June Romance Wrap-up

 Engagement and Espionage - Penny Reid

This cozy mystery romance is the first book in the Solving for Pie: Cletus and Jenn Mysteries Series and follows Cletus and Jenn. After their initial romance in Beard Science (Winston Brothers series #3), we are now following Cletus and Jenn as they are working to balance their busy lives and finding time together while dealing with some fallout from the previous book.  But when a series of unfortunate events befall the residents of Green Valley, Jenn and Cletus suspect these are not coincidences but instead are sabotage.  Add solving this mystery to the to-do list they already have running.  I haven't finished the Winston Brothers series yet, but Cletus and Jenn's book has been my favorite one by far.  I absolutely love them individually as well as together.  Reid does a great job of continuing their personal growth as well as their relationship growth alongside the mystery solving. We're back in the small town of Green Valley and get to see more side characters that we know as well as others we're meeting for the first time.  I always enjoy having a cozy mystery mixed with a romance and I think Reid does a good job balancing the two plots.  I did find there were too many sort of 'sit down and run through all the facts of the case so far' type of moments for my liking. I didn't find the mystery overly complicated and would have been fine with one or two of these sort of moments but there were ones where it felt like we hadn't even really learned anything new since the last one.  Overall, I'm glad that Reid pivoted and we have a whole handful of new books in this series that I'll be sure to pick up.

Rogue - Onley James

This MM romance is the second in the Jericho's Boys series and follows Levi and Shiloh.  The two meet while Levi is working the night shift at a convenience store and Shiloh is sent by his sadistic brother to kill Levi.  Instead of pulling the trigger, the two share a kiss that has them both reeling.  They quickly fall into each other but with Shiloh's brother as a looming threat, they need the whole crew to figure a way out of this one.  This was another great entry in this world and I loved that we get more of what I've come to love from James's books - steamy insta love with a good streak of blood thrown in the mix.  I think this book really opened up the world a bit more and I'm looking forward to future books hopefully exploring more of the other groups or gangs in the area.  Levi and Shiloh were great together and I found their dynamic really interesting.  They both have a hefty dose of trauma that come into play in this book but they are at such different points in their healing journey.  As always, we see a lot of side characters with the main group of boys as well as the Mulvaneys. The romantic suspense elements were well done and there were even a few surprises that I didn't see coming.  

Mercy - Sara Cate

This is the fourth book in the Salacious Players Club series and follows Beau and Maggie.  The two seem about as opposite as possible - Maggie helps run the SPC with Beau's dad - but after both finally give in and take the kink quiz on the SPC app, they have more in common than meets the eye.  Once their true identities are revealed, the two think about cutting it off now.  But neither expected their connection or that maybe the kinky things they've been holding back are just what they've always needed.  With Beau as a submissive brat and Maggie as his Domme - the two might just be able to face everything that says they shouldn't work together.  I didn't love this read as much as the previous entries in the series and I think that mostly came down to the fact I didn't find Maggie or Beau particularly compelling characters.  This will obviously be different for different readers, but I found them both to be pretty solid background characters during the previous books and the beginning of this book didn't really give me any new details about either of them.  I thought their dynamic was well done but when it came to the emotional development and stakes to their relationship, I wasn't hooked.  While Beau played a pretty big role in the first book in the series, Maggie was almost non-existent in the rest of the series.  Cate does a great job, as usual, with the kinky/spicy side of things but the character side of this read just missed the mark for me.

The Babysitter - Jessica Gadziala

This is the fifth book in the Professionals series and follows Ranger and Meadow.  The two meet when Ranger finds Meadow after she's been assaulted out in the middle of the woods where Ranger has built his homestead.  He immediately gets her to safety and then calls in help from the team to get Meadow back to civilization, to a hospital, and then hopefully back to her life.  Only Meadow isn't ready to go back to her life.  Instead, she wants to stay with Ranger while she heals and processes.  This read was much different than the other books in the series.  It was much less of a romantic suspense than some of the others and was a more quiet and calm read.  It was great to finally see more of Ranger and his set up as he was often mentioned off hand in the earlier books.  I loved Meadow's character and her growth as she went from a typical city girl to pulling her own weight on Ranger's homestead. The plot reminded me a lot of Haven by Rebekah Weatherspoon (which I read in April).  But in this read, we get more time with Ranger and Meadow together and see their feelings grow.  They both have trauma but we get to see them both lean on the other when needed.  We also get multiple epilogues so we can see the path they end up taking after the main events in the book.