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Book 908: Sink or Swim (Shore Leave #2) – Annabeth Albert

Yessssssss . . . I’m so glad Calder got his book and that I was able to snag a review copy from NetGalley as soon as it was listed. I’ve been sitting on it FOR MONTHS—do you know how hard that is when it comes to an Annabeth Albert book!? I had to force myself to read soooooo many other books so I wouldn’t push my response out too soon!!!!

Sink or Swim is a low-conflict simmering romance and Albert brings her character-driven humor to the story just like she does to all of her other works. Calder is Arthur’s (from Sailor Proof) older brother who happens to be bisexual and thrives on competition and gambling. And after winning a house from a fellow SEAL, he has the best meet-cute ever with Felix, flustered and guarded single-parent taking care of his two nieces, at the house he thinks he owns.

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Book 907: Hot Seat (The Hot Cannolis #1) – Eli Easton and Tara Lain

Give me an opposites-attract, man-in-uniform, light on the sex book any day and I am here for it! I knew the first two when I grabbed a copy of this from Gay Romance Reviews, but I didn’t know the third and that made it that much better!* And that was before I opened it to find a discussion about Wuthering Heights on the first page!!!

I’ve previously read Easton, but not Lain so I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one as I started, but quickly got into the story and the writing and didn’t look back finishing it in basically two sittings, and of course, spent a portion of it tearing up in public because one series of scenes towards the end just hit me hard.

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Book 906: Black Cake – Charmaine Wilkerson

When someone from the publisher reached out to me about Black Cake, it wasn’t an immediate yes or an immediate no.* I honestly had no idea what I was going to do, I thought it was a beautiful cover (even if I didn’t notice the woman on it for ages) and the multi-generational story drew me in.

What ultimately decided for me was that it was a debut novel, love those most of the time, and my reading list is seriously lacking authors of color and I’ve been saying for years I’m going to expand my reading list. And holy shit y’all I’m so glad I did, this book took me for so many rides.

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Book 897: If You Love Something – Jayce Ellis

I came across this while perusing NetGalley looking for new MM Romance authors to expand my repertoire and diversity reading.*

Not going to lie though, I mostly chose this one because of the illustrated cover’s whimsical balloon and because I thought the author was a man! I’ve only read a few MM Romances by men, but when I finished the novel I found out Jayce was a woman, which didn’t affect my opinions but was like DAMN.

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Book 896: A Christmas Miracle (Winsford Green #4) – Ruby Moone

As I said in my response to Dances Long Forgotten, the first book of Moone’s Winsford Green series, I sought it out because I received this review request from Gay Romance Reviews and it intrigued me enough to want to give the series a go.*

I liked the series enough to request this book halfway through the first. And while I don’t regret it, I think the first book was the strongest (I LOVED the flashback and hoped for it again), this and People Like Us were a distant second, and The Schoolmaster’s Spy further behind them.

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