Tag: amreadingromance

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#BookReview: The Cupid Dilemma by April Asher

Fun Spicy Bubblegum Paranormal Romance. This is another of those books where the 2* reviews are so wrong as to be laughable. I don’t know what is happening with those reviewers of late, but they used to be at least somewhat more reliable, pointing out things that were actually problems from certain perspectives rather than just completely not getting a book at all or even making shit up about it. So ignore those bastards. Seriously.

What we *do* get here is exactly what I said in the title of this review – a fun spicy bubblegum pop paranormal romance that never takes itself overly seriously and just has fun with its premise. We get the children of Greek gods living in NYC – along with a singular “they” most often presented as female but always using “they”, so do with that what you will with no judgements from me either direction there. We get a band full of mythological beings that is essentially virtually any teen/ early 20s rock band of any era of the last 50 yrs or so. To the level that my own mind was essentially making them a mashup of Sum 41/ Good Charlotte/ etc (because that was my own era of that age) but with griffins and gargoyles and phoenixes.

Yes, a lot of this is quite silly from a “Serious Romance Reader” perspective. It isn’t meant to be “Serious Romance Reader” approved. This is light summer reading specifically targeted at that very late teens/ early 20s ish “new adult”/ starting their career set that these characters themselves are, with a lot of the issues common at that age.

Now, for the “clean” vs “spicy” romance debate, this one definitely comes in fairly spicy. Somewhere between a habanero and a Carolina Reaper, you’re definitely going to feel the heat here… but you may not be rushing off to find a private area yourself. Unless, perhaps, you *are* that late teens/ early 20s ish target audience (or someone who still acts like it even at more advanced ages), in which case, well, hey, do what you need to do. So “clean” romance crowd… this one may not send you to the emergency room, but you’re probably going to be reaching for the smelling salts and maybe checking your pulse to make sure it isn’t too high. Might be best for y’all to just skip this one, unless you’re feeling particularly adventurous. (But if you *do* read this one despite these warnings, please don’t 1* it for being too spicy – I already warned you about that!)

The paranormal aspects here are done in a fairly realistic way that doesn’t require much of a leap… but also requires that you not think too deeply about it. Just follow the jump through the portal and don’t worry about how it works or where they actually are. This is bubblegum. It isn’t supposed to be deep or thoughtful. Just enjoy the spectacle and keep moving. You’ll be fine. If you’re one that can’t help but think too deeply about even bubblegum… again, this may not be the book for you. I think one of the best illustrations I can give that a lot of people may be somewhat familiar with is how Loki just shimmers his armor on in his first scenes with Captain America in The Avengers or just shimmers his way into other realms in those early MCU movies. If that isn’t something you can handle in novel form without deep explanation… this probably isn’t the book for you.

But for those looking for exactly what this book is – fun spicy bubblegum paranormal romance, again – hey, this one works on a lot of levels and will very likely be something you’ll enjoy.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Cupid Dilemma by April Asher was originally written on May 15, 2026.

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#BookReview: Out Of Her League by Ava Rani

Carolina Reaper Spicy Romance With Atypical And Controversial Message. First thing to know about this book: Not for the “clean romance” crowd. AT. ALL. Y’all don’t need to bother reading a word of it, because there are at least three instances where you will need the fucking *emergency room* from the heart palpitations you’ll get, rather than just smelling salts. But for those that enjoy actual porn level (Fifty Shades level, if not exact type) spice… hey, I’ve got a book for you. (Though to be clear, there is actual plot here. This is *not* erotica. Just *very* spicy romance. If only in like 3 scenes.)

Now that the romance crowd has sorted themselves already, let’s talk to the rest of us who fall somewhere in the middle. Beyond the spice debates, there was actually a lot to like here, and indeed a lot of in your face yet not actually preachy (weird, I know, but mostly because of how well it worked within the story itself) messaging that will prove controversial to some and refreshing to others. Subversive, in fact. Which to me makes things so much more interesting anyway.

The actual story itself progressed maybe a touch slowly, but also, the two star reviews here are fucking morons that I wish Goodreads allowed users to block other users, because seriously, after reading this book myself they are so wrong that I will never trust them to tell me the sky is fucking blue, ok?

