Dance All Night by Alexis Daria

Broadway hotshot Nik Kovalenko is a confirmed bachelor.

Ballroom champion Jess Davenport is a bona fide Scrooge.

Last year, they shared a midnight kiss at a New Year’s Eve party that made both of them believe—briefly—in the magic of the holiday season. The magic was cut short when Nik went on tour the next day, but he never stopped thinking about that kiss—or Jess.

When the holidays roll back around, Nik runs into Jess again. He doesn’t want to spend another year pining for the Scrooge who got away, so he tells Jess he’ll stay if she’ll give him a shot at being her Christmas Present.

Jess thinks he’s full of it, but she agrees to three dates. If Nik can make her believe in holiday magic in a place as un-wintery as Los Angeles—and convince her that he’s ready to stick around—she’ll give him a chance. But he won’t know until New Year’s Eve. If she kisses him at midnight, he’ll have his answer…

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42379549-dance-all-night

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07JCJ5F9G

If you're looking for a christmassy, adorable and beautiful romance to spend the holidays with, this might be the one you're looking for. It has a hero who loves Christmas and who's trying to get the heroine to feel the joy of it with him with three dates before New Years Eve, when she decides if she wants to be with him or not. Every time I read one of her books, I remember that Alexis Daria is an incredible writer. She has a wonderful way of portraying realistic and relatable characters that you root for but who have to have a lot of growing up to do during the duration of the book. The dynamics that they had especially during their first date when you can see them together bantering back and forward and dancing and enjoying what they do were gorgeous and I think the beginning of their story contributes a lot to those dynamics. The fact that they meet during New Years and then meet again next December but stayed following each other's social media and career was adorable. 

The main thing that kept me rooting for this couple is how the hero wasn't playing games. He wanted to show her his change during the past year and knew how to do it. He was honest and direct and he also was rooting for her and themselves even though she wasn't in the best place mentally to do the same yet. This is exactly what you would want if you're looking for fluff and something inspiring for Christmas. It's full of joy and the desire that you have to connect with people during the holidays. It's realistic and charming. It's a New Years kiss, a Christmas cookie, a romance that you look for. All in one. 

An ARC was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

Blanca & Roja by Anna-Marie McLemore

The biggest lie of all is the story you think you already know.

The del Cisne girls have never just been sisters; they’re also rivals, Blanca as obedient and graceful as Roja is vicious and manipulative. They know that, because of a generations-old spell, their family is bound to a bevy of swans deep in the woods. They know that, one day, the swans will pull them into a dangerous game that will leave one of them a girl, and trap the other in the body of a swan.

But when two local boys become drawn into the game, the swans’ spell intertwines with the strange and unpredictable magic lacing the woods, and all four of their fates depend on facing truths that could either save or destroy them. Blanca & Roja is the captivating story of sisters, friendship, love, hatred, and the price we pay to protect our hearts.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36952596-blanca-roja

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1250162718

If you know anything about me, you know Anna-Marie McLemore is one of my all time favourite authors. Her books have inspired me to do so many things, to think outside of my comfort zone, to look inside myself and reconcile with a lot of parts of me that I thought would never be healed and for that I will always be thankful. This book is up there with my new favourites ever. It touched on so many topics that were powerfully important to me and that demanded my full attention and comprehension and feelings. The reimagining of a classic tale in the voice of these two sisters who were highly complex and deep and multi-layered was well done and constructed. They were extremely flawed in their quest of learning how to survive and be their own persons and I saw my sister and myself in them a lot. This book impacted me in so many ways because it talked about raw and angered emotions that were trying to come out to the light and two main characters who were fighting and finding those emotions in every turn. The rivalry that were trusted upon these girls was the center of the plot but the thing that attracted me the most were the relationships that were formed and strengthened throughout the book. 

I obviously adored how Anna-Marie McLemore wrote this book. With light-skinned and dark-skinned latinx sisters, with a transboy who uses he/she pronouns, with a boy who is trying to get over domestic abuse and trying to escape his family and  his name. All those complexities were so beautifully explained and expanded. You could feel everyone's stories and were rooting for everyone's happiness. All their paths' cross with one another as they look for their salvation, for their meaning and their self-discovery. It's about two romantic love stories but it's mostly about the complicated love of these two sisters. No one writes like her. No one crafts like her. 

