Category / Scarred Hero

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Melt for You by J.T. Geissinger

Format: E-Book
Read with: Kindle Oasis
Length: Novel
Genre: Romantic Suspense
POV: First Person, FMC
Series: Slow Burn, #2
Publisher: Montlake Romance
Hero: Cameron Christopher McGregor
Heroine: Joellen Bixby
Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥
Published On: May 15, 2018
Started On: November 09, 2025
Finished On: November 11, 2025

There’s his Wikipedia page, his social media feeds, countless news articles, interviews, and photos. It’s jarring seeing the photos of him in action on the rugby field because he looks nothing like the man I’ve come to know.
He looks feral. Ferocious. Frightening. Like he’s released from a maximum security prison on short-term leave only for his games. There isn’t a single photograph of him smiling.

J.T. Geissinger does it again. Melt for You is one of those rare contemporary romances that slips in quietly, makes you laugh out loud, makes your heart clench, and then when you least expect it, melts you into a puddle of goo. It is smart, tender, outrageously funny, and a masterclass in how to write a transformative slow burn with two characters who simply shine together.

Joellen Bixby has spent most of her thirty-six years blending into the wallpaper, a self-effacing copy editor who lives for routine, her Saturday nights with her cat, and her entirely unrequited ten-year crush on her too-perfect boss, Michael Maddox. Joellen’s upbringing has done a number on her: an ex-model mother, a glamorous sister, and years of subtle and not-so-subtle messaging that she is the odd one out. Her low self-esteem is bone-deep, and Geissinger paints it with painful accuracy, often softened with Joellen’s razor-sharp, hilarious inner monologues.

Enter Cameron McGregor: a tattooed, kilt-wearing Scottish rugby captain whose bad-boy image precedes him. He moves in next door, rocks Joellen’s carefully ordered world on day one, and never once apologizes for it. Cocky, provocative, physically unstoppable and yet so unexpectedly gentle, Cam sees Joellen in ways she has never been seen before. And even though the book is told entirely from Joellen’s point of view, it becomes obvious early on that Cam is a goner. His pursuit is not filled with grand gestures or declarations, but consistency, care, and a kind of stubborn devotion disguised as irritation.

As their friendship grows, so does the tension; beautifully paced, painfully slow, positively electric. Cam becomes Joellen’s personal trainer not to chisel her into someone else’s ideal, but to make her strong, healthy, and confident. Every interaction between them (even the bickering) is charged, layered, and purposeful. The “practice kissing” scenes are some of the sexiest, sweetest writing Geissinger has ever done, and when the story finally tips into full-blown intimacy, it is both tender and scorching, delivered with surprising softness for the notorious playboy Scot.

I loved Joellen’s relatability; her insecurities, her humor, her resilience. And Cam? He is the book boyfriend those of us who have had body image issues never knew we needed. His backstory adds emotional heft to why he champions Joellen so fiercely, and why her self-loathing wounds him in ways she does not understand. If anything, I only wished we had had even a little of his POV, because his quiet unraveling in the background is half the magic.

This is a story about seeing and being seen, about shedding years of internalized criticism, and about a love that was never about transforming Joellen into someone else, but about helping her become the version of herself she never believed she could be.

Recommended for: Readers who love slow burns, sunshine-meets-storm-cloud dynamics, body-positive arcs, grumpy-but-smitten heroes, laugh-out-loud banter, and kisses written like poetry.

Final Verdict: A tender, funny, deeply satisfying slow burn with a Scottish hero who redefines swoon. A heartfelt knockout.

Favorite Quotes

“Keep up!” Cam barks over his shoulder at me as I lag behind him on the sidewalk, breath steaming white from my nose and open mouth, sweat pouring into my eyes, my will to live quickly being extinguished.
“Must. Stop. Death. Imminent.” My wheezing and staggering frightens a flock of pigeons into screeching flight from their perch on the back of a bus bench.
Cam turns around and trots back to me. He hasn’t even broken a sweat, the heartless bastard. “Joellen,” he begins patiently. “We’re two blocks from the apartment.”

“Is it . . . okay?”
He swallows. His blink seems to last an unnaturally long time. He clears his throat and offers a curt, “Yup.”
“Yup? That’s it?” I look down at myself, regretting the heels. Maybe I look slutty. Maybe there’s too much boob showing. Oh God, maybe I was wrong about the color—
“Joellen.”
Cam’s sharp tone yanks me out of my head and back into reality. “Huh?” I stare at him, wringing my hands.
Slowly and softly, holding my gaze as he enunciates every word, he says, “You. Look. Sexy. As. Fuck.”

“Promise me something,” he whispers into my hair.
“What?”
“No matter what happens with Michael, we’ll still be friends.”
“I thought you didn’t want to be friends.”
His sigh is a big gust of air. “God, you’re an idiot.”

