Barrel Proof (Agents Irish and Whiskey #3), Layla Reyne

This whole series feels like you've just tuned into season 3 of a TV show about crime and drama in the FBI. When we met Aidan in book one, he'd already lost his husband and partner, and there was a whole huge family and set of friends who showed up repeatedly to contribute to the plot. So it makes sense that in this book, the "season finale," most of those characters show up again. It makes the resolution of the plot a little bit crowded; instead of focusing on Jaime and Aidan's relationship, which falls apart for very good reason at the beginning of this book, it has a lot of plot to deal with. I was happy at how their conflict resolved, and very pleased they got together. It just felt more like a season finale of an ongoing show than the final resolution of a trilogy of books.

Grade:B
#62 in 2017

Spectred Isle (Green Men #1), KJ Charles

I am so glad this is the start of a series -- I liked both of the characters and this world so much. Set just after WWI, Saul is an archaeologist who lost his reputation and job in the war after making a very bad decision; Randolph is the mysterious stranger he can't stop running into. They meet at mysterious situation after mysterious situation. The only job Saul could get was working for a crazy old man who thinks magic is real, and Randolph turns out to be a man who fought in the magical battles of WWI. Both men are different, damaged people on the other side of WWI; both have lost nearly everyone they loved or cared about.

This is a magic action-adventure story, and also a historical romance. Randolph doesn't care what anyone thinks of him because he's from a wealthy, ancient family. Saul doesn't have that privilege. but their growing relationship is lovely, as is the promise of their future adventures together. It's exciting and scary and sexy and I'm excited for the rest of the series.

Grade:B
#61 in 2017

Single Malt, and Cask Strength (Agents Irish and Whiskey #1 and #2), Layla Rayne

The summer of reading tons of romance novels and Dunnett continues! I liked the first book so much! I love a romance novel that's also action-adventure, and this has lots of mystery and clues and sudden reveals of bad guys. Both protagonists were well-drawn and complex, and it made sense for them to want each other, and to have serious challenges getting together. Aidan's husband was killed mysteriously eight months earlier, and he's not over it yet. Jaime's handsome and charming and a little famous, and being in a relationship will be public and uncomfortable. As I finished this book I said out loud to myself, "How many of these are there? I'm going to read ALL of them."

There is a little telling instead of showing in the first couple of chapters, and a few too many uses of nicknames (something that bugs me a lot because romances seem to rely so heavily on it), but overall I liked this a lot, and I immediately bought the sequel, so...

I liked the second one even more. There are amazing tropes here. Aidan and Jaime have gotten together, but promised to keep it casual (and Aiden is sleeping with a bunch of other dudes, to remind himself not to get too attached to Jaime, which is breaking Jaime's heart a little). Jaime has to go undercover as himself; he was previously a basketball player, and the FBI asks him to be himself, as a coach, to bust an online gambling ring. Jaime misses his old life and of course runs into the ex-boyfriend who broke his heart, while Aidan is pretending to cozy up to a suspect. The pining is magnificent, as are the dark secrets. 

When I got to the end I immediately pre-ordered the third one, which luckily is coming out next month. This is just what I wanted on my summer vacation. 

Grade: B 

#59 and #60 in 2017

All I Have (A Farmers' Market Story #1)

This is very sweet. One thing I love about Nicole Helm's writing is that she gets the claustrophobia of growing up in a small town. Just like Mia, I was a smart, awkward girl in a very small farming town, who was consistently unable to make friends or figure out how to be "like everyone else." Actually, now that I think about it, I also came home and hooked up with a guy from school who was working on his family farm. We didn't end up madly in love and buying a farm together, but this book captures the despair of always being the person you were in high school. 

I wish this story were longer; I wish the fight at the end had been a little more complicated and harder to resolve. But this is a lovely read that is the best kind of wish fulfillment.

