Reviews

For the Love of April French by Penny Aimes

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pn_hinton's review

4.0

I received an advanced copy of this book for an honest review.

It's actually a 4.5 but NO ONE DOES HALF STARS!! So, here we are.

This debut was a fairly solid book from Penny Aimes. It blended kink, steam, and a sweet love story all in one and found that the author did that very well. As someone who is not well versed with the kink world, I felt she did a really good job of explaining without giving a whole history of it. By that I mean it explained everything as it went along and it flowed very well with the story.

I particularly enjoyed the trade off of PoVs between the two main characters and felt that Aimes did a great job of differentiating the voices. Both characters were also honest with their short-comings and mistakes and quick to admit them to each other as well as other characters. It was also a journey of self-discovery and love for April and Dennis; the first with themselves and then with and for each other. Because they were both flawed, as most humans are, and were actively working to fix that.

It took me a while to get the pacing of the story and I don't really know why we jumped forward six months and then back twice with little vignettes. It didn't detract too much. overall but it was a bit jarring initially.

Overall a great read that I highly recommend. . I can't wait to read more from this author.

chirson's review

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4.0

Really emotionally affecting, fun, cute and at times hot. The way in which the protagonists cared about each other and wanted to be good to each other was just a joy to read. What's more, April's life as a trans woman is rendered in such beautiful and well-written detail, with complexity and nuance. A wonderful romance heroine, immensely believable and multidimensional. I loved the first half of the novel a lot, but then the switch to second POV happened (and some ground needed to be re-traced) and the book lost steam for me - it felt like Dennis just wasn't as well-rendered, or at least, some fragments of his life were suggested and then never re-visited again. It's not that he wasn't well done - just not as wonderfully well as April.

Still, such a good debut! I am very interested to see what Aimes writes next. ~~(Hopefully less orgasm denial this time.)~~

lindaunconventionalbookworms's review

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5.0

*I received a free copy of For the Love of April French from Carina Adores. This has in no way influenced my voluntary review which is honest and unbiased.*

If I had to give just one word about my feelings on For the Love of April French, I think tenderness is the one that comes to mind. This romance was very tender, and I think that's exactly what April needed. She had been in a very difficult relationship with her ex-wife, and now, she didn't trust easily - if at all.
I loved getting to know April, and see the way she prepared for so many different outcomes to protect herself and her heart.
This novel is very well written, and I loved that while most of it was from April's point of view, there were also some chapters from Dennis' perspective - and that added some layers to him that I think I needed so I could trust him, too.
As soon as I read the synopsis for this novel, I knew I wanted to read it, and I really loved it! Learning more about how it can be to navigate relationships as a trans woman, all the while also getting all the feels I adore in a romance was what I got!

katekate_reads_'s review against another edition

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5.0

Sometimes people who don’t read romance write off the genre by saying it’s just the same thing over and over. People meet, fall in love, happy ever after, the end. And while that is generally part of it - people don’t complain the same way when a mystery/thriller always ends with solving a case. And it also doesn’t account for all the different ways that romance can get to the HEA.

Over the past couple years, I’ve really been intentionally looking for ways to diversify my reading. When I saw For The Love of April French had a trans woman lead and is written by a trans woman author, I realized I haven’t read that before.

This story also handles time in a way that was very different from anything I’ve read. Giving us 6 months from April’s perspective and then going back and giving us those same 6 months from Dennis’s perspective. And I’m not sure how it worked SO WELL - never repetitive but clearly covering the same events.

I really enjoyed this story so much - a perfect mix of things I haven’t read before but still with all the swoon romance feels.

Thank you to Carina and Netgalley for the advance reading copy.