I read this in less than 24 hours, it was so good. I didn't give it 5 stars because I'm not sure the book has re-read value, there's nothing that deep or serious going on in it. But it's a perfectly executed fake relationship / romantic suspense novel. The hero in this is very 90s hot. Rich, cold, confident, but also doesn't take himself too seriously. They don't really write heroes like this anymore.

This was a fast read, the main character was too dumb to live but through most of the book you're really trying to puzzle out wtf is going on in this house, by the time you do, the action ramps up. This was a 3 star read for me for most of the book, then the climax ramped it up to a 4 and the final page really pushed me over the edge.

At the times the book felt overwritten and ungrounded, but it's essentially about a failure-to-launch woman who spends much of her life taking care of her mother who has this mysterious ailment that feels very psychosomatic. They go off to see this doctor who may or may not be a charlatan, and the daughter, our main character, Sofia starts to get her own life. She has a romance with a woman, she goes back to visit the father who abandoned her, and she comes back to deal with her mother once and for all. The mystery of the disease is what really carried me through on this story and once Sofia went to visit her father, I was all in and the pace picked up quite nicely. The twisty, uncertain ending was fun and gave this book a lot of reread potential for me.

I loved so much of this. This is the most sex positive romance novel I've ever read. If you like Hallmark and porn and have also ever dabbled in a boy band fandom, then you're likely to love this. Bee works in porn and used to crush on a boybander who happens to be her new costar on a Hallmark-like film. She's been a fan of his for years and he's been a fan of hers for some years too. The physical chemistry is there right away and it ends up being a very steamy romance. The smut is top notch and frequent. Also, both the hero and heroine are bisexual, which I've also never read in a non-poly romance and I really loved it. I want all my heroes to be bi now. The heroine is also fat and its hot. Like I've read many romances with plus-size heroines but it's not always written to be as hot as it can be. Bee's body is highly sexualized in this and I enjoyed it.

I found some of the side characters in this rather annoying though. They constantly gave the main characters bad advice and were accidentally sabotaging the main relationship. Bee was also a little immature and insecure near the end. At one point she gets upset that Nolan's plane landed 30 minutes ago and he's not answering her calls. Instead of her friend telling her she's being insane, she gets her high and turns off her phone so she doesn't get a callback. So annoying. It just felt like manufactured angst for no reason. His publicist / agent was giving all this bad advice too. An ex-boy bander gives bad advice as well. show more There were just so many external people interfering in this relationship.

At the end of the day though, this book is so unique in concept and execution, I have to let go of my minor quibbles. 4.5 stars. show less

This was my second book from Lynsay Sands. Different series, different subgenre but equally enjoyable. I've tried a few Highland romances but this was the first I've finished. It's about a very spirited young woman, Evelinde, who gets taken away from her evil stepmother in order to marry the Devil of the Highlands who's actually a very decent decent guy. He doesn't like to talk much, so people assume the worse. Three of his family members, including his former wife, have also died under mysterious circumstances so everyone believes him to be a murderer as well. Evelinde and Cullen have an instant physical attraction, but most of the book is them figuring out how to function as a married couple as they sort of this murder mystery. Cullen has a lot traditional values, he doesn't believe he needs to talk much and a wife's only job is to obey and trust implicitly and Evelinde bucks up against that in a bit that feels appropriate for what little I know of this time period.

This book really sold me with the instant chemistry between the mains and the funny situations Evelinde finds herself in. She's a bit of too stupid to live character, but her actions make enough sense and the circumstances she finds herself in are pretty funny. I'm pretty sure she's only eighteen-ish so you're able to let go of a lot of her behavior because she's young and has lived a very sheltered life.

This was a random LibraryThing rec. Picking up book #33 in a series with no context is kind of crazy, but Sands did a great job even for newbie. You're thrown into the action right away as the book opens up with a plane crash and as it moves on, you pick up what's going on in this fantasy world pretty quickly. There are vampires who aren't vampires and we're following one woman who was changed against her will by her husband over four years ago. She was really upset about her changing and is still working through that trauma and her bad marriage when she meets a mortal pilot who turns out to be her mate. So it's a fated mate romance with a LOT of excitement. At 35% in I thought I was approaching the end of this audiobook because it really felt climactic and there are multiple scenes like that throughout the book along with a bunch of aborted sex scenes. They're in a very dangerous situation so it's hard for them to make time to get it on, but maybe 20% in I was ready for her to just jump his bones already. And 50% in I was desperate for them to just find a room with a closed door and no eavesdroppers. My attention wavered near the end so I'm not sure if they ever found that room. I think they settled for a car. But this was a fast, good time all around.

