beckyyreadss's reviews
748 reviews

This was the book club’s pick of the month for June. We went with an LGBT book for the month with it being Pride month and I enjoyed this book but some of the baseball analogy confused me a bit.  

This book is about Gene Lonescu and he is content to play in the minor leagues. He's seen teammates get their big breaks, but as a gay trans man in the world of competitive baseball, he’s unlikely to share the same destiny. When Gene’s long-time rival, Luis Estrada, is unexpectedly drafted onto Gene’s team, everything changes. Luis is standoffish, talented and inconveniently gorgeous, and – to add insult to injury – his arrival puts Gene’s role on the pitch in jeopardy. This means war. The two men can barely get through a game together and the whole team suffers. But when Luis surprises Gene with a softer side to his haughty demeanour, Gene offers an olive branch. Soon they discover that their chemistry on the pitch might lead them all the way to the playoffs. And their chemistry off the pitch . . . well, that could be enough to change the game forever.  

I thought this book was so sweet. This was the first book I’d read that had trans man and a trans love story and I thought it was a different but interesting read and it was so adorable. I loved the tension between Gene and Luis and how they both managed to communicate their issues. I loved the mental health aspect of it and how sports players and athletics can have anxiety and mental health issues but still be able to play at a top grade level. I am a sports fan, I follow premier league football, darts, rugby league and boxing. But I struggled with the baseball details and all the positions and the games. But I loved the teammates romance and it is very common on a female football team so I would love it to become common on male teams.  

The third-act conflict annoyed me like there was no need for it. I would have loved for this to be dual POV because of Luis’s mental health and his time in Portland, I would have LOVED to hear these thoughts and how he came to the decision to quit baseball. I would have loved to see more of the public reaction to the end chapter because there was some acceptance but was there interviews? Did Gene refuse the interviews? What happened to Baker? I have more questions than answers.  

Overall, I enjoyed this read I think I was just expecting or hoping for more. I might read more of K.T. Hoffman’s work if it’s in a sport I understand like a hockey or a rugby romance. 

I got the first book in this series during one of the Stuff Your Kindle Days and I enjoyed it and thought it was a strong first book and was excited to carry on with the series. This book was an improvement from the first book as they spoke through their issues. 

This book has two points of view. The first is Chris Cunningham aka CJ Cunningham and he has been in the spotlight for years and he has become known more for his off-screen shenanigans than his on-screen work. So, in the hopes of losing his train wreck reputation, he heads across the country to hide out. The last thing he expects is to fall for the girl next door. Bronte doesn’t recognize him and why would she? She is a middle school teacher who would rather read the book instead of watching a movie. With her unaware of his infamous persona, he can just be Chris, the guy who’s determined to be better for her. To be the good guy. But once she’s under him, rasping his real name, all bets are off. The second point of view is Bronte Hollinger, she has been with the same guy on and off since high school, she has lived in the same town and is pretty much a family person who cannot wait to settle down, but it won’t be with her high school sweetheart considering he wants her to leave her hometown, and put work and his social life above of her. On the way back from her trip with the girls, she meets a mysterious man who she feels an instant connection for, but he knows she won’t see him again . . . until he moves in next door and is coming to family dinner thanks to her mum. Once Bronte finds out who Chris really is, she doesn’t know if she can handle Hollywood, she is too sweet for Chris.  

This book started off stronger than the last book and I liked that it picked up practically how the last book ended, with the girls being together and Gemma being a new mum and Jason fitting in with the girls. I liked the tension between them with 25% percent of the book being Bronte shouldn’t have feelings for Chris because of Hunter but then Hunter was a dick and Chris is like I can treat you 1000% times better than him. I liked how there was third-act conflict, but that it wasn’t like a massive fight or argument just conflicting feelings, both wanting each other to be happy and not knowing how to do it together. I loved Wes and that it took him called Chris an arrogant ass for Chris to realise.  

The things that stopped it from being five stars was I would have liked Chris’s family to be explored more, it was just sweep under the rug that his family are knobs. I also felt like Chris’s bisexuality was just glossed over, I would have liked that to be a bit more explored. I would have also loved a big scene from like starstruck where Chris just declares that Bronte is his girl for the whole world to know but that she also wants privacy, it might have helped with the girls trying to throw themselves at Chris.  

I cannot wait to see which one of the girls we read next and what trouble they get into. 

