#spicy romance

[foldingfittedsheets]

So I went to Geek Girl Con this year and the best panel we attended was one where Librarians recommend your next spicy romance read and since they provided a list I figured I'd share the list because why the hell not? I don’t know how long they will leave the link up sorry All synopsis will be what I remembered from the panel without any research into the title so buckle up! I feel like it's pretty obvious which ones I was more interested in based on what I remember.

Triple Sec - Spice Level 2 Queer/Fiction

This is a poly plot wherein a cynical bartender gets swept up in a new romance with a lady in an open marriage and then sparks start between all three.

Band Sinister - Spice Level 4 Queer/Period

A period romance between two guys, the local playboy and our leading lad who meets the local playboy when his sister gets into an accident on the guy’s property. He finds a lovely community very different than the rake's reputation suggested and gets drawn into a romance against his better judgement.

Here We Go Again - Spice Level 2 Queer/Fiction

A wlw romance between two girls with a history who need to go on a roadtrip together and reconnect on the drive. Childhood friends I think?

Payback's a Witch - Spice Level 2 Queer/Fantasy

A wlw romance between Emmy and Talia (I'm cheating I've read this one before and liked it). Emmy left her hometown and magic behind after an embarrassing rejection from the most powerful magical family's scion. She comes back into town and finds her best friend and the stunning Talia have both now been wronged by the same guy. They convince Emmy to join a pact to get back at him together and Emmy and Talia grow closer through the power of revenge.

Act Your Age Eve Brown - Spice Level 2 Het/Fiction

A chaotic autistic female lead runs into a by the book boy after one of them gets hit by the others car and she ends up staying with him. They form a very sweet bond and the representation was lauded as being very precious.

Merry Inkmas - Spice Level 4 Het/Fiction

A cool alternative barista gets fired in front of her crush for giving a homeless man a free coffee and her crush hires her on the spot to work for him instead. They start up a relationship that he warns has an expiration date which suits her fine- or does it? Hijinks ensue.

D'Vaughn and Kris Plan a Wedding - Spice Level 4 Queer/Fiction

A wlw romance under false pretenses, they agree to get married for a reality TV show. There's an influencer and a shy one can’t remember who’s who, the shy one decided national television is a good way to come out to her family. As the competition continues real feelings start to rear their head between the two.

The Prospects - Spice Level 4 Queer/Fiction

Uhhhh baseball boys? The boys play baseball... mlm romance. Baseball.

Something Wild and Wonderful - Spice Level 3 Queer/Fiction

Two guys are both hiking a grueling trail from Mexico to Canada. After running into each other repeatedly they strike up a connection and eventually a relationship. One of the guys is still spiritual despite rejection from the church and it's healing for the other guy.

Prince and Assassin - Spice Level 4 Queer/Fantasy

An assassin is sent on a mission to take out a prince. While waiting for his orders to pull the dagger the two men grow closer and the assassin realizes he may not be able to kill off the prince as he learns more about him- but his sister's life is forfeit if he fails. Dramaaaaa

After Hours on Milagro Street - Spice Level 5 Het/Fiction

I cheated and had to refresh my memory as I fully forgot the plot. A bar is entrusted to new management in the form of a tattooed tough lady. A child of the family who's always run it takes issue with her management and sparks fly as they learn to compromise.

The Pairing - Spice Level Queer/Fiction

A couple breaks up before taking an amazing food tour across Europe and neither goes. With their tickets to the tour about to expire both decide to say screw it and go anyway, presuming that they couldn't possibly run into each other. They do. They they proceed to try to out slut each other while eating delicious food to prove how over each other they are. They aren't.

Hunt the Stars - Spice Level 3 Het/Sci fi

Human/alien pairing I think? As a bounty hunting crew takes a dangerous job and in the midst of peril find undeniable chemistry despite some fraught history between the two species.

