definitely, possibly, maybe

the second book in the albin academy series is just as deeply emotional as the first. just like this  features total opposites rian and damon joining forces to help a struggling student. they are from completely different backgrounds and do not expect to find the common ground and connection they discover as they work together. for a category romance, this novel packs in a lot of depth and feels into the shorter format. the slow burn really allows the love story to develop organically, and you really end up feeling the strength of the connection between the characters.  **just like this will publish on november 24, 2020. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/carina press (adores) in exchange with my honest review. 

ever since i read the sneak peek chapter in   high heat , i’ve been waiting for   feel the fire . usually, i’m not one for second-chance romances, but there was something about the crackle of chemistry and resentment the characters had in the opening pages that made this one hard to resist.  one thing i loved is that the resentment piece isn’t long and drawn out. what blossoms between the characters isn’t a slow burn, in part because they did all that slow-burning off-page. tucker is a demisexual, but the deep, emotional connection he needs is already there with luis. it was always there, even though his life took him on an unintended path.  seeing the two characters figure out how to compromise and build a life they both want together made every moment worth it. it was nice to check in on earlier characters from the series, but luis and tucker are just perfection together and i loved every second of this read.  **feel the fire will publish on october 26, 2020. ...

the vicar and the rake  is a steamy m/m historical that finds two former friends reconnecting in the most historical trope-y kind of way, and it's just amazing. the RAKE discovers the VICAR PASSED OUT with A FEVER in HIS GARDEN. it is AMAZING. beyond the tropey meet-cute or "remeet" cute, there is real substance to this story. what the characters have to overcome to really be together and their journey to happiness is well worth the read. and it's a lovely kick off to a series, introducing several intriguing characters.  **the vicar and the rake will publish on october 12, 2020. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/carina press in exchange for my honest review.   

when declan meets sidney in the love study   he's immediately captivated by them. but they don't date. declan has a history that makes him less than promising as a potential love interest. he did leave his ex-fiancé standing at the altar. like left him standing at the altar. it was the right choice, and the exes are friends. but it's still something his friends delight in teasing him about.  it's not that declan has anything against marriage either. or commitment. it's just that maybe marriage as a construct isn't for him. sidney runs a popular youtube vlog and has an opportunity to tie in a sponsorship around declan's dating. and even though he's not sure about the dating thing, declan jumps at the opportunity to spend more time with them.  this story is cute and low-angst. the characters have some baggage to overcome, but the openness of their communication is so endearing. even when they are mixed up about each other, there is such a sweet kindness ab...

it's nice to be back in new york, seeing kip and scott from game changer navigate their committed relationship. and eric is a super fascinating hero, like he's so disciplined and grown up. it's like the opposite of chaotic trickster ilya, who makes a couple of delightful cameos in common goal  and okay i'm going to be honest i really kind of just wanted more ilya.  i enjoyed eric and kyle's story. i really did. i just wasn't transported by their story. i think maybe i'd have liked it better if kyle was part of the hockey world? but instead he was an art history major who moonlights as a bartender while working on a degree he's not interested in and had passing interest in kip but that obviously wasn't going anywhere.  kip and eric connect and kip is basically eric's tour guide on the gay side of life. and it's a perfectly good story. i liked it just fine. i just...i just didn't fall in love the way i loved heated rivalry  and that's ...

 this book is just an absolute delight. best laid plaids  is a debut post-wwi historical that finds two academics coming together and boom...chemistry. joachim comes to ainsley with the purpose of discrediting the fact that ainsley believes he talks to ghosts. he thinks it's likely some sort of mental illness. and while ainsley clearly suffers what we know of as adhd and generalized anxiety, the ghost thing is not part of that mental illness.  when ainsley realizes what joachim is out to do, he says brilliant, let me take you on a road trip and i'll prove it. because he does see and hear ghosts and they are actual present beings. the other thing he sets out to do is flirt his way into bed with joachim, because hello...all that chemistry.  it's hot and sexy and sweet and filthy between these two. just their entire relationship dynamic is a freaking delight and i loved every second of it. it's a marvellous debut and i can't wait to see more in the series. **best laid ...

ok, so i'm kind of sad i don't rep kelly, because this is totally the f/f sports romance i've been jonesing for. out on the ice  features two ice hockey players who are so in sync with each other it's just fantastic. like they have a dark moment, and miscommunicate a little bit, but at the same time they never actually stop communicating.  they both have baggage, and stuff to work on. but like they never stop working on themselves. it's so utterly refreshing. these two grown-up ladies having an adult romantic relationship and working through their stuff. it's low-angst but there are real emotional stakes and you can't help rooting for these two ultra likeable characters.  this was the perfect comfort read. it was sweet, it was fizzy, it was just all-around good.  **out on the ice will publish on august 24, 2020. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/carina press (adores) in exchange for my honest review. 

