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bitchie

Bitchie's Books

Avid reader, part time gamer. I read and review books for other readers, not for authors. I review mostly M/M books, so if that doesn't float your boat, well, there are other boats in the sea, other reviewers in this great blogosphere!

Currently reading

In The Absence of Light
Adrienne Wilder
My Brother's Lover
Lynn Kelling

And You Say You're Alone

And You Say You're Alone - taelynhawker I love fics that deal with the aftermath of things on the show, that the show writers SHOULD have dealt with. Things like after the Nogitsune, after Derek goes full wolf, or in this case, after Gerard kidnaps Stiles in season 2. It makes sense that these big events that happen on the show should leave some lasting effects, but the show NEVER deals with this at all.

This one picks up with Stiles in that basement, and he's hurt much worse than he was in the show, hurt in some very permanent ways. This fic goes into him healing, Scott being an ass, and Stiles helping Derek and his pack, and Stiles and Derek becoming a couple. I thought it dealt nicely with Stiles' pain, both from his injuries, and with the fact that Scott's not the only one that's been dealing with this strange new reality. No matter how many times Scott tries to say that Stiles can just walk away while Scott can't, he really can't, especially after Gerard is done with him.


I do wish this story had had either a sequel or at least an epilogue. I'd like to have seen Scott finally GET it, and maybe even join the pack, but I guess it ended on a good enough space.

Noticed

Noticed - InTheArmsofaThief I like fics where Stiles feels taken for granted by the pack, and goes off to make his own way, but I don't really like it when SO much time passes before he comes back home. This one was really well written though!

Here Comes Trouble

Here Comes Trouble - A.E. Via From zero to "My Two Dads" in under five seconds!

The cop its took a backseat to the family drama in this one. Considering the outlandish nature of the police business in this series, that should have been a good thing, but that's not the case, because the family bits ended up being even more outlandish than the cop parts ever were.

This is the story of Green and Ruxs, two of God and Day's detectives. They've been partners for years, when they both start to feel more for each other. All those bits are pretty good, but it started to go off the rails when the kid came into play.

We first met Curtis in book 1, he was the kid robbing the store, that God and Day helped out. The task force kinda took the kid under their wings, helping him out, giving him work, and just becoming like family. But Curtis' sick mother passes away, and that's where the silly bits started. The very day Curtis' mom dies, Social Services comes in and grabs Curtis, a good kid who is almost 18, who has an entire police group willing to take him in, and puts him in a horrible group home. Green and Ruxs and Day get him home, where they immediately jump to "my two dads". I find it hard to believe SS would come in like that, to take a kid almost 18 away from freaking police officers, and I find it hard to believe they'd jump straight to "dads" and "son". Now that I think about it, I also find it hard to believe that Curtis' mom wouldn't have already had something in place regarding a guardian for her son, considering how ill she was, and for how long.

The editing was bad here, too. The words were mostly right, but the sentence structure was awful. A LOT of sentences were broken into two. When they really just needed a comma. Making them jarring and awkward.(see what I did there?)

Then there was the timeline, which makes my head hurt. In book 1, God is reunited with his brother Genesis, a senior in high school, making him roughly 17-18. (eta, I just checked, Gen was 17 in book 1. "His brother was at least six-foot-two already at the young age of seventeen")Now, Gen plays football for the Bulldogs, and is 22. In book 1, Curtis tries to rob a store, and we learn here he was 15 at the time, but while 4-5 years have passed for Gen, Curtis is only 17! I said before this series is like a soap opera, and apparently the author also subscribes to soaps' wonky aging syndrome, too!

So, for me, the first half of this book was close to a 4 star read, the last half was a 2 star read, so I'm going with the average, and giving it a 3.

Embracing His Syn

Embracing His Syn - A.E. Via Ok, first off, Via really needs to stop being so effusive in her thanks to her editor in the acknowledgements, because the editing in these books just ain't that good. I've read worse, but I expect better from books that cost this much.