Apart from all the technical and critical aspects of this book that touched me and made me feel that this book was objectively one of the best books of the year, I want to get sappy and tell you what it meant to me. I'm a sister. I have a complicated relationship with her but she's the most constant thing in my life and she's my best friend and has been my best friend since she was born. We're both latinas and have been compared to each other throughout our entire lives. This book felt like it put a lot of the feelings that we both shared into words. I know it's a book about rage and anger but it's also about those relationships that are unique and unbreakable when you live like we live. Like Blanca, I put my sister above everything and I protect her from the world and that doesn't mean she hasn't suffered but being the bigger sister I put myself in that role that I never left even now that we're both adults. It was so validating seeing that dynamic in these characters in how even though they were put against each other at so many points they still came together and fought for one another and that meant everything to me. 

Not Another Family Wedding by Jackie Lau

Natalie Chin-Williams might be a cranky professor of climatology who thinks the world is doomed, but she believes in lasting love…just not for herself. She has a long history of failed relationships, plus the men she dates inevitably want children and she doesn’t.

Now thirty-six and single, Natalie expects endless comments about her love life when she attends her baby sister's wedding. Worse, weddings are always drama-filled disasters in her family. She needs emotional support to get through the weekend, so she enlists the help of her friend Connor Douglas, the dependable family doctor.

The wedding reception goes south when a drunk aunt announces a family secret that sends Natalie reeling and shakes her faith in love. Luckily, she has her long-time friend to lean on—a man she somehow ends up kissing. But there’s no way this could turn into anything lasting, is there? That’s impossible for her, especially now…

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41188043-not-another-family-wedding

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Another-Family-Wedding-Chin-Williams-Book-ebook

There hasn't been a book by Jackie Lau that I haven't loved. She's one of my favourite authors at writing comedic situations that are also romantic and emotional. In this book, we have a main character that truly might be one of the characters that's closest to my heart now. She's in her 30s and doesn't want children. She lives within a family that's constantly asking her questions about when she's going to have them and that really affects her. I related a lot to her since I'm sure I don't want children and I've had a very similar journey with a lot of my relatives. She has to accept throughout the book that there are some members of her family that are trying to accept her and love her and who are fighting for her and some members that aren't worth caring for. Also, even though there were some tense moments and some sad moments, everything was so funny surrounding the problems with the weddings and I appreciated the sister relationship and that was also very relatable since I also have a younger sister who's my best friend and who's going to get married before me. 

I absolutely adored that Jackie Lau doesn't shy away from talking about important issues that affect the everyday life of her characters. In this book, there was a lot of talk about racism and especially internalised racism because Natalie is biracial with an Asian dad and a white mother. Additionally, it discussed problems and decisions surrounding pregnancies, abortion and postpartum depression. It was talked about in such a caring and tender way. It described how it also affects the people who surrounds the person who's suffering especially the children of the mother who's suffering of the postpartum depression and how they understood her as they got older. I'm so happy it discussed Natalie's abortion in a way that didn't diminished the way she felt but it wasn't this traumatic event that she was going to regret. I appreciated all those talks so so much. 

Connor was a fantastic hero. We didn't know everything about him since the beginning but I rooted for his happiness because he was obviously a good person who cared a lot about Natalie even if he wouldn't admit it. As we knew more about him, I began to love him and ship them as a couple and not only caring for Natalie and her happiness. What I adored the most about them is how different they were and how much they understood each other as well. Especially since she was such a pessimist about the world and he was a ray of sunshine. The gradual realisation that they cared for each other as more than friends was the best thing to read about. What I have to say is I'm aromantic and there were a lot of arophobic things as the phrase "just friends" was constantly used and it was implied that even though she didn't want kids she had to want romance otherwise she would be REALLY weird. I know those things weren't on purpose because there were a lot of discussions on prejudice and what other people think about your life and I know the author wouldn't do that to other people but it would be nice not to see those things in romance anymore. Other than that I have nothing bad to say, I loved every minute!

Make Me Fall by Sara Rider

Enemies make the worst neighbors, but the best lovers

After losing her job, her home, and her friends in her divorce, Nora Pitts is determined not to make the same mistakes when she starts over in the small town of Shadow Creek, Washington. No more slaving away in the lab at the expense of her social life, and definitely no more men. Ever. But making friends in her thirties is so much harder than she anticipated. And when it comes to her gorgeous yet obnoxious neighbor, it’s a whole lot easier to make enemies.