A Holly Jolly Ever After - Spice Level 5 Het/Fiction

A previous child actor has found herself in a loveless marriage. She finally breaks free of her husband and takes a huge hit to her public image. She takes a job on a Hallmark style Christmas movie with another previous child star boyband. He has always had a crush on her and while paired as romantic leads on the film she admits to him she's never had an orgasm. We can see where this is going.

Morning Glory Milking Farm - Spice Level 5 Het/Fantasy

Stay with me. Minotaur. Milking. Farms. But it's not milk, guys. So a down on her luck girl takes a great paying job on a farm which I think is like phone sex? and makes a connection with one of the beefy boys get it. Genuinely tactful conversations around consent despite the goofy premise. Monster fuckers will enjoy.

Hate to Want You - Spice Level 5 Het/Fiction

Romeo and Juliet style warring families who hate each other because of grocery stores, I think. A boy and girl get together once a year and hate fuck each other about it but things get hard when she moves back into town for real and they keep bumping into each other.

Consort of Fire - Spice Level 5 Queer/Fantasy

A princess and knight go to take down a dragon but wind up falling for him instead? I feel like that's enough said. Poly dynamic and dragons, that's all it took for me to put in a hold.

Dating Dr. Dil - Spice Level 3 Het/Fiction

Fake dating a hot doctor to get her family off her back. 'Nough said.

Satisfaction Guaranteed - Spice Level 2 Queer/Fiction

A lady inherits a sex toy shop and drops her job to try to save it. The store manager doesn't think much of her and they both have to work together to get the shop back on its feet.

Role Playing - Spice Level 3 Het/Fiction

A forties lady joins a message board for gaming and strikes up a conversation with someone she assumes is a teenager. The guy thinks he's talking to a grandma. They meet and realize they're in the same age bracket and have a lot in common.

[eruden-writes]

Intentions - Part 5 (Khravel x Taliyra)

alien romance breeding alien x human

Summary: In the future, humans are nearly universal surrogates and Earth has taken to profiting off the ability. However, while humans can intermix with aliens, it doesn’t mean it’s without complications.

When Taliyra signed up to be a Companion to an alien, she had expectations. Mainly a lot of sex in an attempt to conceive an alien baby. What she didn’t expect was her counterpart to be so distant and - for lack of a better term - relatively hands off. For all intents and purposes, Khravel seems completely disinterested in her and will not hold a discussion to explain why.

After four months of this behavior, she’s had enough. Confronting Khravel, she gives him an ultimatum: either he sits down and talks with her about what the problem is or she’s going back to Proxypanion and requesting a transfer.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ

Part 1 | Master List | Previous

Suddenly, the weight of the room was on Khravel’s shoulders. Delegate Yivo, Laryse, and Taliyra were all looking at him, the only one who had yet to give permission for a show. Unable to argue, Khravel tried to force the tension in his shoulders to ease. With a motion of his hand, he attempted to smile. “Far be it for me to stop you two. I commend you both for your duties to Tivik’s populace.”

Delegate Yivo beckoned for Laryse to come closer once more, to which the human woman did obey. She stood slowly and made her way down the table to the yellow Tivikonian, her nipples already taut beneath the gauzy fabric of her dress.

Khravel’s mouth went dry, realizing his colleague was intending to give him a rather close-up view of their copulation. Gathering up his tablet, he mumbled something about giving them space before rising and retreating down the table. He doubted Yivo heard him. The man had his eyes intent on his Companion, color rising in his own yellow cheeks. Without another thought, Khravel padded the way Laryse came, consequently placing him closer to Taliyra, with her dark eyes that continued to sear through him.

Taliyra straightened in her chair when Khravel neared her, though her shoulders eased as he sat with a  chair between them. Of course. He didn’t want to get too close to her. Huffing out a breath, she leaned her elbow on the table, cradling her chin in her hand as she watched Yivo and Laryse.

