Monthly Round-Up: September 2021

Posted in Explicit, Non-Explicit, Young Adult by

Read the thing (6):

Maybe read the thing (2):

Added to TBR List:

Liberty Liberty! – Takanaga Hinako

Contemporary – Asia – POC Lead – Blu – Manga – Non-Explicit – Poor Lead – Disability – Hurt/Comfort – Trigger Warnings Apply – Age Gap

Read the thing. This is a cute little oneshot manga about… learning to adult, I guess. Itaru has dropped out of college and run away from everyone he knows to lick his wounds after a somewhat traumatic experience. While passed out drunk in a pile of trash on the street, he’s discovered by Kouki, a cameraman for a local news station. After Itaru drunkenly breaks Kouki’s camera, Kouki brings him back to his place to sober up in the hopes of extracting payment from him. Come to find out that Itaru is flat broke. Because of this, Itaru accidentally starts working at the news station to pay off his debt, and then he ends up falling in love with Kouki. As far as manga goes, this one is nothing special. It’s cute enough, and does have some humourous moments, and Itaru’s character development is decent, but there isn’t a whole lot here. It’s good for a quick read. The art is good, as is usual for this author, and the characters are fun. The two leads are Kouki, the older somewhat stoic cameraman, and Itaru, the wide-eyed fish out of water, and they’re pretty fun at times. The romance between them feels a bit insta-love-y, but that may only be because there isn’t really a concrete measurement of time passing (they’ve known each other at least a month, and Itaru has been living with Kouki for all that time). Also, for all of Kouki’s prickliness, he is actually quite caring of Itaru when it matters. Probably the third main character is Kurumi, who is transgender I think (it’s a bit hard to tell with older manga, and this one was first published in Japan in 2005). Kurumi is the main reporter/anchor of the news station and is a woman for all intents and purposes, but the other characters refer to her as a woman and with female pronouns but also say that she’s a guy? It’s weird, and in this day and age could be considered problematic. Aside from that, though, her character’s a non-issue. She’s pretty outgoing and fun, and is a nice foil to Kouki’s more standoffish personality. Though I could’ve done without the attempt at a Kurumi-Kouki-Itaru love triangle, but I suppose the story had to try to get some drama in there somewhere (meh). All in all, a decent read, though nothing too memorable. (Trigger warning for mild transphobia)

Heartstopper Volume 4 (Heartstopper #4) – Alice Oseman

Contemporary – Young Adult – Hodder Children’s Books – Established Relationship – Bisexual Lead – Mental Illness – Graphic Novel – Webcomic – England – Fluff – Hurt/Comfort – Trigger Warnings Apply – Virgin Lead

Read the thing! (This book cannot be read standalone.) Continuing directly from the previous book, teenagers Nick and Charlie are now officially dating. Nick has come out as bisexual to his and Charlie’s friends, and school is out for the summer. Everything should be smooth sailing, right? Well… This book opens with Charlie trying to figure out how to tell Nick that he loves him, which seems like a fairly low-stakes problem, though Charlie’s anxious nature tends to make him overthink everything. But lurking beyond that hurdle (which is basically a non-issue because it’s obvious that both boys are head over heels for each other) is the spectre of Charlie’s mental health. We’ve seen throughout the series that Charlie struggles with his mental health and tends to be more anxious and high-strung than average. In this book, his mental health is brought to the forefront as he starts openly acknowledging and dealing with an eating disorder. Heartstopper Volume 4 is, for the most part, as sweet and fluffy as the previous books in the series; Charlie and Nick are adorably sappy, their friends are absolute gems, NELLIE, and the romance is totally sweet, also some panels and scenes are just laugh-out-loud funny. The art is as adorable as always and I love it so much. Charlie’s mental health struggles are a bit darker than what we’re used to, but they’re still handled with respect here, I feel. What certainly helps is that Charlie isn’t ‘fixed’ by the end of the book, he’ll still be dealing with his problems going forward, but he has a lot of support to help him get through it. Also Charlie isn’t ‘fixed’ through his relationship with Nick, and it’s made clear that Nick can’t fix Charlie with just his love (shoutout to Nick’s mom, who I love very much). There was just a lot I loved about this book, it was amazing. Also, can I just say that Charlie’s sister Tori is fucking amazing (read her story in Alice Oseman’s Solitaire, which also briefly features Nick and Charlie). Can’t recommend this book, and the series as a whole, enough. (Trigger warning for discussions of eating disorders and mental health issues)

