Farrow or Farrow and her step-family. The intentionality behind the layers of this book, ones that swirl between suspense, humor, and spice, drew me in and compelled me forward. There is something here for every type of romance reader. 

My favorite moment of this book came at the end. I haven’t exclaimed at the end of a book for its final line in a while, and Huntington and Shen end My Dark Desire brilliantly. So consider this my warning: if you’re a “read the end of the book to alleviate your anxiety” kind of person, do NOT read the epilogue before you’ve read the entire story. You will ruin the brilliant machinations of its authors. A day later and My Dark Desire is still taking up space in my brain. Parker S. Huntington and L.J. Shen have absolutely done it again with this book, and I am very ready for Ollie’s story…

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Kennedy Ryan’s This Could Be Us, book 2 of the Skyland series ✍🏻

Overall Grade: A+

“Books are the mirrors of our soul.” – Virginia Woolf

“That she was indeed a hornet, not a butterfly. That the plain of her heart stretched vast enough to love two men so completely, love her children so purely, love her mother and her friends and the world around her with such a quiet fervor … because first, she loved herself.” – Kennedy Ryan

Rarely do I get personal in my book reviews. I’ve inserted my personal experience into the number of reviews I could count on one hand. Quite frankly, that seems sad. As the quote above from Virginia Woolf suggests, books are a reflection of ourselves. They help us understand life and love and longing, and it seems a shame that we don’t show authors in our reviews where we found ourselves in their book babies. If I were an author, I’d love to hear readers’ stories of the intersection of personal experience and my written word. 

Kennedy Ryan’s This Could Be Us is impassioned, intelligent, and impeccable. Her style and syntax are cinematic and breathtaking. Her words grab you by the wrist and pull you into her story, and they hold your hand as you endure and experience her story. 

I’d love to tell you how her focus on enduring female friendships in this book is the soft throw around your shoulders on a stormy day. I’d love to highlight the insight offered about the spectrum of neurodivergent characters, a spectrum so wide and vast that it makes it difficult for people to get the proper care and help. She volleys us between Aaron and Adam and Judah to illustrate the spectrum of autism, but that’s Kennedy’s story…and it’s also a bit of my own. Unfortunately, I’m not articulate enough to explain my connection to it. 

I’d also love to tell you how the complications of Soledad and Judah’s journey surgically fillet your soul and create a leaner, better understanding of the power of love. The distinct understanding that one’s love affair shouldn’t compare to anyone else’s is a powerful notion. Lastly, I’d love to explain how Kennedy leans into the colonial idea of Republican Motherhood as she draws Soledad’s power in the domestic sphere. This notion ran rampant through my mind as Soledad became more influential in the domestic arts, reminding us of the impact women have made for centuries even when they were stripped of their power.

Where my mind took me for this review is in my want to be a” hornet, not a butterfly.” Here is where This Could Be Us feels like a “mirror” of my soul, where I felt empowered and changed. For the past two years, I’ve been on a journey of self-discovery and change. I learned late into my marriage that my husband lands somewhere on the autism spectrum, and he lacks the self-awareness or interest in loving me as I need to be loved. I had created a very careful existence, one that leaned heavily into peace-making for myself and my son, and it left me feeling lost and alone when my son left home to go to college. Over the past two years, I’ve been working towards becoming the “hornet” that Soledad’s mother, Catelaya, writes about so beautifully in her journal. And it hasn’t been easy. And it hasn’t been perfect, but I am learning to love myself little by little. To embrace all that I am. Opening the pages of Ryan’s inviolable book felt inspired. Kennedy Ryan’s capacity to capture the human experience, manifesting it onto the fullness of the page, is why I will read her stories until the end of my time. Her books are the mirrors to our souls, to my soul, and I feel seen and changed by them. I feel challenged and disarmed by them. I feel empowered by them. 

Kennedy Ryan is an apt ambassador for romancelandia, and her books, ones like This Could Be Us, should be celebrated and held as the ultimate representation of all that is good in this genre.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Lexi Blake’s Live, Love, Spy, a Masters & Mercenaries New Recruits romance ✍🏻

Overall Grade: B+

Tropes: best friends to lovers; found family; romantic suspense; next generation; opposites attract

I have figured out why I adore Lexi Blake’s Masters and Mercenaries in all its iterations: her books are a wonderful mix of serious, steamy, suspenseful, and amusing (there was no great “s” word for funny). Her newest series, Masters and Mercenaries: the New Recruits, continues to bring us more of what her original series and its various offshoots have brought us: an investment in the found family of the Taggarts and their colleagues. 

