All I Am, Nicole Helm

This book is LOVELY. Everything about it appealed to me - I love a contemporary romance, I love a girl who's a mess, I love a guy who's got a beard (and dogs) (and is a mess), I love a secret virgin story. I am not so keen on small-town stories, because I am from a very small town, but this one felt awfully real, mostly because Cara is trapped in a small group of friends who are kind of horrible in ways she doesn't want to acknowledge until Wes makes her.

I think I've said about nine different things are my favorite trope already, but ONE of my favorites is definitely "two screwed-up people make each other better," which is the plot of this book. Cara is the family screw up, who has no confidence in herself and runs from relationships and big opportunities. Wes has anxiety issues, and is back from Afghanistan, where he was injured. He thinks of himself as a total screw up and an idiot, and he lives in a cabin by himself, where he tries to avoid people. But you know how it goes in these books; Cara breezes into his life and turns it upside down. He tries to make her believe that she's actually great and needs to stop doubting herself; she tries to make him believe that he isn't irreparably broken. They really like each other, but they're both very bad at relationships, in ways that felt very real.

I guess if I had to have a complaint, I'd say they break up and get back together maybe one too many times in the book for my taste. It feels like it ends, and then goes on, and then ends again. But I like them both so much, and I was really rooting for them. I'm adding the other books in this series to my to-read list.

(I'll throw up a link here when we discuss this book on Romancing the Tomes.)

Grade: A
#29 in 2016

Romancing the Tomes episode 3: Dynama

Hey, would you like to hear me and two brilliant book bloggers discuss romance novels? Here's episode Three of Romancing the Tomes, where we discuss Dynama, which I reviewed previously. (Spoiler, we liked it a lot.)

The Superheroes Union: Dynama (The Superheroes Union #1), Ruth Diaz

I read this because it's the next book we're discussing on the romance novel podcast I'm a part of, and I'm really glad my friend suggested it. This is a novella, and it's a delight.

I am the one remaining American who doesn't like superheroes (it feels like sometimes), and "if we fail it'll be the end of the world/the city will be destroyed/aliens will invade" isn't very compelling stakes for me. This is a superhero story, but the stakes are very personal. The bad guy who has escaped from Supervillain jail is one of our heroine's ex-husband, and he's not trying to destroy the world, he just wants custody of his kids. I loved that, more than being a story about superheroes smashing stuff up, it's a story about a mother at the end of her rope, and her kids, and the hot babysitter she hires who ends up fulfilling both the kids' and her emotional needs. What a cute, satisfying story.

Grade: B

#23 in 2016