I really liked this latest Hazelwood romance at the start. Scarlett, with her anxiety and perfectionism, her sarcasm and understated humor started off as a much more grounded character than the usual quirky scientist. While this book takes place in college, I liked that the characters didn’t feel like children which helped a lot given that, of the Hazelwood books I have read, this one seems to have the most in terms of sexual encounters. And they are steamy scenes, even if I had issues with their aftercare routine, but more on that in a second. But for a book that started so strong with a FMC that felt so different from her previous books, I still ended up disappointed.

This was the book that I wanted to read first in the Glimmer Falls series. And really, there isn’t much of a reason why you can’t, perse, the book does do a very good job of recapping Mariel and Oz’s story so you don’t generally miss out on anything story wise. But you would miss out on just why/how Astaroth is the villain for the enemies to lovers’ aspect to make any sense at all. So, am I glad I read Mariel’s and Oz’s story first? Eh, only because I think it makes my enjoyment of Calladia and Astaroth that much higher.

On the surface, “Until Summer” follows Kyle on his final summer before he and his core group of very rich and privileged friends, leave their summer island homes behind for college. This is the last summer they can play their games and catch up and live carefree and wild lives together. Some more than others, like Trent who seems to make a sport out of making the local girls fall for him and then breaking their hearts and destroying their lives. There’s very much a “Dirty” Dancing” kind of vibe between the rich visitors that come every year, and the locals that wait upon them. Kyle is more sensitive than his friends, a closeted gay boy who isn’t looking for the same kind of sexual conquests as his friends, until The Boy appears and suddenly all of Kyle’s attention, his purpose for breathing and thinking, becomes Jack. When the author says this is a book about obsessive first love, he wasn’t kidding.

It's always a fascinating experience to go back through an author’s backlog once you’ve fallen in love with their recent work. I adore the Brown Sisters and their romance series, it’s secured Talia Hibbert as one of my favorite authors. So, of course, after finishing those books I went back. And in “The Princess Trap”, you can really see where Reuben walked so Red, Zaf, and Jacob could run. In this contemporary romance, you have the fake engagement trope in spades along with a very heavy case of insta-lust between Cherry and Reuben after he visits the Academy she works at. He’s a prince in disguise so of course he doesn’t tell her exactly who he is when he takes her out to lunch, and of course it doesn’t come up when they get a little frisky in the alley before getting to Cherry’s apartment. It’s not until a paparazzi catches them that Cherry really learns who Reuben is and agrees to the engagement scheme to protect him, herself, and also pay for her sister’s college expenses. Cherry is a wonderful example of how Hibbert keeps true to her strong, big, beautiful, and incredibly capable female lead characters. And while Reuben possess a lot of the characteristics that later MMC in Hibbert’s books posses much more strongly, I think were you really see Hibbert’s growth is how her romantic leads help each other grow in some capacity. Cherry certainly helps Reuben through his trauma, but there’s not much for Cherry to do growth wise.

“An American Marriage” is multiple stories wrapped together, and I don’t say that because there are three POV characters. You have the messy relationships of Celestial and Roy, Andre and Celestial, and then the relationships between them and their parents all under a magnifying lens highlighting every flaw. Then you have the story of the gross injustice in our justice system that incarcerates a disproportionate amount of Black and Brown men, and how that incarceration upends not just their lives, but the lives of their families and disrupts a whole community. Sometimes, these two stories came together, and other times they didn’t, which made this book hard for me to put my finger on if I liked it in its entirety, or just certain parts. So, let’s talk about the characters first and the “romance” aspect. Beware, this is a long one!