📖Romance Books: reviews and recommendations📖 - Page 6

Book Title:

The Tarkhanov Empire #2:

Empress of Poisons

Author: Bree Porter

Year published: May 2021

Genre/s: dark romance, contemporary, adult

Tropes (if applicable): Mafia, surprise pregnancy, second chance,

Probable Triggers: violence, guns

Maturity rating (General audience/ teens/ Adult): Adult

Your personal rating (out of 5): 3.5 stars

Synopsis (a short spoiler-free blurb):

What is a Pakhan without an empress?

Three years have passed since the end of Kingpin's Foxglove. Elena Falcone has left her new family and the man she loves, destroying her own heart in the process...the only thing she has left is the blond-haired, green-eyed boy who calls her 'mama'.

When her son's life is jeopardized, Elena finds her way back into Konstantin's arms and is forced back into the world she once craved to be free from...

Since the betrayal that left his family tearing at the seams, Konstantin Tarkhanov has been fiercely ensuring his rule over Staten Island. In the midst of his growing darkness, a light forms in the shape of the woman who broke his heart...and the child they share.

However, Elena and Konstantin's reunion is darkened by the shadows of their enemies. Tensions are growing in New York City, families are ending and blood soaks the sidewalks...Will the Tarkhanov Bratva rise to glory or will this empire fall before it even begins?

Review:

Rating: 3.5 🌟🌟🌟💫

Writing: 🌟🌟🌟💫

Hero: 🌟🌟🌟💫

Heroine: 🌟🌟🌟💫

I absolutely loved the first book of the Tarkhanov Empire so I was looking forward to this second one to continue from where it ended. I wanted to give this a higher rating especially as the first one I devoured and absolutely loved so much but this just missed the spot.

Elena had gone on the run whilst being pregnant in the last book to save the family from Tatiana/Titus. I loved loved Elena in the first book, she was an enigma, an amazing scientist, she’d silently killed her father and was slowly poisoning her husband because they’d raised their hand on her. There was a ruthlessness underneath her and I was looking forward to it especially when it comes down to taking down Tatiana.

Elena was given a choice. By Tatiana/Titus.

Them or you. She’d chosen them meaning her family.

But then she returned to them putting them in supposed danger so I couldn’t wrap my head around that. Why did she run away then? Nothing really changed. No one had caught Titus/Tatiana yet.

I feel Elena’s thoughts were quite jumbled throughout and I hated when she couldn’t just spill to Konstantin as to why she left. I do also think, he should have figured it out considering she’d left the same night Tatiana had threatened to hurt Roksana and Danika. I wish they’d had just talked or Elena just told him the truth.

If she had, Konstantin wouldn’t have missed out on the 3 years of Nikolai’s life and he would have burned the world to protect Elena and their child if she simply had brought herself to tell him.

Bree Porter did keep me on edge wondering when Tatiana/Titus would appear and what her next move would be.

While I appreciated that Tatiana was portrayed as the most evil masterminded women that 5 Mafia Dons and their families couldn’t find her, I expected a brilliant downfall. One that included lots of gunshots, blood and gore. But there wasn’t anything. It was just so simple. And it wasn’t detailed. Which I did not like. I want details, I wanted to see how Elena fared being involved in her circle, how she got the information and passed it to Konstantin, how she was doing when she’s been separated from Nikolai. Her son whom she had not ever spent a day without.

Given the amount of dark mafia romances I’ve read, I do think that Bree Porter’s series are soft mafia romances. They’re mafia but there’s very little action and if there is some climactic scene, it is in the narrative or it’d be a page or two.

Konstantin I loved him in the first book like I did Elena but with this one, I felt there was a change to him. I wanted to see the ruthless Pakhan ruling but I didn’t get such scenes. There were some narratives when it was discussed amongst the family members in the beginning since Elena had left his side but we don’t see anymore of his brutal side. I wanted him to take revenge from Tatiana/Titus properly. She deserved a brutal end given what she had done.

I did enjoy the family moments. The relationship they all shared, Roman with Elena, Artyom with Roksana and his child. Konstantin with Elena and their son. I love how Bree Porter writes the family moments, the lightness and strong sense of familial connections during the breakfast was filled with emotion and warmth. My two most favourite was Elena with Nikolai. And the second was Konstantin with his niece Natalia. I am so so looking forward to a story about Natalia. She’s followed the footsteps of her uncle. Killed her father along with the other mob bosses so callously and taken the throne as Queen.