“You were in therapy? For years?”
“I worked on my head as hard as I worked on my body. Can’t say the effect was as successful, but yeah. Therapy. Seein’ how badly my mum was mind fucked by life, I’ve always been into self-improvement. I also read a lot. Everything, really, biographies to history to politics. I didn’t go to college—gettin’ through secondary school with a learnin’ disability was tough enough—but I do love to read.”
He’s all that he is, and he loves books. Why, universe? Why give me this with someone who has a life on the other side of the world? I snuggle closer to him, breathing in his wonderful, warm scent, swallowing around the lump in my throat. “You don’t seem particularly angry to me, prancer.”
He chuckles and nuzzles his nose into my hair. “Beauty tames the savage beast, I suppose.”

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Apple

by mvbookreviewer

Review: The Return of the Duke by Grace Callaway

Format: E-Book
Read with: Kindle Oasis
Length: Novel
Genre: Historical Romance
POV: Third Person, Dual
Series: Game of Dukes, #5
Publisher: Self-Published
Hero: Severin Knight
Heroine: Fancy Sheridan
Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥
Published On: June 18, 2020
Started On: September 01, 2025
Finished On: September 05, 2025

The Return of the Duke by Grace Callaway delivers yet another sensual, emotionally layered romance in her Game of Dukes series, this time pairing the stoic and guilt-ridden Duke of Knighton with a heroine whose warmth and vitality transforms his life in every possible way. Grace Callaway has a gift for writing love stories that blends passion, tenderness, and a touch of adventure, and while this installment isn’t quite what the blurb promises, it is still an utterly delightful read.

Fancy Sheridan is a foundling turned tinker’s daughter, a woman raised with love but very little exposure to the rigid expectations of society. She is young, sweet, and possesses a kind of unaffected honesty that immediately sets her apart from the polished ladies of the ton. When fate thrusts her into a marriage of convenience with Severin Knight, the Duke of Knighton, a man haunted by his past and by an old vow to a woman he once idealized, Fancy’s life changes forever. Their union is meant to be practical: she will help care for his siblings, learn and adapt to what it means to be part of his world, and he will provide her with stability and protection. But as with any good marriage-of-convenience romance, what begins as duty swiftly spirals into desire.

Severin is a complex hero; brooding, controlled, and carrying the burden of a vow made to Imogen, the woman he once thought he would love forever. Yet from the moment he meets Fancy, that carefully maintained restraint begins to fracture. What is wonderful here is how little resistance he actually puts up.

For all his talk of keeping his heart closed, his attraction to Fancy is visceral, immediate, and unstoppable. If the book falters slightly, it is in how it was marketed as a story of a man denying his passion; in truth, Severin is anything but restrained once he allows himself to have her. The result is a romance far less about denial and more about rediscovery, about a man learning that real love is messy, tender, and alive.

Fancy herself is one of Callaway’s most endearing heroines. She does not try to be anything other than who she is, and that honesty is precisely what draws Severin out of his self-imposed darkness. There is something beautiful about how she grounds him, her optimism balancing his pain, her compassion softening his regrets. And while she is no fiery rebel or combative feminist heroine, her quiet strength and self-awareness makes her one of the most compelling female leads in the series.

This book is also steamy, as is trademark Callaway. Her ability to write sensual scenes that balances emotional depth with raw desire is unmatched, and Severin and Fancy’s chemistry is electric from the start. The scenes are intimate not just in body but in emotion; every touch, every look, every whispered word builds toward a love that feels inevitable. The fairytale quality of the ending ties it all together perfectly, giving Fancy the life and love that she truly deserves.

Recommended for: readers who enjoy historical romances with emotionally scarred heroes, tender yet strong heroines, and plenty of heat balanced with heart.

Final Verdict: The Return of the Duke is passionate, heartfelt, and thoroughly satisfying. Fancy shines as a heroine, and Severin’s devotion makes the story beautifully worth it.

Favorite Quotes

At the pond, she spotted Knight by the water’s edge. He’d set his hat and jacket on the ground, and he had a foot propped on a boulder. He looked solitary, not just because he was by himself. There was a remoteness to his gaze as he studied the sunset-painted water, as if he wanted to discern some secret beneath the rippling surface.
At her approach, he turned. In that unguarded moment, she saw a maelstrom of emotion in his eyes: pain and…longing brighter than the sun’s dying rays.