The two were undoubtedly attracted to one another. He caressed her cheek when she neared his sitting position and they exchanged some playful words. Laryse’s teeth sunk into her bottom lip as one of Yivo’s four hands trailed down her side. Another hand bunched her dress up, a third raising to confidently stroke along the woman’s slit. Her gasp was tinged with a whimper as she broadened her stance, his fourth hand coming up to rest on the small of her back, bracing her upright. Laryse clasped onto two of his of his arms as Yivo’s hand moved, deftly dipping a digit into her folds, into her.

The intimacy of the moment put Taliyra in the crosshairs of delight of watching them; frustration at her own lackluster couplings with Khravel; and yearning for what they had. But it seemed Laryse had hit the jackpot. Delegate Yivo seemed to truly cherish her, beyond what her uterus could provide. A cold dagger of disappointment wedged into Taliyra’s chest at the thought. Despite herself, her eyes flicked over to Khravel.

She expected to see him intently watching the two, completely ignoring her. Or perhaps glaring at the proceedings, upset with his lacking partner.

Taliyra did not expect to catch the Tivikonian’s red eyes turned toward her. He leered at her, hotly. The heat in his gaze was too similar to his expression during their nightly visits. Though she felt he was also annoyed with her. Regardless, she found her heart thrumming a little faster under his gaze.

Heat spiked through the room, heavy and prickling, as Laryse’s sounds slowly became louder. The wisp of fabric being discarded, Yivo’s own soft groans of satisfaction, burned through the air. It only fed the imaginings playing in Khravel’s mind, twisting everything to feature himself and Taliyra. Peeling the dress suit off the human woman’s body, layer by layer. Running his hands over her breasts, palm grinding over her nipples to elicit a cry that was echoed by Laryse in the room. His cock stirred, fabric becoming taut against his groin.

A sudden warmth pressed to his thigh and his whole body jerked to attention. His far-flung thoughts focused on the hand, followed it up a clothed arm to Taliyra’s face. There had been a chair between them. When had she moved? Or had he been the one to shift closer? Khravel swallowed, momentarily afraid of the answer.

Focusing on Taliyra’s face, he found a flush darkening her cheeks, her teeth sinking into her bottom lip. “Do yo–“

The barely formed words snapped through him as he bolted to his feet. Picking up his tablet, holding it like a shield  in front of him, he pushed away from the table and headed for the exit. “If you’ll excuse me, I just remembered there’s something I need to attend to.”

Feelings of rejection slammed into Taliyra, watching Khravel retreat from the conference room. The following wave of self-righteous indignation crashed into her, soon after. It propelled her to her feet as she followed in her counterpart’s footsteps. She made some half-hearted excuse to Laryse and Delegate Yivo, though part of her doubted either would notice the lack of an audience.

As Taliyra exited the conference, she heard Laryse make a sound of worry and Yivo chuckle in her wake. “Don’t worry. Iedro has always been on the shy side.”

She didn’t get to wonder about his words for long. Already, she was storming down the hall, eyes wheeling around until she found the departing form of Khravel. Feeling foolish, she pursued him. She didn’t yell, didn’t call out, didn’t run. Merely sped-walked after the infuriating man as fire swelled in her chest.

What was he doing? Did he despise her so much, her barely-formed offer had disgusted him? Rejection stabbed through her again and she frowned. This was not going to work if he couldn’t stomach bedding her, beyond the lackluster way he’d done so far.

She watched as he darted into a room, apparently unaware of her tailing him.

As Taliyra burst in after him, she found the area to be something of a supply closet. The acrid scent of cleaning fluid tinged the air, along with the must of sitting water. A legion of floor cleaning robots lined a section of wall, all stowed into box-like shelves. To the left of the door, a spigot jutted from the wall over a tiled basin, a bucket and mop close by.

For a beat she feared he’d used the room as a shortcut elsewhere but there were no other doors leading out beside the one she entered. After a few more seconds of exploration she found the Tivikonian man partially bent over a cleared off table, his tablet sitting off-center on the flat surface.

