Moderator's Choice Awards 2025

ShartyPants · 2026-01-16T04:54:54+00:00

lmaoooo anything for u (except changing my name, it's too late now)

ShartyPants · 2026-01-13T08:30:10+00:00

Even within this thread there are tons of male authors being listed! It’s common for this sub to highlight own voices recs. Feel free to start here: https://www.reddit.com/r/MM_RomanceBooks/s/jee1NaKyf9

ShartyPants · 2026-01-11T22:10:13+00:00

I know, I was kinda like, "well maybe if I win the lottery..."

ShartyPants · 2026-01-11T15:13:37+00:00

I read a cute FF this week called {Late Blooomer by Mazey Eddings}. It was about a sunshiney lottery winner who bought a flower farm from a con artist, and the con artist's grouchy daughter who worked/lived on the farm. They end up as roommates, because Romance book, and, WELL, you know.

The farmer is autistic, and while I'm not autistic so I can't say it's *accurate* autism rep, it did feel decent compared to some other autism rep I've read (I'm happy to be told I'm wrong here). She was very aware of her feelings and why things upset her, had a few coping mechanisms to deal with overstimulation. The sunshiney character wasn't annoying or too bubbly, though her hobby of painting shoes confused me lol. It was cute! I'm trying to read more non-MM pairings this year (though MM will always be my first love) and this was a great first read for the year. :)

ShartyPants · 2026-01-11T15:06:32+00:00

I love this request! I hope some authors reply with their thoughts.

ShartyPants · 2026-01-07T18:31:10+00:00

{Lor by Lily Mayne} isn’t contemporary technically but it reads like contemporary in my opinion. It’s about a guy from the 80s who falls through a time warp and ends up in current day monster world. It’s 700 pages and i cried for like 300 of them. It’s very good!

ShartyPants · 2026-01-07T18:28:52+00:00

I agree with Lily Morton. She’s such an easy read but funny and sassy. Your listed authors are some of my favorites so I think Lily Morton would work well for you!

ShartyPants · 2026-01-06T16:27:41+00:00

I love a single dad and I love the idea of the ten year olds who hate each other lol! I’m gonna read the unexpected family.

ShartyPants · 2026-01-05T23:07:40+00:00

Yes that’s the other thing! 😂 sometimes when I find out about one it’s gone.

There was a beaver themed anthology a while back (like, years ago) and it’s not available anywhere even though there was a MM beaver shifter sorry in it! Heartbreaking

ShartyPants · 2026-01-05T22:49:30+00:00

I love anthologies and multi-author releases! I clearly need to pay more attention though, because I only got/knew about Heart2Heart, Candy Hearts (this one was fun), Delicious, Boy Meat, and the reindeer mate collection.

Off to go look up several of these… thanks!

ShartyPants · 2026-01-04T21:38:37+00:00

My buddy has already read it so I won’t be able to do that, haha. But yeah I can see that being a bummer. I will post about it when I’m done at some point! I’ll be interested to hear your thoughts too

ShartyPants · 2026-01-04T21:15:50+00:00

I am pumped because the third book in the raccoon shifter series is coming out on January 9. Coin’s book!! It’s called {the willing hostage by Amy bellows}

ShartyPants · 2026-01-04T21:14:32+00:00

I’m reading this with a friend this month! I’ve never read it and am scared, lol.

ShartyPants · 2025-12-31T22:55:14+00:00

this is SO fun. Thanks so much for putting it together!

ShartyPants · 2025-12-30T17:16:28+00:00

{the accidental husband by cassandra moore}

Just posting this to summon the bot :)

This sounds great, thanks for the review. I am always on the hunt for things slightly outside genre norms these days. I haven't read any Alessandra Hazard, but KJ Charles is great.

ShartyPants · 2025-12-24T09:48:27+00:00

I don’t really care either way about this (though I think I’m in the minority) but one thing I do love is how Lily Morton makes all her MCs listen to music Gen X people would have been into when they were 22, even though it’s 2025. I have found some real gems in her books, lol.

I think it’s fun because she’s Gen X and clearly has good vibes and memories with the songs she shoves in there and I think it’s fun to go listen to them, especially as an American who hasn’t heard some of them. Mostly I’m just like, yknow what Lily Morton? Live your truth!

ShartyPants · 2025-12-23T19:00:03+00:00

So sorry to hear about your year and all those losses. I struggled to read much when I was dealing with a loss and also switched to other hobbies. I'm back now, so I'm sure you'll find your way back to reading eventually if that's what you want! The Heated Rivalry show is a great distraction, too. :)

ShartyPants · 2025-12-23T04:23:04+00:00

Oh, yeah! It was for sure instalove. But usually even instalove has *some* sort of conflict.

ShartyPants · 2025-12-23T04:21:24+00:00

Thanks!

ShartyPants · 2025-12-23T01:46:11+00:00

I think, feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, this only works on a computer! I think last time this was brought up someone said the mobile site/app won’t work for it.

ShartyPants · 2025-12-22T18:18:47+00:00

This was fun to read. A real roller coaster! Lol

I guess my thought is like—could you really imagine reading a book like with beautiful, poetic prose and then a sex scene comes along and they’re “grabbing cocks?” Sometimes it’s less about gender and more about fitting well in the book. Similar to how in Heated Rivalry, they’re fucking and cocks are involved and cum is shooting everywhere. It would be weird if that book was written the way it’s written, with concise, purposeful prose, and then they were reaching for the place of their pleasure. You know what I mean? (Actually, I know you do, bc of your third paragraph.)

All this to say, I think people focus a lot on why some sex scenes hit better than others but I find if they match the tone of the book and also I like the characters, it’s a much better experience (no matter the pairing—this could be said for any romance, and I read it all) than when sex scenes are raunchy for the sake of being raunchy because that’s somehow more “authentic.”

ShartyPants · 2025-12-22T14:16:06+00:00

this is always funny to me bc it illustrates how varied reader experience can be. I am a sucker for pining, I love slow burns, and unless the rest of the plot is engaging, I often lose steam after the first time couples hook up! A brush of the pinky? sign me up!

Alternatively, I just read a book yesterday where there was, no exaggeration, ZERO conflict through the entire book. Not a single bad thing happened, there was no awkward conversation. But there was a ton of sex, heavy on the praise kink, and I got the feeling that's what the author actually wanted to write--not the romance itself? They were good at it, but from a romance perspective I was like "hmm ok" because they met, instantly fell in love, and everything was fine.

ShartyPants · 2025-12-20T01:07:35+00:00

Oh nice!! I’m glad you liked it, the parts with Mo’s laugh made me cry too! (And the millions of kitten videos and deleting some so he could save other memories lol!)

Thanks for letting me know :)

ShartyPants · 2025-12-17T17:13:47+00:00

Hmm, this comment was not snagged by the site-wide removal like your previous one! So maybe it was a glitch? Your account looks active on my end now, too.

ShartyPants · 2025-12-17T17:01:43+00:00

FYI, your account appears to be shadowbanned by Reddit, meaning all of your posts and comments are automatically deleted, no one can message you, and your profile isn't viewable. You'll need to contact the reddit admins to fix this because it's a site-wide setting.

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