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Book 883: New Year Not You – Edie Montreux

UGH. Two duds in a row and MM Holiday Romances at that! I’m now warry about what I read next and really wish I had an Annabeth Albert or a Roan Parrish lined up, because I need their perfection after these last two!

This one had so much promise when it arrived in my inbox: enemies to lovers, substance abuse overcome with sobriety, redemption and romance, two protagonists who’ve known each other forever and reconnecting as they’re coming into their own as adults, but in the end, it was one massive let down from beginning to end.*

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Book 807: Stupid Love (Five Foxes #1) – S.J. Carter

I’m not 100% sure why I said yes to this when it came through Gay Romance Reviews.* I think it was because of the enemies to lovers storyline/trope, but who knows really? It also could’ve been because of the cover model, he looks vaguely familiar, or it could’ve been the academic setting. Really there’s no telling with me.

This was my first time reading something by Carter and it wasn’t too bad. I’m always hesitant trying a new self-published author. You never really know what you’re going to get when it comes to editing and proofreading. Thankfully, for the most part, there weren’t any issues that stood out for me. A couple of minor errors here and there but not so egregious to make me highlight them and share them so we’ll call it a win.

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Book 614: Wolves of the Calla (The Dark Tower #5) – Stephen King

In general, I am LOATHE to enjoy a book as slow as this, let alone a 7(+) book series, but this one is good, really good.

I think the biggest issue I have with this book is how quickly it ended. Some of this is of course due to the Amazon Kindle flaw of telling you have 8-10% left in the book when really you have 1-2% and the other 8-9% of those pages are bonus content. But, the rest of it has to do with this having the first true cliffhanger in the series. [This might not be true as I can’t really remember the endings of the others, just they all blend together.]

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Book 363: Her Best-Kept Secret – Gabrielle Glaser

Many of you might not know this about me, but when I have a problem that I don’t know how to deal with my first response is to research it as in-depth as possible. That makes it a bit awkward when I blog about everything I read (this is my reading journal as much as it is your review site). At the same time it’s great because I get to share interesting books, like Her Best-Kept Secret, that I never would have read. And I force myself to explore and synthesize in-depth a lot of topics.

If you see me on a day-to-day basis you’re aware that someone close to me has a lot of problems with alcohol, it’s kind of obvious they are a “she” based on the book title. In reality, I’m not sure it would’ve mattered if they were a she, because after reading “The Irrationality of Alcoholics Anonymous” in The Atlantic I knew I wanted to find out more about non Alcoholics Anonymous (AA) programs and I figured Glaser was a great place to start as she mentioned her book in the article.

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