His shoulders heaved with his every breath, as if he’d run a marathon. Taliyra neared him, her eyebrows furrowed. “What in the stars are you doing?”

Khravel spun around, his lower hands grasping the table behind him as his upper arms spread out. His eyes wide, he looked the part of a child caught doing something wrong. And part of him knew it. Embarrassment joined the residual heat left from the carnal thoughts. “Why did you follow me?”

Taliyra cast him a look, hoping it translated to something akin to ‘We have already discussed this,’ as she crossed her arms. When his shoulders didn’t ease in defeat, she gave an irritable sigh. “Because this is a partnership wherein I’m supposed to give you a child and that is very hard to do with how you’ve been carrying on.”

His upper-set of hands dragged over his face as he groaned, “You are trying my patience, little one.”

That caused Taliyra pause. He’d never called her that and, for some reason, it sent a skittering flare of delight straight to her center. Trying to cling to her agitation, she frowned harder. “I’m not all that little, Khravel.”

An amused snort left Khravel as his hands dropped from his face. He found her leering up at him and, in such a small space, their size differential was all the more apparent. Mirroring her pose, his upper arms crossed over his chest. “To me, you are. And that is the problem.”

“What do you mean?” Taliyra narrowed her eyes, knowing full well that Laryse was not larger than her.

Khravel sighed. It wasn’t a simple aggravated sigh. It started with a deep chest-filling breath that, upon exhale, was released slow and low. It was an attempt to center himself, to stall, to come up with the right words.

He did not find those words.

Instead, his body moved on its own. He shoved away from the table, grabbing Taliyra. The feel of her soft body under his palms sending an additional flare of heat up his arms.

Shock bolted through her as four large hands gripped her, at her wrists and at her hips. She barely blinked before he lifted her, turned back around, dumped her on the table he’d been leaning over. Vaguely, Taliyra heard something clatter and then realized her soles were caressed by cold air, her shoes fallen from her feet. Her wrists were fed into one of his hands, pinned above her head to the wall behind her, causing her to lean slightly back since his other set of hands was not letting her hips move.

Anticipation twanged through Taliyra, her hitched breathing a telltale sign. Something about how he could handle her so easily, move her however he wanted, was both awful and alluring.

Somehow, Khravel managed to splay her legs in the move, standing between her angled knees. His free hand dropped between her thighs, intending to grind his palm against the fabric of her underwear.

“You are so small, I doubt you can handle even my fing–“ Khravel stilled, his red eyes darting from Taliyra’s face to her groin. His mouth felt dry and all too wet at the same time. To his credit, he did not groan, though he felt painfully close to it as his fingers traced over her bared sex. “Are you not wearing underthings?”

She cleared her throat, trying to force the excited shakiness from her words. “Thought they’d get in the way, if I talked sense into you.”

“I see,” Khravel croaked, realization at his vapid plan washing over him. What exactly had he thought would happen, even if she were wearing underwear? He was just thinking with his cock. A cock which, at that moment, was wedged against the table’s edge, throbbing at Taliyra’s proximity.

“You were saying something about your…?”  

“My finger. I doubt you could handle it.” Closing his eyes against his folly, Khravel leaned over Taliyra, forehead bracing on the forearm of the hand that held her wrists.

“I see,” she mimicked his earlier words. Her head tilted back, staring up into his unguarded face. This was the closest he had gotten to her and, though she would have preferred to have her hands free to explore, her eyes still drank in every detail.

She wished she could touch him. Feel those lines that fanned from his eyes. Graze her fingertips over the gradient of white-to-red. Let her finger follow that line that dipped straight down his body. Part of the allure of ProxyPanion had been the non-Terran beings, but even that Khravel had denied her.

Licking her lips, Taliyra spread her knees a little wider, angled her hips against his touch. “There is a way to find out.”

“Or we don’t.” Khravel opened his eyes, peering down at Taliyra. Between the wide angle of her legs and his hand, her skirt had inched dangerously close to baring all to his gaze.

