I've seen people complain about this audiobook narrator, and it's true, he isn't anywhere near as good as Renee Raudman. But, BUT, he fits Derek's character as the authors and the audience is supposed to see him. Or more accurately, how he sees himself. 

As for the story, it's a nice sidestep for the main series, and I kind of want to see more of these. 

Because I couldn't even skim far enough to get to the sex (between the main characters).

This is an example of what not to do with third person voice narrative. Don't keep your characters so distant that a reader doesn't have a reason to care about them. Don't just tell, when you could show.

...but consider it scratched. 

I love these two (on the cover) and the shipping is strong. Didn't know Martha and Moriarty would be this good together but world domination is their next easy step.

Thirty-something me has no patience for gutless heroines pining after oblivious idiots.

I still love tropes pining and angst, but first give me a character I can stand to watch pine. Give me someone who isn't afraid of living and going after something she wants and give me a real reason why she should pine in silence instead. Don't give me "for four years she was his doormat and loved every second of it because of his kids." 

The rating wavered between one and two stars, but I've read worse. Much worse. 

I really liked the story, writing and characters, but in a few weeks or months someone's going to ask me recommendations and I won't remember the title or the author. And that'll be a shame, because most people aren't as jaded about romance genre as I am. 

So, if you like the "faking it until it's real"-relationship romances, you should read this.

P.S. A heads up. Come New Year, I'll be walking away from Booklikes. It's become unusable with the browser of my choice (Tor) and I don't feel like just handing my data to faceless entities who don't even pretend to care about people who are generating their income. 

You can find me on Twitter if you really want, but there aren't any blogs or other bookish social media sites I update with any regularity. Good luck to you all.

I did not want this book to end. For twenty hours I was just listening and enjoying the stories and then I noticed it was almost over. Sadness. 

You should definitely read this.

And I loved it.

...and then the last two pages happened. At first I was terribly disappointed—because obviously this unnecessary explanation of the brilliance before had been tacked on specially for thick white people like me—but no. Those last paragraphs were there to deliver the final punch in the last five sentences.

I could say the last two, but the context matters for thick white people like me.

Oh, joy. Casual racism. When I'm not in a shippy mood I'm shaking my head at what ACD thought would make a good story.

A Woman's Guide to Woodworking - Building an End Table

  This was not only an easy guide but hilarious- be ready for alot of wood jokes!

After such a good start the second half of this six part serial was a huge let down. For a romantic comedy with mobsters, the book and its authors ended up taking the mobsters way too seriously. And all the fun disappeared once the characters started having long difficult discussions—not a bad idea in itself, just the execution of those discussions sucked. And the final conflict felt manufactured.

So, yeah. Read the first volume (parts 1-3) and imagine your own happy ending for Will & Patrick. Or, you know, don't.

I haven't really been a fan of "waking up married in Las Vegas" trope in fanfiction but I'm all for it in original fiction. Apparently. Now, all authors, get to it. *insert ridiculous imperious gestures here*

No? Damn, that's a shame.

Anyway, the only way to get me to buy and read a serial is to have it on sale after all of it is published so I can read it in one sitting—if I so choose—like an actual book.

This is a terrible, racist book. That's where the only remaining shock factor lies.

Recommended reading to no one.

"Something that men should have was bred and killed out of them. Yet they were men. They begot children. One might bear a child to them. Terrible, terrible thought!"

Context? What context?

Please consider joining the new book club that I just started called the Booklikes Bookish Bingo Club. I'm hoping to have some outreach to some of the new booklikes members, and generally keep track of bingo games and other bookish fun here on BL. 

It's also a place I can post current bingo cards, and questions can be asked and answered. I will continue to post on my blog as well, so it's not a requirement that you join the club to play the game!

Link to club!

This is a gimmick book, which in itself isn't a bad thing if there's a good story in there. Maybe there was a such thing in this, but unfortunately for me all that was buried under heaps of problems.

The first ninety pages were a positive surprise. A man writing a fifteen-year-old girl in first person voice can only end up in disaster, was my first thought and indeed it was too good to last. Because the first time jump and second part started the stalker trend.

Instead of continuing writing Holly's story from her perspective, Mitchell does everything in his power to reduce her into a pawn and object in the lives of men around her. Holly disappears into the background and is only shown through glimpses in the moments most important to her life and story.

A one night stand, a would be husband, the love of her adult life, and then the world saving or ending battle through an alien black woman. That's a bad description but it's the best I can do for the fifth narrator and point of view character. To add insult to the injury Mitchell uses POC to refer to a "Pear Occident Company" and reduces the immortals into small minded trans-phobics with a single line.

Fun times end with a second short part from Holly's point of view and with her aged voice, but it's too little too late. The story, its characters, and the author had already lost me for good.