September was a short and sweet reading month. I managed to knock out four books from my TBR, two of which were released this year. Despite only getting through four books, there’s a good variety in here: my first ever reverse harem read, a Jane Austen retelling, a heartfelt childhood friends to lovers debut, and a sports romance focused on a sport I actually know! Check out my thoughts on these books below:
Faking with Benefits by Lily Gold – Behold, my first reverse harem read. Or first ever harem read, really. Faking with Benefits is the story of Layla Thompson, a successful entrepreneur who is unsuccessful at love. Only a few years away from turning 30, she has yet to cross off “get married” on her 10 year plan, and can’t put a finger on why. Though, dear reader, she was scaring these men off on every single first date with details of her 10 year plan. Enter her neighbors Zack, Josh, and Luke who coincidentally have a podcast where the three single men give out dating advice. After yet another failed date, Layla complains to them about her lack of skills in that department. The guys then come up with the idea that they can be her practice boyfriends, to help her get comfortable with the aspects of dating: flirting, texting, romance, and intimacy – both emotional and physical. They all go for it with the agreement that she can’t fall in love with them. They then embark on their unconventional “fake” relationship where things soon start feeling real, and they all must face whether they will risk their friendship with Layla for a chance at love.
I was honestly scandalized as I read haha. The comfort levels between the guys to engage with her intimately was shocking to me, but also interesting how they willingly shared her. I do think that the concept of a “fake” relationship didn’t work in this scenario. Usually, fake relationships are a front to someone/something that may be watching and that wasn’t the case here, so I do feel like the title was misleading. I also thought the character development needed work; those plot points felt like they came out of nowhere and the focus of the story was really on them all having sex (which isn’t a bad thing but like, throw some plot and development in there too).
Sex, Lies and Sensibility by Nikki Payne – Sex, Lies and Sensibility is a Jane Austen retelling of Sense and Sensibility. However, in this version, the main character, Nora Dash is a Black woman in mourning who learns that her dad isn’t who she thought she was. To add insult to injury, she’s haunted by a mistake made in her past that continues to follow her years later; her sex tape is plastered all over the internet. At her father’s funeral, she and her sister Yanne learn of their inheritance: an abandoned house in Barton Cove, Maine. With only the deed in their hands, Nora and Yanne head towards Barton Cove to roll their sleeves up to see if they can turn their inheritance into a profitable business. What they didn’t expect to see were a group of tourists squatting in their abandoned house, led by Ennis “Bear” Freeman, a Native American local running a tourist attraction that he ran out of that abandoned house. While Bear doesn’t think Nora and Yanne can make this work, he strikes up a partnership with them, to help each other, and keep his business afloat. What he didn’t account for was chemistry with Nora that will threaten the discovery of all his secrets and possibly push her away.
I will admit, it took me a while to get into this one though I am glad I kept reading. I’ve never read anything Jane Austen, so it’s fun to read modern retelling of classics to get an idea of what the original source material was about. Nora and Bear go through quite a bit of character development, where their romance is definitely a slow burn; their attraction was undeniable but things kept getting in the way. I will say Lu was awful; constantly nickel and diming anything and anyone because she was in debt. Like I understand she was sick and relied heavily on outside help but she was really mean to Bear, the only one willing to help her, because she knew no matter what, her community would have her back. Either way, this was an interesting story.
A Love Like The Sun by Riss M. Nielson – read the full review here!
The Art of Catching Feelings by Alicia Thompson – Sports romance lovers, baseball fans specifically, this one is for you. The Art of Catching Feelings follows the story of Daphne Brink, a freshly divorced woman looking to drown her sorrows with copious amounts of beer at a game for a sport she doesn’t follow or know much about. At the game with her friend, she gets drunk, and to entertain herself further she starts taking cues from the guy sitting next to her who’s heckling players. You’d think the players wouldn’t pay attention to cheers or heckles coming from the crowd until she heckles Chris Kepler, who ends up crying at his at bat. Daphne’s heckling goes viral, as does Chris’s crying, putting Daphne in a very awkward position as she thought her comments were harmless. In a fit of guilt, she DMs Chris what was supposed to be a heartfelt apology and admit she was his heckler and was immensely sorry for making him cry – except that’s not what happens. They begin exchanging messages, where it got increasingly harder for Daphne to come clean, especially when she starts working for the team as a favor to her sister in law.
While I was reading the book, at first, I was just like okay what did she say to make a man – a tall, built baseball player at that – cry in public? With context, it makes sense but at first I was like that’s it??? Then with Daphne’s secret and the web of lies she inadvertently built. There were moments where I was yelling at my book like TELL HIM NOW!!!! Despite that, I enjoyed reading The Art of Catching Feelings. I feel like there aren’t many baseball romances in the world of sports romance, and at least in this one, there’s actual sports content and not that he just plays for the team. I do think there was a bit of filler in the middle of the book where I felt like the story was dragging, but regardless, this is still an enjoyable read.
