Tag: fish out of water

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Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s Review: Laney Hatcher’s Love Matched, a Smartypants Romance ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: A

Tropes: opposites attract; fish out of water; standalone in an interconnected series; regency romance; slow burn


The brilliance of Laney Hatcher’s storytelling in the Smartypants World shouldn’t be missed. Here’s the situation: imagine taking a beloved series (Knitting in the City series) from the illustrious Penny Reid and reimagining it into the world of Regency romance. This isn’t an easy task as the women of Penny Reid’s original series read against type for that world. Yet, after Hatcher’s first two books for Smartypants, Neanderthal Seeks Duchess and Well-Acquainted, she does it with such aplomb that it’s quite astounding to the dedicated Penny Reid reader. Now, the newest story, Love Matched, poses another challenge. In the story that Love Matched re-tells, Love Hacked, the MMC is a genius hacker. How does one take a decidedly 21st-century occupation and infuse some element of it into a Regency romance? If you’re Laney Hatcher, seemingly easy. You should know that Penny Reid’s Sandra and Alex are my second favorite couple in her Knitting in the City series, so I was reading Love Matched with a critical, yet intrigued eye. How do you craft an MMC and FMC such as Sandra and Alex into 19th-century characters? Even more, when I read Penny Reid’s Love Hacked, there was a desolation to Alex’s story, a struggle to unwind himself from an outer claim on him. This bind is the tension of their story, as over and over again, Sandra must fight for their coupleship with the odds stacked against them. 

And Laney Hatcher rises to the challenge of these issues in her story, Love Matched. Even in Regency England, Sandra is headstrong, independent, and brave. Her pursuit of Alexander is the catalyst for significant change in his life, and she believes in him and their capacity for a future, just as the character in Penny Reid’s book does. Additionally, Hatcher composes Alexander with the same solitariness as Reid’s character. This is important because the Alex of Penny Reid’s book cloaks himself in that solitariness as protection. Hatcher’s ability to draw Alexander in the same, but different manner than Reid’s character doesn’t read like a copy, but rather an iteration, a complex, fully rendered reimagining. And I find this fascinating and exciting. 

Laney Hatcher’s Love Matched is my favorite of her Smartypants Romance stories thus far. Partly, I love an FMC who knows her mind and challenges social mores to ensure her eternal happiness, and I adore an MMC who challenges her but also accepts her on her own terms. The community we love and adore in Penny Reid’s Knitting in the City series is still a cornerstone of Laney Hatcher’s reconceptualization of this beloved group of women. It continues to buoy the stories. Now, I’m ready for Hatcher’s next book in the series, as it should feature my favoritest of favorites in the Penny Reid world, Fiona and Greg. What will a ninja look like in Regency England? One can only imagine it.

In love and romance,


Professor A

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new release, Review

✍🏻 Professor Romance’s 5 ⭐️ Review: H. Hunting’s Shattered Truths, book 3 of the Lies, Hearts & Truths series ✍🏻

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Overall Grade: ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Tropes: opposites attract; new adult romance; he falls first; forced proximity; hockey romance; Cinderella story; fish out of water

To date, Helena Hunting has gifted us three incredible books in her Lies, Hearts, & Truths series: Little Lies, Bitter Sweet Heart, and Shattered Truths. Until today, I would scream to the rooftops that my favorite of the three is Little Lies. Lavender and Kody, the next-gen of Hunting’s wildly popular Pucked and All In series, stole a piece of my heart as Lavender and Kody struggle through the difficulty of their bonded relationship. However, her newest characters, BJ and Winter, have stolen another piece of my heart for an entirely different reason: these two offer one of the most equitable relationships of this series. They are truly partners: edifying, exhorting, and enticing each other in ways that made my heart sing for them. In fact, I ate this book whole, not intending to do so. I wanted to savor it, relishing my time in this world rife with the progeny of some of Hunting’s beloved characters. But I just couldn’t do it. Before I knew it, I had finished BJ and Winter’s book, and I already yearned to read it again. 

This is what I loved about this book:

BJ, the guy who beds women and remains friends with them in large quantities, falls first. He’s literally and figuratively struck by Winter. And given Winter’s story, it would be simple for Hunting to have BJ “save” Winter; however, that would go against Hunting’s sense of romance. Instead, BJ needs proximity to Winter, and this affords her incredible opportunities, opportunities she takes advantage of even though, given her upbringing and circumstances, she could have denied. BJ provides the space, and Winter uses her facility and agency to step forward. BJ becomes her biggest cheerleader, not her savior. Winter saves herself and her mother instead. That’s empowerment and the best use of Winter’s agency. Can I get an AMEN for that?

Winter returns BJ’s gift later in the story when tragedy strikes for him. This is the equity/partnership of this romance. In Shattered Truths, Hunting complicates their individual lives, and she allows them to create a true coupleship grounded in mutual respect. I reveled in this throughout the story, which was why I couldn’t put it down. When one of them faltered, the other was there to lend support. This is what healthy relationships look like: one partner giving more at moments when it’s needed. It’s this concept that stole that piece of my heart.

Of course, the extended family of this world entices the reader. Hunting grants us more access to Rose, Darren and Charlene’s daughter, as well as my new favorite character, Laughlin, a Butterson sibling, and the rest of the Pucked and All In crew. Lily and Randy, my favorite Pucked series couple, continue to be $ex-positive idols, and they play a major part in Winter’s journey. Returning to this world of old and new characters feels like a warm blanket on a cold night; it’s comfort and nostalgia mixed with the promise of future stories from this beloved universe. 

Add to all of this the themes of domestic violence, the challenge of women’s hockey, the expectations of parents, the letting go of dreams, etc., and you recognize the gravity of Helena Hunting’s storytelling. Yes, the spice and humor expected of Hunting’s romance are also found in this book, but I don’t fall in love with her characters for those reasons entirely. It’s the real-life situations entwined in this fictional world that keep me coming back for me. 

For now, I’ll accept a tie between Little Lies and Shattered Truths as my favorite stories from her Lies, Hearts, & Truths series, but I suspect she has future stories that might steal that top spot if she continues to be the gifted storyteller I’ve come to expect. 

In love and romance, 

Professor A