Forging a Family (Vale Valley, Season 3 #13) – J.D. Light

Contemporary – Omegaverse – B4 Dawn Publishing – Novella – Age Gap – Mpreg – Raising Children – Shifters – Fantasy – First Person POV – 18+ – Friends to Lovers – Explicit – Knotting

Read the thing. If anyone is skeptical about the relationship between Postin and his best friend’s father Larson, don’t be. It’s pretty sweet. Postin has been best friends with Monroe since they were about eleven years old, and Larson never once had any sort of thoughts or intentions towards Postin until they met up again after not seeing each other for four or so years; at which point Postin is in his early twenties. It’s all above board. Despite Postin (a phoenix shifter omega) getting pregnant by his (heavily implied) criminal ex switching his birth control pills for placebos, and Postin having to basically go into hiding just in case, there is no angst in this book. Postin soon finds refuge with his best friend and his father in the magical town of Vale Valley, only reachable for those who need it, apparently (also a place where shifters don’t have to hide themselves from humans, and that’s all we really get to know about the place). He seems to slot right in with Monroe and Larson and the three of them form quite the nice little family. Then baby Ada makes four and it’s all very sweet and cute. Postin and Larson (an alpha dragon shifter, by the way) dance around each other a bit, but they soon give in to their desires and from then on are a committed couple raising their daughter together (and scandalizing Monroe, for funsies). Postin and Larson’s relationship is cute, steamy, and uncomplicated. A lot of fun and I loved them together. I also loved both of their relationships with Monroe, who is pretty stoic and can be very dry. A lot of humour to be had with him, often at his expense, though it’s all in good fun. And zero tension about his best friend getting together with his dad. I will say that the potential complication of Postin’s ex was wrapped up a bit… confusingly, but whatever. No angst here. Also there’s an epilogue which is very cute and amusing, but too short for me. Should’ve been a bit more tacked on considering everything going on there. This was a quick, no-angst, fun read and I definitely recommend.

One More Than Planned (Vale Valley Season 3, #7) – Chris McHart

Contemporary – Omegaverse – Self-published – Fantasy – Established Relationship – Poly MMM – Mpreg – Shifters – Ménage – First Person POV – 18+ – Explicit – Knotting

Maybe read the thing. Two things: the writing isn’t good, and this isn’t how surrogacy is supposed to work. Finn and Silas are two alpha tiger shifters who desperately want to start a family. But two alphas can’t carry children, so they first start with adoption. When that falls through, they decide to go with a non-official on-the-cheap surrogate. That’s how they meet Aiden, a young college student willing to give them the gift of a baby at reduced cost. And here is where the problems begin for me. As far as these three men as characters, I liked them well enough. Aiden can be a bit sassy and outspoken and pretty fun. Silas and Finn were more or less the same character except that Silas tended to be a bit more closed off at times (it definitely didn’t help that the chapters were in first person and sometimes the author accidentally got their names switched so I kept forgetting whose head I was in). But the romance between the three of them made me a bit uncomfortable. First of all, I felt like boundaries got crossed really early that shouldn’t’ve been. Finn and Silas are a married couple who are after a baby, not a third, so them getting really connected to Aiden really quickly gave me pause. And then Aiden offered up the suggestion of conceiving naturally instead of through fertility treatments and I got really uncomfortable. It all works out in the end with the three of them accidentally falling in love with each other and deciding to stay together, but honestly with a different writer this could’ve been a thriller. It honestly sounded like the set-up for a Lifetime movie for a bit there, which certainly didn’t put me in the mind for romance. So with how uncomfortable the first half made me, I really couldn’t get into this. It’s a nice enough story and the ending was cute, and I’m glad that everything turned out alright with them all together and in love (even though some of the language around that was a bit cringy in terms of like, I don’t know, second-gender homophobia?) (seriously, two alphas apparently suddenly deciding that their relationship could only be complete with an omega certainly smacks of… something), but I had a bit of a hard time with this one. Honestly, I was expecting that the three of them would be fated mates, or that their sudden closeness would be put down to the magic of Vale Valley, but none of that ever came up.

