Week of November 24, 2025

Many of you know I’m a reader and not a TV viewer but this week, the first two episodes of Heated Rivalry came out on HBO Max. 🙂 I read the book in April of this year before I started writing this newsletter. I enjoyed the book, (gave it 4⭐️) and I read most of the other books in the Game Changers series by Rachel Reid and I liked them all, for sure. When I first started to hear about this book being made into a series and that it was only being released in Canada, I was kind of bummed. I wanted to see how true to the story they were going to be able to keep this book. I also went out and re-read the book to see what I was going to be missing, and then I was really bummed. And just last week when I found out that HBO Max picked it up for the US, I was really looking forward to watching it.

Well, after watching the first two episodes, I’m honestly blown away. The acting is way more impressive than I expected, the story line is spot on, the emotions from the book are captured on screen perfectly, the sex scenes are actually tastefully done and still incredibly spicy. I’m so impressed and I can’t wait to watch the rest of the series. I so rarely am moved by a screen adaptation of a book, so I’m surprised by this one. It’s absolutely not for everyone - my husband would hate it, I’m sure, it’s just not in his wheelhouse to watch two men fall in love. The weakest link I’ve found so far is the hockey part of the story, honestly, which is fine - trying to have these actors skate like NHL stars is a stretch. I’m just impressed Connor Storrie who plays Ilya genuinely sounds like he’s Russian! Anyway, if you’ve been curious, this one might be worth it for you. And between watching these episodes (more than once, I might add lol) and Thanksgiving, catching up with other friends and family on other days, this was a very low reading week for me. I hope your week was festive and fun!

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

1. Better Late Than Never, by L.A. Witt ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

   This was a military MM romance book, forbidden romance at its finest. You gotta love the military for its rules about that, huh? This was the story of high ranking Lieutenant Commander Connor Marks, a physician stationed in Spain, recently divorced and ready to explore his closeted bisexual side. But without speaking much of the language and the archaic rules that the Navy places on fraternization, his options are severely limited. When senior Corpsman Alex Barlow spots Connor’s post on a hookup app, he knows he’s off limits because of Navy regulations, but he also knows he can’t resist the guy. But he also knows that Connor’s post mentioning he’s looking for a “first time adventure” is going to put him in harms’ way of one particular predatory guy - so Alex takes it upon himself to warn Connor, at the risk of outing himself in the process. And the two become friends despite the Navy’s rules.

   Their friendship only lasts so long before their attraction to each other takes over. They take whatever precautions necessary to hide their affair, because they both stand to lose everything should it be discovered. It’s a good story of discovery, of found family, of learning to trust again after being let down again and again, and of patience.

2. Crossroads, by Nicole Dykes ⭐️⭐️.5

   I didn’t think I was going to like this one, but it turned out ok. The characters were young, and that always starts out with a strike against them in my book.

   Emerson is a spoiled brat, and his mom made him that way. She decides to ship him off to her sisters’ farm in the middle of Kansas for the summer before he goes to college for him to learn a little about life and humble him a bit. He has to spend the summer there and not get into trouble in order for mom to pay for college for him. He’s furious, but he goes. He gets to the farm and he meets farmhand Jasper, who’s the same age as him. Both of these boys are straight, by the way. Jasper lives in the loft above the barn and has had a great upbringing but whose family has undergone some tough times of late. Jasper works full time at the farm to send money home to help them out. He has no plans to leave Kansas or leave farm life.

   For whatever reason, the two boys start looking at each other lustily. And they start teasing each other. And one night when they have to go overnight to go get a bull and bring it back for the farm they have to stay at a motel and there’s only one bed. You know the drill. Eventually they fall in love, Emerson turns his whole attitude around, he’s a great worker, his mom pays for college, they can’t stand to be apart.

3. King Of Pain, J.P. Joseph ⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

   This was a slow burn MM romance book that I really enjoyed until about 75% of the way through. Both characters were strong and well developed. Chance was protective and patient and would have waited forever for Anthony to be ready to be loved by him. Anthony was nurturing and loved taking care of those he loved, and was willing to open up and peel back the layers of damage from his youth in order to have a life and a future with Chance. But I couldn’t stand when Anthony created a life for himself and then everyone around him went behind his back to “surprise” him by creating his own business for him. Earlier in the book there had been so many mentions about how important agency was and how everyone should have agency over their own thoughts, feelings, actions, etc. And to go and create a business for him without telling him? I didn’t like that at all. It was a nice book up until that point.

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