reread #? This book is awesome and I adore the character development and addressing of the problematic points from the first book that aReread May 2022
reread #? This book is awesome and I adore the character development and addressing of the problematic points from the first book that are tackled in this one. Also, I will never get over Sexy Paul and that bachelor party scene.
I've now read this one twice and my heart is so happy. It is so wholesome and precious and heartwarming while also having the funniest bachelor party scene ever. In fact, that scene is perhaps my favorite from the entire series.
This one is a follow up to Tell Me It's Real and is solely focused on Paul and Vince's wedding. It takes place over the course of a month and just brings me so much joy.
I want to talk about Klune's ability to write secondary characters for a minute. We all know and love all of Klune's MC's, but his secondary characters are just as complex and well-written. Paul's parents, Matty and Larry Auster are the parents we all want and deserve. They are so welcoming and accepting no matter what. They are so in love and unafraid to show it. Matty and Larry don't hesitate to welcome in all of the people who are important to Paul and essentially adopt them as children. I can't even describe how jealous I am of Paul and how I wish myself and all queer people could know that sort of unconditional love and acceptance....more
Thanks gods this one isn't as rough as the first. I love TJ Klune but y'all, I volunteer to summarize book one for you and you can skipReread May 2022
Thanks gods this one isn't as rough as the first. I love TJ Klune but y'all, I volunteer to summarize book one for you and you can skip it. This one is about Sandy and Darren and while the cover is awful, the story is hilarious and dramatic and full of feels.
Tell me it's real summary: Paul: a 30 year old midsize gay man with body issues and self esteem troubles. His best friend is Sandy who is also a drag queen named Helena Hand basket. He has a two legged dog named wheels. His family is full of weirdos but we love them. His mom and dad are so full of love for him and his friends but they are odd ones. His grandma is even stranger and has a penchant for soap operas, dramatic stories, muumuus, and her homophobic parrot Johnny Depp.
Vince: Vince is a homo jock with lots of muscles and not many academic brain cells. He is pretty and kind and full of wisdom at odd times. He hits is the son of the homophobic mayor and his mom is dying of cancer.
Long story short, Vince sees Paul at bar. Sends Paul a shot. Paul takes shot not realizing it's whiskey and he hates whiskey, accidentally spits shot out onto Vince. Paul runs away. Then Vince starts at Paul's job and ends up saving is life when he chokes on spinach at lunch. Vince asks Paul out, Paul says no bc body issues. Eventually things go sideways. Vince rides a bike and Paul gets distracted by bike shorts and opens his car door right into Vince and Vince ends up in hospital. Paul takes Vince home to take care of him and ends up eventually talking Paul into going out on a date.
They go to a restaurant with a sexually suggestive waiter who hits on Vince and terrorizes paul. Vince learns that Paul one fell into a hippo exhibit and Sandy filmed it. Paul's parents run into them at dinner and when Paul tries to run away, Vince pulls him into his lap and Paul's parents think they're kinky.
Paul buys Vince a new bike and the bike lady tells Paul that Vince's mom is sick. He finds out who Vince's parents are and feels a bit betrayed bc Vince didn't tell him. . Vince thanks him for the bike by kissing him against the side of Paul's parents house. They go to the club then have sex for the first time. Paul is working on his body issues.
Paul then goes to visit Vince's mom in the hospital without his knowledge. Learns his mom isn't terrible but still not a great mom. Vince finds him there and is pissed. Sends Paul away.
Paul goes to find Vince later only to find him hugging Darren and Paul gets jealous, punches Darren. Then learns that Darren is Vince's half brother. Vince stays mad and sends Paul away again.
Vince's mom dies. He goes to Paul for comfort. They live happy ever after....more
Reread May 2022 I will forever be grateful that this was not the first TJ Klune book that I read. I don't know if I'm going to reread this one anymore.Reread May 2022 I will forever be grateful that this was not the first TJ Klune book that I read. I don't know if I'm going to reread this one anymore. I've read it enough times I know what happens I don't need to reread it to remember any details in order to read the rest of the series and honestly it is more aggravating to reread this one than pleasurable.
