You'd think that since CINNAMON BLADE: KNIFE IN SHINING ARMOR is only 80 pages, this would be a short review. You'd be right. Reader, I adored this book.
Cinnamon Blade is a superhero and former thief. She's also a really good person and super hot. Her love interest, Soledad Castillo, is bookish and nerdy and funny (and punny) and I loved everything about their relationship. Cinnamon has rescued Soledad a few times by the start of the book, which means that she, good person that she is, waits until they're in a social situation not fraught with tension and obligation to ask Soledad out on a real date. Consent! It's a thing!
The book is packed with geekery, smoothly balanced with intense chemistry between the two leads.
"I was thinking of you when I bought this dress."
Blade slid her arms around Soledad's waist, feeling the warmth of her body in a non-life-threatening context for the first time. What a luxury to be standing here, her hands soaking up softness, no monsters or henchmen to distract her from the heavy flavor of Soledad's jasmine perfume. "You did good -- if fits into my arms perfectly."
*swoon*
And then we get this piece, which really sums up how their relationship works:
Soledad took a long, luxurious drag at her straw. "Do you ever just sit back and feel really thankful for guava?"
Blade smirked. "No, but I feel thankful for you being the type of person who feels thankful for guava."
Their relationship is one of appreciation, friendship, and really hot sex. I'm not going to quote it here because I want you to have the fun of their sexytimes without spoilers, but hoooo boy are those some good sexytimes. Glassman does an admirable job of balancing euphemisms with medically accurate anatomical terminology, giving us sex scenes that are inventive but also physically possible. Scenes that are not overly-clinical, but that also don't confuse "vagina" with "vulva."
The book is definitely spicier than Glassman's KNIT ONE, GIRL TWO, but it's got that same core of friendship, Jewish culture, and the kind of love that makes you want to happy-sigh... with superheroes and aliens and vampires.
Pick up your copy at Amazon.
