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An Unrivaled Off Season (Hockey Ever After #3.5)
An Unrivaled Off Season (Hockey Ever After #3.5)
Morgan James, Ashlyn Kane | 2024 | Contemporary, LGBTQ+, Romance
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
perfect for these two!
Independent reviewer for Archaeolibrarian, I was gifted my copy of this book.


This is book 3.5 in the Hockey Ever After series, and you MUST read book 3, Unrivaled, before you read this one. This is a continuation of Max and Grady's story. The other books are not necessary though, but they are all 4 and 5 star reads.


What this is, is an immediate pick up from Unrivaled and the summer that Max and Grady spent at Max's home in New Bruinswick. (I have no clue where that is, in relation to Florida or California, but I know its north and colder that those two places!)


Both men are wanting to ask THE QUESTION, but neither man can figure out how best to do it and what follows is a wonderful 100 odd pages of them getting up the courage and spitting the darn question out. But things keep happening and the question comes, finally, at the most perfect time!


These guys love each other, and they make no bones about it! I loved that the smexy times is again fade to grey, maybe even to black, but hey! I don't care! Yes I usually like the smexier times, but I'm big enough and ugly enough to admit that it's not always necessary and these guys do fade to grey perfectly!


I loved the way these two integrated into each others lives, homes, and hearts. They are quite devious in gettting what they want, and I loved that neither one really realsied what the other was doing!


It's got laugh out loud moments (or in my case, a croak cos I have a raging sore throat!) It's got so much love. It's got guys from book 1, Gabe and Dante, playing a huge part. It's got some emotional bits, mostly when Max and Grady are having the internal conversations with themselves about asking the question, but it's not heavy. It's a lighthearted read and it was the perfect way to spend a lazy Sunday morning.


I don't ususally give such short reads 5 stars, since I almost ALWAY want more, but this one??


5 full and shiny stars!


*same worded review will appear elsewhere
  
When the World Tips Over
When the World Tips Over
Jandy Nelson | 2024 | Contemporary, Young Adult (YA)
9
9.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Fall siblings live in Northern California wine country where years ago, their father mysteriously disappeared. Now Dizzy, twelve, bakes cakes, sees kissing, floating spirits, and wishes she was a part of a romance novel. Miles, seventeen, is a brainiac, athlete, and telepathic dog-whisperer, but he’s desperate to step out of being perfect. Wynton, nineteen, is an amazing violinist, but is set on a path of self-destruction he can’t seem to get off of. They all seem to be spiraling.

But then a rainbow-haired girl shows up. She may be an angel. Or a saint. But her showing up tips the Falls’ world over. Before anyone can figure out who she is, catastrophe strikes, leaving the family more broken than ever.

With a story filled with road trips, rivalries, family curses, love stories (with many layers), unsent letters, and generational trauma, this young adult novel peels back the layers of a family’s complicated past and present.

This will definitely stick with me for years to come. And, I honestly don’t know how to put into words what I thought of this, because I’m in love with the entire Fall family (okay, there are a few I don’t like…) and their many, many layers of their lives. I just tried to explain this all to my coworker and the amount of time I said, “well but you find out this…” was endless.

It absolutely gave me East of Eden by Steinbeck vibes - the length alone, but also how good and overcome evil in the end is also a running theme in this novel too. Again, this is a long read, and it’s not one you can skim over either, because you want to take your time with it and immerse yourself in with these characters and this family. As much as I love to devour book after book, this one reminded me to slow down and to enjoy it.

Overall, this book is long and is a multi-sit read, but I can guarantee you will fall in love with at least one member of the Fall family after reading this!
  
The Sorrows
The Sorrows
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Sorrows, an island off the coast of northern California, and its castle have been uninhabited since a series of gruesome murders in 1925. But its owner needs money, so he allows film composers Ben and Eddie and a couple of their female friends to stay a month in Castle Blackwood. Eddie is certain a haunted castle is just the setting Ben needs to find inspiration for a horror film.
But what they find is more horrific than any movie. Something is waiting for them in the castle. A malevolent being has been trapped for nearly a century. And he's ready to feed.
*Disclosure - I received a free copy for purposes of an honest review*

This is definitely a more slow burn novel that creeps up on you, giving you that uneasy feeling and putting you on edge.
The characters are each realistically flawed and interesting; this book does have sexual scenes, some scenes of violence and gore. This did not bother me as it flows with books plot.
If you have read anything by Janz then you will probably be aware that he has a talent for the darkest depths of hell and horror. The Sorrows represents the beginning of his journey, and also shows much he has honed his craft since then.
There are a few story lines in this novel, all keep you the edge of your seat with bated breath waiting to see what would happen next! We have a diary from the past talking about a mysterious little boy called Gabriel and the wrongdoing and terror that occurred on the island in 1925.
While the foursome are the island, things start off being just a little bit spooky. Strange sightings take place, violent apparitions, voices are heard and take control of people, mirrored walls and secret passages, the brutality of some of the characters, and finally the goat hooves beast of the island.
Then tension builds in the books with little tidbits of supernatural. The tension, it was palpable as you delve further into the mystery of the island and the past. A couple of things I felt were a bit too unexplained but I think it that it added to the magic of the book, because let us be honest when you watch films the unexpected always happens!