Do I want to read about a ruthless, callous, bloody Queen? Yes please!

Despite the few setbacks with some of the scenes and plots, I had enjoyed reading this book and look forward to more from Bree Porter. She has certainly come a long way following the debut of her Rochetti Dynasty which I’d absolutely loved.

Title: The Naked Fisherman

Author: Jewel E Ann

Year published: 2021

Genre/s: Contemporary romance, coming of age

Tropes (if applicable): Age gap, unrequited love, sort of taboo/forbidden

Probable Triggers: Religion, H is a manwh*re, h is a virgin, loss of a parent

Maturity rating: Adult

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis

It's official.

I'm eighteen and a young woman with endless possibilities on my way to reunite with my mom in Colorado after five years apart—she had a little weed incident in Nebraska.

At the airport, she springs the news on me ... she's leaving for a month of job training. And me? I'm left on my own in the basement she's renting from the fisherman, aka her landlord who lives upstairs.

He's ten years older than me. Never wears a shirt. And makes it hard to remember all the things I learned at Christian Academy.

Did I mention he’s also my new boss?

Review:

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Writing: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Hero: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Heroine: 🌟🌟🌟💫

Cliffhanger ending

“You deserve to have your breath taken away … every day.”

This is my second book by this author and it did not disappoint. It did start off slow and I considered just not finishing it. However, I continued. And I’m glad I did.

I really enjoyed this book once I got into it and couldn’t stop reading it until I finished.

Reece is a new adult, trying to figure things out. Her father had died, her mother was in prison for the last 5 years and now she’s reuniting with that mother.

Reece turns up to meet her mother, Rory and bumps into the Fisher Mann. Shirtless.

Fisher is also her mother’s friend/landlord and her mother lives in the basement.

Rory has to leave for a couple of weeks for work and has left them both alone.

Reece is bound by her religion, there’s physical and sexual attraction to Fisher but she’s so conflicted with her feelings to do with Fisher, religion and her love for God. I’m not too fond of religious conflict when it comes to romance novels as it’s supposed to be fiction and it’s just not my thing. However, the author has portrayed Reece’s feelings well. The angst, the conflict, the tension, the fear as well as the warm feelings she has, exploring new things with Fisher, trying to be good but teetering towards the edge of sinning. She’s 18, quite sheltered and struggles with some of the things she’d learned and it doesn’t come out right when she brings them to her lips.

I like that Fisher challenges her thoughts and pushes her to think for herself and not what others want, or how others think life should be like or how she should live.

Reece is annoyingly immature in quite a number of scenes, I get that she’s 18 and has been sheltered etc…. I do think the author did capture the feelings of a young adult because those first years of becoming an adult is filled with so much confusion and conflict and I think the author did a great job capturing that. 👏🏻 Even though it was aggravating.

I really loved Fisher. I wished we’d gotten his POV and I hope that in the second book, we would get to know more about him. This book was covered by Reece’s pov and her feelings, thoughts etc.

I can’t wait to jump into the second and hope it covers Fisher’s thoughts and feelings. I’m glad that the author addressed why he had felt an attraction to Reece. A new adult. Someone 10 years younger than him. It had thrown me a little reading their first scenes together and I questioned what on earth he’d seen in an 18 year old. His friend’s/tenant’s daughter. So I was glad that was addressed and I felt at ease a little.

I’m excited for the conclusion of their story and I can’t wait to read what else is in store. Especially to read what changes have occurred in the 5 years.

Originally posted by: LizzieBennet

Book Title: Partners in Crime

Author: Alisha Rai

Year Published: 2022

Genre: Contemporary M/F Romance, Crime thriller

Trope/s: Second chance romance, Forced proximity, Fish out of water? (For Naveen), Fake dating (to an extent)

Probably triggers: Child neglect? Child persecution/ forced labour?

Maturity Rating: Adult

Personal Rating: 2.5

Synopsis: Amira Patel has been a disappointment to everyone around her- from her latest hook-up to her powerhouse matchmaker, whose perfect average for successful jodis she has single-handedly managed to destroy having turned down a dozen matches and being turned down by the last one. She's only ever regretted one, and is convinced her nefarious past will always come in the way of her finding her perfect match.

Naveen Desai is trying to get his life back on track by fixing his grandfather's law firm after facing heartbreak twice, being in rehab and trying to navigate his complicated familial relationships. He couldn't have dreamt that his staid existence would be shaken up when he's visited by an ex-flame, one who he's never completely gotten over, in connection with her aunt's legacy.

