Three recent romance reviews!

1. A Worthy Opponent (Wicked Villains #3) by Katee Robert ⭐⭐⭐

I don’t believe in knights on white horses. Maybe I did once, but the only people out there searching for damsels in distress are more dangerous than anything said damsel leaves behind.

I absolutely adore this series and it’s steamy twist on Disney villains. This wasn’t my favorite of the installments so far, but it was still a really solid read! I love how Katee Robert weaves so many discussions into these short, sexy romances. This one really focused on consent and personal choice as well as emotional abuse. Tink was a great main character – I’ve been looking forward to her story since she was introduced! And I liked her dynamic with Hook.

I will say, I find the endings in this series to be pretty lackluster. So far they all have long, dramatic build ups that end too quick and cleanly in my opinion. The conclusion tends to happen in the last 5% and I just wish a little more time was focused there.

Overall, this was a really quick, steamy read that I absolutely devoured. And I can’t wait to continue on with the next books!

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2. Half-Blood (Covenant #1) by Jennifer L Armentrout ⭐⭐⭐.5

I have been in such a fantasy romance mood lately, and this definitely fit that bill perfectly! I really enjoyed this YA fantasy romance and I can’t wait to read all of JLA’s books now! I can see why she is such a popular author in this genre (I’m sorry I’m so behind on the times 😅). 

I thought this book was a really fun read and I listened to the first 80% of this in a single sitting. I was so engrossed in these characters and this world. I was desperate to discover where this story was going!

This book was just a solid good time. It was definitely a little cheesy and predictable but it was also published almost 10 years ago at this point so all in all, this book held up superwell! I saw pretty much all of the twist and reveals coming, but I was still engrossed from start to finish. I like the romance, the magic, the world. And I’m really excited about binging this series!

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3. Crazy for Your Love (The Boys of Jackson Harbor #5) by Lexi Ryan ⭐⭐⭐.5

This is the 5th book in the Jackson Harbor series, and while I’ve enjoyed my time reading them, I haven’t loved any sequels the way I did book 1. 

This was an insanely quick and easy read. I absolutely flew through this story in a single sitting. It was angsty and dramatic and completely binge-worthy. And while it had all the tropes to make an amazing romance – fake dating, mutual pining, friends to lovers – it sadly didn’t quite become a new favorite.

I thought the chemistry was fantastic. I was living for all the random hand brushes and shared glances across the room. There’s something about fake dating that just raises the stakes and makes the tension that much better. 

While I loved the drama and angst in here, some of the character choices were just obnoxious. I became really annoyed by Teagan near the end because of her self-sabotaging choices. It frustrates me when characters withhold information for seemingly no reason or “because they can’t”. Yes you can. You’re being obnoxious… There was seriously no reason for Teagan to not just lay it out for Carter. And her insistence to keep her secret for literally no reason was frustrating. 

Also this is one of my least favorite epilogues ever. Seriously… who does this?? Don’t do this!

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