It's in Her Kiss by Rachel Lacey

 

⭐⭐⭐⭐★

Sophie Rindell and Julia Vega are struggling Broadway actresses. They meet while auditioning for the same role. The role is of the leading lady, Bianca, a dream for both of them. After the audition, Sophie invites Jules to hang out with her and her friends and Jules accepts.

Sophie is out and undeniably attracted to Jules. Jules is curious but hasn't taken any action on her possible attraction towards woman. 

Both get a call back, but while Jules is cast as Bianca, Sophie is part of the ensemble and an understudy for the two main leads. As the rehearsals progress, Jules and Sophie's relationship also progresses. But both carry their own baggage that interferes with their relationship.

This book is equally story driven and character driven and really scores high on the characters-driven aspect. Jules and Sophie are complete human beings with positives and negatives. With ambitions and fears. With hopes and dreams. With multiple aspects and dimensions. 

Lacey does a brilliant job with keeping all actions of each of them in the perfect trajectory of their character. All their actions are understandable since we get to know their drivers so well.

Jules, with her softness, vulnerability and awareness is a tad higher on the appealing quotient. Even when she messes up due to being in the closet, she is quick to realise it and apologise. Sophie is much more confident, a little more aggressive and explicably (because of past experience) self-protective. Yet she reaches beyond her fears and frustrations, which is so admirable.

We were totally drawn into the story and into the characters. This book was a wonderful read and we wholeheartedly recommend it.

⭐⭐⭐⭐★q

Heart of Ice by T. B. Markinson and Miranda Macleod

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Laurie Emerson is codenamed Laurie the Hatchet in the world of finance for her notorious ruthlessness. Laurie and her wife Bonnie were co-founders of one of the topmost financial advisory firms and their shared office was called the Shark Tank. When Bonnie's tumour was diagnosed with inoperable, she booked Laurie for a year in a high-end resort and handed the reins of the company to her son, Toby.

Laurie returns a little under a year during which the company has been nosediving under mismanagement. But Laurie has a lead that could completely turn the company around and make it a top player again. The lead is inside information that Silvio Othonos, an elusive Greek billionaire, is looking for a firm to manage his investments. Laurie's vigour is roadblocked by Toby who has jetted off across the Atlantic trying to jump the gun and meet with Othonos without a plan in place.

Undeterred, Laurie decides to make a team out of the available resources and create a solid proposal for the billionaire.

Jacqueline (Jack) Kennedy is a hardworking portfolio manager with Emersons. As a woman in a man's world she is overlooked and on the receiving end of entitled masculine behaviour. Not being an Ivy Leaguer also puts her on something of a back foot. Having joined after Laurie had left for her sabbatical, Jack knows Laurie only by reputation. So, when she is the only portfolio manager on the floor and becomes part of Laurie's team, she's quite pleased and is looking forward to the meeting the next day.

A snowed in evening, an Irish pub, a hot woman and amazing sex -- only to realise that the hot woman of the previous evening was Laurie / Jack i.e. boss / subordinate. Both decide to forget their evening together and keep it professional. Except that the chemistry keeps boiling over throwing emotions all over the map.

Laurie and Jack are superbly crafted characters. Laurie does keep slipping into being a version of Miranda Priestly but is also not Miranda Priestly often enough. Come to think of it, such fluctuations would actually leave a person with whiplash. But Jack works with her mercurial boss with fortitude. Realistically, Jack does have misgivings about working with Laurie and her impossible behaviour. 

Though older than Jack by 20 years, Laurie is clearly the immature one between the two. Jack is never without spine. Yes, Laurie is demanding and impossible but Jack never comes across as a doormat or pushover.

Jack's kooky mother and her story is a smile inducing twist.

The chemistry between Jack and Laurie is fantastic. And the grand-gesture love confession is perfect for die-hard romantics. 

The book captures you from the very start and keeps you totally engrossed for its entirety. Markinson and Macleod are a winning combination. Their collaboration brings to us the most romantic and adorable book.

Definitely recommended.

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Bet Against Me by Fiona Riley

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Who knew that the world of luxury realty was so intensely competitive?

Trina Lee is a rockstar realtor who outperforms all others in the industry and has developed a reputation of being cutthroat and ruthless. She’s been featured in a magazine’s list of 30 under 30 and as the cherry on top of her cake of a great year professionally, she’s a hairsbreadth from winning the coveted Realtor of the Year award. Except that she’s pipped to the post by a Jane-come-yesterday, Kendall Yates. The two work in rival companies and there’s no love lost between their bosses. Post the award presentation, as Trina is attacking Kendall with all she’s got and Kendall is pulling no punches in trading insult with insult, their bosses come up with a ‘friendly’ (but not really) competition between their star performers – to outsell the other in one particular upcoming development.