I decided to read this book because I bought a poster with 100 books to read in your lifetime. This is the twenty-second book on the poster. As with most classics and non-fictions, I knew I was going to struggle with it, and I did. I felt stupid thorough the whole book. 

The Selfish Gene has become a classic exposition of evolutionary thought. Professor Dawkins articulates a gene’s eye view of evolution – a view giving centre stage to these persistent units of information, and in which organisms can be seen as vehicles for their replication. This imaginative, powerful, and stylistically brilliant work not only brought the insights of Neo-Darwinism to a wide audience, but galvanized the biology community, generating much debate and stimulating whole new areas of research. 

I never studied science pass high school level and honestly don’t care about the genes or anything like that. I read this book because it’s part of the 100 books. This book was a chore to read. I barely understood this book with all the fractions and the anecdotes, ended up confusing me. I did try hard to get into this book, but it just hurt my brain. It's probably a great textbook but as a book with no context, I was lost. A lot of the bad reviews are to do with the science of it, but I could not ask you if the science was correct or outdated because I have no clue.  

This book reminds me of why I mainly read fantasy or romance because my head was gone.  

I wanted to read this book because I had seen it all over the book community and everyone has been raving about it. Everyone says this book is the better book in the series, yet I found it soooo boring and such a filler book and I was slowly losing the will to live whilst reading this book.  

This book has two points of view. The first is Casteel Da’Neer and he knows all too well that very few are as cunning or vicious as the Blood Queen, but no one, not even him, could’ve prepared for the staggering revelations. The magnitude of what the Blood Queen has done is almost unthinkable. The second point of view is Poppy and nothing will stop Poppy from freeing her King and destroying everything the Blood Crown stands for. With the strength of the Primal of Life’s guards behind her, and the support of the wolven, Poppy must convince the Atlantian generals to make war her way because there can be no retreat this time. Not if she has any hope of building a future where both kingdoms can reside in peace. Together, Poppy and Casteel must embrace traditions old and new to safeguard those they hold dear and to protect those who cannot defend themselves. But war is only the beginning. Ancient primal powers have already stirred, revealing the horror of what began eons ago. To end what the Blood Queen has begun, Poppy might have to become what she has been prophesied to be – what she fears the most. As the Harbinger of Death and Destruction. 

This series is driving me up the wall. It was so slow and it’s getting to the point of repetitive. War, transport, swearing, betrayal, sex, Poppy is the chosen one and has all these powers. ZERO ACTION. This reminds me why I read multiple books at a time because I would have gone into a reading slump, I had to keep making myself go back to it because I wanted it to be over, but it was like torture just to read it. This book did NOT need to be 637 pages long, this book could have been 200 pages long – Poppy saves Cas, Kieran gets cursed, they have a threesome, go to the church, all hell breaks loose, end of the book. Also, I'm still hating the whole “chosen one” and she has all the powers bullshit. Like if there is a found family in this book surely the team should have the powers split between them rather than Poppy being this God or Primal and unbeatable person because she still gets beaten every single book, all she needs to do now is become invisible and she might win the fight. 

I’m so glad that Malik was getting sick of this shit because I was as well. This stopped me rating the book 1 star because Malik sarcastic comments and being sick of the family is me. Honestly, this book doesn’t need the cliffhanger, it could have ended with a nice little bow and just be four books. But obviously not.  

I decided to read this book because I bought a poster with 100 books to read in your lifetime. I enjoyed the first book in the series and wanted to carry on with it. I’m just inspired and in awe of her. I knew I wanted to carry on with this series and learn more about her life. This book is about her journey in Africa and the movement with Malcolm X.  

This book is the fifth of seven volumes of Maya Angelou’s autobiography. It is a testament to the talents and resilience of this writer. She knows that this world has love as well as cruelty. She knows that the world has love as well as cruelty. As a black woman she has known discrimination and extreme poverty, but also hope, joy, achievement and celebration. In this book, Maya emigrates to Ghana only to discover that ‘you can’t go home again’ but she comes to a new awareness of love and friendship, civil rights and slavery and the myth of Mother Africa. This book also focuses on the work she had done with Malcolm X.  

