I love all of Lena’s main male characters. Whip King was no different. I had the distinct pleasure of being sent this book as an ARC, and let me tell you, I was so thrilled to get my grubby paws on it.
I have been dying for the King’s side of the feud and more of their back story. This initial dive into their nuances left me wanting so much more. I cannot wait for this series to continue. As always with interconnected series and standalones, we get glimpses of other characters we’ve met before. Seeing Whip’s relationship with Lee in the fire house and the secret soft spot they all seem to have for Duke.
Back to Just This Once.
Hendrix gives us a spicy, sweet, cocktail with a piercing bite to it. Yes. Piercing is emphasized right there. One of my favorite things about Lena and her writing is her ability to give me just enough spice without compromising her incredible plots. Plus, she writes a killer feud that I’ve been hooked on finding more about for what six books now?
If you haven’t picked this one up yet, it’s available on KU—Here!
A solid 3.5 sports romance. This book had a lot of things that worked for it and a few things that weren’t so great.
To start, I absolutely love that the cover of this book was not just a shirtless man. The addition of the dog in the photo makes it super appealing plus he actually looks like he’s having fun?
I also liked that the FMC had an unusual hobby/career path. You don’t see a lot of books with a cellist as the main character. She was on the hot mess express for most of the book, which was endearing most of the time but obnoxious at others.
The MMC was great. He seemed mature and well adjusted, which is sometimes a rare find in this genre. I loved his love for Monty. His dares at the beginning of the book were also a big highlight for me. I wish that there had been more dares throughout the book ….seeing that the title has the word dare in it. Plus the word dog….we only ever met two dogs and on some level they weren’t really that big of a part of the plot.
My favorite part of this whole book though was the social life of the senior citizens. They were the stars of this book. I loved meddling Mrs. H.
The things that didn’t work so well for me were things like the poorly translated French. I promise you there’s a world of people who would love to help you translate things instead of going it on your own if you’ve never taken French or don’t speak it. I also don’t really know how it helped the plot…so there’s that.
The chemistry between Luke and Summer was there but it was like a warm pot rather than a scorching read. In the beginning, I kinda thought she was going to end up with Antonio because they seemed to have more in common and better chemistry.
Another thing I struggled with was that while it was a sports romance….the sport didn’t seem to play that big of a part.
I also struggled because every once in a while, someone would call the dog Lillie when her name is Milli and I don’t know if that was intentional…I’m assuming not because I doubt that Summer would forget her own grandmothers dogs name.
Lastly, the characters, while somewhat developed, still fell a little flat. What was Luke’s favorite meal, what pet peeves does he have? We know he likes dogs and dares and football and dislikes his dad but beyond that? No idea.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.
You know, despite being titled The Dead Romantics, I didn’t expect the love interest to be a ghost. This book gave me everything I wanted: small town, handsome main male, a disaster ghostwriting main female, banter with sibling. Yet. Yes, yet. I wasn’t sold.
This book was heavy. Another thing I wasn’t ready for was the main plot device being the father’s death. Every page. You never move beyond it because every. Single. Page it’s mentioned. I’m a sap when it comes to the mortality of my family, but this family…..I didn’t really feel or see the close bonds I was told about after the patriarch of the family died. The mom’s response to her husbands death was also a bit out of character in my opinion.
Ben seemed flat to me. She didn’t get along with him, then she’s kissing him in a back alley, and then she’s annoyed because his ghost is following her….next thing you know, “I love you don’t go.” -_- I didn’t feel the pining the love the angst. I just didn’t feel.
This is marketed as adult romance but it has the flowery prose of an old 1900s classic or even older. I love the classics but this was no pride and prejudice. Lastly, the twist. I saw the twist coming from the first time we met benji.
Oh wait. One more. Heather. Her redemption was sooooooooo flip of a switch. Regina George mean girl one night and she gets a talking to from Florence and the next morning “omg I’m so sorry I am a horrible person”
Enough complaints. The idea behind this was fun. Neat. Family has a funeral home, daughter can see ghosts, the ghostwriter bit, romance is dead. I liked the bed and breakfast. Dana was an interesting character (minus the fact that the author used the wrong pronouns for their own character at one point.), I wanted more backstory on Rose, I wished Benji could have gone and haunted Lee or sabotaged his release of his book.
As for spice 🌶 one lowly pepper. My friend. You had options here that could have been worthy of many peppers…as Florence would say, you watched the opportunity sail by you like a ship.
World Building: In paranormal books, I like to take time to look at the building of the world and the paranormal creatures/culture that the author builds. Sloane Murphy did a great job of creating the culture between the witches, demons, hunters, and the rest of the crew. I felt like this was an important part of this book because Murphy could have easily relied on the other portion of the series to do this for her and required readers to have read that before this series. I think great authors, like Murphy, take the time to continue to flesh out the world in each book regardless of where it falls in the series.
Characters:
Fallon: I really liked her and felt that she had good depth. Her sass was fun to read and I liked that despite her hardcore crush on Colt, she didn’t cave to him. I appreciate when authors write characters that don’t begin to blend together. Remy, Fallon’s best friend, does not feel the same as Fallon, which can be a difficult thing to keep throughout a series. Fallon has her own goals and motivations just like Remy has her own ideals.
Colt: I loved to hate him only to love him. He drove me nuts at the beginning, but he grew on me over time. I liked that Murphy added in the reincarnation element to immortality. I feel like this is something that we do not see often in books with these themes. I also think that Murphy’s overall development through the book of Colt allowed me to move from disliking him initially to actually feeling like he was someone I could enjoy seeing our FMC loving.
Relationships:
Of course we have our relationship between Colt and Fallon, which was spicy and I can’t wait to see more of, but the time that Murphy spent fleshing out the relationship between Fallon and her mother and sister was time well spent. It felt real and did not leave me feeling like it was a stale representation of a family. She gave them life and made the mother/daughter relationship feel like the real relationship most mothers have with their kids as they grow older: a friendship and a partnership.
Fallon and Remy, sometimes I feel like Fallon forgot herself trying to help Remy at times, but I love Fallon’s devotion to those she cares about, and this relationship really plays on that.
Hey Bookworms Editing 