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Genres
Audiobook Review: Perfect Ten by L. Phillips
Release Date: 06/06/17 | Contemporary(ish ?) | 10 hours 4 minutes | Listening Library
17-year-old Samson Raines is ready to get back in the dating game but his options are limited, seeing as he’s already broken up with the only other gay boy in his school. He reluctantly turbs to magic (er, magick ?) for a little help. With a list of 10 traits for a perfect boyfriend and a Wiccan spell, Sam’s life is about to be turned upside down.
I picked this book up because the slightly zany romance plot and gay-story-not-about-coming-out synopsis gave me early David Levithan vibes. But I had such a hard time investing with this book and it’s mostly because I really could not with Sam, the main character. He was an arrogant, snobby hipster and as these super hot boys with these big personalities start falling for him it’s just hard to see what they see in him, especially when one of them is a 21-year-old rock star.
This book follows a lot of the same beats as genre romance, so for me Sam didn’t get enough redemption to earn his HEA. The development of the supporting characters felt underwhelming because at the end of the day they only exist to prop up Sam. And now that I think about it literally every character’s HEA gets shafted for Sam to get his HEA.
Kirby Heyborne is a favorite narrator of mine for his youthful voice and emotional deliveries. He brings out full range of male voices for each of Sam’s suitors although he struggles a bit with a French exchange student.
It look like L. Phillips has a 2018 book in the works that is described as #AlexfromTarget meets queer Prince Charming. Now, L. Phillips is the psuedonym of author Laura Wettersten, and I think it’s really curious that she is using a gender ambiguous penname to write these books and It feels a lot like what is happening in the world of M/M romance where books about gay boys arewritten mostly by and for straight women. There are just a lot of unfortunate implications.
The Moon and More by Sarah Dessen
Release Date: June 4, 2013 | Contemporary YA | 453 Pages | Viking (Penguin)
It’s the summer after high school graduation and 18-year-old Emaline is doing what she always does; working at her family’s beach rental business, spending time with her boyfriend Luke and having general ennui about what it means to live in the summer town of Colby, North Carolina. You know, the standard Dessen fare.
But summer’s never go as planned and Emaline finds herself mixed up with a crew of New York filmmakers making a documentary about Clyde Conaway, a reclusive artist who lives in Colby. And if that isn’t enough her estranged biological father is suddenly back in town.
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Audiobook Review: This Savage Song by Victoria Schwab
- Release Date: July 5, 2016
- Audiobook Length: 10 hours 9 minutes
- Genre: Urban Fantasy
- Publisher: Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins)
V-City exists in an alternate America where acts of violence physically manifest as beast like monsters. The Sunai are a rare form of monster, created from events of mass violence. Sunai look and act human but must feed on human souls to survive.
August Flynn is one of only three known Sunai, he lives in the south side of V-City with Henry Flynn, the head of a militaristic taskforce. On the north side of V-City is the autocratic Callum Harker who keeps his citizens safe via extortion Harker and Flynn have been enemies for a long time but have called a truce after a brutal civil war.
But when August is sent undercover to spy on Harkar’s estranged daughter Kate everything starts to change.
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