As they're both sucked into a mad adventure filled with road trips, strip clubs, gun-toting gangsters, storage chests, diamonds and illegal poker games, and more and more about Amira's colorful past is revealed, Naveen begins to question if ever knew this woman he'd once dated. And Amira, who had despaired of ever finding that perfect someone who would understand her, might just be convinced he's been with her every step of the way along this life-threatening but madcap adventure.

Review: I saw a tweet that said this book had been picked up by Mindy Kaling to be made into a movie (I haven't found a source to confirm this) and they were fancasting Dev Patel and Simone Ashley for the roles of Amira and Naveen. I've been wanting to read more PoC and especially Indian authors with Indian MCs and I can say the blurb intrigued me enough to pick this one up. Then the first page had this image of Naveen, and I was further sucked in! 😆

Unfortunately, it was rather a damp squib. I think the author packed in too much into this one. It was less romance and more thriller in the end and perhaps my disappointment stemmed from that, because I went all in thinking it would be a romance. Not that I mind romantic thrillers - I love them. But the characters here come off as so one-dimensional. There are random facts thrown in about them and nothing comes of it, and at other times when they're in a tight spot, some major trait is revealed that helps pull them out of it. It almost seems like a deus-ex-machina. And I would be able to overlook it if it happened once or twice but it was sprinkled all across the book that it became exhausting. This was entirely plot-driven and the plot itself had too many loopholes. I think the author wanted to shock and awe with the final reveal and she may just have done that if the build-up had been half as riveting. I wanted to like Naveen and Amira and root for their HEA but they weren't developed enough for me to do that. We hear about their backstories (more Amira's since the plot is intricately woven around it) but they're not fleshed out enough. In the end, I just couldn't warm to Amira. I liked Naveen more. I wish there had been more heart-to-heart talks, I wish I was more convinced why Amira walked away from Naveen in the first place, I wish I understood why Naveen had to go into rehab, I wish I knew what attracted them to each other (besides the physical aspect), I wish for so many things that could have made this better for me. And the steamy scenes were yuck 🤢, not well- written at all. I couldn’t even buy into their attraction. It was too much plot and not enough character/ description.

In the end, the only thing that allowed me to finish it was imagining a bearded Dev Patel as Naveen 😆. Simone as Amira did not work because they just don't match physically. If they ever make a movie, I do hope Dev is in it. I might just watch it. 😳

Another novel being made into a movie? Yeh bhi parhna parega ab😆 I might read this before the other one, since it's not a series.

Originally posted by: la_Reine

Another novel being made into a movie? Yeh bhi parhna parega ab😆 I might read this before the other one, since it's not a series.

Originally posted by: LizzieBennet

I rarely feel this way but I think this is one book that will work better as a movie if they get actors with the right chemistry.to play Naveen and Amira.

I enjoy thrillers just as much as romance, so this is like a combo of my fav genres, I hope I enjoy the book😳

Title: The Lost Fisherman

Author: Jewel E Ann

Year published: 2021

Genre/s: Contemporary romance, coming of age

Tropes (if applicable): Age gap, unrequited love, second chance love story

Probable Triggers: Death of parent, religion, miscarriage, cheating,/affair, amnesia, vehicle accident, other woman/other man intimate scenes

Maturity rating: Adult

Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis

It’s been five years since I’ve seen him. An unexpected event takes me back to the place where it all began.

But I’m no longer the naive young woman he once knew. And he’s no longer the man who took nearly everything from me.

Can this be our time? Or is it too late? Did I find myself only to lose him?

Review:

Rating: 4 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Writing: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Hero: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

Heroine: 🌟🌟🌟🌟

HEA

“A true second-chance romance. Falling in love with the same person twice. Each time, feeling brand new. No memories of the first time. Just … something about that person that makes you fall in love with them. Every. Single. Time. That chilling kind of love that maybe does last more than one lifetime. The truest definition of soul mate".

OMG! My heart has taken a battering of sorts with this.

I love Reece and her lost fisherman!

It's been 5 years since they have met and when Reece comes back into his life due to sudden incident.

Fisher has no memories of their past. He doesn't remember falling in love with her during the time she'd lived with him for a few months before she'd left to go on a mission trip.

Reece has changed over the years. She's matured and thinks for herself rather than battling with religion and what she wants to do. She's experienced so much and grown to be a wonderful woman who is a midwife. She helps bring new mothers bring their babies into the world.

