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kappareads's review
4.0
*I received this as an e-ARC. All opinions are my own.
Rogue Passion combines activism/fighting for what you believe in with romance. There are 7 short stories, each broken up into chapters/parts.
And now, my individual ratings for each story:
The Girl in the Picture by Chelsea M. Cameron - 3.75/5 stars - God bless Chelsea for writing such sweet f/f romance. It felt a tad rushed at the end, but still an overall solid beginning to the anthology!
The Suit and the Doll by Zoey Castile - 2.5/5 stars - M/F. Sex on page. It was an interesting setting for a story based on activism. I personally would've rather had a more definitive ending relating to the theme of resistance but it was fine.
Nature's Kiss by KD Fisher - 3/5 stars - M/M. Sex on page (it is only a small portion of the short story). It was cute and very funny in parts, however the structure felt kinda fanfiction-y (gruff blond man and shy brown haired man). Could've been shorter as.
Fight Fire with Fire by Sionna Fox - 4/5 - F/F. Sex on page. Highly enjoyed it. Loved having clearly older women than normal for a romance novel (late 30s - early 40s) fall for each other and have a romance. And there was an enby side character!!!
Schooling Her by Robin Lovett - 2.5/5 - M/F. Sex on page. Liked this one the least. It was almost comical how much the two characters wanted to have sex with each other.
A Safe Place by Rebecca Vaughn - 4/5 - M/M. Sex on page (not a lot though). Probably my favorite out of all of them. Felt like it had a lot of focus on the activism part compared to some of the others. It was cute and sweet and fluffy. It hit me in a way I wasn't expecting.
Taking Aim by Jeanette Grey - 4/5 - M/F. Sex on page. Again, had a lot more focus on the activism compared to others. I flt liek I was rooting for this protagonist more than others as well.
Overall, I was surprised at the amount of NSFW content. I requested this arc expecting these to be SFW romances (however, I suppose in the publishing world, "passion" and "romance" and big flashing neon signs for "HERE THERE BE SEX"). Therefore, I unwittingly ended up reading these for the plot and often skipped the sex scenes.
Despite that, there are way more stories I liked than I didn't, which is an accomplishment for me.
Rogue Passion combines activism/fighting for what you believe in with romance. There are 7 short stories, each broken up into chapters/parts.
And now, my individual ratings for each story:
The Girl in the Picture by Chelsea M. Cameron - 3.75/5 stars - God bless Chelsea for writing such sweet f/f romance. It felt a tad rushed at the end, but still an overall solid beginning to the anthology!
The Suit and the Doll by Zoey Castile - 2.5/5 stars - M/F. Sex on page. It was an interesting setting for a story based on activism. I personally would've rather had a more definitive ending relating to the theme of resistance but it was fine.
Nature's Kiss by KD Fisher - 3/5 stars - M/M. Sex on page (it is only a small portion of the short story). It was cute and very funny in parts, however the structure felt kinda fanfiction-y (gruff blond man and shy brown haired man). Could've been shorter as
Spoiler
the last two chapter/parts focus on the romance, not activismFight Fire with Fire by Sionna Fox - 4/5 - F/F. Sex on page. Highly enjoyed it. Loved having clearly older women than normal for a romance novel (late 30s - early 40s) fall for each other and have a romance. And there was an enby side character
Spoiler
even if they die before the short story, their existence was a large part of the story and, one of the women had a hardcore crush on them.Schooling Her by Robin Lovett - 2.5/5 - M/F. Sex on page. Liked this one the least. It was almost comical how much the two characters wanted to have sex with each other.
A Safe Place by Rebecca Vaughn - 4/5 - M/M. Sex on page (not a lot though). Probably my favorite out of all of them. Felt like it had a lot of focus on the activism part compared to some of the others. It was cute and sweet and fluffy. It hit me in a way I wasn't expecting.
Taking Aim by Jeanette Grey - 4/5 - M/F. Sex on page. Again, had a lot more focus on the activism compared to others. I flt liek I was rooting for this protagonist more than others as well.
Overall, I was surprised at the amount of NSFW content. I requested this arc expecting these to be SFW romances (however, I suppose in the publishing world, "passion" and "romance" and big flashing neon signs for "HERE THERE BE SEX"). Therefore, I unwittingly ended up reading these for the plot and often skipped the sex scenes.
