So I didn't ever not like one of this authors books! And no, this isn't the one time where this changes! Of course there are some storylines and plots with which you can relate or identify better or just like better and this is the case here. But I still enjoyed it very much. It's a solid romance like alaways. I really liked Quinn and that she would rater be with a woman her own age than with a 30 something. And I also liked the fact that her Ex didn't have to be a bitch, that's kind of refreshing. So would totally recommend!

Twice Shy is a romantic comedy that really warms the heart. This enjoyable story of two women and their rocky road to finding true love was the perfect escape-read. I particularly loved the descriptions of the bakery and all the delicious cupcakes and pastries! Highly recommended for all those readers who need some light-relief. This heartwarming tale will definitely cheer you up and renew your faith in humanity.

What a lovely story. It gives you hopes for the future even if you are over 40. I totally loved this one. The obstacles main characters had to go through and where it led them.
I love that both had different types of character. In the end they complement each other. ☺

3.5 Stars for a feel good, dare I say, sweet romance by Aurora Rey. This only my second book I’ve read by Rey. I understand this book is part of the ‘universe’ of two of her previous books, “The Last Place You Look” and “Recipe for Love”. I didn’t feel I needed to read the previous books to enjoy this one. But as with these types of series, it’s always nice to revisit “old friends”.

This is a story of baker Amanda Russo, owner of a small bakery. She is expanding into the space next door, enlarging her kitchen and dining area. She has been divorced for a number of years and has two children, a son, 18 year old Cal, who is about to enter college and 20 year old, Daniella, who will be a sophomore in college. I really liked Cal who one minute he was a teenager and the next a mature young man. Daniella felt she knew what was best for her mom but was not necessarily in tune to what her mom wanted.

Amanda hires architect, Fifty-year-old Quinn Sullivan to design the new bakery. I really liked Quinn. She was in a long-term relationship that had ended about a year ago. She has gone on numerous first dates, set up by her sisters, friends and co-workers. Being the person, she is, she couldn’t tell them no more. None had clicked.

I enjoyed this relatively angst free, slow burn romance. There were a few bumps in the road such as with ex’s and meddling children. I plan to go back and read Rey’s previous books in this “series”.

3.7*

Nice read. Its about second chances at love. Both main characters are late 40's. Amanda as 2 children, both college age, an ex-wife who starts to snoop about thinking she as a second chance. Amanda gave up on love and puts all her time into her children and her expanding bakery... until Quinn enters her life. Quinn, an architect, once married, also struggles to find the 'one'. Twice shy is a easy read, as normal Aurora Rey pulls off a slow burn story line. If you've never come across her books before I highly suggest you read her 'Cape End Romance' series.

I was given a ARC copy for an honest review.

I was slow to warm up to Amanda and Quinn, but by the end of the book I was invested in them and rooting for them. The premise of the story was what captivated me in the first place. Having complicated and messy feelings for an ex. Falling for the familiarity of someone who already knows you, loved you even if it's not the best idea. How hard it is to allow yourself to heal and love again after a bad break up. </p>

Seeing Amanda and Quinn navigate divorce, how to handle your ex, your new partner having kinds, was also welcome. It think divorce, sharing custody of kids has become more and more common so it's interesting to see it explored.

I enjoyed the inclusion of Amanda's kids as central to the story. Loved to hate Mel, the ex, and even warmed up to her by the end of the book. Amanda and Quinn were a great couple I was happy to see succeed. The way they resolved their conflict by being honest, vulnerable, having open communication, was great.

There was a wide arrange of side characters, I didn't necessarily connect with a lot of them. But it was nice to see both main characters have a full life outside of the couple. The attempt at racial diversity with a Chinese side character felt a little off. It had barely a couple scenes. If the author wanted to include more diversity, I would have liked to see the character more developed, give it more dimension than just name dropping them. It was even more jarring because none of the other characters (That I remember) are described or made explicitly non-white.

In general I felt like the book started a little slow, while we got to know more of the characters, but once it picked up about one third into the book it became a captivating fast paced read.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.

