I cannot adequately express in words how absolutely adorable this book is. Please don’t confuse adorable with precious. This book is a cute, sweet, YA I cannot adequately express in words how absolutely adorable this book is. Please don’t confuse adorable with precious. This book is a cute, sweet, YA sci-fi romance. It’s definitely not all hearts-in-eyes and rainbows everywhere, but overall the book is a sweet oeuvre to old friendships, new friendships, and first loves in an unconventional science fiction package.
The only thing keeping this book from reaching five stars is how far I think the author stretched my ability to suspend disbelief when it came to the main character’s relationship with his parents. It was an uneven family dynamic that never quite solidified enough in my mind to make sense for the story arc at large. Other than that, this book is a great read in this genre and I highly recommend it. ...more
I’m sorry, but can I be frank? This book is a mess. It’s a melange of great ideas and quality ingredients but it’s like the chef had no idea how to coI’m sorry, but can I be frank? This book is a mess. It’s a melange of great ideas and quality ingredients but it’s like the chef had no idea how to cook whatever dish they set out to cook.
All sorts of LGBTQIA+ representation? Check. Knowing exactly how to add it in, how to handle it, and when to stop beating your readers over the head with the metaphors and allegories? Not so much.
Gentrification, class divide, and socioeconomic commentary? Got it! Only… we’re gonna add in a whole bunch of nebulous conspiracy theory stuff to it! Just so it doesn’t feel the same as every other book with the same beats.
Corrupt police forces and police violence targeting members of marginalized communities… but add “monsters” into the equation? Sure. Let’s drive that metaphor into the ground too.
Most of all… let’s just use this whole book to rely on coincidence and the notion of fate to keep two of the most important characters in the book from meeting until just about the very end, leaving a reader like me wondering why I even started this book and why I didn’t just stop reading at 55% when I first contemplated DNFing it. Frankly, I’m proud of me for finishing it.
I don’t recommend it, and I don’t think I’ll touch the second half of the duology. I’m sorry, but Szabo can and has done better.
Thanks to NetGalley, Macmillan Children’s, and FSG for granting me early access to this title in exchange for a fair and honest review, Per personal policy this review will not appear on any social media or bookseller website so as not to affect book sales in any negative manner. ...more
This book, right here, is why I insist on requesting and reading as many LGBTQIA+ romances as I can when I come across them on NetGalley. It’s becauseThis book, right here, is why I insist on requesting and reading as many LGBTQIA+ romances as I can when I come across them on NetGalley. It’s because of this warm, bubbling, sparkly feeling I have in my stomach after reading something beautiful and golden and true. This book was like champagne butterflies fluttering in my tummy, drunk and fluttering and golden and sweet.
I don’t often (literally) laugh out loud at books. I smile, sure. I may snort. I smirk… a lot. But I’m a big smirker in general. But this book caused me to genuinely let out unexpected giggles and chuckles and a few guffaws a few times, and that was a feeling I’m always going to be thankful to this book for, because I don’t get to laugh very often anymore.
I also shed a few tears: for London and Dahlia (our main characters), for how much I identified with Dahlia, and for all the LGBTQIA+ folx in the world who feel out of place and/or out of step with the world, with themselves, and especially with their loved ones. And I wished again, as I often do, for a world in which everyone could just be who they are and love who they love without anyone caring.
The plot of this book may be a pretty basic recipe, at first glance, but Kelly does so much with it! Food is one of the most versatile metaphors to work with when it comes to love, to home, to who you are, to where you come from, to where you’ve been, to domesticity, to where you want to go someday, and to who you might want to be someday. Kelly takes great advantage of both the food metaphors to be had and also the reality television competition format to weave the romance between Dahlia and London together like a neatly-made basket. The book is a page-turner, too: there are no parts that sag, move too slowly, move too fast, or seem extraneous. There aren’t too many characters, and all the characters are realized to the appropriate amount.
The humor, angst, romance, and steam are all nicely balanced for a romance of this genre and for the target audience.
Books are meant to make you feel. The intention of all art is to make you feel something. This book made me feel a great many things. I went into my genderfluid daughter’s room and flopped down on the bed and said, “I’m all up in my feels!”
