Romance / Erotica
Plot: This is an engaging story which is more than just a romance: it's also a captivating period piece with a likable hero and inventive storyline that unfolds at a steady pace but is still rich with detail.
Prose/Style: The author is a skilled writer with strong command of language and a particular expertise with period language, setting, and customs. The prose flows naturally and allows readers to escape from the present day and immerse themselves in 19th-century life.
Originality: This is a creative and original work, with memorable characters and a distinctive plot.
Character Development/Execution: The author does a superb job with characterization, particularly with hero Pippa but also with secondary players.
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Plot: Michelle MacQueen has told readers that her Rockstars Anonymous series, of which this is the first, have guaranteed happy endings, and that’s reassuring to know through the many plot twists, heartbreaks, and betrayal that occur here.
Prose/Style: Much of the story is told through dialogue among the main characters and, because of this, the story moves along very quickly. However, we are given some insights into what the characters are thinking and what their struggles are.
Originality: Rockstars Anonymous is a terrific concept—who would have thought these celebrities’ lives were anything less than perfect? There are several subplots and at least three other romances happening all at the same time, which keeps the story interesting and the reader wondering what will happen next, and to whom?
Character Development/Execution: Over the course of the story, Piper learns her own worth and how to stop being subservient to her older sister. Ben, on the other hand, always knew how special Piper was; he just didn’t know he knew it. One thing that is very clear is how much the characters care about each other. Piper and Quinn’s relationship is central to the story as they struggle to get to know each other as adults.
Plot: Chinamanthur has meticulously described what it is like to try to form relationships and connections in this modern era.The narration is carefully crafted and readers can truly connect to and feel the protagonist’s angsty, confusion, and sadness throughout the story.
Prose/Style: This story is written using very lively, descriptive language to give the reader a clear picture of the main character’s psyche. There are some timeline jumps that are a bit difficult to follow, but overall the story reads almost like journal entries.
Originality: This is a unique take on romance tropes. It feels like a combination of a coming-of-age tale and a love story and a journal, all simultaneously. It does offer a creative look into dating and relationships using modern technology.
Character Development/Execution: The main character could exhibit more growth. She stays fairly consistent, but this story feels more like a snapshot of her life during her early adult years.
Plot: Evenly paced with plenty of drama and action, the author has created a winning plot with a variety of themes: gender, class, sports, race, and romance. What is most endearing about this plot is that the main character is based on a real person but set in a different time period. The author has included both fictional and nonfictional elements of this character’s life.
Prose/Style: In a well-written narrative, the author has included terminology that is true to the era, but has also included a helpful glossary. The dialogue demonstrates the strong will and sweet natures of the main characters.
Originality: The placing of a real-life character into a different historical time period is well done. The author has created a lively story that takes place during the Regency period and given the reader a snapshot of what goes on in the streets as opposed to among the higher society. This strategy makes this story more believable and engaging.
Character Development/Execution: Believable and wise characters are portrayed as independent and strong. Gender plays an important role in this story, reminding the reader of the properness of the time period and creating a contrast between the classes.
Plot: J.B. Curry writes a fascinating novel that takes apart numerous literary conflicts, including character versus self, man versus nature, and man against man. In the same manner as Frankenstein, the book fabricates a sheer line between the natural and the manmade and cautions against an engineered society.
Prose/Style: The author models her prose after the book’s title, where the words are as intangible as the wind—something unable to grasp yet absorbed by one’s senses. The descriptions are wispy and fleeting with a smoothness that elicits the same lulling sensation as Eliza’s fragrance.
Originality: Curry successfully sets her story in the midst of the Prohibition Era, where there is an already established atmosphere of secrecy and crime. Just as H.H. Holmes scoured the World's Columbian Exposition, Curry devises mythical creatures to terrorize the fair’s second revival.
Character Development/Execution: The author sympathizes with her characters, lending a similar compassion to readers. By creating a storyline about acceptance, Curry challenges the way physical appearance is often associated with humanness, in order to grant her characters dignity.
