Love and Other Conspiracies by Mallory Marlowe

 Love and Other Conspiracies

by Mallory Marlowe

My Rating: 🟊🟊🟊🟊

Spice Rating: 🌶

Blurb:

The hardest thing for a paranormal conspiracy theorist and a web series producer to believe in is finding love in this swoony debut romantic comedy.

Hallie Barrett's life has imploded after she's dumped by her hotshot ex, who also happens to be her coworker and the star of the online series she was producing. Without a new show to present for the company competition, she’ll be out of a job. But inspiration can come from the strangest places . . . like the most handsome guy she’s ever seen passionately discussing Bigfoot on a late-night docuseries.

Hayden Hargrove made a name for himself as a cryptid expert on his hit podcast, and is intrigued by the plucky, blue-haired producer who offers him the opportunity to lead his own web show. When the production team sees that Hayden’s solo on-screen presence is bad enough to make a ghost blanch, Hallie jumps on camera too, hitting him (and his cryptids) with a healthy dose of skepticism—and enough chemistry to electrify their show to the top of the competition.

As Hayden and Hallie investigate the unknown, they unearth feelings for each other that shake their beliefs to the core. In their search for Mothman, aliens, and the truth, the most elusive discovery might just be learning to love again.

My Review:

Can we just take a moment to appreciate when a book comes along and wraps itself around your heart like the warmest, funniest, most unexpectedly perfect hug you never knew you needed?! Because Love and Other Conspiracies by Mallory Marlowe did exactly that and I am still floating on the cloud it left me on!

Where do I even BEGIN?! A scrappy little TV network. A competition to create the most compelling small reality shows. And at the center of it all, a show dedicated to hunting down Bigfoot and aliens hosted by the most adorable nerdy hottie to ever exist in the pages of a book! I know what you are thinking and YES it is exactly as magical and chaotic and wonderful as it sounds. Actually it is even BETTER than it sounds!

The romance that blooms against this gloriously unhinged backdrop is the kind of slow building, laugh out loud, butterflies in your stomach love story that reminds you exactly why you fell in love with reading romance in the first place. It unfolds so naturally and so perfectly that every single step of their journey had me kicking my feet and grinning like an absolute fool!

And the characters, I loved every single one of them with my whole entire heart. The kind of characters that feel so real and so alive that you genuinely mourn them when the book is over because you just want to keep living in their world forever. The plot was fresh and creative and surprising in all the best ways and the humor had me laughing out loud in a way that very few books actually manage to pull off!

This book is a SEROTONIN DUMP of the highest order. If you are tired, if you are stressed, if you need something that is going to make you smile so hard your face hurts, THIS IS YOUR BOOK. Stop scrolling, stop debating, and just pick it up immediately! You can thank me later! 🛸😂💕

The Wolf King by Lauren Palphreyman

 The Wolf King

by Lauren Palphreyman

My Rating: 🟊🟊🟊🟊🟊

Spice Rating: 🌶🌶

Blurb:

When a princess is kidnapped by an alpha , war rages between the humans and the wolves. But soon, forbidden attraction starts to grow. . .

Princess Aurora longs to escape the castle and the marriage that has been arranged for her.

But on the night before her wedding, at a dog fight where captured werewolves are made to fight for sport, she spares the life of a young wolf. It puts her on the radar of the powerful alpha who was going to kill him. And it changes everything.

That night, when the alpha escapes, he kidnaps her and takes her to the rugged lands north of the border — where the once warring werewolf clans are beginning to unite. He thinks that she is the key to winning the war against the humans.

Only, as they spend time around one another, forbidden attraction starts to grow. And as Aurora learns that not all wolves are bad, the alpha discovers that she is in danger from both his enemies, and those he once considered friends.

With monsters on both sides, a bloodthirsty war between humans and wolves raging, and undeniable passion growing between them — will their story end in love? Or tragedy?

And will Aurora ever get home?

Does she even want to?

My Review:

I have one question and one question only, WHY did I wait so long to read this book?! WHY did I let it sit there calling my name while I read other things?! Because The Wolf King by Lauren Palphreyman is an absolute MASTERPIECE and I am still not fully recovered from the experience!

Let me paint you a picture, imagine Outlander. Now add werewolves. Now turn everything up to the highest possible setting and hold on for dear life. That is The Wolf King and it is every bit as delicious as that sounds. From the very first page I was completely and utterly entranced and I did not come up for air until the very last word!

