I could not get into this book. The main charger character seemed to be cold and distant. This made the entire story drag.

I am a sucker for strong female characters and I was so excited to find one in Monica Spade. She is well rounded and ready for courtroom action and drama, while still being a fully thought out character outside of the courtroom. The story does not overlook the actual nature of court cases and instead uses the proper protocol to increase the drama while not letting it overwhelm the story. I also found the romantic aspect to be steamy enough but not too overdone to be over or underwhelming.

I received this book for free from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review

This was a fast moving book who's characters had a lot of personality and steamy moments. Monica is an attorney trying to work towards partner and adores her actual boss but despises the other partner and his son. This book looks at hate crimes for gender, sexual orientation and color. It was a true joy to read.

I’d read good things about this book, in particular that it was like a Harper Bliss novel but that isn’t exactly true. If you like reading about legal procedures in plain language with little description then this is the book for you. Monica, the lawyer wasn’t the most interesting of characters and the object of her affection, Shelby, just seemed to be there for her fantasise over while doing Cross Fit.

To be honest, it’s pretty difficult to fantasise when someone is making you weight lift your own body weight or hang off some rings when your lungs are bursting through your chest or at least that’s my experience of Cross Fit, but there you go.

And if you want to be compared to Harper Bliss, you’ve got to nail those sex scenes big time, which wasn’t the case here. The cover of the book is pretty good though.

This is an interesting read inasmuch it is much like a John Grisham kind of legal novel with gay leads. It is not Grisham at his best but neither is it Grisham at his worst – it is somewhere in the middle with quite a solid legal case around the death of a Saudi Arabian student.

Monica Spade is a young, promising lawyer working in a seriously regressive law firm, Smart, Daniels & Whitworth. She is the only woman lawyer in the firm and has had to return into the closet so that she can work in the firm. Her biggest client is a large hospital which keeps her engaged in issues from a loose monkey to embezzlement by a partner company to the death of a Saudi Arabian student hurt during a fracas with an entitled Caucasian male. Monica has trouble saying no to goodies and joins a crossfit programme to battle the effects. She meets Shelby, an art teacher in the crossfit class and has mad attraction.

The books flows at a good pace. Monica is likeable enough. Shelby rocks! Wish there was more of Shelby and much more of the developing romance – since the attraction and chemistry is super, but way too little. Some amount of editing and tightening would’ve helped in creating a better pace.

This is a good change of pace for anyone who is OD-ing on any particular genre (be it romance or sci-fi) and wants something different for a coffee-bean-smell-between-perfumes.

Monica is a lawyer who works hard however she works in a homophobic environment and must keep her sexual identity deep undercover. At the gym she meets Shelby who is an art teacher. The two women seem drawn to one another, but Monica is afraid to flirt with her. She’s working on a significant case at the hospital, who is one of her biggest clients in a murder case, also she’s working with of all things a loose monkey in the hospital that is evading capture.
The part of the book the deals with the murder case is very interesting especially when one of the partners does everything in his power to persuade her to have the case come out more to his liking. There’s a significant conflict between these two people but thankfully Monica has the support of one of the partners who backs are up and confronts the other partner for his inappropriate interventions. What is a little frustrating in this story is the part that deals with the pending love interest between Monica and Shelby. I would have liked to have learned more about these two women and I would have liked to of seen their relationship develop quicker.
The mystery in this story about both of the cases Monica is working on at the hospital are very well done, there’s some levity with the monkey case and quite a lot of drama in the murder case. This book is a good read that keep me fascinated.

Conscious Bias is billed as a legal thriller with f/f romance. I felt primed to read this after coming off Grace Mead's Defense of an Other and was eager to start, but things go awry very quickly.

Calling this a thriller is just plain wrong. There is little to no tension in this story. I was propelled forward as I struggled to figure out what was going on instead of being compelled by the plot. The main character is a gifted lawyer, but she takes a backseat in the case central to the book. In the trial that is the focus of Conscious Bias, Monica Spade is not the prosecutor or even a member of the prosecutor's team. She prepares two witnesses to testify and sits back to watch the trial. It's interesting enough, but left Monica feeling more like a supporting character than our protagonist.

