Genre: Comedy

I picked this up off of another Amazon Kindle algorithm suggestion which was a surprisingly specific choice that had me amused. It managed to find a novel that combined my recent reads involving a silly romcom, mysterious dead bodies, British-set narratives, and an M/M LGBTQ+ focal couple. It’s honestly quite an impressive of feat (even though the dead bodies discoveries are more of a plot device to get Ray out of his house, this is decidedly not a murder mystery or investigative story). Reviewing and critiquing Isabel Murray’s Not That Complicated is akin to reviewing and critiquing a risqué reality tv dating show. They’re meant to be simple entertaining affairs full of salacious situations and R-rated spice, not shooting to be the most ambitious or critical experiences. It knows exactly what the assignment was and delivers a flamboyantly over the top, outrageous romcom story managing to get Ray and his youthful love-interest Adam together in multiple steamy scenes. While there’s obviously a lot of bedroom action to be had (not my cup of tea but quite hot, I think?), I found Not That Complicated to consistently be funnier than it needed to be. “You can’t buy me any more than…

I’m stuck trying to figure out if I’m getting fatigue from reading three Emily Henry novels in just over a month or if it’s the novel’s character drama that wasn’t for me, but this one didn’t grab my interest and continued to stumble the further it progressed. Focusing a core trio of gal pals consisting of Harriet, Cleo and Sabrina with their plus one’s added over the years, Happy Place takes the fake dating trope and meshes it with a second chance at love at a small town, summer vacation retreat. I suspect it has to do with the plot and concept of the novel, but I found myself inherently less invested in this tight-nit friend group compared to Emily Henry’s other novels that I read which are Book Lovers and Beach Read. Maybe it’s the lack of literary book elements that I loved or the girl-group friends for life theme that doesn’t appeal to me, but I felt like I was quite far from the target demographics of this book. Fake dating is a common and tired trope but Henry is well aware of this and fully commits to putting Harriet and her ex-fiancé Wyn through the ringer which…

Am I going soft or slowly becoming a romcom fan? We’ll revisit this another day but here today I loved the The Bodyguard. Right out of the gate Hannah Brooks is a stellar protag that’s hilarious to read. I tend to be critical of romance novels as I often have problems with tone and the internal character voice being gratingly overdramatic, but The Bodyguard had me constantly chuckling and smiling. Hannah is still overdramatic but her self-awareness of how dumb she’s acting coupled with snappy humor keeps things fresh and engaging. The first half reminded me of a hypothetical modern cross between Miss Congeniality and the Proposal (the fish out of water tale of competent and professional woman and the fake dating for family tropes). And that alone would make it a fun yet cliched read. What really sold me on this book is the perfect balance between the focal romance between Hannah and Jack and the overarching plot of the personal protection service and threats made against Jack’s life. I often find romance novels have an uneven emphasis between the two parts or ping pong back and forth abruptly, however this one effortlessly incorporates both. The personal protection bodyguard…

Note: The following original review for this book is old and does not meet current review standards. A fully rewritten review is planned. A Holiday TV-movie taken straight off ABC family given a queer spin with harder hits and surprisingly solid pacing, in Boy Meets Boy #2 Janovsky takes everything that was good in #1 and refines it. While I enjoyed the first book in the series, I sometimes felt like I was over-scoring it because of how cute and breezy it felt vs directly looking at its objective qualities. This one beefs up all of the weaker elements with better execution. The pacing is better, characters (especially the side characters) are more developed and complex, the overarching plot being more compelling and involved, I was pleasantly surprised given how predictable most holiday fairs can be. There are still the usual tropes of a Grinch warming to the holiday cheer but the plot twists and it’s conclusion help elevate the material beyond simply being cute. It also helps that the comedy is cranked up to an 11 thanks to the protag’s overdramatic spoiled rich boy persona. The first 50 pages of diva material can be off-putting but we love a good…

This is a chaotic novel and not in an exciting bombastic way; rather a mess that feels made up on the fly. Described as a violent and unpredictable noir, the unpredictable part is the only aspect that hit the mark for me (and that’s not a good thing as you soon will see). Perhaps I have high standards as a crime/mystery thriller is one of my favorite genres to read, but the tone of the book didn’t work for me. It jockeys between trying to be a darker grisly man on the run story and a buddy cop/anti-hero slapstick comedy and doesn’t do a particularly good job in either direction. The plot is also nonsensical with things happening with no rhyme or reason and it has a habit of throwing in random flashbacks that derail whatever story is happening in the present instead of seamlessly transitioning back and forth with context. After the first 100 pages or so I stopped reading this as a mystery/crime investigation and as a “what ridiculous things from left field are they going to throw at the wall next”. How a soldier’s training allows a retired veteran to kill someone by impaling them with a…