Plot: Quirky meets the genteel in this dynamic book about art, food, and ultimately, expression. Cram’s writing interacts with its reader on many levels: the author’s narrative of Genna’s life in Paris and the character’s narrative created for culinary enthusiasts. A world exists within the texts, where Genna is inside the contextual world, but continues to reach out.
Prose/Style: The Australian and British slang, mixed with the French exchanges, season the book with a cultural breadth, similar to Roddy Doyle’s narratives and their Irish lingo. As Genna interprets ingredients through art, the words undergo a metamorphosis, where their meanings nimbly shift in translation and function.
Originality: Revealing impressive knowledge of her topics, Cram’s combination between art and food creates a lovely unity, where culinary art, sculptures, and paintings are all connected. With an impressive amount of art history and flavor combinations, readers will eagerly digest every word, while still walking away with empty stomachs and awaiting recipes.
Character Development/Execution: Genna is wholly relatable, and therefore, instantly likable—a tainted past, lofty dreams, and a dogged disbelief in obtaining them. She is obstinate yet sheepish, an ordinary woman that manifests her Parisian fantasies.
Plot: Erotic and honest, readers will be wrapped under the spell of the main character, who has all of the others in his grasp. The ending may or may not be a surprise, but the reader will feel the emptiness just as the characters do. The author has avoided the feeling of repetition with thorough character development and growth. Every sexual encounter in the novel feels candid but genuine.
Prose/Style: The author is a poignant and thoughtful storyteller. Details throughout are carefully managed and allow the reader feel intimately connected to the characters.
Originality: Each section of the book has three or four chapters which focus on different characters and their experience with the protagonist. The author capably creates emotional depth, making the conclusion especially impactful.
Character Development/Execution: Authentic characterizations remind readers that life is frequently about letting go and embarking upon new adventures. Even the reader will be awestruck by the main character and miss him by the end.
Blurb: Candidly written, the author reminds readers that there is more than one way to lose someone.
Plot: In a detailed, winding storyline, Liz Harrington doesn’t expect to rekindle a romance that has been over for almost a year when she attends a wedding for a fellow Alaska firefighter. But there is Jon Silva— the man with three failed marriages to his credit — at the mic crooning a love song, and all of the old feeling come back. Later on, as Jon has been promoted to a federal fire inspector, and while Liz fights a series of devastating fires in the Alaska wilderness and Jon tries to figure out who set them, the inevitability of their relationship overcomes their reservations, the unwelcome presence of an ex-wife, and the challenge of Liz’s new role as owner of an exotic dance club in Vegas.
Prose/Style: True to its genre, this novel is vastly rich in descriptions of the setting, the events that transpire, and the protagonists’ reactions.
Originality: In this second book in her Blazing Hearts Wildfire Series, Paige presents an unusual setting for romance and makes Liz, as well as Jon, equal to the task of fighting wildfires, one of the most dangerous jobs in the world. Fires and romance smolder in tandem here, both threatening to overcome the lovers. The story is greatly enhanced by Paige’s real-life experience as a wildland firefighter in Montana.
Character Development/Execution: Through Paige’s detailed, explicit description of the protagonist’s thoughts and feelings, the reader gets to know Liz and John so well they feel like family friends.
Blurb: This is no damsel-in-distress romance as wildland firefighter Liz Harrington forges a relationship with fire inspector, and one-time old flame, Jon Silva.
Plot: Moss creates a pure yet disheartening story of the unspoken burdens of motherhood. As the book shows how a disconnected marriage is no different than neglect, The Cracks Between Us reflects the political issues of second-wave feminism—the ’60s movement that analyzed a woman’s role within their personal lives. Moss’ book is a tale of a woman who defines her existence outside the housewife role, as she challenges society’s metrics for feminine success.
