Hello, dear readers, and welcome to Steam & Stories, your cozy corner of the internet dedicated to exploring and savoring the rich world of MM romance novels. Whether you’re a long-time aficionado or new to the genre, I’m thrilled to have you join me on this exciting literary journey!
At Steam & Stories, each review dives deeply into every aspect of these captivating novels:
- Characters: I will be looking at the main characters. Judging their actions and reactions to how the author tends to portray the characters. Do they have a good build up and satisfying conclusion? Or do they make decisions that don’t seem right to their character?
- Story Arc: I will mainly be scoring this category based on how I feel the story as a whole progresses. Also looking to make sure there’s a captivating start, a good build up to the crisis, and finally ending with the Happily Ever After (HEA), or Happy For Now (HFN), or rarely – tragically (Looking at you Song of Achilles).
- Writing Quality: I will mainly be scoring this based on how chapters are laid out and how easy it is to read and follow along with the writing.
- Romance Quality: I will look at how well the characters mesh together. How romantic do they get? I don’t expect low scores in this category.
- Steam Level: Everyone may rate books heat or spicy ratings differently. I will be rating as such:
0 – Sweet/No heat. Sweet or innocent interactions. Chaste kissing, hugs, cuddling.
1 – Mild. More descriptive kissing, mild physical intimacy/touching. Fade-to-black scenes.
2 – Moderate. Base line for sex scenes. No hard kinks. May be explicit in description, but maybe there are only a few scenes.
3 – Hot. Explicit sex scenes. Average amount, the book doesn’t seem bogged down with useless sex scenes. May feel like a natural progression between characters.
4 – Very Hot. More explicit scenes, heavy descriptions, harder kinks. The story will be full of sex scenes.
5 – Scorching. Borderline erotica. Sex scenes every chapter, heavy kinks, taboo, etc.
I imagine most books I read and review will be between 2 and 4. There may be a spattering of 0-1, even some 5’s. I do not count steam level in my final review score as there is too many variables. A book could have a sex scene every chapter and be a 5 on the steam level. However, it could detract from the books flow, wherein I would want to rate it lower. And a book could have fade-to-black scenes but have a beautiful story. Therefore, the steam level is only for the readers benefit so they get an idea of what to expect.
And because nothing pairs better with a delightful MM romance than a warm cup of tea, each review concludes with a tea recommendation. Sometimes it’ll be a tea inspired by the characters, the setting, or simply what I was sipping while enjoying the story myself.
I can’t wait to dive into these wonderful tales with you. As always, feel free to let me know what you thought of the book in the comments or on social media. Curl up, pour yourself a comforting cuppa, and let’s share some steam and stories!
Happy reading, Josh
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