I'm constantly frustrated that this book exists and that you have to read it in order to read my second favorite Klune book Why We Fight which is the last in the series.
What could have been a funny book is instead a book riddled with sexism and misogyny and transphobia and racism and fat phobia. I'm going to be honest and say this book is a mess. Unless you already like TJ Klune and have read other books and understand his sense of humor, I would not recommend that you read this book. If you do read this book, I want to warn you that it is worth it because you'll get to a really fantastic book and Why We Fight, but you do kind of have to suffer through this one.
Something I've noticed that TJ Klune has struggled with is writing fat characters without being fat phobic. This book features a chubby, but not fat, main character because it is reiterated over and over again that he's not fat. This book is almost 10 years old and it shows. This sort of sexism and misogyny is absolutely not tolerated anymore, at least I would hope, within the queer community and if this book had been published today it would have been such a flop. Friendly reminder that vaginas and labias and being emotional or vulnerable or a woman are not bad things. Every time that our MC shows any sort of emotion or feels weak or gets whiny he compares himself to a giant vagina or a labia or a woman and I am just so tired. I really want to read books written by cisgender gay men but holy fucking misogyny. I just can't handle it.
Beyond that every single character of color in this book is a stereotype, there are a couple transphobic comments that go unchallenged, as well as multiple instances of kink shaming and queer phobia with anyone attracted to women. This book is rough around the edges to say the least and I would never recommend this book to anyone new to Klune's work.
Reread#??
So I hate to say this but this is probably the only TJ Klune book I wouldn't recommend to most people. It's not necessarily bad and I actually love it still, but it has a hefty number of problematic comments ranging from sexism, misogyny, transphobic comments, racist comments, and fatphobia. I don't know if I recognized them all the first time I read this, but every time I reread thy stand out front and center and it's so sad. I feel like I need to check my physical copy and see if anything as been reedited, since he's done that in the.past. It's such a shame because this series as a whole is one of my favorites, especially the last one. And I kind of hate that you have to get through this one to reach all of the wonderfulness. that being said, if you have read multiple TJ Klune books and you are familiar with his style and writing and humor and with the fact that he has changed his behavior in more recent books, then I recommend this one. I absolutely do not want you to read this one if it is your first TJ Klune. It's one of those things that you have to already be in love with him so that you can accept his past mistakes...more
I love this book with my entire being. At some point in the new year I will go through and make sure all my reviews are up-to-date bReread August 2024
I love this book with my entire being. At some point in the new year I will go through and make sure all my reviews are up-to-date because I went through a phase where I only put reviews on Instagram and that is biting in the ass now.
So much wonderful rep! This is my favorite of the brown sisters books.
Zafir is such a freaking cinnamon roll and he listens to romance audiobooks. AUDIOBOOKS! We love to see it even if there is a scene with intense secondhand embarrassment that has made me paranoid about my Bluetooth while listening to audios ...more
I don't know why I don't have reviews for these books on Goodreads but I love this series and I especially love the emo Reread #? via audio April 2022
I don't know why I don't have reviews for these books on Goodreads but I love this series and I especially love the emo teenage dragon. I'm rereading in anticipation of book five coming out and I cannot wait! I'm so excited for Justin's story and also not so excited to be wrecked in book number three. Joy....more
So the premise of this book is that this guy runs a romance book club and when he goes to buy the books at a bookstorEh. This was very underwhelming.
So the premise of this book is that this guy runs a romance book club and when he goes to buy the books at a bookstore this other guy basically gives him shit for the books he's buying. Then of course skeptical guy ends up wanting to join the book club and then there's some drama and then they fall in love etc.
