7-10 Split

What I liked:
This was a cute and quick story about best friends who part in their childhood and find their way back to one another. I loved the addition of bowling as the sport that they were both competitive over. I don't hear about bowling much in books (especially ones with people of color) and loved that they were able to start something at the school and keep it going.

What I didn't like:
Everything felt too unresolved/quick at the end? They way it ended felt like the end of a chapter and not necessarily the end of a book, which threw me off. Also, they kind of just swept everything ongoing at the end under the rug and called it a day.

Despite my reservations about the ending, I enjoyed the audiobook and was happy with how their relationship turned out. Not 3rd arc breakups, woohoo!

Relationship Mechanic

This was a cute and quick read with a 3rd arc breakup that did not make me want to fight anyone. I liked that Jessica is of mixed race but it doesn't become a "thing" of the story. Her and Vini are able to just be people.

It took a while for me to really feel the spark between Jessica and Vini. I was happy that they were pretty communicative about themselves except for when it started to feel too real. Seeing everyone knew about them (sans Ava) but them was hilarious. Her blowup was annoying but I'm glad she came around quickly enough that it wasn't a large part of the story.

The ending was cute. Shoutout to Jessica's parents for slapping her awake and for the reuniting in the same way they met each other. This would make a cute movie!

Solid 3.5.

THE 7-10 SPLIT:

once upon a time, back in high school, ava williams and grace jones were best friends…right up until they kissed and stopped talking. now, grace is a new teacher at ava’s school, and ava just wants to avoid her as much as possible. when the principal gives grace the bowling team ava’s been wanting for years, though, they decide to set aside their differences to co-coach the team. as they coach their team, though, they begin to fall for each other once again.

this was a short and sweet read! i tend to enjoy small town romances, and i thought it was interesting how both MCs were from this small town and are kind of getting a second chance as adults. i also enjoyed the bowling aspect. this isn’t something i enjoy in real life, but i liked reading about it since it’s something different than what i normally see in books. it was interesting to see how bowling originally brought ava and grace together, and how it brought them together once again. also, they both had their own problems to work through, such as overbearing parents, and i appreciated how this was depicted.

narrator: amina sali narrated this audiobook, and i really enjoyed her narration! these characters were really brought to life through the audiobook.

THE RELATIONSHIP MECHANIC:

jessica jae-un miller never intended to stay in peach blossom for so long, but when her rental car breaks down, she finds herself falling for the local mechanic, lavenia “vini” williams. vini loves her job, her family, and her hometown, and would love to fall in love…but jess has no intentions of staying in town. still, the two can’t keep their distance from one another, and only have six weeks to see where this relationship will take them.

like in the previous book, i loved the small town setting in this. we have vini, who’s always lived in peach blossom, and jess, who’s never really put down roots. as someone who’s moved around a lot, i resonated with jess in this way. i liked how their relationship developed, first being mostly physical and then allowing themselves a more emotional relationship.

narrator: laly lauret narrated this audiobook, and i thought she did a good job of bringing these characters to life.

🎧

This is my second sapphic romance & I liked it way better than the one I’ve read previously.

Grace & Ava know they played around so bad. They knew each other from the past & end up working at the same school. Second chance romance with a tiny bit of spice.

Thank you NetGalley & Harlequin Audio for the copy of this.



🎧

WHEWWW 🌶️
Now this was STEAMY!!

This is a small town romance that follows Vinny who owns a mechanic shop. Now she didn’t have no business falling for Jessica who was only in town temporary because she was running from her problems.

When they linked the chemistry couldn’t be denied & it really kept my attention. I want more from these two. 😫

Thank you to NetGalley & Harlequin Audio for the audio.

The 7-10 Split
This was a short and sweet, sapphic romance. The author did a wonderful job of balancing lighthearted moments with heavier topics.
I enjoyed the narrator as well.



The Relationship Mechanic

This was a spicy sapphic romance. It was a fun read, but I would have liked to dive a little deeper into the characters/story details.

Thank you so much to NetGalley/Publisher for the audio ARC

I am now a fan of Karmen Lee.

I love that these two books were both so different. No two characters were the same. Yet the tried and true happily ever after that was earned for each couple was what made me swoon more than anything.

I love the representation for each identity as well.