Trina and Kendall get down to it, never missing an opportunity to bring out those deadly claws and sharp tongues to deliver scathing insults. But that much passion spills into unexpected channels and their whole relationship does a 180 degree.

Trina Lee is one livewire of a character. Sassy, sarcastic, sharp and competitive, she is also borderline arrogant and cocky but tempered down with her sweetness and loyalty right from the beginning. Though she comes across as the more abrasive and antagonistic of the two initially, her character is so well rounded by her other relationships that she is never dislikeable. Kendall has a past that she’s trying to outpace. She cuts a more sympathetic figure at start. Also she’s not the one itching to fight all the time. However, Riley does a great job of making both women equally appealing. More to her credit, Riley somehow manages to give a flavour of I-like-her-therefore-I’ll-pull-her-pigtails-to-get-her-attention to the whole animosity.

The chemistry between the two leads is sizzling. And par for the course, as with all Riley’s books, the heat-o-meter is set at burn. The book has a great balance between romance and sex.

We sorely missed an epilogue in this one. We’re sure that Trina and Kendall will be happy together for life, but we’d have definitely liked to know what Kendall does professionally and how she fares after all the evil-dad-interfering-in-her-life drama. (BTW, this dad-villain bit added to the rather farfetched premise makes this one more a romcom than a contemporary romance. But in no way does it detract from the fact this is a hugely entertaining book with great chemistry and amazingly good sex).

Definitely recommended.

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

The Pull of the Stars by Emma Donoghue, Narrated by Emma Lowe (Audiobook)

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

Review-Lite

because...Language is leaving me in silence…

• Brilliant writing
• Eerie similarities between the end-of-war flu of 1918 and the coronavirus pandemic of 2020
• Troubling, touching, enraging and surprisingly tender
• Donoghue has a gift of building such strong environment that you can feel every single thing she describes – from physical, tangible things to every emotion experienced by every person in the cast. You can feel the blood, sweat tears, heat, stifling airless room, frustrations, fears, pain...
• Will women ever get equality?
• Amazing audio performance by Emma Lowe
• Can actually feel the stifling atmosphere outside the room, inside the ward and in the whole culture of female oppression
• Heavy and intense

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆

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.

⭐⭐⭐⭐☆★

Her Secret Love by Chanel Ivy

⭐⭐☆

A pocket packet filled chock-a-block with predictable drama.

Georgia Hunt owns a very successful company that she's built from scratch. She married very young and that marriage has now fallen apart since she and her husband are in completely different mind spaces. Katrina Smith is a new temp accountant in Georgia's company. Georgia has an immediate attraction to the hot, confident, gorgeous, somewhat cocky temp and they fall into a sexual relationship almost immediately.

Kat seems to have some secret past and deflects any questions about it. Despite the secrecy, both the women find their feelings for each other deepening even as Georgia's husband steadily loses control on sane behaviour.

This is a compact read which is more about the drama than about characters or characterisation. There's a sex scene almost as soon as the two women meet. We thought that meant this would be an out-and-out erotica but after maybe one more explicit scene, the concentration was mostly on Georgia's deteriorating marriage i.e. The drama aspect. But then, it also wrapped up with a sex scene. So we imagine that the intention was for this to be more erotica than anything else.

This is a short, not emotionally or mentally involving, rather forgettable read which nevertheless serves a single episode soap-operatic-high-drama purpose. 

⭐⭐☆

Just One Reason by Jaime Clevenger

⭐⭐⭐★

Sizzling hot chemistry and very, very explicit scenes make this more erotica than romance – though there is romance too.

Dr. Terri Anderson is an amazing doctor but has had a couple of setbacks in her relationships. Two divorces to be exact. The second marriage was to a resident in the hospital which ended up in a triangular drama of rather epic proportions. After that fiasco, Terri has sworn off ever getting involved with a resident.

Elizabeth Samuels (Sam) is a resident in Terri’s hospital. At thirty-one, she is older than a typical resident, but has her reasons for getting in late. Sam has had a crush on Terri from the start and when a colleague tries to set them up, Sam is all for it, except that she runs into Terri’s hard line about steering clear of residents despite scorching chemistry between them.

Terri is quite interesting as a character. Sam – we never really got Sam or even really got to know her. The attraction and chemistry between the two is crazy and once the sex starts, it eclipses everything else. The sex is in the BDSM world, but it is not intense. So it is palatable BDSM.

The forty-one million mentioned is the blurb is the defining touchstone for Sam’s characterisation, motivations and background. Maybe a little more development of their respective backgrounds and personality development would’ve helped in knowing the ladies better.