The crime that sets off the divisive trial in Apple Grove revolves around the death of Abdul Seif, an exchange student studying at the local university. There isn't a lot of ambiguity with the crime, the reader knows that the defendant is guilty, it's just a matter of waiting to see which side can get the system to rule in their favor. This is where Venice's law career comes in handy, but it is hardly the saving grace of this book. The trial central to this book doesn't start until past the halfway mark, mostly because this book is a blow-by-blow account of Monica's every waking moment from start to finish. Silly subplots (a monkey loose in a hospital?) only add to the painful pacing.

Outside of the trial, Monica spends lots of time at the gym, where she meets Shelby. Their insta-love connection isn't something I was in to, but that's just a personal preference. What really killed it for me was the cringe-worthy dialogue. Shelby's eyes were "firebombs" and her butt cheeks were "orbs." It's pervasive throughout the book, but peaks during the scenes in which Monica is at the gym, fantasizing about Shelby. And, that's mostly it. For a book that's billed as a f/f romance, there isn't a lot going on besides fantasizing, some flirting, and getting together right at the end of the book. The sticking point for me was, again, that even though this book only spans a few weeks, they're emphatically in love by the time they get together.

The story is further burdened by two-dimensional bad guys (sexist bosses, sleezy defense attorneys, corrupt businessmen) that fail to add and tension to the story because it is very apparent early on that the main character is always going to land on her feet because the author wants her to. I gave this book the benefit of the doubt until the very end, but there was no redemption with the rushed, senseless wrap-up. Clearly I'm in the minority here, but pick this book up at your own risk.

This book was fine, but I definitely didn't like it as much as everyone else seems to.
It is super timely for today's news, with a "Go back where you came from" legal drama.
It's a bit of a fluff book, which is fine when you want one, but... I guess it's that the fluff levels didn't match up in all the plots and sub-plots.

First we have a really serious court case involving murder and racism set in the middle of Trump country with a victim from the Middle East. That is not fluff, and it is treated pretty seriously.

Second we have a monkey lost in a hospital, and this is the part that gave me the most problems. Let me rant for a minute. The monkey is lost for days and we hear about all the monkey feces that have been strewn around the hospital, but no serious efforts are made to catch him. And by serious, I mean bringing in animal control to retrieve the monkey by whatever means necessary as quickly as possible because there are SICK PEOPLE THERE. But no one wants to do that because it might upset animal lovers (????). This isn't a monkey lost in a mall, or lost in a fire station, it's lost IN A HOSPITAL. But for some reason the hospital believes it would be better to just sort of wander around calling the monkey's name. For days. We know the monkey has been eating out of the cafeteria but we are to believe no one has actually seen him. They can't even manage to find him using security cameras. But still they won't call in any group that could actually catch him. Let me remind you, this is a HOSPITAL and there is a monkey messing around in the food supply and leaving FECES all over. The lawsuits over a sick patient getting sicker or dying from the exposure would be WAY worse than the lawsuit over tranquilizing a pet monkey for the good of the patients. And finally, the author has collected every monkey-related phrase and joke available in the English language so they can be used every other page. In this book about murder and racism and homophobia, I didn't need the monkey or the monkey jokes.

Sorry for the rant, but the monkey made me insane. I was so glad when the monkey parts were finally over.

The "romance" part just bothered me a little. It didn't seem like much of a romance since the two barely spoke to each other for most of the book, but we hear all about how much they wanted to have sex with each other. I just couldn't relate to a woman who did not know the other woman AT ALL but couldn't stop thinking about having sex with her, and that is ALL she thinks about her because, again, she doesn't know a thing about her. Where is the romance? If you want to make this a sex story, fine, but then... where is the sex?? There is not even a sex scene reward at the end unless I blinked and missed it.