I'm definitely planning to read more books in this series.

He laughed, and even now the sound curled along my skin like velvet. A joyous sociopath.

I love the way Hamilton writes about my husband.

This was a such a good time and my love for Jean-Claude continues to deepen. Best vampire ever written. In this book we're dealing with a shapeshifter mystery which was very compelling, but there's also a lot of time spent on the love triangle between, Anita, Richard, and Jean-Claude. I thought it was so masterfully done and by the end you have a pretty clear idea of how it will go, though in the afterward the author admits that she wasn't sure as she wrote it.

As in earlier books, we're watching Anita begin to recognize and reckon with the fact that she's a bit of a monster herself. She loves Richard the werewolf because he appears more human than Jean-Claude and gets a little skeeved when Richard goes all powerful wolf on her, but at her core Anita is more like Jean-Claude than Richard. Richard is a good guy who thinks the best of people and would only kill in pure self-defense. Anita is a killer and Jean-Claude is a sociopath. Even though Anita is repelled by how Jean-Claude manages his duties as a Master Vampire, she admires that he actually manages them. Richard is so much of a pacifist that he ain't managing shit.

From this book it's really easy to see how the Anita Blake series eventually turned into a poly story. Hamilton is so good at writing attractive men that it always begs the question, why choose? I wasn't a fan of Richard in show more the last book, but he grew on me a lot in this one. His passivity gets people killed but he's very hot while doing it, so it's forgivable. Very much looking forward to the next book where hopefully Anita gives Jean-Claude a real chance. show less

This was just good clean fun. Dealing with Dragons is about a girl who doesn't want to be a princess, so she runs away to do absolutely anything else and quickly finds herself working as a cook, maid, and librarian to a female dragon who plays an active role in dragon politics.

This is such a cozy book. I've never wanted to live in a cave until I read this. There's a lot of Cimorene reading and cooking, but there's also a great bit of plot that kicks off when wizards start showing up in places they don't belong. Its just a really good time, and the way Wrede tied up the end of the book was really masterful. Everything that felt like a joyful diversion earlier on in the novel became key in the end.

This book is a hot mess. Mentioned in reviews of previous books in the series, this series has a quirky Shakespearean quality to it. In this novel, Stuart actually calls it out by having our heroine make fun of the hero for being a second-rate Shakespearean villain. Lucien wants to get revenge on the Rohan family and thinks he can do that by marrying Miranda Rohan and making the girl's life miserable. Lucien is very hot. He is dark and mysterious, powerful and wounded, and so fucking broody. He has a charming sense of humor and almost zero fucks to give. He reminded me a lot of Jean-Claude in the Anita Blake series by Laurell K. Hamilton. Miranda is a boss bitch. She was "ruined" at a very young age and she's making the most of her spinster-lite life. She thinks she's found a friend in Lucien but fairly quickly realizes he wants to make her life miserable. So she does her best to play his game and she's much better at it.

These two are a couple of idiots, both trying their hardest to make each other miserable, all while its pretty obvious that they're in love. In a way, this is both an enemies to lovers story and a friends to lovers story. If you've read Shadows at Sunset by Anne Stuart, then the setup has a similar sort of vibe.

What didn't work for me was the B-plot romance. This entire series has them and this series has made me realize how much I hate romance novels with two romances getting play time. Miranda's friend Jane is falling in love and I did not care. I show more skimmed/skipped most of these chapters.

Also, like in other books in this series, Stuart is playing around with dubious consent in a way that doesn't feel very intentional. Miranda was kidnapped and raped as a teen. That's what "ruined" her. Her next relationship is with Lucien and though he talks a lot about the difference between rape and sex, Miranda never enthusiastically consents to sex. She wants him, she's wet for him. But given their situation, it didn't feel like enough for me. Lucien is very much giving off "I know you want this" vibes and when all of a woman's prior sexual experiences were completely nonconsensual, I think enthusiastic consent is even more important. "Enthusiastic consent" is a newer concept in the sexual assault space though. Not sure if Stuart would have known about it and am sure that Lucien wouldn't have during this time period. So it was easy for me to let go of, but I could see where it'd be a much bigger deal for other readers. show less

I'm not sure if I'm still hanging out in the romance afterglow, but I loved this book. The heroine is Jilly. The hero is Coltrane, Jilly's father's henchman / lawyer. Jilly has a contentious relationship with her father so automatically hates Coltane, which kicks off this hate-to-love romance. There is so much drama in this novel. Coltrane has a revenge plot. Jilly's sister has an addiction recovery plot. There is a ghost mystery plot. There's just a lot going on and it's dramatic and at some points very cheesy, but I loved it. The language and dialogue is so snappy and Jilly is such a strong character that it was impossible for me not to enjoy. Definitely the best romance I've read this year.

