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A review by goodbyepuckpie
Rogue Acts by Ruby Lang, Molly O'Keefe, Ainsley Booth, Olivia Dade, Jane Lee Blair, Stacey Agdern, Andie J. Christopher
Really liked Olivia Dade's Cover Me (content warning: parental death and mourning, cancer) and thought it was a beautiful and nuanced sweet romance with a good heart; it was moving without veering into treacle-y and both protagonists were great. I liked getting to see slightly older than average romance novel characters here, too.
Also enjoyed Ruby Lang's the Long Run - I really liked this one as well; great sense of place and very sympathetic characters.
Ainsley Booth's Personal Audition was a neat f/f romance; I think it hit the beats it needed to really well and both characters were great. Also, I don't know the standup scene at all, but it felt very convincingly drawn, and having the POV character's (very short) act be all explicitly in text was really effective and did some great character work too.
Molly O'Keefe's Make You Mine was solidly readable and well composed m/f (and boy was Jay relatable with the whole punching a fascist sexist dbag bit).
I struggled with Never Again by Stacey Agdern--the Jewish rep was really good to see, and seemed (to me as a non-Jewish person; I'm very happy to be informed better by Jewish friends) to be well done. I really liked how the characters' faith tied into the theme of the book so explicitly (and the superhero nods were a good example of how to make a reference that's knowing/clear but also not going to throw a reader out of the story), but it was jarring every time to see the name the clearly-an-actual-hockey-fan writer had given the president. (And believe me, I am not a fan of that dude's team. It just left a bad taste in my mouth to use an easily recognisable sports rivalry figure's name for a deeply and unquestionably evil person.)
I tapped out on Andie Christopher's Brand New Bike because the tone was just not my thing at all; fans of a particular media empire may appreciate it more.
His Neighbour's Education by Jane Lee Blair I also struggled with a bit--it was solidly written and I liked the importance of their Christian faith to the characters; that all made sense for motivation and characterisation, but it was also tipped more towards a tone I'm not into and was really not for me.
(Also, I think I know what the author was trying to get at from a characterisation point of view, and there are ways to express that which are not offensive, but considering the way that the lack of separation of Church and State is being used to harm people in the USA right now, having your POV character state that she "wants to punch people who say there's no prayer in schools" was, uh, a poor reading of the room.)
Also enjoyed Ruby Lang's the Long Run - I really liked this one as well; great sense of place and very sympathetic characters.
Ainsley Booth's Personal Audition was a neat f/f romance; I think it hit the beats it needed to really well and both characters were great. Also, I don't know the standup scene at all, but it felt very convincingly drawn, and having the POV character's (very short) act be all explicitly in text was really effective and did some great character work too.
Molly O'Keefe's Make You Mine was solidly readable and well composed m/f (and boy was Jay relatable with the whole punching a fascist sexist dbag bit).
I struggled with Never Again by Stacey Agdern--the Jewish rep was really good to see, and seemed (to me as a non-Jewish person; I'm very happy to be informed better by Jewish friends) to be well done. I really liked how the characters' faith tied into the theme of the book so explicitly (and the superhero nods were a good example of how to make a reference that's knowing/clear but also not going to throw a reader out of the story), but it was jarring every time to see the name the clearly-an-actual-hockey-fan writer had given the president. (And believe me, I am not a fan of that dude's team. It just left a bad taste in my mouth to use an easily recognisable sports rivalry figure's name for a deeply and unquestionably evil person.)
I tapped out on Andie Christopher's Brand New Bike because the tone was just not my thing at all; fans of a particular media empire may appreciate it more.
His Neighbour's Education by Jane Lee Blair I also struggled with a bit--it was solidly written and I liked the importance of their Christian faith to the characters; that all made sense for motivation and characterisation, but it was also tipped more towards a tone I'm not into and was really not for me.
(Also, I think I know what the author was trying to get at from a characterisation point of view, and there are ways to express that which are not offensive, but considering the way that the lack of separation of Church and State is being used to harm people in the USA right now, having your POV character state that she "wants to punch people who say there's no prayer in schools" was, uh, a poor reading of the room.)