Review: Marry Me (Tattoos and Temptation #1) by Mia Monroe

Rating: 4.25 🌈

Marry Me , the first in Mia Monroe’s Tattoos and Temptation series, is a absolutely sweet , low angst best friends to lovers romance. Throw in that terrific fake fiancé trope, along with a bisexual awakening and you have a wonderful contemporary story about two men who ,over the course of their friendship, have slowly fallen in love with each other. But it takes the approaching wedding of a wedding, anxiety over seeing an abusive ex to make them realize it, including one to see his friend in a new way sexually.

Monroe makes us love these men , understand their past histories and the deep relationship they’ve developed. We also get to know Jude’s tattoo shop and the people that work there. They will also have stories to come. So will some of the people who work at the bakery with Briar. Both groups gather together when it’s time to school Jude in gay culture before he and Briar go to the wedding.

The scenes give us warmth, found family, and genuine love between the people there as well as hilarity and hijinks! From the interactions, we see a new emerging relationship between Briar and Jude that is even more interesting and intimate.

Jude’s mental and emotional progression from straight to bisexual is more one of awareness of his pasts thoughts and feelings. And adjusting his vision of himself as he learned more about himself and his own sexuality. It feels like a journey someone would take who’s just finding out their sexuality might be more fluid then they had previously thought.

The book rings out with joy . Of a happy relationship, of two friends who have discovered they are also deeply in love.

Marry Me is sweet, endearing, and sexy. I love the characters and enjoyed it thoroughly.

Each book is very different. So I’ll need to check in to see what’s next.

Meanwhile, if you’re looking for low angst, sweet romance, this is the one for you! I’m recommending it!

Tattoos and Temptation series:

✓ Marry Me #1

◦ Fix Me #2

◦ Free Me #3

◦ Catch Me #4

◦ Tempt Me #5

◦ Twist Me #6

https://www.goodreads.com › showMarry Me (Tattoos and Temptation #1) by Mia Monroe – Goodreads

Synopsis:

A fake fiancé never felt so real.

The idea of facing my cheating ex at a friend’s upcoming wedding sends me right back to the chubby, insecure guy I was when I met my very straight best friend. Since then Jude has been the most supportive person in my life. So when I ask him for a favor, he steps up and becomes the best fake fiancé a guy could ask for.

With three months before the big day, my friends rally to make sure we come across as authentic as possible. Jude takes to the lessons better than any of us anticipated. Especially the kissing.

Now the fake engagement is starting to feel kind of real.

This wedding should be really interesting…

Marry Me is a steamy, best friends to lovers, fake fiancé, gay awakening, low angst story. It is book one in the Tattoos and Temptation series featuring hot Miami nights, Latin desserts, and guys with ink.

It can be read as a standalone.

Review: Stud (Four Bears Construction #5) by K.M. Neuhold

Rating: 5 🌈

Stud, the fifth novel in the Four Bears Construction series, is a great example why one should read these stories in the order they were written.

Over the past four novels and romances, we’ve watched the West and Sawyer drama.

Or non drama. Because, although a stone could tell how much in love West has been with the bar owner since the first time they met, Sawyer has firmly kept West in the friend zone, if that. Book after book, glances, even a trip to Hawaii which we get caught up on here, we have seen these two men in serious denial/want about each other.

But in Stud, everything changes. And per this series,the swing in dynamics starts off hilariously. Omg, China dolls! Nope, no spoilers.

West , the nephew of Dare’s (Stone’s mechanic husband),has been a great character throughout the series. He’s been supportive, funny, all the while going through his own amount of personal growth as a young man and craftsman. He’s amazing. So I’ve been waiting for him to get his man and HEA.

Neuhold not only obliges with a funny, warm-hearted romance but an unexpected reunion that gives us all a wonderful closure.

Sawyer has been a peripheral character , one we see at Wooley’s, the bar he inherited from Gus , it’s previous owner, snd the gangs favorite hangout.

In Stud, Sawyer’s past , as astonishingly does Gus’s in a remarkably poignant story element, comes into focus. We see exactly why he’s held West at a distance for so long despite his feelings, and the turmoil inside him when West declares he’s going to start dating.

That declaration jumpstarts Sawyer and his mixed up heart and mind on a strange, funny and quite wonderful path to HEA with West , a restored Victorian, and a bunch of feathered kids. Oh my.

One element I’ve adored in each book has been the great pet/animal(s) per couple. I have sometimes forgotten to mention it. Shame on me because it’s a terrific part of each story and couple.

So here’s the list so far….

Four Bears Construction series animals:

🔵Caulky #1: Cole and Ren’s bees

🔵Nailed #2: Stone and Dare: Rudy and Nard Dog

🔵Hardwood #3, Ev and Watson, Hedgehog

🔵Screwed #4 Ollie and Daniel: Monty the Python

🔵Stud #5, West and Sawyer: Huey, Luey, Duey, Darkwing

🔵Stripped #6, Miller and Dem,

Mars and at the end Shelldon, omg so adorable. Yes review to come. Yes tortoises!

