Too Good to be True by Leigh Hays

 

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

This is an age-gap romance, but that description doesn’t do justice to the depth of characterisation and the wonderfully built relationship contained within. 

Madison Hewitt (28) is a social worker. Jen Winslow (42) is a rain-maker in her profession of fundraising. The two run into one another at a wedding and there are sparks between them – more like a flame. Though neither of them is a one-night-stand kind of person, they do end up in bed together. Jen leaves the next morning before Madison wakes, but leaves a note with her number, which Madison throws away. Madison has been pretty much devasted – personally and professionally – by the last woman she was involved with and circumstantially, it looks like Jen is in almost exactly the same situation as Madison’s ex.

But Madison and Jen meet again is a loosely formal work situation. Madison is the social worker in the school that Jen’s son attends. When Madison puts forward a food security proposal, the principal asks Jen to help with the fundraising. It is an awkward situation especially since the draw between them only keeps growing stronger. 

Madison and Jen are wonderfully drawn and given depths, dimensions, backstories and maturity. The chemistry between them is electric (good sexy times too) and the way their relationship is developed simply rocks. In fact, it is so well done that we actually slowed down our reading to savour their feelings and experience our emotions in response to their relationship. 

Both women are struggling with the impact that their pasts have had on them and truly working to deal with that so that they can somehow be together and see where their relationship goes. There is some angst which develops organically in the natural course of their interaction and completely based on all the baggage that they are carrying individually. 

Admittedly the first half flows smoother and faster, but that is because it is the relationship-building stage. That bit always seems to be easier to write and make more immersive. The second half is also strong and we loved the way Madison and Jen deal with their own shortfalls. This ranks with Breathless by Sarah Sanders, Temptation by Kris Bryant, The X Ingredient by Roslyn Sinclair, Kiss the Girl by Melissa Brayden, Jump Then Fall by Sarah Sanders, Off Balance by L.E. Royal and Finding Jessica Lambert by Clare Ashton (amongst others) in our list of excellent age gap romances.

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Lost in the Starlight by Kiki Archer

 

⭐⭐⭐

This is a celebrity-journalist romcom that leans into the com aspect so hard that almost all characters are stereotypical caricatures. 

Honey Diamond is a mega-pop star. She is incredibly talented, famous and good looking. (Hello Taylor Swift). Her mother was also famous and she’d brought up Honey in a protected bubble. Margaret (Meg) Rutherton is a kind of a journalist who runs a trashy and frankly, salacious website SelebSecrets which seems to have a single aim of being nasty to celebrities. 

Honey isn’t exactly in the closet but has never discussed her sexuality in public. Meg (on whom she has a crush for like forever), via SelebSecrets, is determined to ‘expose’ Honey as a lesbian. Because of some unseemly and underserved gossip, Honey writes a song about her sexuality and insists that it should be a part of her new album. This is against the advice of her mother and manager. She also (against advice) decides to give an interview about the song and about her sexuality. It just so happens that the selected magazine has recruited Meg to replace their erstwhile correspondent, Margaret, and Meg turns up for the interview. 

Like we said, this book is filled with over-the-top caricaturised comedic characters and moments. Not that this detracts from the fun and funny parts. All characters except the two MCs are caricatures. Initially, Honey is also made out of the Disney Princess template but as the book progresses, she somehow makes her way into your heart with is purity.

Honey is naïve, innocent, positive, playful, honest, open, vulnerable and totally loveable. Meg, initially is not likeable. As we move into the second half and spend more time in Meg’s head, she moves from ‘not likeable’ to ‘dislikeable’ to ‘ohmygod, she’s quite terrible’. There is absolutely nothing to make Meg anywhere near a good match for Honey. So, while Honey kept us engaged and rooting or her happy ending, Meg made us want to DNF. We hate it when one of MCs is awesome and the other is awful. While we want awesome to find love we want that love to be the awful – so the HEA doesn’t make us feel completely good. 

We want to give Honey a 5+ rating but Meg goes into the negative on the scale. So we’ll have to settle with saying this book is okay. 

⭐⭐⭐

Starting Over by Carol Wyatt

⭐☆

This one is an age gap, rich girl poor girl, celebrity (more like semi-brity) romance.

The main players of the story:

Alexandria Ryder: a relationship expert, a published author and a closeted lesbian.

Blake: Alex's beard, a soccer player who is also in the closet. 

Payton: a waitress who is also a covert paparazzo 

Payton sees Alex in the bar of the restaurant she works in and is immediately attracted. Alex has a meal with Blake and when they leave, Payton follows them, discovers that Blake seems to be involved with another man. The next day, on one of her covertly clicking celebrities outing at a hiking trail, Payton sees Alex readying for a run, follows her, sprains her ankle and has Alex looking after her. There is attraction and their relationship starts.