Instead, for me, the story absolutely clicked on all levels. You’ve got two people at some of the highest levels of their respective fields yet at different stages within them and all the competing wars within both of their heads about how to proceed. You’ve got some tough but not backbreaking emotional weight for both of them to overcome. You’ve even got some travel in here, and hell, for those soccer fans – and at least Rani never called it “football”, because “football” is the sport played with an oblong pigskin whose best players come from the American Southeast – you’ve got a decent amount of soccer-adjacent stuff going on. No, this isn’t anything remotely resembling a sports romance, so there are no actual soccer games here, just a lot of more off the field stuff with this character at this stage of his career.

An excellent tale that nails pretty well everything pretty solidly, again, this is going to be one that is controversial to some and refreshing to others, and again I repeat: “clean” romance crowd, DO NOT READ THIS BOOK. This is one for the Carolina Reaper spicy crowd to enjoy. Particularly those that enjoy their Carolina Reaper as the sauce on some good slow cooked fall off the bone ribs. Dammit, I’m making myself hungry.

Very much recommended.

This review of Out Of Her League by Ava Rani was originally written on May 12, 2026.

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#BookReview: Meet Me In Italy by Brenda Novak

Solid Women’s Fiction/ Romance Blend. This is one of those tales the genre blends between women’s fiction and technically satisfying all known RWA/RNA “romance genre” requirements… while being around habanero spicy to boot, at least in once instance. (Others are closer to jalapeno or even milder, though still stronger than a warm glass of milk.)

Told from a few different characters’ perspectives and thus allowing them all to feel fully fleshed out, one weakness here is that many characters outside these specific perspective characters often feel… not as fully fleshed out. Indeed, at least a few are “I need a character in this role” thin – but for the most part they’re also barely relevant to the story at hand, so it does make at least a degree of sense that they aren’t as strongly written. Particularly given the length of the tale even with these “less fully fleshed out” characters – giving them more to do and making them feel more fully alive the way our main characters do could easily have added a few dozen pages to this already decently chunky tale, particularly given its type.

Overall this is exactly one of those safe *enough* women’s fiction / romance blends that while it may have a thing or two here or there that may begin to step on some toes, for most readers this really will go down about as easily as a cool bottle of Coca Cola on a hot summer day – which is exactly what it was designed to do, clearly. It is that exact kind of not-quite-bland-yet-also-not-too-memorable tale that is almost explicitly designed to appeal to as many readers as possible, and I have exactly zero doubt that it will do exactly that. If you’re looking for a safe *enough* read over the summer, one that transports you to an exotic location – again visiting Italy’s Amalfi Coast, as Sarah Penner’s The Amalfi Curse did last summer and a few others have done over the years – and tickles the brain *enough* and warms the heart *enough* while also providing *enough*… “excitement”… for other regions of the body that it will quite clearly play well with the summer “beach read” / “vacation read” set, which this is clearly intended for.

One thing that makes this a touch more interesting to read after its release (due to life issues arising just before its release, despite having had it as an Advance Review Copy for nearly four months prior to release) is Novak’s public announcement about her own real life shortly after the publication of this book and how that seems to inform various aspects of this tale.

There is also a decent amount of social commentary about various topics, specifically the publishing industry as well as a few others, but other than perhaps the publishing industry “inside baseball”, none of it ever really comes across as preachy. Again, this is where the brain is tickled a bit while never going so far as to produce real agitation, at least for most readers.

Ultimately this is a book that will likely do everything it set out to do – a perfectly safe, flavorful enough, summer/ vacation/ beach read that will play well with the women’s fiction/ romance set generally while being perhaps a bit spicier than the Hallmarkie crowd specifically would prefer.

Very much recommended.

This review of Meet Me In Italy by Brenda Novak was originally written on May 11, 2026.

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#BookReview: Five Star Summer by Sarah Morgan

Low Stakes Medium Spice Sarah Morgan/ Hallmarkie Summer Tale. Sarah Morgan basically has two settings: summer and Christmas, and she seems to make it a point to release both types of book every year. This being a May release and given the title, it is obviously her summer version. Which does involve coastal/ beach living and general summer-ish vibes without being too country or culture specific. (Well done as this book takes place in both the UK and the US, though the bulk of the tale is in the UK.)

If you’ve never read a Sarah Morgan tale before, this – like pretty well all of them, at least in my experience – is a solid introduction to her general style and conforms pretty solidly to “her style”. Not to the level of “if you’ve read one of her books you’ve read them all” but certainly to the level of the Hallmarkie “everything will be in this style with different particulars and take that as you will”, and yes, there is a difference there.

