Week of November 3, 2025

Welcome, everyone! I know there are some new faces on here this week thanks to the newest episode(s) of the Let Me Call My Mom podcast. I’m excited to have you join in this reading roundup that I do each week. Tori totally outed me in that one Instagram highlight reel this past week - I do indeed love my MM romance books. For some reason the romance in those books feels so much more genuine to me than the romance between characters in MF romance books. Those end up feeling performative and more often than not I end up skipping a lot of the spicy scenes in those books. It’s a good thing there’s a HUGE world of books out there for everyone to discover what moves their soul and makes them happy. I’ve found my niche, although I do enjoy mixing it up from time to time, as you’ll see. no matter what, I’m happy to have you along for the ride!

Speaking of books, maybe I’m late to the game, but I’ve recently discovered Luke Bateman on Instagram and TikTok. Have any of you found him? He’s the most delightful young man I’ve every had the privilege of listening to. He was a contestant on The Bachelor in Australia and he’s a farmer and he LOVES books. And the way he talks about books is so poetic and lyrical, he’s an absolute delight. I highly recommend following him. Here’s one of his recent Instagram book reviews:

View more on Instagram

• 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. Noah, by Cara Dee ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

   This was a KU book that I decided to pick up because I liked two other books by this same author. This story followed Noah, a Hollywood assistant director, who lost everyone important to him in a span of 48 hours. He found his girlfriend of 4 years in bed with another man, and the next day he lost his entire family in a plane crash. Shattered didn’t begin to explain his life, but the book wasn’t all gloomy and weepy. The only sole survivor in his family was his sister’s stepson, her husband’s son from his first marriage who hadn’t been on the plane. Julian. Noah and Julian formed a bond over their trauma despite their 17 year age difference, and Julian moved to LA from Pittsburgh to give himself some space from his grief. The trauma bonding that these two men go through leads to lots of vulnerability and Julian discloses his inappropriate crush he had on his “uncle” in his teenage years. Noah discloses his past sexual involvement with men “experimentally”. It’s only a matter of time before the two begin to see each other differently. But the author handles this very well. There is tons of conflict for them to each overcome. Noah is conflicted with 1) he’s never been romantically involved with a man before and 2) his family would be mortified that he’s pursuing something romantic with Julian of all people. The book is all from Noah’s POV so it’s his conflict that we work through, but we know that Julian is struggling as well as he disappears often, sometimes for days or weeks at a time which tortures Noah. When we finally get to see the characters be together, they’re fantastic. Noah is so open and comfortable in his own skin, it’s great. I adore characters like that and he’s perfect. This was a solid read.

2. Sweet Regret, by K. Bromberg ⭐️⭐️.5

   This was a KU book that I heard about on TikTok and it was just ok for me. I seem to have gone down a rock ‘n roll romance book theme somehow because I had a bunch of them pop up and this was another in that genre. Small town boy Vince, abandoned by his mother, abusive father, leaves town after high school to pursue his dream of being a rock star. He leaves behind his high school sweetheart, Bristol, who had dreams of her own life of college and law school and thought that she and Vince would be together forever. This is a story of miscommunication, the stubborn guy being given 10 chances too many to make everything right, the plain girl getting the perfect guy. It’s every trope you can imagine all rolled into one book, and it wasn’t done all that well, either. I didn’t love this one. Again, if I had to pick a rock ‘n roll romance story, it would be Kate Stewart’s Drive and Reverse duet.

3. The Meaning Of You, by Jay Hogan ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

   Back to my MM romance books with this one, and there was far more to this story than I expected. There was a lot less romance and a lot more of a thriller / mystery component to this book, and I’m not mad about it even a little bit. This really worked as it hit on my two favorite things (mlm and mystery in one) without me even knowing it was coming. This is not a spicy book at all, but rather a story about moving on from loss and allowing yourself to even begin to accept the idea of loving someone again. But on top of that, it’s about finding answers when you discover that the man you loved more than anything didn’t, in fact, tell you everything like you thought he did, and those things he hid could actually kill you now that you’ve uncovered them. And this nice new guy you’ve met? That guy that you won’t let yourself feel anything for? Yeah, he’s now in danger too because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Honestly, the dynamic between Nick and Madigan was really good. There are other books in this series and I think I’m going to have to read them to see where this goes from here. It was well done, and I’m curious to see if this was a fluke.

4. Triple Touble, by Jesse H. Reign ⭐️⭐️⭐️

   Wow, ok. This was purely smut but it was fun. Two guys, Will and Mat, long time friends and roommates, who had always been straight, go to a gay bar one night for a friend’s birthday party and both of them are captivated by a man they see there named, you guessed it, Trouble. They bring him home with them and that’s it, suddenly they’re bi. Not only bi, but decide to settle into a committed throuple with this new guy. I’ve no clue if there’s any basis is reality at all in this book, but if MMM romance is in your wheelhouse, you may like this one. You won’t be reading it for the plot, trust me, so there’s not much more to say about this one here. Blush at your own risk.

5. Sweet Talk, by Susan Mallery ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

   I do enjoy this author a lot. Her books are romance-oriented without being over-the-top spicy and those I enjoy in the MF realm better than the explicitly spicy ones for whatever reason. This book focuses on Claire, a 28 year old concert pianist who goes home to Seattle to care for her estranged twin sister after she’s had surgery. It seems that Claire, being a musical prodigy from a young age, was whisked off to study music abroad by her mother, and her sisters felt abandoned. Claire didn’t ask for the special treatment and only wanted a normal life and missed her family terribly, while her sisters felt that Claire instead got all of the attention and was spoiled and they resented her for it. The chasm in the family was made greater when the girls’ mother was killed in a car accident when she was traveling with Claire - the sisters have never forgiven Claire for taking their mother away from them.

   So when Claire goes home to help Nicole after her surgery and help out in the family bakery that Nicole has been running for years, no one wants anything to do with Claire. They push her away, belittle her, tell her to leave. But Claire keeps coming back. She’s determined to heal the wound in her family. She knows that it’s her family that she’s missed all her life, and her two sisters are all she has left in the world. It’s hard to see Nicole continually belittle her for something Claire couldn’t control when she was young. Enter Wyatt, Nicole’s best friend and the handsome single father, and of course he and Claire are instantly attracted to one another despite warnings from Nicole for them to stay away from each other. But that’s not how attraction works, as we know. Wyatt has his own issues as well, but he and Claire make a good couple.

   We do finally see Claire and Nicole talk through their problems that are years overdue, and they have other issues to handle with their younger sister Jesse wreaking havoc in the world (problems were introduced in this book but will likely be solved in books 2 or 3), and they realize that their sisterly bond is important to them. It’s a sweet book, and I will be reading the rest of the series.

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