Books

Book 787: Winter Ball (Winter Ball #1) – Amy Lane

Oh how the tides of turned, these days I’m like GIVE ME ALL THE MM Holiday Romances, whereas when I first read Lane’s Christmas Kitsch back in 2013 I was much more cautious and actively staying away from them. At last check as I write this, I have over 22 books tagged with holiday romance. HA!

I have no memory of that first book I read which mostly tells me that it wasn’t bad. Looking back over my review and my rating of three-stars just reiterates it was a middle of the road book with no major problems and I kind of feel that’s where this one ends up too: probably not the most memorable book, but nothing so egregiously wrong that I’ll remember it only for that.

Continue reading “Book 787: Winter Ball (Winter Ball #1) – Amy Lane”

Books

Book 780 & 781: Heartstopper, Vols. 1 & 2 (Heartstopper #1 & #2)- Alice Oseman

[Check out my Feb 2022 updated response to Vol 1. and my Feb 2022 updated response to Vol. 2.]

I’ve pretty much been waiting since last June to read this one. I absolutely adored Heartstopper, Vol. 1 and cannot wait for the next one this summer!

This post is a two-for-one as there was no way I could go into this without reading the first one again and they’re just so adorable. Really, this should be four-for-one because I read each twice because they’re so quick. I always read them once through focusing on the text and first impressions and then a second time focusing more on the graphics. And it’s worth it!

Continue reading “Book 780 & 781: Heartstopper, Vols. 1 & 2 (Heartstopper #1 & #2)- Alice Oseman”

Books

Book 770: Eight Nights in December – Keira Andrews

What a lovely little novella. After reading 10 Christmas romances I knew I wanted to find at least one non-Christmas romance for my 12 Days of MM Holiday Romances. And Hanukkah romances were a lot easier to find than Kwanza or Yule or anything else—so here we go!

Eight Nights in December is the story of Lucas, first year student whose dad recently passed away, and Nate, Lucas’s randomly assigned Senior roommate Sam’s little brother. Nate’s mom (being the take charge Jewish mother that she is, tells Lucas that he’s not spending the winter holidays alone when she goes to pick up Sam from school.

Continue reading “Book 770: Eight Nights in December – Keira Andrews”

Books

Book 768: Merry Cherry Christmas – Keira Andrews

As I cross the 3/4 mark with book nine of my 12 MM Holiday Books of 2020, I’m finding it harder to judge the books. I’m not sure if it’s because they’re starting to run together, they totally are, or if it’s because they’re dividing pretty quickly into those that I really enjoy and those that are just sort of meh (this is the first).

In Merry Cherry Christmas we have Jeremy (aka Cherry – his little brother couldn’t say his name growing up and it stuck) another virgin desperately trying to no longer be a virgin, and his knight in shining armor Max, the super fit and attractive captain of the university football team. But really, Andrews wrote it best: “a nervous nerd and protective, jealous jock.” Not going to lie, this one gave a lot of the same things that A Guy for Christmas did, but Andrews did it better, for me at least.

Continue reading “Book 768: Merry Cherry Christmas – Keira Andrews”

ARC, Books

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.

Continue reading “Book 756: Strawberry Kisses – Charlie Novak”