Caffeinated Crystal's book reviews

REIN ME IN was my first Kayla Grosse story, but it won't be my last. Hottie ✨️and polite✨️ cowboys and plus size country girls. Sign me UP. What is it about cowboys? And while I ABSOLUTELY LOVED Blake and Gavin's love story, both of these characters were navigating their own grief *over separate losses* and it made the story so much better. Blake comes back home to her family's ranch five years after the death of her brother Reed. She is not handling it well. Gavin is trying to save his family's ranch from his dead dad's mismanagement & the lingering drought. He is doing it alone, trying to protect his family, but he is drowning. Blake and Gavin have a meet-ridiculous at the local bar that features TORNADO, the mechanical bull. 👀 👀 👀 I loved Blake and Gavin. I loved their journey and how ALL- IN Gavin was. HE ABSOLUTELY FELL FIRST. So hard. An absolute simp for Blake and her smokin' hot bod. I'm looking forward to reading book two, Kade's story, b...

Dropping hot on MARCH 13th 💙  THE STEP DARE by Riley Hart and Devon McCormack takes us back to Peach State and frat guys who are also step brothers who are also lovers. It takes a while to get there, but that's the fun part! The chatty play boy & the quiet less experienced one decide to try it out... and then find out their parents are getting together. Surprise!! You can read the whole blurb here: ✨️✨️ https://geni.us/TheStepDare ✨️✨️ I'm excited! This duo always delivers a story that has it all: laughter, love, spice, and a little drama! I can't wait to read it!

Rowan, a rideshare-driving twink with a penchant for violence, and Charlie, a grumpy lawyer. It features first-times, primal play, kidnapping, and other crimes, and a philodendron that likes to ride in the car. HEA? Definitely. Other things... 💕Grumpy/sunshine 💜Age gap 💕Size difference 💜Rich/poor 💕Meet at knifepoint 💜Primal play ✨️💕"Daddy" (but no age play)✨️ 💜Caretaker and hurt/comfort 💕Secret billionaire 💜Murderous twink 💕Virgin hero 💜Orphan 💕Marry to get inheritance 💜Forced proximity 💕Criminal vigilante 💜Badass lesbian grandma 💕Shopping spree and makeover 💜Plant dads

Oblivious is book three in the IOU series. It's my favorite kind of story, childhood best friends to lovers. Noah and August are the founding partners at Weston & Ramirez. They've been best friends since they were nine, and they have been dating without actually dating their entire lives and completely oblivious to it. This was a quick story but such a good one. I love the mutual pining. I love the ✨️being scared to ruin the friendship✨️ I love the codependency and the bond. I love how they are each other's person, their family. The push and pull, the feelings, the being scared - it all felt so valid and real. They were terrified of losing each other. I loved seeing the other couples from the series at the law firm. I read these books out of order, so it's even MORE fun because I know who ends up with who. Noah and August had cute nicknames for each other. They had a rich history and a brilliant future. Their pranks and dares were adorable, and I just so very m...

DELICIOUS was a novella, and it was adorable. Ben and Mason kissed in high school, and then Ben moved away. Ten years later, they meet again in Paris in a patisserie class. They both love to travel and just happened to be in the same place at the same time They are each other's ✨️one that got away✨️ I loved this. So cute and squishy. ✨️ also features: first time with a guy, food poisoning, and "giving it a shot."

5⭐️ for pure enjoyment because this is absolutely my vibe. DADDY'S CABIN BOY was a novella set on a kink cruise ship called Cruisin' for a Bruisin'. Love that for us. Ricky, a boy with bad daddy experiences, desperately needs a job and lies to get the job as a service sub on the cruise ship. But he's not a service sub. He's a boy, and he has no idea what he's doing. And it's all HIGH KEY stressful for him. Gabe is besties with Master Mal, the cruise director. He's basically bullied to go on the cruise and dip his toes back onto the k!nk community. Ricky is assigned to Gabe, and it becomes very clear very quickly that Ricky and Gave are exactly what the other needs - they just need to communicate it. Which they do. It was great. What follows is a Daddy in his element and a size queen boy getting pampered & praised and everything else he needs. This was a C-U-T-E story with way less spice than you'd think. But it was so cute, and THEY were so cute ...

