I'm V, a Black, U.S. American, thirty-something romance reader and writer who just wants to share some of my favorite romances. @Vlovesromance on Twitter. Feel free to message me any time :-)
I've had a ton going on in my personal life (all good!) So I haven't been writing lately. But I've read several great romances lately and I hope yo have some reviews up soon. Cheers,
Quick housekeeping -- I will try to post more regularly on here, but thank you and hello to all my new followers!! Also, I plan to link to the author’s page at the top of my review now whenever possible...not going to link directly to any particular bookseller, but if you want to read what I’m reading, hopefully you can find it that way.
Okay! My review. Chasing Wild Horses (Aug. 2020) is the first book in a new romance trilogy by author Mila Nicks. I didn’t realize when I picked it up that the three books are intended to be one larger story; while our main characters do end up together at the end of Chasing Wild Horses, it feels very much like HFN, not HEA, and it’s clear the story is incomplete. That makes me nervous, lol. Also, just want to give that as a fair warning to other readers who may be looking for more security than they’ll get here or who don’t want to commit to three books.
Despite that, I liked this book. I enjoyed our two MCs, Samara Grant and Chase Collins. Samara is a Black flight attendant, a rolling stone type of gal who is outrunning some family drama and difficult decisions from her past. She’s smart and sharp-tongued but seems to have a constant dread of disappointing her mother, which she deals with, in part, by making a life for herself that doesn’t involve her family. Chase is a White rancher outrunning his past, too, but he’s doing it in the town where he’s always lived. His parents were known as bad apples, and most people in town think he’s no better. But Chase is a big old softie with a gruff voice who has a hard time opening up to people. His first encounter with Samara is a terrible one, but the enemies-to-friends-to-lovers plot for these two over the course of the book feels very natural.
The heavy secondary plot involving Samara’s grandmother, Bunny, and Chase’s surrogate grandfather, Gramps, is also intriguing and enjoyable. Samara has arrived in this small Texas town called Lutton for her grandmother’s funeral, and while there she learns she’s inherited her grandmother’s bed-and-breakfast. She and her brother decide to stay in Lutton for the summer while Samara decides whether to keep the B&B or to sell it. Chase is a ranch hand on Wild Horses Ranch, just outside of town. He’s gruff and brooding and mistrustful, but over time he becomes impressed with Samara’s personality and her work ethic after she asks him to teach her to ride horses.
The story is a sort of sweet, slow-burn. They don’t even kiss until sometime after the halfway point in the book, and they ignore that one for a while, so it’s even deeper in the book that they finally acknowledge that they’re into each other. But I always enjoy two people overcoming their issues and learning to trust one another, particularly when no one is assigned the burden of “fixing” anyone else -- it’s just that they fit together and their relationship helps them both grow. I think that was definitely the case here, though at the end it’s still not clear Samara has decided to stay in Lutton for good. There’s definitely more to explore with Samara and Chase’s relationship, and they both have painful incidents in their pasts that weren’t fully addressed in this book. There are a few interesting side characters who I imagine will grow (or not) in the coming books, as well. Chase’s ex-best friend Reed is carrying a two-ton grudge that I’d like to know more about, and it’s clear there are some ups and downs in Bunny and Gramps’ story, which is told mostly through their old journal entries, and I think we haven’t even scratched the surface of those.
Overall, I enjoyed this story and am rooting for Samara and Chase to end up together. At times, I found the writing in this book to be a little adjective- and adverb-heavy in a way that sometimes took me out of a scene rather than sharpening the images for me. And I was reading this expecting an HEA, not drama in the next book. I’m not sure if that was on me or if the marketing could have been a bit clearer. That said, if you like a cute couple with a slow-burn love story, a happy-for-now ending, and several background mysteries (not all of which will get solved in this book), I think you’ll enjoy this one a lot. The story is good and it’s an easy read.
Categories: M/F, colleagues to lovers, celebrity romance, contemporary romance
CW: anxiety, PTSD, home invasion
Hi friends! Yesterday I finished reading You Had me at Hola, and I am so excited to share my review with you. I have to start out by saying I LOVED this book. I bought it on Tuesday, and I started it Wednesday. And, to be fair to me, I had a bit of a rough week at work. So I think when I started it Wednesday, I wasn’t giving it my full attention -- the attention it deserves. I read the first chapter and was like, “This is cute, look forward to reading it.” But I didn’t feel compelled, you know?
