Romance Wrap-up 7/1/21 to 7/15/21

 Neon Gods - Katee Robert

This Hades/Persephone retelling is my first Katee Robert read and it will not be my last.  Taking place in the modern city of Olympus, Persephone is announced as Zeus's next bride.  She runs away and crosses a bridge to the low side of the city where Hades, someone she thought was a myth, rules. The two agree to have a *very* public relationship in order to get back at Zeus until Persephone can leave Olympus for good.  However, the two soon find that they fit together so well and both can be themselves around the other but with the threat of Zeus's wrath on the horizon, they will have to come up with a plan so they can be together.  I loved everything about this book - the world building, the relationships, the romance, the characters. I never had a Greek mythology phase growing up so I'm not sure how closely this retelling sticks to the original story, but other reviews seem to be consistent with saying this is one of the best around.  I thought this would be heavier on the fantasy elements but I was pleasantly surprised that this felt way more like a mafia romance than a fantasy romance. I really enjoyed Hades and Persephone's relationship dynamic and how caring he was for her when she never really had anyone look out for her like that before (I have a huge soft spot for that dynamic in romance).  There are some kink elements, but they stay more on the side of public sex/voyeurism than any sort of bondage or pain play.  I can't wait for the next book in this series!

The Dating Dare - Jayci Lee

This is the second book in the A Sweet Mess series and follows Tara and Seth.  Tara's best friend just married Seth's brother and the two meet at the wedding. Both Tara and Seth don't do serious relationships due to past trauma so a game of truth or dare over some beers turns into the Dating Dare where Seth dares Tara to go on four dates with him with one stipulation - don't fall in love.  Tara agrees and with Seth leaving for Paris in a month, any relationship chances are dead in the water.  The two end up spending a lot more time together than just the four dates and both realize the other might just be the type of person who could make them believe in love again.  I really enjoyed this book and loved how great Tara and Seth worked together.  I'm a big fan of any sort of contrived dating / fake dating plot and this was just super cute.  It is obvious from the beginning that they both are attracted to the other, but, in typical romcom fashion, their planned dates keep going awry.  However, all the times they see each other outside of those dates go exceedingly well and both are forced to examine their personal baggage and how they want to move forward.  I really enjoyed the balance between cute romance plot and how the two would get into deeper conversations about their past or their future plans.  I did find the dialogue to be a little stiff and almost formal at times, especially during the deeper conversations.  I also would have expected there to be a bit more bumps in the road from both Tara and Seth considering they both had some real bad relationship experiences before but most of that struggle stayed internal and they seemed to get over it pretty quickly until the big blow out at the 80% mark which made the big blow up moment feel a little out of nowhere. But overall, a very cute and fun read!

TW/CW: physical abuse, emotional abuse

Thanks NetGalley and St. Martin's Press for the ARC in exchange for review.  Expected publication date is August 3, 2021. 

Love Life - Nancy Peach

This book follows doctor Tess Carter as she works a rotation in a hospice facility.  She's had a string of not great relationships and has a pretty constant barrage of negative voices providing a running commentary of her day to day life.  One day, the family member of a new patient walks though the door and Tess immediately recognizes him as someone she connected with at a party years prior (Edward) but left in a hurry.  He doesn't seem to remember her so she does her best to push away the feelings of rejection and do her job.  However, he's often at the hospice facility with his mother and he and Tess get to slowly know more about each other.  Tess fights hard to not build up their relationship too much in her mind - after all his mother has ovarian cancer and is at the hospice facility - but she can't help but feel a connection to him.  But if she's going to find her happy ever after, she might just need to get out of her own head and go live her life.  I liked this story well enough, but I would not call it a romance.  In my opinion, this leans more toward the general fiction side of the spectrum.  Yes, there is a happily ever after, but the romantic relationship is not the main plot. In fact, we don't even really get to see Tess and Edward actually in a relationship. We are in Tess's POV for 95% of the book but we do get a couple of scenes from Edward's perspective but those scenes don't really give us any clues as to his feelings about Tess.  When I hit the 50% mark and there was no indication of any relationship forming, I really thought this book would be just about Tess finding the courage to move on from her past (which would have been fine, but that wouldn't have been a romance). The subject matter is also much more somber than the blurb on Goodreads lead me to believe so that was also an adjustment I had to make. We are up close and personal as Edward's mother is dying of cancer and while I think it was handled in a very caring manner, the fact that cancer or hospice isn't mentioned in the synopsis at all I think will really throw off some readers.  I loved the character work in this book - especially with Tess and her inner commentary which hit closer to home than I would like to admit.  Once we got to know more about Edward, I really liked how layered he was and how soft he was under his grumpy lawyer shell. 

