Review: When You Smile by Melissa Brayden*

*I received a copy of this book in eBook format via NetGalley in return for this review. All reviews published on Yours, Chloe are completely honest and my own, and are in now way influenced by the gifting opportunity.

Title: When You Smile
Author: Melissa Brayden
Genre: LGBTQIA+ Romance

Trigger warnings:  Death Of A Parent

Rating: ★★★★

Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️ (Open Door) 

Have you ever had a crush on your babysitter? Taryn Ross sure did. Sixteen-year-old Charlotte was sophisticated, thoughtful, gorgeous, and fun. Taryn counted the minutes until they’d hang out. But Charlotte and her family moved away.

Now a transfer student at Hillspoint University, Taryn is ready to officially come out when she runs into a familiar face at a party. Charlie, now a grad student, insists on walking a drunk Taryn home. To the detriment of Taryn’s heart (and libido), Charlie has only grown kinder (and hotter) with time.

Charlie Adler has a five-year plan: finish her MFA without any hiccups, figure out a timeline for her engagement, and become an acclaimed fiction writer. Easy, right? That is until Taryn shows up at Hillspoint and shakes up her world like a snow globe. This Taryn is different: soulful, brooding, and all grown up. Charlie’s never been attracted to a woman before, and isn’t dating your one-time charge against the rules? If only their toe-curling, mind-dulling, body-aching chemistry would calm the hell down.

When You Smile is the latest sapphic romance novel from author Melissa Brayden. This was my first time reading anything from the author but I was very quickly hooked into the story and fell completely in love with both Charlie and Taryn.

Charlie and Taryn were an adorable couple who totally captured my heart and their romantic scenes had me smiling from ear to ear. The strong communication and openness between the two of them was also brilliant to see portrayed within romantic fiction.

Both Charlie and Taryn were wonderful quirky protagonists. Despite the age gap they were both mature and it was great to see their passions (writing and photography respectively) explored within the story too. The portrayal of Charlie’s grief following the loss of her mother, who was a single parent, was a particular strength of the book. The side characters were also a highlight for me, particularly Caz and Sasha who were absolutely hilarious. I also loved Taryn’s parents and the way they instantly welcomed Charlie in like she was one of their own, giving her the family she had missed since the death of her mother.

This was a great book to read in Pride month as it focuses on Charlie’s sexuality awakening when she finds herself attracted to a woman for the first time. It really felt like this topic was generally handled with care and I liked the fact that Charlie and Taryn took their relationship slowly. Taryn had already come out as a lesbian prior to the start of the story but she was also inexperienced in WLW relationships which created a nice dynamic between the two of them. When we got to them, the spicy scenes were also well written and felt really realistic, especially for inexperienced characters, which I really loved.

I will say that I would have liked a little more exploration into Charlie’s sexuality as it felt like it went from ‘I was straight and now I’m a lesbian’, which is ultimately bisexual erasure and my pet-hate in books exploring sexuality awakening.

When You Smile was an easy five star book for me until the final quarter or so of the book. There was a third act breakup which did feel misaligned with the rest of the book and the relationship Taryn and Charlie had. Miscommunication and not working issues out like adults didn’t feel true to the characters we knew Taryn and Charlie to be so the choice to add conflict in this way didn’t sit right with me. I also didn’t like the direction they took Danny’s mum in either, it didn’t fit the tone of the rest of the story and felt like a poor attempt to add a bit of angst to the plot. All of this reduced the book to a four star for me but it doesn’t take away from the many strengths of the rest of the book.

Overall, When You Smile is a sweet and easy sapphic romance. It was my first Melissa Brayden read but won’t be my last.

Review: Girl Abroad by Elle Kennedy*

 *I received a copy of this book in eBook format via NetGalley in return for this review. All reviews published on Yours, Chloe are completely honest and my own, and are in now way influenced by the gifting opportunity.

Title: Girl Abroad
Author: Elle Kennedy
Genre: Romance

Trigger warnings:  Absent Parent, Drugs

Rating: ★★★ 
Spice Level: 🌶️🌶️🌶️(Open Door)

When nineteen-year-old Abbey Bly gets the opportunity to study abroad for a year in London, it's the perfect chance to finally slip out from under the thumb of her beloved but overbearing retired rock star father. She's ready to be free, to discover herself - but first off, to meet the girls she's rooming with. That is, until she arrives at her gorgeous new flat to discover those roommates are actually all boys. Charming, funny, insufferably attractive boys. And off-limits, with a rule against fraternizing between housemates after unwanted drama with the previous girl.

Abbey has never considered herself a rulebreaker. But soon, she's lying to her father about her living situation and falling for not one, but two men she can't have: her rugby-player roommate and a broody musician with a girlfriend. Not to mention, her research for school has gotten her tangled in a deeply hidden scandal of a high nobility family, surrounding her in secrets on all sides.

