Guarding Temptation was previously published as a short story titled Resisting Desire in the Rogue Nights anthology. The new and updated version has been revised to double the original story so if you’ve already read the original version, there’s a lot more to the story of Nina and James in this novella.
Did you catch Allie Therin's debut m/m 1920's paranormal romance last year? Because we did. If you read Spellbound, you'll want to get in on this giveaway of the sequel, Starcrossed. And if you didn't, now's a great time to grab that first book! (It's only $1.99 as I'm writing this on 5/5/20.)
Here’s the thing about anthologies. They usually contain a couple of good stories that anchor the collection and a couple of middling to forgettable stories that might just get skimmed. However, He’s Come Undone features five incredibly strong, nuanced, sweet romances featuring five of the brightest voices in romance today. The connective thread that ties these stories together is that they feature buttoned-up, rather stuffy heroes who embark on unexpected romances with people who help them to, well, become undone.
Mini-reviews of Flying Gold, Shift Out of Luck, Time of Our Lives, and House of Salt and Sorrows. So that's an f/m adult contemporary romance, an f/m paranormal, an f/m YA contemporary and an f/m gothic fantasy.
Let me begin by saying that The Rogue of Fifth Avenue was my very first Joanna Shupe and it definitely won’t be my last. I already have the next book ready to go and have pre-ordered the final book in the series.
In the spirit of finding moments of joy during all of this, here are some May releases we're looking forward to reading. We hope you're safe.
Editor's Note: So many books have moved, it's been chaos. If these dates are incorrect, please know that we did the best we could!
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The Iron Crown is the third book in M.A. Grant's m/m fantasy romance series and I think it's my favorite. The first book is enemies-to-lovers and contains a fair bit of torture and a brewing war. The second is friends?-to-lovers and again... torture and war violence. This one contains a friendship-to-lovers romance SEVEN HUNDRED YEARS in the making. Lugh's human bodyguard/best friend Keiran has been by his side since Lugh was a young teen and rebuffed Lugh's sexual advances once when Lugh was an older teen. And then 700 years passed and Lugh is still convinced that Keiran wants nothing romantic from him. They sleep next to each other every night, they comfort and encourage each other, they do everything a long-term couple would do. And they're absolute idiots. Seriously. 700 years of pining.
For a book that features an alien abduction of the female main character, Strange Love may actually contain one of the sweetest love stories I’ve read recently. Beryl, and her dog, Snaps, are accidentally (seriously) kidnapped from Earth by Zylar and brought to his home planet. They are fitted with translator chips and to my incredible delight this means Snaps can talk. Every wonderful thing you’re imagining your dogs saying? Snaps says. I can’t count how many times I snorted with laughter.
A great romantic suspense series needs to be able to balance romantic tension and pulse-pounding action, sustaining the momentum throughout the whole book, while crafting a believable resolution to both the intrigue and the romance. Juno Rushdan’s Final Hour series, packed with spy-thriller staples, secret installations, high-stakes interventions, coupled with fascinating characters and intense plotting delivered a great adrenaline rush and romantic punch. It is rare to be as invested in both the romantic and action story-lines as I was when reading the Final Hour series, but neither the action and romantic tension ever flagged.
Somehow we’ve ended up in April. I’m not sure how it happened but one moment I was looking forward to burying 2019 out in the desert like a Las Vegas mobster and then the next I’m trying to figure out how to do my job in a post-COVID-19 world. On the bright side, I’m past a string of books I was obligated to read for various reasons and I’m diving head first into comfort reading. For me that means category romance, mysteries and historical romance. Because nothing will take me away faster than a time period I’m not currently living in. Here are some of the unusual historicals landing in April that caught my browsing eye.
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