This review includes references to sexual assault and human trafficking. It is #NSFW

Medium Used: 100% ebook

Ratings out of 5

Overall Rating:
💜💜💜 (3/5)

Sweetness Level:
🍫🍫 (2/5)

Steam Quality Level:
🔥🔥🔥🔥 (4/5)

Steam Quantity Level:
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ (5/5)

FMC Likability:
😈😈😈 (3/5)

MMC Likability:
👨‍💼👨‍💼👨‍💼 (3/5)

Plot Engagement:
⛓️🔒 (2/5)

At least 1 bad dad (pass/fail):
💯 (pass)

Spoiler Free Review

Make Me, Sir is a spice heavy suspense romance. The female protagonist, Gabi, is an FBI social worker who volunteers to support an investigation by being a decoy (bait) for a human trafficker targeting bratty submissive at BDSM clubs in Tampa Bay, FL. Undercover, Gabi becomes the latest sub “trainee” at Tampa's premier lifestyle club, The Shadowlands. Unfortunately for Gabi, Trainees at the Shadowlands are instructed by Master Marcus, whose no bullshit tutelage makes being the worst behaved sub in the Shadowlands a bit of a challenge.

I liked this book, but I felt that it suffers from a problem a lot of books in this sub genre¹, the first half+ of the book is practically PWP² despite this the suspense/plot is enjoyable but more or less abandons the spice while the plot runs it course. It would have been a smoother read for me if it had been a bit more of a balance of a plot and spice throughout.

Overall it's a fairly decent read and one I'd recommend for people who particularly like high spice BDSM books with this dynamic. If you need a balance of plot and kink throughout or prefer love stories that aren't almost 100% set inside of a kink club there's probably better books to pick up.

^{1 what I'll call “dim” contemporary romance set in BDSM night clubs i.e. not quite “dark” contemporary romance
Plot? What Plot? https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/PWP}

What I liked about this book
* Spice had a solid variety of scenes. * This was part of a series but it actually did some scenes from the perspective of the MCs of an earlier book. This was done well, I didn't feel like i was missing much not having read the previous books but I also felt like the side character relationships were more meaningful with these other perspective scenes.
* Gabi is a Social Worker at the FBI not an agent/officer. It was cool how Sinclair made her skills as a social worker her strength in the investigation and the general “undercover” premise but with somebody who wasn't in law enforcement I found intriguing.

What I did not like about this book
* Early on Gabi's inner monologue keeps comparing Marcus to her dad. No Thanks!
* Dragged in the middle a bit.

Spoilers Review

This Book Reminded Me of:

• Natural Law by Joey W. Hill as it has a similar premise and setting.
• Servicing The Target by Cherise Sinclair which is also from this series.
  ^{Both of these have a dominant FMC and submissive MMC}
  

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Discuss...

Medium Used: 100% ebook via Hoopla

Ratings out of 5

Overall Rating:
💜💜💜💜 (4/5)

Sweetness Level:
🍪🍪🍪 (3/5)

Steam quality Level:
🥵🥵🥵🥵🥵 (5/5)

Steam quantity Level:
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️ (5/5)

FMC Likability:
🖤🖤🖤🖤 (4/5)

MMC Likability:
👓👓👓👓 (4/5)

Plot Engagement:
📚📚📚 (3/5)

At least 1 bad dad:
💯 (yes)
#NSFW

Content warnings for this book

Spoiler Free Review

Unexpectedly Bookish is a contemporary romantic comedy that tells the falling in love story between Pearl¹, a self-described “fuck-up”, and Reed, a successful architect who is leaving his career to open a bookshop. Reed finds the perfect building for his bookshop in the fictional small town of Fairwick Falls, Pennsylvania where his best friend Luca loves with his 6 year old daughter, Annabelle (AB), and sister, Pearl. The story is dual POV and set in the fictional small town of Fairwick Falls, Pennsylvania. It is the fourth book in Elise Kennedy's Fairwick Falls series but can be read as a stand alone (I have not read books 1-3).

I found the way the story paces the relationship development between the main characters to be novel². As Pearl and Reed's “IRL” romance blossoms gradually, IMPOSSIBLYBOOKISH (Pearl) and HEMINGWAY_CANSUCKIT (Reed) are engaged in an anonymous digital romance that began a few months before the start of the story. The first half of the book has “fast-burn” spice and affection via Bookish and Hemingways anonymous messaging. I found the spice in Unexpectedly Bookish to be better than most romantic comedies and the quality of the characters and plot were merely at par so the early spice was a positive despite my preference for slow burns.

The book is on the longer end for the romcom genre (406 page kindle edition). I'll note much of that additional length is due to the quantity and length of the spicy scenes. Another reason though may be that the plot was trying to do a bit too much. Everything it does I welcome, if not actively seek, in my romcoms but it felt like too much was put into the “romance trope salad” instead of the “plot main course”.

^{1 The relationship in this book is hetero and monogamous but Pearl is bisexual
2 dad joke intended}

What I liked about this book

• Both Pearl and Reed are shown having positive relationships with AB.
  
• Pearl is a plus sized grumpy bad bitch goth. Reed is a glasses and sweater vest wearing neurodivergent-divergent friendly to all nerd.
  
• The main characters both have relationships with side characters that matter to their character arcs and the overall plot.
  
• MCs are in their late 20s, acting like it, and facing struggles related to being in their late 20s.
  
• A townie in a townie bar says 'Yinz' 🖤💛.
  
