Roger's Reads

Author & Book Reviewer

Review of Mr. Frosty Pants by Leta Blake

by Leave a Comment

Mr frosty pants book coverMr. Frosty Pants follows Casey who, when he left for college four years ago, ghosted his best friend, Joel. Casey had just come out to his parents which didn’t go all that well, and he decided not to go through the same thing with Joel. It’s also worth mentioning that he was and still is very much in love with Joel and didn’t want to risk Joel finding that out.

Now as for Joel, he’s curmudgeonly, ill-tempered and unapproachable, so much so that his employee at the hardware store that Joel owns has nicknamed him “Mr. Frosty Pants.” Joel initially comes across as a wholly unlikable character. But given that the story is told from alternating POVs, we learn the reason for Joel’s standoffishness: he’s been severely hurt in the past by his despicable and abusive father, leading to an overall feeling of unworthiness on his part as he struggles merely to survive day by day.

We also learn that he’s also not quite as straight as Casey believes and that he’s also been in love with and pining for Casey for years.

Still, when Casey shows up at Joel’s store with the intention of renewing their friendship, Joel wants nothing to do with him gives him more than a frosty reception. He certainly has no intention of telling Casey about how he feels about him and does his best to drive the man off. Joel thinks that Casey has no place in his life now, especially given that they come from two different classes; Casey from new money and Joel struggling to afford his next meal (Casey’s snobbish parents also do not approve of Joel and their son’s friendship with him). Joel believes that it would be easier on his heart if he kept Casey at a distance.

But Casey is not so easily rebuffed, especially once he learns from a mutual friend that Joel may have romantic feelings for him as well.

What follows is a sweet, slow-burn romance with two very complicated characters as Casey is determined to win Joel’s trust whereas Joel is determined to keep the gate protecting his heart firmly closed. Add to that class differences, homophobic parents and elitism, we quickly see that it’s not going to be an easy road for our main characters. Though this is a holiday romance, it’s not a typical one in that we see a little more angst in this story than one usually sees in Christmas romances but the overall result is worth it, and we end up with an intense, hard-hitting tale with plenty of heart.

I typically enjoy the friends to lovers trope and this novel was no exception. I loved seeing the relationship slowly bloom between Casey and Joel as barriers are torn down and trust earned. It’s a lovely story about opening one’s heart and taking a chance on love. There are several tropes in this book that work together wonderfully: childhood friends-to-lovers, second chances, ex-best friends, unrequited love, lovers reunited and rich boy vs. poor boy all of which, combined with the atmosphere of Christmas, add to the richness and depth of this tale.

Mr. Frosty Pants ended up being a story of redemption, acceptance and second changes that was heartbreaking in places and joyful in others. It’s not a fluffy or cheesy story but rather a hopeful, deep and fulfilling one about two characters discovering themselves. Their relationship felt authentic to me and their character traits believable and realistic, which wasn’t surprising given how complicated and multi-faceted each of them was. The intimate scenes are also tastefully done and in perfect proportion to the rest of the story.

All in all, a beautiful, heartfelt M/M Christmas story. Recommended!

Purchase Mr. Frosty Pants from Amazon

Review of Mistborn: The Hero of Ages by Brandon Sanderson

by Leave a Comment

Hero of ages book coverSo I finally finished the third book in the Mistborn trilogy and wow, what a ride that was. It’s been several years since I’ve read a huge, epic, sweeping fantasy and I was just blown away by this one.

There’s so very little I can say about this book without giving anything away except that the world is dying and dying quickly and that the Emperor and his wife are tricked into releasing an evil entity who is hell-bent on destroying the world. Now it’s up a brave few to try and stop the creature — that is, if it isn’t already too late.

The Hero of Ages was superb though it completely destroyed me and wrecked. The bittersweet ending was both a thing of absolute beauty as well as heartbreaking. It’s one of those situations where you’re outrageously happy and completely devastated at the same time, and though it wasn’t all rainbows and unicorns, the ending felt right to me, which is quite a feat for an author to pull off. And just to be clear, there were no unanswered or unexplained questions at the end of this trilogy so, in this way, the conclusion was satisfying.

This series had amazing characters with a super kick-ass heroine whom I adored. The characters grew to be so much more than they had ever dreamed possible and their growth throughout the arc of the story was phenomenal: Elend, Vin, Sazed, Spook — even the Kandra. What I loved about this novel was the message that people are neither good nor evil, and even those whose actions appear to be evil and malicious in nature, may not entirely be so, once we dig further down to unearth the truth. There is also the theme of “nothing is as it seems” which happens to be one of my favorite tropes.

