Nichole - Dirty H if you're nasty

not much to say that I didn't say about the first one. short, not very meaty, not much to engage with. but hot, and one of my fave tropes, so worth a couple hours of my time.

ALERT: overuse of the word baby. not a problem in the first book, but got a lot of play this time. I personally don't mind but I know that's a pet peeve for a lot of you, so fair warning.

I need more reviews before I can decide, guys. Get reading! This trope is a weakness of mine, but then there's the whole Dreamspinner-ness of it all. And even though this trope is a weakness of mine, it's often done poorly. I can't decide!

**after reading:

yep, I love that trope. this book is far from perfect, but it worked for me mostly. and dreamspinner didn't seem to f it up, so there you go.

suspend disbelief. the premise is really not very plausible, but it's a fun "what if this happened?" kind of thing.
very British, which always distances me a bit, and I often struggled to understand the motivations of the two leads. but overall, not bad.

The reason this gets 5 stars is because after several days of letting it simmer in my head, I'm still thinking about it and possibly doing a little bit of One Direction cyberstalking.
Yes, I know it wasn't originally conceived that way, but it definitely took a turn towards One Direction fanfiction. Which is not a bad thing. I really, really liked it. Go read this book, it rocks!

Probably more like 3.5, but I'll round up for mah girl M.J.

I could complain a little that it's too long, it's a little "blah blah"ey, a lot of internal dialogue and not much action. That's all true, but just like every M.J. book, these characters are adorable, and their romance is like rubbing velvet all over your insides. So fuzzy!!! But not in that disgusting, sugar coma/toothache kind of way. More in that, "Damn, I want that" kind of way.

Go read it.

I wish everyone in the whole world could read this book. Pretty much changed my life.

this is my favorite m/m series, hands down. And while I'm in the minority of those people who adore Angelo, I still loved this book even though he's not in it. this book is perfect! Jon and Cole lovers will be very pleased.

Too long, bland, boring characters whose connection never really gelled.

this book was utterly ridiculous. cute-ish, sure, but mostly just ridiculous. And irritating.

Ultimately, I really enjoyed this book. It was an adorably sweet love story, wrapped up in a bigger story that was all about Rett's growth. He had a great character arc and I loved that. I found the writing somewhat clumsy at first, but it smoothed out pretty quickly and any flaws disappeared behind the great dialogue and fantastic secondary characters.

The fact that this was a story set in the world of Major League Baseball was a double edged sword for me because on the one hand, I love baseball and so reading anything that includes baseball is a major plus. On the other hand, I love baseball and thus am extremely picky and unforgiving of any possible mistakes when it comes to the portrayal of the game.

This book actually portrayed it pretty well. Waaay better than the last baseball book I read, where everyone was raving about how obvious it was that the author was a true fan and I was scratching my head trying to figure out how the visiting team got a walk off win. It was not flawless, though, which confused me. The author got so many things spot on, I don't understand how he/she missed the fact that the first two foul balls are strikes. There were a few other issues but I attribute those to artistic license because they all seemed to be fairly intrinsic to the plot. (Except, there's no "inactive roster"! You're either on the team or you're not. If you're on the 40 man roster but not the 25, then you're in the minor leagues playing so you can hone your skills and get up to the majors. Players with potential don't just sit around in the dugout/bullpen doing nothing.)

Okay, so I got that off my chest. But overall this was a great book. Rett could be very frustrating and he does something about 3/4 through the book that will have some of you metaphorically throwing your e-reader at the wall. But I was able to give the story some leeway here and roll with it because I kind of understand what it's like to get really insecure and suddenly decide you're better off just completely ruining everything and being self-destructive. I don't know where that urge comes from but I've been there.

Great story! Recommended.

This book gets one whole star for Brady the dog, who was a very good boy.

This is a very sweet love story about the new vet in town, and his blind client who won't let himself bond with his new guide dog. Unfortunately, the sweetness is buried under a very dull opening, flat secondary characters and a whole lot of telling, not showing. There was never a scene that showed me why Isaac and the other dude whose name I can't remember liked each other. (Carter! It was Carter.) Just "I liked the way he saw the world." Okay... so how's that? Very generic characters with nothing to distinguish them other than that Isaac was blind. (I did find that that aspect of the book was handled well.)

I can't really recommend this to anyone - it's just very bland. It won't make you want to poke your eyes out or anything, but I'd save my money if I were you.

A hit or miss author, and a mostly miss publisher. But it sounds so good! So I'll give it a shot.

