Thanks to author KD Casey for the complimentary e-ARC. All opinions provided are my own.Baseball? In real life I don’t know ya 😆. But serve it to me in bookish romance form & I am one very excited person. KD Casey & Lauren Blakely have released another MM sports novella, Dirty Steal, & it offers a satisfying hookup ➡️ teammates ➡️roommates ➡️ lovers again arc. Derek Miller & Adam Chason are two baseball players who hook up one night, neither of them exactly looking for something permanent. Later, Adam is traded to Derek’s team & they unexpectedly become apartment-mates. Awkward forced proximity, anyone? 🤣 These leads have a sweet & winning love story with some steam thrown in. While I didn’t feel the zip, the zest, as much in this one as I loved in the first novella, this one too is sure to please so many of us looking for that lovely trifecta of sports + kissing + novella. 4⭐️. Out now![ID: an ebook sits on a wooden desk. To the upper left is two orange zinnias in a vase & a red prayer plant. Centered above is a woven brown pumpkin.]
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Thanks to the publisher for the complimentary hard-copy ARC & the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.Jess Everlee’s The Gentleman’s Book of Vices feels so distinctive to me—it’s a MM Victorian romance set in a grim London that’s relieved by sex, friendship, genuine goodwill, & love, & all of these good things are related somehow plot-wise to the creation & publication of erotic texts written by one hero & read devotedly by the other. Charlie Price is engaged out of what he feels is necessity. But before his wedding he decides to conduct an investigation into the real identity of a favorite Queer erotica writer—secretly a bookshop owner named Miles Montague—in the hopes of getting his autograph. Soon after both men are drawn into a relationship that consumes them with desire, even as the “Real World” continues beating at their door. Both men have to make difficult choices, particularly Charlie, who becomes aware of his privilege & for once wants to take a real & difficult stand for what’s right. Everlee really builds up the suspense & the angst, & though I was frustrated for part of this plotline, by the end I was retrospectively happy about how it had all worked out as well as terribly relieved. I love love the found family in this one & how Miles also realizes he can make new friends—that he can feel safe somewhere that isn’t home. Though their relationship runs a bit fast for me—I felt like I was missing a little something from its arc—this is very good MM historical romance with a touching undercurrent of care & community that really warmed my heart. But also be advised this is not light reading material. 4.5⭐️. Out 11/29.CWs: Imprisonment & death of Miles’s previous partner. Previous blackmail. References to self-destructive behavior. Shame surrounding Alma’s (Charlie’s former fiancé) pregnancy & the lingering effects of that labor. Her parents made her give up baby for adoption.
Thanks to the publisher & Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own.Admittedly I haven’t seen the movie The Holiday but I’m pretty sure Roan Parrish’s The Holiday Trap has the same basic premise: Greta & Truman agree to switch homes for a while, living in new cities & meeting people they fall in love with. Sounds like a lot of fun, right? Our settings are Maine (a place I’ve wanted to go to since reading a Nora Roberts lightkeeper romance in my impressionable youth) & New Orleans (no Nora Roberts’s novel memories there ;) ), & it’s really fun seeing Greta & Truman embrace their new homes by going on adventures in those distinctive places. For me the risk with focusing on two different romances is just that at least one is likely to feel short-changed & that happened for me with Greta & Carys. It feels somewhat insta-love to me & I’m not a big fan of that. But cozy is a Roan Parrish trademark & I got it with this Queer holiday romance, where both Greta & Truman find happiness & new homes where they can live the lives they’ve always wanted. 4⭐️. Out now!CWs: Greta’s family is in general pretty crappy. Her sister is homophobic & there’s a lack of family support—including from her mother—until the end. Truman is cheated on by his ex. Recreational drug use. Reference to serial rapist. Ash’s mother has Alzheimer’s.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. This book isn’t quite Assassin Lite but there are so many things that got to my heart nonetheless. 🌻 Like a deliberately annoying lead + the lead who gets exasperated by him. 🌻 A grumpy & the sunshine combo. 🌻 Forced proximity. 🌻 I have to trust you (even though I shouldn’t) if I want to survive. 🌻 Let’s make a home together. In N. R. Walker’s The Kite Harry & Asher are both assassins who go on the run together once they realize that hits have been put out on both of them. Neither man is quick to trust so that makes the inevitable walls coming down all the better. The steam had me fanning my cheeks, the caretaking scenes grabbed at my heart, & I was genuinely happy to see them at the end, forging a new, safe life separate from the violence of their past. Be warned: there’s a lot of violence in this one & lots of deaths, some committed by the leads. In an effort to establish their own safety Harry also threatens a villain’s family in front of the villain only & while I think he was bluffing I prefer my leads to make less threats against possibly innocent people please & thanks. But on the whole The Kite really satisfied. 4.5 ⭐️. Out now!
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. Ahhh this book. If you haven’t read a KD Casey book you must! Please 🥺. KD Casey is rapidly becoming one of my fave writers & for me the author shares many of those characteristics I love so much about Kate Clayborn’s writing: they’re deceptively quiet-ish plot wise but they’re absolutely stunning stories with so many romantic, smaller moments that add up to huge incontrovertible proof that two people have found their person 🥺🥺🥺. Oh yeah, & there’s baseball 😅. In Fire Season Reid Giordano, a recovering alcoholic who’s trying to find his way back professionally to the pitching he was once capable of—is traded from the minors to the Oakland Elephants. There he meets Charlie Braxton, a star pitcher who’s known for not saying a lot & who’s keeping his impending divorce a secret. They become friends & eventually more in the midst of stresses like Reid possibly being temporary in Oakland, Charlie’s experiences with anxiety, & Reid’s continual work toward maintaining his sobriety. Despite the last paragraph the overall tone of Fire Season is of hope & growth & making deliberate choices to try to be better & stronger. I absolutely love this book & I think its romantic moments—like them dancing together in a kitchen—will live with me rent free. Please check this author out! & then come chat with me 😆. 5 ⭐️. Release date: 07/19.
Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the complimentary ARC. All opinions provided are my own. I’ve seen people recommend Josh Lanyon before & a 1940s, atmospheric read with a murder mystery seemed like a good place to start. It feels difficult to sum up my feelings on Snowball in Hell but basically: on one hand, the book’s portrayal of how dangerous it was for queer men in the 1940s feels authentic to real life but on the other, from a romance-reading perspective the book is darker than I expected it would be. And while I think this is book 1 in a series, I didn’t totally appreciate how I felt hopeful but not necessarily settled about where the leads are together or separately at the end of this one. In Snowball in Hell Lieutenant Matt Spain is tasked with finding who murdered the son of a wealthy man & left his body in a tar pit. Also helping him investigate, but on an unofficial level, is reporter Nathan Doyle. Bringing in some lingering trauma from their respective war experiences, their various perspectives on their sexuality & the shame & in Matt’s case, denial, about some aspects of it, & the homophobia of the time period in general, Snowball in Hell is not a light read. The murder mystery aspect is fun, & seeing Matt & Nathan connect, particularly while they’re basically cut off from the world on Christmas Eve & Christmas, is touching. I hope that the next books will allow both men to come to some peace in how they view themselves & their sexuality & carve out a space for their relationship that feels relatively safe. 3 ⭐️. Out now!
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