She gave me a hug and kissed me on the head. Because she knows how her Mama gets over books sometimes. And then I told her the premise, and she told me that if she were a reader she would’ve gotten all up in her feels too. ...more
I don’t think I’m the only Onley James fan that has been greedy to get their hands on the books that would introduce us to the story behind the MulvanI don’t think I’m the only Onley James fan that has been greedy to get their hands on the books that would introduce us to the story behind the Mulvaney murder twins, Asa and Avi. This is Asa’s story, and in it we first get what I know I’m always dying to know at the beginning of a Necessary Evils book: how Thomas Mulvaney was introduced to the twins. And it’s an interesting story, as always.
This book has a lot of funny moments, a few sweet moments, a lot of HOT moments, and the spice is top-notch spicy-spice. The plot, while a little winding, is both tragic and intensely interesting. I don’t want to spoil too much, so I’m trying to steer clear of saying too much! I will say, though, that we get to see much more of Calliope’s hacking skills in this book than we have in any of the others, and that was pretty awesome.
I will say this: If you haven’t read the Necessary Evils novella “Damaged” (featuring Calliope’s son Dimitri and his co-worker, Arlo), you might be a little lost toward the beginning of the book, so it may be a good idea to find a way to get ahold of that novella (which isn’t for sale anywhere, as it is a free download) before you read “Headcase” in order to ensure you aren’t totally lost going in.
All in all, it’s another win for Onley and another win for us readers, who get another excellent entry into the annals of the Mulvaney Family saga.
And now we all just have to wait with baited breath for Avi’s book!...more
I’m a huge fan of teacher/student romances. I can’t help it. I’m an unabashed fan. And this book definitely hit that sweet spot for me. The banter wasI’m a huge fan of teacher/student romances. I can’t help it. I’m an unabashed fan. And this book definitely hit that sweet spot for me. The banter was witty, sharp, and as snappy as I’ve come to expect from Ella and Brooke, and the spice (as always) didn’t fail to turn the temperature up.
The only thing that brought me down a little bit was how abruptly the dynamic switched from push/pull to surrender. I thought it could’ve been a bit smoother of a transition, but otherwise, it’s another Ella & Brooke stunner. ...more
First of all: Ella Frank, how dare you! Second of all: Ella Frank, I adore you!
Now that I have that out of the way…
This is the first book in Ella FraFirst of all: Ella Frank, how dare you! Second of all: Ella Frank, I adore you!
Now that I have that out of the way…
This is the first book in Ella Frank’s long-awaited Chicago Heat series, which features characters introduced in Ella Frank’s Inside Affairs series and in Ella Frank and Brooke Blaine’s Dare to Try trilogy. In Wicked Heat we get deeper into Chicago, and it’s not exactly a pretty sight. We also get a grumpy fireman with self-worth issues and a sunshine personal assistant who doesn’t know his own value.
The angst is real. So is the chemistry.
I loved this book so much. I loved it more than I expected to, to be honest. I went in fully knowing this was part one of a two-part story. I went in knowing this story was unfinished and would likely end with a cliffhanger of some sort. Unlike some impatient and selfish readers, I recognize complete stories with good arcs sometimes take more than one book to tell to satisfaction. The characters speak to their authors sometimes and sometimes they take the authors places they didn’t initially plan on going. It happens. In my opinion, splitting this story into two books was a smart move on Frank’s part. Trying to either cram this story into one big book or trying to truncate it into a regular-size book would’ve ruined everything. Ryan and Jameson (our main characters) obviously needed time to develop as characters, then to come to tolerate each other before they could even begin to like each other. Jameson is a tough nut to crack, even if Ryan isn’t. I’m proud of Frank for staying true to her characterizations and making the choice to turn this story into two books.
This story is right in that sweet spot I’ve come to expect from Ella Frank: unexpectedly sweet in the right places, bittersweet in others, unabashedly earnest, and just the right amount of angst to make the heart twinge but not sob your eyes out. I can fully admit I teared up at the end of this book. I didn’t cry… but there was definitely some wetness gathering in the corners of my eyes.
I cannot wait for the second half of this story. ...more
And Sara Cate hits it out of the ballpark yet again with the third installment in her Salacious Players Club series, a best friends-to-lovers polyamorAnd Sara Cate hits it out of the ballpark yet again with the third installment in her Salacious Players Club series, a best friends-to-lovers polyamorous romance between a married couple and their lothario best friend. Part of the book takes place during a road trip across the US, touring different clubs like the SPC, and then the rest takes place back in the city where the SPC books call home. This book features some of my favorite safety word-worthy things and is absolutely, positively sizzling hot. Believe me, there was some serious lip biting and wiggling going on.
