kharlan3's reviews
181 reviews

Meet Cute Diary by Emery Lee

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(m/nb, YA, romance, contemporary). My main takeaway is that Noah is super unlikeable! Hates walking, exercise, ourdoors, working, and kids. Even for a 16 year old I didn’t find him relatable. Devin was the best part by far.
An Unsuitable Heir by KJ Charles

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(m/nb, romance, mystery, historical). What an excellent conclusion! Love to see friends from the first two books return. I also love Greta with my whole heart. The "wealth is not the ultimate goal, titles won't make you happy" message felt very Cat Sebastian, which I appreciated.
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An Unnatural Vice by KJ Charles

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(m/m, romance, mystery, historical). The fog! What a setting. I adore historical queers having queer friends. I'm not totally sure I'm onboard with hating Justin's job, but I buy that Nathaniel hates it. The mystery heightens...
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The Henna Wars by Adiba Jaigirdar

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(f/f, YA, romance). Rivals to lovers! I think that this has a great conversation for younger readers about cultural appropriation. I generally loved the sister relationship. I didn't love Flávia/the love story. The one thing that super bothered/distracted me was that it felt like Ireland was just a setting. The narrator didn't use any Irish accents for any of the characters, and multiple times "dollars" and, I believe "miles" were mentioned as well. Pulled me out of the Irish setting.
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Flipcup by Kim Hartfield

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2.25

(f/f, contemporary, romance). I was really excited to get to a sapphic Vino and Veritas book but this one really disappointed me. The Chelsea character (a 22yo partier) was hardly redeemable (slut shaming, self centered, and flat). Chelsea’s friends were even worse than she was. The physical descriptions were lacking and the word choice in the sex scenes were not to my taste (if we’re having on-page sex, we don’t need to constantly refer to our “core” and our “center” imo). Each woman having exactly 3 best friends was weird, and this book TOTALLY lost the connection to the Vermont setting and the spirit of Vino & Veritas that the other books manage to have.
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Aftermath by L.A. Witt

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(m/m, contemporary, romance). This may be my favorite one so far. A recently divorced bi massage therapist single dad meets a former professional hockey player recovering from catastrophic injuries with ED. Dogs!! I liked Jon’s refusal to find Brent a burden, and the abusive/manipulative dad storyline was effective. I really liked the creative sex and journey around that. The best part was obviously them adopting the dogs, duh. There was some weirdness with this audiobook- the narrator for Jon was oddly quiet/solemn on the chapter names, and there was one moment of what sounded like strange re-records on a Brent chapter. Only a little distracting though.
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Undercover by Eliot Grayson

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(m/m, contemporary, romance). Ugh, cops. An FBI agent (Alec) and a rich purple haired grad school drop out (Gabe). I liked Gabe a lot. I hated Alec- ahis actions were unforgivable and it definitely felt like copaganda.
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The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian

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(m/m, historical, romance). This has all the things I love about Cat Sebastian books- men who are positively alarmed by the existence/depths of their feelings, clear anti-aristocracy sentiment, excellent consent! The sex and the anticipation is hot and well written (and always excellently narrated by Joel Leslie Froomkin), and the characters of all genders are able to be simultaneously delicate and strong and flustered and clear in their beliefs/politics. My one wish is that Kit’s cane/walking stick had been on the cover.
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19 Love Songs by David Levithan

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2.5

(short story anthology, queer, mostly m/m). I read SO MUCH David Levithan in hs, I was excited for this. It was fine as it went on, but the “cheering at the friendly cops” bit at the end threw the neoliberalism into relief. The phrase “born into the wrong body” is used, which also squicked me. The “Quiz Bowl Antichrist” story was probably my favorite of the bunch.
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Lost in the Never Woods by Aiden Thomas

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dark emotional slow-paced

3.25

i wanted to like this book. i liked the author's other book. i.... did not like this book.


(YA, fairy tale retelling).  Honestly, this one didn't super work for me. The protagonist felt immature (but like she was supposed to seem mature) and the story felt fairly predictable. Usually I like YA but this felt... too YA. I didn't like that the MC cut herself off from her best friend for the whole book and that that was portrayed as the right choice, and though most of the characters in the book didn't like/are scared of cops, it still felt like the BOOK likes cops.
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