M. Ullrich

This was a great read. I took a while to warm to Emma as a character, but I think that largely comes down to Caroline's observation of her in the early chapters when they're still in the "enemies" phase of their enemies-to-lovers journey.

Once the ball starts rolling, author M. Ullrich gives us a pair of lovable women who need to be together, and the fact that this is a romance novel so we know it'll happen didn't stop me cheering them along the way.

This is a slow-burn romance, and all the better for it, and when the sex comes it is tender and joyful and kindle-meltingly hot.

Very highly recommended.… (mais)

This book was like a well-crafted cocktail - not too sweet, not too bitter, and left me with a warm feeling in my body.

Lauren is a paralegal going through a really rough patch. She and her roommate don't make enough money to pay their rent, so Lauren's controlling ex-girlfriend still lives with them. Her roommate Jorge's girlfriend also lives with them but is just free-loading because that's what some young 20-somethings do. (Been there, lost a best-friend over it.) Her boss is terrible and she's fired pretty early on in the book.

Berit is the owner of The Dollhouse, a lesbian bar in New Jersey. She's got a reputation as a playgirl, but it's not really deserved. She's a bartender and it's sort of her trade to be really flirty, but the only other woman we see her with in the book is a secondary character named Bellamy, in a mutually agreed upon sex-only relationship. She has her own stuff to sort out, mostly with her family, but she's presented initially as the person who has it together.

One thing that often bothers me in books is when one of the love interests works for the other. I'm not sure how M. Ullrich managed it, but I didn't feel icky about the power dynamic in this at all. Maybe it's because they became friends before Berit hired her? Maybe because Lauren is with another woman when she starts bartending? Or it could just be that Berit's bar is quite professional, for all the shenanigans that go on. (The Dollhouse is a bar I'd love to go to.)

The pacing in the book is steady, even after the couple gets together. The writing is a little clunky at first, but I reviewed an advance copy, so I can't confirm if my desire for more paragraph breaks was addressed in the final version. Once you get into the book, though, it's smooth sailing. There were moments that made me cringe, but they were things like Lauren's boss being realistically awful, Berit's strained relationship with her father, and the eventual Dark Moment.

Speaking of Berit's father, I appreciated that their relationship is strained not because of homophobia but because he's never taken responsibility for the financial mistakes he made when Berit was younger. (He lost her college fund and screwed over the city's mayor, which has made Berit's job years later much, much harder.) Berit's sister, Lou owns 1/3 of the bar, so she works there and is a central character in the novel. She's sort of the glue that holds Berit together, and I liked their relationship a lot as well.

There were a lot of bartending details that spoke to me as long-time restaurant employee/manager. Berit has a dog named Hugo who is kind of adorable and is based on Ullrich's own late companion. The secondary characters all read like real people, not caricatures.

As for the central pairing? They don't get together until around 60% of the way through the book. That means that the first half of the book is them becoming friends, avoiding their feelings, and trying to date other people. Berit comes on to Lauren really strongly when they first meet and Lauren shuts her down, so then Berit is respectful! Lauren has some self-esteem stuff to work through and by the time they do get together, it feels like the culmination of weeks of tiny steps. Berit pushes Lauren in small ways, asking her to please get out of that apartment, but Lauren pushes back and asserts her independence. It's a very balanced relationship in which they make each other want to be better.

The sex is mostly in the last third of the book, but was well written. There's a scene with *spoiler* where *spoiler* and you'll just have to read it yourself.

Anyway, I finally have a Bold Strokes Books book that I feel comfortable recommending! I'm hoping that Bellamy and Jennifer (the women Lauren and Berit date) get their own books soon.

Review goes up at www.loveinpanels.com/prose/love-at-last call on Wednesday, July 11!… (mais)

I have liked most of the books I've read by M. Ullrich and I love love love soccer (yes, three loves and I don't regret any of them, I love playing it, love watching it, and the third love just because). So, trying out this book was a no brainer for me. And I enjoyed it so much, just as much as I thought I would.

Kenzie is a rookie who has gotten drafted by the Hurricanes (in NJ). Sutton is the leader and veteran on the team. Kenzie has had a crush on Sutton since she was much younger, and it doesn't go away when they start playing together either. In fact, it gets more intense.