This had a really similar vibe to The Last Place You Look, which is great considering how much I enjoyed that one.
Twice Shy is a low-drama, sweet little romance. I think the crazy ex part was exaggerated in the blurb, because it doesn't become an issue until near the end, and even then it wasn't that dramatic. Consequently, the conflict was not as bad as the characters made it out to be, but I didn't mind too much.
The protagonists are good together, have enough chemistry, but aren't especially memorable. The most enjoyable side characters were Amanda's kids, and I liked the role they played in the story. Can't say much more than that for fear of spoiling.
I would think that this should be more of a December read, even though it doesn't take place during the holidays. It just doesn't fit with the rest of the October line-up. Four stars.

This is a read about moving on after divorce and giving love/relationship a second chance. The story involves several interesting characters. Amanda Russo, owns a successful bakery and is looking to expand. Amanda is divorced and has two college age children. Quinn Sullivan, architect, is hired to design the bakery remodel. Amanda and Quinn are both likeable and it is not hard to cheer for them. Cal, Amanda's son, is such an open and laid back character and really adds a calmness to the story. On the other hand, his sister, Daniella is busy behind the scenes, working to get their parents back together. Then there is Mel the manipulator, Amanda's ex-wife who is separated from her wife Beth who she left Amanda for and now she wants Amanda back. There were also "helpful" friends.

It would have been good to have more story development and back information about some of the characters I mentioned above. For example, age, ethnicity, and more about who they are. Detail was lacking. In general, this was a low angst romance with entertaining secondary characters.

Tried to read this book. But im more of a person who likes a man and women romance. Maybe someone else will enjoy it

I enjoyed this book. It kept me interested in it the whole time. I felt like I couldn't put it down and really needed to know how it ended!

Sometimes it’s really nice to just settle down with a lovely second-chance romance, and let the real world disappear for a while. That’s what I was able to do with Twice Shy by Aurora Rey.

This is a low angst romantic novel about two women in their late forties/early fifties. Amanda is a baker looking to remodel her bakery, and Quinn is an architect hired to do the remodeling. There is chemistry between the two from the moment they meet, but the romance develops slowly in the story. The angst mostly comes from an interfering ex, but also a bit from the college age kids of Amanda. There are also some pretty steamy scenes between Amanda and Quinn as the romance develops, but that is not surprising from this author. Ms. Rey even lets the reader visit with characters from several of her other novels, since they are secondary characters in this tale, and this book is set in the same area as the other novels.

This is an adorable and easy to read love story from an author who is an expert at writing beautiful and low-angst romantic tales. If you need a break from real life and like to read this style of romance, then definitely get this book.

I received an ARC from NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.

Rainbow Reflections: http://rainbowreflections.home.blog/

First time reading a book from this author. First time reading a lesbian romance novel as well. I must say that this was a great read. I loved the dynamics between the characters and it didn't have a cookie cutter feel to it. Would definitely recommend

After reading most of the books put out there by Ms Rey has anyone noticed they seem to have a bit more erotic content in them. Certainly not complaining, just noticing.
Quinn Sullivan was in a relationship that she thought would last. That was until her partner decides she has had enough of Quinn seemingly putting her career ahead of her, so now Quinn was again single. She isn’t looking for another relationship but when she meets Amanda she quickly starts trying to get attention.
Amanda Russo owns and operates the ‘Bake My Day’ turning out the kind of food that keeps her customers coming back. It’s going so good she decides to add floor space giving both her and employees more space while expanding her seating area. Now she’s meeting with Quinn to see what plans she has come up with. Having had a long term relationship that had ended she was open to the idea of perhaps starting dating again. Forget about the fact that she was still having sex with her ex.
A simple story line that Ms Rey has worked into a page turning book. The main characters are both likable while secondary characters are well developed adding some
fun and fast dialogue. All in all a very nice read.
ARC via NetGalley/ Bold Stroke Books

A pretty adorable romance between a laid-back, kind -of-shy architect, and busy baker who's the mother of two. They're both in their late forties, both divorced, Quinn is involved in Amanda's bakery renovation, and their journey to love is sweet, laid-back, realistic, with a few bumps along the road. I really like the premise; Amanda hooks up with her ex wife at the beginning of the book, and the story follows her as she realises what didn't work in her relationship with her ex-wife, and why Quinn might be right for her. It also follows Quinn coming to terms with her own, more recent divorce, and tackling some confidence issues.

