Roger's Reads – Author & Book Reviewer

Welcome to Roger’s Reads!

August 6, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

Roger Hyttinen avatar Being a lover of books, I started this site as a companion to my BookTube Channel “Rogers Reads” and as a way to chronicle my reading journey and help spread the love for books that I enjoyed. This site is a place for me to review books that range from Young Adult fiction to Fantasy to LGBT Romance. I do have somewhat ecclectic reading tastes though Fantasy and YA Fantasy are my most read genres at the moment.

If you’d like to learn more about me, click the About Roger link on top of the page. If you have a book you’d like me to review, please check my Review Policy link first on top of the page.

Thank you so much for stopping by. Grab a cuppa, put up your feet and browse through some of the reviews. Who knows? You just might come across your next epic read.

Happy Reading!

Review of Love on the Hudson by KD Fisher

November 26, 2019 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

Love on the Hudson follows David Webster, who has just returned home to take care of his father, who has just suffered from a stroke. While at home, David does his best to avoid his former childhood friend, Nick Patras.

David had been in love with Nick since they were children, and at the end of their high school year, they began messing around — first a lot of kissing and eventually, sex. But immediately after the last time they have sex together, Nick rejects David, telling David that he isn’t “like him” and they can’t be together ever again, which destroys their friendship. David moves away, earns a degree, and obtains a job he loves. Nick stays in town and determined to overcome this gay desires, marries a woman.

So ten years pass without them seeing each other, and now David is back. Once Nick hears about David’s return, he immediately seeks him and attempts to repair their relationship. Nick, who has finally admitted to himself that he’s gay and is trying to come to terms with his sexual orientation, divorced his wife and now runs an organic farm with two partners.

It’s worth mentioning that Nick is still deep in the closet because of his rabidly homophobic family. Now that David has returned, however, winning him back is on the top of Nick’s list. But it isn’t going to be easy given that Nick deeply hurt David and David now wants nothing to do with him. And there’s Nick’s bigoted family to contend with.

Given that this is a M/M romance, we can pretty much figure out that our two guys are going to get together at some point, and I enjoyed journeying along with them as they overcame the barriers that prevented them from being together. We then delve deeply into each character’s heart-wrenching backstory, which wasn’t always easy to read, especially in regards to Nick’s viciously homophobic family and David’s heartbreak at Nick’s rejection of him.

It’s important to note that for Nick, family is extremely important to him, and this is the main thing that’s kept him so deeply in the closet. But he eventually decides that if he’s to move forward with David and with his life, he’ll need to come out to his family — so he does, which is quite a powerful and intense scene.

I liked how the story is told in dual POVs, which really worked well here. Getting both their perspectives made the story a lot more relatable for me and helped me to understand where both these characters were coming from. It helped that each character’s voice was distinctive, and I was always aware of whose head I was inside of.

I always love second chance/redemption stories involving reconnecting with one’s high school crush or childhood best friend and felt that Fisher did an excellent job with love on the Hudson. She expertly handles some pretty heavy themes such as coming out, homophobia, heartbreak, trust, and the importance of family. It was also a joy to see how Nick evolved from being under his family’s heavy thumb. Additionally, I appreciated the added message here, of how families we create can be just as strong — or even stronger — than families created by blood.

I thought that both characters were well-fleshed out and relatable, and enjoyed getting to know them through the pages of this story. I appreciated the fact they were both relatively rational and level-headed fellows which helped to add that extra bit of “realness” to them. They are flawed and genuine, with each undergoing quite an emotional journey through the pages of this novel.

All in all, this was a sweet, heartfelt, and endearing (and sometimes steamy!) story about two men finding their way back to each other, so in this way, it was also emotive and restorative and quickly wormed its way into my heart. Half love story and half identity quest, Love on the Hudson is a sexy, compassionate story about the power of love, and I’m so glad that this book came to my attention. This isn’t the first book I’ve read by this author, and it certainly won’t be the last.

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Review of Counter Culture by JL Merrow

November 24, 2019 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

Counter Culture is a sweet, heart-warming holiday LGBT romance featuring our two main characters, Robin Christopher and Archie Levine.

Robin works in retail at a story called Willoughby’s, and in an effort to copy the American craziness of Black Friday, Robin’s boss is planning a massive celebration and store sale and wants Robin to play an integral part in it.

One night while walking home from work, he stumbles across Archie Levine, a young man dressed in Victorian Style clothing and whom we learn later on is a Steampunk (not a “Steampunker” as was stressed in the book). We also learn that Archie lives with and looks after his mum, tries to remain on good terms with his ex and be a good father to his little boy. With all that he has on his plate, he has no intention of getting into a romantic relationship with anyone any time soon, but yet, he finds Robin intriguing.

