Hoohoo, friends of the blade.
January was a long month. It felt like at least three, there was so much time. I spent the first few days reading when I wasn’t working and flew through the entire Game Changers series. I still haven’t seen Heated Rivalry, but I definitely plan to! I met friends, I went to the opera to see Così fan tutte and then watched one of my favourite operettas, Die Fledermaus, again. I also saw All Time Low in concert again. I last saw them 15 years ago and going with my friends was amazing. My partner and I went to the art museum and I finally saw a painting by Rachel Ruysch I really like (I didn’t know it was in the art museum in my city??). I also went home for a weekend and saw some of my family and friends which was also amazing and felt so good. Generally, a lot has happened in January and it was a pretty good month as a whole.
Enough from my personal life, let’s look at all the books I read!
❤️ = romance | 🏳️🌈 = LGBTQ+ main character | 🏛️ = historical | 🪄 = fantasy
Books I Read
Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid
Game Changers #2
❤️🏳️🌈
Pro hockey star Shane Hollander isn’t just crazy talented, he’s got a spotless reputation. Hockey is his life. Now that he’s captain of the Montreal Voyageurs, he won’t let anything jeopardize that, especially the sexy Russian whose hard body keeps him awake at night.
Boston Bears captain Ilya Rozanov is everything Shane’s not. The self-proclaimed king of the ice, he’s as cocky as he is talented. No one can beat him—except Shane. They’ve made a career on their legendary rivalry, but when the skates come off, the heat between them is undeniable. When Ilya realizes he wants more than a few secret hookups, he knows he must walk away. The risk is too great.
As their attraction intensifies, they struggle to keep their relationship out of the public eye. If the truth comes out, it could ruin them both. But when their need for each other rivals their ambition on the ice, secrecy is no longer an option…
I mean, I expected it to have a lot of sex but I didn’t expect it to be porn with a little plot. I still liked it, though, mostly because I really liked the protagonists. They are complete opposites which made the whole book fun to read. I liked the character development and how their feelings for each other grew, how their relationship develops through the little details here and there, the small things they pick up about each other and start to like. It was a fun read but not my favourite in the series.
Tough Guy by Rachel Reid
Game Changers #3
❤️🏳️🌈
Pro hockey star Ryan Price may be an enforcer, but off the ice he struggles with anxiety. Recently traded to the Toronto Guardians, he’s determined to make a fresh start in the city’s dynamic LGBTQ Village. The last thing he expects to stumble upon in his new neighborhood is a blast from his past in the fabulous form of Fabian Salah.
Aspiring musician Fabian loathes hockey. But that doesn’t stop him from being attracted to a certain burly, ginger-bearded defenseman. He hasn’t forgotten the kiss they almost shared back in high school, and it’s clear the chemistry between them has only intensified.
Fabian is more than happy to be Ryan’s guide to the gay scene in Toronto. Between dance clubs and art exhibits—and the most amazing sex—Ryan’s starting to feel something he hasn’t experienced in a long time: joy. But playing the role of the heavy on the ice has taken its toll on his body and mind, and a future with Fabian may mean hanging up his skates for good.
Definitely one of my favourites in the series! The whole story has such a warm atmosphere that enveloped me like a hug. I loved the differences between the characters but also how they turned out to be similar in some aspects. I also liked that the focus was not only on hockey but Fabian’s music as well. I also really enjoyed the sex scenes and the general sex positivity and how everyone experiences it differently. Another aspect I loved was how both of the characters grow with each other and how they slowly reconnect. Tough Guy truly has my whole heart.
Common Goal by Rachel Reid
Game Changers #4
❤️🏳️🌈
Veteran goaltender Eric Bennett has faced down some of the toughest shooters on the ice, but nothing prepared him for his latest challenge—life after hockey. It’s time to make some big changes, starting with finally dating men for the first time.
Graduate student Kyle Swift moved to New York nursing a broken heart. He’d sworn to find someone his own age to crush on (for once). Until he meets a gorgeous, distinguished silver fox hockey player. Despite their intense physical attraction, Kyle has no intention of getting emotionally involved. He’ll teach Eric a few tricks, have some mutually consensual fun, then walk away.