I loved this. I've tried reading all of the books in this series, but have only finished the first one and this last one. We get the setup to William and Winnie's story in the first book, where Winnie is a victim of domestic abuse and William is the doctor who heals her. Between the first book and this final book, three years have passed. Winnie has healed both physically and emotionally from her abusive situation. Her and Dr. William Graves are now friends. Both have feelings for each other, but the good doctor is harboring a dark secret or two. One dark secret is revealed in Book #1, Graves was part of the crew that faked the death of Winnie's husband. Not wanting to kill the man, they sent him off to a prison island. The second dark secret is something from his childhood. Basically Winnie sees Graves as this Florence Nightingale angel when Graves feels himself to be a dark monster.

Friends to lovers is my favorite trope, the anticipation for this couple was high given the previous books, and I just had a really great time reading this short novella. Graves spends most of the book lying to / keeping a secret from Winnie, which some people don't enjoy. But I felt his reasons for keeping quiet were valid. Winnie thought William was an angel and William thought Winnie was an innocent. Eventually their perceptions of each other become more complete. Winnie was also just a great heroine, so confident and self-assured, especially after everything she'd been through. Loved her.

All of these stories are great. And some I absolutely loved. If someone ever created an art series about these, I'd decorate my library with the prints. The stories are so incredibly beautiful and graphic. They'd make a good TV series too.

Enríquez's writing, translated by Megan McDowell, reminded me a lot of Francesca Lia Block's writing in that they both manage to infuse a lot of magic into the places and women they write about. It's darkly romantic and fantastical. This made me want to live in Argentina as much as Block has made me want to live in L.A. The stories were a mix of horrific, creepy, and ominous and all seemed to deal with different aspects of girlhood and womanhood.

My favorites were The Intoxicated Years, An Invocation of the Big Eared Runt, and Things We Lost in the Fire.

My only very minor complaint is that some of these felt like they ended too soon. I wanted more.

I can't wait to buy this in Spanish and explore more of Mariana Enríquez's writing.

This story got better and better as it continued. Stevenson is straight forward, maybe a little too tell-y vs. show-y, but the content is so good. If you've ever struggled with your vices, then this is the book. It contains so much good food for thought. My first real exposure to this story was actually the BBC miniseries Jekyll where the writers more explicitly made Hyde a manifestation of love, which was a lot of fun to think about as I read this novella as well. This honestly just feels like one of those foundational stories that I can enjoy in any iteration. It speaks to me in a big way.

This was like reading Shirley Jackson, but 100x better. One thing I like about Shirley Jackson is how she writes women who are just slightly off-center. The stories in Revenge have characters that give the same vibe, but the stories have more interesting plots and a more concise storytelling style than Jackson's works. Every story in Revenge is about some slightly weird character in some slightly weird situation. It's not full on horror at all, but the stories are meant to give you the creeps and keep you a little on edge as you wait to see how they'll resolve. These characters are the type of people you'd love to talk to in a café because they're fascinating, but you'd never invite into your home because they also give the impression that they're a hair's breadth away from losing their shit and stabbing you to death. There are stories that end in murder or include a murder, but they still manage to be rather tame.

I was listening to this on audio and trying to figure out why this collection felt so old school to me and I'm pretty sure Ogawa excluded any mention of modern technologies from the text. If they were mentioned, they were just a blip in passing because I couldn't remember them. And this worked for me A LOT. These stories felt like they could have taken place at any point in the last 70 years. So much of the focus was on human connection and human sensation. And I think it made the unsettling vibes every character was giving off so much more chilling.

The way all show more of these stories connect is so fucking masterful though and is why this collection is so great though. It really made me want to go all conspiracy theorist with the bulletin board and string to connect all the dots. But it also added so much re-read value to the collection. As you progress through the stories, you learn more about characters you were introduced to earlier on and it makes you want to re-read the earlier stories with this new information. One character in particular, who I only ever remember being called "Mama," appears often and is also sort of meta in that she's a writer who experienced and wrote about one of the stories for other characters in later stories to read about. Ogawa clearly had a lot of fun plotting this out and it is GOOD.

