f/f romance – LairOfBooks

Spoiler Free Review: Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake

Title: Delilah Green Doesn’t Care

Author: Ashley Herring Blake

Pub. Date: February 22nd 2022

Genre: Contemporary Romance/LGBTQIA+

Format: eARC

Publisher: Berkley Romance

Pages: 384

GOODREADS | BARNES & NOBLE | LIBROFM | AMAZON

*ARC received in exchange for an honest review*

Twelve years have passed since Delilah Green turned her back on Bright Falls and started a new chapter of her life in New York City. The small town holds a lot of memories, many of them sad and painful. After the loss of her mother, Delilah’s father re-married and that came with a step-sister she never quite felt comfortable around. When her estranged step-sister Astrid comes looking to hire her as a photographer for her wedding, Delilah is torn between ignoring the request or returning to a place she had sworn away. Life as a waitress/wedding photographer sustains her real dream which is art through a lens that focuses on queer people. She can’t really pass up the chance to make some real money from Astrids gig so she decides to go with no real plans to stick around. That all changes when she crosses paths with Astrid’s “stuck-up” BFF Claire Sutherland and decides to place a bet with her step-sister who is super protective of her besties.

Claire Sutherland is a single mom raising a an 11 year old girl who also runs the towns local bookshop. In between dealing with her ex and his unreliability, she hasn’t had much time for dating and she doesn’t do random hook-ups. Her relationship with her child’s father has left her with some trust/abandonment issues. She most certainly doesn’t think someone like Delilah Green who is flighty & into casual sex, is a good idea to start something up with. Wedding preparations along with some sideline hijinks to stop Astrid from marrying the absolute biggest chauvinistic jerk on the planet, force these two to work together. It’s definitely a case of instant sparks flying paired with undeniable chemistry that WORKED!

Christina Hendricks (Pinterest)

Laura Prepon (IMDB)

*Images respectively from Pinterest & IMDB

CW: Cancer, death of a parent(s), grief, cheating, misogyny, abandonment

I’ve never been one to fan cast while reading any book but these characters were so well fleshed out that only Christina Hendricks (Mad Men) & Laura Prepon (OITNB) came to mind. From the vintage pin-up style Claire so flawlessly executes to Delilah’s more wild devil-may-care attitude, these two had chemistry that jumped off the page. I LOVED them both and got so invested in their lives and the baggage they each were carrying. At its core we have a story about acceptance and learning how to allow yourself to be loved both romantically and platonically. The female friendships go back for these women to their childhood days and tied to that are feelings of being excluded and made out to feel like an outcast. Some of these characters (including supporting cast) are working through grief, co-parenting relationships, toxic relationships, feeling like they have to seek validation, and abandonment issues. Yes it’s absolutely a full on romance but it also has a huge emphasis on friendship which made it all the more sweeter. When I was in the book I didn’t want to put it down & when I was away from it, all I thought about was my next free moment to jump back in. I’m 100% the type of bookworm who loves character driven books but I was pleasantly surprised by the subplot and how much fun it added to the main storyline. Also! I can’t not mention this. The love shown to a woman’s body post having had a child was SUPER appreciated by this bookworm and just downright beautiful to see on the page. This is my first read from Ashley Herring Blake and I can already tell I may have found a new favorite author. There’s an excerpt to the next book in this series which follows one of the characters in this book and even that was *Chefs Kiss* enough to keep me holding on haha!

Things to look forward to on February 22nd…

📚An Idyllic small town with a cute Bookstore
📸Single Mom finding love
📚Bookworm MC’s
📸A tight knit female friend group
🏳️‍🌈Sapphic main characters
📸Photography explored
📚Co-Parenting ups/downs
📸Complex sibling relationship
📚Campsite Pranks
🌶Steamy AF sex scenes

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Top Ten Tuesday: The Ten Most Recent Additions to My E-Reader

Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together. This weeks topic is “The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf” which I’ve amended to those that I hauled to my e-reader cause they deserve some love too. I’ll admit some of these I already own physical copies to, but its just easier nowadays to read from my tablet. Ok, this list here is QUITE the mixed bag which pretty much speaks volumes on my undying love for mood reading. These also happen to be the books I’ll be using as palette cleansers as I make my way through my ARC spreadsheet, a lot of which are Fantasy.

The Bookish Life of Nina Hill by Abbi Waxman – Our MC works in a bookstore and is pretty much a happy introvert who thinks she’s an only child. When she finds out the father she never knew has passed away & that she’s one of many siblings, her whole life makes a huge turn. Add to this a unexpected romance with her trivia nemesis, I’m all IN!

Kushiel’s Dart (Phèdre’s trilogy #1) by Jacqueline Carey – I’ve heard SO much about this series & finally got my copy. It’s a dark sexy Fantasy where the MC is trained as both a spy & a courtesan. When she stumbles across a plot against her homeland, she sets out to save that which she loves.