In her latest book, Live, Love, Spy, TJ Taggart and Lou (the daughter of the FMC in Delighted, a Masters and Mercenaries novella). Lou and TJ have loved each other from afar from the time they’ve met. TJ, however, believes they are too different to become a couple, and he essentially friendzones Lou until he realizes he can’t live without her. Much of this story is TJ convincing Lou of their potential future, and Lou holding him accountable for his earlier decisions. Blake deftly draws the complications of their journey to underscore the reality of timing in a relationship. While it takes much of the book for them to find equal footing, Blake ends her newest story with the HEA typical of her other M&M’s romances. They earn their happily ever after against the backdrop of a burgeoning suspense. 

I’m invested in the underlying story of the New Recruits. Blake has laid the perfect foundation for more stories in this world, and she continues to keep her readers guessing about new couples, the new twists and turns of espionage, and the “world in danger” stories. 

If you’re a fan of dom/sub and romantic suspense books, start reading Lexi Blake’s Masters & Mercenaries romances.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release

✍🏻 Lexi Blake is back with her next New Recruits story. And it’s a rollercoaster ride. Live, Love, Spy is HERE, and TJ and Lou’s journey has everything you love about Lexi Blake’s romances: intrigue, D/S, and a HEA worthy of the Taggart clan. ✍🏻

Live, Love, Spy by Lexi Blake is now live! 

Life can often be awkward when you’re a child genius. For Louisa Ward, that came in the form of meeting her one true love at the age of 12. TJ Taggart was perfect. But being a year younger and a full grade ahead of him in school always made things weird. Working in the CIA has turned her into a strong and capable woman. Until TJ walks into a room. Fifteen years later, she still gets butterflies every time she sees the gorgeous soldier, but she’s tired of waiting and ready to find love, even if it can’t be with him.

TJ Taggart always knew he wanted to be a soldier. But joining the Army would require a sacrifice. Since meeting Louisa, TJ knew she was the one for him, but they had different paths in life. Lou was meant to change the world at some prestigious research job or maybe teach at an Ivy League school. There would be a chance to sweep her off her feet when his time in this dangerous life was done, and their happily ever after could begin.

Before he can make it home on his latest leave, TJ is kidnapped by an unknown adversary. As he waits to die, all he can think of is the time he wasted and how badly he wants to be with Lou. He’s more than a little surprised when his sweet, quiet girl shows up leading a CIA special ops squad to bust him out. Back in Dallas, it’s time to claim the woman of his dreams. He has a plan to win her over, until the adversary who almost killed him returns to finish the job.

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

Amazon: https://bit.ly/45x75Oc

Apple Books: https://bit.ly/44BklA1

Nook: https://bit.ly/3R3mBgi

Kobo: https://bit.ly/44OdC65

Google Play: https://bit.ly/3R85Fp7

Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3YXhAaY

Meet Lexi


New York Times bestselling author Lexi Blake lives in North Texas with her husband and three kids. Since starting her publishing journey in 2010, she’s sold over three million copies of her books. She began writing at a young age, concentrating on plays and journalism. It wasn’t until she started writing romance that she found success. She likes to find humor in the strangest places and believes in happy endings.

Connect with Lexi

Website: www.lexiblake.net

 Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5124235.Lexi_Blake

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Lexi-Blake/author/B005JVSDJ0

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorlexiblake/

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/526080691345626

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/authorlexiblake/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/authorlexiblake

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lexiblakeauthor

Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/lexi-blake

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/lexiblakeauthor/

Other: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCORVsrIAcbqMFxp0cHi51nw

Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Melanie Harlow’s Small Town Swoon, a Cherry Tree Harbor romance ✍🏻

Overall Grade: A-/B+

Tropes: best friend’s brother MMC; hate to love; second chance romance; he spoils her; small town romance

Small Town Swoon is one swoon worthy romance. Melanie Harlow has created a small-town romance series in her Cherry Tree Harbor series that absolutely steals your heart. In fact, until this book, the first book in the series, Runaway Love, had been my favorite by quite a landslide. Now, Dash and Ari in Small Town Swoon have solidly inched up to right below my favorite in this series. To be clear, I’ve loved the love journeys of the Buckley siblings for various reasons; however, Dash’s intentional actions spoiling Ari, the young woman he’d scorned years earlier, makes this book special.

