Books

Book 985: Crooked Tree Ranch (Montana #1) – R.J. Scott

Book cover of "Crooked Tree Ranch" with Amazon Affiliate linkI swear I’ve either read this book before or read something very similar to it. I checked the publication date and it was after I started the blog and was documenting every book. So I’m not sure why this and the second book were SO FAMILIAR. Or maybe I started it and didn’t finish it so it never made it to my list, but either way, it was really eerie reading the first two in this series.

I grabbed this series from Kindle Unlimited right before our February trip to the Dominican Republic. I knew I didn’t want to read non-fiction because school is so full of it now and nothing on my shelf spoke to me, so here I ended up.

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Books

Book 982: You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince (Boy Meets Boy #2) – Timothy Janovsky

Book cover of "You're a Mean One, Matthew Prince" with Amazon Affiliate linkAs I mentioned in my review of Never Been Kissed, I originally planned to read this but when I found out it was the second in a (now I know unconnected) series, I had to start with the first! Thankfully, my local library had digital copies of both and I was able to download them and jump right in.

The premise of this novel is that the very wealthy Matthew pulls a ridiculous stunt and his parents send him to live with his grandparents for the holidays to let the press cool off and teach him a lesson. There he meets, down-t0-earth scholarship student Hector who has no time or patience for spoiled little rich boy shenanigans.

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Books

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

Book cover of "Never Been Kissed" with Amazon Affiliate linkIn 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.

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Books

Book 950: Kaleidoscope – Cecily Wong

Book cover of When someone from the publisher reached out about Kaleidoscope, this line caught me: “This book is heart-wrenching and hopeful and the characters truly shine on the page. It’s one of those books where I wish I could read it again for the first time all over again. And I’m so happy that you get to.”

And I downloaded a copy almost immediately, but of course sat on it for a few months, allowing me to forget about the blurb and the subject and go into this completely blind.*  This approach, if you’ve followed me for a while, sometimes works for me and sometimes it doesn’t. This time it sort of worked mostly because the intro was a little abrupt and different from the rest of the story, but that’s on me, not the author.

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Books

Book 944: The Kingdom of Sand – Andrew Holleran

Book cover of "The Kingdom of Sand" with Amazon Affiliate linkI wanted to like this book so much like really wanted to, because Holleran is one of those early LGBT authors whose work has stood the test of time for decades. And that’s why I requested a copy from NetGalley.*

What I didn’t expect was how similar to Mrs. Dalloway and A Single Man this would be. I think that bodes well for the longevity of the novel, but unfortunately, for me, it wasn’t the time or place to read it to truly appreciate or enjoy it. While there were some incredibly beautiful passages throughout, I struggled to get into the book and (for the most part) identify with the nameless narrator.

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