January 2024 Romance Wrap-up

Legally Binding - Sophie Snow

This age-gap office romance is the first in the Spicy in Seattle series and follows Maggie and Cal.  Maggie has been Cal's assistant for years and the two have worked very well together.  Maggie keeps Cal - and the rest of the office - running smoothly and Cal is a kind and caring boss.  But when the two run into each other at a sex club one night, the tension is palpable and neither can go back to seeing the other as just a coworker. They start spending more and more time together until one night stuck at the office together has them crossing a line neither of them thought they'd ever cross.  But one night isn't enough and the two need to figure out if this new relationship is worth them both turning their ideas for their lives upside down.  This was such a fun read and the characters were really the shining point of the story.  I loved Maggie, Cal, and the whole cast of characters we get to meet.  We got some absolutely fantastic character development with Maggie standing up to her neglectful family as well as figuring out what she wants out of her life for herself.  For an age gap, office romance, there was way less angst or drama than I was expecting.  I was really waiting for the other shoe to drop for the last 25% of the read where normally we'd see the relationship being outed and the fall out from that.  I did find the middle of the read to be a bit repetitive and I wanted to see Maggie and Cal be put in different situations to see how they'd react.  Overall, I had a good time and I'm looking forward to continuing on in the series.

 Thanks to the author for the ARC.  Expected publication date is February 13, 2024

 

When Grumpy Met Sunshine - Charlotte Stein

 This grumpy/sunshine romance follows retired footballer (soccer player) Alfie and ghostwriter Mabel.  The two seem too different, initially, and even Mabel starts to question her normal ability to pull stories and details out of her ghostwriting clients.  However, once the two start working together, they realize they have much more in common than they thought.  And when Mabel is assumed by the tabloids to be Alfie's newest romantic conquest, they agree to keep up the ruse so no one is the wiser to the ghostwriting arrangement.  That works well, until the fake kisses for the paparazzi start to feel too real. This read was not what I was expecting, but I think that made me love it even more.  This was much more of an emotional read than the adorable cover and synopsis lead me to believe. I never expected a book that looked like this would make me sob by the end.  It was only Mabel's POV which I disliked while reading because I thought Alfie was so obviously falling hard and fast for her and I wanted his POV so badly.  Stein seemed to be reading my mind because she used that to pull on my heartstrings when we get to the ending.  I loved Alfie and Mabel and their dynamic was a picture perfect grumpy/sunshine pairing.  The banter was fantastic and just weird enough that it really worked well as a window into these characters.  Overall, this was a great read that managed to worm its way into my heart much deeper than I was expecting and I imagine I'll be thinking about Alfie and Mabel for quite some time.

 Thanks to NetGalley and St Martin's Press for the ARC. Expected publication date is February 6, 2024.

  

 One Billion Reasons  - Sophia Travers

This enemies to lovers romance follows Miles and Lane.  The two were friends until a fight 2 years ago that left them not speaking.  But after a chance encounter brings them together, Miles has a proposition for Lane.  One week, as his fake girlfriend, for $50k.  It is a deal too good for Lane to pass up, even though the two can barely stand to be in the same room without throwing verbal knives at each other.  But when some buried truths and complicated feeling start coming out during their week together, the two not only rekindle their friendship, but something deeper.  This was also a much more emotional read than I was expecting, but it was more on the angst-y side of things and didn't quite work for me as well (I'm not a huge fan of angst in my romances, in general). I also found the conflicts between Miles and Lane to be very repetitive and I just wanted them to fight about something different for a change.  I could really feel the contempt Lane had for Miles early on in the story and I remember thinking "this author has a lot of work to make me believe these two are going to fall in love".  I did think Travers did a great job of sprinkling in details of Miles and Lane's backstory throughout the read which helped.  These details really helped strengthen their current relationship arc, especially considering the short timeframe.  We did get both character POVs, which was great considering how hot/cold they both were to the other.  I also liked the amount of side characters we get to see and how Miles and Lane both talk to their friends about their budding feelings.  While I do think the emotional turmoil generally paid off in the end, I was expecting something different from the big love declaration moment.  This read did have some moments that worked really well for me, but overall it was a bit too angsty for me to really love it.  However, if you are a fan of this sort of angsty, friends to enemies to lovers, second chance type of romances I think this is a really good example of one. 

Thanks to the author for the ARC. Publication date was December 4, 2023.