There are so many characters that I grew to love in this story, and at around 2,000 pages, it’s going to be difficult for me to leave them behind. I’m pretty sure that I’m going to be thinking about this story for a long time to come. Now there is another Mistborn trilogy referred to as Mistborn Era 2, so I do get to return to this world. However, I do believe it takes place 300 years after the first trilogy, so there’ll no doubt be new characters for me to love.

Purchase The Hero of Ages at Amazon

Purchase Hero of Ages at The Book Depository

Review of Pisces Hooks Taurus by Anyta Sunday

by Leave a Comment

Pisces hooks taurusThis is at the fourth book in the Signs of Love series by Anyta Sunday. I actually started with book two in this series, Scorpio hates Virgo and I loved it so much a went out and got the rest of my series. I’m really a fan of this author and have now read several books by her. She writes gay romance book and many people refer to her as the “Queen of Slow Burn” because she specializes in the slow burn romance. I think that’s why I enjoy her books so much because I love this trope. She also does the enemies to lover trope in some of her novels which I also really enjoy.

So onto Pisces Hooks Taurus. The story follows Zane, a Kiwi who has a month left on his Visa before he’s shipped back from the US to New Zealand. But he wants to stay in the US more than anything especially because he wants to stay close to his brother and his brother’s wife who is also his best friend and the two of them have just become parents. So Zane has a plan: he will find the perfect girl of his dreams on one of his dating apps, fall in love, marry her and get to stay in the states. That’s the plan, anyway. Oh, and all this is to take place within 30 days.

But first off, he needs to find another place to stay and asks a friend of his brother’s wife, a professor named Beckett, if he can crash with him temporarily. So what follows is a delightful slow burn romance between the two of them. But it’s not an easy road. Zane is clueless that his so-called “Bromance” with Beckett may be something more profound and we learn that Beckett is still broken-hearted and deeply scarred from a past relationship and is determined not to get his heart broken again.

I really loved both of their characters. Zane, our Pisces is young, naïve, romantic, and somewhat of a dreamer, so in this way, he comes across as quite innocent. He is also charming and super-sweet. Beckett, our Taurus, is mature, more serious, intellectual and studious though somewhat insecure and mistrusting of others following that horrible breakup.

So it was a delight watching the slow-burn between the two of them as Beckett would continuously erect borders with our clueless Zane unknowingly tearing them down. What I liked is the balance in the story. We have two very different personalities; a totally innocent and naïve character and one who’s jaded and mistrusting. As the tension builds, we see our bull lowering his guard and our fish growing in maturity and wisdom. I also loved how much both of these characters grew by the end of the story.

All in all, I felt that this slow-burn romance was realistic and heartfelt. It was a story full of banter, humor, affection, the building of tension as these two men realized their attraction to the other, and the blossoming of love, without too much angst.

I found it interesting that though Zane was initially searching for the perfect woman, his falling in love with Zane didn’t strike me as a gay-for-you trope, one that I typically don’t like. Rather, it felt like Zane’s bisexuality naturally unfolded as true affection developed between him and Beckett. Actually, I got the impression that Zane didn’t really experience sexual attraction to someone unless he has a strong emotional connection with them. So in this way, he struck me as possibly being more demisexual rather than bisexual.

Pisces Hooks Taurus was another lovely and sweet story by Anyta Sunday that made me a little misty-eyed at the end (as do most of her books). It’s the kind of story that makes you laugh and cry, and really ends up tugging at your heartstrings. Excellent plot, with lovable characters, endearing meddling family and neighbors, plenty of humor and snark and a sweet romance with a couple of steamy scenes thrown in at the end. It’s a story in which both of our characters knew what they wanted — it just took them some time to get there.

I’m loving this series and can’t wait to read the next book.

Purchase Pisces Hooks Taurus at Amazon

Purchase Pisces Hooks Taurus at The Book Depository

Review of Edge of the Known Bus Line by James R. Gapinski

by Leave a Comment

Edge of the known bus line book coverI won this novella in a Goodreads drawing and wow…what a strange, disturbing little book it was.

This is a dystopian/apocalyptic novel that follows a woman — I don’t think we ever even learn her name — whose daily bus commute takes an abrupt detour one day, ending up in the town of “Not in Service,” population 66.