And finally the last couple pages really confused me. I don't know if the author is implying that people from Saudi Arabia are all murderers, or if we're to believe this other character just turns out to be super biased. But the difference is kind of important, and I don't like being confused about the very last message we're left with.

I give it three stars because it's basically easy fluff, and I do appreciate when we have a lesbian main character in a book not only focused on romance. It just didn't rise to any level beyond for me though - if the monkey had been nixed completely it might have gone up to 4 stars.

I did receive an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review, but not every book is going to be liked by everyone.

This was almost 3 stars for me. Somehow the story managed to keep my interest even though I skimmed a lot of this book. My main issue was that it was too disjointed. Does this book want to be a f/f romance novels? A legal thriller? A story of bias and its consequences? It attempted all three and as a result it didn’t do any of them that well. To top it off there was a lot of unnecessary commentary about how the main character needed to loose weight and tone up. CrossFit tried to be central to the story and failed. It seemed like healthy living bullshit that served no purpose in the plot. And yet I finished it. So it wasn’t all bad, it just wasn’t that good...

This book was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review of the book.

Legal drama.

Monica Spade is a closeted lawyer in Wisconsin. She represents the local hospital. They have some crazy issues that require her legal expertise and representation. To relieve stress and try to shed some extra pounds, she starts a cross fit class and meets, Shelby, a hot woman also taking the class.

I liked the story. I enjoyed all of the characters. Especially the way Monica could not find the will power to pass up a single cookie or pastry regardless of how much she tried. It had unique scenarios. There is a lot of monkey business going on.

This wasn't primarily a romance. It was more legal drama with a side story of Monica meeting Shelby and trying to get the nerve up to ask her out. It was well balanced. They had a lot of chemistry. I hope book two goes a bit deeper with them. Monica mentions some cosmic force pulling them together. As if they knew each other in another life. But thinking that and showing us are two different things. I'd like to see a deeper connection happen within the pages.

The only thing I didn't care for (and it was a big one) was the repetitiveness of details surrounding the trial. Monica interviews all of the players. But then we have to see it all over again almost word for word during the trial. There definitely needed to be some editing there. Generalizing what we had already heard and then actually seeing new dialogue that tells us something different. It was honestly tough for me to get through the trial. I had to skip through a lot of it. And then I feared I would miss something new.

Anyhow, I would recommend this to those who like to read about romance, legal drama, court room trials, homophobic employers, cross fit, and monkeys.

<i>I received an ARC from the publisher for an honest review.</i>

Conscious Bias left me with mixed feelings. The book had great potential but I felt like it never quite got there. In the acknowledgements, the author calls this one a legal thriller with strong female leads. I did appreciate the strong women in the story, but I didn't find anything even remotely thriller-like. There is some action, but the story reads more like a cozy mystery except there really isn't much in the way of mystery here either. We know who the bad guys are pretty quickly. That said, I did enjoy the legal side of this one. The courtroom scenes are interesting and fast-paced.
The rest of the book is more comedy with a touch of romance than anything else. Speaking of comedy, I think reporter Tiffany was supposed to be comic relief, but the bubble-headed dialogue was so over the top that she quickly became caricature-like and the more I read of her, the less I wanted of those parts. The first time she said something completely ridiculous was amusing, the rest were just eye-roll inducing.
Now, for our main character, Monica, the star of the show. I like that the author hit on some prevalent issues with Monica working in a so-called man's world and being afraid to come out professionally. However, things seem to come a little too easily for our protagonist. Oh, she has her share of troubles, but once she addresses them, it's like good things start pouring down - she tells her boss about a particular problem, and bam! problem solved. And what is up with this woman? Sexy is one thing, but Monica gets hit on by everybody. It's just a little over the top.
In the end, I did have some problems with this one, but there were also things I liked, so I'm left right in the middle. I think with a bit of tightening up, Monica Spade could be a solid series. It doesn't all have to be drama, in fact, I like comedy mixed in. But sometimes less is more, and in this case, I would've much preferred a few good laughs over the groans that a certain reporter pulled out of me. I will add that I liked the monkey. He was unrealistic but did create some funny situations. From the way things were left, I would assume that this is just the introduction to Monica Spade, so I'll be interested to see how things go from here.

