Books

Book 1,041: Would You Like to Be a Family? – koyama

Apparently, there are three stories in this one short collection, and I only remember one, so that doesn’t bode well. The biggest struggle for me was the style. I’m not the biggest fan of the super stretched out/tall bodies and super angular faces. I think it just makes them all look creepy.

The story itself was actually very cute (or least the one I remember) Takemura is a shy loner who had a bad bullying experience in high school, so he keeps to himself, but his coworker Natsui is outgoing and has tried to engage him before. They meet one evening in the grocery store and Takemura finds out Natsui has a kid and can’t get out of a dinner invite.

Before you know it, they’re all hanging out all the time. There’s even an awkward moment where Takemura has to go pick up the kid (cannot remember their names) and it goes well even though Takemura is SOO nervous. In the end the kid is the one that’s like hey you need to move in here, we’re always happier when you’re here. I’m 99% sure the book was sex free and that anything that did or didn’t happen was 100% off page and it was kind of refreshing knowing how edgy manga/yaoi/BL can get.

Recommendation: It’s a cute read. I’m a little concerned I have ZERO recollection of the other stories, but the entire book was pretty short, so they must’ve been even shorter. Illustration style wasn’t my jam, but I could see where others like it as there are quite a few in this style.

Books

Book 1,036: Chef’s Kiss – Jarrett Melendez

I didn’t realize it at the time, but this has many similarities to Bloom, but with enough of a twist/reversal that it makes sense that I read it right after. It was purely coincidence though, this was one of the half dozen graphic novels/manga that were immediately downloadable from my local library. I won’t compare too much as it’s not really fair to either, but I just got a kick out of that realizing it now as I sit down to write my response (months later—whoops).

Continue reading “Book 1,036: Chef’s Kiss – Jarrett Melendez”

Books

Book 1,024: Planes, Trains, and Hurricanes – Eli Easton

I grabbed this one over winter break from Kindle Unlimited, because I wanted to read a MM Holiday Romance and Eli Easton is one of those MM Romance authors who writes good stories, they’re not the best, but I do enjoy them. And growing up in the hurricane belt (Southeastern NC) I was interested in finding out WTF was happening in this novel.

Planes, Trains, and Hurricanes is the story of Joe, NYC hotshot with a rich future father in law trying to navigate the world of money having grown up relatively poor, and Remy, a southern do-gooder who has dedicated his time to educating and housing orphans and making the world a better place in general.

Continue reading “Book 1,024: Planes, Trains, and Hurricanes – Eli Easton”

Books

Book 1,023: Catered All the Way – Annabeth Albert

Annabeth Albert can write a MM Romance novel. Seriously, y’all I say it every time and re-reading the few notes I took as I type this up months later ALL THE FEELS come back so fast and then when you add in the two cameos from her Out of Uniform series and The Geek Who Saved Christmas, it just gets even better!

This one of those close proximity, long pining younger brother of a friend romances and I am here for it. There was minimal angst and the story moved along pretty quickly. Atlas, a marine who seems to know a few people from the Out of Uniforms series, has come home for Christmas. He was going to stay with Zeb’s brother, but the house is chaotic with twins on the way and in-laws in town. So, Zeb, a professional gamer, sees this as his opportunity to invite Atlas to stay with him and maybe something will happen in the close proximity—and it sure does.

Continue reading “Book 1,023: Catered All the Way – Annabeth Albert”

Books

Book 1,014: Find Me Worthy (Safe Harbor #3) – Annabeth Albert

Of the three books in Annabeth Albert’s Safe Harbor trilogy, this one was by far my favorite. I won’t say it’s unfortunate that you need to read the other two to get to this one, because they’re still well written books, but you do have to read the two of them to truly appreciate this book due to the underlying murder mystery that ties them together.

Find Me Worthy is the story of Sam, the slightly younger (I imagine slightly nerdy) do-gooder that idolized Monroe (from Bring Me Home), Holden (from Make Me Stay), and Worth, the other protagonist of this novel who fled as soon as he could after his mother disappeared and buried himself in first an MBA and then a high-stakes finance job that’s come crashing down around him.

Continue reading “Book 1,014: Find Me Worthy (Safe Harbor #3) – Annabeth Albert”