Welcome to Litsy!

While waiting for my copy of Pole Position to arrive from the UK, I was looking for a rivals to lovers queer romance with a slow burn. This is exactly what I was looking for, and I loved it. 5 🌟‘s! I‘m reluctant to read the sequel in case it sours Shane and Ilya‘s story.

It‘s #ManicMonday time! H is an easy letter.

Book: Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid

Author: Robin Hobb

Movie: Hocus Pocus

Show: The Hungry and the Hairy

Singer: Jimi Hendrix

Song: House of the Rising Sun

I know I said I‘m not running #gaymay as a Thing, but I figured I‘d do some recs posts in case any of y‘all do want to read all (or mostly, or more) queer books next month. These grids are NOT exhaustive. They don‘t even include all my faves. They‘re just a bunch of great books for you to explore.

First up: romance. Individual books highlighted in the comments. The tagged book is for weird, emotional hockey romance with a hilarious loon scene.

I was gonna read a library book next, but I‘ve read three awesome queer books in a row and I figure I might as well make it a guaranteed four with the second stop on my Rachel Reid Reread Tour.

HEATED RIVALRY is my fave. It‘s so gloriously emotional and weird. I mean, how many romances deliver hilarious loon scenes? NOT MANY.

This is another enemies to lovers mm romance with lots of spice!! 🌶🌶🌶 I‘m totally not a sport person but Rachel Reid knows her hockey. The others in the series are also good but this one is something special! And she‘s FINALLY RELEASING THE SEQUEL!! In APRIL!!! I did a reread of this one and it was just as good! I can‘t wait until this pair finally have their HEA!! @chasjjlee

All these new books and I'm sitting here re-reading a hockey romance. I'm just not feeling it with anything more demanding at the moment☹️

Part 2 of my 2019 Long List, presented in reading order rather than order of preference.

4.5-star reads are in bronze; 5-star reads are in copper. The former is my loved-the-hell-out-of-it rating; the latter means I loved it so much I‘m incoherent and/or verbose about it.

July stats time! Yeah, I know it‘s a lot. One readathon and a whole bunch of one-day-only novels bumped me up.

I‘m thrilled I had 3 5-star reads last month! I emerged from July totally obsessed with Rachel Reid‘s hockey romances (GAME CHANGER and HEATED RIVALRY) and in glorious, stressful love with RED, WHITE, & ROYAL BLUE by Casey McQuiston. 2019 remains my Year Of Awesome Romance!

I‘m mighty glad I knocked so many books off La TBR, too. Go me!

The current #24In48 challenge is all about romance—and I just so happen to be midway through an unplanned Year of Awesome Romance (and Erotica)! These twelve books are probably my faves, but they‘re far from the only great romances I‘ve read in 2019. Somehow, the genre keeps on coming through for me in a huge way. I‘m mighty glad I fought past my assumptions a few years back and started reading it.

OH MY GOD, Y‘ALL. Rachel Reid is officially on my auto-reads list. Her second book presents as a good boy/asshole enemies-to-lovers romance, but it‘s immediately obvious to the reader that Shane and Ilya don‘t actually hate each other at all. Reid ramps up the angst (and the steam) as she takes us through to the point where they realize it. It‘s a glorious blend of sexy, tense, deep, sweet, fun, & hilarious. (THE LOON SCENE.) I‘m in love. 5 stars.

I emphasized the angst earlier, but this book also made me laugh really, really hard more than once. On top of that, Ilya has totally earned Preferred status on my Queer Assholes List.

Friends, I‘ve been waiting for this alllllll day. HEATED RIVALRY is about 6000% angstier than Rachel Reid‘s first book, GAME CHANGER, but it turns out she‘s awesome at both modes. I‘m gonna wallow in my book and eat my popcorn and try not to bawl my eyes out over hockey players in looooooove.