Blake wants to come out and even as she encourages him, Alex is in a bad place worrying about the impact on her career. At the same time, her relationship with Payton grows.

Despite all the drama in the events of this book, this is exhaustingly mediocre filled with people without any personality, stilted dialogue, behaviours that don't flow with the characterisations or narrative and most tragically, an utter lack of chemistry. 

Really, for someone so worried about her career, we cannot imagine why Alex would spill her life story and confide her sexuality to a woman (Payton), a complete stranger who she literally picked up on a hiking trail, in their very first interaction.

This is a book that makes us want to demand our time spent on it back.

⭐☆

Off Balance by L. E. Royal

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆★

L. E. Royal is a must-read author for us. Well-realised characters, rocking chemistry, convincing relationships -- her books have it all.

Maya Scott is the newest employee with the Mars Fund. At twenty-two, Maya hasn't had an easy life. And there is one person, Robert Holt, determined to kick her down and keep her there. Holt also happens to be the grandfather of Maya's three year old daughter, Livvie. In a dick move, Holt managed to wrangle Liv's custody from the scared and confused teenager that Maya was when Liv was born. Ever since then, Maya is struggling to prove herself stable and capable and get her daughter back. 

Maya has an unfortunate and embarrassing first encounter with her boss, Elena Mars. Elena suffers from cerebral palsy but doesn't let that slow her down in any way. She is driven and tough, and works herself and her team hard. 

Liv proves to be an unexpected bridge between Maya and Elena and neither the fourteen years between them nor the vast gap between their financial statuses matters.

Maya and Elena are brilliantly written. Individually, they have all the complexes and complexities that make then entirely real and together their relationship has depths and dimensions that makes it just simply awesome.

Elena's difficulties and struggles are inescapable, incomparable and cannot be overstated. But Maya's difficulties and struggles, though of a different kind, are also as real and as valid. The beautiful part is how each one is there for the other in the way they are needed. How they both make an effort to learn about the place the other is in and what they can do to support -- Maya reading about cerebral palsy and Elena reading about toddler development goals are the obvious examples.

We absolutely love the part where Maya tells Elena that she doesn't entirely understand Elena's condition, but wants to and asks her to talk to her. In the flow of the story, this was incredibly beautiful. In fact, all the ways that Maya shows her love for Elena is heart-squeezingly gorgeous. The less obvious part of loving is that Elena let's Maya love her like the way she does. Uncontrollable physical difficulties have a huge mental and emotional toll. The defensiveness and need-to-prove one's self-sufficiency can be insurmountable hurdles. It requires Maya kind of expansive and unwavering love to overcome this hurdle. And it requires a leap of faith from Elena to allow it. We also loved the parts where Maya and Elena have disagreements and fights that play out in line the complexes they have as individuals. That is very insightful writing.

Liv and Maya's non-binary best friend and their girlfriend are delightful supporting characters. 

This one is definitely romantic erotica -- lots of fabulous sexy times driven by feelings and the relationship between the leading ladies. 

Royal gives us a book that has all the feels, amazing chemistry, multi-dimensional characters, hot sex, an adorable child and, Maya.

This book is most recommended.

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆★

Bejeweled by Sarah Sanders

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

This one is super short, super cute and super hot.

Princess Aurora has just been formally made the Crown Princess of her country. She’s grown up in the romantic reality of her parents’ marriage – the prince and the royal dog walker – and hopes to get her own fairy tale.

Elandra’s grandmother is the royal chef. A decade back Elandra had got infatuated by Aurora and gone away to see the world and has just returned back as an accomplished cook herself.

When the Crown Princess offers Elandra the position as her personal chef, things really get moving.

I loved Aurora and Elandra. Though the storyline is thin, the chemistry is unbelievable and the sex, hot. There is insta-attraction and insta-love, but I totally buy into that concept, so it works for me perfectly. I'm impressed that in the limited space, there was enough burn and enough relationship to make the sex longed-for and entirely satisfying.

For a pocket packet, this one is quite a pocket rocket, and I so recommend it.

Isn't the oil painting cover gorgeous?

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

The Woman in 3B by Eliza Lentzski

⭐⭐⭐★

This one has an almost romcom meeting premise but is definitely a contemporary romance.

After spending two ill-advised years in college and running up a student debt of about 40k, Alice Kaminski is now a flight attendant scrambling to clear off the debt. To that end, Alice works non-stop even choosing to be on-call when she can have an off. Also to the same end, Alice participates in a secret monthly flight attendant bingo competition which lists twenty-five tasks of varying difficulty levels to be completed in a month. The person completing all tasks takes home the kitty and if no one completed it, the prize money rolls over to the next month. The current kitty stands at 10k which would go a long way in paying off Alice’s debt. One of the tasks in the current month’s competition is to drop a beverage on the person sitting in seat 3B. Alice is all set to complete the task but the gorgeous woman in 3B, Anissa Khouri, shows unexpected politeness towards Alice and mid-task, Alice cannot go through with it and spills the water on herself.

