I don’t have the best record with Silvia Moreno-Garcia novels, but The Seventh Veil of Salome is one of the most beautiful novels I’ve read this year,I don’t have the best record with Silvia Moreno-Garcia novels, but The Seventh Veil of Salome is one of the most beautiful novels I’ve read this year, and definitely the most beautiful novel I’ve read since early spring.
Moreno-Garcia has made this book as much of a juxtaposition as the titular character Salome is: it’s all at once grand and intimate, fantastic and mundane, showing us the glory of old Hollywood on one page and the sordid underbelly on the other. There’s a lot going on inside these pages: the main story with the dual third-person POVs of Vera and Nancy, interspersed testimonials from supporting characters in the main story written as if they’re in a documentary, and the story of the fictional character Salome. This whirling mix of narrative styles and plot devices keeps this book moving, keeps it interesting, keeps it fresh, and helps the reader to understand all of the characters more and more as the book moves on. As an added bonus, it also helps to ratchet up the tension and chemistry between everyone, too. One petal of the story unfurls and you’re rewarded with another petal of the adjacent story unfolding. It’s a domino effect of sorts, where the story just keeps unfurling like a beautiful flower blooming with lovely words, impeccable worldbuilding, and fascinating characters.
I absolutely, positively loved this book. I haven’t had much luck with historical fiction this year, so this was a very welcome read. This was a lush, decadent, technicolor dream read. I’ll definitely be needing a copy for my own shelf.
I was provided a copy of this title by Netgalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Historical Fiction ...more
Like the Taylor Swift song of the same name, How You Get the Girl is sweet, cute, lighthearted, and irresistible (to me, at least).
I absolutely adoreLike the Taylor Swift song of the same name, How You Get the Girl is sweet, cute, lighthearted, and irresistible (to me, at least).
I absolutely adored the first book in this series, 2022’s Love & Other Disasters (it’s on my shelf!). I didn’t like 2023’s Something Wild & Wonderful as much. I was worried about how I’d feel about this book but it turns out I shouldn’t have been because from the very start I fell in love with the amazing cast of characters and Anita Kelly’s absolutely hypnotizing dialogue and effortless storytelling.
This is a cute love story about a queer high school basketball coach who meets her childhood idol and crush via one of her players and somehow their lives slowly but surely become enmeshed via high schooler antics and interference, genuine care and concern for one another as human beings, holiday meet-ups, cats (just cats), “practice dates” (yeah, sure), and basketball (because of course).
The spice level is rather low but that’s absolutely fine because the chemistry and cuteness is off the charts. The romance is absolutely swoon-worthy because Julie and Elle are absolutely next-level sweet, sometimes clueless, and absolutely needed an intervention a time or two.
There is a lot to be said for mental health concerns and LGBTQIA+ rep in high school sports in this book too, and that was a great topic to see handled well. Kelly also tackles the topic of labels and identity and I thought the way it was written about in this book was not only intelligent but very moving.
This was another Anita Kelly winner. Loved it.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
Sometimes you just know, as soon as you start a book, that it’s going to be a five star read.
Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books was one of mySometimes you just know, as soon as you start a book, that it’s going to be a five star read.
Lula Dean’s Little Library of Banned Books was one of my most-anticipated books of the year. Miller’s previous novel, The Change, was one of my top ten reads of 2022. Some call her writing too on the nose. Some say she beats you over the head with the moral of the story. I say she’s brilliant and they’re wrong. Come fight me.
If The Change was magical realism mixed with literary fiction, then Lula Dean is dark satire mixed with literary fiction. (I won’t even pretend that these two mixtures aren’t two of my favorite genre blends in all of fiction). It’s an exaggerated portrayal of a Hollywood-stereotype small town in Georgia that’s suddenly been plagued by a group of “concerned parents” who want to ban books for the “good of the children”. Too bad knowledge always finds a way, right? Because “banned books” find their way into the community through unlikely means, into unlikely hands, and those books are like pebbles in a pond, creating ripples that start to shift everything in the community.
You want to read a book that includes issues plaguing America right now? It’s in this book. All that hate, all the fear, all the ignorance, all of the shame, and all of the misplaced pride. There’s history, cruelty, and tragedy. Kirsten Miller somehow manages to weave it all together with a dextrous panache that never makes the material feel so heavy you can’t lift the next page.
