Tag: Own Voices

Books

Book 1,043: Northranger – Rey Terciero & Bre Indigo

Geoff W

I don’t know how I didn’t know about this one sooner. I mean, I do. Life has been incredibly busy and non-stop post-pandemic, and 2022-2024 was a blur of classes and life, which explains how this 2023 release slipped under my radar, but OMG I’m so glad I found it. Terciero takes Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey and turns it into a wonderful MM romance while Bre Indigo does a fantastic job of capturing a Texas ranch in this adaptation.

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Book 970: Heartthrob (Honeywood #1) – Noah Steele

Geoff W

OMG, ya’ll this is an author to keep an eye on. That’s not something I usually say when it comes to a self-published author I come across via Gay Romance Reviews.*

More often than not I’m complaining about the quality of either the story, the writing, or the editing (or all three or some combination), and don’t get me wrong there were a few issues with this one but Steele can definitely write and I’m already looking at his back catalog to see what I want to read next.

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Book 959: The Dove in the Belly – Jim Grimsley

Geoff W

When I finished re-reading Dream Boy back in May, I did a quick search to see what Jim Grimsley was up to these days and stumbled across this upcoming release. I reached out to the publisher for a copy and crossed my fingers it wasn’t going to be as traumatic or emotionally draining as the others I’ve read.*

The Dove in the Belly is the story of Ronny and Ben. It takes place on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus in the 1970s and that’s the main reason I wanted to read this, Grimsley went to UNC and having it set on the UNC campus intrigued me as I also went to UNC and remember some of the history around the early LGBT organizations and experiences on campus.

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Book 946: Just by Looking at Him – Ryan O’Connell

Geoff W

If I’m 100% honest I first was drawn to this book because of the cover art, a cropped version of Henry Scott Tuke’s The Critics (Wikiart link). Tuke does water like no one else and they pumped up the blues and greens on the cover.

Then when you add the title of the painting to what the main character does for a living: mind blown. So THEN I realized this was the same Ryan O’Connell who created, wrote, and starred in Special on Netflix, and of course, I requested a copy.*

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Book 930: The Fake Boyfriends Debacle (Frat Brats of Santa Barbara #1) – Hayden Hall

Geoff W

When this popped up on the Gay Romance Reviews site I requested a copy since I’d been watching Hall’s social media and book releases for some time.* I figured why not give him a go and see what I thought.

Unfortunately, for me, this was a miss. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t poorly written or anything and honestly, it probably had better copy-editing than most of the self-published books I’ve read or received via GRR. It just didn’t work, but more on that later.

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