Grade: B

#58 in 2017

Heart of the Steal, Avon Gale and Roan Parrish

This is a really cute book, and I enjoyed it a lot. It's worth noting, I think, that it's NOT a book about an art thief and an FBI agent who fall in love in spite of their professions; it's mostly about an established relationship that struggles because the two protagonists have different moral compasses. Vaughn isn't an art thief, he's rich, and he's a little spoiled, and he doesn't see why Will, who works for the FBI, doesn't want him to use his clout to get Will everything he's ever wanted. I really like stories about vaguely amoral rich people who want to give their partners everything and destroy their enemies. It just wasn't the story I was expecting.

(Also I think the authors were more interested in one protagonist than the other, which bled through a little bit.)

Grade: C
#57 in 2017

White Hot (Hidden Legacy #2), Ilona Andrews

It really, really bugged me at the end of the 1st book in this series, when our heroine, Nevada, told her family that Connor Rogan was a sociopath and a dangerous killer, and they replied "Ohhhh, when are you getting MAAAARRIED?" I know it's a romance novel trope to have a big interfering family, and it can be cute when it's done right. But when it ignores a character's very real concerns, and isn't rooted in anything but "he's hot" (they KNOW he's a murderer and maybe dangerous) it reads to me as disrespectful instead of cute. 

Guess what THIS book is also full of.

The politics and the backstory here take up a LOT of the action, and it's confusing and too much. Nevada is still a great narrator, but the rest of the book mostly feels like set up for the third book instead of a story. Rogan is ALWAYS described as "male" or "masculine" or "terrifying" or "looming" or "huge." Honestly, I was picturing Beast from Beauty and the Beast rather than a human man, and the attempt to humanize his behavior at the end of the book didn't work for me, either. I read it because I was hoping to enjoy it more than the first book,but I found it frustrating, unconvincing, and relatively boring. Oh, well.

Grade: D
#56 in 2017

Hello Forever, Sarina Bowen

This is a sweet piece of fluff from Sarina Bowen's back catalog about two guys who met (and kissed) at church camp as teens, then lost touch, and now have reconnected as adults working in the same college town. One is a basketball marketer, and it very much feels like a warm-up version of Him, one of my favorite romance novels ever.

There isn't a ton to this story -- I liked the conflict, because it was rooted in a real reason why one of the heroes couldn't just come out as gay, and why he was a secret virgin. I had a little trouble buying that their names were Cax and Axel, and by the end the drama, and bad guy, had ramped up to a level that wasn't really believable and didn't really make sense. But it was still a sweet story and a fun trope.

Grade: C
#55 in 2017

The Ruin of a Rake, Cat Sebastian

Cat Sebastian might be my favorite new author. She writes wonderful historical m/m romances, that are satisfyingly of-their-time and also satisfyingly romantic, about people who like each other and need each other and make each other better. In this one we have a rake and a rogue who needs to improve his reputation after a novel is published about his exploits, so that he can keep seeing his beloved nephew (right now he's a "bad influence). And we have a stuffy very proper businessman who has struggled to make himself acceptable to high society without a title, who has built levels of polish and veneer between himself and the world so that he's protected. One offers to help the other repair his reputation, and once they have to spend time with each other they can not only hlep, but protect each other. It's absolutely lovely, and I liked it so much.

Grade: A
#52 in 2017

Breakaway (Scoring Chances #1), Avon Gale

Another m/m hockey romance, which I enjoyed, mostly because I really liked Jared Shore. He's a grizzled old veteran of the minor minor leagues, who loves hockey but knows his time playing is almost up. He mets Lane, a hot young prospect, who convinces him to not only get into a relationship, but to try and have the best season of his life, remember what he loves about hockey.

What worked less for me was Lane, who was aggressively weird in a way that made reading his dialogue difficult and confusing sometimes. I fully expected the book to address it somehow, telling us that Lane was on the spectrum, which would have been fine and interesting, but mostly it was hard to follow the conversations, and instead of fun and quirky it was distracting. It's also weird that he'd never had any friends -- almost like an alien dropped into the story, rather than a character with a  background. (His resolution with his parents was also very easy after a whole book of angst.)