Eli Hardin doesn’t have a lot of sympathy for his uptight neighbor, until he overhears her so-called new friends making fun of her un-datable status. Suddenly he finds himself volunteering for a date with a woman who’s been leaving angry hate-notes in his mailbox, and in way over his head. Because all it takes is one disastrous date with Nora for Eli to fall hard.

But falling for Eli isn’t something Nora’s ready for—not when he’s her complete opposite, and especially not when he turns out to be the best friend she’s made in Shadow Creek. But as her attraction and her feelings for Eli grow hotter, resisting him might just lead to heartbreak anyway.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40800009-make-me-fall

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07FKF7MDV/

A lot of what Sara Rider did with this book was absolutely amazing. It was such an enjoyable and beautiful romance with characters that had a lot of layers that they had to let go in order to be what they wanted to be and to be completely happy. I really enjoyed the first book, but this one topped it. I felt like everything was more complex and interesting and the situations felt like they had more dimensions and I was super happy to see that. I went into this book thinking that it was going to be something and it surprised me being something completely different. When you  begin the book, you think it's going to be rivals to lovers, because they're neighbors who hate each other. But then you realize that the real meat of the story is in their developing friendship, in seeing them accepting and caring about each other and then falling for each other. Normally, with friends to lovers you get friends that when the book starts they already know one another but here you get to see it grow from the beginning and it's wonderful. 

Like it happened with Real Kind of Love, the characters in this book felt like real people. The descriptions of their feelings and their interests made me care about their happiness and that's what you want in a romance. Also, the fact that they were complete opposites was so refreshing because they united in things that could complement them but also disagreed a lot and at the end worked things through and grew as people because of it. Additionally, I loved seeing a divorced heroine in her 30s struggling to make friends in a new town since that's a very real thing that people go through since they usually don't have the setting of a school or university to make long lasting friends. Nora has extreme germophobia and I loved that Eli always respects her feelings and boundaries and never questions what she has to do in order to feel ok. I thought that was very thoughtful of the author. 

I have to say that even though I liked a lot of things, I was still disappointed at the lack of representation. It was an entirely white, straight, cis, allo book without characters with marginalized identities and that never lets me like a book completely. There was a little LGBT+ rep coded and a lot of mental health coded but it was never talked about at all on text and I think this book would have been amazing if those things would have been included and talked about because Nora had a lot of reflections about her germophobia but it never went further than that, even when it got really bad.  But that is a choice that the author made for her character. Even though those things affected my overall enjoyment, I loved the plot and the characters! 

If I Loved You Less by Tamsen Parker

                                                 

Sunny, striking, and satisfied with her life in paradise, Theodosia Sullivan sees no need for marriage. She does, however, relish serving as matchmaker for everyone who crosses her path. As the manager of her family’s surf shop in Hanalei Bay, that includes locals and tourists alike.

One person she won’t be playing Cupid for is the equally happy bachelorette down the street. Baker Kini ʻŌpūnui has been the owner of Queen’s Sweet Shop since her parents passed away and her younger brother married Theo’s older sister and moved to Oahu. Kini’s ready smile, haupia shortbread, and lilikoi malasadas are staples of Hanalei’s main street.

However, Theo’s matchmaking machinations and social scheming soon become less charming—even hazardous—to everyone involved. And when she fails to heed Kini’s warnings about her meddling, she may be more successful than she ever intended. Theo has to face the prospect of Kini ending up with someone else, just as she realizes she’s loved Kini all along.

A modern retelling of Jane Austen's Emma.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38965901-if-i-loved-you-less

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/If-I-Loved-You-Less-ebook/dp/B07H3RGN22

This book was everything I've ever wanted from an Emma retelling. It was adorable, lovely, soothing and infuriating at times but it was also a deep exploration of human emotions and relationships and a look inside a very morally questionable main character who does things she thinks are right but everyone can see they don't always have the best results even if they have good intentions. I didn't want a main character who was perfect and proper and was presented as a good person. Theo is a brilliantly constructed character, she's annoying and irritating and she's never presented as being a role model. She's a work in progress who wants to be better and who's growing as a person throughout the book. I was rooting for her because I knew her potential but I know that she could come off as very annoying. Her relationship with Kini was my favourite thing ever. The chemistry between them wasn't over the moon but the dynamics that they had and their friendship was incredibly believable and that made me have confidence in them as a couple. Their little interactions that weren't supposed to mean anything but meant everything in the long run brought a smile to my face every time and Kini was always there for the teachable moments for Theo and I think that says a lot about her character. Also, she said "badly done" and I was DEAD. 

