10/30/2023 0 Comments The Locker Room by Amy LaneThis was such an emotional childhood friends-to-lovers mm romance with two amazing main characters to root for. It both wrecked me and filled me with hope. I loved how this book had a different vibe than many other sports romances, with the MCs having a childhood of neglect and abuse, respectively dealing with addiction, that added extra layers to the forbidden love trope. The story follows the two basketball players Xander and Chris from age 14 to over a decade later, letting us be part of their life, love, growth, hopes and struggles. Xander comes from a broken home with an addicted mother and her violent and abusive boyfriends. The only good thing in his life is basketball. When he’s on the court playing nothing else matters and it gives him a chance to forget his misery for a moment. But when he meets Chris, there is suddenly something else in his life that matters as much as basketball. Chris’s family welcomes Xander into their lives and gives him love, food and a home.
I adored Chris’s family and the way they loved Xander unconditionally. I also loved the mutual respect and how Xander didn’t want for him and Chris to act on their feelings while living at their house. Due to this, the romance is such a burning slow one full of yearning, longing, suppressed feelings that threaten to explode and made this story so addictive and intense to read. What wrecked me though was the horrible homophobia that Xander and Chris had to endure and how they had to hide and pretend. The lies and hiding were killing them, and me as a reader as well. Amy Lane did an amazing job describing the anxiety, the frustration and the longing for being allowed to show their true selves, and the toll it takes. My only tiny complaint is that the cover doesn’t match the story, really, so don’t let the cover fool you into believing that this is an easy cute YA story, when it’s so much more than that. All in all, this was a beautiful and emotional love story that was both hopeful and utterly heartbreaking at the same time. It will wreck you, but it’s worth it, I promise! Rating: 5 stars Get your own copy: Amazon Add to Goodreads Author info: Amy Lane
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10/10/2023 0 Comments Peter Cabot Gets Lost by Cat SebastianThis second book in The Cabots series was even more cute and heartwarming than the first! I adored the main character Peter and the grumpy bantering between him and Caleb; the chemistry between them was absolutely sizzling! A truly wonderful enemies-to-lovers queer historical romance! On surface, Peter Cabot has everything. He comes from a wealthy, political family (quite a lot resembling the Kennedys), is good looking, with a bright future. But in fact, he loathes his father and dreads the life he’s expected to live when he leaves college.
Caleb Murphy on the other hand, has always struggled to make ends meet, has to rely upon charity and is quite bitter and grumpy about the hand he’s been given in life. Especially compared to privileged, spoiled Peter. But maybe, just maybe, they have more in common than they think? When circumstances make them spend a week together driving from Boston to Los Angeles sparks start to fly… I love Cat Sebastian’s queer historical stories (We Could Be So Good is one of my favorite books) and this one certainly didn’t disappoint either. Cat Sebastian creates the most wonderful, fleshed out characters, and has a way of writing that just pulls you in. I really appreciated that this second book in the series was a full-length one (even though it was a bit on the short side too), so that the characters had more time to develop and their relationship to slowly go from grumpy dislike to friends to something more. I also truly appreciate the authenticy in which Cat Sebastian describes the current time period (the 1960s in this case) and the fear and homophobia that queer people had to live with. Lovely first time exploration, learning to trust and being vulnerable. And the importance of being true to yourself! All in all, this was a highly enjoyable, adorable and heartwarming queer historical story. Highly recommended! Rating: 4 stars Get your own copy: Author links Author info: Cat Sebastian 10/10/2023 0 Comments Tommy Cabot Was Here by Cat SebastianWhat a cute and heartwarming queer historical second chance romance! As always in stories written by Cat Sebastian, this novella had some truly wonderful characters, a swooning romance and the kind of authentic historical queer plot that I’ve come to love and expect from Cat Sebastian. I would perhaps have preferred for this to be a full-length novel instead of a novella, so the story and characters could have had some more developments and interactions, but all in all this was a highly enjoyable and wonderful read!
Rating: 4 stars Get your own copy: Author links Author info: Cat Sebastian 10/3/2023 0 Comments Sparks Fly by Birdie LynnThis was a cute, lighthearted, over the top, almost like fanfiction, story set at a private boarding school for mages. So, something of a queer urban fantasy, I guess, but it’s hard to categorize it. I did love a lot of the things in it (it had all my favorite tropes, like literally ALL of them) but I still felt like there was something important missing from the story. Arthur Pham and Mika Rivera have been enemies and academic rivals from the start, always competing to be number one in class. For Arthur though, it’s more at stake than just the honor; he needs to win the fellowship money granted to the top student to be able to pay his tuition fee. When an ancient spell reveals that Arthur and Mika are soulmates, their lives turn into a rollercoaster of fake dating, becoming friends, then hating each other again and starting over with real dating, fake dating, not sure-what-we-are confusion due to the characters being totally oblivious.