So at their first haphazard meeting, the two men only speak a couple of words to each other and go on their way, though they both think about each other quite a bit in the days to come. But as fate would have it, they bump into each other several times over the few days and eventually end up spending time together.

Then Archie’s mum is infuriated by a local department store who appears to disregard the plight of the homeless and plans a protest at the store. Archie, who once was homeless himself, shares in her fury. It doesn’t help that both Archie and his mum hate this particular store with a passion.

As it turns out, the store in mention is Willoughby’s, the same store where Robin works. When Robin discovers that Archie’s mom is planning a protest, he panics, and lies about his place of employment, first to her and then to Archie.

So the question is: how long can Robin hide his place of employment from Archie and his mother? As we can guess, Robin’s lies are eventually found out, and things end up getting pretty messy once they do, especially given that this new budding relationship is fraught with misunderstandings and lack of communication.

So I thought that the meet-cute courtesy of an old refrigerator was adorable. I appreciated that the author didn’t serve up the same old, cookie-cutter characters, and cookie-cutter struggles. Archie and Robin were superlative together; their connection shone right from their first meeting. There was also plenty of sass, snark, and humor to keep the story light and fun.

Though the premise of the storyline was vaguely familiar, it was also completely unique. I really loved how the author weaved in elements of Steampunk into the story and enjoyed learning more about the Steampunk culture.

I also enjoyed the many messages of this book, one of which is how we should not judge people based on our preconceived notions of them and that things are not always as they seem. Additionally, the story respectfully tackles topics such as homelessness, wealth inequality, mental illness, respect, and social class and in so doing, gives the reader plenty to think about.

I loved how the author concentrates on building up the characters in the story. The relationship really develops between the two protagonists, and it’s not done in a hurried manner. The overall steam is low (there is one quite explicit sex scene), but ask me if I minded? NO!

The sexual tension was delicious in its delayed gratification, and often, I find too many sex scenes in a book destroy the romance between the two characters. Here, we’re on this journey of self-discovery with Archie and Robin…and neither of them takes the relationship lightly. We were a good portion through the book before the characters kissed for the first time, and I personally enjoyed the slow burn.

All in all, I thought Counter Culture was a delightful, feel-good Christmas romantic comedy with sweet & charming characters and plenty of humor. I enjoyed the plot-line and the many interweaving threads throughout. The author’s witty and sophisticated writing style and storytelling really worked for me. I thought the plotting was exceptional, and I found myself completely engrossed in the book in no time at all. Counter Culture is a lighthearted romantic romp that warmed my heart and brought a smile to my face at the end.

Advance Reader Copy provided by NetGalley.

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Review of Laughter at the Academy by Seanan McGuire

November 23, 2019 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

I’ve read (and loved) Seanan McGuire’s Wayward Children series but had never read any of her short stories before this. What a treat they were! I’m typically not a fan of short stories as they tend to leave me feeling unsatisfied at the end, and oftentimes, I find that the majority of the stories in an anthology don’t resonate with me. That was so not the case here, and I loved pretty much every one of the twenty-two stories, though admittedly, I enjoyed some more than others.

I was genuinely impressed by McGuire’s ability as a short story writer and how she managed to pull me into every story in this collection. What made this collection especially fun for me was the mixture of genres. I went in, initially expecting them all to be sci-fi but was surprised (in a good way) to discover that there were also fantasy, horror, steampunk, and even mythology stories. It’s difficult for me to choose my favorite stories because I pretty much loved every one of them, which never happens when I read an anthology.

Some of the stories I especially enjoyed included:

An LGBT ghost story in which a high school girl is having a difficult time letting go of her dead girlfriend. – Childhood toys that start a war – a real one.
An intergalactic schoolteacher who protects the planet.
A murderous plant woman who is not what she appears to be
A woman who live tweets from a haunted house. This one definitely fell into the horror category.
A robot with a mission who poses as a high school student and tries to blend in. An interesting take on the theme of bullying.
An endless, eternal game of football and Halloween– an interesting and modern take on the Norse Valkyries Valhalla.
A creepy urban fantasy reimagining of the Wizard of Oz.
A dark spin on the Peter Pan tale.
A collection of office memos – with an interesting and creepy catch.
A portal story where a character has to decide whether to go or stay.
A microbiologist who intentionally releases a deadly virus into the world.
Sea creatures with not-so-good intentions – another horror story.
An emotional story about a little girl and the world’s last tuna fish.
There was also “From A to Z in the Book of Changes,” which is literally a collection of twenty-six one-word prompts for each letter in the alphabet, that Seanan McGuire then turned into a series of brief short stories. It’s something I’ve never seen done before and was a truly unique experience to read.