Neighboring His Everything (Vale Valley, Season 4 #13) – J.D. Light

Contemporary – Omegaverse – Shifters – Fantasy – B4 Dawn Publishing – Ebook Only – Mpreg – Second Chances – Novella – First Person POV – Virgin Lead – 18+ – Explicit – Knotting – Christmas – Hurt/Comfort

Read the thing. Somewhat of a sequel to Forging a Family, this time we get Monroe’s story. What happened with him and Montgomery between the ending and the epilogue of Forging a Family. I have to say, I probably would’ve been completely annoyed with this had it been longer than it is. Monroe and Montgomery spend a wonderful night and day together before a misunderstanding causes Monroe to tear them apart. They’re both heartbroken, and while Monroe does his best to stay away, Montgomery tries to do everything he can to get close because he’s sure that there’s something between them worth fighting for. Also Monroe’s pregnant. So, two things: Monroe is a huge asshole to Montgomery for a lot of the story. He’s at least not doing it to be malicious, it all comes from a place of obvious hurt, but he’s still an asshole. He properly apologizes for it later, but it’s still kind of a lot at times. So it kind of doesn’t make a whole lot of sense why Montgomery is still so gone on him, even before he finds out about the pregnancy. This universe doesn’t seem to have fated mates, so I’m just going to put it down to the magic of Vale Valley as to why Monroe and Montgomery are basically in love with each other since day one, and that they just keep loving each other while they’re apart (and pining). I like them both together, but I still would’ve liked some more development on that part. Also glad that we got to see Postin again. He’s still a laugh, and him and Monroe bickering and bitching together is still hilarious. Love their scenes together. Really happy with this follow-up and was so glad to see these characters and their shenanigans again.

Weight of Everything (Meadow Street Brothers #1) – Anna Wineheart

Contemporary – Omegaverse – Self-published – Mpreg – Enemies to Lovers – 18+ – Explicit – Trigger Warnings Apply – Knotting – Dysfunctional Family – Rich Lead – Poor Lead

Read the thing. Wasn’t sure about this one in the beginning, but I came around in time. Ulric has been overweight his whole life and has suffered greatly for it at the hands of others. He, understandably, is very sensitive about it and has a very low self-image of himself. He’s also exclusively attracted to other alphas, which is uncommon enough in this society that it also causes him some grief. Gage is the latest alpha to catch Ulric’s eye. Gage is a personal trainer at the gym Ulric decides to join and their relationship gets off to a rocky start. In fact, they seem to low-key sort of hate each other a bit until Ulric invites Gage to live with him (after he discovers that Gage is homeless), and Gage decides that they should be friends. Friends who, apparently, also have sex with each other but are definitely not into each other or dating nope. There’s a lot of alpha posturing in this, as both Gage and Ulric hate backing down when it comes to each other. That could get a bit annoying at times, but mostly because it’s not a dynamic I’m particularly interested in. This came up a lot in the (many) sex scenes, which were often fairly rough and almost violent. Perfectly consensual on both their parts, but not for me, so I ended up starting to skim them. The parts of the book I really liked were Ulric and Gage’s emotional journeys, Ulric more so than Gage. Gage’s big thing is that his family is struggling for money, which was a bit in the background in terms of plot. Ulric’s issues resolved around his self-image. He’s been beaten down his whole life over his size and that’s left him with a lot of hatred for his body. And though he gets better about it over time, with some help and affirmation from Gage, it’s something that stays with him the whole book and it’s not cured by magical cock healing. Gage and Ulric really are sweethearts (once they get over themselves), and they have a really good relationship. And despite the two of them being alphas, they get each other pregnant near the end of the book (on purpose with the help of fun medical stuffs), so we have double mpreg. I really wished this part of the book had been more fleshed out and longer than, like, two or three chapters. There were some cute scenes of them pregnant and caring for each other and then with the babies; I would’ve liked more of that. So after a rough start I did end up really liking this book and I’m interested in continuing the series. And also at some point I’ll need to go back and read some of the author’s previous series because I’m pretty sure some of those characters show up here and I could’ve probably benefitted from more context. (Trigger warning for internalized fatphobia and emotional abuse)

Boss Daddy’s Knots (Meadow Street Brothers #2) – Anna Wineheart

Contemporary – Omegaverse – Self-published – Age Gap – Mpreg – Kink – BDSM – 18+ – Explicit – Rich Lead – Poor Lead – Celebrity – Hurt/Comfort – Knotting