So, I’m struggling a bit with my feelings for this book. I loved the fanfiction and Carry On vibes, but even though the resemblance with Carry On was high, it was a very different story. It lacked some of the intensity and addictiveness from Carry On, and a lot of the plot was a bit too cheesy for me personally. I felt that there was a little too much going on, which made it feel a bit silly at times. I also didn’t appreciate the cheating part, it could have been solved in a much better way, so that takes away a star for me. But it was nevertheless a fun story and easy read, with great tropes! So 3,5 stars rounding down to 3 stars. Rating: 3 stars Get your own copy: Author links Author info: Birdie Lynn This novella is something of a prequel to The Amazing Alpha Tau Boyfriend Project and takes place in the same Alpha Tau frat universe, letting us know how Trey and Scout became boyfriends. Scout needs his space and time alone from all social activities, but his roommate is the exact opposite. Trey also takes his duties as house manager a little too seriously. But both of them are single and currently on a romantic try spell, so somehow they end up helping each other out. Which doesn’t really mean anything, right? Scout isn’t even into guys, or is he…?
This short novella was an easy and fun read, but maybe a little too simplistic. There really wasn’t any drama, not about the helping out part nor the part where Scout finds out he’s not as straight as he thought he was. But still, enjoyable and nice! I especially appreciated how supportive and openminded the frat bros were. No toxic masculinity at all, which was a pleasant fresh new take, and I’m definitely looking forward to reading more stories about this wholesome group of frat bros! Thank you to the authors for the free copy, which I have voluntarily reviewed. Rating: 3 stars Get your own copy: Author links Author info: Lisa Henry Sarah Honey This was a cute historical queer romance, with adorable main characters and the right amount of spice. But the plot was kind of all over the place and there was a lot that didn’t make sense. Set in Industrial Manchester in the 1890s, this book tells the swooning and unlikely romance between mill clerk Mr. Warren and the young baronet Sir Lindsey. Aubrey Warren was born in a workhouse and has struggled to make a life for himself ever since. Not stopping at earning his money as a ‘telegraph boy’, i.e. a prostitute. When the mill he works at gets a new owner, his life will change dramatically. Lindsey Althorp has never worked a day in his life and has no real clue of what it takes to earn a living. Nor the danger of showing his not-so-professional affection for his new employees…
The book started off really strong, and I immediately loved the purehearted, cinnamon roll, Golden Retriever naïve Lindsey. He was the absolute sweetest! So clueless, but always so kind and endearing. I also enjoyed the rich/poor, employer/employee situation and the historical settings with the gentlemen’s club, the boarding school friends and the strong willed women who found ways of pursuing their dreams despite the society’s restrictions, as well as the very sarcastic and British kind of humor (I actually don’t know if Sebastian Northwell is British or not, but the humor and writing style really had that vibe). But after the strong start, the book started to drag sadly, and the plot started to take all kinds of turns with random things happening and characters acting in ways that didn’t really make any sense, or contradicted the way they had behaved before. I think some more editing could have solved this issue, as well as the problem with the transitions between the different POVs that made this book lose some of the flow. Too bad for a story that had such great potential! But all in all, it was nevertheless a sweet and swoony read, with characters to root for and great humor! Rating: 3 stars Get your own copy: Author links Add on Goodreads Author info: Sebastian Nothwell Erica Massey has definitely become an autobuy author for me! I love the Breakaway series so much - and I’ve binged all of the three books, then immediately wanting to reread them. There’s just something in the way Erica Massey writes about feelings and love that’s so far from any cliché but so raw and emotional and true. This series is a true YA romance one, so slow burn and awkward and relatable. And the characters are always amazing. Broken and full of flaws, but with big hearts and tenderness beneath their scruffy surfaces. This third book, All Hail the Underdogs, was no exception, it was just as brilliant as the others. An enemies-to-lovers romance at its finest! We actually did get a glimpse of the romance between Patrick Roman (Rome) and Damien Bordeaux in the last chapter of the second book, Like You've Nothing Left to Prove, when Alex became Rome’s captain after the NHL draft, and he and Eli had a talk with Rome and Damien (or rather Eli and Damien had a talk since their boyfriends are equally awkward with small talks…). So this book is almost like a prequel, giving us the full story of how Rome and Damien met and how their initial hostility turned into understanding and friendship and more…