I always really love books about older women, and as much as I can love an age-gap, I loved that they were both older, both having had different experiences with being married, coming off of long dry spells, and ultimately fitting so well together. It was pretty low conflict, but I liked the kinds of conflict it DID introduce, with Amanda's ex-wife being determined to get back together, minor stuff with the bakery reno, one of the kids not being entirely cool with Quinn. Speaking of the kids: loved them! Great additions to the story, actually realistically written for teenagers. There were lots of great side-characters actually, and I wouldn't have minded seeing a bit more of some of them. I appreciated some of the casual diversity and the fact that nothing about the plot was... idk, overblown, like it can sometimes get in contemporary romance.

I felt like there was great pacing right up until Quinn and Amanda acknowledged they had romantic feelings for one another? Then it kinda moved a bit too fast for my fast. Abrupt POV-switching, my eternal nemesis, made an appearance.

But otherwise, this was the perfect, fun, light-hearted (and actually pretty steamy) romance. Nothing too surprising about it, but sometimes it's nice to just sit back and absorb a wholesome love story. 3.5 stars.

“Mel is that person. And I know you don’t want to be with her, but she—”

This book is a perfect fit for readers who are looking for a f/f romance where the protagonists are ladies seeking love at later stages of their lives.

With plans to expand her bakery, Amanda was referred to Quinn, an architect whom she took an instant liking to. Both main characters are divorcees who have loved and lost - themselves in their previous marriages. The way that the author wrote about the characters made them easy to love and you can’t help but feel and watch out for them as they rediscover themselves. The saying that when you get older you get wiser did not seem the case for Amanda’s ex, Mel, who was constantly injecting herself between the pair.

Quinn was a delight for me, she was genuine, earnest, respectful and if you ever think that sounds plain, she might just surprise you. Amanda’s close knitted group of friends was also a plus point for me in the story.

I throughly enjoyed the book and would gladly pick up another of the author’s.

I just reviewed Twice Shy by Aurora Rey. #NetGalley

I adore Aurora Rey’s books, but Twice Shy has just taken first place in my favourites list.

This book is all the reasons why I love Aurora Rey’s writing. It’s delicious with a good helping of sexy. It was a nice change to read a book where the women were not in their late 20s-30s range. Both women had already lived their lives, Amanda has two grown kids, and Quinn has already been married and divorced, but this book was about them finding their next great love. In today’s society, this is a reality for so many women, and that brought a level of realism to this book that was just delightful.

The book is relatively fast-paced with low angst and just a happy love story that you can read over and over.

I loved Amanda, and I found myself wishing she was real so that we could be friends. Quinn, on the other hand, was my book crush. Quinn is an sexy, older butch woman who at first you think is shy and sensitive, but as you get to know her, she is, in fact, confident and daring. I might have fallen for her a little by the end of the book.

Keep an eye out for some cameos from other books. Amanda also appeared in The Last Place You Look when she befriends Julia and hires her photograph her son, Cal. And then Julia from The Last Place You Look and Drew from The Recipe for Love appear in this one. More than once, I squealed when I recognised a character. Word to the wise… I ended up rereading the other books because I wanted to go back and indulge in those character’s books. So be prepared for that.

I’m hoping that secondary character, Erin, is next on Aurora’s romance journey because she needs to fall and love and find her happy ever after.

The epilogue is one of my favourites ever. I hope we see more of these characters in Aurora Rey’s future works.

So the sexual chemistry between Quinn and Amanda is prevalent from the beginning, and when they fall into bed together, it’s extremely fun (and erotic) to read. I think Aurora Rey is becoming more daring in her sex scenes with every book she writes. There is a sexy text conversation between Quinn and Amanda that I loved. Quinn replies to Amanda sexy request with “Sorry, you melted my brain a little and I couldn’t type.” and I couldn’t help but say out loud “Dude!! same!” because the sexy moments are really melting me!

Above and beyond the sexual chemistry, I felt like Quinn and Amanda just got each other on a different level to their previous spouses, which intensified their relationship and made it feel like they were only meant to be together.

I’ve read this book twice now, and both times I just wanted to start it all over again. It’s definitely Aurora’s best to date and the fact I rated all her other books five stars I wanted to give this one a ten. Go grab it now and you can thank me later.

I don't read a lot of romance as it makes me feel sad about my own lack of a love life and while this book was no different in the result at the finish as well as during every beautiful date and steamy sex scene ; I still loved every second of it. The representation was beautiful throughout and every relationship including friends,family and partners is well written. This is one of those books you'll stay up until midnight devouring until your eyes dry out. Many authors will put too many plot twists in a story and muddle it but this is different; each storyline breathes well. Drama ensues but not too much. I loved seeing this romance not just for lesbians but also for older women ; both groups of people are rarely ever seen in romance novels and truly that needs to be changed. I highly recommend this if you need a spark of hope or just a steamy read to get you through the cold winters of your heart.