It’s an absolutely fabulous read that pulled me in, hooked me, and I couldn’t put it down.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Literary Fiction/Satire ...more
Cuckoo is one of those books that makes me wish I had: a) Worked out how to actually build my website that I paid for so I could write a long essay abCuckoo is one of those books that makes me wish I had: a) Worked out how to actually build my website that I paid for so I could write a long essay about this book and all its themes and other stuff; or, b) Wish I still wrote really long book reviews that I then had to slice and dice in order to fit them into my social media spaces. In my opinion it’s really that good, that captivating, and that intelligent.
It’s giving me Stephen King’s IT, but make the protagonists all queer in one way or another. It’s giving me “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, but make it body horror to the extreme. It’s giving me cosmic horror, but putting it in the form of brood parasitism (which is a real behavior of cuckoo birds, leading to the metaphor “cuckoo’s egg”).
Why do I love this book other than it’s a queer conversion camp cosmic horror? It comes down to Felker-Martin’s writing, really. Her writing seems to come at you from all sides, all at once, with no quarter given. It’s a full-on assault to your brain in the best way: brutal, gory, inelegant, raw, terrifying, visceral, sensual, erotic, emotional, romantic, heartbreaking, nauseating, and more. When I was reading this book it sometimes felt like I was on an emotional and reactional ride, being carried away with the words on the page almost without consent (but it’s not like I’d have fought the tide anyway).
This was just a terrific read I know I’m going to be recommending forever.
(Be sure to check your TW/CWs thoroughly before reading if you think you’ll need to.)
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Cosmic Horror/Horror/LGBTQ Horror/OwnVoices ...more
If Katy Brent writes a third brilliant book I’m going to declare her an auto-buy author, because I loved this book almost as much as I did her 2023 reIf Katy Brent writes a third brilliant book I’m going to declare her an auto-buy author, because I loved this book almost as much as I did her 2023 release, How to Kill Men and Get Away With It. Though the two books are as different as night and day, they’re both flavored with Brent’s distinctive feminist prose and sharp, satirical sociocultural commentary.
This book is smart, thoughtful, emotionally provocative, and morbidly funny. Molly Monroe wakes up one morning after a work party with a strange man in her bed. She doesn’t remember much of anything from the night before. The guy’s name is Jack and he tells her he rescued her after he found her crying and wailing but not able to tell him why somewhere near his house in Vauxhall the night before. He brought her home in an Uber and just stayed with her because he was afraid she’d choke on her own vomit. She’s fully dressed. So is he. She feels fine, except she feels mostly dead from a hangover. He leaves her his number in case she needs to get in touch with him and she reluctantly goes into work, despite the strange looks and weird name-calling she gets from people on the way.
But that’s just the start of a few weeks of the weirdest and most heartbreaking weeks of her life.
The sociocultural commentary is hard and fierce in this book: social media and how it automatically focuses on fetishizing and shaming females who obviously are out of it when they are unknowingly filmed or papped, wives who automatically go after the other woman when they should go after their husbands first, best friends who scream at one another over their habits instead of just automatically helping, and mostly all of the men who dismiss and deride women whenever they have the chance of taking an out.
Katy Brent has more talent in her little finger for straddling that fine line between satire and mockery than most authors in the business. It would be easy for her to dip a toe fully into blaming men for everything, but Brent fully acknowledges that women can sometimes be just as awful. Internal misogyny is a beast and sometimes even the best of women can succumb when they’re weak.
It was brilliant, quick-witted, and sharp. Watch out for TW/CWs, please.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
I was invited to view this after I had already sworn I wasn’t going to accept any more January ARCs. Then I saw the blurb for this book and I just couI was invited to view this after I had already sworn I wasn’t going to accept any more January ARCs. Then I saw the blurb for this book and I just couldn’t pass it up because of my grandmother and great aunts. My grandmother was a regular Rosie the Riveter, helping to build war planes during WWII and my two great aunts ran a diner on a local airfield where they trained troops while their husbands were abroad fighting (my grandmother wasn’t married yet, not that she stayed married for long (I miss her so much)). I was extremely close to my grandma and I adored my great aunts. They were a hoot and a half. I just couldn’t turn this book down.
I’m so glad I didn’t, because this book is just like my grandma and great aunts: a hoot and a half, with quite a lot of story to tell. I laughed a lot and loved the story from beginning to end.
CJ Wray did an impeccable job crafting a story that straddles the past and the present (well, the past and 2022), telling the story of Josephine and Penny Williamson, two elderly women who served England in WWII. In the present timeline they’re traveling with their beloved and loyal great-nephew, Archie, to France so they can receive a medal for their service during the war. The past is the stories of their youth and their adventures in the service and out. These two old ladies had once had quite a number of adventures–good, bad, illegal, legal, sad, mad, amorous, and more.