“Or we don’t,” she echoed, her words laced with disappointment as she averted her gaze. That sense of rejection grew again in the pit of her stomach and heat licked at the back of her eyes, tears threatening. For a brief second, she thought they were moving forward to something better.

Under his palms, she could feel her body grow lax with acceptance as her knees tightened their angle, her thighs squeezing against his hand at her groin.

“Are you going to let me go or–“ Her words ended with a garbled sound as his finger skirted along her opening, palm grinding down on her clit.

Her eyes wheeled back up to Khravel, his hand squeezing her wrists as their eyes met. “You said I was bad at sex, Taliyra.”  

Those words were said so low, so soft. Not a verbalized threat in sight, but something in the tone promised something. Their little pocket of space was also heating up, making her heartbeat speed up. She flexed her hands, testing his hold, finding it unyielding.

Nervously, Taliyra licked her lips. “I can only go off precedent and thus far–“

“Quiet.” In a quick movement, he let go of her wrists, only to grab Taliyra’s throat. His thumb pressed to her lips, as if to keep them closed. She inhaled sharply, her eyes widening as she stared up at him, her hands immediately going to his wrist.  

Though Khravel was gratified to see her blush darken and her muscles at his fingertips flex excitedly. Her fingers trembled a little as she gripped him. He hoped it was excitement and not fear that made her tremble.

“You didn’t simply say I was bad at sex,” he murmured, leaning closer. Taliyra’s scent tickled at his senses, sweet and clean, along with the zing of adrenaline. ”You said I was terrible at it.”

A sound escaped her, verging on a whimper, but judging from her expression, it was meant to translate as ‘and?’

Khravel narrowed his eyes, the logical part of his brain asking the same exact question.

*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ

Part 6 is available on Patreon!

[uniqueearthquaketimetravel]

Dearest readers, prepare yourselves for a new chapter of scandal. Bridgerton Season 3 is coming...

📖 👑💜

[jessread-s]

Thanks to the publisher for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review

✩🐉✨Review:

A strong start to a romantasy series with endless potential!

“Fear the Flames” follows Elowen Atarah, an exiled princess, as she teams up with Cayden Veles, the feared Commander of Vareveth, to free her dragons and save her people. As forces beyond their control try to keep them apart, the pull between Elowen and Cayden becomes irresistible. 

The concept of this book immediately grasped my attention. It was the reluctant allies-to-lovers romance that drew me in further! Elowen and Cayden’s knife to the throat meet-cute put me in a chokehold and I was living for their banter. Their dynamic is truly incredible and the tension had my heart pounding.

Unfortunately, the pacing and aspects of the writing are what lost me. While Cayden fell first, he also fell very fast. Many readers might like this if they prefer instantaneous chemistry, but I tend to like books where the relationship development moves more slowly, so I did not enjoy how quick it felt. Much of their dialogue, aside from the banter, was also clunky and cringey at times. 

As far as the plot, the heist was the main focus, so I was a bit let down when it missed the mark. There was a lot of build-up surrounding it only for it to be done and over with so quickly. Nearly everything was executed perfectly without a hitch, so it just ended up being anticlimactic. 

Overall, I appreciate this book’s vision and really liked some of its elements despite its setbacks. I’m interested to see what direction Darling takes the next book now that the groundwork has been laid.

Cross-posted to: Instagram | Amazon | Goodreads | StoryGraph

[saintmachina]

AN EDUCATION IN MALICE, my queer dark academia Carmilla retelling, has a cover! Preorder your copy for: 

toxic poetry cohorts

horny religious imagery

plus size heroine

subby bisexual girl X domme lesbian

professors behaving badly

vampire house party exhibitionism

romantic necromancy

BARNES AND NOBLE AMAZON WATERSTONES

[stormyskies-writes]

I sat down yesterday to write a short one-shot to get back into writing but it ended up being an 18k word chapter and now I'm at a loss because that is the longest chapter I have ever written and I can't split it because it's all one scene lmao

[nalit-source]

The Au Pair Affair (Big Shots Series) by Tessa Bailey

“The day we met, you could have asked me to bring you the moon on a platter and I’d have done it. Ask me for galaxies now. You get anything you want, gorgeous.”

