Romance Wrap-up 1/1/22 to 1/15/22

Washed Up - Kandi Steiner

This age-gap romance is the first book in The Bayside Heroes series and follows Amanda and Greg.  The two reconnect after a decade apart when Amanda ends up in the ER after a car accident and Greg is her anesthesiologist.  They met for the first time when Greg was 18 and the best friend of Amanda's son.  Now, Amanda is almost done divorcing her abusive ex and is trying to figure out who she is.  Greg doesn't want to lose this chance now that he's reconnected with her but can the 13 year age gap and him being her son's best friend come in the way of their happiness?  I really enjoyed this read and loved Greg and Amanda together.  I really enjoyed how both of them were at this spot in their lives where they wanted to branch out and try new things.  Their accountability partnership of trying new things like rock climbing, kayaking, going to a hockey game, etc was my favorite part.  This is the first book in a 4 book series and we meet all the heroes in this book but I did have a hard time keeping all of them straight. I also thought the conflicts between Greg and Amanda weren't addressed as much or as thoroughly as I was expecting.  I felt that the resolution was basically just handwaving the concerns away and just saying "that won't be a problem for us".   The first half of the book was spent building up their friendship and with little pockets of sexual tension and then when they actually took that leap, it kind of flattened out from there. 

CW/TW: domestic abuse, alcoholism, drug use, medical trauma

Hot Heir - Pippa Grant

This royal romance is the third book in The Royals series and follows royal bodyguard turned king Viktor and small town southern girl Peach.  The two both enjoy pushing each other's buttons and consider themselves to be more enemies than friends.  However, when Viktor finds out he's to be king there is one stipulation to taking the crown - a wife.  Peach finds herself the temporary guardian of her troublesome half sister and the judge won't let her have full custody until she's - you guessed it - married.  Viktor and Peach team up so both can get what they want.  After all, there's no way these enemies could turn into something more.  This is typical Pippa Grant rom-com and there were some great laugh out loud moments.  I've DNF'd a few royalty romances in the past and I really think this trope just isn't for me but I did end up really enjoying this one for a few reasons.  This is the third book in the series and it is obvious that Viktor and Peach have spent a good amount of time together so they do have an established relationship that is royalty-adjacent so neither of them are completely blind-sided by the royal aspect to the plot.  I also really liked how Viktor falls first and with this being a marriage of convenience plot, there isn't any needing to choose between his kingly duties and Peach.  I loved the support system of friends and family they had as well and these lead to some really great heartwarming moments about making your own family.  Their actual chemistry together was off the charts hot hot hot (like break down a literal wall hot)!  The one part that bothered me to the end was Viktor's voice.  Of course, being a royal bodyguard, I would 100% expect him to say a bunch of "my lady" and "your highness" etc.  However, the man even thinks in this way of speaking and the first time his internal monologue used the word "twas" I almost DNF'd right there.  I'm also pretty sure Grant used just about every weird word for penis that she could find so reader beware I suppose (example: she cradled my stiff tallywacker through my suit pants).

How to Love Your Neighbor - Sophie Sullivan

This enemies to lovers romance follows Grace and Noah who have just become next door neighbors.  Grace is graduating from design school and recently inherited her house from her estranged grandparents.  Noah recently relocated from NYC to California in an attempt to get out from under his father's thumb.  Noah likes his house, but he'd like to also have Grace's and he's ready to make her an offer way over market value.  But Grace isn't giving in that easy to the smooth talking and stuffy businessman next door.  But when a home designs magazine wants to do a story on Noah's home renovation project, Noah hires Grace as his interior designer and the two start spending much more time together and find out they have more in common than they initially thought.  I really enjoyed this read and loved the progression of Grace and Noah's relationship.  Enemies to lovers is not my preferred trope, but this book had a really solid middle section where they really became friends first before transitioning to lovers and I think that is exactly what they needed to do.  There was a ton of emotional vulnerability on both sides and I really adored the lessons about healthy communication we see them learn (especially Noah).  I did think the pacing was a little rough at the beginning but after about the 40% mark, we were into pretty solid friends to lovers territory and I felt that the narrative pacing flowed a lot better after that point.  The cast of characters surrounding our main couple are perfection and I really enjoyed the amount of time Grace and Noah spent with these other characters.  This really was really low angst between the main couple, but there were a good amount of outside pressures that they had to overcome in order to be together.

CW/TW: emotionally abusive/manipulative parents

Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC

Expected publication date: January 18, 2022