This roundup has this energy:
Listen. LISTEN. This is my newsletter and it’s the end of the year (at least as far as posting goes) and I can do what I want. But also, I’m telling you, there’s a connection here. First of all, none of these heroes are canonically autistic, but they are EXTREMELY autistic-coded in how they’re written. I define autistic-coded as “anyone whose characterization is extremely reminiscent of how they wrote Dr. Brennan from Bones.”
Not only that, but they’re all lowkey (or in the first book’s case, NOT lowkey at all) lady haters who insist they will never cohabitate with women or be changed by them. In fact, none of them even really believe in love. Until love comes kicking down the door and forces its way in. And it’s great.
The Dangerous Viscount by Miranda Neville. In the first book of this excellent series, Sebastian (the titular Dangerous Viscount) is an absolute shit. He hates women, he doesn’t respect them, and yet the hero of book one is his buddy. Which immediately made me excited, as there was no way such a colorful character wouldn’t be a future hero, and because I am on record saying the worse behaved a man is, the better a romance hero he’ll likely make. And I was CORRECT.
Sebastian is extremely autistic-coded; he’s bookish where his cousin (who the heroine is trying to catch) is athletic, he’s terrible at social cues, he doesn’t care at ALL about appearances, and he doesn’t get women on a fundamental level that he’s in no hurry to rectify. He’s also… gasp…. a virgin! That isn’t part of the autistic-coded bit, that’s just a fun detail you don’t often see.
Except then he sees Diana for the first time, and against all his instincts and his intellectualizing, he’s completely obsessed with her. And she’s…. completely obsessed with his golden boy cousin Blakeney. Because she needs to make an advantageous, above the board match to stop being embarrassed by her family of blue-blooded weirdos. Unfortunately, Sebastian is also a blue-blooded weirdo who she can’t stop thinking about.
Though I would have preferred they get ruined into marriage with each other slightly earlier and differently (let’s hear it for my least favorite trope, accidental pregnancy!), I really loved how these two stubborn assholes eventually found their way from their pride and prejudice and societal expectations to let themselves love each other deeply. Could Seb have groveled more, to book 1’s heroine and to his own? Yes. But I also kinda buy how he’s a more “simply change behavior without ever acknowledging the reverse” kinda guy.
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥
Dr. Single Dad by Louise Bay. Our sole contemporary in the roundup and a twist on a classic trope- secret baby, but it’s NOT the heroine’s! Dax might be marketed as the grumpy to Eira’s sunshine, but his behavior and internal dialog is extremely neurodivergent-coded. He’s a research doctor because while medicine is in his blood (this whole series is about a family of hot men who are doctors whose parents were also doctors), he’s bad with people. Extremely bad, with no interest in improving. In fact, he’s pretty content with his life exactly as it is, forever, even though everyone around him is like… this looks fucking sad, dude.
Then he gets a call from America (he’s British) from a former one night stand, asking for him to fax her paperwork to let her put their new baby up for adoption. Uhhhhh record scratch WHAT. He flies to America immediately and takes custody of his whole ass daughter because something in him won’t just let her go (and he’s rich as hell so he knows he can provide for her), but he’s certain nothing else about his life has to change. He just needs a nanny and to throw money and everything will be fine. He says this multiple times to multiple people- his life WILL. NOT. CHANGE. It’s perfect as-is.
Enter Eira, the hot nanny. She’s got her own family baggage (thieving inheritance uncle who left her and her siblings destitute after their parents died tragically) but is determined to get Dax to be a more present father for his adorable baby’s sake, even though it puts her in danger of losing this job that she badly needs to continue taking care of her own dependents (two younger siblings). But despite her higher emotional intelligence, she’s just as much of a workaholic as Dax, and perhaps together they can find a balance that works better for them, and the family they become before they realize it’s happening.
Nothing better than a hot guy in absolute denial and a self-sacrificing workaholic woman. I’m not joking, this is one of the best archetype pairings there is.
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Not Quite A Lady by Loretta Chase. I mean we all already know Loretta Chase is unmatched, right? Right? This is book 4 in her Carsington Brothers series, and finally the youngest Carsington (Darius) gets his time in the spotlight after several books of being the annoying academic one. He considers sex to be mechanical and emotionless, because he’s never met an emotion he can’t scoff at. He’s also a naturalist who studies animal mating. He’s obsessed with logic and reason and tangible things and genuinely thinks everyone around him is being a little melodramatic (like his brothers who keep inexplicably showing up married and obsessed with their wives). But then his dad gives him an ultimatum to get him to keep it in his pants: marry an heiress (hard pass) or take charge of a neglected family property and get it to produce income within a year of taking it over. Naturally, he chooses the hardcore home renovation.
But as soon as he arrives, he’s confounded by his new neighbor, the lovely spinster Charlotte (she’s an ancient 27 years old), who’s all prim and proper and yet very clearly sidestepping marriage at every turn. Because she’s got a secret, see? A TERRIBLE secret, that would bring SHAME to her and her family. She can NEVER MARRY. Because of the SHAME. She’s not a virgin, she had a secret baby ten years ago (and the father died, I think? Truly does not matter), and any marriage bed she ends up in will somehow KNOW.
I found these two hilarious (it’s a LC book, of course they are) but I will say, I found the farcical lengths Charlotte went to to be a little unbelievable? Because her whole thing is that SHAME is keeping her from marriage, except…. her step mom, who knew about the baby, also seems to want her to get married quite badly (in a nice way, not a GET OUTTA THE HOUSE YOU FREELOADER way). So it doesn’t 100% make sense to me that Charlotte thinks she can’t get married because of her past, when The person who knows her past thinks she should get married. It didn’t quite line up for me, and it was like Charlotte’s most major emotional plot point.
There’s also some absolutely wild coincidences, but I think anyone who complains about that sort of thing needs to relax. It’s a 4th in the series Loretta Chase romance. Sometimes the secret baby from ten years ago ends up working for your hot new neighbor, ok?
How hot? 🔥🔥🔥🔥
I’m taking the holidays off! Though I will be doing my yearly 5 star roundup and 2024 reading recap, which will probably post shortly after Christmas! Until 2025, then, have a lovely holiday season, stay cozy, and have a happy new year!
What should I be reading next? Let me know in the comments!
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