Despite that, there are way more stories I liked than I didn't, which is an accomplishment for me.
copiouspep's review
4.0
I loved these stories! They dealt with different parts of resisting. This included protesting, working inside the government to try and change policies and representatives, and by using art to challenge people’s thinking. I liked that most of the stories had older characters, in their late twenties and thirties, and it was nice to see the reassurance that if you’re interested in romantic relationships you don’t need to find someone in your early twenties. You can wait.
Most follow an insta-like trope but didn’t push it to an extent that I disliked.
I was thrilled when I was accepted for this ARC because I recognized one of the authors that wrote a story for this anthology and it let me discover new authors that I had never known about, and some I had only ever seen through posts on twitter.
These stories will be reviewed in the order of wlw, mlm, and finally m/f romances instead of the order they appear in the anthology.
Spoilers mostly during the Taking Aim review, which has been hidden.
The Girl in the Picture by Chelsea M. Cameron is the first story in the anthology and is a fluffy wlw short. I am very familiar with their other wlw stories and they did not disappoint with how much fluff they put in this story. I adored Saylor and her awkwardness around Echo as soon as she sees her that continued even as they were getting to know each other. The protesting aspect was nice to read about and the author made sure the subject wasn’t too heavy to handle for a short story, throwing in some comedy relief as Saylor was reliving the protest for the interview.
The only POC in this story is Echo, who is an Asian American.
Fight Fire with Fire by Sionna Fox was probably my favorite story out of the entire anthology. This author is new to me and I’m definitely going to be checking out the rest of their work. This is the second and last wlw story and features a museum coordinator, Frannie, who has acquired photographs of a deceased nonbinary artist to host and the artist’s muse, Ashley. Ashley is a singer doing solo work. She’s southern and fat and absolutely loves her body. I loved her. The relationship seemed to happen very naturally and we switch between the two’s POVs and the mutual pining was cute.
The story brought up not only museums and art galleries getting their budgets cut by sponsors pulling out and relying on government funding to support the art programs, but it talks about how difficult it is for nonbinary and trans people to go to a hospital and not feel safe enough to talk about your gender or lack thereof.
Nature’s Heart by KD Fisher is a mlm story with one character working as a public interest attorney and the other is a part of the environmental coalition that Harry is representing. This story was another fantastic read and didn’t deal with any homomisia, even if one of the characters lived in what seemed to be a small town. This romance seemed more realistic than a few of the other stories, even adding in a time skip so the characters aren’t dating within a short amount of time. The epilogue was a nice touch and I enjoyed Max as a character.
There was a side character who is a wlw with a mentioned girlfriend! Both male characters are proclaimed gay.
A Safe Place by Rebecca Vaughn is the second and last mlm story in the anthology, with the two characters in college. This deals with the #MeToo movement as one is a survivor and has homomisia in the first few pages. I liked reading the two of them work things out and give each other the motivation to do things no matter if it’s hard to do, such as supporting Jonas speaking out about his harasser or Troy going through with his ‘Love is Love’ art installation.
The only problem I had with this story is the Love is Love movement, which I personally have issues with as it excludes aromantics and I am on that spectrum.
Both main characters are proclaimed gay.
The Suit and the Doll by Zoey Castile is an incredible m/f romance. Sofia works in a strip club and she meets Rory who works at a company that gentrifies land and was having doubts about making people move away from the only homes they’ve ever known. I liked how the author discussed dropping out of college despite having an opportunity to be something more to support your family financially makes you afraid of changing your life or even trying to get out.
Sofia is a POC.
Schooling Her by Robin Lovett is a m/f short story where the two main characters work in a private high school. It’s a nice story of instalust between a white headmistress and her black dean who work together to get equal pay for equal work accepted at the school. This is the only story with a m/f romance who talk about the queer community as the headmistress realizes mostly straight white cis men are the ones who get paid the most. There is a moment where a side character says a racist comment about Phillip and Regina being together, but she realizes her mistake and apologizes for it.
Taking Aim by Jeanette Grey is a m/f romance and the last story in the anthology. I really liked this story to begin with, but the ending made me a little uncomfortable as a queer reader. I liked this story for dealing with your representative directly as the heroine waited in front of her rep’s building alone for weeks only to be ignored after she was in a school shooting. This leads to her becoming a protesting heroine, taking reluctant charge after getting the confidence from the story’s hero, and soon finds herself running for her state’s legislature.