“I want a faerie tale,” she whispered. “I want a prince who thinks I’m a princess even though I’m ordinary. I want ’im to love me with all ’is ’eart because I’ll love him just as madly. I want to settle in one place with ’im and ’ave a family, one we would nurture and love together. That’s what I want.”
Knight’s eyes darkened, his pupils edging out the light. His gaze dropped to her lips, and she saw his nostrils quiver. Below the granite ledge of his jaw, his throat worked above the loosened knot of his cravat. A magnetic force pulsed between them, his head lowering toward hers, her own tilting up…

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Apple

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Shattered Dreams by Natasha Madison

Format: E-Book
Read with: Kindle Oasis
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
POV: First Person, Dual
Series: Dream, #1
Publisher: Self-Published
Hero: Charlie Barnes
Heroine: Autumn Thatcher
Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥
Published On: October 18, 2024
Started On: August 23, 2025
Finished On: August 30, 2025

To her, I was just Autumn, the lost girl who wandered into this small town and stayed. She loved me for who I was, the Autumn who smiles because she has to. The Autumn who laughs and then feels the immense guilt that I’m laughing.

My first Natasha Madison was definitely unforgettable. Shattered Dreams is an emotional romance about grief, guilt, and the long road toward forgiveness. Set in a small town shaken by tragedy, this story begins with a heartbreaking accident that forever alters the lives of six people. One night of recklessness takes away the future Charlie Barnes thought he had and leaves Autumn Thatcher carrying the unbearable weight of guilt. Years later, fate brings Autumn back, forcing both to confront the ghosts of the past they tried so hard to outrun.

Autumn returns home to Montgavin Township after her father is diagnosed with terminal cancer, only to realize that time has not dulled the community’s judgment or Charlie’s resentment. Once inseparable through mutual friendships, the accident that killed Charlie’s girlfriend, who was also Autumn’s best friend, drove a wedge too deep to mend.

Autumn, whose intelligence and quiet resilience have always been her strength, is a woman trying to reclaim a sense of belonging in a place that blames her for everything she lost. Her guilt is palpable, but so is her courage as she faces the town’s hostility and Charlie’s unforgiving eyes.

Charlie, once an easygoing man with a future laid out before him, is now hardened by grief and bitterness. He blames Autumn for not stopping what happened that night, and the anger that once protected him from pain has turned into a cage of his own making. Watching these two navigate the fallout of shared loss is gut-wrenching and yet strangely cathartic, the kind of emotional unraveling Natasha Madison does so well. The love that kindles to life between them feels impossible, yet inevitable, as they slowly begin to see each other beyond the tragedy that defined them.

The story moves through the full spectrum of grief, the raw anger, the guilt, and the slow surrender to healing. There is angst, but it’s beautifully written, balanced by sensuality and heartfelt vulnerability. Madison never shies away from the complexity of forgiveness, and it shows in every interaction between Charlie and Autumn. What makes this story work is how human both characters are—flawed, hurt, but still capable of love once they allow themselves to feel it again.

Recommended for: readers who love small-town romances steeped in tragedy, slow-burn forgiveness arcs, and emotional, sensual storytelling.

Final Verdict: Heart-wrenching, sensual, and full of redemption—Shattered Dreams by Natasha Madison delivers angst and healing in equal measure!

Favorite Quotes

“I’m not sure of a lot of things these days.” His voice comes out shaky. My body gets tight waiting for the rest of his statement, except it’s nothing that I thought it would be. The words that come out of his mouth send me jumping off a cliff, but this time, there is water there to catch me falling and not just an empty black hole. “But I do know that this is where you belong.”

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Apple

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Outlier by Susie Tate

Format: E-Book
Read with: Kindle Oasis
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
POV: First Person, Dual
Series: Daydreamer, #3
Publisher: Self-Published
Hero: Mike Mayweather
Heroine: Victoria Russell
Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥
Published On: August 12, 2025
Started On: August 17, 2025
Finished On: August 23, 2025

Outlier by Susie Tate is one of those stories that quietly creeps up on you; tender, unexpected, and deeply human. The third installment in the Daydreamer series, it brings together a neurodivergent heroine and a gruff, working-class hero in a story that is as much about healing and understanding as it is about love.

Vicky is unlike any heroine I have come across in a while; brilliant, blunt, and heartbreakingly misunderstood. Living with autism, she has spent most of her life being labelled “weird,” her social awkwardness and emotional honesty leaving her isolated even among those who should have loved her best. Her maternal family life is a masterclass in toxicity, with a manipulative mother and a sister who feeds off her insecurities. Yet despite everything, Vicky retains an innocence and kindness that shine through her eccentricities. Her world, though lonely, makes perfect sense, until Mike Mayweather finally storms into it from the peripheries within which he used to reside in her life.

Mike, rough around the edges and proud of his blue-collar roots, initially sees Vicky as the embodiment of everything he resents; privilege, coldness, and control. Their interactions up till the turning point in the novel are antagonistic and bristling with tension, as he dismisses her interest and mocks her awkward attempts to connect.

But as the truth about Vicky’s past and her struggles come to light, Mike’s defenses crumble. Beneath his grumpiness lies a fiercely protective man who cannot help but respond to her vulnerability, and when he finally lets himself see her for who she is, the shift is as heartwarming as it is inevitable.

