Honestly, I never felt the connection/romance between these two -- partly, I think, because this is told in limited 3rd POV (only from Sara).

I was also a bit tired of the constant "Oh, you're not bi, you're really straight. Oh, you're going to cheat on me with every guy you see" which is fucked up in ANY book, but this is a story about two bi women -- one already out, the other just finding out about her sexuality.


A few other minor things (the way a trans character's "coming out" was treated; the couple's first hookup being a drunk one that Sara doesn't remember; etc.) kept me from loving the book, too.


I didn't hate this one. But I wasn't a big fan of it, either. It just . . . was. Some hot scenes, sure, and a good line here or there, but overall I was just disappointed by this one.

There was some angst in the last few chapters that I didn't think was really necessary, but other than that, I completely loved this! Elyse Springer is quickly becoming one of my new favorite authors. I've read three of her books so far, and all have been 5 star reads for me. I loved the main characters, but all of the side characters were well written as well, and I found myself wanting more from all of them. I'm sad that there are only 4 books in this series. I'd love to have a books about Noelle, Ethan, and especially Jer. I wasn't originally planning to read the first book in this companion series (I started with book 2), but Heat Wave has piqued my curiosity about Nathan and Jason's story, so I may end up going back to pick it up now.

I was unable to review this book because of a conflict in my schedule. Sorry for any inconvenience this has caused the publisher or the author of the work. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to review for you and I look forward to reviewing for you in the future.

The latest in this series, I enjoyed it, but found the pacing to be a bit off. I prefer my romances to be a bit more slow build and to have the angst drawn out a bit. Still, I was invested in the story and had a good time reading it. I would recommend it to others.

I had to force myself to finish reading this book. I'm not sure if it was the writing, the characters, or the storyline itself. I read the first book in this series, which was m/m, and liked it enough that I wanted to check this one out. It was my first f/f romance.
I didn't care for either Sara or Laura. Neither character was someone I would want as a friend. And the total lack of communication between the two characters was practically laughable. And how could two grown women be so incompetent and unable to manage their own lives?
After this one, I think I'll be giving the rest of the series a pass.

There were definitely things I liked about this book, and I guess some things I didn't? It took me quite a while before I managed to just pick up the book again after I put it down, and actually finish the book. What I did love is that we finally got Sara's story! We first met Sara as Nate's best friend in book one, Whiteout, and now she finally gets her own HEA! And this is a f/f romance with two bisexual characters, which I really liked.

Sara is working at a diner and her life is fine, but even when she wants to go out and do something, it's like all her friends have found their true loves, and she's the one stuck at home with nothing to do. That's when her and Laura meet up. Just for drinks at first. Their only real connection before this is the fact that they now share the same ex-boyfriend. Laura is confident with her sexuality and Sara is less so. Sara's discovering that maybe she's got a thing for Laura, or maybe all women, but Laura's just looking for a rebound. Maybe to even help Sara out as she starts realizing that she's bisexual.

This book is kinky. There's some light BDSM in here, and it's definitely flames of chemistry between Sara and Laura whenever they're together. I liked seeing Sara grow more and more confident with her sexuality and I like that she's trying to grow in her own career by working and diligently taking classes at school as a returning student. We do get to see some characters from the previous books make a few cameos and there are definitely feels for Sara when it seems like Laura might not be falling for her like she is for Laura.

What I struggled a bit with is that we do only get the story from one POV, so it was, truly, a one-sided story. I would have loved to have read the story through Laura's eyes as well, if only to feel what Laura was going through whenever she seemed to second-guess Sara's intentions.

This is ultimately a story where it all comes down to miscommunication between the two characters. I'm not a huge fan of this type of storyline, but occasionally it does unravel in a realistic way. In this case, it seems like the everything could definitely have been resolved a lot earlier though, like maybe even halfway through the story if Sara and Laura just talked to each other. Even at the end of the book it seems like Sara was giving too much credit to Laura for things she did herself - like doing well in her class or wanting to do something more with her life.

