LAST YEAR I WAS READING…(February 9, 2022)
Here are the rules:
Take your current read and compare it to what you reading this exact time last year. Which one do you like better? What is different about the books? Any special facts/things you want to make note of or bring attention to
This meme was created by Reading Marie. It’s a great meme because it’s nice and easy to do.
This Year I Am Reading…
One night wasn’t enough.
Danny Yip walks into every boardroom with a plan. His plan for struggling tech company WesTec is to acquire it, shut it down, and squeeze the last remaining revenue out of it for his Jade Harbour Capital portfolio. But he didn’t expect his best friend’s younger brother—the hottest one-night stand he ever had—to be there.
Tobin Lok has always thought the world of Danny. He’s funny, warm, attractive—and totally out of Tobin’s league. Now, pitted against Danny at work, Tobin might finally get a chance to prove he’s more than just Wei’s little brother.
It takes a lot to get under Danny’s skin, but Tobin is all grown up in a way Danny can’t ignore. Now, with a promising patent on the line and the stakes higher than ever, all he can think about is getting Tobin back into his bed—and into his life for good.
If only explaining their relationship to Wei could be so easy…
Bookshop: US
Amazon Buy Links: Kindle| Audiobook
Amazon UK Buy Links: Paperback | Audiobook
It’s rare to see two Asian guys on the cover of western MM romance. Bonus that this book is set in the cutthroat world of finance, an industry I don’t know much about, but which I want a peek at. I had to pick this up. I’m near the 3rd arc. Found the story a tad too long but quite enjoyable.
Last Year I Was Reading…
They train to serve their country.
They strive to be the best.
But only a select few can be …
The Elite
* * *
MATTEO MORGAN
CALL SIGN: SOLO
Reckless, arrogant, and bold, Solo is as known in the U.S. Navy for his bad-boy reputation as he is for his skills as a fighter pilot. It’s a surprise to his peers, then, when he’s chosen to train and compete at the most prestigious naval aviation academy in the world.
MISSION RULES:
1. Kick everyone’s ass.
2. Do whatever it takes to win.
3. Do your best to distract the competition.
4. Especially when that competition is a gorgeous blue-eyed perfectionist who makes your blood run hot.
* * *
GRANT HUGHES
CALL SIGN: PANTHER
Disciplined, smart, and confident, Panther can’t afford not to play by the rules. As the son of a top Navy commander, all eyes are on him, and being anything less than number one is unacceptable.
MISSION RULES:
1. Keep it safe in the air.
2. Prove you’re more than Commander Hughes’s son.
3. No distractions. Stay focused.
4. Don’t fall for your competition—especially not the rebellious heartbreaker with lips made for sinning.
In the heat of the hot California sun, tempers flare and desires ignite as Solo and Panther try to resist their attraction while fighting to be number one.
With passion this intense, the question remains:
Who’s gonna come out on top?
Bookshop: US
Amazon Buy Links: Kindle| Audiobook
Amazon UK Buy Links: Paperback | Audiobook
Kyaah! This one was a goosebumps-inducing level of USTs. One of the more memorable reads of 2021.
My 4.5-star review here.
Today we have two contemporary romances. Both are series openers set in high-stakes, cutthroat worlds where people do everything and anything to come out on top. The current have corporate finance types working behind steel and glass buildings while last year’s book have fighter pilots duking it out in high altitudes.
The romantic subplots are somewhat opposite. The current is a best friend’s brother, second chance of sorts while last year’s is the bitter rivalry of two sworn enemies heating up in more ways than one. Both books involved coming out, one is coming clean to the big brother while the other is coming entirely out of the closet.
Hard Sell is about mega-corporate raider Danny Ip, secretly desperate to close a deal, unexpectedly meeting his best friend’s younger brother, Tobin Lok, working with the company he wants to buy. The two haven’t seen each other for seven years right after the morning Tobin ghosted. With the undeniable attraction sparking between them again, the two reunited. But how to tell the Loks that Danny, a family friend who was almost a son to them, is sleeping with the baby of the family?
