The cover was so cute and the blurb sounded amazing, but sadly the book wasn’t. I almost DNFed it so many times because of the bad writing, the info dumping, the totally unbelievable cartoonishly side characters, the homophobia and the awful abuse and violence, but kept on since I rooted for both main characters. But in the end, I kind of wished I hadn’t pushed through. I did enjoy parts of it, but all together it wasn’t worth the time spent.

Wrong Locker is a dual POV story told from two struggling teens. Kinsley (“Sparrow”) is a bullied artsy emo kid with rich but neglective parents who are disappointed that he’s not following in his father’s footsteps as a successful football player. Luke (“Green”) is more the son Kinsley’s father would have hoped for, a popular captain of the football team. But Luke has it even worse at home, with a violent and abusive father and a depressed mother. Constantly having to hide himself behind fake smiles and lies to disguise his miserable home life has made Luke even lonelier than Kinsley, who at least has a protective best friend in the badass Latina girl Izzie. When Kinsley by mistake puts a letter in Luke’s locker, instead of the locker belonging to the girl he tries to date to satisfy his parents, Luke finds a way to open up and be the real him for once. Soon the letters between Sparrow and Green become the highlight of both boys’ lives. The only problem is that they both think they are writing to a girl…
​
This story had so many things that I normally love, like the slow burn and friends-to-lovers (hopefully) tropes, and the idea of finding a friend via letters was really cute. The way Sparrow and Green could form a friendship and find comfort in each other through the letters were really well done. I rooted for both main characters and truly wanted them to be happy and find a way to love each other. They were a bit too dramatic at times, but in light of their horrible circumstances and the constant abuse they were dealing with it was understandable enough. The demisexual representation was also well done.

My main issues with the book were the writing style, the cartoonishly characters and the unbelievable way they acted, plus all the absolute awful homophobia, abuse and violence that just felt speculative and shocking without any true authenticity.
The writing style was long and repetitive, with way too much info dumping and long monologues saying the same thing over and over. Just an odd example, but the way Luke constantly described Kinsley’s eyes as “cerulean” became almost laughable in the end. There were also parts where you could feel that the author wanted to enlighten the readers by making the teenagers have inner monologues in an adult, out of character way.

The parents were all absolutely horrible, but in a way that didn’t make any sense and just felt ridiculous and melodramatic for the sake of it. Like, what was the idea behind Kinsley’s parents being so neglective that they didn’t even care if he was being beaten up in school or hospitalized, but still being so invasive and controlling that they’d made him do weekly drug tests and force him to get a girlfriend? (And the way the hospital released a sixteen-year-old with a concussion without his parents’ consent was just too unbelievable.) And for Luke, how could the coach of the football team, or the team mates, never notice his bruises and broken ribs? Even though Luke blamed it on football, they should have reacted to all the severe injuries to make it feel at least slightly believable.

The worst parts were the homophobia from all parents and school peers, with constant homophobic slurs, the main characters’ self harm and even mention of suicide attempts, the bullying, abuse and violence that no one reacted to. Not one teacher, not one doctor, not one other adult in the boys’ lives ever came to their rescue. The exaggerated description of all these horrible events were so many and so shocking, that in the end it just felt unrealistic. So, instead of being a gripping story where the painful and traumatic events would pull my heartstrings, they turned the story into an unbelievable cartoonish and off-putting melodrama.

But I did keep on reading, hoping for a satisfying HEA for the boys. Only to find out that there is a second book in this series and that this first one ends so abruptly that I thought I’d missed a page (or a chapter). No matter how much I rooted for Kinsley and Luke, I can’t make myself read another installation in this series. So now I will never know if they found a way to be together or not…

Disclaimer: I received a free ebook copy of this book, which I have voluntarily reviewed.

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

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Jacob Gelman

This was so close to being a DNF for me, but I struggled through it in the end even though I’m not sure it was worth it. The main reasons for my problems with this book was that the cute cover made me think that it would be a sweet YA romance, not the adult one full of smut that it turned out to be, that the BookTok buzz and all raving reviews raised my expectations way too high, that I didn’t particularly like the main character and that the story was too long and not engaging enough to make up for it.

Seeing the cute cover and reading the blurb, I was immediately intrigued and wanted to read this book, expecting a sweet enemies-to-lovers YA story with a twist on the usual figure skating-ice hockey jock trope when the macho ice hockey player is forced to team up with the heroine as her figure skating partner. It took me just a page or so to realize my mistake, but then I got my hopes up for it being a new The Deal instead. But those hopes were also crushed rather quickly. Not only were the promised tropes and events of the blurbs badly executed, some of them weren’t even there or so insignificant that you missed them if you blinked… (like the swapping in for the figure skating partner).

