Heroine
Advertisements for Love, Book #1
Heat Factor: Everything is very proper; the door is firmly closed.
Character Chemistry: Ewan is too obtuse to have chemistry with anyone.
Plot: Dueling flower farms + Widow must protect her child + First love back from the dead + Battles over an inheritance + Newspaper advertisements for a husband
Overall: I haven’t been this angry about a hero in a long time.
Heat Factor: It’s a slowish burn but hooo boy, it gets steamy.
Character Chemistry: It’s pretty instantaneous but there are SO MANY WALLS
Plot: Julien’s bike breaks down in Eliza’s small town at the exact moment she desperately needs help to keep her flower farm going–it’s like kismet. But both Julien and Eliza have so many legitimate barriers to being together (and surviving!) that it’s hard to see how they’re going to make it work.
Overall: Such a fantastically written book, just expertly knit together.
Heat Factor: 🍆🍆🍆
Character Chemistry: Instant attraction → Denial → We can have just one night → Is this…love? → BUT DUTY!!!
Plot: The set-up is bonkers and makes no sense, but who cares?
Overall: The back and forth between these two is just *chef’s kiss*
The Ravenels, Book #7
(a.k.a. The Wallflowers, The Next Generation, Book #3)
(a.k.a. The Devil in Winter Epilogues, also Book #3)
Erin’s reviewed the whole Ravenels series: Book #1 | Book #2 | Book #3 | Book #4 | Book #5 | Book #6
Heat Factor: These are some horny Victorians
Character Chemistry: It’s totally insta-love, and it was written lucidly enough that it worked for me
Plot: “We’ll never work because of an unequal match” + “Why is someone trying to murder me?”
Overall: I re-upped my membership in the Bad Decisions Book Club for this one and read it in one sitting. No regrets.
The Graciella Series, Book #3
Heat Factor: It’s kind of an instant, angry, heated clash and then it burns but in a more friendly and less publicly appropriate way
Character Chemistry: This is absolutely a case of matching wounds meeting matching wounds but it actually made sense to me…THIS TIME.
Plot: Cass is on the tail end of a deeply traumatic experience—so traumatic she loses her sense of smell, and unfortunately she’s a food writer. She regains it when a really attractive farmer accidentally throws manure all over her, and then they get in a really rude argument, and afterwards they pretty much start matching themselves right up in ways that are understandable and steamy.
Overall: This was a really sweet read and it did surprise me in a lot of lovely ways.
The Smut Report 