One other thing that bothers me slightly is the setup for the next, and last book of the series. The last book will be focused on Tony, and his subplot in this book is that he's searching for a guy he met and broke up with months ago. The number's been disconnected and there's no social media to speak of for the guy, so Tony's coming across as borderline stalkerish trying to hunt this guy down six months later, and enlisting Sara's help too. I guess we'll see how this plays out in the next book. But if the story is only told from one POV and it's Tony's, I might have some reservations going into the story and how that'll all turn out.

Overall, I think Sara and Laura have nice chemistry together, but the miscommunication and resolution at the end was a tad rushed. I do think that it's nice to have two bisexual characters getting together and having their own HEA. Seeing previous characters from the past two books was nice as well.

***Thanks to Riptide Publishing for providing me an ARC on NetGalley***

it started strong, but alas just wasn't for me. I never felt the connection between Sara and Laura was strong enough to get all that invested in their relationship. I found myself skimming quite a bit toward the end.

The book is filled with very graphic sex scenes and yet managed not to be vulgar. I personally loved it very much. I loved the chemistry between Laura and Sara and the whole self-defining moment and discovery of new, deep feelings towards the same gender.

So... most of you know that F/F romances aren't my go-to genre. But, if you've been following closely, you also know that I'm committed to the Seasons of Love series and didn't want to take a chance on missing anything that happens between Whiteout and Changing Colors. ;) I also have a confession. I've kinda had a love/hate relationship with Sara since the beginning of the Seasons of Love series. Honestly, it wasn't her fault. She was just looking out for her best friend and eventually she did come around. It still took her a little bit of time to win me over.

From the beginning Sara and Laura were on the same page... until they weren't. Sara wasn't a lesbian or even bi, she was just curious. Laura wasn't looking for anything but a rebound, especially since she wasn't planning on sticking around. Sara began to see more though. More to Laura and more to the non-relationship that was developing between them.

There were a couple of fun little twists in Heat Wave and a couple of cameos from previous characters. I'm really loving this series and the more layers that are added, the more fun it becomes. This was a nice little segues to Changing Colors, the next and final book in the Seasons of Love series. I've gotta admit, I've been looking forward to Tony's book since the series started. Some of the events in Heat Wave only reinforced my need to see him find his HEA.

This book didn’t really work for me. I kept looking for evidence of their compatibility (either platonically or romantically) and never found it so it was hard to get invested in the story. It took me about halfway through before I warmed up to Sara but Laura pretty much remained a mystery to me. I wished I’d seen a lot more of their interactions beyond hooking up. I even ended up skimming through the sex scenes because I just wasn’t feeling the chemistry between them.

Sara was big on challenging herself physically and mentally, and this was one of the things that got me to warm up to her character. One thing I found odd was how Sara kept saying Laura was always pushing her to her limits. I didn’t see any evidence of this beyond discovering her bisexuality and some mild BDSM… so in other words, the sex. I couldn’t help but feel that Sara was giving Laura way too much credit for everything she was accomplishing on her own. For instance, at the end of the book, she credited Laura for pushing her to go to college, when it was actually her boss George and her best friend Nate who encouraged her to get her business degree. She even suggested that Laura had something to do with her passion for kickboxing, even though Sara had been taking advance classes for several years before she even met Laura.

I was not a fan of the lack of communication between the women especially when this became the entire reason for their lovers’ conflict. There was a lot of unspoken jealousy and sulking and passive-aggressive behavior and running away and it all got very tedious and predictable all throughout the final third. I nearly DNFed when [SPOILER] Sara caught Laura about to hook up with their ex but at that point I was 90% in, so I decided to finish the book.

