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Book 837: Fifty Words for Rain – Asha Lemmie

I feel hollow after finishing this book—I’m not sure emotionally drained is the right word because I feel like I have so many emotions going on that they’ve just forced each other out and there’s just nothing.  And when you take in that this is a debut novel, damn.

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it’s been on my radar since the publisher reached out last year when it was first published but I didn’t get to it until the paperback was recently released.* I really should’ve prioritized it from back then because I feel like Dutton never steers me wrong looking at the books I’ve read from them.

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Book 836: Summer Kisses (Kiss Me #2) – Charlie Novak

When this review request came in it was a no brainer.* I adored Patrick and Connor from Strawberry Kisses and was super curious about Aaron and Josh’s story because they were  at each other’s throats so much in the first book!

This one couldn’t be any more opposite. Whereas Strawberry Kisses was full of sweetness and adorableness, Summer Kisses was full of fire and passion and swearing and bad decisions. It worked just as well, just from totally different perspectives and attitudes.

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Book 835: Legendborn (Legendborn Cycle #1) – Tracy Deonn

I was on hold at the library for months to get this one! I vaguely remember it being released, but didn’t realize it’s connection to UNC Chapel Hill (my undergrad) until I saw the cover and Deonn in one of the alumni newsletters and then of course immediately had to read it, but was stifled by the long hold times :’-(

I wasn’t only drawn to it because of the UNC connection, but also because of the modern retelling of Arthurian legends. I knew this was going to be a fascinating take on them with a Black protagonist, southern history, secret societies, and the first public university in the country, how couldn’t it be!

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Book 831: Center Court (Order of Play #1) – Brooke Edwards

This book is a love letter to tennis and it was a gushing, effusive, adoring love letter.

When the review request appeared in my inbox I wasn’t sure about reading it, but it’d been a while since I’d read a MM Sports Romance and we were gearing up for vacation so I thought why not?*

Center Court is a split narrative work between Soren, the up-and-coming young tennis star who is poised to become a legend, and Elias, a fellow tennis player who has stayed on his heels and in the pack of the middle generation for years. There are many other minor characters (including the not-really-evil-but-I’m-still-calling-him-it Mattise) that kind of blend together because between Elias, Soren, and tennis there’s not a lot of room for anything else in this book.

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Book 826: His Compass (His #2) – Con Riley

I was a little surprised to find that there were already two additional books released in Con Riley’s His series. I read and adored His Horizon this time last year and had kept an eye out for the follow-ups, but either missed the review opportunity or totally spaced on them.

So, when I realized they were on Kindle Unlimited I grabbed both for this up-coming holiday and am glad I did. His Compass is the story of Captain Tom, who we briefly met in the first book and Nick, the seemingly wayward irresponsible deck hand who has his own backstory that provides the crises of the novel.

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