When all else fails, find love. Eight brand new romances for fans of the West Wing, fired-up #resistance fighters, and everyone who ever had a crush on that guy at a protest…GRASSROOTSby Adriana AndersVeronica Cruz is in the fight of her life for a seat on the city council. Meeting reclusive finance genius Zach Hubler should be a stroke of good luck—he has the power to sway public opinion. But … good luck—he has the power to sway public opinion. But when Election Day comes around and things don’t go as expected, Veronica has to know: just how shady is the man of her dreams?
DEEP THROAT
by Dakota Gray
He’s an escort, but that’s not his biggest secret. She’s a maid at the hotel he uses “for business.” When their worlds collide, everything is put on the line. But indulging every secret desire comes at a cost, and the sins of the past won’t be forgotten.
RESISTANCE
by Amy Jo Cousins
All Kaz Shamsi wanted to do was get his college students to and from the DC protest without losing any of them. Getting caught up in the fringes of anarchist violence was not on the agenda. Neither was a motorcycle escape, messing around with a bandanna-masked antifa protestor, or figuring out that guy was one of the students he was supposed to be chaperoning. Now he’s got a ten-hour bus ride back to campus ahead of him, with a stupidly cute student who makes terrible decisions trying to talk Kaz into making one more.
KISSING AND OTHER FORMS OF SEDITION
by Emma Barry
When a global crisis threatens to go nuclear, the world tips upside down and spills out Graham Wilcox’s unspoken feelings for Cadence Martel. Cadence is equal parts shocked and delighted by his confession, but one night of passion isn’t enough. So the new lovers set out on a road trip to save the world.
TRUTH, LOVE AND SUSHI
by Stacey Agdern
When First Daughter Caroline Crosby finds herself in possession of the one document that can bring her father and his administration down, she turns to a real life social justice warrior for help. Max Wilcox isn’t sure what to make of Caroline: is this an elaborate hookup or a political conspiracy? But he has to make up his mind fast because the information and their chemistry could change the world—or break their hearts.
MY DELIGHT IS IN HER
by Jane Lee Blair
When Leonard West chose the pastorate, his college girlfriend chose a life without him. But not wanting to be a pastor’s wife didn’t mean Kim Jones didn’t want to work for the greater good. Now, her resistance work has led her back to Leonard, and they must grapple with their old pain. Can they trust God and each other enough to try again?
PERSONAL DISASTER
by Ainsley Booth
Marcus Dane left the tech world and joined the National Park Service a decade ago. Now an intrepid reporter has tracked down the park ranger-who-could-have-been-a-billionaire and, even worse, she has a theory that could blow his quiet life to smithereens. He needs to send her packing. But he’s already tumbled head-over-heels in insta-lust with her flippy ponytail and smart mouth, and he just can’t seem to let her go.
LIFE, LIBERTY, AND WORSHIP
by Tamsen Parker
Paige Robinson has been working out her angst about the new administration in spin class, until a handsome stranger with maddening politics harshes her mellow. Now she’s determined to get even…in the bedroom. Always awkward Carter Cox is shocked when his crush propositions him, but there’s no way he’s turning her down. Will their filthy assignation provide the catharsis Paige has in mind, or can they truly cross the aisle to find more?
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I’m not much into politics, and I absolutely hate discussing them to people outside of my party (Democrat) but I enjoyed most of the stories in this political, resistance inciting anthology.
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Grassroots by Adriana Anders: 4 stars. Veronica and Zack are so sweet together. She’s running for city council when she meets the owner of a house she’s canvassing. He turns out to be a hot, blind computer hacker who just happens to be a virgin. She teaches him about the joy of kissing and sex and he falls in love with her passion to help change her part of the world
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Deep Throat by Dakota Gray: 4 stars. I’ve loved Dakota’s writing since I reviewed ARCs for her Perv series (Perv, Filth & Hardcore). Deep Throat has a loose association with the Perv series, and my favorite character from the Perv series, Duke (Hardcore), is in it peripherally. Hayley is a hotel maid and Davis is an escort who uses the hotel for his “business.” Davis is trying to get out of his business, but has to report, or inform I guess, to his new pimp, the FBI, if he wants out. She’s “fighting for a better life for my co-workers, my neighbors, my aunts, my cousins.” by giving info to an anonymous hacker who just might threaten Davis’ exit from his business. But as Hayley inspires Davis to help his community, can they get back to their old relationship, the one they had before his selfishness put her in jeopardy? This one has Dakota’s signature steamy style and both Davis and Hayley are well drawn, interesting characters.