The author just swiped their past and had them start from the beginning

Fisher doesn't remember much following the accident. He remembers Rory and Rose, his family but he does not remember Angie, his fiance or Reece, the woman he'd loved and let go.

”The only memories of my past I want to get back…are the ones of you.”

It was just a rollercoaster, there was angst and so many feels.

I'd bounced between disliking Fisher and Reece, sympathising Angie to loving them again. It really did challenge me given the cheating sort of aspect to it. I did love this book a tiny little more than the first. Reece is not immature and it focused more on the story than physical attraction and how much she'd wanted to jump his bones.

It compelled me to think from all points of views, despite the fact that we were only getting Reece's thoughts.

“I know how I want it to end right now. But I’m so f*cking scared of the plot twist because there are just too many chapters left. And I no longer trust life and its plot twists.”

"I'm in love with a woman I've know for a breath, maybe two."

I really did want to understand Fisher so much though. I wanted to be inside his head, understand how he felt because his family and friends are telling him things. his finace is telling him things and hoping he would just remember and accept it. Things would go back to normal this way. So I really hoped we would get his thoughts but we didn't.

Fisher seemed to have like a crush on Reece and I really enjoyed the begining of their second chance love story.

I was conflicted a little when it came to the new slate. Reece doesn't tell the truth to Fisher of how they know each other except saying she's the daughter of his friend and he had helped her out with a job etc. She'd thought from Angie's point of view, sympathised with her but she still went ahead and made memories with Fisher.

But when it came down to it. I was biased. I loved Reece and Fisher together. The new memories they created were just so fulfilling. This is what Reece longed and wanted from 5 years ago. I loved how she shared their love story to him without him knowing she was talking about him. The trimming of his beard, the target shopping, the Mcdonalds trip, the crossword puzzles.

"I love you today"

I loved those words from Fisher. Every time he said it, I had butterflies.

I was so satisfied when the truth came out to Reece's mother. That scene and the moments that followed were amazing. I loved how it was handled and portrayed. It was realistic.

And he remembers! He remembers their love story. That was so emotional especially with how it had been portrayed, the angst in those scenes and them finally coming together.

Those final pages and that epilogue! Oh finally, we got Fisher's thoughts. And I absolutely loved it!

If I could, I would've highlighted, printed and posted this on a frame. When it neared the 80 percent mark, I did wonder whether this was going to be one with a tragic end to their love story but the author did not disappoint.

"You're one, Fisher"

"One in what?"

"Not in anything. Not one in eighty thousand. Not one in a billion times infinity. You're just one. The one."

Book Title: Husband

Author: Penelope Sky

Year published: 2019

Genre/s: Dark romance, romantic suspense

Tropes (if applicable): Arranged marriage, unrequited love,

Probable Triggers: Drugs, prostitution, mention of r*pe, guns, flesh trade, kidnapped, abuse

Maturity rating: Adult

Your personal rating (out of 5): 3.5 stars

Synopsis (a short spoiler-free blurb):

Two years of bitter loneliness have passed. The woman I love is now the woman I hate. I lose myself in beautiful women every night and tell myself that fortune reading was nothing but a scam.

But then her mother asks me to marry her.

I say yes.

Now this woman will be mine forever.

Maybe the prophecy really is true. I’m committing to a woman that will never love me in return.

But it was better to be her husband than allow someone else to take my place. It was better to conquer her body every night than be lonely with someone else.

Much better.

Review:

Rating: 🌟🌟🌟💫

Writing: 🌟🌟🌟💫

Hero: 🌟🌟🌟💫

Heroine: 🌟🌟🌟💫

Cliffhanger ending.

Husband picked up where wife left off.

Hades and Sophia are about to be married. I was really looking forward to this one wanting to see the development of this couple.

I enjoyed reading about Sofia in the last one. She was strong, intelligent, independent.

I loved how she'd not given into Hades and was stubborn in not wanting to fall in love with him nor believing in it.

In this one, I don't think the author did her justice.

Sofia's character nosedived into a damsel in distress which I was not happy about. I hated the scene in the boardroom where she was making her presentation, barely of the men paid attention to her save for the two, and only when Hades entered and had threatened them did they listen and pay attention to her.

I wanted her to command their attention with her presence. I wanted to see her in action as the owner of the hotel now.

I wanted that powerful aura but we do not get it here.

Hades is still madly in love with her, but I feel he fails to show her.

