Week of December 15, 2025

Heated Rivalry update: Episode 5 came out on Friday of this week, and I’m still beyond obsessed with this show. I just can’t get over how well done it is. I’ll be very surprised and disappointed if Connor Storrie doesn’t win an Emmy for his role as Ilya Rozanov in this series, particularly for Episode 5 and his Russian monologue. The entire thing has just surpassed any expectations I had of the show and I’m blown away with how much I’m enjoying it. And I’m also beyond crushed that I have NO ONE to talk to about it! I’ve asked around, trust me, and no one I know is watching it. Thanks goodness for TikTok or I’d feel utterly lost. My entire FYP is consumed with HR content because clearly that’s what I’m obsessed with right now. But please, if anyone out there wants to talk about it with me, I’m begging you to write to me at [email protected] so I have someone to talk to!

Other than that, time here marches on and Christmas sneaks up on us once again. Is everyone ready for the big day? All of my shopping is done, and all of my wrapping and baking will be done as of Monday (the day this newsletter comes out) so I’m hoping to be able to breeze through the rest of the week and enjoy the holiday. Wishing everyone that celebrates it a Very Merry Christmas!

• As always, here’s my rating scale for your information:

  ⭐️ Did not like this book, would not recommend. Lots of errors, plot holes, not worth the effort to read, most likely didn’t finish. But I’m giving this author a single star for making the effort to publish a book. Not everyone’s even gotten that far, so yay for you.

  ⭐️⭐️ Didn’t really like it, multiple issues with style, plot, syntax or characters. Most likely forced myself to finish it. Would consider other books by the same author but I might have to be convinced.

  ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Enjoyed the book. Perhaps there were issues with plot or style but it was an enjoyable read. I could see recommending it if it were of a specific genre or trope or series. Most of what I read could easily fall into this category and I’d be a happy camper.

  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was a good book. Like a really good book. I will think about this book when I’m finished, and there’s a really good chance I’ll buy it for my personal library if it was a KU read. I’d recommend it to other readers of the same genre or trope. I’ll definitely search out other books by this author, probably as soon as I’m finished reading.

  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Wow. Just wow. Amazing book, amazing story. If there were flaws in the book I’m completely overlooking them because in my mind the book was sheer perfection. I didn’t want the book to end and I’m immediately adding it to my favorites and my re-read pile. And if there’s an audio version I might have to buy that, too. I have a book hangover, I miss the characters, and I feel actual, physical loss in my life when this book is finished.

Thanks for joining me this week! Let’s dive in!

1. One Big Happy Family, by Susan Mallery ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

   This was a cute, chaotic holiday book. I don’t often read seasonal books, but this one called out to me. Was it perfect? Not even a little bit. Julie is a control freak, Gwen went from being awful to endearing far too quickly, and Heath is clearly a fictional man - he’s affectionate, madly in love with Julie, completely comfortable with his ex-wife in the same house as his new girlfriend, and a great lover? Fiction! But this was a fun book nonetheless and if nothing else, shows that there’s always a reason to be grateful that your own family is less messed up than the one next door. So there’s always that!

2. Borrowing Blue, by Lucy Lennox ⭐️⭐️⭐️

   This was a decent debut novel although a little bit over the top in terms of going from meeting to falling head over heels in a matter of days. Blue and Tristan meet at random in a bar and realize that they are the brothers of the bride and groom on the upcoming wedding. Blue is gay and Tristan is straight, until all of a sudden, he’s not at all straight and the two of them are out and committed after a week together. Perhaps a bit too convenient, but the connection the author forged for the two of these characters was very sweet.

3. The Summer Of Us, Lily Morton ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

   Gosh I just love this author. I love the cadence of her writing and I can just hear the characters speaking in my head. John and Matt were fabulous together and I really loved this book. John didn’t have a lot of depth as a character until Matt came into his life in France, and then he seemed to just spark to life. After reading a couple of this author’s other books that also took place in France and in England, I appreciate her penchant for incorporating the romance of the locations into her work, and this was no different. In hindsight, this books was really not much different than her other works, but still good.

4. Let There Be Light, by A.M. Johnson ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

   This book was so sweet. I love the way the author wrote both Camden and Royal, and expressed their innocence and mutual discovery so well. Royal’s realization of “I like him” was so raw and free and his willingness to accept it as simple and factual was so pure. It’s books like this that really appeal to the hopeful side of me in the MM romance world - I’m not sure how realistic it is, but I’d really love for stories like this to happen. Of course later in the book, there is also a darker side to the couple’s coming-out story, one which is probably far more prevalent and realistic unfortunately. And scenes like this is why hopeful shows like Heated Rivalry are having such a bold impact at the moment and being received with such huge fanfare. it was interesting to read that this week and then watch episode 5 where coming out can be received with such celebration.

5. Saddle To Sunup, by Emmy Sanders ⭐️⭐️

   This is the 3rd book in the Darling Brothers series by Emmy Sanders, and this one I had a little bit of a harder time relating to. This one focused more on gender identity and the more fluid definitions of sexual orientation than simply the LGB letters my GenX brain is used to comprehending. I get it, there’s a lot more out there - but that doesn’t mean I understand all of it. And I struggled to understand Lawson’s character in this book because of how he was written. His partner Oakley seemed to manage just fine, and I guess that’s what mattered, but I didn’t really grasp how he was “in love” with Oakley when he couldn’t even verbalize how he felt attracted to another person in the first place. So this book didn’t give me the typical romance feelings that I usually get with a book, so this one wasn’t high on my list.

6. Rebound, by Kate Hawthorne ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

   This was the first book I read by this author, and I liked it. I enjoyed her writing, I enjoyed the way she wrote these characters, and the way they stepped into their conflicts. Thomas, mid-divorce and looking to explore feelings of bi-sexuality for the first time in his life, searches out a man to hook up with on a dating app. He finds Ben, a single man hoping to hook up with someone to get over a bad breakup with a controlling, abusive boyfriend. The two meet and Thomas doesn’t reveal that this is his first time with a man, The two actually have some chemistry together and Thomas is enjoying his experiences. After a couple of hookups, he comes clean with Ben and admits that he’s “new” at this and Ben, although a little freaked out and not at all looking to get into a relationship, agrees to continue to meet up with Thomas to be his mentor of sorts when it comes to sex with men. It’s kind of a backwards way to get to know someone, but the two actually start to get to know each other and realize that they could be more than just sex. Their respective characters were better than I expected them to be, and I enjoyed their story.

7. How My Neighbor Stole Christmas, by Meghan Quinn ⭐️⭐️⭐️

   Another holiday book! This was a very quirky book, almost cheesy, but cute and appropriately charming for the holiday season. Storee and Cole are good characters, competing to be the town Kringle (the most festive person in town for Christmas,) and in typical romance book fashion, fall for each other during the competition. If you want a semi-spicy book with some cute banter and holiday charm, look no further - this would fit the bill.

That’s it for this week! As always, you can keep up with all of my reading on my Goodreads if you want to. https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/12921106-karen

Love, Karen