6/26/2023 0 Comments Game Changer by Amy AislinAmy Aislin has done it again! Game Changer is another cute and heartwarming MM romance in the Vancouver Orcas series! The books in this series can be read as standalones, as each book focuses on one of the Shore cousins at a time, but I enjoy seeing the characters from the previous book as an extra bonus. This time, the main character is hockey player Blair Brawsiski, who has a scheduling problem with all his extra duties helping his various family members out. To facilitate his life, his coach, Matt Shore (from the first book in the series), arranges for his cousin Charlie Shore to help Blair as a PA. But the immediate attraction takes them both by surprise. Especially since Charlie has trust issues and dating his boss is a big no no…
This was such a sweet story! Blair and Charlie were both such wonderful, kind and adorable characters and they were the absolute perfect match for each other. I also loved all the lovely side characters with the family members and the teammates in the Orcas. There could perhaps have been a little more drama or suspense to make the story a bit more intense, but sometimes it’s alright with a book just being sweet and heartwarming! All in all, this was a great second book set in the intriguing Orcas universe, and I can’t wait to continue the series with Dorian’s story next! Thank you to Gay Book Promotions for the free review copy and blog tour invitation! All opinions are my own and I’m leaving my honest review voluntarily. Rating: 4 stars Get your own copy: Author links Author info: Amy Aislin
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6/25/2023 0 Comments In Memoriam by Alice WinnWhat an absolutely marvelous book! In Memoriam is heartbreaking but beautiful, romantic but full of horror, brutal but poetic. It’s a book I will never forget, nor its wonderful characters and their epic love story. In short, it is set during WWI and follows two young British private school boys, Ellwood and Gaunt, who are best friends and secretly in love at a time when that kind of love wasn’t allowed, and follows them as the navigate the war’s horror and death surrounding them. It’s a haunting, devastating, beautiful and epic tale of friendship, lost hopes and dreams, the brutality of war and of love conquering it all.
This is Alice Winn’s debut book, which is an amazing accomplishment. The writing style is pure perfection, the research flawless and the storytelling is absolutely brilliant! I can only imagine what kind of masterpieces Alice Winn will write in the future, with this as a debut! The characters in this book were amazing and so relatable. I immediately rooted for sweet Ellwood and stoic Gaunt and their deep affection for each other. It was completely endearing how they both valued their friendship and how they were both so in love with each other but too afraid to lose their friendship to tell the other. The way Alice Winn showed their different backgrounds in the minor details as well as the major privileged/working class differences in the military was so powerful, as was the way Gaunt struggled with the very idea of being in love with a man, knowing the dangerous consequences for a man with his lesser background. His mixed feelings of love and excitement with anxiety and tension was all too understandable. I absolutely loved this book and cannot praise it enough! It’s both an important eye-opening story to tell, about the horrors of war, how gay love was forbidden and the injustice embedded in a class society, and as well as a swooning, sweet and emotional love story that took my breath away. Please do yourself a favor and read this book! It will probably break your heart, but you won’t regret it! Rating: 5 stars Get your own copy: Author links Amazon Author info: Alice Winn This second book in the Entertaining Love series is a shorter add-on focusing on Eve’s and Jenna’s wedding. A sweet and heartwarming story dealing with family drama that can damper even the happiest ever after. Love Beneath the Stars continues where the first book in this series, Love Among the Stars, ended. Hollywood matchmaker no. 1, Eve, has found her own perfect match in Hollywood riding star Jemma, and is about to put a ring on it. But Jenna’s conservative brother is bot happy for her choice of partner and refuses to walk her down the aisle as promised, giving Jemma cold feet.
