New Ink on Life: Thorn & Thistle, Book 1

CW: breast cancer4.5 stars. This was a fantastic FF romance between a tattoo shop owner and her apprentice. MJ is a total badass and a great foil to people pleaser Cassie.Cassie is in remission from breast cancer (triple negative breast cancer). She was being mentored by MJ’s old mentor Zan but then Zan died from breast cancer (invasive inductal) and essentially told Cassie to finish her apprenticeship with MJ. MJ is very skeptical about Cassie, in a lesson of why you shouldn’t judge people by their appearances. Cassie may not look like a tattooer in her cardigans and good girl looks but she’s a talented artist who could be ready to tattoo on her own. However, Cassie wants to wait until May when she will officially be in remission. Cassie is in the process of reclaiming her life and everything cancer treatment took from her, including her sexuality.Cassie and MJ both have a lot to teach each other. Cassie is learning not to be such a people pleaser and how to take risks. MJ, on the other hand, needs help with updating her business and with learning how to trust again, after her ex-partner left Thorn & Thistle suddenly. They both have issues with their fathers and it was interesting to see them work through that.The strongest arc of the book was Cassie empowering herself. She already has a tattoo over her mastectomy scars but she needs to reclaim the rest of her body and see what she’s capable now. Part of that is through her relationship with MJ but it’s also in discovering her voice, really for the first time in her life. She also needs to learn how to let other people be there for her, not easy since her ex-girlfriend broke up with her shortly after she was diagnosed. MJ is highly invested in making sure Cassie takes care of herself and proving she’ll be there for her, no matter what. This was marvelous.There are a couple of threads that are left unaddressed. We never fully learn why MJ’s ex-partner left the business or why she tried to sabotage the business. Even once she’s confronted, her actions didn’t make a whole lot of sense and it veered a little too much into Evil Ex territory for my preference. But it didn’t detract from my enjoyment of the story overall.I did question one aspect of MJ’s portrayal. She’s mentioned as having “brown skin.” I think MJ is Latina but there wasn’t an indicator besides her last name and that her brother’s name is Javier. She’s from Arizona, which has a large Latinx population. Maybe she is Latina and it doesn’t mean anything to her but the representation isn’t as nuanced as what I’m used to compared to books written by Latinx writers.This had the perfect amount of angst and a great pairing of two opposites. I look forward to what Davids does next!CW: breast cancer, grief, death of a loved one, parental abandonment, parental estrangement after coming out, homophobia

Based on the synopsis, this seemed like a book I’d enjoy reading. Then I see that it’s published by a division of Harlequin romances and thinking, “yeah, not sure I can do this...”. Surprisingly, it was quite good and I’m glad that didn’t dissuade me. It’s definitely not the bodice ripper I feared. Lol

Love Love Loved this book! Highly recommend! It was so so well written. The character growth was just perfect and extraordinary! And beautiful. Both MCs are wonderfully flawed and so very relatable. Steamy spice was on point, swoon worthy and meaningful.If butch/femme, tattoos, sexy times, badass FMCs, finding strength in yourself as well as others, really good writing and more are of interest then definitely definitely read this book!

The books deals with real emotions, real feelings and finding the love they didn’t think they wanted. All’s well that ends well. HEA

I am not sure how I stumbled upon this book but I am really glad I did. I read this book a few months back and as I do with most books I really like, planned on going back and buying a non-digital copy. Come to find out I can't find a paperback version anywhere, which is a shame. The book is really well written for a first book, it is the first in a series (definitely go read the second book in the series too). I hope the author keeps writing, we always need more tattooed women loving women in lesfic.

I received a free copy through NetGalley in exchange for an honest and unbiased review/opinion.4.5 stars — I haven’t read a lot of F/F (or really many of the other flavours of LGBT besides G), and I’ve been wanting to expand my diversity reading. So I was so excited when I saw the blurb for this one and it sounded so good! You could tell it was own voices because it felt authentic. I never forgot I was reading about two women, but other than that it was just like any other romance: strife, struggle, swoony moments, frustrating moments.I found it SOOOOO easy to connect with Cassie, b/c I have so many of her personality traits, and not necessarily the best ones. But it made it really easy for me to understand her reactions to various situations, because it was how I might react. It was really fulfilling to watch her shed those shackles of trying to get everyone to like her and embrace who she really is deep inside. I didn’t mind the backsliding, b/c it made sense, and it made her journey that much more believable.MJ was a bit harder for me to connect with, b/c, well, just like for Cassie, MJ’s my opposite. But through all that I felt for her struggles, and I understood her defense mechanisms. I absolutely loved when she got back from her family and got the fairy tattoo, it was so symbolic. I really felt the way she started to understand how her own reactions were also sabotaging her happiness. It was fulfilling in its own right.I loved that MJ and Cassie had so much in common, even as they were so different. They both felt rejected and discarded and not worth taking a chance on. They came at it from different directions, but the results were the same. It made their journey very gratifying, each of them learning to trust and let another person in.Their chemistry was fantastic, the steamy scenes were like woah! I loved how they complemented one another, it all fit perfectly with the opposites attract. They each made me swoon for the other with the little gestures they would make. And they both frustrated the crap out of me when they fell into typical pitfalls that I saw coming a mile away…which does mean that some of the conflict was a bit cliche and expected, but I found that it played out with a bit more depth than I was expecting, and wasn’t trite.I expected Cassie’s cancer, and the compassionate tattoos that were mentioned in the blurb, would come into play more, but they were kind of background/secondary. Which was a bit disappointing, b/c I was so intrigued by that, but I got so much else from their story that I really didn’t miss it.All this to say that I will DEFINITELY be looking forward to more F/F from this author in the future. I’m excited to see whose story will be next in this series!

This was the perfect mix of sweet and sassy with lots of hotness mixed in. The issues the main characters faced were real and believable and made you care about them and the outcome so much. I'm really enjoying this series.

This is a really good book about two tattoo artists, one in training. It’s about overcoming what life throws at you and embracing the good things in life. Well worth a read and the beginning of a new series. Would highly recommend.