Those that can’t stand the heat of a jalapeno or so, know that this book is likely too spicy for you. Those that need a Carolina Reaper to be able to feel any heat at all, know that this book is nowhere near spicy enough for you. For most readers that fall somewhere in between, this book will likely be engaging without being distracting.

Overall, as I said in the title, really just a solid low stakes, medium spice, Sarah Morgan/ Hallmarkie type tale perfect for when you want to escape “actual” reality and know that there isn’t anything problematic or disturbing (for most readers, at minimum) in the book you’ve chosen to escape into.

Very much recommended.

This review of Five Star Summer by Sarah Morgan was originally written on May 3, 2026.

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#BlogTour: The Last Daughter by Soraya Lane

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a truly great finale to an amazing series. For this blog tour, we’re looking at The Last Daughter by Soraya Lane.

First, the review I posted to the book sites (BookHype.com / Goodreads.com / TheStoryGraph.com), YouTube, and Substack:

What. A. Finale. This is the book that has had 7 books before it to hint at and build up to. The book whose story actually begins the entire event. The book that fans who have been following this series all along have been waiting for… and it absolutely delivers.

Make sure you read the seven books before this one before you read this one. They lay the groundwork and build the anticipation well in telling their own stories while revealing bits and hints of this one, and most all of the ladies from the contemporary side of those stories show up in some fashion here. Even while these stories are all ultimately romances, there are also enough women’s fiction elements to all of these stories (contemporary and historical) that there are indeed some spoilers to some of those stories within this story… which isn’t an issue if you read them first. 😉

Jeremy Robinson likes to tell people that they can read his book Prime, about the origins of one of his teams and written after several of the books featuring that team had been published, first when encountering that particular team (his “Chess Team”) for the first time. I’ve always recommended against that as one of Robinson’s oldest fans who was there when he was first coming up with the idea (and thought it wouldn’t play well… boy was I wrong!). To me, that series absolutely needs to be read in publication order so that you get the full impact of Prime when you get to it in that order.

And here is where the above story ties into Lane’s Lost Daughters: Yes, on the historical side this is *the* story that begins it all. We get a *lot* of answers on that side of it, and from that side of it you may argue that this book serves as a prequel that perhaps *should* be read first. You would be wrong… because the *contemporary* side of this novel absolutely serves as a coda to the entire series here.

Remember, this entire series is built on a fusion of the historical and the contemporary, merging Lane’s “brand names” of Soraya M. Lane (historical fiction) with her Soraya Lane (contemporary romance/ women’s fiction) “brand”. In the historical side of this tale, we get the origin story that allowed the entire rest of the series to take place. In the contemporary side of this tale, we get the ending that ties everything together in a nice little bow.

… or does it?

Very much recommended.

After the jump, the “publisher details” – book info, description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: The Last Daughter by Soraya Lane”

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#BlogTour: All The Ways You Break Me by Melissa Wiesner

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a worthy successor and conclusion of this romance duology. For this blog tour, we’re looking at All The Ways You Break Me by Melissa Weisner.

First, the review I posted to the book sites (BookHype.com / Goodreads.com / TheStoryGraph.com), YouTube, and Substack:

Worthy Successor. This is one of those duologies where the first book is *so* strong, how can a second *possibly* hold up to it? And yet the second one comes and shows that it is every bit the first tale’s equal.

Pretty well everything that was present in the first book is back in some form. The teen romance. The second chance a decade or so later. The mystery. The tragedy. About the only thing *not* here from the first book is the one thing the most people likely had the most problems with, except that in its place we get something that arguably even more people will have a problem with… though in this case (fortunately) it isn’t anywhere near as explicit.

As to what this thing is, I applaud Wiesner for having a webpage listing trigger warnings for this book rather than listing them at the front of the book and thereby making them unavoidable for those reading on eReaders, and I encourage any who may need to see a list of trigger warnings to go to that page, indeed it is directly on the book’s page on her website at melissawiesner dot com/books/all-the-ways-you-break-me. Even here, note that the warnings are all the way at the bottom of the page and thus fairly easily avoidable even here for those who do not wish to see them.

We do, however, get the jalapeno/ habanero level sex scene in this book as well, it just happens to be with a couple approaching 30 rather than a couple who still hasn’t hit 18. Still, for those who prefer to read books without such scenes… you’ve been warned. Once again, please don’t 1 or 2 star this book over this scene now that you’ve read my own review where I am making it a point to tell you of its existence. 🙂

And yes, this is the conclusion to a particularly strong romance duology. We get answers. We get happy endings for everyone (as far as the romances themselves go – no guarantees for anything else 😉 ). And yes, we get a few dusty rooms along the way too.

