katiedermody's reviews
1976 reviews

Okay I REALLY liked this! I have been interested in the second book since I saw it but once I started that one I got only a chapter in and knew I wanted to go back and read this one since the characters are all so closely connected (family, found family, etc.). Sticking in my sports romance era, this MMC plays rugby and I actually feel like I learned a little about it. I loved their best friends to accidental pregnancy to roommates to FWB to lovers story. It had the right amount of pining, denial, angst. There is excellent fat rep in this book, as well as queer rep, and the MMC is Mexican American. It is super sexy and very kinky. I'm glad I read it and am looking forward to where the series goes since I'm fairly certain there are more siblings who will get their love stories. Also, I want to go back later and read the duology about their friends and their polycule because they were already happy and established in this one so I want the backstory. 

I first learned of this author when I heard about her upcoming sapphic hockey romance that has chronic illness rep. This is her first book and I'm so glad I read it because I really enjoyed it! The found family aspect is excellent (specifically among queer people), the disability rep is so well done (mental health, chronic illnesses), and the spice was really good. I appreciated that one MC was experiencing her first sexual relationship with a woman, and the way the two women interacted, from snarky and teasing to caretaking and emotional. Their contract for a platonic, convenient mutual arrangement was clearly going to fail but I liked the way they each fell at different speeds and levels of awareness of their own feelings. They both work at a dog resort, one as groomer and one as manager with a side gig of training dogs. There's plenty of on page therapy sessions for one MC, and great conversations between the friends that simultaneously support and challenge one another. I don't know if we ever will since there's a new series in the works, but I would love to get books for the other three in the friend group if romance is something that makes sense for the characters. 

I heard about this on a queer "news and entertainment" website (sort of People/Cosmo style but LGBTQ+) and was interested. It's exactly what the title says: a quick and easy guide to sex and disability. This basically summarizes what I'd hoped the Disability & Sexuality course that was part of my support worker training would have been and was not. It talks briefly about communication, tools, etc. but starts with "disabled people are hot and many of them like to have sex". I think it's a good thing anybody could read to make the world a more inclusive place but is also good for disabled folks and their partners. It's queer friendly, it's a graphic novel with a fun style, and it was great to see so many different bodies represented. 

I had the feeling when I read this the first time that this would follow a similar pattern to another marriage in crisis romance from another author I love and be slower to grow on me, but that it would grow nonetheless. I was right and I'm sure it'll continue to happen with every subsequent reread. I enjoyed this second read and thought, as always, that Victoria did an amazing job bringing the story to life through her narration. 

That's three for three from Meg McSpadden! I have been so excited for this third book in the series, and am very thrilled to say it was as wonderful as expected. 

Sophie starts a new job as a temporary social worker at a school and is shocked to discover her childhood crush Foster works there as an EA. They start spending time together, he agrees to be her fake date to an alumni event where her awful ex will be if she does the same to a friend's BBQ where they all try to keep setting him up, to no success. They decide to keep going and work through the alphabet on "friend dates" but she doesn't know that he's loved her since they were teenagers and that she isn't the only one faking the faking. 

There are books that smack me in the face with emotions or some aspect of the reading experience and make me want to scream about them from rooftops. There are books that are just so cozy and heartfelt that I want to sink into the feelings they give and not say a thing. This book is somehow both!

As I said to Meg, it's like the at home, comfortable, fully yourself feeling Sophie and Foster were creating with each other seeps through the words to the reader. The entire story is about creating everyday intimacy, healing from past hurts to live without doubt, and learning to trust and love yourself and your loved one. 

Thank you, Meg for a series of books that all have different vibes but fit perfectly together. I love being part of The Yogurt Squad so far, and am grateful for all the sneak peaks and getting to read this ARC! Also, the glimpses we got of Nancy and Karl have me even more excited for their story!

•Best friend's brother
•Fake dating 
•ABC dates
•Disability rep: ADHD and an important side character has CP
•Release date: Apr 1/25 

Well, I loved it! There's a good chance that this final installment of the Brunch Bros series is my favorite of the four (I'll let you know once I've read them all again in succession). I think I'll love them all for their own reasons but I'd been WAITING for Sybil and Peter's story ever since it was teased in book one and it did not disappoint, and was worth the wait. 

It's emotional, it's funny, it's sexy, it's swoony, we get to see the small town and cast of side characters we love, and it's got the witty dialogue and repartee that Sarah infuses into her books. Also, she was over the top incredible with the references in this book, both obvious and subtle. Maybe they were extra special because I feel like I caught most or all of them and appreciated them, but even if that's the case there's got to he a lot of readers who will love anything from Jane Austen, to Princess Bride, to LOTR, to Notting Hill, to more. She's always been good at leaving little breadcrumbs like sky references or hints about future storylines, and she continued that here. Even though this is the last Brunch Bro book, she's very clearly set up the potential for (and has said she'd like to write) a McMahon Brothers series and we've gotten to know and love a lot of the people who will center in those already. 