Lastly, the symbolism. I listened to this on audiobook and was so consumed by the stories that I know I didn't pick up on all of the symbolism or meaning in the collection. We get repeated depictions of juicy fruits, decay, food as comfort, torture, aging, and death. But overall I felt this book was a sort of reckoning with aging, loss, and our inevitable deaths. Several times in the story, people lose touch with someone they cared about and receive news that they died all alone and the things they left behind amount to nothing but garbage. The translation of the original Japanese title is "Silent corpse, lewd mourning," which makes way more sense than "Revenge." I suppose there are characters in the collection who technically kill out of revenge, but they don't feel vengeful. They feel like they're losing their minds out of loss.

Biting into fruit is often used as metaphor for the loss of innocence, so watching a strawberry shortcake decay, tomatoes get smashed into pulp on the street, a girl gorge on juicy kiwis as she's wracked with sobs feels symbolic of both growing up and loss. One character even invents a device that aims to help people grow taller but causes so much pain it's akin to torture. Another symbol of growing up and aging. Some people lose and lose and lose and leave nothing behind but a few fond memories. That's what I took away in this read, but I'm excited to give it a closer read in print and see if my thoughts change. show less

This was so much better than I was expecting, better than any adaptation I've ever watched at least. There is a lot of humor in the narration that gets lost when the story is translated to film. This was really a 5 star read for me for the first half, but as it progressed, I kind of felt like Dickens spent too much time describing every little detail in the rooms Scrooge visited. I've also always hated that Scrooge becomes a better man in the end. Even in this, it feels too easily won. Scrooge decides to do better as soon as he's exposed to how his actions have impacted others and it feels completely unrealistic. A good story for kids, but less interesting for adults.

Amazing, show stopping, spectacular, never the same, totally unique, completely not ever been done before, absolutely loved it! I was waffling between a 4 and 5 star for most of the read, but the ending! Jean-Claude! Like many a teen girl, I had a thing for vampires back in the day. I've read and watched a lot of vampire stories and Jean-Claude has to be the best vampire in vampire history. I sped through this audiobook in two days and the voice acting was phenomenal. ma petite, Jean Claude's nickname for Anita, sounded like a come on every time he said it. I've never been a big fan of slow burn romances or enemies to lovers tropes, but this one works so much for me. Anita and JC are more frenemies than enemies. Anita has really sensible character-driven reasons for not engaging in a romance with him and JC has very sensible political reasons for wanting Anita in his corner/bed. So the tension between them makes sense.

Anita is so incredibly flawed that it's actually amazing that I find her so likeable. Anita is way too concerned about being "one of the guys," she always believes the ends justify the means, she's a black-and-white thinker, and a total prude. It's easy to see that Hamilton is setting Anita up for big character growth in some or possibly all of these areas throughout the rest of her series. This book in particular deals with Anita getting a better grip on her own identity. Is Anita a monster or not? We don't get a simple answer to that question. But in this show more book Anita psychology abuses a mentally ill clairvoyant, absolutely terrifies a disabled prostitute, and kills three humans. Several times in this book Anita is asked or asks herself "would you have really pulled the trigger? could you really kill me? could I be pushed to kill her?" Anita is pushed to wonder if she's a good guy or a bad guy and eventually she has to realize she's something in between, which would break her black-and-white view of the world.

Thematically, I found this book interesting. In particular there was a conversation between Anita and a necromancer who committed human sacrifice. Anita is trying to understand how someone so good could be pushed to kill. And it made me wonder if we're all capable of killing, but each of us has our own specific level of a metaphorical push needed to get there. While most of us need an incredibly hard and persistent shove to get there, Anita seems to only need a brush of the shoulder.

As much as I found this an entertaining ride, I'm also interested in it from a craft perspective. The Anita Blake is such a long-running best-seller series, that it's actually fascinating to see how Hamilton set it up. I love that she pushed romance to the background and gave Anita so many ways in which to grow and mature. There are always a few different plots or cases going on to keep things moving quickly and big life/death themes are touched on but never hamfisted into the story. It's just really solid storytelling. show less

This was surprisingly good. I got into the Anita Blake series in college, right around when people began to complain about the series growing too smutty and romance heavy and Anita becoming out-of-character. I read a couple of books and never continued because I've always been bad with continuing series. This first book is such a good series opener. It's told in first person, which I usually hate, but Anita has a pretty pleasant mind to visit. She's funny and cool and likeable, while also having obvious flaws and making questionable decisions. She takes too long to figure out who's committing the crimes she's trying to solve and the motives of the Big Bad don't make a lot of sense, which is why it wasn't a five star read for me. But the ending line about her killing vampires and not sleeping with them is such a fist pump moment, even if you know that stance won't last for long.

