Game Changer by Rachel Reid
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
Ok so this post will make references to the show Heated Rivalry because it is a phenomenon right now and I am obsessed. It might be quite long winded, so I apologize for that. This is a rare case where I watched the show/movie before I read the books. I didn’t get the books right away and I wanted to see what it was all about. I was not disappointed.
“What do your abs taste like?”
“’Been around straight people too much lately.’”
“’What’s wrong with the closet? It’s a wonderful place crammed full of professional athletes.’”
Game Changer is about Scott Hunter who is a captain on the hockey team New York Admirals. We also meet Kip, which is short for Christopher, who works at a smoothie shop and is openly gay. One day Scott finds himself in the shop that Kip works and orders himself the suggested blueberry smoothie. Scott comes back on his next home game day and orders it again because if he wins then he wants to keep what he did on that day as much the same as possible. They flirt and Kip eventually gets invited back to Scott’s place and they have hot relations. But Scott isn’t out. There are no out players in the NHL. Kip is Scott’s secret. How will this relationship develop? Will it be able to survive the privacy that Scott’s profession demands? Will Scott be able to step into the sunshine?
Rachel Reid is an amazing person. This book was incredible. It was unbelievably sexy, hot, meaningful, and emotional. So right away one thing that struck me is that in the book Scott is blonde whereas in the show he is a brunette. As it went on, I kept on playing the scenes from the show as I read the same scene in the book. I would clock any differences (like book being NHL but show being MLH & Kip’s mother being in the book) and marveled at how true to the source material the show is, almost all. One thing I did miss in the book though was Maria saying “gurl” when Scott walks in. I loved that part. I like the mention of a cottage on page 29 because fans of the show will know what I am talking about. There is more hockey in this book which I loved. The first night they got together was so hot. This book does a good job of steaming up the pages and making the reader feel it. “There was an urgency in Scott’s eyes, but when he finally leaned in and kissed Kip, it was slow and deliberate. It wasn’t a conversation; it was Scott telling him something important, and making sure Kip was listening.” There were some typical romantic tropes that were brought up including when Kip was thinking he wasn’t good enough because Scott was rich and famous whereas Kip was working at a smoothie shop. It made Kip self-doubt. Reading the book and having Scott muse about his situation really got me thinking too. I don’t know who I side with or who is right, Kip or Scott? Does Scott have a responsibility to his team and support system or should he put his happiness first? One of my favorite scenes was when Scott was coming out to his three best friends on his team. I knew what was coming and I got this like anxious, excited knot in my stomach in anticipation. It was a wonderfully beautiful scene, and I had to go back to read it while I was writing this review. My eyes were wet when I finished reading it. A little later a teammate, Carter, stopped to speak with Scott and he made me cry. I need more Carter! The ending speech made me tear up as well. I did not run across any words that I felt compelled to write down. There are a lot of reviews and reaction videos online for the show and one, Empty Netters, is one I am in love with. I have watched episodes multiple times and those straight guys are amazing. On my review they mentioned a gripe they had was when Scott won the cup and he wasn’t gripping it. In the book he talks explicitly about gripping it and I was amused. So one thing I did not like was when they called the café in Barnes & Noble a Starbucks when in fact it is not. It just serves Starbucks coffee. I would know as I worked as a Café Manager there. In general, this was an excellent book and I will read it again and again in between rewatching the show again and again and watching the Empty Netters reviews again and again. This is exactly the type of book everyone should read if they like to be entertained and they like to feel stuff. Must read.
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Tag: gay
European Gay And Learning Love
The Guncle Abroad by Steven Rowley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“The trouble with children is that they’re not returnable.”
“’The most terrible poverty is loneliness.’”
“Chocolate like this was good for the soul, and the finer things good for the heart.”
“Feelings for adults are like treasures. And by that I mean we should bury them.”
