Some Recent Unique Romances

Hello friends!

How is everyone doing? Sorry I've been a bit MIA on here. I was up relaunching Nick & Nereyda's Infinite Booklist as a new solo blog as Nereyda decided it was time for her to let go of blogging. If you are interested, the blog is THE INFINITE LIMITS OF LOVE!

How was everyone's weekend? Mine was great! Ari from The Romance Corner came to visit me for the weekend and I took her to explore around town. We also watched Love, Simon and I thought it was so cute!

Anyhoo, in today's post I have reviews for Thirsty by Mia Hopkins and One Match Fire by Lisa Linden. I can't say either of these books were as memorable as I wish they had been, but you guys might be interested in them, so check out my reviews below.

THIRSTY
by Mia Hopkins

Series: Eastside Brewery
Genres: Contemporary
Publisher: Loveswept

Publication Date: March 13th 2018

Source: ARC received for review purposes

Rating: ★★★

Amazon - Barnes & Noble

I was so excited to read Thirsty. I have a weird fascination with romance novels that feature ex-cons. Plus, the characters in this book were POC, so I was definitely looking forward to reading it. I was surprised to find that the book was told entirely in Salvador's POV. I haven't read many romance novels that have been told in the hero's POV so I was excited to read more. Sal was a great guy, which I know is such a weird thing to say about a criminal who just got out of jail, but trust me. He was a hard worker and willing to go to lengths to make those around him happy. He was also trying his very best to make sure that he was living an honest life now that he was out of prison. Those are great qualities for a romance hero to have. I liked Vanessa, the heroine, too. She was feisty and fun, and perfectly balanced out Salavador's personality. Together their chemistry was potent. We also get to watch them connect emotionally throughout the book. Vanessa has a daughter and I would have liked to see Sal connect more with her as well. So what went wrong for me if the characters were decent enough? The storyline. I didn't think it was all that exciting and I thought it dragged, especially in the beginning chapters. I wanted more romance and more of the brewery, which really didn't come up until the end. I also was put off by the sex scenes in this book. I was screenshotting scenes to Ari because I couldn't believe how weirdly descriptive they were. I didn't like a lot of the word choices the author used to describe these sex scenes, and there was quite a few of them, which I ended up skimming. As you can tell, my reasons for not fully enjoying this book were definitely personal, but I'm sure there will be authors who will enjoy this one. Give it a shot if it's your jam! :)

ONE MATCH FIRE

by Lissa Linden

Genres: Contemporary, Erotica

Publisher: Carina Press

Publication Date: March 19th 2018

Source: ARC received for review

Rating: ★★★

Amazon - Barnes & Noble

One Match Fire caught my attention because it has a second chance romance and it's set at a summer camp. It had all the ingredients for a perfect swoony romance, but I wound up not being all that into the story. I liked Amy and Paul's character individually. They were both in the process of trying to figure out their lives. I just didn't get the connection I was looking for between two. Like I mentioned, they had a shared history together tied to the summer camp, but I didn't find that their history was explored in a compelling way. They also got back together fairly quickly. I was hoping for more angst, more waiting, and more of an emotional connection between the two. However, most of the book wound up being a whole lot of sex. I'm a fan of the sexy times in books too, but I do think with a romance there is something as too much and One Match Fire ventured into that zone for me. All that being said, I enjoyed the camp elements to the story. They made for a unique romance, in my opinion. I also thought the writing was pretty strong here so I will certainly be reading more from this author in the future.

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Have you read any books featured in this post?
Let me know in the comments below!