As for this book's specifics, second chance romance is swiftly becoming one of my top tropes and this just pushed it further in that direction. The twelve year break, finally getting to learn about their past, seeing the love and the heartbreaking moments in flashbacks scenes, and watching them figure out how to exist now together, moving past the hurt and into the love that remains. There's also a bit of forced (ish) proximity since he's in town doing a movie with his parents directing and producing (sidenote: love them both) and she gets scouted by accident to be the lead actress's stand in since they look so similar. They spend time together, she tries to keep things casual, he sucks at casual, they end up rescuing a cat together. It's a whole wonderful thing, and I definitely recommend you read the entire series. You don't need to read them in order but you'll have a better sense of things and the story will be fuller if you do. 

Thank you, Sarah, for the ARC! It was a pleasure to read it a little early, send you multiple DMs while doing so, and now sing its praises. 

•Second chance romance (12 years later)
•small coastal Oregon town (back in Crane Cove!)
•sunshine golden-retriever hopeful-romantic actor x people-around-town-are-scared-of-her secretly soft coffee shop owner
•found family (last of the Brunch Bros series)
•Release date: Mar 13/25

Beta read: Holy crap this is good, even in this unfinished stage! Can't wait to see how it turns out when it's done. 

This one was such a mixed bag, but not in a bad way at all. It was SO funny, with hilarious side characters and excellent dialogue (inner and outer). It was spicy, and second chance because the four of them had been together once ten years ago before she freaked out and bailed on her best friends turned lovers. Now she's runaway brided after finding her fiance cheating and still almost going through with it, returned to her kooky small coastal town, and is dealing with her mom (called Crazy Daisy around town and she's fine with it) and her Aunt (Karlene, who is or think she is a psychic), both of whom cause trouble all over the place. And she's dealing with her guys. It's also emotional in ways I didn't expect (see CW at the bottom, but avoid if you're worried about spoilers). I liked it maybe a little less by the end than I assumed I would based on the first part, but still enjoyed it and would read more by the author. 
CW: discussion of past miscarriage, cheating, surprise pregnancy in the present (near the end).

As always, I enjoyed this why choose romance from the author duo Emma Foxx! Ivy gets ditched on her wedding day and is comforted by her best friend Liam, and her ex-fiance's best friends Harrison and Ford (yes, they've heard all the name jokes since they've been best friends since birth pretty much). Turns out the ex left the house they got to move across the country to in Ivy's name so she decides to drive out and sell it and the three men join her. There's immediate tension because Liam has loved her for years, Ford met her before her ex did and has liked her the entire time, and Harrison and Liam have a contentious past but clearly still have chemistry. There's an only one room situation where things progress, the spice is great in this one, and then they all end up in the guys' home town in South Carolina, all falling in love with her, and the two guys with each other. I forgot the way these authors often have their polycule members conflicted at first about sharing, forming relationships, being together, etc. and I appreciate that because it feels like what should happen in real life when you enter into a relationship with multiple people. I look forward to their next book!

Okay, I actually loved this so much! I requested it because I'd seen the cover artist post the reveal and saw fat rep for both characters and the words "fake marriage" in the title and was all in. I started to read the arc and then immediately realized the other book I'd seen by this author was the first and was connected, so I started that one but was already too interested in this one, so I'll have to go back to that one. I'm curious to see what I'll think of Hazel as the best friend in book one, because I love her as the MC in this one. That she's fiesty, a little rude, loves going for shock value, all while being standoffish because she was essentially trained by her mother to be exactly what men want, to hide her real self and interests, etc. Then her adorably oafish, gentle-giant neighbor, Beck, sees right through that and without her even realizing it at first, encourages her to own it. She situates herself as his fake wife to help him save face with an awful colleague, and they end up at a two week writer's retreat all togrther, where she struggles with the fact that the more she sees who he is, the more she falls her walls dropping and wishing she was someone worthy of his real love.
This book is simultaneously so beautifully soft and incredibly horny, and it's such a great mix. It's all from her POV so there were times I wanted to shake her and say, "Get it together! This sweet man CLEARLY wants you for real, exactly as you are!" Beck is nearing 40 and very inexperienced, and I loved the way that was handled in the story, with her not only not judging him for it, but ultimately being excited by the fact that she's the one who gets to have firsts with him. He may be polite, and seem rather innocent because of his general demeanor with the public, but he also knows what he wants and is a very quick to apply what he's learned. The ending made me feel a little emotional for them both and I think it's because the "everyone deserves someone to love them just as they are" message got to me a little, because isn't that what so many of us want? 
Thank you to SMP for the arc, I very much enjoyed the story and will definitely look for more from this author in the future.
•Fat rep
•British and American characters 
•Spicy and sweet
•Release date: Mar 11/25