If there's any hope of Abbey finding love, answers, or a future in London, she'll have to decide which rules - and hearts - might be worth breaking . . .

 -

Girl Abroad is the latest romance novel from New York Times bestselling author Elle Kennedy. Our protagonist Abbey moves to London from Nashville for a year studying abroad, moving into the shared house she thinks she’s sharing with four female roommates who turn out to actually all be attractive guys. Abbey then finds herself in a love triangle with one housemate – despite a strict no flatcest rule – and one of their friends – despite him having a girlfriend.

This was my first time reading anything from the author but based on other reviews it appears this isn’t her usual style. The book largely read as a mature YA story with a few spicy scenes thrown in.

I tend to not actually go for the love-triangle trope but something about this book really intrigued me and the trope did end up working quite well, definitely supported by the focus on all three parties not expecting commitment. I was incredibly conflicted for the majority of the book as to which MMC I wanted Abbey to end up with but (being mindful of avoiding spoilers) she did end up making the right choice in my eyes.

I had a real love/hate relationship with Abbey as a protagonist. I liked the banter she had with her flatmates and particularly her relationship with Mr Baxley the librarian (who, aside from their demon pet cat, was my favourite character) but aside from this she felt like a largely two-dimensional character so it was at times difficult to see why she had half of England falling at her feet. Morally it was quite difficult to get on board with her too as she spent half of the book preaching that she wasn’t the kind of girl to steal another girl’s boyfriend but then went and did it anyway, using the technicality that nothing physical happened between them whilst he was still in a relationship.

It did also feel like all of the male characters were quite two dimensional also and based around stereotypes. Jack was a blonde, tanned, muscular Australian rugby player who spent more time shirtless than not, Jamie was a posh playboy and Nate was a free-sprit motorbike-driving musician. They did start to explore Jack and Nate’s characters on a deeper level as their relationships with Abbey blossomed but I would have liked this to have been developed even further. The character I was most disappointed with was Lee who was portrayed as your stereotypical 00s rom-com gay best friend when he had the potential to be so much more than that, had he been better written.

In terms of spice-level this is probably a low 3 out of 5. There are a couple of open-door spicier scenes which are largely well written, but the majority of potentially good spicy scenes, especially involving Jack, had a fade to black which was a shame. It was disappointing that there wasn’t more of an even split of spicy scenes between the two love interests.

I do, however, want to praise the positive portrayal of female pleasure that we have within one of the scenes between Abbey and Nate, one of the male love interests. During a spicier scene, Nate actually asks Abbey “what do you need to come?”, acknowledging that few women can climax from penetration alone and that most will require another form of stimulation. We love respectful lovers like Nate who prioritise their partners pleasure alongside their own and actually understand how the female body works! This was ruined slightly later in the scene when it felt like Abbey mocked him for saying this but this largely felt like a really important portrayal of female pleasure.

I was disappointed with the fact that it felt like the UK university experience hadn’t been very well researched at all, which feels like a fundamental flaw in a book about someone studying abroad in London. In Girl Abroad, Abbey starts her first semester in August when UK university academic years don’t actually start until at least mid-September. There were also language choices which were incorrect, such as use of ‘spring break’ which isn’t a thing in the UK, we have an Easter break. The idea of university students living in Notting Hill was also borderline ridiculous and implied that the author’s only understanding of British life comes from 90s and 00s British romcoms and the Taylor Swift song London Boy. There seemed to be few other references to British culture – aside from a few pub trips – so it just didn’t feel authentic to British student life which was disappointing and a real missed opportunity.

I did largely like the historical mystery element to the novel – as Abbey tries to uncover the identity of the woman in a mysterious painting she picked up at an estate sale, as part of her studies – and the way it mirrored the love triangle Abbey found herself in but at times it felt like it took away from the romance plot.

Overall, this was a largely enjoyable read it just lacked quite a lot of the substance I was craving. Those who want an easy romance read, especially fans of the love triangle trope, will like this book.

Review: The Davenports by Krystal Marquis*

*I received a copy of this book in eBook format via NetGalley in return for this review. All reviews published on Yours, Chloe are completely honest and my own, and are in now way influenced by the gifting opportunity..

 Caution - This review does contain spoilers.

Title: The Davenports
Author: Krystal Marquis
Genre: Young Adult Historical Fiction

Trigger warnings:  Racism, Violence

Rating: ★★★

In 1910, the Davenports are one of the few Black families of immense wealth and status in a changing United States, their fortune made through the entrepreneurship of William Davenport, a formerly enslaved man who founded the Davenport Carriage Company years ago. Now the Davenports live surrounded by servants, crystal chandeliers, and endless parties, finding their way and finding love—even where they're not supposed to.

