Mood
Heat Factor: Gentle, encouraging, exploratory, emotional
Character Chemistry: They have big hug energy to offer each other, even though they both think they shouldn’t ask for it themselves
Plot: Boarding school besties Robert and David both come out of WWI with scars both physical and mental, and find their way back to themselves with each other
Overall: My heart is so full and so wrecked
Heat Factor: Scenes as couples are closed door, but they have one interlude at the end
Character Chemistry: I felt all their feelings very intensely
Plot: Three people who have all loved each other for some time are shocked into re-examining their relationship
Overall: What a great feelings book
Heat Factor: He’s a photographer and there’s a “draw me like one of your French girls” moment, so…pretty steamy. But not heavy in bedroom scenes, and more towards the end of the book.
Character Chemistry: It’s SO fraught. They’re clearly meant to be together but there’s a best friend in a coma and that really messes with things.
Plot: Blair awakes from a coma having met the man of her dreams…in her dreams. When she wakes up, she realizes that he’s a real person stuck in a coma as well, in the same hospital she was in. As she pieces everything together, her life becomes entwined with the life of her dream guy’s best friend, Regan, and she begins to realize that she’s going to have to choose.
Overall: If you’re thinking “Oh, cute. A Sleepless in Seattle remix.” You’re WRONG and you should get your tissues.
Warrior Fight Club, Book #1
Heat Factor: There’s some intense can’t-stop-won’t-stop sex and then oops the feels crawl in after
Character Chemistry: In the end, I got the point of Kristina’s pulling away, but as I went through the chapters I really felt like, as his best friend, she should have been the one to understand that Noah was really not okay and romantically treating him like a normal guy was a weird choice
Plot: Noah is not okay. He can’t accept his new feelings for Kristina, and she can’t accept him holding her at a distance anymore.
Overall: If you like angsty military heroes who won’t allow themselves to have what they want because the LI deserves better, I have a book (and probably a series) for you.
For our final monster smut of October, we’re talking about Headless. This is not so much a duel as a short discussion because (spoiler alert) we all liked it. Definitely recommended if you’re in the mood for some Halloween reading.
Heat Factor: It’s very much about how their sexual relationship keeps them connected, but it’s more evocative than squelching body parts.
Character Chemistry: Big sad feels that they only have their throuple together one night per year!
Plot: After Brom disappears one Halloween, Abe and Katrin spend the rest of their Halloweens awaiting his ghostly return
Overall: I was expecting Headless Horseman throuple sexytimes and this is that but…it’s completely different than I expected
The Smut Report 