Oh my hot! There were a few slow spots, but they were necessary to explain things in the story. In the first book I couldn't figure out a lot of the Spanish phrases, it was a lot easier in this book to know what was being said. Eddie and Carmen are perfect together, and I love how Eddie works to get out of the gang and start a new life. It looks like there's another book in the series coming next year, can't wait!

This review is based on an ARC from NetGalley, courtesy of the publisher. All opinions are my own.

I absolutely ADORED Thirsty and I really really liked this one as well. I think I just connected with the characters better in book one, and in Trashed I couldn’t understand some of the decisions that Trouble and Carmen made. However, the writing was stellar and it is a highly enjoyable and STEAMY romance - not to be missed. I loved continuing this series and am SO excited about book 3! The excerpt included in my ARC got me all 😍😍

I choose this book because I've heard a lot of great things about the first in the series and let's be honest, i was so intrigued by the cover and to see if the male character resemble the cover and i wasn't disappointed at all. Also, i haven't read the first book in the series but this one can very easily read as a stand-alone although the couple has a few big appearances in this book.

I haven't read many books told only in male pov and was so pleasantly surprised because i really enjoyed this book so much.
The writing is great as well and i couldn't stop reading til i found out how everything will wrap up.
I just love Eddie so much, he's quite the character, he was a bad boy and still is but have a heart bigger than anything else, and his determination to find his father and found out what happened with him has no limits. He's so caring and loving towards his family, as for his relationship with Carmen i have no words to say how much i love him for everything he did for and with her. He was willing to give her up because he knows he's a bad influence and not worthy of her and OMG the intimate moments between them are so hot and diverse and i was flushed so many times ,the chemistry and desire and all their feelings could be felt through the pages because the author has done such a great job in describing everything so well and beautiful.

There are a few twists and turns, moments that kept my heart race with n unexpected speed but also heartbreak and hopefully at the same time.

i will definitely recommend this book to all my friend and looking forward to more books by the author.


Thanks for the opportunity to read and review for the Arc received by the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Are my eyebrows on fire? Trashed is a scorcher! Damn, Mia!

Hopkins keeps it sexy in the second book in her Eastside Brewery series, wrapping Eddie and Carmen’s romance in a story that’s ultimately about culture, community and the happily ever after we all deserve.

Eddie’s 6 months out of prison and trying to get his life on track. The two meet at a restaurant where Carmen is a chef and Eddie attempts to be a dishwasher. Then, they both get fired.

I love that Hopkins sticks with the story being told from Eddie’s perspective. Even without Carmen’s direct POV, you get a good sense of who she is, where she’s coming from and what she stands for. That said, at various points in the story, I wondered what she was doing. After they both get fired, she doesn’t exactly rush into trying to find another restaurant gig.

Hopkins excels at developing complex, introspective characters who never feel like stereotypes to me. These are working class people who got into some stuff and live with it on a daily basis. Eddie’s clearly had time to think about who he is, how he got there, and where he wants to go next. I can’t tell you how much I love seeing working class lives and loves front and center in romance, and not just in one-dimensional supporting roles to billionaires and white collar workers.

In a note at the end of the book, Hopkins talks about how she spent time volunteering at a gang intervention and re-entry program, which informed her characters. You have to believe that plays a role in why you read Eddie and never think of him as a gangbanger or “Latin Lover” type. He’ll singe your eyebrows off, but that’s just him.

Definitely a must read.

Once again Mia Hopkins has made me fall in love with heroes. Mia doe a great job of immersing us into Eddie's thoughts, feelings, vulnerabilities.

All the dam mistakes he makes. While we only get his POV. i think Carmen was such a vibrant personality that we still get to learn her, in spite of never having her POV. We still get to see who she really is, what she feels for Eddie.

I love this series and how Eddie is a flawed, complex guy but just gotta love him. Being in his head was entertaining and heartbreaking at times, especially heartbreaking when he wonders what Carmen sees in him. Even more so when he finds Dreamer and realizes the man he is.

I loved Eddie and i can't wait to meet their brother Angel!

Trashed is quite the intense read, written from the hero, Eddie's point of view in first person present simple. It isn't my first book with this narrative, but I hadn't read a book like it in a while. Eddie's voice was so earnest and delightful. I loved his instant lust over Carmen, the quiet way he fell in love with her, his love for his family. It jarred me to read the flashback of his parents' fights and the way his mother and sister passed. I liked that this book was quite a focus on his life and development. As a romance reader, however, I missed Carmen. I wanted more of her. I loved the scenes where she and Eddie were quite intensely intimate, she shined quite bright with how open and communicative she was. I loved the cooking scenes; the way food was a comfort throughout the story.

Awesome read! The tension is so, so good and the story so engaging I couldn’t put it down. The connection between Eddie and Carmen is so well done. I love how it all ended for them and Vanessa and Sal. This is such a great series.