The Guncle Abroad brings back our favorite gay uncle and his family. This time they are in Europe preparing for a wedding. Patrick, Maisie, Grant, and Greg all make a return but all a little bit older. It has been five years since the events of the first book and Patrick is about to be 50. Greg is looking to get remarried. Maisie is a teenager and Grant is becoming his own person. Greg again asks Patrick to take the kids for a bit so they travel around to several countries in Europe before landing at the destination of the wedding in Italy, on the beautiful Lake Como. There are hijinks and fun and learning aplenty. We get to meet some great new characters including a launt! Will the wedding go off without a hitch? Who will learn all about love and family? Will Patrick handle turning 50?
I thought that Steven Rowley wrote another great book but I don’t think it was as good as the first one. I still loved it though! There were returning and new characters but still everyone was fresh, exciting, relatable, and realistic. The first book had grief as the topic that permeated everything whereas this book had love. It was minutely too lovey-dovey but very manageable. No nausea from being too sickly sweet thankfully. The first thing I noticed though was before I even started the book. The jacket summary mentioned the kids being teenagers but Grant was only 11. It also had two minds about whether Patrick was actually 50 or not. But I quickly got back into the swing of things with smiling at the pop culture references, especially ones that I love and identify with. Page 5 had a mention of The First Wives Club and the judgement from the cover quickly turned to excitement about the novel I was about to read. I knew I was in for a treat in all its gay glory. The wit and snark are pure treats. It is just clever and funny. Grant talking about gay men and lesbians marrying because they are both gay. I also learned that the Bellagio in Las Vegas is based on a real location in Italy…on Lake Como! There was a mention of a movie that I loved that I feel that not a lot of people know about and that is RRR. It is so good! There was also this whole part where they went on The Sound of Music tour in Salzburg and I recognized all the details because I did that too! It was an amazing time and I would love to do it again. I could spend weeks in Austria. Reading it was like being back there and it was so vivid. It bears mentioning again but Steven continued making me laugh out loud with the witty, sarcastic, and funny back and forth. There was a joke about fathoms in response to the depth of “Twenty thousand leagues under the sea” and “’By the way, stay away from mimes, they’re all hands.’” In addition to the laughs, there were plenty of thoughts that were thoughtful and life-lessony like “there’s nothing money can buy that beats life’s free joys with the people you care about” and “growing older, as they say, was not for the faint of heart.” The paragraph on page 156 was all about our relationship with our phones and especially as a person who knew life before smartphones, was very relatable. There was a lot of spitting of bon mots. This book had a lot of words that I wrote down because I enjoyed reading, learning, and speaking them out loud. They are marchesa, dyspeptic, panoply, funicular, vivacity, and mellifluous. I also loved how instead of tourists, we were provided with more elevated terminology like itinerants, birds of passage, and bon vivants. I highly recommend reading this too. This is exactly the type of book I recommend if you read the first one or want some gay wit and fabulousness!
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How To Steal A Quarter Of A Billion Dollars And Impossibly Intriguing Investigations
The Impossible Fortune by Richard Osman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“Trouble is much like love: when the time is ready, it will find you.”
“’You choose your family these days.’”
“’Life is sprung on us.’”
The Impossible Fortune is a continuation of The Thursday Murder Club. It is the 5th book in the series written by Richard Osman. This time the gang is just coming off the highs of a wedding and the lows of a death. Joyce’s daughter just got married and the best man at the wedding approaches Elizabeth for help. He subsequently disappears and his business partner could hold some answers. There is something they have that is worth a lot…like a lot a lot but is it worth killing over? The gang rushes to find out the answers before someone else gets hurt. Will they solve it in time? The family of another member is in trouble as well. Will the gang be able to save everyone? Will relationships remain intact?