  

What I did not like about this book

• Aspects of the writing were a bit jarring to me, for example multiple times Pearl's thinks something like “I have such a praise kink”.
• Reed has the body of a typical MMC. It is not dwelled on but in a book that otherwise really tries to break the mold of the typical romcom MCs making Rees a normal height felt like a missed opportunity.
  
  

Spoilers Review

This Book Reminded Me of

• The C*ck Down the Block by Amy Award in the way it is a light cozy read.
• The FMC and MMC dynamic in Maneater by Emily Antoinette.
  

Who should read this book?

1. People seeking cozy romcoms with plenty of spice.
2. People who enjoy the grumpy goth FMC with a soft heart paired with a the nerdy cinnamon roll MMC.
   

Elise Kennedy's Website

Discuss...

^{#BookReviews #UnexpectedlyBookish #EliseKennedy #Books #Romance}

Content Warnings for this Review (Items in Spoiler Text only appear in the Spoiler Section.)
– The Spoiler Section of this review contains references to the sexually explicit material in Knot My Type and may be considered #NSFW by some.
– References to Low Self Esteem / Low Self Worth
– References to Consensual Bondage
– References to Foster Care
– References to Alcoholism
– References to Cheating
– References to Toxic Exes / Gas Lighting

Medium Used: 100% ebook via Libby

Ratings out of 5

Overall Rating: 💜💜💜💜

Sweetness Level: 🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫

Steam Heat Level: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

FMC Likability: 🎙️🎙️🎙️🎙️

MMC Likability: 🦖🦖🦖🦖

Plot Engagement: 🪢🪚

At least 1 bad dad (pass/fail): 0️⃣

Spoiler Free Review

Knot My Type is a Contemporary Romantic Comedy set in small-town Australia. Our FMC³ is Frankie, a practicing sexologist and the host of the popular All Access Podcast where she discusses (among other accessibility topics) accessible sex. When the All Access Podcast is nominated in multiple categories for the prestigious “Poddie Awards”, Frankie and her producer decide to tackle one of their most interesting listener questions: accessible shibari.

There is a small problem with their brilliant plan to boost ratings ahead of the final award decision: despite Frankie's wealth of professional and personal experience with accessible sex (Frankie uses a wheelchair), bondage and shibari are a blind spot for her. Luckily for Frankie, our MMC³ Jay just so happens to live in the same small-town as her and teach a class on accessible shibari. Frankie gets in touch with Jay, who invites her to his upcoming class. When this professional arrangement leads to mutual attraction, they hit a bit of a snag: Frankie doesn't do friends-with-benefits. Jay doesn't do relationships. Uh-oh, they may knot be each other's types...

This book grew on me as I read it. My impression was closer to a 3/5 overall for the first third. It is by no means a slow burn⁴ and the plot moves from one minor conflict to the next throughout two-thirds of the book. My taste is generally for a bit more suspense in the rising action. The humor is decent, but I have read funnier. What sealed the extra 💜 is how sweet Frankie and Jay's relationship is portrayed. I am a sucker for over-the-top displays of affection, and there were a couple here that really did it for me.

Many romcoms create the aforementioned suspense through failure of communication between the MCs⁵, in Knot My Type most disagreements or misunderstandings between Frankie and Jay are addressed immediately, and often in a very sweet manner. It was a welcome trade-off, because I find contrived suspense to be even worse than low suspense. I also enjoyed that there was early spice and late spice, but the middle of the book really focused on the relationship and falling in love.⁶

What I liked about this book

• Frankie and Jay's friends get enough “screen time” that we get a sense of who they are and it furthers the characterization of Frankie and Jay. Impressive enough given the length of the book, but it goes one step further in that we see these characters enough to have them interact with the “other” protagonist too. I love a romcom with good side characters.
• Lots of Positive Masculinity.
• Some solid yearning from our MCs.
• As far as I could tell not a single character's skin color is described. FMC has pink (therefore died) hair. MMC may have been described as a brunette but overall it seemed like the book was written to allow for the reader to imagine there own diversity amongst the characters. I do not know that I have ever read a book that did this before. I am sure there is a way to attempt this poorly but I felt like it was done well here.
  
  

What I did not like about this book

• I like slice of life but this was almost too much of a slice of life story. It could be that I read it after a fairly intense dark fantasy story but it just seemed plot light.
  
• The first couple pages with the setting exposition felt a little...unnatural? Maybe it is cultural difference U.S.A small-town vs Australia small-town. It could also just be the circles of people I know but the premise is that a bunch of people grew up in a small-town, left for college, and then all came back. Having grown up in a small-town in America nearly nobody who goes to a decent college and actually finishes comes back. It was then made more strange to me because all of Frankie's friends had like some entrepreneurial business, something I also do not associate with people who still live in the small-town I grew up in. This is a bit nit-picky but I also think the exposition of it felt very telling and not showing which is ironic because overall this book did a FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC job of showing and not telling. I guess stories and settings can be hard to start. 🤷
  

Spoilers Review

What I liked Spoilers

What I didn't like Spoilers

This Book Reminded Me of

• The positive masculinity in How She Likes It by Carla de Guzman
• The MC chemistry in The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon
• The Steam intensity of Headliners by Lucy Parker
  
  

Who should read this book?