Thank you Little Stone Press and NetGalley for the ARC!

Gritty, gorgeous, and it absolutely gutted me. Ok, enough alliteration and back to gushing (I gotta stop with the "g" words) about this beautiful story about Eddie "Trouble" Rosas' very un-beautiful life. Eddie is fresh out of prison, on the verge of being dragged back in with his old gang, and totally unprepared to fall for the mysterious Carmen. Slapped down by prison, gang violence, a deadbeat dad, and a lack of opportunities, Eddie thinks he is everything his nickname signifies.
“Being with you,” I say slowly, “would require me to be a good person. I’m not a good person, Carmen.”
At only 23, Eddie thinks he has nothing to offer the world but fake bravado and swagger, but luckily, Carmen and Eddie's brother Sal (I loved his story in Thirsty) know that Eddie is more than just bad choices and bad luck. Carmen may be one of the most quietly strong heroines ever, as she accepts the challenge of loving Eddie.
“You haven’t given up on me yet. Why not?”

She’s quiet for so long I’m afraid she’s fallen asleep. But she lifts her head and looks at me in the dark.

“Because you’re much more—so much more—than the bad things you’ve done, Eddie. They don’t define you.”
I like my romances fluffy and totally untethered to reality (after all, how many hot billionaires and dukes actually exist?). Yet I completely fell into this all too real world of second chances and fighting tooth and nail for survival. I found myself wanting to believe that people like Eddie, Carmen, Sal, and Vanessa not only exist but have found their true happily ever afters. In short, and to use a "g" word, this was just plain good.

4.5 stars

Note: I voluntarily read and reviewed this eARC generously provided by NetGalley and the publisher.

This is the first book I have read by Mia Hopkins and I really enjoyed it. I love meeting new authors! It's the 2nd in a series but I didn't feel like I should have read the first book first. A fabulous quick read with strong characters who I loved. It was well written with a believable storyline. I will have to go back and read the first one now!!

Ohhhh man! This book was SO HOT! I am officially TRASH (haha) for everything that Mia Hopkins writes. The characters have so much chemistry. Usually I am all about the good boy heroes who like to think they are bad boys, but Mia's books do something to me and I am ALL ABOUT the actual bad boys.

This book is believable, breathtaking, and on fire!!!

Trashed, the follow-up to the amazing Thirsty, continues to show the depth of the world Mia is able to create. You are immediately immersed in this world and the love story and never want to leave. The chemistry was amazing and I can't wait for more! I was so excited to read this next installment of the series and Mia Hopkins did not disappoint.

4.5 stars. I'm not a big fan of books written in present tense, nor romances written entirely from the hero's POV.

The author (who I'm personally acquainted with) breaks other romance novel conventions, as well, like having the hero be a tatted up gangbanger fresh out of jail. And yet, it works. It ALL works. I found myself totally rooting for Eddie and Carmen, and the story took me in directions that surprised me.

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this work via Netgalley.

This is part of a series about the Rosas brothers. I had heard a short reading of the first in the series, Thirsty, but have not read that book. This works well as a standalone, but I suspect for those who loved the previous work, there is enough inclusion of Sal and Vanessa to satisfy, without allowing them to hijack Eddie and Carmen's story.

There is so much texture, such sensually rich description of sights, sounds, aromas and more that I felt enveloped by the story. It includes a lot of Spanglish, but that is woven in with enough contextual clues that I could almost always figure out what was going on.

And did I mention the HOT sexytimes? Wonderfully erotic and varied. Really, a wonderful read, and these kinds of heroes deserve their happily ever afters, too.

I have been eagerly awaiting Trashed, as [book:Thirsty|36100022] is a absolute and utter steamy delight. Like whoa, my face is red reading this in the break room and I need to take a moment.

Trashed does not disappoint.

After being released from his five year prison sentence, Eddie Rosas hooks up with a beautiful stranger in a public garden a few days after finally being released from prison. While Eddie wants to blame his forced celibacy for the fire between him and the woman he cannot forget, he knows there is more. Something about her twitches Eddie's memory.

When Eddie gets a dish washing job at a fancy Italian restaurant six months later, he is stunned to find out the beautiful woman he still dreams about is running the kitchen. Their chemistry is impossible to deny and when he and Carmen get caught making out in the cooler and they both lose their jobs.

Trying to be more for Carmen, to be more for his family, to be more for himself, Eddie must navigate his budding relationship and his fear of falling back into old habits, falling back in with the East Side Hallenbeck gang.

What follows is a story of working hard, of taking your chances, of trying to do what is best, even if it isn't quite right. Eddie's story is important, as Hopkins deftly shows how the Rosas brothers deserve their happily ever afters.

Gritty, angsty, and so utterly delicious, I love this series!