Twice Shy by Aurora Rey is a fluffy lesbian adult romance that was a quick and easy read! It's one without too much stress which is especially nice if you want something that's reminiscent of a Hallmark channel movie. Except it's lesbians... and they actually have sex... so it's 10x better. The story follows Amanda, a divorced mom of two who owns a bakery and is looking to expand her business. She soon meets Quinn, another divorced middle-aged woman who has little luck finding a spark with any of the women she dates, when she is hired to be Amanda's architect. Aside from some hiccups in the renovations of the bakery and the looming worry of unprofessionalism, there is little in these women's way: except for Amanda's ex-wife and meddling daughter.

The sex scenes were real, they were sexy and there was the right amount of them where it didn't overtake the plot. I loved the butch representation with characters like Quinn and Joss: finding butches in the media is so hard, especially in lesbian romance. Representation is so important and I love how all of Rey's romances feature at least one butch protagonist. Also, the representation of divorced women in their late 40s/early 50s was also great, and not something I've come across in lesbian fiction too often up until this point.

Quinn's shyness was so adorable, and I love how she subverted the stereotype that butches are always dominant; especially in a butchphobic world that demonizes them and claims butches can perpetuate toxic masculinity. With a sweet, patient and communicative butch who I loved, on the other hand you have two characters who just drove me crazy: Mel, Amanda's ex-wife, and Daniella, her 19 year old daughter, are both so immature. Mel is also pretty manipulative and I'm glad to see Amanda wasn't falling for it at all.

How much time was passing throughout the story was a bit confusing, especially because I feel like they and their feelings were progressing so fast for having only been together a month, but I guess that's lesbians for you! I wished there had been more development of the characters' relationship beyond sex and banter; I would've liked to have seen more, deeper conversations between the two of them take place. A lot of their conversations were one just consoling/reassuring the other without much substance and I found them either dry or very surface-level.

The brief mentions of a trans girl character and nonbinary people was great, but I do think there could have been better representation especially in regards to people of colour. The author did not describe any people of colour, which I think is extremely important to name in order for that representation to be explicit. I do wish there had been more descriptions of the characters' appearances in general- especially because I don't have that creative of a mind to imagine them myself!

Overall, if you want an easy and lighthearted lesbian romance, this book is for you!

So. The story of Amanda and Quinn. And Mel.

Technically I think that most readers would probably catergorize Mel as a 'secondary character'. And, yet, I felt like through the whole book she just hung there, above everything. On the one hand it was sort of an interesting thing to read. I mean, it's like in a horror movie (that I don't generally watch), when is the jump scare. You know that it's coming in the movie, but, when is it going to be. It was like, when is Mel gonna jump out and twist the book.

Other than Mel it was a pretty usual sort of lesfic romance. Amanda is finally redoing, enlarging, her bakery, and Quinn is the architect that she hires to do it. As they work together they also get together, slowly, and then not so slowly. But, it's not all smooth sailing, both are divorced (Amanda from Mel, Quinn from someone else), and Amanda has two almost grown kids too.

I really liked how the kids, Cal and Daniella were written, and, the friends/family of both main characters were interestingly written too. And, of course, there was a lot of Aurora Rey universe connections too (they went to Fig, woo!) that were cool. That's always fun.

I liked the book. Although, now I crave that delightful strawberry donut from the beginning. Doh! (and that's saying something, since I'm usually exclusively a Boston Creme or Blueberry filling sort of person).

I was given this ARC by Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books

First I want to say thank you to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for sending this book to me early in exchange for review.

This romance was like a hallmark movie except it was gay and diverse, so in my opinion better. There was plenty of LGBTQ rep as well as some racial diversity. I also noticed an emphasis on consent which I appreciated.

My biggest criticism would be that the book started out very tame with closed door/fade to black scenes but at the halfway mark suddenly became hot and heavy and pretty explicit which left me feeling like I had whiplash. There were also quite a few side characters which could get confusing at times trying to remember who everyone was especially in larger scenes.

Overall it was a beautiful romance and the characters and their stories were easy to get invested in. It was a fun read and definitely gets a place on my shelf!