People looking for a gentle and spicy feel good romcom.⁷

Get the book

Vote on a future review

¹ Evie Mitchell's preface discusses the use of this colloquialism in the west despite the appropriate Japanese being 'Kinbaku', you learn something everyday. (read more). ² One of the MCs in this book has a disability. (One of the reasons I read it is because July is disability pride month and it was selected by the folks over at the subreddit r/Romancebooks for the July book club). I appreciated this representation and would be glad to read more books featuring protagonists with similar disabilities. To me the representation seemed well done and thoughtful. I will not be commenting or reviewing on the quality of the representation outside of this footnote because the disability represented in this book is not something I have experience or knowledge of. ³ FMC = Female Main Character, MMC = Male Main Character. ⁴ A 'slow burn' is a Romance story where it takes a while for the couple to get together and is a slight preference of mine (at least as it relates to physical intimacy beyond 1^st base) all else being equal. ⁵ Lack of communication is not the type of suspense I am looking for to be clear. ⁶ The timing of this cute story was perfect for me. I needed a refreshing and relaxing read after finishing the brilliant but gruesome third book in Stephen King's Dark Tower series The Drawing of the Three. ⁷ And anyone who wants to participate in the subreddit r/RomanceBooks July book club.

Discuss...

^{#BookReviews #KnotMyType #EvieMitchell #Books}

The Spoiler Section of this Review includes references to the sexually explicit material in the book.

Medium Used: 100% ebook via Kindle iOS app

Ratings out of 5

Overall Rating: 💜💜💜

Sweetness Level: 🍫🍫🍫

Steam Heat Level: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

FMC Likability: 😈😈😈😈

MMC Likability: 🧑🏼‍🦰🧑🏼‍🦰🧑🏼‍🦰🧑🏼‍🦰

Plot Engagement: 💋

At least 1 bad dad (pass/fail): 0️⃣

#NSFW

Spoiler Free Review

Maneater is a cozy monster M/F¹ romance novella set in the 1980s. It is a prequel to Emily Antoinette's Monsters in Moonvale series. Our story swaps perspectives between the FMC, Elle, and MMC, Shane². Shane is a shy, D&D playing, witch that recently moved to the city to start a paranormal PI business off the ground. Elle is a softhearted Succubus who loves her job as a dancer at the gentleman's club Heaven's Door.

Shane and Elle's meet cute³ is eccentric, yet, adorable. Shane is invited to attend a meeting for a coven in his new city. Said coven ends up being a bunch of creeps who cast a spell to summon and trap a succubus (Elle). Shane helps Elle escape a witch coven summoning and binding he mistakenly partakes in and then gives her a ride back to work. Elle is immediately smitten with her bashful savior. Shane is equally taken by the friendly plus size beauty. Elle asks him to come see her at work the next day and their love blossoms from there.

My biggest complaint with this story is there was not enough of it. The main characters and their friends were lovable, the romance was sweet, and the (frequent) spice scenes never got stale and escalated at a pace to create a “slow-burn-like” tension. The world building was interesting but left me wanting more (which I guess is what you should expect in a Novella length prequel). If, like me, you are hoping for a mystery b-plot at minimum because one of the MCs is a PI, tamper your expectations. I would happily read an expanded version of Shane and Elle's story in the future.

What I liked about this book

• Shane and Elle are close in height.
  
• A wonderful use of dual perspective across the whole story including mutual yearning.
• Neither MC fills the broken or 'needs to be fixed' archetype. Just two caring people falling in love.
  
  

What I did not like about this book

• The book left a lot of the world feeling unexplored. We meet a moth man, a fae, a werewolf, demons, and witches. It is implied that this is a rich supernatural world, but I could not tell you what the difference between fairy magic, witch magic, and succubus magic is.
• I prefer my spice with a bit more plot.
• Elle's got an Ex that comes up frequently, but no plot purpose outside of developing Elle's past. The amount it is dwelled on took away from the overall cuteness of the story for me.
  
  

Spoilers Review

Other Tropes in Maneater – Virgen MMC
– Confident late 30s Woman with Shy mid 20s Man
– Soft Femdom

This Book Reminded Me of

• The Spice in The Contract by Elizabeth by Elizabeth Kelly
  

Who should read this book?

• Any one seeking a fun and cute read that is quick and packed with steam will walk away satisfied. If you need action (outside of the bedroom) or more plot than “two lovable people meet and fall in love” then you can skip this one.
  
  
  

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Lovely Cover Art as a Bonus

¹ “Male/Female” – a Romance story about a heterosexual relationship (in this case both characters are bi/pan but the relationship is heterosexual).

² MMC = “Male Main Character”, FMC = “Female Main Character” these are common abbreviations for the primary characters in a monogamous heterosexual relationship romance story in romance internet circles.

³ Meet Cute is when the MCs (ie. Main Characters) meet in a Romance story.

Discuss...

It is Labor Day weekend 2021, a man, let's call him Romance-Book-Dad or 'Dad' for short, reads The Hating Game by Sally Thorne. It is the best Romantic Comedy he has ever read. It convinces him of something he had been thinking for about a year and a half...Romance is his favorite literary genre. His decision to read it was due to it being recommended in a request post on r/RomanceBooks. He quickly dives into another recommendation from that post Headliners by Lucy Parker. He loves it as well – he finishes it in 1 day. Next he reads another recommendation from that post Dating You / Hating You by Christina Lauren he likes it but not as much as The Hating Game or Headliners he drops a few other CRs¹ from that post into his TBR² list. The date is September 11, 2021.

