Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy by Faith Erin Hicks

Summary from Edelweiss:

New York Times bestseller Faith Erin Hicks is back with a young adult graphic novel romance about a hotheaded hockey player who asks for temper management lessons from the cool, calm boy in drama club.

It should have been a night of triumph for Alix’s hockey team. But when her mean-girl team captain Lindsay goes after Alix with her cruelest dig yet, Alix loses what remains of her self-control and punches Lindsay out. Before she knows it, their coach is dragging Alix off Lindsay, and her invitation to the Canada National Women’s U18 Team’s summer camp is on the line.

Alix is shaken. She needs to learn how to control this anger, and she is sure Ezra, the popular and poised theater kid from her grade is the answer. So she asks for his help. But as they hang out and start get closer, Alix learns that there is more to Ezra than the cool front he puts on. And that maybe this friendship could become something more?

Got approved for a galley on Netgalley and read it straight away!

More of a 3.5/5 stars – mostly because this feels very unfinished as a complete story arc. The issues with the emotional abuse from Alix’s teammates/her movement to another team with no one but Ezra to back her up really needed more of a resolution, imo. But I liked the development of Alix and Ezra’s relationship and really hope that there’s another volume in this story.

Content warnings: a lot of this book deals with Alix being emotionally abused by her teammates on the hockey team (which is not resolved to my satisfaction, imo, her coach SUCKS), biphobia

Hockey Girl Loves Drama Boy is out today!

Dear FTC: I read a digital galley of this book from the publisher via Netgalley.

Wicked Beauty by Katee Robert (Dark Olympus #3)

Summary from Goodreads: She was the face that launched a thousand ships,
The fierce beauty at the heart of Olympus,
And she was never ours to claim.

In Olympus, you either have the power to rule… or you are ruled. Achilles Kallis may have been born with nothing, but as a child he vowed he would claw his way into the poisonous city’s inner circle. Now that a coveted role has opened to anyone with the strength to claim it, he and his partner, Patroclus Fotos, plan to compete and double their odds of winning. Neither expect infamous beauty Helen Kasios to be part of the prize… or for the complicated fire that burns the moment she looks their way.

Zeus may have decided Helen is his to give to away, but she has her own plans. She enters into the competition as a middle finger to the meddling Thirteen rulers, effectively vying for her own hand in marriage. Unfortunately, there are those who would rather see her dead than lead the city. The only people she can trust are the ones she can’t keep her hands off—Achilles and Patroclus. But can she really believe they have her best interests at heart when every stolen kiss is a battlefield? A scorchingly hot modern retelling of Helen of Troy, Achilles, and Patroclus that’s as sinful as it is sweet.

God I fucking love Mess. And this is messy as hell.

(Maybe could have used a weeeeee bit more air in this relationship to make it workable – the timeline is very compacted – but that’s really just personal preference)

Rake I’d Like to F… by Sierra Simone, Eva Leigh, Nicola Davidson, Adriana Herrera, and Joanna Shupe

Summary from Goodreads: He’s a legend in the raking . . .

The Last Crimes of Peregrine Hind – Sierra Simone: Peregrine Hind, known to all as the bloodiest highwayman ever to bedevil the road, seeks only one thing—revenge against the Dartham family. And so when a robbery sends the second Dartham son and notorious rakehell Alexander Dartham tumbling to Peregrine’s feet, it seems like fate has given Peregrine his vengeance at last. Except then Alexander offers him a desperate bargain: to kidnap him instead, so Peregrine can harvest a generous ransom from Alexander’s family first. Peregrine agrees, but he’s in no way prepared for a captive like Alexander, who insists only on the softest beds and the finest wines…and who enjoys being tied up a little too much…

Two Rakes for Mrs. Sparkwell – Eva Leigh: The last thing Mrs. Vivian Sparkwell wants is to tie her life to another stifling husband. But thanks to the surprise terms of her last marriage contract, if she refuses any reasonable offer to wed again, she loses her widow’s portion. What she needs is a thorough and public ruining to make her would-be suitors cry off. Who better to provide the necessary scandal than notorious rake Rushton Cantley? Yet when Rush proposes that his friend, gaming hell bruiser Jack Morgan, join in on the ruination, Vivian can’t decide if she’s shocked—or aroused. How far is too far when infamy is on the line?

A Rake, His Patron, & Their Muse – Nicola Davidson: London playwright and notorious rake Lennox Townsend is renowned for bold melodrama and bolder pleasures. When he loses interest in both, his shy yet devoted patron Lord Jonathan Grant escorts him to a country boarding house managed by repressed widow, Mrs. Viola Prescott. The trio soon surrender to sizzling—and forbidden—passion, made sweeter as each share their deepest secrets and find acceptance of their true self. Yet cold reality is ever ready to intrude, and they know happiness is fleeting. Or is it?