As per usual with this series, Sara has done a great job at showing us the vulnerable and sometimes outright damaged side to the founding members of the SPC, writing these characters with a sense of compassion and understanding that some readers might be tempted to take for granted. I certainly don’t, though, because while not everyone who participates in the same lifestyle as the characters in these books do is vulnerable or damaged by their lives or upbringing, the fact remains there are some people who do find respite in the scene. And that’s okay.
Also, as with the other two books in the series, Sara has certainly done her due diligence when it comes to writing her safety word-worthy scenes. Her research is impeccable, but we all know that research is nothing if you can’t take that research and put it into prose people will want to read. Sara does that better than most romance writers out there. It’s hot and it’s accurate. I love it. And I love her for making that possible.
This book may be my favorite out of the series so far. That’s saying something, considering how much I’ve loved each entry before it.
Thanks to the author for the advanced copy in exchange for a fair and honest review. ...more
My review is solely for Sara Cate's novella "Sweet Blasphemy" that's included in this anthology.
Why does Sara Cate seem to know all my weak spots? I dMy review is solely for Sara Cate's novella "Sweet Blasphemy" that's included in this anthology.
Why does Sara Cate seem to know all my weak spots? I don’t know. All I know is that she’s brilliant at it.
This novella was a whole lot wrong, a whole lot right, and a whole lot of yes please and thank you. To see these two characters absolutely split apart at the seams in the presence of one another, their desire and devotion to one another eclipsing their faith after being reunited after some years apart is both romantic and a pressure cooker full of steam. A great read. ...more
This has to be one of the most charming books I’ve ever read. Sure, it’s a romantic-comedy mixed in with an homage to some of pop culture’s most belovThis has to be one of the most charming books I’ve ever read. Sure, it’s a romantic-comedy mixed in with an homage to some of pop culture’s most beloved comedic murder-mysteries (the most notable, by far, being the classic and inimitable “Clue”), but this was so much fun to read and had so much wit and a domestic sense of warmth within it that it disarmed me completely.
And it was just so danged cheeky! I know you might accuse me of leaning into the British of it all, but that’s simply the best word I can come up with to describe the feeling I got every time there was a glancing or oblique “Clue” reference (the walls of the Colonel’s room in the hotel were painted mustard yellow!). It made me want to reach through my e-reader and pinch Alexis Hall’s cheeks (gently, of course) and call her a cheeky little monkey for having been so clever. And the cleverness didn’t stop there! The call-outs on gun violence, classism, how service workers tend to go unnoticed and unrecognized for all they do inside places like hotels and resorts? It was all just so dang bright and sharp and nicely woven together into one great narrative arc.
And let’s not forget something close to my heart and the main thread of this book: repairing a marriage on its way to breaking up after quite some time of being together. Granted, I had the privilege of being in a herterosexual marriage when I was married and didn’t have to wait for the right to be granted to me by law, but I was married for 18 years and it was fraught with issues. We went to marriage counseling three times, because marriage is messy and it is work. It’s both as simple as waking up every day and deciding to stay and as messy as waking up and knowing that you will always love your spouse but is love enough of a reason to stick around and when is enough really enough? And those moments in the book, usually most reflected upon during the brief hours of downtime our main characters get in this novel, are some of the most heartfelt, touching, warm, and realistic moments in the entire book and are worth treasuring just as much as all the cheekiness.
I highly recommend this book. Come for the “Clue” references, stay for the heart of it. ...more
I really do seize the opportunity to pick up mm transgender romance novels that aren’t exploitative, and while “Acoustics” isn’tReal Rating: 3.5 Stars
I really do seize the opportunity to pick up mm transgender romance novels that aren’t exploitative, and while “Acoustics” isn’t the best-written example of the genre I’ve read in the last couple of months, it definitely tries very hard to be as soft, sweet, and sexy as possible without exploitation of any kind, and that makes it endearing, no matter what.
I’ll fully admit the characters are distinct, well-drawn, and engaging. The issue is they are also written a little immature and overdramatic for their age without any explanation given for their behavior. Their reactions and behavior is sometimes erratic, as if the author hadn’t quite nailed their voices completely before calling the novel done.
I also thought the plot moved a little fast and everything was just a little too convenient at times. It became very predictable.