CONSCIOUS BIAS is a fast, solid read with good writing and fun characters. It was quickly evident the author certainly did her research with the legal aspect of the plot. The protagonist, Monica, is well-developed and I appreciated her struggles of being out in some arenas of her life but not others and the internal friction that can cause. It was very realistic! The romance was sweet and fiery hot, building nicely in pieces that gave good relief from the intensity of the legal side of the plot. Shelby, the love interest, is adorable, if a little bit of a flat character. She and Monica complement each other nicely, though I would have liked to see some development from Shelby in some way. There is a wonderful cast of LGBT+ characters and problems they run into living in a small, somewhat conservative town. I’ll admit I didn’t feel as invested in the murder trial as much as I did the romance side! My biggest critique is honestly that there is a consistent building of the sexual tension between the two women, which is abruptly cut into a fade-out at what feels like an important point. It was quite frustrating to feel that we’d been led to this point and then dropped. But overall this is a well-researched, tight book with fleshed out characters and a good plot.

This ARC was courtesy of netgalley - the thoughts and opinions are mine and unbiased

A great read - really enjoyed this - lots of threads of stories throughout made for an entertaining read

I've not read any of Alexi Venice's work before but am keen to read more

A great, engrossing summer read

Highly recommend

I have no idea why I was a bit reluctant to read this book. It’s an entertaining legal mystery, with the right amount of romance thrown in.

There’s always something special about novels written by authors who use their professional knowledge for their stories, such as Radclyffe with medical romances or, in this case, Venice’s legal knowledge.
Monica Spade is a lawyer working for a very conservative firm. She was an out lesbian before working there and after three years back in the closet is feeling the strain of having to hide. But she loves her job, especially working for the local hospital, whether it’s dealing with a monkey on the loose (I loved that part!) or preparing physicians who have been subpoenaed in a felony murder case: the son of a very powerful family is accused of having killed an exchange student from Saudi Arabia in a bar brawl. Caught in the middle, Monica has to deal with death threats while at the firm one of the partners’ son is making her life hell after one of her friends and coworkers has come out as gay. The good news is, she’s met the woman of her dreams in her CrossFit class, an art teacher called Shelby.

Well-paced, intriguing and well-written, with delicious banter between Monica and Shelby, Conscious Bias would be a perfect read on the beach.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

What a great read! Not the usual one note romance. It had many stories going on simultaneously. There is a murder, a trial, bigotry, coming out, hot romance, friendship, etc. And there is humor to break things up. I was thoroughly captivated and entertained. This is the first book I have read by Alexi Venice and if this story is an example of her writing, I will soon start her San Francisco mystery series.
The only negative I have is the book cover. I dont think it projects the content of the story and misleads a potential reader.

Conscious Bias, A Monica Spade Novel
A legal thriller that explores visceral bias, cultural alliances, and the power of love in Apple Grove, Wisconsin.

You can read the entire blurb about the book elsewhere. I received a copy from NetGalley in exchange for my review.

It's not a BAD book. But I don't understand the rave reviews. I enjoyed the story. I was drawn to the book because of the "one punch homicide" legal plot. The characters are good, the pacing was good, the plot was good, the romance was fine. If you've never read a gay romance before, perhaps it will seem unique to you. The book is just overly simplistic in style. There's no subtlety. It was an enjoyable easy read, but it won't be anywhere near the top of my list of suggested reads for others.

Conscious Bias is about two women who bond over crossfit. Monica Spade, the lawyer, is embroiled in a murder trial of a Saudi student; Shelby, her love interest, is an art teacher. The story takes the reader through the trial process including discrimination against Muslims as well as the chauvinism Monica confronts in her law firm and then anti-gay bias. I found the story too heavy on describing the trial process and procedures.