The story takes place at a hockey prep school, to which Rome manages to get a transfer after his father is sent to jail for years of abusing him, and where Damien is, on the surface, a rotten spoilt rich kid. Rome immediately takes a dislike to Damien and the aversion just grows. But it turns out that Damien has his own problems to deal with. When Rome gets a glimpse of Damien’s struggles and when Damien learns about Rome’s past trauma and how he’s in the fight for his legal emancipation, how he’s not antisocial but has to work for his living and has problems trusting people, a heartwarming friendship starts to form. It truly melted my heart how vulnerable they were towards each other, so open and raw, it was just beautiful. I loved their awkwardness (the way they talked about ‘sex things’ was just the sweetest ever!) and how they truly felt like messed-up teenagers. And the character growth was amazing! Especially for Rome, as he learned to let people in, trust them and accept their love for him as he was, not because they wanted something from him. As in all of Erica Massey’s books, the side characters were gold too. So supportive and just all around kind and good people! Great representation done in a low key way, like how one of the hockey players was a trans girl and how she was so naturally included into and supported by the team. The ending was perhaps a little over the top sweet and adorable, bordering to cheesy, but they both, Rome especially, deserved all the happiness in the world, so I’m not complaining… All in all, this was an absolutely beautiful, emotional and heartwarming story that dealt with difficult topics in a comforting way, and I cannot recommend this brilliant opposites attract, idiots to lovers, team mates romance enough! Rating: 5 stars Get your own copy: Amazon Add to Goodreads Author info: E.L. Massey 9/11/2023 0 Comments Stars and the Stage by D.N. BrynI adore D.N. Bryn’s unique, queer and hilarious vampire romances and was so happy to get an ARC of this new sub/dom second chance novella set in Los Angeles in the 90s! It’s a bit different than the other books in the Guides for Dating Vampires series as the characters are not the cinnamon roll precious disasters I’ve come to love in the series, nor did it have the cozy feels. But it was nevertheless an intriguing and highly entertaining read! This novella is something of a prequel to the Guides for Dating Vampires series, but can be read as a standalone. It takes place at a role play club that creates fantasies for vampire-human couples, where the transmasc/non-binary vampire Diego is working. Diego has finally found a new home and family and has regained their confidence, after having fled their hometown and the high school sweetheart who spurned their fangs a decade ago. Until said high school sweetheart, Maddox, turns up at the club to bid forgiveness and Diego decides to engage in a kink role play to find out Maddox’s true intentions.
I really enjoyed this story, even though it wasn’t as cozy and sweet as D.N. Bryn’s other books. I’m also not usually into kink or too much spice, but here it worked really well. (Just be sure to check the trigger warnings before reading this novella though, as some of the scenes are quite intense.) I rooted for all the characters, even though they were not the shy, awkward, gentle ones that I’ve come to expect in D.N. Bryn’s vampire universe. Diego was a completely other kind of character, with their confidence, self-worth and determination never to be betrayed or shunned ever again. I did miss the slow burn from the other books though, but that is probably mostly due to the short format that doesn’t allow for much time to explore the characters and their feelings for each other fully. But the switch from Diego pushing Maddox away to completely giving into the relationship felt a bit too quick and easy. But all in all, this was another highly entertaining story by D.N. Bryn full of unique characters and amazing representation, and an interesting premise with the role play club! Disclaimer: I received an eARC for free, but I am leaving my honest review. Many thanks to the author D.N. Bryn for the opportunity! Rating: 4 stars Get your own copy: Author links Add on Goodreads Author info: D.N. Bryn This ya sapphic rom-com was such a cute, fun and unique read about finding out what really matters in life! The moral of the story… be careful what you wish for! (And be aware of fanfic coming to life…) I absolutely loved this humorous, satirical, totally over the top and heartwarming love letter to fanfics! When sixteen-year-old Ivy’s parents leave her home alone for the very first time, she’s looking forward to eating sweets whenever she wants to, not having anyone meddle in her personal business, eating pizza and watching the favorite show H-MAD with her best friend Henry. And not miss her former best friend, Mack. Not even thinking of her actually. But all of Ivy’s plans get derailed when she wakes up on the very first morning to find the main character of H-MAD and Ivy’s fanfiction, Weston in her bed.