Eric is more than happy to learn anything Kyle brings to the table. And Kyle never expected their friends-with-benefits arrangement to leave him wanting more. Happily-ever-after might be staring them in the face, but it won’t happen if they’re too stubborn to come clean about their feelings.
Everything they both want is within reach… They just have to be brave enough to grab it.
Oh, my least favourite in the series. I couldn’t get warm with either of the characters. Somehow, Eric was old and Kyle was fun and that’s about it. They didn’t really have many character traits, they just felt very one-dimensional. And then just whenit finally started to get deeper and the two of them finally getting together, the book ended. It felt too quick and somewhat rushed. Overall, those weren’t my favourite characters nor was it my favourite book.
Role Model by Rachel Reid
Game Changers #5
❤️🏳️🌈
The hits just keep coming for Troy Barrett. Traded to the worst team in the league would be bad enough, but coming on the heels of a messy breakup and a recent scandal… Troy just wants to play hockey and be left alone. He doesn’t want to be in the news anymore, and he definitely doesn’t want to “work on his online presence” with the team’s peppy social media manager.
Harris Drover can tell standoffish Troy isn’t happy about the trade—anyone could tell, frankly, as he doesn’t exactly hide it well—but Harris doesn’t give up on people easily. Even when he’s developing a crush he’s sure is one-sided. And when he sees Troy’s smile finally crack through his grumpy exterior, well… That’s a man Harris couldn’t turn his back on if he wanted to.
Suddenly, Troy’s move to the new team feels like an opportunity—for Troy to embrace his true self, and for both men to surrender to their growing attraction. But indulging in each other behind closed doors is one thing, and for Troy, being in a public relationship with Harris will mean facing off with his fears, once and for all.
Yes, hello, this is my favourite! I am so soft for Troy Barrett and for Harris as well. I loved the two of them together, the grumpy x sunshine vibes where Harris helps Troy coming out of his shell, overcoming the internalized rejection of his own sexuality. I loved how they just clicked, how well they fit together despite their differences. I also loved seeing so much of the Ottawa team which has to be collecting every queer hockey player out there. This was a story of friendship and romance, (self)acceptance and speaking out. This was growth in a book and I loved every second of it. And I loved the puppy.
Das Leben meiner Mutter by Doris Lessing
read in the German translation from Adelheid Dormagen
🏛️
Es ist die Geschichte einer gegenseitigen Verletzung, die Doris Lessing in diesen Erinnerungen aufgezeichnet hat, nüchtern und konkret, ohne in den Tonfall einer Abrechnung zu »Ich versuchte unentwegt, mich dem Verlangen meiner Mutter zu entziehen, ich solle klüger als alle anderen sein.«
Die Tochter, die in der Tat klüger werden sollte als viele andere, denkt zurück an den kolonialen Alltag im Rhodesien der dreißiger Jahre, an das Dasein ihrer Mutter und an sich selbst, »das Idealbild einer schwierigen Heranwachsenden«. Sie beschreibt, wie unerträglich ihre Mutter war und wie unerträglich sie, die Tochter.
Das unsentimentale, scharfsichtige Porträt zweier Frauen, die einander ein Leben lang fremd blieben.
I feel like this could have been more. But well, the title says it all, this whole story is about the mother’s life and while short, it very distinctly characterizes the mother in question and shows the strained relationship between the two women. I would have liked a more internal touch from the author regarding these events even though I understand this book focused on her mother. I just think this could have been more.
My Date With A Rubber Duckie by Thea Masen
❤️
When Anita picks up a Rubber Duckie just like the one she had as a kid, she thinks her terrible day is about to turn around. Nothing beats a duckie for a sounding board, and now that she has one, she’s determined to solve all her life’s problems with a long bath.