Usually I struggle with non-fiction books, I find them slow, boring and I can never really dig into them and thoroughly enjoy it. However, this book I managed to enjoy. This book still discusses serious and difficult topics but it’s a journey of her finding her voice and becoming a writer. It’s almost as if she was writing about a fiction character in a storyline that I had to remind myself several times that she was the main character she is talking about and that she is talking about her life. She was talking about the struggles of being a woman and a mother in 1962 to 1965. The worries that she had as a mother after her son had broken his neck and the way the community gather around her and help her. This book wasn’t as heavy has her other books and I think that’s because a portion of the book is her discussing her career and the movement of Malcolm X and them becoming friends. I would have loved to see some chapters from her son as he was at an age where he remembers it now, especially with him dating a 36-year-old considering he was 19-year-old. 

Again, with the previous book when it gets towards the end it feels rushed. I think it’s the gripping factor to get you to read the next book. I am sort of hoping with me having two books left in this series that this stops and comes to a point because I am hoping that she finds happiness and peace. 

I wanted to read this series because it has been all over the book community. I was dying to read this book; Colton has always been the shy one within the book club and was not going to wait till November or December to read this book. It was like watching a Christmas episode in a series you are binging. I loved these two together and the chemistry between them. 

This book has two points of view. The first is country music’s golden boy Colton Wheeler and he felt the most perfect harmony when he was with Gretchen Winthrop. But for her, it was a love him and leave him situation. A year later, Colton is struggling to push his music forward in a new direction. If it weren’t for the most magical time of year and the support of the Bromance Book Club, he’d be wallowing in self-pity. The second point of view is Gretchen Winthrop and it’s hard for her not to feel. Little Scrooge-ish about the excess of Christmas when her clients are scrambling to afford their rent as an immigration attorney. So when her estranged, wealthy family reaches out with an offer that will allow her to better serve the community, she’s unable to say no. She just needs to convince Colton to be the new face of her family’s whiskey brand. No big deal. Colton agrees to consider Gretchen’s offer in exchange for three dates before Christmas. With the help of the Bromance Book Club, Colton throws himself into the task of proving to her there’s a spark between them. But Gretchen and Colton will both need to overcome the ghosts of Christmas part to build a future together. 

I still adore these men and these characters and their friendships. I will always love grumpy x sunshine and I love country stars and Christmas. This book was just a man who only has eyes for one girl and that is Colton to a tee. I adore how Colton began a different man even though Gretchen didn’t want him to change but he was protecting her. Gretchen’s family can go and do one because they were all assholes expect Uncle Jack. I adore Uncle Jack; he was great, and I wanted to high-five and scream from the rooftop when he stood up for Gretchen. I loved to see all of the couples and the kids together and Vlad playing Santa Claus and that they were all together to prove to Gretchen that she didn’t need her family because this is the family they have. I love that these men were also telling Colton to pull his shit together and how much grand gestures mean to women. 

I just didn’t like how predictable it was getting, especially as this was the fifth book, and you knew how it was going to go down with the third-act conflict and how the boys come together to help with the grand gesture. 

Overall, I liked this series and like how fast paced the books have been and I will be reading more of Lyssa’s work in the future. 

I wanted to read this book because I love Lauren Asher’s work. The Billionaire Brothers series is still my favourite series and I still think about those brothers daily. I was so excited to read this book, and my god, it was worth the wait. Ellie, Rafa and Nico will have my heart. I adore them. 

This book has two points of view. The first is Rafael, he is a struggling workaholic and has hired a nanny named Ellie who is a hopeless romantic who writes love songs. Rafael could inspire a hundred breakup albums. On paper, they have nothing in common except for his son’s wellbeing. For eight months, Rafael has avoided Ellie until the summer trip. Fourteen days. Two islands. And one nanny that Rafael shouldn’t be attracted to. Spending time with Ellie is expected, but enjoying her company? That isn’t part of the travel plans. After the divorce, he swore to protect his heart at all costs. Even if it means breaking Ellie’s in the process. The second point of view is Ellie, she used to have a secret crush on her boss in high school. But now he is a grumpy single day and had walls as high as the sky. Thankfully, Rafael and her have changed since they graduated high school. He is a billionaire with a company to run and a child to take care of. Ellie is an unemployed songwriter he hired to watch his son and teach music. They coexist without any issues until a holiday change everything. Lines blur and old feelings for Rafael return with vengeance as she faces a new dilemma. Being his son’s nanny is one thing, but wishing for more? Sounds like a heartbreak song waiting for written. 