For reference, I want to say that Emma is one of my favourite books in the entire world and definitely my favourite classic. I think Tamsen Parker did it justice. I don't know how she did it but even though it was a complete different setting and a complete different era, she maintained the same feel and atmosphere that the original book has. And I would say that it was elevated with the f/f relationship and the construction of the secondary characters. Now, let me talk a little bit about them. If you read Emma or If I Loved You Less, you know there are a lot of secondary characters that you need to follow in order to understand the conflict. This happens because it's a small town and you need to get the feel that everyone really knows everything and is up in everyone's business. The characterization of all these people that you were meant to follow was completely wonderful. I felt like I knew all these characters, their personalities, their dreams, their motivations. I could picture them in my head so so clearly and normally I hate having to remember a lot of names and a lot of characters but in this book it came naturally to me. It was like I was so immersed in this book that I was there meeting them and getting to know them in real life. 

This took place in Hanalei, a small town in Hawaii and the cast was of a diverse background. Kini was implied to be Native Hawaiian but I don't think we get on page confirmation on that. I think we should have gotten more from that since the description felt a bit shallow. Of course, I can't talk about the representation and I would love to hear from someone with that heritage. Also, Theo identified as queer and I really liked how her identity was shown as something fluid and how she went on tangents about that because that's something I do as well with my sexuality. I think a lot of my enjoyment with this book was influenced with my enjoyment of the original because there were a lot of things in common. But I have to say that it was well written, it felt like Theo had a growth because she was an awful person at some points but she worked to be better and the descriptions of the settings and feelings were beautiful. Definitely one of my recent favourite books. 

Stripped by Zoey Castile

Skilled, sculpted, and sexy, the men of adult entertainment are the kind of guys a woman reserves for her fantasies, not her reality. But is there more to these professional hotties than meets the eye?…

The day Robyn Flores meets Zac Fallon is one of those days. You know, when you’re already late for work. Mostly because you haven’t really slept since your best friend abandoned you for her fiancé and her exponentially better life. The kind of day you drag yourself to the cleaners to pick up your laundry, only to discover you’ve got the wrong bag—Star Spangled sequined thong, anyone? So Robyn is definitely not ready for the ridiculously gorgeous guy at her front door, except that they have each other’s clothes. But then, is any woman ever ready to meet the love of her life?

There’s just one problem: Zac Fallon is not the love of Robyn’s life. Zac knows, despite the all-too-intimate dinner they share, he doesn’t have a shot at her. Because the next time Zac sees Robyn, he’s front and center of the male revue headlining her best friend’s bachelorette party. So much for wooing the pretty schoolteacher, much less impressing her old-fashioned family, with his upstanding lifestyle. Now he’s only got one way to win his dream girl. It’s gonna be the steamiest, most irresistible seduction she’s ever seen. And this time it will be no act…

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33009919-stripped

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Stripped-Happy-Endings-Zoey-Castile-ebook/dp/B077WYKSFB/

To start, I absolutely adored the premise of this book. A sexy romcom about a male stripper and a schoolteacher? Brilliant! What attracted me the most since the beginning of this book was how it was written. It was so light and easy to read that I hadn't noticed I had read 5 chapters in a small amount of time. It had an amazing comedic timing that laughed with the characters and not at the characters and that felt incredibly natural. It never undermined Zac's job or made it seem like it should be something to be ashamed about and he certainly was never ashamed about it and Robyn completely respected him and what he liked to do. Even though there were struggles between the couple, in general, it felt like a very low angst book. The characters had a lot to figure out before they could be together, but the moments of friendship and domesticity during their flirtation and the situations before they realized something was happening between them was so beautiful to read. I always love to read about two very different people putting those differences aside but not erasing them to be together. They accepted and loved each other the way they were. It was adorable all the way through.