A few days later Ali Hazelwood's debut Novel, The Love Hypothesis, releases to instant praise. How much praise? Enough that Dad adds it to his TBR on September 16, 2021, two days after its release. Dad takes a break from Romcoms after finishing The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon to read some Romantic Fantasy and Sci-Fi. In early October, Dad's Libby hold for Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews, another top recommendation from that post, arrives. From October 2021 to November 2022, Dad would read 23 books, 12 by Ilona Andrews, 4 other sci-fi/ Fantasy Romances, The sequel to The Boyfriend Project, 2 other Romances, and 4 other books. For many reasons 2023 & 2024 would be two of the most challenging years of Dad's life, resulting in Dad only having time to read 6 books over 2 years. Consequently, The Love Hypothesis sat quietly near the top of his TBR for the better part of three years.

June 1, 2025, The Love Hypothesis makes it to the top of Dad's TBR. June 3, 2025, Dad finishes The Love Hypothesis. It is the best Romantic Comedy he has ever read.

Medium Used: Paperback

Ratings out of 5

Overall Rating: 💜💜💜💜🫶

Sweetness Level: 🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫

Steam Heat Level:🔥🔥🔥🔥

FMC Likability: 🧫🧫🧫🧫🧫

MMC Likability: 🥼🥼🥼🥼

Plot Engagement: 🔬🧪☕️

At least 1 bad dad (pass/fail): 💯³ #NSFW – references to consensual sex scenes.

Spoiler Free Review

The Love Hypothesis is a FMC/MMC⁴ Contemporary Romantic Comedy set at Stanford University in Northern California. Our story revolves around Olive Smith, a doctoral candidate in Stanford's Biology department and her fake dating arrangement with Dr. Adam Carlsen, renowned computational biologist who has a habit of being a complete jagoff needlessly antagonistic and unapproachable. This fake dating relationship is mutually beneficial as Olive wants her best friend, Anh, to feel she can date Jeremy (Olive's X) guilt-free and Adam wants Stanford to release research funding they are holding because they think he is a flight risk.

I had a massive crush on Olive through this entire book. She is smart, thoughtful, caring, driven, and hilarious. Why does such an amazing gal choose a Dickhead needlessly antagonistic and unapproachable professor as a fake boyfriend? Her friends and colleagues have a similar question. She knows the answer cannot be “I accidentally (but also on purpose) kissed him one night to cover up a lie I told my Anh so she would know I am fully over Jeremy”. So she mostly is stuck stacking up the lies but it will be okay because our #1 girl Olive can get through a little more than a month or so of fake dating this Dr. Makes-His-Grads-Cry-And-Quit. It's just 10 minutes of free coffee sugar sludge and pastries every Wednesday. It makes her friend, who she loves, happy and he's not so bad...what could go wrong?

I had been excited to read this book since its release, which for me means avoiding spoilers like the plague. I knew it was set at a university, I knew the MCs were scientists, and I knew early drafts were a Reylo fic⁵, which is why the MCs are described as looking similar to Adam Driver and Daisy Ridley. I did not know anything about what romance tropes it did or did not have or even what the central conflict of the plot. Coincidentally, most of the romance tropes in the book are not ones I have actively sought out. Books with fake dating and/or forced proximity have never sparked my taste. I prefer workplace romances where the MCs are professional equals. While I am not against MCs being oblivious to how much the other MC loves them, I think many times it is at odds with how the character is portrayed otherwise. The Love Hypothesis has every one of these tropes, and Ali Hazelwood's execution of each is pristine.

Romcom stories end with a Happily Ever After (HEA). My opinion is that since the destination is preordained quality of a romcom is judged on its journey. I think the two most important qualities of that journey are: 1. Each MC earns the HEA – I fall in love with them as individuals. 2. The MC's relationship earns the HEA – I fall in love with them as a couple. Every moment of Adam and Olive's journey is full of joy and love. This journey is beautiful.

I loved every page of The Love Hypothesis, but I also kept half a heart⁶ from it. One thing drove me crazy the entire time I was reading it. It is begging to be dual perspective. I was yearning to be inside Adam's head^{maybe as much as he was yearning to be inside Olive} and to see Olive through his eyes. In all fairness, I am a straight man⁷ and my default preference is dual perspective; however, Ali Hazelwood's writing is so outstanding that it made me want it that much more.⁸

What I loved about this book

• Olive. (Highly educated, brilliant, nerdy, incredibly competent, and professionally passionate brunettes who sass their friends and lovers are kind of my thing 🤷🏽‍♂️).
• The burn is slow, the playful banter is plentiful, the yearning is intense, and the payoff is 🧑‍🍳🤌💋.
• The side characters are given enough time and personality for us to actually care about them.
  
  

What I did not like about this book^{Other than the lack of Adam's perspective}

• There are a lot of opinions about food in this book, how are more than 50% of them incorrect?
• Adam is tall. We get it 95% of MMCs in Romance books are over 6' despite <15% of men being over 6' tall...you do realize that Oh! Oh!
  
  

Spoilers Review

What I liked Spoilers

What I didn't like Spoilers

This Book Reminded Me of

• The quality of humor in Headliners by Lucy Parker
• The slow burn and subsequent payoff of The Hating Game by Sally Thorne
• The MC chemistry of Mindfck* by S. T. Abby
  

Who should read this book?

Everyone who has not read it that is reading this review and is 18 years of age and older.