I appreciate a good steamy scene, I'm all for it but I think he just loves taking her in the bed. And its pages and pages of it. I just ended up skipping hoping to see scenes of them at least getting to know each other and a plot developing.

They don't really spend time together, getting to know each other, just talking, or maybe dancing or even a dinner away with just the both of them. There was only maybe one or two moments when Hades opened himself up to her and told her about his past but he returned to his closed self soon after.

I did appreciate how he'd went on his quest to find out about if there was some curse on as to why Sofia might not love him. He seemed genuinely hurt, distressed and was really willing to do anything in order to gain Sofia's love so I did enjoy those scenes.

Hades is supposed to be powerful, well known drug dealer, killer that everyone is afraid of crossing but somehow his rivals has one over on him and has him by the crotch and Hades agrees to give up his business, his money, his everything. You'd think he'd burn the world, kill his rival in the most merciless way somehow, and use his dead bones as sticks for his drum set if he had one. But it was just so not the fearful Hades that he's supposed to be. So I was quite disappointed with that.

I was a little annoyed this ended on a cliffhanger since I had another series that I really wanted to start. And there's another 2 more books to their story, hopefully it will be fairly quick easy reads like the first two.

Book Title: Act your age, Eve Brown (Brown Sisters Trilogy #3)

Author: Talia Hibbert

Year Published: 2021

Genre: Contemporary M/F Romance

Narrative Type: Linear, Third Person, Alternating PoVs

Trope/s: Boss-employee, Enemies-to-friends-to-lovers, Grumpy-Sunshine, Forced Proximity (Shared living space)

Maturity Rating: Adult

Personal rating: 4.5

Synopsis: Eve Brown is big, Black, beautiful, badass but also a butterfly who flits and floats and freely flies through every job she's ever had. And not just jobs, she has pretty much done this through school too - dropping out of performing arts school, then law school, then teacher school 😆. When her last job (wedding planner) also meets an untimely death thanks to some starving doves that needed to be freed, her parents give her an ultimatum - hold down a job for a year and stop acting like a privileged brat or be chucked out of the trust fund they've set up for her. Eve is seething with righteous anger and she drives straight out of London to the Lake District and enters the town of Skybriar on a whim because it sounds like a fairytale. And Voila! She finds a job vacancy for a chef at a charming B & B called Castell Cottage. Almost like an unseen fairy godmother has blessed her. Never mind that it is pouring like a bat out of hell and she is soaked. Until she meets Mr. Grumpy (Or Mr. Bitchy McBitcherson) himself, Jacob Wayne, owner of said B & B who is not impressed by her lack of a CV and even less by her abysmal driving skills which might have something to do with him being knocked down by her car and her being thankful he wasn’t a puppy😀. Jacob ends up with his right hand in a cast and having committed to a stall at the annual Pemberton Gingerbread festival (kind of a big deal event), leaves him no choice but to hire Eve as chef. Even if he hasn't yet tested out her cooking skills. (Sidenote: he gets to test out her 'other' skills too but mostly he gets to try out his skills on her! 😆). The two go from being enemies to a tentative friendship and the next step is obviously being lovers. But Jacob's lack of a stable childhood has left him somewhat traumatised and Eve has lots to prove about being responsible to herself and her family. Is there a happily-ever-after for them?

Review: Let me Squeal first! AHHHHHHHHHH EEEEEEE! I freaking loved this book! ❤️

I've been recommended this series by so many people (I've lost count actually) so I've had this in my TBR for a while. Idk why I started with Book #3. Perhaps because the blurb seemed to be the most intriguing. It also was the highest rated on GR - which I usually never go by, but it did give me the impetus to read this. This was a somewhat slow read for me, I kept putting it down and that made me think initially that it wasn't as compelling as some other romances I've read. But I had this stupid grin on my face when I finished it, and also a lot of LOL moments throughout when I was reading, and it also got me sniffling a bit. So all in all, a pretty satisfying experience for a romance. The slow reading was just due to real-life getting in the way and a possible burnout from reading so much lately. But it allowed me to savour this book more. And there was a lot to savour because Hibbert's language is so quirky and funny and there is a lot of detail. And also it's quintessentially Brit which was another refreshing change cos I've been reading a lot of American authors recently.

Hibbert is also Black so she checks off the WoC author self-imposition I had set myself.

Plus the leads are both Autistic which is a representation that was absolutely welcome.

Eve is also plus-sized which is again a representation you don't see much and I love how that is never alluded to and never a point of contention for anyone. She is beautiful to Jacob right from the get-go.

