• ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    Finding a Keeper by Nicole Pyland | ARC Review

    30th October 2020
    Cover of Finding a Keeper (Nicole Pyland)

    Finding a Keeper (Sports #4) by Nicole Pyland

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    Content warnings: death of parent, mention of conversion therapy, disowning

    This is my eighth Pyland novel, and I have learned by now to never start reading her books on a busy day because they are impossible to put down. Clear your schedule, and get ready for Sloan and Marley’s cute, slow-burn, best-friends-to-lovers romance.

    Sloan Rossi (18, 1/4-Black) has just moved back to the US from the UK to attend college for soccer. As a striker in U18 Premier League (stated as EPL Youth League in the book), she doesn’t want to be a goalie. But when her new friend junior goalie Marley Nichols (20, lesbian) injures her rotator cuff, Sloan becomes the backup goalkeeper. With their strengthening friendship over the course of a year as they both stay by each other’s side through difficulties in life, Sloan and Marley become virtually inseparable. When people start assuming they were dating, Marley could only wish they really were as Sloan reevaluates her own sexuality and what Marley truly means to her.

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  • Book Reviews,  Fiction

    The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

    28th October 2020
    Cover of The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (Becky Chambers)

    The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet (Wayfarers #1) by Becky Chambers

    Click on the cover for my review on Goodreads.

    Content warnings: mention of a cult, mention of genocide, death of prominent character, misgendering?, speciesism, torture, blood

    Did you know that this book was a Kickstarter project and initially self-published when Chambers was about twenty-nine years old? I didn’t. After hearing so many great things about the Wayfarers series, I finally picked it up, and stars, was it amazing!

    The story follows the Wayfarer crew as they travel through space for roughly one standard after getting offered a highly paid job of tunneling between Central space (Tokath Gateway) and Hedra Ka, the capital planet of the new Galactic Commons (GC) ally Toremi Ka. Nine main characters consist the ensemble cast:

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  • ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    The Other Women by Erin Zak | ARC Review

    23rd October 2020
    Cover of The Other Women (Erin Zak)

    The Other Women by Erin Zak

    Content warnings: infidelity, mention of miscarriage, gambling addiction, mention of drugs, mention of past car accident scene, mention of parental loss, uses of ableist language

    This book is heavy on infidelity but light-hearted. The flirty interactions between these two other women are cute and them entering a friendship without expectations makes the story relatively low drama.

    Francesca Lopez (31, Latina, bi+) is recently dumped by Willow Carmichael (lesbian), who declared she was in love with a married woman elsewhere. Cecily Yates (bisexual), who has been with Willow for four years, and her husband Luke are separating. When Willow dumped her, too, while Cecily is on a business trip, Cecily meets bartender Francesca. The pair decides to spend the rest of Cecily’s trip together for an unforgettable weekend, not knowing about the woman they once shared.

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  • Book Reviews,  Fiction

    The Best Lines by Nicole Pyland

    25th September 2020
    Cover of The Best Lines (Nicole Pyland)

    The Best Lines (Chicago #1) by Nicole Pyland

    Dr. Eva Dash has just lost her job as a professor at her alma mater. That seems to leave her with no choice but to leave the city she considers home. When restaurant owner Ember Elliot shows up in Eva’s life, Eva is fascinated by this mysterious, former player. The preamble to their connection is a napkin note that leads to more notes. As both struggle with their unknown professional futures, what will become of their relationship?

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  • ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    While My Heart Beats by Erin McKenzie | ARC Review

    20th September 2020
    Cover of While My Heart Beats

    While My Heart Beats by Erin McKenzie

    CW: war, off-page deaths of family

    This is a beautiful historical romance across classes set in WWI Great Britain and France.

    Ellie Winthrop is high-born, a feminist, and holds big dreams during a time women cannot even vote. Her mother is eager to marry her off at twenty-two, but Ellie enlists in Volunteer Aid Detachment. At the hospital, she meets Johanna Lennox, a working-class, twenty-four-year-old nurse with a no-nonsense attitude. As the pair gradually become friends, they can no longer resist their yearnings for each other’s bodies. But with Ellie’s mother pestering Ellie with marriage, Johanna wonders if she, being poorer and a woman, could ever be good enough for her.

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