Richard Osman sure can write an engaging story. Chapter 1 starts with Joanna writing. There is mention of the Backstreet Boys and opinions on Americans right away which made me smile. Maybe I forgot or it was never mentioned but Ron has a daughter? There were so many moments of humor and situations I related to. One is where this young man is listening to something on his phone without a listening device, so it is blaring for everyone to hear. How many times have you encountered this at an airport or just out in public? Does it make you a little ticked off? Wish you could do something about it? Besides this minor, annoying character, another bigger character I didn’t like very much was Joanna. She seemed mean and unnecessarily antagonistic. Some words of wisdom were sprinkled throughout and it was nice to see when reading a captivating novel. “Too many people thinking too much was the key problem with the modern world…think about some things you have some actual power over, but everybody spending all day thinking about things they couldn’t influence, where did that lead?” and “’If you’re scared of something you should find out all about it.’” The word I came across that I hadn’t heard of was a type of fish, turbot. Another was clement. I always heard of inclement weather but didn’t put any thought into the opposite until I saw this word in this book. I was like…interesting…you learn something new every day. I smiled at this. I read this book in less than a day as I didn’t want to put it down. Richard has really fleshed out these characters and they are still going strong through the fifth book. I cannot wait to read more! This is exactly the type of book if you want to continue the series and love a good mystery.
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California Grieving And The Edu-gay-tion Of Family
The Guncle by Steven Rowley
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“Do not punch a child, do not punch a child.”
“Guncle Rule number five: If a gay man hands you his phone, look only at what he’s showing you. If it’s a photo, don’t swipe. And for god’s sake, don’t open any unfamiliar apps.”
“Boys can do girl things and girls can do boy things. That’s not even a Guncle Rule, there shouldn’t even be boy things and girl things to begin with. People should just do what they want.”
The Guncle is about an actor, who was on a popular show but who has been hiding away in Palm Spring, who loses his best friend/sister-in-law and must take care of her/his brother’s kids. Patrick is the guncle. He lost his partner and is still in the grieving process. Maisie, his niece, and Grant, his nephew, lost their mother (Sara) and subsequently spend the summer with their GUP (Gay Uncle Patrick). Their dad is dealing with his own personal health issue. How will Patrick be able to handle taking care of kids for 3 whole months without going crazy? Will the kids start their grieving process and what will they learn from their GUP? If Patrick moves on with this life, how will he do it?
Steven Rowley wrote such a fun and enjoyable book! I laughed out loud so many times and wanted to devour it. “’We don’t eat bacon…Bacon is pigs and pigs are our friends. Do you want to eat your friends?’ (Patrick) Without hesitation. ‘If they taste like bacon.’” (Grant). I was excited to find out there was a sequel too! The Guncle Rules that permeated the book were perfect. It matched caring, humor, and a gay sensibility all in a simple, helpful rule. For example, when Patrick gave his niece his phone to record him in a video. “’Higher…Honestly, its like you want me to have four chins. Guncle Rule – What number are we on? Know your angles. Everyone has a good side. Even children, who should be photographable from all sides but aren’t.’” There was so much gay culture sprinkled in such a natural way that it would be easy to miss if you weren’t well versed. Right away Grease, Grease 2, Olivia Newton-John, and Stockard Channing were mentioned when GUP was trying to make a point. So much wit. Patrick gave them an ‘edu-gay-tion.” The messaging is something I thought was much needed but not too heavy handed. I found myself agreeing and wishing society as a whole felt the same way. Whatever you like or want, you do you. “What do you think gay people do? Have done for generations? We adopt a safe version of ourselves for the public, for protection, and then as adults we excavate our true selves from the parts we’ve invented to protect us.” Things like this felt true and hit home. It is the story of a lot of gay people. There are conversations around grief and the way the book approached it was nice. It was described well. “Grief orbits the heart. Some days the circle is greater. Those are the good days. You have room to move and dance and breathe. Some days the circle is tighter. Those are the hard ones.” A word that stuck out to me in this book was maudlin. Steven filled this book with so many witticisms. This is exactly the type of book that I will pick up whenever I need a smile and laugh.
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dICEy Immigration And Realizing Love
“US citizens were getting thrown in cages indefinitely for not having their papers on them.”
“That anyone had that kind of power made me sick.”
“It wasn’t fair that people like him could get whatever they wanted by making threats. That kind of thing should have been illegal. Then again, I knew it wasn’t a coincidence that the law benefited people like them and not people like Han or Tatiana.”