Now on to the book itself- utter brain candy. There isn't any mental nutrition to be found in these books. The plots are completely illogical, make no sense, points are dropped or unexplained. But I really didn't care, because it was just FUN. I went ahead and gave this 4 stars, not because of the quality of the writing or the plot, but just how much fun I had reading it.

I wonder how long the author sits, thinking up these absurd names: Cashel "God" Godfrey, Leonidas Day, Furious AKA Furi, Sydney AKA "Syn". Don't even ask how she got Syn out of Sydney, I stopped trying to figure that out early on.

Chasing the Horizon

Chasing the Horizon - Scotty Cade This was sweet, fluffy, sexy, goodness. My one pet peeve on this one is the guys CRIED too much! Every time you turn around, someone was wiping away tears, tears running down their faces, fighting tears, and on and on. But otherwise, pretty good story.

Sunrise Over Savannah

Sunrise Over Savannah - Scotty Cade This was slow and easy, and surprisingly, not too angsty, considering the subject matter.

My one major complaint was the book featured three guys, but their personalities were all really similar. Nothing much to tell them apart. Plus, once I started reading, I had to come back here to read reviews, to find out who the main pairing was going to be, and then they don't get together at ALL until right at the end. There was a lot of time spent on all three guys getting to know each other, in pairs, but not a lot of time spent on the romantic part.

Nothing Special

Nothing Special - A.E. Via I'm really torn on this one. There was a lot that I liked, and a lot that was utterly ridiculous. The plot was outlandish, the character names were crazy, and the editing, while better than the first edition seems to have been, still needs a bit more work. At times, I thought the guys were too sappy with each other, and sometimes I found their speech to be too formal. What seventeen year old boy is going to say "Our mother" instead of just "Mom"?

I genuinely liked all the characters, although I didn't buy the sudden turnaround of a couple of them, as well as how the stuff with Cash's family got resolved so damned easily.

To be honest, I thought the book could have finished up at the 80% mark. Nothing else that happened felt really necessary (other than ONE sex scene between God and Day), especially the (admittedly hot) way out of left field four way between the two cops that God and Day hated up until around a month ago.

This book was nothing but brain candy. A soap opera for the reader. Good thing I like soaps!

The Truth About Forever

The Truth About Forever - Piper Vaughn I haven't read many of the M/M group's summer freebies series this year, and the few that I have read have been kind of let downs. But when I saw this Piper Vaughn one had gone up, I had to drop everything and read it, and as usual, I wasn't disappointed. This was a great second chances story. I only wish it had been padded out a bit more once Jonny came back, I'd have liked more details on what he did in the military, and also, maybe more getting to know you again.

But all in all, this was a solid entry into this event! Thanks to Piper for her story, and to everyone who work so hard to put this event together for us all!

Man to Man (Hero Series)

Man to Man (Hero Series) - G.A. Hauser Ugh, this book just reminded me of how this is just not the author for me!

First off, we have Josh, who just came on WAY too strong. Seriously, sexual harassment territory, right here. Of course, Tanner was the king of mixed signals, but Josh still should have backed right the hell off after the first (or the second. or the third) time Tanner said he wasn't gay. And seriously, having a supposedly "innocent" conversation with the guy, and all the while you have your hand down your shorts under the table?? Talk about inappropriate!

But I guess it wasn't so wrong, because it worked. Tanner was attracted to Josh, although he didn't want to be. He didn't want to be, but then his reasonings why being with a guy might be ok? Oh, we like the same things, and I don't have to worry about knocking a guy up? Seriously? What guy has ever used THAT as a motivation to get fucked?

I love yous were exchanged far too quickly (in just a week, on Josh's part!), and then Josh had NO patience with Tanner, wanting him to come out pretty much immediately.

Yep, this book just pissed me off pretty much from beginning to end.