And then on Friday, this mess of a week was over and I sat down and opened it again. And I read from probably 7 until midnight. I woke up Saturday with this story on my mind and couldn’t do anything else until I finished it. Basically, by Chapter 2 I was OBSESSED. As soon as our heroine, Jasmine Lin, met our hero, Ashton Suarez, I was like Oh. Shit. It’s about to go down.
And it did. Their chemistry builds naturally through the book, and you totally understand why Ashton is the private person he is (he has a son he wants to shield from the public eye) and why Jasmine is hesitant to jump into a new relationship (she found out her last boyfriend dumped her via a supermarket tabloid). But their chemistry is undeniable.
Okay, let me back up - Jasmine and Ashton are actors, Jasmine in U.S. soap operas and Ashton in telenovelas, and they’ve now come together as co-stars on a new Americanized telenovela-type show for a streaming service. Jasmine is Nuyorican and Filipina, with dark brown hair and legs for days, and Ashton is a tall, dark, and handsome Puerto Rican man built like a god and dealing with anxiety and Secrets. They’re both hoping this new show can propel their careers to new heights.
Neither is looking for an on-set romance, but it is unavoidable. Their characters play love interests on screen, and the chemistry between the two actors is just *chef’s kiss* perfection. And when they finally hook up in real life, it is SO HOT. Alexis Daria writes some excellent sex scenes, and they all feel super sweet and intimate while also being erotic as hell. They’re exactly what I’m looking for in a sex scene in a romance novel.
I don’t even want to tell you a ton more because even at its angstiest moments (I’m a fluff girl through and through) this book had me eager to turn the page and find out what was going to happen and when were secrets going to spill and how were they going to resolve the hurt, and I just want everyone who reads it to have that experience!! Every bit of this story feels earned. Jasmine is smart and real, trying to face down some insecurities that have nothing to do with her race, ethnicity, or weight, which is always a plus for me. She’s so warm and friendly, and I love the contrast of her mother-hen tendencies with her castmates, making sure everyone is included and having a good time, with her relative immaturity when she’s alone with her best friends/cousins -- not that she becomes a baby, but she lets them see her vulnerabilities and they’re there to prop her up when she needs it. Ashton is quieter, much more private, and a little awkward, but he’s super sweet and charming and he cares very, very deeply about the people he loves. Watching him learn to let his guard down with Jasmine is so heart-warming.
Suffice to say, I highly recommend You Had Me at Hola. Now, why are you still here, listening to me?? Go buy this book and start reading IMMEDIATELY! xo
It’s free for Kindle and Nook today (Jul. 31)! We’ve got a career-focused Black heroine and a white, blue-eyed musician who swear they’re just looking for a summer fling...I’ll let you know how it turns out 😉
Categories: M/F, historical romance, virgin heroine, arranged marriage
A note: I don’t read a ton of historical romance involving POC, mostly because I just haven’t found the right ones yet. I don’t want to read stories about slaves suffering for their love, I definitely don’t want any slave-falls-in-love-with-master BS...in general, I don’t want to read love stories set during U.S. slavery. But there is one huge exception, and that is Beverly Jenkins (Lydia San Andreas is another exception, but I haven’t read much of her yet). Ms. Jenkins writes the most thorough, well-researched, non-problematic, historical romances I’ve ever read. It’s not just a romance, it’s a history lesson. Some take place before the Civil War, some just after, and they’re set all over the U.S. -- out west, up north, and across the south. Every time I read one of her historical romances, I learn something about the history of Black people in this country, and I love it.
Rebel was no exception. Rebel is set during the Reconstruction Era, after the Civil War, and our heroine, Valinda Lacy has moved to New Orleans from New York to help teach freedmen to read. Val is the kind of woman the term spitfire was made for. She’s sheltered and innocent, but super feisty and a big believer that women can do anything men can do. When we first meet Val, she is talking her way out of some trouble with white supremacists who have come to terrorize her school, and the way she handles that situation shows us how bold she’ll continue to be throughout the book.