Because I was not convinced of them as a couple, I thought it was nice that the grand gesture at the end was also a practical one that offered Laura a valid reason to stay (beyond staying for Sara’s sake alone). In general I’m not big on the big Hollywood “grand gesture” endings (the first book in the series had this and I think so did the second, so now I’m wondering if we’ll see the same in the fourth and final book as well).

Yeah, this book really wasn't my thing. It's an entry in an ongoing series by this author, but the content doesn't seem to rely on being familiar with the other books in the series and works well on its own. However, once again I'm faced with the dilemma of reading about characters that I don't find interesting, dynamic, or feel any chemistry between--though I'm not sure this is intended to be that deep of a book, as it's mostly about sex and pretty BDSM sex at that. Some of the "dirty talk" just left me a bit fearful of this relationship--in particular a line that just sort of gets thrown out and ignored where one character is hoping ropes leave marks on the other's wrists so she could see her all bruised up the next day. And, wow, is there bruising--most of the sex scenes end in bruises or pain or some other form of discomfort, and I guess if that's your thing cool.
Otherwise, the "story" component was pretty basic and yet barely there, with a ton of repetition of gym workouts with bruising, sex with bruising, and internal monologue after monologue about loving someone because they make you push the limits of your body. Or some other such garbage.
So big ol pass for me on this author and the rest of her Seasons of Love series.

Not since Whiteout have I so enjoyed a book that played on a trope even as it completely made it its own. I hear a lot that, in lesbian fiction, the characters are kind of washed out or not that compelling. That was not the case in this book. For chemistry between female characters, this is probably my favourite book I've ever read.

Of course, there were problems. There was the throwaway trans character who, instead of saying he was trans, literally showed the chest scars to our main character Sara, as well as the three weeks of complete communication fail that happened at the end. I mean, look, I know that it happens in real life, but I always want to see characters behave better than that.

So, the trope: Gay for you. Of course. Sara is a straight woman who ends up falling for a bisexual one. What I found interesting first off about this novel was how it was written from the formerly straight person's point of view.

That didn't mean, though, we didn't see Laura (who was also bisexual) for not seeming able to accept that Sara might be able to be interested in women as well as men, but that was fairly convincingly hand waved by, again, lack of communication: Sara realising that she hadn't been forward about the fact that she was incredibly attracted to Laura.

Apart from the communication fails, there wasn't a great deal of angst. What I mean to say is, there wasn't a great deal of angst to do specifically with Sara coming to realise she wasn't straight like she'd always thought. I liked that. I liked that a lot.

This is the third in a series, but I had no trouble jumping in on this book without having read the other two.

Sara, recently broken up with her boyfriend, finds herself drunkenly sleeping with openly bi Laura Murphy. While Sara finds herself falling for the sexy red head, Laura is planning a move to LA. Is this just a fling for both of them, or will Sarah convince Laura that this is the real thing.

It was really nice for Sara to be totally cool about suddenly sleeping with a girl, thats fantastic. But I expected maybe a little more time thinking about other changes in her life that this big change might mean. i.e. Having kids and discrimination. Even though New York and LA are very open, still you're bound to experience it at some point. I found that a little unrealistic.

The relationship was consummated so early, I loved the sexual chemistry between them but I would have liked a little more development in the relationship. Don't get me wrong, the sex scenes were fantastic, erotic and sensual and adventurous, and incredibly well written. I loved how erotic they were without going so far over the top. They were seriously amazing. I just missed a little of the emotional connection between them.

I loved the characters, I loved how real they were and how down to earth they were, with their jobs, their looks, living at their age in New York, everything. I found them really relatable and it was really nice to be able to make a connection with the characters.

This book was well written and a fun sexy romp to read. I will definitely check out the other books in this series and from this author.

I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It's hard to find good mlm NA lit. It's harder still to find good wlw NA lit. This book is definitely in the category of good wlw NA lit, while never actually managing to be amazing.