Of course, it wasn't a straightforward sort of romance between them. Women's soccer, just like most sports in the real world have a complicated relationship with their gay/lesbian players even today (although some of the various Women's National Teams around the world have started to change that a little).

The subplot was so so sucky, not in a writing way, but, a thematic way (it was written amazingly), but, the topic. Ugh. How am I reading this in 2019 and the topic/theme can still be used. Ugh.

I also found that I not only liked the main characters, but, also the secondary characters too (Taylor was cool and very straightforward). Liking both types of characters doesn't happen often for me while reading lesfic, so, this was a nice change.

It was a fun ride. Also, Go Boston Blazers (and Breakers *sniff sniff sob*

I received this book via Netgalley thanks to Bold Strokes Books.… (mais)

Read on my blog here.

I received a copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have so many thoughts about this book. It is easily one of my new favourites, and yet there was a huge thing that bothered me so much that I cannot give it the full 5 stars.

First, let me talk about my expectations. The cover was a little strange, since it had an old-timey feel and made me think of an elderly couple instead of two young women in modern time? But hey, time travel and f/f romance, here I come!

From the beginning, I was absolutely taken in and in love with the characters. Eva and Casey were alive and amazing, their relationship (originally a friendship) was supportive, the scenes between them were heartfelt, real, and beautiful. I’m sure you kind of guessed from this paragraph, but I absolutely adored their romance.

Without spoiling much of the book, Casey and Eva have been friends since they were twelve, and could have gotten together in high school… only things went wrong, and they finally reconnect several years later, as young adults. They have both changed a lot and they are both dealing with their own trauma (which was mostly realistic and well-handled and amazing to see!), but they can finally act on their feelings! Their relationship isn’t perfect, but it has realistic troubles and conflicts, and at least one of them is sure they can all work it out.

Sounds great, right? Okay, here’s the part where it went wrong for me.

First, let me quote the blurb at you:

What would you do if you could go back in time and change your past?

For Eva Caldwell that question is a no-brainer. (…) She’d gladly go back and change it all. When her uncle passes, Eva discovers he created a time machine. (…)

Will Eva choose to save her parents’ lives or take a chance on the love of a lifetime?

I cut some parts to make it shorter, but it’s clear that this book is about time travel, right? Well, not exactly. Eva finds her uncle’s time machine mentioned in the blurb at 75% in the ebook. That’s… that’s the last quarter of the book! Don’t get me wrong, you can see from the beginning of this review that I absolutely adored the first three quarters – but it was a cute contemporary romance without any mention of time travel, and my brain just kept going, okay, but where’s the action promised in the blurb and the prologue? That constant anticipation ruined my enjoyment of a good percentage of the book. It was a good and enjoyable story… but it was not the story I signed up for.

I can’t really talk about the last quarter of the book without giving tons of spoilers, so let me just say this: it ends very abruptly, and I was ready to throw my phone (on which I was reading) across the room. Thankfully, there’s an epilogue! … And what an epilogue it is. Pros: it actually gives some closure and even explains why the time travel came so late in the book, although it didn’t erase the annoyance I felt when it kept not coming. And the twist in this epilogue, well… it’s one that you can both love or hate, and I am a little on the fence on which crowd I’m in. I’m leaning more towards positive – it was a clever idea, although I feel like the pacing (or at least the damn misleading blurb) could have been solved better.

The next paragraph is going to be spoilers because I need to talk about this, so if you don’t want them then skip it somehow:

Part of the reason why I was so pissed at the ending is that Eva gives Casey no choice or closure. Oh sure, it works out well for them in the new timeline (if you interpret it as a new timeline and not as the original one being fiction), but what about Casey in the old timeline? She was so willing to work things out with Eva, and while Eva said she was doing it for Casey too – she never asked Casey about it or gave her any kind of explanation. She only disappeared, and given how bad Casey got the last time she did that… It’s not looking good. Ultimately, Lizzy was right about Eva and I hated it.

In summary: I loved the first three quarters of the book, even though it really wasn’t what I signed up for. I have some serious problems with the ending/the time travel plotline as well as the pacing of the book, so I cannot give it five stars – but rest assured, this is still one of the best books I read this year. (Which might not be saying much in February, but shh.)

Content warnings: abusive guardian, PTSD, alcoholism
Sex scenes: two explicit sex scenes (at around 46% and 91% in the ebook) and some explicit sexting

My rating: ★★★★☆… (mais)