Get the book

footnotes:

• ¹ CR = Contemporary Romance
  
• ² TBR = To Be Read
  
• ³ I went back and forth on this. The trope I am generally playing at is that fathers of MCs are often antagonists in Romance. The Dad's are 'offscreen' but Olive's dad abandon her and her mom so I decided it counts even though he is not really the antagonist except in being a component of Olive's feeling of being alone.
  
• ⁴ A fan fiction story about the characters Rey and Kylo Ren from Star Wars Ep 7-9.)
  
• ⁵ Believable in the context of fiction/Romcoms not like believable in that I think this exact story could happen IRL.
  
• ⁶ 🫶
• ⁷ technically I identify as pansexual but I fell in love with a cis-woman before I understood this about myself and we are monogamous so my experience in life is that of a cis-straight man.
• ⁸ The Bonus Chapter is appreciated and probably solidified the 4.5 instead of a flat 4 but it also confirmed that I was right this book is begging to be dual perspective.

Discuss...

Content Warnings for this review & book. Items in hidden-text like this only appear in the spoilers section or in the book itself.

• Supervisor/Employee Relationship
• Long Corporate Hours and Expectations
• Weight loss due to depression
  
  

Medium Used: ebook via

Ratings out of 5

Overall Rating: 💜💜💜💜 Sweetness Level: 🍫🍫🍫🍫 Steam Heat Level: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 FMC Likability: 👩🏼‍💻👩🏼‍💻👩🏼‍💻👩🏼‍💻 MMC Likability: 👔👔👔👔 Plot Engagement: 🗒️🗒️🗒️🗒️ At least 1 bad dad (pass/fail): 0️⃣

Spoiler Free Review

The Contract is a F/M workplace romcom that includes mild bdsm (femdom) elements. Our protagonist and FMC is Mae Temple (Ms. Temple) a very competent (and secretly confident) Professional Assistant (PA) at a top law firm in an ambiguous North American City. Our MMC is Liam Knight (Mr. Knight), founder and owner of Knight and Associates, gorgeous bachelor, renowned lawyer, and a well documented dickhead of a boss. Since nobody can stand being Mr. Knight's PA the firm “rotates” PAs every couple of months so the burden of supporting his workaholic tendency and ridiculous expectations is shared. In her two years as a PA at Knight and Associates Mae has successfully avoided assignment to Mr. Knight, until now. The story is told in first person from Mae's perspective.

We quickly learn that Mae has been putting on a bit of an act at the office to appear as though she is easily upset and prone to emotional breakdowns (despite producing high quality work). She has been doing this in an attempt to dodge a rotation to support Mr. Knight. Mae dreads working for Liam Knight not only due to his notorious cruelty but also the fact that she low-key has a crush on him. Mae is comfortable and confident in her 5'4” tall +size body with boring[sic]¹ dark hair and dark eyes, however; she is well aware of Liam's typical dates who are tall, thin, blonde, and blue-eyed and isn't exactly psyched about having to be around him 5 days a week knowing [thinking] she does not stand a chance with him.

Here is the the thing...Mae is not taking Liam's shit. In our opening scene when Liam questions his HR manager, Ida, for assigning Mae to him, Mae retorts, “I think you'll find I'm more capable of handling your insane workload demands”. As their working relationship begins and tells her that he doesn't appreciate sarcasm she let's him know that their “going to have a difficult working relationship”. Liam quickly learns he deserved her sass as she is the most capable PA he has ever had.

Is this the best romcom I have read? No. Is this the best office romance I have read? No. Is this the best spice I have read? No, The Contract is a beautiful unicorn that is a quality romcom, a quality boss/employee trope, a +size FMC who is the most beautiful person MMC has ever seen (and not in some weird kinky way), and gosh darn its about love and lust between a woman who likes to take charge and a man who likes to please with a setting that is not a kink club and a theme that is not the lifestyle. So for me this book gets ⭐⭐⭐⭐ in every category because it may not do anything perfectly but it does everything well and its not afraid to go against the grain (especially considering this book is from 2014).

What I liked about this book – The plot follows what I would call the classical romance story beats but we get some gasp relationship development and characterization of the side characters and we didn't need 450 pages to do it. – Mae and Liam are both believable characters and neither one feels like an archetype or hyperbole. (Also, in my experience and observations, millionaires can be down to earth and sometimes fall in love with a regular person, billionaires on the other hand are the 3,000 richest people in the world and are not and most likely do not. – It is a Romcom where parental drama or relationships are not the character defining trait of either MC nor the major third act conflict.

What I did not like about this book – There was an amazing opportunity for a legal-drama-esque B-Plot about some big case or client that the MMCs perfectly complement each other on and we just do not even go there despite a major identity of each of them is really smart and good at what they do. – I understand its fiction so I get over it to enjoy the story, however; it is highly inappropriate² to be romantically or sexually involved with your employee as a regular manager let alone a business owner and an underpaid assistant (for some reason I find the forbidden tropes harder to look past in contemporary stories compared to fantasy or science fiction). – On a similar note, Liam's character is more like 👔👔👔 because why would a caring down to earth (albeit workaholic) law firm founder, (who is implied to be giving a bunch of money back to the community/charity) not pay his staff above market? It's a small company (we are told 15 lawyers) and you have more money than you want or need. Give your employees a raise you knob!

