Tag: London

ARC, Books

Book 837: Fifty Words for Rain – Asha Lemmie

Geoff W

I feel hollow after finishing this book—I’m not sure emotionally drained is the right word because I feel like I have so many emotions going on that they’ve just forced each other out and there’s just nothing.  And when you take in that this is a debut novel, damn.

I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it’s been on my radar since the publisher reached out last year when it was first published but I didn’t get to it until the paperback was recently released.* I really should’ve prioritized it from back then because I feel like Dutton never steers me wrong looking at the books I’ve read from them.

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ARC, Books

Book 836: Summer Kisses (Kiss Me #2) – Charlie Novak

Geoff W

When this review request came in it was a no brainer.* I adored Patrick and Connor from Strawberry Kisses and was super curious about Aaron and Josh’s story because they were  at each other’s throats so much in the first book!

This one couldn’t be any more opposite. Whereas Strawberry Kisses was full of sweetness and adorableness, Summer Kisses was full of fire and passion and swearing and bad decisions. It worked just as well, just from totally different perspectives and attitudes.

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ARC, Books

Book 824: Dream Bound (Tasier #1) – Arian Williams

Geoff W

I had no idea what to expect when I decided to accept a copy of this one from Gay Romance Reviews.* I’ve tried to stay away from the super genre specific ones outside of MM romance, it just didn’t feel like it was my thing. But for some reason, this one just spoke to me.

This is the story of Joon, who has been stumbling through life not really able to make connections with other people and wondering what is wrong with him, and Trey, his soulmate who has all the memories of their dreams together that Joon can’t access.

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Books

Book 810: Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf

Geoff W

This is the third time I’ve read this. I read it first in high school in my teens and HATED it. #obvi

I then read it in my early twenties in an intro to LGBT Literature course and tolerated it. The discussion was the most fascinating part and had a lot more to do with Woolf and her life than the novel itself, although there are plenty of scribbles I have in my copy about the story.

And now in my mid-30s, I won’t say I love it, but I definitely have a new appreciation for Woolf’s mastery of the craft as I re-read it. Some of the notes I scribbled reading it in undergrad definitely helped draw my attention to things and I picked up on a few more that I missed. And this is noting that my timing to read it was 100% wrong. This is NOT a pool book, I definitely fell asleep and got a slight sunburn because it’s a slow-paced dense book.

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Books

Book 790: The God of Small Things – Arundhati Roy

Geoff W

OMG ya’ll, clearly, I should be judging the next Booker Prize. First Wolf Hall and now this, I get why they choose these beautiful books as winners. I’m only partially serious. I still think so many of the books are boring old stuffy books that are specifically chosen because of the inability of large swaths of the population to comprehend or appreciate them. So, boo on that.

All kidding aside, this was an incredibly beautifully written DEBUT novel. I was floored when I found that out. The way she wrote and the way time flowed eerily (and seamlessly) backward and forward in this novel it truly felt like a master class in novels. No wonder she won the prize—I’m definitely going to have to read her only other fictional work, The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, at some point because everything else she’s written is nonfiction (what?!).

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