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Book 1,068: The Rules of Royalty – Cale Dietrich

Book cover of "The Rules of Royalty"Imagine the Princess Diaries, but gay, with a few more edits and that’s what you get here, and I loved it. I accepted this galley at some point last year and finally got around to it on vacation in March.*

Seriously, imagine on your 17th birthday your adoptive mother is like oh heyyyy remember how I’ve been open with you about your mom. Well your mom actually wanted me to keep all of this LIFE CHANGING INFORMATION FROM YOU. As if you weren’t going through enough issues as a gay teen, throw in that you’re apparently also a crown prince of a small European country, yeah oof.

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Book 1,067: Two for Trust – Elle Brownlee

Book cover for "Two for Trust"And just like that, this book took another step forward as the most read book since I started this blog. Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is giving it a run for its money with three reads (Jan 2013; Aug 2013; Dec 2015; and an upcoming re-read), and if you count Austen adaptations it’s no contest. But, I’ve read Two for Trust five times now, twice in 2020 and then again in February 2023 and again in October of 2024.

I genuinely have no idea why I enjoy it so much. It’s a simple love story that’s decently written and it’s squeaky clean. There are a couple of heated moments and 1-2 super heated kisses, but that’s it and that’s definitely part of why I enjoy it. Part of it is how quickly I can read it—if I don’t start too late in the evening I can finish it in one sitting!

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Book 1,058: In Deeper Waters – F.T. Lukens

The final book I completed in 2024. There might’ve been one more between this and the last one, I honestly can’t remember anymore.

Whenever we drive to NC to see family we generally break the drive up over two days so the trip is four days there and back (we usually stay a full week in the middle) and the three times we’ve done it now we’ve listened to an audiobook and this time it was In Deeper Waters.

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Book 1,057: Two for Trust – Elle Brownlee

Book cover for "Two for Trust" with Amazon Affiliate link“I wish I knew how to quit you.” I use that line from Brokeback Mountain somewhat facetiously but also as a WTAF draws me back to this book because I will 100% read it again, probably in less than 6 months.

Is this the best book ever written? No. Is this book even that great from a plot or romance genre perspective? Meh. Does it, however, scratch some unknown itch that I still don’t know what is causing it or where it is? ABSOLUTELY.

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Book 1,051: Excavations – Hannah Michell

If there is one book that I regret not getting my review pushed out as soon as I finished it to tell everyone about it, it is this one! Seriously, this book has stuck with me and I’ve thought of it off and on since I read it. And even when I read it, it was a year later than I should have because the publisher reached out in July of 2023!* OMG I didn’t even realize that which is a shock to me—I guess 2022-2024 were even more blurred than I thought.

This isn’t as hauntingly powerful as Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go or Murakami’s 1Q84, but it could hold its own. Interesting those are both also author’s of Asian descent, as is Hannah Michell. Michell has the British connection also to Ishiguro, but that is tangential to this review and this probably says more about me than it does those three authors.

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