First of all? You cannot convince me that a queer person running a book club is not going to prioritize queer stories. I don't believe. There's no way that a queer person would only prioritize cishet historical romance and monster romance. I can't.
Then I really hate the trope of bashing people for reading romance. I get it enough in real life I don't need to have it in books. If you are a bookstore employee you do not make fun of your customers with books they buy. And you especially don't do that and pass it off as flirting. That sounds like the terrible stereotype that if you like someone youre mean to them. That's bullshit.
Anyway this book just felt confusing and there was so many time jumps and you didn't really know when things were happening. Plus the two guys have no fucking chemistry or personality traits the same at all yet just jump into having sex and attraction? I don't understand. The only part of this book that I actually kind of liked was the experiences of both of our MCs and their grandmothers. Both of their grandmas loved reading romance and I liked that aspect.
Otherwise I just don't have any particular feelings about this book. It is what it is. It's not one that I'll reread and it's not one that I would necessarily recommend....more
This is second in the series and focuses on two of the secondary characters from the first. Tristan is Noel's best friend who was gay bashed and suffeThis is second in the series and focuses on two of the secondary characters from the first. Tristan is Noel's best friend who was gay bashed and suffered from memory loss. For the last three years he hasn't been able to retain any new memories. Gabe is a porn model who worked with Shane in shoots before Shane quit. Unlike Shane, Gabe enjoys doing porn and isn't ashamed of it, yet he doesn't want to do it forever. After meeting Tristn at the gay club his dads own, Gabe is interested an the two start to email back and forth and form a connection. So when Tristan is recommended for a clinical trial that could help him retain memories, he jumps at the chance because maybe it'ss mean he can have a real shot with Gabe. Gabe has some of his own demons to battle including an alcoholic mom, but he wants to try with Tristan.
Overall this book is a lot more hopeful than the first. Both men still have baggage but it's not nearly as angsty as the first book. Noel and Shane are mentioned in this one though and given some brief povs. While not quite as smutty as the first, this book is still full of steamy sex scenes and smut.
My main concern about these books is that despite all of the sex scenes, not once has aftercare been discussed. Aftercare after sex is important and necessary and it needs to be talked about. Neither emotional or physical aftercare are typically mentioned in romance books and that is a trend that needs to change. It gives the readers the impression that it's not important when it is critical part of being sexually active.
I liked Gabe and Tristan better than Noel and Shane so this one got a little higher rating....more
4.5 stars Reread: pretty sure my first review is accurate. These are the most unfortunate characters ever and just can't catch a break. I will say I di4.5 stars Reread: pretty sure my first review is accurate. These are the most unfortunate characters ever and just can't catch a break. I will say I didn't mind the narrator so much this time. I listened on 1.45x speed and it made a huge difference.
Original review: Lord almighty what did these poor characters do to deserve the absolute dumpster of shit that was dropped on them? It's like every character had to have a damage quota. To be honest, it wasn't a con for me. I love books with damaged and broken characters, judge me. I really liked Shane but Noel grated on my nerves a little. It was also why smuttier than I was prepared for and the audio for it was quite weird. The narrator for the audiobook was not great, but also not awful. He didn't really ruin the book but he didn't make it any better either.
Overall, I liked the characters and the plot and the ANGST. oh jeez the angst. I felt for Shane and that poor man just couldn't catch a break....more
This was not what I was prepared for. It started out way more smutty than I expected and honestly it seemed a little pervy to me. Basically, Celeste iThis was not what I was prepared for. It started out way more smutty than I expected and honestly it seemed a little pervy to me. Basically, Celeste is participating in a psychological experiment on isolation. She has been in a secluded dwelling for almost 3.5 years with no human contact. She can't talk to anyone besides someone on the other end of a computer through instant message, see anyone's faces, or have anything that has a face on it or uses a human voice. Celeste had a troubled childhood and is just trying to make her way through this experiment for the payout of half a million dollars.
