Review: Free Me

Free Me by Mia Monroe
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

“Are you interested in being tied up?”

Tate’s reaction startles me as he visibly shivers in front of me, his breath releasing in a puff. “Whew.” He laughs shyly. “I guess I am.”

You know, there's something so beautiful about Shibari and whenever I get a story that includes rope play it's almost always a guaranteed good time. There's something so beautiful about the knot work that has always caught my attention.



Free Me definitely did just that! This is another fabulous outing in Mia Monroe's Tattoos and Temptation series, the third in fact, but it can be read as a standalone and not lose a thing! It's the quiet ones that usually surprise you, and let me tell you Tate's story definitely surprised me in the best possible way! You do get to see our faves from previous stories in the series and my love for them all just grows with every new word I read.

“We used to spend every waking moment together, lots of sleeping ones, too.”

“Oh?” Gen asks. “Spill the tea, darling.” He winks.

Nix chuckles. “We were kids, Gen. We had sleepovers.”

“Oh, right. Yawn.”

I shake my head. “Always about sex with you.”

“Sex is life, boo.”

“Amen,” Cairo says. “Preach, Sister Gen.”

When you have friends like this - and I have a couple so I know what it's like - everything is soooooo much more fun!

You've probably noticed that I have a fondness for Best Friends to Lovers - not even just the regular old Friends to Lovers but I mean like this is my BFF whom I happen to fall in love with is quickly becoming my jam. Tate and Nix have that, but they also have a Second Chance (kind of) happening and that's something that was beautiful to see. Not everyone gets to keep their bestie when they come out, especially not if there was some reciprocated attraction in the moment and a freak out from the bestie later. Heck, a lot of the time you don't even get to keep your family. Nix and Tate were inseparable as kids but that coming out moment at eighteen was what broke them apart. To watch them come back together and learn that their feelings for each other have grown so much despite time and distance? These two were meant to be and it's definitely true that it's better late than never. But also - Good things come to those who wait.

Nix and Tate are fire baby! Some of the scenes are just off the charts how hot they are, I have a feeling this is going to be on my all time favourites list for rereads.

Here are some of my...


Favourite Lines -

“It’s a gay rite of passage,” Gen says, smiling. “We know the best places to eat, to party, and to shop. We are icons of everything tasteful.”

“Mm, I’ve seen some pretty sketch gays in my day,” Cairo adds, shooting a disdainful look at nothing. “Some ratchet boys out there.”

“I didn’t say it was inherent good taste,” Gen explains. “I said it was a rite of passage. When you learn the ways of the masters you transcend basic-bitch level.”

“How do I know if you’re right for me? Is there like a quiz on Buzzfeed or something? ‘How to Find the Right Shibari Artist For You.’”

“Can I have like ten more minutes before you undo me?”

You could stay like this forever if I had my way.

“I’ve never been able to decide if I like the ropes more or the marks they leave.”

“Because I like my pastries the same way I like my men-sweet and tempting.”

I bite my lip to prevent laughing while Jude has to cough to cover his laughter.

“Oh.” Greyden’s face flickers with understanding. “I like my pastries the same way I like men, too.”

Jerica looks up confused.

“All of them,” he continues.

“Then please, for the love of all gay things, touch me.”

“So, the phone?” Pauly asks. “A love interest?”

“Kind of. What gave me away?”

“Because the only things that produce a look like the one I saw on your face are love interests and double cheeseburgers. Maybe chocolate cake.”

I decided it didn’t matter if I was gay or bi or pan or anything else. What mattered is that I was happy.

This series just keeps getting better! Hurry up an read this one so that you can wait for the next installment with me so I won't be alone in my impatience!



This one ticked all the boxes for me and left me with warm, happy feelings. So take my advice -

Run, don't walk, RUN and one-click this baby today! You won't regret it!



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Review: Catch Me

Catch Me by Mia Monroe
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

OK, so, you're in love with your best friend. You don't really know it yourself, and they definitely don't know it but you're on the I'm-sort-of-attracted-to-you train and you just think it's never going to stop at the station but you love your friendship so you hold on for dear life.

Meanwhile, there's this guy and he's making moves on your friend but kinda making moves on you too, only your friends have to point that out to you because you're oblivious to it because of your jealousy that he's flirting with your friend and stealing his attention.

"This isn’t like you. Where’s my go-with-the-flow Cairo?”