This book is straight urban / paranormal fantasy, without any romance. I read this right after trying to read Pleasure Unbound and Angels' Blood, two series openers to PNR series. And I DNFed both because the main characters were unlikeable and the romances were so rushed and relied on the "not like other guys" trope. I think I prefer this low-romance start to a paranormal series. It gave me more time to appreciate the protagonist and to set up a frenemy dynamic between her and her first love interest.

Little things I also liked about this: so much diversity. I'm not sure it was perfectly executed show more but I appreciated that every other side character that was introduced was a POC. I also loved that Anita dressed like a 12-year-old hot mess. With the exception of two scenes, she put almost zero effort into her appearances and I loved it a lot. Very much looking forward to continuing the series this time around show less

This was a definite upswing in the series. The Barsoom series is at its best when there's a full cast of characters, we get reunited with old friends, bigger existential issues are tackled, and brevity is maintained. This story was about a mad scientist who allows people to pay to have their brains installed in newer, fresher bodies. The hero of this book is a John Carter dupe, a WWI soldier who finds himself dying on the battlefield and then suddenly gets transported to Barsoom which he's read about through all of Burroughs' previous writing. He ends up working for the mad scientist and falls for a beautiful young Barsoomian woman who's body was given to a mean, aging high priestess. In this book, he's quickly joined by a motley crew of warriors to help him retrieve his love's body.

Along the journey, Burroughs lightly tackles internal vs external beauty, war, religion, and sentimentality vs science. The war bit was oddly touching to me. Paxton, our hero, discovers a device that allows him to zoom into the surface of Earth and he sees all the destruction that the war he almost died in caused. That sort of hopeful, concerned homesickness was a nice touch of reality in this sci-fi/fantasy series.

I also have to give Burroughs some credit for how he wrote the heroine. She was once very beautiful and for the first half of the book she's in an old, ugly body. The hero could give her any of the other beautiful bodies that are in the lab, but she refuses. She'd rather have her show more own body or the old body dealt to her, and nothing else. She refuses to be so vain as to take beauty that doesn't belong to her. And the hero falls for her in her ugly body. Of course, he sets out on a mission to make her hot again, but I really liked that in this fairly shallow series, Burroughs took the time to acknowledge that beauty isn't just skin deep.

My only real complaint is that the pacing felt a little slow, which may just be because I've been in this universe for six books now. show less

I loved it and the ending was amazing, however it did drag a bit. Again we find ourselves on Mars with John Carter and he's on a mission to rescue his wife Deja Thoris. It requires a journey across the world and he encounters new races, new creatures and meets up with some old friends along the way. There are countless battles and near death experiences that John Carter escapes with unbelievable good luck, but that's par for the course for this series

Unlike the previous book in this series, Gods of Mars, John Carter is journeying alone in this novel and I do think the pacing suffers slightly for it. John Carter isn't the most interesting character in his own series, so I missed the big cast of characters that supported him in the previous novel. Their minor appearances in this one just wasn't enough for me.

However, all in all, it's a great, fun read.

I'm pretty sure this is the longest Barsoom book. It definitely felt like it. I started skim-reading about 100 pages in and only regained complete interest in the last couple of chapters. Princess Tara of Helium is great, like all princesses in this universe she has a tendency to get lost and kidnapped a lot. But she holds her own. My issue was actually the plot, it's broken up into Tara being held prisoner in two different Barsoomian societies. It could have been two books. The first society is one in which Barsoomians prioritize thought to the exclusion of all else and their bodies have physically adapted to that. This is written like it's a commentary on the dangers of intellectualism but its so absurd and extreme that I don't think a valid point ever coalesces. Tara's time in this society drags on for too long in my opinion and then she's off to a city that neighbors the city of a family friend. This section has more of the fast-paced storytelling I'm used to from Barsoom books. There's not much of a message, but there's a lot of political intrigue. I was already tired out by the first half of the novel though.

If I weren't committed to finishing this series and hopeful that the next books would be more enjoyable, I definitely would not have finished this. It was a low 2-star read for me, but the way things wrapped up in the end pushed it up to a 3-star for me. Tons of fun in those final chapters.