She is also quirky with her purple hair and her hilariously captioned orange T-shirts. TL;DR she is delightful (and very self-aware of this fact, she reminded me of Jab We Met's Geet here 😆), but she's also a hot mess.

Jacob - OHHHH.EMMMM.GEEE. This guy. This GUY. THIS G.U.Y! He's so adorable I want to wrap him up in a blanket and keep him safe from all evil. He's also boyfriend goals. Lucky, lucky Eve. But also, lucky Jacob because rarely have I read stories in which both MCs are so friggin' cute.

I love how in sync they are. That comfort is evident even in their initial banter. They never have to hide their true selves around each other. And the banter is delicious even when the initial animosity (really shortlived) dissolves.

“If you ever call me sweet again, I’ll report you to HR.”

“Who’s HR?”

“I’m HR.”

Jacob is stiff, exacting and anal-retentive and Eve does not mince words telling him so even while she sneaks into his office space and makes it her temporary living space. Even when she uses his soap and shares his bathroom. Even when she feeds bread to the evil waterfowl in his pond causing him to chase after them shirtless and causing her to fall into the above-mentioned pond, that in turn causes him to pull her out with his one good hand, algae and slime notwithstanding. With me so far?

He's also anal about how tight the sheets fit. So as his only employee and with him having only good hand, Eve gets a lesson in fitting sheets. She also reads each of his Employee handbooks starting with How not to f*ck up my health rating to Locals love money, much to his amazement. Because he wrote them himself for himself because he does not understand social cues, sarcasm and jokes. But he certainly cracks a lot of them around Eve.

Oh this man notices everything about her. Including how she hums randomly and brings up stimming. Not directly, because he couldn't do that. But he helps her find a vital part of herself and explain why she is the way she is.

What I love about Jacob is how he puts Eve first, her needs are paramount for him. He's ever so careful about not crossing a line. And he's always ready to apologize. Always.

“He was going to apologize so goddamn hard, and then some more, and then some more, just to really emphasize the point.”

And how much he respects her and thinks the world of her and she sees it.

“You do that a lot, too.” Her glossy lips tipped up into a smile. “The whole ‘respecting me’ bit.”

He's the fiercest soldier in the Eve Brown Defense Squad and I love that for her.

“Apparently, he couldn’t bear to hear Eve Brown criticized. Not even by herself.”

Jacob's fears of rejection stem from how his parents unceremoniously dumped him with his aunt cause he was cramping their nomadic lifestyle. And also because....

“Jacob didn’t like people easily, but once he did like them, it was always too far and too fast. He had to temper himself, had to be careful.”

The sex scenes are cute. I know this is a strange description because they are explicit. But at the same time there is a touch of realism to them, they talk a lot and say the funniest shit and that makes it all the more endearing. I enjoyed them and it was a refreshing change again from the usual hot girl and hot guy boning hotly stuff that you normally read.

When the final conflict popped up, I rolled my eyes at first, because I was like - nope. This is just unnecessary drama. Jacob wouldn't do this to the woman he loves. I began badmouthing the author for ruining a character I'd come to love. And then, in a few pages, I realized Hibbert loves Jacob as much as I do. And she knows Jacob better than anyone else (save for Eve). Because the resolution is so freaking cute I can't. I wanted to hug both of them. And then I wanted to say this :

This book was to me all that a good, fluffy romance should be. I was rooting so hard for their HEA because I cared about both of them and I could see how much they cared about each other.

I mean how can you resist an MMC who thinks like this?

“But Jacob couldn’t see a world in which he didn’t try his f*cking hardest for Eve Brown, and if that meant setting himself up for the most brutal rejection of his life, well. He supposed he’d just have to deal with it.”

And how do you resist an FMC who lays her heart on the line like this?

“You are so brave and you are absolutely beautiful and I’m so happy you’re here, and anyone who doesn’t want you as much as you want them is a f*cking donut, Jacob, because you are just the most wantable man on planet Earth.”

I also loved all the ancillary characters: Mont, Alex, Tessa, Aunt Lucy, Gigi, Shivani, and Chloe and Dani and their boyfriends.

I'm absolutely going to be reading Chloe and Dani's stories because they also have inter-racial non-neurotypical leads. So yayy! Wait for those reviews.