Our Skin, Our Bones, Our Silent Poems

Our Skin, Our Bones, Our Silent Poems - taylorpotato 4.5 stars. Really unique take on the canon story, I liked it a lot!

The Right Time (Right and Wrong Stories)

The Right Time (Right and Wrong Stories) - Lane Hayes I'm wavering between 3 and 4 stars, but I'll go ahead and give it the bump.

I loved Nate and Alex, and felt their relationship grew in a great way. What I didn't get was why Alex kept talking about "coming out" to his father, when his father had known he was gay since he was 18. His father just didn't want it public, which, yeah, bad dad, but still, he knew Alex was gay.

The other thing that I didn't get was Alex's anger at the end revelation about Julie. Nate TRIED to tell him, and Alex said it didn't matter, it was in the past, he didn't need to know. Then what's with all the righteous anger? It just didn't fit his character and felt out of left field.

One thing that's kinda bugged me this whole series is all the characters seem to have this mini-mine field of secrets, just waiting for someone to bumble onto them, and leaving the reader wondering what the heck is going on. A year ago, fifteen years ago, four years ago, these things kept getting alluded to, but then the reveal wasn't that big, and I just wondered why these things didn't just come out naturally in the story, instead of making them seem larger than they really were.

The Wrong Man (Right and Wrong Stories Book 2)

The Wrong Man - Lane Hayes There's one thing that always kinda bugs me in romance stories: when an ex pops up out of the woodwork, at just the perfect moment to see their former lover moving on with someone else, and of course, decide they MUST have a second chance! And this book had not one, but two exes showing up trying to rekindle things! Luckily, it was one for each lead, so it didn't come across as too silly.

But other than that one minor grievance, I really enjoyed this story! I loved Jake and Brandon, and Mack was just the sweetest dog ever! The one thing I feared didn't happen, thank goodness. I do wish the thing from high school had been told before the very end, I was curious for too long!

Helping Hand

Helping Hand - Jay Northcote Really cute double gay for you story. Huge chunks of it reminded me of [b:No Homo|21570001|No Homo|RemainNameless|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1401890281s/21570001.jpg|40902451], which of course, is NOT a bad thing. I do wish the author had spent a bit more time on things outside of the sexy times, as it was almost entirely devoted to them hooking up and it turning into more. Still, very good, sexy story! 3.5 stars, rounded up.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve - Ophelia Sikes Not a chance in hell! Put all the installments into ONE book, and maybe, but as it is, no way I'd waste time OR money on this crap.

Model Citizen

Model Citizen - Lissa Kasey I really enjoyed this book! Great characters, interesting mystery, very well written, just a real page turner (clicker?).

I have to say, from the very beginning I doubted whether Nathan really killed himself. It just never felt right, that he would leave Ollie that way.

Ollie was such a fun, if major prickly character. He has a very feminine look, and even wears dresses and skirts, heels and wedge sandals, but you never feel that Ollie is anything but a man, which I loved. Ollie is still reeling from a lot of things, first his lover cheating on him, and then the death of his brother, Nathan. He's barely hanging on when the book starts.

Kade is a guy fresh out of the Marines, healing from injuries of his own. He was really close with Nathan while they were overseas together, and spent a lot of his leave time with Nathan and Ollie. It seems that he's had a thing for Ollie for years, and was just waiting for his chance.

I thought Ollie and Kade went well together, both professionally as well as personally. They just complimented each other so well, and I'm ready to see how they do without Ollie getting in his own way all the time.

Looking forward to the next book to see what's next for our guys.

Do You Like to Hurt? (Then Hurt Me)

Do You Like to Hurt? (Then Hurt Me) - taylorpotato This fic was full of things that I either don't love, or things that I just plain don't like at all. But you know what? I don't give a fuck, this fic, as usual, was awesome! I love how taylorpotato can take very uncomfortable tropes, and do them up in a way that makes even someone who hates the trope, love the hell out of the story. I have a feeling this will be a fic that I reread often.