That said, the pacing of their relationship was jarring for me. The transition from simmering animosity to calling her “baby” and the full fledged devotion gave me a whiplash; one moment he cannot stand to be in the same room with her, and the next, they are in a whirlwind of emotion and commitment.

I would have liked to see more of that gradual unraveling, more space for the longing and the chase to breathe. Still, when you consider Vicky’s history of emotional neglect and the depth of her trauma, perhaps it made sense that once love found her, it was allowed to be simple, something she did not have to fight for.

What makes this book special is how gently and respectfully Susie Tate portrays neurodiversity. Vicky’s perspective is written with empathy giving readers an intimate understanding of her internal world. The humor and warmth that define Tate’s writing balance out the heavier themes of abuse and healing, making this a story that lingers, not because it’s perfect, but because it’s real. The epilogue, with its glimpse of Vicky’s hard-won happiness, was everything!

Recommended for: readers who love tender, character-driven romances with neurodiverse representation, grumpy-sunshine dynamics, and found-family warmth.

Final Verdict: Outlier is tender, funny, and deeply moving; a love story that celebrates imperfection, acceptance, and the courage to love without filters.

Favorite Quotes

I pulled her to me as I lay on the bed beside her, until her head was resting on my chest, and her small body was gathered close to me in my arms.
“Um…” She hummed. “Is this all standard procedure as well?”
“Oh yes,” I said, smiling up at the ceiling as I felt her softness relax into me, and her tension gradually draining away. “Very much so, love.”

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Apple

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Heat by R. Lee Smith

Format: E-Book
Read with: Kindle Oasis
Length: Novel
Genre: Dark Romantasy
POV: Third Person, Multiple
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Self-Published
Hero: Tagen Pahnee
Heroine: Daria Cleavon
Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥
Published On: January 21, 2009
Started On: August 02, 2025
Finished On: August 08, 2025

“…You,” he said, lowering himself into the sofa cushions, “burn in my blood, Daria Cleavon. I will be ashes when I return. I will never be able to feel again.”

As is with every book that I have read by R. Lee Smith, writing a review proves to be a harder task than anything else. Heat is also the book that left me the most conflicted of her novels that I have read to-date, and yet, the story lives rent-free in my head, all 600-plus pages of it. When I finally reached the end, I found myself questioning everything I thought I understood about morality, about darkness and redemption, and about the fine, perilous line that separates them.

Set on Earth, and ravaged by a heat wave that triggers the alien Jotan breeding cycle, Heat weaves together two vastly different tales — one of savagery and one of unexpected humanity. On one side is Kanetus E’Var, the son of a ruthless slaver turned fugitive chemist, now hiding among humans and creating a drug derived from the human brain. On the other is Tagen Pahnee, a Jotan military officer sent to bring him to justice. In the suffocating grip of the heat, both men are consumed by need, one losing himself to depravity, the other battling to retain his soul.

Kane (Kanetus) is perhaps one of the most complex and disturbing characters R. Lee Smith has ever written. He is not a hero, not even an antihero in the traditional sense. He is a predator; methodical, intelligent, and terrifyingly self-aware. His relationship with Raven, the drug-addicted woman he takes as his possession, is abusive, exploitative, and utterly devoid of the boundaries that define love as we know it. Yet Smith forces us to look deeper, to see glimpses of vulnerability in Kane’s obsession, moments when his twisted affection surfaces in the smallest gestures. It does not redeem him, but it does make him unforgettable.

Raven’s arc, meanwhile, is a tragedy in slow motion. A survivor of addiction and neglect, she endures Kane’s brutality with a numb kind of resilience that breaks your heart. Her choices are born from a lifetime of abuse and deprivation, one that she actually chose for herself when she ran away from a loving home, and watching her transformation, from victim to something far more unpredictable was harrowing. By the end, she becomes as unfathomable as Kane himself, a testament to the way cruelty reshapes human nature. I was left reeling by her transformation, the insidious nature of which still stumps me. Tagen was perhaps the only individual who seemed immune to the victim complex that Raven was so adept at projecting, and I continue to question where exactly the transformation happened.

Tagen and Daria’s story, which unfolds parallel to Kane’s, is the light to that darkness. Tagen, honorable even in the face of his own loss of control, becomes the moral compass of the brutal assault that Earth subjects on his senses. His restraint even when it seems next to impossible, his gentleness, and the love that blossoms between him and Daria offer a desperately needed reprieve from the unrelenting darkness of Kane and Raven’s narrative. The juxtaposition of these two men — one capable of compassion, the other irredeemably monstrous, is what gives Heat its devastating impact.

Reading Heat felt like being torn apart and put back together, only to realize that some pieces don’t quite fit the same way anymore. It is graphic, violent, and profoundly unsettling. There were moments when I wanted to scrub my mind clean after what Kane does, particularly the scenes involving Raven and the mistress that Kane enlists along the way, but there were also moments of unexpected beauty, raw emotion, and philosophical depth that made it impossible to turn away.