“Set in a world of cunning poets, deadly courtiers, heroic traitors, and a truly Machiavellian villainess, this is a novel of grandeur, luxuriance, sacrifice, betrayal, and deeply laid conspiracies. Not since Dune has there been an epic on the scale of Kushiel’s Dart-a massive tale about the violent death of an old age, and the birth of a new.”

The Kiss Quotient (The Kiss Quotient #1) by Helen Hoang – this well loves contemporary is about a MC with Aspergers who hires a Vietnamese/Swedish professional to help her in all things dating & bedroom. This eventually turns into more & I’m really just way overdue to read this one.

The Bride Test (The Kiss Quotient #2) by Helen Hoang – The sequel to The Kiss Quotient cause lets face it, I will most likely fall in love with TKQ & crave this one! $1.99 on Kindle last time I checked (1/19/2020) is a steal. Following characters from TKQ, this time our MC is a Vietnamese Autistic guy who feels he’s incapable of loving after experiencing a loss. The MC’s mother travels to Vietname to see if she can find him a bride. The love interest is a Bi-racial (Vietnamese/White) single mom who is willing to take his mom up on her off to marry her son in hopes for a better life.

The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics by Olivia Waite – a F/F Historical Romance that comes HIGHLY recommended by some of my closest bookish buddies. Here we follow Lucy who is hoping to get the job translating a groundbreaking French astronomy text by a deceased Scientist. Recently widowed, Catherine isn’t expecting to fall in love as Lucy spends her nights translating scientific text.

The Queens Of Innis Lear by Tessa Gratton – A land drained of it’s magic by a mad King who Is obsessed with property is being circled by enemies who want control over its ideal port for trades. The King must choose an heir on the longest night of the year. His three daughters care not to leave this decision to rituals & instead choose to go to war. Having really enjoyed Strange Grace by Tessa Gratton, I’m really hoping to LOVE this one *fingers crossed*

GUAPA by Saleem Haddad – A coming of age story following a Gay man in a unnamed Arab country during much political and social upheaval. In the course of one night his whole life changes. Caught in bed with his lover by his Grandmother, our MC heads out only to find three of his closest friends to be missing. Ashamed to return home he sets out to find his missing loved ones which takes him throughout the countries seediest slums.

The Walflower Wager (Girl Meets Duke #3) by Tessa Dare – It wasn’t until I sat down to draft this post that I realized this is book 3 in this series SMH! however, it does seem like it can be read on its own as a stand alone. This one features a wealthy ruthless MC who just wants his neighbor to clear out all of the furry animals she’s keeping next door. Lady Penelope Campion however, cannot truncates away any animal in need. She strikes a deal with the Duke, if he can find homes for all of her wounded charges the & only then will she clear out her home. THIS should be innneresting haha!

The Rage of Dragons (The Burning #1) by Evan Winter – “Game of Thrones meets Gladiator in this debut epic fantasy about a world caught in an eternal war, and the young man who will become his people’s only hope for survival.”—> This is an African inspired EPIC Fantasy I’ve heard good things about. I am ALWAYS looking for Diverse/Own Voices high Fantasy reads & so this was a MUST!

Shadow Frost (Shadow. Frost #1) by Coco M

“IN THE KINGDOM OF AXARIA, a darkness rises.

Some call it a monster, laying waste to the villagers and their homes.
Some say it is an invulnerable demon summoned from the deepest abysses of the Immortal Realm.
Many soldiers from the royal guard are sent out to hunt it down.

Not one has ever returned.” —>This is a YA Fantasy I caught wind of last year. Having heard it features a cast of very funny characters, that’s just about all I needed to know I’d give it a go.

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SMUTATHON WINTER 2020 READATHON WRAP-UP

What better way to start the New Year than with a little Smut? amiright? 🤗 #SMUTATHON is a Readathon hosted by RileyMarie & GingerReadsLainey where we read any & all things Romance/Smut. This round of #SMUTATHON ran from January 4th through January 11th 2020 & it was EVERYTHING I never knew I needed 🙌🏽 after having a mediocre reading year in 2018, this was a nice way to start 2020. This time around they included a Bingo Board with 9 challenges which I layered up on since reading 9 books in one week, personally would be very challenging.

The Loner’s Lady by Jesse Kane -✨ 3 STARS ✨ This was truly like nothing I’ve ever read before 🙈 a HUGE age gap romance where our female MC is 18 & traveling with her gay BFF to see his dad who he hasn’t told he’s gay. They pretend they’re dating each other because the 40+ year old dad is former military & quite intimidating. It wasn’t the age gap so much as how it all wrapped up that didn’t make this a winner for me. Also, the dad comes off as a bit primal #jussayin

The Headmaster by Tiffany Reisz -✨ 5 STARS ✨ On the steam scale this one is a whole lot tamer than anything I read this week. It’s Gothic vibes were hella atmospheric, set in the 1960’s this one takes place in a all boys school. Our female MC gets into a car accident and ends up working as the new English teacher at the school. There’s a bit of mystery surrounding the school & its inhabitants I enjoyed unraveling. The whole English man look & accent also really worked for me ☺️ I’ve been recommended to read The Rose which is based on Greek Gods Mythology.