And can we talk about our FMC for a moment because she is everything! This is not your typical kidnapped heroine situation, well, KIND of. She went willingly. Sort of. Listen, the details are complicated and that is all I am going to say! What I loved so deeply about her story is how it captures the suffocating reality of women being married off like political currency to forge kingdom alliances, and our girl looked that fate dead in the eye and said absolutely NOT. The audacity. The courage. I wanted to stand up and applaud!

The love story is sweeping and fierce and protective in a way that had me pressing my hand to my chest more than once. And listen, I KNEW there was a fated mate situation somewhere in these pages. I could feel it in my bones and when it arrived I was ready and I was NOT ready all at the same time!

But let me tell you what really sent me completely over the edge, Blake. Oh, BLAKE. I am a villain girl through and through and Blake is everything I have ever wanted in a morally gray, touch her and die, walking red flag wrapped in absolute perfection. I did not come here to fall for the hero, I came here for the man who exists in the delicious gray space between right and wrong and makes no apologies for it whatsoever. Blake delivered that in SPADES and I will be thinking about him for a very long time!

And the audiobook, do NOT sleep on the audiobook. It takes an already extraordinary story and elevates it into something that feels like a full cinematic experience. This is the rare book where the audio format adds an entirely new dimension to the magic and I cannot recommend it enough!

If you have not picked up The Wolf King yet I genuinely do not know what you are doing with your time. Drop everything. Clear your weekend. And prepare to fall completely and hopelessly in love with a world you will never want to leave! 🐺🔥👑

A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams

 A Love Song for Ricki Wilde

by Tia Williams

My Rating: 🟊🟊🟊🟊🟊

Spice Rating: 🌶🌶

Blurb:

Leap years are a strange, enchanted time. And for some, even a single February can be life-changing.

Ricki Wilde has many talents, but being a Wilde isn’t one of them. As the impulsive, artistic daughter of a powerful Atlanta dynasty, she’s the opposite of her famous socialite sisters. Where they’re long-stemmed roses, she’s a dandelion: an adorable bloom that’s actually a weed, born to float wherever the wind blows. In her bones, Ricki knows that somewhere, a different, more exciting life awaits her.

When regal nonagenarian, Ms. Della, invites her to rent the bottom floor of her Harlem brownstone, Ricki jumps at the chance for a fresh beginning. She leaves behind her family, wealth, and chaotic romantic decisions to realize her dream of opening a flower shop. And just beneath the surface of her new neighborhood, the music, stories and dazzling drama of the Harlem Renaissance still simmers.

One evening in February as the heady, curiously off-season scent of night-blooming jasmine fills the air, Ricki encounters a handsome, deeply mysterious stranger who knocks her world off balance in the most unexpected way.

Set against the backdrop of modern Harlem and Renaissance glamour, A Love Song for Ricki Wilde is a swoon-worthy love story of two passionate artists drawn to the magic, romance, and opportunity of New York, and whose lives are uniquely and irreversibly linked.

My Review: 

Let me tell you something, when a friend hands you a book and says you need to read this, you listen. And I am SO glad I did because A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams just completely shattered every expectation I walked in with and left me absolutely breathless on the other side!

On the surface this looked like everything I love, a woman chasing her dreams, a family that overlooked her for far too long, and a love story that swoops in and shows her exactly how worthy she has always been. A classic, beautiful, feel good romance. And yes, it is absolutely ALL of that. But then it becomes something so much MORE and that is where this book completely stole my heart and refused to give it back!

Ricki is the kind of character you root for from the very first page. She packs up her life and chases her dream of opening her own floral shop with the kind of quiet courage that makes you want to stand up and cheer for her. She is not waiting for permission to live the life she wants and I LOVED her for it!

And then comes Ezra. Gorgeous. Closed off. Mysterious in a way that crawls under your skin and refuses to let go. Ricki doesn't even like him when they first meet, and yet she cannot stop thinking about him and honestly? Neither could I! But here is where the story shifts into something unexpected and magical, there is something not quite right about Ezra. Memories feel hazy, like Ricki is trying to see them through thick fog, and every time they cross paths something tugs at her that she cannot explain or shake!

I am not going to say another word about what lies underneath this story because you deserve to discover it exactly the way I did, completely unprepared and utterly DEVASTATED in the most beautiful way possible. What I will say is this, the love between Ricki and Ezra is not just a love story. It TRANSCENDS. It reaches across every obstacle, every impossibility, everything that is stacked against them and it holds on with both hands. It is the kind of love that makes you believe in something bigger than yourself and I was not ready for how deeply it would move me!

