Tag: New York City

Books

Book 906: Black Cake – Charmaine Wilkerson

Geoff W

Book cover of "Black Cake" with Amazon Affiliate linkWhen someone from the publisher reached out to me about Black Cake, it wasn’t an immediate yes or an immediate no.* I honestly had no idea what I was going to do, I thought it was a beautiful cover (even if I didn’t notice the woman on it for ages) and the multi-generational story drew me in.

What ultimately decided for me was that it was a debut novel, love those most of the time, and my reading list is seriously lacking authors of color and I’ve been saying for years I’m going to expand my reading list. And holy shit y’all I’m so glad I did, this book took me for so many rides.

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Books

Book 901: More Happy Than Not – Adam Silvera

Geoff W

Book cover of "More Happy Than Not" with Amazon Affiliate linkSo I have talked about gut punches when reading books before, but Silvera took it to a different level with this one—and this was his freakin’ debut novel!

I’ve known about Silvera for some time and even read his co-authored What If It’s Us? with Becky Albertalli, but this is the first time I’ve sought out his work. I came across it on a list of must-reads and so grabbed it when I saw it was available at my library.

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Books

Book 899: Year One (Chronicles of the One #1) – Nora Roberts

Geoff W

Book cover of "Year One" with Amazon Affiliate linkWHOA. So, I’m really glad I didn’t read this book two years ago this time or I would’ve been freakin’ the f*** out as coronavirus took over the planet! Thankfully, I didn’t discover the fibercast Needles at the Ready (Instagram link) until late 2021 where one of the hosts, Ray, recommended this series.

It was bad enough when I read The Names We Take in May 2020 (or even Severance back in late 2019) where a virus wiped out huge swaths of the world’s population, but Roberts takes it to an entirely different level! The opening chapter is gut-wrenchingly dark and I actually stopped reading it in bed the first night I started because it was seriously creeping me out.

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Books

Book 876: Mr. Frosty Pants (Home for the Holidays #1) – Leta Blake

Geoff W

Book cover of "Mr. Frosty Pants" with Amazon Affiliate linkI hadn’t planned to start my MM Holiday Romance binge this early, but when I started getting requests for reviews, including the third book in this series, it was inevitable that I’d start sooner than expected.

The challenge I face when I get sucked in by a blurb is whether or not to go back and read the books earlier in the series. Even if they’re “stand alone” I truly love it when they’re inter connected even if it’s just quick glimpses of future characters. That common thread is just the best to me. Thankfully, when I saw Mr. Jingle Bells I liked the idea of this one (the first) and am sort of meh about the second in the series Mr. Naughty List so thought why not.

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Books

Book 875: Souls Aligned (Tasier #2) – Arian Williams

Geoff W

Book cover of "Souls Aligned" with Amazon Affiliate linkWhat a dangerous opening line! For some reason when I said yes to this book, I mean I did read the first one after all, I didn’t realize a chunk of it would be taking place in Boston.*

It’s always a gamble with me when it’s in a town I’ve lived in or have been to frequently. Thankfully, Williams didn’t disappoint, but that’s because she kept everything super vague and general, which I’d rather an author do than screw up something everyone who’s been in the city for more than an hour knows.

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