in better than people  two men who have, for the most part, given up on people, are astonished to find themselves drawn to one another and tumbling head over heels in love.  jack who has retreated from the world after heartbreak, is fiercely independent. he relies on no one, except his pack of pets who give him an outlet for all the nurturing and care he has to give the world. when he meets simon he realizes that the only way to approach this painfully shy yet utterly gorgeous man is by applying the same patience, care and understanding he does to his rescues.  simon is overwhelmed all the time. his social anxiety and selective mutism are crippling. but it's never going to go away. finding someone who allows him the time to get comfortable, someone who doesn't judge him, someone who desires him in spite of all the baggage—it's a rare gift.  this love story is sweet (though plenty sexy) and has surprising amounts of emotional depth. even in the shorter category format...

the latest installment in the hat trick series, trade deadline finds daniel "bellzie" bellamy back in his home state of florida, playing for his league-worst home team, after years of success and a stanley cup win. micah kelly has no idea if his childhood bestie remembers him. do you forget your first kiss? maybe if you end up being a straight hockey player you blackout the past. it can't hurt to go to a game. there's no way daniel will recognize micah.  except he does. and it turns out that bellzie is not straight. he's bi, and those feelings that were forgotten years ago? come blazing back into the present. micah can't believe his teenaged dreams are coming true. but all of this is new to daniel, and how can he trust that it will work out. especially when it looks like daniel's time with the home team will be short. these questions are all answered in a very satisfying way. i don't know if there are more installments planned in this series, but i ho...

book two in the hotshot series, high heat , finds garrick recovering from the harrowing accident that served as the climax for book one. and so, it's less sexy firefighters and more about a man who is learning to live a new normal and accept a reality where he won't be able to perform the job he loves in the same way anymore. or really perform many tasks in the same way anymore. it's kind of heavy, and while the love story that he shares with rain is incredible, the support and compassion and true understanding between them is really lovely. it's at times overshadowed by the extent of injury garrick is recovering from. it's well worth the read, and i'm looking forward to the next book in the series. but i didn't enjoy it quite as much as book one, but it was still really good. i appreciated all the realism and all the amazing disability rep, i guess i don't know what i was really expecting. this wasn't quite it. **high heat will publish on july...

dirty tactics  tackles the best friend's younger sister trope in steamy style, and reagan and zac have all kinds of chemistry. i have no objection to that, at all. i think there's all sorts of interesting conflicts to be had when you have all sorts of history and some real stakes in that friendships are not something people want to give up on or endanger. friend breakups are worse than romance breakups, after all. this story was more character-driven than plot-driven, and it makes sense, but here's the thing. i am just not a flashback fan. and there were enough of them here that just pulled me out of the action. i don't see the point of "showing" me a whole scene that isn't actually pushing the plot forward. i don't know. this is a very personal pet peeve, and comes into play with books like this, where the characters have a lot of history.  **dirty tactics will publish on july 20, 2020. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/carina pr...

lopez's bonkers debut, lush money , was a trope-filled delight, and her follow-up is no less delightful. hate crush finds princess sofia reuniting with the guy who got away, or really the guy who threw everything they were to each other away because he got drunk and spilled the beans about their secret love affair.  it doesn't help that she had a wild reputation. she's changed and even now won't get credit for it. and everything she's been working for, everything she is doing to save her country and her family can crumble to dust, unless she pretends to get back together with him.  of course he  happens to be notorious rock star aish sallinger. he's a disaster, and he needs sofia. he also hasn't stopped thinking about her and faking a relationship shows him that was he really wants is her forgiveness and her heart to be his again.  the man has a lot of work to do. but watching these two find a way back to each other is nothing short of magical.  **hate crus...

when summer hemlock returns to albin academy in just like that  he's not quite sure what he means to do with his life. his plans for finding himself away from the place he's always called home didn't quite pan out. and so he's found a job acting as the teaching assistant to the one man who has always intrigued him. it's been 7 years since he last saw professor fox iseya, and the man can still bring him to his knees. but beyond the anxiety of being in his presence, for summer there's also the glorious freedom of finally asking for what he wants. and he wants iseya. but the professor has experienced soul-crushing loss before. since then he's kept himself, his emotions locked away. why would a vibrant young, so unbearably young, soul want anything to do with him. when they are together, who they are together is a perfect balance. and they just work. what they come to mean to each other is beautiful and emotional. **just like that will publish on ...

