katiedermody's reviews
1977 reviews

Josh is a sex worker in the adult entertainment industry and moves into a house for the summer while the occupant is away on your. The occupant is the man Clara's known forever and is in love with, and was supposed to be arriving to live with until she found out he was gone. She and Josh enjoy each other's company, he helps her explore her own pleasure, and they start a more ethical porn company along with his ex and frequent costar. They face some issues like family, his current agent and company, public opinion, etc. while falling in love. This was a reread I'd been thinking of doing for a bit after my sister read it and I realized how little I remembered. Then my book club chose it and I was able to get a copy of the audio, which was a new way to read it for me. Teddy Hamilton narrating as Josh is excellent, as always.  I enjoyed it! I remember thinking it was super spicy the first time; it does have a decent amount and I appreciate how sex positive it is, but it's definitely not the raciest I've read anymore. I enjoy this author's writing and it stood up well to a reread. I wouldn't be surprised if I read it again someday. will be listening to book two now to reread it as well. 

This was such a lovely ending to the Wilmot Sisters series! With everything Juliet dealt with during Bea's book at the beginning, I've been looking forward to her story and it did not disappoint. She first encounters Will, a giant, gorgeous red-headed and befreckled man, one night during her trip to Scotland but was too in her heartbreak for anything beyond a dance at the pub. Months later, she finds him at home, where he's appeared as a college friend of Christopher's. They reconnect and hatch a plan to be each other's romance study buddies, her so she can ease back into things and him because he gave up a long time ago on romance but needs a wife. Of course, with the immediate attraction, the care they both show as they get to know one another and learn about his experiences as an Autistic man and hers as a chronically ill woman, it isn't long before practice no longer feels like practice. I loved how sweet and hopeful this story is with a dash of spice (eventually, as if is a bit of a slow-burn). Whereas at least one of or both leads in the first two books didn't like each other to begin with and had to grow in appreciation (which I'm here for and love), there was a beautiful simplicity in how these two enjoyed each other's company right from the start. 
A someone going through their own journey discovering what it means to me to be neurodivergent, I appreciated Will's story and the feelings he had to work through around having accepted love probably wouldn't happen for him. Doubly, as someone who also live with dynamic chronic illness with pain and fatigue as two main symptoms, Juliet's experiences with needing people to accept and learn about her new normal hit close to home. As always, I appreciate the care and attention Chloe puts into her stories when it comes to disability. I also noticed that the Shakespeare references seemed to have leveled up in this one and I enjoyed picking out as many little homages I could. It may just be that the two plays this one references the most are the two I knew the best, so I noticed more; regardless, I thought some were especially clever and am guessing there were even more I missed. Well done overall with this series, and I look forward to revisiting it again at some point as well as whatever you gift us with next!

This one is good, a five year jump so we get a glimpse into their life (with some spice) and then at the family as a whole, together. 

I really enjoyed this one too! It's second chance for childhood best friends  riefly turned lovers and then estranged for twelve years. Now Finn Rhodes has moved back to town and is ready to make up for his mistakes and prove to Olivia that they're soulmates. Liv is, if course, pissed at him but knows he's a thrill seeker at heart and will get bored once he gets what he thinks he wants and leave again, so she agrees to date him again while secretly plotting to drive him away and make him dump her so that it's his idea. Their back and forth as they try to one up each other is snarky, teasing, funny, sweet, and fun. He's also the one helping her with a big project that could make or break her finishing her PhD successfully, which the small town people we know and love medeled to make sure happened. I thought the pace was good for this kind of romance, and that the bonus epilogue really wrapped up the series well (plus there is a hit you on the head reveal about a return to the town for a side character's story at some point, and I'm here for it). 

Wedding reception, we get a little glimpse into the next book. And then spicy. 

I wondered if it would, and this book did the indeed usurp the last one to become my fave of this series so far. Grumpy brother, Holden, who is secretly a softie and romantic, inherits the local in with the previous owner's niece Sadie. He had a crush on her the summer she stayed with her aunt when they were teens but was an asshole to her because he couldn't deal and she wasn't staying. She's an interior designer from Toronto and agrees to stay so they can renovate the inn together, as long as he buys out part of her share when they're done. The other part of the deal is that she helps find him a wife. She never wants to get married again because of a recent broken engagement (which is also why she needs money), so they know they can't end up together. But of course, we get to know him as the book goes on, they laugh a lot together, she makes him smile, and they fall for each other. It's spicy, sweet, funny, and there's a little 3rd act breakup but it felt like it needed to happen for them to be truly happy. I really liked Sadie and Holden, individually and together. She can be loud, calls people dude, there's a hilarious cursed alien dildo situation (sent to her by mistake but it keeps coming back to her and everyone in town knows about it), and she has to learn to trust ahain. He's still quiet and grumpy, but also sweet and so caring; he feels very responsible for everyone and everything which causes him to want to control situations, so he has to deal with that. Overall, I think this one is tied with book2 in the hockey series as my faves, and I'm excited to finally learn in the next book why Finn and Olivia can't be in the same town. 

Short, spicy, funny in the way it calls back to an earlier awkward, hilarious situation for them. 

This one has a bonus scene but also the first two chapters from the opposite POV they ended up being. They were still good this way but definitely better the way they ended up in the book. 

This is my second favorite by this author so far after book two in the other series (sending a pattern, as this is also book2). I like the shy, scared bookseller deciding to make a list of things she wants to accomplish before she turns 30 in a couple months and then recruiting (ahem, blackmailing) laid-back cool guy surfer, Wyatt Rhodes, to help her. He's all about the temporary, nothing long term, but the more time he spends with her the more he isn't sure that's true. She comes into her own, is finally the person she's always had the potential to be but hid herself away from and it's great. They're cute together and I mean... him reading her favorite book without telling her and encouraging her to be brave all the time? The usual humor, sweetness, and smut I expect from this author now, though I do think this series might be less spicy so far compare to the hockey one. The town they live in made me think of Tonfino; I've never been there but it's on Vancouver Island, and from what I know, is known for its surfing, has a busy tourist season, etc. so it seems similar vibes. Holden's story is next and I'm curious to learn more about the inner workings of the grumpy brother. 

Cute and spicy, it's his bday and they have a party and then private gift giving time.