YA LGBT

Review of Howling on Hold by E.J. Russell

January 13, 2020 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

Howling on Hold is a fun gay shifter story that takes place at a group residence for werewolves called the Howling (aka “The Doghouse). Young werewolves need to spend three years at the residence to help them to control their instincts so they can seamlessly blend into the ordinary world. The story follows two main characters, Chase, who is the RA at the Howling residence, and Tanner, a young alpha-in-training who is nearly the end of this three-year stint, after which he must return to his pack and take the role of alpha.

Given that Chase is the RA and in a position of responsibility, he has ignored his feelings for Tanner. Likewise, Tanner has pushed aside his feelings for Chase. But now that Tanner is turning 21, he’s hoping that perhaps things will be different now that he is an adult and no longer under Chase’s charge. But Tanner’s world comes crashing down on the eve of his 21st birthday, resulting in Tanner being missing and running for his life after Chase rebuffs him, and Chase being stripped of his RA duties. So now the question is: Will Chase ever manage to find Tanner again?

First off, I loved the quirky secondary characters, especially Jordan who’s having an especially difficult time managing his “wolfy” instincts and has a knack for getting himself into trouble. There was a lot of fun banter between the characters, which added an enjoyable lightness to the story.

And as for our two main characters, I found them both extremely likable and ended up rooting for them to finally get together – and I thought the journey that took them to their happily ever after was well done and a lot of fun to boot.

This was a story with engaging characters and a well-crafted plot, along with several surprises peppered throughout the story. It wasn’t only cleverly written but also was laugh-out-loud funny in places and found it to be a breath of fresh air in the paranormal genre. If you like witty banter, shenanigans, and a heartfelt romance, then Howling on Hold is the book for you.

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Review of Keep This To Yourself by Tom Ryan

May 27, 2019 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

Keep This To Yourself follows 18-year-old Mac Bell who is still reeling from his best friend Conor’s murder the year prior. Conor was the fourth victim of a serial killer named The Catalog Killer that terrorized Camera Cove for a few months and then vanished, with everyone being confident that the killer was a random drifter who had moved on after the killings.

Now a year later, everyone is trying to move on with their lives, including Mac. But when he finds a cryptic note from Conor that was written on the day of his murder, Mac is once again thrust into the case, determined to find out what happened to his friend. Mac also now believes that because of the note, Mac might have been able to prevent his friend’s murder, this belief making Mac all the more determined to solve his friend’s death when the police could not. I think there was some survivor’s guilt going on here.

So this book hooked me right from the get-go, and once Mac decides to reopen the serial killer case himself, the tension and the pace never slow down as Mac becomes more and more obsessed with uncovering the truth. The tension really ramped up once Mac began to suspect that the killer never left Camera Cove at all and has been here the entire time.

I loved how chock full of twists and turns this story was and how everyone ends up being a suspect at some point during the story. I loved journeying along with Mac and he slowly uncovered clues and reopened old wounds by interviewing the survivors’ families, and along the way, we’re introduced to a multitude of rich characters which added to the realism of the setting. So through these characters, it becomes quickly evident that many in the town are keeping secrets which might have hampered the original murder investigation. I always love the trope where nobody can be believed, and that was certainly the case here.

My only niggle with the book was the romance. I just didn’t feel it, and I don’t think it was developed enough to be realistic. It felt kind of unnecessary in this story actually, and it seems like it was thrust in as an afterthought with not all that much chemistry between the two of them.

As for Mac, he’s a delightfully flawed and realistic character with many layers. Here we have a young gay man who is not only struggling with guilt from his best friend’s murder but is also trying to come to terms with his feelings for Conor — that is, feelings for his friend which may have been much more than mere friendship. Mac is quite a relatable character I thought, and I enjoyed seeing his character growth throughout the story.

All in all, I thought that this story was an absolute gem. It was a terrific thriller that kept me guessing right until the utterly shocking — and chilling — ending. It was a clever and solid whodunit, with plenty of red herrings and misinterpreted clues to throw the reader off track from guessing who the real killer is. This story had kind of a “Murder She Wrote” vibe to it except we have a busybody teen boy taking the place of Jessica Fletcher and I thought this aspect of it was a lot of fun. Mac turned out to be a delightful young gay detective. But most of all, I love the fact that I didn’t figure it out and was totally taken by surprise by the huge reveal.

