The Art of Starving by Sam J. Miller

The Art of Starving by Sam J. Miller
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This was an intense read. I wanted to love this. The premise is solid. The format is interesting. The content is important. There’s lots of diversity, and it has a unique perspective. I see how this should be an excellent story. All signs pointed towards this book being a perfect read for me.

Unfortunately, I still struggled to connect with this story. It is relatively well-written, though the side characters are underdeveloped, and their motivations and intentions were rarely clear to me. The pacing also felt off to me, and I wasn’t that into the subplots. Honestly, I kind of just wanted to cut away some of the excess and focus more on the heart of the story, which was valuable and intriguing.

I think the supposed powers were a confusing distraction for me, as I thought they were all due to the inner-workings of Matt’s mind, as he struggled with his mental illness, which was upsetting but also fascinating. Then, some things occurred that suggested that it may not be all in his mind, which had me questioning if this is supposed to be magical realism, instead of contemporary, and that unsettled me. I think I spent so much time feeling awkward and uncertain about this that it left me holding the story at arms length, instead of fully embracing it.


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Happily ​Ever After by Kelly Oram

Happily ​Ever After by Kelly Oram
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Well, I'm just obsessed with Brian and Ella, so I really enjoyed having a bit more time in their world. This was a good addition that only made me want more books in this series. It also addressed a lot of issues, in regards to body image, in a healthy and real way, which I appreciated.

I really need to read more stuff by this author, as she does an excellent job showing how characters can grow. This story tugs at all of my emotions, and I appreciate the struggles paired with occasional wins.

The narration by Kirsten Leigh is clear and emotional.

Bossman by Vi Keeland

Bossman by Vi Keeland
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Well, with a title like this, I figured that I knew what to expect from this story, but I was mostly wrong. It had more depth and layers than I thought I was going to get, though I could have done with a lot less running away from shit and weird stalking and a lot more stepping up and dealing with issues.

The funny thing about this one, is it has a deep running theme of unaddressed mental health issues with a homeless side character, but neither of the two main characters can seem to understand that they both have some rather serious and unaddressed mental health issues that they should also deal with. That complete judgement of other's issues but lack of awareness or effort to fix their own bothered me some and is why this story can't get 5 stars.

The audiobook was good, though, and the story was sexy. I'm just not sure I believe the 2 are actually going to be happy for long, since neither of them really dealt with their shit in an adult way.

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Black by Elin Peer

Black by Elin Peer
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What the fuck even was that?



I could not even believe what I was reading.



But clearly, I kept on reading, like a serial killer watching a crime scene. I just couldn’t look away.




I picked this up, because I read the Men of the North series by this author, which made me want to read all of her novels, and this one just came out of the blue and side smacked me across the face with a shovel. I have rarely been so absolutely stunned when reading a story. I just don’t even know how to put anything that I felt into words.


It ranged from curious:




To absolutely dumbfounded:




To strangely excited, though I didn’t want to admit it:




To shocked:




To slightly disgusted:



To outraged:




To strangely turned on:




Back to momentarily disgusted:




To shocked again:




And then back to accidentally turned on again:




Followed by really into this:



And concluding with the most traditional ending ever for a truly nontraditional story, which made me feel all:




I still don’t know what in the hell I just read, but clearly I liked the majority of this weird, messy, totally unexpected shit that occurred, even though if it had happened to anyone I know in real life, I’d have advised them to run the fuck away and report malpractice to the feds.

But it wasn’t in real life, so instead I watched this shit go down like:




The narration by Noelle Bridges and John Masterson is spot on. John has a nice, deep, sexy voice, and Noelle reads with a lot of emotion.

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