All of the characters are colorful and well-written. The dialogue is absolutely delightful. Archie is a darling and his great aunts are the kind of great aunt I always wanted to be one day. The story reminds us of just what our elderly went through and how little of them are still left now. It’s a great story all around.
I was provided access to this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Historical Fiction/Military Fiction ...more
Even though I’d read a few of Jessign Reign’s books in the past I wasn’t aware of the upcoming release of Rent Paid in Full until about a month beforeEven though I’d read a few of Jessign Reign’s books in the past I wasn’t aware of the upcoming release of Rent Paid in Full until about a month before it happened and when I saw the synopsis I was like, “How in the heck did I miss this? This sounds beyond hot. I love rent boy books!”
And so began the salivating. I counted down the days until the release date, cursing all along that I didn’t have this book on my Kindle yet.
It was torture to wait but now I’ve read it and it was everything Id’ hoped it would be and everything all those bookstagrammers I hounded about it told me it’d be. I don’t know what possessed Jesse Reign while writing this but it needs to keep it coming because this was stupidfilthyhot, omgallthefeelings, and gjshhgjtbshgthjtj all in one and I had to go to bed and sleep it off before writing this review because I didn’t have words or know what to do with myself after I read it. It was an out of body experience and I don’t even believe in that.
From the first sentence of this book I was absolutely hooked on Ryan’s snarky, uptight, contradictory nature. That man would bite off his nose to spite his face and then automatically regret it but then deny that he’s regretful about it. His brain is a washing machine set on vicious cycle and I am here for it because it makes him an absolute wind-up toy for our other MMC, Miller.
If Ryan is snarky, uptight, and contradictory, then Miller is earnest, laid-back (but resigned), and amiable in nature. He’s like water to Ryan’s flame. Miller can go with the flow, become tempestuous waves, or make himself into a whirlpool and summon people to him like a beacon. Miller’s inner narrative about Ryan is some of the most entertaining and amusing writing I’ve read in a long time.
I love how Miller found a way to get Ryan out of his head and accept what they both wanted without Ryan completely sacrificing his pride. I loved watching the two of them develop and grow together as people and lovers. I loved the story and the third act was a thing of romantic beauty. The spice was some of the hottest I’ve read in a long time. I mean, I think I spent a lot of time saying curse words and blaming drugs while reading this. It’s just that brilliant and hot and right.
All opinions, thoughts, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you. ...more
I haven’t read a memoir in a long time, and when I usually read memoirs I tend to stick with funny ones; however, I’ve been on a quest for most of my I haven’t read a memoir in a long time, and when I usually read memoirs I tend to stick with funny ones; however, I’ve been on a quest for most of my adult life to better understand sociopathy, psychopathy, and antisocial personalities. Why? Well, some of that curiosity came from dining on a steady true crime diet since I was a pre-teen (I wanted to be a forensic psychologist at one point in time). Then I had some fears early on in my first-born’s development that he might have some issues with being antisocial and wanted to understand him or be prepared to help him. The biggest burst of interest came when one of my best friends postulated that I myself might be on the spectrum of sociopathy and it might be worth looking into (in case you’re wondering, we don’t know–I have too many psychological comorbidities to tell).
When I read the synopsis for this memoir I just knew I needed to read it, because it was a memoir and not yet another pop psychological nonfiction book regurgitating case studies and factoids where I end up rubbing my temples and wishing I was just reading empirical data because at least then I could maybe trust the author wasn’t blowing smoke. I was intrigued: A memoir by a sociopath, cracking herself open and spilling her guts and sewing herself shut again. How compelling.
If you’re wondering: This is an absolutely wonderful book. It’s brutally honest and unflinchingly raw. Gagne shares parts of herself with us readers that she hid for years from anyone. She opens up about absolutely everything, like a fortress that throws open all its doors and proclaims, “Yes, I have a great many skeletons and they are all hidden here! Please stroll about and tour what it’s like to live your life as a sociopath!”
Why did she do it? Because representation matters. Those of us with major mental health issues don’t get a lot of nonfiction material written for us, by us. Gagne grew up in constant psychological stress because no one knew what a sociopath was, even if they threw the word around freely. Now, thanks to her, there’s a book on the shelf where people can find some answers.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and opinions expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Memoir/Nonfiction ...more
It’s time for another visit to Big Boned Bertha! This time, it’s Rush’s turn.
I adore the Accidental Love series. I consider it to be the perfect middlIt’s time for another visit to Big Boned Bertha! This time, it’s Rush’s turn.