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Review of Cub by Paul Coccia

January 26, 2019 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

Cub Paul Coccia book cover Cub is a short LGBTQ young adult novel that follows a seventeen-year-old chubby young man named Theo who loves to bake and is quite good at it. He dreams of attending culinary school and opening up his own bakery one day. Knowing that Theo is an excellent baker and deserves recognition, his best friend Di enters him into a cooking competition at a new trendy restaurant in Toronto called Heat. The contest will last for several weeks, with one contestant being eliminated after each weekly round. The rest of the story revolves around the competition and Theo’s interaction with the head celebrity chef KCC and the other contestants.

As Theo begins to win rounds, he attracts the attention and admiration of not only the audience who is watching the competition but also of KCC, who makes it quite clear to Theo that he’s interested in much more than Theo’s baking ability. He lets Theo know that if Theo does what KCC wants — in and out of the kitchen — then he’ll help Theo to launch his career. So now Theo has to decide just how far he’s willing to go to achieve his dreams.

We need to keep in mind here that KCC is much older than Theo — I got the impression that he was in his late 20’s or 30’s — and Theo is still a minor at seventeen. So the scene where KCC aggressively comes onto Theo was super-predatory and cringy to me, which I imagine is what the author intended.

Truth be told, one particular scene reminded me of something I personally went through when I was sixteen, so it was a tad difficult for me to read. I found it a bit upsetting and “triggery,” though I imagine it’s a difficult scene for most people to read. It definitely pulled me outside of my comfort zone.

But in spite of me feeling uncomfortable, I thought the author handled the situation extremely well and did an excellent job of portraying the range of mixed emotions that Theo experiences whenever KCC hits on him. On the one hand, here Theo is, a pudgy seventeen-year-old who has attracted the sexual attention of a gorgeous celebrity chef, one of his idols, in fact. But on the other hand, Theo feels that things are moving way too quickly and the situation feels “wrong” to him — the fact that the man is considerably older than Theo could be adding to that sense of wrongness. I thought it was riveting being in Theo’s head as he tried to sort this all out.

Though this is a short book, I thought it was an incredibly well-told story. I loved seeing Theo’s growth throughout the book, as he moved from someone with low self-esteem to someone confident and self-assured. It was lovely seeing Theo beam as he gained more and more admiration from the audience during the competition. At the beginning of the book, Theo was shy and terrified of being put into the spotlight, but by the end of the book, he was confident — master of his world — and he completed the required baking trials with finesse.

My one real niggle is that the book is too short! It’s more of a novella, coming in at 144 pages and though the story was good, it could have used some additional character development. We’re given just enough details to follow the story but I think this novel would have been richer had we delved a little more in the head of Theo, KCC, and Di.

But this short and sweet book pulled me in early, on the strength of Theo’s character, who I thought was absolutely lovable and found myself rooting for him throughout the competition and the book.

Though a couple of scenes were unsetting, the story invites readers to ask themselves whether, when placed in a similar situation, they would make the same choice as Theo. So in this way, Cub is a thought-provoking and touching story, at times poignant, at times playful but tremendously moving. Though the novel was short, it packed a punch. It was an engaging novella, and I found it easy to become invested in the outcome. I will definitely be on the lookout for more books by this author. Recommended!

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Review of The Evolution of Jeremy Warsh by Jess Moore

December 29, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

Evolution of jeremy warsh book cover The Evolution of Jeremy Warsh takes place in the late 1990s and follows Jeremy Warsh, a high school senior and artist who, ever since his grandpa passed away, has put aside his comic art and not touched it. Because he and his mom are struggling financially, Jeremy doesn’t count on going to college but instead, expects a boring life of drudgery.

Then things begin to slowly change for Jeremy. His best friend Kasey comes out of the closet, he receives an unexpected gift from his father and his other friend Stuart begins dating. Inspired by his friends, Jeremy picks up his pencil and starts drawing again, creating a sassy, wise-cracking, no-nonsense, in-your-face character he named Penny Kind. What’s special about Penny, however, is that she speaks to him — literally — and is not afraid to expect and demand more from him than he’s currently giving. That is to say, she holds him accountable for all of his actions and inactions, causing him to continually reevaluate his life and his decisions.

This is especially true after he kisses a boy at a party and he begins to question everything he thought he knew about himself as new and confusing feelings surface. I really enjoyed how Jeremy’s art not only helps him cope with his problems and insecurities but also shows him ways to overcome them, opening his eyes to the different paths available to him.

It was so much fun journeying along with Jeremy as he experienced the ups and downs of life in high school: dealing with high school bullies, facing an uncertain future, finding his place in the world, feeling like an outsider, supporting his friends, supporting his family and discovering and accepting his emerging sexuality. I found him to be not only a lovable and empathetic character but also a wonderfully relatable and memorable one who revealed more and more of himself as his understanding of the bigger world around him unfolded.

