Books

Book 1,074: Save the Game (SCU Hockey #2) – J.J. Mulder

Book Cover of "Save the Game"Book two of J.J. Mulder’s SCU Hockey series finds us once again back on the campus of South Carolina University, but this time it’s not as happy of a story. Trigger warning: sexual assault off page.

We meet Max, the hockey playing protagonist of this novel in book one of the series, Shots on Net, and I knew something was up with him, I just didn’t know what. I thought it was just him figuring things out, but it was so much more than that. Turns out his world was turned upside down when he was drugged and sexually assaulted at a party, and all he can do is keep moving forward through nightmares and insomnia.

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Books

Book 1,073: Shots on Net (SCU Hockey #1) – J.J. Mulder

Book cover of "Shots on Net"While waiting for the next book in the Jane Austen Murder Mystery series I decided I wanted to read yet another sports romance. Specifically I was looking for the jock/nerd trope and when I googled it, this was one of the ones that came up over and over on Reddit. In general, I’m loath to trust Reddit, but after reading a couple of blurbs I kept coming back to this one.

Shots on Net is the story of Zeke, the small super nerdy demisexual desperately looking for a cheap room, who finds Carter, the stacked varsity hockey goalie who is rich AF, who happens to have a room for rent. And, y’all, the sass in this novel was epic. I honestly wasn’t sure as I started reading if I was going to like Mulder’s style, but this line got me:

‘You look twelve, or something.’
‘And you look like someone who breaks kneecaps for the mafia,’ he retorts. (16)

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Books

Book 1,072: Sense and Second-Degree Murder (Jane Austen Murder Mystery #2) – Tirzah Price

Book cover of "Sense and Second-Degree Murder"In for a penny, in for a pound, right? After reading Pride and Premeditation, I figured I should go ahead and read Sense and Second-Degree Murder before conquering Manslaughter Park and I’m glad I did. Although they’re not intricately tied together there are definitely mentions of Lizzie in this book and I’m part of the way into the third and Lizzie, Darcy and Charlotte actually make an appearance and the Dashwoods are mentioned.

For the most part, I enjoyed this adaptation of Austen’s Sense and Sensibility. Price did an excellent job with sticking to the core character traits of Marianne and Elinor, and even gave Margaret a bigger role which I could appreciate as I always forget there’s a third sister. If there’s one thing I didn’t like about the adaptation it was that Colonel Brandon became Mr. Brandon. And it made sense for the story, but EVERY time I read it I was like “Bah! What is this nonsense?!”

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Books

Book 1,070: Henry Tilney’s Diary (Jane Austen Heroes #6) – Amanda Grange

Book cover of "Henry Tilney's Diary"So, I was vaguely aware that a series of novels written from the male protagonists’ perspectives of each of Jane Austen’s six novels existed, but I’d never sought them out. I was more focused on finding LGBTQ adaptations or contemporary adaptations.

That was until I randomly decided in February I was going to read a new-to-me adaptation of each of the novels for Austen’s 250th birth year. And when I was looking for a new-to-me adaptation of some of the less-frequently adapted novels (Northanger AbbeyPersuasion, and Mansfield Park) these were on the list of some of the best adaptations/inspired by regardless and so here we are.

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ARC, Books

Book 1,066: The Lost Story – Meg Shaffer

Book cover of "The Lost Story"What happens when you take the Christian allegory out of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia, modernize it and add a little queer joy and some millennial/gen-z humor—I’m not lying I legit rolled my eyes at booping death on the nose? Meg Shaffer’s The Lost Story is what happens and it was a delightful fantastical journey that I very much enjoyed.

The publisher reached out with a review copy in early 2024 and I finally got around to it just over a year later and it was worth the wait.* When I got to the passage that the publisher included in the outreach email I gasped and was like “THIS is why I requested it!” (I 100% did not re-read that email before starting this on vacation, I just knew exactly what it was and verified it afterward.)

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