Denise Williams (1)Rezensionen

Short. Cute. Sweet.

Dnf

DNF at 25%. So many flashback to present and back (8 years! 7 years! 5 years! and NOT chronological).

It gave me motion sickness.

Trigger warning: includes intimate partner emotional and physical abuse.

This was such a great read. I fell in love hard with the love birds. It’s exciting to watch two people you care about fall in love each other.

I feel the trauma experienced by the main character - caused by an ex - was accurately described. Folks that have experienced intimate partner abuse may not be able to enjoy reading this book and that’s ok! Know your limits.

I love Denise Williams and I was so excited for TFWtF!
CWs: talk about dieting, disordered eating, addiction to substances, overdose, difficult family dynamics.

The Fastest Way to fall is a slow-burn, aquaintences-to-friends-to-lovers romance and I mean it when I say slow-burn. I loved Britta and Wes and their growing relationship was wonderful to read. I was made to feel extremely anxious due to the fact that Britta is a client of the company Wes co-owns/created. BUT! I felt that conflict of interest was handled really well by both characters.

I took 1 star away because I wanted the couple to be a couple for longer than we were given.

I like this author so was happy to pick up this novella even though the idea of an airport pet groomer seems truly ridiculous.

The story is fine and has some enjoyable parts but overall it’s just OK because it is short I didn’t have much of an investment in our central couple.

I did like the twist of a guy writing romance novels and she included what I think might be my ideal book boyfriend archetype: “rambling, adorable nerd”

I like this author and enjoyed this book. This is about a woman who doesn’t conform to the standard fitness body who joins a coaching app/program for work and surprisingly falls in love with exercise AND a her coach.

There’s a lot of drama with the main and side characters that are unrelated to romance and fitness.

Enjoyed this one! Love to see main characters that are attractive but also nerdy and nice.

A darker vein runs through this as the heroine is a survivor of domestic abuse and that creeps in to her life in various ways.

There’s plenty of sex included here but there’s also a lot of banter and it shows why they fall for one another.

*A Thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to read this. This is my honest and unbiased review*

This is the first book I've read of Denise Williams and (Spoiler alert!) I can't wait to read more! First, let's talk about Naya, she's maybe my favorite romance protagonist ever. Naya has been through a lot which makes her pretty closed off especially to romance, but as she opens up to Jake (and in turn us the readers) we see this passionate, intelligent, and funny woman come to lie. I don't blame Jake at all for falling in love with her because I did. You just can't help it.

Jake was also just amazing and dorky that from the get go I was rooting for the two of them. While I was expecting a quick sexy read, I was once again hit with characters who had depth and a story that deals with deep issues. I do love the way Williams writes, which had me enthralled with the characters since the very first chapter.

Overall, a wonderful sexy romance with characters you can't help but love.

Emotionally I felt like the first 70% of this book was a total 5 stars, and that was completely due to our female lead - Britta. She might be one of the realest people I have read this year or even in a long time. She simply spoke to me completely and I loved how honest and relatable her posts were. I heart them so much. The male lead falls short tbh. I mean he wasn't a bad lead by any means and I did truly empathize with his family issues, but his wishy washy, miscommunication stuff just didn't vibe with me.
The latter middle end didn't work for me though but all in all this was a book that I enjoyed reading and gave me a lot of feels. Not necessarily romantic ones but emotional ones. I have placed an order for my physical copy.

A huge thanks to the Publishers and Edelweiss for the ARC.

What a cute story. (Cute is not always a flattering word!)

There are some quirky elements that save this book - the insurance agent is the successful romance novelist. The heroine has come up with the nifty, and successful business idea of a pet grooming business at an airport.

But it's the sort of novel that once you finish, you wonder why you wasted the time on something so lightweight.

There is something cringeworthy? creepy? about Bennett, the hero, or is that just me.

Olivia's character seems a bit more normal - her concerns, her reflections, and being on the lookout for the same flaws in Bennett as her arrogant former boyfriend, a cheater, had. Bennett has never been in a relationship, as I recall. Which also didn't seem normal.

