Romance Wrap-up September 2025

 

First-Time Caller - B.K. Borison

This was an absolutely fantastic romance and solidified Borison as an insta-read author for me.  The premise was pretty straightforward, a jaded radio host of a romance advice show meets a hopeless romantic single mom and they start hosting the show together.  Borison does a fantastic job of grounding these characters in incredibly human moments that took what could have been a much more fluffy, sweet romance into something with a little bit of grit.  This isn't the type of romance where the jaded cynic learns to love again just because the FMC has that 'special something' that melts his ice cold heart.  In this case, it was so much more and we could actually see Aiden work through his feelings about relationships and love.  This read had so much heart along side some absolutely top tier mutual pining and slow burn romance.  The side characters were also very well developed and I can't wait to continue on in the series.

Tropes: Single Parent, Hopeless Romantic FMC vs Jaded MMC, Dating Game

Series: Heartstrings #1

Addicted to Glove - Kelly Reynolds

I've never had a surprise pregnancy book make me cry out of happiness for the characters before but this one sure did. I normally don't read them unless the author has earned my trust that they'll handle it in a way I'd enjoy.  Childfree by choice over here so surprise pregnancy books can often come across as a little more on the horror side than romance for me personally.  Reynolds and the whole series so far has been absolutely fantastic and after seeing Dani and Brooks in book 2, there was no way I'd be skipping this one just because of the pregnancy stuff.  Reynolds also identifies as childfree by choice in the author's note at the end of the read so maybe she had a different view on writing a surprise pregnancy romance that worked with my brain.  We get to see a lot of the previous couples and the team overall so it was such a fun read where pretty much everyone was happy about this baby coming.  There was so much pure happiness and joy that Reynolds put into all corners of this read that I couldn't help but feel the same for Dani and Brooks.  But then add in some very steamy scenes and this was a great read. 

Tropes: Sports - Baseball, Surprise Pregnancy, Age Gap, Coworkers

Series: Rose City Roasters #3

Stuck in the Middle With You - Frances M. Thompson

This was a pretty solid romance read and I had a pretty good time.  I really enjoy the Gym Bros to Lovers aspect of this as it is a little different than a regular friends to lovers trope. I found both MCs to be very well fleshed out, but they are both in their 40s and really felt much more like they are in their 20s.  Both of them had some pretty significant communication issues for their own reasons.  And while I think the reasons behind these communication issues were really well developed, it just didn't feel like they should have still had as much trouble as they did at their ages. This did lead to a number of mis-communication/non-communication trope situations that I'm not a huge fan of.  However, we do get past those very quickly and they don't really escalate the way they do in some other books.  I loved the very positive queer exploration/realization that Marcello went through in this read and how that Giles and the other characters helped him along that journey.  I thought the mental health impacts (ADHD and OCD) were realistic without feeling overly focused on.  I thought the friendship both in and out of the gym really shined in this read and there were so many times that I was yelling at the book for them to just kiss already.  The friendship really supported and highlighted the more romantic parts of the read, which I loved.

Tropes: MM, Bi x Pan, Friends to Lovers, Sex Lessons, Gym Bros to Lovers, ADHD/OCD Rep, MCs in 40s

Series: Standalone