4/12/2021 0 Comments Hit the Brakes by Beth BoldenToday is my stop for the Gay Book Promotions Blog Tour for Hit the Brakes by Beth Bolden. I’m so happy and honored to be a part of the tour celebrating this adorable fake-dating, second chance m/m romance! It was so addictive that I binge-read it in just a few hours! For his senior year in high school, Tate Ward had Home Economics together with the big football star Chase Riley. He also had the biggest crush on him. A crush that he’d never really recovered from ten years later either, compulsively following Chase’s football career and whereabouts on social media. When his sister suggests that they use Chase’s name to help their food truck business survive the desperate situation they’re in, he didn’t expect Chase himself to turn up on his doorstep. And he certainly didn’t expect Chase to give him an offer he couldn’t refuse. An offer that will help his dreams come true, as long as he can pretend that his very real feelings are actually fake…
This book has so many things that I love, like a sports romance, a fake dating trope, wonderful siblings and supportive friends. And food! All foodie scenes from the food truck added such a wonderful vibe to the story! And the characters… I immediately rooted for both Tate and Chase and I loved the wonderful chemistry between them. They were both such amazing and relatable characters, with depth and as far from any stereotype cliches you can come. I really appreciated how Beth Bolden showed Chase’s problems with anxiety, loss of self-control and panic attacks, and Tate’s insecurity and feeling of not being worthy of Chase’s love, but also the amazing character development they made throughout this book. I also really appreciated the discussion about there not being a ‘right’ way of coming out, and how ‘coming out’ is not something you do once, but a statement you constantly have to make in any new situation. This is the second book in the Food Truck Warriors series, but each book can be read as a standalone as they focus on different characters from a group of food truck owners and their relationships. I loved getting glimpses of the characters from the first book in this one too, I love when an author creates her own universe by weaving stories together the way Beth Bolden has done with both her Food Truck Warriors and Kitchen Gods series. All in all, I absolutely loved this swooning, sweet and emotional rollercoaster for a love story! I read it in one sitting, it was so addictive and I rooted so much for all characters that I just couldn’t bear to put it down until the very end! Highly recommended, and the bonus scene was to die for, it completely melted my heart! Thank you to Gay Book Promotions for the ARC and blog tour invitation! All opinions are my own and I am leaving my honest review voluntarily. Rating: 5 stars Get your own copy: Amazon • Add on Goodreads Giveaway: Enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway for chance to win a $25 Amazon gift card! About the Author: A lifelong Pacific Northwester, Beth Bolden has just recently moved to North Carolina with her supportive husband. Beth still believes in Keeping Portland Weird, and intends to be just as weird in Raleigh. Beth has been writing practically since she learned the alphabet. Unfortunately, her first foray into novel writing, titled Big Bear with Sparkly Earrings, wasn’t a bestseller, but hope springs eternal. She’s published twenty-three novels and seven novellas. Connect with Beth Bolden: Website • Facebook • Twitter • Instagram • BookBub • Newsletter Sign-up
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4/7/2021 0 Comments Bright Side by Kim HoldenI think Colleen Hoover has described exactly how I feel about this book in her cover quote: “THIS BOOK! You. Must. Read. It. It’s beautiful. Heart-wrenching.”. Bright Side is a gem that deserves to be so much more talked about! It’s heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time, it’s adorable and cute, but also so sad and gripping, it has epic love and friendship and hilarious banter. Simply put, this book has all the feels and will break your heart but also inspire you to live life to the fullest! The story follows college student Kate Sedgwick as she leaves San Diego to start a new life attending college in small town Grant, Minnesota, leaving grief and sorrow behind, as well as the best night of her life after sleeping with her best friend since childhood, and rock-star-in-the-making, Gus.