The concept of this book is wonderful. And I did really like the characters. Both Ethan and Carter were very likeable, and I really loved Ethan's brother Elliott. The mini subplot involving Mike and Douglas was really good and I liked what she did with those characters.

But ultimately, the whole thing just made me too uncomfortable to really enjoy the book. I know a few reviewers mentioned that the sexual parts made them uncomfortable. For me, it wasn't even that so much. I was somewhat able to wrap my mind around the idea that Ethan was a sexual being. I think the sex was the part that made the most sense.

What I couldn't understand was the romance. I can understand Carter liking Ethan. I can understand him feeling protective of Ethan, and enjoying being drawn into his family and wanting to be friends. I can't understand why Carter fell in love with him. Ethan is very child like. I mean, he couldn't even be left home alone, he had to have someone watching him pretty much all the time. I don't understand how you start a relationship with someone who can't meet you at your intellectual level. It just seems like there has to be more there than just sex and wanting to take care of someone.

The idea is good, but Tourette's and traumatic brain injury are not really comparable conditions and as another reviewer said, the intellectual disparity is just too much.

Meh.

So bottom line: I Fucking Loved This Book.

Now, that said, I must give fair warning because there are some of you out there who are just plain picky, and if you're not going to like it, then you should know now so you can skip it. There are some issues in this book that, while they didn't bother me, are hard limits for others.

1. Oh, the teenage angst. While this did not approach Amy Lane levels in my opinion, we are dealing with high school students who are dramatic and immature, as well as some pretty serious events that help tip the angst scale.

2. The Big Misunderstanding. This is probably the most irritating of all the issues, at least for me. It's one of those "just talk to each other, you idiots!" kind of things. But if you're giving allowances for the stupid teenager factor, you can almost succeed at overlooking it.

3. A serious case of time jumping. Basically, every other chapter alternates between the present and the past; however, the "past" chapters are not at all chronological. They jump all over the place. I'm one who is usually not bothered by time jumping, but even I was super confused at first until I started to get a feel for what was going on. If this is something you don't like, then you should skip this book. If it's something you don't mind, then just go into it prepared to be a little confused until the pieces start to fit, and you'll be fine.

4. Yes, it's first person, but not present tense.

5. All the sex is fade to black. No on-page smutty times. Personally, I'm finding that I prefer this these days.

6. This one will be the hard limit for most of you: There is cheating. Full on "you fucking idiot, what are you doing?!?!" cheating. It will take a cheese grater to your soul.

I am the type that can overlook almost anything if the author engages me, and that was the case here. In addition to the things above that I know can be sticky points for others, there were some other minor flaws. I thought the character of Adam could have been more fleshed out, and there were a few events that I felt were glossed over too much. I believe this was an intentional choice on the author's part, since while it was a pretty pivotal event for the character, it wasn't the true focus of the story, but I wanted more information about Nate's rape and the outcome of the trial. What happened to Andrew Cargill? Did that bastard go to jail??? I also would have liked a little more insight into Nate's therapy. Did he actually go? Did it help?

But ultimately, I just really loved it. It sucked me in, and I found that I cared about these characters and I was dying to know what happened to them. It was romantic and sweet and it made me laugh and it made me cry (metaphorically. I never actually cry, I have a heart of stone.) It made me FEEL things. It was an emotional roller coaster that I was more than happy to be on and I loved every moment of it.

In some ways it was kind of similar to [b:Something Like Summer|10213367|Something Like Summer (Season #1)|Jay Bell|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1294956195s/10213367.jpg|15086656], another book I adored (but Adam is nothing like Tim!!), and I find myself wishing J.H. Trumble would do what Jay Bell did, and write a "sequel" that shows the events from Adam's point of view. Just floating that out there, J.H. Trumble. Are you on Goodreads? Do you read your reviews??

There's not much I could say about this book that hasn't already been said, and with a lot of gifs.
Basically, nothing happens in this book. Qhuinn and Blay have sex but pretend they don't actually like each other, and in between these scenes, there is a lot of dull, inane rambling about other characters that never goes anywhere. At all. There is basically only one interesting thing that happens in this entire book.

Oh, and Qhuinn and Blay declare undying love at the very very very end. It's only satisfying because it's Qhuay and we've all been waiting for this for so long. But on the scope of m/m romance, this is basically a nothing. And in the scope of this series... well, I think we all know which direction this series is headed and maybe it'll meet the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles soon.

So three stars because... well, just because. But it's not good and I'm pretty much done with this series.