@lenoreo@romancelandia.club
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lenoreo

@lenoreo@romancelandia.club

Blogger @Celebrity Readers
Voracious Romance Reader
She/Her

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willaful, to romancebooks
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Been reading Forever My Girl by Heidi McLauchlin but giving up and deleting it because the MMC can't have a single thought about a woman that isn't misogynistic as hell. They all want him, they're all trying too hard, they all make him sick. He makes me sick.


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lenoreo,
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@willaful @romancebooks yeah, was super meh on that book, and I don't remember if I finished...

willaful, to RomanceBooks
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? I was up all night 🥱 finishing You Should Be So Lucky. Amazingly, it's somehow not a letdown after the gorgeousness of We Could Be So Good.

The themes are around living an authentic life in a highly closeted time, and it's complex and believable. There are tropes too but not obnoxiously or pointlessly. And really well drawn, relatable characters. And pretty swoony romance too. 😂

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lenoreo,
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@willaful @romancelandia @romancebooks sounds cute! I'm listening to Check & Mate by Ali Hazelwood and so far it's keeping my attention, which is not easy these days!

willaful, to romancelandia
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Friends, ? I finished The Other Side of Disappearing and think it'll be one of my top romances of the year. I loved the plotting, the richness of the themes and the really satisfying way things came together in the end.

Also read The Brunellesci Baby because what's a vacation without a Harlequin Presents? It's a pretty good one, tropey but with some individuality.

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lenoreo,
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@willaful @romancelandia @romancebooks I actually finished a book in Mexico, listened to Bride by Ali Hazelwood. It was enjoyable!

lenoreo, to bookstodon
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Do you know what this is?! New covers for one of my fave series of all time!! And not only that, but a NEW too!! I think these are absolutely adorable, and totally suit the Love in New York series by Cassie Mae! I CANNOT WAIT until March 26th when the free prequel novella, Master of the Meet Cute, comes out, as well as updated versions of the other books with !

Cover Designer: Melissa Gill

@romancelandia @bookstodon

Cover of The Pleasure Pact by Cassie Mae on a yellow background, with the following phrases surrounding the book with arrows pointing to the book: great cast of characters cinnamon roll hero fun banter swoony after the hea LOL romance The cover itself is a light coral pink with "The Pleasure Pact" in block letters in the middle, with "Love in New York Book One" just below, and "What's Love without a little Bet?" on the top left. All animated, a NY skyline in the background, a man in the lower left side and a woman in the top right corner. On the bottom "Cassie Mae"
Cover of Roadside Romance by Cassie Mae on a light green background, with the following phrases surrounding the book with arrows pointing to the book: reformed playboy enemies to lovers forced proximity road trip grumpy girl, sunshine guy a cute dog The cover itself is a light aqua blue with "Roadside Romance" in block letters in the middle, with "Love in New York Book 2" just below, and "There is no map for these rivals." on the top left. All animated, a NY skyline in the background, a man and woman side by side just left of the title On the bottom "Cassie Mae"
Cover of The Date Dilemma by Cassie Mae on a yellow background, with the following phrases surrounding the book with arrows pointing to the book: right person, wrong time friends to lovers he can sing! bachelor auction holiday read steamy The cover itself is a light yellow with "The Date Dilemma" in block letters in the middle, with "Love in New York Book 3" just below, and "Time to cross that line." on the top center. All animated, a NY skyline in the background, a man to the left of the title and a woman to the right of the title. On the bottom "Cassie Mae"

lenoreo,
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@romancelandia @bookstodon

MASTER OF THE MEET CUTE
Landon is a master in all things movies... except rom com. So when he pulls the rom com genre for his final project, he decides to get some real-life experience first.

THE PLEASURE PACT
The challenge? No nookie until the wedding night. The stakes? Honeymoon location. The real challenge? Lasting five months without losing her freaking mind.

willaful, to romancelandia
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OMG, the mmc of Role Playing by Cathy Yarley uses a fleshlight. That's breaking such a verboten romance rule I hadn't even realized it was a rule.

(He is demi-sexual and not sex-averse and it is such good rep!)

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lenoreo,
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@willaful @romancelandia @romancebooks I adore that book, especially as a demi.

willaful, to romancelandia
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? I've been having trouble concentrating, so broke out my emergency Cate C. Wells, The Stone Wolf's Rejected Mate, and it's doing the trick.

I like how her romances are kind of old skool -- the drama and angst can be really cathartic -- but without the annoying tropes and outdated writing styles of many older romances. Old skool for the modern reader. 😂

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lenoreo,
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@willaful @romancelandia @romancebooks I have been playing games instead of reading. I am attempting to buddy listen to Gallant by V.E. Schwab for a book club I'm in. It's enjoyable, I'm just not in the right mode.

willaful, to romancelandia
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My daughter loved How to Excavate a Heart! What sapphic YA romance next?!