Additionally, the diverse cast of secondary characters in the book is truly delightful. These are characters who not only amuse and entertain us but also touch us, and prompt us to think about who we are and how we want to live our lives. Jess Moore really seems to understand the teenage soul — the doubt, the uncertainty, the longing, the self-awareness, the challenges and the confusion and in so doing ended up creating a believable world with plenty of heart.

I also thought the burgeoning romance in the story between Jeremy and Matt was soft, gentle and well drawn. I liked the fact that it was slow and not at all rushed, resulting in a sweet and heartwarming affection that didn’t take away from the rest of the story. It was fun, however, to see Jeremey move from a place of doubt and confusion to a place of acceptance and certainty.

This feel-good story has everything you need for the perfect high school senior story: a tight group of witty and charming friends, a zombie homecoming dance, a high school senior identity crisis, an ultra-cool mom, a will they/won’t they romance, and that somewhat melancholy high that comes with endings and new beginnings. All in all, a delightful story!

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Review of What If It’s Us by Becky Abertalli and Adam Silvera

November 15, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

What If It’s Us is a collaboration by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera, two authors that I’ve enjoyed in the past, especially Adam Silvera’s They Both Die at the End and Becky Albertalli’s Simon vs. The Homo sapiens Agenda.

What If It’s Us follows two boys, Arthur and Ben. Arthur, who is from Georgia, is visiting NYC for the summer and is working as an intern in his mom’s law firm. Ben is recovering from a breakup with his boyfriend Hudson and attending summer school. The two meet one day at the post office, where Ben is mailing back his ex-boyfriend’s things. They chat, and the two immediately hit it off. Unfortunately, chaos erupts inside of the post office, and before Arthur can get Ben’s phone number, he has disappeared.

From there, we follow the two young men as they attempt to find each other, which of course, they do; otherwise, we wouldn’t have much of a novel, now would we? In fact, it almost seemed as though the Universe was conspiring in their favor to bring these two together — and the question of “destiny” comes up many times in conversation.

But it’s not a smooth ride for our two protagonists. The two of them go on a series of bad dates all fraught with drama, hurt feelings and a series of misunderstandings. There are all sorts of awkwardness and complications: strange relationships between their friends, the unusual relationships between each of the boys and their friends, there’s Ben’s ex-boyfriend Hudson who Ben may or may not be over, and both sets of parents.

Arthur and Ben do embark on quite a roller-coaster of a relationship with them both trying to “make it right” before Arthur has to leave at the end of the summer. What I found especially interesting was the friendship dynamics in the books. The authors did such a good job with them that I found them almost more interesting than the central romance. I especially enjoyed Dylan’s character, who was Ben’s best friend. In fact, I would love to see a book featuring him as the main protagonist.

The story is told in alternating points of view, so Arthur gets one chapter, Ben the next, then Arthur and so on. I found this more than a bit challenging at times as it was often difficult to tell the two boys apart. The problem is that I don’t think their characters were different enough and because of that, I often forgot who was speaking. So I had to flip back to the chapter heading to see whose chapter it was which annoyed me and yanked me out of the story on many occasions.

I know that a lot of people hate pop-culture references in their fiction novels so if you’re one of those people, you may want to stay clear of this one. There were numerous references to Hamilton, Dear Evan Hanson and lots of Harry Potter. Though pop-culture references don’t usually bother me, I think they may have overdone it a bit, especially with the Hamilton references. I found myself thinking a few times, “Okay, enough already with Hamilton.” In this way, the book became a tad repetitive in places.

But all in all, “What If It’s Us” is a super-sweet coming of age YA romance about two boys finding love and in so doing discovering themselves. So I ended up liking this story a lot — but not loving it as I had hoped. I don’t know; perhaps I was expecting a little more from these two authors. It was cute with likable characters but not really earth-shattering. I enjoyed the romance between these two boys but outside of the romance, there wasn’t a whole lot going on — there weren’t any additional plot lines.

So though it was an enjoyable story and I am glad I read it, I didn’t love it as much as I had hoped. Now to be fair, I’m not typically a fan of romancey contemporaries so I’m probably not the ideal target reader. But if you enjoy YA contemporary novels that are heavily focused on the romance, then you may very well enjoy this book more than I did.

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Review of Running with Lions by Julian Winters

September 5, 2018 by Roger Hyttinen Leave a Comment

First off, the cover is gorgeous. In fact, it’s what initially attracted me to this book.

The Story

Running with Lions revolves around a soccer team called The Lions, and pretty much the entire book takes place while the players are at summer sports camp. The main character is Sebastian Hughes, the team’s star goalie who has aspirations of becoming captain. Sebastian is bisexual, and several of his other teammates are also gay or bi. They are all fortunate in having a coach who provides a welcoming and safe atmosphere where the players do not have to hide their sexuality.