Spoilers Review

#NSFW

What I liked Spoilers – The first steamy scene in a VIP club section during which Mae is teasing covertly teasing Liam while the club owner is trying to schmooze him.🥵 – I have always been a sucker for the one MC gets hurt/sick and the other MC takes care of them trope. We get it twice, once when Mae hurts her ankle and again when she passes out after said VIP section. – Great representation of interacting with children (nephew), I hope to come across more romance books where MCs are seen being good/playful uncles, aunts, guardians, parents, etc. in romance. – I like the way Mae's slump after things go to shit, as things tend to at the 70-85% mark in romantic comedies, she loses weight, a not uncommon symptom of depression & the good people in her life tell her she looks unwell. Only her shithead X compliments her weight loss. The cherry on top was the weight coming back once things got better.

What I did not like Spoilers – Allie is supposed to be Mae's closest friend, albeit kind of a lousy one, and then just kind of stops being around. It doesn't really make sense with Mae's character, like she would not put up with a lousy friend. Where is she when things go to shit? – Major Spoiler for the ending Liam is supposed to be this super top notch lawyer but it takes him 3 months to figure out what had happened?

Who should read this book?

Any fans of workplace romantic comedies will enjoy this one but it may be extra special to folks that seeking out +size FMCs, lighthearted reads with a dominant FMCs, or a wealthy MMC that is merely a millionaire.

¹ Kind people of the world, I have never met anyone with boring dark hair or anyone with boring dark eyes. Please love yourself and remember that you are somebody's everything, even if you have not met somebody yet.
³ I appreciate that many people enjoy more dramatic conflicts in romance. People have different taste and I would never claim that mine is any good but I like how The Contract handles it compared to even some books on my Top List, maybe its because I watched too many teen action dramas growing up but the whole “we misunderstand each other because I am keeping a secret for no good reason and/or I am not going to talk to you about it because I am mad / you wronged me” generally taste stale for me.

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I originally wrote this review in January prior to creating this blog.

Content Warnings for this Review

(Items with hidden text like this only appear in the spoilers sections.)

• References to Serial Killers
• References to Violence
• References to Sexually Explicit Material
• References to Rape
• References to Physical Abuse of Children
• References to Rape and Sexual Abuse of Children
• References to Domestic Abuse
• References to >!Violent Torture
• (Major Spoiler) References to Angry consensual sex with the intent of ending a relationship afterward
• (Content Warning for the Series is below the Spoiler Section).

Medium Used: eBook via Kindle for iPadOS

Ratings Out of 5

Overall Rating: 💜💜💜💜💜

Sweetness Level: 🍫🍫🍫🍫🍫

Steam Heat Level: 🔥🔥🔥🕯️

FMC Likability: 🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️

MMC Likability: 🛡️🛡️🛡️🛡️

Plot Engagement: 🔪🚔😟🔫💋

#NSFW

Spoiler Free Review

The Mindfck Series by S.T. Abby} is the a 5-part series of suspense/mystery romance books. The books are Novella in length, goodreads has the whole series listed at 638 pages. The plot moves fast, very fast. The books are also violent, very violent. The first half of the series spends more time on the start of the relationship between FMC and MMC. The back half of the series has a little more focus on the mystery, action, and suspense of the overarching plot as well as time spent on exploring FMC and MMC's relationships with the supporting characters but (Dark) Romance is certainly the primary genre of all 5 books. As I mentioned in my review of Book 1, I have not historically been drawn to Dark Romance preferring RomComs and Fantasy Romance. Mindfck is causing me to completely reevaluate my tastes across all of fiction.

Books 2-5 continue to progress the plot as described in my Book 1 review. As this is a spoiler free section I am just going to quote my Book 1 spoiler free plot summary.

The story is told from both the FMC's (Lana's) and MMC's (Logan's) perspectives. Lana's past is, more or less, the central mystery of book 1, and there are still unanswered questions to explore in book 2. Logan is a serial killer profiler for the FBI. Lana, on the other hand, is... well, a serial killer driven by revenge for something that wronged her in the past.

I could have gone for a slightly slower burn especially given that this series has more books to go I no longer agree with this parenthetical having read books 2-5 they hit so good based on the foundation / pace of the relationship in Book 1, but I thought the intimate scenes from both the MMC and FMC perspectives were well above average for what I typically read. What I wasn't expecting from such a violent book was how sweet and genuine the emotions and care between the characters would be.

What I liked about this series:

• I was so engaged reading these books that I had to force myself to go to bed every night this week because all I wanted to do was keep reading.
• Lana is, without a doubt, my favorite “dark” protagonist in all of fiction (across all media) that I have ever consumed.
• Each individual book felt like it had a satisfying arch on its own.
• The pace at which the mysteries unfold across these stories was perfect for my taste. I guessed some facts right early on, some facts wrong, and just the right number of twists left me shocked.
• There was supporting character interactions and development that actually mattered. One of my main complaints with most Romcoms I read is how the supporting cast is often 1-dimensional and overall irrelevant. I think the relationship between the MCs in romance can hit so much more when you also understand their relationships with those around them.

What I did not like about this series:

• The Graphic depictions of violent acts in this book are more detailed than I like, however; in aggregate I think they are used correctly and are necessary for the emotional impacts of the story as it plays out. I will have some disturbing things burned in my imagination forever now but it's a burden I am happy to carry for how great these books are.
• People in love lying to each other makes me sad. 😢

Review with Spoilers:

What I liked about this series spoilers:

What I did not like about this series spoilers:

Content Warnings for the book series Mindf*ck by S.T. Abby

I am sad to share for those that do not know S.T. Abby passed away in 2021. Wishing her a peaceful rest and thanking her for giving us this wonderful series in her life.