The writing is solid, but somehow we didn’t feel too invested in the relationship despite actively liking Terri. Nevertheless, we’d definitely recommend this as NSFW romantic erotica.

This is the third part of a series which has recurring characters, but each book can definitely be read standalone.  

⭐⭐⭐★

Stepping Stone by Karin Kallmaker, Narrated by Abby Craden (Audiobook)

⭐⭐

One struggling actress waiting for her break. One scheming and self-serving leading lady angling for an award. One A-listed good-hearted hunk of an actor. One indie producer and her sure-to-succeed new movie.

Selene Ryan, an indie producer is putting together the cast for her new movie, Barcelona. She wants to cast Hyde Butler, the current box office darling. Hyde is also interested since this movie would help him establish his acting chops and move beyond being just an action hero. Jennifer Lamont, Selena's ex wants the role of the leading lady in said movie to consolidate her position in the industry. Selena and Jennifer had lived and split in public scandal. Selena feels used and misused by Jennifer and though Jennifer is endlessly attractive, Selena wants nothing to do with her. Except that Jennifer is perfect for the role. Gail Welles is cast as the other woman in the drama. While the drama of the movie is being shot, Selena, Gail and Jennifer have their own off-camera story progressing.

Selena Ryan is breathtakingly insipid. Her utter lack of being anything interesting is exacerbated by having two women with very well-defined personalities interested in her. Even her friend-cum-colleague Kim is more interesting. She is supposed to be hardworking, efficient and a fair employer. She is all that. But she is only that. It flummoxes us how a person who is the centre of a triangle with two other very interesting characters can be so beige. Even when Kim has an allergic reaction, Selena is the only one who does nothing and finds herself being able to do nothing. (In fact, only Jennifer kept her head in that scene and did something constructive).  

Gail Welles, currently-a-waitress-but-waiting-for-a-break actress, is instantly likeable. Her likeability factor jumps many notches in her audition scene where she goes quite berserk with the script. Then there is the whole I-won’t-hide-my-eagerness-for-the-role part which is so endearing. She singlehandedly creates chemistry between her and Selena and keeps it going through the entire slow burn of a book. We love the fact that she’s not traditionally beautiful but arresting nevertheless, and that she can out-act all her co-stars.   

However, the most captivating and charismatic person in the whole cast is definitely Jennifer Lamont. Cast as the antagonist, Jennifer is supposed to be a scheming, manipulative user but she comes across as honest and genuine. Her scheming is transparent and she doesn’t try to hide the fact she is ambitious. (A whole scene where she talking about her shelf life, about her insecurity about Gail and then about confessing that she thought villainy was the only path – it’s all just so upfront and authentic). There is, in fact, something guileless and innocent about all Jennifer’s machinations. In all her persistent approaches towards Selena asking to get back together, it never felt that Jennifer didn’t have genuine feelings about the woman (Selena) who is singularly and constantly rude (very rude) to her.    

There's nothing particularly new or exciting about this extremely predictable story (except maybe that Hyde is a genuinely nice guy -- literally scraping the bottom of the barrel here to find something) but Abby Craden's smooth voice carries you through painlessly and engagingly.

We'd recommend this only for the Voice (Abby Craden) more than the actual content or the story because frankly, there are way better romances that this one that you can invest your time in. 

⭐⭐

Irregular Heartbeat by Chris Zett, Narrated by Abby Craden (Audiobook)

⭐⭐⭐☆★


Diana Petrell is a new intern under the mentors hip of Dr. Emily Barnes. Diane is returning to pre-med after a hiatus of nine years and is keen on doing it right. Not that Emily makes it say for her. But then, Emily is equally professional and curt with everyone else. Despite her prickly exterior, Diane is drawn to Emily. Both have their own secrets / baggage that takes careful handling and navigation as they get closer to each other.

The chemistry in this is good and the romance steady. Diane quickly establishes herself as a mature, amiable and likeable person. Emily is more challenging. And also where Zett really creates an impression.

Most people are somehow messed up in or damaged while growing up. One of the most insidious and invisible chipping is by polite distance, emotional neglect and lack or love from a parent. The damage this causes can be different for different people, but Emily is clearly what is now recognised as a 'sensitive child'. Zett draws Emily in great detail with sympathy and understanding and then get invested in her a whole character arc and trajectory as love enters her life in form of Diane.

Yes, this is slow burn. Yes, there was one (note, just one) point where we thought Emily's pull Diana close and feint away from her was unjustified. But otherwise, this is a wonderful commentary on the power of the love and patience from the right person which makes a person transform from a tightly closed bud to a fresh, dancing bloom.

Abby Craden does a competent job and kept us hooked for the entire duration of the fairly long book.

Yes, we'd surely recommend this one.

⭐⭐⭐☆★