I love love loved this little shortie novella! SILVER (FOX) LINING by Anna Sparrows was such a great read! I'm totally giving it 5⭐️ My only complaint is that it was a novella and not a full-length story. I'm not kidding or exaggerating. I would have happily read 300 pages of these two. Cody is Mike's son. Mike is Ken's high school & current bff. Cody has always had a bit of a crush on Ken. The story pops off when Cody mistakenly texts Ken for help. Ken thinks he's helping a stranger, and they have a re-meet-awkward in a grimy club bathroom while Ken plays the  white knight. Ken and Cody spark up a friendship over their favorite tv show, and that slowly & organically evolves into texts, memes, calls, dinners, and then after a conversation -> friends with benefits. It can't ever be more because Ken is Cody's dad's best friend. But they can't stop their feelings. I LOVED THESE TWO. They had chemistry, and I just loved their friendship. I als...

Have you ever heard of cute aggression? Because to me, Owen is cute aggression personified. Or as Everest calls him, an overthinking grumpy gremlin. I LOVED Pumped! I also just really love Linden Bell. I am so sad that the Mars Fitness series is over. I highly recommend EVERY book in her catalog. You don't have to read them in order. They stand great on their own. Owen and Everest are opposites, and co-brothers-in-law? Their siblings are married to each other. If you love a story with ✨️a fine line between love and hate✨️, that's Everest and Owen. They're oil and water and so into each other and also simultaneously into hating each other.  When tragedy strikes and they are tasked with co-parenting their niece, we are looking at a forced proximity situation. These two were absolutely ridiculous. I was also FIRMLY reminded why I never want(ed) kids. It was heartbreaking watching Owen and Everest navigate grief, upheaval, becoming "new" parents, AND also manage to fa...

Meh. I downloaded A GENTLE SPRINT as a freebie looking for a taste of the author's writing style, and I really wasn't moved either way. I didn't dnf the story because it was only 53 pages, and I just wanted to knock it out. But it didn't really WOW me, you know? This is ABO dynamic, and Todd is an alpha, and Avery is an omega. They meet at the park next to Avery's house. Avery is just coming off a relationship with a cheater & Todd is walking around with a way-too-young omega. So Avery doesn't know who Jamie is to Todd & assumes Todd is just like his ex. But both Todd and Avery are super compatible, and they eventually, after going slow, give into the temptation. In ABO stories, there are, more often than not, male omegas who can get pregnant. Guess what happens?

After reading and loving, Letters to Satan, I KNEW I'd enjoy QUIVER. Eilsel is back with a novella featuring THE Cupid & a human. Azrael isn't a great cherub. He doesn't have a lot of friends, and he doesn't fit in. On a dare, he applies to the CUPID lottery and wins! Now he is interim Cupid, in charge of love & soul mates. On his quest as the Cupid, he meets the very human Beau. They have a meet-ridiculous (think meet-cute but ridiculous) and an instant connection. You'll enjoy this if you love your novellas to be a little far-fetched and cute. AND dirty, too. There is a significant amount of c*m play in this story, so be prepared for that. I went in unaware, and when the story got frisky, I was like "👀😳👀, that just happened." Beau and Azrael are feral for each other. The story itself is entertaining and fun & the spicy scenes are 💦 🔥💦 -> that is the first time I've ever used that emoji, but it's fitting for those two and what...

This book was dramatic af AND all the characters are unlikable. But why did I like the two mmc's anyway?! It's a true conundrum. Jamie and Chaz are pining childhood besties. But Chaz is married to a woman [and I have SO MUCH TO SAY about her, but I can't because of spoilers] and he thinks Jamie is straight. Jamie loves Chaz and is prepared to be miserable and pine alone forever... and maybe sleep with Chaz doppelgangers to get through the loneliness. Then WE LEARN THINGS. BIG THINGS. 👀 There is cheating in this book, but not between Chaz/Jamie. Less spoilery and more of a warning. I wanted these two to get it together SO MUCH. They obviously belong with each other, but god, they are both MESSES. Like, how are they even alive? Pippen Creek is gonna be a wild series. Jamie's dad was great, and I bet his book, the next book, is gonna be smoking hot. I bet he's a freaky deaky. I can't wait! This love story was a mess. It felt real. Real as in ✨️maybe you CAN make i...

