No spoilers here: I’m not too fond of Letty. Unlike the previous two MKU installments, I finally liked Kane–for a little bit.
A little reminder. Letty dropped the bomb on Kane as to what their puddle loving resulted in, and that literally put him in a tailspin at the end of the book. So this one begins with him in the hospital and with Letty in the arms of another dude.
LETTY!
Really, now? How many dudes do you need? I know, all of them. Because Letty only knows what she wants when forced to admit it.
Title: Natural Born Killers (Sick Boys #3) Author: Lucy Smoke Genre: New Adult, Sports Romance, College Romance Release Date:30 April 2021
Summary:
Rule No. 3: Never let anyone think they can hurt you and get away with it.
I thought I’d seen and felt the worst of it, but there’s nothing worse than betrayal.
Corina knows who’s behind what happened to me and she may think hiding will keep her safe, but after everything that’s happened, nothing can keep her safe from me and the Sick Boys. She’s a pawn in all of this, but I’ll get that information even if it means I have to cut it out of her – piece by fucking piece.
This little charade is about to end. They thought they could drag me down into the dirt and grind my soul into the dust. What they failed to realize is that there’s nothing left of my soul and I don’t mind getting a little dirty if it means getting my revenge. I may have let her fool me once, but there’s no way in hell I’ll let her fool me twice.
After we’re done with her, we’re going after the big boys.
What a jerk! I mean that. I don’t know if I mean Kane Legend or Scarlett Hunter, though. Both are kinda jerky. Jerkish? Jerksome. I don’t know what the term is. They are both jackholes, if you ask me. I like Letty a little more than Kane, but not by a whole lot. I think you are supposed to feel an abundance of sympathy for her, and I do. BUT she’s a McJerkyjerk.
So if you read the prequel, you know what happened the night eighteen months ago, and if you don’t, they refer to a sweaty something-something in a dirty puddle often enough to get the idea. Kane and Letty hate-effed the heckfire out of each other, and nothing good came of it.
Eighteen months later, the devil is back, and Letty has seen her nightmare come to life, in that Kane is the embodiment of some heartache unknown to us readers. Cliffhanger level stuff here.
Title: The Flame Must Burn (Forbidden #1) Author: Beena Khan Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance Release Date:22 September 2020
Summary:
The hottest summer brings the first flames of love. Love is dangerous. It collides with culture, and culture is defied with rebellion.
She promised herself to me. Ryder is the small town’s local college boy. It’s summertime, and he’s at the beach when he sees a young, college girl. Their eyes lock together. Intrigued by her, he wants to approach her but she quickly disappears. Disappointed he returns home, but he sees her the next day in his summer class.
Good girls don’t fall in love. They only obey. From a traditional Middle Eastern family, Cyrah is a young foreign-exchange student. She’s studying abroad in a summer program of the small-town. Intimidated by her beauty, Ryder begins writing love letters to her. She is flattered but tries to steer clear from him. But then an incident happens that draws these two star-crossed lovers together. Slowly, she begins breaking all the rules and reciprocates the same feelings. But summer doesn’t last forever though, and Cyrah has to leave.
Title: I Promise You (#4) Author: Ilsa Madden-Mills Genre: New Adult, College Sports Romance Release Date: 12 October 2020
Summary:
Will this quarterback score the girl or make the biggest fumble of his life?
I Promise You, an all-new unforgettable, new adult, sports romance from Wall Street Journal bestselling author Ilsa Madden-Mills is available now!
Dillon McQueen: Babe. I promise. You want me.
Serena Jensen: Um, who are you?
There’s a legend at Waylon University: the first girl you kiss freshman year at the bonfire party is the one you’ll never forget. She’ll crawl under your skin and never leave. She’ll spark a passion so fierce you’ll burn the world down to possess her.
You might even put a ring on it.
As in all things with fate, timing is everything. That kiss can go horribly wrong. She might run in the opposite direction. And boy, did Serena run.
Dillon is Waylon’s hotshot quarterback with something to prove. All he wants is to graduate and make it to the NFL. What he doesn’t need is to finally meet the mystery girl he kissed at the bonfire freshman year. Isn’t it enough that she’s haunted his dreams for more than a thousand nights?
Fate laughs in his face when he runs into the quirky girl at the Piggly Wiggly. Surrounded by his entourage, he’s got all the Oreos in his cart; she gets revenge by buying every six-pack of his favorite beer.
Obviously, that legend is a curse. She’s not his type and hates him. Worst of all, how can she not remember him when she left a Serena-shaped hole in his heart for the past three years?
So why can’t he stop trying to win her?
Will this quarterback score the girl or make the biggest fumble of his life?
Has an off-limits (not precisely off-limits) brother (not exactly brother) ever been hotter than Hazel Kelly’s Beta Brother, Logan Jones? I’m positive you will give Zoey Petersen a pass for lusting over her adopted brother when you hear the things this naughty dirty talker says to her.
Hazel Kelly’s muse must have been working overtime because this novel is spicy. Logan and Zoey have been stewing over each other since first sight. A broken boy with a lot of baggage has little hope for a Happily Ever After, but the Petersens offer him a place in the family of foster and adopted misfits. He can’t stop self-destructing long enough to think he will ever be worthy of the girl who shines with an innocence that is utterly foreign to him, his foster sister. He makes the worst out of his new situation by going for the option of her best friend, Piper. And two kids desperate to tune out their reality make hell for each other while Zoey watches to her heartbreak.
A plot like this can go two ways: taboo relationships within a family story like these are either spicy and compelling or awkward enough to make you squick.
I know the reason stepbrother romances have taken off despite the forbidden fruit angle is that broken stepbrothers for fixer sisters warm the hearts of many pervy readers. (Hello! It’s not an insult, I’m a pervy reader, and this is a shout out to my people).
Title: A Loser’s Revenge Author: Tammi Lynn Genre: Enemies to Lovers, Reverse Harem My rating: 3.5 of 5 stars
What is the worst betrayal? Some would say its betraying yourself, but for Barretta, it was having the three people she loved most at age thirteen hold her down, in front of the entire school, and humiliate her after telling her they loved her. That betrayal changed her whole life, and she was never the same after that. She left a week later and started over, started planning revenge.
Nine years later, it’s time to pay-up, and she’s loosey-goosey got plans to make them hurt so she can have closure and indeed start a new chapter. She’s enrolled in their college, knows their classes, has a key to their house, and knows where they will be.
Sounds creepy, and it is, but Barry/Bibi rationalizes a lot, and you start cheering for her success. Stockholm syndrome in book-form. By the time she starts falling for her bullies, and they for her, you are so confused about who you want to be mad at–and angry for–the story gets a little bogged down.
Axel is always a wiener; you won’t be rooting for him ever.