[motziedapul]

An absolutely wonderful recommendation from christinac_reads on IG about The Pinoy Monster Lover Anthology: After Dark comic!

Please do check out and support our Kickstarter so we can make more art and pay Filipino artists fairly for their work (something that literally the entire world seems hellbent on not doing).

💜You can pledge to our Spicy Monster Lover Comic here💜

[icedcoffeeandsleepdeprivation]

Ryat Archer tho. 🔥🔥

[boldlyvoid]

Coming March 4th, 2025, ‘I’m Like A Lawyer: Book 1 in the Get You Off Series’ our main character Sloane asks the time-old question; “am I the asshole for sleeping with my best friend's husband after finding out she’s been having an affair with mine for a year?”

Sloane and Erik are two lost souls looking for peace after having their lives turned upside down by their spouses. Why not get a little revenge and have some fun doing it? What’s the worst that could happen?

✴️FBI agent x Court Stenographer

✴️Ex-coworkers to lovers

✴️Forced proximity

✴️Single dad

✴️Second chances

✴️Keeping it a secret

✴️He falls first AND harder

✴️Plus Size FMC

PRE-ORDER NOW!!

Amazon US, Amazon Canada, Amazon UK, Amazon Australia, Amazon Mexico

[cryingwriter]

Romantic Tension

As a romance writer and reader, here are the four things I love that authors add to their work (and that I add to mine as well) to increase Romantic Tension!

••• Sensory Details •••

You should be putting sensory details into your writing already but this is ubber important when it comes to romance. So much of our understanding of how a character feels comes from how their body reacts and how they address things emotionally.

Use the senses when writing your characters together! Does one character notice the other’s cologne? Does one of them remember the feeling of the other’s sweater beneath their fingertips? Do they start to question everything they’ve thought about love and this person because of it? Does their face get hot when they hear the other characters voice? Keep in mind how your character is thinking and feeling about the potential love interest. Saying “she thought he was hot so she wanted to bang him” isn’t very interesting. Give your characters specificity. Maybe they rub their neck when they’re nervous and the other character notices! It shows they get flustered when the other person is around.

••• Mini Moments •••

One of the most well loved and memorable scenes in Pride and Prejudice is the Hand Flex Scene. If you’ve seen the 2005 version with Keira Knightley, you know!

Why is this scene so well known and liked? Because of what happens before it. Mr. Darcy had just helped Elizabeth Bennett into her carriage. He touched her in a way that felt significant and we see that when he flexes his hand.

We want to do this in our writing! Having moments where the characters fingers brush together or one character puts their hand on the small of the other characters back is key to building anticipation in a romance story. It doesn’t always have to be touching, this can also mean a character sharing a secret with another character that they haven’t with anyone else, this could mean a character remembers the other characters favorite drink order. Show us that they’ve noticed each other, that they think “hey, this person is …making me feel something!”

••• Interruption •••

When things start to heat up, interruption is the perfect way to build tension. You characters begin to kiss but someone walks in, one of your character is about to confess some feelings but the phone rings. It can be that simple. Maybe your characters were about to go on a date but then one doesn’t show (this could happen for various reasons). Find moments where you can prolong a big event (meaning a love confession, a kiss, a proposal, a sex scene) from happening!

Side note: be sparing with where you use this, some readers can find it repetitive and annoying if you interrupt a big scene too many times.