The Broposal is about these two friends who are living together. Han is straight, undocumented, and has family both here and in Mexico. Kenny is bisexual but has a girlfriend. They are just trying to live life but a lot of things happen to challenge them. They were voted most likely to get married in high school and everyone still thinks that is the case. That is exactly what happens, but they are doing for a green card and not for love. Or are feelings there? They have known each other for a long time and have been best bros. Is there something more going on? Will they end up with different reasons for marrying? Will anyone or anything stand in their way?
Sonora Reyes wrote a book. It is an easy read. It is definitely a queer book but also one rooted in everything immigrant from Mexico. I did like how a lot of gay terms like shablam were used. It made me feel like an insider as I knew exactly to what it referred. I did also like how it touched on and really hit home on hard topics like immigration, racism, and being undocumented. I think the author did well to showcase the tension and fear of having to always be extra careful and look over your shoulder. With Han being undocumented, you could really understand his wariness and hesitation in a lot of situations. With that being said, I was not an overall fan of this book. I was rushing through to just get it finished as it was making me angry. Yes, I was angry about what Kenny and Han had to endure but what was worse was the teenage drama aspect of it all. I don’t know how many times Kenny said the word rebound in reference to Han. It was annoying. The internal dialogue and actions of the characters, like hugging and quickly forgiving, just made me roll my eyes and want to throw the book across the room. I didn’t think it was going to be that kind of book but I also didn’t think it would get as graphic in a few parts as it did. I was pleasantly surprised that it went there. Jackie was such an evil character, the boss was an ass, and Kenny was pathetic in my eyes. I made a note referencing his weakness twice in my notebook. I think I liked Han the best and then Leti secondly. Then, honestly, Cornelius. The little succulent they got as a “kid”. That was adorable and I loved it. I did also like the inclusion of a non-binary character. But one thing I really didn’t like was the reference to Destiny’s Child, Ciara, and Mariah Carey as oldies. That hurt. This is exactly the type of book that I am fine with reading once and forgetting about forever.
Perfect Murder And Breeding Purposes
“Like the small fires we sometimes need in our lives to remind us that we are alive.”
“It’s the only reason the human race isn’t extinct, because people with no purpose breed.”
The Perfect Marriage is about a husband who is accused of killing his mistress and the wife who takes up his defense. Sarah, the wife, is a defense attorney and she is the best around. Adam, the husband, is an author that is struggling. He frequents the vacation house they bought to help with his writing but for a while now he has been involved in an affair. One day the cops show up at his door and aggressively arrest him for the murder of Kelly Summers. Matthew, the gay best friend, and Anne, the assistant/friend, are both side characters that get involved in some capacity. We follow along with the characters trying to determine what happened. There are secrets revealed and the past coming back to mess with the present. Did Adam commit murder? Will the truth come out? How will their lives be changed?
Jeneva Rose wrote a very engaging story. It was a quick read that grabbed your interest and kept it throughout the book. It was not a thought-provoking, deep book but it was entertaining which sometimes is all you need at the time. There were a couple funny moments with Matthew where he talks about breeding and kids. There were also some great descriptions about a town and the dichotomy of the looks and how modernization resembled a virus infecting the town. While reading this book, I actually yelled out loud and talked to myself especially in response to some of the characters. Eleanor was infuriating and should have been slapped multiple times. Adam is so stupid and did so many dumb things that you could not help shaking your head. Scott Summers is a character as well and it made me think of X-Men. There was also a character named after me! Very few parts had some explicit sexual descriptions but it was few and far between. I liked how the ending and result was just so casually referenced. I was just reading and it was so subtle that I was like wait what? That happened? There were no fun or interesting words that stood out to me. The language was pretty simple and straightforward. The author did put in some things that were not too believable and made me think hmm. Could that really happen? This is exactly the type of book that I would read to dissuade me from marrying.
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Best Friends Discover Love And Sultry Scenes Of Sex
Him by Sarina Bowen
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
“Good thing he’s not a traffic cop, because he’s sending enough mixed signals to cause a ten-car pileup.”
