sarahesterman's reviews
73 reviews

Silver Foxed by Kayla Grosse

fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

What a fun, short, and 🥵 read! 

Silver Foxed follows Alex (30) and her father’s best friend/colleague Elijah (45), when they accidentally both end up at Alex’s family lake house for a weekend. As you’d expect in a Kayla Grosse novella, sparks fly and everything ignites in the best way.

What to expect:

• Plus-sized heroine
• Silver fox hero
• Dad’s bff/colleague forbidden perfection
• Age gap
• Summer fling
• Instalust & instalove
• Breeding kink

Filthy Chef by Abby Knox

lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

“Just so you know, none of this is transactional.” Journey blinks up at me. “Can we pretend it is, though? That’s more fun.” 

 

What a sweet little spicy read. Having gone from reading some dark romances, I kept expecting Jason to get meaner in his obsession or act out more—but I’m so glad he didn’t. Overall, Filthy Chef is a great novella for a palate cleanser between longer books. I’m glad to have found a new-to-me novella author—and trust I’ll be cruising through Knox’s backlist. 

The Catcher by Kate Raven

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Sometimes you read a dark romance and you’re like—if I lived in the world of this book, I wouldn’t mind to have that kind of partner. I did not feel that way when reading The Catcher 💀 

 

In fact, I was very worried for Emrys. Tanner is no catch (lol). Having read through almost all of Kate Raven’s backlist at an alarming rate, I think he’s easily the scariest of Raven’s heroes. But sometimes, you get what you get because you have no other fucking choice since the man involved would rather destroy you—and any opportunity you might have outside of being his—than let you go. 

 

A couple of other thoughts about The Catcher:

• Girl, if you’re gonna run away from the stalking, crazed man trying to keep you maybe don’t run to where you came from and instead change your name, move to a different country, and start your life anew. (Though I’m not sure that would’ve stopped Tanner from finding her.)
• Very rude of Em’s friend to sell her out. I aim to have friends who won’t capitulate to blackmailers
• I think there could have been more groveling for being labeled a grovel romance. But it also wouldn’t have felt fully like a Kate Raven book

 
As always with any Kate Raven book, please check your triggers because non-con abounds.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual content

No Romeo by Donna Alam

funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Overall, this book was pretty ok/good. Like I had a good time, but it wasn’t great. 

 

Basics of the plot, with my commentary thrown in: 

Eve finds out her fiancé has been cheating on her the morning of her wedding after she receives some anonymous texts with the evidence of his and the other woman’s (Eve’s maid of honor even though they weren’t really friends??) affair. She reads the texts aloud at the wedding instead of her vows and then runs off and literally falls into the car/lap of her now-ex’s nemesis, Oliver Deubel (whose last name was a little on the nose, but I didn’t hate it). 

 

Said nemesis takes advantage of the opportunity—and Eve’s threatened visa status—and blackmails her into faking a relationship to help with his real estate-based revenge

(while also paying her for her time, donating heavily to a animal shelter she volunteers with, adopting her favorite shelter dog, letting her live in his swanky hotel rent-free, and buying her anything she wants basically)

. There’s a viral video of the wedding and the consequences of that somewhere in there. And also of course they fall in love. 

 

 

What I liked: 

• The opening scene was so good. Who wouldn’t want to publicly humiliate a lying, cheating scumbag in front of all his family and friends (and also the internet, when the video goes viral). That opening scene got me into the book. 
• The ongoing thread of the gossip rag was fun. It was important to the plot in some parts, like when
  Oliver got jealous of the photo of Eve and Fin
  . And also it was a helpful thread when the story sagged a bit in the middle. 
• I liked the surrounding characters. Eve and Yara had fun banter. The boys (Oliver, Fin, and Matt) did as well. I lol’d several times. 
• Eve’s parents were legit the worst, but believably so, and their scenes were important because it made Eve’s hatred of and generalizations about people with money (despite living a very privileged life herself) mildly more believable.  
• Bo (the dog) was my favorite character. He was best boy. 
• A safari park???
  Get outta town that was so out of left field and kind of perfect.

What didn’t work for me:
 

• Eve seemed too open-minded to paint every person with money as “bad person.” I mean eat the rich (and she did, lol), but I didn’t buy it fully. 
• Why was Riley even a character if we saw so little of him? Wasn’t he supposed to be her best friend?
• We get it. Oliver’s no Romeo. It’s the name of the book. It didn’t need to be repeated so. Many. Times. 
• The book slowed down in the middle and made it feel extra long, and I think there were scenes that could have been cut entirely
  (like the thrift shop)
  , which would’ve helped with pacing. 
• The third act conflict didn’t hit for me, because
  the misunderstanding didn’t make sense, given the characters. Like he didn’t tell her about his sister, ok. And he had a surprise planned with the shelter, ok. But why hadn’t she asked him about the holding company when they were home together after she missed him at his office? Eve is practical and not afraid to speak her mind and she cares a lot about that shelter.
  It didn’t track for me. 
• Why did Eve freak out and leave the country when she JUST GOT HER VISA which was her whole motivation for participating in Oliver’s plan?? Didn’t make sense, even if she was a runner.
• Some of the dialogue in the sex scenes felt a little cringe. But not all of it. It was hit or miss. 

