Books

Book 939: Ben’s Boss (Maine Men #2) – K.C. Wells

I decided to catch up on this series after reading Finn’s Fantasy, way back in April of last year, and seeing the ARC of book six, Aaron’s Awakening, in the last week or so. I enjoyed Finn’s story and the Maine setting so thought why not.

We got a taste of the friend group that provides the characters for each book, but barely enough to even guess at their various personalities. Ben is one of the quieter ones who was bullied in high school and has the opportunity to leave his grocery store job for a little tourist shop. As luck would have it, his new boss is his high school bully, Wade, who was so deep in the closet he lashed out at anyone and everyone, but particularly Ben because he had the biggest crush on him.

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Book 938: A Teaspoon of Desire – Alex Danvers

I’ve had this book since January and I really should’ve started it well before I did—not because it was so good, but because it was a slog and I barely met the review deadline.*

I won’t rehash my issues with Riptide Publishing (search the blog, yes I’m still bitter) and as always I’ll give the good and the bad about the book, but TL;DR: this book took WAY too long for me to get through, and maybe it’s just me, but it really should not have.

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Book 937: Burn Rate – Andy Dunn

When someone in the marketing department at the publisher reached out about this because I’d positively reviewed David Chang’s Eat a Peach, I had to take a few minutes to really think if I wanted to go back into this world.*

In Chang’s book, his mental health struggles are peripheral, but in Dunn’s Burn Rate, he centers them. I spent quite a bit of time reading about bipolar disorder, alcoholism, and other mental health issues before my mom died a few years ago to try and understand what she was going through and what my sister and I were experiencing. And that REALLY hit home when the first quote Dunn uses in his book is a quote from Kay Redfield Jamison who wrote THE book (An Unquiet Mind) about brains and bipolar/manic depression/brains in general.

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Book 936: Café con Lychee – Emery Lee

What another wonderful juxtaposition from Dream Boy with so much light and happiness and just pure wholesome queer joy, I’ve really been putting myself through an emotional rollercoaster these last couple of weeks. Seriously, emotional whiplash is not fun and thankfully I can work from home where tearing up on my lunch break is totally acceptable.

I requested a copy of Café con Lychee because 1) I love lychee, like seriously on everything and lychee candy is the best—I say “LIE-chee” not “LEE-chee”; 2) to BIPOC protagonists which YA Lit is a lot better about than MM Romance; and 3) New England.*

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Books

Book 935: Dream Boy – Jim Grimsley

Bare with me for a moment as I go on a tangent. Recently, I’ve been obsessed with re-watching the Netflix adaptation of Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper series and I  couldn’t realize why other than it’s a fantastic series and adaptation, but then I read this book and it all clicked into place: queer joy.

Growing up in the 1990s/early-2000s I’d say 85%+ of all depictions of LGBT characters were tragic or left to interpretation and this is a prime example of that. Having the opportunity to watch Charlie and Nick in Heartstopper as they discover happiness and joy, even with setbacks, mental health issues, and added TV drama, is just such a wonderful feeling of relief and joy that I float along every time I watch it or listen to the soundtrack or think about it. And this is in stark contrast to Roy and Nathan, the protagonists of Grimsley’s second foray into the novel.

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