A Love Letter to the books of Shain Rose
I stumbled on the writing of Shain Rose due to an instagram post about Shattered Vows and I was like ... interesting. So, then I had to read the Tarnished Empire series because you can't start a series in book three, obviously. I am so glad I did. Now I have read every book she has in print and I am so glad I have. I may have read her series out of order but they're all worth a read and all... delicious. So, lets talk about them.
First up is the New Reign Mafia Duet, Heart of a Monster and Love of a Queen.
Next up, let's go over to the Stonewood Billionaires trilogy.
This is where I really started to fall in absolute LOVE with Shain Rose. Truly. How dare she write characters this fucking complex and beautiful and haunted and broken. Like... damn.
Inevitable is a second chance romance for Jax and Aubrey. High School was hell for sweet Aubrey who was abused by her asshole father and is eventually rescued from that hell by neighbor and crush Jax in a super traumatic way for both of them. After a SUPER HOT fling he walks away because of *REASONS* and then we get their second chance romance. Which is messy - she's finishing up college, he's launching a music platform, there's lots of baggage, she's still besties with his little brother. It's a whole thing. It's beautiful and I loved it.
Reverie gives us a grumpy/sunshine love story between Aubrey's bestie Vick and Jax's elder brother Jett at the wedding of Aubrey and Jax. Vick is a messy, complex, and beautiful soul who tries to crack through the grumpy, dickish shell of Jett at the wedding and they have a super hot fling and then wind up working together and the SPARKS. They wind up falling in love, like you do, and it's just... perfection. I am such a simp for a grumpy/sunshine romance.
Then there's Thrive which absolutely broke me. Here we get the youngest Stonewood brother, Jay in a friends to lovers romance with his personal assistant Mikka. Jay, now a movie star in LA, is dealing with the price of fame via an addiction to drugs and partying while his PA is trying to wrangle him and keep him from losing everything and dealing with her own demons... an abusive prick of a boyfriend. After rehab they go Jays hometown and it serves as a form of rehab for both of them. Jay stays away from the hard partying lifestyle and Mikka stays away from the toxic, abusive prick while they find their way to each other. truly a great love story. So much happens in this book that absolutely broke me. I can't even begin to express how much I loved this book.
Next up is the Tarnished Empire series.
And woosh! Here Shain Rose hits you with the emotional one two punches right in the heart and soul.
Fractured Freedom introduces you to Dante and Delilah in a *VERY*STEAMY* brothers best friend romance which is always one of my favorite tropes but then back hands you with second chance story and a mental health subplot that absolutely sent me to the floor in a heap. This is one of the best depictions of mental health recovery I've read in a while and I was NOT READY for this. Absolutely not prepared to be hit with this. Woof.
Corrupted Chaos then comes in and introduces us to the throat choking hotness that is Cade and Delilah's twin Izzy in a panty melting enemies to lovers, workplace romance. Was I prepared for the tattooed, hacker with a breath play kink to come in to the picture and absolutely dominate the page? No. I was not. But there we go. Cade had showed up on the page in most of the books up till now and I was like who is this dude how barely talks but had knuckle tattoos and barely looks up from his phone? Well now I know and ... well OKAY FINE. Goddamn. Izzy is also such a complex and beautiful character but it was hard to love her over how hot Cade was. I just can't.
Lastly in this series is Shattered Vows in which badass Bastian finds his match in Morina. It's a very steamy arranged marriage where nothing is ever what it seems and I am here for all of it. Here was another book where the honest representation of mental health was just so refreshing.
And that leaves us with the series currently in process the Hardy Billionaires series.
This series follows the brothers Hardy and their romances. There are four brothers. Three books are out with a fourth coming out this September and I am frothing at the mouth to find out what is in store for brother Dimitri.
Between Commitment and Betrayal starts the series with NFL star Declan and co-owner of the HEAT fitness empire and after the untimely death of his company co-owner he winds up married to the daughter of the co-owner who is also one of his trainers. They don't like each other very much. It's not quite enemies to lovers... it's nemesis to lovers. It's hot. Declan is another one of those super controlling, over the top, BDSM adjacent dudes that just really pops on the page but you'd run away from in real life. I dig Declan.
Between Love and Loathing brings us another last will and testament ask from the recently deceased co-owner of the HEAT empire. His other daughter, Clara, gets a bakery in the well underway resort designed by Dominic which, not really an issue but wow do they not take it well. Again, not enemies to lovers, but these folks are not in sync at all. He is a controlling jack wad and she can't communicate for shit. Really this is a miscommunication trope on steroids. They would like each other if they could talk the same language and eventually that's exactly what happens through a fake dating scheme. Honestly, I love these two together, he helps her find a backbone and she helps remove the stick from his ass. It's really nice to see.
Then we get to Between Never and Forever which shows us Dex getting his second chance with the girl he loved and saved from a tragic car accident as a teenager, Keelani. The layers to this story are wild and crazy. Second chance, fake marriage, enemies to lovers, best friends brother, it's all there. It's fun. It's wacky. It's intense. There's family drama. There's super hot sexy times. There's forgiveness and letting go. There's bad dudes who need their asses kicked. There's maybe murder and mayhem. Go read and enjoy the wild ass ride. Talk about escalating stakes. Eesh.
I seriously can't wait to see what happens for Dimitri in Between Desire and Denial...it's going to be a lot to top what happened in Never and Forever but I know for sure Shain Rose is capable of it. She just keeps getting better.
Check out her books and prepare to give her many hours of your life like I did. For serious.
Comments
Post a Comment