Books and Sensibility

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New Cover, Who Dis : The Scarlet Series

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A.C. Gaughen’s  2012 Scarlet series re-imagines Robin Hood as a teenage girl. I remember this series in particular because I met the author at my very first BEA and she gave me some great bookmarks … which I guess will be outdated because this series just got a makeover.

There has been a trend happening (much to reader’s chagrin) where publishers have been re-designing covers halfway through a series, so it’s interesting that they’ve given this series a revamp, nearly 2 years after the series ended.

Could they be priming themselves forA.C’s 2018 book ? I’m not sure but let’s take a look at the redesign !

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Our Dark Duet by Victoria Schwab (Monsters of Verity #2)

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Release Date: 06/13/17 | Urban Fantasy (Horror?) | 10 hours 32 minutes | Harper Audio

Trigger Warning: Violence 

I’m going to warn right at the top that this book is violent AF. While violence is a central theme in the first book, it is relentless and borderline disturbing in this sequel. Sexual violence or anything never comes up in this series but there is just like a lot of throat ripping. Like a lot.

On Twitter Victoria Schwab described Our Dark Duet as being the second half of a whole but this duology felt like it was missing a book to explain how our characters went from high school students on the run to rough and tumble monster fighters. Especially concerning August Flynn who goes from bright-eyedWoobie who wants to be human to a stoic badass. It was like watching the original The Fast and The Furious movie and then immediately watching Furious 7 when they were all suddenly jumping cars through skyscrapers.

Speaking of The Fast and The Furious franchise that is exactly what this book felt like. The plot was muddled, a lot of characters carry Idiot Balls and the whole thing probably could have been solved with a text message chain but all that said… I was just swept away in Schwab’s cinematic storytelling, breakneck action sequences and creative set pieces. Look, I’m not sure why characters are suddenly using call signs and August is getting around by jumping from skyscrapers but you know…Rule of Cool.

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Book/Audio Review Bundle : When Dimple Met Rishi

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Audiobook Review: Goodbye Days by Jeff Zentner

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Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Release Date: 03/03/17 | Contemporary | 10 hours 45 minutes 

17-year-old writer Carver Briggs believes in the power of words, but he never imagined a few words, written in a text, would kill his three best friends.

Goodbye Days opens with Caver at the last funeral for Sauce Crew–the nickname for his friend group. From there the book is almost a little too prescriptive as Carver has a final day with each of Sauce Crew’s family members sharing and learning about the sides of his friends he never knew. The time between the goodbye days is punctuated with some mini-plots plot about Carter facing possible manslaughter charges, therapy session  and his budding relationship with, Jesmyn, a Sauce Crew member’s girlfriend.

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Book Review/Audiobook Review This Is Just My Face by Gabourey Sidibe

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Audiobook Review: Perfect Ten by L. Phillips

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 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.