#LGBTGIA contemporary romance

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Review:  The Pairing by Casey McQuiston

Rating: 5🌈 The Pairing is one of my top two books of the year.  A absolute masterpiece of a book, a gastronomical tale and a oenophile’s dream journey that’s a bisexual and nonbinary romance of rediscovery and enduring love set upon the landscape of some of Europe’s most beautiful and ancient cultural heritage sites and tiny restaurants.  There really aren’t enough pages or words to describe…

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Review:  Deck the Fire Halls (Hartbridge Christmas Book 5) by N. R. Walker 

Rating: 4.25🌈 I have looked forward every Christmas to N. R. Walker’s new Hartbridge Christmas story, and was delighted to see Deck the Fire Hall this year. Hartbridge, Montana is that snowy, Hallmark like small town with a beautiful view and endless charming Christmas decorations .  Plus something else. Where a visitor that arrives in town at Christmas will meet his true love in town and find…

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Review: Jonathon, After All: Princes Take New York Book 1 by K. Sterling

Rating:  4.25🌈 From K Sterling’s forward: “All the books in this series are meant to be modern adaptations of classic fairy tales with the primary focus on the king of all tropes: Prince Charming. He’s the king for me, at least. And if there is one thing that is consistent with Charming, it’s insta love. He believes in love at first sight and he is often blindly noble. Occasionally, to his and…

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Review:  Duck and Dive (Rise and Shine Book 1) by G B Ralph 

Rating: 4🌈 I discovered G B Ralph through his delightful cozy mysteries, The Milverton Mysteries.  Ralph’s stories are tend towards the same elements.  Character driven stories with the people , all of them with their faults included, fully realized and completely layered with human frailties. These characters carry the fears, joys as well as inabilities to move forward that the reader might…

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Review:  Striking a Chord at Randy's (A Diner Day’s story) by K.C. Carmine

Rating: 3.75🌈 K. C. Carmine’s contemporary romance is a sexy sweet best friends to lovers romance with a twist.  In a series that is centered around a Diner that is a safe haven for the LGBT community, the stories are themed on the same storylines and characters. Here Charlie, who transitioned once his family moved, is reunited with his best friend from childhood, Trent, who’s just arrived in…

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Review:  On Circus Lane (The Wright Brothers, #1) by Lily Morton

Rating: 4.5🌈 On Circus Lane by Lily Morton is another one of this author’s fantastic heartwarming Christmas stories.  The second novel, Merry Measure, was released first in December 2020, and is the hilarious holiday story of Arlo Wright, the younger brother. And I love it. But it had been several years since I’d read it so I approached On Circus Lane with fresh eyes and as though the…

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Review:  Hot Shot (The Elmwood Stories Book 5) by Lane Hayes

Rating: 4.5🌈 Hot Shot is the penultimate book in a series I’m extremely fond of. In The Elmwood Stories, Hayes has let her readers enjoy watching a group of men connected by hockey and friendship find their HEA in a town that feels so remarkably real and vibrant that’s is as much a draw as the storylines.  Hot Shot is Denny Mellon, a man we met as a troubled teenager under his Gran’s care in…

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Review:  Playing the Man (Watkins Glen Gladiators Book 6) by V. L. Locey

Rating: 4.5🌈 V. L. Locey’s Watkins Glen Gladiators series is such a special warmhearted group of stories and characters.  Locey’s gift of being able to bring a fully immersive universe such as the Watkins Glen Gladiators AHL team to life, then fill it up with characters that a reader will find endlessly fascinating, entertaining (looking at you,Greck),amazingly diverse, and always…

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Review: Be My Endgame by Zarah Detand

Rating: 4.25🌈 “It was on. Number one against number three, battling it out in a tight race for the top spot in the Premier League.” — Be My Endgame: An MM Rivals-to-Lovers Sports Romance by Zarah Detand It thanks almost totally to Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney’s ‘Welcome to Wrexham’ series about buying Wrexham, a Welsh football (soccer to us in the US) team, I do know a bit about the…

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Review: The Play (Charleston Condors Book 4) by Beth Bolden

Rating: 5🌈 What a wonderful story and fantastic way to send off the series and this team. The interactions between holdover player, defensive end Deacon Harris and the new owner of the Charleston Condors, security industry billionaire Grant Green, has been a subtle but significant part of the series and team’s dynamic. It was always clear that the two men had a strong connection and attraction…

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Review: The Waiting Game: An M/M Hockey Romance (Relationship Goals Book 3) by Brigham Vaughn

Rating: 4🌈 “Fisher Cats’ Hale and Brewer Engaged: College Sweethearts or Fake Relationship?” Faked engagement, best friends to lovers , bi-sexual awakening, hurt/comfort m/m hockey contemporary romance time! That’s a lot of tropes for a novel, and it’s not even close to covering the best elements that Vaughn includes in The Waiting Game. This is the third in Brigham Vaughn’s Relationship Goals…

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Review: Clueless Puckboy (Puckboys, #5) by Eden Finley and Saxon James

Rating: 5🌈 When I’m not even at 15% and all I’ve done is laugh so hard I’m crying and my sides are in stitches, you bet I’m giving the book a 5 star rating. Clueless Puckboy is right. And probably my favorite novel to date out of a bunch of crazy hockey stories from this pair of authors. Ayri Quinn is fighting an adductor injury and doesn’t want his team trainers to know he’s not as recovered…

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Review: Team Orders (Lights Out, #1) by R. J. Scott

Rating: 4.75 🌈 “If you no longer go for a gap that exists, then you’re no longer a racing driver. -Ayrton Senna” I’m so used to R. J. Scott’s outstanding hockey romances, that I was surprised to see her jump into the world of Formula 1 racing and do it so immaculately. Lights Out is a multi author series that focuses on one racing season. Each author takes one racing team, a driver or two on…

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Review:  Paper Roses (Confetti Hitched Book 3) by Lily Morton 

Rating: 4.75🌈 Paper Roses just might be my favorite book of Lily Morton’s fabulous Confetti Hitched series.  The third story in this series about a wedding planning business, Confetti Hitched, the author’s focus turns from its engaging, vivacious employees to its owner, Jed Walker and his PA, Artie. Jed, a widower, and his adorable PA Artie, are about to tumble into that popular romance trope,…

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Review: Truth or Spare: Princes Take New York Book 2 by K. Sterling 

Rating: 5🌈 Second story into K. Sterling’s Princes Take New York series and I have a favorite already. Funny, heartwarming, beautifully written, full of characters that make you feel invested in their lives and the story. And even side appearances from delightful people who have just become star players in this universe! Muriel, I’m looking at you! Sterling’s series is exploring the future of…

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Review:  Handy (Four Bears Construction Book 8) by K.M. Neuhold

Rating: 4.5🌈 It’s fantastic to be back in Fall Crosse, Wisconsin , the small town that’s the heart and home of K.M. Neuhold’s three interconnected contemporary romance series. Four Bears Construction Company launched them all and the author is keeping the series going and heartwarmingly fresh with the latest release, Handy.  It’s the eighth book and it’s wonderful. While I’ll always love Stone…