While I enjoyed the first novel in this series, Princess of Mars, it didn't blow me away and I expected more of the same from The Gods of Mars. However, a couple of chapters in I knew I would love this book. John Carter finds himself returned to Barsoom (Mars) at the beginning of this novel. He's landed in what many Barsoomians imagine to be heaven, but it's more like a hell on Mars. The entire book is basically John Carter's journey to reunite with his Princess / Wife / Baby Mama Deja and it is so glorious.

This book feels like the song The Boys Are Back in Town by Thin Lizzy. Every few chapters or so John Carter finds himself in a dangerous situation, turns around and is surprised to find one of his old friends from the last novel there just in time to help him save the day. It's so improbable and ridiculous, but you end up loving it because the boys are back in town and they're about to kick some ass.

As fun as this novel is it also does a great examination of religion. This is science fiction at its best, an out of this world story to examine very real world issues. Gods of Mars examines how so many different cultures believe their religion or faith is the "right" faith without deeply exploring and examining it or what else exists in the world.

Gods of Mars also examines how religion is used to justify the demeaning and degradation of others. I think this is an especially important theme because John Carter is a confederate soldier. White Christians in his time and show more before his time used Christianity to justify their "owning" of black slaves. Burroughs reverses the races (in my mind to make this story more comfortable for the white Americans he wrote this for) but his point is hammered home in a very light and fun way.

I love a good fun book with a message. 5/5 all the way. show less

I stopped reading this series after the third book three years ago, as if I knew this one was gonna be some bullshit. In this novel, we pretty much do away with all the characters we know and love from the first three books and focus on John Carter's son Carthoris and his love Thuvia who we met briefly earlier in the series. I was re-reading my reviews of the first three books and at some point I commented that John Carter is the least interesting character in his own series. His son Carthoris is even less interesting. Reading this crystalized for me what I actually love about this series though and it's the male friendships.

I don't often read stories about straight men that frequently express their affection and loyalty to one another, where their survival is mostly dependent on their ability to form faithful friendships. It's fun. When multiple male characters are on the page, I get pumped because I know they're about to do amazing things. That being said, most of this book was a drag because Carthoris was a lone figure for the majority of it, sometimes accompanied by Thuvia, near the end accompanied by Kar Komak who made me laugh once with his too few lines.

Many complain about these books for always centering around a hero saving a damsel and that of course exists in this book, but given this was written in 1916 about a woman in an even more patriarchal society than the U.S. at that time, Thuvia is a progressive heroine. She could be put in a book today and wouldn't be show more entirely out of place. Thuvia murders two men who dare to touch her and she locks a third in a room with a man intent on killing him. She uses man's weapons to kill, a dagger. And a more feminine method in the form of a connection she's managed to form with wild animals. She is principled until the very end and only gives her principles up for love after her prospective partner proves he respects them. Thuvia is not to blame for the mediocrity of this book.

The fault of this book really lies in Burroughs not giving Carthoris a bigger supporting cast. The plot also includes a sort of commentary on religion that never really coalesced for me and seemed repetitive of previous novels. show less

This was a re-read for me. I wanted to make sure it was still as amazing I'd remembered and worthy of sending off for a gift-exchange. I'm pretty sure nothing like this book has ever or will ever be written again. It is so unique and special. And I still get teary reading it. I kind of hate the synopsis and back cover blurb because it gives the impression that the book is more camp than it actually is.

Light is about Kieran, an out and proud gay man, who has a loving relationship with his family, friends, community, God, and himself. He's also a psychokinetic telepath. Like every other year, he takes off work for Ottawa's Pride Week, but he finds himself disappointed when Pride Week is crashed by a toxic fundamentalist religious group. Not only, are they shouting insults from the sidelines of every Pride event, they're also wielding some sort of power that allows them to slice open Pride attendees. Kieran, the good-hearted soul he is, can't stop himself from using his weak psychokinetic abilities to step in and help. How can one person save something as big as Pride though?

Light is a coming out story in that Kieran is closeted when it comes to his abilities. It's the softest sci-fi, thriller you will ever read in that Kieran remains very human as he runs toward the danger and let's us in on the science of his abilities. It's a reluctant superhero origin story in that when Kieran first uses his abilities to help people, the people of Pride turn him into one. It's a show more commentary on religion in that Burgoine chose to make Kieran a believer in God trying to defeat other believers in God. It's even a commentary on capitalism. But most importantly, it's really just a love letter to queer folks. I think the fact that Kieran is so clearly loved by so many people, that his love for his community both endangers him and rewards him is what makes this book truly special.