Kate was such a wonderful character! So badass, strong-willed, sassy and unbelievably optimistic despite all bad things happening to her. (Hence Gus’s nickname for her, ‘Bright Side’.) I immediately rooted for her, and read this story with a beating heart, wishing so much for her tragedies to be left behind and not come haunting her anymore. I also loved the new friends she made in Grant, with darling Clayton, sweet Pete, cool Shelley and the wonderful Keller Banks… This book has a really great representation and a lot of amazing character developments. But most of all, I loved Gus and the wonderful friendship between him and Kate, and the found family that Gus and his mother were to Kate and her sister. This book was recommended to me by one of my favorite fellow book bloggers (Sophie at Sophie’s Reading Corner) so I already knew I was going to love it before even starting it, but it nevertheless managed to exceed all of my high expectations and completely blew me away! Given the title, I wasn’t prepared to have my heart scattered to pieces and ending up sobbing the way I did. But this book had it all; amazing characters to root for, secrets that came back haunting, epic friendships, found families, a swooning love story, heartache and loss, hope and faith and light in the darkness. I don’t want to give anything away as it comes to the story and its twist, they deserve to be experienced first hand and with an open heart. All I have to say is, be prepared to cry! Some of the events were just so heartbreaking. But I wouldn’t call this a sad book. Not at all. There were so many happy moments, so many times this book made me laugh and warmed my heart. It was emotional for sure, but with all the feels, and a book that will make me look at life in a different light and made me want to ‘do epic’ the way Kate did. All in all, Bright Side was an empowering book, so full of hope in all the darkness, and with so much love. It’s one of the most tender and warm, yet fierce, gripping and compelling stories I’ve ever read. I know for sure that its’s a book I will keep in my heart forever! Rating: 5 epic stars Get your own copy: Bookshop.org Amazon Book Depository Author info: Kim Holden Today is my stop for the Gay Book Promotions Blog Tour for Young King Arthur and the Round Table Knights by Siryn Sueng. I’m so happy and honored to be a part of the tour celebrating this sweet retelling of the King Arthur legend with a queer twist! Arthur is a very young and gay peasant boy who pulls Excalibur by mistake and suddenly finds himself being put on the throne of Camelot. In the midst of learning to be a king and step up to meet his new responsibilities Arthur’s feelings for one of his knights might be turning into a little more than just loyalty and camaraderie...
I really enjoyed this version of the legend with Arthur as a fifteen-year-old peasant boy who accidentally grips the Excalibur and finds himself thrown into a completely unknown world full of betrayal, conspiracies and threats to his life. Luckily though, his kind heart and moral compass soon helps him gain Merlin’s and the knights’ trust and friendship. Perhaps even more from one on them... But the most wonderful twist is how the mighty mage Merlin is a hottie in this story. Like a real hunk showing of his muscular chest under the wizard cloak, but also so sweet and kind and sassy. I really love this version of Merlin! The love story was perhaps a bit too fast for my full liking and at times it felt a bit construed, but all in all, this was a wonderful King Arthur-retelling with a unique twist. Highly recommended! Thank you to Gay Book Promotions for the review copy and blog tour invitation! All opinions are my own and I am leaving my honest review voluntarily. Rating: 3.5 magical stars rounding up to 4 Get your own copy: Amazon • Smashwords • Apple Books • B&N • Kobo Add on Goodreads Author info: Siryn Sueng is a writer of fantasy, paranormal, and even Sci-Fi genres. She’s married to a wonderful husband with a minion of two years. They have a full house with three adorable fur babies, Anubis -the mighty cat hunter- Kida -the momma bear- and Mishka -the loveable husky. Siryn is a lover of games on a wide range of platforms. She plays on the PC, console, and hand-held devices including the phone. Japan is where she would love to visit sometime and is a huge inspiration to many of her projects. She’s a huge fan of Japan, including manga and anime. Siryn has even begun to dabble in comic/manga script writing. Future works in this will be posted on WebToon. Connect with Siryn Sueng: Website • Twitter Seeing this beautiful cover and reading the blurb and all amazing reviews I had such high expectations and was ready to have my heart completely broken by this book. The story and premise with the grieving girlfriend suddenly being able to call her dead boyfriend had such potential. But even though it was very well written, I never rooted enough for the characters for it to be the gripping, heartbreaking experience that I’d hoped for. This story follows Julie who is grieving her boyfriend Sam who has just died in a car crash. She’s withdrawn from all her friends and family to try and handle her grief and her guilt for calling Sam to pick her up, and to figure out how to live a life without Sam. Regretting having thrown all his things away, she calls his phone, desperate to hear his voice on the voicemail, but to her surprise Sam picks up the phone and answers her.
