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Book 749: Feinted Love (Crimes of the Heart #1) – Elle Keaton

I’ve been incredibly hesitant to accept another galley from Gay Romance Reviews after reading It’s A Steal and being appalled at the editing and the numerous 4-5 star reviews on Goodreads.* I’m glad to say this one was definitely a lot better than that one, so at least I wasn’t burned twice, right?

But what can I say (mostly because I’ve said it before), I’m a sucker for a cover model in glasses . . . swoon. I’m not sure I’d peg this cover model as Arnie, this guy just looks too smooth.

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Book 734: It’s a Steal – Arden O’Keefe

This is not a good book. It is not well written (story or characters) and it is definitely not well edited (any type, but especially copy or developmental). The shocking part, to me at least, is that I have to assume the author has paid an editor (listed in the front matter) AND a promotional group (Gay Romance Reviews) to produce this “final copy” version and I’m still writing this scathing commentary on it.*

If I were the author and read what I’m about to write, I’d demand my money back from the editor and politely ask the promotion company to pause all promotions while I paid someone else to re-edit it. But take my response for what it’s worth, the other Goodreads reviews have all rated it 3-5 stars and complemented the “cute story”.

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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 689: The Play of His Life – Amy Aislin

I honestly didn’t plan for April to be full of MM Romance novels, but that’s how the world works. Plus in this new world of coronavirus stay-at-homeness they’re the only thing I want to read. So in the words of Jonathan Van Ness, buckle up queen (YouTube video; watch the first 10-15 seconds) there are more to come after this, thanks to the library coming through on a few that have been on hold.

I read this as part of the Gay Romance Reviews publicity push for The Play of His Life‘s re-release later this month. I was intrigued when it landed in my inbox because I love second chance romances (oh hey Persuasion), and let’s face it MM romance sports stories are usually pretty hot and heavy. I did have some hesitations about accepting it because it is self-published, but it did come from a publicist rather than direct from the author so someone had to vet it at some point, so I figured why not?

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Book 674: Am I Ugly? – Siobhan Hill

What a fun quirky read! When the author reached out about reviewing the book* I had some hesitations as it’s self published and I haven’t had great luck with that in the past, but I realized as a graphic artist I could check out her site and get a taste of her style to see if I’d like it. I took a look liked what I saw and said sure, and that was definitely the right decision.

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