Week of July 21, 2025

• This was a good reading week again! The books I read this week were chock full of broken characters that needed redemption and patching up, both physically and mentally. Why do I love that so much? Oh, I just have such an intense admiration for the authors that can drag emotions out of readers the way they do. It’s so impressive to me, and I’m honestly envious of their talent. But I truly am sucked in by characters that are so innately flawed that they can’t see how their own trauma blocks their ability to have a happy life. And I love seeing their journey through it, regardless of how convoluted it seems to them but how simple it looks to me, the reader. Perhaps what I love about it all is that no two paths are alike, and that’s what really resonates with me. We all have our own “trauma” even though I believe that word is way overused in 2025. And there are countless ways to navigate through it to find peace at the end. All of these books that I read, even though they’re works of fiction, show the reader different lives, different journeys and different methods for resolving whatever problems arise, and I love learning from them all. It’s just another reason why I’m so happy to have re-discovered reading in this stage of my life. It’s been so cathartic to read and reflect about my own life as I see the trials these book characters go through. I swear, it doesn’t matter how “fluffy” the book title sounds - I can almost always find something relevant in those pages.

• As always, here’s my rating scale for your information:

  ⭐️ Did not like this book, would not recommend. Lots of errors, plot holes, not worth the effort to read, most likely didn’t finish. But I’m giving this author a single star for making the effort to publish a book. Not everyone’s even gotten that far, so yay for you.

  ⭐️⭐️ Didn’t really like it, multiple issues with style, plot, syntax or characters. Most likely forced myself to finish it. Would consider other books by the same author but I might have to be convinced.

  ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Enjoyed the book. Perhaps there were issues with plot or style but it was an enjoyable read. I could see recommending it if it were of a specific genre or trope or series. Most of what I read could easily fall into this category and I’d be a happy camper.

  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ This was a good book. Like a really good book. I will think about this book when I’m finished, and there’s a really good chance I’ll buy it for my personal library if it was a KU read. I’d recommend it to other readers of the same genre or trope. I’ll definitely search out other books by this author, probably as soon as I’m finished reading.

  ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Wow. Just wow. Amazing book, amazing story. If there were flaws in the book I’m completely overlooking them because in my mind the book was sheer perfection. I didn’t want the book to end and I’m immediately adding it to my favorites and my re-read pile. And if there’s an audio version I might have to buy that, too. I have a book hangover, I miss the characters, and I feel actual, physical loss in my life when this book is finished.

Thanks for joining me this week! Let’s dive in!

1. When We Ignite, by Alex Cross ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

   Kindle Unlimited, 469 pages.

   Genre/tropes: MM romance, age gap, slow burn

   Ok, wow. I really liked Alex Cross’s book, Echoes of Us. It was an angsty and heartbreaking book and I was looking forward to reading more by this author. And I think I might have liked this book even better. I loved Ash from the very first page of this book. His confidence dripped off every page and I could feel his swagger and his wink in my soul. There was no way Ethan was going to be able to resist him. Is Ash problematic? Absolutely, 1000% yes. In any other context Ash would have been a creepy predator, being 15 years older than Ethan. But the way he was written he was just damaged enough and just sweet enough and just endearing enough to be so, so likable. I just loved this book. And Henry was a perfect “Robin” to Ash’s “Batman” and I just couldn’t get enough of these boys. I really loved it.

   This was a “part one” and I’m so eager for part two to come out! I purchased the book as soon as I was finished it, because I know this will be a re-read when the next one comes out and I’ll need to refresh my memory.

2. Wicked Beautiful, by JT Geissinger ⭐️⭐️⭐️

   Kindle Unlimited, 352 pages.

