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Dolly Sickles

RomanceContemporary Romance

How You Get the Girl

Review by Dolly Sickles

Anita Kelly dedicates their latest rom-com, How You Get the Girl, to “every queer and trans person in Tennessee. Your joy will outlive the cruelty of your government.” A teen librarian by day, Kelly knows intimately how remarkable educators can make all the difference in the world.

Julie Parker is enjoying her first season as the head coach for East Nashville High’s women’s basketball team. By day she works as a fundraiser, but after school, for a few fun months every year, she’s the coach every student dreams of having—because Coach Julie understands teenagers. She’s engaged, approachable and supportive of her team, both on the court and off. It’s beautifully evident from the very first pages, as Julie adapts to and charms a difficult new student, Vanessa Lerner.

Vanessa’s aunt and new foster mother, Elle Cochrane, is an ex-WNBA star who hasn’t played basketball in eight years and is trying to find equilibrium in her and Vanessa’s new normal. Elle doesn’t get regularly recognized by the public any more, so she finds Julie’s instant fangirling as adorable and refreshing as she does Julie herself. When Julie asks her to be the team’s new assistant coach, Elle can’t help but say yes.

How You Get the Girl is fun, flirty and full of heart, a story of two people falling for each other despite the chaos around them. Julie wrestles with defining her love for a woman, since she’s always considered her sexuality label-less. Elle struggles with the overwhelming responsibility of suddenly becoming a parent, to a teenager no less. While these challenges and more affect Julie and Elle’s burgeoning relationship, their bond motivates and unites them. Love is big and scary and exciting, and Kelly proves that the biggest win is being brave enough to open your heart to another person.

Anita Kelly’s How You Get the Girl is fun, flirty and full of heart, a story of two people falling for each other despite the chaos around them.
RomanceHistorical Romance

Her Adventures in Temptation

Review by Dolly Sickles

Megan Frampton has once again brought history to vivid, technicolor life with the third installment of her School for Scoundrels series, Her Adventures in Temptation. This bold foray into the world of Regency damsels and the scoundrels who drive them crazy is spirited and scandalous, and Frampton’s refreshing voice gives the popular fake-relationship trope new wings. 

Simeon Jones was raised by a single mother who taught him that art comes before everything . . . even love. It’s a hard mantra to shake, but he’s not a vain, cruel player. Rather, Simeon is the sensitive hunk of his group of friends, the Bastard Five. Despite the white lies and tiny manipulations he employs to navigate high society as an illegitimate artist, he’s earnest and sweet under it all.

He’s drawn to Lady Myrtle Allen, a well-to-do yet unconventional woman. Confident, independent and intelligent with a head for numbers, Myrtle enjoys eating cake and helping other women manage their finances, and she intends to make her way to London to establish a home away from her interfering, controlling family. But as upper-class Regency women cannot travel alone, Myrtle navigates her first business negotiation, paying Simeon to journey with her while posing as her husband. 

Many Regency novels are super chatty, full of double-entendre and doublespeak. Frampton’s style follows suit, but her writing is as smart as her characters. Simeon and Myrtle don’t lob banter back and forth; rather, they volley information at each other with precision and speed. The characters’ different communication styles perfectly fill in the blanks for their other half: Myrtle is frank and practical, telling the truth when nobody else will; Simeon protects his soft heart with studied, elegant courtesy.

As Simeon and Myrtle fall in love, they realize that they can not only have love and their careers, but also the joy of respecting and elevating their partner’s work. It’s so easy to pull for them both, because they so clearly pull for each other.

Megan Frampton’s refreshing voice gives the fake-engagement trope new wings in Her Adventures in Temptation.
RomanceContemporary Romance

Next-Door Nemesis

Review by Dolly Sickles

If you’ve ever had a beef with your homeowners association, you’re going to relate to Alexa Martin’s newest rom-com, Next-Door Nemesis. Because in the world of suburbia, the HOA is everybody’s enemy.

When Collins Carter moves back to her childhood home in the wake of a professional meltdown and bad breakup, she’s not expecting to run into Nathaniel Adams. They were friends once, until Nate opted for the greener pastures of teenage popularity and morphed from her best friend to nemesis nearly overnight.

Unfortunately, time has been good to Nate. He’s a hotshot realtor living his best, most successful life right next door to Collins’ parents. He’s also the current vice president of the local HOA, and struts around like he’s the king of his own little fiefdom. Martin uses Nate and Collins’ yearslong derision for each other to set up one fun disaster after another. Nate insists on being in control of everything concerning the neighborhood, while Collins creates roadblocks left and right to throw him off course. She soon has the brilliant idea to dethrone Nate on the next vote for HOA president, which for him would be tantamount to full, total failure. Collins’ embrace of chaos makes her the perfect foil for Nate’s perfection: It’s fun to see her chip away at his levelheaded facade, and it’s just as fun to see him lose his cool.