All in all, I found these stories engrossing, addicting, and spooky. I also loved that the author added in a brief introduction at the beginning of each story, providing background and her reasons/inspiration for writing the story. For me, Laughter at the Academy is an amazing collection of eclectic stories, some of them eerie and macabre, others heart-wrenching but all well worthy of a read. I appreciated the author’s lush, luminous prose, and her extraordinary storytelling, and I definitely plan on checking out more of this talented author’s short stories in the future.

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Review of The Institute by Stephen King

November 19, 2019 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

The Institute is Stephen King’s latest book, and I’d have to say one of the most psychologically terrifying that I’ve read in a while. The story follows a 12-year-old boy named Luke Ellis, who is a child prodigy and is going to be attending two different prestigious universities simultaneously in the upcoming semester. He’s also demonstrated some telekinetic ability, such as the ability to toss empty pizza pans to the floor and close cabinet doors with his mind.

But Luke’s ideal life is shattered one night when intruders enter his home while everyone was asleep, murder Luke’s parents, gas Luke and load him in the back of a van.

He awakens to find himself in a bedroom that resembles his own, yet it’s missing the window. He soon discovers that he’s in a sinister place called “The Institute” run by the evil Mrs. Sigsby and her harsh and ruthless crew of caretakers, cafeterias workers, doctors, and techs. In the Institute, there are other kids who have also been kidnapped from their homes — kids ranging in age from 7 to about 16. All of these kids are special in that they all have either telekinetic or telepathic talents, and they’re known as either TPs or TKs.

This is probably one of the most unsettling stories that I’ve read in a long time. What we have here is an evil institution hidden away in the middle of the Maine woods that performs horrible and bizarre experiments on kidnapped children, including mysterious injections that cause convulsions.

But what I found especially distressing about this story is the behavior of the ruthless caretakers. We’ve all grown up believing that adults will be nice to us if we’re nice to them. That is so not the case here. If a child behaves and does what they are told, they get tokens, which they can use in the vending machines for treats (including cigarettes and booze). But if they don’t go along with what’s asked of them or dare to smart off, the scumbag caretakers don’t hesitate to slap the children across the face, punch them in the stomach or zap them with their tasers.

The harshness and the violence the kids endured were shocking, and I felt sick to my stomach here and there while reading it. That’s the part I found especially distressing: the utter lack of scruples. There was also the absence of any sense of fairness, which is another thing young children tend to believe it.

We then take a harrowing journey along with the children as some of the Institute’s biggest secrets come to light.

Now what’s interesting about this book is that in the opening pages, we’re introduced to an ex-police officer named Tim Jaimeson, who left his job and hitchhiked to the small town of Dupray, South Carolina where he took on a job as a “Night Knocker.” There he meets all sorts of interesting people, especially the endearing and utterly eccentric Orphan Annie, who seemed to be a bit of a conspiracy theorist.

I found his story quite compelling, and I had a difficult time figuring out how his adventure fits into that of the Institute, which was supposedly the theme of the novel. But then, the story completely switches gears and for the rest of the book, were immersed into the day-to-day lives of the children. But we do meet Mr. Jameson again as he becomes an integral part of the storyline later on in the book when the novel comes full circle.

This is quite a long book….I actually listened to this on audio, and it was over 19 hours. But what a page-turner! At no point was I bored but instead was enthralled and often horrified by the brutal plot-line of the story.

The plot drew-me right in from the get-go, and I became obsessed with this story. I mean, what goes on in that Institute is sheer insanity, something that I couldn’t even begin to imagine on my own. And I thought that the character development was phenomenal. Stephen King truly knows how to write children. We really get to know the kids: Luke, Avery, Kalisha, Nick, George, and the others — and yes, we even get into the head of the evil characters, a place that wasn’t very comfortable to be in.

The friendships that grew between the kids were especially heartwarming, and I loved how strong and distinct each kid’s voice was. I was especially enamored with Luke, who turned to be not only intelligent but also brave and devoted with an extra big heart — and even though his situation looked absolutely hopeless, he soldiered on with an admirable resolve.

Now I will say that this probably isn’t the book for more sensitive readers as the book deals with topics such as child abuse (both physical and emotional), suicide, murder, grief, PTSD, drowning, loss of loved ones and more. That being said, the book was definitely difficult to read in places. Your heart will break into a million pieces, and you’ll experience feelings of horror and revulsion.

But for me, the story was worth sticking with it, and I ended up loving this masterfully told tale. I loved that, despite the horrors that the kids were put through, they all supported each other and rallied together when necessary.

This definitely has made my list of favorite Stephen King novels. It was captivating, thrilling, and unsettling, and I felt that the heartbreaking scenes were nicely balanced by the blood-pumping action scenes and complex moral dilemmas.