I'm all for my latinx sisters writing wonderful and lovely romance I can get behind, with characters that feel real and situations that could happen in the everyday life but also with those moments that seem almost too incredible to be true. This book was all that and more. It was diverse and gorgeous and I rooted for the characters all the time. That's one of the things that I love the most about romance books, how in a few pages I'm already connected with these characters, wishing them to be happy and have everything they want and overcome the problems that they might have. I really enjoyed how easy it was for me to fall in love with this story. 

The respect that they had for each other and what they loved to do and how much they cared about each other's happiness is what constructed their chemistry for me, which was on fire the entire time. Zac was so nice and kind, he really left the pages and was a full rounded person, with flaws and virtues and a complexity that I wasn't expecting at first. Robyn was a representation of what a lot of us go through at some point in our lives. Where she  had a lot of her life planned and then things don't turn out the way she wanted. And that doesn't mean that the exact solution for her is to have another plan, there's nothing wrong with a not so planned life. Also, she was humorous and witty and so much fun to read. 

If you want an entertaining, adorable and wonderfully written book, you have to pick up Stripped! 

Real Kind of Love by Sara Rider

What happens when a fake relationship turns into a real kind of love?

As an audiobook narrator, Clementine Cox has no trouble mastering the voices of space aliens, elven warriors, or even demon-possessed cats. But the moment she tries her hand at an erotic romance, she’s stumped. With her deadline looming, she books a week at a secluded cabin to restore her inner muse, telling her loving-but-overbearing family it’s a romantic getaway with her not-so-existent new boyfriend to keep them from worrying. She never expects them to invite themselves along to meet the new guy. Now, she has less than twenty-four hours to find a pretend boyfriend in order to save her job and, potentially, her sanity.

Workaholic Jake Donovan isn’t interested in a real relationship. After a broken engagement, all he wants to do is focus on keeping his brewpub, the Holy Grale, afloat. But when he finds out his favorite customer is in need of a fake boyfriend, and his business partners insist he take a much overdue vacation, he has no choice but to help Clem out. All he has to do is enjoy the sunshine, play nice with her family, and keep his hands to himself for the week.

But Jake’s not prepared to like waking up next to Clem every morning as much as he does. Or to feel so welcome by her quirky family. And as the line between real and fake starts to blur, he realizes one week

might never be enough.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39509019-real-kind-of-love
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Real-Kind-Love-Books-Brews-ebook/dp/B07BPFM113/

I can't explain how adorable this book was. It was everything I could ever ask for a weekend read: cute, lighthearted but it was also a book that didn't shy away from putting the characters through complications, especially relating to family dynamics and expectations. I adored the fact that the heroine, Clem, was an audiobook narrator, in particular she was reading a romance book with rough sex and the hero is "helping her" with her involvement with the book. It was all kind of cliche but in an amazing way, don't get me wrong. It had a humour that made me really happy and had me laughing out loud. At the same time, I was rooting for their relationship even though it was obvious that both of them had a lot of things that they had to get through. 

The family aspects were really relatable and I had so many reason to like the main characters and feel for them in relation to the situation that they were in. I thought this story would be very straightforward but it actually surprised me a lot of times. And of course, I adored the fake relationship, which is one of my favourite tropes ever and the one that made me want to read this book in the first place. It was written beautifully and made me want to keep reading. I connected with Clem's struggles especially and with her character and personality. And even though I know her family was too much, I adored reading about them. They gave me a lot of funny moments. 

As you can tell, I really enjoyed this book. I have a few complaints though. First, I would have liked more diversity because it felt super white and straight at some points. Also, I really disliked the fact that we were constantly being told that Clem wasn't that pretty, that she was "pleasantly average"  but she was a skinny, white girl with very stereotypically pretty features and everyone thought she was pretty. Apart from that, there's a passage where the guy said that "if he ever got a taste of her, there'd be no way he'd stop until he'd stripped down all her defenses". I know it's probably not intended as a literal thing, he was thinking that he was bad and he always hurt people and there was never a moment where he made unwanted advances but I just don't like that it said that there'd be no way he'd stop, it's part of the language that we have to change. 

This book was gorgeous, though. If you're looking for something cute and fun, this is the one for you!