Alice’s klutziness is the start of an unexpected series of events by with Anissa and Alice spend more time together. And the more Alice sees of Anissa, the more she is attracted to her. An attraction that is fully returned by Anissa who is less shy than Alice about acting on it.

Alice and Anissa are both interesting multi-dimensional characters. Alice is singly focussed on herself with little time for her older sister, niece and nephew. Alice finds her sister passive-aggressive and is not particularly there for or with her. But she is also kind, sweet and something about her is rather young and vulnerable.

Anissa is into HR and is married to her work. She is close to her family and generous with her time and interest in Alice’s family. Of the two, Anissa moves in first sexually, but when it comes to the emotional part of the relationship with Alice, she is chicken. In fact, the entire emotional burden of the relationship is carried by Alice singlehandedly. Between the two, Alice has a greater character trajectory especially with her family.

We’re never big fans of lopsided relationships and even less of one person ghosting the other. Nothing ends a relationship more that blocking another. Yet romances would have us believe that this is forgivable behaviour. Well.

The end is surprisingly hurried. There is just no insight or lead-in to Anissa’s behaviour in the end. But all’s well that ends well, so the happy ending (yes it is expected in a romance, but that doesn’t make it less gratifying) makes this a worth it read.

BTW, hot, hot sex scenes ;)  

⭐⭐⭐★

Star Struck: A Lesbian Romance by Mia Archer

⭐⭐⭐
Tabitha Cartwright became a teen sensation starring in a popular superhero TV serial. Now a young adult, she's in the process of transitioning onto the big screen. There are rumours about her and an actor and a studio wants to cash in on the interest in the possible romance of the two former child stars by making a cheesy romance with the two in the leading roles. Amy is an extra on the set of the movie for the meet cute scene. She's had a crush on Tabitha forever but knows to keep her head down if she wants to have anything like a career in the movies. Except that Tabitha singles her out to hang out. Amy is surprised to discover that Tabitha's sexuality is one of the better kept secrets about her.

As Tabitha and Amy find more and more in common, the movie is quickly getting all but derailed.

We wish we'd got a better sense of what the two leading ladies looked like. We know Tabitha has a radiant smile, but little else. Also, both Tabitha and Amy behave like irresponsible teenagers most of the time which, given their backgrounds didn't quite jell.

Tabitha and Amy have great chemistry in the first couple of scenes but it doesn't pop the same way later. Even the relationship didn't really grow. In fact, though there was an immediate U-haul, the relationship didn't quite move past the initial awkward stages since they never got around being completely emotionally open and vulnerable with each other. Amy in particular was rather unmindful and uncaring about the situations she was putting Tabitha in. She also didn't have any real appreciation of Tabitha. We didn't get the sense that Amy actually saw Tabitha. And that was rather sad. The onus of making the relationship a relationship lay entirely with Tabitha and though she seemed to put in everything, it never seemed like her efforts were returned in any way.

With the way things are between them in the end, this is more HFN than HEA unless Amy does a whole lot of maturing emotionally rather quickly -- something that we don't see happening.

This book constantly teetered on the possibility of moving to magnificence. At every point we hoped that it would move into being more detailed, have greater depth and explore more dimensions in characterisations and the relationship -- but that never happened. As someone once said (think it was Somerset Maugham) people don't write as they want to, they write as they can. We just wish there was more to this one, though.

Overall, this is an okay read in the short reads niche.

⭐⭐⭐

The Goode Vet by JJ Arias

⭐⭐⭐☆

Ronny Hayes has just won a lottery of thirty million and moved into a decrepit mansion in an exclusive neighbourhood with grand plans of restoring it herself with the help of her brothers. Dr. Vanessa Hunter, a vet, is the star of a popular reality show and Ronny's closest neighbour. Vanessa is also rather a diva and doesn't take kindly to the shenanigans of her new neighbours, no matter how amiable they are.

So we have a gripe -- the books in the Goode Girls series are usually long enough to get into totally. They give you a feeling of satisfaction at the end. This one is just too short. And the length is even more galling because we felt that Arias could've developed everything more. To be fair, whatever is there is very well written and every scene is well done. Vanessa and Ronny are nice, but we'd have liked to know them more. With how well it is written, the length felt like a tease.

All our griping just underlines that this is a good read. If you're looking for a short read, this is highly recommended. 

