ARC, Books

Book 813: Cameron Wants to be a Hero (Love, Austen #2) – Anyta Sunday

I was always going to read these. From the second I found out about them from Gay Romance Reviews or when I randomly stumbled across them at some future date.*  With a description like, “It’s Northanger Abbey, complete with a neo-gothic mansion and charming misunderstandings. But contemporary. And gay.”, hell yes I was going to read them.

Both this and Emerett Has Never Been in Love, were adorable retellings of Austen’s works. I’m a little concerned Sunday will abandon the project before she gets to Mansfield Park (even though I SWEAR we met the characters) or Persuasion, like it seems most do (stupid Marvel and Austen Project).

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ARC, Books

Book 812: The Step Back – J.T. Bushnell

I wasn’t sure what to expect with this. I saw a meh review (that was still four stars) on Goodreads so that definitely made me hesitant to start. But, I’d already told the publisher I’d take a look at it, so I did.*

The Step Back is the story of Ed Garrison. There’s not a lot that happens other than he grows the f*ck up. It sounds weird saying it’s that simple—sure it’s a two-year period in his life is full of upheaval and maturing faster than he want—but in essence that’s what it is.

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ARC, Books

Book 798: Emerett Has Never Been In Love (Love, Austen #1) – Anyta Sunday

I was never going to say no to this. It’s a MM romance novel inspired by Jane Austen. If they would’ve thrown in Star Wars or some other geekdom I doubt I could’ve restrained myself from waiting as long as I did to read it!*

This was never going to be my favorite no matter how much I enjoyed Sunday’s writing or characters, it’s just not my story when it comes to Austen, but for the most part, I enjoyed this retelling of Austen’s Emma.

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ARC, Books, Professional Development

Book 786: No Blanks, No Pauses – Shelly McNamara

When the publisher reached out to me about this I immediately knew I was going to say yes (even if it took me a few days to get around to telling them).* I’m always interested in LGBT individuals’ personal journeys to where they are today and when the subject line was “Chief Equality & Inclusion Officer at Procter & Gamble Publishes Inspiring Memoir on Living an Authentic Life”, of course I was in!

I knew nothing about Shelly McNamara and the only thing I knew about P&G, aside from all the random products of theirs I use, is that they have a big neon sign in Boston on a building (I think it’s a museum?), so I went in blind which isn’t anything new for me.

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Books

Book 784: Fever Pitch (Love Lessons #2) – Heidi Cullinan

This one was a little more of the original Heidi Cullinan I read a few years ago, but a bit more balanced. I figured I may as well finish out the Love Lessons series and they were available from my local library digital download so here we are.

Whereas in Love Lessons, the sex scenes don’t start for some time, they kick off early in this one because the two protagonists hook up after they’ve graduated high school before they head off to college. Similar to book one, you’ve got one more experienced if jaded protagonist, Giles, who’s faced bullying and assault in high school and is dying to get out of town and his hookup Aaron, deeply closeted and dealing with overbearing parents.

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