I’ve been on a paranormal spree lately – vampires, witches, shifters – pretty much anything in this subgenre has been really doing it for me recently. And this cover just really sold it for me. The martini glass of blood combined with the dating website profile pic truly cracked me up. If I were scrolling through books I’d completely stop and grab this book! Continue reading “Blog Tour: Vampire With Benefits by E.J. Russell”
Thrall is “a modern queer retelling of Dracula, where romance meets thriller meets gothic.” The story is told in a modern-day version of an epistolary novel with journal entries, IMs, twitter feeds, chat logs and more. I, personally, loved this and really enjoyed that the narrative format never varied from that. On top of the narrative style, there is also both f/f and m/m pairings to follow – which I was a fan of as well.
Excerpt:
Mina Murray’s Journal
I can’t believe we finished a whole season of Shadowcast. Lucy and I have sure come pretty far from lurking in the occult book store on Magazine and trawling LiveJournal looking for everything on true crime we could find. Ha, take that, everyone who thought I was a total morbid creep! Well, okay, I am morbid but not a creep. Besides, what does it mean to be morbid except to be fascinated by the things that are kept hidden and are excised from “polite” conversation. The guarantee of death is the singular thing every human shares—how odd that it should be the thing we’re glared at for mentioning.
Things with Luce have been great lately. I think in some ways the podcast has given her a thing to focus all her excess energy on, and that focus has brought us closer together. There are still moments when I see my life as it would have been if I’d never confessed my feelings for her. It horrifies me to imagine that life. I’ll never let myself forget that I was scared and shaking with the threat of losing my best friend, but that if I hadn’t taken a risk, I would still be trapped in that purgatory of longing that made every moment I spent with Lucy a bittersweet agony.
I’ve been thinking of asking L if she’s ready to move in together yet. I’ve been wary of being the one to broach all new levels of our relationship, but knowing Lucy if I wait for her to do it then one day she’ll rush up and grab me and say we should move to a castle in the south of France or the mountains of Romania. Which…wouldn’t be the worst thing…
Enter the giveaway: win 1 of 3 e-copies of any back catalog book by Avon Gale or Roan Parrish BELOW!
Avon Gale was once the mayor on Foursquare of Jazzercise and Lollicup, which should tell you all you need to know about her as a person. She likes road trips, rock concerts, drinking Kentucky bourbon, JRPGs and yelling at hockey. She’s a displaced southerner living in a liberal midwestern college town, and she never gets tired of people and their stories — either real or the ones she makes up in her head.
Roan Parrish lives in Philadelphia, where she is gradually attempting to write love stories in every genre.
When not writing, she can usually be found cutting her friends’ hair, meandering through whatever city she’s in while listening to torch songs and melodic death metal, or cooking overly elaborate meals. She loves bonfires, winter beaches, minor chord harmonies, and self-tattooing. One time she may or may not have baked a six-layer chocolate cake and then thrown it out the window in a fit of pique.
This author’s voice is so original and I can’t quite find the words to say what I love so much about it. Her books are both cute and touching but this book also dealt with some more heavy aspects in a very deft and even-handed manner that I truly loved. Continue reading “Book Review: Your Heart Will Grow by Chace Verity”
This book has so many things going for it but unfortunately just didn’t work for me over all.
The good: I enjoy triad books and ultimately that’s what this book is. Three people navigating relationships. I really liked Joshua’s character and the setting of a play which was a lot of fun.
The not-so-good: What I couldn’t get around was Nate’s cavalier attitude of how he’s treated people he dated in the past. While it wasn’t exactly cheating because they weren’t in committed relationships it was in this gray area and Nate seems to not care at all about their feelings about that.
I also didn’t particularly love some of the way Nate came to terms with being bisexual. It came off as being homophobic – by the end there was a clear evolution, but it wasn’t great at first. Although, that may have been the point. While I am clearly not a straight man, gay man, or bisexual man, the way Nate treated his previous partners and the people around him just did not work for me.
Rating: 3 Stars
Reviewer: Melinda
Title: You, Me, & Her
Author: Tanya Chris
Release Date: May 15th, 2018
Don’t miss any of the bookish fun. Subscribe now!
Sometimes you’re looking for a light book, sometimes you’re looking for a more meaningful one, and sometimes you’re looking for something funny, you know? Invitation to the Blues by Roan Parrish is one of the more meaningful books that has some weight behind it. I don’t always read blurbs or even content warnings because I know authors that I like and I am almost never disappointed. I’m glad I was warned about this one going in just so that I could prepare myself. Don’t get me wrong – I LOVED this book. But it dealt with depression, anxiety, and mentions of previous suicide attempts, so not the easiest topics. If those things are hard to read about this book might not be for you. Continue reading “Book Review: Invitation to the Blues by Roan Parrish”
On Davis Row is a really well-written book with themes about getting a second chance at life and overcoming societal expectations as well as your own.
Noah begins his role as a Parole Office almost as Suzy Sunshine wanting to make a difference in all of his parolee’s lives. He believes in what he’s doing and that people can turn their lives around. When he meets CJ Davis, a parolee who is coming up on the end of his parole time Noah wants to do everything he can to have him make more of his life in the future. But CJ is incredibly resistant…his entire family is in prison, he can barely read, and no one believes he can do anything with his life. Least of all himself.
Every time I hugged him, he held on for dear life. I loved it, truly I did, but it tugged at my heartstrings, reminding me of all the things he’d missed. Of all the things he’s been deprived of.
What I loved so much about this book is that the angst level is what I would consider medium. I don’t always love high angst, I have to really be in the mood for that kind of book. My heart can’t always take the drama that comes along angst, but this level was perfect for me. It definitely had some and I wouldn’t ever say it was a smooth – sailing relationship type of book by any means but the angst level was just right. Most of the angst comes from CJ and his family. The tension slowly builds throughout the book in such a slow burning way that by the time it came to a head I was more than ready for it to happen.
Fierce, strong, safe, and everything — everything — I needed. I melted against him and could literally feel him mending the broken pieces of my heart, putting me back together again.
I didn’t ever want to let him go.
Rating: 4 Stars
Reviewer: Melinda
Title: On Davis Row
Author: NR Walker
Release Date: November 27, 2017
Don’t miss any of the bookish fun. Subscribe now!
This is a surprising debut from Melissa Eastlake. Heavy on the paranormal elements with dashes of fairy tales and quite a lot of sarcasm and humor thrown in, this m/m book was one that I really enjoyed from beginning to end. Continue reading “Book Review: The Uncrossing by Melissa Eastlake”
Leaning into Love was first released as part of It Was Always You Anthology; I never read that one, but I love a good friends-to-lovers trope and I generally enjoy Lane Hayes’ works, plus I really enjoy audiobooks. I’ve been going through them left and right lately so I was excited to listen to this one. Continue reading “Audiobook Review: Leaning Into Love by Lane Hayes/Narrated by Seth Clayton”
As anyone who has read any of my reviews over the last few months knows – I love Avon Gale! She writes amazing hockey m/m books, co-wrote a great m/m book with Roan Parrish just last month, and now is co-writing with Piper Vaughn here. I hadn’t read any Piper Vaughn books before but this features a LOT of tattooing and art and those are things I love so YES please! Continue reading “Spotlight: Permanent Ink by Avon Gale & Piper Vaughn”
bookish devices 
Recent Comments