This is a very 🌶️ romance about an interior designer and her real estate developer ex-Olympian swimmer ex-boss who work together on a reality TV show in Dallas. If you’re thinking “that’s a lot”, yes it is, and also it’s awesome. Our lead heroine is Latina and our lead male is biracial, so there are some cultural elements explored too!
I started reading the Ravenel series because one of my favorite podcasts, Fated Mates, did a review of Marrying Winterborne, book 2 in the series. As a result, I read these out of order, starting with Book 2. I do not recommend that - I spend the first 30 minutes very confused about who all the characters were. As a result, I’m reviewing them in the actual order, not the order I consumed them.
I’ve listened to all these as audiobooks - the narrator, Mary Jane Wells is excellent. I read books 1-4 in 2022, so the reviews of those are screenshots from my Instagram highlights. The remainder are 2023 reads, so the reviews look a little different. The series follows the members of the Ravenel family and the ways they fall in love. They are all very sexy, feminist romances, and you may find yourself learning a little bit about British societal customs of the time along the way (for the record, I think the customs are absolute bullshit).
Devil’s Daughter - West Ravenel’s book!
This is the book I’ve been waiting for since my first Ravenel book - West Ravenel, former rake turned farmer finds his match! And it was so worth the wait. His paths cross with Lady Clare (Phoebe), the widow of West’s former classmate and the chemistry is instant. Open door, like all the others in this series, but what I like most about this is that Phoebe is very clearly the one in pursuit. I stuck with the audiobook as with the rest of the series, and Mary Jane Wells just kills it AGAIN!!
This may be my favorite book in the series mainly because how much I like Tom Severin! He has a very dry, sardonic manner that I very much appreciate, captured beautifully by narrator Mary Jane Wells. I listened to this whole series and it was such a delight!
Queen of Thieves is the story of two women and survival in post WWII England. in general, I have zero interest in reading books set around WWI or WWII - I’ve read a lot of books set in both those eras in the past and continue to watch TV around those eras, so I feel like I’m consuming enough WW content. I made an exception here because my friend Allison pointed out that it was actually about thieves. Sign. Me. Up.
Alice is the leader of the Forty Thieves, a group of women who shoplift and sell luxury goods. Nell is a young woman who works in a fur factory. When she meets Alice, she thinks Alice is the answer to her dreams of a bigger life. I listened to this as an audiobook, and reading some of the reviews, I think I made the right move. The reviews took issue with the day and date stamp of some of the chapters being inconsistent, but the audiobook doesn’t have day stamps so it’s a non-issue. The book switches POV between Alice and Nell - it’s full of smart, plucky women who will do whatever it takes to survive.
Read this if you enjoyed Peaky Blinders!
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Supernatural avengers? Check
Witches? Check.
Demons? Check.
🌶️🌶️🌶️ check check check.
This is book 2 in a series, but you don’t need to read book 1 to follow this book. Rose Maxwell is a witch who gets sentenced to community service at an animal sanctuary, run by half-Demon veterinarian Damian Adams. Turns out Damian and Rose know each other - they had a one-night stand in the past!! This book is so much fun if you’re looking for a sexy, light read to take your mind off real life. The world-building is excellent - it takes place in modern-day New York City and is as if the Avengers were real.
Sugar, Spice and Can’t Play nice: antagonists to lovers, closed door romance with lush descriptions of food and clothing!
This is book 2 in Annika Sharma’s Chai Masala Club series - I do recommend you read these in order because there are a few references to book 1 that will be spoilers if you haven’t read it yet.
This one is an antagonists to lovers, closed door romance so appropriate for anyone who doesn’t want on-page sex. Our protagonists are both London-born, and find themselves in New York for various reasons. This book offers look into modern immigrant South Asian culture. It feels very much like a Bollywood romance - the twists and turns and drama are all dialed up to 11. There’s a lot going on in this book - family drama, work drama, relationship drama. I love the lush descriptions of clothing and food - this book will probably make you hungry.
I did feel it was about 50 pages too long, I did skim pages across some sections, which is why I’m giving this ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Overall Grade: 4 Stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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