Him is about two friends who meet at hockey camp and become friends. They made a bet on a shootout which caused one to cut the other off for years. Now a chance encounter at the Frozen Four brings them back into each other’s lives. They quickly become friends again and have six weeks to figure out what is going on between them. They are coaching teenagers to improve their hockey skills while navigating their own relationship. One is on his way to Toronto to play in the NHL and one is supposed to be headed for Detroit. This is a fun will they/won’t they book that keeps you enthralled from beginning to end.
I plowed through this book in a single day. I kept wanting to read more and more. There were plenty of hot scenes. It was well written, and this is the second gay romance I have read recently written by two female authors. I don’t know how they do it but they do an excellent job at describing things in a way that makes you feel like you are the one participating. One thing that I found myself doing throughout though, is trying to keep track of which name belonged to which character. I wrote it down but I still found myself flipping back to when the chapter started to remember if it was Wes or Jamie. Wes was the forward and Jamie was the goalie. Wes is gay and Jamie is straight. Wes has tattoos and breaks rules. Jamie has a huge family and loves coaching. The difference between each of their families is vast and it makes you feel for each of them. I loved how the book was written from both viewpoints, and it really helped to build the tension and see it from each perspective. The sex scenes were very sultry and provocative. I found myself frustrated at times with each of them and wanted them to just get over their hangups. I kept putting it down needing to move on to do something else but I found myself reaching for the book again and again so I can see what happens. I bet you could easily finish this in a single day. I cannot wait to read the next one.
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Murder Most Fowl And Hot Man Love
Cut & Run by Madeleine Urban
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
“Not everything needs to be planned…Not everything needs a why or how.”
Cut & Run is about 2 guys who were thrown together as partners to help find a serial killer. The police and FBI up until this point have failed to apprehend the suspect. Ty Grady and Zane Garrett are two agents with conflicting personalities and they start off at each other’s throats. One is rough and tumble, the other is clean cut and meticulous. They were put on this case because the last two agents that were assigned were murdered. It follows these two FBI agents while they try to track down this killer before more people are killed all while navigating trying to work together. How will they survive each other let alone survive the killer?
This was a very good and sexy read. There were plenty of funny and snippy comments. It was fun to read the back and forth between the two main characters. I chuckled and smirked and laughed out loud. Madeleine Urban and Abigail Roux are the authors. They did a good job writing as they created such tension between Ty and Zane. It was very hot. It was written in a way that helped us to see it from both sides. It added a good dynamic and layers to the story. Besides the connection between the main characters there was the actual investigation. I thought that part of the story was done well too. It was interesting and kept me on my toes. The whole MO of the killer was cool and unique. It was suspenseful. There were a couple things that bothered me though. One was there was a lot of growling that came from both characters. A character saying something in a growling manner or with a growl was pretty common throughout. I wish it was phrased differently to change it up. Also, there was a little too much toxic masculinity especially from Ty. It might have added to his gruff manner but it also rubbed me the wrong way at moments. I am not sure how I came across this book or how it ended up in my TBR pile but I am glad it did. This was such an enjoyable and alluring book. I would recommend that people pick it up.
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Gay Amnesia And Losing Your Job While Gaining Family
10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
10 Things That Never Happened is such a good book. It is about this guy who works at a bathroom retailer and his boss who owns it. It takes place in England and it follows some hijinks as they navigate an ever-changing relationship. There is amnesia, family drama, Christmas, and one unique looking cat. It is not deep but it is a very fun read. I laughed out loud and found it quick to get through. It was easy, bitchy, gay, and cheeky. I loved the humor and found it real. There were a few things that bothered me though including a couple of the side characters. First off, if someone is that inept, they should have a very stern taking too or be let go. The amount of damage that one person could do and still be employed there was never established. He should have been gone a long time ago. It was infuriating. There was also a young employee that I found annoying as well. All but the first, clown of an employee grew on me throughout the book though. There were also a few editing errors but overall I would recommend this.
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