I'm so excited to pass this on to another reader! show less

I had the great joy of listening to this read by Alice Walker. I kind of feel like all poetry collections should be turned into audiobooks. As a poet, Walker doesn't play around with language very much or come up with extremely creative ways of putting things, her poetry is very straightforward. It's something I appreciate, but it also makes the poetry feel less like poetry and more like expressed thoughts or short essays. This collection felt like it was about Walker reconciling or dealing with the fact that so many people do so many awful things throughout the world. She deals with it by focusing on the good in the world, she introduces this idea of earthlings vs. others (i.e. true earthlings wouldn't do these awful things), and she assures us goodness will win in the end. I don't really agree with those last two ideas, but I really loved the concept of this project and Walker's execution of it. I'm excited to get a physical copy to read more closely.

I'm not sure if I really loved this book or if it was just so different than everything I've read recently that I loved the novelty, but this was an incredibly enjoyable audiobook listen.

Vu Tran is an Vietnamese-American writer who wrote about a white cop that believes himself to be in love with is ex-wife, a Vietnamese-American woman. The racial identities feel important because throughout this story, there's a sort of underlying discussion about what makes interracial relationships difficult. And while this phenom isn't unique to white men, through this white male protagonist, Tran shows us how a man can claim to love a woman without really knowing her, how he can claim to love her while also hurting her. We also get a very keen sense of this white man's entitlement, of his inclination to forgive himself of his sins while also judging others (all Vietnamese people) of the same sins extremely harshly. His lack of self-awareness is...*chefs kiss*. Near the end of the book, a Vietnamese man calls our protagonist "pathetic" and I'd wholeheartedly agree. He's just another entitled white cop with daddy issues. But I loved reading about him.

What I like about Tran's writing though is that he plays it very straight. He writes the protagonist like a hero because the protagonist sees himself as a hero. He does things that make him unlikeable to me, but it didn't feel like the author was forcing that "unlikeable" characteristic on the hero, he was just telling the facts.

I also show more loved Suzy as a second protagonist. She falls into the "bad mom" trope that I love. She is a complex woman who never really let marriage or motherhood completely consume her. And it seemed like her core desire was to be understood, which was hard because of her complexity. We spend most of the book watching this cop make every effort to hunt her down and understand her, while also getting stories from Suzy about her past.

This was the first neo-noir I read and I could see myself reading a lot more. show less

Has a better book ever been written? The answer is no. I loved this so much. It's both a fun time capsule and enduring in its themes. Ginny is a black lesbian amateur sleuth who has a world view shaped by her identity. Her best friend's girlfriend ends up dead and she decides to take on the case, all the while having these absurdly funny interactions with women she's trying to sleep with. I found this book hilarious and cinematic. I was put right into the late 80s / early 90s. And it had enough heart for it to be worth a reread at some point.

One of my critique partners helped me realize that the manuscript I've been revising is a hardboiled mystery. It was hard to recognize because my protag doesn't look like the typical hardboiled detective. So I immediately sought out all the hardboiled detective books I could find featuring black queer women. I found three, and this is the first I've read. It's honestly amazing how some things change, but so much stays the same. Ginny is still incredibly relatable, her observations on people and her place in society still tracks. The book is just a really good time. Very special.

This won me over with the first couple of stories and all of the rest were honestly pretty great. There was only one that I didn't enjoy very much which is amazing for a short story collection. I listened to this on audiobook and it was so well performed. The stories are funny and touching and remind me of so many definitions of home.

I bought this at a library sale years ago and it was the best reading experience I've had this year. This sits much more firmly in "chicklit" territory than romance since it's mostly about a 41 year old woman going through a rough transition for the sake of her child while the romance plot slowly simmers in the background.

This was much more diverse than I was expecting even though it's casually mentioned on the cover. It features an Iranian Jewish heroine, lesbian side characters, and a hero who has these moments of bi-curiosity. The heroine is 10 years older than the hero and says she has like 30 lbs on him too and I live. Beyond that though, there are intellectual, class, and lifestyle differences throughout and it makes the small town this is set in feel so pleasant, a place you'd want to live.

The hero / heroine felt like they were specifically written to my taste because I loved them both so much. Mack is a sweet and aimless army vet who's figuring his life out with the aide of stolen poetry books and the occasional brawl. Zoe is an uptight, multilingual, intellectual journalist who reads trashy romance novels, likes rough sex and is working on learning how to go with the flow. And they're perfect for each other in this moment. Loved them both, love them together.