Overall, the book is charming, sweet, has soft boys, and gets steamy (though not as steamy as I prefer in my romance novels). We’ll see what Price has in mind for the rest of this series. ...more
Transgender romance is a genre so rare to find treated seriously in the romance industry that I was eager to sign up to review the advanced reader’s eTransgender romance is a genre so rare to find treated seriously in the romance industry that I was eager to sign up to review the advanced reader’s edition of this book. Not because I romanticize the genre or because it gets my kicks up, specifically, but because two members of my family are trans and I deeply believe in representation for all marginalized groups in the romance publishing industry. So I will always seek out transgender romance, because representation for those I love matters a great deal to me, even though I am cisgender and bisexual.
I am not a sports romance girl. That’s not my jam, but mechanics totally are. So are found families. But there were so many things about this book to love that I ended up just being sucked in, transfixed, and blown away by this sweet, funny, sexy, intimate, hopeful, and sometimes outright tragic book.
There were times when I just dropped my Kindle onto my bed laughing or snorting because of something someone said, or because Braxton was too much… again. I made pouty faces at sad scenes and angry growls at tragic scenes. I was cuddly and content with my warm fuzzies when everyone was being soft and sweet, and I fell in love with these two men who both had been dealt really cruddy hands in life.
If you’ve never read mm transgender romance, I suggest giving it a try, but please be aware of your own limits and read the author’s notes beforehand. Keep an open mind. Love is love is love. ...more
This book is a long, painful, soul-searching look into the minds of two young men who are both lost and looking for a way out of something, but in twoThis book is a long, painful, soul-searching look into the minds of two young men who are both lost and looking for a way out of something, but in two very different ways and to two very different extremes. Josh Miller just wants to get out of his small Alabama hometown and go to college, find a boyfriend, and try to live his best life after that. He doesn’t want to deal with the dad who doesn’t really care about him and has a whole other family to take care of (and a stepmother who dislikes him) and he isn’t really comfortable coming out and dating in a town where he’s known everyone since he was in diapers. And Ezra Masters is… well, he’s running from a lot of demons, including his mom, and he’s also being held hostage by enough emotional and psychological trauma to sink a ship. But his skeletons have skeletons, and he’s determined to keep that closet welded shut.
It seems like these two made plans and so the gods laughed, however, because they’re thrown into each other’s paths in a rather dramatic fashion maybe hours before they find out they’re to be stepbrothers. And while Josh is fine with trying to make nice, it’s readily apparent all Ezra cares about is bullying Josh around and screwing with his head, although Josh has no idea what he ever did to offend a guy he hardly knows.
This isn’t a quick read romance. It’s a slow, slow burn. And it’s more a slow, slow burn that’s made up of a mix of hate and lust and longing and desperation than it is love and romance for about 60% of the book. And then this book turns on the angst in a hardcore matter for quite some time before it swings back in with some hardcore love and romance feels.
I’m going to be honest: This book wasn’t for me. I finished it, but I wouldn’t read it again. I thought it was far too long, and while I can appreciate a slow burn, this one was far too slow for me. Ms. James’ writing is, however, lovely. She paints a great picture and does an excellent job of articulating each character’s feelings when in their narrative POV.
Also, as an epileptic (though I became an epileptic in adulthood, not in childhood), I appreciated the time and care Ms. James put into writing about epilepsy. When writing about a disability, it’s important to try and be as sensitive as possible without being condescending or patronizing. It’s a difficult balance to maintain, and I appreciate the effort put into the matter.
So, if you love those long, slow burns filled with angst and all the feels, I truly believe you’ll love this book. The spice is hot, the touch of taboo is nice, and the writing is lovely. ...more
**spoiler alert** “Hard Drive” is everything you could ask for out of a short, sweet, femme bisexual romance… almost. And I do absolutely mean that! I**spoiler alert** “Hard Drive” is everything you could ask for out of a short, sweet, femme bisexual romance… almost. And I do absolutely mean that! It is a nice length for anyone who doesn’t want to commit to a long read (like, say, you just want something to read one evening when you have a little time free and just need to relax), it’s relatively low-angst for those who don’t want to be stressed out by what they’re reading, the main characters are very likeable (so you don’t have to work hard to love them), the steamier scenes aren’t too spicy for more conservative readers but are still present for those of us who didn’t open this book just to see all the steam happen off-page, there is some warm and fuzzy romance feelies, and a HEA at the end. So yeah, it’s just about everything you could ask for out of what this book looks like and sounds like it’s supposed to be.
