Max Monroe (1)

What a fun story this was. I loved the fact that the characters had lived a bit of life already and were mature and relatable. Sammy is a divorced single mom trying to get her life back together and doesn't feel like she will ever meet or even find the time to find the man of her dreams. She is a very busy woman with a lot of responsibilities and has not been is the dating pool for years. So Sammy is completely shocked when she finds that she actually has two handsome successful men interested in her. The dialog is excellent and the banter between characters is a lot of fun. There are some fun and not so fun plot twists that kept this story interesting and fresh. I listened to the audio version of this book and the narrator was delightful. Overall I really enjoyed it. Highly recommended. 4 stars.

Many thanks to Net Galley and Max Monroe for the chance to read/ listen to an ARC of this book.… (altro)

I read SIncerely, Dane by Ilsa Madden Mills and this short story was such a sweet read.

This is a cute and fun novella that is part of anthology and I hope will eventually be a full length story. Dane and Piper went to school together from high school on and now that Dane’s twin bother is married to Piper’s best friend they end up spending a lot of time together. Piper has always crushed on Dane but believes he has her firmly placed in the friend zone that she just accepts their relationship as is until one night a text makes her think about more. Dane hasn’t had it easy in life, he derailed at one point, and his relationship with Ari fizzled out because deep down I truly believe he’s always felt like Piper was his. In this story Dane comes to Piper’s apartment dressed as a werewolves and so the chaos ensues. He recruits her to help with a scavenger hunt that ends with an epic ending/beginning. The tension between them was tangible, the chemistry off the charts, and the can they will they flowed off the pages. I rally hope we get more of their story!!… (altro)

I picked this off of Hoopla, and realized after a couple pages I had already read it. It appears that I did not record my thoughts though, so I skimmed it to refresh my recollection, and here goes. Jude, who is 36, is like a roided out 19 year old frat bro. He is repulsive. Not because he screws every hot woman who crosses his path. He is honest with all the women about just being in it for the fun and scrupulous about consent, so on that score I say have at it. No, he is constantly proving his manhood -- posing as a stripper to win a bet, gaslighting a woman he later purports to love so he can be free, talking and dressing like one of those men who writes books about how to nail women (think Tucker Max before he saw the error of his ways), calling women "babe" and "sweetheart" and more. He is gross. And Sophie buys into a lot of it which makes me question her too. They are so basic in so many ways that I found them off-putting. Also, they never had a meaningful conversation about anything other than their families and sex. This in not a solid foundation for love.

One note: To the women who make up Max Monroe, I appreciate you did enough research to house the one "artsy vegan" (their words) in Bushwick, but as usual despite having two lifelong New Yorkers as your leads, nothing seemed like it was happening in NYC other than not being able to get a cab in the rain. New Yorkers do not go out for prime rib dinners or think that filet at The Plaza is top of the line dining. (High end steak eating means Gallagher's or Keen's, not conference hotel food.) Honestly, I don't think I know anyone who has eaten at The Plaza other than if they were at a wedding or a conference -- that is true of me, but also pretty universal, I think. Ditto on wanting good Italian and going, not to Lilia or I Sodi or the hundreds of Italian cafes sprinkled across every borough and neighborhood, but to someplace in what used to be Little Italy 40 years ago. No one dresses to go out the way it is described here unless they are Eastern European woman looking for a green card marriage. There are sex clubs, and as represented their locations are pretty secret, you need to know someone in that community to know, but they are not walking distance from Soho unless they are in private brownstones, generally West Village, or Tribeca lofts. There are no industrial buildings around there anymore, so those are out. On the good side, I was pleased to see these people sometimes used the subway -- they rarely do in romance, and nearly everyone without a driver uses the subway sometimes because it is so much faster than a cab.

One more thing: The speech at the end made me want to vomit, and I am someone who loves reading mushy romance. The ending monologue seemed like a parody of romance.

Things that saved this from being 1-star
1. Jude's relationship with his niece.
2. Sophie's relationship with her therapist.
3. I always say I can't stand it when characters I don't like in romance books have good sex, but this book proved me wrong on that. It wasn't realistic sex (15 orgasms in 24 hours?) but the whole illicit public sex scavenger hunt was really fun.… (altro)