Raised by grifter parents, Vero didn’t mean to constantly engage in illegal activities; she’s just very good at it. When her handiwork leads to her being kidnapped, the last thing she expects is to receive a job offer.

Unfortunately, as a struggling con-artist, it’s not one she can refuse, and she suspects there’s a lot more than meets the eye when it comes to this forgery and her employer, Professor Viktor Ashworth.

I’m a big fan of academia-centered stories and enjoyed how this novella skirted the edges, featuring a mysterious professor, rare books, and a love of books in general.

Picking up after the events of Bride, Mate follows the story of Misery’s best friend and trauma buddy, Serena Paris.

Not only did Serena grow up in a weird bubble of captivity with Misery, but her half-were, half-human existence is a scientific wonder, making her a target for humans, weres, and vampyres alike.

Koen, alpha of the northwest pack, has promised to take care of her, and he doesn’t take promises lightly. Serena also happens to be Koen’s mate, but can a half-were really understand what it means to be a mate, or is something else making Koen distant?

Mate was a great continuation of our Were education, this time with a deep dive into the Northwest pack. I loved getting to know Koen and his seconds, as well as the backstory of how he became such a young alpha in the first place.

Aethelthryth, best known as Ethel, is living her best vampire life in modern-day Manhattan. That is, until her nemesis, Lazlo the vampire hunter, shows up and saves her life.

As a thank you, she decides to wait on killing him until he’s recovered from the ordeal. The complication? He seems to have lost his memories, including of the paranormal, and now refuses to leave her side.

I really enjoyed this quick read featuring an awkward situation between the hunter and the prey. In this case, the hunter doesn’t know he should be hunting, and the prey is wary of being lulled into a false sense of security.

This was a lighthearted and entertaining tale of two immortals whose lives are intertwined. I especially enjoyed watching Ethel try to pretend she wasn’t a vampire, attempt to feed her nemesis, and figure out how to get rid of him.

Maya Kilgore’s much older brother is getting married this summer in the most romantic setting ever, a villa on the island of Sicily.

The problem? Maya has a major crush on said brother’s best friend, Conor, who is 15 years her senior and has made it clear that he's too old for her.

If only she could convince her heart to stop thinking about him and move on. If only he weren’t so easy to talk to.

Problematic Summer Romance is a sequel to Not in Love, but follows different main characters. I do recommend reading Not in Love first if you don’t want any spoilers for Not in Love, but you don’t NEED to read it (or remember any specifics) to enjoy this one! There’s also some fun overlap and cameos of characters from Deep End (Scarlett + Lukas) as well as Love, Theoretically (Jack Smith).

Warning: slippery when WHET.

Described as her love letter to new adult books from the 2010s, Deep End is a college sports romance between a platform diver and a swimmer. Scarlett Vandermeer, a junior at Stanford, is a student-athlete working towards medical school.

Scarlett Vandermeer, a junior at Stanford, is a student-athlete working towards medical school and trying to get out of the diving funk she’s been in. Relationships are not part of her plan for success. Lukas Blomqvist, swim captain and gorgeous Swede, just might complicate those carefully made plans.

A university love story featuring a Swede and someone who isn’t very good at speaking up had me hooked from the start. I especially loved the relationships in this story and watching Scarlett learn to navigate her own feelings, new friendships, friends with (maybe) benefits, and everything in between.

When two rival game designers find themselves on a joint company retreat, they have to figure out how to play nice, or they won’t get to work on their dream project.

Viola is willing to do whatever it takes, even if that means working with her former crush, Jesse, who clearly hates her.

This was such a fun read, told from the perspective of a female video game designer, one who is looking to design a game based on her favorite book. As a lover of games, I enjoyed seeing a romance set in this industry, which, like STEM, is male-dominated.

I especially appreciated the reference to Gamergate and that the bias against women, which is prevalent in the industry, isn’t glossed over.

Dr. Rue Siebert is a biotech engineer working at a food science start-up, Kline. Her family might be out of the picture, but she’s all set with her two persons, her BFF Tish and their boss & mentor, Florence Kline.