Get the Book

This Review was originally published to goodreads (and briefly Reddit) in January 2025 before I started this blog.

Discuss...

I originally wrote this review in January prior to creating this blog.

Content Warning for this Review

(Items with hidden text formatting spoiler like this only appear in the spoiler sections). * References to serial killers * References to violence * Sexually explicit references * References to rape * References to violent torture (Content warning for the book is below spoilers section).

Medium Used: eBook via Kindle iOS and iPadOS apps.

(I am not sure what the KU publishing rules are where these authors audio books are on Libby and Hoopla but not the eBook but if you're an audiobook person my Libby and Hoopla both had the whole series).

Ratings Out of 5

Overall Rating: 💜💜💜💜

Sweetness Level: 🍫🍫🍫🍫

Steam Heat Level: 🔥🔥🔥🕯️

FMC Likability: 🗡️🗡️🗡️🗡️

MMC Likability: 🛡️🛡️🛡️

Plot Engagement: 🔪🚔😟🔫

At least one bad dad (pass/fail): Fail / TBD?

#NSFW

Spoiler-Free Review

The Risk is the first in a 5-part series of suspense/mystery romance books by S.T. Abby. The book is short (132 pages, according to goodreads) and was a page-turner for me. I normally do not enjoy dark romance (see my Deliver review), but I have been interested in mystery fiction lately and was looking for a shorter, gripping read. I saw this series recommended in several threads on r/romancebooks and decided to give it a shot. I'm glad I did! While I could have done with slightly fewer specifics in the gore department, the book was an absolute page turner.

The story is told from both the FMC's (Lana's) and MMC's (Logan's) perspectives. Lana's past is, more or less, the central mystery of book 1, and there are still unanswered questions to explore in book 2. Logan is a serial killer profiler for the FBI. Lana, on the other hand, is... well, a serial killer driven by revenge for something that wronged her in the past.

I could have gone for a slightly slower burn (especially given that this series has more books to go), but I thought the intimate scenes from both the MMC and FMC perspectives were well above average for what I typically read. What I wasn't expecting from such a violent book was how sweet and genuine the emotions and care between the characters would be. Man, I hope this finds a way to be an HEA (it does... abc, 123, alpha, beta, charlie).

What I liked about this book:

• Fast-paced and kept me wanting to know what would happen next.
• I enjoyed the fine line Lana walks as a protagonist. I usually struggle with stories like this, but Lana's emotions and motivations felt more real than other similar characters I have come across.
• Both FMC and MMC perspectives are provided for the “hot” bits. I don't mind single-perspective stories, but if you're going to switch between both MCs, I think it is great to absorb the passion from both sides.
• I liked the layers of various plots/conflicts that were set up. I'm excited to see how they develop!

What I did not like about this book:

• Graphic depictions of violence are more intense than I would prefer for romance, but I suppose that's why they call it dark romance.
• The writing felt like it was influenced by a sense of “the internet ruined everything, so now I have to make sure there are no plot holes for anyone to nitpick.” For example, at one point, it's pointed out that a character's car is registered under a different name, which felt like an overly deliberate detail forced into the story.
• People in love lying to each other makes me sad. 😢
• Logan is a bit underwhelming as a character. I hope he becomes more compelling in the sequels.
• He's tall, she's short—thankfully, we don't dwell on this trope too much.

Review with Spoilers:

What I like about this book spoilers:

What I did not like about this book spoilers:

Content Warnings for The Risk by S.T. Abby

The books I have read that this book most reminded me of are:

1) Deliver by Pam Godwin (tone / genre). 2) Natural Law by Joey W. Hill (quality of plot / mystery serial killer aspects) 3) The spicy parts reminded me of the spicy bits in the Manwhore Series by Katy Evans...but I read/listened to those a while ago so I could be misremembering.

I would recommenced this book to:

• People who like serial killers as their MCs.
• People who like dark romance and have a stomach for graphic depictions of violence.
• People who like page turners and/or suspense and are not off put by the premise or content warning.
• Honestly most Romance fans not off put by the content warning.

Get the Book

(This Review was originally published to goodreads (and briefly Reddit) in January 2025 before I started this blog).

Discuss...

Content Warning this review contains references to the sexual assault, rape, kidnapping, human trafficking, and domestic abuse that take place in this book.

Medium Used: Paperback. Thank You to my 2021 Reddit Secret Santa (RIP) for getting this book for me.

Ratings Out of 5

Overall Rating: 💜💜💜💜

Sweetness Level: 🍫🍫🍫🍫

Steam Heat Level: ⛓🔒🔥

FMC Likability: 💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽💃🏽

MMC Likability: ✝✝✝✝

Plot Engagement: 🔫🔫🔫🔫

At least one bad dad (pass/fail): 💯

#NSFW

Spoiler Free Review

Deliver is a contemporary Dark Romance about the abduction of Joshua Carter by Liv Reed. Liv is a professional deliverer, she captures targets that meet the client's conditions and spends 10 weeks breaking them into the perfect sex slave. We quickly learn that she does this in order to protect the two people she loves the most from her employer. The story is told from a dual perspective.

