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Book 973: Stronger Than Longing (Chesapeake Days #3) – Katherine McIntyre

After enjoying the first two novels (Stronger Than Hope and Stronger Than Passion) I figured I’d give the newest in the series a go when it landed in my inbox from Gay Romance Reviews.*

This is the story of bad boy Silas who is back in town because of an uh-oh baby from a one-night stand who falls in love with Taran, the quiet little brother of Nico from Passion. It starts with a one-night stand after Nico gets dumped and Silas is burning off some energy and goes from there.

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Book 972: His Last Christmas in London (Christmas Collection #1) – Con Riley

Con Riley is one of those authors who has a really great sense of place. When I read their “His” series, I legit wanted to buy a bed and breakfast or a pub and hotel and move to the southern coast of England. So, when I saw this MM Holiday Romance pop up from Gay Romance Reviews I jumped at it.*

This is the story of Ian, a struggling photographer whose gotten out of an abusive professional/personal relationship and has realized he can’t make it in London no matter how much he’s tried and his roommates have helped out. He agrees to one last job at 3x his rate with his old boss/lover and meets Guy, a restaurant critic with a huge overshadowing persona. And even though it’s not love at first sight, it’s definitely confusion and lust.

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Book 971: The Christmas Leap (Festive Fakes #2) – Keira Andrews

We all knew this was coming . . . the MM Holiday Romance extravaganza. Honestly, I thought it’d be later but realizing just how little reading time I have these days and how quickly I got through these when they started to arrive on Gay Romance Reviews of course I started looking.*

I grabbed this one because it’s set in the same universe as Andrews’ The Christmas Deal that I read last year and thoroughly enjoyed. We get a brief check-in with Seth and Logan who offer some savvy advice to Will as he’s figuring stuff out because he works with them and they encourage the fake boyfriend caper.

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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 965: Flamer – Mike Curato

I was not expecting this one to be such a gut punch. I don’t know why because looking at the cover with the flames, the derogatory name, and the unhappy boy scout it should’ve been obvious, but still it got dark.

There was so much in this that I identified with from growing up as a boy scout, being chubby, and figuring out my sexuality. It was like looking in a very unflattering mirror with added identities for the protagonist who was half Filipino and making the transition from private middle school to public high school.

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