I adore the Accidental Love series. I consider it to be the perfect middle road of Saxon James’ repertoire: More mature than Frat Wars but less mature than the Divorced Men’s Club, but just as spicy (or maybe spicy in a different way?) as Frat Wars but more spicy than the Divorced Men’s Club. Maybe it’s like this: Accidental Love has dirtier spicy scenes than Frat Wars but more maturity to it. It’s a perfect mix of filthy and adult for me.
The Revenge Agenda is a great read because it’s full of forbidden naughtiness:
A butthead’s ex-fiance / said butthead’s ex-side piece Boss / employee ADHD chaos adult / calm but concerned adult Bertha’s Boys plot revenge Everyone loves Rush (except the butthead) Filthy talk Office sex A ton of puns about ants Punches get thrown (not between MCs) Hunter’s coat gets stolen by Xander because it smells good
The cuteness of this book is only outmatched by the sheer chemistry between Rush and Hunter and the sexiness of the spice scenes. These two are scorchingly hot. The steam left me feeling some kind of way. From the first pages of the book I loved Hunter as a character, and that feeling only grew throughout the book. By the end I was sad it was over. That’s one of the hallmarks of a truly good romance–when you wish you could keep reading about the couple’s HEA.
I was provided a copy of this title by the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. No compensation was offered or accepted in exchange for this review. Thank you.
I knew within the first few chapters that The Stars Too Fondly was going to be a five star read. By the end of the book I knew it was going to be a boI knew within the first few chapters that The Stars Too Fondly was going to be a five star read. By the end of the book I knew it was going to be a book I needed on my shelf, a book I was going to scream about, and is 100% going to be on my top ten list at the end of the year. It’s one of the best books I’ve read this year, and as of the-book-before-this-one, I’ve read 315 books so far this year.
There’s a line in the blurb: “So, here’s the thing: Cleo and her friends really, truly didn’t mean to steal this spaceship.”
SAY LESS. PLEASE.
Sapphic space adventure rom-com with a strong found family component, a swoony star-crossed love story, and a diverse cast? Are you kidding me right now with some of my all-time favorites vibes all vibing in the same book?
Debut author Emily Hamilton seriously sat down and wrote a book that does what few books do to me more and more: Make me long for extra stars, because if I could rate this book six stars I totally would.
The book pulls you in from the start, with Hamilton’s ragtag group of queer twenty-somethings who just want to peek inside an abandoned spaceship and see what they can glean about the mystery of what happened to the entire crew, who disappeared with a flash of light on launch day. You know what they say: the road to hell is paved with good intentions. They messed around and now they get to find out why it may not be such a good idea to go poking around in strange, abandoned spaceships. Or maybe it’s the stars aligning just right and this was meant to happen.
The story is engaging, propulsive, emotional, romantic, poetic, and so well-crafted I wish I could shake Emily Hamilton’s hand and thank her in person. I cried more than once and I couldn’t tell you how much I love these characters. I just vibed with this book on every level. Can’t recommend it enough.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
This book is creepy as heck. This book is also freaking fantastic.
I had a bad experience with my last Malerman book, which was Daphne. I didn’t like This book is creepy as heck. This book is also freaking fantastic.
I had a bad experience with my last Malerman book, which was Daphne. I didn’t like it at all. I ended up DNF-ing it. I ended up wanting to read this one mostly because I couldn’t stop thinking about the cover. It’s a brilliant cover that evokes these feelings of childhood, innocence, being so small around large things, being defenseless against the dark, abandonment, and of feeling isolated. I just couldn’t get it out of my head: “What is that book about?”
Well, the cover does a good job of conveying a lot of what the book’s themes are, actually (so A+ to the cover designer!). I never had a closet growing up, so I don’t know what it’s like to fear the monster in the closet, but Malerman could’ve made the “monster in the closet” any number of things and gotten the message across because the monster is just a very large metaphor (for lack of a better word right now) for the culmination of just about everything that’s happened to everyone in this book. (If I went any further it’d be Spoiler City and I don’t want to live there).
When I tell you this book is fantastic, I’m telling you I think this is the best horror novel I’ve read so far this year, and that’s saying something because it’s really been a great year for horror already. Not only does it fall outside the traditional narrative structure, which sets it apart in a unique but not-annoying way, but it’s told from the POV of a child that comes across as genuinely lost, frightened, and never comes across as precocious. A lot of the horror in this novel felt like it was being generated directly from how sad and helpless this child felt. How cruel it all felt.
