ARC, Books

Book 834: Blackout – Marco Carocari

Book cover of "Blackout" with Amazon Affiliate linkIn general, I don’t read a lot of mysteries or thrillers, even though I really should (see next paragraph). However, when the publicist reached out about this one with a gay protagonist I thought sure why not give it ago.*

Although there were definitely some issues with this book, pretty sure the authors native language isn’t English, for the most part I enjoyed it. And if my reaction to the two big reveals in the novel are anything to go by I really should read mysteries/thrillers more often. The first WTF moment happened and I had to take a few minutes to collect myself. I mean it was obvious it was coming looking back, but I got caught up in the story and didn’t pay attention to the clues or hints. And then the second one, I was just pissed about.

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Book 754: The Friend Scheme – Cale Dietrich

Book cover of "The Friend Scheme" with Amazon Affiliate linkI’ve honestly stopped keeping track of where I see books. I just add them to a list or request them at the library and then when they come in I read them and spend 10-15 minutes trying to find out where I found them. In essence, I have no clue where I saw this, but thank you to whoever put it on my radar.

If I’m honest, the cover art drew me to the book, I like the graphic identity and the clean lines and with both their eyes closed it just made it that much more pleasing to the eye. You can sort of read the stress in Matt’s posture (right) and Jason kind of looks above it all.

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ARC, Books

Book 753: Voices of LGBTQ+ – Lynda Wolters

Book cover of "Voices of LGBTQ+" with Amazon Affiliate linkUhhh…. A for effort?

I said yes to this one when the publisher reached out with a review copy way back in July (it’s been a long year obviously), because it sounded interesting and was nonfiction.*

I was obviously going to come into it with some bias, as a gay man I’m clearly going to have opinions, but I’m also going to come into it with a lot more education and history knowledge, holding an advanced degree in gender, sexuality, and queer theory. And frankly my thoughts are divided on this book. Did Wolters do a good job of starting a conversation and representing the individuals she interviewed? More or less. If I were judging the book solely on this she would’ve gotten four stars.

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Book 748: Full Domain (Nice Guys #3) – Kindle Alexander

Book cover of "Full Domain" with amazon affiliate linkThis series could’ve stopped with the last book—it wasn’t bad, just underwhelming.

This picks up immediately after Full Disclosure and jumps right back into the story focusing on Kreed Sinacola (Mitch Knox partner from the second book) and Aaron Stuart (Mitch’s gaming friend). Aaron’s been called in to help with the case that started in Double Full and was “solved” in Full Disclosure, but he poked holes in the tidy package that wrapped up the case. So, it’s a problem he created for himself.

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Book 747: Camino Island – John Grisham

Book cover of "Camino Island" with amazon affiliate linkI read this after a coworker passed it on because he knew I loved books and this is a book about a book theft from a world class library and then set in a bookstore featuring mostly authors and booksellers. I mean come on that’s like catnip to a book blogger, right?

Unfortunately, this book was 100% forgettable. I’m not sure if it has to do with it not being a legal thriller or if it has to do with the weird split narrative. But whatever it was I just wasn’t feeling it.

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