Tia Williams writes with such breathtaking beauty that every single page feels like it was crafted with intention and care. The push and pull of love and resistance, the journey from strangers to enemies to something so profound it defies explanation, it is all executed so perfectly that I found myself reading slower just to stay inside this world a little longer!

I went in expecting a lovely romance and walked out having experienced something that felt genuinely extraordinary. Pick this book up. Clear your schedule. And prepare to fall completely and helplessly in love just like I did! 🌸🔥📖

Big Girl Panties by Stephanie Evanovich

 Big Girl Panties

by Stephanie Evanovich 

My Rating: 🟊🟊🟊

Spice Rating: 🌶🌶

Blurb:

Big Girl Panties by Stephanie Evanovich is a rollicking and poignant romantic comedy about a young widow who decides to get in shape...and winds up getting her groove back--and a whole lot more! Holly Brennan used food to comfort herself through her husband's illness and death. Now she's alone at age thirty-two. And she weighs more than she ever has. When fate throws her in the path of Logan Montgomery, personal trainer to pro athletes, and he offers to train her, Holly concludes it must be a sign. Much as she dreads the thought of working out, Holly knows she needs to put on her big girl panties and see if she can sweat out some of her grief. Soon, the easy intimacy and playful banter of their training sessions lead Logan and Holly to most intense and steamy workouts. But can Holly and Logan go the distance as a couple now that she's met her goals--and other men are noticing?

My Review:

Big Girl Panties by Stephanie Evanovich, I Wanted to Love This and I Am FRUSTRATED That I Didn't Fully Get There!

Let me tell you how this book ended up in my hands, I was on a mission to actually READ my physical TBR instead of just letting it collect dust and look pretty on my shelves. Big Girl Panties made the cut and I went in with genuine hope and an open heart. The premise pulled me in immediately, a woman navigating grief, learning to trust again, finding herself in the most unexpected places. That is the kind of story that should have had me SOBBING and cheering in equal measure. And parts of it did. But then other parts had me putting the book down to collect myself for entirely different reasons!

Let's start with what worked because there IS good here. Watching the FMC slowly lower her walls and let someone in after losing her husband was genuinely beautiful. The friendship that bloomed between them before anything romantic developed felt real and tender and earned. Grief is heavy and complicated and isolating and this book captured that truth in ways that genuinely moved me. Watching her learn to trust again, to let someone see her and stay, that part of their story was everything!

But then there is the other side of this book and I need to talk about it because it sat in my stomach like a stone the entire time I was reading!

The mansplaining. OH the mansplaining. The absolute audacity of a man deciding he knows better, deciding that the body someone is living in makes them less worthy of basic human decency, genuinely turned my stomach. The idea that you could look at another human being and reduce them entirely to the SIZE of the body they are carrying around BAFFLES me. It enrages me. Because bodies are just bodies. They are the vessels we exist in and not a single one of them determines a person's worth, their lovability, or their right to take up space in this world!

And the fetishization, I cannot let that go without saying something. There is a way to write a plus size FMC with love and care and intention. A way that honors her fullness as a person rather than treating her body as either a problem to be fixed or an exotic thing to be desired DESPITE herself. This book walked a very uncomfortable line and more than once crossed it in ways that made me wince!

Then, THEN, having everyone around her constantly remind her that she isn't his type like she hadn't already looked at him with her own two eyes and figured that out herself?! She KNOWS. She has always known. She did not need a single person to pull her aside and explain that to her like she was missing something obvious. That was not concern, that was cruelty dressed up as caring and it drove me absolutely up the wall!

Did I hate this book? No. There is a story underneath all of that discomfort that genuinely has heart. But it needed so much more decorum, so much more intentionality, and so much more RESPECT for its leading lady than it ultimately delivered. She deserved better from the people around her and honestly,  she deserved better from the book itself.

I am choosing to believe she knew her worth the entire time even when no one else in those pages did. 👏🔥

If We Ever Meet Again by Ana Huang

 If We Ever Meet Again 

by Ana Huang

My Rating: 🟊🟊🟊

Spice Rating: 🌶

Blurb:

One year is all it takes for strangers to become lovers...

19-year-old Farrah Lin is going to fall in love for the first time during her year abroad in Shanghai. She's sure of it.

The only problem? Her would-be leading man is her new friend’s boyfriend.

There’s nothing worse than being in love with someone you can’t have...or at least, she thinks it’s love.

But if that’s true, why can’t she stop fantasizing about someone else, specifically the cocky blond athlete with the world’s biggest ego (and greatest dimples)?