 
Loose end:
 

• Did we ever find out who sent the anonymous wedding texts? I expected them to be from Oliver, and I think that would have made sense and would’ve been interesting. That feels like a loose end, unless I just missed it. 

 
Anyway, all that said, I liked No Romeo. Even though there were some things that didn’t work for me, I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend it to fans of contemporary rom com revenge plots, fake dating, and billionaire romances. I will also probably read future books in this series, assuming Donna Alam chooses to write them. 

Many thanks to NetGalley and Montlake for the e-ARC in exchange for my honest review. 🤍

Stalker by Lena Little

2.75

Stalker is a short, spicy novella, and it was fine. If you’re looking for darker stalker romances, this may disappoint you.

Imo it had too little stalking to be called Stalker, and the stalking was revealed far too early, and she was weirdly fine with it without a second thought. Given that—and the fact that it was very light and sweet for a stalker romance—it could definitely have used more character development, plot, and drama. All of which I think would have actually been possible while still maintaining the length of the book.

Stalked by Eva Marks

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I feel mixed feelings about Stalked. Your girl loves a stalker romance (don’t worry, my therapist is aware). Your girl loves an over-the-top obsessed hero (again, my therapist knows). Dr. Theo Wentworth is both of those things. But even so, this book didn’t really hit for me. Like it was ok, but also kind of hollow? 

 

What I liked: 

• The spice was spicing. This was my first Eva Marks book, but based off snippets from other books I’ve seen, that’s something that you can expect from Marks’ books.
• Theo’s stalking was perfectly unhinged. A lot of times in stalker romances the stalking is acknowledged and accepted by all parties as soon as the couple gets together, but since this was an instalust/love from both parties, that wasn’t the case. I liked that even though Theo was having a crisis of conscience, we still got that dark, dubious consent messed up side of things that make stalker romances so juicy (again, I have consulted my therapist). But come on, how did Prue sleep through all that? This insomniac needs that kind of deep sleep for real. 

 
What didn’t work for me:
 

• I didn’t feel like Prue or Theo were fully baked, but especially Prue. We didn’t learn much about her except that she started the book as a virgin, she worked hard to get her education and job, and of course her traumatic upbringing. She was basically just her past, and not even in a haunted way. She just felt… empty? 
• The plot with Prue’s father was odd? Like I didn’t hate it, but her actions at the end of the book don’t track with her actions in the rest of the book? If she’s gonna turn out to be a little messed up herself, shouldn’t we have gotten peeks of it as we went along? 
• And my biggest complaint: California is a dual consent recording state (!!!) and Theo would certainly have known that—so all of his threats to the baddies about voice recordings he took of them fell super flat. The people he threatened may have even known it too. It feels like this is something that should have been addressed and could have been looked up with a simple google search. 

 
While Stalked didn’t live up to my expectations, I imagine it would be a good fit for people who are mostly in it for the spice and don’t care as much about the surrounding story. 

Outlawed by Anna North

slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.25

It was just… boring. Ada was boring. 

Moonshine Savage by Kate Raven

dark funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Who knew a backwoods warring mafia kidnapping romance with lots of non-con could be so cozy?

Moonshine Savage’s Saoirse is on her way home from a canceled job interview when her car breaks down in some backwoods town on a hot day and she finds herself claimed/kidnapped by one Jake Boudreaux, whose characteristics—controlling, possessive, obsessed, unhinged, scary, violent, etc.—we usually reserve for men to avoid. Not that Saoirse can avoid him. No, she has to marry him. 

I loved Moonshine Savage. It’s one of my faves by Kate Raven, and Jake and Beau/Je Sweet from Her Drag Barbarian are tied for my favorite hero. I loved Jake’s family, the backwoods setting (so different than usual mafia-type books!!), and Saoirse’s snark and sass throughout the story. 

I wish I could read it again for the first time.

Her Vicious Angel: A Dark & Twisted Mafia Romance by Kate Raven

dark funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

If anything, Her Vicious Angel is a cautionary tale about accepting a sketchy emailed offer to move to Russia and marry a stranger in exchange for an exorbitant amount of money. You know, for when you find yourself in that situation, as one does. 

 

Cerise definitely should’ve asked for more money, given Andrei was not at all the gay theater owner she expected, and was instead a dangerous Bratva underboss who’d never heard a “no” he listened to in his goddamn life. 

 

I don’t know what it is about how Kate Raven writes her heroes but somehow she makes non-con more palatable for me. Maybe it’s because, in most cases anyway, her heroines are strong and can be brutal themselves? Cerise is one of those. 

 

Also, this book made me laugh. The convent? Lmao. 

Brutal Serpent: A dark regency romance by Kate Raven

dark fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

Goodness gracious, Brutal Serpent was a trip. 

 

It has everything you’d expect from a Kate Raven book—an unrepentant and obsessed villain hero, non-con and dub-con, breeding kink, and of course a heroine who doesn’t realize what she’s gotten herself into until she can’t get out (although in this case, she didn’t have a choice to begin with)—set in regency times with some historically accurate lack of hinge (the fucking leeches?!!). 

 

Anyway, next time I’m acting like a brat, I’m just going to tell my partner it’s because of my humors and that I need treatment 💀