I stumbled upon this book and honestly jumped on it before really reading the synopsis of it. I actually glad I did. Now, I usually read romance novels where everything is pretty predictable, a happily ever after better be in store for the mains, and there is the usual drama/angst and so on and so forth. I don't usually read books where the romance is second and the legal/political issues are first. In essence this is what this book is...not really a romance but a high profile murder for a small town in Wisconsin. The topic may get some people turned off to the book but try not to. Though the case is between a white elitist and a Saudi Arabian student, a political topic that may have many up in arms, it doesn't take that hard road, if that makes sense.

That being said, I rather enjoyed my first reading of an Alexi Vence novel and am very tempted to read her previous ones. This one is about young lawyer Monica (28) who is is vying for a partner position at her good ol' boys club firm, which means she has not one but two strikes against her in that quest (she's a woman and she's gay). What I really liked about the novel was that though the main case was a serious one, there was lots of subtle comic relieves that made me smile and laugh a little bit. The monkey was really fun and the messed up idioms throughout made me laugh "from the gecko" (hahaha).

There was a lot in the book that was not fully addressed, little threads that were not fully explored or finished. I wonder if there will be more novels about Monica. I would really like more about her relationship with Shelby and the law firm. It seems the relationship moved really fast but didnt really go anywhere...kinda like running in place and then was all of a sudden at the finish line.

Anyway, I enjoyed the book. If more come out and this becomes a series, I will more than happily read them.

This book deals with the trial and the main characters experience with her law firm then it does with the romance. I did find it entertaining but I felt that the romance part was an afterthought and I really just skipped through those portions. All in all, I thought that the pacing was fine, it kept me intrigued and I would read this author again.

Alexi Venice has been on my radar for a while, but I'm surprised to see that this is actually my first read of one of her novels. What have I been waiting for?! I loved the legal thriller style of this one!

Monica Spade seems older than her years, but she's a younger lawyer on a fast track to partnership in her all male, very conservative (and bigoted!) firm. She's been out of the closet up until she joined this firm, but knew she needed to hide herself if she wanted to get ahead in this particular situation. That hasn't been a problem for her up to this point since she's all work and no play. When her friend is treated very badly once he is seen with his male partner, and when Monica meets someone at CrossFit that she's truly interested in pursuing, she realizes it's time to come out of the closet. The portions of this book that included romance were sizzling, and the chemistry between Monica and Shelby oozed off the page.

This book really isn't about romance though, and I liked that. The main themes of this book are fairly heavy, including homophobia, serious workplace harassment/bigotry, and also felony murder with a hate crime slant. Romance takes a back seat to Monica's daily dealings with the case as well as working through issues in her workplace environment. There's some well-placed and much needed humor interspersed throughout with a monkey on the loose in the hospital that plays a key role in the novel, but know going in that this novel is fairly heavy on legal situations and heavy emotionally with the theming. Be ready to tackle racial issues, bigotry, and some serious homophobia when you pick this one up.

The courtroom drama rightfully takes center stage, and it's obvious that Venice has spent a lot of time in the legal world herself. I love it when an author brings her own intimate knowledge of a situation to her writing! It was a bit odd to me to see testimony repeated out exactly in more than one part of the book though... I felt like that could have been tightened up or changed so it wasn't an exact replay of an earlier scene. I found myself skimming one portion since it literally was a direct repeat, but I suppose it was a very important part of the novel. As a reader, I'm smart enough to remember that though, regardless of whether or not I read it that day or earlier that week. Just a pet peeve...

All in all, this was a very enjoyable book, but it feels like the first in a series. I'm looking forward to reading more and getting to know more about what makes Monica click, more on her budding relationship with Shelby, and more of Monica's back story. Count me in for the next in this series! 4 stars.

**Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with an ARC copy in exchange for my honest review.**