So Sebastian is all set to have an epic summer at sports camp when he is blindsided by his childhood friend, Emir Shah, who shows up to camp, planning on joining the team. The problem is that something happened between the two of them years ago and Emir now hates Sebastian, and he doesn’t go out of his way to hide his dislike.

Emir is also somewhat of a loner — kind of a misanthrope — as he doesn’t get along with anyone at school, including the other team members. So he keeps everyone at a distance and makes no effort to close the gap between him and the other guys on the team, even at camp.

Sebastian decides to try to reconnect with Emir for the sake of the Lions, and he sets out to regain Emir’s trust. But in spite of Emir’s increasingly lousy attitude, Sebastian finds himself not only attracted to Emir but also developing feelings romantic feelings for him.

So as you can probably guess, a romance develops between the two of them, but it’s not easy going and there are several obstacles they’re going to have to overcome.

What I Liked

I really liked the relationship between the team members — there was a strong bond between all of them which kind of made me think of how we often choose our own families, and those bonds of friendship can sometimes be stronger than families bound by blood.

That’s the feeling I got from the team — that they were one big inclusive family. This was especially true with these guys, I think, in that they were able to express their sexuality without any judgments. All in all, I thought that a novel about an LGBTQ inclusive soccer team was brilliant, though I was thankful that the book didn’t go into too much detail about the logistics of the sport. Some books go a little too far with game play-by-plays which can be annoying for me as I’m not much of a sports person.

Sebastian’s character growth was also something that resonated with me. Initially, he lacked self-confidence and had rather a negative self-image no doubt due to the bullying he experienced at school.

There was his struggle with feeling unworthy to be team captain. He was also not happy with his body, feeling that nobody could be attracted to him. I found it refreshing that this story handled body image issues from the point of view of a boy as this isn’t something we often see in YA fiction.

I enjoyed seeing Sebastian progress and grow throughout the story to a more self-assured and confident character. His relationship with Elmir helped to boost his self-confidence, especially in regards to body acceptance.

I thought the romance between Sebastian and Elmir was sweet and well-done. I am kind of a sucker for the frenemies to lovers trope so this especially worked for me. Well, this was more of a best friends to enemies to reluctant teammates to lovers, which still worked nicely IMHO.

What I Didn’t Like

There was one female character in the book, Gray and she was treated horribly by Mason, the boy she had a crush on. He was rude and mean to her throughout the book, and there were never any consequences to the way he treated her.

Yes, his behavior was explained as “he’s mean to her because he really likes her” but this old clichéd trope doesn’t work for me; in fact, I hate this trope. Gray was also kind of a cardboard cutout of a character, and all we see is her almost desperate one-sided crush on a boy who isn’t very nice to her. This whole thing kind of rubbed me the wrong way.

Another thing I didn’t like was that the story was told in the third-person present tense: “Mason replies, “No.” Elmir takes another dip at the ball. He looks at him. Bastian beams. etc., etc.” I never like this tense in a book, and I’ve DNF’d books because of it. I personally find it jarring, and it tends to pull me out of the story, and sometimes I find it difficult to get past it.

I know many authors write in this tense and it doesn’t bother everyone; it’s just a personal preference of mine, and I tend to shy away from books that use this tense. So this might be why the writing felt stilted and disjointed to me from time to time.

There also wasn’t a whole lot that went on. There was some mild angst but no serious dramatic conflicts. I have to admit that I was waiting for some explosive event to take place but there wasn’t much to speak of. There were no surprises, no plot twists and it ended up being somewhat predictable. I hate to say it, but I did get a tad bored from time to time as the story progressed.

Verdict

This was an adorable character-driven story with a likable cast of diverse characters. Give that this was more driven by the characters than the story, there’s not a whole lot of action going on so if you like your novels to be nail-biting roller-coaster rides, you won’t find that here. Luckily, the characters were multi-layered enough to hold my interest, and I did find myself invested in what happened to them.

Running with Lions was a light, fluffy summer story about friendship and love that was a fun read. Though it was somewhat of a light-hearted romance, it also dealt with several other important issues such as bullying (both Sebastian and Elmir), homophobia and racism.

If you enjoy sweet summery romances or stories about gays sports teams or summer camp, then you’ll want to check out this book. Though it was a little light on plot, I ended up enjoying it, and I’m glad I read it. It’s a worthy effort for a debut novel, and I’m looking forward to seeing what Mr. Winters comes up with next.

You can check out Running with Lions HERE