It’s set at a great pace, is unbelievably suspenseful and unpredictable, and honestly left me a bit shook. I can’t recommend it enough.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Ghost Fiction/Horror/Paranormal Horror/Suspense Thriller...more
If there was ever a non-spicy slogan for this series, it would be, “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb”. Because we all kIf there was ever a non-spicy slogan for this series, it would be, “The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb”. Because we all know every other slogan pertaining to these books is essentially thematically tied to the word SL*T. (You know it, I know it).
The family you make for yourself and not what you’re born with has been what the Suarez clan has been fighting for since book one of this series, and it all comes to a head in Enter the Multi-Vers. This is the fourth and final book in this main series, with C. Rochelle promising novellas and spin-offs to come. Here we have the tale of the mysterious and powerful twins: Dre and Gabe, of The Rabble mind-speak notoriety from previous books. They’ve been sent on a mission by Wolfy: they’re to become the interns of the artist known as Theo Coatl and uncover his secrets. Because Theo Coatl isn’t all that he seems, and they need to know who and maybe even what he truly is.
This book is even more chaotic and wild than the other Villainous Things books and I am here for it. As the teasers and author’s notes inside warn, this trio of thirsty sl*ts are just extra: extra controlled, extra controlled chaos, and extra batty crazy. Neither Dre, nor Gabe, nor Theo shall be dissuaded from being as extra as possible in every single way. Gabe is a very sl*tty good boy, Theo is a bratty brat brat who uses Gabe like a toy, and everyone should be justifiably scared of Dre when it comes to his twin and Theo.
There are so many feelings in this book, and Theo doesn’t know what to do with them. Heck, Gabe’s the only one more capable of feelings than Dre and Theo, and that’s either because he’s subby or because being a twin gives him a solid connection to someone outside himself. These big emotions immediately tangle Gabe, Dre, and Theo in a quagmire, because they all have secrets from one another (yes, even the twins) and don’t quite know what they’re going to do about it. Who do they trust? What can they do? Who will it hurt?
The solutions/answers to the overarching plot of the series are found in this book, but I thought it was a little too neatly wrapped up. It felt a little rushed. I could have sustained the book being a little longer (even though it’s already a thicc baby) if it meant a more flushed out ending.
But I adored the love story. I loved the characters so much. I’m obsessed with their dynamic, their thirst, their adoration for one another, the brutality in their sensuality, and their intimacy. I love how they evolved and how they crushed their challenges. I couldn’t get enough of how extra they all were, in every way. Because why not go big?
I was provided a copy of this title by the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. No compensation was offered or accepted in exchange for this review. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Age Gap Romance/Book Series/Found Family/Gay Romance/Kink Friendly/LGBTQ Romance/Spice Level 3/Supernatural Fantasy/Urban Fantasy ...more
This is my first Paul Tremblay book, mostly due to the fact I’d been turned down for the Tremblay ARCs I’d requested in the past. I was so happy when This is my first Paul Tremblay book, mostly due to the fact I’d been turned down for the Tremblay ARCs I’d requested in the past. I was so happy when I was granted access to this one, though, because the summary had me reeling. “Cursed film” genre is one of my favorites: As a Gen-Xer the “Poltergeist Curse” and the “Exorcist Curse” were writ large in my brain from my adolescent years.
Horror Movie exceeded expectations. I’ve been wary of thriller and horror novels as of late because they just haven’t been hitting like I’d hoped they would, but this? This slaps. It filled me with nostalgia for those “lost films” of urban lore but also filled my curiosity for today’s Creepy Pasta stories of occult rituals, creature origin stories, and even cryptid lore.
From the start, I was engaged and felt compelled to read and keep reading, knowing nothing was going to stop me until I reached the end of this book. Is it a little predictable? Yes. I liked that, though, because even if a horror film is predictable, part of the fun is waiting for the inevitable to come. The characters in a horror movie–or novel--all have a Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads. The horror is inevitable–it’s the timing of it that’s the variable.
Horror Movie is told in single POV from the narrator, but in the present and the past (dual timelines). There are sections in the past that are told in third person omniscient: Those are scenes from the film you’re “viewing”. This is an effective storytelling format for this book and a great way to disseminate both the exposition and the backstory without infodumping.
The whole book, without exception, is a great read: for summer, for horror, for fun, for in the dark under the covers, for by a campfire, for on the beach. Loved it.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Horror/Occult Horror ...more
Andrew Joseph White hits it out of the ballpark again, this time with an Appalachian suspense thriller that pulls no punches and absolutely doesn’t caAndrew Joseph White hits it out of the ballpark again, this time with an Appalachian suspense thriller that pulls no punches and absolutely doesn’t care what you think about that.
