Series Overview

Series Title: Natural History
Author: Erin Mallon
Publisher: Erin Mallon
Intended Audience: New Adult
Genre: Romance
Sub-Genres/Tropes: Women in STEM, Workplace Romance

Flirtasaurus

“Hi, Trix. Hi, Monty.” I actually lift my hand to wave at them, but it just hangs in the air, a soft-palmed salute. I feel my jaw relax and lower. My Jaw does the same. This must be what it feels like to fall in love for the first time.

Flirtasaurus

Title: Flirtasaurus (#1)
Published: June 15, 2020
Pages: 241
Sub-Genres/Tropes: Meet Ugly
Spice Scale: 🌶🌶🌶
Content Warnings: Drug Use

Summary

My name is Calliope and “I bone for a living.” Kidding. I am studying to be a paleontologist though. It’s the only thing I’ve ever wanted to be, and I have finally landed the perfect museum internship to make all of my dino-loving dreams come true. Trouble is, everyone wants me to be a gentle, loving sort of creature, but I’m more of the T-Rex type by nature – the kind who is determined to stomp and tear her way through any obstacle in order to get what she wants. But when a sexy, rumbly-voiced astronomer plummets into my orbit and threatens to break open my hard little heart, my career and my whole way of looking at the world is suddenly on the line. The dinosaurs didn’t see their asteroid coming. And I sure as hell wasn’t prepared for mine.

Review

Flirtasaurus drew me in with the hope that Calliope could possibly be a heroine to look up to—I mean a female paleontologist? And overall, there were some super cute moments between Calliope and Ralph, and the meet-ugly in the beginning totally grabbed my attention. However, I think Calliope as a character missed the mark for me. I loved how passionate she was about her career, but there was a lack of character growth from her. She is the exact same at the beginning of the story as she is at the end: foul-mouthed, self-centered, and stubborn. At no point does she learn from her mistakes, even when confronted head-on with them, whether by Dr. Knowles, by her parents, or by her love interest, Ralph.

I did love the supporting cast, though. For example, Dr. Knowles; she’s strong, competent, and a little bit frightening. I understand why Calliope looks up to her and wants her to be her mentor. Some of my favorite parts of the book were Calliope’s interactions with Dr. Knowles. The woman is unflappable. I also liked Mabel, an entomologist Calliope meets on her first day that immediately befriends her. Calliope may find Mabel to be too quirky and awkward, but I found her genuine and sweet, and I can’t wait to read the sequel that focuses on her.

Lovebug

It feels good to finally have a solid group of girlfriends, especially ones who understand why I do what I do. These are the girls who aren’t afraid to get messy, to literally “play in the dirt” digging for dinosaur bones or dive into murky waters to study a blobfish. These are women are passionate about science. They would never give me that scrunched-up “ew” face so many people give me when they learn that an entomologist studies bugs, not words.

Lovebug

Title: Lovebug (#2)
Published: February 24, 2021
Pages: 287
Sub-Genres/Tropes: Love Triangle, Camp Counselors
Spice Scale: 🌶🌶🌶
Content Warnings: Infidelity

Summary

My name is Mabel, the girl who “wouldn’t hurt a fly.” Of course I wouldn’t. I’m an entomologist for goodness’ sake. I work in a nature center. Bugs are my jam. It’s the humans in my life who are starting to get me down. I’m used to them calling me sweet and innocent. I can even handle them calling me naive. But when they lie and keep secrets from me? That’s when my proverbial pincers want to come out. Trouble is, I’m not the girl who fights back. Not until a handsome groundskeeper with a dirty mouth and secrets of his own shows up and lights all sorts of fires in me. 

In the bug world, the female is always the fiercest. The praying mantis doesn’t worry about being a “good girl.” Nope, she follows her instincts no matter how crass or crude they may seem to others. Turns out I could learn a thing or two from her. I’m not necessarily looking to tear anyone’s head off, but after decades of being nice, it’s high time for me to return to nature and unleash my wild side. 

Review

This was such a cute story. It follows Mabel, an entomologist who works at the Philadelphia Natural History Museum, an impressive feat for a 24-year-old. She’s quirky, sweet, friendly, and genuinely kind. But she’s not without her flaws. She’s also a people pleaser and a bit of a pushover, letting the people in her life—like her parents, fiancé, soon-to-be mother-in-law, and even the junior counselors she’s supervising at the nature center—walk all over her. At least until she meets Wallace, the groundskeeper at the nature center. Wallace—or Wally as Mabel calls him—is the tall, gorgeous, and silent type with a bit of a scary, albeit exaggerated, reputation among the camp counselors who all call him “The Wall.” But that doesn’t deter Mabel from introducing herself and attempting to befriend him, and when she does, she finds that the rumors about him are mostly unfounded. At first, he’s gruff and standoffish, but when she attempts to give him her speech to join the multi-level marketing scam her fiancé swindled her into joining, he warms to her.

It’s evident from their first real encounter that they have an effect on each other. Wallace opens up Mabel in a way that he apparently hasn’t done with anyone at the center, and she’s reduced to a state of “smurfnurblin” (a word I’m 80% sure was made up for this novel and apparently means “to be depressingly aroused”) every time he’s near. And although Mabel has a fiancé, I couldn’t help rooting for her and Wallace. Because frankly, her fiancé Bert is a jerk who doesn’t deserve Mabel or his games of glorified bop-it (I won’t go any further into this, but oh my god, I’d never cringed or laughed more than when Mabel was describing her sex life with Bert). Wallace is snarky, flirtatious, and completely smitten with Mabel and helps unlock the confident and self-sufficient part of herself that was in there all along but just needed a little help to come out. There’s character growth for both Mabel and Wallace throughout the book, in addition to the cute tension between them.

Mabel is a breath of fresh air and exactly the type of heroine I look for in a lighthearted romance. In terms of the side characters, Calliope is still a fixture in this book. I still don’t love her and found her brash, but she did grow on me a little bit. I think she serves much better as the “rom-com best friend” rather than the main heroine, but to each their own. Louise also makes more of an appearance in this one, and I have to say that I love her. I’m looking forward to seeing her romantic journey in the next and final installment of Natural History.