Of course there’s a “but”. You knew a “but” was coming. The plot is incredibly boring, making the book relatively boring. The antagonist, who is supposed to be hidden, is easy to suss out very early in the book and it makes the main characters look dumb for not figuring it out sooner. I felt the author needed a sensitivity reader for issues regarding and surrounding anxiety and panic issues because they weren’t handled with as much care as some other books in the same genre that have included the same issue in their books that I’ve read in the last couple of years, and when the turn came, it seemed overblown which made the resolution seem utterly anticlimactic. Ultimately, in the end, nothing the two main characters went through paid off. It was as if you could have cut out 50% of this book and had the same result and the rest was just melodrama.
But I do still give it three stars because for what it is packaged as, it lives up to the wrapping. It is sweet, cute, a little sexy, gave me some warm fuzzies, and I am always happy to read almost any story where members of the alphabet mafia get a HEA in the end. ...more
You don’t have to be a believer in the paranormal or supernatural to have a healthy fear of the Appalachian Mountains and what deep, dark secrets lie You don’t have to be a believer in the paranormal or supernatural to have a healthy fear of the Appalachian Mountains and what deep, dark secrets lie beneath them. You don’t have to be a genius to know that the land itself in and around those mountains holds just as many deep and dark secrets, and many of those are more fresh and filled with blood and pain created not by geological time, but by humans themselves.
I was very tempted, with my ADD, geography degree, and manic energy after reading this fantastic book, to go off on a tangent about just how old the Appalachian Mountains are and about formation and what lies beneath and about how there’s so much we have yet to discover about this ancient mountain range still, but I took a deep breath, took a step back, and marinated on what needed to be said about this book that people needed to hear.
This book is set in and around Vanderbilt University, which is located in Nashville, which is located in Tennessee. So, from the start, we’ve got a private university that was paid for by Andrew Carnegie (a wealthy white man from the north) but presided over by a Methodist Epsicopalian Bishop who believed slavery was human nature, which is located in a confederate state whose eastern side is part of the Appalachians. There’s a lot to unpack there: socially, politically, economically, culturally… and this book dips a toe into a few of these things. It can’t help not to, because it all ties together. But this book is really about what people don’t like to talk about. The topics they try to skirt around. The ugly things: the blood soaked deep in the soil, the evil steeped in generations of people (and then the lack of evil in some people and the need to protect them from it), the pressure to publish or perish, systemic racism in academia, internalized homophobia, regrets, the things people will do to stave off death, and the things people will and won’t do for love.
And, of course, it’s about cool stuff too: the ancient magic in the land, the sacrifices the land requires to maintain it, curses, hauntings, american folklore, revenants, street-racing, bad boys, drugs, drinking, and necromantic magic.
This is, by no means, a fast read. Like the south tends to be, it moves slow. Reading this book is like taking a walk through black tar molasses while breathing that thick, humid air.
Andrew, our main character, is going through the same thing, and that’s why we’re going through it. We must endure what he does, because this is his story, and we move as he moves. He’s struggling. He’s sluggishly trying to move through life ever since his best friend, Eddie, committed suicide only days before Andrew was to join him at Vanderbilt. He’s suffocating on all the things he never got to say, aimless because he doesn’t know how to live without his best friend, and he’s clueless about what to do with the fortune, friends, and research Eddie left to him. He’s completely lost save the one thing he’s absolutely certain of: Eddie didn’t kill himself. So we, the reader, have to sit in the passenger seat as Andrew throws himself helplessly at idea after idea, trying to grasp onto anything at all that will help him prove Eddie didn’t kill himself. Meanwhile, he’s trying to come to terms with feelings he’d long shut in a box and put a lock on, trying to figure out who he can trust and who he can’t, trying to figure out how to let go and have a good time while he can, and trying to keep a grasp on reality even as a curse that had bound he and Eddie together since childhood keeps trying to drag him down into the ground.
This book is astoundingly good. It’s languid, horrific, slick, bloody, sticky, lazy, intense, sultry, cold, mysterious, frightful, and a well-deserved finger pointed at all of us as a reminder that no matter what you build on top of it, physical or otherwise, the land is the land, and the land holds multitudes of humanities sins. ...more
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