She and her fellow passengers are forced off the bus via gunpoint, and she learns pretty quickly that the town is brutal, gruesome and horrifying. The townsfolk, who were all at one time passengers like herself, are dressed in rags, appear sickly, live in tattered tents or huts and in order to survive, they eat bugs, rats…and each other.

They’ve developed a strange sort of surreal society divided into two main factions: the Chicago Faction and the Pittsburg Faction, and if you want to survive, you need to join one of them. The people in the town, who for the most part have been stripped of any human dignity (though they convince themselves otherwise), have created a crazy religion around the idea that someday a bus will arrive with the destination of Chicago or Pittsburg — somewhere other than Out of Service.

So from the moment our main character arrives, we follow her as she desperately searches for a way out of the hellhole, refusing to believe that there is no way to escape, as the other townspeople have claimed. Fearless and hopeful, she makes one failed attempt after another to escape which renders the story all the more horrifying. So in this way, the book was sort of a survival story. What’s interesting is that our main character ends up being kind of an anti-hero as she’s harboring some pretty serious secrets of her own.

This truly messed up world was also fascinating in a morbid kind of way — it was gross, disturbing and super cringe-worthy. Yet, this story with its twisted plot was also a page-turner as we want to see if our heroine would finally manage to escape the nightmare in which she’d been unwillingly placed. It’s like the morbid fascination one has with a car accident: I can’t bear to look yet I can’t look away.

It’s also interesting that no matter how dark and twisted the story was, there was a good peppering of humor thrown in. Dark humor, mind you but humor nonetheless, and I actually did catch myself laughing out loud several times. But still, you’ll want to keep in mind that the book was filled with grotesque scenes of violence and cannibalism and is definitely not for the faint of heart.

All in all, Edge of the Known Bus Line is a great read! I found this a dark, compelling and mesmerizing story with rich, multi-faceted characters with an enthralling storyline. The world-building is phenomenal, and the delightfully twisted and chilling plot sucked me right in so much so that I read the entire novella in one go. This unsettling story certainly provides a lot of think about well after the last page has been turned.

I don’t think I’m going to be taking a bus anytime soon.

In the spirit of disclosure, I won this book in a giveaway and was under no obligation to write a review.

Purchase Edge of the Known Bus Line at Amazon

Purchase Edge of the Known Bus Line at The Book Depository

Review of Blue is the Warmest Color by Julie Maroh

by Leave a Comment

Blue is the warmest color book coverBlue is the Warmest Color is a wonderful graphic novel that follows our main character Clementine, a French junior in high school. One day while walking down the street she notices a girl with blue hair. What Clementine isn’t prepared for, is an unexpected tinge of desire, so much so that the girl begins to enter her dreams….in an erotic manner causing all kind of confusion for our heroine as she begins to question her sexuality for the first time.

Later, she wanders into a lesbian bar with her best friend where she reencounters the blue-haired girl and learns that her name is Emma. Their attraction is instant and electric, and it doesn’t take long before Clementine realizes that she has fallen in love with Emma.

But acceptance of her newly-emerged sexuality doesn’t come easy for Clementine, and we experience the battle she faces not only internally but also amongst her peers at school surrounding her forbidden attraction. It’s about finding and accepting yourself even though everyone around you tells you that you are wrong, that the love that you feel is wrong.

What follows is a heartfelt coming-of-age story of first love, self-discovery, and ultimately tragedy. Yes, there’s tragedy, something we learn in the opening pages of the novel. So though it’s a beautiful love story, it’s also a heartbreaking one, one that was difficult to read in parts. This is as much a coming of age story about a girl’s awakened desires, as it is a story of hardship and loss.

The medium of a graphic novel is surprisingly effective in telling this raw and very intimate tale. Blue is the Warmest Color is an emotionally expressive and exquisitely drawn book about love, loss, depression, trauma, bullying, acceptance, homophobia and so much more.

It’s a dark book in places, filled with angst and fear, but it’s also a beautiful, swirling romantic sweep of a book chock full of gorgeous, evocative images which render this graphic novel a beautiful work of art. Maroh’s drawing skill is exceptional and smart, the rich and bold drawings expertly capturing the nervous and exciting awe of first love as well as uncertainty, guilt, shame and tragedy, panel after panel.

All in all, I adored the characters, the story and the illustrations and I’m so glad I came across this. It was not only a well-told, deeply moving tale but also a heart-tugger of a story that sticks with you and gives you plenty to think about afterward — or at least it did for me. Recommended!

