We’ve been watching a ridiculous number of movies (this week’s favorites: Enola Holmes 1 & 2), but I’ve also read a few books. If any of these appeal to you, check them out! And buy direct if you can.
1. ‘Virgin Flyer’ by Lucy Lennox, a cute MM feat. a pilot and the virginal nurse he has a ‘silent hookup’ with. Lots of things happen along the way to the nurse kicking his decade+ fixation on romantic dreams of his BFF, who’s strung him along while being a fuckboy elsewhere. Meanwhile, the pilot has family concerns that steer him toward settling down, much to his own surprise. I get a bit impatient with the “pining/saving myself for you” trope but thought it was handled well here, and the things the nurse needs to say to his friend all get said. Author site HERE.
2. ‘Road Trip’ by Lisa Henry & Sarah Honey. MM New Adult (they’re 18) about … a road trip. Best friends, last summer before college, things go wrong in a way I predicted but they deal with it in a way that supports a HEA (HFN on the page). Lots of caring, honesty, sweetness, acceptance, discoveries, feelings. I generally like this writing team, and while I generally *don’t* care for New Adult, this is one I’d definitely re-read.
3. ‘Ice Ice Babygirl’ by Ashlyn Kane & Morgan James. MM starring a closeted bisexual recently retired hockey pro with family drama in the pipeline + a bisexual retired ice dance pro who coaches & choreographs for a reality show called Dance Your Ice Off. They end up as partners on the show. And yes, the book has some funny stuff in it, along with some serious stuff about the hockey guy’s trans nephew whose deadnaming grandparents are trying to grab custody. Note, there is a new-to-me kink in this book, which is intentional misgendering. I thought it was an interesting choice to use that in a book strongly featuring a sympathetic trans character. Didn’t quite get to the bottom of why the ice dancer responds to misgendering or how the hockey guy arrived at it. The relationship growth is really good, though.
4. ‘Stolen Dream’ by Oliver Takely. MM in which two 18 yr olds form an intense bond at a ghastly “conversion therapy” camp, are separated w/o means of contact, meet again 12 yrs later when their friend groups intersect. Interesting premise, and I read all of it, but not the best writing.
5. two new shorts from JMS Books. ‘A Precious Gift’ by Ellie Thomas, in which her trans F/M couple adopt an abandoned infant; and ‘Storm Point’ by K.L. Noone, contemporary paranormal feat. a sea-witch, an empath/writer, and a haunted lighthouse. And another short, ‘The Seventh Swan’ by Megan Derr, nice MM fairy tale retelling not as well edited as ‘The Shoemaker.’ Bookmark the JMS Books site HERE to catch frequent sales and daily deals!
6. ‘Galaxies and Oceans’ by N.R. Walker, which started very strong with suspenseful escape via bushfire of abused man but got quite predictable from the point where he meets an older lighthouse keeper on a South Australian offshore island. The inevitable confrontation with evil ex was almost glossed over while the psychology of the lighthouse keeper (4 yrs out from former lover being lost at sea) was given more weight.
This week’s non-recommendation from Netflix: Finding Her Edge, which caught my attention because it’s about a skater with new partner, but lost it entirely during first episode due to poor research, bad writing, bad acting, and bad skating. There’s a docuseries coming up about ice dancing for which I have higher hopes.