***
Blake Ryan is—was—a college football star who shocked the sports world when he quit after his third national championship. Instead of dealing with the fallout, he escapes to Shanghai, where he vows to keep life simple.

No football. No commitments. No romance.

But no matter how hard he tries, he can’t keep a certain beautiful brunette off his mind...or out of his heart.

What starts as a physical attraction develops into something much deeper as Blake and Farrah get swept up in the magic of Shanghai—and each other. But they only have one year, and there are forces outside their control that threaten to rip them apart.

Can their relationship survive the test...or was it just not meant to be?

WARNING: This is the first book in a duet. It's a full-length novel with no sudden cliffhangers, but Blake and Farrah’s story concludes in book two, If the Sun Never Sets, which takes place five years later.

If We Ever Meet Again is a steamy strangers to friends to lovers romance. Recommended for 18+ due to adult language and explicit content.

My Review:

If We Ever Meet Again by Ana Huang - Charming, Chaotic, and Those PARENTS Can Stay Away From Me!

Okay so let me set the scene, rich exchange students, a loveable and dramatic crew, and enough chaos to keep you flipping pages when you absolutely should be sleeping. If We Ever Meet Again gave me serious XO Kitty on Netflix vibes from start to finish, and honestly that comparison is both its greatest strength and the thing that kept it from fully capturing my heart!

There is something undeniably fun about this kind of story. The drama is delicious, the setting is glamorous, and the group dynamic is the kind of loveable messy that makes you wish you could pull up a chair and join them. Ana Huang knows how to build a world that feels alive and buzzing with energy and that absolutely comes through on every page!

But here is where I have to be honest with myself, this book was a little young for me. And I don't mean that as an insult because for the right reader at the right moment this story would be absolutely everything. It just didn't fully land in my heart the way I needed it to. There were moments where I felt like I was watching something beautiful through a window rather than living inside it with the characters!

That said, the ENDING. Just when I had made my peace with how I felt about this book, the ending swooped in and grabbed me by the collar! Hooked enough that I will absolutely be picking up the next book at some point because I NEED to know what happens. Is it my highest priority right now? No. But it is sitting there in the back of my mind quietly demanding my attention and I respect that kind of persistence from a book!

And listen, I need to talk about his parents because I have not stopped thinking about them. I do not trust them. I did not trust them then, I do not trust them now, and I will not trust them in the next book. I am watching. I see exactly what is happening there and I stand firmly and unapologetically on that hill. Do not even try to change my mind. 👀

If you loved XO Kitty or you are in the mood for something fun, dramatic, and full of rich student chaos, this one is absolutely worth your time. Just maybe go in with your eyes wide open about those parents. Consider yourself warned! 📖✨

 Heavy M.L. Burns

My Rating: 🟊🟊🟊🟊

Spice Rating: 🌶🌶🌶🌶

Blurb:

𝓒𝓪𝓵𝓲𝓼𝓽𝓪

Everyone has a past, but mine is a storm that never stops chasing me. When my life goes up in flames by my own doing, I’m left with an impossible choice: lose everything I’ve built or hide out in a remote cabin with a killer. My plan is to rebuild the vacation home where my family once spent summers, hoping it will distract me from the chaos.

But there’s one major complication: my roommate is way too hot. And who is this too-hot roommate? My damn step-uncle.

He’s a convicted murderer with a history as dark as my own, and maybe this cabin isn’t the only thing I’m desperate to repair.

𝓡𝓸𝓷𝓪𝓷

Fifteen years behind bars, and freedom tastes no sweeter than my old concrete cell. I figured I’d drink myself into an early grave or wind up back in prison. Then my little step-niece showed up, begging to stay at the place my brother let me live in.

She's fixing up the cabin, but I can see it in her eyes that I'm also on the plans for repairs. But I don’t need fixing; I’m not broken, just forgotten.

She’s a beautiful fighter with secrets she’s not ready to share. But she’s in a cage with a lion that’s been starved too long, and now that I’m free, I’ve got an appetite that will only be satiated by her.

My Review:

I need a moment before I even begin this review because Heavy by M.L. Burns is not just a book, it is an EXPERIENCE. A gutting, raw, emotional rollercoaster that had me cycling through anger, heartbreak, and everything in between. This book made me FEEL, and I mean that in the most overwhelming way possible.

