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Book 756: Strawberry Kisses – Charlie Novak

Give me a fake boyfriend romance any day of the week, gay, straight, bisexual, anything really, and I’m in. I don’t know why I like them so much, I just do. So, when I saw this come through from Gay Romance Reviews and I needed a filler between two nonfiction books, I requested a copy.*

I won’t lie and tell you it got off to a great start, there was a typo on page one [“Deseeding twenty passion fruit and another ten pomegranates was a pain the ass and had taken a ton of time.” (Chapter One)] and I wasn’t sure about Novak’s voice, but it definitely got better so I’m glad I kept reading.

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Book 755: Eat A Peach – David Chang w/ Gabe Ulla

I enjoyed this a lot more than I thought I would when I requested it.*

I mean I knew I would enjoy it, because Chang’s philosophy on food (accessibility, universality) are things I identified with as we made our way through Ugly Delicious a while ago. I mean him summing up the book (to me at least) and his philosophy with this sold it to me:

Deliciousness is a meme. Its appeal is universal, and it will spread without consideration of borders or prejudice. (Chapter 20)

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Book 753: Voices of LGBTQ+ – Lynda Wolters

Uhhh…. A for effort?

I said yes to this one when the publisher reached out with a review copy way back in July (it’s been a long year obviously), because it sounded interesting and was nonfiction.*

I was obviously going to come into it with some bias, as a gay man I’m clearly going to have opinions, but I’m also going to come into it with a lot more education and history knowledge, holding an advanced degree in gender, sexuality, and queer theory. And frankly my thoughts are divided on this book. Did Wolters do a good job of starting a conversation and representing the individuals she interviewed? More or less. If I were judging the book solely on this she would’ve gotten four stars.

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Book 749: Feinted Love (Crimes of the Heart #1) – Elle Keaton

I’ve been incredibly hesitant to accept another galley from Gay Romance Reviews after reading It’s A Steal and being appalled at the editing and the numerous 4-5 star reviews on Goodreads.* I’m glad to say this one was definitely a lot better than that one, so at least I wasn’t burned twice, right?

But what can I say (mostly because I’ve said it before), I’m a sucker for a cover model in glasses . . . swoon. I’m not sure I’d peg this cover model as Arnie, this guy just looks too smooth.

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Book 746: Best Laid Plaids (Kilty Pleasures #1) – Ella Stainton

If you don’t know this about me, I very much enjoy a pun. Unexpected, unplanned puns are the best, but any pun will do. So when Ella Stainton reached out to me about her debut novel, a book set in Scotland titled Best Laid Plaids as part of the Kilty Pleasures series, I of course said yes.* And then, when I finished it and saw the title of book two, Where There’s a Kilt, There’s a Way, clearly I was in pun heaven.

For a debut MM romance novel, it was pretty good. There were definitely some parts that could use some work, but overall, I enjoyed the read.

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