Who doesn’t love a cute wedding novella with lot of family drama? If you do, you’re get all of that here! Just like the first book, I would have loved for the story to be a bit more fleshed out and not feeling as rushed. But all in all, this was a fun, cute and enjoyable read! Thank you to Gay Book Promotions for the free e-copy of the book, which I have voluntarily reviewed. Rating: 3 stars Get your own copy: Amazon Add to Goodreads Author info: Claerie Kavanaugh This was a cute and adorable feelgood romance between a Hollywood matchmaker and her client. Great premise and lovely characters, but I’d love for the story to be a little more fleshed out. Eve is a matchmaker who has a 100% success rate, until she gets the new Hollywood it-girl, the bisexual Jemma, as her client. No matter how hard she tries to find Jemma the perfect match, each date is a complete disaster. But perhaps Eve doesn’t genuinely want to succeed in this case, but to keep getting excuses to spend time with Jemma herself…
I really enjoyed the premise and rooted for Eve in her attempts to succeed professionally when her heart has other plans. Jemma was harder to really understand and root for as she was mostly described via her failed dates or through Eve’s swooning eyes. But they were both lovely characters nevertheless and I enjoyed how Jemma was described as strong willed and not the least impressed by her Hollywood peers. The romance was a bit too instalovey though, and the writing felt a bit rushed overall. The romance went from zero to eternal love in just a couple of weeks, especially from Jenna’s point, and I would have loved for the story to be more fleshed out. But all in all, this was a very enjoyable, heartwarming and sweet story with lovely characters. Thank you to Gay Book Promotions for the free e-copy of the book, which I have voluntarily reviewed. Rating: 3.5 stars Get your own copy: Amazon Add to Goodreads Author info: Claerie Kavanaugh This was such a delightful, fastpaced and gorgeous enemies-to-lover story about two archenemies whose friends think they would be perfect for each other! But while it was sweet and fuzzy, it also had a lot of depth with anxiety issues, childhood trauma, parental neglect and alcoholism, all weaved together into a perfect heartwarming and emotional story. Absolutely loved it! The two main characters, the introverted Dylan Ramírez with a childhood trauma and anxiety issues and the loud, confident and attention seeker Jonah Collins with a huge shameful secret that is almost crushing him, have hated each other from the first time they met as eleven-year-olds and Dylan beat Jonah in Uno. But when Dylan’s best friends Hanna and Jonah’s best friend Andre become the school’s power couple, Dylan and Jonah are forced to spend time together. But the most annoying part is how their friends keep nagging about how perfect they would be for each other just because they are the only two openly bisexual guys at school. ‘Cause there obviously can’t be any other reason for it, right? Well, when they start fake-dating to get their friends off their back they are about to find out…
This book had two of my favorite troops – enemies to lovers and fake dating – plus amazing, fleshed out characters, snarky banter and wonderful friends! But it was so much more than tropes, it was such a deep and special story dealing with trauma, mental health issues and abuse. “You have to decide if it’s worth the sacrifice of losing him.” The story had some truly heartbreaking parts, and I truly hated both Jonah’s dad and Dylan’s mother. No matter what they had been through, neglecting your children is unforgivable. I felt that they both got off the hook a little too easy, even though I’m of course happy for the positive turn of events. I also feel that Jonah’s friends could have done more to help him earlier, or hinted to Dylan about his struggles. But that set aside, I loved the friends and their banter. They were such an amazing, lovable and diverse squad! The writing was flawless, you couldn’t tell at all that this was Amanda Woody’s debut book, and they made an amazing job combining the difficult topics with the lighter ones while still making it a very easy and joyful story to read. All in all, this was a sweet, fuzzy and funny read while also dealing with some pretty heavy topics, and with great representation. I finished this book in one sitting, ending it with a big goofy smile all over my face! Rating: 5 stars Get your own copy: Amazon Add to Goodreads Author info: Amanda Woody I really don’t like to write bad reviews, especially not for a debut book written by a young indie author, but sadly I cannot give it more than two stars. The story had such a great premise, and the cover was so gorgeous, but unfortunately the execution didn’t meet any of my expectations. I truly wanted to love this story. An ownvoices story about a gay Jewish boy who has to return to the closet when he moves to a small town in Florida, who meets a religious, popular football quarterback, who is suppressing all feelings that could remotely be seen as a sin, but who loves anything different, sounded absolutely amazing.