I’m here for it. I’m biased, of course, because when it comes to AJW I’ve always been here for it. I rejoiced when I heard he was writing yet another sure-to-be-banger, and then I read the magical buzz words: “queer Appalachian thriller”, “trans autistic teen”, and “generational struggle between the rural poor and those who exploit them”. Why, it’s like you have seen directly into my brain and provided one of the types of books I’m absolutely going to want to read anytime I come across them.
Miles Abernathy has a lot of problems and not a lot of clues on how to solve them. He’s a closeted sixteen year-old trans boy in rural West Virginia with no friends. His parents are a mess, they’re always behind on the bills, and anyone who could actually do something to change things in their town has been traumatized or run out of town by their corrupt sheriff. Miles isn’t immune to the fear, but he doesn’t just want to sit by and do nothing. It’s too bad what happens to him when he tries to do something, though.
The sheriff wants Miles to keep quiet, just like everyone else in town. At first, that’s what Miles intends to do. Then Miles gains a partner of sorts, and all the circumstances start to change.
There’s something that needs to be said about books: Books are art. All art is political, therefore all books are political. This is especially true for Compound Fracture, and it was purposefully written that way. AJW acknowledges this and pushes for this book to be put in the hands of teens pushing for radical change. I’ll go further: I’d put this in the hands of anyone who is pushing for radical change. I’d put this in the hands of anyone who’s struggling to understand the insult-aggressions cycles surrounding the southern culture of honor. I’d put this in the hands of anyone who doesn’t understand the dangerous state of rural health care in America. I’d put this in the hands of anyone who doesn’t understand why people in states ravaged by conservative policies continue to vote conservative or live in those states. I’d put this in the hands of parents who are struggling to understand their transgender or autistic kids. Heck, I’d put it in the hands of an adult who’s struggling to understand what it means to self-diagnose yourself with autism as an adult. I’d love to put it in the hands of someone who gets socialism and communism confused all the time.
There is so much to be learned from books like this, where the author puts it all out there. Where their guts are out there for us to see.
I don’t think I need to point out that AJW’s writing is beyond fantastic. Even though his voice has been preserved throughout his three books, each one has a distinctive narrative and prose style. This book’s no different. Being trans and autistic himself, AJW’s narrative here comes across as so authentic, with that certain amount of removal that anyone who has a loved one with autism (or has autism and/or is neurodivergent) is probably familiar with. I can’t comment on what it’s like to be trans or come out as trans, but I have a nonbinary kid and a trans ex-husband and anything I felt as a bisexual myself was a sense of community and understanding. If that checks out for everyone else, then I’m happy.
This book is big vibes, big mood, huge atmosphere, large emotions, a whole lot of visceral reactions, a heap of fear, and a town’s worth of unabashed screaming in rage. I’ll read that any time.
I was provided a copy of this title by Netgalley, the publishers, and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Body Horror/Coming of Age/Disability Rep/Ghost Fiction/LGBTQ Fiction/Psychological Thriller/Standalone Novel/Suspense Mystery/Suspense Thriller/Vigilantes/YA Fiction/YA Mystery/YA Suspense/YA Thriller...more
This book opens with a bang, almost literally. To call Hunted fast-paced is doing it a disservice: This book is utterly furious in its pacing, relentlThis book opens with a bang, almost literally. To call Hunted fast-paced is doing it a disservice: This book is utterly furious in its pacing, relentless as time itself as it inexorably works for the antagonists in this book and against the protagonists.
The story engages you immediately, hooking you with a tension and terror-fueled scene that unfolds in a busy Los Angeles mall. After that the hits just keep on coming as we bounce from a female POC FBI agent who loves her work but faces discrimination at every turn, two parents of two different potential terrorists who are trying to get to their kids before the cops do, and one of those potential terrorists as he struggles with the ethics and morals of what he’s doing and where it’s all leading.
It’s eloquently written, with a lot of genuine emotion that’s sometimes lacking in thrillers. The plot is incredibly executed and the story is incredibly relevant to current times. There’s compassion here for everyone except the people who don’t deserve any of it: The actual terrorists.
It’s a terrific, compulsive, page-turning read.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley, the Novel Suspects Insider’s Club, and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Conspiracy Thriller/Crime Thriller/Political Thriller/Suspense Thriller ...more
Pretty Dogs is the second book in Riley Nash’s Dirty Strays series (the first book, Bad Dogs, is also worth a read, but I liked this one a bit more). Pretty Dogs is the second book in Riley Nash’s Dirty Strays series (the first book, Bad Dogs, is also worth a read, but I liked this one a bit more). This is a friends-to-lovers gay romance with a transgender MMC.