Prose/Style: Moss’ scenarios throughout her chapters thrust the reader into isolation, into the residue of a hollow marriage. Her profound yet faint interactions reveal a slow, marital dissolve, while hinting that a broken relationship happens in fragmented disappointments that lead to disinterest. The structure of the piece, which shifts from chapters entitled “Then” and “Now,” eventually trims the chapters on the past, as if to close in on all Aila has left: the present.
Originality: Moss refuses to romanticize love the way some authors do. Instead, she shows love in its imperfect state, the beginnings and the endings. She chooses to write about the phases that follow the trite, undeniable spark and instead, creates a laborious story where a couple works to preserve their flame.
Character Development/Execution: The novel’s initial setting, a therapy room, appropriately places the reader in a purgatory between Aila’s subconscious and conscious mind. Moss successfully composes a palette of emotions, as her character comes to terms with her silent suffering.
Plot: Any novel that begins with the sentence, “My husband was murdered in Darfur three months ago,” is bound to be eventful, and this one is, involving starving orphan children, AIDS, do-gooders, racism, trafficking in stolen human organs and ova, kidnapping, a nunnery in the middle of the desert, and sex, both violent and consensual. But in the end, this is at its core a story of colonialism and implicitly of white supremacy. Cayzer is the daughter of a U.S. Ambassador-at-Large whose first mission was to Ethiopia.
Prose/Style: The prose is compelling and accessible, although the unfortunate use of pidgin for most Black characters in the story feels distracting and not entirely successful.
Originality: The story, set in contemporary times, is told by Ella Phelps, widow of the heartless victim at the beginning of the novel. About a quarter of the way through the book, Ella discovers a schoolgirl’s diaries and Cayzer uses that device to relate historical and invented events that occurred in Africa between 1930 and 1946.
Character Development/Execution: Throughout the novel, Ella is a consistent character who faces myriad challenges with aplomb and an attitude of detachment.
Plot: This enjoyable and steamy paranormal romance does a great job hitting all the beats of a fun, attention-grabbing adventure. The sexual tension between the leads, the vampire mythology, and the conflicts affecting the main and secondary characters are believable, well-plotted, and intriguing. The scenes move swiftly and the book could benefit from some length, but is definitely a credit to the genre.
Prose/Style: Thorne does a great job writing quippy, realistic dialogue, especially the romantic banter between the hero and heroine and the dialogue between the members of the main cast. The action scenes are fast-paced, ratcheting up the tension and conflicts to keep the story moving at a swift but believable pace. The sex scenes are provocative without feeling cliche or gratuitous. At times, the paranormal mythology can get a bit overcrowded with characters, but the overall arc is an impressive reimagining of popular tropes of the genre.
Originality: The second installment in Thorne's series is a sexy, inventive addition to the paranormal romance genre. This fun, steamy novel keeps readers on the edge of their seats--and rooting for the hero and heroine--from start to finish.
Character Development/Execution: The hero and heroine are both complex, fully developed characters who have terrific chemistry, both emotionally and physically. The secondary characters, even ones who appear briefly, are distinct and engaging. One particular highlight is the main villain, who is well-developed and doesn't veer into caricature.
Plot: The romance duo Erin McRae and Racheline Maltese normalize unconventional relationships with their modern love story, The Art of Three. The book challenges what it means to love without hidden agenda or timidity. Shedding traditional objections to sexuality, the authors dwell on how dignity is not a right to be earned—it’s intrinsically human.
Prose/Style: In a book devoted to communication, The Art of Three busies itself with banter that feels like an intrusion on private moments. The often comical, spoken thoughts between characters give a vitality to ordinary life.
Originality: Maltese and McRae are relatively focused on identity, and their characterization supports this. Jamie wears a charming naivety, yet Callum and Nerea reflect beings aged but not outdated. Compassion radiates between the characters, resulting in an unavoidable contagion.