But this Rubber Duckie isn’t what he seems…
It all started when I saw an instagram post about weird duck facts. Fast forward to me searching for duck romance, possibly duck shifter romance and finding rubber ducks instead. Well, here we are. And what can I say? This was hilarious, completely bonkers and my best friend received many voice messages of me doing nothing but laugh. It was a weird and questionable but fun and quick read.
The Long Game by Rachel Reid
Game Changers #6
❤️🏳️🌈
Ten years.
That’s how long Shane Hollander and Ilya Rozanov have been seeing each other. How long they’ve been keeping their relationship a secret. From friends, from family…from the league. If Shane wants to stay at the top of his game, what he and Ilya share has to remain secret. He loves Ilya, but what if going public ruins everything?
Ilya is sick of secrets. Shane has gotten so good at hiding his feelings, sometimes Ilya questions if they even exist. The closeness, the intimacy, even the risk that would come with being open about their relationship…Ilya wants it all.
It’s time for them to decide what’s most important—hockey or love.
It’s time to make a call.
I really liked returning to Ilya and Shane, it was liek coming home. And after the many questions I had after finishing Heated Rivalry, I was so happy when their story continued. While their story still has a focus on physicality, there is so much more plot in this book, we see more of their surroundings and the people in their life and it was so much fun. I loved seeing more of their friends and of them talking. Loved it. So much.
A Steeping of Blood by Hafsah Faizal
Blood and Tea #2
🪄
Vampires are in danger, the press are dead and the public is calling for justice. Arthie has no time for love, either, even though it aaved her life. As she navigates new emotions and new allies, she must reassemble her scrambled crew and scrape together what little they have left to fight one last time — and she will need to face the ghosts of her past to do it.
Back to where it all started. In Ceylan.
It took me a bit to get back into the story but as soon as I was, I was invested. I just love Hafsah Faizal’s writing style with its sometimes almost lyrical prose, but in this book there is so much anger and it shows in the characters and the language, the tense atmosphere. A Steeping of Blood had me on the edge of my seat right until the very end… which then let me down. It was a bit unnecessary how it all wrapped up in my opinion and I was a bit disappointed there. Still enjoyed the book very much!
Lore Olympus Vol. 9 by Rachel Smythe
Lore Olympus #9
❤️
Persephone and Hades are finally reunited when the banished goddess of spring returns to the Underworld to claim her rightful place as queen. Now that Hades and Persephone have defeated and imprisoned the power-hungry Kronos once more, nothing can keep them apart, and years of being separated have only made their desire for each other grow. But the other Olympians can’t help but meddle, pushing the pair to make things official with a coronation—and a wedding.
Ignoring the others who try to define their relationship, Hades and Persephone choose to take things at their own pace and focus on rebuilding the Underworld. They begin by investigating how Kronos was first able to escape, and they learn the horrifying truth that he has captured a powerful young god whose abilities help Kronos project his thoughts outside of Tartarus—thoughts he uses to plague Hera’s every waking moment. Though Kronos’s physical form is locked away, Olympus will never be free until they can rescue the child from the furious Titan’s grasp.
To save the realms, Persephone must figure out her fertility goddess powers and embrace her role as Queen of the Underworld—even as it takes her further from her mother’s expectations and her former place in the Mortal Realm.
I just love this whole graphic novel series so much! I love the romance, the drama, the tension, the mysteries and how all the deities are portrayed. They are very human while still being godly, they feel real and tangible and while the focus is on Hades and Persephone, there is so much time to characterize the other characters and to make them complex. I just love everything about this series so much, I want to drown in it, thank you very much.
Skipshock by Caroline O’Donoghue
🪄
Margo is a troubled schoolgirl. After the death of her father, she’s on her way to a new boarding school in a new city.
Moon is a salesman. He makes his living traveling through a series of interconnected worlds on a network of barely used train lines.
They never should have met. But when Margo suddenly appears one day on Moon’s train, their fates become inextricably linked. If Margo wants to survive, she has to pass as a traveling salesman, too—except it’s not that easy.
