Category: ARC

ARC, Books

Book 953: Stronger Than Passion (Chesapeake Days #2) – Katherine McIntyre

Geoff W

Coming off Stronger Than Hope, I wasn’t 100% sure I was going to read the next one in the series. There were just enough little annoyances in it that I wasn’t convinced. However, when this landed in my inbox I thought why not give McIntyre another chance, see if the same issues showed up again.*

I called Nico being one of the protagonists of this book but had no clue who the second would be. We find ourselves with a classic enemies-to-lovers trope. Nico Shah, the owner and proprietor of the local town bar who is a one-night-stand only kind of guy, is forced to work with Hudson West, the pretty boy with a presumed-trust fund who runs the high-end classy restaurant of the town. They don’t get on because of numerous misunderstandings, but they slowly fall for each other as they work together.

Continue reading “Book 953: Stronger Than Passion (Chesapeake Days #2) – Katherine McIntyre” →

ARC, Books

Book 951: Playing for Keeps (Sporting Secrets #3) – Jax Calder

Geoff W

It was a no-brainer I would say yes when this one finally arrived in my inbox.* I enjoyed Playing Offside and Playing at Home so much and was getting antsy this one was taking so long (a whole 6 months). It was definitely worth the wait and I’ll gladly wait this long again because Calder does a good job not only in writing the stories but also in making sure they’re reviewer ready. I’m still shuddering after a couple of recent ones I read that needed to start over.

This is the story of Ethan and Luke, childhood best friends who were inseparable until Char, Luke’s twin sister, ended up pregnant with Ethan’s kid, Theo. Needless to say shit hit the fan and they went their separate ways (including Luke fleeing to Japan to play professional rugby), but Luke is back to achieve his dream of playing for the New Zealand national team and he happened to sign with Ethan’s professional team, not because of Ethan but because of the out players on the team.

Continue reading “Book 951: Playing for Keeps (Sporting Secrets #3) – Jax Calder” →

ARC, Books

Book 950: Kaleidoscope – Cecily Wong

Geoff W

When someone from the publisher reached out about Kaleidoscope, this line caught me: “This book is heart-wrenching and hopeful and the characters truly shine on the page. It’s one of those books where I wish I could read it again for the first time all over again. And I’m so happy that you get to.”

And I downloaded a copy almost immediately, but of course sat on it for a few months, allowing me to forget about the blurb and the subject and go into this completely blind.*  This approach, if you’ve followed me for a while, sometimes works for me and sometimes it doesn’t. This time it sort of worked mostly because the intro was a little abrupt and different from the rest of the story, but that’s on me, not the author.

Continue reading “Book 950: Kaleidoscope – Cecily Wong” →

ARC, Books

Book 948: Patricia Wants to Cuddle – Samantha Allen

Geoff W

What a wonderfully weird novel. When this landed in my inbox from the publisher I first thought WTF is that because the cover art screams pulp fiction and as much as I find those hilarious I’m not usually drawn to them. However, I’d decided I wanted to expand my LGBT novel repertoire, and knowing this featured lesbian/bisexual female protagonists I said sure why not.*

Billed as a satire of The Bachelor, Patricia Wants to Cuddle takes place in the final two weeks of The Catch‘s season with four female finalists and the catch going to the San Juan islands off the coast of Washington state. While it is that, it’s also a final girl thriller novel with murder and mystery and urban legends aplenty to keep the reader engaged.

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ARC, Books

Book 947: Hot Pursuit (The Hot Cannolis #3) – Eli Easton

Geoff W

It was a little surprising to see that this one was only written by Eli Easton but I found out that what I  believe will be the final book in the series, Hot Lips, will be authored by Tara Lain. That being said, it didn’t stop me from requesting this one when it landed in my inbox!* I knew Rick’s story would be good and it was definitely good.

Hot Pursuit is the story of Rick and John. Rick is Mike (from Hot Seat) and Donny’s (from Hot Wings) uncle and is a homicide detective and recently came out to some of his family in support of Donny. He’s assigned a new partner, John, who has a chip on his shoulder for some reason and caught Rick’s attention even before he was assigned as his partner.

Continue reading “Book 947: Hot Pursuit (The Hot Cannolis #3) – Eli Easton” →