••• Obstacles •••

The easiest way to find your romantic obstacles is to look at your tropes. If it’s an enemies to lovers story the characters may be from different kingdoms, different gangs, different walks of life. This is going to make it hard for your characters to be together. This can also be a character flaw like not believing they’re worthy of love so they push the other character away. You can also use multiple relationship obstacles to keep the tension going. If there’s nothing stopping your characters from being together, you have no tension.

•••

All readers really want when reading a romance is to experience the build-up! The butterflies, the expectations, the tension. 🖤 these four things keep me and many other readers turning pages and staying up way past our bed times to know what happens next!

HAPPY WRITING!!

[stormyskies-writes]

Quick question: how many love interests is too many?

I'm currently planning a new spicy story and as I've been fleshing out the characters I have come to realise that my main character has chemistry with four different men. My question is, is four men too many love interests?

My other alternative is I can merge two of the men into one character, and completely delete another, leaving her with two love interests.

OR

I can merge two together, and leave the others, leaving her with three love interests.

But I am so uncertain because I planned a butt load with the first option and I could potentially use some of that if I changed up the dynamics, but I am super on the fence about all of it.

[djarinsbeskar-writes]

Launch day is almost upon us! A Sensual Summoning will be available on Amazon (paperback and Kindle), Kindle Unlimited and in bookstores on Sept 22, 2023!

If you're looking to get an early start on Spooky Season with some incubus spice to go with your pumpkin spice, consider pre-ordering the kindle edition here, or keeping an eye out for when the title becomes available for free on Kindle Unlimited!

Fans of ACOTAR, Outlander, The Black Dagger Brotherhood, Lords of the Underworld and even more contemporary romances like It Happened One Summer... this one's for you!

Also... given A Sensual Summoning's ties to tumblr and the community that showed it such love I decided to turn it into a book, keep an eye out for a special surprise I'll be unveiling soon for you guys. 👀

TikTok | Instagram | Twitter | Goodreads | Website

[untrustabledesire]

OMG!!!! ITS GORGEOUS!!!

It arrived today, I'm so excited, it's so pretty, I love it!!

Also if you haven't read this book, highly recommend...I read it on my kindle and now I own the entire series in paperback, and just got this collector's edition and will be buying the others as they release.

Emily McIntire is one of my favorite authors, she got me back into reading and introduced me to dark romance.

[icedcoffeeandsleepdeprivation]

[jessread-s]

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review

✩🐻🏕️Review:

Reading this book is like receiving a bear hug that gives you all the warm, fuzzy feelings!

“Unbearably Your” follows Charlee Fletcher and Oliver Reynolds after a twist of fate forces the former lovers to collaborate on a nature documentary and put their grudges and wounds aside. But will they survive two weeks together in the wilderness if their bond still lingers? 

This was such a delightful book to read! I was completely immersed in the small town of Pine Falls and fully invested in the lives of Colliard’s compelling characters. 

What sets this book apart from others is that it is told from two perspectives and split between two timelines—the past and the present—that ultimately converge towards the end. Chapters taking place in the past are written as letters exchanged between Oliver and Charlee that document their development from strangers to friends to lovers over the span of a year leading up to June 21, 2018—the day they ceased communication. As a fan of epistolary novels, I really enjoyed this touch and the seamless transition between the two timelines. The contents of each letter directly connects to something going on in the present in one way or another or another, making it easy to follow Colliard’s storytelling. Only bits and pieces surrounding why their relationship went awry are revealed over time, which kept me engaged all the way through. 

I adored Oliver as soon as he graced the page! He’s so sensitive and kind and Colliard portrays his neurodivergence with care. The more time I spent with Charlee, the more I grew to love the woman beneath her tough exterior. Both characters grapple with grief, but find solace in each other even after five years apart. They have such great chemistry and this becomes only more obvious when circumstances beyond their control leave them no choice but to spend more time together the deeper they journey into the Great Bear Rainforest. I loved watching the sparks reignite between Charlee and Oliver as they worked through their pasts to get another shot at love!

Cross-posted to: Instagram | Amazon | Goodreads | StoryGraph