Hazel Butler has lived most of her life in Owens Station in Arizona. She does not like change and when Sena Abrigo comes to town there is a clash of ideas. Sena wants to change Owens Station but there is resistance to changes including Hazel. The plot of the story revolves around how Hazel and Sena fall in love but their differences cause drama in Owens Station. There are many emotions in the book including love, racism, hate and violence. The people of Owens Station need to accept change. I recommend this book for all romance readers

- I love the “love at first sight” for both our main characters!
- The chemistry between Sena and Hazel is so fun to read and the way they bounce off each other while
- A good sapphic introduction book for you shelf

Overall I thought this was a cute, easy read. I did struggle with characters some times, especially Hazel. I understand her drive of preservation but sometimes I felt she took things too far and hurt the people around her for no reason.

On the opposite side, I LOVED Sena! She is such a strong, intelligent, woman who brought so much adventure to Hazel’s life.

1 star. Sena Abrigo wants to show everyone in the San Francisco that she can be successful at her own venture. She worked in tech for years and now has moved to Own Springs to try to revitalize some buildings and make a area where woman would thrive in tech.. Hazel Butler wants everything to stay the way it is. Her parents died protecting this town from development and people wanting to change it. Hazel is the librarian in town and wants nothing to do with Sena and her vision for the town. They both have to work together and can't seem to fight the attraction they feel.

I did not feel the romance between the two main characters. I did not like how quickly they feel in the love or how little I felt like their relationship progressed. I also did not like the drama at the end of this book. This book dragged for me and was not that well written. The main plot was fine, but a lot of it felt forced. I do not recommend this book. I feel like there are much better books out there to read and this one is not it. I really wanted to like this one, but it was hard to read and I did not enjoy the plot.

Thank you, Bold Strokes Books, Inc., Kelly Fireside, Tana Fireside, and NetGalley, for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I really wanted to love this book. The opposites attract, small town setting, sapphic romance, and vintage v modern narrative all sounded great… but ultimately it just didn’t work for me.

The creativity in the spicy scenes was great, and I liked many of the surrounding characters quite a bit.

I don’t mind an insta-lust or instant attraction trope, but this went from lust to love way too fast and was not believable.

I really just couldn’t get behind either main character. Their flaws/hang ups felt kind of obnoxious. I never developed empathy for them or felt invested in where their story was headed.

I would give another book by these writers a try because the concept is there.

I had a tough time with this book. The description sounded great, and I love reading fiction set in certain areas of the world, so I was excited about this one. Unfortunately, it was hard to get through and wasn't as enjoyable as I'd hoped.

Part of the problem was that the description mentioned conflict. Was there some? Yeah, but it seemed to be forgotten about once the two characters expressed interest in each other, which was very early (too early) in the story. I like a slow burn, but this was a slap in the face. The characters went from 0 to 60 within the first couple of chapters.

Might be great for some readers, but was not my cup of tea.

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. I made it to 17%. I did not like the insta love, and the small town esthetics or whatever you wanna call it is not for me. Since I’m from a small town myself. I didn’t like how Hazel was so obsessed with people being several generations “real owenites”. It just made me think of the people in my town, and I think it’s silly for the “real natives” to think other people are not natives even though they’ve basically lived their whole life in the town. I also did not like how these, seemingly, white women wrote the Delaney character. I can’t remember if it was specifically mention or she was a POC but the way they wrote how she spoke was incredibly uncomfortable and clearly stereotypical.

I saw this recommended, so I thought I'd take a chance on it. I really like smalltown romance, and I thought the concept for it sounded great. Unfortunately, this didn't work for me. My main issue was that they instantly experienced a really intense attraction, which frankly annoyed me, and I found it very unrealistic and cringy to read about. This was partly because of the writing style, that I didn't click with. This led to me not feeling invested in the story and feeling annoyed while reading. Because of this, I decided to DNF.

A great portrayal of a small town and the inhabitants desire to protect it, which sadly often leads to stagnation. Hazel in particular is pitch perfect as someone stuck in a rut, and even though she is alternative she still ends up walking alongside the bigots. They are so good at capturing the agenda of history and who the land belongs to. The romance is rather sweet and you do end up rooting for them. Enjoyable.

So lovely and heartfelt!

Sena arrives in Owen Station the epitome of fashion and class with plans to modernise the old fashioned town but Hazel is adamant the town is great as it is. Comfortable with her routine life and continuing family legacy to project Owen Station. When the two of them find a connection, it isn’t just the town that might have changes in its future because Hazel finds everything in her own life exploding and swept up in a whirlwind.

A great story with a lovely contrast between the past and modern times. I loved Hazel’s enthusiasm for all things history and projecting the town but Sena’s plans weren’t to completely change everything so I hoped they’d find a way to compromise. Unfortunately things aren’t as straight forward as just changing Hazel’s mind because a group of townspeople have turned her original team of protectors into a mob that bring uncertainty and dangers Hazel never imagined.

