Trope
Ten Tiny Breaths, Book 3
Heat Factor: Sex is frequent but not super detailed; we get only the cursory information of what bits are naked and in contact.
Character Chemistry: Girl with daddy issues + older man with white knight syndrome
Plot: Charlie needs money to disappear so she gets a job as a stripper and starts a thing with her boss. Also she’s reluctantly running heroin.
Overall: The purity overtones were unreal.
Sugar & Vice, Book #1
Heat Factor: Yeah, so, we barely even know they like each other at the end of this one
Character Chemistry: I don’t know how Therin managed it, but I wanted them to touch SO BADLY even though 1) it’s dangerous and 2) they mostly snip at each other
Plot: Empaths are a persecuted group, feared for their abilities even though they have to be pacifists (and vegans) by virtue of their extreme empathy, except that there’s a triple homicide that looks suspiciously like Reece’s nightmares, and the man rumored to keep empaths in check suddenly arrives in town.
Overall: It is not actually a romance (yet), but it is SO FREAKING GOOD
Original novel by Emma Goldrick (1996)
Heat Factor:
Character Chemistry: What even is consent?
Plot: Anything I say will make it sound significantly less bananas than it actually was
Overall: There is basically nothing okay about any of this and I enjoyed myself hugely
Continue reading “Review: Husband Material by Megumu Minami (2021)”
Heat Factor: Once with the whole group, and then Taryn has a one-on-one interlude with each alien
Character Chemistry: They treat Taryn well, except for that whole lying to her thing
Plot: Taryn meets some really hot people and bangs it out with them…only to discover that they’re aliens who want her blood
Overall: Goes some unexpected places, which I liked, but the relationships could have been a tad more developed
Heat Factor: fades to gray
Character Chemistry: Not sure we get enough push-pull when he hates her (but really not) and they hop into bed by 35%
Plot: Mia is a professional reviewer and aspiring writer who wins a spot at Axel’s writing workshop. Axel is furious with Mia for writing a mean review about his alter ego’s book because he needs the extra income stream. They get snowed in.
Overall: Their fight seemed a bit ridiculous when they were so ethically messy from, like, page one
The Smut Report 