What a sweet, rom-comy, adorable adventure!  10 WAYS TO ACCIDENTALLY FALL IN LOVE was like laying in the warm patch of sunshine during winter. It was like the happiness of the first sip of coffee in the morning or the comfort of warm clothes fresh out of the dryer. Perfect for the reader who loves sweet and funny romances packed with feels and oblivious innuendos. BRAD 💕 the Brad. He first showed up in HIMBO, and honestly, we all wanted more of him. This adorkable and oblivious "straight" guy. The human equivalent of sunshine and friendship. Brad is like an uber-hot friendship care bear. He's kind and sweet and friendly. JOEY, our other mmc, meets Brad at the gym. He shoots his shot -> and Brad thinks it's a friendship shot. What follows is flirting & unknown flirting. Dates that aren't dates. Nicknames and ridiculousness that shouldn't be adorable, but 100% is. Joey and Brad have the funniest and cutest adventure. The absolute minimum amount of angst ...

What a sweet, hilarious, and unexpected surprise! HANDY is book 8 in the Four Bears Construction series by KM Neuhold - and it was an absolute delight! Picture this: neighbors. One is a grumpy, solitary grizzly bear construction worker that communicates in grunts and growls. The other is a sunshiney, chatty, and bear- obsessed park ranger that has his eyes set on his delectable neighbor. These two were SO CUTE I COULD PASS AWAY. The touchstarved bear and the sunshine man with his trash panda. I literally can not. This was a low angst read with silly innuendos, bear puns, and a scene with butter that might seem a little familiar 👀 along with three series worth of characters popping in for quick cameos. Other honerable mentions for favorite parts: the carnival 😂😂😂, the secret admirer, bingo!, the morning coffee ritual, and "is that a new water stain?" I loved the hell out of this story. I needed the laughs that Griff and Ledger brought to the table 💕 and the kitchen floor....

I loved this story, and more specifically, I loved SAM. DEVOTED is book two in Lark's Seraphim series. We get angels finding their fated mates, and in this one, Zeke finds his mate in Sam. This is always the hard part - writing a spoiler free review. Even if I didn't love this story (which I absolutely did), I would still be giving this book 5 stars based on the OCD rep ALONE. Sam's journey with his OCD, GAD, and sensory processing disorder resonated so hard with me. He was trying so hard to just get by. OCD and intrusive thoughts are intense and can be so debilitating. Your own brain trying to trick you and trip you up. I know how that goes. Sam was amazing. And Zeke, with his own issues, was his perfect match. Truly. Zeke's kindness, patience, and understanding was beautiful to read. The Seraphim were an amazing found family, and I loved how they embraced Sam into their group.  I enjoyed Zeke and Sam's love story, and I am loving this whole crew of characters. Eac...

4⭐️ A little palette cleansing with a hetero mafia story 😂😂😂 it really does the trick. I've been finding it difficult to concentrate the last few days, understandably. So, MAFIA & MAID is just as ridiculous as you'd expect from the title. But I kept reading it, determined to see how the story played out. Rosa, desperate for a job to earn money to support and set up a new life for her son, starts working as a live-in cook/maid for a mafia family. She is skittish and recovering from a super nasty and abusive ex, so you'd think hulking mafiosos would be a bad choice, but they're all secret softies. Camillo is down bad for Rosa from the start, and he literally does everything he can to support and care for her.  But Rosa has multiple demons in her past, and her past is always trying to catch up with her. Things I loved about this story: 💕 Camillo is a brutish enforcer but wants to be considered "more than a monster." He was a secret softie, and he fell SO ...