Isaiah Roby's Blog: MI Book Reviews, page 21

Trick Play

A great sequel to Fake Out !

MATT
Want to know the fastest way to get screwed out of a football career? Get photographed in a compromising position in a gay bar. Yep, welcome to my life.
My agent says he can fix my image. He wants me to become the poster boy for gay football players. Me? I just want back on the field. I’ll do anything to play for the NFL again, even pretend to have a steady boyfriend. If only my fake boyfriend wasn’t Noah Huntington III—the most arrogant, entitled rich guy in ...

Finally Free

“Chase

I’ve lived a sheltered life. Orphaned and disabled, I was raised by my controlling, bigoted aunt, and I’m still fighting for my individuality and independence years later.

Determined to live the life I deserve, I visit the popular gay bar, The Ranger, where I encounter a world I’ve seen only in books and porn. Fearful of being overlooked or rejected by Dominants, I’m shaking when displayed as a submissive in a line full of confident prospects.

Until he saves me.

His touch scre...

This World Is Not Yours

“After fleeing her controlling and murderous family with her fiancée Vinh, Amara embarks on a colonization project, New Belaforme, along with her childhood friend, Jesse.

The planet, beautiful and lethal, produces the Gray, a “self-cleaning” mechanism that New Belaforme’s scientists are certain only attacks invasive organisms, consuming them. Humans have been careful to do nothing to call attention to themselves until a rival colony wakes the Gray.

As Amara, Vinh, and Jesse work to carve o...

Fake Out

I enjoyed this much more than I expected.

MADDOX
The reason I rarely go home is three simple words: I’m a liar.
When the pressure to marry my childhood sweetheart became too much, I told her I was gay and then fled to New York like my ass was on fire.
Now, five years later and after a drunken encounter, I find myself invited to her wedding. And I have to bring my boyfriend—the boyfriend who doesn’t exist because I’m straight.
At least, I think I am. Meeting the guy I’m bribing to be my boyfriend ...

New Adventures in Space Opera

“Have you ever wanted a faster-than-light trip to the future? Are you tired of reading science fiction novels that feel like they’re taking literal eons to finish? These fifteen award-winning and bestselling science fiction authors, including Charlie Jane Anders, Alastair Reynolds, Yoon Ha Lee, Becky Chambers, Tobias S. Buckell, Ann Leckie, and Sam J. Miller, and more, are here as your speedy guides to infinity and beyond.

In “Zen and the Art of Starship Maintenance,” a cloud-based contractor...

Zeus

This is by far the darkest books I’ve ever read from this author, and I’ve read quite a big chunk of her catalogue.

CALLIE
After constantly looking over my shoulder as I run for my life, I’m on the brink of giving up.
On happiness.
On love.
On life.
Which is why, when a familiar face shows up where I’m hiding, I shock myself by running again. Though, probably not as shocked as Zeus is when I run him off the road with my car.
For some reason, my survival instinct is stronger than my mind is, and I ...

Written at Randy’s

“An adorkable author and an outgoing club kid as roommates only results in one thing—shenanigans! And of course, love.

Love beyond the binary, serving up low angst trans romances at Randy’s Diner

Written at Randy’s is a low angst M/X roommates to lovers romance between a reclusive trans male author and a life of the party bigender club kid that reads as a standalone.”

I got an ARC of this book.

McIntyre does it again. He made me immediately invested in characters. She is a go to a...

A Bánh Mì for Two

“In this sweet sapphic romance about two foodies in love, Vivi meets Lan while studying abroad in Vietnam and they spend the semester unraveling their families’ histories—and eating all the street food in Sài Gòn.

In Sài Gòn, Lan is always trying to be the perfect daughter, dependable and willing to care for her widowed mother and their bánh mì stall. Her secret passion, however, is A Bánh Mì for Two, the food blog she started with her father but has stopped updating since his passing.

Mea...

Project Hail Mary

This was surprisingly wholesome.
It’s my first book by Andy Weird, and I haven’t had any interactions with any of his work before, other than vaguely having heard of The Martian existing – which, based on what little I knew, didn’t interest me that much. But some of my friends recommended Project Hail Mary to me specifically, so I gave it a go, and I am pretty happy I did!

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will...

Paradise Lost and Found

““Welcome to Paradise Island Resort, where we specialize in sun, sand, and self-improvement.”

Jess Parker has entered middle age single, bitter, and emotionally wounded. Even her friends have noticed her downward spiral into anger and resentment. Then she wins a self-help vacation to the beautiful Paradise Island Resort. Despite spending the past few years with her emotions on ice, the warm tropical climate and hotter resort manager, Lucia Cruz, succeeds in thawing her heart. Jess falls for L...