MINI REVIEWS: Recent Reads (aka all romance books)

I’m currently in the middle of like five blog posts that I can’t post because either I have not finished all the books that I need to for said post or because they are ARC reviews and the books do not come out anytime soon. This is why being a mood reader is rough because I read an ARC that does not come out until 2021 and wrote a full review for it. Like??? Tree??? Is this the best use of your time??? Answer, no, but the ARC was good so it’s fine.

Anyways. All of that to say that I did not plan on posting another set of romance mini reviews since I just posted a set of historical mini reviews very recently, but basically all I read in September was romance so here we are.

If you want to check out my last set of romance mini reviews, check it out here.

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Ties that Tether by Jane Igharo

First of all this cover is STUNNING!! Which makes that fact that I did not like this book that much worse.

I’m so sad I did not enjoy this one, but honestly I only liked the Nigerian representation and the familial plot. My favorite moment of this entire book is a conversation between Azere and her best friend’s parents who are in an interracial relationship and seeing them discuss the joy and challenges of their 30 year relationship. I loved seeing this moment and this made me glad I did not DNF this one bc it was like 75% into the book. 

But, I did not like anything else. I did not care for the romance at all and thought Rafael was a bit possessive and just meh. He lowkey gaslights Azere when they are fighting and the conflict was not handled or resolved well. Azere and his mom get into a fight over baby names Rafael is totally unreasonable (in my opinion) and ignores Azere’s point of view and keeps telling her “it isn’t a big deal”. Ugh.

The timeline is also a mess, with half the book being like a week and the rest being NINE MONTHS? I struggle when timelines jump around and it was just hard to follow at times. I am not a fan of books that have sudden time jumps, maybe in the finished copies it will say something like “six months later” on the chapter header, because WOW I was surprised.

Overall, I think I struggled with this author’s writing style which led me to disliking almost everything about this book. But, I have seen tons of positive reviews so maybe it is just me? 2/5 stars

TW: Pregnancy, miscarriage (prior to novel starting)

*Thank you to the publish & NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review

The Roommate by Rosie Danan

The thing with this book is that I expected to adore it. Like five stars! New favorite romance! Etc. I don’t know why? Either way, I really liked this one, but it fell short on my lofty expectations and was just a good book, but aside from being raunchy and having explicit conversations about porn and sex, it does not really stand out. Danan’s writing is fun and there are some tropes that are turned on their head which were fun to see.

Clara and Josh were both fine, but I did not LOVE either of them. They did have fabulous banter and some super cute moments. I’ve seen reviews saying they had no chemistry and then some that said they had a ton and I’m sort of in the middle because at times I was like YES GET TOGETHER and other times I was like ehhh whatever happens, happens.  

I also thought the plot was kind of all over the map and I was disappointed that Clara’s family isn’t ever on page. But, I did love the scene with Josh’s parents. Josh’s career as an adult performer is on hold during the book and I think if he was actually working the book would have been completely different and low key maybe more interesting? The ending was wayyy too rushed and I don’t think they truly resolved the conflict between the two of them like even a little which was disappointing.  

Overall, this isn’t a bad romance novel, in fact, it’s still pretty good, but I think I expected more this one. If you do not like explicit talk about sex, sex work, and steamy sex scenes, I would not recommend it. 

I will be reading book two because it sounds v good and I liked the glimpses we got of Naomi. 3.5/5 stars

TW: sex work

A Girl Like Her by Talia Hibbert (Ravenswood #1)

Talia Hibbert’s Brown sister series is taking the book world by storm and Take a Hint, Dani Brown is one of my all time favorite romance novels. Read my review here. So when I discovered that Hibbert has other books I was hyped!

This novel follows Ruth who is autistic and basically hides from the judgement of her small town due to her past and Evan who just moved to town and is her neighbor. I really liked the beginning of this book! Ruth is super guarded and I loved seeing Evan worm his way into her life and into her heart. Their banter in the beginning is adorable and Evan is just like the sweetest man ever.

However once we started getting more into the plotty part of the novel and seeing what the town did not like Ruth, I was less of a fan. The drama was kind of a lot and very petty at times. Also this novel is pretty short so I felt that it was not explored as much as it could have been.

This book has a lot of good things going for it, I mean Talia Hibbert was a way with words, but it just was not my favorite. 3/5 stars

TW: gaslighting, manipulative past relationship

Thanks for reading!
xoxo, Tree