Book 43: Save Me a Seat by Sarah Weeks and Gita Varadarajan

This is a middle grade book I read for my YA book club. It tells the story of the first week of fifth grade for two students in alternating POVs, with each author writing one character's POV. Ravi and his family have just moved to New Jersey from India, and the culture shock is pretty rough. Joe isn't particularly popular due in part to his sensory sensitivity, and the fact that his mom has just been hired as a lunch monitor at his school doesn't help him feel like he can fit in.

I found parts of this book really difficult to read, because Ravi in particular tries so hard to be liked and through no fault of his own gets everything wrong and doesn't understand why Dillon, the big bad bully, is being mean to him. Joe understands perfectly well why Dillon is being mean, but feels powerless to do anything about it for the first half of the book. I don't usually get second-hand embarrassment that easily, but when it comes to kids I find it all but unbearable. Luckily none of the individual moments of embarrassment last too long, and the knowledge that by the end Joe and Ravi will be bound together in friendship helped me make it through.

I also really liked that the back of the book had a glossary for both Ravi and for Joe; the book doesn't assume that all of the readers would know all of the terms in Joe's chapters but not in Ravi's, or that the main audience for this book is white American kids.

Grade: B

Book 42: The Closer You Get by LA Witt

Man, I really enjoyed this book. It tells the story of Kieran, a 27-year-old self-described slut who may have the slightest fear of commitment due to his parents' terrible divorce. His dedication to playing the field shouldn't interfere at all with being something of a one man welcome wagon for Alex, a 21-year-old friend of a friend who is trying to escape his homophobic upbringing and explore the LGBTQ scene in Seattle for the first time. Oh, and did I mention that Alex is a never been kissed virgin?

The developing relationship between Kieran and Alex is told really well, and in a lot of ways the predictability of the story adds to its charm. Kieran behaves badly for a bit while figuring out his shit, but never so terribly that it made me turn on him or totally lose patience, and Alex is a delightful wide-eyed ingenue who grows as a character and stands up to Kieran when he needs to. Kieran's backstory lands a bit too heavily at times, but for the most part it works. Overall it's a very solid contemporary romance, and I will be picking up other titles by this author once I've finished this challenge.

Grade: B

Book 41: Cabin Nights by Ashley John

Late last night and early this morning, I was in desperate need of fictional distraction from the all-too-real world. So I decided to read a romance about an adorable university student on a ski vacation who gets snowed in over Christmas with an intriguing ski bum in a cabin with a fireplace and mulled wine and sex coupons. I make excellent life choices.

This novella definitely scratched the itch I had, and fulfilled my need for distraction by delivering exactly what you would expect from that synopsis. It wasn't the best written version of that story that I've ever read, and there could have been more depth to the attraction between the couple. I also found it really jarring when they had unprotected sex without even a cursory nod to the standard "I've been tested and I'm safe" handwave; it felt both unrealistic and also worrying. But on the whole it did its job.

Grade: B  

Book 40: With or Without Him by Barbara Elsborg

When I had gotten about a sixth of the way through this book, I put it down for a moment and wondered how on earth there could be that much story left. What could possibly fill those remaining pages?

The answer, as it turns out, was more ridiculousness than I could have ever predicted, and sadly not in a good way. The premise of the book is fairly absurd in and of itself: a 21 year old music student named Tyler is involved in a big underground prostitution/group sex/pornography ring because apparently the idea of graduating with huge student loans is so distressing the only answer is to sell his body. He agrees to do an additional 'surprise' gig on the same night as his music recital at his college. Haris is a fabulously wealthy venture capitalist who is a donor to the college's program and attends the recital; he is instantly captivated by Tyler and follows him after the recital. This is fortunate, because Tyler is coerced into doing a BDSM scene that he doesn't want to do and almost has a panic attack before Haris (an experienced former dom) can free him. Obviously the next step is for Haris to offer Tyler a contract for four months of him being Haris's exclusive sexual partner in exchange for twenty thousand pounds. And after that things get REALLY unbelievable.

Truth be told, I was actually enjoying the book through all of the above, but after the second kidnapping and fifth murder attempt and so many secrets from their backstories of pain that I lost count, it all just became so dumb I lost any ability to care about these characters, who never felt particularly real to me but who at least started out as fairly interesting in that sort of romance novel stock character way. It was all too much, and not in a good way.

Grade: D