I adore this book. I love Rafe and Ellie and how they both saw themselves as broken, but both saw each other as the sun and moon. The slow burn between these two and the fact that they didn’t want to pursue anything because trust wasn’t there, and work was involved showed a bit of reality compared to other workplace romances. I love that Rafe was like you are fired and you’ll get a settlement pay and then made out with her like his life depended on it. I loved that Rafe went from walls and wouldn’t like anyone in, not even his own son, to constantly telling everyone why he acts the way he acts and what happened to him in the past and that’s he is determined not to have a son that is toxic and will communicate. I loved Ellie, I just wanted to hug her the whole time. The way she got screwed over but was still trying to be positive and being afraid of making it again but then smashed it. I just adored her. I loved the vulnerability between the two of them and how was the dam opened, they were able to get over it and work together to fix the issues at hand.  I am really glad, that it wasn’t focused on Hillary being a bad mother and going back and forth. Even though Rafa doesn’t like her for what she did, he never bad-mouthed Nico’s mother in front of him. I just loved him for that and wanted to cry. My mother and father got divorced when I was like 3 and I grew up hearing my dad’s side of the family bad-mouthing my mother in front of me and there is just a lasting effect.  

I love the tropes in this book being workplace romance, boss/employee and my personal favourite grumpy x sunshine. This story worked so well and blended so well from the previous novel, and I loved seeing the previous couple of Deliah and Julian show up and tell them how to be in love and things. I cannot wait to see more of Lily and Lorenzo, I want more of this storyline and I cannot wait for his book to come out. The tension I saw between them in the first book and the fake marriage is going on. The banter between Lorenzo and Julian and Rafe and the sassiness he gives everyone and how powerful he is - I just know his book is going to be good.   

I don’t have anything bad to say about this book, this book could have been 8000 pages long and I wouldn’t have complained, I want more. Lauren Asher has me in a chokehold.   

I got this book during one of the Stuff Your Kindle Days and the cover looked great. Looked right up my alley. Thought it was going to be a female version of Chris Carter or Steve Cavanagh and it’s more like Holly Jackson just with a bit more adult theme. 

This book is based on Zora Smyth and she is not your average poster child. She is a first-year medical student, who has a distant mother, a missing sister and a deep distrust of the police. All she’d ever dreamed of was to make it through medical school and become a surgeon. But a dissection gone wrong at the Gross Anatomy lab lands Zora in the middle of a murder investigation and in the crosshairs of a vicious enemy. When a potential witness points her out as the prime suspect for the murder, Zora faces the frightening risk of losing her dream and her freedom. Then more bodies drop. As Zora races to investigate the truth and save herself, will she give in to a killer who is hell-bent on getting what he wants, or will she fight for her life as she faces her worst nightmare?  

I liked the storyline of a medical student being involved. I thought it was a medical professional and an actual adult rather than a young adult/child. I felt like Zora was the only character that was well built and I enjoyed the view of I'm a suspect someone is framing me, let’s figure it out. I liked the multiple POVs, I just felt like they needed to be main clear that it was a different point of view, at times it took me a while to realize who it was, we were reading about. I liked the romance blossoming between Marcus and Zora and hopefully that gets explored over the series. 

One of my main issues is that everything that was mentioned wasn’t drawn out or explained very well. The kid who said it was Zora in the lab just to get a scholarship that Zora was on track to receive, we don’t know what happened to him, if he got into any sort of trouble for lying to the police? The fact that Zora’s mother didn’t make an appearance once? I understand she was distant, but there is distant and then there is non-existent. Then Zora gets kidnapped and it’s like oh yeah, your mother cares because she put a tracker in her necklace. Like can we go back a second and dive into that? Also, her sister never gets mentioned until this tracker comes about? There was also no big action-saving moment of the police figuring it out and saving Zora, it went she’s been kidnapped, some questions answered, Zora passes out, she’s fine and at the hospital, book over. Did she get the scholarship? Did the police thank her? Where is her mother? 

It was a quick read and i didn’t really need to think much during this book because everything was explained but just not explained enough. There was no tension building and it wasn’t really a medical thriller. I am hoping this series improves as this goes on.  

I got this book during one of the Stuff Your Kindle Days and I’ve wanted to read Bea Paige’s work for the longest time and when this was available, I decided to jump right in. This book had so many twists and turns and was on the edge of my seat.  