Despite that, I did have some issues with the book. For one, there's very little actual relationship development. They start off as friends with benefits (or rather, exes of the same guy and then they become friends with benefits) and then they're having sex. And then supposedly they're in love. One problem I often have with NA lit, is that there seems to be an insistence on including a scene where the main characters say they love each other. A lot of the time, that appears forced, like in this case, and honestly I'd prefer if they maybe just decided to date or something. That feels more realistic almost. There are some cases where an "I love you" works, but this is not one of them.

I get that this is a friends with benefits to lovers scenario, too, but the speed with which they start to hook up (they get together for the first time a tenth of the way through, after what's supposed to be 2-3 weeks - timeskip included) felt a bit rushed. There could definitely have been more of a slowburn going on there.

Another problem I found was actually with Sara (the narrator) herself. Some of the things she complains about seem a little childish, and she's supposedly touching 30. There's a part early on where Nate, her ex-roommate who's since moved in with his boyfriend, was supposed to help her move out of her place but forgot and his boyfriend booked them a holiday. And Sara just has a more extreme reaction than that really warrants, in my opinion. He genuinely just forgets a prior engagement, it's not that big a deal, but she refers to it as "screwing her over" especially when "he was one of the main reasons she had to move" like. Just take a deep breath and move on. These things happen. And as for being one of the main reasons, so he met someone and moved in with them. Get over yourself. This happened pretty early on in the book, so you can imagine I was not Sara's biggest fan for most of the rest of it.

Not that I was Laura's biggest fan either, to be perfectly honest. She actually treats Sara pretty badly. There's this one scene, when they're still friends with benefits, where she spends the whole time with Sara pointing out hot girls. But when Sara points out some hot guys (they're both bisexual), she grows cold and blanks her. When they have sex after that, she essentially kicks her out of her flat, and subsequently doesn't contact her for a bit. And she doesn't apologise for that move. I wouldn't have minded so much if she'd admitted she overreacted, and messed up. But no. Not only that, she later blanks Sara completely again after not telling her that she's going to move away. Sara hears it from Laura's boss (after a messy moment which makes Laura think Sara and Tony are hooking up and ventures way too close to the cheating bisexual stereotype for my liking). Again, it's not something Laura apologises for.

I liked the attempt this book made to be at least sexually diverse, but at times it did feel a little like the characters were being shown off as diverse rather than just existing. There was a scene where Sara was talking to Jer, her kickboxing trainer, about how she's finding out new things about her body having had sex with Laura for the first time, and Jer, to reveal that he's trans, lifts his shirt to show her his top surgery scars to say he knows "exactly what it's like to redefine yourself". It just felt a bit of a crude way for him to come out, honestly.

Overall, actually, the book was kind of boring (I say, even as I rate it 3 stars). There wasn't really any plot besides the romance and it drifted a bit at times. Not to mention the part where it's made clear that Sara is ""not like other girls"". Thanks.

Springer has thrown up a sexy read where hardworking Sara gets a new and unexpected spark of life with Laura. The circumstances of their connection is bizarre but not completely unbelievable and then their relationship is fun if not confusing ... but definitely fun ;).

A dose of angst and miscommunication take the characters through some emotional moments but this is a lively read which you will enjoy.

Elyse Springer, despite being a rather new (published) author, has quickly become one of my faves. So far I've liked each of her books (some more than others of course, but they were all great). I think she'll be one of those authors I will always be able to trust to write a great story. She's definitely a one-click author for me.

I really enjoyed Heat Wave. It's really well written, vivid and visual and I had no problems picturing it all despite never having been in New York. Maybe the heat wave we had over here in Germany at the time I read this, did its part in making it more real; if anything I could relate more to Sara. ;)

That being said... I just didn't like Laura. The way she's hot and cold with Sara really annoyed me at times. Admittedly they *both* should have communicated more with each other, but I can understand how Sara would be hesitant to tell Laura about her feelings the way Laura kept pushing her away to ravish her the next minute.
I liked the premise of them getting together and really enjoyed that at first - these two ladies do burn the sheets up - but the longer the story went on the less I thought that Laura was a good fit for Sara. The sex between them is great and I could feel that physical attraction - the emotional one on the other end came rather abruptly toward the end of the story. I missed the build up and slowly falling in love.