Grading Curves by Naima Simone – ✨ 4 STARS ✨ Naima Simone has made a true fan out of me! 🙌🏽 Good Lawd this steamy scenes had me all shades of red on my early morning train into work. The female MC walks into a tattoo parlor & ends up really hitting it off with the tattoo artist. Things get steamy & the next morning the male MC walks into the college classroom she’s teaching. My ONLY wish was that this was a smidge longer, the ending felt rushed. The writing however is legit off the meter steamy & sexy, LOVED IT!

The Kingmaker (All the King’s Men Duet #1) by Kennedy Ryan– ✨4.5 STARS✨ This author deserves all of the high praise they receive 🙌🏽 I got so much more than I expected from this story 💓This is a dual POV between our MC’s Lennix & Maxim who meet when Lennix is a underage activist protesting a pipeline that is being built on sacred Native American grounds. Maxim is the son of the man behind the pipeline however father & son share no common interests. We follow Lennix & Maxim through a span of time from teen years through Lennix’ 20’s & 30’s. I LOVE stories that span over time because we get to see growth in character & how life has shaped them in their adult lives. This book was BEAUTIFULLY written with a spotlight on such relevant hard hitting issues like the disappearance/murder of Native American women. The only reason I docked it half a star was because that ending was a bit left field & I’m still unsure how I feel about it but overall its’s a high quality read I’d recommend.

Beautiful Dreamer by Melissa Brayden – ✨ 5 STARS ✨ a F/F romance written for the stars! I ABSOLUTELY LOVED this book to pieces! a beachside dual POV story that left me wanting to leave the city & relocate in a small beach town where everyone wants to be your friend haha! We meet Elizabeth who is very friendly & outgoing, the town sweetheart who owns a odd job business she runs from her garage. Elizabeth is watching over Jill who has just experienced a life threatening car accident. She reaches out to Jill’s sister Devyn who is a BIG time real estate broker in Philadelphia in hopes she can get her to come out to Dreamer’s Bay. Devyn leaves Philly to be by Jill’s side & slowly starts to fall in love with Liz & the town she left behind after her High School graduation. Liz & Devyn are polar opposites but it’s their differences that make this romance work. Quirky, fun, heartwarming are just a few of the words that describe this read. Liz will forever be one of my favorite fictional characters 💓

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Spoiler Free Novella Review: Mangos and Mistletoe by Adriana Herrera

Title: Mangos and Mistletoe

Author:Adriana Herrera

Pub. Date: December 16th 2019

Genre: F/F Romance/LGBTQIAP+

Pages: 152 Pages

Format: Kindle

GOODREADS | AMAZON

I’ll preface my review by mentioning that this novella was my first Kindle pre-order EVER! I’ve never been moved to click on that button until I saw this F/F LATINX Romance show up on my Twitter timeline cause it’s just not that common. I’m SO happy I did! this was one of my December reads & a easy 5 stars at that…

We meet Kiskeya Burgos as she arrives in Scotland straight from the Dominican Republic as a contestant in a televised Holiday Baking Challenge. Kiskeya is highly driven & focused with one goal in mind and that is winning. She has a lot to prove back home and that means she has a plan and a set of rules she’s made for herself to keep her sharp and on track. One of the key rules is to NOT mingle in any romantic sense but all of that changes when Sully Morales walks into her life…

Sully Morales is the complete opposite of Kiskeya, she’s an extrovert who is proud of her Dominican roots. Sully is super friendly, affectionate, and VERY attractive. When Sully sees Kiskeya there’s instant sexual attraction and so begins to flirt with Kiskeya in what has to be the cutest & most fun way I’ve ever seen on the page. She knows she makes Kiskeya uncomfortable but she really likes her & isn’t shy about it.

For the Holiday Baking Challenge contestants are paired up such that there’s one professional baker and one home baker per team. Kiskeya & Sully are paired up which makes for some SUPER (level 10 😉) steamy chemistry that will have you wanting release between these two. I don’t think I’ve ever had this much fun with any romance I’ve read! We get two polar opposites who have to share a hotel room & come to an agreement on the recipes/decor/presentation for the challenges. They’re both Dominican who’ve had different cultural experiences and baking is the one thing that brings them together. I LOVED the inclusion of ingredients & the colorful descriptions of all their baking creations. I haven’t read very many F/F romance books but after this one I’m on a mission to gather up some recommendations. This was the PERFECT read around Christmas even though the holidays aren’t the main focal point, it gave me all the warm holiday feels.