Very much recommended.

After the jump, the “publisher details” – book description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: All The Ways You Break Me by Melissa Wiesner”

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#BookReview: What Tomorrow Will Be by Julianne MacLean

Proof That The Greatest Romances Don’t Always Involve HEA. Oh that title is sure to roil up oh so many in booklandia, but this tale really is, at least in some ways, proof of something I’ve personally long held, that the greatest *romance* stories known to humanity don’t always involve a happily ever after.

Like Tom Clancy’s Without Remorse, we get an all too brief but oh so epic romance tale for the absolute *ages*… before we see it shattered in an instant. The love – and the tragedy – are far *too* real in MacLean’s words, and the room will get quite dusty indeed through this section of our tale.

And then, like Without Remorse again, we get a new romance at some time period after the initial one, and this is where we spend the majority of the tale (unlike Without Remorse, which is as much military thriller as it is romance… indeed, Clancy *set out* to write a military thriller, he just also included one of the best romance tales I’ve ever read even now).

This one too is divided – we see the couple coming together, and again here MacLean truly makes us *feel* it. Unless you have a block of solid granite in your chest, you’re going to be swooning through this section. It really is one of those truly epic love stories that really makes you feel what these characters are feeling.

But then we flash forward several years again, and this time reality has set in. We’re beyond the honeymoon period, and life is taking its toll. Here we get to the real drama of the book, and again MacLean does a superb job. Various conflicts are happening, and MacLean does a great job of making them all too real. Some of the drama is unfortunately plucked from so many peoples’ experiences, some of it is more reminiscent of the chronically underrated Hundred Foot Journey – but with a twist more familiar to many romance novels and indeed all too familiar to far too many people’s real lives. Here, MacLean does a superb job of making each character – at least those at the heart of these conflicts – feel like they could be sitting there reading these words over our shoulder – they feel *that* real.

And then that back third or so. Simply stupendous. Just. Wow. I’ve read a few of MacLean’s books in recent years, and I do believe this one to possibly be her most powerful yet, certainly among those I’ve read. And yes, it is in this back third that we really see the true power of what I said in the title of this review – sometimes the greatest romances don’t involve a happily ever after. Sometimes the greatest romances of all are the ones that change us forever.

But that isn’t actually a spoiler of anything here. You’re just going to have to read this book to find out exactly what MacLean did here to make me say that. 😉

Very much recommended.

This review of What Tomorrow Will Be by Julianne MacLean was originally written on January 27, 2026.

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#BookReview: Without A Clue by Melissa Ferguson

More Mystery Than Romance, Still Technically Works As Both. This is one of those types of mysteries where the author tries to tap in to Agatha Christie or perhaps even the board game Clue… and hits that kind of tone relatively well, while still also playing into her cruise setting particularly well at the same time. For me, I think the absolute funniest scene was actually the introduction, but there was a decent amount of comedy throughout the book, and it very well could be one of those where another reader would find more humor in a different scene.

The romance here satisfies all known RWA/ RNA rules and is about as spicy as a warm glass of milk or so, but also feels a fair amount more told than shown – we’re *told* these characters really like each other and are falling for each other much more than we *see* it happening. It also absolutely felt, to this reader at least, like the romance element was here mostly because that is what Ferguson has made her name writing, but what she *really* wanted to write here was a cozy mystery set on a cruise ship, so she made it work reasonably well enough for both sides so that maybe she could appease existing fans and perhaps reach a few more new ones. And again, it absolutely works so far as it goes… it just isn’t one of those epic romances you’re going to remember decades from now either. (And to be fair, *few* tales are ever of that level, and for the most part romcoms are never *meant* to be that level.)

Still, as a fun, breezy, cozy mystery/ romance mashup kind of tale, this book really does work remarkably well. You’re going to be entertained for a few hours and you’re going to be able to invest so much of your attention here that you’ll be able to ignore the so-called “real” world for a while, and that, ultimately, is a sign of a solid book doing its job well.

Very much recommended.

This review of Without A Clue by Melissa Ferguson was originally written on January 18, 2026.

