LGBT Romance

Blurb:

Jasper Quigley is tired of being everyone’s favorite sidekick. He wants to become the hero of his own life, but that’s not going to happen if he agrees to help out his former best friend turned king of the jocks, Milo Lionetti. High school was miserable enough, thanks, and Jasper has no interest in dredging up painful memories of his old secret crush.

But Milo’s got nowhere else to go. His life is spiraling out of control and he’s looking to turn things back around. Step one? Replace the rare Odyssey cards he lost in an idiotic bet. Step two? Tell his ex-best-friend exactly how he feels—how he’s always felt.

Jasper may be reluctant to reopen old wounds, but he never could resist Milo. There’s a catch, though: if Milo wants his help, he’s going to have to pitch in to make the upcoming children’s hospital charity ball the best ever. But as the two don cosplay for the kids and hunt for rare cards, nostalgia for their lost friendship may turn into something even more lasting…

Review:

Out of Character is an enemies-to-lovers new adult romance set in the same world as Albert’s previous novel, “Unconventionally Yours.” The story is based around a fictional tabletop game called Odyssey and follows our two main characters, Jasper and Milo. Milo has accidentally traded away his brother’s very rare and expensive Odyssey cards and has turned to Jasper to help him get them back. The kicker is that Jasper and Milo used to be best friends until Milo starting hanging out with the jock crowd — the same crowd who bullied Jasper. Jasper has not forgotten how horribly Milo treated him in high school.

However, Jasper reluctantly agrees to help him, and the two men head off to an Odyssey gaming convention where Jasper will try to win back the elusive cards. Of course, neither boy could have guessed that all the time they spend together would result in them falling in love, and in so doing, the author captured perfectly how simultaneously beautiful and daunting it can be to fall for your enemy.

This ended up being a delightful, heartwarming story of two young men who find their way back to either other. The romance between the two of them was perfect, as was their chemistry. I adore romance redemption/second chance stories, and these aspects were exceptionally well done in this novel.

I also loved the colorful ensemble of friends/found family in this book. Albert does this really well, and I was especially delighted to see cameo appearances by several characters from Unconventionally Yours.

All in all, Out of Character is a beautiful story about love and how it can spring up in the most unlikely of places and circumstances. It’s a lovely, heartfelt second-chance nerdy romance with vibrant characters that I loved. I can’t wait to read more by this author.

A huge thank you to Netgalley for providing a review copy of this book.

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Blurb:

Casey Preston is the guy with the plan. The list-maker. The one who micromanages his own life.

Spontaneously offering to be his best friend’s fake boyfriend to get Ethan’s annoying team captain off his back?

That’s not thinking things through. It’s not even smart given Casey’s been fighting his feelings for Ethan for years.

Ethan Rain just wants to play hockey and get his college degree. Adding a fake boyfriend to the mix? He doesn’t need that complication.

If Casey were his real boyfriend, though? If he got to keep Casey forever? Now we’re talking.

But what if Casey doesn’t want to be kept?

Review:

Keeping Casey is a sweet college romance that contains many of my favorite tropes/elements: gay hockey players, friends-to-lovers, and fake-dating, so I was super excited to delve into this book. The story follows Casey and Ethan, who have been best friends throughout their entire lives. Ethan is demisexual, and Casey is gay, and both of them have a secret crush on the other — but neither has ever been brave enough to act on their feelings, each certain that their love is unrequited. Thus, there’s plenty of angst as well as mutual pining going on. What’s fun is that pretty much everyone around them assumes that they’re a couple because of the way they act towards each other, and their friends call them out on it more than once.

It’s also worth mentioning that the boys are bonded by a shared family tragedy: they both lost a parent in the same horrific construction accident, so this tragedy has overshadowed their decisions in life and affected each of them in different ways. They take care of each other, support each other, and provide that unconditional yet unspoken love that really is what they both need so desperately.

Their relationship takes a turn when, on the fly, they decide to become fake boyfriends in order to put Ethan’s homophobic team captain in his place. Suddenly, their intense feelings for each other are forced out into the open with some unexpected results. I love how these two move through so much indecision and inner doubt as they toy with the idea of falling for each other.

Note that this is an extremely slow burn and low heat story — in fact, they don’t even kiss until near the end of the book. In this way, sex is secondary to the intense emotional bond that the men share. So if you’re looking for a steamy romance, this isn’t it. What we do have, though, is a deep love and bond between two men who have intimate knowledge of each other’s faults and imperfections. Yes, both characters are flawed and slightly broken — but their complementary characteristics balance out their flaws.

Though this is a tender, lighthearted romance, there’s also a serious aspect to it as the story delves into topics such as homophobia, love, grief, parental distancing, chronic illness (Ethan is living with rheumatoid arthritis), fear, insecurity, and sexuality. The sprinkling of humor throughout, however, kept the story from being too heavy.

