Queer Romance Wrap-up June 2022

This Wrap-up includes all of the romances I read in June outside of the week long Queer Romance Readathon (post here).  All of the romances I read this month were queer in some way and I was glad to get through so many that have been on my TBR for a while. 

 

 Work For It - Talia Hibbert

This grumpy/grumpier MM romance follows Keynes and Griff.  Keynes needs a break from his life in London after a traumatic situation that has left him anxious, especially in sexual situations.  He heads out to the countryside to a small village to clear his head by spending time in the clean air and helping with the annual elderflower harvest. When Keynes's first interaction with Griff doesn't go to plan, both are surprised to see the other at the farm the next day.  Griff is the production manager in charge of just about everything - including the flower harvest.  The two trade barbed insults, heated looks, and some honesty neither of them expect.  I absolutely adored this read and the journey Keynes and Griff went on.  These two men both have some pretty significant walls up and they try their best to keep people at arm's length away.  I did like the push/pull of their relationship where one would get a bit past the other's wall and then get pushed away.  The small town setting was adorable and it was nice to see a bit of the 'darker' side of small towns (gossiping, cliques, etc). These two, despite their histories and their walls, had some pretty realistic communication where they maybe didn't say things perfectly, but they did own up and apologize when they really put their foot in their mouth.

TW/CW: outing, homophobia, anxiety, depression, suicide, death of a parent, blackmail

Hang the Moon - Alexandria Bellefleur

This is the second book in the Written in the Stars series and follows Brendon and Annie.  Annie is Brendon's sister's best friend who comes into town unexpectedly.  Brendon had a crush on Annie when they were growing up, but nothing ever came of it.  Brendon is a textbook hopeless romantic and when he finds Annie to be a skeptic, he decides to show her that magical romance is still alive.  As a fellow hopeless romantic, I absolutely adored this book.  I thought Brendon walked the line really well between being a lover of love without veering into the cringey or unrealistic territory.  This had a really nice mix of opposites attract banter with some sister's best friend pining. I really loved how open Brandon was with his feelings and how comfortable he made Annie so she could also express herself. We get a lot of Darcy and Elle from the first book which was fantastic.  I also loved how we didn't get any weird possessiveness over Annie between Darcy and Brendon.  I don't love how, in many of these types of books, we would get Darcy telling Brendon that Annie was her friend first and he should stay away - basically calling 'dibs' on Annie.  In this case, Darcy was really relaxed about the situation, but did ask Brendon to only proceed if he was serious about Annie and to do his best not to break her heart.

Psycho - Onley James

This is the second book in the Necessary Evils series and we're back with everyone's favorite family of psychopaths.  In this book we follow August and Lucas.  August is the genius in the Mulvaney family but that genius comes at a cost.  Lucas is an ex-FBI profiler who used his secret clairvoyant ability to help close cases.  Once Lucas's secret came out, his coworkers think he's crazy and he ends up out of the FBI and teaching at the same school as August.  The two bump into each other, literally, one day and Lucas gets a vision of what August does in his free time (namely, torture and murder).  As the two spend more time together, their connection deepens and when a threat from Lucas's past life comes to town they just might have to work together and get a little messy.  I really enjoyed this read and I was so excited that James was able to capture that same dark humor that I loved so much in the first book.  I do think the pacing was a bit too fast for my personal liking and I would have preferred maybe a little slower, more gradual introduction of the main antagonist.  August is autistic (at one point he does refer to "his Asperger's" but later does just say he's autistic) and I really enjoyed how he shows his caring for Lucas in his own way.  He never tries to mask who he is when he's with Lucas and both of them pretty much lay everything out from the beginning. I really liked Lucas and his passion for helping the victims.  However, I felt like his shift from FBI guy to being okay with how the Mulvaney's dole out justice was a little fast.  The victims of the main antagonist include indigenous women and I felt like James handled this topic pretty seriously and in the acknowledgements James did include some information on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women organization (https://mmiwusa.org/).

