Stuck Wit’ Chu. Olivia Shaw-Reel. 2020. 149 pages. [Source: Kindle Unlimited.] Stuck Wit’ Chu is essentially a story about a broken marriage and a couple at a crossroads. Keith and Marlow have been married over a decade, are parents to three young children, and have somehow lost their way. They’re navigating the Covid-19 pandemic while facing their own crisis at home, and the book follows their attempt to figure otu whether to salvage their life together or if a divorce is the only path forward. The premise of the story is realistic enough. After so many years of marriage, it’s easy to understand how a couple gets into a routine; the excitement of newlywed life morphs after parenthood and other new responsibilities. Marlow has to reckon with her role as wife and mother taking precedent over her career in dancing, which presents a central conflict. Their existing problems are compounded by poor communication, distrust, and a lack of transparency — throughout the book, these three issues in particular are the root of multiple blowups. In all honesty, I didn’t connect with either main character much. This could be due in part to how short the book is overall — it…

The Replacements. Shae Sanders. 2022. 223 pages. [Source: Kindle Unlimited.] When Savannah finds out, quite unceremoniously, that her husband of more than a decade is cheating on her, she knows exactly how to respond. She immediately goes into planning mode so she can get a divorce and move on to a replacement.  Using the connections she’s honed as a CEO’s wife, she lands herself as assistant to another CEO, the ever-brusque and grumpy Taurus. While the life she imagined crumbles around her, she tries to stay in Taurus’ good graces, or at least enough to stay employed. There’s plenty of tension between the two, though it’s not immediately sexual or romantic. Taurus is a hard man to please and expects nothing short of perfection from everyone in his life. He has a rigid approach to life, whether that’s in his relationship with his siblings, ex-wife, and daughter or how he approaches business opportunities.  When people fall short, he’s not one to give grace or see the other perspective so readily. While Savannah can rise to the occasion, she also pushes back against him in ways he’s not accustomed to. She’s a great foil to his uptight ways, and I loved…

Love and War. Shae Sanders. 2020. 56 pages. [Source: Kindle Unlimited.] This short-and-sweet novella is a blast from the not-so-recent past. Covid-19 just started to wreak havoc on the world, and that includes Jade’s home and work life. Her job is newly remote, her kids have switched to homeschool, and the cherry on top is that her estranged husband wants to move back in so he won’t have to quarantine away from their young sons.  Seeing this as an opportunity to lighten her load, Jade agrees with reluctance. Unfortunately, she’s not prepared for the physical and emotional toll of sharing a household again. The tension of trying to coexist with a former partner while figuring out if she even wants him to be her former partner is thick.  Travis is clear that he’s down to fix their issues, and Jade often seems like she’s just in her own way. Love and War is a very quick read; clocking in at under 60 pages, you can probably get through it in under 90 minutes. Despite its short length, it packs a lot in the way of reflections about relationships, honesty, and accountability.  Jade is set on ending the marriage, blaming Travis…

Her Exception. B. Love. 2023. 188 pages. [Source: Kindle Unlimited.] Shalom and Mecca thought that at 18, they were ready to take on the world and its obstacles together. But when reality dropped into their laps, they ended up on separate paths, each nursing their own confusion and anger at losing the version of forever they’d imagined. Fifteen years later, they’re thrust together when Shalom’s specialized experience is key to Mecca winning the largest court case he’s faced in his career.  Too bad they can’t stand each other, and have an explosively volatile rapport to figure out before they can even consider working together. From its description, Her Exception has all the makings of a great enemies-to-lovers story – high school sweethearts, abrupt and unexplained heartbreak, and forced proximity when they haven’t been able to process the demise of their relationship. Add in the drama of their current partners along with family and friends with their own opinions, and I was certain that this would be a juicy, emotional, and passionate story I couldn’t put down.  While I had high hopes for the premise, its execution fell short for me in terms of the overall plot, character development, and dialogue….

A Justified Love Affair. Kimberly Brown. 2024. 295 pages. [Source: Kindle Unlimited.] The Santiago family returns in this sequel to The Expiration Date. In it, Emmanuel Santiago finds himself excited by a chance meeting with Racine Bradley at his brother’s coffee tavern. She’s unhappily and unfortunately still married after catching her husband cheating on her in their own bed. She turns to the coffee tavern as a retreat, but it leads to a great opportunity to connect. When she starts to give her estranged husband a taste of his own medicine, Emmanuel is the perfect person for the job. Emmanuel and Racine have an immediate – and intense – chemistry that comes through immediately.  He’s known as a playboy, but their entanglement brings out a side of him that is unfamiliar to those closest to him. It’s clear that Racine doesn’t fall into the same treatment as his situationships, one night stands, etc. This makes for tons of jokes at his and Racine’s expense, luckily from a place of love and affection, if not admiration for her potentially slowing him down a bit.  Nonetheless, at times it feels like so much of a whirlwind that it may be harder for…