NJ

I was kind of enjoying this until the seemingly reasonable and pleasant girlfriend was actually revealed to be a conniving witch. I know that this is a popular romance trope but I personally find it irritating. I think the book would have been stronger if they had had an amicable breakup and the heroine/hero's relationship had grown organically from that point.

1.5 rounded up to 2.

The book was ok but I felt like the relationship between the main characters was not developed enough. Even more importantly, I really disliked the competition between the heroine and the hero's friend with benefits. At one point the heroine is literally keeping score of how much attention the hero pays her and how much he pays his friend with benefits. In addition, there was some slut-shaming involving the friend with benefits situation that really rubbed me the wrong way.

This book was a disappointment particularly because I enjoyed the third book in this series.

I didn't get past the first few pages. Sorry. I was really ready to get on board as I'm trying to find black romance writers who don't exclusively write interracial romance. However, my main problem with the book was with the editing. She used the word anxiousness on the first page and it really stuck in my craw. I tried to get past that but unfortunately, there was this, not too long after “often disagreeing more often than not on pretty much every subject”. I just couldn't continue after that.

I know I'm a picky reader. I know. But I think in general I'm not too excited about self-published books because I feel most of of them could really benefit from good editing. However, I realize that a black woman writing black romance would probably have a hard time getting published by the major publishing houses, so I'll try this book again when I'm in a better mood.

DNFed due to iffy kissing scene. Firstly, the hero initiates a kiss with our crying heroine to stop her from crying (because he can't stand to watch her tears) only moments after surmising that she had been physically abused. Nothing attractive or romantic about scenes like this. Why do authors keep writing them? I also find this particularly disappointing because I was looking forward to reading more about the heroine who was an abolitionist. For a story that has overtly feminist tones, that kissing scene is distressing and out of place. Hopefully, authors of romance books can start doing better.

There were aspects of this that I really liked. In particular, I loved Duncan and his vulnerability. However, in a rare twist for me, I didn't like the heroine. At one point she justifies her lack of open affection for Duncan by saying that as a cat owner, he is used to getting scraps, and it really irritated me. Nobody should have to settle for scraps of someone else's affection. especially not when they have made their desire to be wanted as clear as Duncan does. He's open and sweet and vulnerable, despite appearances, and I felt like the heroine never fully acknowledged that or showed reciprocal openness.

Would have been 4 stars. Bumped it down to 3 because despite being sworn to secrecy about the heroine's job offer, he told their boss. It worked out ok in the book because of course it did, but I can't help thinking it could have ended horribly, also he knowingly disrespected her explicit wishes. That's rarely ever justified.

It's such a shame because I really liked the first book of hers that I read but I'm beginning to think it was a fluke. This book deals with a heroine who was abused by two people in her life, and then instead of the book investing some time in her finding herself, she finds another person to structure her life around. In addition, while the book directly addresses that the hero, whose dealing with grief needs to see a professional, no such recommendations who in my opinion needed it more than the hero. The book attempts to handle the topic of abuse but unfortunately I believe it horribly fumbles the bag when it comes to the execution of that ideas

I like that MJB's heroes cry. I find it endearing. However, Ash's inability to understand no was concerning. I would have been ok with it because Ash was generally shown to be an inconsiderate jerk and this could be seen as another negative and concerning aspect of his personality. However. There were times when other characters encouraged him, making it seem like all his stalkerishness was really not that bad