Heat Factor: → The best way to get warm in the woods is to climb into a sleeping bag naked with another naked person already inside it.
Character Chemistry: I’m kind of stuck on: they’re on a chemical high from running for their lives for days on end. But sure, forever love, absolutely.
Plot: Baddies are still after the mysterious virus. This time Leo, pilot, and Elias, mysterious recluse, are running for their lives (and to save the world?)
Overall: The show-stealer is Amka, the Alaskan wilderness octogenarian lesbian badass.
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.
Agatha’s primary concern is her printing business, but she’s also an engraver, and there’s nothing you can say to convince me that she’s not an artist. (We also highly recommend the first book in this series, which deals explicitly with questions about what “counts” as art as opposed to work or a hobby – and whose art is therefore celebrated.) This wonderful slow-burn epistolary romance between two middle-aged women is thought-provoking, heartfelt, and so sexy. (Full Review)
Vanessa monetized her artistry by setting up a business designing book covers, tattoos, and pretty much whatever else anybody wants drawn. While a lot of the story is centered on Aiden and the world of football, Van makes a place in the world that she’s always wanted for herself with her art. (Full Review)
Former model turned fashion photographer Anya thinks she already has her HEA when the book opens. After all, she and Zac are happily married with a cute baby. Turns out, the HEA gets even happier *waggles eyebrows* when they invite Cal to join them. All jokes aside, while this sexy menage focuses more on Zac and Cal and their joint musical career, the group also prioritizes Anya’s ability to continue working as the mother of a young child; we desperately need more of this in romance (especially all those romances that end with a marriage and a baby). (Full Review)
Fiber arts! So cool! Jerusha is already selling her work for thousands of dollars per piece when she moves in next door to Karl, but she’s excited about studying for her MFA and creating new pieces that are ultimately included in a gallery showing of her work. (Full Review)
Julie serves drinks at the cider bar to pay the bills, but she makes jewelry for happiness. Her non-traditional, non-9-to-5 lifestyle is a stressor in her life, because it’s a point of contention between her and her family, but it’s also not something she’s willing to let go of. (Full Review)
Struggling painter Keeffe comes by her artistic talent honestly: her mother was a sculptor, who was, perhaps, divinely inspired. Too bad Satan is trying to collect all of Keeffe’s mother’s sculptures, and Keeffe is the only thing standing in his way. Enter Bad, Certified Cinnamon Roll Demon, also known as the Demon of Sloth and the head of hell’s technology department. There’s some body snatching, an art commission, a beautiful date reenacting Keeffe’s favorite painting (!!!), nuanced portrayals of lay Catholicism, and lots of demonic shenanigans. (Full Review)
Heat Factor: I’d imagine it’s everything you’d expect in a sexy version of “virgin learning how to sex” story
Character Chemistry: Woo, boy, do these two want to jump each other’s bones
Plot: Sheltered mid-20-something wants to experience all the sex and romance that her family wouldn’t allow now that she’s independent, but the only man who does it for her is her standoffish silver fox neighbor
Overall: This just scrapes the surface of daddy kink
The Smut Report 