Also, I have to say I really enjoyed how Hopkins portrayed Eddie and Carmen's struggle to be alone. Eddie lives with a family friend in a trailer in the same public garden he and Carmen first met in. Carmen lives with her parents, despite being in her mid-twenties. Carmen could live on her own, but feels both obligated by her family to stay and the pressure to save money for a rainy day. Watching these two try to find a place to be together, alone, was super frustrating and SO hot because of it.

I feel like we barely see financial struggle in romance novels as usually the characters all have wonderful jobs, wonderful careers. Of course your small cupcake business is just fine, makes all the money.

This series banks on these struggles and feels all the more realistic for it. While I have huge hopes for Eddie and Sal's brewery business, I also feel their concerns, their difficulties, the realities of starting up a small business, especially for POC. The discussion of trying to keep their new business in "their neighborhood" before the white gentrify-ers show up was especially on point (Jackie Lau's newest series, Baldwin Village, also deftly deals with these small business worries).

Content warning for discussions of gun violence, gang violence, physical violence (fighting but never between the main couple), drug use.

I received a free copy in exchange for a fair review.

I absolutely loved Thirsty and the follow-up Trashed did not disappoint. Mia Hopkins writes such complex, loveable characters that make you feel that you are immersed in their world.

First person, present tense ... nothing could be less likely than me choosing to read this book, but I stumbled across Thirsty and thought it was one of the best books I have ever read. Trashed is also one of the best books I have ever read.
Mia Hopkins is an amazing writer. She writes about people who are not those I would be likely to meet in real life. She humanises poverty and those who fight to better themselves. She gives each an impossible goal, an unlikely partner, and takes the reader on a journey with these two towards happiness, success, and fulfilment. She takes the reader with her by her skilful way with words.
Anyone who wants to read about the power of love and hope (yes, everyone) will greatly appreciate this amazing book.

TRASHED by Mia Hopkins 7/16/2019

Carmen 🌿 (she) & Eddie 🥀 (he)

🥀 Ex-gangbanger
🌿 Tough chef
🎍 One-morning stand

TRASHED picks up with scene we saw from Sal's perspective in THIRSTY. Eddie's version of events is much more tender and sweet (and super hot).

Like Sal in THIRSTY, Eddie is an imperfect character. He has done (and does) bad things. He struggles to see his own worth, to see himself how others do, which is a struggle we can all relate to.

Pluses:

* When Eddie does a Noble Thing™️, he realizes immediately just how badly he messed up.
* The reality of how difficult putting his life back together is.
* Eddie's ability for self-reflection.

Wishes:

I would have like to see more exploration of Carmen's job situation and the intersections of sexism and racism at play but understand Eddie's first-person POV* didn't allow for that.

* If you are like me and avoid 1P, don't! This is 1P done right.

🥀 "I forgot. In my world of hard edges and hard surfaces, I forgot that anything existed as soft and sweet as a woman’s lips."
🌿"I don’t think you’re as hard as you pretend you are."
Preorder links:

Amazon US amzn.to/2UlRyLD
B&N bit.ly/2Di8htC
Apple http://apple.co/2PlFpWk
Kobo https://bit.ly/2v9fdoq

THIRSTY, the first book in this series, was hands down one of the best romances I read in 2018. I was so thankful to have the opportunity to read Eddie’s story, but I admit I had some trepidation. Would it measure up? The answer is: absolutely. Some of the things that made THIRSTY so great are here as well: the setting, the worldbuilding, the complicated relationships between family members and friends. This is also told from the male protagonist’s POV and Hopkins is one of the few authors who can really pull this off. I loved Eddie. He’s not just a cartoonish ex-con. He has so many layers. And he’s a true blue collar hero. What I love so much about both of these books is that these are not the kinds of characters who normally find love. They’re background characters or stereotypes if they appear in romances at all. They’re the bad guys. Hopkins basically says: screw all that. Sal, Eddie—they deserve love, too. Not to take away from Carmen because she was a great character as well and if I have any complaints it’s that her character wasn’t as well developed. But I expected it because I went into this knowing it was Eddie’s story. I can’t wait now for TANKED.

I was a little surprised at how much I liked the first novel in this series (Thirsty). First-person, single point-of-view only from his side? That’s unusual and I wasn’t sure I’d like it.

I loved it. Sal’s story was intense and scary and heartfelt and tender.

But we’re here to talk about Eddie’s story. If anything, Eddie’s a bigger marshmallow under his prison tattoos, muscles, and history as a car thief and gangster. He falls for Carmen from almost the minute he sees her and his adoration is so pure and radiant it almost hurts. Likewise, his search for his and Sal’s father Dreamer has a purity (and even naïveté) that is truly sweet.

This book isn’t as tense as the first book, but it is definitely a romance with grit and bite. I loved it.

I was given an Advance Reader’s Copy in exchange for an honest review.