The story is told from Julie’s perspective, but through flashbacks we get to see how she and Sam met and fell in love. These flashbacks were so sweet and I loved the small glimpses of Julie being happy and with Sam, in contrast to the present-day grief. Overall, this was an enjoyable read and a very well written and insightful exploration of grief, and there were some really great character developments and wonderful new friendships forming in the shadows of the loss. But this book had the potential to be so much more. The premises were so unique and the story set out to be so gripping and emotional that I was expecting a completely heart-breaking, ugly-crying experience, but for some reason I never felt as invested as I’d hoped for. Even though the glimpses of Sam from the past were so sweet, he never became more than a memory to me, I never felt that I got to know him for real or feel the chemistry between him and Julie. And Julie, well, to be honest I never rooted for her. I can understand that we all grieve in different ways and that her way was to withdraw from everyone, but she still came across as too selfish for me to feel connected to her. The reason for her to not go to Sam’s funeral or any of the vigils or not even talk to Sam’s parents and little brother that she’d been so close to was never explained in a way that made any real sense. I also kept waiting for the explanation how she and Sam could talk on the phone, hoping for some big magical revelation or a twist of some sort, but this unique premise of the story about being able to call someone who’s dead was never fully explored or used to its full potential. But I really enjoyed Julie’s character development and how she learned how to handle her grief in a healthy way, and the friendships that formed with the different persons missing Sam the most even though they hadn’t been friends before. Losing a loved one can lead to new love and friendships coming together in grief, and that new group of friends finding each other was such a lovely example of that. I also loved the epilogue and how it wrapped things up in a perfect way. All in all, You’ve Reached Sam was a very well-written and insightful debut book exploring grief, friendship, and how to find a way to live on and form a new future without forgetting the love you’ve lost. So even though it wasn’t quite what I’d hoped for, I am definitely curious to read more of Dustin Thao’s books ahead. Thank you NetGalley for the ARC and the opportunity to read this book! All opinions are my own and I am leaving my honest review voluntarily. Rating: 3 stars Get your own copy: Bookshop.org Amazon Book Depository Author info: Dustin Thao Happy Book Birthday to All The Way Out! I’m so happy and honored to be a part of the Gay Book Promotions blog tour celebrating this adorable, gripping and heart-warming m/m romance about a closeted star football player having to choose between risking his whole career or being brave enough to reveal his most vulnerable self for a chance of true love and happiness. Already in his early teens, Zach was absolutely sure about three things: 1) he wanted to play football at the highest levels of college and pro ball, 2) he was gay, and 3) those two truths could never exist concurrently. So Zach settled for a life in the closet, started dating Rebecca, who as a devoted Catholic conveniently wanted to wait to have sex until marriage, and kept his needs at bay with the occasional Grindr hook-ups. But on a team trip to Rome, he meets Liam, an American raised in Paris but now about to relocate his life due to a scandal. The night was one of the highlights in Zach’s life, but saying goodbye he never thought he’d see Liam again. So the sight of Liam in his uni class the first day of the fall semester almost stops his heart, and completely scatter his carefully laid plans to remain closeted. I rooted so much for both Zach and Liam from the very first moment and my heart ached for them in their struggles. They were both such wonderful characters, with depth and as far from any stereotype cliches you can come. Yes, Zach was an all-star football athlete, but he was certainly not the typical jock, being interested in philosophy and Roman history. And yes, Liam was a troubled music student, but he was also so sweet and caring and vulnerable, really putting his heart out there for Zach. I loved the wonderful chemistry between them… it was so intense and sizzling it was almost palpable! Ingrid Sterling’s writing style was incredible, with a wonderful flow and capture of the suppressed feelings and longings between the characters. I especially loved the way she made us readers come along on Zach’s and Liam’s journey to finding themselves and coming to a decision what’s really worth living for. I read this book in one sitting, it was so addictive and I rooted so much for all characters that I just couldn’t bear to put it down until the very end! It was not just Zach and Liam who stole my heart, but so many of the wonderful secondary characters too, like Zach’s best friend Des and Liam’s friends Mackenzie and Sam, and his brother Eben. I also really loved the way the relationship between Zach and Rebecca was portrayed; it was not just about using Rebecca as a cover, Zach had such wonderful respect and affectionate feelings for her. All in all, this is one of my absolute favorite m/m romances ever! It was such a powerful story about accepting and being proud of who you are, for wanting things and for being brave enough to chase after those things no matter how scary it feels or how hard it might make your life. It dealt with difficult topics in an honest and realistic way, but it was also such an uplifting, heart-warming, sweet and emotional rollercoaster for a love story! Thank you to Gay Book Promotions for the ARC and blog tour invitation for this gem! All opinions are my own and I am leaving my honest review voluntarily. Rating: 5 stars Get your own copy of All The Way Out: Amazon • Literary Wanderlust • Bookshop.org Connect with Ingrid Sterling: Website • Twitter • Instagram • Newsletter Sign-up Giveaway: Enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway for chance to win one of three ebook copies of All the Way Out! |
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September 2023
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