Character Development/Execution: There are many moments in The Art of Three that engage with society’s framework of “othering,” a process that has polluted history. The representation of sexuality and disability cautions against alienation, by creating characters that are perfectly unique.
Plot: Despite the complexities littered throughout this tale, Finding Faith reads like the honeymoon stage of a relationship. It’s filled with laughter, an idealized reality, and an endless craving for the story to continue. Luke’s and Mary’s love offers a temporary euphoria that shows romance is sometimes found where it is least expected.
Prose/Style: Baker’s dialogue has the capacity to reflect the diction of a thirty-year-old and a five-year-old, encompassing a wide range of perspectives. Amy’s and Chase’s imperfect sputters and continual deviance paint an authentic picture of children's behavior.
Originality: The Christmas setting nearly typecasts this book with all the novelistic qualities of a Hallmark movie. The honeyed beginning and equally passionate ending provide a childish delight that kindles the spirit of a hopeless romantic.
Character Development/Execution: With an opening line that is both assertive and striking, the book begins with a strong narrator who claims her own story. As Mary tells her past, she becomes vulnerable with those in her life and her readers.
Plot: The plot here is engrossing to the point where the reader will not want to stop reading. The premise is original and gripping, and the first few pages will simply hook the audience. The plot is fast-paced and stark but works effectively.
Prose/Style: The author is an extremely talented writer. Description here is sparse, which helps keep the story moving at a clipped pace, but at times a little more detail would be helpful.
Originality: This work is singular and unique. The premise is intriguing and unexpected, and the reader can't help but keep reading in anticipation for the next development and final resolution of the story.
Character Development/Execution: The author does a great job with characterization, making each come alive on the page, even Daniel who is already dead by the time the story opens. However, Daniel's ex-wife Pamela pushes the edges of extremism and could use a tiny bit more restraint in her character development.
Plot: Carrie Thorne writes her romance The Next Day as a note on survival and how others can aid that course. It is sensual, playful, and tender. With a bit of dramatic irony, the reader feels privy to the anticipated outcome, while watching the characters grasp the ending to their own stories.
Prose/Style: The author pleasantly blends dialogue with the characters’ perspectives into a natural pacing that mimics real life. In the moments of intimacy, the language sometimes becomes stale and would benefit from fresh descriptions. However, the dialogue is short and clipped, capturing the conversational style used in everyday life.
Originality: Despite the alternating perspectives, Thorne’s book encompasses all the qualities of women’s fiction. With the occasional critique of gender norms, it introduces subtle feminism and departs from the accepted romance trope of a female character pining for love—introducing an equal relationship where both individuals are mutually independent.
Character Development/Execution: Guided primarily through an internal monologue, readers become voyeurs of the characters' troubled pasts. Thorne crafts characters that are emotionally guarded yet equally fierce. The book focuses on an exploration of truth, while portraying steady, personal growth.
Plot: Grace, somewhat timid and very inexperienced, is responsible for a disabled aunt. When she finds the courage to take the business trip to Costa Rica her company offered, she encounters Noah at the airport on her arrival in San José. Two hundred kilos of someone else’s coke in the back of his van, an older brother idiotic enough to get involved with a cartel and cougars persistently in his bed, 22-year-old Noah meets Grace at just the moment when he does not need any more complications in his life. But Noah is smitten, and before she knows what is happening Grace—and readers—are caught up in his mission to evade the drug cartel and get his life on a track he chooses for himself, and he is trying to help her break out of her preconceived notions of what her life must be.
Prose/Style: Crofton delivers an extremely readable story—great for a long winter evening by the fire or a day at the beach.
Originality: In Book Two in her Escape in Paradise series, Crofton is especially adept at capturing the conversational interplay between characters who are not sure of each other, or of themselves.
Character Development/Execution: The characters here are well-delineated and diverse, from Grace’s boss Jane, a cougar with her eye on Noah, to Noah and his younger brother Kai who are trying to do the right thing. Noah nearly assumes the role of therapist with Grace to help her move forward.