Dash and Ari’s story feels the lightest of the first four books in this series. Harlow has lightened up this series over her Cloverleigh series, but there is still a bit of angst. The underlying thread of trauma for the Cherry Tree Harbor series is the death of the Buckley’s mom when they are young. It informs their actions, so seriousness creates the tension of the story. However, Dash and Ari’s strife doesn’t match the earlier books of this series. As such, I inhaled Harlow’s Small Town Swoon because it vacillates between the initial reticence of Ari towards Dash, their explosive chemistry, their eventual spicy agreement, and their romantic acceptance of their feelings. Page after page, I was drawn further into exploring their romance. 

Add to all of this the continued relationships between the Buckley siblings. The humor, the wisdom, and the connection are grafted together to add depth to Harlow’s book. There is so much to love about this story, and I recommend a dive into it for your Monday reading.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Adriana Locke’s Nothing But It All ✍🏻

Overall Grade: A

Tropes: marriage in trouble; small-town vibes; second chance; blue-collar

Dear Adriana,

I decided to write this review as an open letter to you because it’s been a week and a half since I finished reading Nothing But It All, and this book continues to cling to my soul. Reading this book was like looking into a mirror and seeing my reflection. You deftly and beautifully captured the challenges of two middle-aged parents and the strife of marriage. Yes, Lauren and Jack find their happy ending again, but the book’s ending promises that life will continue challenging them, and they will need to continue working hard at their marriage. The truth and reality of this book are couched in the tenderness and spice of Jack and Lo’s reconciliation, so anyone who doesn’t want to read the reality of romance can still melt with the love portrayed between these two characters. Yes, Jack’s father and their kids are critical to your story in getting Jack and Lauren to the place where reconciliation can happen, but they aren’t necessary to Jack and Lauren’s journey. 

I have to be honest, though. I had to step away from the book several times because it was so real, and I saw myself in your story. My husband and I are essentially married roommates after 26 years of marriage. Unfortunately, my husband isn’t Jack, whose self-awareness is refreshing in your story. So the hope projected through Jack and Lauren’s story is a bitter pill for me. My choices for my marriage, though, are represented in the truth of your book: marriage takes dedication and work through the good and bad times. Lauren says something like she would rather have Jack in her life than a life without him, and I think that’s true for me too. 

Thank you for writing this book even though it was sometimes difficult to read because it’s so true to my life now. I am exceedingly grateful for the quality of your writing voice, and for how you create characters that look and sound like real people in real situations with the promise of finding their happy endings. Nothing But It All is a primer on how romances can be written about the challenges of middle-aged love and the hope for different outcomes.

Forever a fan,

Professor A

new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Meghan Quinn’s The Reason I Married Him ✍🏻

Overall Grade: B+

Tropes: marriage of convenience; small town; golden retriever MMC; emotionally protective FMC

I’m late in posting this review. I’ll admit it, and it isn’t that I didn’t love Meghan Quinn’s newest Almond Bay story, The Reason I Married Him (TRIMH); it’s because it hit close to home in a way. You see, I’m Aubree. Maybe not to the depth of her pain hidden behind walls of emotional stone, but I’m similar in that I erect those stone walls of emotion and let them down only when I feel safe. Meghan Quinn captures this reality beautifully in TRIMH, so much so, that, for someone who lives it, it felt tortuous at times. Quinn’s careful development of the breakdown of Aubree’s walls is easily the best part of the book, but it also has emotional gravitas. In fact, when Wyatt’s character flaw is revealed, it adds very little to the story. For me, it felt like it explained his poor choices away too easily. What was most important about Wyatt, what brought levity to Aubree’s difficult character journey, is his way of lightening and cajoling joy into Aubree’s life. 

Quinn carefully couches Aubree’s journey to feeling safe with Wyatt by crafting his character with humor and resilience. Even though Wyatt’s journey is laden with difficulties – his need for perfection doesn’t compare to Aubree’s. It allows him to empathize with her and challenge her, but his easy persona is the perfect foil to Aubree’s more challenging one. The light/dark motif of this book underscores their relationship well. 

My only challenge with the book is its necessity for a slow burn. There are deep trauma walls to burn down, and it can only happen with patience, resilience, and encapsulating moments. Quinn does this well, but it also slows the movement forward. I needed to take breaks from Wyatt and Aubree’s back-and-forth banter because their chemistry is a minefield. This is necessary for this book, but it makes it harder to read than the first book of the series, The Way I Hate Him. That’s still my favorite of the series. 

I adore Meghan Quinn’s romances. The Reason I Married Him adds more depth to the struggles of the Rowley siblings. Like an onion, Quinn is peeling each layer, revealing more to love about their lives in this delightful town of Almond Bay. Even more, she connects more of her universe, delighting fans like me repeatedly. 

