Total “AWW” moment when grumpy and standoffish Fox leaves breakfast in the oven for Summer the morning after. If acts of caring are your love language, Fox totally delivers.
Katrina shows she cares for all of her close people by feeding them, but Jas is special because she’s secretly been in love with him for years. Jas, who doesn’t even like breakfast but has also secretly been in love with Katrina for years, shows his love by eating her food every day, even though he doesn’t like it.
Brian makes Cedric elaborate breakfasts before he leaves the apartment every morning so Cedric can focus on writing his novel. The moment that Cedric is eating Brian’s food and realizes that he has feelings for Brian is *chef’s kiss*. Any Jackie Lau book has solid “I’ll feed you to show my love” energy, but this one was totally charming.
The great thing about the feeding dynamic in Real Men Knit is that it’s mutual—Kerry and Jesse both quietly make sure there’s food for the other person as they work together to save the yarn shop they love. It’s the small moments of caring that make up a relationship, and Kwana Jackson delivers that dynamic in spades here.
This book is full of hunger–hunger for connection, hunger for vengeance, and hunger for healing. So there’s that. But what REALLY did me in was the way Fraser silently leaves delicious, hearty meals for Rachel as they go from awkwardly living and working together to falling deeply in love.
When he’s sidelined by a hockey injury, Lucien turns to elaborate food preparation (esp. baking) as a form of therapy. When Emma comes to hide away at his grandmother’s house, his baking goes next level as he creates little treats to please her and avoids things she doesn’t like. And the honey pie moment… Reader, I gasped.
To cap off our week of Donut romances (reviews here, here, and here), we put together a list of coffeeshop romances!
Coffeeshops are magical places where people from all different walks of life come together to build community. What better place to set a romance novel, amirite?
Elizabeth and Sidney meet in Elizabeth’s chocolate shop when he holds meetings with his criminally-minded lieutenants there. What better place to take care of business than a place where you can eat delightful bonbons, right? Elizabeth and Sidney are really kind and gentle with each other, and while Sidney has some baggage to deal with, this low-stress romance hits the spot.
Is an ice cream shop a coffee shop? In this case, I would argue yes, because Drew only orders coffee when he brings his niece to Ginger Scoops—because he hates ice cream. When he falls for Chloe, the owner, both hilarity and heartfelt moments of connection ensue. Bonus points for an excellent grumpy-sunshine dynamic that involves rainbows, unicorns, and, of course, ice cream.
It begins and ends at the coffee shop. Owen has had a totally cute crush on his physiotherapist since they met, but he’s too shy to do anything about it except for continuing to work out at the gym so he can keep seeing Toma. Toma gets just the push he needs to ask Owen out when an April Fool’s prank gets out of hand.
After watching Evie try and fail for a spilled coffee meet cute in their coffee shop, Ben isn’t entirely sure he wants himself or his daughter around this mess of a woman. Evie uses the coffee shop as a safe space as she tries and fails to get her life on track, and makes friends along the way. Bonus points for being a real rom-com.
The coffee bar in Indy’s used bookshop is the center of action in not only Rock Chick, nor the whole of the Rock Chick series, but in many other books Ashley’s set in Denver. Instead of cozy coffee house vibes, you’ll get quirky characters and a ton of bonkers goings on. Content notes: Lots of alphaholes and violence, among other things. I recommend looking up CWs.
Instead of being set in a coffee house, Bossy centers on Bryson opening up a Singaporean kopi shop when he returns home to Australia instead of joining the family business. After falling in love with the Singaporean coffee shops while living overseas, Bryson is excited to open the shop and achieve success on his own, and Michael supports him 100%.
I guess reading eight monster books was not enough for me, because I went ALL IN on the Monster Smut this month. Erin and Ingrid were a little worried about me, TBH. I maybe went overboard, because now I both never want to read about another monster schlong and also find regular romance novels too sedate.
Here are six more that I read, with mini-reviews! (Loosely in order of most likely to least likely to recommend.)
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be in a relationship with a giant, sentient spider? Wonder no more!
This premise is absolutely not for everyone, but this book really delivers in a couple of ways. First, The worldbuilding is excellent. Spider society is rendered in a lot of detail—a large portion of the book is spent on internal spider politics, which set up some interesting conflicts for the hero to navigate. Second, the romance is actually very…sweet. It’s a slow burn antagonists-to-friends-to-lovers, so there’s a lot of Ivy and Ketahn learning to communicate and gently teasing each other. Third, I thought the “monster” aspect of this story was really well-done. Ketahn is outwardly terrifying—but it absolutely makes sense that he’d treat Ivy gently, given the context of the story. And a good portion of Ivy’s internal conflict is her telling herself how *wrong* it is that she is developing an attraction to Ketahn. It’s good stuff, trust me.
Note: Ensnared ends on a cliffhanger, so I immediately read the sequel, which I liked slightly less (more sex, less build-up = less sexy, plus the plot dragged a bit). Unfortunately, Enthralled ALSO ends on a cliffhanger, and Book 3 doesn’t come out until next year. AGH!
Have you ever wondered what Yeti cum tastes like? Wonder no more!
This gentle M/M romance between a backpacker who makes some questionable decisions while hiking the Himalayas and the yeti who rescues him is just really cute.
Full disclosure: Erin wrote this one, but this is my list and I’m living my truth.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to bone Shrek? Wonder no more!