There is Olivia, the beautiful elder Davenport daughter, ready to do her duty by getting married. . . until she meets the charismatic civil rights leader Washington DeWight and sparks fly. The younger daughter, Helen, is more interested in fixing cars than falling in love—unless it's with her sister's suitor. Amy-Rose, the childhood friend turned maid to the Davenport sisters, dreams of opening her own business—and marrying the one man she could never be with, Olivia and Helen's brother, John. But Olivia's best friend, Ruby, also has her sights set on John Davenport, though she can't seem to keep his interest . . . until family pressure has her scheming to win his heart, just as someone else wins hers.

The plot of The Davenports focuses on the way that different characters are challenging societal expectations of them, be it due to race, gender or class, when it comes to both their ambitions and who they fall in love with. For example, Helen Davenport is most at home when working on cars and reading books about engineering and she craves opportunity to work in the family business but as woman she is expected to merely marry, bear children for her husband and run a household. And Amy-Rose has ambition to open up her own hair salon and has romantic interest in John Davenport, Oliva and Helen’s brother and the heir to the Davenport business empire, but her status as a servant is a significant barrier in her way.

There is also conflict between societal expectations regarding who each character should marry and who their heart is actually with. For example, Ruby’s parents want her to marry John Davenport to secure their financial future but her heart is with a man called Harrison Barton and John’s heart is with Amy-Rose, despite the class barrier that exists between them. The way that the relationships in the story overlap is a really interesting component to the story and it’s something which I think sets The Davenports aside from other YA historical fiction novels.

Through the character of Olivia Davenport and her love interest Washing DeWight, The Davenports explores the social movement against the Jim Crow Laws. Despite being the daughter of a former slave and having experienced racism herself, Olivia seems to have been raised in a way where her privilege sheltered her from the true reality of the oppression experienced by Black Americans and her understanding of and passion for the civil rights movement builds throughout the novel. Education about slavery and the early push towards race equality in America seems to be missing from history classes across the world. Whilst I feel that ultimately change is needed within the education system in reflection of this, I do feel like YA books could be a valuable vehicle for educating young people on these topics in addition to this and characters such as Olivia could be powerful in facilitating this.

The chapters alternate between four perspectives: Olivia, Helen, Amy-Rose and Ruby. Early on in the novel I started to find myself wondering if the book would work better focusing on the story of one of the characters rather than alternating so many perspectives. Although I typically enjoy what dual perspective narratives can bring to a story, when it comes three or four perspectives it can get a bit much and this was unfortunately the case with The Davenports. As soon as you started to settle into the story of one of the girls, the chapter would change and our focus would be completely shifted. I found this to mean that I didn’t have chance to forge the connection I desire to build with the characters I’m reading about and therefore I didn’t find myself rooting for them in the same way as I would have wanted to. Whilst all of the perspectives were interesting, utilising the opportunity for a series with each novel focusing on a different character/love story would have allowed us to explore each character in greater depth. Although I do appreciate that this could have been complicated given that the overlap of relationships was central to the plot.  

Despite all four romantic relationships going from strength to strength as the novel progresses, the final chapters see the couples face significant turbulence in their relationships, resulting in break ups (some stated, some implied). These break ups were orchestrated quickly and rather messily in some cases and whilst I appreciate that a bit of a ‘will they, won’t they’ plot is likely to entice readers to the sequel, suddenly putting all four relationships on the rocks seemed like overkill. Only one conflict is resolved by the end of the book and getting such little resolution made the book feel like it ended prematurely and this left a bad taste in my mouth, despite me having generally enjoyed the rest of the story. I’m not saying we should have had happily ever afters all round, but I felt that at least another one or two of the relationship conflicts should have had at least some resolution before the book ended. It was this lack of resolution that moved the book from a 4* to a 3* read for me.

I did find it interesting that this story is a YA novel despite the characters being either adults or on the very cusp of adulthood. To fit within the genre, aspects of the story such as sex were really glossed over and this was something that missed the mark for me. One of the later chapters of the story closes by implying that Olivia loses her virginity to Harrison but it’s not made clear and I think this was a big misstep by the author. Becoming intimate with a man is something which plays an important part in Olivia’s character development and coming of age story and therefore I felt it deserving of more attention than it was given. Yes, attitudes to sex and relationships before marriage would have been different at the turn of the twentieth century but that is surely all the more reason to dedicate page space to exploring Olivia’s thoughts and feelings surrounding the event. This may be personal preference due to my own passion for sex-positivity within literature but I think it’s important that sex scenes aren’t shied away from in YA novels if it’s right for the plot of the story and should instead be explored in a way which is suitable for the YA audience. Rather than implying sex was had and then swiftly moving on, I felt it would have been more appropriate to grant the scene the attention it deserved and this did impact on my overall view of the novel.

Overall, I felt that the concept of the story was really interesting but unfortunately the delivery of it fell flat. I feel the plot would have been better executed through the structure of a series with one book per character and this would allow us to explore each character’s story in the depth it deserves and would also remove the apparent necessity to focus the ending on providing an unnecessary cliff-hanger.