Though Keeping Casey may be a bit cliché in the way that it ends up resolving some pretty big problems and conflicts, it is an endearing romance that allows a reader to enjoy a bit of escapism into a beautiful relationship that never really falters. Their love is engaging and passionate — and Casey and Ethan have become one of my favorite couples. They both become different people by the end of this book, and it is lovely to see it happen. So though a tender romance is at the heart of this book, the story is also about facing unimaginable heartbreak and loss — and coming out stronger on the other side, no matter how long it takes you.

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Blurb:

Their collections may clash but their hearts are a perfect match.

Moving to eclectic New Hope, Pennsylvania, and running The Beautiful Things Shoppe is a dream come true for elegant and reserved fine arts dealer Prescott J. Henderson. He never agreed to share the space with Danny Roman, an easygoing extrovert who collects retro toys and colorful knickknacks.

And yet here they are, trapped together in the quaint shop as they scramble to open in time for New Hope’s charming Winter Festival.

Danny has spent years leading with his heart instead of his head. The Beautiful Things Shoppe is his chance to ground himself and build something permanent and joyful. The last thing he needs is an uptight snob who doesn’t appreciate his whimsy occupying half his shop.

It’s only when two of New Hope’s historic landmarks—each as different as Danny and Prescott—are threatened that a tentative alliance forms. And with it, the first blush of romance. Suddenly, running The Beautiful Things Shoppe together doesn’t seem so bad…until Danny’s secret threatens to ruin it all.

Review:

The Beautiful Things Shoppe, which is the second book in the Seasons of New Hope series, is a sweet enemies-to-lovers/opposites attract romance. It completely stands on its own as this story focuses on different characters, though a couple of the characters from the first book (The Hideaway Inn) do make a guest appearance.

The two main characters in this story are Danny and Prescott, are so much fun! Here we see two opposites who find themselves in somewhat of a forced business situation. I loved how different they were from each other, with Prescott being a stuffy, elegant, almost snooty fine arts dealer and Danny being an easy-going extrovert who collects retro toys and colorful pop culture tchotchkes. I enjoyed the plot device of having these two opposites sharing the same retail space when they thought they’d leased the entire space for themselves, all of which resulted in plenty of comical situations and snarky banter.

Our two characters, each of whom finds the other attractive, come to realize that they actually complement each other in ways they didn’t expect. Once they stop bickering, they eventually discover that there’s a fantastic chemistry between them, and I enjoyed watching their false assumptions about the other come crumbling down as they wormed their way into each other’s hearts. The rich and quirky secondary characters also really added to this story’s charm, and I loved seeing a couple of familiar faces from the first book.

It was heart-warming to see how both of the guys set their differences aside in order to come together to help save a couple of architecturally significant buildings. So, all in all, I found The Beautiful Things Shoppe to be a light-hearted yet addicting and engaging story that oozes with romance yet is layered with complexities of identity and judging people by outward appearances. It’s an emotive story with distinctly drawn, genuine characters, and I loved watching their relationship play out on the page. I’ll definitely be picking up the third book in this series.

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This is a fun enemies-to-lovers/opposites attract type of romance that follows Teddy Spenser, our narrator, who works for an up-and-coming Chicago design firm called Reddyflora. Teddy is not amused when his boss puts him on a high profile project with his nemesis — the stodgy and abrasive software engineer Romeo, who also happens to be quite cute. I also learned about “smart vases” in this story, something I never even knew existed.

If working together wasn’t enough, their boss then sends them on a business trip together to Seattle to meet with a wealthy and eccentric potential investor, Joyce Alexander. Oh, and there was a mix-up at the hotel and not only did they have to share a room, but it was a room with only one bed.

I loved watching these two learn about each other over the coming days and seeing both of them overcome their hostilities. It was fun to see how their initial impressions of the other slowly fell apart once they discovered new and admirable facets of the other person, all of which led to a fierce devotion on both of their parts by the end of the book. Their transition from enemies to lovers is quite sweet and heart-warming and I ended up adoring both of these characters.

There was kind of an unbelievable aspect of the story, where the two of them were sent on sort of a contest and needed to perform a set of quirky missions. Though unlikely, I found this aspect of the book to be a lot of fun and I didn’t mind suspending disbelief for a little bit here.

The only thing I didn’t really like was the insta-love aspect of the story. They went from barely knowing each other to eternal declarations of love within a few days. But Insta-love aside, I enjoyed this delightful low-angst book and found both of our characters to be lovable and admirable, with just enough tension to keep the narrative compelling.

All in all, a sweet and tender perfectly constructed story with diverse characters and a heart-warming storyline. I loved the way the story progressed culminating in a beautiful epilogue.

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