Life By the Lapels

A woman who knows what she wants, a tomboy who hunts, shoots, and fishes in love with a man she can't have... her now cold, shuttered, stern childhood friend. A "practice" kiss. Put it in my veins, y'all! Tessa does it again! Can I say that about this book, her debut? Whatever. What I know is that I can always, always, always turn to Tessa. She's the first historical romance author I read and she does such a wonderful job of interweaving wit, humor, romance, lovable characters, and steamy love scenes. Lucy is trying to reel in her longtime crush by practicing the art of seduction on her childhood friend Jeremy. She's sporty, at times clumsy, and has always been seen as more of "one of the guys." Now she is trying to sharpen her feminine wiles, and try out a few lessons she's gleaned from a naughty book. Jeremy is having none of it. He's serious, he's stern, and half in love with Lucy. I found their love story to be so realistic and fun, a...

Do you know what got me through Election 2020? You gotta know it's Tessa Dare! I downloaded "One Dance with the Duke" and read it every night before bed to ease my addled nerves.  First of all, I love Tessa Dare. Whenever I need a palate cleanser, or something I know I will love, I turn to Tessa. Her plots and characters are always great, and the dialogue is funny. There's love, there's romance, there's passion! She does a great job handling the POV, sometimes using a page break or new chapter to shift from one character to the other... and sometimes they just sway back and forth. Her work is always light-hearted and yet really gets me in the Feels. This book is the first in the Stud Club series, and yes, I absolutely plan on reading more. I adore Tessa's heroes. I mean, really. Tough on the outside, but sweet and good on the inside. And Spencer is no exception. He's the "Duke of Midnight," so mysterious, so dark. And yet he cannot help himse...

I just finished “What I Did for a Duke,” and WHEW. First, this is a beautiful book. The dialogue, the detail, the POV… Julie Ann Long really mastered it. I cannot wait to read more of her work.  The Heroine: I really felt for Genevieve, the sweet, innocent, good sister that quietly harbors wit, intelligence, and passion.  She's so good and people think she's predictable. But she's not. She's in love with her best friend until Lord Moncrieffe arrives and turns her world on its head.  The Hero: God, what IS is about sarcastic bad boys with a painful past that I just cannot get enough of? PUT IT IN MY VEINS. Lord Moncrieffe is broody, good a gambling, and rumors fly that he killed his wife. He's clever and, in time, sees something in Genevieve that she didn't even see in herself. And, in turn, she recognizes qualities in him that people have long-ago decided he could not possess. I found all the characters endearing, and the plot of this book was just so smart. Tha...

Y'all. Please. Have a seat. We need to talk about Scarlett Peckham's masterpiece, The Rakess. This book might be my favorite book of 2020. It wrecked me, in the best way possible. It was not particularly uplifting read, but I found the storyline so heart-wrenching and real. I loved it. We meet Sera, a feminist writer, no stranger to romantic trysts, who is working on a new piece to expose the high-society men who ruined her along the way. While working on her new book in her childhood home, she encounters Adam, a widowed father and architect. The two start an amorous affair on a deadline, but they find themselves more and more attached to one another. This book has a lot in it. A lot of the past, pain, and misunderstanding. But it also says a lot about the nature of true love and what HEA looks like for the hurt, brokenhearted, and world-weary. It looks at true love between equals. This book made me think and feel differently than other romances that I've read recently! I h...

 The theme for this year is to escape, run away in our mind, flee the COVID quarantine life... and Alyssa Cole delivers the most delicious chance to do that in "A Princess in Theory." Pack your bags for the African nation of Thesolo, a hot prince, and a reluctant princess... The first of Alyssa Cole's Reluctant Royals series, this book was just so, so good! I really enjoyed the theme of royals being presented in this new, updated, and totally modern way. Sure, British royals are good but this was a real palate cleanser. I enjoyed the settings in both NYC and the fictional African nation of Thesolo. Can Thesolo be real? I would love to visit! The set-up is just so witty... the spam-like email the heroine keeps receiving, trying to tell her she is indeed a real life princess to an African throne (I guess we've all kinda sorta been there... except they wanted money and didn't turn out to be LEGIT). Let's talk about this heroine! Naledi is a smart, overworked and ...