Beck and Dallas have been best friends since the night Beck heard a noise outside his trailer he thought was racoons and instead found a dirty, homeless, and obviously out of place boy named Dallas digging through his trash looking for food and brought him inside to feed him the last of his macaroni. Beck’s also been in love with him for about as long as they’ve been best friends. It has never mattered to him that Dallas is trans: Dallas is Dallas. That’s all Beck has ever needed.
Dallas was thrown out (by gunpoint) of the secure, suburban home owned by his loving and supportive mother by her bigoted boyfriend when said boyfriend found his T injections one day. He was lucky enough to get his top surgery done before he was thrown out, but the abrupt ejection from his happy life at such an early age left him with gender dysphoria he’s never been able to completely get under control. He’s loved Beck for a long time, but has never dreamed Beck would return it in any way but platonically, because surely a man as into men as Beck couldn’t want someone without the whole package, and Dallas wants Beck to have the world.
I swear. These two. I wanted to wrap them in bubble wrap and pack them away so they could never be hurt ever again, but I also wanted to buy them a private park full of trees and gardens and just let them live and play there for eternity, you know? But then I’d have to let Scout and Roman live there too. It would get crowded.
From Beck’s struggles with self-worth and identity to Dallas’ gender dysphoria and self-esteem, these two broke my heart a million ways. But watching their sexual and romantic relationship bloom was so satisfying. The spice was so nice, with well-written dialogue and eventual primal play (which is one of my favorite kinks). The build up felt organic and I really appreciated the conversations about Dallas’ wants, needs, and limits.
It’s a really terrific read and I’m glad I gave into the hype.
All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. This review was written without offer or reception of compensation. Thank you.
Shattered Omega, part one, will be published on the one-year anniversary of the publication of the very first PoisonVerse novel, Havoc Killed Her AlphShattered Omega, part one, will be published on the one-year anniversary of the publication of the very first PoisonVerse novel, Havoc Killed Her Alpha, which was also written by Mackay. The PoisonVerse novels have ushered in a whole new world of omegaverse novels over this past year because they’ve all been so good. In addition to the two novels Mackay wrote directly for the PoisonVerse, she also wrote two novellas and one two-part novel set in the PoisonVerse. Now she has gifted us Shattered Omega, which is set somewhere even darker and deeper than the regular PoisonVerse novels, in a subset she’s calling “PoisonVerse Noir”.
“PoisonVerse Noir” has all the PNR and omegaverse trappings of Mackay’s regular PoisonVerse novels, but seems to be rooted in something deeper, darker, and more mysterious.
This book is Mackays best work since the beginning of the PoisonVerse. Havoc Killed Her Alpha was one of my top 23 indie romances of 2023. We’re switching out the urban settings for an academy setting and delving into an unsettling and deadly side of bonds, auras, scents, and packs. Of course, no PoisonVerse novel would be complete without intrigue and scandal too, now would it?
Shatter, our FMC, is almost a feral omega. She’s fiercely intelligent, but she’s also ruled by her instincts and is shockingly naive for a 19 year-old. Dusk, Umbra, and Ransom are the MMCs in this book, and you’ll forgive me if I don’t share much of their story because that’s a whole box of spoiler rocks and I don’t want to spill them. You don’t get to see too much of Ransom in this book, but if you’re like me you’ll fall in love with conniving charmer Umbra and clever caretaker Dusk.
The spice is a 3 out of 3 on my scale for the hotness of the spice scenes and the kinks.
Do watch out for your TW/CWs, because while I don’t think they’re quite as dire as Mackay warns, it doesn’t hurt to be prepared. I also don’t get shocked by much, so I might have missed something. I just thought the whole thing was smokin’ hot. Just beware that cliffhanger! It’s a doozy.
I was provided a copy of this title by the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. No offer of compensation was asked for, nor provided in exchange for this review. Thank you.
I wanted to read this book because I love stories about foster siblings and revenge, but I stayed because I fell in love with the characters.
I won’t I wanted to read this book because I love stories about foster siblings and revenge, but I stayed because I fell in love with the characters.
I won’t claim to know anything about the foster system, being a foster child, or being a foster parent. I’ve only known one foster kid (that I can remember( in all my life, and I met her right after she’d aged out of the system. I live in America, so I don’t even know how similar the systems between here and Australia are, but I don’t imagine being a foster child in any country is something I could come close to understanding. That didn’t stop me from absolutely falling in love with Jessica, Norah, and Alicia, the three foster sisters at the center of this novel. It also didn’t stop me from loving to loathe their foster mother, Miss Fairchild, who for some reason reminds me of a slightly younger (and non-magical) Professor Umbridge in many ways. Miss Fairchild is a memorable and loathsome antagonist in this complex book.