Originally posted by: LizzieBennet

Book Title: Act your age, Eve Brown (Brown Sisters Trilogy #3)

Author: Talia Hibbert

This sounds like my kinda book that I terribly need during this time. I need a good laugh and a good romance. And I love a different representation than the usual caucasian fmcs with striking doe eyes and brunette or blonde wavy locks 😂 I love all the tropes mentioned here. Grumpy sunshine - LOVE IT. That is one of my favourite tropes.

I thought I was having a great streak with some of the recent reads I had on my list.
I think my luck ran out. I started Haunting Adeline and Oh dear God! I really should've paid mind to the stupid triggers so took a break from that!! I questioned WTF is wrong with me so many times.

I then took a break and decided to try another book, this was an audiobook that I started whilst I cooked. Savage beginnings and I regret listening to that. JL Beck and C Hallman have not disappointed me much before with their other books, but the female narrator for this book, I have a mind to write to the authors letting them know the female narrator is absolutely rubbish. She pauses after every single sentence so nothing flows. Whereas the male narrator is doing quite well for his part, except when he comes to speak in the FMC's speeches and his voice sounds like a squeek 😂. I'm 25% in and close to doing a DNF for this. I'm going to try reading it on my KU and see if its better as I read it. Thank goodness this was part of my Scribd membership else I'd have regretted buying the audible because that shit is expensive.

Okay, rant over. This is going on my list! 😂

Originally posted by: LizzieBennet

Book Title: Act your age, Eve Brown (Brown Sisters Trilogy #3)

Author: Talia Hibbert

Year Published: 2021

Genre: Contemporary M/F Romance

Narrative Type: Linear, Third Person, Alternating PoVs

Trope/s: Boss-employee, Enemies-to-friends-to-lovers, Grumpy-Sunshine, Forced Proximity (Shared living space)

Maturity Rating: Adult

Personal rating: 4.5

Synopsis: Eve Brown is big, Black, beautiful, badass but also a butterfly who flits and floats and freely flies through every job she's ever had. And not just jobs, she has pretty much done this through school too - dropping out of performing arts school, then law school, then teacher school 😆. When her last job (wedding planner) also meets an untimely death thanks to some starving doves that needed to be freed, her parents give her an ultimatum - hold down a job for a year and stop acting like a privileged brat or be chucked out of the trust fund they've set up for her. Eve is seething with righteous anger and she drives straight out of London to the Lake District and enters the town of Skybriar on a whim because it sounds like a fairytale. And Voila! She finds a job vacancy for a chef at a charming B & B called Castell Cottage. Almost like an unseen fairy godmother has blessed her. Never mind that it is pouring like a bat out of hell and she is soaked. Until she meets Mr. Grumpy (Or Mr. Bitchy McBitcherson) himself, Jacob Wayne, owner of said B & B who is not impressed by her lack of a CV and even less by her abysmal driving skills which might have something to do with him being knocked down by her car and her being thankful he wasn’t a puppy😀. Jacob ends up with his right hand in a cast and having committed to a stall at the annual Pemberton Gingerbread festival (kind of a big deal event), leaves him no choice but to hire Eve as chef. Even if he hasn't yet tested out her cooking skills. (Sidenote: he gets to test out her 'other' skills too but mostly he gets to try out his skills on her! 😆). The two go from being enemies to a tentative friendship and the next step is obviously being lovers. But Jacob's lack of a stable childhood has left him somewhat traumatised and Eve has lots to prove about being responsible to herself and her family. Is there a happily-ever-after for them?

Review: Let me Squeal first! AHHHHHHHHHH EEEEEEE! I freaking loved this book! ❤️

I've been recommended this series by so many people (I've lost count actually) so I've had this in my TBR for a while. Idk why I started with Book #3. Perhaps because the blurb seemed to be the most intriguing. It also was the highest rated on GR - which I usually never go by, but it did give me the impetus to read this. This was a somewhat slow read for me, I kept putting it down and that made me think initially that it wasn't as compelling as some other romances I've read. But I had this stupid grin on my face when I finished it, and also a lot of LOL moments throughout when I was reading, and it also got me sniffling a bit. So all in all, a pretty satisfying experience for a romance. The slow reading was just due to real-life getting in the way and a possible burnout from reading so much lately. But it allowed me to savour this book more. And there was a lot to savour because Hibbert's language is so quirky and funny and there is a lot of detail. And also it's quintessentially Brit which was another refreshing change cos I've been reading a lot of American authors recently.

Hibbert is also Black so she checks off the WoC author self-imposition I had set myself.

Plus the leads are both Autistic which is a representation that was absolutely welcome.

