This was the perfect conclusion to the adorable, quirky, sweet and super queer Extraordinaries series! I love T.J. Klune’s humor and writing style and his adorkable characters! There were so many feels, and so many closures (both expected and totally unexpected ones). T.J. Klune managed to tie all lose ends together and give us a wonderful and completely satisfying wrap up.

Since this is the third book, I won’t get into the story too much to not spoil anything of this wonderful trilogy, but to say that it is about Nick, Seth, Gibby, and Jazz who are teenagers dealing with typical embarrassing coming of age stuff at the same time as they are superheroes known as the Extraordinaries bringing justice, protection, and disaster energy to the people of Nova City.

This series is completely over the top in the best possible way. It’s absolutely hilarious! T.J. Klune is an amazing storyteller who brilliantly nails the awkwardness of being a teenager and trying to figure out all the stuff about love, friendship and sex out (the scene with Nick’s dad helping him figuring the technical aspects of gay sex out almost killed me!), but it also touches on deeper subjects like neurodiversity, grief and loss of a parent. I absolutely love Nick and Seth, their friends and families (the dad squad is just the best!) and the way T.J. Klune lets his characters be themselves in all their awkwardness and relatability. I rooted so much for all characters and the romance was one of the sweetest ever.

All in all, this was a perfect ending to a perfect trilogy!

Thank you so much to Tor/Forge and NetGalley for the ARC of this gem! All opinions are my own and I am leaving my honest review voluntarily.

Rating:
5 stars

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​Author info:
T.J. Klune

I’ve been eagerly awaiting another Boys on the Brink novel, and Forbidden Steps was just the sweet, heartwarming and gripping story I had hoped for! Jamie Deacon always creates wholesome stories with fleshed out characters to root for, and Taylor and Ben stole my heart from the very start!

Taylor has had a really rough time the past year; his father left the family bankrupt, forcing them to sell the house and his mother married her former boss taking Taylor and his sister with her to a house Taylor felt like an intruder in. On top of that, his boyfriend dumped him and left him to be bullied by his friends.

Ben fled across the world a year ago, heartbroken and devasted after a toxic relationship, only to come home to a new stepmother and a boy he’s never met sharing his room. A boy he’s immediately intrigued by, even though they are now part of the same family… But Taylor clearly wants nothing to do with him, even though he’s clearly hurting and in need of a friend.

This was such a beautiful, heart-wrenching love story that completely drew me in from the very first page. It was so full of tension, angst, passion and heart-break. I loved the enemies-to-lovers trope and how well it was executed here. I read this whole book in one sitting, with a beating heart, desperately needing to know what would happen to Taylor and Ben.

The stepmother/Taylor’s mother was perhaps a bit too much of the evil stepmother cliché, but I loved Ben’s mother the more. I also would have wanted a certain other evil person to get what he deserved, but he was just faded out of the story, leaving Ben without the closure I think he’d deserved.

But that’s just a minor detail. All in all, the characters were so relatable and real. Jamie Deacon did an amazing job capturing the complicated family dynamics and how much damage a conflict between parents can cause their children. (In case the family ties seem confusing, I want to make it really clear that there is nothing tabu about Taylor and Ben getting feelings for each other. They are not in any way related and have not grown up together.)

I recommend this series with all my heart and can’t wait to continue reading more of Jamie Deacon’s adorable books!

Rating:
4.5 heartfelt stars rounding up to 5

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Beaten Track Publishing

​Author info:
Jamie Deacon

This sequel to The Extraordinaries was everything I’d hoped for! It was just as good, if not better, and just as hilarious and adorkable as the first book! I love the sex positivity and I also really appreciated the way T.J. Klune addressed the issues with police brutality and privilege to make a clear statement about the wrongfulness of some of the actions that didn’t sit well with me from the first book.

In this sequel, we once again return to Nova City and the adorable characters from the first book, and get to follow Nick who now has a superhero boyfriend in his childhood crush Seth. I just absolutely adore their relationship. I also appreciated how we got to see more of Gibby and Jazz in this book. It’s the characters and T.J. Klune’s humour that make this series so amazing! I just love the way he makes the characters be completely themselves in all their awkwardness and how they have to deal with ordinary teenage stuff (like promposals and embarrassing teenage romance situations), in the midst of all the superhero action.

