Susan’s Book Blog

  Unexpecting by Jen Bailey YA, LGBTQ    Romance Wednesday Books Scheduled release: 8/22/23 🍂  5 stars out of 5  🍂 “ Sometimes doing the necessary thing, even when you’d rather do anything else, is the right thing to do. ” You know those books that just get better and better as you go along? This is one of those books. The premise was enough to hook me, the plot hit the ground running on page one, the characters completely had me wrapped around their fingers, and the emotional stakes just increased with every page turn. By the 70-80% mark, I was in tears. I really loved this one.  Ben is the sweetest kid. He’s 16 and an excellent student, super smart, responsible, a hard worker, but now he’s struggling to make sense of his life now that he’s found out he got his friend pregnant. He’s also gay. So there’s a bit of angst and drama but Ben ends up learning a lot of important lessons with the help of his amazing support system of family and friends....

 It's pub day for one of the best books you will read ALL YEAR.  A Lady for a Duke   by Alexis Hall 💙 5 stars out of 5 💛 Viola is a trans woman who has given up her old life simply so she can live as her true self. She is extremely hesitant to revisit old places and faces for fear of rejection. She believes she is consigned to a life without love and friendship. However, we see such radical empathy, compassion, and acceptance among the characters. It’s truly beautiful. The message “love is love” echoes loudly throughout these pages. So much of this book is profoundly beautiful. The writing is exquisite, and the topics are given the weight and sensitivity they deserve. And frankly, it’s a damn good story. There is yearning and angst and drama and more yearning. So much yearning. 😂 And there is a declaration of love in this book that rivals Darcy’s for Elizabeth Bennett. It is SO beautiful. Available for purchase or borrowing today!  Read my review in its entirety h...

 So I've been hearing about this hockey romance series, Game Changers, by Rachel Reid for ages. And this spring Reid came out with a follow-up to one of the books and it's been getting a lot of buzz so I thought I would take this opportunity to finally give it a try. And I honestly think that these two books are two of my new faves of all time!  The main characters, Shane and Ilya, are two of the sweetest, funniest, most entertaining and well written characters I've had the pleasure to read in a long time. I adore them! Heated Rivalry and The Long Game are very different books, however. The differences were interesting and worked perfectly. The first book was about how Shane and Ilya became "Shane and Ilya". You get to see their relationship develop and evolve. It is a VERY SPICY book. Loads of sex scenes but because they are essentially used here as a constantly traveling professional athlete's version of dating, they are never gratuitous. Each one shows us s...

One of my favorite books is Glitterland by Alexis Hall. About a struggling bipolar depressive writer who finds love in the last place - and person - he’d expect. It’s so beautifully written and conveys the most beautiful messages. I highly recommend reading it. Below are a few quotes I highlighted on my kindle and wanted to share. When I highlight quotes in a book, they tend to fall into one of a few categories: lines that made me laugh, lines that I thought were profound or particularly well-written, or lines that I could strongly relate to. The quotes below fall into these categories. I’ll let you decide which ones they might be. Have you read Glitterland? If so, share your favorite lines in the comments below!

Just a reminder that this beauty is published TODAY!! Buy it, borrow it, request it at your local library.  (Read my review  HERE! ) So This is Ever After by F.T. Lukens ❦  ❦  ❦ Carry On meets Arthurian legend in this funny, subversive young adult fantasy about what happens after the chosen one wins the kingdom and has to get married to keep it…and to stay alive. Arek hadn’t thought much about what would happen after he completed the prophecy that said he was destined to save the Kingdom of Ere from its evil ruler. So now that he’s finally managed to (somewhat clumsily) behead the evil king (turns out magical swords yanked from bogs don’t come pre-sharpened), he and his rag-tag group of quest companions are at a bit of a loss for what to do next. As a temporary safeguard, Arek’s best friend and mage, Matt, convinces him to assume the throne until the true heir can be rescued from her tower. Except that she’s dead. Now Arek is stuck as king, a role that comes with a ...

  So This Is Ever After by F.T. Lukens Release Date: March 29, 2022 🗡🗡🗡🗡✨ 4.5 magical swords out of 5 So this is an idiots to lovers/soulmates story about a couple of oblivious dumbasses who take forever to realize how the other one feels.    Arek is the Chosen One; 17 years old and prophesied to overthrow the “Vile One”. Matt is Arek’s best friend, his mage, and his secret crush. The story begins at the fulfillment of the prophecy and shows us what comes after “The End.” This is a single POV, hilariously narrated in the first person by Arek. This was charming and sweet and just really fun. I think the best point of reference for understanding the tone of this book is Season 2 of Miracle Workers (Dark Ages), the TBS show with Daniel Radcliffe. That has the exact same ‘Modern-style Characters in an Old-style World’ feel and the same deadpan parodic comedy style. That they felt so contemporary despite living in a world that could have existed a thousand years ago made t...