TW/CW: kidnapping, torture, sexual assault, indigenous women victims, child neglect, suicide,

Satisfaction Guaranteed - Karelia Stetz-Waters

This FF romance follows Cade and Selena who initially meet at Cade's grandmother's funeral.  Cade's family is full of colorful, eccentric people and her grandmother was no different.  Selena helped Cade's grandmother run Satisfaction Guaranteed - a sex toy shop.  Cade was expecting to return to NYC and her role of running her parent's art gallery but when her grandmother's will dictates that Cade and Selena must work together to save Satisfaction Guaranteed, these two opposite women will need to find a way to work together. I really enjoyed this slower burn read and how Cade and Selena's relationship grew.  They're both attracted to the other from the get-go but Selena is in a period of celibacy and Cade is too busy to even think about a relationship.  Through working together to save the store, the two women also learn some life lessons from each other that really helps them build their relationship outside of pure attraction.  I also loved the representation of Cade never having an orgasm - not even solo - and some of the hardships that caused in her previous relationships.  Art and being an artist are a pretty big part of this book and I really felt the passion come off the page.  I loved the personal growth that both Cade and Selena showed and how they were finally able to come together.

TW/CW: student/teacher relationship

A Lady for A Duke - Alexis Hall

This historical romance follows Viola and Gracewood.  When Viola was presumed dead after the battle of Waterloo, she took the opportunity to finally live as herself. However, returning as Viola means she had to give up her title, wealth, and best friend.  Two years later, Viola's family receives a letter from Gracewood's sister detailing how Gracewood is not doing well.  Viola and her sister-in-law go to visit, and Viola strives to bring Gracewood back to being the man she knew.  This is my first historical romance ever and I absolutely adored it! I really enjoyed the balance Hall was able to strike between the polite, super light flirting I'd expect from a historical romance and some pretty heated moments. I also loved how this story also explored Viola becoming more comfortable in herself and being able to ask for and get what she wants out of her life.  I loved the side characters and how supportive they were to our main couple.  This was a long read (480 pages!) but it didn't feel like that long of a read.  There were a lot of things going on in the plot outside of the romance that I was also invested in.   I also really liked how the main conflict in the relationship wasn't Viola being outed and becoming a 'scandal' (although that is an understandable fear of hers).  Bonus points to Hall for making me actually love an epilogue just as much as I loved the rest of the book.

TW/CW: abelist language, PTSD, dead-naming, opioid use, suicidal thoughts

Thanks to NetGalley and Forever for the ARC.  Publication date was May 24, 2022

Falling for the Enemy - Katie Golding

This is the second book in the Malibu Millionaire series and follows Jasper and Blake.  They work for rival companies, both trying to sign new and upcoming bands, and that rivalry has grown over the past few years into some pretty heated contempt on both sides.  Another thing they both have in common is they've been texting a mystery person after a wrong number text kept going.  But when Jasper and Blake turn their heat up a few notches and start falling into bed together, they both feel bad for continuing to text their mystery person on the side.  But as Jasper and Blake learn more about each other, they may just find that their perfect mystery texter has been in front of them all along.  This was a really fun and steamy read.  I loved seeing the differences between Jasper and Blake when they're verbally sparring vs when their being vulnerable via text.  I thought the reveal was done in a really great way that was surprisingly low angst.  The verbal sparring was really great between Jasper and Blake and I loved how their fighting was so well known amongst the other people in their industry.  I think it was really interesting how they both had some pretty thick walls built up around themselves and I thought it was really realistic that it would take a while for them to feel comfortable around someone to let those walls down.  Their chemistry was off the charts pretty early on, but the real journey of this book was them both feeling comfortable enough to open up all the way.  I do think the magnitude of Jasper's reaction at the end didn't feel aligned with his character through the rest of the book and felt a little like Golding wanted to put in some extra drama at the end.