Monsieur X – Adriana Herrera: Joseph Cantor Marshall never imagined reaching the pinnacle of artistic success would be so… uninspiring. Desperate for a spark of excitement he attends the notorious masked soirée at the most exclusive sex club in Paris. The moment he walks in he’s entranced by the mysterious X, the embodiment of the painter’s darkest fantasies. But X is as slippery as he is tempting, and soon Marshall’s days and nights are consumed by growing desire for his elusive lover. Will falling for X prove to be Marshall’s undoing or his greatest masterpiece?

Sold to the Duke – Joanna Shupe: Though she once lived a life of privilege, Lady Eliza is now destitute and desperate to care for her ill sister. She decides to sell the one thing of value she has left: her virginity. At the auction, a shocked Duke of Blackwood recognizes Eliza and refuses to allow her to fall into the clutches of a depraved bidder. But his role of noble rescuer is upended when the proud beauty insists on giving him his money’s worth…

For some reason, I think I liked Duke I’d Like to F… a little better than Rake I’d Like to F… as a whole. It’s all the same authors, all of whose writing I’m familiar with, so it’s not that. Some of the stories felt more rushed in their internal timelines in this volume – “instalust” is always a harder sell for me, and when you make it a throuple/triad or more instead of just two people in the relationship it gets harder for me to buy that everyone is going to have a Happily Ever After after only a few days or weeks. The two novellas I liked best were Adriana Herrera’s and Joanna Shupe’s and both of those had longer elements of time in them and worked really well for me, despite the short nature of a novella format.

It’s all unbelievably sexy of course. Many, many chili peppers. And I can really recommend Adriana Herrera’s contribution, Monsieur X (riffing on the John Singer Sargent “Madame X” painting) which has an unbelievably lush quality to the writing and the evocation of artistic inspiration.

(Apparently, there’s going to be a Villain volume next year…yes please)

Dear FTC: I had a digital galley of this book from the publicist, but got pudding brain and didn’t read it, but I had a copy pre-ordered on my Nook anyway so I read that.

Something to Talk About by Meryl Wilsner, narrated by Jorjeana Marie and Xe Sands

Summary from Goodreads: A showrunner and her assistant give the world something to talk about when they accidentally fuel a ridiculous rumor in this debut romance.

Hollywood powerhouse Jo is photographed making her assistant Emma laugh on the red carpet, and just like that, the tabloids declare them a couple. The so-called scandal couldn’t come at a worse time–threatening Emma’s promotion and Jo’s new movie. As the gossip spreads, it starts to affect all areas of their lives. Paparazzi are following them outside the office, coworkers are treating them differently, and a “source” is feeding information to the media. But their only comment is “no comment”.

With the launch of Jo’s film project fast approaching, the two women begin to spend even more time together, getting along famously. Emma seems to have a sixth sense for knowing what Jo needs. And Jo, known for being aloof and outwardly cold, opens up to Emma in a way neither of them expects. They begin to realize the rumor might not be so off base after all…but is acting on the spark between them worth fanning the gossip flames?

THE SLOWEST BURN, please just talk about your feelings TO EACH OTHER KTHANX

But other than that, Something to Talk About is a really good f/f, workplace romance novel set behind the scenes of a really successful TV show between the showrunner – who is about to get a big career boost by writing for a Bond-like action franchise – and her assistant. It’s one of those chicken-and-egg situations – did Jo and Emma have feelings for each other prior to the photograph of them on the red carpet? Or did the attention the photograph created cause each woman to look at the other differently? It’s a very slow burn romance, which really fits the story because it is a boss/assistant situation and Jo is extremely concerned about blowback on Emma’s career aspirations as a showrunner and director. (Jo is also somewhat in the closet herself, or at least has never commented on her sexual orientation publicly.) But just because the burn is slow doesn’t mean that it’s a closed-door romance – the sexytimes, aren’t crazy-spicy, it’s more like a 2-3 chili pepper scene, but it’s there.

(Just FYI that there is a #metoo-like moment in this book between Emma and a visiting male director. Emma isn’t hurt physically, but it’s definitely something the character was not expecting.)

The narrators for this audiobook, Jorjeana Marie and Xe Sands, were excellent.

Dear FTC: I borrowed an audiobook from my library via Libby.

The Lights on Knockbridge Lane by Roan Parrish (Garnet Run #3)

Summary from Goodreads: Can one man’s crowded, messy life fill another man’s empty heart?