   Genre/tropes: Romance, enemies to lovers

   Reading this on the heels of When We Ignite, above, where the predatory character is a male and I didn’t mind it, I’m beginning to wonder about my own morals. In this book, the predatory character is female and she felt way too brazen and calculated for me to embrace. And I felt bad for her “victim.” Make it make sense to me. Victoria bumps into Parker, her teenage love of her life, but he doesn’t recognize her because of her extensive plastic surgery to leave her old life behind. He was the man who destroyed her and she decides to destroy him in kind. Only she didn’t expect her old feelings to return. And he falls just as hard for her now as he did then. The romance part of the story could have been sweet, but Victoria kept inserting her revenge plot into it and it was hard to tell what was going to evolve. It was an ok story, and it kept me reading, but the reader needs a lot of suspended disbelief in order to make it through this plot.

3. We Begin at the End, Chris Whitaker ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

   Kindle Edition, $11.99, 369 pages.

   Genre/tropes: Mystery, Contemporary literature, crime

   Self-proclaimed outlaw Duchess Day Radley was an enchanting character. The breadth of pure crap this young teenager had to survive is extraordinary and would make most people break many times over. Her grit and perseverance was both exhausting and uplifting to witness and her story was really, really great.

   The writing in this story took me a few chapters to get into, and I found myself scrolling back to the beginning to refresh myself with character names a couple of times. And some of the story lines seemed redundant. Until they weren’t. This was a well rounded story, and Duchess truly found her outlaw roots while also finding a soft landing. Highly recommend.

4. 68 Whiskey, by Erin Russell ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

   Kindle Unlimited, 334 pages

   Genre/tropes: MM Romance, mental health

   This is book two in the Possum Hollow series and I’m definitely going back to read book one. This book focuses on Tristan, an army medic turned EMT and Ford, a mute mechanic/garage owner. Tristan uses flirting as a defense mechanism and Ford couldn’t be bothered to get to know anyone beyond a surface level, but somehow these two incredibly damaged young men work. The writing is so fluid and natural is really feels like these two are simply telling their stories and I absolutely loved this book. The way Ford turns Tristan to absolute jelly is awesome, and I love the support they find in each other when they weren’t looking for any kind of relationship at all. It feels wrong to call this book sweet but characters like this just melt my soul. I loved these boys so much.

5. Stupid Dirty, by Erin Russell ⭐️⭐️⭐️

   Kindle Unlimited, 355 pages

   Genre/tropes: MM romance, childhood trauma, enemies to lovers, mental health

   Technically this book came before 68 Whiskey, but the concept is the same. Cade and Silas are rivals in the motocross world and end up as friends. Cade’s naturally nurturing tendencies come to light when he sees Silas in need of basic human decency and takes it upon himself to befriend him. More like best-friend him. Eventually their co-dependent relationship becomes more than simple friendship and the two cross the line into the lovers category, even though neither of them had ever had any interest in a same-sex partner in the past. But for them it just worked. Their story is sweet but the underlying mental health issues are a little too hard to brush under the rug. Both characters had major parental abandonment issues, and their relationship took on a very unhealthy parent/child sort of dynamic early on with Cade taking care of Silas at every turn. Again, it was sweet, but it was a little off for me.

6. Forever Starts Tonight, by Karla Sorensen ⭐️⭐️⭐️

   Kindle Unlimited, 404 pages.

   Genre/tropes: Romance, accidental pregnancy, brother’s best friend

   Part of the Wilder Family series. Poppy always had a huge crush on her older brother Cameron’s best friend Jax, and when she was 25 she finally acted on it. Of course one thing led to another and of course her birth control failed. And of course, Jax’s emotional insecurities led him to flee from Poppy and his feelings. When he returns three months later finding Poppy pregnant and he (and the rest of her family) learns in the most awkward reunion possible that he is the father, it’s clear to Poppy that she has to put her crush behind her so she and Jax can co-parent their child in the best way possible. She has no idea, though, that Jax spent his 3 months away coming to terms with the fact that he’s in love with Poppy and has been for years.

   So much miscommunication, or really a complete lack of communication. Jax is an infuriatingly closed book, and as a reader it was too much. The ending was inevitable but his inability to process his feelings was almost unbearable. So yes, this was an angsty slow burn for sure, but a little over the top.

That’s it for this week! As always, you can keep up with all of my reading on my Goodreads if you want to. https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/12921106-karen

Love, Karen