Full Moon Over Freedom by Angelina M. Lopez

In the first book of this series, Gillian Armstead-Bancroft seemingly had the perfect life with her husband and two children. But cracks were beginning to show and we see them emerge in this book. She is battling her husband through a contentious divorce (he is using the children as weapons), she can't seem to get hired, and her skills as a bruja aren't working the way they should. So what does she decide to do? Try and turn her life around by doing the opposite. While driving in her friend's car, she nearly runs down a man and discovers it's Nicky Mendoza, the boy she had a sexual relationship with in high school. 

Nicky is ecstatic to see Gillian again but only barely manages to evade her advances. She doesn't know how much she hurt him when she left. It certainly will be an interesting summer having her be working on the grant that brought him (famous mural painter) back to town to help revitalize Milagro Street. 

A little bit slower than the other book, I actually enjoyed this one more because Nicky and Gillian had the history so we got to see more of their relationship. 

Three and a half stars

This book comes out September 5, 2023

Follows After Hours on Milagro Street

ARC kindly provided by Harlequin and NetGalley

Opinions are my own

After Hours on Milagro Street by Angelina M. Lopez

Alex Torres left Kansas to make a name for herself. Her grandmother was certainly never going to give up her bar so Alex might as well leave. And she's made a name for herself on social media. People know and love her but not everyone. Especially not the manager that just fired her. That's fine. She'll go home. It's time for her generation to pick up Loretta's anyway. But it isn't going to be as easy as she thinks. She and her sisters have never seen eye-to-eye, her grandmother doesn't especially want to give them the business, her former hometown arch nemesis has his eye on the building, and there's a tall, handsome man living in the apartment above the bar who seems to have insinuated himself into her family. 

Jeremiah Post is a professor at the local college. He's really enjoyed getting to know the Torres family. But the woman standing in the bar late at night is not someone he recognizes. She's hot though and the more he gets to know about her, the more he likes. Too bad she's so determined to make him the villain. 

This was an interesting story and I really liked how Lopez wrapped her own family's history into the story and wove the history of Kansas that many people might not know. There were so many vibrant characters that Alex, Jeremiah, and their relationship all suffered a little but I do hope we see more in this setting.

Three and a half stars

This book came out July 26, 2022

Followed by Full Moon Over Freedom

Borrowed as ebook from Libby

Opinions are my own

Serving Sin by Angelina M. Lopez

I really wish that I had known that there was some (mostly off-page) depiction of rape in this book; I would have saved it for another time. I had really enjoyed the first book in this series when I read it a couple years ago and thought this book would be similar. The topics in this one were weightier which I wasn't expecting. I'm also not a huge fan of time hops which this book used to fill in backstory. This will be a book enjoyed by readers who like a powerful heroine and a man who isn't afraid to let her do her thing but also by readers who are prepared for a little more grit in their romance.

Cenobia "Cen" Trujillo is her father's heir apparent. But manufacturing in Mexico isn't exactly ready for a female to be in charge. Nor for her to introduce new technology to the automotive industry and someone is sending her threats. So she seeks hep from the one man she knows can keep her safe, the same one who rescued her thirteen years ago, Roman Sheppard. 

Roman has dark secrets in his past, things that keep him from reaching for happiness. Even knowing that Cen (who he can't seem to call be the name she prefers) is the one who helped pull his adopted country out of debt just makes her more out of reach. He finds her power sexy which is pretty awesome in a hero, even one who needs to pull his head out of his own butt in order to get to an HEA.

Four stars
Follows Hate Crush

This book comes out May 25th, 2021
ARC kindly provided by Carina Press and NetGalley
Opinions are my own

Lush Money by Angelina M. Lopez

Roxanne Medina has worked her way up from nothing to be a billionaire before she's thirty. What she wants now is nothing except a child. But she wants her child to know its father. And that's why she enters into a a business arrangement. Or, tries to. She researches all of the principalities and found one that needs money. It doesn't hurt that the heir apparent is also known as the Golden God.Príncipe Mateo Ferdinand Juan Carlos de Esperanza y Santos is trying to save his kingdom from the degradations and excesses of his parents. Is a marriage with Roxanne the way to do it? Maybe not but it's certainly one way. It's too bad she's so infuriating, treating him as if he were one of her employees at best and more than a little dim at worst. But Shes's hot and he wants her but her personality leaves a lot to be desired. And he doesn't want just a cold relationship with his child's mother so he bargains that one of their three nights a month will be spent dating.   And it's in those dates that he begins to find a woman with whom he could fall in love.The Big Misunderstanding went on a little long at the end but the ending made the characters learn to talk to each other..
Four starsThis book came out October 14thARC kindly provided by Carina Press and NetGalleyOpinions are my own