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#BookReview: Honeymoon Phase by Amy Daws

Spicy Trauma In Long Form. This is the third book directly in its series (fourth if you count its “backdoor pilot” book from another series where a key character + a few side characters to this book were all introduced) and is the longest by over 100 pages, according to Amazon’s count… and that length shows here. Now, given that this is a habanero spicy book at times… maybe you want that length. Or maybe you’re more a “motion of the ocean” type that would rather things just get to the point without a lot of extras. Either way, you’ve been warned about the extra girth here and you can now make your own decision based on your own preferences.

And yes, if sexual puns and innuendoes aren’t your thing… you’re really not going to like this book. As it is as deep (oh god) (crap) in the series as it is, you probably should have picked up on that by now, but maybe you picked this up thinking it could be read standalone. While it technically *can* be – its story isn’t directly intertwined with any other – the characters from the other books all play roles to some degree or another here, including one scene in particular here detailing in even more explicit detail a common event among all three tales… and other that is more background to the other books, finally fully explained here.

For those who are looking for solid romance tales with some laughs (including various animals that nearly steal the scene in most scenes they are in) and a ton of heart and you can handle cursing at at least the sailor level (programmers curse more, for what that’s worth) and the aforementioned habanero spice level, this entire series is excellent.

This particular entry, with as much trauma as is detailed on both main characters… maybe the extra girth was needed. Maybe it wasn’t. I’m honestly torn, as I *want* to say it wasn’t needed… but there are also no clearly extraneous scenes here. Every scene was done well and every scene works together in its sequence to tell a richly developed story of two traumatized people slowly coming together over a period of time, and it really works on so many levels that even though I *want* to say the extra length wasn’t needed, I also can’t really defend that position by citing anything that could have been cut and this book work as well as it does here.

Thus, the best I can say is prepare yourself for the extra length… and have fun with it. The conclusion reveals that we’ve got one more book left in this series, and it is the one person we haven’t really heard from yet… who becomes very obvious through the course of this tale that they’ve got their own story to (finally) tell. I for one can’t wait to see what happens there.

Very much recommended.

This review of Honeymoon Phase by Amy Daws was originally written on November 23, 2025.

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#BlogTour: Not You Again by Erin La Rosa

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a fun, quirky scifi romance reminiscent of Eureka. For this blog tour, we’re looking at Not You Again by Erin La Rosa.

First, the review I posted to the book sites (BookBub.com / BookHype.com / Goodreads.com / TheStoryGraph.com) and YouTube:

Romance Author Creates Eureka-Esque Scifi. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was proofreading The New God of Science Fiction Jeremy Robinson’s late April 2026 release, Parallax, where he – a long time and prolific scifi author who has never really dabbled in romance at all – created a kick ass scifi action tale that was *also* a spicy romance book. Now, just a few books later, I’m reading a book by a more recently established romance author… who is introducing quirky scifi into her romance book. Interesting times, it seems. 😉

And this is absolutely a quirky scifi romance. To me, it gives off strong vibes of the now-long-dead Syfy show Eureka, where the entire town knows they are in a scifi tale and they all merrily do their own things within it. If your sense of humor is of the ‘WTF’ variety… this is absolutely going to be right up your alley.

And yes, speaking of things being ‘up alleys’ (groan, I know, sorry), if you’re not a fan of spicy romance of the habanero, maybe even hotter, level… this book probably isn’t going to be your thing. There isn’t *much* of it… until there is. But when it is there, it is *there*.

And the ambiguity. Other than giving away that there is some here, all I’ll note about it is that I appreciated it. Obviously, some readers have to have every possible thread buttoned up exactly so. I’ve never been one of those, so I appreciate books that don’t do that since they are so rare.

Another thing that is going to be one of those that some will love and others will loathe is the seemingly forced LGBT inclusion here. I don’t personally have strong feelings either direction on should it be here, shouldn’t it be here, but it *did* feel a touch out of the blue and it never really added much to the story for me, but hey, maybe I’m the idiot here and it is the fact that sells the book for you. You do you there. Doesn’t affect me in any way at all.

Ultimately, I did think that this book largely works quite well overall, and I absolutely LOVE that La Rosa was stretching herself so far here and making everything work as well as it did. That is absolutely a mark of a strong storyteller, and a brave one that can at least stretch the norms of her established genre and try different things within it that are far from cookier cutter. And that is something I will always applaud any author doing.

Very much recommended.

After the jump, an excerpt from the book followed by the “publisher details” – book info, description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: Not You Again by Erin La Rosa”