Let me start with the flashbacks, because I was not prepared. There were moments in this story that had me in actual tears. The kind of crying where you have to put the book down and just sit with what you just read. The kind of emotion that settles in your bones and refuses to leave. As a mother, there is a specific kind of rage that this book ignited in me that I cannot fully put into words. The idea of a mother not believing her own child when they come to her with something so devastating, so heartbreaking, I wanted to scream. I wanted to reach through the pages. Because in every universe, in every timeline, in every version of reality, it would have been me and my children. ALWAYS. No husband, no relationship, nothing on this earth would have stopped me from going straight to the authorities and never looking back. The fact that that choice wasn't made had me FURIOUS in a way that only the best books can make you feel.

And the romance, oh, the romance. Watching it unfold so naturally amid all the chaos and heaviness of this story was like finding a small light in a very dark room. It was tender and real and exactly what this story needed to keep your heart from completely shattering.

Now I'll be honest, the FMC did feel quite young to me, and given everything she was carrying, everything she was surviving, I sometimes struggled to fully believe it. But here's the thing, something about her felt off to me from the very beginning, and I was right to pay attention to that feeling. There's a moment involving a fire and a roommate's dog, and all I will say is, that moment told me EVERYTHING I needed to know about who she really was underneath it all. And honestly? I understood every single decision that followed. If I were her friend and witnessed everything that unfolded, I wouldn't have been either. I hate that I get it, but I do.

This book juggles a LOT. There is so much happening within these pages that at times it feels like it might tip over under its own weight, but somehow M.L. Burns holds it all together and delivers something that hits harder than you ever see coming. Heavy is the perfect title because that is exactly what this book is, heavy in the best, most necessary way.

If you are looking for a book that will make you feel BIG, ugly, complicated emotions, pick this up. Just make sure you have tissues nearby. You have been warned. 💔🔥

Lights, Camera, Knot by Kay Lynn

 Lights. Camera, Knot

by Kay Lynn

My Rating: 🟊🟊⯨

Spice Rating: 🌶🌶🌶🌶

Blurb:

LIGHTS, CAMERA, KNOT…

From the mind of Kayla Grosse comes a new high-heat MMFMM omegaverse romance under her new pen name Kay Lynn.

Landing the lead role in Knotting Hill should’ve been Iris Walker’s big break—a romantic comedy with an all-star cast and crew, and the chance to prove just how good of an actress she really is beyond the roles she’s been pigeonholed into.

Except her heat suppressants just wore off… and the director, cinematographer, writer, and leading man?

Yeah. They’re all her scent matches.

She came to make movie magic, but now she’s just trying not to combust before the cameras start rolling.

My Review:

This was fun like most omega verse books but this one was weirdly rushed, There wasn’t a lot of chemistry between the pack and the omega, besides the fact that one of them was obsessed with her. This could have been the cute pallet cleanser that I am used to but it fell short, Lights, Camera, Knot by Kay Lynn, So Close, Yet So Far!

Listen, I went into Lights, Camera, Knot with the best intentions and the highest hopes. Omegaverse books have a special place in my heart, they're my go-to palette cleansers between heavy reads, the books I pick up when I just need something fun, lighthearted, and full of that addictive pack dynamic that keeps me coming back for more. And while this book had its moments of fun, I walked away feeling like I had been served a meal that looked amazing but left me still hungry!

Let's talk about the pacing first, because wow, this book was RUSHED. And not in a fun, fast-paced, can't-put-it-down kind of way. More like important moments that deserved time and attention were just... skipped over. Like watching a movie on fast forward. You can see what's happening but you never really get to FEEL it, and in a genre that thrives on tension and slow-burn connection, that is a serious problem.

And the chemistry, or rather, the lack of it. This is where Lights, Camera, Knot really lost me. The relationship between the pack and the omega felt surface level at best. There was no real depth, no moments that made me catch my breath, no slow building of trust and connection that makes omegaverse stories so irresistible. Instead, the closest thing we got to a real bond was one pack member who was flat out obsessed with her, and while possessive energy can absolutely work in this genre, obsession alone is not a substitute for genuine chemistry between ALL members of the pack!

The potential was absolutely there. The premise was fun, the setting was interesting, and with a little more time and development this could have been exactly the cute, cozy, chaotic palette cleanser I was desperately looking for. Instead, it felt like the first draft of something that could have been really special with just a little more love and attention poured into it.

I wanted to adore this book, I really did. But at the end of the day it fell just short of hitting that sweet spot that makes omegaverse stories so addictive and memorable. Here's hoping Kay Lynn's next book gives us the slow burn, the pack chemistry, and the chaotic fun that this genre does so well! 📖✨