Books

Book 965: Flamer – Mike Curato

Book cover of "Flamer" with Amazon Affiliate linkI was not expecting this one to be such a gut punch. I don’t know why because looking at the cover with the flames, the derogatory name, and the unhappy boy scout it should’ve been obvious, but still it got dark.

There was so much in this that I identified with from growing up as a boy scout, being chubby, and figuring out my sexuality. It was like looking in a very unflattering mirror with added identities for the protagonist who was half Filipino and making the transition from private middle school to public high school.

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Books

Book 954: Heat Wave (The Extraordinaries #3) – T.J. Klune

Book cover of "Heat Wave" with Amazon Affiliate linkAfter the cliffhanger of Flash Fire, I wasn’t sure what to expect with this one. I was approved for a copy a few months ago and of course, sat on it for too long and missed the archive date.* Thankfully, I had downloaded a copy so was able to finish it up on the plane flying out to Chicago earlier this week.

The beginning was a little bit rough as there seemed to be a key piece of information missing from the story, but I figured out pretty quickly what was going on. It was all connected to the cliffhanger of Flash Fire so spoiler warning for after the jump.

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Books

Book 864: Hold My Hand (One Man Guy #2) – Michael Barakiva

Book cover of "Hold My Hand" with Amazon Affiliate linkThis was an adorable angsty follow-up to Barakiva’s One Man Guy. I feel like he could choose an emotion and keep going with Alek and Ethan exploring what that emotion means to the two of them and how it changes their relationship.

Hold My Hand picks up roughly five months after the end of One Man Guy, and Alek is facing fears of how and when they’ll take their relationship to the next level physically and honestly, it’s endearing and horrifying and hilarious all at the same time. (Seriously, read the second quote in the more quotes. DIED.)  The rest of this will contain spoilers so stay out if you don’t want to know the main plot point and what happens.

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Books

Book 842: One Man Guy (One Man Guy #1) – Michael Barakiva

Book cover of "One Man Guy" with Amazon Affiliate linkI didn’t plan to read this in an afternoon, it just happened 😀 Started it on my lunch break and then just kept going.

At some point last year, I requested a copy of this via NetGalley but was either denied or never heard back and as I was cleaning up my account I saw it listed somewhere and was like “oh that one did sound interesting,” so I checked my library and they had a digital copy and here we are.

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ARC, Books

Book 827: Flash Fire (The Extraordinaries #2) – T.J. Klune

Cover art of "Flash Fire" with Amazon Affiliate link.Holy sh!t balls . . . I knew this one would have a big ol’ cliff hanger and be just as adorable as the last one, but I. Was. Not. Prepared!

This book picks up right after where The Extraordinaries left off. We jump right back into the crazy world that is 16-year-old Nick’s brain. And what a joyous wonderful journey it is. There’s still a bit of fanfic, there’s a lot of awkwardness and internet searching/discovery and there’s the most adorable budding gayby/biby (is that a thing?) relationship that just made me go awwwww so many times.

FULL WARNING – DO NOT GO PAST THIS IF YOU DON’T WANT THE FIRST BOOK SPOILED and trust me you want to read these books!

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