Our hero is Drake LeVeq. Drake is tall and muscular with dark brown skin and a beard, i.e., sexy as hell. He’s got four brothers and is super close with his mother, who definitely taught him to respect strong women. Side note -- one of my favorite things about Beverly Jenkins is she is one of few authors I read who regularly write BWBM romance. So many authors write interracial relationships with Black women and men of different races, which are fine, too. But I love Black men as romantic leads. And I know others write them, so it’s on me to expand my horizons and find some more good ones.
Anyway, Drake is sexy, a fact that Val realizes immediately because she is neither blind nor dead. They get to know each other quickly after Valinda loses her room in a boarding house and Drake’s mother agrees to let the young teacher stay with her. The tension between Val and Drake builds beautifully through the story, with lots of flirting and pushing boundaries, but it’s clear that Drake is willing to take the relationship to whatever level Val will let him. And Val, free-thinking woman that she is, makes a choice to have some experiences with Drake that she knows she won’t have in the marriage of convenience she’s planning with a friend.
That marriage of convenience is the first obstacle to Val and Drake’s relationship (well, not the first -- the first is that she doesn’t believe in love at first, but you know she’ll get over that!). Val’s plan is that when her fiance returns from France with his business partner, he and Val will go back to New York to get married. But after meeting the LeVeq family, when the fiance arrives in New Orleans sort of unexpectedly, Val has to confront her feelings and make some tough decisions about what she wants out of life.
The second obstacle is Val’s overbearing father, who doesn’t believe women should be allowed to do anything without the permission of a man. He’s not too pleased with her choice of husband, nor her desire to be independent. But if you know anything about Valinda by now, you know she ain’t tryin’ to hear that. The resolution of that storyline is extremely satisfying, and left me proud of more than one character in the book.
There’s also so much history naturally woven throughout this story. We learn about the Freedmen’s Bureau, established to help recently-freed slaves find work, education, and other things they’d need for their new lives but hamstrung by politics and finances and other concerns. There are incidents of racial violence and fear-mongering, and shows of strength where the Black people in this story don’t allow themselves to be beaten down by that violence, but face it head-on (and dole out some violence of their own). There are lovely little touches of New Orleans culture, including discussion of some of the tension between former slaves and the free Creole community, and descriptions of gumbo or the celebratory-yet-mournful music accompanying a funeral procession.
I really enjoyed this story. Our hero and heroine have great chemistry, and Val builds strong female relationships during the story, too. The sex scenes are hot but sweet. I cared as much as about the overall storyline -- will Val get to stay in New Orleans and teach? -- as I did about the romance. Overall, just a sweet, fun, educational read that had me cheering for our heroine the whole time.
Categories: M/F, interracial relationships, contemporary romance, celebrity romance, love at first sight
So, I would like to begin by saying that I wish the first Mia Sosa book I was reviewing was The Worst Best Man, because I loved that one and didn’t love this one quite so much. I will review Worst Best Man soon. But I read this one more recently, and it is the review I have ready, so here it goes.
Acting on Impulse is the story of Tori Alvarez, an Afro-Latina woman--Puerto Rican, specifically--and Carter Stone, a white man with black hair and icy blue eyes. I do love the physical descriptions of the characters, and how Sosa (and therefore, Carter) doesn’t shy away from describing Tori’s muscular physique. She’s brown-skinned with dark curly hair, muscular legs and a great ass, and a big laugh. She works as a physical trainer in Philadelphia. Carter is an actor, and when we meet him he’s recently slimmed down for a movie role, so he’s fit but slender and pale, with a mountain man beard. Once he gets back into shape he’s all abs and muscular back and the things we want in our Hollywood hunks.
Carter sees Tori on a plane and falls in love at first sight. He is convinced from moment one that he will marry her someday. It was A Lot, even for a romantic like me. I think I’m learning that love-at-first-sight is one of the few fluffy tropes I don’t care for. But I actually really enjoyed his character throughout the book. He’s so genuine, he wears his heart totally on his sleeve, and he worries he’s not good enough (at anything, honestly) for people to really love him for him. I had a bit of a harder time getting into Tori’s character...there’s no one trait of hers that really stands out to me. She’s playful and funny though, which I really liked. And she’s a very dedicated, hard worker. But honestly, I’m more intrigued by Carter’s best friend/agent Julian and (separately) Tori’s best friend Eva than I am by Tori herself.