Great writing and great romance.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to listen to these audiobooks!!
I enjoyed them so much and I am excited to read more from Karmen!

The 7-10 Split

This book was a lot of fun to read, but man was the antagonist infuriating. Ava is a high school AP English teacher who has been trying to start a bowling team at her school, but the principal has refused to budge on the extracurricular budget to give her a chance. When her ex-best friend, Grace (with whom she shared a chaste kiss in the long ago) returns to the school to teach AP Chemistry, the principal gleefully moves around the budget to allow her to start a bowling team.

Grace and Ava are forced to work together to coach the team with an ultimatum to show results or the team goes kaput. The two rekindle their past friendship and the flame of something more begins to reignite. This is a sweet fun read and I’m really excited to start the next book!

📚 5/5
🌶️ 1.5/5

The Relationship Mechanic

This book was so stinking cute. Jessica is on her way to a small-town in Georgia to stay with a friend for six weeks while some drama dies down, but finds herself stranded in the middle of nowhere. The town mechanic, Vini, is her knight in shining overalls. As it happens, Jessica is staying with Vini’s older sister’s girlfriend. The two have an instant attraction, but Jessica isn’t looking for anything serious. They decide to start fooling around, but keep it under wraps because Vini’s older sister is NOT a fan of Jessica’s.

This is such a sweet small town, sapphic romance. Through exploring one another, the characters learn a lot about themselves and grow as people. On top of all that, the spice be singing spicing. I’m really glad I got the chance to read this 🩷

📚 5/5
🌶️ 3/5

I like the way Lee builds characters with depth and the use of careers to fully flesh out their lives. These were sweet romances with a strong narrator

Overall 3 stars for both 7-10 Split and The Relationship Mechanic.

Amina Sali performs really well narrating 7-10 Split. She has distinct voices for all the characters. I never wondered who was speaking during dialogue. I actually missed her voice as Grace in the second book in the series.

In 7-10 Split former high school friends Grace and Ava are unexpectedly working across the hall from each other as high school teachers in small town Peach Blossom, GA. When the girls were teens they were on the same bowling team in high school. Along the way Grace transferred schools and the girls had a falling out and lost touch until they became colleagues.

They are still kind-of rivals, but start coaching a bowling team trying to make it into a sport for the female students. They realize they still have feelings for each other, but have to figure out how to get past hurt feelings from the past, a crummy principal, and create enough hype to keep the team going.

The romance is sweet and pretty believable all in all. They act like adults and pretty quickly get past most of the teenaged drama they (mostly Ava) were holding on to. There are a few open door scenes that get nicely spicy in my opinion. Would recommend 7-10 Split as an audiobook read.

(This is part is just me, being a former bowler. This is not a book about bowlers falling in love at the lanes. It’s a romance with second chance/rivals-to-lovers trope situations. The bowling scenes and descriptions seemed very much like someone who did a little research about some bowling terms and used this info to slightly upgrade the scenes where actual bowling occurred, which is pretty infrequent. But I did still enjoy the overall story. Getting off my soap box now…)

For the second book in the Peach Blossom series, The Relationship Mechanic Vini and Jessica fall deeply and instantly in lust with each other. Vini is Ava’s younger sister and Jessica is Grace’s friend visiting from out of town. Vini is called to tow and fix Jessica’s rental car after it breaks down on the way from the airport to Peach Blossom.

The women agree to have fun (and as much sex as possible) while Jessica is in town. No relationship, just friends-with-benefits. They have all the fun semi on the low-low as Ava blatantly tells Vini to keep away from Jess. But as Jessica’s vacation comes to the end the non-relationship implodes. Can Vini and Jess save their feelings and do they both even want a relationship?

The heat level on this story is many times higher than the first book. There are several (5 or more, I lost count) open door love scenes. The characters are very passionate, but the relationship seems pretty flat, which makes sense since the women agreed not to get into a relationship. They weren’t trying to build one. I liked the characters and how they all interacted with each other.

The books are part of a series, but could be a stand alone.

The 7-10 Split:
3.5 stars. This was a fun fast read but I felt like it went off the rails in the back 1/3 and then was over. I understand the individual purposes each of the 3 antagonists serve, but with the book being less than 300 pages so much of the ending gets devoted to each of those storylines that Ava and Grace's relationship got a little lost in the shuffle. But I really liked the build-up of them we got to see in the front portion and thought this was a fun combination of second chance, work place, and a unique sport in bowling romance!