As I said in my last review, I do not find kidnapping endearing. The tone around abduction in this book is different than A Promise of Fire because the kidnapping here serves to create suspenseful and dramatic instead of comedic. Regardless, it was very hard for me to get through the beginning of this book. I generally read romance to relax and relieve stress which is why I did not read any dark romance until I was gifted this book (and subsequently did not revisit the genre until 3 years later). At about page 80 or so I had to read the last couple lines of the book just to make sure it was going to be an HEA. About 40 pages later I still considered not finishing the book because it was just sooooo dark compared to what I am used to. I kept progressing because I knew in my heart it was objectively good story telling. It was compelling, tense, and I cared about the MCs deeply. I am glad I stuck it out because the second half of the book hit many beats that I loved. That being said it was emotionally straining and I'm not sure I'll be going back to the genre anytime soon (guess I was right).

What I liked about this book:

• Characters had interesting growth and compelling motivations.
• While the book dealt with a lot of awful themes I never felt like any of the awful actions were being glorified in problematic ways.
• The Villains in this story were creepy and scary in a good way.
• Great use of dual perspective and the way Pam Godwin described Josh and Liv's inner thoughts about each other made me gush.

What I did not like about this book:

• I do not hold this against the book in my ratings but the dark themes in this book are not normally my jam.
• Some of the steamy scenes had dubious consent and non-consent (i.e. rape for those less familiar with online romance book community jargon). I prefer this kind of content to be fade to black.
• An antagonist's full motivations go a little under explained in my opinion but my understanding is this is due to it being explored more in a future book in the series.

Spoilers Review

What I liked Spoilers

What I did not like Spoilers

Who Should Read This Book?

Any fans of Romance that don't mind the content warnings and aren't turned off by my review should give this book a shot. Even though I stepped away from Dark Romance for a long while after reading it I still am very happy for the experience. I will say 3 years after reading this book I went back to the Dark Romance genre with S.T. Abby's Mindf*ck Series (my review) and it is now one of my all time favorite book series so I guess in the end I am a Dark Romance Fan. I do not think I would have been able to bring myself to try the Mindf*ck series (which has significantly more graphic violence) if I had not read Deliver first.

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(This Review was originally published on Reddit in 2022.)

Hey this one has an evil mom instead of an evil dad.

Medium Used: 50% ebook via Libby 50% audiobook via Hoopla

Ratings out of 5

Overall Rating: 💜💜💜

Sweetness Level: 🍫

Steam Heat Level: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

FMC Likability: 🧙‍♀️🧙🏼‍♀️🧙🏾‍♀️

MMC Likability: ⚔⚔

Plot Engagement: 🐉🦄🧜🏿‍♀️

At least 1 bad dad (pass/fail): 0️⃣

**BONUS audiobook narration: ** 🔉🔉🔉🔉🔉

Spoiler Free Review

A Promise of Fire is a high fantasy slow burn Romance story set in a fictional world that has greek mythology. Our story is told from the perspective of Cat who has been a circus fortune teller for 8 years but has a mysterious past. She cannot really read people's fortune (most of the time) but she does have the ability to tell when somebody is lying. An ability highly coveted by royals across the three realms. A special ability that only shows up about once every two hundred years. She is the kingmaker.

Cat's 8 years of peace in the circus are turned upside down when a non-magical warlord discovers she is the kingmaker and forces her to serve him. Beta Sinta is the first non-magical warlord to defeat the minority magical rulers of the realm of Sinta and believes Cat is the key to his family staying in power.

Look I am going to get it right out there. I had some serious problems with the first third of this book. I find nothing endearing about kidnapping. I had 0 sympathy for the MMC for pretty much the whole book. I found him appalling in the first third, annoying in the second third, and merely tolerable in the last third. There is a lot to love about this book. I think the prose was lovely, the world building interesting, the pacing ideal, and the steam hot as hell. It was just that the premise/set-up of the MCs love was a constant taint on all the good for me. That being said, fantasy requires the reader to concede things. If this was a contemporary story I don't think this book could come back from the way Beta Sinta treats Cat in the first Act. Luckily, it is fantasy and while I personally don't forgive his actions I will accept the fantastical concession given for his actions and probably finish the series. **But** it gets 1 chocolate bar for sweetness cause there is nothing sweet about stealing people from their homes.

You may be wondering why I have MMC 2 crossed swords instead of 1. Well okay there are some chapters where I did like him a decent bit and I already kind of lied a bit in the sweetness ranking so I gave Beta Sinta a 2 which is how I actually feel about him despite the amount I continue to complain about him below.

What I liked about this book

• I think I share a sense of humor with the author because the sass, sarcasm, and banter was thoroughly enjoyable for me.
• I like the way magic works in this world. I found it to be fresh but also like that it didn't need 10,000 rules people just had the magic they had kind of like X-Men.
• There is a caring and loving father in this book. A rarity in the genre.
• Amanda Boucher's imagery and prose in general I enjoyed a lot. This is a well written story in my opinion.
• The Slowest of Burns made the very well written steam feel extra spicy.
• The action scenes in this book are really really good. Magic and swords are fun! Books are cool!

What I did not like about this book

• MMC essentially abducts FMC at the start of the story.
• MMC is overly possessive, jealous, and controlling. I get this is a common trope in the genre and I've enjoyed plenty of stories with it but I cannot identify with MMCs that are like this and it ruins a bit of the gush for me when its at the level it is in this book.

Spoilers Review

#NSFW What I liked Spoilers

What I didn't like Spoiler

Who should read this book?

Well if you don't mind jerky bad boy trope MMCs there is a lot to love here. If you can't look past an MMC abducting an FMC and keeping her tied up for weeks than probably skip this one.

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(This Review was originally published on Reddit in 2022.)