Raising a family was always Adam Mills’ dream, although solo parenting and moving back to tiny Garnet Run certainly were not. After a messy breakup, Adam is doing his best to give his young daughter the life she deserves—including accepting help from their new, reclusive neighbor to fulfill her Christmas wish.

Though the little house may not have “the most lights ever,” the Mills home begins to brighten as handsome Wes Mobray spends more time there and slowly sheds his protective layers. But when the eye-catching house ends up in the news, Wes has to make a choice: hide from the darkness of his unusual past or embrace the light of a future—and a family—with Adam.

I’m slowly coming back to category romances so why not start with this Christmas romance about a gay dad and his reclusive neighbor?

Well, The Lights on Knockbridge Lane is adorable as shit, y’all. Adorable. As. Shit. Take one lonely dad with his gregarious, curious-about-everything eight year-old daughter Gus and mix in a reclusive neighbor plus a meet-cute where the kid breaks into the recluse’s house because HE HAS A TARANTULA (and other non-standard pets including a couple of racoons) and set it at Christmas…. Absolutely the cutest. And VERY steamy, more so than expected. Both Adam and Wes have history that make them a bit (ok, more than a bit, in Wes’s case) hesitant to open up to a new relationship. Adam’s ex basically dumped him – and Gus – because he didn’t want to be a dad and Wes has PTSD from the paparazzi (among others) when he was a teen actor. But when Gus’s Christmas wish is to have a house with The Most Lights on It Ever and Adam, who is not handy at all, needs help, Wes slowly begins to open up (and Gus kind of forces the issue by being fascinated with Wes’s work with biochemical-luminescence and clean energy…and his tarantula). Such a sweet and funny and steamy holiday book.

Slight complaint that this is the third book in a series but the first two (Better Than People and Best Laid Plans – sorry, I haven’t read that one, yet) came in trade paperback but this third one is part of the Harlequin Special Editions series and comes in mass market. *side eye*

Dear FTC: I read a digital galley of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. And I’m probably going to buy a copy.

Center Center: A Funny, Sexy, Sad Almost-Memoir of a Boy in Ballet by James Whiteside

Summary from Goodreads: A daring, hilarious, and inspiring memoir-in-essays from the American Ballet Theatre principal dancer, drag queen, and pop star who’s redefining what it means to be a man in ballet

There’s a mark on every stage around the world that signifies the center of its depth and width, called center center. James Whiteside has dreamed of standing on that very mark as a principal dancer with the prestigious American Ballet Theatre ever since he was a twelve-year-old blown away by watching the company’s spring gala: the glamour, the virtuosity, the extremely fit men in tights!

In this absurd and absurdist collection of essays, Whiteside tells us the story of how he got to the top of his field–stopping along the way to muse about the tragically fated childhood pets who taught him how to feel, reminisce on summer dance camps at which he paid more attention to partying than to ballet, and imagine fantastical run-ins with Jesus on Grindr. Also in these pages are tales of the two alter egos he created to subvert the strict classical rigor of ballet: JbDubs, an out-and-proud pop musician, and Uhu Betch, an over-the-top drag queen named after Yoohoo chocolate milk.

Center Center is an exuberant behind-the-scenes tour of Whiteside’s triple life, both on- and offstage–a raunchy, curious, and unapologetic celebration of pushing boundaries and expressing yourself to the fullest, as well as the debut of a sparkling comedic voice that will resonate with anyone who has a mortifying Google search history or cringe-worthy teenage memories they’d rather forget.

James surprised us all this spring by announcing that he had written a book! Hurrah! Center, Center is a compulsively readable set of autobiographical essays and memoir in varying styles – but all of them “sound” exactly like James (if you follow him on social media, you’ll know what I mean). His drag personality is here, his pop music personality is here, his ballet personality is here. These loosely connected pieces all fit together to give us a picture of James Whiteside, a principal dancer with American Ballet Theatre, who also has a pop music career, who also does drag, who has his own worries and doubts about himself as a gay man and owns his own mistakes. He is extremely frank regarding choices that he made at many points in his life, even ones that are not flattering to him at all. A standout piece in this collection is the essay where he writes about his mother’s life.

A few content warnings for homophia (that James receives), some moments of not-great drag persona choices, and inexperience with pet ownership.

Center, Center is out today!

Dear FTC: I read a digital galley of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss.

The Kissing Bug: A True Story of a Family, an Insect, and a Nation’s Neglect of a Deadly Disease by Daisy Hernández

Summary from Goodreads: Growing up in a New Jersey factory town in the 1980s, Daisy Hernández believed that her aunt had become deathly ill from eating an apple. No one in her family, in either the United States or Colombia, spoke of infectious diseases, and even into her thirties, she only knew that her aunt had died of a rare illness called Chagas. But as Hernández dug deeper, she discovered that Chagas—or the kissing bug disease—is more prevalent in the United States than the Zika virus. Today, more than three hundred thousand Americans have Chagas.