Maybe part of that is that I really would have liked to have Laura's perspective on things. For most of the story she eluded me and I didn't get the feeling that she was attached to Sara for anything more than sex.

I have no idea how to rate this because I *loved* Sara, I loved how she evolved how she grew throughout the story. How she determinedly followed her plans and did not give up. I really liked how she just went and tackled things and just signed up for college courses while working her job, and somehow still finding time for friends. In a way she reminded me a lot of my sister and how I would just love to be a bit more like her - and Sara too.

In Heat Wave we also see Noah and Jason again, as well as Brie and Abby - but we also get to meet new people from this big cluster of friends. I can't wait to read Tony's book. He grew on me so much and I'm curious to see how he'll find his happy ending! A small big part of me hopes that maybe one day we'll get Jer's story as well?

Heat Wave is the third book in the Seasons of Love series, but can be read as standalone.

Not as good as Thaw but not too shabby either. Lots of sex and dirty talk here. The story was good but for some reason I wasn't so invested in Sara at first. It became better when she started to take classes however it was a slow start into understanding why she is the way she is ....

I did enjoy it though however if I had spent money on it then I would have been disappointed more.

<i>I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and Riptide Publishing in exchange for an honest review.</i>

Okay, let’s do the easy things first: This is the first book I’ve read by this author, and this specific book is the third in a series.

The important: Can a reader read this series book without having read others in the series? The quick answer is: of course, since that’s what I did. Are there things that a reader will miss from not reading this book after reading the others? Not sure, but based on what I did read I think that there are certain aspects that they would miss. I felt that way at times, at least.

The book kind of started off in a way that lead me to believe that I might be missing certain things. Like just why the lead (and only POV) character, Sara, had the other woman’s, Laura, phone number in her phone. There might have been something said at the time that she dialed that number, but if so, I missed it. It’s ‘important’ because the two main characters, Sara and Laura, seem as if they don’t really know each other, and yet both have each other’s phone number and are willing to randomly hang out together.

Mind, I know why the two know each other, just not why one had the other’s phone number in their phone. Why did they know each other? Eons ago, seemingly, maybe seen in one of the prior books, maybe not, a woman named Sara dated a man named Robbie. They fell into a relationship easily, and then out of it just as easily. At some point after that, a woman named Laura dated a man named Robbie. The same Laura and the same Sara who star in this book here. Laura’s parting from Robbie wasn’t as easy as Sara’s – Laura walked in Robbie doing the nasty with some other woman.

All of this might seem to be spoiler, and it is in a way, but the kind learned right up front in the book. For, you see, the book opens with Sara boredly wondering what to do that night. Too early to sleep. Her friends Abby, Kathy, and Nathan are all doing something (separately). Maybe she’d sleep anyway? Wait, she had Laura’s number. And so, she randomly dialed, randomly went out with her – and hopefully I’m remembering things correctly, that that is how everything unfolded. Oh, and it was there, when they meet up or over the phone, that Laura mentioned the situation with Robbie and that she needed to drink.

As might be expected from what I’ve written so far, two women who shared the same man at different points in time, both women are . . . . bisexual. What, that isn’t what’s expected? Ah. Hmm. Well, to be fair, Sara is quite taken with the notion that she’s straight. I mean, she’s one of those who pushes herself, challenges herself, <i>knows</i> herself, and she’d think, and thought, that if she was interested in women, that would be something that’d have popped up in her life before she turned 29, which she is now. Laura, on the other hand, might be somewhat off men at the moment, due to the cheating man she was just with, but is strong in her belief that she’s bisexual.

