LAST YEAR I WAS READING…(May 25, 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…
Skinny, quiet hipster Dylan Warner was the kind of guy other men barely glanced at until an evening’s indiscretion with a handsome stranger turned him into a werewolf. Now, despite a slightly hairy handicap, he just wants to live an ordinary—if lonely—life as an architect. He tries to keep his wild impulses in check, but after one too many close calls, Dylan gives up his urban life and moves to the country, where he will be less likely to harm someone else. His new home is a dilapidated but promising house that comes with a former Christmas tree farm and a solitary neighbor: sexy, rustic Chris Nock.
Dylan hires Chris to help him renovate the farmhouse and quickly discovers his assumptions about his neighbor are inaccurate—and that he’d very much like Chris to become a permanent fixture in his life as well as his home. Between proving himself to his boss, coping with the seductive lure of his dangerous ex-lover, and his limited romantic experience, Dylan finds it hard enough to express himself—how can he bring up his monthly urge to howl at the moon?
Bookshop: US
Amazon Buy Links: Kindle| Audiobook
Amazon UK Buy Links: Paperback | Audiobook
An oldie but goodie! I totally relate to Dylan’s peopling skills, which is to say, awkward and abrasive without meaning to.
Last Year I Was Reading…
I was really looking forward to knowing more about the mysterious leader of Vigilance. Sadly, Xavier devolved into the author’s stock older dominant top character and not much else
My 2.5-star review here.
Today we have two contemporary reads. They don’t have much in common. One slight similarity is that one of the MCs is under threat from a person from the past. Another is the isolated setting and the forced proximity angle.
Good Bones is the current read. It is the first book of the Bones series. This is a paranormal love story. The MC is a werewolf and had to remove himself from the vicinity of any human every full moon. The romance features the opposites attract/neighbors to lovers trope. The plot is solid, the tone light and humorous.
The story is told in Dylan’s 3rd-person POV. He had to relocate to somewhere more isolated after too many close calls during full moons. He brought a ramshackle but fixable property near the boondocks. He was surprised to discover he had a rather attractive neighbor, Chris Nock, the grandson of the previous owner. Just when he thought he was doing okay, Dylan’s ex showed up one day stirring trouble, the very ex who turned him into a werewolf and, somehow, still has some unwanted magnetic pull over him.
What piqued my interest about this series is that Dylan and Chris made a cameo in Speechless series, one of my favorite Kim Fielding works. I loved that their story isn’t over-the-top paranormal. So there are no fated mates or ABO, just a guy who made a poor decision in choosing a past lover and now had to live with the consequences. This matter of fact treatment is an interesting take on the werewolf trope.
I’m at the part where Dylan and Chris are doing the renovations and getting more personally involved. I already love Dylan. It’s taking me longer to like Chris, mostly because he’s a bit of an enigma. I wished we had his POV. Where Dylan is a lonely, awkward hipster, Chris is more laidback. As chill as he is, how would he react to having a werewolf boyfriend?
Xavier is last year’s read. It is the 4th book of Vigilance, a series about a secret group of vigilantes headed by a mysterious billionaire. The story follows the older dominant top and younger submissive pattern. Bisexual awakening is thrown in to shake things up. The MCs were forced to stay in an exclusive island because the younger is threatened by a former rival. This is mostly steam.
The titular character is a philanthropic billionaire who presents a genial, harmless face to the public. Xavier is the father of one of the MCs in the first book. He thought he was straight but working with a young hacker, Emilio, stirred something deep in him. Upon learning the younger man was under threat, he whisks him to his exclusive island, where they spend the time having sex and not much else. After a day or two, they declare they’re in love.
I was so disappointed with this. I was super intrigued by Xavier, so it was such a downer that the secret vigilante side of him wasn’t fully explored. I’ve become a broken record complaining about this series always devolving into the same pattern. But I think the author has some sorcery involved because there is something about her books, that barely-there yet hella-interesting crime/suspense plot, that keeps me hooked.
Between hipster werewolves and billionaire vigilantes, not the Batman we deserved but the underdog we need.
I’m ending the post with a book I’m looking forward to reading.
I don’t have time for a relationship, not even with the adorably dorky vet I can’t seem to stop bumping into… *sigh * pass the oil and lube
Between running a garage full of beefed up, gear head mechanics and bailing my idiot brother out of trouble every other week, the last thing I have time for is a relationship.
I’ve tried it too many times, and the ridiculous reasons I always find to end it have become a running joke around the garage. But I’ve learned my lesson. No. More. Boyfriends.
I don’t care how many times Porter falls asleep drunk in my bed or how cute he looks covered in oil smears while I teach him how to fix up the vintage car he has rusting away in his garage, I’m not going to fall for him.
Even if I did, what do a mechanic and a veterinarian have in common anyway?
It’s better if we’re only friends… friends who occasionally fiddle with each other’s crankshafts…
From Bears to Bulls. Yay to our adorkable little vet Porter finally getting his man!
What were you reading this time last year?
(I hope it’s as riveting as Morticia’s book)
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