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Book 728: Where the Boys Are – Christopher Murphy

I took quite a few days before writing this review because I wanted to be thoughtful in my critique and honest in what did and didn’t work.

It’s always a little bit harder to write a response to a novel when it’s the author who reaches out to you to review their work.* I know how much of themselves authors put into their books and to then put it out in the world, I mean come on that’s more nerve than I’ll probably ever muster, so kudos to all of you out there brave enough to do it.

I’m going to start with what didn’t work, and then end on a high with the things that I really enjoyed about this work. So, stick with me because there were DEFINITELY some highlights!

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Book 723: Once You Go This Far – Kristen Lepionka

I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this. When the publisher reached out to me about an ARC I liked the synopsis and loved the fact Lepionka co-hosts a podcast called “Unlikeable Female Characters”, so said sure why not.*

I don’t know if it’s worth noting (but clearly, I’m noting it), the first thing I noticed on Goodreads is I am one of very few men who have read this book prior to release. I don’t know if that means we’re not the target audience or if it was just a coincidence, but I thought it was interesting.

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Book 703: The Names We Take – Trace Kerr

By no actual planning on my part I’m posting this on the release date of The Names We Take, which never happens. To be completely honest, the publisher sent this to me months ago and I just now got around to reading it, but hey things work out for a reason.* I liked the idea of the publisher, Ooligan Press, which is a student run press at Portland State University that concentrates on Pacific Northwest Writers and because the blurb was interesting and they’d clearly spent some time perusing my blog I accepted the galley.

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Book 680: The Dark Tower (The Dark Tower #7) – Stephen King

Talk about a gut punch of an ending.

The Dark Tower picks up immediately where Song of Susannah ends and not only does it punch you in the gut in chapter one, but it continues to pummel you for the next 700+ pages! And honestly, I wouldn’t have expected less from something of such epic proportions. I can’t talk about this without spoiling it so don’t read any more if you haven’t read it and have any intention of reading it. (You can read the recommendation if you want though.)

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Book 678: Blowout – Rachel Maddow

My jaw legit hurt after I was reading this because my mouth kept hanging open at the sheer audacity of the companies, politicians, and countries in this book. Seriously though, let’s just say that, this is one of those books that if I used only emoji’s to review books would just be this gif of Nick from Big Mouth‘s Head blowing up in amazement.

I stumbled across this book after seeing a review in the Washington Post (months after the book and review were published) and I reached out to the publisher for a review copy and they kindly sent one.* What I wasn’t expecting was for this thing to be like a spy/thriller novel. It. Was. Insanity. Just when you think something more ridiculous can’t possibly be done, Maddow gives her smirk and says, “but wait….there’s more.”

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