I read this once in my early twenties and decided to do a reread to see if I still liked it. I actually loved it. There's definitely a nostalgia factor to this. Our protagonist, the Average American Male (AAM), is constantly spending time in shopping centers, shopping in and eating at places that barely exist anymore. And he also talks in a way that you don't often hear anymore since the proliferation of social media has made people more PC and self aware. But it's also just a funny, sort of nihilist book that says a lot in a very quick and minimalist writing style.

Part of the fun of this book is deciding for yourself if Kultgen's version of The Average American Male is accurate. His AAM is a misogynist. He is a little bit racist, homophobic, and ableist. And given how our recent elections have gone, I'd argue that Kultgen is pretty spot on. There is a sort of oversimplification and exaggeration to it that keeps the book entertaining, but there is truth in his depiction. And Kultgen isn't just piling on and shitting on the AAM. The misogynist falls in love with women. The homophobe has a gay friend. The racist is attracted to Asian women. And the ableist finds joy in people with disabilities. It's totally fucked up in a lot of cases, but he's mostly harmless in his daily interactions and he does have true, genuine feelings for people. He is not a sociopath, he is an AAM. Also, it's definitely debatable, but I think Kultgen's actual portrayal of women, gay men, Asian show more women, and people with Down Syndrome ran contrary to stereotypes several times in this book. While we only see these people through AAM's very shallow eyes, it was easy to imagine them as unique individuals.

I've definitely met AAMs before, but I was also super interested in the women in this story and the book's general commentary on marriage. Average is also a synonym for "mediocre." And a big theme in this book is about settling. There are definitely women who care more about getting married than who they're actually getting married to. I've met women who have set deadlines for marriage and met them! The women AAM dated were sort of aimless in their careers, raised by parents who were pressuring them to marry, and clearly settling for an AAM who was giving them almost nothing in terms true love and devotion. Society had set them up to desire marriage above all else and they scheme to get it, to comedic outcomes. In a sort of nihilist fashion, AAM declares that every woman he dates will be the same so he should give up on shopping for an ideal partner. Of course, he never looks inward. He never asks himself why he only seems to be attracted to younger women without real careers or how his constant lying and inattention leave him not understanding the changing desires of his partners. The AAM is just so average, so basic, so mediocre...I love it. show less

Second read review
I reread this sooner than I would have liked for a book club. My first read was by audiobook last fall. This time I read a physical copy of the book. I think the audiobook is actually better. During my second read, Larsen's writing never reached a point of feeling smooth or effortless. Sentence construction and vocab choices felt a little awkward at times. It may have been because I'd read this so recently and my mind wasn't completely engaged, but I know the awkwardness is completely unnoticeable in the audiobook.

During this second read, the biggest thing I took away was when this story was placed, shortly after the war. It made Brian easier to understand as a character. In matters of race, I also felt like Brian, Irene, and Clare represented a solid spectrum of how black people deal with racism in America. Brian is incredibly relatable, Irene is incredibly familiar, and I imagine most black people have known at least one Clare. The discussions these three characters have around race are so classic and enduring. They are the same discussions I've had with family and friends throughout my life.

I know some people read queerness in this book, so I tried to look out for it in this read, but I just don't see it. Irene and Clare's dynamic reminds me so much of a platonic friendship I had in my twenties. And Irene's loveless marriage didn't feel like it was anything deeper than a woman of her time not having many options. So, I won't be adding this to my own show more queer lit canon. But still an enjoyable read.

First read review
This book is tale of "fuck around and find out" and "play stupid games, win stupid prizes." Irene is a dream protagonist. I love watching a mature, socially competent, self-assured woman go through a difficult situation. And the difficult situation in this novel is Irene's cuckoo, passing childhood friend breezing back into her life. Irene is such a charming character with her ability to navigate all spaces and situations so eloquently while keeping true to herself and her core desires. And her cuckoo passing friend, Clare is a lovely antihero or villain. I have a special fondness for bad mothers. The first half of the book sets up their dynamic and things quickly begin ratcheting up for a very tense ending. Incredible.

I will say that Larsen is very straightforward about Irene's core desires and Clare's personality flaws, which are in direct conflict. I'm not so sure she had to be. Leaving it for the reader to figure out may have made it a little more engaging or mysterious or impactful. But no, this is a rather straight-forward story with an only slightly mysterious ending. Still, incredibly enjoyable. show less