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lenoreo,
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@willaful @romancelandia @romancebooks I read it 7+ years ago, but I enjoyed Keeping Her Secret by Sarah Nicolas. And I loved The Summer of Jordi Pérez by Amy Spalding, especially the audiobook.

For light romance, what about Legends and Lattes?

willaful, to romancelandia
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? I actually read a ton while with my mom, since that's basically what we do. 🥰 Finished the last (at the moment) "Truly Devious" book, Nine Liars. It was pretty compelling but a little heavy on relationship drama in a way that seems kind of needless at this point. Some of the plotlines didn't make a lot of sense to me, either.

Also read Beck and Call by Annick Trent, which I thought very promising, but could have been even better with more work on story beats.

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lenoreo,
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@willaful @romancelandia honestly, still nothing. Sort of listening to Do Your Worst by Rosie Danan, but have been playing a lot of phone games while dealing with my mom's health problems because apparently I need mindless right now...makes my bookworm heart sad, but I don't want to force it

willaful, to romancelandia
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? I read A Mother for Christmas, a kindle freebie. A bit mawkish, but I can't say I wasn't warned by the title. The prose was quirky and had some personality to it. Could have used more payoff at the end.

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lenoreo,
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@willaful @romancelandia @romancebooks I finished listening to On a Night Like This by Liz Maverick, and just started listening to Do Your Worst by Rosie Danan and so far it's fun!

willaful, to romancelandia
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? I'm still sniffling after finishing Stars in Your Eyes by Kacen Callender. Painful but beautifully tender and hopeful m/m romance that explores how abuse and trauma can negatively impact a relationship. Checking the CWs highly recommended!

Excellent full cast audiobook, which does justice to the partially epistolary "multimedia" structure. One of the narrators seems to be NB, though both main characters are apparently cis.

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lenoreo,
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@willaful @romancelandia @romancebooks really enjoyed the unconventional romance that was Stars in Your Eyes!! Glad you loved it too!

I'm reading nothing! Sad but true. Ah well.

willaful, to romancelandia
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? I finished the most waste of time old Harlequin, The Wild Side by Diana Hamilton. One of those awful misogynistic old skool books that's pretty fun if you're in the right mood -- but then there's the most lukewarm ending! Why did I suffer through all that angst?! Where is my payoff?!

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lenoreo,
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@willaful @romancelandia @romancebooks I'm finding that more and more with my old Harlequins, very few gems.

I'm not really reading at the moment, we're in the mountains for our 20th anniversary! We did listen to Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree on the road trip, my second time, Brett's first.

lenoreo,
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@Eve @willaful @romancelandia @romancebooks seriously. And that's not even books from the 80s or 90s, the 00s too

willaful, to romancelandia
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? On my third try, I finally finished The Wake Up Call. I liked it fairly well by the end, but I don't read Beth O'Leary for tropiness and this was all trope all the time. And I'm just not that fond of the "she's a childish pain in the ass and somehow he loves her for it" relationship dynamic. There was some nice tenderness and angst... the supposedly stoic MMC really gets punched in the gut, poor sweet baby.

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lenoreo,
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@willaful @romancelandia @romancebooks I'm avoiding reading my ARC of Evergreen by Devin Greenlee for my read ahead for . It's just not capturing me, and the reviews have the same complaints I already notice, so I really want to DNF. Instead I decided to relisten to Eight Winter Nights by Liz Maverick after recommending it, so maybe I can read the next 2 novellas. Definitely more my mood right now.

lenoreo, to romancelandia
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@romancelandia It's time to sign up for the 2024 Diversity Reading Challenge!! This is one of my faves that I host that doesn't get as much visibility, so I thought I would share specifically with this group since I'm on Mastodon now!

https://celebrityreaders.com/2023/12/07/2024-diversity-reading-challenge/

willaful, to romancelandia
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? My last two romances were Lies and Lullabies and Love at First Spite and they were prefectly cromulent ways to pass the time but I don't have much to say about them. (Except the MMC has a rather unusual disability in LaFS. And it irked me that we don't see any decision process when the FMC gets pregnant in L&L.)

Also listening to Evvie Drake Starts Over, which is thoughtful and funny. Wonderful narration by Julia Whelan, as usual.

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lenoreo,
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@willaful @romancelandia @romancebooks I love Julia Whelan's narration...I will always pick the audio if she's the narrator.

I enjoyed L&L, but IIRC, Rebecca Yarros's story was my favourite of the series.

I finally started reading/listening to Iron Flame by Rebecca Yarros, and so far the narrator is okay, so score!

willaful, to romancelandia
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? I just finished Seeing Blind by Poppy Dale, a very sweet, sort of "shop around the corner" romance which is my catnip. Part epistolary, which is also my catnip. Kisses only. Kiss only, really. 😁

One character has prosopagnosia, which is a significant disability for him. Can't say if it's an accurate portrayal but it was very interesting.