My biggest issue though was with the main character, Anastasia. I just didn’t like her. At all. And it felt completely unbelievable the way she was aiming for the Olympics but nevertheless partied like crazy all the time. There were also so many other things that were unrealistic and/or cringy, and so many plot twists and side characters to keep track of that I just lost interested.

The only characters I truly rooted for were Henry, who was such an adorable cinnamon roll, and Nathan, who was hot, sweet and truly supportive. But the problem with Nathan was that he was too perfect, which made him a bit one-dimensional.

There were some good parts though, like the fact that the main character was a strong headed woman who definitely took no sh*t from anyone, the sex positivity, the way the author dealt with the eating disorder issues and how openly Anastasia and Nate communicated their emotions. So, I can understand why a lot of people love this book, even though it sadly wasn’t for me. But if you’re into spicy, drama-filled college romances with sexy banter, hot hockey players and steamy public smut, please don’t let my review discourage you from reading it!

Rating:
2 stars

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Hannah Grace

I really don’t like to write bad reviews, especially not when a book is written by an indie author, but this novella just lacked so many basic parts that 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. There was no world building whatsoever and no explanation as to who the characters were, why they were hunting monsters (not even really what kind of monsters they were hunting) or what their end game was. The characters Keenyn and Bren, and their secret yearning for each other, had such potential, but it took more than half of the story until we even got an explanation how and when they became friends. With so much information lacking it just wasn’t possible to get invested in or understand the story at all.

The writing itself was really good though, so I hope Amanda Ferreira will keep on writing, but add more world building to the stories.

Rating:
2 stars

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Amanda Ferreira

I absolutely loved The Black Flamingo and had such high expectations for this new book by Dean Atta, but sadly Only on the Weekends was a huge disappointment. The writing wasn’t as good as in the first book, but the main problems were the selfish and unlikeable main character, the toxic relationships and the cheating. Cheating is an absolute no no for me, no matter if it’s emotional or physical, especially when the main character seems to think he deserves to be forgiven for it without any real remorse.

The story follows Mack, who lost his mother at a young age and is now living alone with his dad, a famous movie director who spend most his time away on work. Mack has had a crush on basketball star Karim (K) in his high school for as long as he can remember. When he ends up next to K’s cousin Maz in class and they start hanging out, he can’t believe his luck. And when he finds out that K returns his feelings, he’s the happiest he’s ever been. The only fly in the ointment is that K isn’t out and want to hide their relationship, especially from his team mates.

This book had such a great representation and diversity; a black gay main character, a trans boy as the second love interest as well as several bisexual characters etc, and amazing side characters like Mack’s friends Maz, Sim and Femi and Fin’s friends. But sadly, Mack was such an unlikeable character and the relationship with K felt too toxic right from the start to make me invested in it. In fact, I hated the way K treated Mack like a door mat, and I could never even understand what they had in common or why they would even like each other. But on the other hand, I also hated the way Mack tried to force K to come out and how he tried to emotionally blackmail K all the time. I was also really disappointed in the way Mack neglected and mistreated his old friends, Sim and Femi, and his new friend Maz, when spending all his time and energy on K.

But the second half of the novel was slightly better (apart from the emotional cheating). I enjoyed seeing Mack and his father getting better contact and processing their grief over Mack’s mother’s dead together. I also absolutely loved the trans actor Fin that Mack befriended through his father movie and Fin’s friends Cleo and Ross. I wish we could have gotten more of them from the start, and that Mack would have fallen in love with Fin right away, never being involved with K at all.

I enjoyed the writing and that the whole book was written in verse, but it was no where near the powerful and beautiful writing in The Black Flamingo.

All in all, this was a big letdown, with a frustrating and unlikeable main character who acted questionable and selfish, a messy and toxic relationship, and an ending that felt both morally and emotionally completely wrong to me. So sadly, I cannot give this book more than two stars.

Rating:
​2 stars

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Dean Atta

I loved Steven Salvatore’s first book, Can’t Take That Away, and had really high expectations for this one as well, especially after reading the synopsis. But unfortunately, I had so many issues with And They Lived. I understand that this is a very personal book for the author, almost like a memoir (or a wishful remake of the author’s own college time), which makes it very hard to criticize it. But nevertheless, I can’t give it more than a two star rating for the triggering content and the annoying or stereotype characters.