What makes R. Lee Smith’s writing so exceptional is her refusal to sanitize darkness. She does not write for comfort, she writes to confront. Every moral dilemma, every discomforting act, forces you to examine the shades of grey that exists within all beings, human or otherwise. Kane’s monstrosity, Tagen’s decency, Raven’s survival, and Daria’s compassion all blend into a portrait of a world where right and wrong are luxuries few can afford.

Recommended for: readers who crave dark, brutal, and unapologetically complex sci-fi romance that tests emotional and moral limits.

Final Verdict: R. Lee Smith’s Heat is a brutal, unforgettable exploration of desire, morality, and survival. Devastatingly dark and impossible to forget.

Favorite Quotes

How easy it would be to take, he mused. To ease the stiffness from her small frame with his unrelenting touch. She would fold, he knew. She had resisted him in the kitchen, but she had clung to him in the end. It would be so now. He had only to fight her a little.
But he was tired of warfare. “I am male,” he reminded her, and stepped forward so that she could feel the proof for herself. “You are female. The females come to us. The females command. Command me, if you want me.”
Color flooded her cheeks and she cast her eyes about despairingly before meeting his gaze again. “I…Kiss me.”
It was a start.

Purchase Links: Amazon

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Protected by Claire Kent

Format: E-Book
Read with: Kindle Oasis
Length: Novel
Genre: Post-Apocalyptic Romance
POV: First Person, FMC
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Self-Published
Hero: Deck
Heroine: Lilah
Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥
Published On: July 03, 2025
Started On: August 01, 2025
Finished On: August 02, 2025

Protected by Claire Kent takes readers back into the brutal, stripped-down world of the Kindled universe, where survival is a daily battle, where tenderness is a tough commodity to come by. Two years after the world-ending Impact, the Lilah is alone, starving, and running out of options. Forced to join a roaming group of scavengers led by the calculating and unflinchingly pragmatic Logan, Lilah finds herself having to adjust to the new normal.

Among the group is a giant of a man named Deck, a silent, imposing man who has not deemed to speak a word since the day the world fell apart. What begins as an uneasy alliance between two survivors slowly becomes a deeply emotional journey about finding connection, safety, and love when there is little left worth fighting for.

Lilah at twenty-four has already lost everything; her family, her lover, and her home and lives with a constant undercurrent of fear until she finds a semblance of normalcy with the group. Deck, at twenty-nine, is her opposite in temperament but mirrors her pain. Traumatized by what he has endured, he communicates through gestures, small acts of care, and unspoken understanding.

As their partnership evolves, the story draws its tension not from the chaos of the world around them but from the delicate intimacy that forms between two broken people. The slow, cautious bond they build, one gesture, one shared glance at a time, is where the novel finds its heartbeat.

Claire Kent excels at writing love that grows out of impossible circumstances, and Protected is a just another trophy that attests to her strength as a writer. Deck’s silence never diminishes his presence and rather amplifies it, drawing the reader to him, trying to catch a glimpse into the depths of the emotional gentle giant that he is.

Every protective act, every lesson Deck teaches Lilah in self-defense, carries emotional weight. His strength is not just physical; it’s moral and emotional too, a contrast to the violent and often amoral world they inhabit. Lilah’s evolution from vulnerability to someone of indomitable strength is one that I rooted for wholeheartedly.

While the story delivers on emotional depth and survivalist realism, the external tension involving Logan and his group occasionally feels secondary. The stalker-like dangers and raiding conflicts add grit, but the real draw remains the understated romance and how it redefines what safety and love mean in a world stripped of both.

Readers familiar with the Kindled series will appreciate Logan’s reappearance; he remains the enigmatic force behind the group’s survival, setting up what promises to be an equally compelling story in his own book, which I believe will take some time to be published.

While I have loved this constant stream of heroes who are gentle, emotional, and able to be more open about their trauma, I also want heroes of the kind that Ms. Kent used to write – men who brood a bit more, rarely give away what they are thinking or feeling, adding that delicious tangible angst to the story. I sorely miss that.

Recommended for: readers who love post-apocalyptic romance with quiet emotional intensity, protective and gentle giant heroes, and heroines who discover their strength.

Final Verdict: Protected is a slow-burn romance set in a world of ruin, where silence speaks louder than words and love becomes the last refuge of the human soul.