But sadly, this book just didn’t feel ready to be published. Not just because of all the editing errors (like repetitive words, unfinished thoughts or phrases that didn’t make sense, wrong names on characters etc.) but also the pacing felt off. There was so much going on that the story felt rushed and unfocused, with many of the important plot events being brushed over and told in hindsight by the characters thinking of them, not by us readers experiencing them, which made it hard to be fully invested in the story. The plot also reminded me a bit too much of Autuboyography by Christina Lauren to feel unique and fresh, and the characters had so much potential, but weren’t as fully developed as I’d wished for. I feel really sad for this, but hope that Jacob Gelman will continue writing stories. He’s obviously a very talented writer, and I hope he’ll get a good editor for the next book, who can help him achieve his full potential. I received a free ARC of this book, which I have voluntarily reviewed. Rating: 2 stars Get your own copy: Amazon Add to Goodreads Author info: Jacob Gelman This was such an adorable and cute gay romance story about startups, friendship and love! And pranks! It was a fast-paced, fun and sweet feelgood story that’s a perfect vacation read or cure to get you out of a reading slump. This story follows Ivy League college students Max and Aaron who cross path when Max gets hired to prank basketball star Aaron, but also ends up kind of destroying Aaron’s future career… Max is a hacker trying to launch a startup together with two of his best friends. To finance it he takes on prankster assignments. Aaron is an openly gay basketball star with a big heart who should hate the person who got him into the big mess but can’t help being intrigued by the ‘Underwear Thief’.
I really enjoyed this book and all its wonderful characters! I loved the startup squad with the mix of computer nerds, an environmental law student, and a badass female telling the obvious truths. I also loved cinnamon roll Aaron. I loved how sweet he was and how smart, yet clueless. I didn’t particularly like the way Max felt spoilt and selfish at times. It was like he became another person when he was with Aaron, so I loved their interaction, but not Max on his own as much. There were also some parts that were perhaps a bit too unrealistic, and quite a lot of plot holes. But these are just minor complaints. Overall, this was such an adorable and sweet romcom that made me smile and warmed my heart. Highly recommended if you’re looking for a light, easy and fun read with adorkable characters to root for! Thank you to Pride Book Tours for the ARC of the book, which I have voluntarily reviewed. Rating: 4 stars Get your own copy: Amazon Add to Goodreads Author info: Abby Kaitz This was a cute friends-to-lovers gay romance with wonderful characters to root for. I really loved to learn more of the life as a teacher, and the part about overcoming trauma and dealing with anxiety, but the romance part didn’t fully meet my expectations. The story follows kindergarten teacher Marvin, who is single, trying to overcome a childhood trauma and struggling with anxiety. When he gets nominated for the Teacher of the Year Award, he has more than enough stress and more on his plate than he has time for. But when new student Illona walks in with her cute-as-hell single dad beside her, Marvin’s focus starts to slide. Olan is a newly divorced dad who has moved across the country for a fresh start with his daughter. Being a recovering alcoholic, he’s not in any position to start a new relationship. Not to mention the fact that he’s straight, so Marvin shouldn’t even give him butterflies in the first place. Right?
Teacher of the Year was such a cute romance story, which also dealt with heavier topics such as alcoholism, childhood trauma and anxiety. I really adored the way both characters bonded and interacted with Olan’s daughter, and I truly enjoyed all representation with Marvin being Jewish, queer and struggling with an anxiety disorder, as well as Olan’s bisexual awakening. There were also a lot of funny banter and moments that almost made me laugh out loud. I also adored the side characters with Marvin’s best friend Jill. Jill and her husband were such a delight and their support for Marvin was heartwarming. I didn’t fully root for the romance though. Since the story was told solely from Marvin’s POV, it was difficult to get a sense for Olan’s feelings. It would have been wonderful to hear his voice about the conflicting feelings he must have felt, falling for a man for the first time. Now Olan’s romantic feelings for Marvin almost came out of the blue and the romance felt somewhat rushed, even though it was a slow burn one. I also never understood the rationale behind the decision for Ilona to be uprooted and move with her dad who’s struggling with alcoholism instead of staying with her mother. I expected some explanation to that, like her mother had issues or other reasons, but she turned out to be a great person. So I feel that there was a part of the story missing there. But all in all, this was a funny, cute, fast-paced and heartwarming story with great representation which I highly enjoyed, even though the romance wasn’t a perfect match for me. Thank you to Pride Book Tours for the ARC of the book, which I have voluntarily reviewed. Rating: 3.5 stars rounding up to 4 Get your own copy: Author links Add to Goodreads Author info: M.A. Wardell |
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September 2023
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