One of the things I loved most in Steven Salvatore’s first book was the wonderful, unique and loveable characters, which is why I was so surprised and disappointed by the characters in this book. The main character, Chase Arthur is starting his first year at college. He’s a hopeless romantic obsessed with finding his true love, but believes that he’s not enough for anyone, due to his body and gender dysmorphia. But when he meets Jack Reid, a writer student looking for a fresh start away from his hometown while struggling with his own sexuality, it might just be Chase’s time to finally live in a fairytale of his own.

At first, I loved Chase’s quirkiness and rooted for his struggles with gender-identity and body dysmorphia. But the further I read, the more annoyed I got with his selfishness, his inability to realize what his friends were going through and how he pushed Jack to come out when he clearly wasn’t ready. Jack was a sweetheart, but I felt like we never got to know him more than the stereotype closeted jock, and I never felt any real chemistry between him and Chase, sadly. Most of the other characters were either horrible (like Chase’s dad) or not fleshed out enough to make you fully root for them.

I really want to give Steven Salvatore kudos for addressing a lot of difficult issues, like eating disorders and fatphobia, depression and suicidal thoughts, homophobic parents, outings and gender identity struggles, but I wished it had been executed in a way that hadn’t made them feel as triggering. Sadly, the story now came across as fatphobic and queerphobic in itself. Additionally, there were some really cringy sex scenes. I usually love sex positivity, but here the sex scenes felt way too explicit for a YA book.

The best part was the note by Steven Salvatore at the end, which brought tears to my eyes when reading about their own struggles growing up. I wish so much that the actual book had made me feel the same way.

Rating:
2 stars

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Steven Salvatore

I really don’t like to write bad reviews, but this book was just not my cup of tea at all. Being an old Twihard, I love my vampire stories, and with the added gay romance I had such high hopes for this book after reading the blurb. But sadly it didn’t meet my expectations at all.

The main problem was the world building and the one dimensional characters. Plus a melodramatic plot - I even found myself rolling my eyes several times… I know a paranormal story doesn’t have to be believable, but it has to make sense somehow and be exciting to read about. This story was just too much cliché and illogical for me to even care about what would happen to any of the characters. The romance part felt forced and cheesy, and not even the final battle was exciting enough to make the story anything above lukewarm.

So sorry this book wasn’t for me, but please don’t let this discourage you from giving it a try, we all appreciate different things!

Rating:
2 stars

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Felice Stevens

I really don’t like to write bad reviews, but this book was just not my cup of tea at all. The story sounded like something I’d love; a second-chance m/m sports romance. But unfortunately the extremely unlikable main character and his toxic masculinity bordering to abuse made it impossible for me to enjoy this book.

To be fair, the author has included this warning at the beginning:

“Interracial M/M Sports novel with explicit sex scenes between two males and intended for adults only. Please note that underage sexual acts, as well as mention of gang activities, violence and murder will be depicted in this book.”

So I probably shouldn’t have started reading the book after that. I didn’t understand from this warning though that there would be a toxic relationship and events bordering to abuse, so maybe that should be added to the warning.

But anyhow, the book is about Ace and Pat who met and became friends when they were teenagers. Ace was the billionaire son in the house where Pat’s mother worked and they were immediately drawn to each other. Their childhood friendship soon turned into something more, but after a specific event in combination with miscommunication, they went their separate ways hurt and heartbroken. Years later, when Pat has become a star football player, they met again and this time Ace didn’t let anything stop him from getting the love of his life back.

I really did like Pat, who was such a lovely and sweet character. Ace on the other hand was selfish, bratty and unemphatic. I could never understand why Pat would even want to be with Ace, not when they were teenagers, nor later on, so the romance between them didn’t work for me at all. Ace was extremely jealous and possessive (bordering to stalking). And even though he was supposed to be in love with a guy, he came across as quite homophobic. It was so much focus on all the girls he’d banged and how he’d never been into men before, and how he always had to be the dominating one (just the idea of bottoming totally freaked him out). There was one important scene where his actions were so toxic it was bordering to abuse and made me feel utterly uncomfortable. And on top of that, the book ended on a very strange cliffhanger, which felt completely abrupt and out of the blue.

The writing itself wasn’t bad though and had a nice flow, and the story as such had great potential. So I can definitely see Lola Noire writing books that I’d enjoy in the future, even though this book wasn’t for me.