Martin uses the seemingly lighthearted HOA battle to reveal the deeper emotions both characters are trying to navigate. Winning the presidency isn’t the true goal of either character—rather, the election becomes an outlet for each to fight for control over their own destinies. It doesn’t take long for the cracks in their supposed antagonism to appear, and for the reader to realize that Collins and Nate actually love each other. Both are equally worthy of redemption, and equally capable of giving each other a second chance.

All the hallmarks of Martin’s appeal (as seen in contemporary romance gems such as Intercepted and Better Than Fiction), are present: an enviable, robust friend squad; snappy dialogue; and a slow, but very hot romantic buildup. It’s sexy. It’s steamy. And it sure is fun.

Two former best friends go to war over their local homeowners association in Alexa Martin’s steamy and extremely fun rom-com Next-Door Nemesis.
RomanceContemporary Romance

Codename Charming

Review by Dolly Sickles

The second book in Lucy Parker’s Palace Insiders series, Codename Charming, is a light-hearted rom-com that perfectly deploys the grumpy-sunshine and fake dating tropes. Unbelievably fun on every page, it’s another all-around winner from Parker.

Petunia “Pet” De Vere is the personal assistant of Johnny Marchmont, a goofy, lovable British royal who stops just shy of being a himbo. He’s the perfect boss for Pet, who is very proficient at her job and happy to adapt to whatever Johnny throws at her. But when a blundering moment between them goes public, the tabloids assume there’s more to their relationship than duty. Johnny is a happily married man, so the palace higher-ups ask Pet to fake a relationship with Johnny’s stoic bodyguard, Matthias Vaughn, in order to immediately quash rumors of an affair.

Matthias is the opposite of his charge. Johnny goes with the flow, affably making his way through life and duty, and Matthias is there to pick up the pieces and provide a stalwart wall of support. He grew up in the foster system, and always felt like he was merely tolerated in the places he lived, rather than accepted. His history, however painful, has made him well-suited for his profession, where his serious reserve is a major asset. Having proved his indispensability time and again, Matthias agrees to the fake relationship with the very perky Petunia.

Matthias and Pet are enjoyable characters with rich backstories. They’re refreshingly mature, understanding how they fit into the narrative of the royal institution and Johnny’s life. When they gamble on a real relationship, they not only have to face the normal fears that come when you let love in, but also balance them with their individual duties. No matter what happens between them, they must maintain their professional focus given that their lives unfold, at least partially, in the public eye. 

As usual, Parker surrounds her couple with a robust cast of fun supporting characters who never overshadow the two central figures. Even if you aren’t a professed Anglophile, Codename Charming is a breezy read that’ll have you smiling and dreaming of fish and chips—and maybe a quiet bodyguard who’s over the moon for you.

Lucy Parker’s breezy and winning new rom-com, Codename Charming, follows a reserved royal bodyguard and the perky personal assistant of the prince he protects.
RomanceFantasy Romance

The Hurricane Wars

Review by Dolly Sickles

Thea Guanzon bursts onto the scene with a tale of political intrigue and ancient magic in The Hurricane Wars.

This fantasy romance opens in the middle of a war, one that’s been raging for 10 years between the Sardovian Allfold and the Night Empire. We’re introduced to orphaned soldier Talasyn, who as a Lightweaver, someone who can summon energy in the form of light, is the last hope for her people. But before she can reach a temple in a faraway land that will boost her power, she’s intercepted by Prince Alaric, heir to the Night Empire and a Shadowforge (the opposite of Talasyn’s abilities). Talasyn and Alaric should be diametrically opposed. But then, Alaric offers an uncharacteristic olive branch.

The Hurricane Wars is a beautifully written tale of freedom and oppression, of passion and apathy. Guanzon’s narrative is full of vibrant imagery—floating castles, falling boulders and streets paved with gold—and extensive world building exploring how enchanters imbue the elements with hues of emerald and sapphire. As she explains in her Author’s Note at the beginning of the book, the Filipina writer has essentially created an otherworldly version of her country, mirroring its centuries of foreign rule and volatile cyclones, volcanoes and earthquakes.

There’s a lot at stake in this enemies-to-lovers romance, and tensions run high from the first page to the last. Talysyn is the light to Alaric’s darkness, both literally and figuratively, and Guanzon leans into the elemental push and pull of their relationship. The book is lengthy and twisty to the extreme, and there are as many characters as settings to keep up with. Catching up with the action in chapter one feels like jumping onto a moving treadmill, because there are so many details to absorb before you feel up to speed.

An underdog rebel fighting against an imperial oppressor is a familiar tale. However, Guanzon’s intricately imagined world and spirited writing style mark her as an exciting new voice in the realm of fantasy romance. The Hurricane Wars is an entertaining start to a sure-to-be epic series.

The Hurricane Wars marks Thea Guanzon as an exciting new voice in the realm of fantasy romance.

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