Solid witchy vibes to start off an early spooky season ;) Willow is a smart and capable main female character and I even though she did get played a couple times in the book, she gets up, dusts her feet off and keeps going. As for our MMC Gray, check the trigger warnings in the beginning. And in all honesty I don't like him, I didn't like him the whole book. There were no redeeming qualities about him. I'm hoping he is better in the second book because I am NOT rooting for him to get a happily ever after with Willow.

I found that Ali Hazelwood is a pretty divisive author. Her stories often feature a heroine that does not fit in. Which say hello to Rue, a food scientist who isn’t very personable

Once the story is set up and the main characters are consistently in each other's orbit, the intimacy develops in a natural and satisfying way, both through sex and through conversations they share. I loved the complexity of the characters and their relationship but I never fully warmed up to Rue, since I felt we as readers were not really allowed to get to know her beyond her social anxiety, but I loved Eli and rooted for the two of them together because I wanted him to have everything he wanted

I really liked Rue and Eli together, from how they met to how they traded terrible stories to how they connected on their rough upbringings. Rue was obviously much more closed off and detached and didn't want anything to do with anyone, while Eli was much more sunshine and sweet and fell for Rue hard and fast

They both have a lot of emotional traumas, especially Rue, and physical connection is their common language. It's safer than emotional feelings and both really enjoy it. So, physical intimacy is how they begin to connect emotionally, versus the other way around. But these interactions are full of understanding and trust, so the spicy scenes were also sweet.

Overall I very much enjoyed this book!

We've got monsters, we've got gods, we've got a slow burn on our hands! I definitely liked this book, I wouldn't say i loved it, but if someone were to ask if I recommend it, absolutely. It could've been just me but I was confused quite a few times with the world building and the spice level was too low for me, BUT very solid start to a series of 4 books.

Every summer, surgeon Whitney crashes weddings with her best friend. Which let's be honest is very bold and i would be way too terrified so it definitely would tip someone off that we didn't belong...They keep the rules simple and they never go to bed alone.

Then there’s Henry, WE LOVE HENRY. He is the best man and the best one-night stand of Whit’s summer. She never imagined she’d see him again but now he’s one of her new surgical residents—and completely off-limits. Can you already feel the TENSION!?

Perfect storyline, perfect characters, perfect pacing, honestly Kate Canterbary smashes it out of the park once again!

I did learn afterwords that this could be a standalone but there are characters that come before this that make appearance, below is the list!

The Worst Guy

Before Girl

Preservation

"A steamy arranged marriage billionaire romance" . IMMEDIATELY YES. Like I am about to devour this series. Hooked. First chapter, ok hi mr.dante we love a grumpy arrogant billionaire that stubbornly doesn't want to fall in love but in reality he falls first. 10/10 recommend picking this up immediately.

Y'all, I struggled with this book. I can't lie, I usually love Jennifer Armentrout books and have always been a fan but unfortunately I don't think I can recommend this. Apparently i'm going against 8k 5-stars review on amazon, so take all this as you will lol. It had so much potential and I really wanted to like these characters, but there just wasn't enough to connect me to them and want to root for them. So, there we go :)

So excited for Chan to join me to talk about this incredible book! We devoured this series and decided they are for sure in our top 20 of all time. The characters, the magic system, the plot, all of it was absolutely spot on! I highly recommend you move this book up on your TBR!

I'm glad Husband was here to talk about these fun books together! Mating with Mallows by Nora Noodles was a SWEET surprise and I secretly loved it. And I wish I loved more books in the regency era but I just couldn't figure out the words in Wolf in Duke's clothing, haha!