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Book 888: A Dashwood of Sense and Sensibility (Love, Austen #6) – Anyta Sunday

This wasn’t the perfect ending to Sunday’s Love, Austen retellings, but it was a damn good one. Like the last five there was no doubt I would accept the ARC when it came in (and I was a little worried when I didn’t see it even though its publication date was fast approaching)!*

We met Noah and Zach Dashwood in one of the previous novels (I believe Finley Embraces Heart and Home) and I have to assume we met Brandy/Brandon and Wade at some point too, but no clue honestly. For some reason, I guess because the names were great cognates like some of the other books, it took me way too long to remember who Zach and Noah were compared to Elinor and Marianne from the OG Sense and Sensibility. Once I got that sorted, I was all set.

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Books

Book 885: A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce

Ugh—I should’ve given up while I was ahead, or used the same app I used to slog my way through Ulysses. This was the longest 215 pages of my life.

I actually broke down for the last chapter and found an audiobook version from my local library to listen to at 1.25x speed while sorting data and stuff at work. So, at the very least I can say I enjoyed the Irish accents for that portion of it and the Whaley last name shout out about 75% of the way through 😀

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Book 881: The Best Gift – Eli Easton

When this one came in to my inbox I didn’t jump at it.* I was drawn to the veteran storyline and the  other protagonist having lost his son recently, but Easton isn’t an OMG must read even though I enjoyed her Clyde’s Corner series.

And I was more-or-less right. There wasn’t anything wrong with the story but I finished less than three days ago as I’m writing this and I’ve forgotten so much of it already. That’s not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to MM Romance novels, because they’re really for fun and enjoyment not deep thoughts and pondering, but three days seems a bit short even for that.

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Book 880: The Geek Who Saved Christmas – Annabeth Albert

Ya’ll, I’m still not sure Annabeth Albert can write a bad book. I’m serious, she’s written books I was sort of meh about but they weren’t bad, they just weren’t for me and that’s okay. A few months ago I finally joined her Facebook group (Annabeth’s Angels) and have thoroughly enjoyed it and it was how I ended up with an ARC of this adorable Christmas romp.*

It took longer to get to than expected, stupid work, but as soon as I started reading I blazed through it. I want to note right off that I am so impressed with this ARC, it had fewer errors than many final books I read by self-published authors. I expect nothing less from Albert, but this was her first self-published ARC I’ve read even though I’ve read others via her publishers on NetGalley.

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Book 879: Mr. Jingle Bells (Home of the Holidays #3) – Leta Blake

Three books later, I’ve finally gotten around to the ARC that I requested because it was an opposites attract fake boyfriend story—of course I was going to request it.*

This is the story of Walker, boring frat boy business man whose mom tried to set him up with Casey from Mr. Frosty Pants, and Ashton, glamorous social media rockstar whose sister tried to set him up with Joel from Mr. Frosty Pants. Since that book ended, Casey and Joel have married and Casey, Ashton and Walker have started a marketing company.

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