The corporate drama here involved Danny’s job in danger and the conflict of Tobin revealing information and essentially working against Danny. The author, Hudson Lin, used to work in the finance industry and her writing was able to convey the excitement and stress that comes with the job. The jargon was also explained well without too much info-dumping.
Both men were already out so the family drama is the expected reaction from Tobin’s family. I say expected but I honestly couldn’t predict how the parents would react. The big brother is easy, he was understandably pissed. I’m at the point of the story where I feel it should have resolved these conflicts already.
Danger Zone introduces us to the world of The Elite, a training school for fighter pilots competing to be #1. Top of the leader board are Grant Hughes, a by-the-book, straight-laced son of an airforce captain, and Matteo Morgan, a daredevil who loves bending the rules. The two first met at a bar, both unaware of who the other was. Matteo came on to Grant but was rejected by the closeted man. Later, they meet again at the training school, and thus their rivalry was born.
This is very obviously a Top Gun homage. There’s the adrenalin-pumping jet fights, snappy banter, the constant one-upmanships of highly competitive fighter pilots. And holy USTs! This one had a pretty explosive romance from the get-go. It took all the homoerotic subtext of the movie and dialed it up to 11.
Between corporate raiders and fighter pilots, taking over a multi-million dollar corporate entity is its own kind of high but nothing beats the adrenaline rush of taking to the skies at thousands of mph.
I’m ending the post with a book I’m looking forward to reading.
Asa Mulvaney is half of a psychopathic whole. He and his twin brother live together, party together…kill together. In the Mulvaney family, murder is the family business and business is good. When an experiment separates Asa and his brother, Asa is forced to navigate the world on his own for the first time in his life.
Zane Scott is a small-time crime blogger and amateur sleuth, but he dreams of a byline in a major paper someday. When he winds up at a boring fundraiser beside Asa Mulvaney, they share an intensely passionate encounter that leaves Zane with an ache in his chest and a story idea that could make his career dreams a reality.
At a nearby college, a cluster of suicides isn’t what it seems. When Asa’s father asks him to look into it, he sees the perfect opportunity to see his little crime reporter again. And Asa needs to see him again. Zane’s suspicious of Asa’s motives, but he won’t say no to a chance to peek behind the Mulvaney family curtains.
As the two unravel a sinister plot, Asa’s obsession with Zane grows and Zane finds being Asa’s sole focus outweighs almost anything, maybe even his career–which is good for Asa because loving a Mulvaney is a full-time job. Can he convince Zane that he’s worth navigating a family of psychopaths and his pathologically jealous twin, or will Zane learn the hard way that the Mulvaney boys always get what they want? Always.
Headcase is a high heat, intense, lovers-to-frenemies, psychopath romance with an HEA and no cliffhangers. It features an obsessive, calculating psychopath and a wannabe reporter who will stop at nothing to earn himself a major byline. As always, there’s gratuitous violence, very dark humor, enough killers to fill an auditorium, and enough heat to melt your kindle. This is book 4 in the Necessary Evils series. Each book follows a different couple.
TAGS: psychopath romance, Asa is bored, Avi is jealous, Zane is pretty, Adam is still a dick, August is… August, Aiden’s still missing, Lucas is concerned, Atticus plays den mother to a gaggle of murderous young adults, Asa wants Zane but knows he suspects he’s a killer, Zane wants a story but can’t keep from falling into bed with his target, extra dark humor, found family, So. Many. Murderers, mysteries abound, bad boys doing bad things and each other, high non-relationship angst, low relationship angst, shmoop, fluff, smut.
I was so very intrigued by the Murder Twins the first time I met them. They were a riot! I half expected them to share but it looks like each twin gets his own man. Asa’s up first.
What were you reading this time last year?
(I hope it’s as riveting as Morticia’s book)
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