Purchase Blue is the Warmest Color from Amazon

Purchase Blue is the Warmest Color from the Book Depository

Review of The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August

by Leave a Comment

First fifteen lives of harry august book coverThe First Fifteen Lives of Harry August follows our main character Harry August who lives his life, over and over and over. But it’s the same life, and he always returns to exactly where he began: as his mother gave birth to him in the ladies restroom. Once he reaches the age of 6 or 7, all of his memories return, complete with all of the knowledge he’s amassed in his previous lives. Think of the movie “Groundhog Day” except for an entire lifetime. It’s also worth mentioning is that Harry is extraordinarily gifted in that he was a mnemonic, meaning he remembers every single detail from each of his lives.

What’s interesting though, is that he doesn’t live the exact same life and he can choose to do whatever he wants during his lifetime, whether it be teaching at a university, becoming a scientist, a lawyer, a doctor, or a physicist, living in Russia — whatever he wants to do. So in this way, he does have free will to live whatever kind of life he wants, to go in whatever direction he wants. For example, throughout his lives, Harry has lived in an amazing variety of places such as England, Russia, China, and the United States. He can also choose to fall in love with the same person as a previous life or move on to someone new.

Finally, during one of his lives, he learns that there are others like himself who call themselves the Kalachakra which I believe was Buddhist terminology for the wheel of time. The word Ouroboran was also used to describe those who live, die, and are reborn to relive their lives again. This comes from the word “Ouroboros” which is the serpent eating its tail, which represents the never-ending cycle of death and rebirth.

So the Kalchakra have formed a club called the Chronus Club with branches all over the world, and they try to help each other out, especially during the challenging childhood years. Imagine being 800 years old and having to live as a child under the thumb of your parents until you come of age. That’s where the other Kalachakras step in and help, as they often extricate the Kalachakra children from ridiculously repetitive or overly difficult childhoods.

But they do have their rules: they are not allowed to do anything that will drastically change the future. For instance, they cannot kill Hitler or try to prevent JFK’s murder, or introduce future science, or anything for that matter that could cause a ripple effect throughout the course of history.

Of course, there are always those bad apples who abuse their power. But members who knowingly break these rules are severely dealt with in one of two ways: an electrical clearing of the mind which means that none of their past memories will return in their next life, or a pre-birth termination, in which they will not be born, thus terminating the cycle for good.

What I found fascinating is that the club members pass messages to each other through time. How this works is that a child will give a message to another member when he or she is old, so when that person is born again, they can, in turn, pass the message on to other members who are nearing the end of their life. So in this way, the past connects to the future, and the future connects to the past from one lifetime to another.

But one day, it all changes. At the end of Harry’s 11th life, a little girl appears at his bedside and warns Harry that in the future, a global catastrophe occurs and that he and the other members have to do something to try to stop it. But as Harry and the others investigate, they figure out that one of their own is to blame — one of the Kalachakra is breaking the rules, and now it’s up to Harry figure out who is doing it, when they’re doing it, how they’re doing and to somehow stop the catastrophe from happening.

I loved the immense scope and scale of this story and felt that this was an exceptionally well fleshed out version of time travel. Through Harry’s various lives, we get a peek into history, especially the highs and lows of the 20th century. Additionally, the story was a chance to explore Harry’s individuality as well as his connection with others, all the while dealing with major themes of good vs. evil, birth, death, science, religion, love, hate and so much more. How many times have most of us thought about how different our life would have been had we chosen a different path? This book explores just that question. It’s a book about what we could accomplish if we had an eternity. Absolutely fascinating. But then again, I love time-travel books, and this was for sure one of the better ones.

Now I will admit that initially, it was rough going with this book. I actually considered DNFing it about 60% in. The story is told from multiple timelines which took a bit of getting used to. But more than that, this is a dense book, and it takes quite a bit of time for the story to develop. But once it did, boy oh boy, what a ride it was! I’m thrilled I stuck it out because it was so worth it in the end. The story really picked up speed and ended up being exciting and gripping, engaging me all the way to the surprising and stunning (yet entirely satisfying) ending.

All an all, The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August is a profound and gripping story with a compelling and relatable protagonist, an exciting, well-developed plot line and a fun supporting cast of unique and interesting secondary characters. As people drift in and out of the story, I was struck by how full and complete all of the characters are and how much they added to the storyline. This was an emotionally intense, and deeply engaging novel that had me on the edge of my seat until the explosive ending. I felt that The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August was not only cleverly written but also eloquently narrated and I’m so glad I read it.

Purchase The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August at Amazon

Purchase The First Fifteen Lives of Harry August at The Book Depository