This book has two points of view. The first is Grim aka Kate. Grim is a nickname given to her by her father, the Ruler of Tales, an East End underground fight club. Tales you win. Heads you lose and the fighter of Tales never lose. As a kid she’d believed her father was a real king, like the ones found in myths and fairytales she once loved to read. The men he ruled were his faithful soldiers sworn to protect the club, him and her. Until one day, his most loyal soldier, Beast, made her an orphan and the newly crowded Queen of Tales. But this is no fairy tale, and she doesn’t own a crown. This is real life. Bloody, violent, and filled with alpha men who use their fists to settle every dispute. Now the Beast is back and he’s ready to finish what he started. To strip her bare, take her heart and devour his soul. Except she is no longer daddy’s little princess. She was nicknamed Grim for a reason, and she is ready to fight. The second point of view is Beast. He is a beast in name and a beast in nature. Once upon a time Tales was his home. He was the second in command and the best goddamn fighter the club had ever seen. He fought and won. Every single time. Until one day he lost trying to protect the princess from the true monster of this fairytale. She shunned him and sent him away. Now she is back to tell her the truth, not some fucked up tale full of half-truths and lies. He will do whatever it takes to win her over, because if there’s one thing he knows for sure; this beast’s heart only beats for one woman. The Queen of Tales.  

Why on earth did I wait so long to read a Bea Paige book? Holy smokes!! This book was amazing. The storyline had me on the edge of my seat. The twists and turns that were coming out towards the end had me STRESSED. The slow burn between Grim and Beast was just brilliant. I was waiting for the smut and all we got was a steamy and sexy kiss that I was giggling like a five-year-old once it finally happened. The way that it happened in the tattoo studio and the declaration of love. Holy smokes. The cliffhanger was mean and now I can’t believe how that ended and now I'm going to be waiting for a while. I loved the banter and the chemistry between the two characters and I would love to see more of the side characters especially Grim’s friends.  

The background with where it was based, which I'm assuming we will read about in her previous work as it’s all in the same setting. Besides the overly using the word C*nt, I had no clue this was set in England. I thought it was set in America, I was expecting preppy boarding school boys. Yet, this is also a book that mentions Manchester which is literally 20 minutes away from my town and yet it’s down in London. But I had no clue where it was set. I had a few issues with Grim’s virginity being a prize. I get her dad being a grade A prick, but then Beast wants her to be pure and to be the one to mark her and all that shit. Like I get the age thing, but if you are going to make it about the age and the fact that you want to wait until she is twenty, then at least let her experience other boys and being an eighteen-year-old.  

I am dying to read Head You Lose; however, I am going back through all the books as stated with Bea Paige’s order of reading. So, I've got maybe like 15-17 books before I read the second book on this series, which might kill me.  

This book has been on my TBR and my wish list for a while. For my birthday this year, my best friends gifted me this book. I was intrigued with this book and was excited to start this book. It was like a fictional book, obviously without any proper names because the author was anonymous, it could be, but it also felt so real. 

This is a unique and unbelievable first-hand account of how one man fought his way to the top of the criminal underworld and what he needed to do to stay there. As you read this, someone somewhere is buying drugs. Across the globe, millions of people are involved in the brutal, cold-blooded world of drug dealing, but only a small number make life-changing money. Only a few get to the top, make the calls, know how it all works and truly become drug lords. And even fewer survive. He knows because he is one of those drug lords. After thirty years, he has retired and decided to tell the story of how he got to top of this tainted profession, what’s involved in being a serious criminal, the trick of the trade, the art of the deal and what it really takes to stay alive for so long.  

I really enjoyed this book especially with this writer showing how easy it is to fall into the drug business. I thought it was going to be based within the United States. So, it was interesting to see how Ibiza grew from this small island into what it is today. I enjoyed the fact that there was a bit of tension between the fact that we didn’t know what happened with the uncle and what happened with his girlfriend but then all the answers came out towards the end once he has retired.  

The only thing that drove me nuts was how many times he said, “In hindsight this was a bad idea, or this wasn’t going to end well.” I get that he was young when he started but like seriously. Why do you keep doing it if you knew it wasn’t going to end well? Especially with the sister and the women he was dealing with. I would have liked there to be multiple POVs maybe with the mother and father when they were separated. His father was in London during the drug war and his mother didn’t approve of it and was ill. 

Overall, with the anonymity of the book, it did feel like fiction at times, but I enjoyed it.