booksbyec's reviews
317 reviews

 

This best friend's brother romance is spicy as hell but it also has so much heart. 

I swooned, I sighed, I giggled and I fell a little bit in love with this universe E.M. Denning has created. 

This is my first full length E.M. Denning book and I can't wait to read more. This book is set in the same universe as Breakfast at Bennett's, but you didn’t have to read those books to enjoy this one. I just know that I have now 4 more books to put on my TBR and I am not sad about it. 

In this book we meet Shane Taggert and Archer Kinsman. After years of living on the bare minimum Shane struck gold when he won the lottery. These days he is the owner of a bar called The Anchor and is a helping hand in the community. The only thing that is missing is romance and finding a man that wants to do things the way that he likes them. When he meets Archer Kinsman, his best friend's little brother, sparks fly. 

Archer is a tattoo artist that is down on his luck after his best friend Clayton stole half of their business and just disappeared. So for the last couple of weeks he has been staying with his brother and his husband, but he is feeling restless and in the way. But meeting Shane, changes everything, their chemistry is sizzling and the fact that Shane is a bigger b0ttom to his smaller top just spells magic. And when Shane decides to lend a helping hand to Archer, nothing can go wrong right?!?

This book is such a fun read, smutty read. I am intrigued about Shane’s brothers and their stories, will they find love also who knows?   

Also let me tell you there is a scene with a barstool and suspenders, that will leave you wanting more!

 

 

This book is a hockey romance but more than that it is a story about two people who play this cat and mouse game of who will fold first. Ant is a beautiful and somewhat sad soul that doesn't think he is allowed to be loved. Robbie on the other hand is an impossible sweet man that has so much love to give. The grumpy/sunshine trope was created for these two. They are so charmingly chaotic. And it's like they are doing a dance together, with the push and the pull they feel. 

The way that Jesse works the spice into this book is marvelous, you can really feel the passion and attraction these two feel for each other. But you also feel when they waver and feel lost. It is balanced and it shows in the way they get together both on the ice and outside in the real world.    

The story is quite contained to the 2 MCs and the building of their relationship. We do get some insights into their daily life as hockey players but that is not what is important to the story. And I for one can enjoy that aspect of getting the build up and execution without the overall plot taking over. Because in this book Ant and Robbie are the important bits and nothing else really matters.  

This a light, fast read with so much fun spice and feels. You can’t help but fall a little bit in love with Ant and Robbie. 

 

Re read via audio

 This is book 15 in Cara Dee's The Games series. This book focuses on Penelope and Nora but we also catch up with everyone else.

In the earlier books, we have seen Pen together with her long-term girlfriend Ella, we have learnt that Ella cheated on Pen and now they are broken up. 💔

Nora is new to Mclean House and she has the biggest crush on Pen, but she doesn't want to push Pen too much. Especially after some interactions where Pen put her foot down and said she was not interested in a new relationship.

I love the dynamic between Pen and Nora. Nora is a br*tty little Swede with s*rvitude tendencies and a love for imp*ct play and B*SM. This works well with Pen, who is a pl*asure d●mme and a s*dist at heart. 🩷🇸🇪

The fact that they take time before they start to play together feels organic to who they are as people.

Pen is one of the founders of Mclean House, so the fact that she wants Nora to enjoy the games even if she can't be her owner/mistress is on par with what we know about this community. Also, this gives us the chance to get to know Ash and as most of us know the next book will be about him and his estranged husband Nathan. 💜

This is quite a short book, less than 200 pages, but it is a perfect bridge between the earlier books and the next ones coming. This book also made me want to start from the beginning again and read everyone's stories again. 

 Hopper and Liam's story did not disappoint. My god does these two melt your heart, as much as a swoony m*rder romance couple can. If you have read the previous books you suspect that Hopper's background is horrific but I didn't think it would be that bad. I just wanted to give him a big hug and say "Hey! You do you and if that entails m*rder, go for it".

Yes, Hopper is a bit of a stalker and maybe that is not the best way to tell someone you like them, but you can't seem to fault his actions. I don't know what that says about me but what I do know is that Liam is not as disturbed by it as he seems. Liam is a pretty level-headed guy even if with the death of his grandfather his world is turned upside down and yes Hopper also plays a big part in this. And no Hopper did not k*ll Liam's grandfather but he was a bit responsible for him losing his job the way that he did.

Even if Liam is a level-headed guy, when it comes to Hopper and the others in the mobster and billionaires group he would walk through fire for them. And I love how his character evolves throughout the book.

This is the last book in the series, but I hope that we will meet some if not all of them in some of Kelly’s other books. I know that this series is placed somewhere in the middle of all of her series so I think there is a high chance for it.