MINI REVIEWS: Kindle Unlimited Reviews [part 5]

Even more Kindle Unlimited reviews for y’all. My trial ended so another installment won’t be happening for awhile.

Anyways, if you want to read my other KU reviews you can see them here: part one, part two, & part three, & part four.

We got a lot of sports romances in this one, a reread of a fave, a m/m road trip romance, and a cute bookstore visit novella!

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Make it Sweet by Kristen Callihan
TW: child abuse

PLOT: Lucien and Emma both have hit professional snags. Lucien got injured and can’t play professional hockey anymore and Emma’s character on the TV show she has worked on for years, was just killed off. They both end up visiting Amalie to heal and get their lives back on track.

I really enjoyed this one. I wouldn’t say it blew me away, but I had such a fun time reading it. Both characters are on parallel journeys with is always fun. I enjoyed the beginning more than I enjoyed the ending and I just sort of wanted everything to get wrapped up.

I will say if you dream of having a partner cook for you, you might enjoy this more than me! Lucien cooks/bakes and the food descriptions are top tier. We also have THE ONLY ONE BED TROPE which is always fun.

I wish I had liked this one a bit more since so many people have been raving about it, but sadly this did not stand out to me. However, it was an enjoyable enough contemporary romance and if you have KU might be worth picking up if you like athlete/actor relationships. 3/5 stars

Wait For It by Mariana Zapata
TW: racism, grief, death of a sibling (off page, but discussed in detail), overdose/suicide (off page; discussed once), past abusive relationship (off page, discussed)

PLOT: Diana is raising her two nephews and is sort of out of control. But she just bought a house and has a job she loves. In walks Dallas, her gorgeous neighbor who makes it very clear that he does not like it when women hit on him. However, he and Diana become really good friends since he ends up coaching her nephew’s baseball team.

I reviewed this one a long time ago (see my thoughts here), but I reread it through KU because I love this story so much. This book always makes me cry and I just love seeing Diana and Dallas help each other over and over. Dallas’ wink kills me every time and ugh, so good. I will say on my reread I did not care as much for the secondary characters, but it’s fine. 5/5 stars

Conventionally Yours (True Colors #1) by Annabeth Albert
TW: homophobic parents

PLOT: Conrad and Alden don’t like each other. But, they are involved in the same gamer group (tbh idk if this was like a club? Or like they all worked together?) and thus are forced to hang out a lot. When their group wins tickets to the biggest gaming convention neither of them want to fly and they somehow end up being the only two in their group who have to drive cross country to the convention. Both are putting a lot at stake at the big competition, but only one of them can win.

This was cute and sweet. Alden and Conrad are slightly out of college, and I love books where characters have to figure out that weird part between college student and adulthood. Alden is struggling with parental expectations and Conrad is dealing with his parents cutting him off for being gay.

Even though I liked this one, nothing really stood out to me. I kept confusing the POVs and thought they were written a little too similarly. I also could not figure out this game for the life of me (I didn’t try very hard). I was just assuming it was like Magic the Gathering. I am so not a gamer that this was a bit hard to connect to or relate to. It was fine, but took up a lot of page time.

I did like their relationship and seeing them come together. Them slowly getting along and then falling for each other was my favorite part of the novel. Also, this is a road trip book, which is always a win for me! 3.5/5 stars

King of the Court by R.S. Grey
TW: death of a family member, absent parents

 PLOT: Ben Castillo, NBA superstar, is training in a small Texas town for the Olympics. He runs into Raelynn, the first girl who makes him feel anything in a long time. Raelynn is working herself to the bone to support herself and make enough to pay for her grandmother’s nursing home.

Grey’s books are always light and feature men that are always a little too possessive for me. Her books are also verryyyy similar. That being said I read like four or five of them last year. Her last couple of books have not been it for me, I gave one two stars and only read one chapter of her latest, but when I saw that this one featured basketball, I needed to read it. If you’re new here I am a massive college basketball fan and am on the quest to find a great basketball romance novel. Sadly, this was not it.

I liked this one well enough and it started strong, but I just did not get invested and there really was not that much basketball in the beginning. I am tired of the trope of poor girl works in a diner and then rich guy comes to town!! Why have I read so many books with this trope!!

This is also an age gap romance, but I don’t believe we are told how old Ben is which is fine? But, if I didn’t know this was an age gap romance going in I would assume she was just a few years younger than him.

What does not work with this novel is how unbelievable it all feels. Look, I will take NBA superstar falls in love with a townie! I love that stuff! I know it’s not real, but I’ll enjoy it. But, in this novel reality bends for the plot. R.S. Grey does not let us dwell in reality ever and keeps us in a dreamland, which is fine. But, I like my romance novels with more real moments.

There also was not enough basketball. To be fair, if this was a sport I did not like, I probably would be fine with the amount of sport that was on page. But, you literally could swap out basketball for football and NBA for NFL and this would be the same book. Seeing that I only picked this up because of basketball, I wanted more.

I did read this while I wasn’t feeling well and it did distract me and entertain me which honestly is all I wanted. So this isn’t a great book by any means, but I liked it well enough. But, I would not recommend this one unless you are a massive R.S. Grey fan. I think I personally need to let R.S. Gray go. 2/5 stars

Blind Date with a Book Boyfriend by Lucy Eden
TW: death of a sibling (prior to novel)

PLOT: Jordyn is in Culver City for a job interview when she runs into Mike at a bookstore (IT’S THE RIPPED BODICE!! I’VE BEEN HERE!!) and they have a whirlwind romance.

I finally liked a novella!! As you may know I typically don’t like novellas because they are too rushed and yeah this is a bit rushed, but it worked for me this time. Jordyn and Mike have a super cute day together and I loved the idea of them exploring an area I’ve been before. 4/5 stars

Forbidden (Ward Sisters #4) by Karla Sorensen 
TW: death of a spouse, cancer

PLOT: Aiden is still reeling from the death of his wife two years prior. After moving back home he ends up buying a gym. Isabel is the manager at the gym and does not like change. It also does not help she had a massive crush on Aiden growing up.

I really liked this one! I didn’t love Molly’s story (see my thoughts here) and I skipped books two and three in this series, but Isabel is my favorite of the Ward sisters and when I saw someone raving about this one, I knew I had to give it a try. Also, we see Isabel introduced to the gym she works at in The Marriage Effect which is her brother Logan’s book and I love that one so much.

We got an age gap, nursing back to health, slowburn (very slow), pining, mutual attraction but thinks the other won’t reciprocate feelings, meddling kids. Overall, I just had a fun time with this one and read it in one sitting. 4.5/5 stars

Thanks for reading!

xoxo, Tree