AysReviews

 I loved this book.  I asked Netgalley for this review copy because I have loved Rachel Reid's other hockey books. I am very glad I did! Having said that, this book has a very different "feel" from her game-changers books. As another reviewer has said, this world is much kinder and less homophobic than the world in that other series.  The two characters are well-rounded and absolutely delightful. If Reid wrote another book with them just talking about the phone book, (showing my age here) I'd pounce right on it. I hope she writes more books in this world, and that these guys appear in it.  She did something very difficult: she wrote a successful, sweet and touching romance between two guys with quite different sexualities and very other very real issues.  Reid knows her ice hockey. Recently there have been a plethora of ice-hockey romances where the author clearly had little engagement with the sport. Reid is not one of those authors.

Only You (Coming of Age #3)  by Leta Blake  5 Stars The first two books in this series came out in 2016. They engrossed me utterly. How delighted I was, to learn that the final book was being released! The series is described as a "coming of age" story, not a romance. There are major relationship plots throughout the three books, but the story is about Peter's life as a whole, with his family, with his school, with his studies, his social life and so on.  This book starts immediately after the end of book 2. I had to quickly go back to book 2 to reread (for the third time) the last chunk of the book to understand what was going on. (While doing so I felt the strong need to reread the first two books again. I still plan to so soon). Only You is just as splendid and engrossing as the first two books. The joins are seamless, which is amazing given that this last book was written many years (7?) after the first two.  This is the story of Peter's first year at university,...

The Prodigal Prince's Fake Fiancé by Thursday Euclid and Clancy Nacht My rating: 2 of 5 stars ...I only kept skimming my way through this because it was free, and I kept waiting to enjoy it?  The authors depict the reality and vulnerability of being a trans guy very well I thought.  I didn't really enjoy this book because it didn't feel like the MCs were enjoying themselves. I was well shown, as a reader, that they were falling in love/were in love with each other, and enjoyed being together, but they were never happy about it. I REALLY did not like all the lying and deception. It's a fake fiancé book, which I knew, but I thought maybe being a couple of very rich people might make up for it. It didn't. There I was, flicking away at 50% of the book (getting that far took me a couple of days) ..."I'm so not enjoying this..." flick flick flick... Spoiler: One MC didn't tell the other anything about his family until 60% into the book. There was so much...

Perfectly Mismatched by Sarah Havan My rating: 3 of 5 stars The content warnings for this one include sexual assault and prolonged ("natural") childbirth scenes. Pay attention to these warnings. The alpha in this one was pretty awful, as they so often are in this series.  Broadly speaking, the world-building of the entire series has been pretty good.  Again, the pregnancy and relationship development progress in parallel. There is an added plot element, the sexual assaults and aftermath. The characters are well depicted.  As through the whole series, the omegas are all slim and sensitive, and the alphas are all large and pretty awful. This book includes an awful shouty family (who are amoung the good guys, not the vilains). In this series the characters are all very pro "natural birth" by which they mean childbirth without pain killers and the minimum of medical intervention. The childbirth workers such as the doula, nurses, midwives and doctors are all cheerfully n...

An Omega Kind of Love (Pine Wood Falls #3)  by Sarah_Havan My rating: 4 of 5 stars I liked this one better than the previous two, because I liked the two omegas. The Alphas tend to be a bit awful.  This book depicts the burgeoning relationship, the pregnancy and then the birth.  Havan notes "intense sex scenes" in the trigger warning at the beginning, but not the giving ("natural") birth scene at the end. You know, lots of prolonged screaming in agony. This series is a bit different from many mpreg series because it details the process of the pregnancy. Read 7 April 2023

An Extra Alpha (Pine Wood Falls #2) by Sarah Havan My rating: 3 of 5 stars We learn more about Pine Wood Falls. The books in this series start with lots of sex, detail the pregnancy and then the birth. The characters all seem very into "natural birth" and having lots and lots of children.  It's all very 1950s. The characters are quite likable.

Expecting (Pine Wood Falls #1) By Sarah Havan My rating: 3 of 5 stars Mpreg story with much focus on the pregnancy.  The MC falls pregnant although he's a man to both MCs' surprise. Through the eyes of the MCs we learn what is actually going on in this world.  There are quite a few typos and strange uses of English. I wish these authors had more read-through checks done. read 5 April 2023