Grade: C
#49 in 2017

Empty Net (Scoring Chances #4), Avon Gale

I mean this is the most positive possible way: reading this m/m romance felt like reading fic.

This book was recommended to me because "Laurent is my type of character," which is true (and not the only time that's happened with a character named Laurent). Hockey romance isn't generally my thing, but it's a big enough subgenre that I've read a few, and this one is very enjoyable. Isaac Drake is an out-and-proud captain of a minor-minor hockey team, and then his arch enemy , who spit on him and called him slurs last season gets transferred to his team. Will they learn to work together? Will it turn out that his icy nightmare of a rival, Laurent St. Savoy, has dark secrets and is actually not THAT bad after all? Yeah, of course.

The drama is a little bit over the top (Laurent's backstory is VERY dark, he's dealing with an eating disorder, Isaac was kicked out of his house for being gay and struggles with telling Laurent that he used to do sex work to survive) but the emotional heart of the story is very real. There's a moment toward the end when Laurent is talking to a mental health professional, who tells him that he deserves kindness and love, and he doesn't know how to react, and I had that exact moment in therapy when I was in college.

I read this all in one night. If that particular enemies-to-lovers trope is your jam, you'll definitely enjoy this.

Grade: B
#48 in 2017

An Extraordinary Union (The Loyal League #1), Alyssa Cole

This is a great book. I didn't enjoy it as much as I think other people will because a couple of things about it bugged me, but it was truly enjoyable and wonderful to read a book about a topic I never thought would pop up in a romance novel, and to have it be historical and believable. This is the story of Elle, a free Black woman, who has agreed to go undercover as a slave during the Civil War to get information to help the Union and end the war. She meets Malcolm, who is a Pinkerton detective also undercover, on the same kind of mission. Oh, and importantly -- Malcolm is white. 

It's a fascinating story with no easy resolution. Elle is brilliant and beautiful and Malcolm loves her and respects her and treats her like a human being (whenever he can -- really only when they're alone). Elle loves him but she knows all the problems their relationship would face, even in the North. 

I was frustrated that Elle goes back and forth with Malcolm so many times. She has very, very good reasons not to trust him or want to be with him, and once she does, she seems to immediately change her mind, over and over. They also each get a turn being jealous over situations they know mean nothing to the other person. I was also a little frustrated that Malcolm is incredibly perfect from the very beginning. I can definitely see why the hero of this kind of book needs to be a man who is better than almost every other man; it's the only way it's justifiable that Elle will love him when there is so much to go against their union. But I have realized that as a reader, I always prefer selfish scoundrels or lying assholes who are reformed by love, to men who are fundamentally good and true from the beginning. It's just less interesting to me that way.

Grade: C
#46 in 2017

An Unnatural Vice (Sins of the Cities #2), KJ Charles

The last book in this series was not really my thing; this book VERY MUCH was. I love Justin. He is an amoral schemer who pretends to be a medium and talk to the dead. (Side note: one of my least favorite things in the world is watching someone cold read on television and make people cry. It infuriates me. I can't sit through a commercial for the Long Island Medium without storming out of the room.) Justin is fully aware that what he does is awful, and has nothing but contempt for people who believe in what he does. But it's what he's good at, and he's built up a little family of assistants he needs to look out for. Nathaniel, on the other hand, is a crusading lawyer, who despises what Justin does (but is ridiculously attracted to him). Nathaniel doesn't really get much of an arc in this book, most of the forward movement is Justin's, because Justin is being crushed under the weight of what he does, and what he wants to do, and the idea that maybe, just maybe, he could be someone better if he got the chance. ...Oh, and also the fact that people are trying to kill him for most of this book. Justin is the perfect kind of scoundrel; convinced he is bad through and through, that he doesn't want anything and he doesn't deserve anything, and fiercely unapologetic for the choices he's made. Nathaniel is sure that there's some good inside Justin, even if Justin refuses to see it or admit it. I loved the way they came together and I love this book.