so not every return to a small town from the big city book is bad. and actually, i really enjoyed the girl next door  quite a bit. iris and jude find themselves back in their small maine town for different reasons. jude is grieving and iris is struggling to find her way forward in life. now, here is my only nitpick with this story. allegedly iris is twenty-two and jude is three-to-four years older so about twenty-five or six. how either of them have managed to get all the life experience they claim to have before coming back to town makes no sense. at twenty-two iris would have just graduated school, so would she really have had a series of jobs and failed to earn enough money to make rent? possibly, but unlikely, unless she barely gave her time in boston a chance, and honestly that doesn't seem right. likewise, jude seems to be a lot more worldly than her age would imply. they might just be real mature twenty-year-olds, but i wish that the author had given their ages something...

there is a lot i enjoyed about the hideaway inn , but one thing i didn't like, and one that created this super visceral reaction from me, was the fact that no one in the freaking town of new hope called vince by the name he asked to be called. even people who had transitioned and had changed their identities called him vinny, when he expressly asked to be called vince. did no one pick up on the absolute hypocrisy of that?? i have spent most of my life correcting people's pronunciation of my name. and i have never felt smaller when people just refuse to say it right. i understand the occasional mistake or slip. but there are people who i consistently have to correct and who consistently fail to make the correction and what that says about our dynamic to me is that they don't respect me.  no one in this town respects vince. they think that whatever changes he's made in his big city life are wrong and they know better and he is really vinny and should reject vinc...

starcrossed is book two in the magic in manhattan series, and should absolutely be read after reading spellbound . as it literally picks up from where book one ended. rory and ace are upstate, trying to stay safe, but relics are on the loose and danger abounds for subordinate supernaturals. and rory, oh grumpy rory, can't help himself and keeps finding it. and ace, oh sweet ace, can't stop himself from worrying. these two souls from completely different worlds are just perfection together. and there's a lot thrown at them during this story, including hot ex-boyfriends and friendly (or unfriendly) former foes. but even as they navigate the chaos, one thing becomes very clear. rory and ace are better together than they are apart. and this is a world i am happy to continue to inhabit as long as allie continues to want to write it. **starcrossed will publish on may 18, 2020. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/carina press/allie therin in exchange ...

solving serial murder cases takes a special set of skills. first, there is connecting the cases. then there's establishing the pattern. in variable onset ,  the re-emergence of serial killer dr. fear, has forensic genetics expert lincoln monroe hoping to be at least consulted. to his surprise, he's put on the field. and then he learns that his partner is none other than his former student carter warren. and that makes things complicated. carter has his reasons for wanting lincoln there, some of the related to the case, others relating to an inconvenient fascination with his former professor.  but undercover and pretending to be a couple while seeking to find a serial killer doesn't make for the most romantic meet cute, it works for these two. the sparks between them fly, and the way they work together complements them perfectly.  **variable onset will publish on may 4, 2020. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/carina press in exchange for...

annabeth's latest series focuses on a group of smokejumpers and it's oh-so-hot. like so, so hot. burn zone finds lincoln reid battling the attraction he's always felt for his best friend's younger brother, jacob. oh, and by the way, the best friend is dead. and he died on the job. so jacob joining the smokejumping team makes no one happy except for poor jacob who has been working toward this for years. and also he's basically spent the same amount of time dying to jump lincoln's bones only to be denied at every turn. but then they just can't stop the fire that burns between them. and the risks of the job, the risk of loving each other, it's all worth it. and annabeth just delivers on another emotional and sexy story. **burn zone will publish on april 27, 2020. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/carina press in exchange for my honest review.

the dreamers series comes to a close with american sweethearts , and it's long-time, on-and-off again lovers, priscilla and juan pablo getting all the attention now. so you all know how i feel about second-chance romances, but it's not that i hate them all. it's just that there are so many done wrong. adriana herrera gets it right. yeah, some of their past is there, but it never overwhelms what happens in the here and now, and it's not that the characters make the same mistakes with a miraculously different outcome. it's that they put the work in to make it work. the last time they broke up, juanpa realized he needed to make some changes. his very real concerns and not unreasonable anxieties were expressing themselves as anger and judgment and kept pushing away the one person in his life that he wants to keep close. but for her part priscilla is holding on to her pride a bit too hard, life changes and sometimes the things we thought we wanted most aren't a...

continuing the very hot russian mobsters in new orleans a.k.a. the nola knights series, hers to tame  features avtoritet, kir vasilek, and intrepid reporter, cassie mcclintock and it's another deeply swoony, hot alpha, anti-hero type love story. this is totally my kind of romance, it's escapist fun, the men are sexy and hot and dominating but also deeply respectful. and i just love it. there's enough mystery and suspense here that i don't want to give away too much of the plot. but mostly this is about kir claiming cassie as his one true love and i am here for it. **hers to tame will publish on march 16, 2020. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/carina press in exchange for my honest review.