All in all, Flash Fire was a perfect sequel and just as hilarious, sweet, queer and heartwarming as the first book in this wonderful series! Highly recommended!

Rating:
5 stars

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​Author info:
T.J. Klune

I love Kris Ripper’s adorkable, sweet and funny books, and Book Boyfriend was another fun, slightly ridiculous feel-good story full of Kris Ripper’s special humor and possibly with the slowest slow burn friends-to-lovers romance ever.

I loved the premise of this book and the quite unique take to create a story about someone writing a story and how the two parts were joined together.

PK has been in love with his best friend Art since they were in college, but he’s never had the courage to say so. Not even after a drunken kiss years ago. So when Art shows up on PK’s doorstep heartbroken and dripping wet PK thinks it might finally be the opportunity he’s been waiting for. But, instead of just telling Art how he feels, PK decides to make the ultimate epic romantic gesture and write a book about his feelings. Which of course does NOT go the way PK plans…

I really enjoy Kris Ripper’s quirky humor and there were a lot of absolutely hilarious situations in this book. PK as a main character reminded me a lot of Bridget Jones in his awkwardness, his struggles with adulthood, insecurity and potential to screw everything up.

​The story is told entirely in first person POV through PK’s perspective, which I enjoyed for most parts, but at times it got a little too much with all his inner ramblings, anxiety and complete lack of communication skills. I would have loved to see him through Art’s eyes too, to better understand both PK and Art and their relationship. As it was now, they both came off as quite immature and we never got to know much more about Art than that PK was in love with him. It was never fully explained how and why they became friends, and getting dual perspectives might also have helped to make the romance a little more believable. I really wanted some more chemistry between the characters and some more interactions, it all felt a little too one-sided just experiencing it through PK’s monologues.

But all in all, this was a really warm and cute feel-good story about friendship turning into something more with great character developments and a lot of hilarious moments. Highly enjoyable!

Thank you so much Carina Adores for the free review copy of this cutie, which I have voluntarily reviewed.

Rating:
3.5 stars rounding up to 4.

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Harlequin
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Author info: 
Kris Ripper 

This was such a unique, adorable, quirky, sweet and wonderfully queer story! A completely new take on the superhero concept and so hilarious. I love T.J. Klune’s humor and writing style and his adorkable characters!

The story is something of an urban fantasy that takes place in the future city Nova City, where a group of superheroes know as The Extraordinaries try to serve the people and fight for justice. But the main character of this story is not one of the superheroes but the adorkable fanboy Nick Bell, who has ADHD and pretty much always says what he thinks (or rather speaks without thinking at all), and is the most popular fanfiction writer in the Extraordinaries fandom. He also may or may not have a secret crush on his best friend Seth Gray, but also on the mighty Extraordinary know as Shadow Star…

This was such a delight! It was completely unique, and might not be for everyone, as it’s more of a parody of the superhero genre than an actual superhero story. But I personally think that it was a brilliant idea to have a superhero story where focus is on the quirky non-hero and his fanboying rather than the actual superhero. I also really loved Nick and Seth from the beginning and their slow burn friends-to-lovers romance (poor Nick, I loved how clueless he was before finally figuring out that he was in love with Seth…). I also really loved Nick’s father and their amazing relationship. There were so many awesome dialogues between Nick and his father, and they had such a wonderful and deep connection.

There were some things that Nick’s father did in his role as a police officer that didn’t sit well with me though, which is why I will only rate this book as a four-star read, even though I adored everything else about it.

But all in all, this a hilarious and heartfelt coming-of-age story with wonderful, adorkable characters to root for and one of the best father-son relationships ever. It’s ridiculous in the best possible way, so queer and fun, but it also deals with some dark and serious matters. And it has a wonderful queer and own voices ADHD rep. Highly recommended!

Rating:
4 stars

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​Author info:
T.J. Klune

Apparently I have a thing for books about dating shows… First I loved The Charm Offensive, and now this one captured my heart as well! Never Ever Getting Back Together was such a heartfelt, adorable and addictive read about friendship, letting go of the anger that controls you and falling in love when and where you least expect it, with wonderful well-developed characters and great bisexual representation.