But everything gets upended when Celeste finds an injured hiker she has to decide whether or not to help her or keep her payout.
This was a little predictable and I ended up relatively enjoying it, even if the sex scenes were way weird to listen to as audio.
Overall it is a welcome addition to f/f fiction...more
Reread June 2022 So yes this is still my favorite TJ Klune book but I would be remiss to say that this book is perfect or without fault because it absoReread June 2022 So yes this is still my favorite TJ Klune book but I would be remiss to say that this book is perfect or without fault because it absolutely is not. There are a lot of problematic moments here and it is kind of evident because this is part of his first series. I think the part that makes me the most angry in this book is when Tyson and Corey go down to Tucson and they visit Sandy and Paul and Vince which is a book crossover from the at first sight series and TJ Klune likes to do this thing where he kind of confronts readers who have given bad reviews in his books. Like he'll make a little comments and kind of either fix whatever he did wrong or he'll just give people shit and unfortunately instead of addressing the fact that the at first sight books, especially the first one, is incredibly misogynistic, he instead makes a joke out of it and says that people who thought it was misogynistic need to get their shit together and that was so frustrating. I don't know why I didn't see that comment before or catch it because this is not the first time I reread this book but maybe it's because I most recently reread Paul's book and was so mad at how misogynistic it was and then to have like TJ kind of slap readers in the face with that comment pissed me off. So yes, I still love Tyson and I love this book but TJ Klune was a bit of an asshole in it and thankfully I know he's gotten better but it was still a super shitty thing to do.
Reread #4?
This is my favorite TJ Klune book. Yes. Out of all of them. It still hurts at parts but at the same time it's wonderful and you just feel so damn proud of Ty and all he's been though. He is only a kid in the first two books of this series (bear otter and the kid) an I absolutely live for seeing him get his own HEA now he's an adult. The wildest thing about this series is that they span decades by the end of the 4th book and you don't feel disconnected from any part of the story. It feels like you're right there alongside them in all their ups and downs.
Huge CW for anxiety with this series but this book in particular. Also CW for addiction to prescription pills...more
While I love this series, it's not without it's faults. Snippets of early Klune misogyny can be found here as well as a super terribReread #? May 2022
While I love this series, it's not without it's faults. Snippets of early Klune misogyny can be found here as well as a super terrible asexual "joke". Idk if this is before klune was comfortable with his own asexuality, which he openly talks about now, but the small moments of aphobia are a punch to the gut.
This is still my favorite Klune series but I only rec them to folks who have read other Klune books. If you like his humor and are familiar with his newer stuff, I highly recommend you read these as well....more
Reread #?? April 2022 Did this reread take me 6 months? Yes. Did I annotate my physical copy alongside the audio? Also yes. Am I an emotional wreck? YoReread #?? April 2022 Did this reread take me 6 months? Yes. Did I annotate my physical copy alongside the audio? Also yes. Am I an emotional wreck? You guessed it! Yes.
I've said this book is perfect before and that is most certainly not true, but it is emotional and wonderful and will have you crying. It's gonna break you and also put you back together. It's not without it's problematic moments but it's still my fav Klune series.
I also still don't have any idea what year this is supposed to be set in. From what I can gather, I guess 2000-2007 but who the hell knows.
Also, I know Bear gets a label in the last book, but I also always read him as aspec, specific demi or gray ace/romantic.
Original reviews: This book is perfect. Finish the series before you judge it please.
I've read this 4 times now and I still can't pinpoint what time period were in. I've tried to place all the dates from the series in and come up with a rough estimate, and the best I've got is that this one and Who We Are take place in the late 90s or very early 2000s since The Art of Breathing and The Long and Winding Road take place in 2015-2016. But then again, there are little comments about the relevance of Al Gore or the legalization of gay marriage that don't quite fit in.
I adore TJ Klune, I love every one of his books but sometimes the details like this slip through the cracks. I'm not mad though, I love them and will always love them....more
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