Hero – Current military or veteran
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: The time they have sex when they’re seventeen is a little too real
Character Chemistry: It’s obvious to everyone but her that he’s head over heels
Plot: First love reunited
Overall: This book is ridiculous
Heat Factor: It is a not insubstantial amount of soul-searing lovemaking
Character Chemistry: OMG, I was so invested
Plot: There’s a global conspiracy to burn down the world, and the US president and his secret service detail lead find themselves right in the middle of it
Overall: The three primary books are a total of 52 hours and 48 minutes in audio plus there’s a 200 page holiday interlude story as well, and I devoured them all in 5 days. What even is sleep?
Continue reading “Review: The Executive Office Series by Tal Bauer (2016-2017)”
Heat Factor: A little bit of feisty bedroom action in an otherwise very gentle book
Character Chemistry: So. Much. Angst.
Plot: How to buck oppressive expectations + Interrogating gendered expectations
Overall: I expected this book to make me cry, and it totally did not.
Shore Leave, Book #2
Review of Short Leave, Book #1
Heat Factor: So tender! There’s not a lot of sex in this book, and it mostly occurs relatively early on.
Character Chemistry: “I don’t trust you, but you’re definitely hot, and we’re stuck together in this cabin.” → “OMG, feelings!”
Plot: Calder “wins” a cabin from Felix’s mean ex-husband, they end up stuck together there for a weekend, and why wouldn’t that result in a friends-with-benefits-but-actually-dating situationship?
Overall: If you are looking for Big Hug Energy in your romance, this whole relationship is that
The Smut Report 