He’s hiding behind the jealous-as-fuck-someone-is-going-to-steal-you-away-from-me-before-I-figure-out-how-I-feel-about-you Cairo.

But he's fire and you totally want him too, you just wish he wasn't flirting with your friend.



What does that sound like to you? Sounds like a recipe for a polyamorous masterpiece to me!



Now that I've poorly summed up Cairo, Genesis and Luca's story, you need to understand that Catch Me is book four in Mia Monroe's Tattoos and Temptation series and while this MMM love fest can be read and enjoyed as a standalone, this is the first one that I will say I recommend having read the other books in the series first. Why you ask? Just because I think you get a deeper understanding of the way these guys act around each other like the men of Black Heart and Dulce Santo have had the chance to see for the last 3 stories. Now, if you don't read them first and you start right here, you'll just love Luca and his pretty boys more once you've seen the lead up and hints that were dropped from the very beginning. (That was masterfully done Mia! I applaud you for it!)



What you have here is a beautiful, sexually and emotionally charged story of three men who learn just how much their heart's capacity to love is and how they fit together perfectly to give something the others are needing in a relationship. Luca is just a sweet southern boy with this huge heart and a dream to make Cairo and Gen his - and it's one hell of a ride! I was so sure that this was going to be an easy FWB transition for them but there were some twists that I didn't see coming. And Genesis, the little glam diva that he is, is stubborn AF when it comes to admitting his feelings. Cairo was just oblivious to his own feelings and Luca's intentions, but Gen has seen it all along from Luca and wanted more with Cairo for so long that my heart hurt and I wanted to wrap him up in blankets. Honestly, I wanted to wrap all of them up in blankets at some point in the story - and you know how I love my blankets!!!



Let's have some of my...

Favourite Lines -

I refuse to look down. The water distorts things anyway. I don’t want to see a dick unless it’s mine to play with, and neither of their dicks fall into that category. Pretty sure. Probably.

Danger, will.i.am, or whatever that show was way before my time.

Swallowing hard, I focus on the mirror and brushing my teeth, ignoring the fight-or-flight response that kicks in every time Luca looks at me with those sweet blue eyes full of unspoken promises of more. It’s just that I don’t want more. I want everything to be like it is. Cairo’s role is permanent bestie. Luca’s role is fuck buddy. My role is dick receptacle. That’s it. Nothing beyond that. Everything gets fucked up with more.

Saturday nights are for fucking. Mornings are for working.

“Tell me about you and Gen.”

“It’s complicated.”

“You’re in love with him, aren’t you?”

“Why does everyone say that?”

“Because we can tell?”

When I wanted every part of my life entwined with every part of his, the good and bad and mediocre, I knew.

Why can’t I be a normal person who appreciates and loves having two gorgeous, sweet guys in my life? Why can't I tell them that I want to be here every night with them, and that I want…oh fuck. I cough as the thought hits me like a truckload of stolen Balenciagas.

This is what normal, well-adjusted single people do. They go on dates. Or maybe I’m not single. I’m in a relationship. I think. Possibly. I should clarify that but eww, feelings, and eww, talking and expectations. Eww.

I hit the buzzer, then stand in the doorway and wait for the elevator doors to open. When they do, my mouth drops. Luca is wearing dress slacks, a button-down shirt, and a tie. A motherfucking tie. And he’s carrying, oh my fucking gay god, a bouquet of flowers. For me.

Oooh, okay, with that southern drawl? I’m dead.

I’m not fit for love. I couldn’t do it if I tried. My love is full of thorns and snares and will only result in everyone’s demise. I should tell them. Let them go. Tell them to stop waiting for my heart to thaw because it isn’t there anymore. It’s not covered in ice. It’s gone. Ripped from my chest by too many men who never cared. Left out to wither away until nothing was left.

If someone would have told me six months ago that this would be my life, I would have kicked them in the shin with my best Balenciaga boots.

Book Five is coming (soon!!!!) and I'm dying for it already! It hits some of my favourite tropes, so hurry up and one-click this baby today! Then you can wait impatiently with me!



Trust me, you won't regret it!




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Review: Real Fake Love

Real Fake Love by Pippa Grant
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I feel like this book is almost a love story for the stereotypical romance reader everywhere. No, wait, before you go running away... IT'S NOT A CLICHÉ! This isn't just your average very sad, lonely girl meets boy and falls in love story. I mean, it borrows things from that concept but doesn't every romance do that in a way?



