I read a lot this week. If any of these sound interesting, go get ‘em! And buy direct if you can.
1. ‘Counterpoint’ by J.E. Birk, in the In Vino Veritas series. Starts off as the usual uptight overachiever hookup with playboy underachiever and subsequent ‘we must never speak of this’ which is complicated because of friend group & families. But it goes somewhere much more interesting after they find themselves working together and fall into bed again. There’s a real shadow hanging over the future and they both have to decide how to deal with it. Plenty of communication and friend support, family reconciliation, good stuff. (Birk also wrote BOOKLOVER, which I also liked, and can be found on Facebook.)
2. a short: ‘Moderating Love’ by Jax Calder, sweet & funny, definitely something I’ll enjoy re-reading. Author site HERE.
3-5. ‘Code Red,’ ‘Code Blue,’ and ‘Code Word’ by N.R. Walker, which are all MM about members of an enormously successful pop group and all hinge on the logistics of existence (security, privacy, etc) in that milieu. ‘Red’ features one of the musicians and his manager, ‘Blue’ another musician and the group’s head of security, ‘Word’ two of the musicians. That one felt a bit of a stretch for me and I didn’t connect with the MCs as much. The first two were satisfying in all ways. Author site HERE.
6. a short: ‘The Shoemaker’ by Megan Derr, a very sweet, lovely fairy-tale retelling, into the holiday shorts re-read collection. My firewall didn’t like Derr’s site but she can be found all over the internet.
7-8. ‘Promises of Forever’ and ‘Symphony of Salvation’ by Nicky James. The first book features a retired hockey pro, now physiotherapist, who comes across a trove of his letters while cleaning out his recently deceased parents’ house and tracks down his teenage pen pal. The love interest is a teacher at a Toronto-area private school and is *deeply* traumatized by childhood events which aren’t laid out until late in the book. Well done high angst, gripping & very sympathetic to both MCs. The second book features the best friend (ex-boyfriend) of the traumatized teacher. This MC is the music teacher at the school and I’m guessing James loved him so much a book for him felt necessary. I loved him too. He’s a terrific character. His love interest, I wanted to kick in the balls for about an hour. High angst, high conflict, a good resolution but communication had fallen apart for no good reason and that’s a tripping hazard for me. Author site HERE.
Plus, fyi, my publisher JMS Books LLC is having a sale this weekend, so if you need something new to read while the storm is storming, check them out!