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: L.B. Dunbar’s Sterling Brick ✍🏻

Overall Grade: B

Tropes/Characteristics: standalone in an interconnected series; high school sweethearts; single mom FMC; second chance romance; small town romance; cinnamon roll MMC

L.B. Dunbar’s second book in her Sterling Falls series, Sterling Brick, is Hallmark romance-worthy with a huge helping of steam. This is the Hallmark story you wished you could watch on your television. Dunbar has written an evolving, emotional story about high school sweethearts who reunite in their hometown of Sterling Falls. She’s a divorcee, single mom of two kids, and he’s a volunteer firefighter, brick-laying man with his eyes set on winning the woman he’s never gotten over. Dunbar creates a driving story filled with reticent attraction, eventual forgiveness, and fated lovers finding their forever. Sterling Brick is everything you love about romance: happily ever afters in the midst of the difficulties of real life. 

Dunbar puts her MMC, Knox, and her FMC, Halle, through their paces which allows for the healing necessary for their eventual future. However, it also causes the story to drag at times, creating repetitious dialogue and actions as Halle struggles to forgive Knox’s early adulthood choices and Knox struggles to forgive himself. Honestly, the first half of the book is working through this emotional entanglement, and I found myself drifting away from their story. Once, Knox and Halle forgive the choices of their past, the book moves forward at a better pace. I would have pushed them along faster to retain the readers’ focus.

Dunbar is a masterful storyteller, utilizing a variety of metaphors to encapsulate Knox and Halle’s struggles. I would, however, like to see her avoid being so “on the nose” with them, i.e. Knox’s nickname/call sign is “Brick,” and there is dialogue about Halle building her life “brick by brick.” Dunbar has more skill than choices like that. With that said, she has written some moving moments about personal growth and the journey forward. I appreciate how Dunbar has written Halle’s relationship with her children, Violet and Tim. Even more, she’s drawn Halle in such a way that she’s strengthened by her love for Knox. It allows her to slowly stand in her own power with Knox as a support, not the only support. 

Overall, I enjoyed Sterling Brick, and I love how this series of siblings is shaping up. Entwining their stories within the supportive, but complicated small-town world of Sterling Falls makes it easy to fall in love with these characters, and L.B. Dunbar’s voice continues to shine with her silver fox romances.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Karla Sorensen’s Head Over Heels ✍🏻

Overall Grade: A

Tropes/Characteristics: opposites attract; cinnamon roll MMC; city girl stuck in a small town FMC; found family

“I wasn’t trying to change who she was; I just wanted her to trust me with the parts she kept hidden.”

Karla Sorensen’s newest book, Head Over Heels, is a treasure. I’ve been marinating on it since I finished it because she did something special with this story. This book continues to follow the Wilder family. We’ve met the first of these siblings in her books, The Plan, The Crush, and One and Only. I have delighted in the emotionally wrought stories in these books. But something important is happening in Head Over Heels, and I believe this is one of Sorensen’s best books. Let me try to find the words to tell you why I loved it so much.

  1. Her FMC, Ivy, is a complicated character. She is like a crab: she has a soft underbelly with a hard outer shell. This isn’t her doing; she was raised this way. Her journey involves recognizing that vulnerability is not weakness; it’s actually a way to connect with people who want to love you. Sorensen has drawn her in such a beautiful way that you can’t help but see her unraveling and reveling in it. Her journey into feeling her emotions and sharing them underscores an important part of this book: intimacy. 
  2. The manner in which Sorensen approaches the depiction of intimacy is impeccable. In reflecting on how romance authors create intimacy between two characters, it’s often charged and grounded in $ex. However, Sorensen builds Ivy and Cameron’s intimacy and, by extension, vulnerability with each other quietly. It’s nuanced, and it’s built with actions. As Ivy’s journey moves her further into acknowledging her feelings, had Cameron spoken directly of his feelings for her, it would have ground their burgeoning to a halt. Instead, Cameron builds a relationship with her through his quiet actions. When I think of Head Over Heels, these moments steal my breath. Her characters don’t need to speak their feelings; instead, they know them because the actions are present. I found it built a foundation in the book that made it easy for Ivy to eventually accept she loves Cameron. There’s a quietude in that realization, and it makes you feel as though you’re wrapped in a fuzzy blanket.
  3. Head Over Heels doesn’t have a predictable happy ending. Instead, Sorensen leaves us with a happy-for-now ending. We can decide that, given some final choices by Ivy, they will have a happy ending, but they have peace in the now without needing the predictability of marriage and babies (although it’s hinted at in the story). I found I enjoyed this ending. It feels different from other romance books that want to wrap up the story in a red bow of a wedding ceremony and pregnancies. We don’t know the exact nature of Ivy and Cameron’s future; instead, Sorensen shows us that, at this moment, they are ridiculously happy.
  4. Lastly, and one of my favorite parts of this story is Cameron’s ability to love Ivy just as she is. This is a common message in romancelandia, but Sorensen has written it so that it steals your breath. He truly accepts her self-protection and struggle with vulnerability. He simply lets her be and loves her through it. A cinnamon roll hero, he is. 