The story had a lot of moments of reflection on both Sena and Hazel’s heritage. They came from native families to the state and town, with complicated pasts. The way they fulfilled needs in one another that neither had really acknowledged they needed meant their connection was strong, heated, and passionate from the moment they met. When secrets started coming out and tensions ran high between them, it was fuelled by both of their stubbornness about how things should be. The story really delivered on unexpected drama and explosive moments that changed everything!

There were also many cute moments too, where they were discovering Hazel’s grandparents past and making connections between objects in her vintage house and situations that might have transpired. I just hoped in the end they’d work it all out because there were signs everywhere that they were both great for the survival of the small town and one another’s happiness.

Really enjoyed this story and Mango the cat really stole my heart. Stories with cats are always a winner! Excited for what Kelly and Tana Fireside’s next story will be!

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for sending me an arc for this book! Here's my honest review:
I'm sorry to anyone reading this review because I only got 30% into it before I realised I have better things to do with my time! It was boring, nothing was happening and I wasn't connected to the characters. No constructive criticism = no rating on good reads (had to put a rating here unfortunately, I'm sorry) , it just wasn't my thing.

Well, a bit torn about this. It was fine. I wasn’t particularly gripped by the romance, it was okay, but somehow the book did tap in to my feelings. Reading about the town, on the precipice of going the wrong way, a bit like the country, I got a bit emotional.
There are spiritual or slight supernatural elements to the book.

Vintage and Vogue gave me a wonderful start to my Pride month reading. Hazel is the local librarian, stuck in the small town her family has lived in and built for generations. She is also stuck in her life. That is until Sena walks into the local bar, straight from Silicon Valley, and turns her life upside down.

This book was warm and spicy in equal parts, full of beautiful vintage items and found family. I loved the relationships Hazel had with other people in the town, but I wished the relationship between her and Sena was developed more. I also felt that maybe the book needed to be 100 pages longer to fully dig into and resolve the meaty topics talked about, although I really appreciate they were brought up.

The scenes painted were enchanting and the magical elements were a really nice touch, but I'd like a slower burn and a more conclusive ending in future books.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for providing this title in exchange for an honest review!

“Vintage and vogue” (2023) is power couple Kelly and Tana Fireside’s upcoming sapphic romance. Our leads are Sena Abrigo, a wealthy Mexican-American who left for San Francisco to make her mark in the tech world, and is now moving back to Arizona, and Hazel Butler, librarian and descendant of Irish immigrant miners.

Sena arrives to Owen Station to turn it into a diverse Silicon Valley, but Hazel is keen on protecting the legacy of her family against gentrification. So, even though sparks fly, their interests put them on opposite sides: progress vs stagnation.

I found this aspect of the novel to be very interesting and current, especially due to the protagonists' particular backstories. You understand why Hazel is so protective of the town’s history, but also Sena’s motives and why she’s not a threat. This touched on important aspects, like racism, colonization and MAGA rhetoric. I also enjoyed the discussions about feeling stuck in time and being afraid to move on and take risks. There were some really spicy, open-door smut scenes.

The novel began with a prologue set in the past that offered an interesting premise - could Hazel and Sena be soulmates, immortal lovers reincarnating and meeting again through their lifetimes? While this is hinted at throughout the story, with some magical realism elements, my conclusion was that no, Hazel and Sena are not reincarnated lovers, they’re just echoing history and there are ghosts also. That would be fine, of course, except that what I’m left with instead is instalove. I would have loved to see Hazel and Sena struggling against feelings that made no sense and eventually realizing that they’ve loved each other in a past life. Instead, they struggle against feelings that make no sense, and they keep on not making sense. They have one short conversation and that’s enough to make them obsessed with each other. They fall in love after spending like a weekend together and have a dramatic third act break-up. It’s just too much for me.

The characters were exasperating in other ways, too. Hazel’s fear about moving on with her life even if that means a boring, stable life was relatable. But it came off as a little too cartoonish. I have a boring stable life and I still *don’t* eat the same lunch every single day and throw a tantrum when I can’t. The way she acts comes off as childish at several points, and I also don’t much care for sex as a magical way to turn someone’s life around - she has sex with Sena, and suddenly she’s changed.

Hazel is also accused of belonging to a group of anti-immigrant bigots who, like her except for different reasons, want to keep the town as it is. This is fair because apparently she did have an inkling of the situation, but unfair because Sena accuses Hazel without knowing any of this, at which point Sena is the childish one. So I enjoyed the way this issue played a part in the story, but the way it involved Hazel felt forced and out of the blue.