From there, Sophie Gonzales takes us on a hilarious journey of hiding a completely unpredictable over-the-top romantic, brooding soul mate/superhero, to finding out who your heart truly desires and the beauty of friendship. The characters were so fleshed out and relatable. I loved the slightly disastrous Ivy, the gorgeous Henry and the badass Mack. I loved how charmingly nerdy Ivy and Henry were with their H-MAD obsession, their fear of conflict and Ivy’s lack of social skills. And extra plus for the representation, with Ivy being bisexual, Henry aro/ace and Mack lesbian, and the way Sophie Gonzales covered just about every romantic trope out there in such a lovable way. It’s obvious how much Sophie Gonzales herself loves fanfiction and the romcom tropes, and how she wanted to explore the tropes and how they would work (or not work…) in reality. So this book is like a warm blanket to snuggle in, while enjoying the brooding superhero, the enemies-to-lovers, the miscommunication, the soul mate, the one-bed forced proximity and more in the best possible, humorous way. Was it realistic? Well, no, of course not. But that was exactly the point. With the help of a little magic, Ivy gets a chance to discover what’s really important and real in life. And we readers get a chance to consider our own life choices and if we’ve fully listened to our hearts. And of course, we all get to learn that there is no such thing as a perfect guy, nor that always getting what we want make us happy. (And how beautiful is the cover with art by Venessa Vida Kelley? Just looking at the book makes me happy! I definitely need to buy a paperback copy of this one when it’s released next year!) I received an eARC for free via NetGalley, but I am leaving my honest review. Many thanks to St. Martin’s Press, Wednesday Books, and the author for the opportunity! Rating: 4.5 stars rounding up to 5 Get your own copy: Macmillan Amazon Add to Goodreads Author info: Sophie Gonzales 8/20/2023 0 Comments The Unlikely Heir by Jax CalderRed, White & Royal Blue meets Boyfriend Material in this fluffy, sweet slow-burn MM romance between Britain’s first openly gay Prime Minister and the klutzy, adorkable and clueless American who unexpectedly becomes heir to the British throne. Callum is a sweet, but rather clumsy and clueless, supposedly straight guy who’s trying to figure his life out after having dropped out of university to work for an insurance call center. His dating life is a bit of a disaster as well, and he’s still mourning his mom. Said mom, who had a brief marriage with the fourth British prince, but who left Britain after the divorce with her son to do everything in her power to keep Callum away from the watchful eye of the British press. Being the eleventh in the succession order, it’s not like he’ll ever play any big role in the British monarchy anyway. Not until his misbehaving relatives are charged with a criminal offense and Callum suddenly leaps from obscurity to the new Prince of Wales and heir to the British throne.
Oliver Hartwell is the divorced Prime Minister who takes pity on the clumsy and awkward prince who is so clearly out of his element. But soon the innocent support messages evolve into so much more and become the highlight of Oliver’s day, together with feelings for the prince that may no longer be of the purely platonic kind… Soon they both realize that they might have something more than friendship going on, and Callum that he’s not as straight as he thought he was… which might explain his previous unsuccessful dating life. Jax Calder is one of my favorite authors (I absolutely love her books The Other Brother and Attractive Forces) a lot because of her relatable, lovable and wonderful characters who always are as far away from stereotype cliches as you can come. And just like in her other books, I immediately rooted for Oliver, who had so much depth and raw emotions. I could truly feel his pain after having being betrayed by his ex-husband, his loneliness, his childhood trauma and feeling of being rejected by his addicted mother. I loved the parts of the story that were told from his POV and how they let us see how his feelings for Callum develop. It was so wholesome. But, surprisingly for a Jax Calder book, the other characters fell a bit flat for me. The Queen felt very vague and more of a projection than a character that added to the story, and I never fully rooted for Callum. I can’t really explain why, but there was something about his clumsiness yet smartness and knowledge of everything that made him feel artificial and more of a construct than a real person. I also would have liked to have more focus on his bisexual awakening, which is usually one of my favorite tropes. But here it felt rushed and sadly not explored to its full potential. It was like Callum just accepted it without even mulling it over. I would have loved to see him dissect it all more and at least be a bit nervous about being with a man for the first time. So even though I truly wished for Oliver to be happy and get to be with his love, I found it a bit hard to be fully invested in his Callum’s romance. There were also some parts of the story that were just too unbelievable or silly. I won’t go into details, but there was a murder plot that just felt off and the whole part of Callum not being recognized as part of the royal family by anyone before he moved up the succession order felt a bit too far-fetched. But all in all, a sweet, cute and fluffy romcom, with a lot of hilarious moments, fun facts and an amazing gay Prime Minister to root for. Thank you to BookSirens for the free ARC of the book, which I have voluntarily reviewed. Rating: 3.5 stars rounding up to 4 Get your own copy: Amazon Add to Goodreads Author info: Jax Calder |
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September 2023
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