TW/CW: bulimia, cancer, death of a parent, cheating

Thanks NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for the ARC in exchange for review.  Expected publication date is August 2, 2021.

Knotted - Pam Godwin

This dark cowboy romance is the first book in the Trails of Sin series and follows Conor and Jake.  After Conor is sexually assaulted on her 16th birthday in front of her brother, Jake, and Jake's brother, her dad takes her away from the family ranch in Oklahoma to Chicago.  Years later, she returns to honor an oath the four of them made that night.  Except the boys she left in Oklahoma are now big mountains of men with big mountains of secrets.  This was my first Pam Godwin and I can see why she is many people's go-to for dark romance.  I liked some parts of the book, but overall this was a bit of a miss for me.  My main issue with the book revolves around Conor's agency.  It felt like, until about the 75% mark, that the men in her life had taken away all her agency and the only reason they would give was that it was 'for her own good'.  The characters try to explain that if they would have told her the truth from the beginning that she would have insisted to be involved and probably would have gotten hurt.  So instead, they basically went no-contact with her and made her think for 6 years that her brother, boyfriend, and best friend had abandoned her after her brutal assault. Not a great foundation for a romance, in my opinion.  I also have no experience with PTSD or PTSD treatment, but I really hated how Jake was forcing Conor to work through her triggers and memories so quickly and head-on and it read more emotionally abusive than caring to me.  However, after the 75%-ish, Conor does gain back her agency and is able to put her past somewhat behind her.  She knows all the secrets now and can make informed decisions about her life. As a hopeless romantic, I did really like the 'meant to be together' feeling of Jake and Conor's relationship and how straightforward Jake was about how Conor is everything for him.  I was really interested in the secrets they uncovered while Conor was gone and if this was structured a little differently - maybe more like a typical romantic suspense - with Conor more involved in the secrets as well as her own recovery, I could easily see this as a 5-star read. It sounds like the rest of the series leans more into the traditional romantic suspense sub-genre so I will most likely be reading on in the series.

TW/CW: sexual assault on page, PTSD, physical abuse

Professed - Nicola Rendell

This forbidden romance follows Ben and Naomi after they meet at a masquerade party at Yale.  She's a junior, he's the 38 year old professor that just moved into town.  Not just any professor - he's her professor, her boss, her advisor.  The two can't stay away from each other despite the fact that if they're found out, it will ruin his career and her future.  So they try their best to fly under the radar, too bad the Dean has his eye on them.  This was a really fun, steamy read.  Teacher/student dynamics are really hard for me to get onboard with but the fact they met outside of the classroom before they knew who the other was really helped me root for them.  I will say this felt super insta-love which isn't really my favorite.  Ben and Naomi have undeniable sexual chemistry that sizzles off the page, but I didn't really get a good sense of what else they have in common. I definitely felt the connection between then and I believed them when they said they loved each other, but I just needed a bit more personality along with the great chemistry.  With an age gap this big, usually there's some mention of how the younger one has 'an old soul' but we don't really get anything like that here.  I thought Ben really didn't read like a 38 year old professor, I would have thought early 30s at the latest, so maybe that's why the age gap wasn't a big sore spot for me.  I really liked Naomi's friend and family backstory but I wish we would have gotten more from Ben especially since he's a philosophy professor who specializes in nihilism.  Despite the premise, this was a pretty low angst read (which I prefer) and pretty unproblematic considering the subject matter.