Week of October 20, 2025

I feel like I’m racing against my own reading goal this year, and unless I start to mix in some novellas, I’m going to fall short. But I think I have to accept that. I realize now that part of the reason that I fell off my game for a few months there was due to my own self-imposed pressure of trying to diversify what I was reading for the sake of this newsletter. I kept thinking “I can’t just keep reading the same genre all the time, I have to mix it up.” Well, guess what? Every time I tried, I’d pick up a book, read about 30% of it, and be bored to tears and abandon it. I read a few historical fiction books, yes. And I do sometimes enjoy the occasional thriller or drama book. But romance is my wheelhouse. And why am I trying to vary that? I kept assuming that I had to keep in interesting for you, and to make myself look more “well read” or something stupid. But hey, I like what I like. So I’m reading what I like. No apologies. 🙂 

• 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!

Monday started out strong again this week with a lovely MM romance by L.A. Witt called Interference. My books seem to go in themes somehow, and this one followed the “homeless guy” theme from The Guy In The Alley that I finished last week. Purely unintentional on my part - it just happened that way. But in this book, Wyatt, a homeless vet suffering from PTSD, was looking for a safe and warm place for his therapy dog Lily to spend the night with a snowstorm pending when he happened into a veterinarian’s office to see if they had space he could rent for his dog. When kind client Anthony heard Wyatt’s request, he couldn’t just let the dog stay warm and the man shuffle off into the snow, so he offered for them both to stay at his house, out of the cold. And the rest is history. It’s a very sweet story, Anthony is a pro hockey player and is nearly too good to be true, while Wyatt is a struggling disabled vet who has been down on his luck and is having trouble making ends meet on his lowly VA benefits. The story is part testament to the kindness of strangers and part testament to the real life problems in the world, and if only it worked this way in real life the world would absolutely be a better place. As for other characters, Simon is easy to despise and a makes Anthony shine even brighter. All in all, a nice story, if quite a modern day fairy tale. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Book #2 this week was Ride by Nellie Christine. I read Something Real by this author just a couple of weeks ago and I liked it a lot so I was hoping it wasn’t a fluke. And it wasn’t, sort of. The banter between characters was great, but these characters were very young and that often turns me off. I prefer when characters have a little more life experience to draw on so this one was a little problematic that way for me. Plus, this is a bi-awakening story (or perhaps a gay-for-you story) so there was a lot of naive, young first-time stuff in here. It was fine, it was cute, the dialogue was good, but it was very young. ⭐️⭐️⭐️.

Book #3 was Smokey Mountain Dreams by Leta Blake, another new author for me. And I loved this book. This was far more complex a story than I thought it was going to be, far spicier, too, and it was well done. Jesse is bisexual, married with 2 kids, and Christopher is gay, single and looking, and the way they find their way to each other is great. Jesse’s situation is very complex and makes his character unique and interesting. Christopher’s family life forced him to be alone a lot and as such never thought too highly of himself and when he and Jesse connect the sparks are wonderful. The themes in this book of the southern fundamentalist religious background battling the “demons” of homosexuality and the Christian right to life argument in terms of someone living in a vegetative state come into play throughout the book, so this isn’t a fluffy book by any means. And when these two men have to navigate their way through all of that muck plus raise kids, it’s a lot. But I thought it was really well done. I liked these characters a lot and the way they ended up treasuring each other was something really special. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

And then I thought I’d mix it up with a little light romance by Jewel E. Ann and I happened to choose I Thought Of You. Oh my gosh, light is not the word. This book wrecked me in the best possible way. This kept me up thinking philosophical thoughts I had no business thinking at 2 am. This book is tragic, it’s epically romantic, it’s uplifting, it’s incredibly thought provoking… it’s so good! Price, Scottie and Koen are all wonderful characters and I am immediately adding this to my re-read pile. I highlighted more passages in this book than I have in a long time - there are so many parts of this book that I want to treasure, and I instantly recommended it to three different friends. Absolutely loved the messages in this. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Next up I absolutely wanted something lighter, so I figured I’d get that with Lucy Score, and thankfully I was right. Rock Bottom Girl did not disappoint. This was a really fun book. As usual, great banter, good characters, and the book had the requisite spice to balance the drama. I feel like Jake Weston was the epitome of every high school “hot guy” and Marley was the epitome of every high school “loser girl” who crushed on him but just longed to blend in, and the fact that they ended up together 20 years later was such poetic justice. I think there was a lot of high school drama that nearly everyone could relate to in some way or another in this book and that alone held my attention. Fun book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

My last book for the week was the first book in the Hush Note trilogy, each book by a different author. The first book, Lies & Lullabies, was by Sarina Bowen, and it was a good start. Rock star Jonas falls in love with Kira after spending a summer in a sleepy little Maine town. He doesn’t tell her his real name or his profession, and they don’t sleep together until his last night in town. And unbeknownst to him, that one night together ended up producing a baby. Fast forward five years and he and his grammy winning band mates make a pit stop in this town at his suggestion for a little tour break R&R, and Jonas runs into Kira - and her daughter. The rest of the book is Kira and Jonas figuring out if they can have a life together and how to navigate parenthood together. Romance-wise, it’s a nice story - rock star falls for small-town girl - but it’s not entirely original. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

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