• ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    The Unexpected Dream by Nicole Pyland | ARC Review

    5th September 2020
    Cover of The Unexpected Dream (Nicole Pyland)

    The Unexpected Dream (Sports #3) by Nicole Pyland

    Content warnings: divorce, biphobia

    The Unexpected Dream is a softball romance, which should totally be a trope.

    Mia Landis (30, bisexual) accidentally got pregnant and misses her chance of playing at Tokyo Olympics. Used to be a prodigy pitcher on the national team, her life now revolves around handling her divorce, caring for her two-year-old daughter Hazel, and coaching softball at her old high school. When a player mentions tryouts for a professional league, Mia decides to give it a try. Skylar Donahue (25, lesbian) also wanted to play at Tokyo but had injured her wrist weeks before the games. She ends up being the pitching coach when all she wants is to be a player. With her lingering injury, she cannot pitch but just might make the team in the new league as a catcher.

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  • ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    Payback by Charlotte Mills | ARC Review

    27th August 2020

    Payback (Payback #1) by Charlotte Mills

    Content warnings: off-page arson, murder, suicides, pedophilia, rape, deaths of family members, sexual harassment; blood, cancer

    I did not expect the story to escalate like this.

    Dead body. Arson. Missing person. Throughout most of the story, I had trouble getting into the plot, connecting with detective Kate Wolf (34) and her boss Helen Taylor, as well as understanding their attraction. A lot of things did not add up for me, so it took me a very long time to get past the first few chapters and keep reading. Even as I was close to finishing, I couldn’t understand why everyone loved it so much. Until I did.

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  • ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    Spindrift by Anna Burke | ARC Review

    25th August 2020
    Cover of Spindrift (Anna Burke)

    Spindrift (A Seal Cove Romance #1) by Anna Burke

    Content warnings: depression, past suicidal thoughts, off-page death of family member, multiple mentions of animal deaths

    This is the first Burke’s book I have read, and I may have found a new auto-read author.

    Emilia Russo (30, of Italian descent, lesbian, depression) was a shelter vet. When her father passed away, her job of putting down innocent animals suddenly became too much. Now on leave and coping with depression, Emilia goes back to Seal Cove to renovate her father’s house for listing. She only plans to stay for a few months. When she accidentally falls into the ocean, it is her teenage crush Morgan Donovan (31) who happens to save her. Morgan, who is also a vet, is recently dumped by her fiancée and still wary of love. Off to an embarrassing and rocky start, the pair keep running into each other in the small town and gradually grow closer. After befriending Morgan’s supportive friends and falling for Morgan, Emilia finds herself reconsidering selling the house, and maybe staying for good.

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  • ARCs,  Book Reviews,  Fiction

    The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi | ARC Review

    21st August 2020
    Cover of The Death of Vivek Oji (Akwaeke Emezi)

    The Death of Vivek Oji by Akwaeke Emezi

    I know what they say about men who allow other men to penetrate them. Ugly things; ugly words. Calling them women, as if that’s supposed to be ugly, too. I’d heard it since secondary school, and I knew what that night was supposed to make me. Less than a man—something disgusting, something weak and shameful. But if that pleasure was supposed to stop me from being a man, then fine. They could have it. I’d take the blinding light of his touch, the blessed peace of having him so close, and I would stop being a man. I was never one to begin with, anyway.

    Content warnings: death, incest, rape, infidelity, abuse, misogyny

    I don’t know how Emezi does it, but they managed to make Vivek’s story breathtaking.

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