Terminally Online
Social media will be our downfall
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It Happened One Summer by Tessa Bailey. Spoiled socialite Piper is going through an unfortunately Very Public Breakup due to her famous stepfather (a film producer) and her own social media influencing, and after an ill-advised stunt, she’s banished to her hometown (where she hasn’t been since she was a child), a small fishing town in Washington state, to atone for her sins and, in the process, maybe rescue her late father’s decrepit bar. Enter Brendan, a no-nonsense local fishing boat captain (and widower) who doesn’t even have an Instagram account. These seeming opposites must find a way to navigate the choppy waters [heh] of Piper’s arrival into town and Brendan’s formerly orderly life before they lose something special.
If you haven’t read Tessa Bailey before, some expectation-setting: she writes grumpy/hyper-masculine heroes who get bossy (and talkative) in bed. If rougher sex and dirty talk are turn-offs, skip this one!
Rating: 4.5/5
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
Set On You by Amy Lea. Crystal Chen, a curvy fitness influencer, is locked in an escalating battle of the wills for the good equipment at her gym with a new patron, firefighter hottie [heh] Scott. When they end up at the same engagement party, they realize a cease-fire may be in order, because her grandmother and his grandfather are getting married. As their feelings develop in a more amorous direction and a cute photo of them goes viral, they must fight their greatest battle yet: new love versus toxic body-shaming internet trolls.
I loved the characters, concept, and writing style, but I knocked off a bit of my rating because some of this book reads as very Social Media 101 like the author is trying to explain the internet to a time traveler from the Revolutionary War. Just some of the nuances were a little overwritten, and as a person who’s been spoiled by the social media storylines in books like An Absolutely Remarkable Thing by Hank Green and Axiom’s End by Lindsay Ellis (neither romances, but if you want great contemporary sci-fi, I cannot recommend either of these books enough!!) it was tougher for me to invest entirely.
Rating: 4.25/5
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Love on the Brain by Ali Hazelwood. Bee Königswasser was just offered her dream job, a neuroengineering project at NASA, but there’s a catch: she’s co-leading the project with her sworn grad school enemy Levi Ward. As a woman in STEM, Bee is no stranger to sexist nonsense (it’s why she anonymously runs the popular Twitter account to vent, What Would Marie Curie Do?), but despite a rocky start, it seems like Levi is willing to put in the work as an ally and… maybe a little bit more too. Also featured: a campaign against the GRE, social media doxxing, sexist workplace microagressions, and secret kittens.
I will be honest: I loved Ali Hazelwood’s debut (featured in yesterday’s fake dating recommendations) and wasn’t quite as swept up by this one, I think for similar reasons to my above review of Set On You- it felt a little overwritten in some places, with a rushed third act, and I’m on the record not being as much of a fan of (spoiler-ish alert) enemies-to-lovers couples where the enemy aspect is born of a misunderstanding and is largely a surprise to one of the parties. Otherwise, I feel the onus falls a little too heavily on the party who, it turns out, totally overreacted to make up for assuming the worst, rather than dolling out the blame to them both in kind.
Rating: 4/5
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Subscribe to my romance newsletter, Forced Proximity, that will deliver you 3 new romance recommendations every Friday afternoon!
