This week’s reading:
1. ‘You’ve Found Oliver’ by Dustin Thao, a literary New Adult MM romance, and by ‘literary’ I mean it’s mostly about things (chiefly grief) other than the love story, and it doesn’t have a HEA or even a HFN, only a second chance to start over. Interesting and involving, but the use of an alternate timeline as a metaphor for dissociation was frustratingly opaque and anxiety-inducing.
2. [re-read] my own F/M novel ‘A Winning Hand,’ the one about a Las Vegas piano player/songwriter and the cop she falls for, because I needed something funny and this one makes me laugh even though I wrote it.
3. ‘Style of Love’ by AJ Sherwood, ‘Gay 4 Renovations’ book 1. MM contemporary set in Michigan. The setup is that four friends started their own design/build/renovate business; presumably each friend will eventually get a book. This one is about their interior designer and his lifelong BFF who suddenly realize they have sex feelings about each other. Not quite enough renovating given the setup. Includes a serious secondary plotline about toxic families and divorce from same. Lots of great allies.
4. ‘Structure of Love’ by AJ Sherwood, Gay 4 Reno bk 2. This one features the structural engineer/architect, at whom I squint because getting both those licenses and starting a business by age 30-ish is Romancelandia Academia at its best. His love interest is a bar owner at whose pub the architect’s wastrel younger brother washes up. Next to no internal conflict, convincing falling-in-love arc, more excellent allies, and another toxic family. Also a more generous dose of on-the-page reno! Both these books are sexy when it serves the relationship-building.
5. ‘Stuck in the Middle’ by Will Forrest, a MMM+ why-choose romance set in Toronto. Three thirtysomething men, two of whom are lifelong BFFs clueless about true feelings, coalesce into a polycule tied together by a younger former model recovering from previous lifestyle. Sexy, with a lot of growth for all. Author site HERE. Note, I’ve enjoyed all of Forrest’s books that I’ve read, and if you loved ‘Any Old Diamonds’ by KJ Charles, I highly recommend Forrest’s ‘An Inconvenient Earl.’
Would definitely recommend the Sherwoods to those who want books about men being friends and being competent and saying important shit to the people who need to hear it. Author site HERE.
As usual, I encourage you to buy direct when you can!
If owning a book file is important to you (versus an ebook reading license), be aware that my publisher JMS Books LLC always delivers a book file, as does Smashwords. As of January 20, this option is supposed to be enabled for Kindle ebooks at Amazon. All of my settings have been reviewed to ensure that, if you’ve bought one of my books from Amazon, your content library should soon display the option to download a book file (ePub or PDF).