Books

Book 1,073: Shots on Net (SCU Hockey #1) – J.J. Mulder

Book cover of "Shots on Net"While waiting for the next book in the Jane Austen Murder Mystery series I decided I wanted to read yet another sports romance. Specifically I was looking for the jock/nerd trope and when I googled it, this was one of the ones that came up over and over on Reddit. In general, I’m loath to trust Reddit, but after reading a couple of blurbs I kept coming back to this one.

Shots on Net is the story of Zeke, the small super nerdy demisexual desperately looking for a cheap room, who finds Carter, the stacked varsity hockey goalie who is rich AF, who happens to have a room for rent. And, y’all, the sass in this novel was epic. I honestly wasn’t sure as I started reading if I was going to like Mulder’s style, but this line got me:

‘You look twelve, or something.’
‘And you look like someone who breaks kneecaps for the mafia,’ he retorts. (16)

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Books

Book 1,071: To the Moon and Back – N.R. Walker

Book cover of "To the Moon and Back"N.R. Walker might just be the queen of low-angst MM Romance. Every book I’ve read by her has had minimal angst—usually caused by lack of self confidence or the evergreen male trait of refusing to talk to each other—and every one has been absolutely lovely. And To the Moon and Back was no different.

I grabbed this one when I wanted a quick read and for some reason was like “I’d love to read a single dad romance.” It didn’t hurt it was a grumpy/sunshine that I also truly enjoyed. It features Gideon, an exhausted first time dad to his adopted nephew, Benson, whose partner abandoned him because of the adoption, and Toby, a nanny with a background in early childhood education, who moves in to help as Gideon returns to his full time work.

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ARC, Books

Book 1,069: The Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King – Harry Trevaldwyn

Book cover of "The Romantic Tragedies of a Drama King"Have you ever read a book and had a moment of “Oh shit, was this me in high school?” I thought this for a millisecond, and then I remembered a friend in our friend group and was like, “OMFG close call, I wasn’t quite this dramatic.

I loved the title of this one, so when the publisher reached out with a galley last October, I jumped at it.* It only took me five months to get to versus the much longer wait many of the others I’ve finished recently. This was the last one though, I’ve officially cleared my galley/ARC TBR pile.

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ARC, Books

Book 1,068: The Rules of Royalty – Cale Dietrich

Book cover of "The Rules of Royalty"Imagine the Princess Diaries, but gay, with a few more edits and that’s what you get here, and I loved it. I accepted this galley at some point last year and finally got around to it on vacation in March.*

Seriously, imagine on your 17th birthday your adoptive mother is like oh heyyyy remember how I’ve been open with you about your mom. Well your mom actually wanted me to keep all of this LIFE CHANGING INFORMATION FROM YOU. As if you weren’t going through enough issues as a gay teen, throw in that you’re apparently also a crown prince of a small European country, yeah oof.

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Books

Book 1,056: Idol Lives (Idol Romance #3) – K.T. Salvo

Picking up where Idol Moves drops off with a massive cliffhanger, we find ourselves with Jason and Tae Hyun once more as their relationship evolves, Tae Hyun’s fame increases—along with scandal, and Jason’s responsibilities become even more of a burden.

After the mental hurdle I had to overcome with the second book being a continuation of the same story and not another couple within the same series, this one went by a little quicker. It’s funny, I usually gripe about how fast MM Romance (and the romance genre in general) are so unrealistically fast, that I’m now complaining about a story being spread over three novels. If I look at it objectively, however, Salvo did exactly what he said he was going to do. He basically wrote three seasons of a K-drama and I can’t fault him for that.

For me, the story could’ve ended after Idol Minds, and been a wonderful standalone novel, but there were definitely gems throughout the second and third novel and getting to see more of the minor characters develop over the longer story timeline definitely added to the overall story in this final book in the series.

Jason nodded, understanding how she felt. A year ago, he would’ve felt the same way. But his immersion in the K-pop universe had taught him that a lot of darkness often lurked beneath the glitz and glamor. (280)

The second and third books moved away from MM Romance and were more thriller and family saga/corporate scandal respectively, with a side of romance spread throughout. The third one worked better for me, I think because it was more intrigue than drama. Of course there were major moments of drama for both Tae Hyun—how dare you kiss him!—and Jason—WTF actually happened and F*CK YEAH Naomi, take names and kick ass—but they weren’t the over the top drama that it felt like Idol Moves had. All of this being said, the amount of details that Salvo probably left is unbelievable. The third novel could have been three separate books, if not four.

By far, my favorite part of this one was the wedding. We knew it was coming and we knew it would be either the biggest FU to all the haters or the most beautiful private ceremony ever; and it was. I won’t tell you which, but it was the perfect denouement of the series and the best happily ever after. For real though, I didn’t even care about some loose ends about the billions and the tour and their future. I was just left grinning like a total crazy person.

Recommendation: Definitely read if you’er a fan of K-dramas. If you’re solely a fan of MM Romance, maybe read the first one and if you’re super invested in Jason and Tae Hyun after that, then commit to reading the other two. They are a bit of a slog to get through, mostly because there is so much in them, but they are all well written and wrap up neatly which is all you can really ask for in a book/trilogy. I’ll definitely keep an eye out for more from Salvo in the future and cross my fingers he dips his toes into a traditional MM Romance series with different characters in each novel. I feel like he could really make one of those work.

Opening Line: “Jason braced himself against his father’s marble-topped mahogany desk, his finger tightening around its edge.”

Closing Line: “Hand in hand, heart to heart, bound by a love that had weathered storms and emerged stronger, brighter, and more radiant than ever before.” (Whited out to avoid spoilers, highlight to read.)