Tag: friends to lovers trope

Spoiler Free Review: Full Moon Over Freedom by Angelina M. Lopez

Title: Full Moon Over Freedom (Milagro Street #2)

Author: Angelina M. Lopez

Pub. Date: September 5th 2023

Genre: Romance/Latinx

Format: eARC

Publisher: Harlequin Feature

Pages: 400

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☆☆ARC PROVIDED BY PUBLISHER IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW☆☆

Full Moon Over Freedom is the second book in the Milagro Street series following a Mexican-American family trying to breathe life back into a Kansas city street, home to many hard working class immigrants. This time we’re following Gillian Armstead-Bancroft, one of the Torres sisters who is returning to Freedom Kansas with her two children and in the middle of an ugly divorce/custody battle. To friends and family, Gillian has always been a do-gooder who did everything “right” and more than ever, wants to be good at being bad. Running into her childhood bestfriend Nicky Mendoza poses an opportunity to let go and go with the flow. Nicky was the one she entrusted to help her lose her virginity the summer before leaving for college, he represents home and safety. For Nicky, the return of the girl he loves comes with a ton of mixed emotions including abandonment. Nevertheless, they throw caution to the wind and ignite what they’ve never been able to forget. 

What I didn’t love? I struggled warming up to Gillian, but that may just be my preference for lead characters who go against the grain and are a bit more bold in life choices. Gillian is trying to find her footing after having her idea of success and happiness completely changed and her life turned upside down. We get a healthy dose both Gillian and Nicky independently however, their romance in present time felt a bit unbalanced. As in, Nicky was definitely pouring into Gillian’s cup but she was wrapped up in a lot of unresolved issues. The friends to lovers trope set the foundation for this connection but its also what carried this story arc. 

What I loved? returning to Freedom Kansas, seeing familiar faces, and the progress being made to open business in this long forgotten street. There’s discussion of opportunities and business plans being drawn up to help women of color gain financial independence through ownership. We also see our MC’s dig through historical documents that paint a better picture of how women of color contributed to this street in decades past. One a more personal level, Gillian is navigating being a new single mom to her kids. One of which has autism; Gillian’s very real concerns and fears of being in a toxic co-parenting situation and how it affects her child. There are heavy themes explored such as drug addiction, emotional abuse, and death of a loved one. This series also has a touch of magical realism, we come across La Llorona who is a ghost from Mexican Folklore as well as a wolf entity that follow our main characters down their paths independently. I love when my romance books are meaty and complex like the Milagro Street books are, my interest in reading about the youngest Torres sister next is definitely piqued!

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Spoiler Free Review: Wreck The Halls by Tessa Bailey

Title: Wreck The Halls

Author: Tessa Bailey

Pub. Date: October 3rd 2023

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Format: DRC

Publisher: Berkley

Pages: 351

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☆☆ARC PROVIDED BY PUBLISHER IN EXCHANGE FOR AN HONEST REVIEW☆☆

Melody Ballard and Beat Dawkins are the adult children of former world famous diva rock stars. They’ve come together to try and get their iconic duo moms to reunite for one more show, the odds of that happening though are slim to none. Melody and Beat met as teens while traveling in the same circles and had the potential to be really great friends but the rupture of their mother’s band made it so their lives took different paths. With Christmas Eve fast approaching, Beat and Melody are made an offer by a television network to livestream their efforts to reunite the Steel Birds one last time. This means 24 hour live coverage of Melody and Beat’s daily lives. For Mel, this means stepping back into the limelight where she’s experienced nothing but harsh criticism from a very young age. Melody prefers the quiet life of restoring old books but the promise of a large sum of money if she can successfully reunite the Steel Birds is too good to pass up. It means financial independence from a mother who she’s quite disconnected from. Mel’s mother is described as possibly being a cult leader in the sense that her home is open to all that love her and detest Beat’s mom. What I loved about Melody: She’s truly a funny character, her quips always had me giggling. Tessa bailey gave us a female who comes across as unaware of her charm and I absolutely loved falling in love with her at the same time as everyone else watching the livestream.

