ARC, Books

Book 981: Never Been Kissed (Boy Meets Boy #1) – Timothy Janovsky

In all honesty, I had no intention of reading this. I didn’t even know it existed, but when I stumbled across You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince by Janovsky, and realized it was a series (that’s not connected as far as I’m aware) and the library had this one I grabbed it too.

And OMG am I glad I did.

I was a little annoyed at first as this is a bit of a copycat of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, but queerer and with a lot more humor (or at least my taste in humor). Wren sends emails to his four almost first kisses after a night out and the chaos ensues. After I got over that I was beyond invested because Janovsky was hilarious.

Continue reading “Book 981: Never Been Kissed (Boy Meets Boy #1) – Timothy Janovsky”

ARC, Books

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.

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

ARC, Books

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.

Continue reading “Book 971: The Christmas Leap (Festive Fakes #2) – Keira Andrews”

ARC, Books

Book 959: The Dove in the Belly – Jim Grimsley

When I finished re-reading Dream Boy back in May, I did a quick search to see what Jim Grimsley was up to these days and stumbled across this upcoming release. I reached out to the publisher for a copy and crossed my fingers it wasn’t going to be as traumatic or emotionally draining as the others I’ve read.*

The Dove in the Belly is the story of Ronny and Ben. It takes place on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus in the 1970s and that’s the main reason I wanted to read this, Grimsley went to UNC and having it set on the UNC campus intrigued me as I also went to UNC and remember some of the history around the early LGBT organizations and experiences on campus.

Continue reading “Book 959: The Dove in the Belly – Jim Grimsley”

Books

Book 958: My Love Mix-Up! (Vol. 4) – Wataru Hinekure & Aruko

I’m STILL squeeing about this adorable manga! I wish I could read Japanese because they’re already on Volume 9! I also just found out there’s a TV show version so I may try and figure that out soon. Mostly, I’m just glad my library had as many as they did and have my fingers crossed they’ll keep getting them as they’re released.

In this book, we have our first drama of the series, outside of the comedies of error. Aoki freaks out because of how nonchalant Ida is in telling people they’re dating. It comes from a well-meaning place, he doesn’t want either of them to get bullied, but it’s totally misplaced.

Continue reading “Book 958: My Love Mix-Up! (Vol. 4) – Wataru Hinekure & Aruko”