Rating:
2 stars

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Lola Noire

When I read the blurb for An Unexpected Kind of Love I was immediately intrigued and thought it sounded like a gay Notting Hill. But sadly it was a bit of a letdown. I really wanted to love this book, but there were just too many things that were off, both with the characters and the plot. The characters were either non-likable or too bland, and the plot just didn’t make sense, nor did the romance part. It was just impossible to understand why the two main characters would ever be attracted to each other.

The story follows bookstore owner Aubrey Barnes, who is struggling to keep his business going, when a film company throws his quiet, ordinary Soho street into chaos. Not to mention bringing the hot American actor Blake Sinclair into his life…
I loved the bookstore setting, all pop culture references and how devoted Aubrey was to his books, and I really appreciated the representation both in terms of sexuality and disability. With all this, and on top of that the perfect romcom Soho setting, there was so much potential to this story! If only the main character had been a little more likable and the romance more believable…

I usually love quirky and broody characters, but Aubrey was just too grumpy and whiny, always complaining about everything. He also felt very judgmental and unpleasant with everyone. Like how he scoffed customers buying books for their covers, or the way he treated his friend Gemma like an inconvenience, when all she did was be there for him and help him out with all his petty troubles.

Blake in the other hand was almost too likable. He didn’t have a single flaw and didn’t feel like a real person. I loved the way he tried to get Aubrey’s attention by moving books in the store, and the cute Notting Hill references, but other than that it felt like we never really got to know Blake beneath his looks and charm.

But the main problem was that the romance felt completely rushed and unbelievable. Especially a thing that happened at the beginning of the book that was completely unexpected and made instalove feel slow in comparison… The romance definitely would have needed a little (a lot!) more build up to make me root for it, especially as it never made sense why the characters would even be attracted to each other in the first place. All along the book, it was never clear what actually made them realise that they had deeper feelings than just the physical attraction for each other. There was much more focus on Aubrey feeling misery for various reasons, than on him falling in love with Blake. And what Blake could ever see in grumpy Aubrey is beyond me. It was also so weird that Blake was completely fine with being seen with Aubrey in the beginning, but then it was a major deal that their photo was in the tabloid since he wasn’t out. Until that moment, there had been no mention about whether Blake was out or if he was even gay or bi or whatever, which made it all just feel like a manufactured plot drama.

So, I’m very sorry to say that, even though this book had so much potential and so many ingredients that I love, it sadly wasn’t for me.

Rating:
​2 stars

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Hayden Stone

I’d heard so many great things about this book - that it was funny, astonishing and bold and that it should be a queer retelling of Frankenstein’s Monster - but unfortunately its turned out to be such a huge disappointment to me. The lack of a concise narrative and characters to root for just didn’t make it interesting enough to get me fully engaged. And as for funny (I’ve seen quotes about this book saying that “I found myself vibrating with laughter”), it was just obviously not my kind of humor. But worst of all, the trans representation was so horribly done that it made me feel utterly uncomfortable and almost stopped me from finishing this book.

In short, Frankissstein has two parallel story lines. In one part, this book was a reanimation of Frankenstein and a fictionalized life story of Mary Shelley. In the other part there was a futuristic sci fi story of Ry Shelley, a transgender doctor self-described as a “hybrid” and her love story with Victor Stein, a celebrated professor working at the forefront of AI research. The story shifted between the parallel stories set in early 19th century and the present day focus with Ry Shelley and Victor Stein and his work at a cryonics facility, as well as with Ron Lord, who is set to make his fortune with a new generation of sex dolls.

As the stories moved forward, the two timelines became more and more tangled and the characters seemed to jump through time and space, but it still felt very fragmented. It’s clear that Jeanette Winterson wanted to show the possibilities of artificial intelligence and the implications of both transsexuality and transhumanism, but also to raise questions about the responsibilities of creation. What happens when homo sapiens are no longer the smartest being on the planet? It’s a very ambitious approach, but unfortunately it all fell flat and the story line was just too weird and unengaging, and the characters weren’t likable enough to excite me. I especially disliked the sex robot maker Ron and think the book would have been better without him, I honestly don’t think that the sex bots plot slid in well with the main story at all. And on top of that the way to describe transpersons as “hybrids” just didn’t sit well with me. It felt utterly homophobic to portray “trans” as a third gender option.

​So even though I can appreciate the ambitious approach and the unique potential (hence the 2 stars instead of 1 that I first wanted to give), this is unfortunaly not a book I can recommend to anyone.

Rating:
2 stars

​Author info:
Jeanette Winterson