🔵Drilled #7 the finale. Apollo and Ridge, cat Log… been waiting to see a cat tbh. Review to come…

How do you not love a series that folds in such great animals along with sensitive and funny romances?

That’s easy to answer. I do. I do love them.

Each different and great couple, each amazing path to love and HEA.

I don’t have many left. Sort of dreading saying goodbye. But not yet. A few to go.

What a wonderful, heartwarming and joy filled journey it’s been so far.

Like all the others, I hope you’re on this one with me. I highly recommend this one . Stay with me till the end .

Stud: A boss, knob, or nail head…or, you know, the hot guy who’s way too young to keep asking me out with that adorably earnest smile …

It’s been three years since West walked into my bar and asked me out for the first time. I was relieved he stopped asking after the first few “no”s and a way-too-good-to-be-real kiss. He’s fifteen years younger than I am; it can only lead to trouble.

Of course, now he’s running through people off dating apps like it’s his job and wearing these lace panties that look really unfair on someone as furry and muscular as he is, and, um…what was I talking about?

I probably shouldn’t sabotage his dates, but I’m only human. I might not be ready to admit that I want him, but I’m definitely not ready to let anyone else have him either.

He’s too perfect, too hot, and I am in way too much trouble…

*** Stud is a friends-to-lovers, construction-worker-in-panties, omg-so-much-swoon story that happens to be the fifth book in the Four Bears Construction Series. Every book in this series CAN be read as a stand alone, but they’re a lot more fun together!

Stud

Stud. Goodreads sales link to options

A MelanieM Review: A Taste Of Agapi by Chris Ethan

Rating: 4.5 stars out of 5

A sweet, Greek romance that will hook you from start to finish.

Jimmy has a secret.

But when he meets Ren, he can no longer hide it.

Ren is an adventurous comic-book nerd.
He transfers to Thessaloniki, Greece in an attempt to find his place in the world.
What he gets is more than just an escape from his academic family.

Jimmy is a hard working man.
After losing his mother, he has put his heart and soul into finishing his studies and helping his dad through his financial difficulties.

When he is introduced to Ren, Jimmy initiates him into the coffee-and-chill culture of his Greek city.

But something awakens in both of them. Something neither can tame.

Can the two boys be more than just friends?

And what is that feeling called? That feeling they can’t seem to shake off?

A Taste of Agapi is a sweet, low-angst, coming-out romance with some swearing, a little bit of geekiness, a lot of Greek culture and a happy ever after.

If you read that last sentence of the blurb above basically my review is written for me. All that is true. Review done. Shortest review ever! Excerpt that A Taste Of Agapi by Chris Ethan also opens a window into Thessaloniki, Greece. We meet its people with its infinite variety, dive into Greek culture through its food, language, politics, family life, and yes, monuments. We even get to travel into parts of collegiate life with Ren when we attend classes with him. No, A Taste of Agapi is a treasure trove and love letter to Greece and the Greek people with it’s honesty about its issues (the elements of racism, homophobia, intolerance) that high unemployment and an economic slump has seen increased as well. We still want to travel there, share in the love and joy of those we will meet eating and celebrating in their neighborhood bars and seaside establishments, hoping for the same welcome that Ren was lucky enough to find with Jimmy and his friends.

Ethan’s characterizations are marvelous.

Warm, layered portraits of people that you not only want to meet but might recognize anywhere. Funny, flawed, fierce, and loving, these are young men and women at that most bright and precarious stage of their lives. Coming into adulthood, finding themselves, figuring out futures, and just being young. Chris Ethan captures it all and does it while making them genuine Greek youth navigating the peculiars of Greek society. In this case, it’s the very real fear of what coming out will do to you and those around you in a culture that sees it as something not only to be reviled but criminal, the laws only now changing. No, this is not liberal Europe or the US.

The relationship between Ren from England (and a more liberal culture) and Jimmy (definitely not out in a hostile one) still manages to be sweet, questioning, and romantic. It also feels entirely real. It’s very easy to connect with these two as they try to figure out what they feel about each other, what they are doing with each other (virgins), and all the conflicting issues they face, each other’s cultures not withstanding. Huge questions that face these young men in such a short time together.

Therein lies my one issue with this story.

It’s really only half of a book. It ends exactly where the other half of the book should start. That keeps this story from being a 5 star read for me. It almost took it down to a 4 (that and a element with 2 brothers and a uncle that petered out to nothing, not that I’m complaining).

No, it’s that we need the rest of this story. I can only hope that the author is hard at work writing it. This couple and the readers deserve to know how it all plays out. Until then, travel to Thessaloniki, Greece in A Taste Of Agapi by Chris Ethan for a sweet coming out romance you will thoroughly love.

Cover art: Tiferet Designs. Gorgeous cover with the White Tower of Thessaloniki in the background, one of the many monuments that Jimmy took Ren to. Love it.

Buy Links: Amazon US | Amazon UK

Book Details:

Kindle Edition, 190 pages
Published September 26th 2018 by Chris Ethan Gay Romance
ASINB07GTK9MP2
Edition Language English

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