The most prevalent themes in this book surround the trials of the foster system and how it can affect different children, depending on how they came to be in the foster system, the environment they lived in before the state had to take them in, how long they’ve been in the system, how many different homes they’ve been in, and what abuse they might have suffered during their time in the system. It gives what could’ve been another formulaic domestic thriller a really emotional base that caused me to really become invested in the outcome. I was really pulled in and willingly went along for the whole ride.
Well-paced with a great plot and cohesive storyline, I found I couldn’t put this one down.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Domestic Thriller/Murder Thriller/Psychological Fiction ...more
Finlay Donovan is the only one of the contemporary “female amateur sleuth” book series’ I know I can reliably pick up, read, and enjoy every single paFinlay Donovan is the only one of the contemporary “female amateur sleuth” book series’ I know I can reliably pick up, read, and enjoy every single page of without fail. This newest installment is no exception. I don’t actually think I’ve enjoyed an installment this much, or even laughed so hard, since the first book in the series.
Ever since the end of the third book we knew Finlay Donovan Rolls the Dice was going to be a wild ride. Finlay, Vero, and the kids in Atlantic City? What could go wrong, right? (Of course everything’s going to go wrong. That’s exactly what happens in these books. That’s why we have Finlay Donovan books!) Well, of course Finlay’s ex-husband insists she can’t go without him because she can’t take the kids across state lines without his permission. Oh! And then there’s her mom, who for some reason has decided she needs to take a vacation too!
This won’t be awkward at all. Not even once Nick and his FBI friends show up in Atlantic City as well. In the same motel, too. That hallway sure is crowded.
The Finlay Donovan books have always been a great vehicle for Elle Cosimano to explore marriage dynamics, motherhood, single parenting, female friendships, the struggles of being a working mother, and all the other buttons and bows that come with being a post-divorce adult woman with children. When your marriage is over and all you have is your kids and your work life can become pretty stagnant if you let it. Finlay’s adventures remind readers–if in a rather extreme manner–that there’s a lot of life to live out there. There’s a lot to do, see, and laugh at. That’s one of the things I love about these books the most.
If we get to have an awesome and fun time while reading about it, then that’s spectacular too.
I was provided a copy of this title by NetGalley and the author. All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. Thank you.
File Under: 5 Star Review/Amateur Sleuths/Book Series/Comedy/Crime Fiction/Mystery ...more
This year I’ve felt like there was a time BSD (Before Stats Daddy) and ASD (After Stats Daddy). The era of ASD began on July 21st, 2023, when the firsThis year I’ve felt like there was a time BSD (Before Stats Daddy) and ASD (After Stats Daddy). The era of ASD began on July 21st, 2023, when the first book in this series, Too Safe, was released. Ever since Abby Millsaps unleashed the wicked and cunning Kylian (AKA Stats Daddy) on the world with the publication of the first book in the Boys of Lake Chapel book series, I’ve decided no other book boyfriend compares.
With the release of Too Far, the last in this trilogy, my opinion has not changed. I don’t care how much more Josephine got of Kendrick, Nicky, or even the great Decker Crusade himself. No. It is Stats Daddy who forever holds my heart and is still, in my mind, the true male star of Boys of Lake Chapel.
This review is as much for the whole series as it is for Too Far; but make no mistake, Too Far is a truly excellent novel and is the epitome of what a series conclusion should look like. It picks up almost exactly where Too Fast left off and keeps hurtling forward, barreling towards disaster. It’s obvious that all it will take is a single slip-up for the house of cards to fall down.
The first half of the book is suspenseful, heartbreaking, emotional, and frustrating (so, so frustrating). The second half of the book is swollen with emotion, angst, love, and lust. The epilogues made me cry. And cry. And cry. Heck, this whole book made my eyes leak water several times. I did not sob. You did.
The last epilogue was so touching to me. I didn’t cry, but I was deeply, deeply touched. I can’t express how much it meant to me which character was chosen for the last epilogue and what they said in it. My heart grew fifty million sizes.
If you haven’t picked up this series, I can’t express how much I recommend it. This is my book series of the year. If you know me, you must know how rare it is for me to pick a non-LGBTQ Why Choose romance series as my series of the year. I just can’t escape how deeply this series touched me nor how hot Stats Daddy made me. The charisma of the group as a whole cannot be denied. Congratulations, Abby Millsaps–You’re a genius.
All thoughts, opinions, views, and ideas expressed herein are mine and mine alone. No compensation was provided for this review. Thank you.
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