I've been very busy for the past few months with podcasting and I have simply not gotten around to updating anything on this site.

For those of you who don't follow me on twitter, sorry!

Here is what is new:

I am co-hosting a #RomBkLove inspired podcast, called #Rombkpod with several fantastic fellow readers, Meka, Melinda, Sarah Jean, and Danie, held together by our producer Sarah.  You can find our podcast at all the usual places. We recently passed 1,600 downloads, and I am so excited to see our audience growing and to do our part in concentrating on talking about the fantastic inclusive romances out there.

I also agreed to be part of the Ripped Bodice Excellence in Romance Writing award's inaugural judging panel.  I am thrilled to be part of such a fantastic body and I look forward to our book nomination discussion when the year draws to a close. 

At the end of the year I am leaving the #readRchat team.  It has been fabulous to work with Ellie and be part of this community. However with all my new projects I need to let some stuff go. I know Ellie and MaryLynne are looking for new folks to help crafting a monthly slate of questions.  If you have a passion for romance chat on twitter please contact them and let them know you are interested.  I know they are very interested in hearing from LGBTQIA and POC readers as we are always seeking to lift up more non-white cis het voices in romance.

What is still true:

I am still reviewing over at Love in Panels.  I am proud to be part of this project, especially when my editor and co-reviewers do such amazing things like putting together the Romance for RAICES auction.  If you don't already support us on Patreon, would you consider doing so?

I am still podcasting, Beyond the Sectors with Chelsea, but we are rapidly running out of published Kit Rocha Beyondverse books, so we will likely go on hiatus after next few  episodes. But if you love Kit Rocha as much as we do, please listen, and let us know what you think.

Rombklove will be back next May but in the mean time check out RombkPod as I have made a point of reaching out to a lot of our past participants and inviting them as guests and cohosts. If you are a POC, LGBTQIA blogger or reader and interested in taking part. Let me know. 

I am also doing quite a bit of sensitivity reading for Puerto Rican Latinx characters. This year, I have read for, Mia Sosa, Ruby Lang, Lucy Eden, Alexis Daria, among others. If you want to learn about my rates and what I offer, please email me at anacoqui @ gmail dot com. 

What I've read and you might have missed:

First of all I keep a bookthread on twitter with everything I have read. I write bullet reviews there and it helps me keep track of my reading.

The 2019 #bookthread:

1. Resisting Desire (Rogue Nights) by Talia Hibbert (m/f, contemp., novella).

A web journalist receiving threats seek shelter with her brother’s BFF who broke her heart after a passionate encounter. Big soft hero

(CW: death threats, past harassment)

— Ana Coqui (@anacoqui) January 1, 2019

You can also find a list of all my Love in Panels reviews here: https://www.loveinpanels.com/prose/author/ana-coqui

These are all the book I have reviewed there since I last updated this blog:

The Austen Playbook by Lucy Parker

Proper English by KJ Charles

The Bride Test by Helen Hoang

American Fairy Tale by Adriana Herrera

Wolf Rain by Nalini Singh

The Friend Zone by Abby Jimenez

The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai

Alisha Rai and The Right Swipe: A Conversation About Modern Love

Sapphire Flames by Ilona Andrews

Flying with Angels and Hunters - Nalini Singh's Guild Hunters Series intro and overview.

Archangel's War by Nalini Singh

American Love Story by Adriana Herrera

Gilded Cage by KJ Charles

Grumpy Jake by Melissa Blue

Get a Life Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert

I wrote a Top 5 list that mentions 35 books for Suzanne and that will be out next month over at LiP. This has been a great reading year.

I can't wait to see what 2020  has in store for us!

I reviewed Get a Life Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert at Love in Panels

In Hibbert’s first traditionally published romance, she continues to highlight prickly heroines and the sweet heroes who are determined to love them. Although I only had a mild appreciation of her novellas I found myself loving this novel wholeheartedly, more than living up to the anticipation and hype. The novel felt fully satisfying and complete, establishing, building up and then resolving a full story. Hibbert's use of situational humor and word play cushions the heavy themes she addresses in this story such as ableism, abandonment, domestic abuse and mortality.

In Get a Life, Chloe Brown, Chloe and Red are both recovering from their own traumas, Chloe re-learning to have a full life after drawn out and difficult diagnosis of Fibromyalgia and Red from the end of abusive romantic relationship. Hibbert focuses on their journeys toward greater self-realization and agency, and learning to build boundaries while accepting love and support.

The climactic conflict felt organic and inevitable, growing from both their insecurities and soft spots.

The audio narration by Adjoa Andoh was fun and engaging. I particularly enjoyed the distinction between Red’s gruff working class accent and Chloe’s posh and prim accent. Andoh also did a great job contrasting Red and Chloe’s effusive inner monologues with their more restrained and terse dialogue, which built on the way Hibbert used that gap to develop their characters and show just how much both are working to protect their fragile hearts. Hibbert skillfully uses what isn’t said, what is misunderstood, what is assumed to build natural conflict between Red and Chloe and lead naturally to the resolution of it too. My only complaint is that a lot of fantastically interesting supporting characters such as Chloe’s pushy Caribbean extended family faded to the background midway only to roar back near the end and play a pivotal role in the conflict.

Hibbert continues to prove with Get a Life, Chloe Brown that crafting romance novels with deeply layered representation (race, class, identity, disability and trauma) that are also funny and a joy to read/listen is possible. I am now eagerly anticipating the next book in the series with Chloe’s bossy big sister Danni and once you read Get a Life, Chloe Brown, I am sure you will be too.

Content Warnings: past trauma: ableism, past trauma: domestic abuse, abandonment

Ana received an audio copy of this book for review via Libro.fm

I reviewed Grumpy Jake over at Love in Panels.

Melissa Blue’s latest novella, Grumpy Jake, is as fun and appealing as its bright cover. In this light-hearted enemies to lovers romance Jake, a handsome but gruff White single father has gotten off on the wrong foot with his son Jayden’s Black Kindergarten teacher. Bailey has heard way too much about Jake’s dating misadventures thanks to the faculty’s breathless gossip mill. Despite her undeniable attraction to the tattooed nurse, Bailey does not want to be his next conquest. Deeply wary, the usually warm and effusive Bailey succeeds at freezing out the seemingly bad-boy playboy until they are trapped together in an elevator and she discovers his playfully disarming self-deprecating sense of humor and Jake is enchanted by her frankness.

The world-building is surprisingly robust for a novella, as Blue encircles Jake and Bailey with a rich assortment of friends and family. At the heart of the novella is Jake’s charming biracial son, Jayden, who is deeply loved by both of them. Blue is able to develop a complex push/pull relationship between Jake and Bailey that clearly establishes the risks both of them must consider as they get caught up into each other. Although the book could have benefited from one more pass with an editor due to a few word substitution errors, the book is eminently readable and it sucked me right out of a reading funk.

Filled with sexy banter and low-key angst, Grumpy Jake is as irresistible as Jake and Bailey find each other. If you have not yet discovered Melissa Blue, I strongly encourage you to take a chance on Grumpy Jake, and just like Bailey you will not be disappointed by the novella's mix of intense sexual tension and playful sexiness.

Content Warnings: Grief, Past Trauma (death of siblings)

Ana purchased this book.