April Romance Wrap-up

 

Haven - Rebekah Weatherspoon

This is the first book in the Beards & Bondage series and follows Claudia and Shep.  One night, Claudia stumbles upon Shep's cabin in the woods being chased by a man and Shep uses lethal force to protect her.  The two are forever connected by the events of that night, but when Claudia returns home, they both try and return to their regular lives.  Only the each keep thinking about the other and when Claudia returns to see Shep the two come together in a bid to heal.  This series has been on my TBR for years and I'm excited to finally start it.  This was a darker and more emotional read than I was expecting but I think Weatherspoon does a great job of making her characters feel real.  I can 100% believe how Claudia and Shep end up together in this odd sort of trauma bond situation.  The two had some great chemistry and in a different world, I could still see them getting together in a regular, non-trauma way.  I did find the plot to be a little repetitive with Claudia and Shep having similar conversations and arguments over and over again.  

Hit it and Quit it - Kelly Reynolds

This is the first book in the Rose City Roasters series and follows Soren and Clarke.  After breaking off her engagement, Clarke moves to Rose City to take on a new job with social media for the city's new baseball team - the Roasters.  Soren "Sin" Sinclair plays the role of team bad boy and has plenty of fights, leaked dick pics, and arguments with teammates to back up that reputation.  The Roasters may be the last chance he has to keep playing the game he loves.  And when he runs across Clarke, the two start up a fling that has benefits for both.  Only when their agreed end date comes, both of them have a hard time quitting the game they've been playing.  This was a spectacular romance and I found myself kicking my feet and giggling way more than I was expecting.  Clarke and Soren were such complex and interesting characters and I loved that they each had their own journeys outside of the main romance.  Their romance was believable and I'm so glad that Clarke really took the lead in a lot of the relationship.  There was a great cast of characters and both Soren and Clarke had a group of friends that supported them. I'm looking forward to reading more in the series.

Possession - A. Anders

This is the second book in the Kink Camp series and follows Zion and Twyla - celebrities who have a fake marriage to help both of their careers.  When a media scandal breaks, they try to go their separate ways and lay low until the media find something else to focus on.  Only they both end up at Kink Camp - where Zion has gone many times but Twyla is brand new.  At first, Zion doesn't want her at Camp and is convinced she's as vanilla as they come.  But Twyla has always held certain desires and Camp is just the place for her to experiment to her kinky heart's content.  This was a great return to the Kink Camp setting and I loved how seamless the connection was to the first book.  Zion and Twyla were such fun characters to follow and I spent most of the book just yelling at them to get over it and admit they like each other already (but in the best possible way). I loved that both our MCs had their own journey with kink and how it meshes with relationships. Their chemistry was off the charts and I was absolutely in love with how everyone around them knew it first. Just like with the first book, I really think the kink representation is top notch and I love how positive all sorts of different kinks are shown.  I really hope we get more books in this series.

The Rycke - Lily Mayne

This MM monster romance is the third book in the Monstrous series and follows Ghost and Aury.  Ghost is one of the raiders, living out in the Wastes.  He and his friend are looting through a destroyed military base and find Aury bound and left for dead.  They quickly free him and after determining he's no threat, agree to bring Aury back to their raider base.  The original plan was to give Aury a safe place to heal from his wounds but as Ghost and Aury spend more time together, they grow closer.  And when tensions start brewing in and outside the base, the two will need to figure out where they truly fit in. This was another great installment of the series and I loved how we got to see more of the raiders that had been mentioned in the previous 2 books.  We had a bit of a larger cast than in the previous books, which I'm hoping means that we'll get more from these side characters in later books.  I loved Ghost and Aury together and thought their romance was the perfect opposite to the world they were living in.  They were so sweet together and it was a quieter build up of feelings.  I do wish we had gotten chapters from Aury's POV, but I always prefer dual-POVs for my romance books.  I did find the non-romantic plot to get a little repetitive and I did find myself skimming those parts a little by the end.  It was a lot of Ghost going out into the Wastes for something, coming back, being grumpy that he had to go, not wanting to go again, but ends up going back out there anyway.  Rinse and repeat.  I did find this new aspect of the world building is really making me interested to read more in the series so I can maybe see even more new parts of this world.