I loved the original premise of this intense, sometimes brutal, no-holds-barred thriller and felt that the ending did not disappoint. It ended up being a heart-pounding story of courage and sacrifice.

The story was brilliantly paced, well-constructed, and flawlessly executed and left me on the edge of my seat for most of it. It was indeed a spine-chilling, tension-packed gripper.

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Review of A Christmas Cabin for Two by KD Fisher

November 7, 2019 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

This is a sweet Christmas gay romance story that follows our two main characters, Matt and Mikah. Matt is a small town farmer who has no time for love, especially after having had his heart recently broken. Mikah is a school teacher from New York who is in town visiting his family for the holidays. When Mikah walks onto Matt’s farm to purchase a Christmas tree, sparks fly between the two men. Though both of them have been hurt in the past, they take a chance and begin a romance.

What was fun about this story was how night-and-day different our two protagonists are, with Matt being a big, bulky outdoorsy farmer and Mikah being a slender and somewhat timid city boy.

But as the story progresses, they discover that they have a lot more in common than they’d initially thought, and they ended up being so sweet together.

What I really liked about this story is that they did not jump into bed right away. Their relationship was quite a slow burn, and they took the time to get to know each other and each other’s families before making the big final step. It was so much fun watching their feelings for each other evolve, moving from guarded apprehension to love. Their relationship flowed with warmth, playfulness, and passion, and the guys were perfect for each other.

So once they took the huge step of sleeping together, they then spend the rest of the holiday in Matt’s cozy cabin nestled away in the Idaho woods.

But alas, soon the Christmas season winds down, and Mikah has to return to New York to take on a new teaching job. As both of them face the inevitable end of their holiday romance, they realize that the feelings they have for each other have grown to the point of love.

So now the question is: what are they going to do about it?

This is a charming, heart-warming story and a perfect cozy holiday read. I loved the author’s writing style, and because of it, the story reeled me right in. In fact, I read this book in one sitting because I had a difficult time letting go of these delightful and charming characters. The secondary characters were equally charming, as we got to know Matt’s devoted brother and sister-in-law, and Mikah large, boisterous Italian family.

I know that I’m reading a good romance when I tear up, which happened to me a few times throughout this enchanting and heartfelt story. The author has created something truly extraordinary here — a magical Christmas romance about love in its purest form.

It’s a story that’s not only engaging but endearing and emotive, and it certainly warmed my heart while reading it. And the ending is perfect — The way this story comes to a close is just the cherry on top of this wonderful book.

So if you ‘re looking for a sweet and light Christmastime romance, you may wish to give The Christmas Cabin for Two a whirl.

A huge thank you to A Novel Take PR for providing an Advance Reader Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Review of Trinity of Bones by Caitlin Seal

October 28, 2019 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

This is the second book in the Necromancer’s Song series and follows Naya, the daughter of a sea merchant captain, who was murdered and then brought back to life as a wraith by a Necromancer.

In this book, she finds herself back in her country of Talmir, a place she never thought she’d ever see again given that Talmirans absolutely loathe the undead. Because of the events that took place in the last book, she’s also marked as a traitor to Talmir.

There’s quite a bit going on in this book. First and foremost, she has to rescue Corten, fellow wraith and lover, from a dark, dark place where there are shadows who wish to claim him permanently — and time is quickly running out for the both of them. But in order to save him, she has to find and obtain missing secret necromancy journals, which on the surface appears to be a nearly impossible task.

She’s also sucked into an intricate political web where she’s forced to form new alliances in order to survive though she’s not quite sure who she can trust. Like the last book, there are plenty of secrets, lies, and layers of treachery, but this time, the entire world is peril, a tidbit we don’t learn about until nearly the end of the story. The plot and the continuous action enthralled me right until the end of the book. I felt that the author did an excellent job portraying the political tension between the two countries, as well as the moral disagreements and mistrust.

I also enjoyed the dual POVs in the book, going back and forth from Corten to Naya, and witnessing the feeling of ever-growing desperation that both of them were experiencing. I also liked how much Naya’s character has grown since the first book where she’s transformed into quite a decisive, less gullible, and courageous young woman (or young wraith, as it were). She’s spirited, headstrong, and alert and has the backbone and personality to complement and balance many of the other no-nonsense characters, includes the stodgy Talmirans. I also was surprised by the “bad guys” in the story, which totally took me by surprise.

All in all, a mesmerizing, action-packed multi-layered adventure story with a unique and compelling spin on necromancy. The narrative never bogs down, and I was on pins and needles pretty much the entire time I read this book. My only niggle was the abrupt ending. Though it wasn’t exactly a cliff-hanger, it was pretty darn close, and because of that, I knocked off one star. Still, a super-fun read, and I’ll definitely be picking up the third in the series.

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