I also didn’t fully understand the way Sena’s identity affected her relationship with her family. This again felt a little too forced and inconclusive. Did her father push her away because she was queer, because she was a tomboy as a child (although now she’s a high femme??), or because she didn’t want to be a housewife? I don’t really know.

In addition, there’s too much emphasis on the need for romantic love, which was particularly disappointing because there’s a theme of found family. Hazel’s friend Delaney is horribly pushy, and in the end even Hazel is like “everyone must be in a relationship to be happy!”

tl;dr: This wasn’t a terrible book, it has things that other readers will probably enjoy and I appreciated the social justice issues it touched on. I’m just not a fan of instalove, and I wasn’t sold on why these characters belonged together if they weren’t actually reincarnated lovers.

2.5

For the most part, this book was fine. My favorite thing about this novel is the setting. Lately, small town romances have been growing on me— so no doubt I enjoyed a sapphic romance set in a small town.

During their second breakup, I was praying that Sena won’t take Hazel back. She’s too good for her. I mean, obviously she had some flaws, too, but Hazel was just really annoying to me.

In order for me to like a romance novel, I need the characters to have chemistry with each other. Seriously, it’s a romance novel, and you’re telling me I can’t even sense a dash of chemistry? I usually hate long romance novels, but this novel needed to be longer because I could barely sense their chemistry. It felt like the authors just picked out some of their favorite tropes and based the novel from there.

This was a very sweet story, I loved the balance of characters. A high profile woman shows up in a small town diner where the librarian is eating lunch. Sparks are immediate but the librarian has spent her whole live devoted to preserving their small town, and the new woman wants to bring in new development. The struggle to respect the past but build into the future is an overarching theme that appears in multiple ways in this novel. I think some aspects of it could have been explored more deeply whereas others where dragged out a bit much, but overall it was a very cute and enjoyable read.

This was quite the melodramatic read. Although it had some funny moments it mostly felt like it was lacking depth. Senna's bravado was too over the top which only managed to take away from the seriousness and proficiency her character was supposed to have in abundance. There was a bit of a mysterious/spiritual context woven into the story but it mostly came out as superficial since it wasn't explored in depth.

I received an ARC from Bold Strokes Books and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A nice enough sapphic romance with some good characterisation. As the book swapped narrative from one character to another, the characters explained their attitude to the other in great detail. This left less room to develop the storyline, so when the climax came it appeared melodramatic. There was a decent HEA and a determination to express an inclusive perspective in the conclusion.

3.75/5 stars
Thank you to Bold Stroke Books and NetGalley for this free arc in exchange for my review!

I am a sucker for a good small town romance and this one did not disappoint! This book had all the small town drama (including, unfortunately, racism) and it felt so real. Being from a small town myself, I felt that most of the events in this book reflected how some small towns truly are.

This was the first fiction book I've read that mentions and takes place post-pandemic. I'm glad that it wasn't mentioned too many times so that I could still feel as if I was escaping the real post-pandemic world.

Overall, I loved how the topics were carried throughout this book and were a prevalent part of the plot and characters, such as found family, racism, LGBTQ+, and BIPOC. It was a great way to bring attention to certain issues that society still struggles with.

In this opposites attract sizzling romance we have everything vintage goes Hazel Butler, who is all into protecting her father’s legacy and conserving her town’s history vs wealthy, been there done that Sena Abrigo who is determined to give Owen Station a facelift. While they could not see more differently on the future of Owen Station, their bodies and minds are drawn to each other like moths to a flame. The allure is as real as the divide is between them and when the town intervenes everything catches fire.

The introduction of Sena (Seh-na) had me rubbing my hands because good old (dead) town Owen Station not only needs some shaking up but Hazel needed that too. I enjoyed the banter and flirting between the pair, their quirky friends and the book had some funny moments too. And Mango, I love that cat!

I just reviewed Vintage and Vogue by Kelly Fireside and Tana Fireside. Thank you NetGalley and Bold Strokes Books for the ARC.

Cute small town romance with just a smidge of respect thrown in for paranormal activity. Hazel Butler is stuck in the past. She loves vintage clothes and her job at the historic town library. She also loves the historic character of her town that once flourished with mining wealth. Enter the beautiful and successful IT wiz Sena Abrigo. She has arrived to town with a vision to create her own silicon valley type which includes buying and revitalizing many properties in the town.

The attraction between the two is sizzling especially when they finally give into it. I expected the resistance to change conflict but it takes on a more serious tones when others resist because of Sena’s race. She is proud of her family heritage that goes back over nine generations pre-dating anything in Owen Station. I still found the story engaging and love how Sena and Hazel help each other to be their best selves. I also liked the acceptance of spirits and cosmic energies. I was happy to see that a sequel is already planned featuring side characters.

I thought this is a fun and interesting debut novel and will look forward to more from the authors. Thank you to Bold Stroke Books for the ARC via NetGalley and I am leaving a voluntary review.