Month: June 2020

Books

Book 711: Sticks & Scones (Check, Please! #2) – Ngozi Ukazu

Geoff W

I’m so sad this is over. I waited a full year for it, and it was wonderful, but I’m still sad. I re-read each of the two books twice this time to really soak them in and make sure I looked at the artwork and appreciated the dialogue.

I’ll be frank and say that I’m not sure I enjoyed this as much as the first one. I don’t think it was anyone thing and I don’t think that should detract anyone else from reading it, but for me it didn’t have the perfection or the je ne sais quoi (that’s a nod to Jack ;-D) the first book did. There are spoilers after the jump, so don’t read ahead unless you want to know where #Hockey ended.

Continue reading “Book 711: Sticks & Scones (Check, Please! #2) – Ngozi Ukazu” →

Books

Book 710: #Hockey (Check, Please! #1) – Ngozi Ukazu

Geoff W

After reading this last January, I knew I would revisit it. And thanks to a gift card for Christmas to Barnes and Noble, where I don’t usually shop, I ordered a copy of this and the follow up Sticks & Scones. This was all before coronavirus, and I had Sticks & Scones shipped to my office, where I hadn’t been able to get to it for almost a month after it was delivered 🙁

But when I got it, you know I had to re-read this one. And I loved it as mush as my first read. This time around I spent more time luxuriating in the artwork since I’d read the story previously and didn’t need to focus so much on who’s who and it was worth it.

Continue reading “Book 710: #Hockey (Check, Please! #1) – Ngozi Ukazu” →

Books

Book 709: Arctic Heat (Frozen Hearts #3) – Annabeth Albert

Geoff W

In the final book of Annabeth Albert’s Frozen Hearts series, she takes the heat and turns it up in a winter setting! I felt this was one of the only things missing from the previous two entries in the series (Arctic Sun and Arctic Wild), especially because the protagonists living in Alaska put so much effort and emphasis on whether the mainlanders would survive an Alaskan winter.

Arctic Heat introduces us to Quill, the stoic ranger who was part of the team who rescued Toby and Reuben in Arctic Wild, and Owen, a cancer survivor checking things off his bucket list which included volunteering for a winter in Alaska. And if there’s one thing about this series that Owen nails in one line, it’s the opening line of this novel: “Come for the snow. Stay for the ranger porn.” So maybe it doesn’t fit the entire series, but I guess if you put “rugged outdoors man” instead of ranger you’d get it in one.

Continue reading “Book 709: Arctic Heat (Frozen Hearts #3) – Annabeth Albert” →

Updates

May Recap 2020

Geoff W

Over sized bowl with a partially eaten salad sitting on top of a laptop.Another month of being home—this really hit home when I went to grab photos for this recap post and they were all home-based . . . again. It’s hard to believe that I’ve been working from home full time eleven weeks now, but not that hard anymore. With Tim being in healthcare and working directly with COVID-10 patients we’ve been a lot more cautious than a lot of people we know (more for their sake than ours). Thankfully, it hasn’t been too trying because we’re both pretty introverted.

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Books

Book 708: Hotline (Murmur, Inc. #1) – Quinn Anderson

Geoff W

Along with Walker’s The Weight of It All and Throwing Hearts, I picked this up as part of my Kindle Unlimited download spree after Tim got me a new Oasis for our anniversary.

If I’m honest, I picked this one because it didn’t have the traditional half-dressed/watermarked/super-model handsome cover model on it. Even with the super-hokey heart as an “o”, I liked how clean and simple the cover was. And maybe more importantly, I liked that I got to envision the characters without constantly thinking their descriptions are nothing like the cover models (which yes, I spend WAY too long thinking about this).

Continue reading “Book 708: Hotline (Murmur, Inc. #1) – Quinn Anderson” →