This short novella features instant attraction between Jaquelyn and the ogre who finds her when she accidentally falls into his cave-lair while hiking the AT. I guess making poor decisions while hiking and ignoring safety protocols is a good way to meet monsters. This one has high sex content for the page count—the lust is pretty insta, but I guess I can buy it given the premise that Jaquelyn is pretty sure she’s gonna die in the cave, so why the heck not? There’s a nice balance here between Crug being gentle and monstrous; the scene where he brings Jaquelyn his choicest bones to eat and then is hurt when she only wants the meat pieces was stellar. I did think that the shift from “this will never work” to HEA was a bit abrupt, so I didn’t get that extra serotonin boost at the end, but overall, this was a fun read.
Have you wondered what it would be like to watch fairy porn? Wonder no more!
Aveda Vice is often tossed around as one of the go-to names in the nascent monster-smut craze, so I figured I’d try one of her books, and Feed seems to be her most popular. This is an erotic short story about a tightly-laced succubus who accidentally hires her co-worker (a death’s-head hawkmoth fairy) on a sex-work app. It was imaginative and fun—I especially liked the details of how succubus feeding worked—but the emotional depth didn’t really hit for me.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to have a giant, sentient king cobra decide that you were his queen? Wonder no more!
I frankly found every aspect of this book disturbing. The ominous dread that permeates all discussions of both human and naga society were unsettling. Zaku’s pride in his ability to kill anyone he wants was uncomfortable. But the bit that really brought it over the top for me was the scene where Daisy is crawling around licking up and rolling in Zaku’s semen (which is in puddles all over the floor). Yikes. The breeding imperative is strong in this one. Combine that with uneven characterizations, especially of Daisy, and incessant dangling modifiers, and…double yikes. On the other hand, Zaku was pretty monstrous (his tail completely fills rooms, so when I say giant snake, I mean GIANT SNAKE), and Lucas really leaned in to her premise. Even though I was disturbed, I was also enthralled.
Have you ever wondered what would happen if one of those gargoyles on your friendly neighborhood gothic cathedral came to life…and really, really liked you? Wonder no more!
Maybe I should have taken a break from monster books, because Flesh and Stone was the last monster book I read and I was kind of…bored? The premise is cool: Thomas is a 19th-century witch hunter who gets in way over his head and is turned into a gargoyle, only to be awoken by Hannah in the 21st century. But once they met, I wasn’t sure what the conflict was, and it wasn’t quite sexy enough to just be a sexy monster rumpus. It was just too polite for me.
Happy Saturday, smut fans! If reading about all of these delicious (and…not so delicious) workplace romances has you hankering for more, here are six of our favorites.
This book is a delight. Portia does not have her life all figured out, but she does go intern at a Scottish swordmaker. There she meets Tavish McKenzie, irresistible silver fox swordsmith and also her boss. All that attraction has no outlet, though, because they definitely need to maintain that professional boundary. Right?
Val is 100% villainous, and this is his love story, if not exactly the story of his redemption. Bridget is his housekeeper, mainly so she can foil his blackmail plots. Val notices Bridget because she doesn’t cower before him—and since we’re talking about alpha bosses, you know that someone standing up to him who really shouldn’t be is something that Val just can’t resist. (Yes, Holly recommended this book last month as well. Just read it, ok?)
Robert (baker of fancy Regency treats) and Betsy (his shopgirl) both desperately want to get married (to each other), but of course neither has told the other. When Betsy steps in to help Robert fill a huge order for an important client, she decides that this is finally her opportunity to seduce her boss—and seduce him she does! This sweet erotic romance has plenty of kitchen sexytimes, but also provides a meditation on desire, self-sacrifice, and equal partnership.
If you’re looking for a traditional office billionaire/assistant romance that really leans into interrogating the power differential in believable but still sexy ways, then this is the book for you. Bonus points for airplane sex.
In her contemporary series, Singh has some delightful bedding the boss trope action, but Sailor and Isa are just darling. Seeing Sailor landscaping at her school, Isa loses her sense and jumps his bones, only to discover that her mother has contracted him for a project. Oh, and Isa’s responsible for the project, since she’s technically still a shareholder. But professional boundaries? Never heard of ‘em.
Well, the setting is rural Alaska at Christmastime, so there’s plenty of snow, certainly. But this one gives readers the warm fuzzies because Reed and Erika have a relationship on fire, but it’s a vacation fling. They have to decide what’s more important – the lives they were so invested in before, or a new one they could build together.
This erotic holiday novella about two librarians getting snowed in at the library is super hot. And Ben and Poppy spend a lot of time talking about what they find sexy (read: dirty talk, but also communicating about boundaries and consent and desire), which makes everything hotter and adds emotional depth to what would otherwise be a simple sexy rumpus.
Think Hallmark Christmas Special, except with sex and profanity. Seriously. There’s a hot chocolate festival, for goodness sake. However, it’s not all tropey hijinks (though there is a lot of that), but also a thoughtful story of two deeply sad and lonely people finding love and joy in their lives.
How about some danger banging…in a shack in the middle of Antarctica. It’s so cold in most of this book that it’s literally too dangerous for Ford to remove his penis from his pants lest he risk some serious frostbite, but don’t worry: the sexual tension is off the charts. Plus: there’s only one sleeping bag!
Things start off on the wrong foot, but when Nina and Max end up stuck in Max’s house for several days after Nina’s caught in a snowstorm in the small town Colorado mountains, they both end up turning their lives inside out so Nina’s vacation romance can be something more. Fair warning: Max is a bit of an alpha-hole and this book is really long, but if you like that, check it out.
What could be colder than an ENTIRE PLANET OF ICE??!? How about an entire planet of ice that is ALSO TRYING TO MURDER YOU?!?!? (Now that’s cold.) Luckily, Vektal is here with his big, blue, sexy, protectory energy, and once he takes care of the nurturing, all he wants to do is eat Georgie out. Bonus: it’s the first book in a very long series.
The Smut Report 