This Week In Books

I’m back. With more books!

And this week, I read some beauties and others that I would rather forget. It’s just been raining books here at my humble abode, and it has been wonderful.

I’m going to be completely honest with you…I am still reading the Dragon Kin series by G.A. Aiken and still loving it! But, you know when you’ve been reading a series non-stop, you have this itch to read something else, something entirely different? Well, that happened to me this past week. So, last weekend, I got that itch something fierce, so I went on my handy iBooks app and started searching through the ‘Free’ charts. I’ll have you know, that majority of the time, the first book in a series (especially if that series is romance and/or supernatural) is free; and I found one such free book that I thought didn’t look entirely terrible, and it was ‘Daddy’s Best Friend’ by London Hale. It was only 145 pages, but, it was a cute little read! There is always the cringe-worthy possibility with age-difference, that it will seem kind of creepy? And don’t get me wrong, at some points, it was a bit ambiguous? Like, ‘daddy’s best friend’, only started having ‘feelings’ for the daughter when she turned seventeen, so to cover his bases basically. But, it was refreshing to have a female character know completely who she wanted, and what she wanted to do with her life. She didn’t seem immature, this book takes place when she turned eighteen, and the friction that I thought would happen when the dad found out about the relationship was anti-climatic. So, if you want a book that you really don’t need to focus on, read this and it will at least pass the time! And there’s the sex scenes if you get really bored with the dialogue.

Next was May Sage’s ‘Shy Girls Write it Better’, and I loved this one. Honestly, it was such a good read, to the point that I am actually tempted to buy the rest of the series on iBooks. Cassie, the female protagonist, is a spitfire. Shy and seemingly conservative to the people around her, Cassie is a best-selling author of erotic fiction and works as an accountant of a Toy company. And no, not sex toys – get your head out of the gutter-like children’s toys. I’m pretty sure. I should double-check. The story is kind of predictable (CEO finds her naughty script etc.) so I won’t go into too much detail, but Cassie and the CEO of said Toy company become friends and fall in love and it’s adorable and cute, and although the plot itself is straight from Hallmark Lifetime Movies, the relationship itself seems realistic. It’s 150 pages of feel-good fun!

It didn’t stop there with the ebooks! I’m pretty sure this wasn’t free… I think it was $2.99? Claire Boston’s ‘Place to Belong’, is fourth in her series of the Flanagan Sisters, but this book focused on their long-lost brother, Sean, and his romance with Hayden, his sister’s friend. This book is a cute read, but also an emotional one, as Sean fights with himself and accepts his sexuality and his love of Hayden. There is a deep, intrinsic fear of his new family finding out about his sexuality; but, the Flanagan’s are decent, and ‘love is love’. It is a story about love in all its forms, but also of family, acceptance, and putting the past to rest. Honestly, such a good little read!

Then I found, and read, ‘Yakuza Pride‘ by H.J. Brues. And, wow. It’s an M/M romance also, but it is gritty, raw and violent as hell. It’s about the underworld of Japan, a world where money buys off everyone, killing but a part of the daily routine; but honour, is above all else. There are some elements to it that are not the best, but I feel as though it was done on purpose to give the story, the context, and the characters, a realistic feel. It is slightly longer than the other eBooks I’ve talked about, and at times it can seem like it’s dragging along with nothing substantial occurring, but the good parts are hella good. I enjoyed the unfolding of the relationship and the sudden understanding that the thought of living without the other was completely unfathomable.

So, you know how last week I talked about reading that Diana Palmer anthology, and it was bleh? Well, did I tell you I bought three of her anthologies in total at Kmart? *cries in anguish into the abyss* But I sucked it up! I thought, hey Allie, you used your money to buy these, you need to read them, and then forever forget about them. Thankfully, I am a fast reader, so it only took me two days to read the last two anthologies. And they were the same. Exactly. the. same. Except for two stories in the anthology. The differences in these were that the men were not as terrible as the others, and they themselves were virgins! That brought me excitement because it was something different, and I felt that the men were more friendly and less emotionally abusive than the usual Diana Palmer Cowboy-Bachelor-Asshole she typically writes.

The last book read this week, and I just finished this yesterday, was ‘A Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares’ by Krystal Sutherland, and this book right here is a must read. Seriously, go out and buy it right now. To call it just a young adult novel, is like calling Albert Einstein just a scientist. The writing of this book flowed off the page; Sutherland is extremely articulate and a mastermind in interweaving reality with hints of magic and a sprinkle of the terrifying. Fundamentally, this is a book about mental illness. But it is also a book about Death. As in the Grim Reaper. It is an unbelievable book with a profound and philosophical quality to it. I said it on my Instagram, and I’ll say it again, but this book right has become my favourite books of 2017. You need to read it. I’m actually leaning towards writing a full-length review on it, that is how much you need to read this book.

That’s all folks! I’ll be back next Friday with another ‘Week in Books’. Till then, adios mi amigos, and happy reading!

Allie.

xx

ratings:

Daddy’s Best Friend by London Hale – 3.5/5

Shy Girls Write it Better by May Sage – 4/5

Place to Belong by Claire Boston – 4/5

Yakuza Pride by H.J. Brues – 4/5

Long, Tall, Texas Match by Diana Palmer – 2.5/5

Long, Tall, Texas Heat by Diana Palmer – 3/5

A Semi-Definitive List of Worst Nightmares by Krystal Sutherland – 5/5