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Bellingham Mysteries by Nicole Kimberling
This is a mystery-romance series about a newspaper reporter and his artist boyfriend, and the constant shenanigans they get into while trying to solve crimes! The first book is very mystery-centric, which makes sense because the protag’s love interest is also technically a suspect. Sidenote: I super loved having a newspaper journalist as the detective, as it allows him to use his natural nosiness and writing capabilities to solve the mystery! Also, his love interest is an artist. Fun! Anyway, the first book was good, but the SECOND book was even better, despite being shorter and less mystery-y. It’s set in a winter artistic retreat. This time the mystery took…
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Think of England by K.J. Charles
Easing back into reviewing with a book that has been on my TBR since June of last year! At first I wasn’t sure of Archie’s hero-ness, as he has some historically-accurate feelings about Jewish people, effeminate men, and “queers” that didn’t mesh well with the romantic element and furthermore made me very uncomfortable. It also isn’t that usual for a romantic lead to feel disgust for his romantic interest, either. But over the course of the book things changed! His thinking was forced open by his interactions with his queer effeminate Jewish love interest, in a way which I found realistic-ish as Archie wasn’t a horrible person, just prejudiced and…
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Spectr vol. 1 by Jordan L. Hawk
A novella series is tough to review; each book is just a little too short to write about on its own and trying to do the whole series at once is super tiring. But I really liked these books so I’m gonna give it a shot. Hunter of demons So basically all these books are short, but good. I do prefer full-length novels to almost anything else, but novellas are fun because you can finish reading them super quickly. They’re like bon-bons! Bon-bons filled with demons. SPECTR has a somewhat typical paranormal worldbuilding with demons, psychics, and special agents who solve paranormal crimes. Luckily I love all that stuff! This…
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Point of Hopes by Melissa Scott and Lisa A. Barnett
I didn’t think there could be a more romantically-frustrating book than Luck in the Shadows, but surprise! There is, and it’s called Point of Hopes. Okay, sure, it’s not REALLY a romance. It’s a fantasy-mystery set in an alternative medieval Italy, a sort of police procedural with fascinating world-building and wonderful characters! I just really wanted there to be more kissing. My misunderstanding might have come from some Goodreads tags, which put it in m/m romance. I mean…it technically IS, but it took 200 pages for somebody to even THINK that somebody else was cute. That’s nearly half a book gone before there’s even any sly flirtation, and that definitely…
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There Will Be Phlogston, vN, The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal
Desperately trying to play catch-up, as always! Here’s three tiny reviews of books I’ve read several months ago. There Will Be Phlogston – Alexis Hall I hated Byron Kae’s sister in previous books because she made her sibling’s life very unhappy, but it turns out she’s more complex than just “horrible bully.” She wants to escape her terrible parents! She feels stifled by society and its expectations! She wants to find love! And she finds it, alongside a super repressed gay guy and their boyfriend. Surprise! It’s a threesome! And way more complicated than that, of course, because Alexis Hall does nothing simple in his books. Anyway, I loved it.…
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Necropolis by Jordan L. Hawk
This was a VERY exciting book! Not only because of the body horror human-animal hybrid situation, but because Whyborne and the gang get out of the country and head over to Egypt! Where it turns out Dr. Christine has a Secret Boyfriend! And there are, like, curses or something! It’s a little predictable in that I guessed at least two important plot points before they happened, but it was also super fun to read. Honestly, it reminded me of all the best parts of The Mummy, only with more than one female protagonist. Dr. Christine is there, of course, and she is forever my favorite of the series. She’s dealing…
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Mystic, Remnant, Some Kind of Magic
I read this because of Memory! Also G. Willow Wilson is writing Ms. Marvel now (which I very much enjoyed) and I wanted to try another of her books. This one’s about two friends: one destined to be a great magician and one who, well, isn’t. It is super short– maybe too short, as the story moves along at a breakneck pace and character development suffers as a result. With only 96 pages there isn’t a whole heap of room for anything but the main plot. The beginning was so strong that I had high expectation for the rest of the book. Unfortunately, the pacing was way too fast and…
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Adrien English Mystery series by Josh Lanyon
I binge-read almost the entire series two weekends ago, and I enjoyed it immensely. Mystery! Romance! Other stuff! This is a massive review and there are spoilers throughout, though I’ve hidden the biggest ones as best I could. Tbh, not the best in the series nor is it my favorite. It’s rough, with lots of bumps. But it’s a decent intro to the characters and the world they live in. Basically, Adrien gets sucked into trouble, his friends mostly all die, he’s totally alone and there’s a weird cop[1. who, it turns out, is a self-hating in-the-closet gay s&m dude who is attracted to Adrien but also can’t stand being…