The romance was nice to read until the end where it’s revealed the hero voted for Trump and helped the representative get elected and only started to have doubts about these choices after all the school shootings. He did announce publicly he’s throwing his support behind Julie, who was running with a policy of gun control, as her campaign manager but I couldn’t get over someone who supported Trump as he was running.
However, if Julie can forgive him as a Chinese American with PTSD, then I will support her decision.
Most follow an insta-like trope but didn’t push it to an extent that I disliked.
I was thrilled when I was accepted for this ARC because I recognized one of the authors that wrote a story for this anthology and it let me discover new authors that I had never known about, and some I had only ever seen through posts on twitter.
These stories will be reviewed in the order of wlw, mlm, and finally m/f romances instead of the order they appear in the anthology.
Spoilers mostly during the Taking Aim review, which has been hidden.
The Girl in the Picture by Chelsea M. Cameron is the first story in the anthology and is a fluffy wlw short. I am very familiar with their other wlw stories and they did not disappoint with how much fluff they put in this story. I adored Saylor and her awkwardness around Echo as soon as she sees her that continued even as they were getting to know each other. The protesting aspect was nice to read about and the author made sure the subject wasn’t too heavy to handle for a short story, throwing in some comedy relief as Saylor was reliving the protest for the interview.
The only POC in this story is Echo, who is an Asian American.
Fight Fire with Fire by Sionna Fox was probably my favorite story out of the entire anthology. This author is new to me and I’m definitely going to be checking out the rest of their work. This is the second and last wlw story and features a museum coordinator, Frannie, who has acquired photographs of a deceased nonbinary artist to host and the artist’s muse, Ashley. Ashley is a singer doing solo work. She’s southern and fat and absolutely loves her body. I loved her. The relationship seemed to happen very naturally and we switch between the two’s POVs and the mutual pining was cute.
The story brought up not only museums and art galleries getting their budgets cut by sponsors pulling out and relying on government funding to support the art programs, but it talks about how difficult it is for nonbinary and trans people to go to a hospital and not feel safe enough to talk about your gender or lack thereof.
Nature’s Heart by KD Fisher is a mlm story with one character working as a public interest attorney and the other is a part of the environmental coalition that Harry is representing. This story was another fantastic read and didn’t deal with any homomisia, even if one of the characters lived in what seemed to be a small town. This romance seemed more realistic than a few of the other stories, even adding in a time skip so the characters aren’t dating within a short amount of time. The epilogue was a nice touch and I enjoyed Max as a character.
There was a side character who is a wlw with a mentioned girlfriend! Both male characters are proclaimed gay.
A Safe Place by Rebecca Vaughn is the second and last mlm story in the anthology, with the two characters in college. This deals with the #MeToo movement as one is a survivor and has homomisia in the first few pages. I liked reading the two of them work things out and give each other the motivation to do things no matter if it’s hard to do, such as supporting Jonas speaking out about his harasser or Troy going through with his ‘Love is Love’ art installation.
The only problem I had with this story is the Love is Love movement, which I personally have issues with as it excludes aromantics and I am on that spectrum.
Both main characters are proclaimed gay.
The Suit and the Doll by Zoey Castile is an incredible m/f romance. Sofia works in a strip club and she meets Rory who works at a company that gentrifies land and was having doubts about making people move away from the only homes they’ve ever known. I liked how the author discussed dropping out of college despite having an opportunity to be something more to support your family financially makes you afraid of changing your life or even trying to get out.
Sofia is a POC.
Schooling Her by Robin Lovett is a m/f short story where the two main characters work in a private high school. It’s a nice story of instalust between a white headmistress and her black dean who work together to get equal pay for equal work accepted at the school. This is the only story with a m/f romance who talk about the queer community as the headmistress realizes mostly straight white cis men are the ones who get paid the most. There is a moment where a side character says a racist comment about Phillip and Regina being together, but she realizes her mistake and apologizes for it.
Taking Aim by Jeanette Grey is a m/f romance and the last story in the anthology. I really liked this story to begin with, but the ending made me a little uncomfortable as a queer reader. I liked this story for dealing with your representative directly as the heroine waited in front of her rep’s building alone for weeks only to be ignored after she was in a school shooting. This leads to her becoming a protesting heroine, taking reluctant charge after getting the confidence from the story’s hero, and soon finds herself running for her state’s legislature.
However, if Julie can forgive him as a Chinese American with PTSD, then I will support her decision.
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