anaraeofbooks's reviews
46 reviews

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It’s been days and I’m still thinking about Not Another Love Song by Julie Soto. Everyone is talking about the cello scene but can we talk about how obsessed Xander is with Gwen? This man is frothing at the mouth. These two musicians, gifted and talented in different ways, want the same thing but in different fonts. It causes friction, banter, belligerent sexual tension, and musical scenes descriptions that are so beautiful, sensual, and immersive. I never knew I needed a romance about two rival strings musicians until now.

tropes: rivals to lovers, he falls first, belligerent sexual tension, workplace romance, found family

5 ⭐️

4 🌶

Under Locke by Mariana Zapata

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emotional funny lighthearted sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

If you want a grumpy/sunshine slow burn with light elements of gang/mafia dynamics (without veering into the dark romance category), two slightly (or very) possessive MC’s who are kind of bad at feelings, and a slightly rough-around-the-edges found family. Under Locke might make you want to ride on the back of a motorcycle, get a tattoo (or several), and make possibly questionable life choices. There’s a half-brother with a heart of gold, tragic backstories, shitty dads (yes, more than one), some very good belligerent sexual tension, and enough jealousy to get drunk off of.

Key words: grumpy/sunshine, forced proximity, found family, bad at feelings, got off on the wrong foot, a touch angsty

Mentions of cancer, parental death/grief, and mild on-page violence.

Content Warnings

The Long Game by Elena Armas

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lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

I wanted to like this book more than I did. I had heard a lot of good things about The Spanish Love Deception but hadn't read it yet. I had just finished a sports romance and wanted another to follow it up. It didn't have as much on-page sports as I would have liked but I would have been able to overlook that if the relationship had been a little more believable. Overall it's an easy, mildly enjoyable, and bingeable read but don't expect a lot of sports centric action or fully developed characters.

Mild spoilers ahead:

Throughout the book, you never get a reason for why the FMC loves her job working for a soccer team as much as she does. She's so determined to work for the pro soccer team her dad owns even though he tells her more than once that she can work anywhere else. That lack of reason behind her motivation makes a lot of the book fall flat for me. Why does she put up with all the shit that happens to her for a job that we don't even know why she's fighting so hard for it? Which leads me to the MMC, although I liked him for the most part, I wish he had been better balanced between knight in shinning armor and letting Adalyn stand on her own two feet.

Honestly one of my favorite parts of this book is when Adalyn mentions her and Cameron are both going to therapy because god do they need it.

All Rhodes Lead Here by Mariana Zapata

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emotional funny hopeful reflective medium-paced