Books

Book 665: Status Update (#gaymers #1) – Annabeth Albert

This is totally going to be one of those years (ahem, like most recently) where I cram in as many rom-com M/M romance novels as I possibly can. I had every intention of making a dent in my ARC pile and TBR shelves, but I needed a grin-inducing, wistfully gazing off into the distance misty eyed read. (100% blaming Schitt’s Creek here, but that’s a different story.)

And that’s exactly what I got out of it. Were there any earth shaking revelations or any literary grandiosity? No. This was a sappy, goofy, meet-cute filled oh-shit-there’s-drama-let’s-make-up story that was a quick and enjoyable read.

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Book 658: The Children of Harvey Milk – Andrew Reynolds

I’m not sure how I stumbled across this one, but when I did back in May I requested a copy from the publisher and they kindly obliged.* I was interested because of the subject matter, but also because Reynolds is based at UNC Chapel Hill (my undergrad) and his name rang a bell because he’d chaired the Sexuality Studies program there at some point in the recent past. And then with my master’s degree focusing on the Civil Partnership Act (2014) in the UK, of course I was going to want to read this book and see what he had to say.

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Books

Book 657: Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe – Melissa de la Cruz

Once again, the dangers of allowing me loose online or in a library result in me reading a random book I found while looking for something else specifically. Don’t get me wrong, I would’ve read this eventually—it’s a Jane Austen fan fiction/retelling/spinoff with reverse genders set at Christmas.

Honestly, I wasn’t even aware Pride and Prejudice and Mistletoe existed, but since I found it on Overdrive I’ve found out that they made a Hallmark movie of it and you KNOW I will be watching that this coming curl up inside because it’s cold outside and watch questionable movies season.

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Books

Book 655: Upside Down – N.R. Walker

Sometimes you just have to eat your own words. I really don’t like reading self-published works. In general, they are not edited (structurally, thematically, copy) appropriately, but then I stumble across a self-published book, like this one, and I am pleasantly surprised.

Don’t get me wrong there were a few copy editing errors—I’m looking at you “Hans Solo”, ouch—but no more than what I’ve found in some big publisher books before (cough ** Mr. Dancy ** cough ** Signett Classics ** cough). And in general, I found this to be well paced and complete. Maybe this is because I found it versus the author reaching out to me? I honestly don’t know.

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Book 651: Sorted – Jackson Bird

I am always on board for reading anything from LGBTQ+ authors, but particularly nonfiction (memoirs, biographies, autobiographies, etc.). So when the publisher reached out about this one I downloaded it (and somehow actually got to it the week it was published).*

Overall, I really enjoyed this. I mean page one is a J.K. Rowling/Albus Dumbledore quote, of course I was going to enjoy this. I had no idea about Bird’s connection to Harry Potter (or that the Harry Potter Alliance, now known as Fandom Forward even existed)! This being said, I wasn’t totally enamored with the book and didn’t figure out why that was until roughly 80% of the way through the book.

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