Under The Mistletoe Collection is out today! Thank you to Amazon for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.
Similar to the Improbable Meet Cute collection released earlier this year, this is a collection of five short romances from popular romance authors so I was excited to dig in! I was surprised by which ended up being my favorites (and least favorite 😬)
These are all available now in both ebook and audio in Kindle Unlimited (Read and Listen)!
The Best of All is out today!
I really enjoyed this! This is book two in the series though I think it could totally be read as a standalone.
This follows Liam and Zoe, who are named co-guardians to their best friends’ daughter Mira after their best friends tragically pass away. Zoe is immediately there for Mira, moving her in and accepting this adorable toddler into her life. Liam struggled a bit more, he never felt he should have a family or children after his own terrible childhood so a lot of the growth in this story is his, to accept love and family into his life. I loved watching his walls eventually fall down, all due to the little girl who melted his heart.
Liam is a grump, football is his life and he doesn’t need any other distractions, especially living with the woman he’s pined for for a decade. The forced proximity works its magic and the sexual tension between the two of them was intense, though this is a sloooowwwww burn.
Zoe was an easy character to love, she’s wanted her fairy tale ending ever since she was a kid and though this certainly didn’t follow the traditional path I love that she found her HEA in that broody football player who has secretly had feelings for her for years.
Much like book one, this is a story of grief alongside the romance, though this one didn’t feel as heavy to me. Both Liam and Zoe (and Mira) were grieving the loss of their best friends but they had Mira to look after which helped keep them afloat. I’ve been looking for a good romance like Life As We Know It and this is the first one I’ve ever read that I thought really worked.
I loved it!
This was a cute romance about two Gen X introverts who meet online while playing a RPG together. Due to assumptions made on each side, they don’t realize they’re talking to someone their own age but they form a friendship regardless while going on quests together with the rest of their guild. Eventually they realize the truth but both are romantically cautious due to their pasts so the friendship continues to grow.
I loved Aiden so much. He’s a cinnamon roll good guy who gave up everything to try and take care of his aging parents without much support. He hasn’t had much of a romantic history outside of a few relationships when he was young and I loved the journey he went on to discover why that is (hint: he’s not straight). I love how clearly written and well explored his demisexuality is, a lot of times this is just hinted at or skirted around but it was a major plot point here, integral to his story.
Also, he’s described as chunky and PLEASE I am begging you give us more big boy MMCs because I love it.
I loved how unapologetically grumpy Maggie was. She was completely out of fucks to give and it was honestly so refreshing to read a character who didn’t care what people thought about her. She was a borderline hermit, leaving her house only when truly necessary and mostly avoiding other people (I can relate). She was also so supportive and accepting of Aiden when not a lot of people in his life were.
I really enjoyed this but at times it was a bit too much of a slow burn for me personally because not a lot of tension was being built. Some of the game stuff was also boring for me but I can see that being interesting if you’re into gaming!
Overall though I thought it was a good story with great representation and it was a great change of pace to read about characters that skewed older than we normally see in romance!
I did the audio on this one, I liked the flow but didn’t think either narrator’s accent was a great fit for the characters. The male narrator especially has a southern twang which didn’t fit the MMC who was born and raised in Washington. This isn’t a huge issue but it is enough to pull me out of the book!
Romance Reviewed 