Slightly disconcerting that it's set in Manhattan and CA but the author is quite obviously British. 😁

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lenoreo,
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@willaful @notTheAudience @romancelandia @romancebooks ROFL, I don't remember that recycling one, but I've definitely had ace spectrum issues with Hazelwood on occasion. I still enjoy other parts, but I'm now thankful I'm not knowledgeable enough about the science community to get bothered by it.

I always find it funny which aspects of books will bother me to the ends of times, and which ones I'll be able to just shrug and accept in order to enjoy the good parts...it surprises me sometimes.

lenoreo,
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@willaful @romancelandia @romancebooks I'm reading/listening to The Family You Make by Jill Shalvis, hoping to finish before ends tomorrow. It's exactly what I enjoy with Shalvis, easy, with just enough depth. And even though it's not Christmas, the winter scene fits the mood.

willaful, to romancebooks
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? I just finished Dionysus in Wisconsin and I'd feel a little delicate about mentioning it since the author is on this instance, but fortunately I loved it. 😁 It's kind of like if Neil Gaiman and Cat Sebastian collaborated on a m/m historical fantasy romance. Magic, myths, high stakes, true love.

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lenoreo,
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@willaful @romancelandia @romancebooks the for November is all about reading new releases, ie books published in 2023, and it started on Sunday. So hopefully I'll catch up on overdue netgalley ARCs, and as such I started Stars in Your Eyes by Kacen Callender last night -- so far so good! I'm also in the middle of listening to Love Theoretically by Ali Hazelwood, which I'm definitely enjoying, even if her books are very similar, and her heroines a bit eye rolley.

lenoreo,
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@willaful @romancelandia @romancebooks a year long challenge I participate in that has a lot of fun variety. It stands for Clean Out Your E Reader, and started 10 years ago to encourage readers to read those cheap ebooks we all amass. It's evolved since, and has a fun Facebook group.

https://www.becausereading.com/coyer-10-year-anniversary-sign-ups/

willaful, to romancelandia
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? I'm reading Upside Down by N.R. Walker and am confused, because there is so much kvelling about its asexual rep. And so far, in a support group for asexual and aromantic people, the leader/MMC has only talked about people not wanting to have sex, which as I understand it isn't even true of all ace people and is certainly not true of all aromantic people. Perhaps more nuance will appear later in the book?

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lenoreo,
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@willaful @romancelandia @romancebooks it's definitely a spectrum (of which I'm on)...I really hope it gets better, because I had that book on my radar, but I appreciate at least acknowledgement of the spectrum for ace rep.

I'm almost finished my reread of Fairytale by Maggie Shayne, and just started listening to my ALC of Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree!

willaful, to romancebooks
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? If "too much sex" reviews make you perk, you'll want to check out Her Halloween Treat by Reisz. Nothing but sex and banter, often at the same time. Way too much of both for me.

Also DNF'd The Road to Roswell, second Willis DNF in a row for me. To paraphrase my husband, I'm tired of her shtick.

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lenoreo,
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@willaful @romancelandia @romancebooks ah bummer! I listened to the Thanksgiving one by Reisz awhile ago and enjoyed it! And usually I'm not big on just sex. Maybe the Halloween one was worse? I might have to check it out just to see if I'm more depraved than I thought! 😝

My hubby and I are on a roadtrip and started listening to Steelheart by Brandon Sanderson. We're enjoying trading theories!

willaful, to romancebooks
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? I read The Amazing Alpha Tau Boyfriend Project by Lisa Henry, which was very fun, but also made me uncomfortable in a way I find hard to define. Maybe the glorification of the "good" frat house, maybe the familiar humor that sounds more like my friends online than college boys. I'll probably read the next book though. On KU.

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lenoreo,
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@willaful @romancelandia @romancebooks isn't it hard when you can't pinpoint why you feel a feeling, just that you do? I get that.

I'm listening to Dax by Sawyer Bennett and reading an ARC of Blood and Bonbons by Melissa Nicole. Early for both, but so far so good.

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lenoreo,
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@herhandsmyhands @romancelandia
While I don't personally recommend the first book, the second book of Her Naughty Holiday by Tiffany Reisz I enjoyed IMMENSELY. It's one of those delios from Harlequin where they packaged 2 together into an audiobook. My review:

https://celebrityreaders.com/2018/12/24/christmas-with-the-marine-by-candace-havens-her-naughty-holiday-by-tiffany-reisz/

lenoreo,
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@herhandsmyhands @romancelandia

The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss? She's 34 at least.

Teach Me by Olivia Dade has the age right, but it takes place the whole school year, but for some reason I thought I remembered a winter festival? Probably not the right holiday feel.

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