The main characters in this book are Maya and Skye, who are both contestants on a reality show where their shared ex-boyfriend, Jordy, is supposedly looking for a second chance romance with one of his former exes. Maya however, is not in the show for a chance to win Jordy’s heart, but to expose to the world what a horrible, selfish, mean and manipulative person he is. The only problem is that when Maya gets to know Skye, and stop hating her for being the girl who Jordy cheated on her with, the revenge on Jordy might not even be the main focus anymore…

As always, Sophie Gonzales made a wonderful job with her characters. They are always fleshed out and relatable, both likeable and unlikeable at the same time and allowed to make mistakes and grow. I loved the dual POV from Maya and Skye and watching their love for each other develop from both sides. I also loved all the other female side characters and their strong personalities, and the way they all became friends (and not toxic competitors as is often the case in many reality shows) to support each other against their joint enemy.

I have only two minor complaints. The first one is that the beginning was a bit slow and it was a bit odd to have a reality dating show with teenagers. How many exes can you have when you’re barely 20 years old, really? It also took a bit too long for Skye to start believing Maya (or for Maya to explain the cheating situation in a way that made sense…), they really should have been able to sort that out much sooner. The other thing was the way Jordy was described. Sophie Gonzalez sure did a good job letting us readers immediately see what a scumbag he was, but I just wish that there would have been more to his character that could explain why all these smart and strong girls would ever fall for him in the first place.

But those minor complaints set aside, this was such a wonderful, fast-paced and addictive story about revenge, love and friendship with a completely nerve wrecking and unpredictable ending. I read the second half of the book feverishly, totally hooked and not able to put it down until I knew how it all would end. The writing style was so smooth and with so much banter and humor that I had so much fun reading it. But there was also so much at stake that my heart was beating nervously all the way through. I desperately kept my fingers crossed for the happy ending Maya and Skye deserved, but feared that Jordy would get away with it all as usual.

May and Skye was such a wonderful couple and I really appreciated how the bisexual representation was made in such a believable and relatable, but also warm and heartfelt way.

All in all, this was a completely adorable, sweet, witty and enjoyable romcom that I had so much fun reading and recommend with all my heart!

Thank you so much to the publisher St Martins and NetGalley for the opportunity to read an ARC of this gem! All opinions are my own and I am leaving my honest review voluntarily.

Rating:
4.5 stars rounding up to 5

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​Author info:
Sophie Gonzales

This second book in the Four Packs series following four werewolf packs dealing with a deadly disease as well as rising tension between the packs was such a sweet and fast paced fated mates-story!

In the first book, we got to meet Marrok from the North Territory pack, who was trying to find a cure for his friend Grady in the East Territory pack but ending up falling in love with the son of the Alpha, Zander, on the way. In this book, focus is on Grady and his fight against the disease (a genetic disorder called ‘The Slow Death’, TSD) and on Max who has been urged to move from his West Territory pack to be a donor to Grady.

This book could definitely be read as a standalone, but I loved the added dimension with getting to see a lot of Marrok and Zander and the overall story with the increasing pack rivalry that continued to build to a potential huge showdown in the final installment.

The story is told in dual POVs from Grady and Max, and was so sweet and heartwarming. Grady has come to terms with his fate to die young in the TSD when at last a donor, Max, is found to match his rare blood type. Max on his hand, is not very happy at first to be told by his Alpha to give up his life as a lawyer in the West Territory and move to the North to be a lifelong donor, but accept his fate to save Grady’s life. What he didn’t expect though, was the effect Grady would have on him, nor to find out during the first transfusion that Grady was his fated mate.

Compared to the first book that had an enemies-to-lover plot and more tension, this book was much lower on steam and angst, and focused more on the slow-burn romance and character dynamics in the midst of the rising tension between the packs. Max was such a sweetheart in the way he wanted to protect Grady and allowed him to fully recover to find out about the mate bond himself when being able to shift again. But eventually, the scheming of his own pack is revealed and Max is forced to choose between his family and the Alpha’s orders, and the love of his life.

Just like the first book in this series, it was a quick read, but with a great world building, a thrilling story with a nasty disease and pack drama, and well written characters that kept me interested and entertained all the way through. I definitely want to keep reading this series and follow the story of the characters I’ve come to love, as well as getting to know new ones in the other packs too!

Thank you so much to Gay Book Promotions for the ARC and release tour invitation! All opinions are my own and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Rating:
4 stars

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Author info:
BL Maxwell
Nic Starr