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Interview With Rachel Reid - Famous Author of TIME TO SHINE

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Rachel Reid is back to answer some new (or the exact same) interview questions in celebration of her brand new book TIME TO SHINE out now and available wherever you get books! And no, there is no Ilya or Shane in this book this is a BRAND NEW STANDALONE BOOK HOCKEY UNIVERSE! Yay! Anyway, onto the questions! Horse Question 1: If Landon and Casey were actually thoroughbreds and racing the triple crown which one would win? Rachel: Landon would win because he runs a lot and Casey hates running. If the horses were on skates Casey would win. Horse Question 2: If Landon was a thoroughbred horse what would his horse show name be? Rachel: The first thing that popped into my head was Daddy’s Little Sad Sack, but Landon deserves better. How about Unexpected Hero? Regular Question 3: If you rewrote the book as a paranormal romance what would each character be? Rachel: Casey would be a laid back and helpful ghost who is kind of annoying but is also good company. Landon would be a cursed ...

ARC Review: You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian

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You Should Be So Lucky by Cat Sebastian My rating: 5 of 5 stars I don't know what it is about baseball that makes it the perfect backdrop to a story equally about grief as it is romance but it does. Perhaps it is the inherent nostalgic romance of baseball or the skill of Cat Sebastian as a writer but this book was incredible. It felt like the spiritual successor to KD Casey's baseball books (highly recommend everyone read those) while being a completely new and refreshing take on baseball romance. Which it is very refreshing! One of my notes on this book is "weirdly refreshing about sports and homophobia??" because similarly to We Could Be So Good, the historical realism of being gay in mid-century New York - particularly as a well-known professional athlete- is absolutely present, the book is still incredibly hopeful and sweet. And the romance! It's an absolute masterclass on domestic slice of life slowburn. Eddie and Mark are ...

Erratic's Christmas Romance Book Round-Up 2023 Edition

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If you were here last year you may remember me saying I was going to stick with Hallmark movies instead of reading Christmas romance books in 2023. WELL GUESS WHAT. I lied. I watched basically zero Hallmark movies and read approximately three thousand Christmas books because I did not choose self-care. This year's crop of Christmas horrors was worse than last year's which is saying a lot. Even more death, even more mayhem, even less romance, and even more overly dramatic dingalings ruining Christmas for everyone around them but especially ruining it for me. Also, apologies this is super late I was busy doing stuff like "not reading" and "procrastinating" and "washing my hair" and didn't finish the last Christmas book until December 30th. Just like last year, I've ordered the reviews below based on the rating I gave them on Goodreads from highest to lowest. Clicking on the title of the book will take you directly to my Goodreads review. ...

ARC Review: Lucky Bounce by Cait Nary

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Lucky Bounce by Cait Nary My rating: 5 of 5 stars 5 stars Lucky Bounce is my favorite of Cait Nary's books so far. It's fun, fast-paced, has good hockey content, and I didn't even mind the kid (and i am not a big fan of kids in romance novels). The romance is great too - I was invested in the two main characters getting to know each other and eventually figuring it all out. There was some Personal Family Stuff with both dudes that wasn't really explored in depth or resolved at all but I don't enjoy family drama so I didn't mind that it kinda went nowhere.  The ending is probably my biggest complaint because it is A B R U P T. It seriously just ends with the world's most vague sentence and i kept trying to turn the page for more but nope. Nothing. If this was beefed up a bit it would be 5++++ stars lol. Still worth the read and a great addition to the annals of gay hockey romance. I received an ARC copy of this book from Ne...

ARC Review: 10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall

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10 Things That Never Happened by Alexis Hall My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3 stars I'm as surprised as you are that I didn't completely hate this book after the last several tries with AJH. I'd even go as far to say I quite enjoyed it. Sure it had the very annoying thing where -y is added to the end of words to be cutesy (see what I did there) and it is written in what I assume is a northern accent so if i never see a sentence end in "like" again it'll be too soon. But the amensia plot was kind of fun, I liked the two MCs, and the meddling family and meddling coworkers were rather enjoyable. What's keeping it three stars is the rather predictable 95% breakup, the 97% Christmas Death (ugh we were so close to a mostly death free Christmas! But no here they are kissing in a cemetery wtf), and the aforementioned annoyingly accenty (lol) narrative. It helped a lot that the POV character, Sam, wasn't completely full of anxiety ...

ARC Review: Through the Snow Globe by Annie Rains

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Through the Snow Globe by Annie Rains My rating: 3 of 5 stars 3 stars Ah yes nothing says Merry Christmas quite like re-living the day you bombed a job interview and your beloved fiance got hit by a truck because you shook a magic snow globe and made a Christmas wish. Who wouldn't want to see how many different ways that delivery truck can hunt down Linus (aforementioned fiance) to run him down and put him in a Christmas coma?? After failing the same horrible job interview for a promotion at work?? Not me, that's for sure. I had fun reading this book because after the first groundhog day loop Diana went through I wanted to see just how much more horrible it could get. And boy did it. Linus ended up in a coma after being hit by the delivery truck while riding his bike, as a passenger in a car, while walking, and while standing outside all at different times and situations. That truck had it out for his ass.  The rules of the snowglobe groundho...

ARC Review: New Adult by Timothy Janovsky

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New Adult by Timothy Janovsky My rating: 4 of 5 stars 4 stars I was rather surprised by this book (positive). It's about a comedian which I have absolutely no interest in because improv is my actual nightmare and it involves magic crystal which I do have an interest in as a part time spooky person but what it's really about is one of my FAVORITE tropes which is waking up in the future with absolutely no idea how you got there. (magic, amnesia, time travel??? all three??? read and find out!) I very much liked that the comedian character Nolan turns out to be a total bag of butts in the future and built his fortune on the back of horrible raunchy jokes which thank goodness this book has very little of the actual tight tens in it because no one needs to read those. It focused more on Nolan trying to redeem his alternative future self's buttwad lifestyle and reconnect with his BFF (and love), his family, and his comedic roots. And of course f...

ARC Review: Three Holidays and a Wedding by Uzma Jalaluddin

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Three Holidays and a Wedding by Uzma Jalaluddin My rating: 2 of 5 stars 2 stars This book was a mess. First of all, it was set in the year 2000 but had absolutely no reason to be. It wasn't any different than a book set in 2023 except no one had smart phones. The book wasn't even accurate to 2000 with the phrase "main character energy" and very tight airport security. In a pre-9/11 world? No way. And I am not sure why this is categorized as a "romance" either. The two POV characters are Maryam and Anna, who become airplane friends, and it's more about their friendship and families? Also, they are both kind of spineless and passive in an irritating way. Just ask the boys you like if they have a girlfriend and if they want to go out with you is this so hard!! There is also inexplicably a Christmas/Holiday pageant they put on in the town they get stranded in because of Christmas snow reasons. I'm pretty sure they were...