Beta Test by Annabeth Albert
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another lovely book in this series! I'm officially in love with the #gaymers! I'm so glad that I picked up these books. Will definitely read again.

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The Duke and I by Julia Quinn
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I have many feelings about this book, and even some notes about specific scenes that particularly bothered me, but I'm honestly just too tired to get into it. Suffice it to say, I enjoyed the plot, but I do not like this author's way of writing. I've tried reading her books before, and while she has a decent sense of humour, and her descriptions can be lovely, I don't like the omniscient POV (I prefer tight third in HR novels), among other things.

Honestly, I look forward to when this comes out on Netflix, because I think that I'll like the way it's portrayed far better on film than how it's written. Not sure if I'll read the others in the series, despite having already bought the next one.

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Nothing Special by A.E. Via
My rating: 1 of 5 stars

**Spoiler Alert**

I'm sorry, I have to rant. I really don't like leaving bad reviews, but this book genuinely upset me.

I'll start with the plot. The story idea was common enough, but this book failed to deliver. There was no intrigue, no suspense, and no mystery. What little action that there was was such a short blip in the book that it was barely noticeable. Additionally, the story concluded about half way through the book, but the narrative continued on for no reason other than to drag the readers through a nonsensical changing of all of the characters' personalities. I'll get into that more later.

There are constant inconsistencies and typing errors throughout. This book *really* needed more editors.

Why, and how, do all of the characters' problems get wrapped up so tidily? There's a problem? Ooh! A character just remembered that they have a handy dandy solution right here. Please. A little realism would have been appreciated, at least to keep up the illusion that the story could be plausible. I really would have liked for the characters to have to *think* about a solution, and perhaps show some of their amazing detective skills that all of the side characters raved about.

On that note, where was the police work? Seemed to me that the heroes got everything handed to them (interviews, appointments, etc.) without the heroes even having to ask. I hate to say it, but more research was required in order to write this book. The author knew the terminology, but everything else felt wrong. Like cheesy TV.

Things with Godfrey's family wrapped-up too neatly, as well. It was literally unbelievable how quickly he could just put aside what had happened to him, particularly after years of hatred from his mom and brother, and after their last encounter.

The romance. There is no build-up, no natural progression to God and Day's romantic relationship. We as readers are merely expected to understand that their years of partnership had apparently bonded them in love, yet we don't get to see any evidence of this until they proclaim their love and start using pet names. It's very abrupt, and entirely unbelievable.

In the second half of the book, once the plot had actually run its course, the main (and side) characters all take a 180 in their personalities. It comes out of nowhere, with no explanation. Our heroes went from loving, devoted, and highly possessive men, to willingly sharing each other in a foursome. Now, even if this wasn't a plot ploy (partner swapping) that I completely despise in romance novels, it made absolutely no sense in this book. Not only were our heroes possessively in love, but they had actively hated the two men they ended up having sex with until the offer was put out for the orgy. Ronowski went from being a homophobic ass that relentlessly verbally assaulted Day, to a willing party in the sex, and the last we'd seen Johnson, he had been pursuing Day, not the doe-eyed lover that joined them in the sack. None of this made sense.

It made me cold and angry. I finished this book several days ago, but had to allow my outrage to subside before I wrote the review, though I fear that some of it may have come through, anyway.

This book was definitely not for me, and I will not read another of this author's books.

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Felix and the Prince by Lucy Lennox
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is the second Lucy Lennox book that I've read, and my feelings about this one are almost identical to the other. This author knows how to write dialogue, plot, and characters in such a way that their story pulls you in, but all of the novel's other aspects are weak, which ultimately ruins the overall experience of the book.

Scene-setting and descriptions are lacking, which is a big disappointment. I found myself focusing less on what was happening in the story, and more on attempting to picture what was occurring and where they were in relation to everything around them. It was all so vague that I never quite knew where the characters were positioned and what the space looked like. I firmly believe that this author needs a new editor, because there were far too many occurrences of "I could hear", "I could feel", and "I could see", etc.

I don't know if I'll read another book by this author.

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