January LaVoy, who narrates Olivia's side of the story, has a voice that seems a little too serious for the lightweight nature of the book. And Shane East, whom I've heard narrate quite a bit I think, didn't suit Bennett at all.

Teagan and Silas, best friends since college, both work different jobs at an airport. They have one week left together before Teagan heads overseas and they spend it trying to solve the mystery of who wrote a love letter that was dropped on the candy store floor. This is sweet.

The Missed Connection
Airport Novellas, Book 2

I Picked Up This Book Because: To complete a #BookspinBingo bingo

Media Type: Audiobook
Source: HC Public Library
Dates Read: 6/27/23 - 6/28/23
Stars: 3
Narrator(s): Zenzi Williams and Jakobi Diem

The Characters:

Gia:
Felix:


The Story:

These two were not my favorite couple in the series but their last two chapters made my heart so happy.

The Random Thoughts:

I really enjoyed this read. Characters were wonderfully pun-ny, with strong secondary character personalities in MC Naya's friends. I'm a sucker for character development, so i absolutely loved that we really get to see Naya grow and re-learn how to trust in herself and others over the course of the book. It touched on several hard topics (that I won't name b/c spoilers) in a way that felt respectful and realistic--I really appreciated that the author is willing to acknowledge that "yeah, in this situation these issues or -isms or consequences would come up." Definitely delivered on the promise of the girl with no game ending up with the genuinely great guy who's perfectly imperfect for her. As a bonus, he treats her well, is exceedingly competent, knows his way around the female anatomy, and is willing to navigate both their sets of baggage together. Now if only I could find such a unicorn...

I'm a 3.5 here. I actually teared up at the end because I felt so hard for Naya, but in the middle I almost stopped reading because it felt very predictable and there were a few too many sex scenes.

The banter in this was phenomenal! I loved hearing all their inside jokes and seeing their relationship develop. And the way that Williams dealt with abusive relatonships was deft and strong. I'll look forward to her further books.

Flip and Joe are awesome.

Sweet but not particularly memorable (I read it months ago). I liked that the characters are university academics.

https://www.instagram.com/p/ClwWxu2Py4A/

Denise Williams - The Fastest Way to Fall: Better than the first by a -choose your own sports metaphor-. #cursorybookreviews #cursoryreviews½

this has one of my preferred tropes (friends to lovers) and the characters are nice and relatable, so i thought i'd like it more, but it just felt blah to me the entire time. it might have more to do with the readers (him in particular) but to me, this wasn't her best work. i think this might be a case of "had i been reading it in my hands instead of in my ears" i might have liked it more.½

The Love Connection
Airport Novellas, Book 1

I Picked Up This Book Because: Cover lust.

Media Type: Audiobook
Source: CC Public Library
Dates Read: 8/17/22
Stars: 3.5 Stars
Narrator(s): January LaVoy and Shane West

The Characters:

Olivia Wright:
Bennett Baker:


The Story:

Super cute. Loved the little escape artist pup.

The Random Thoughts:½

The Sweetest Connection
Airport Novellas, Book 3

I Picked Up This Book Because: Cover lust.

Media Type: Audiobook
Source: P Public Library
Dates Read: 8/20/22 - 8/21/22
Stars: 4 Stars
Narrator(s): Angel Pean and Teddy Hamilton

The Characters:

Teagan:
Silas:


The Story:

Review to come.

The Random Thoughts:

nice little palette cleanser with witty banter and great tone. the female narrator was also excellent (but i didn't like the male narrator much) even though her english accent wasn't so good. i'd listen to her again. anyway this was pretty charming and i really liked the character of gia, and how she stood up for herself professionally and personally. i liked how she was so openly bisexual and how no one even wondered about how she could be dating a man if she'd just been dating a woman. good rep and a fun and easy listen.½

good writing, good characters, good tension, even decent conflict for such a short book. all around well done.