Grade: A

#45 in 2017

On Point (Out of Uniform #3), Annabeth Albert

The last book in this series perfectly hit my favorite tropes, while this one was just enjoyable. Ben and Maddox have been best friends forever, secretly in love with each other forever, and then they have a threesome that makes this super awkward. They decide to try dating, but Ben has a lot of issues about believing that relationships can last, and Maddox just wants to settle down. 

I really felt for Ben, although his flip out at the end felt a little ridiculous, since the book had been hinting about what Maddox was going to decide to do all the way through. I was happy they got together, I'm just not going to remember this book for very long.

Grade: B
#44 in 2017

A Curious Beginning, Deanna Raybourne

I couldn't decide how many stars to give this. It's not actively bad, offensive, or upsetting, but unless you love -- LOVE -- this narrator and her narrative voice, there's nothing in this book. I've read plenty of books about sassy Victorian spinsters and the mysterious dukes and adventures they have, but this also included a weird few chapters of interlude at the circus that go nowhere, and no sex. I just wasn't delighted enough with the main character (or intrigued enough by the mystery), and the mysterious angry-but-sad-inside duke was so cliche.  I read it, and to be honest I'd probably read the sequels if they fell into my lap. But the whole time I was reading it I was like "....sure? Fine? I GUESS????" Grade: C #41 in 2017

Fair Play/All's Fair, Josh Lanyon

I accidentally read book 3 before I read book 2, and honestly it didn't strike me as that weird. It was confusing. When I realized i was out of order I thought, "ohhhh, that's why their relationship is so different here," but other than that it wasn't too much. I liked three better than two, but that might be because of mistakenly reading three first.

Anyway, these books are pretty dark. People are murdered by serial killers, animals are injured, etc. I like the romance a lot (although there's a slightly odd undertone about one of the main characters being submissive and what that means for him). I enjoyed it a lot overall, though.

Grade: B
#38 and 39 in 2017

At Attention, Annabeth Albert

This book is so perfectly plotted just for me. You have a single dad raising twin daughters and trying to get over the trauma of losing the man who was the love of his life. And then you have the hot young guy who has always had a crush on him, who is the nanny just for the summer, trying to prove that he's an adult now, and responsible, and that it's okay to move on and find love again. I loved this book so much. Those are tropes I always enjoy, and this book very much hit the sweet spot of romance and plot for me.

Grade: A
#38 in 2017

Star Crossed (Fly Me To The Moon #5)

I really loved this. The ending felt the the tiniest bit rushed, but Geri and Bev are both so lovely, and a historical lesbian romance is such a rare and beautiful unicorn to find. Grade: B #37 in 2017

An Illicit Temptation, Jeannie Lin

This is a sequel to the last book. Adorable and lovely, but as always with a novella, I wish it were longer.

Grade: B

#35 in 2017

My Fair Concubine, Jeannie Lin

Just an absolute delight from start to finish. I always enjoy Jeannie Lin's books, and this one was hot affffffffff. I love a good historical romance, and it's so nice to spend some time in historical China instead of it always being Regency England. Grade: A #34 in 2017

Dangerous Ground (#1-6), Josh Lanyon

These books are aggressively fine. I couldn't keep straight which of the two heroes was which, except one of them kept getting shot and nearly murdered and the other one was mad about it. And one of them went to France and the other was mad about it. I liked them -- I mean, I read all six. But I would be lying if I said I remembered the plots very well. There's a pregnant woman they arrest, there's a bomb in catacombs in Paris, there's a bottle of alcohol with a snake in it... Anyway, I liked them, but they're all super short, and none of them really stuck with me.

Grade: Eh. B to C depending on the book.
#28-33 in 2017