⭐⭐⭐☆

The Business of Love by Emma Collins

⭐⭐⭐★

Quinn Lawson went into her family business of real estate agency. Her beloved father had a dream of moving into real estate development. Quinn is determined to make her father’s dream come true and has been buying all the properties in a quiet Brooklyn street. There is just one house owned by an elderly lady in her nineties, with no family, left. But Quinn’s plan go a little awry when the lady actually wills her house to Lauren Burke.

Lauren is a chef with a future ambition of opening her own restaurant. Having had a poor coming-out experience with her family, Lauren is on her own, working hard. She is fair, kind and giving which is what made her one-time neighbour will her property to Lauren.

When Quinn arrives on Lauren’s new doorstep with a six-figure offer for the house, Lauren is taken aback, but not interested. Quinn is in a hurry to get the property because she wants her ailing father to know that his dream is on its way to materialise before he passes.

Quinn and Lauren have a stand-off over the house, neither willing to let go for their own reasons. A mutual attraction complicates matters further for them.

Quinn and Lauren are both okay women. Lauren gets the edge on being nicer because she is a little more open and Quinn employs at least one underhand move for the house. Both the woman are well developed characters and it’s easy to see where each one is coming from. The chemistry between the two is good. The pacing of the narrative is even and easy.

Within its niche of being a pocket packet, this age-gap romance is definitely a good choice.  

⭐⭐⭐★

The Billionaire's Fake Fiancée: A Lesbian Romance by Clara Reese

⭐⭐☆

A fluffy book about a fake engagement, but not entirely a fake romance, between a rich-girl-poor-girl.

Leah Davis is a hugely successful IT professional, CEO of her own company and out and proud. Her life is fodder for the gossip mill and her real and made-up affairs are constantly being written about. 

Jenny Mason is a songwriter and singer, singing at a open mic on the regular to a disinterested audience of a handful of people, dreaming big dreams. One small step upwards is when she's approached to provide the entertainment at the bash of some big company.

The newest rumour about Leah is that all her public affairs are a cover-up for her real involvement with a married woman -- that too a woman married to a member on the advisory board of Leah's company. After having hooked up with Jenny, the entertainer during the company meeting, Leah asks Jenny to be her fake fiancée till the storm blows over.

Jenny agrees with three conditions, one of them being, no feelings to be developed by either of them. Which turns out to be easier said than done for both. 

This one is a pocket packet – a book that has most elements of a full-fledged novel, but rather than get into depth of characterisation or relationship-building and relationship development, it skims along surface providing just about a glimpse of everything. Pocket packets are undemanding quick reads that don’t particularly stay with you for any length of time (of course, there are some exceptions – shorties that stay). This one is rather heavy on explicit scenes, some with light BDSM, this is a romantic erotica pocket packet.

Leah and Jenny are both pretty okay. They have a fairly good equation particularly since they mostly talk and don't create unnecessary hurdles and angst. There is a little bit of dithering before they confess their feelings but not to a point where they behave badly with the other. There is a little tension created by an antagonist -- one of Leah's exes, Madeline. However, Madeline ends up being rather tragic because she had real feelings that were dismissed and she was unfairly diminished.

The are instances of the wrong MC name being used which creates confusion. Beta readers are absolutely essential for indie authors to avoid such regrettable important errors.

Within its niche, this is pretty okay.

⭐⭐☆

Heart's Desire by Chloe Peterson

⭐⭐☆

This is a rich-girl-poor-girl, social strata straddling romance.

Margo is hired as a cook, personal chef, by the Decaudins, a family of you – parents and two daughters – for the summer.  Her boss, Mrs. Decaudin seems a little ditzy and somewhat eccentric. The younger daughter, seven year old Charisse, seems to be on her way to world domination or at least politics with mad bribery skills already in place. The older daughter, gorgeous Elise, seems to take an instant dislike for Margo on learning that as their family chef, Margo will be living in the apartment in the basement.

Margo sticks to her work, keeping her head down and trying her best not to ruffle any Elise-feathers despite being privy to Elise’s proclivities towards bringing women home almost every night and spiriting them away during a safe pocket of time in the morning after Margo serves them breakfast.  

But as Margo inadvertently gets to know Elise more, she realises that things aren’t always what they appear to be.

   

Within lesfic, there is a large space for pocket packets – books that have most elements of a full-fledged novel, but rather than get into depth of characterisation or relationship-building and relationship development, they skim along surface providing just about a glimpse of everything. These are undemanding quick reads that don’t particularly stay with you for any length of time (of course, there are some exceptions – shorties that stay). This one is definitely a pocket packet.

Margo and Elise are nice enough. Their social interactions are very farfetched but move the story along. They relationship moves from nothing to everything rather abruptly so it didn’t have enough build-up or depth to appeal. Since it’s not insta-love or insta-attraction either, the suddenness of a change in their feelings and status was kind of hard to swallow.

On the whole, this is a quick okay read.

⭐⭐☆