Tori and Carter are adorable getting to know each other in Aruba (that’s where they were headed on that initial flight). I think that’s where I liked them best -- Tori seemed so much more carefree there. Which makes sense -- she was on vacation and trying to leave her own worries behind until a major-minor deception from Carter sent her running back home, so of course she’s more closed off when he meets her again. She ends up in forced proximity with him when social media shenanigans lead to him hiring her as a personal trainer. They have really good chemistry -- Carter is sexy and he knows it, lol. I really enjoyed how playful they are together.
The big obstacle to their relationship is Tori’s unwillingness to be in the spotlight or to date someone who has to be in the public eye if it means she has to go along for the ride. Or at least, that’s what it seems for most of the book. But later, we realize that Carter’s trust issues are deeper than previously mentioned. He really thinks people might only like him because of his fame, while he also worries that he’s not good enough to be taken seriously as an actor. So even when we reach the point where Tori is doing her level best to give Hollywood life a try, Carter screws it up for them again.
Their big split happens almost 90% into the book, I think, so the resolution definitely feels rushed. After their fight, Tori goes to visit her family and in one 10 minute conversation they all address everything that’s been bothering them for years, all things she/they struggled to say earlier in the book. We have a bit of context for some Tori’s sh*t, but her sister’s revelations come out of absolutely nowhere. I am a fluff-queen, so I wanted to get all teary at the family love, but I just couldn’t get into it because it felt so out-of-the-blue. Meanwhile, on the other side of the country, Carter gives a big, revealing interview on an Inside the Actor’s Studio-type show, but since we’ve known he’s in it deep for Tori all along, it doesn’t feel like a revelation. The part about his motivations for acting and what he wants to get out of it is good, though...I really believed he was coming to terms with something he hadn’t been able to address before. So that was nice and felt like real growth.
Their make-up scene at the end is pretty cute, and they have a swoony kiss. Everyone’s dreams come true, and they get their HEAs.
Overall, I enjoyed this book. I think it’s a cute story, I liked the bits of Spanish and Puerto Rican food culture Sosa included, and Carter is an absolute doll, even after he f*cks things up (twice!). It was an easy read. I recommend it if you’re looking for something fun and fluffy, but as I said, I didn’t connect with Tori like I wanted to (ymmv!) and I didn’t feel we earned her family resolution.
Review: 3.5 kisses! 💋💋💋 + 1/2
(P.S. I feel crazy guilty giving a book less than 4 stars? But I think I have to do it at some point for my reviews to mean anything. I still found this book very enjoyable!)
↳ “If only you could talk to girls in equations.”There was a long silence, and then, eyes trained on the notch they’d created in the link, Wylan said, “Just girls?”Jesper restrained a grin. “No. Not just girls.”
So… I’m working on a mafia short to launch a new series. It’s called Beautiful & Dirty and I’m re-reading it today and liking it more than I remembered!
It releases on 5/15. It’s up for preorder for $0.99 and will be in Kindle Unlimited.
Blurb:
Shae
Here’s my advice for how to survive a vacation to Italy with the college boyfriend you’ve just now realized is terrible:
1. Ditch him in Rome.
2. Take the train to Naples for pizza.
3. Let the attractive older man you’ve just met buy you a drink.
4. Flirt a little (or a lot) while ignoring his wedding ring.
5. Let him bend you over a table.
6. Break up with your boyfriend.
–
Sal
There are a lot of ways to respond to the news that your wife is trying to kill you. I have sex with the young American who stumbles into my restaurant. And then I get revenge.
I’m not adding a link today because amazon workers are striking but here’s a snippet of a scene I like between Shae and Sal.
Based on my own reading/experience, here are some books with asexual leads by asexual authors that you might want if you want a focus on both those things.
We Awaken
An F/F interracial romance discusses asexual against the backdrop of lucid dreams and the loss of family. It was great to see two aces dating and what it means to each of them.
Tash Hearts Tolstoy
I personally haven’t read this one but would have likely adored it when I was younger. Ace vlogger adapts Anna Kerenina goes viral and with her literary love, Tolstoy, in the back of her mind navigates her new IRL crush.
Let’s Talk About Love
This book’s cover is made to look like an ace pride flag and to see a black girl as the protagonist and written by a debut black author is definitely a joy to see. Set in at college, this biromantic lead might appeal more to aces who things slightly more figured out.
gamechangershow
stormborns
vaporwave
tangentwithtanner
gummygunk