Eve is also plus-sized which is again a representation you don't see much and I love how that is never alluded to and never a point of contention for anyone. She is beautiful to Jacob right from the get-go.

She is also quirky with her purple hair and her hilariously captioned orange T-shirts. TL;DR she is delightful (and very self-aware of this fact, she reminded me of Jab We Met's Geet here 😆), but she's also a hot mess.

Jacob - OHHHH.EMMMM.GEEE. This guy. This GUY. THIS G.U.Y! He's so adorable I want to wrap him up in a blanket and keep him safe from all evil. He's also boyfriend goals. Lucky, lucky Eve. But also, lucky Jacob because rarely have I read stories in which both MCs are so friggin' cute.

I love how in sync they are. That comfort is evident even in their initial banter. They never have to hide their true selves around each other. And the banter is delicious even when the initial animosity (really shortlived) dissolves.

“If you ever call me sweet again, I’ll report you to HR.”

“Who’s HR?”

“I’m HR.”

Jacob is stiff, exacting and anal-retentive and Eve does not mince words telling him so even while she sneaks into his office space and makes it her temporary living space. Even when she uses his soap and shares his bathroom. Even when she feeds bread to the evil waterfowl in his pond causing him to chase after them shirtless and causing her to fall into the above-mentioned pond, that in turn causes him to pull her out with his one good hand, algae and slime notwithstanding. With me so far?

He's also anal about how tight the sheets fit. So as his only employee and with him having only good hand, Eve gets a lesson in fitting sheets. She also reads each of his Employee handbooks starting with How not to f*ck up my health rating to Locals love money, much to his amazement. Because he wrote them himself for himself because he does not understand social cues, sarcasm and jokes. But he certainly cracks a lot of them around Eve.

Oh this man notices everything about her. Including how she hums randomly and brings up stimming. Not directly, because he couldn't do that. But he helps her find a vital part of herself and explain why she is the way she is.

What I love about Jacob is how he puts Eve first, her needs are paramount for him. He's ever so careful about not crossing a line. And he's always ready to apologize. Always.

“He was going to apologize so goddamn hard, and then some more, and then some more, just to really emphasize the point.”

And how much he respects her and thinks the world of her and she sees it.

“You do that a lot, too.” Her glossy lips tipped up into a smile. “The whole ‘respecting me’ bit.”

He's the fiercest soldier in the Eve Brown Defense Squad and I love that for her.

“Apparently, he couldn’t bear to hear Eve Brown criticized. Not even by herself.”

Jacob's fears of rejection stem from how his parents unceremoniously dumped him with his aunt cause he was cramping their nomadic lifestyle. And also because....

“Jacob didn’t like people easily, but once he did like them, it was always too far and too fast. He had to temper himself, had to be careful.”

The sex scenes are cute. I know this is a strange description because they are explicit. But at the same time there is a touch of realism to them, they talk a lot and say the funniest shit and that makes it all the more endearing. I enjoyed them and it was a refreshing change again from the usual hot girl and hot guy boning hotly stuff that you normally read.

When the final conflict popped up, I rolled my eyes at first, because I was like - nope. This is just unnecessary drama. Jacob wouldn't do this to the woman he loves. I began badmouthing the author for ruining a character I'd come to love. And then, in a few pages, I realized Hibbert loves Jacob as much as I do. And she knows Jacob better than anyone else (save for Eve). Because the resolution is so freaking cute I can't. I wanted to hug both of them. And then I wanted to say this :

This book was to me all that a good, fluffy romance should be. I was rooting so hard for their HEA because I cared about both of them and I could see how much they cared about each other.

I mean how can you resist an MMC who thinks like this?

“But Jacob couldn’t see a world in which he didn’t try his f*cking hardest for Eve Brown, and if that meant setting himself up for the most brutal rejection of his life, well. He supposed he’d just have to deal with it.”

And how do you resist an FMC who lays her heart on the line like this?

“You are so brave and you are absolutely beautiful and I’m so happy you’re here, and anyone who doesn’t want you as much as you want them is a f*cking donut, Jacob, because you are just the most wantable man on planet Earth.”

I also loved all the ancillary characters: Mont, Alex, Tessa, Aunt Lucy, Gigi, Shivani, and Chloe and Dani and their boyfriends.

I'm absolutely going to be reading Chloe and Dani's stories because they also have inter-racial non-neurotypical leads. So yayy! Wait for those reviews.

Oh I think this series has been on my TBR for the longest time too. It looks entertaining!❤️