Move north on the train line and time speeds up, a day passing in mere hours. Move south and time slows down—a day can last several weeks. Slow worlds are the richest you live longer, your youth lasting decades. Fast worlds are sharp, cruel, and don’t have time for pleasantries. Death is frequent. Salesmen die young of skipshock. That is, if they’re not shot down by the Southern Guard first.
As Margo moves between worlds and her attachment to Moon intensifies, she feels her youth start to slip between her fingers. But is Moon everything he seems? Is Margo?
What a wild ride this was! It has traveling between worlds (by train!!), it has friendships and a dash of romance, it has vastly different worlds where time moves differently. I liked how the story mentioned how the run of time affects people’s bodies, politics and classes are also a big topic in this book as well as family mysteries. This might have been my favourite book of the month, I read this fast paced book so quickly and I just gulped it all down, wanting more and more.
Book Haul
Clean Point by Meg Jones
Former tennis prodigy Scottie Sinclair is a cheat.
Or at least, that’s what the world thinks. After all, who would believe she was secretly drugged by her own father before winning the women’s singles title at Wimbledon?
The tabloids have called “Game, Set, Match” on Scottie’s career—but an offer at redemption, and more importantly revenge, may give her the chance at a clean serve.
Nico Kotas reigned the tennis world for almost a decade—until an injury took him from the baseline.
Now with a clean bill of health, he’s hungry for one last title. But his public image needs a new game plan—and according to his coach, his former rival’s daughter is the perfect advantage.
But with old enemies on the sidelines, scandal is seconds away.
Because, after all, revenge is best served Centre Court.
My Date With A Rubber Duckie by Thea Masen
When Anita picks up a Rubber Duckie just like the one she had as a kid, she thinks her terrible day is about to turn around. Nothing beats a duckie for a sounding board, and now that she has one, she’s determined to solve all her life’s problems with a long bath.
But this Rubber Duckie isn’t what he seems…
Das Leben meiner Mutter by Doris Lessing
Es ist die Geschichte einer gegenseitigen Verletzung, die Doris Lessing in diesen Erinnerungen aufgezeichnet hat, nüchtern und konkret, ohne in den Tonfall einer Abrechnung zu »Ich versuchte unentwegt, mich dem Verlangen meiner Mutter zu entziehen, ich solle klüger als alle anderen sein.«
Die Tochter, die in der Tat klüger werden sollte als viele andere, denkt zurück an den kolonialen Alltag im Rhodesien der dreißiger Jahre, an das Dasein ihrer Mutter und an sich selbst, »das Idealbild einer schwierigen Heranwachsenden«. Sie beschreibt, wie unerträglich ihre Mutter war und wie unerträglich sie, die Tochter.
Das unsentimentale, scharfsichtige Porträt zweier Frauen, die einander ein Leben lang fremd blieben.
Beth Is Dead by Katie Bernet
When Beth March is found dead in the woods on New Year’s Day, her sisters vow to uncover her murderer.
Suspects abound. There’s the neighbor who has feelings for not one but two of the girls. Meg’s manipulative best friend. Amy’s flirtatious mentor. And Beth’s lionhearted first love. But it doesn’t take the surviving sisters much digging to uncover motives each one of the March girls had for doing the unthinkable.
Jo, an aspiring author with a huge following on social media, would do anything to hook readers. Would she kill her sister for the story? Amy dreams of studying art in Europe, but she’ll need money from her aunt—money that’s always been earmarked for Beth. And Meg wouldn’t dream of hurting her sister…but her boyfriend might have, and she’ll protect him at all costs.
Despite the growing suspicion within the family, it’s hard to know for sure if the crime was committed by someone close to home. After all, the March sisters were dragged into the spotlight months ago when their father published a controversial bestseller about his own daughters. Beth could have been killed by anyone.
Beth’s perspective told in flashback unfolds next to Meg, Jo, and Amy’s increasingly fraught investigation as the tragedy threatens to rip the Marches apart.
