Sunday Post: April 18, 2022

Hello, my lovelies.

Another Monday Sunday Post. I really had all the good intentions yesterday…but I slept late, and then the lovely roomie had a free day, so we played games and made cookies in the afternoon, followed by book club at 6.

After that, my bestie had the evening free, so we talked till 2 am. It was seven hours that still left us feeling like we could have talked for seven more, but I was so glad to have made the time for a real catch-up session. I remain in awe of our friendship, that 31 years in, we can still just…talk for seven hours. No gaps, no awkward silences…we just talk.

I’m pretty sure we could talk forever.

But then it was 2 am, and I hadn’t written a thing all day. And I think that was OK.

It was a frustrating week. I have been trying to sort out an issue with my passport since September, and the State Department is not making that easy. Tomorrow, I’ll go back into an endless hold queue, trying to make my way to an agent. I was on hold for 3 hours Friday before they closed early for the holiday and just…disconnected my call. I am traveling in five weeks, so I really need someone to deal with this. If nothing else, I guess when it gets to within two weeks, they will expedite the issue—but wouldn’t it just be easier if we didn’t wait that long?

I hate beaurocracy so much.

I did bake this week—I made a really good vanilla cake filled with Apricot Jam and White Chocolate Mousse, but wow was it messy! The jam and the mousse were not at all up to the task of holding the cake together, so we basically ate it with a spoon. Next time, I either need some sort of form to hold the cake together till it all sets up, or I need to do it as a sheet cake, and let the cake pan provide the structure. But daaaamn, it was tasty.

I read… holy crap, TWELVE books this week. This brings me to 84 of my goal of 175, 33 books ahead of schedule.

Well, that’s just NUTS.

I’m very much back in a queer romance space. The Ella Frank/Brooke Blaine Dare to Try trilogy was the standout (really, I guess I read fifteen books, since I read all three of these practically twice.) Gorgeous bi-awakening story of Bash, the sartorially-fluid gay tech billionaire, and Kieran, the very straight fireman who rescues him from a burning building, and then can’t quite get him out of his head. They start as tentative friends, and their love story develops organically over the three books, with the expected slow burn and ups and downs that Frank and Blaine are known for. It’s a roller coaster and the HEA is so satisfying. I read all three books in one sleep-deprived day. It was amazing.

The Becca Seymour basketball duology, No Take Backs//No More Secrets was sweet, with childhood friends reconnecting and finding love, and two adult best friends crossing a line that they can’t walk back…and discovering the maybe they don’t even want to. Pretty low-angst, and so adorable. Say You’ll Be Nine was a fake dater, wherein two guys pretend to be in a relationship so they can film a reality TV show about renovating a cabin in the woods. Things go about as well as you’d think, and their relationship doesn’t stay fake for long. That one was also adorable.

The rest were less successful for me, with Landslide and His Heart Knows so completely unmemorable that I would have to go read the synopsis to remind myself who the characters were. Hand Picked was the second entry in the Sunday Brothers Orchard series, and, while it was fine, I am not sure when I will get around to reading another one. Out in the Open was a servicible first entry in AJ Truman’s Browerton University series, this one featuring a super-serious pre-law student and the deeply-closeted frat boy who pulls him out of his comfort zone. I liked it, but again, wasn’t compelled to dive into the rest of the series. And Queerly Beloved was this week’s #arc review, and I just found it…irritating.

Finally, this month’s bookclub selection was The Maid, which I really loved as a character study, but thought was less successful as a mystery.

Whew! That was a lot of books. Really not sure if I even slept this week.

OK, that’s all from the 52 Reading Room, where we have invested in eye drops to counter-act the effects of so little sleep.

Till next week, stay safe, wear a mask regardless of what Florida tells you to do, and try to get more rest than I do.