Posts Tagged: Romance

Thursday, March 29, 2018

11 Hate-To-Love Romances We Deserve

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I am self-certified garbage for hate to love romances and any book that promises even a hint of one usually gets a spot high on my enormous TBR. This post compiles some of my favs but is by no means comprehensive because honestly, I’ve read too much to be able to keep track of everything. EVEN THOUGH I TRY.

1. The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You by Lily Anderson

Retelling of Much Ado About Nothing, a classic love/hate romance but maybe even better? The angst is beautiful. Don’t @ me.

2. Act Like It by Lucy Parker

Read it upon a friend’s recommendation who promised to disown me if I hated it and lucky for her, I didn’t. The hero is a total grump.

3. Married by Morning by Lisa Kleypas

4. Magnolia by Kristi Cook

Super underrated and also a psuedo Romeo-Juliet retelling.

5. The Hating Game by Sally Throne

This blew up two years ago and for a very good reason! Also set in the publishing world.

6. And Then He Kissed Her by Laura Lee Guhrke

I absolutely adore this book and wish I could read it again for the first time. This is also set in publishing?? But it is a historical romance. I feel like best chick-flick comparison is Two Weeks Notice.

7. Once Upon a Marquess by Courtney Milan

It is a truth universally acknowledged that I will read pretty much anything Courtney Milan writes but the fact that this was a second chance romance as well as a hate/love romance made me squeal with delight.

8. Walk of Shame by Lauren Layne

This isn’t as intense of a hate/love but it is still so adorable and I love it. Fair warning, the only rep POCs get in this book are in the form of hired help which is annoying as fuck.

9. Angelfall by Susan Ee

Angelfall is old school YA (can you believe something that came out in 2011 is old school now????) but the banter in it is to die for. No exaggerations.

10. 52 Reasons to Hate My Father by Jessica Brody

Also old school but it is currently on its way to becoming a movie and the script is being written by the same peeps who wrote the script for Legally Blonde so……..

11. Call Me Irresistible by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Heroine breaks up wedding between her best friend and the hero, hero is mad. And somehow, things don’t end up badly. There is some good banter and I stayed up until 4:00 reading this so that should say everything.

 

What are some of your favorite hate-to-love romances? What are some of your favorite romance tropes??

 

 

Cute but Needs Work: How the Cowboy Was Won by Lori Wilde

Posted by on 03/16/2018 • 0 Comments

When one of my mutuals pointed out How the Cowboy Was Won was an Emma retelling, I was all aboard. I adore Jane Austen novels and I especially adore retellings of them. I don’t think I’ve seen many literary Emma retellings so it’s amusing that this year, there are two on my TBR!

So. Anyway. I have a complicated relationship with this book. There are parts of it I really liked but there were a bunch of things that rubbed me the wrong way and I haven’t seen many reviews talking about some of the things that bothered me which makes me more inclined to be critical. I want issues to be talked about. SO. ANYWAY. I am going to start with the good stuff first and break this review down…

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Not Linden’s Best: My Once and Future Duke by Caroline Linden

Posted by on 02/16/2018 • 0 Comments

I might have waited too long to write this review because I am really scrambling to gather those thoughts. I’ve read several books by Caroline Linden and have really enjoyed her HRs. When I heard about her upcoming release and heard there was gambling involved, I was 110% in.

Here was my main problem though, I enjoyed the romance, I loved the story, I just didn’t love the Duke of Ware. He is completely insufferable and too pig-headed for my liking. He is intense and not in a good way. I warmed up a little bit to him, but for the most part, his pushiness and self-centeredness was not endearing in the list.

But if I hated the love interest, why did I enjoy the romance? Well, Caroline…

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The Royal Romance I Didn’t Know I Needed: A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole

Posted by on 02/15/2018 • 2 Comments

If you have ever read or enjoyed a romance novel, this book needed to be on your TBR yesterday. I was over the moon when I was approved to read an advanced copy and the book held up to every single one of my expectations + more.

REASONS TO READ Naledi Smith is in grad school studying to be an epidemiologist Spam emails that aren’t really spam from the assistant of the Prince of Thesolo Cocky Prince who doesn’t really know how to function outside of a castle but learns to impress a girl Some cooking experiments when said cocky prince is trying to impress Ledi Angst but like good angst Swoony romance with hate-to-love vibes. Discussion of socio-economic privilege Discussion of what it’s like to live in a non-western…

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Read by the Trope: A Guide to Romance Novels

Posted by on 02/14/2018 • 3 Comments

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone! And happy Wednesday if you don’t give a flying fart about Valentine’s Day. I don’t really care one way or another but I always find that Valentine’s Day is a great day to curl up with a romance and just treat yourself to something fun! Like most people, I have my favorite tropes and I definitely can be sold on many a novel if the trope is a thing I like! So. Today. I’ve put together a mini guide on reading some romance books by the trope featuring some of my fav tropes and other tropes I know people like. I spent a LOT of time putting this guide together (probably like 10 hours all together?) so I REALLY do hope you’ll enjoy it! I also…

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New Adult and Romance

Posted by on 02/12/2018 • 4 Comments

 

Discussion posts are sometimes really hard to write when you have a lot of thoughts and feelings and it usually requires a backstory. So here is a short one. Recently, on twitter, there were discussions happening regarding how homogeneous New Adult lit is. A lot of the criticism was centered around how romance and sex heavy a lot of New Adult books are.

I think no one will ever disagree that we are definitely short on the range of experiences that are usually found in New Adult novels. We need change in that regard but, I don’t think that the demand for change should come at the cost of dismissing the New Adult that already exists?

For one, New Adult isn’t really a genre. It’s a demographic, its an…

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Liked But Didn’t Love: The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory

Posted by on 01/26/2018 • 2 Comments

I have no clue how I am supposed to start this review. I tried to explain to Nick how I felt about the book because we sorta buddy read it (she finished a day before I did) and it’s really hard to capture my overall reaction. There were bits that I loved but overall, The Wedding Date just didn’t make the impression I had hoped it would. It’s a total feel-good read and I want to see it on a big screen (this is the second time I am saying that about a book in the span of a month.)

I am a big romance reader but as Nick will tell you, I am really picky and want a very specific sort of vibe. I want the domestic scenes…

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Rashika’s Meet Cute

Posted by on 01/10/2018 • 4 Comments

Meet Cute is an adorable anthology of stories I felt were personally written for me. I didn’t actually know the book was coming out until like mid-way through last year. That in itself isn’t entirely odd in of itself but like for a book that just screams RASHIKA, clearly, I should have known about it. Shout out to my friend Holly who saw the book at ALA in June and thought of me even when I didn’t know Meet Cute was a book I needed.

I digress though. I don’t really want to review this anthology. I can wholeheartedly say it was worth the read and that I didn’t dislike any of the stories. There were maybe 2-3 that didn’t do much for me but even then, I did not…

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