Purchase Links: Amazon

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Redemption by Noelle Adams

Format: E-Book
Read with: Kindle Oasis
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
POV: First Person, FMC
Series: Worthings, #3
Publisher: Self-Published
Hero: Caleb Morrison
Heroine: Louisa Worthing
Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥
Published On: February 16, 2024
Started On: July 31, 2025
Finished On: July 31, 2025

Redemption by Noelle Adams tells the story of Louisa Worthing, who was once the quintessential rich girl spiraling through parties and bad decisions. Louisa has spent the past three years rebuilding her life in quiet anonymity. Sober and focused on her art, and learning what it means to live without chaos. But when a stalker who was focused on someone else in her family shifts focus to her, Louisa’s peace is shattered, and the man assigned to protect her is none other than Caleb, the ex-military bodyguard who has seen her at her worst.

Their shared history stretches back years. Becoming part of her life when she was merely sixteen years old, he was the one man she could not manipulate, the one who drew boundaries and held firm even when she tried every trick in her arsenal to test them. When trouble comes calling and Caleb is reassigned to protect her, Louisa is determined that this time around, she will redeem herself.

The chemistry between them is undeniable, but Adams writes it with restraint and emotional depth rather than dramatics. Louisa’s attraction to Caleb is not born of rebellion anymore, but rather rooted in understanding and a deep sense of yearning that goes beyond anything she has experience before.

Caleb, for his part, fights a losing battle against his feelings, torn between loyalty, morality, and the haunting awareness that he has always wanted her, regardless. Their romance builds slowly, with Louisa determined to take responsibility for her prior life and actions, and Caleb equally determined not to hold them against her.

What stood out most to me was the sensitivity with which Adams handles Louisa’s recovery. There’s no melodrama here, just the day-to-day honesty of a woman who knows that redemption is never a straight path. Louisa’s guilt over her past isn’t glossed over, and Caleb’s hesitancy feels both justified and also adds that delicious layer of angst to the story. Caleb low-key reminded me of Grant from Princess by Claire Kent, another pseudonym used by Noelle Adams. Their love unfolds with a kind of gentle realism that makes the eventual connection feel that much more worth it when all is said and done.

The only weak thread in an otherwise beautifully told story was the stalker subplot. It serves its purpose in bringing Caleb back into Louisa’s life, but it remains peripheral to the emotional core of the novel. The tension it introduces feels muted compared to the internal struggles both characters face. That said, it does not detract from what truly matters here; their journey toward forgiveness, both of each other and themselves.

Recommended for: readers who enjoy emotional, character-driven romances with age-gap and forbidden elements, and second chances built on quiet strength rather than grand gestures.

Final Verdict: Thoughtful and tender, Redemption is a novel that is quietly powerful and deeply human!

Favorite Quotes

This is different from the other night.
This wasn’t fumbling together in the dark.
This is real.
This is us.
All of us.
He knows me completely—everything I’ve ever done, everything I’ve ever been—and he still wants me.
Right now it feels like he always will.

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Apple

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Recollection by Noelle Adams

Format: E-Book
Read with: Kindle Oasis
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
POV: First Person, FMC
Series: Worthings, #1
Publisher: Self-Published
Hero: Arthur Worthing
Heroine: Scarlett Elizabeth Kingston
Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥
Published On: August 25, 2023
Started On: July 30, 2025
Finished On: July 30, 2025

Recollection by Noelle Adams is one of those quiet, aching love stories that sneaks up on you and refuses to let go. Told entirely from Scarlett Kingston’s perspective, it opens with her waking up in a hospital after an accident that wiped out six months of her life—six months that changed everything. Her father is dead, her life is unrecognizable, and she finds herself living in the sprawling, centuries-old Worthing estate under the care of Arthur Worthing, a man who was once merely her father’s friend.

Arthur is forty-six, a brilliant, scarred, and reclusive man whose sense of control masks a heart that feels too deeply. Scarlett, at twenty-eight, is raw from grief and confusion, her amnesia leaving her trapped between two realities; the one she barely remembers and the one she is now living.

The dynamic between them is immediately loaded with tension: gratitude, dependence, attraction, and the unspoken history she cannot recall. What unfolds is both tender and devastating, a slow, deliberate exploration of love rediscovered under the strangest of circumstances.

The story moves fluidly between past and present, peeling back layers of their relationship with a kind of aching inevitability. Arthur is a quintessential Noelle Adams hero; quietly protective, honorable to a fault, and burdened by his own insecurities. His restraint is painful to witness at times, especially as he struggles to keep his distance while Scarlett unknowingly falls for him all over again. Scarlett’s journey, meanwhile, is one of piecing herself back together, of rediscovering not only her love for Arthur but also her strength and sense of self after trauma.

What makes this book unforgettable is how Adams captures intimacy beyond the physical. Every touch between them feels earned, charged with emotion and memory. The sex scenes are sensual, yes, but they are also suffused with tenderness and pain, the awareness of what was lost and what might be regained. Arthur’s fear that he is holding her back, his conviction that she deserves a future unshaped by his scars or her dependency, gives the story its most heartbreaking edge.

