Hold Me (Cyclone, #2)

by Courtney Milan

[Heather]

I'm a big fan of Courtney Milan's historical romances. I decided to try one of her contemporary romances. Most contemporary romances don't work for me. I like romances PG-13 or less and you don't generally get that in a contemporary.

I chose this book instead of the first book in the series. The first book is about a billionaire. That's one of my key NOPE words in descriptions. I don't want to read about billionaires in romances. This one is billionaire-free although the said billionaire is lurking around as a secondary character.

Jay is:

a professor at a university in California
Thai/Chinese
bisexual
a frequent commenter on a website who moved to being an online friend of the creator of the website

Maria is:

an older undergrad at the same university
Latina
trans
a self-proclaimed girly-girl
the creator of a blog that examines end-of-the-world scenarios
the sister of one of Jay's friends

Jay takes an immediate dislike to Maria when they meet in person through her brother because he perceives her to be overly interested in shoes and makeup and girl stuff. He finds her shallow.

I'm not a big fan of books that are all about mistaken identity. This book ends the mystery about halfway through. The rest of the book is about them trying to translate a two year online relationship into real life. Maria has some major abandonment issues that cause her to be very fearful of committing to a relationship. Jay needs to deal with his dismissals of women who appear very feminine. He considers himself to be a feminist but still thinks women in dresses and makeup must be dumb.

I thought these issues were handled well in the story. There was a lot going on. The author writes flirting very well. I wasn't completely swept away with the romance here. I think that is more an issue of not being a huge fan of contemporaries instead of being completely the fault of the book. If you like contemporary romances that deal with issues and aren't purely fluff, I'd recommend this one. This review was originally posted on Based On A True Story