Beat on the other hand is quite charming, comfortable in his attractiveness, and in the limelight. He also has a need for the money the network is offering if he can get his iconic and elegant mother to participate in her former rock bands reunion. No one knows why the band broke up but strong rumors have always circulated that it was caused by a man their mothers were both involved with. They have their secrets and so does Beat, his attraction to Melody is just one of them. What I loved about Beat: How humble and down to earth he is, the wealth his family has accrued keeps him grounded in giving back. We see him run an organization focused on giving youth grants to further their education in music. Beat is also super protective of Melody so if you dig the type, he def checks off the bodyguard box.

This was admittedly my first Tessa Bailey read and it won’t be my last, holiday romance is always hit or miss no matter the author. This story picks up and takes a turn for a hilarious good time at the 50% mark, I’m talking Santa’s brawling on the lawn type funny 😂 which had me not wanting to put it down. I just wish I hadn’t struggled getting invested in this story for the first half, otherwise this could’ve been a five star read. The livestream was a nice addition with fans of Melody creating fun silly hashtags shipping her with Beat! There were a couple of scenes towards the end that were movie ready making it a certifiable rom-com in every sense of the word. On another note, I’ve long heard about the spice Tessa Bailey brings to her books can now say…not one lie was told! I’m intrigued to see what the Tessa Bailey back-list is packing so I guess it’s a good thing I have a couple on my shelves 😉

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Spoiler Free Review: Exes & O’s by Amy Lea

Title: Exes & O’s

Author: Amy Lea

Pub. Date: January 10th. 2023

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Format: eARC

Publisher: Berkley Books

Pages: 361

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☆☆ARC provided by Publisher in exchange for an honest review☆☆

In this friends to lovers story, we follow Tara Chen a “stage-five clinger” who has had her heart broken by ten different men but it hasn’t soured her to romance. Our girl is in search of the right one and that means kissing a few frogs. Tara is a Pediatric nurse, social media book influencer, lover of the romance genre in search of her own happily ever after. The idea to revisit her past exes in hopes of finding a missed opportunity takes off after she shares it with her followers. She is locked in and committed to going down that list despite the awkward encounters she sees coming. We see her move into a new apartment and meet the new roomie Trevor who isn’t attached to anyone and isn’t really trying to get into anything serious. He finds Tara’s experiment to be not quite a great idea but this firefighter who has NO problem keeping it casual with the ladies, is also her wingman. He’s also the only one Tara doesn’t seem to scare away with her optimistic approach to love and dating…if there was a fast forward option, our girl would definitely hit it if it meant meeting and falling for the one. Along the way he starts to see how great Tara really is and sparks begin to fly…

Too many times I’ve picked up a rom-com that’s somehow missing the comedy but this one had the right recipe, the balance was just a bit off. The whole premise of going back and calling these guys she’s broken up with sounds pretty awkward but she takes up the task with genuine hopes that one of them was a missed opportunity. Although we did get to meet two of the guys, these scenes felt rushed. I feel it would’ve added just the right amount of humor to the story if we had more time going through her list. Also, her ex fiancé is first class trash and any time he was on the page I cringed so hard for Tara SMH! 

I would’ve loved to have seen our male lead Trevor’s POV a bit more fleshed out. We spend a lot of time in Tara’s mind which made for an unbalanced attraction. While it’s true that Tara is very clingy which probably made her POV come through a bit stronger, I felt we only got to see Trevor’s feelings towards the very end. That being said, the friends to lovers trope is my favorite and reading a MC who is a member of her fictional book community was pretty dope. The opening scene alone with Tara riding the train while reading her romance novel and making eye contact with a cutie had me shaking my head with thoughts of BEEN THERE! Who can resist a steamy dust jacket?!? Haha! I will be continuing on with The Influencer books, Mel’s story arc “The Catch” is next and it’s already snagged a spot up on Goodreads!

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