 Something Fabulous is OUT TODAY and is available for FREE on Kindle Unlimited. I started this one as soon as I finished my previous book last night and It Is Amazing! It's so incredibly funny and the characters are brilliant. This is peak Alexis Hall. If you have KU you MUST give this a try. (And if you don't have KU, the kindle version is only $3.99 right now and it's so worth it. Full review to come...)  ☙ ☙ ☙ ☙ ☙ From the acclaimed author of Boyfriend Material comes a delightfully witty romance featuring a reserved duke who’s betrothed to one twin and hopelessly enamoured of the other. Valentine Layton, the Duke of Malvern, has twin problems: literally. It was always his father’s hope that Valentine would marry Miss Arabella Tarleton. But, unfortunately, too many novels at an impressionable age have caused her to grow up…romantic. So romantic that a marriage of convenience will not do and after Valentine’s proposal she flees into the night determined never to set eyes...

  Winter's Orbit   by Everina Maxwell Paperback pub date Dec 28, 2021 Outer space empires, alien cultures, political strife and machinations. This has been described as a "space opera" and to me it is equal parts Star Wars, Star Trek, Battlestar Galactica, Dune, and Red White and Royal Blue. I love how this book starts: with Prince Kiem being informed by the Emperor that he will be participating in an arranged marriage in order to fulfill a treaty promise with another plant of the empire. He's a lesser royal who up until now has been enjoying a carefree lifestyle. Now he must buckle down and do his duty. Which he does, to his credit, with little complaint.  His new partner is a quiet, reticent man named Jainan who has recently been widowed. Jainan is hesitant to cause any disruption in the prince's life, and Kiem feels bad for Jainan for being forced to remarry so soon after his previous partner's death. So they are both walking on eggshells around one another...

 Very much looking forward to getting into both of these! I got the paperback of Winter’s Orbit by Everina Maxwell today and was approved for the The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian on NetGalley (woooo!!!!) and I am so excited for both!  Stay tuned for reviews… 

 I can’t help but appreciate how much effort publishers put into getting eyeballs on their books. And Wednesday Books / St. Martin’s / Macmillan has done good with If This Gets Out .  The book is about a boy band called Saturday and one of the items is a bookmark that looks like a concert ticket. How cute is that? I love both the bookmark and the sticker and am so glad I was able to catch this offer!  Have you ever received goodies for a preorder incentive? The only other one I’ve done so far is the poster for TJ Klune’s Under the Whispering Door (you can see it in my post about it   here ). I think it’s also an amazing way to engage fans and get them excited about these wonderful books. So a big THANK YOU to the publisher for these adorable items!

 I’m so excited for everyone to get their hands on this wonderful book! It’s Pub Day for If This Gets Out by Sophie Gonzales and Cale Dietrich. It’s one of my favorite books of this year. You can find my GR review for it  here  (and also below, keep scrolling down) but if you like romance, behind-the-scenes style stories, and amazing characters, do yourself a favor and get this book! I can’t wait till mine gets here! *peeks out the window to watch for the delivery truck* 🚚 👀  Some highlights, themes and topics: 🎤   Queer YA / MLM romance 🎤   Friendships 🎤   Celebrity Boy band 🎤   Coming out story   🎤   Finding your voice It’s a beautiful and impactful story told with emotion and humor. Every character is wonderful and you’ll be rooting so hard for Zach and Ruben. Full GR review below: I really loved this book. It lived up to everything I’d hoped it would be. It’s the first I’ve read from either of the authors and I am impr...

I got a big bright yellow box of HAPPINESS from Illumicrate today! I was fortunate enough to be able to order their TJ Klune set when it became available back in August. I’d read both books (and if you’ve read my other posts, you know how much I love them both) and knew I had to have them in these gorgeous signed hardback editions. (I am so excited to put these on my shelf!) Take a look! Beautiful edges that match the covers! Surprise illustrated covers!  Look how adorable they are! Front: Front & back: GoodReads page for The House in the Cerulean Sea  GoodReads page for Under the Whispering Door  

 I was so happy to see two of my favorite reads from this year ended up on Barnes & Noble’s Best of 2021 list! (Click here to read their blog post!) They might even be two of my favorite books of all time. They’re that good. I was fortunate enough to have received digital ARCs of both of these books back in April and was absolutely thrilled with how utterly magnificent they both were. They are both profoundly beautiful and make wonderful reads for any age, not just the YA demographic. If you want something to make you feel all the feels and be left with a sense of hope, give these a try.

 These just arrived and I am so excited! I’ve already read the Captive Prince trilogy and Jay’s Gay Agenda (they are uhh MAYYY zingggg!) but I had to have them for my bookshelf. The rest are being added to my TBR pile and I hope to get to them very soon. (Sorry to the books that have been on my TBR forever. 😬) I’ve only read three of Cat Sebastian’s books (Two Rogues Make a Right, and the two Cabot novellas) and I am a HUGE fan of her style. I’ve heard so much about The Queer Principles of Kit Webb and am so excited to get to it. She writes such great characters and always has a wonderful, smart sense of humor. She’s the best. Payback’s a Witch is one of those cute seasonal holiday finds that I was intrigued by. I think it’ll be a great Halloween read next week. In Deeper Waters I know less about but I know I’ve read a lot of excellent reviews for it and really look forward to digging in. Not really sure what to expect from Dark Rise , and it’s not normally a genre I read muc...