Karla Sorensen continues to grace her readers with emotional, compelling stories. Head Over Heels gifts us with more entrance into the compelling Wilder family. You will need tissues for this story, but you will also end it with hope. I am so thankful for a writer such as Karla who grants me access to a world of small-town love and family.

In love and romance,

Professor A

new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Kristen Ashley’s Rock Chick Rematch, a 1001 Dark Nights/Blue Box Press novella in the Rock Chicks Universe ✍🏻

Overall Grade: A

Tropes/Characteristics: soulmates; morally gray MMC; single mom; standalone in an interconnected series; found family

I didn’t realize how much I needed to read Kristen Ashley’s Rock Chick Rematch. If you’ve read her Rock Chicks series, Darius Tucker is the silent yet present, morally gray character who keeps on giving to the resolution of trepidatious situations. Yet, until now, his story along with his soulmate, Malia’s, has been unknown. Reading Rock Chick Rematch was like returning home after a long time away. Unlike many of my fellow Rock Chicks, I don’t do an annual re-read of Ashley’s stories. That’s simply because her book list is so prolific that I find myself working through it still after beginning to read her a year and a half ago. Even more, whether you are reading one of her novellas from 1001 Dark Nights/Blue Box Press or independently published full novels, Ashley treats her readers to a full meal of story. I can’t tell you the number of times I leave a novella wanting more. This isn’t the case with Rock Chick Rematch; instead, she gifts you a story between two long-suffering, but deeply-in-love characters who receive the happiest of endings. It has everything you love about the Rock Chicks and the Hot Bunch: an undying love, an MMC who protects beyond any measure of his own happiness, and a quirky, but independent FMC who keeps him and his “brothers” on their toes. 

What did I love about Rock Chick Rematch?

  • Malia is fierce. Kristen Ashley knows that you can’t gain entry into the Rock Chick world unless you can go toe to toe with a possessive, alpha-male Hot Bunch guy. I love strong female characters, and Kristen Ashley’s portrait of Malia and the Rock Chicks is exactly that. While Malia doesn’t know herself when she’s young, she figures it out quickly, and she doesn’t suffer fools, namely Darius. In fact, my only disappointment was how quickly she forgives Darius for a secret, and I understand this is a novella so KA has only so much space to write this story. However, I felt Malia’s pain and hurt, and I wanted her to revel in it a bit more. Even more, I wanted it seen and acknowledged more by the participants in that secret. Kristen Ashley has written a saint in Malia.
  • I loved Darius’s journey. That we are gifted his story is a treasure. My favorite moments of Rock Chick Rematch are Malia’s realization that Darius has become the best of his father. I won’t divulge more details, but Darius’s swooniness comes through his need to protect and care for Malia and their son, Liam. A morally gray character is always one of my favorites, and Darius has taken a top 10 spot of morally gray romance heroes for me after this book. 
  • The reunion with the Rock Chicks and Hot Bunch. This is the sweet cream of this story. If you’ve read this series from Kristen Ashley, you know that it never lets go. It sticks to your ribs forever. Being granted the opportunity to return to it, to recognize the parallels of other stories as Kristen Ashley divulges Malia and Darius’s story is the thing that will make bubbles in your soul. Everyone is here. Everyone. And there’s a nod to the future. For me, this is Kristen Ashley’s superpower: developing her universe and allowing us continued access to it even when a particular world seems closed. She knows her reader fans, and she gifts us stories such as Rock Chick Rematch constantly, earning our undying love.

Rock Chick Rematch is all caps DIVINE. I inhaled this story of lost love and love regained. I am so thankful to Kristen Ashley for writing this beautiful book about soulmates who needed to wait for their time. In the end, they find it and a wealth of happiness that will absolutely warm your soul.

In love and romance,

Professor A