I’ve read a bunch of ‘lesbians who fall for straight women’ stories. This is the first time I’ve landed on a ‘bisexual who fell for a straight woman’ story. I think the closest I’d gotten to that in the past was a story involving a lesbian who fell for a bisexual woman. One who made some cruel and ill-advised remarks concerning bisexuals (that they are on the fence and should get off it already).

Nice to read a book that includes the idea that bisexuals are a real thing. And those who happen to be women and who find themselves drawn to other women, do not naturally and immediately leap from ‘I’m straight’ to ‘I’m a lesbian’. And that is one of the strong topics that crop up in this book – just what, exactly, Sara might be – she had been quite confident in her heterosexuality.

Enough of that.

Sara Walker is a 29 year old woman who works as one of the day-time managers at a diner in New York City. Lives in New York, specifically the Park Slope region of Brooklyn. The book opens with her being currently single, bored, and not really sure she’s happy with how her life is currently shaped. We, the reader, follow her, and only her, through her journey. Her journey that includes bumping into a woman named Laura who flirts with her. Who ‘forces her’ to dance at a bar. Who lures her into ‘kink’ (there is a section wherein the author says something, an afterward or something, about how those on Twitter encouraged her on her quest to write a book involving two kinky bisexuals).

Is it the same sex thing that’s the kink? That seems offensive, in a way. What, no? Oh. It’s the ‘surprise’ BDSM that broke out. Very early in the book. Along with the massive waves of kinky sex. I should probably make that a warning, or something. Some like knowing if a book contains that kind of thing.

<b>Warning</b>: This book contains several scenes of a kinky BDSM nature, and also includes, partially with, partially without that BDSM, public sex.

I distracted myself there, sorry. That’s what the book is about, though. No, not specifically BDSM. I mean, Sara coming to terms with the fact that she’s interested in another woman. And fucking her seemingly nonstop from . . . um, well, fairly early in the book. Thought I’d had a status update after the first encounter but don’t see one. That’s the relationship Sara and Laura fall into, Sara’s ‘experimenting’ and Laura’s ‘rebounding’.

Quite well written book. Had some flaws. Mostly ones that I might have created myself in that I had created a personality in my mind based on the information I’d been given about Sara, and that personality wasn’t matching up with Sara’s actions (like her inability to communicate). After being annoyed about that throughout the book I’ve come to a specific conclusion: I shouldn’t force personalities on characters based on assumptions and . . . well, words on the paper (like the part where she seriously challenges herself constantly, knows her own body, knows herself, etc. etc. The kind who confronts issues, not dives out of the way; except, you know, for communication issues with Laura). Plus the surprise BDSM kind of . . . surprised me – especially how it was handled, and for the part where I didn’t realize the book would include that type of thing. That and the part where I kept pushing past the sexual encounters to get to the rest of the story . . . in the later part of the book. Because I wanted to see what happened next, and the sex was getting in the way.

<b>Sex</b>: Graphic and frequent. With elements pulled from the realm of BDSM. Including such things as blindfolds, control, spankings, orgasm control, and the like. The earlier scenes were much more interesting and exciting than the later, though that comment is softened by the acknowledgement of a lessening lack of interest in reading deeply into the sex acts as the story unfolded.

<b>Series</b>: As noted, this is the third book in a series. I’ve not read the other books in the series, but can make certain observations: It is possible that the Jason from the first book in the series is the same Jason who makes an appearance in this book – lessoned by the fact that his boyfriend is Nathan in this book and Noah in that other book, so maybe different Jason. Abby and Gabrielle are both in the second book in the series and make appearances in this book as well, with Abby being one of Sara’s somewhat infrequently seen friends. Part of Tony and Gee’s story is touched upon in this book, but their story is told in the fourth book in the series – with Tony being a friend of Sara’s in this book here.

Would I recommend this book? Yes.

Rating: 3.98 – my rating was somewhat lower than I expected to find myself due to certain aspects that came up near the end of the book. And how I ‘took’ them.

July 13 2017