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Resistance by Amy Jo Cousins: 3.5 stars. Hot little MM story about Kaz, a TA, chaperoning some of his students to an immigration rally in DC. When he meets a bandana-ed, tattooed, skinny guy running down the street begging him for a ride on his borrowed motorcycle as he runs from the Nazi ish guys he’s yelling at, he doesn’t even dream that it’s one of his hot students whom he’s been quietly lusting after since class started. I like this one, but it was a little draggy, even for such a short story. And Will, the student, is more than a little annoying. I kind of like the vague way it ended, though. Gave me something to ponder.
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Kissing and Other Forms of Sedition by Emma Barry: 3.5 stars. Graham has been in love with Cadence for a year but has talked himself out of pursuing her until one night when the threat of nuclear war is imminent (thanks to an incompetent president being allowed to tweet indiscriminately) so he convinces himself he has to let her know in case they’re dead tomorrow. I thought this was rather sweet, but a little boring and literal. Sure, I agree with the moral as you will, behind Kissing, but not much happened so I can’t rate it higher.
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Truth, Love and Sushi by Stacey Agdern: 4 stars. I love this one. It’s got intrigue and sexual tension and sushi! Caroline is the daughter of a universally disliked President who apparently has a notebook that will kill his career and put him in prison if it were ever leaked. When his youngest daughter gets a copy of the notebook and informs Caroline, she knows just who to go to with the notebook – Max, a former hockey player turned do gooder who works for social and Jewish causes, not specifically for the government, but rather “for organizations that lobbied the government rather than the government itself.”
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My Delight is in Her by Jane Lee Blair: 2 stars. Sorry to say I didn’t like this one. I like Leonard, the hero, but I couldn’t stand Kim, the heroine. Leonard and his girlfriend, Kim, broke up when she says he chose being a pastor over her. In reality she didn’t want to be be with someone who was a pastor, regardless of whether it was his calling, and whether or not they could have made a relationship work when he was a pastor. Yes, she had a vague reason – her aunt was married to a man who was a pastor, and he cheated on her with a parishioner and got the woman pregnant. Now, years later, Leonard is walking around his community and sees a bunch of protesters at an intersection, and lo and behold, he sees Kim. I disliked Kim so much, with her bitchy, judgmental attitude, that I couldn’t connect to My Delight is in Her at all. It’s too bad, because Leonard was a delight. He drank, he even cussed and was a regular guy, not like what you’d think of a pastor at all.
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Personal Disaster by Ainsley Booth: 5 stars. This is by far my favorite of this anthology. Marcus is a park ranger who walked away from his job as a software engineer. He’s been friends with Jake (Personal Delivery), Toby (Personal Escort) and Ben (Personal Interest), all billionaires, since college at MIT but he’s a park ranger. Naturally, Poppy, freelance journalist, is interested in him. But not because he walked away from a potential life as a billionaire. No, because she thinks he’s been using an alt Twitter account to rant about the state of our nation under a horrible president. As the two fight the thickening sexual tension between them, she has to decide if she wants to out Marcus or if their developing relationship is more important than her story about him.
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Life, Liberty and Worship by Tamsen Parker: 3 stars. I really couldn’t get into this one. I adore Carter, the hero, but Paige, the heroine leaves a lot to be desired. I like that she’s a feminist and a Democrat (me too!) but I don’t like how she expresses those beliefs. Paige is a Democrat working for HUD under the current Republican administration. She’s been lusting after the hot guy in her spin class, but she absolutely hates the weird Republican leaning shirts he wears to class. And when she finds out he’s a Republican working for the current administration, it makes her even angrier at him. So she pushes the shy, adorably awkward Carter into meeting her at her place, where she proceeds to rock his world when she pegs him and makes him come like he’s never come before. I’m not particularly into pegging, and I dislike how she used it against him then threw him out, but I do like that Carter was into it and didn’t think it was a slight against his masculinity. I wish Paige had been less of a wench to Carter, and instead had talked to him instead of hate fucking him then throwing him out.
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If you have any political and/or resistance leanings at all, you’ll be sure to find at least one story in this anthology to enjoy.