If I had one complaint, it is that I wanted an epilogue, a glimpse into the happily ever after they fought so hard to earn. After the emotional whirlwind of their separation and reunion, I longed for that final exhale. But perhaps it is fitting that the story ends where it does, leaving readers to imagine the rest, as Scarlett once had to imagine the missing months of her life.

Recommended for: readers who love emotionally charged age-gap romances, scarred heroes who love quietly and fiercely, and heroines who must rediscover both themselves and the man they love.

Final Verdict: Poignant, sensual, and beautifully written, Recollection is a love story that asks what it means to fall in love twice—and makes you believe it’s possible.

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | Apple

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Heartless by Elsie Silver

Format: E-Book
Read with: Kindle Oasis
Length: Novel
Genre: Contemporary Romance
POV: First Person, Dual
Series: Chestnut Springs, #2
Publisher: Bloom Books
Hero: Cade Eaton
Heroine: Willa Grant
Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥
Published On: October 14, 2022
Started On: July 25, 2025
Finished On: July 29, 2025

She smells like oranges and warm grass, refreshing and comforting all at once. She feels like heaven in my hands. And she looks just as wild as I’ve always known she is.

I can now understand why Heartless has been hyped so much by fellow romance readers, because this book was everything I want in a contemporary romance: funny, emotional, sexy, with characters who feel real. From the very first chapter, I was pulled into the story of Cade Eaton, the grumpy single dad rancher, and Willa Grant, the sassy, city-bred nanny who upends his carefully ordered life.

Cade is the kind of hero who makes me swoon; he is a man of contrasts. At thirty-eight, he is mature, responsible, and a little rough around the edges. Life has left him emotionally scarred and cynical, and his ex-wife only reinforced the belief that his best would never be enough. Yet beneath that hardened exterior lies a man who is tender, protective, and deeply loving, especially when it comes to his son, Luke. Watching Cade as both father and lover is an experience in itself, because the same hands that manage a ranch with rugged efficiency also know how to be devastatingly gentle.

Willa, at twenty-five, is the perfect foil to Cade’s grumpiness. She is bold, irreverent, and a little wild in all the ways that shake up his world. Sassy and yet commitment-phobic, she is used to running when things get too deep. Yet she is also fiercely loyal and brings a light into Cade’s life that he did not even know he was missing. Their banter is sharp and often laugh-out-loud funny, their text messages brimming with sexual tension and genuine affection, and when the slow burn finally explodes, let’s just say truth or dare has never been this hot.

The tension between them is beautifully balanced: Cade’s dirty talk and commanding presence paired with Willa’s playful defiance creates the kind of sexual angst that makes every scene sizzle. But what makes the book stand out is the softer moments; the way Cade takes care of her, the way Willa coaxes him into believing he is enough, and the way they both find in each other the family and love they did not think they could have. I also loved how fierce Willa was when it comes to Luke and Cade, which proves to be Cade’s undoing in the end.

I adored the secondary cast too, who added texture and warmth rather than being cardboard side characters. Luke was adorable. No two ways about it. Juggling a kid in the story line is sometimes a hit or a miss and I believe it was handled beautifully here. And while the epilogue with Willa giving birth was a lovely touch, I did wish to see more of her family and to watch Cade and Willa tie the knot. Still, the ending gave me everything I needed, and left me humming in the right places.

Recommended for: fans of grumpy/sunshine romances, single dad heroes, sassy heroines, and slow-burn heat that pays off in spades.

Final Verdict: Funny, sexy, and heartfelt, Heartless is the perfect blend of grit and tenderness—Cade and Willa are unforgettable.

Favorite Quotes

“You’re a good man, Cade Eaton. Quite possibly one of the best.” Her voice is so soft that I barely hear it.
The hair on the back of my neck stands on end as I drop my head toward her. Everything around us fades away. I don’t know how she has this knack for telling me the things I crave. Tracing my insecurities the way she does. Soothing the hurt she doesn’t even know exists.

“Red,” I whisper-shout.
Her head flips in my direction, her eyes twinkling. Because, if nothing else, Willa Grant is a shit disturber, waltzing into my life and complicating it without even trying. Looking all pleased with herself over it.
With a wink over her shoulder, she shoots off, running from me.
And something primal in me roars to life.
I chase her.

If Willa is the playground, I want to fucking play. Period.

I pull a drawer open and rifle through it to busy my shaking hands.
My fingers run up against something silky in the drawer full of scissors, elastics, clips, and Post-it notes. I grab and pull and peer down into my palm.
The black panties I dropped in that coffee shop all those weeks ago.
Turning back, I dangle them in my fingers. Cade doesn’t look surprised at all; he just regards me with his Annoyed Scowl.
“You kept these?” I demand, sounding petulant even to myself. “You told me you threw them away.”
“I lied,” he grits out.
“Why?”
“Because you’ve never been just the nanny, Willa.” My chest lurches as I look back at him, feeling suspended in time. “You’ve always been more. The woman I wanted but wouldn’t let myself have.”