When a private equity company, Harkness, buys out Kline’s loans, things start to get a bit weird. Even weirder when Harkness’ founders show up at work to announce an investigation.

If that wasn’t enough to deal with, she’s unusually drawn to Eli, whom she met on a sex-forward app. With her no-repeats rule, he shouldn’t be an issue, but what if she wants him to be?

Eli, unfortunately for Rue, also happens to be a founding member of Harkness, making the possibility of a relationship a very bad idea. And he absolutely cannot stay away.

Werewolves, Vampyres, and arranged marriages, oh my! Putting it lightly, Vampyres and Werewolves are not friends. Their latest plot to keep the peace is to marry off Misery Lark, daughter of the highest-ranking Vampyre, to the Alpha of the Werewolves, Lore Moreland.

Surprisingly, both groups have their own motives for going through with this deal, and everyone thinks they have the upper hand. Perhaps the question is not whether there will be a war, but who will start it?

Ali Hazelwood’s first paranormal fantasy was a definite hit and so hard to put down! As with her other stories, the character dynamics are delightful, and the dialogue is thoroughly entertaining. I love the snarky banter and the scheming in this one.

The story has a very concrete ending and is very much a standalone tale, but I’m so happy there is a second book in the series, Mate, which follows two different characters from Bride.

Mallory Greenleaf has a lot more responsibility than most 18-year-olds. Her current goal is to earn enough money to help her family stay afloat and ensure her younger sisters are cared for. Chess, the destroyer of her family, is off the table, no matter how much she loves it.

When her best friend guilts her into playing a charity game, she ends up matched with the current chess world champion, 20-year-old Nolan Sawyer.

Just one game and she finds herself caught up in a world she can’t let herself be a part of, no matter how attractive it (or its world champion) seems.

I immensely enjoyed this YA rom-com centered around two chess players. Full of delightful banter and complex characters, Ali Hazelwood's first young adult romance is definitely worth the read and doesn’t require any prior knowledge of chess to enjoy.

Elsie is a theoretical physicist with plans and dreams, mainly for a job in insurance to help with her insulin and maybe one that doesn’t involve quite so many emails from students.

When she makes it into the final selection for the tenure-track faculty position (aka benefits including health insurance), nothing goes as planned.

Elsie's current fake boyfriend (everyone needs a job that pays the rent) has an obnoxious brother, Jack, who just happens to be the physicist who ruined her mentor’s career and is on the hiring committee.

Jack also thinks Elsie’s a librarian who’s dating his brother. While usually Elsie can shape herself into what everyone needs her to be to avoid questions, Jack seems to see right through her.

Under One Roof

 
Published: February 2022 

follows Mara, an environmental engineer, who has to figure out how to cohabitate with a big-oil lawyer who just happens to be her mentor’s nephew and co-owner of the house she inherited.

Bee Königswasser lives by a simple code: What would Marie Curie do? She even has a Twitter account dedicated to it.

When she gets a career-defining opportunity to work with NASA, her excitement is tempered by the fact that she has to co-lead the project with her archenemy, the atrocious yet attractive Levi Ward.

While officially she’s co-lead, Bee finds herself blocked at every turn: equipment is missing, the staff is ignoring her, and her data is being tampered with. Is Levi the problem, or will he help her sort things out?

This was a great story full of complex characters that explores some disappointingly common problems within academia. The story also discusses the use of standardized tests for admission into academic programs in a really good way.

The Love Hypothesis was Ali Hazelwood’s debut novel, and it is not one to miss.

Olive Smith, a third-year PhD candidate, responds to her best friend’s disappointment in her love life in the only reasonable way; she kisses the first man she sees and convinces him to be her pretend boyfriend.

Somehow, that man is the hot young professor, Adam Carlsen, who is not known for being nice, yet he agrees and even buys her frappuccinos.

This story had delightful banter, smart characters, and highlighted some shady things in academia, such as sexual harassment. Grad school is hard enough without some of the additional hurdles thrown at women simply because of their gender. The back of the book includes an author's note and additional information about TITLE IX.

While touching on some very serious issues, this story is still a really fun and light-hearted read, which I easily devoured. Each chapter has a hypothesis for an epigraph, adding a fun touch to the book.