Why do some infectious diseases make headlines and others fall by the wayside? After her aunt’s death, Hernández begins searching for answers about who our nation chooses to take care of and who we ignore. Crisscrossing the country, she interviews patients, epidemiologists, and even veterinarians with the Department of Defense. She learns that outside of Latin America, the United States is the only country with the native insects—the “kissing bugs”—that carry the Chagas parasite. She spends a night in southwest Texas hunting the dreaded bug with university researchers. She also gets to know patients, like a mother whose premature baby was born infected with the parasite, his heart already damaged. And she meets one cardiologist battling the disease in Los Angeles County with local volunteers. 

The Kissing Bug tells the story of how poverty, racism, and public policies have conspired to keep this disease hidden—and how the disease intersects with Hernández’s own identity as a niece, sister, and daughter; a queer woman; a writer and researcher; and a citizen of a country that is only beginning to address the harms caused by Chagas, and the dangers it poses. A riveting and nuanced investigation into racial politics and for-profit healthcare in the United States, The Kissing Bug reveals the intimate history of a marginalized disease and connects us to the lives at the center of it all. 

I bumped The Kissing Bug up my TBR because Lupita raved about it on her IG – a combination memoir and investigation into the current state of Chagas disease in the Americas? OH yes.

It was a really good book to read in clinic while waiting for the centrifuge to finish between subjects. Appropriate, too, because infectious disease and public health. Hernández writes so poignantly and with incredible empathy not only about her aunt, who was afflicted with Chagas her entire life, but others in the US, Central, and South American who are suffering heart disease (treatable, if caught early enough in the infectious process). She also digs into current issues with diagnosis, treatment (ugh, Martin Shikrelli can eat a bag, y’all), and the lack of good resources for increasing surveillance and prevention of the disease. And considering that more “kissing bugs” will move farther into the United States, the question becomes how long until all the Nice White People decide to throw research dollars at a disease that is seen primarily as a disease of poverty/non-Americans in this country because it is now afflicting rich white people. (Hernández even came out to Iowa at one point to meet with Lou Kirchhoff, who lectured in our infectious disease epi course in grad school.)

An outstanding blend of memoir and science journalism. Pick this one up immediately.

Dear FTC: I read a digital galley of this book from the publisher via Edelweiss.

¡Hola Papi!: How to Come Out in a Walmart Parking Lot and Other Life Lessons by John Paul Brammer

Summary from Goodreads: From popular LGBTQ advice columnist and writer John Paul Brammer comes a hilarious, heartwarming memoir-in-essays chronicling his journey growing up as a queer, mixed-race kid in America’s heartland to becoming the “Chicano Carrie Bradshaw” of his generation.

The first time someone called John Paul (JP) Brammer “Papi” was on the popular gay hookup app Grindr. At first, it was flattering; JP took this as white-guy speak for “hey, handsome.” Who doesn’t want to be called handsome? But then it happened again and again…and again, leaving JP wondering: Who the hell is Papi?

What started as a racialized moniker given to him on a hookup app soon became the inspiration for his now wildly popular advice column “¡Hola Papi!,” launching his career as the Cheryl Strayed for young queer people everywhere—and some straight people too. JP had his doubts at first—what advice could he really offer while he himself stumbled through his early 20s? Sometimes the best advice to dole outcomes from looking within, which is what JP has done in his column and book—and readers have flocked to him for honest, heartfelt wisdom, and of course, a few laughs.

In ¡Hola Papi!, JP shares his story of growing up biracial and in the closet in America’s heartland, while attempting to answer some of life’s toughest questions: How do I let go of the past? How do I become the person I want to be? Is there such a thing as being too gay? Should I hook up with my grade school bully now that he’s out of the closet? Questions we’ve all asked ourselves, surely.

¡Hola Papi! is a heart-warming collection of memoir and essay using Brammer’s advice column as a jumping off point. I just wanted to jump into the book and hug tween-John in the essay where he talks about the horrible bullying he experienced, particularly since it originated from a kid he admired and that admiration was twisted with cruelty.

There are trigger warnings for bullying, homophobia, discussion of suicide, and racism – since Brammer is recounting these incidents that happened to him, he writes with incredible candor and self-awareness about how these things shaped him. I frequently forgot that he used the advice-column format and was surprised whenever he addressed an advice-seeker.

¡Hola Papi! is out today!

Dear FTC: I read a digital galley of this book from the publisher.