Books

Book 940: Seb’s Summer (Maine Men #3) – K.C. Wells

As I continue blazing through Wells’ Maine Men series to get ready for Aaron’s Awakening, book six, I’m not really hoping this isn’t a downturn in the series. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t a bad book, it just wasn’t as good as Finn’s Fantasy or Ben’s Boss.

In this book, we have Seb from the core friend group who has had to leave Ogunquit to head further north to Cape Porpoise to help out his injured uncle on his lobster boat. While there he runs into Marcus, an older (mid-30s) copywriter who fled his demons in NYC and is seeking refuge in his family’s vacation house.

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Books

Book 939: Ben’s Boss (Maine Men #2) – K.C. Wells

I decided to catch up on this series after reading Finn’s Fantasy, way back in April of last year, and seeing the ARC of book six, Aaron’s Awakening, in the last week or so. I enjoyed Finn’s story and the Maine setting so thought why not.

We got a taste of the friend group that provides the characters for each book, but barely enough to even guess at their various personalities. Ben is one of the quieter ones who was bullied in high school and has the opportunity to leave his grocery store job for a little tourist shop. As luck would have it, his new boss is his high school bully, Wade, who was so deep in the closet he lashed out at anyone and everyone, but particularly Ben because he had the biggest crush on him.

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Book 938: A Teaspoon of Desire – Alex Danvers

I’ve had this book since January and I really should’ve started it well before I did—not because it was so good, but because it was a slog and I barely met the review deadline.*

I won’t rehash my issues with Riptide Publishing (search the blog, yes I’m still bitter) and as always I’ll give the good and the bad about the book, but TL;DR: this book took WAY too long for me to get through, and maybe it’s just me, but it really should not have.

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Books

Book 935: Dream Boy – Jim Grimsley

Bare with me for a moment as I go on a tangent. Recently, I’ve been obsessed with re-watching the Netflix adaptation of Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper series and I  couldn’t realize why other than it’s a fantastic series and adaptation, but then I read this book and it all clicked into place: queer joy.

Growing up in the 1990s/early-2000s I’d say 85%+ of all depictions of LGBT characters were tragic or left to interpretation and this is a prime example of that. Having the opportunity to watch Charlie and Nick in Heartstopper as they discover happiness and joy, even with setbacks, mental health issues, and added TV drama, is just such a wonderful feeling of relief and joy that I float along every time I watch it or listen to the soundtrack or think about it. And this is in stark contrast to Roy and Nathan, the protagonists of Grimsley’s second foray into the novel.

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Books

Book 934: Breakaway (Off the Pitch #1) – Charlie Novak

I threw this on my Kindle from Kindle Unlimited at some point in the last two years because I’ve enjoyed most of Novak’s works and love a good MM Sports Romance. It was the oldest KU book on my list so I figured why not cross it off.

Breakway is the story of childhood friends Christian and David, who drifted apart when Christian went off to play for the pros in Germany, but the never gave up the torch for each other.

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