Blog Archives
Grayality
The LGBTQ+ community has become more mainstream and visible than ever, but for those who live in small or rural towns, they may still struggle. Pate Boone, a young transman in his 20s, knows this all too well. When he moves to the tiny rural town of Cloverleaf with his best friend Oakley Ogden, he does not expect much. Neither does Oakley to be honest, but to their surprise, both end up finding love with mixed results.
Grayality by Carey PW is a raw look at what not only transgender people and those questioning their sexuality/identity go through on their road to acceptance. At times, Pate and Oakley’s story can get downright uncomfortable. Homophobic slurs and behaviors are thrown about in a way you would expect from a conservative and judgemental community. However, it does the job of painting the environment these friends are trying to navigate and survive in. Despite this, they still put their heart out there, trying to look for love. For queer kids, more is at stake than just their hearts.
No character is a hundred percent perfect. Pate and Oakley, themselves have their own flaws. The author creates these three-dimensional characters that you can’t help but root for. Some villains or bullies might appear two-dimensional, but any queer kid living in a small town will tell you how persuasive homophobia can be. This is yet another thing Carey PW gets perfectly in this book. He truly holds nothing back in his depiction of these homophobic townies (such as Bullet) who are fueled by their hatred.
I am giving Grayality written by Carey PW 5 out of 5 stars for its authentic portrayal of what it is like to be on the LGBT spectrum and the harassment that can be directed towards them. This might be a difficult read. Yet, this makes it such a memorable one! It holds no punches and has readers on edge till the end.
Pages: 297 | ASIN : B0B1F4TJJX
Blood Thinners
Blood Thinners starts with a great first line that immediately hooks readers and throws them right into the storyline. Detective Mina Summers, the daughter of the leader of the organization known as SHAP (Supernatural Human Accountability Partnership), is just one assignment away from becoming Regional Director for the agency. Should she obtain this position, she will be the youngest one in the agency’s history. There is nothing and no one that will stand in her way. That is at least until she receives her one last assignment.
Detective Summers’s final assignment is to look into a celebrity-endorsed retreat that guarantees weight loss permanently. SHAP finds this claim suspicious, especially in light of the increased number of cases involving rogue vampires randomly making attacks. Mina and her partner Jake are anxious to wrap up this case and move on. However, the Vice President and daughter of Thinner CEO, Carma, might have other ideas.
Mina is the leading lady in this story, and even though she is a bit standoffish, you cannot help but love her character and the character she becomes. Novak does an excellent job of character development, not just with Mina but with all the characters in the book. Sebastian is Mina’s ghost roommate who is obsessed with the movie Titanic. Jake is Mina’s SHAP partner and best friend. He is the level-headed one of the two and tries to keep Mina grounded.
While reading Blood Thinners, I was reminded of the writing style of Lauren Weisberger, i.e., The Devil Wears Prada, and shortly into the book, there is a comparison of the CEO to Miranda. This familiar writing style is engaging, draws readers into the action, and builds attachment to the characters.
Blood Thinners is a fast-paced romantic mystery with LGBTIA+ characters. With excellent and robust world-building, readers will be able to escape into the world created and experience a love story that is heartwarming and heartbreaking.
Pages: 303 | ASIN : B09CK8GHTH
Stupid Love
Stupid Love by Danielle Dexter is a fun, emotional and relatable tale of starting over, in life and love, following a difficult break-up. The lovable main character, Rachel Parker, finally finds the strength to leave a toxic relationship after years of gaslighting and endless broken promises of change. Readers get to join her on her journey of moving back to her hometown. Everything is new, her own apartment, a new job, the new dating scene- but she has a wonderful group of old friends that keep her uplifted and grounded as she navigates everything that comes with her new beginning.
We follow Rachel and her friends as they experience love and heartbreak while hoping to find ‘the one’ and live happily ever after. They are there for each other as they learn the ‘do’s and don’ts’ of dating and work to find lessons and growth through the hurt they experience. Rachel takes her pain to the page and starts an anonymous blog revealing her experiences, thoughts, and feelings on love which allows readers an even deeper view of how everything she goes through affects her. We watch as she starts to date again, makes questionable choices, loves the wrong men, and ultimately discovers what she really wants and needs from both herself and her partner in a relationship.
This was such a fun read, and I think absolutely every girl can relate to how ‘stupid’ love can be. Dexter writes in a way where you feel she is talking right to you as if she is your best friend telling you about her life. She is genuine, vulnerable, and relatable- writing the thoughts we all have felt in a way that ensures the reader that they are not completely senseless, and definitely not alone, in choosing the wrong men even when they know better.
Stupid Love is a heartwarming story of healing and self-discovery, with the ultimate quest of happiness in love. This is an amazing book for anyone who finds themselves scared to start over or wondering why love is so very complicated.
Pages: 400 | ASIN : B09QK62Z7P
Cuffed by You
![Cuffed by You (SAPD SWAT) by [Mays, Nikki]](https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41uZiFQKcuL._SY346_.jpg)
Kayla is almost at her wits’ end. Her ex-husband is a loser of massive proportions, and it just so happens that she attempted to drown him. Ridding herself of his insanity has left her alone to work the business his family built together and raise her four small children alone. With a more than just supportive family of in-laws who actually favor her over their own son, Kayla is making her way in the world one day at a time. A chance meeting with the officer who cuffed her during that lapse of better judgment turned drowning incident leads Kayla down the path to a life she thought was no longer in the cards for her.
Nikki Mays has done it again. Cuffed by You is the third installment in her romance series, SAPD SWAT, and it actually may be my favorite of the three. Kayla and Marc, the book’s main focus, are lively and easily visualized characters. Kayla is every single mom striving to make a better life for her children and resigned to the fact that she won’t allow her heart to be broken again. She walks the straight and narrow, for the most part, and is a truly likable character.
Marc, like the other male figures in Mays’s series, is a wonder of nature. As Mays churns out one stunning adjective after another to describe his physique, readers are left wondering how this could still be considered a realistic fiction piece–he is almost too good to be true. Mays is a pro at making her male main characters into loving and caring men who still manage to exude a rough exterior–they are dreams come true. This is only one of the many aspects of Mays’s writing that make her books so exceptionally readable and easily favorited.
As with each of the other books in the series, Mays has included a hateful and spite-filled antagonist. Enter the ex-husband. Mays succeeds in making Kayla’s ex a virtual monster, and the loathing is almost palpable page after page. While the entire cast of characters, including his own mother and brothers gang up against him, the reader is swept into the same vortex of hatred and animosity. Mays makes it easy to despise him while simultaneously building a case for Marc to take his place.
Mays is queen of the banter. Her dialogue between characters dominates the pages and makes the book what it is–a masterpiece of romantic comedy. While she includes a good bit of the traditional romance elements in her writing, she is able to make her characters jump off the page as they bicker back and forth, hurl jovial insults, and generally function as one loving unit of friends-turned-family.
Mays’s writes for her books to be enjoyed and for her characters to be remembered well beyond the last page–she achieves that, no doubt.
Pages: 221 | ASIN: B07L6WLS6Y
LITERARY TITAN 