Genre: Contemporary
LGBTQ+ Category: Bi, Poly, Pan, Questioning
Reviewer: Lucy
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About The Book
Three people, one road trip, and so many queer feelings. A polyamorous romance about changing your life.
Allie and Matt’s happy open relationship means they’re both free to find hookups. When Allie gets duped by a date, though, she’s found with someone else’s cheating boyfriend. Ugh!
Meeting Noelle by helping her leave the guy isn’t the night Allie expected, but after the women bond over drinks and a seriously dysfunctional tape gun, Allie’s hesitant to say goodbye. It’s weird; she doesn’t normally like-like people who aren’t Matt.
Matt’s questioning whether he’s entirely straight, and he hopes to find answers on his and Allie’s impending road trip. But he’s cool with bringing her new maybe-crush along, especially since he and Noelle keep finding things in common. And staring into each other’s eyes.
Noelle lost her demanding job right before her boyfriend cheated, and she’s looking for her next career move—preferably back home in Chicago. Allie’s fumbling charm and Matt’s flirtatious humor, however, make her wonder if her life compass needs fixing.
Late-night talks on Texas highways, first kisses, and hotel confessions might change a lot… if there’s a next step for Noelle that isn’t leaving.
A high-heat contemporary romance novel with a polyamorous HFN involving F/F and queer M/F relationships. F/F and M/M love scenes on page. Tropes: road trip, geeks in love, bisexual awakening, coming out, polyamory, open relationships. Detailed content warnings available in the book’s front matter and on the author’s website.
The Review
Shake Things Up by Skye Kilaen is an absolutely adorable contemporary romance that shows that love is love and it comes in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colors. This is a modern, queer take on the meet-cute trope has Allie discovering that her hook-up is a lying, cheating waste of human skin, and then helping the girlfriend he betrayed. It is the second in the Love at Knockdown Series, but read perfectly well as a standalone.
The author gives us these marvelous characters who are beautifully described, full of complexities, insecurities, and imperfections. Allie is tall and beautiful and successful, but isn’t typically the one you want to hold you when you cry. Matt is a doctor who is handsome and successful but is still sorting his sexuality and his relationships. Together, they’ve created a little family that includes friends and relations. Then they meet Noelle, who is smart and gorgeous but has trouble prioritizing people and having a life outside of work.
This story makes you believe that people really can have healthy relationships, and that they aren’t one-size fits all. Matt and Allie are absolutely devoted to one another, but they know they have room for others in their lives. And they’ve created the rules and foundations that keep their personal romance alive and healthy.
This was a really sweet and lovely story, with enough angst to make it interesting, but nothing traumatizing. The characters will leave you wishing you knew them and could hang out with them after work. I will definitely look for the other books in this series!
The Reviewer
I’m an avid reader who loves pretty much all genres except math textbooks. As a kid, my parents exposed me to everything from fairies, hobbits, and dragons to the biographies of interesting people around the world, interspersed with poetry, plays, and music. Into adulthood, I spent a lot of years with my nose buried in various textbooks. Now, I read whatever grabs my fancy.