Rückkehr nach Haifa by Ghassan Kanafani
1948 ergreifen während gewaltsamer Auseinandersetzungen in Haifa Tausende Palästinenser die Flucht. Ein Ehepaar wird durch unglückliche Umstände von ihrem fünf Monate alten Sohn getrennt. Sie versuchen erfolglos, zu ihrem Haus und dem Kind zurückzukehren, und bald wird die Grenze zum neu ausgerufenen Staat Israel geschlossen. Erst zwanzig Jahre später betreten sie Haifa wieder. Ihr Sohn Chaled lebt noch in ihrem Haus, doch er trägt eine israelische Uniform und heißt Dov. Er wurde von jüdischen Einwanderern adoptiert. Eine Rückkehr zu seinen leiblichen Eltern lehnt er ab, da er sich seinen Adoptiveltern und Israel mehr verpflichtet fühlt als Blutsbanden.
Soul Of A Gentleman Witch by David Ferraro
Perpetually seventeen, Callum the witch has been in the service of Lucifer, collecting souls, as his own soul is indebted to the devil until he completes 666 tasks for him.
Summoned to Hell on assignment, Lucifer tells Callum that completing his next task will wipe the remaining tasks from his ledger and he will return Callum’s soul to him upon completion. All Callum must do is ensure his latest charge, Augustus, makes it from London to America, by the next blood moon.
As they journey across the sea, Callum grows to care for Augustus “Auggie”. Auggie seems unlike any mark Callum has ever been charged with and Callum wonders why such a noble boy would sell his soul to the devil.
Upon reaching New York, Callum discovers that Auggie never sold his soul to the devil at all but is an innocent. But is Callum willing to forfeit his own freedom to save Auggie?
Our Vicious Oaths by N.E. Davenport
Princess of the Aether Dominion, Kadeesha wants nothing to do with fae politics. She is a warrior, first and foremost, and believes her greatest strength is leading her squadron of elite winged serpent flyers to protect her homeland. But bound since infancy to be betrothed to the Hyperion High King, ruler of all Dominions, she has no choice but to do what men have chosen for her.
Repulsed by the idea, she decides to spend one last night of freedom—in the arms of a dangerous stranger who takes her to sexual heights she’s never experienced before…but who is only using Kadeesha to set a trap for the High King.
For the High King and the kings of his six Dominions were responsible for the decimation of the Apollyon Court, and its new king, Malachi, wants his pounds of flesh.
On Kadeesha’s wedding day, Malachi and his special forces attack. Her father is killed, and Malachi wounds the High King, ultimately taking Kadeesha as hostage back to his land.
But she is no true hostage. The two form a pact: she will help lure the High King so Malachi can kill him once and for all, and he in turn will not harm Kadeesha or the Aether people. And as much as Kadeesha hates politics, she is now the Queen of her folk. Fae bonds are unbreakable…and so, perhaps, is the attraction Kadeesha and Malachi feel for each other. For even as they must publicly display their connection to provoke the High King’s jealousy, they struggle to resist the powerful allure between them in order to achieve their ultimate goals.
The Heartbreak Hotel by Ellen O’Clover
Louisa Walsh emerged from a tumultuous childhood with a degree in counseling, a wealthy boyfriend, and her sunny outlook on life mostly intact. But that optimism is tested when she’s dumped and left unable to afford rent on their gorgeous house in the mountains of Colorado. Even with her life in disarray, Lou knows losing the one stable place she’s ever called home is not an option.
She asks her reclusive landlord, Henry Rhodes, to let her stay for free in exchange for renting out the house’s many rooms as a bed-and-breakfast. She’s shocked when he agrees to her terms, and even more surprised to discover Henry is a handsome thirtysomething veterinarian with silver at his temples and sadness in his eyes. One who does not take it well when Lou starts marketing her B and B as a retreat for the recently heartbroken.
But as the Comeback Inn opens its doors to its weary, hopeful guests, Lou and Henry find themselves dancing around both their undeniable connection and the closely held secrets that threaten to topple this fragile new start. A chance at love, here, could be too close to home…or it could be exactly where their hearts finally heal.
Now on to you; how was your January? What was your favourite book? Do you like seeing operas or operettas? What was the first concert you’ve been to?
Until next time,