Maybe read the thing. I couldn’t really get into this one. Wilkie was first introduced as the brother of one of the leads of the previous book, so I was excited to see him again and get his story. King was also briefly introduced as a friend who lives on the same street. This book is their story. Cheated on by his shitty ex, Wilkie is jobless and homeless and without many options. He doesn’t want to turn to his brother, afraid of being reprimanded, so he stays with a friend, who happens to be King’s daughter. This puts him directly in King’s orbit, and Wilkie finds that it’s a nice orbit to be in. But Wilkie has issues. He’s been used and discarded by alphas before; how does he know that it’ll be different with King? And on top of that, it turns out that he’s pregnant by his shitty ex, which just makes him feel all kinds of low and awful. Honestly, it really felt like there was too much happening in this book, even though it was all fairly straightforward. King and Wilkie fall into a relationship together (maybe a bit too quickly for my tastes, but whatever), and Wilkie has to fight his internal feelings of self-loathing for most of it, and then his complicated feelings about the pregnancy on top of that. King just wants to love him. I found that the story tended to drag a bit, like it was too long. Probably a few of the sex scenes could’ve been cut, which would’ve been fine with me since I didn’t really like them. I started just skimming them at one point because I wasn’t really getting anything out of it. Certainly didn’t help that their odd BDSM/Daddy/boy dynamic didn’t set well with me. But whatever. I did like Wilkie and King, and I did get invested in their back-and-forth fueled by Wilkie’s mental health struggles, but I just couldn’t get into it. I will say that I was surprised that Wilkie’s first reaction to the pregnancy was to try for an abortion; that’s not something you see much at all in romance books. I actually quite liked that storyline, though I was confused that the abortion somehow didn’t work?? And that Wilkie never tried to figure out why? Or try again? Especially since he was so conflicted and practically traumatized at the idea of having his ex’s baby (speaking of the ex, what ended up happening to him later was absolutely ridiculous). Weird all around. There was a lot of hurt/comfort here that I liked, some pining, King and Wilkie being sweet with each other. But overall I can’t say I liked this much, which is a shame because the basic plot is a good one, and I did like seeing Wilkie again.

The Alpha’s Role (Valleywood #6) – April Kelley

Contemporary – Omegaverse – Self-published – Novella – POC Lead – Poly MMM – Shifters – Mates – Age Gap – 18+ – Explicit – Knotting – Mpreg

Read the thing. This was cute. A bit meh in some ways, but still cute. Sam and Charlie are mates and omegas who have been together for a little over a decade. They’ve been trying to have a child for the past couple of years and have so far had no luck. Their funds have run out so now they have to work on rebuilding their savings before they can go for more fertility treatment. It’s that that leads to Charlie offering to rent out their spare room to his best friend’s brother, who is moving to their city of Valleywood from his small hometown. Tyler is almost 10 years younger than Sam and Charlie, at 24 years old, and dreams of becoming an actor (though I never really did get the sense that it was something he was particularly passionate about). He doesn’t expect anything too out of the norm to happen when he meets Sam and Charlie, but then it turns out that they’re all fated mates and things get a bit complicated. Sam and Charlie are absolutely sweethearts together and so adorable. Their relationship is well established and strong, and not even their fertility woes can bring them down for long. Tyler is a new element for both of them, the missing piece they weren’t even aware of. And on Tyler’s end, though he wasn’t particularly looking to find his mate(s), now that he has he doesn’t want to be apart from them. Unfortunately, Tyler starts off their relationship on the wrong foot, so they don’t have the typical instant relationship a lot of fated mates stories have. So part of the story is Tyler doing his best to get to know Sam and Charlie and prove to them that he’s all-in, which is pretty cute. Tyler’s a good guy, but he is in a different stage in life than Sam and Charlie, so he has to play a bit of catch-up. Then Sam and Charlie both go into heat, which Tyler is absolutely there for, and then both omegas get pregnant, which is an emotionally confusing time for them all but of course everything turns out alright in the end. I feel a bit like the story is missing a few things; it’s short and somewhat fast-paced so that might be it. It’s also pretty low-angst, with only a few moments here and there where emotions get high. It’s a sweet story, I liked it. Definitely could use another pass from an editor to fix some grammar mistakes, though.

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