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Book 976: Baking Me Crazy (Apple Meadows #2) – Catherine Cloverdale

OOOF. You know when they tell you not to judge/choose a book by its cover? That 100% applies to this one. When this landed in my inbox, I thought, ” Oh, that’s a decently professional cover, the model is attractive, and the font isn’t too amateur,” so I requested a copy.* AND then a few weeks later when I sat down to read it, I realized it was the second book in a series, the first was Apple-y Ever After, by an author that I barely made it through the first because there were so many issues.

So, I thought okay, maybe she hired a copy editor and a proofreader to fix a lot of the minor (but persistent) issues I found throughout, or at the very least read the book out loud so the dialogue was less stilted and the passages flowed naturally.

NOPE.

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Book 975: A Gift-Wrapped Holiday (Lighthouse Bay #4) – Amy Aislin

I requested a copy of this from Gay Romance Reviews because it’s Maine and I remembered enjoying the couple of books I read by Amy Aislin.*

This is the story of Luca who fled the west coast after his family shot down his idea to make their wrapping paper company more eco-friendly and environmentally conscious to open his own holiday wrapping store, and Mal, a single dad and graphic designer who recently moved back to his home town to be closer to family.

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Book 968: Henry Hamlet’s Heart – Rhiannon Wilde

I picked this review copy up a while ago and due to school and work being a bit much recently, I’m posting this almost two weeks late.* I really try to have my responses published the week of publication but that week was also the week my first big paper was due, which I did great on, but still better luck next time.

Henry Hamlet’s Heart is the story of Henry and Len, best friends that have been in each others’ orbit forever. Henry has existed as the non-sexual know-it-all brainiac and Len has existed as the sexually fluid footballer who does what he wants when he wants with whoever he wants.

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Book 967: Our Dreams at Dusk (Our Dreams at Dusk #1) – Yuhki Kamatani

I found this one on a list of manga to read after really enjoying My Love: Mix-up! along with I Hear the Sunspot. So when I saw my local library had a copy of this I put it on hold and grabbed it before our weekend away earlier this month.

At heart, Our Dreams at Dusk is a coming-of-age and coming-out story. Tasuku has moved to a new town and he’s been outed and has to come to terms with either being open about it or trying to continue to hide it. So this one is not as light and fluffy as many of the other BL Manga I’ve read.

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Book 966: Theory of Happiness (I Hear the Sunspot #2) – Yuki Fumino

This book picks up a good while after I Hear the Sunspot, but mostly because Taichi and Kohei have been avoiding each other for stupid reasons. UGH, why do I love this crap so much?!

For me, the best part of this book is how much Kohei has grown and come to accept his hearing loss. He’s cut his hair shorter, no longer hiding his hearing aid, and is actively taking part in the hearing-impaired group on campus. He’s really grown and matured and for a good chunk of the book, we think he’s moved on from Taichi.

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