The Relationship Mechanic:
This book moves super fast (which I get it's less than 300 pages), so I'm not sure if I blinked and missed some of the set-up or it just wasn't there. Jessica was really an enigma of a character and I felt like all through the story more little pieces of lore and information of her got dropped, but I felt like something was missing when they all came together.

I get that they are an opposites attract & small town girl x city girl but I felt like how secretive and almost forbidden them hooking up was treated didn't really make sense to me. But boy was I PISSED off with Ava's reaction when she discovers about the two of them. Major ick.

I just felt like something was missing with this for me, but I think if you are looking for a quick and fun read you'd enjoy this book. Thank you Harlequin Audio for an ALC of The Relationship Mechanic.

My least favorite trope is miscommunication and 7-10 Split was almost entirely that😭 Grace and Ava’s chemistry was so good though, so I suffered through it for them🫡 I do wish we got a lot more of them hashing the past out and the fight with Millie too because I feel like we just said we talked about it and didn’t actually show the conversation, and both of those were kind of big conversations to just glaze over🥸 The narrator’s voice changes in this were actually so good too😭😂

The narrator for Relationship Mechanic didn’t change their voice for every character like the narrator in the first book, but I don’t think it made too much of a difference in the storytelling. The chemistry between Vini and Jessica was insane and this book was a lot more spicy than the first one, but I do wish we got a couple more scenes of them being together in a non sexual way. (The money I would pay to get them to go on that Christmas Tree farm date!!!)

these were both very cute and funny romances. They had some great spice and the chemistry between the characters felt very authentic. These two were definitely solid romances.

Ａｕｄｉｏｂｏｏｋ Ｒｅｖｉｅｗ
3.2 ☆
• 7–10 Split:
For teacher Ava Williams, some subjects are not up for debate. Like history—specifically, the one she has with Grace Jones, bowling pro and local celebrity, who is now, for no identifiable reason, teaching at the same small-town Georgia high school as Ava.

• The Relationship Mechanic:
Jessica Jae-un Miller came to Peach Blossom, Georgia, for a visit, not a breakdown. But when her rental car dies on the outskirts of town, mechanic Lavenia “Vini” Williams provides a tow—and a very welcome jump start to Jessica’s heart.

Everything was just okay for both of these books. I really wanted to love them, but they were just okay! Nothing special. If you are looking for a palate cleanser, I would highly recommend these books.

The audiobook were good, the narrtor did a good job. Easy to listen and understand. Listened at 2x speed.

Thank you, Netgellay, and Harlequin Audio for the audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Thank you so much Netgalley for the audiobook and the chance to listen to the continuation of Karmen Lee's Peach Blossom series. The cover alone is gorgeous and this picks up where we left Ava & Grace except through the eyes of two other characters.

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to experience this small town romance centered around black sapphic love interests residing in Georgia. We meet Ava, who has remained in Peach Blossom to teach English and Grace, a returning resident who fills a science position. Ava and Grace have history and we learn the whys and hows of their timeline. We also find out the two are interested and have been players in the bowling world. While I do wish bowling played a bigger role than it does, being in Peach Blossom with Ava and Grace was worth immersed in. The ending does leave you wondering where the duo are heading but I’m glad I have the second book to hopefully give me an idea.

Vini and Jessica grow on you as we see their relationship develop. There is tension from the moment Vini picks up Jessica due to her car breaking down miles away from Peach Blossom. I loved that Vini is a mechanic and takes no shit. The two also grow together and I enjoyed that not only was the setting a safe spot for them to be themselves but also there was a natural building of trust. This also is assisted by the small skills that Vini teaches Jessica when it comes to the topic of cars. There are a lot of open door sexy scenes so keep that in mind if you thought this was going to be closed door. Minus that - the duo (despite their personalities differences) mesh well together and I'm looking forward to Dani's story in the third book.

Thank you to Harlequin Audio and NetGalley for the advanced listening copy!