Real Fake Love brings us back to the Copper Valley Fireballs (hellllllloooooo baseball!!!), namely one Luca Rossi who's sworn off love, marriage and commitments altogether - and how one very determined (if a touch lonely) romance writer named Henrietta Bacon becomes the reason he learns how to love when he's supposed to be teaching her how to deny love.



Luca's not the best player, he's not horrible obviously because he's in the major leagues, but he's not swinging his bat in the all star game every year. He's also been traded a whole bunch of times and now to the worst team in the league. The man has a chip on his shoulder a mile wide, and really, his well meaning Nonna is totally right. He just needs to be loved and supported. But first he wants to help the Fireballs make a huge comeback and how can he do that when he's under threat of a curse that the consequences of would shake any commitment-phobe to their core? That's where Henri and the most ridiculously lazy cat, Dogzilla, come into play.



And Henri! I feel like Henri is this conglomeration of Pippa's hilarity and wackiness and all of the romance readers out there who fall in love with love at every turn. Hey, who hasn't fallen for the wrong person? Or had a broken engagement or two? There's something so very hopeful about Henri, so optimistic in the face of everything that combats Luca's pessimism at every turn. There were so many moments where that sad, lonely part of me resonated with Henri's desire to be loved.

“Love itself isn’t wrong.” I tuck my hands under my head and stare up at the soft darkness. “But you need to quit loving people who don’t love you back.”

“What if no one ever loves me back?” she whispers.

Tears - she broke me! BROKE ME!!!!! Because she's usually so happy! She seems to embrace her quirks - and no matter what she has this never ending belief in the beauty, and necessity, of love but there were moments in this story that I watched all the little doubts I've always had play out on the page and it made me love Henri even more. I thought I loved the incredible Mackenzie who was wacky and weird and just sooooo much fun, but I always love the heroines who are just super smart and super quirky (*ahem*Felicity fits this bill too!)

Their roller coaster of crazy love story is brought to you with special appearances by... the Copper Valley Fireballs players (and the Thrusters!!!!!!!!), the Lady Fireballs, a team fanbase attempting to choose a mascot, a pooch with a fabulous collar, a clothes wearing lazy bones cat, a rainbow haired social media star, an inconvenient mother, a foul mouthed pirate parrot, and enough emotional and mental torture in the form of comparing lives instead of being uniquely yourself to make you want to wrap everyone up in blankets.

Here - you should have some of my...


Favourite Lines -

“You say potato, I say Lamborghini."

“Do you want to live, or do you want the stairs to eat you?”

“Left!” he yells. “Your other left!”

“I’m a writer, not a truck driver!”

Love is my superpower.

It’s my blessing and my curse.

Because every time I fall in love, I’m not good enough.

I’m never good enough.

And it freaking hurts.

“What is that?”

“She’s my cat.”

“I can see that, but what’s she wearing?”

“She felt like a unicorn today.”

“I can hear you thinking, and your language is atrocious today.”

“I make things up for a living, so if I say it’s a thing, it’s a thing!”

Teaching her how to not fall in love feels like teaching a rainbow how to not sparkle.

An unpredictable, chaotic, klutzy rainbow, but still a rainbow.

“Would yours involve a flaming asteroid made of toilets?”

Luca: Who named your cat?

Henri: Confucius.

Luca: Your…made-up character?

Henri: He’s very real in my head. And no, I don’t need to see a therapist. This is normal for writers.

“Do you also use magic truffle salt and water made with the tears of unicorns?”

My run-down castle with the queen who shines so bright that she makes it feel like Buckingham fucking Palace.

Fuckingham Palace.

Yeah. That’s what I’m renaming my home.

I write books.

Words are tools. And if I want to use the fuck word, I will use the fuck word.

Henri falls in love.

Not only with men, but with the world.

Every. Single. Day.

This book has everything that you would expect from a Pippa Grant story. You will laugh, you'll cry (usually while you're laughing but there are a few very emotional moments), and by then of this one you might even believe in love almost as much as Henri does. I can't wait to see more of the Fireballs - I mean, I'm dying for some Thrusters again, but it's summer time so I'm thankful for all the BASEBALL books because 2020 sucks and I've been denied for a while and this tiny season doesn't count.

Run out and one-click this baby today! You won't regret it!



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