We’re just energy, and heat, and breath. I’ve never been so thoroughly consumed in my life. Never had sex with such an edge to it.
“Mine.” His growl is downright feral as he explodes inside of me, hands tracing my back reverently. A man of such dichotomies. Hard words laced with love. Rough hands filled with tenderness.

When I open my eyes, Luke is staring at me with a thoughtful expression on his face.
“What did you wish for?” I ask him, needing something lighthearted. Thinking it will be something ridiculous. Something frivolous.
Instead, he delivers a gut punch.
One soft cheek hitches up, and he glances back down into the dark well. “I wished for Willa to come back.”
My eyes burn when I pull him into me, feel his tiny arms clutching at my waist.
And my voice cracks when I say, “Me too, pal. Me too.”

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo | eBooks | Apple

by mvbookreviewer

Review: Beacon by Claire Kent

Format: E-Book
Read with: Kindle Oasis
Length: Novel
Genre: Post Apocalyptic Romance
POV: First Person, FMC
Series: Kindled, #8
Publisher: Self-Published
Hero: Malachi (Mack)
Heroine: Anna
Sensuality: 🔥🔥🔥
Published On: October 11, 2024
Started On: July 20, 2025
Finished On: July 22, 2025

I just woke up one day and knew—I knew—that you were my resting place.

Nostalgia is the word that best describes how I felt reaching the end of Claire Kent’s Kindled series with Beacon. Throughout the series, on and off, Mack has been a towering presence in the background, the steady hand, the heart of the community, the man everyone leaned on when the world crumbled after the event known as Impact. His story has been one of the most anticipated of the series (which I am sure is a sentiment shared by many followers of the series), and while this installment may not have become my personal favorite, I can appreciate the way it brought his journey full circle.

Mack is a man who has carried the weight of countless battles, both physical and emotional. For ten years he has been the anchor in the storm, the one who kept order amidst chaos, and the one everyone else turned to for assistance. But even the strongest shoulders eventually give way and that is what happens when a certain chain of events becomes the final straw after years of loss and responsibility. Add to this, the loss of his dreams of a family with the woman who owns his heart, needless to say he withdraws completely, retreating into the wilderness to nurse wounds too deep to share.

When Mack fails to return back to the community even as months pass, it is Anna who finally sets out to bring him back, knowing that it may not be as easy as that. Mack who would rather nurse his wounds in private, is reluctant to let her in, both literally and figuratively, until he is forced into sharing his quarters with Anna, which serves to the start to the journey of shared healing for the two.

Though Anna is pivotal to the story, I often found myself struggling with her choices. At thirty-three, she is a survivor of an abusive marriage, determined never to lose her independence again. Her hesitancy to commit to Mack comes from a place of self-preservation, a belief that she cannot be the partner he deserves because she still has so much healing of her own to do. And yet, beneath all that, it is evident she has always loved him. She just could not let herself give in.

What I did admire was Anna’s decision to risk her life for Mack, both literally and figuratively. When she ventures into the dangerous forest to bring him back, it is as much about saving him physically as it is about proving her feelings at last. Mack’s need for reassurance, for proof that he is not alone and unloved, felt heartbreaking and necessary after all he has endured. It was only fair that she had to be the one to step forward and make that sacrifice, just as he has carried everyone else, including Anna, for so long.

The theme of positive masculinity runs strong here. Mack is written as a man of great strength, but also deep vulnerability. His willingness to shoulder responsibility, his devotion to community, and his steadfast love for Anna makes him a hero worth remembering.

Still, as much as I admired his character, I found myself less enamored with the romance than I expected. Perhaps it was the years of buildup between Anna and Mack throughout the series which Ms. Kent expected us to take notes of, or the way their relationship often simmered just below the surface, but when it finally took center stage, I did not connect with their love as deeply as I hoped.

That said, I do understand why the characters were written the way they were. Breanna, in her story, needed a gentler partner to help her heal, and while Mack’s trauma was different, he needed the space and solitude, time to grieve and recover privately before he could return whole. The conclusion between Anna and Mack perhaps makes sense for who they are, even if the emotional punch did not hit me with the same intensity as some of the earlier books in the series.

Now that the series has come to a close, I cannot help but feel a bittersweet ache. Beacon ties the threads together, but it also leaves me looking forward. Logan, who made only a small appearance here, completely stole my attention, and I am already anticipating his book with high hopes. Now there is a hero of the kind I identify with!

Recommended for: readers who love end-of-the-world survival romances, broken-but-steadfast heroes, and heroines learning to claim their own strength.

Final Verdict: A bittersweet finale; Mack’s story closes the series with quiet strength, even if the romance did not burn as brightly as I had hoped.

Purchase Links: Amazon