The 7-10 Split: 4 Stars! Super cute! The ending was a little rushed for me, and I wish there was a bit more communication at the end but overall, I really liked this. The narrator was amazing!!! I loved all of the different voices she made for all of the characters.

The Relationship Mechanic: 3 Stars! I liked the audiobook way more than the ebook copy I read of this one. I wish the two main characters had more romantic chemistry sprinkled throughout the story, rather than solely sexual chemistry. I felt like it wasn’t until the last 15% of the audiobook that they started to have more than just lust between them. All in all, the narrator really helped me feel the emotion of the story a lot more.

These were both super fun and enjoyable romcoms. I loved the characters and thought they were both fun stories.

The 7-10 Split was a super sloooow burn. It feels like nothing happened in this book. The main character was holding a grudge, but it did not seem significant enough to still be made after 10 years. The conflicts in the book seemed contrived to make the story. I also was shocked and appalled when Ava called Grace’s mom a b*tch to her face! Whoa. I did not see that coming and it seemed really harsh for the situation. I did enough the book though…

The Relationship Mechanic was a more fleshed out story than The 7-10 Split. The characters seemed more developed, and the conflicts were believable. It was certainly not a slow burn like the 7-10 Split but more of an insta-love situation. I actually said to myself during the first kiss, “how did we get here so quickly?”! There was a LOT of spice – dare I say too much? But I did like the characters, and I also was glad it was tied in with Ava and Grace’s story as well. I think they fell in love/like rather quickly but it was still an enjoyable read. Thank you Netgalley for the ARC!

I liked the natator in "The 7-10 split" and the characters of "The relationship mechanic" but if I have to spend one more second with Ava I would have lost it. She is a crazy unlikable character.

The 7-10 Split / The Relationship Mechanic by Karmen Lee

The 7-10 Split by Karmen Lee
Peach Blossom series #1. Contemporary sapphic romance. LGBTQ+. Harlequin Afterglow. Second chance.
Grace Jones returns to the small town of Peach Blossom, Georgia. She and Ava Williams used to be friends and they both want to repair the relationship. When the Principal of the school they teach at, approves Grace’s request for a bowling team, even though Ava has been asking for years, they put aside their past and become coaches and role models for the girls in the community. It’s not all strikes or gutter balls as they work through the past and the future looks promising.

🎧 I listened to an audiobook version of this story narrated by Amina Sali. The performance is incredible for the different characters voices. I would have guessed it was at least two or three different narrators. Emotions of anger and passion came through clearly as well as secondary character voices of students and the boss. The changes were seamless and sounded almost like a live play. My problem with the distinct voices were the tonal variations where one might be sharp enough to startle and the second low and slightly husky where you needed to strain to hear the words. I played with the speed, up and down, and found the best for me was just a smidge slower than my usual 1.5, to accommodate the lower tone with a slightly higher than usual volume. I enjoyed the performance in whole, specifically because of the changes per character in the narrator’s performance. I believe the voices represented the characters which made it authentic and ultimately a feel good romance.
Glad they got their hea in this second chance romance. Both gained a little more confidence as they gave each other the support to stand up and be who they needed to be.


The Relationship Mechanic by Karmen Lee
Peach Blossom series #2. Contemporary romance, diverse. Harlequin Afterglow. Can be read as a stand-alone but the couple from the first book play secondary roles in this book.
Jessica Jae-un Miller’s rental car breaks down outside of Peach Blossom, Georgia. Lavenia “Vini” Williams owns a local garage and tows the rental car in for repairs. Jessica and Vini do a bit of flirting and are soon in a no-strings affair. That’s all Jessica wants. She’s a wandering city girl with no intentions of settling down. Vini is having a wonderfully sexy time with Jessica but knows their time is limited. Jessica isn’t meant for small town living, so why does Vini end up with her heart in the game?

🎧 I listened to an audiobook version of this story narrated by Laly Laurent. The performance is well done and the two main characters are clearly distinguishable. Emotions are expressed with passion and sincerity as the reader is swept along with the ups and downs of a new relationship. The playback is even and pleasing to listen to without and abrupt changes. I listened to this at my preferred speed of 1.5 easily and could have gone a smidge higher to match a regional conversation and reading speed. A very good option over an ecopy.
Steamy and appealing.

I received a copy of this combined audiobook from NetGalley and Harlequin Audio.