Had this been marketed as the erotica it desperately wanted to be, I wouldn't be so frustrated. The cover style of this book usually suggests a fun, lighthearted romcom. This book wasn't. It reads like it was written by a young college student who had recently discovered what erotic fanfiction was, but who knew what sexism looked like and had volunteered for an intimate partner violence hotline for a few months.
The protagonist, Naya, discusses her own sexual frustration early on in the book, which then goes immediately to her best friend yammering how much she wants to nail her and that hubby agreed to a threeway, haha. This happens multiple times in the book. AUTHOR, THIS IS NOT EDGY. If the three of them are gonna bang, they need to sit down and talk about it like the adults they supposedly are, not the teenagers they have become. Felicia is an adult who insults everyone and it's portrayed as ha, totes okay. If she were written as a teen, she would have been the slightly cruel "edgy" girl who skipped class to smoke cigarettes or even weed on school property. She has very little characterization, anyway. No one really does in this book. Everyone is one-dimensional. No new ideas are raised. Felicia comes across as a perpetually bored and irritated babysitter, not an occasionally annoyed mother. Her husband was featured so little in the book that he didn't really have a reason to be there and could have easily been cut. All he ever did was back up Felicia and fade into the background.

The book switched back and forth between pages and pages at once of PG-13 rated euphemisms for body parts and sexual acts; reflections on Naya's friends' parents; and memories of the abuse her ex visited on her. The author is horrible at writing scene and chapter transitions, if she even tried. It was jarring and I hated it. The reflections on peoples' parents read like the author was trying too hard to be funny, and break away from the dad jokes that characterize Naya and Jake's relationship when they're not giving Naya orgasms. I did appreciate that Naya narrated openly about masturbation.

Naya talks about how much Jake satisfies her sexually. Fine. I got it in the first paragraph. Quit waxing poetic about it for a dozen ebook pages at a time. But she did it often enough that I actually figured out how many pages to skim at once. And then she mentioned that Jake is the only guy to ever get her off. My heart sank as one of my least favorite tropes barged forth: The One True Cock. There's plenty of AFAB people for whom partner-assisted orgasm is tricky IRL. Often, in romance books, the issue is solved in five seconds flat by the nearest cisgender heterosexual male and declared Twu Wuv. It's aggravating. It's an excuse for, "Whee, awesome orgasm by a cis guy who I'm now totes spending the rest of my life with!" and UGH. It's such a common romance trope that I called it in this one fairly quickly. The book doesn't exactly end on that note but I did not care.

Naya's a math education professor, which I fully admit to not realizing was a thing previously. The author squeezed in classroom scenes before racing to the next Jake Has Me Orgasm twenty-page chapter. Judging from the brief time we as readers spend in Naya's classes, Naya comes across as more of a--not a sociology professor, even. She talks like an academic without really saying anything, and sounds a lot like she's midway through grad school, not a professor in her own right. The author tried hard to portray her differently, I can tell, and I encourage her, but she doesn't succeed.

At the 42% mark in the ebook, we find out Jake's still married, but separated, from his totally clearly super evil wife, who cheated on him with a neighbor. Red flags popped up for me every time he talked about her. I didn't believe him at all. Gretchen herself wasn't likeable. I criticized them both as I read. It was a weird subplot. So was the abusive ex subplot. Because the real plot was Jake and Orgasms. Drove me nuts. I had been hoping to read something different than that. The final showdown, I guess it could be called, between Naya and her abusive ex was what a teenager would write. They're a whole mile away from everyone? How big is this place? Why would a faculty meeting where everyone dresses so nicely be out in the woods? Especially when it's discussing peoples' jobs? Why would a management consultant firm be involved in the first place? None of this adds up. I eagerly waited for this incredibly bland, low-stakes book to freakin' end. It was repetitive, poorly structured, poorly characterized, and I'd given up twice on it before reading it all the way through now. I'm glad to be done..

Light, short, and entirely predictable. This might be the least taxing book I’ve ever read. It’s equally forgery, but was a fun, flirty dip into a romance in an airport.

This was cute (with a touch of angst)and weird experience-like I rooted for these two week were completely an ethical shitshow! Which is how you know Williams *has it* because it's content is incredibly yikes territory.

Although there was a reckoning for it.½