![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
- — - — - — - — -
The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai
Rhiannon Hunter may have revolutionized romance in the digital world, but in real life she only swipes right on her career—and the occasional hookup. The cynical dating app creator controls her love life with a few key rules:
- Nude pics are by invitation only
- If someone stands you up, block them with extreme prejudice
- Protect your heart
Only there aren't any rules to govern her attraction to her newest match, former pro-football player Samson Lima. The sexy and seemingly sweet hunk woos her one magical night... and disappears.
Rhi thought she'd buried her hurt over Samson ghosting her, until he suddenly surfaces months later, still big, still beautiful—and in league with a business rival. He says he won't fumble their second chance, but she's wary. A temporary physical partnership is one thing, but a merger of hearts? Surely that’s too high a risk…
Why you should read it: This book was a perfect amalgam of sweetness, charm, and real + complicated heart. When the depth of everything Rhi has been through becomes clear, the added clarity makes her character even more compelling (and she was already plenty compelling). Not as light a read as I thought at the beginning of the story, but everything the characters fight for is worth it. I recommend the hell out of this book.
- — - — - — - — -
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with six directives to help her “Get a Life”, and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamourous family’s mansion. The next items?
* Enjoy a drunken night out.
* Ride a motorcycle.
* Go camping.
* Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex.
* Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage.
* And… do something bad.
But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.
Redford ‘Red’ Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit.
But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior…
Why you should read it: This book blew me completely away, and I demolished it in just a couple of days (this is very fast for me). Sensitive and authentic, powerful and healing, and somehow both funny and emotionally wrenching. Both Chloe and Red have fears that are painfully relatable, and both carry trauma from past relationships. The characters fuck up and hurt each other along the way, but I never stopped rooting for them. In the end, fixing what's damaged is exactly as challenging and real as it needs to be, without ever once sacrificing the happy ending these characters deserve.
- — - — - — - — -
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius—his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There's only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse.
Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations and begs the question: Can love save the world after all? Where do we find the courage, and the power, to be the people we are meant to be? And how can we learn to let our true colors shine through? Casey McQuiston's Red, White & Royal Blue proves: true love isn't always diplomatic.
Why you should read it: I'm so far behind the times in recommending this one that it almost feels pointless to tell you why you should read it. But do indeed read it. It's sweet, the characters are charming (I especially like Alex's sister and best friend), and the happy ending is well earned. Plus, it's unapologetic Hamilton fan fiction of the contemporary M/M romance variety, and what's not to love about that?
The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai
Rhiannon Hunter may have revolutionized romance in the digital world, but in real life she only swipes right on her career—and the occasional hookup. The cynical dating app creator controls her love life with a few key rules:
- Nude pics are by invitation only
- If someone stands you up, block them with extreme prejudice
- Protect your heart
Only there aren't any rules to govern her attraction to her newest match, former pro-football player Samson Lima. The sexy and seemingly sweet hunk woos her one magical night... and disappears.
Rhi thought she'd buried her hurt over Samson ghosting her, until he suddenly surfaces months later, still big, still beautiful—and in league with a business rival. He says he won't fumble their second chance, but she's wary. A temporary physical partnership is one thing, but a merger of hearts? Surely that’s too high a risk…
Why you should read it: This book was a perfect amalgam of sweetness, charm, and real + complicated heart. When the depth of everything Rhi has been through becomes clear, the added clarity makes her character even more compelling (and she was already plenty compelling). Not as light a read as I thought at the beginning of the story, but everything the characters fight for is worth it. I recommend the hell out of this book.
- — - — - — - — -
Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert
Chloe Brown is a chronically ill computer geek with a goal, a plan, and a list. After almost—but not quite—dying, she’s come up with six directives to help her “Get a Life”, and she’s already completed the first: finally moving out of her glamourous family’s mansion. The next items?
* Enjoy a drunken night out.
* Ride a motorcycle.
* Go camping.
* Have meaningless but thoroughly enjoyable sex.
* Travel the world with nothing but hand luggage.
* And… do something bad.
But it’s not easy being bad, even when you’ve written step-by-step guidelines on how to do it correctly. What Chloe needs is a teacher, and she knows just the man for the job.
Redford ‘Red’ Morgan is a handyman with tattoos, a motorcycle, and more sex appeal than ten-thousand Hollywood heartthrobs. He’s also an artist who paints at night and hides his work in the light of day, which Chloe knows because she spies on him occasionally. Just the teeniest, tiniest bit.
But when she enlists Red in her mission to rebel, she learns things about him that no spy session could teach her. Like why he clearly resents Chloe’s wealthy background. And why he never shows his art to anyone. And what really lies beneath his rough exterior…
Why you should read it: This book blew me completely away, and I demolished it in just a couple of days (this is very fast for me). Sensitive and authentic, powerful and healing, and somehow both funny and emotionally wrenching. Both Chloe and Red have fears that are painfully relatable, and both carry trauma from past relationships. The characters fuck up and hurt each other along the way, but I never stopped rooting for them. In the end, fixing what's damaged is exactly as challenging and real as it needs to be, without ever once sacrificing the happy ending these characters deserve.
- — - — - — - — -
Red, White & Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
When his mother became President, Alex Claremont-Diaz was promptly cast as the American equivalent of a young royal. Handsome, charismatic, genius—his image is pure millennial-marketing gold for the White House. There's only one problem: Alex has a beef with the actual prince, Henry, across the pond. And when the tabloids get hold of a photo involving an Alex-Henry altercation, U.S./British relations take a turn for the worse.
Heads of family, state, and other handlers devise a plan for damage control: staging a truce between the two rivals. What at first begins as a fake, Instragramable friendship grows deeper, and more dangerous, than either Alex or Henry could have imagined. Soon Alex finds himself hurtling into a secret romance with a surprisingly unstuffy Henry that could derail the campaign and upend two nations and begs the question: Can love save the world after all? Where do we find the courage, and the power, to be the people we are meant to be? And how can we learn to let our true colors shine through? Casey McQuiston's Red, White & Royal Blue proves: true love isn't always diplomatic.
Why you should read it: I'm so far behind the times in recommending this one that it almost feels pointless to tell you why you should read it. But do indeed read it. It's sweet, the characters are charming (I especially like Alex's sister and best friend), and the happy ending is well earned. Plus, it's unapologetic Hamilton fan fiction of the contemporary M/M romance variety, and what's not to love about that?
Tags:
