Tag: friends

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#BlogTour: Reports Of His Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated by James Goodhand

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a hilarious and heartwarming absurdist British drama. For this blog tour, we’re looking at Reports Of His Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated by James Goodhand.

First, the review I posted to the book sites (BookBub.com / BookHype.com / Goodreads.com / PageBound.co / TheStoryGraph.com) and YouTube:

Hilarious (If In An Absurdist/ British Manner) And Heartwarming. I’m going to do this review in two parts, because there is a very key similarity between this book and a (possibly now somewhat obscure) movie that was at one time decently well known – but to reveal which movie is a *massive* spoiler.

So here’s the spoiler free part:

This book is going to make you laugh. It is going to make you cry. It is going to make you reach out to speak with and hold those closest to you, and it is going to make you think about your own life. And it is going to do all of that via allowing you to see through the eyes of a loner recluse that nobody gives a damn about who happens to be mistaken for a dead neighbor. Goodhand does another amazing job of telling a story in such a low key way, yet managing to hit exactly the notes he seems to have been going for. Truly an awesome story that will be a great counter weight to both the bubble gum pop or hyper macho action books you’re reading this summer as well as the extreme dark horror tales some (weirdos – joking, to be clear) look to this time of year or even the nonfiction books that a lot of ppl seek to read in the summer. And yes, guys, put down the nonfiction and read this book. It is absolutely for you, and you’re going to be able to have quite a bit of “teh feelz” in a safe space with this book. Ladies, don’t let the last sentence fool you, you’re going to enjoy this book at least as much as the guys, as there is quite a bit here for you too – just not quite as prominent, more in the sub story with some stuff that is going on throughout the book.

And now… the spoilers. DO NOT READ BELOW HERE IF YOU DO NOT WANT SPOILERS. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Giving.
People.
Who.
Don’t.
Want.
To.
Be.
Spoiled.
Time.
To.
Leave.

Ok, at this point I’ve given everyone’s eyes a chance to leave before you read what I say next, so HERE COME THE SPOILERS.

Mr. Holland’s Opus has to be one of my favorite movies of all time. Its final scene in particular, where Mr. Holland comes to school ostensibly to pick up his last remaining boxes from his classroom after a lifetime of teaching at this school, only to hear some noise coming from somewhere… then following it to find an auditorium full of his former students and colleagues, all there to celebrate him… simply phenomenal.

If you love that movie, and particularly that scene, as much as I do… well, you’re already in the spoiler section of this review. Suffice it to say, without giving *everything* away, that there is a very similar scene here, and it is just as phenomenal as that one. *Maybe* even a touch better. I don’t *know* that Goodhand was aware of this scene, but it at least seems possible.

Now, my job as a reviewer is to both describe my experience with a book and, ultimately, to try to help sell it, even on books I absolutely detest. So particularly when a book was as excellent as this one, I need to talk about the things that I think could help it sell, and thus I *needed* to mention this movie. Plus, I couldn’t help but immediately think of that movie as the scene here was playing out, so I’m also being true to my own experience with the book in mentioning it. But I do know it is a massive spoiler, so it has been embedded in these spoiler tags.

And.
Now.
We.
Come.
Back.
Out.
Of.
The.
Spoilers.

Ultimately, this was truly an excellent book that I think most anyone will truly have a great time with, and in the lower half of the 300 page range, it isn’t a tome that will take weeks to read either, so it should be accessible to most readers.

Very much recommended.

After the jump, an excerpt from the book followed by the “publisher details” – book info, description, author bio, social links, and buy links.
Continue reading “#BlogTour: Reports Of His Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated by James Goodhand”

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#BookReview: The Ripple Effect by Maggie North

Solid Sophomore Effort. This book picks up shortly after Rules For Second Chances, the author’s debut, ends – even though even two weeks after release it isn’t listed or marketed (that I’ve seen) as a sequel or series. Which is critical information, because both of our leads here actually debuted there, with one of them (the male) having a decent sized role in that book that helps explain some of his actions in this book.

Here, North shows growth as a storyteller in that she is breaking away from what she knows as an Autistic and is exploring things from neurotypical perspectives… yet still in manners that are all too real for just how messy things can get. From physically messy – mud in a river camp – to emotionally messy (most everything going on with both of our leads and their relationship prior to the beginning of this book, explained briefly in the book’s opening sequences).

Overall this is a solid romance/ women’s fiction tale of healing from various traumas and maybe finding love along the way… with a fair amount of laughs and a touch of spice – let’s call it jalapeno level – along the way. Read the first book first, but then you’ll absolutely be ready for this one, and while it won’t be “I MUST HAVE THE SEQUEL RIGHT THIS SECOND”, I do believe you’ll both enjoy having this book on hand ready to read immediately after and that this book will make more sense for more readers who have read the two books in close succession. I personally read the books a year nearly to the day apart, with 201 books between them, but fortunately I was still able to follow along reasonably well. This may not be a talent/ ability all readers enjoy though as like North, I too am Autistic, so I’m confident that my recommendation to read them closer together than I did will hold more true for more readers than not.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Ripple Effect by Maggie North was originally written on June 30, 2025. (With apologies for the tardiness on this Advance Review Copy. Some major life events happened just before the release of this book that unfortunately delayed me reading it.)

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#BookReview: Friends Are Forever by Kellie Coates Gilbert

Strong “Finale”. I use “finale” in quotes in the title of this review because it seems we are getting a Christmas “epilogue” for this series later this year, at least per book site listings as I write this review nearly a week before this book publishes.

This noted, the story here absolutely reads like a genuine and strong finale of a series that has put its main characters through quite a lot… and has still more for them to go through. The laughs… and dusty rooms… are both timed and executed well, even as many of them seemingly come out of the blue – particularly the dusty rooms. Yet every aspect here remains perfectly true to who each of the main characters are, even as the situations they find themselves in through the course of this series finale are very unexpected.

Even as someone who first came to this series at Book 4, and thus missed the developments of the first three books, this really was very well done – one of the better finale/ wrap-ups/ send-offs I’ve seen done in a series finale in any medium, and certainly *far* superior to the various infamous finales over the years. No one is waking up and claiming it was all a dream here, y’all. 😉

Read the rest of the series before reading this book. But then make sure you have some tissues ready, because when those dusty rooms hit in this book – and yes, I said “rooms”, as in plural – they *really* hit, and you’re going to need them.

Fortunately each book in the series (at least those I’ve read) is at or under 200 pages, which makes them all fairly quick reads, even for busy parents (or others busy with whatever life you may lead).

By the time you get to the end of this one, you’ll be satisfied with where Gilbert leaves these characters… but you’re also going to welcome that epilogue currently scheduled to release in late October 2025. 😉

Very much recommended.

This review of Friends Are Forever by Kellie Coates Gilbert was originally written on June 23, 2025.

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#BookReview: The Other Side Of Now by Paige Harbison

One Of The Hardest Hitting ‘Glimpse’ Tales I’ve Ever Come Across. This is one of those ‘glimpse’ tales – ala The Family Man (the 2000s era movie with Nic Cage and Tea Leoni) or It’s A Wonderful Life, and yet in its specific mechanics, it hit me harder than any I’ve come across before it. There are really only two books I’ve come across before – that I believe I’ve written reviews for over the years – that even come close, but revealing which two gets way too close to spoiler territory. So read this book then look back through my reviews (available on BookHype.com, PageBound.co, TheStoryGraph, Goodreads, or my blog at BookAnon.com) and see if you can make the connection yourself. 😀 (Ok, so *no one* is going to do that. But it could be a fun challenge for someone who is particularly bored, maybe? :D) Also, don’t forget to leave your own review of this book after you read it. *Then* go look through mine. 😀

But seriously, this is an utterly hilarious book that happens to have a lot of heart – both of which are hallmarks of this type of tale, and both of which are done particularly well by Harbison.

The selection of exact characterization here helps – a regular girl from Florida who has two different dreams which ultimately become two different realities one day such that she gets to live through both and see what both are really like. Yes, there is a fair amount of Hollywood name dropping and commentary, but again, I’ve seen that in many other books with similar characters, and it works well to establish this exact characterization early, particularly since the real ‘meat’ of the book is actually the *other* life.

What made this hit so hard personally was an event I don’t speak much of publicly, but which has direct bearing on this book – but again, I have to be very vague here in order to avoid spoilers. Suffice it to say that my reality – assuming the one I’m typing this review in *is* reality – wound up very different from the one in the book, yet it is also all *too* easy for me to see how my reality could have been a version of this tale, all the way to me becoming a version of our lead character. (Though to be clear, *no one* is casting me as an actor. The one time I acted at all was in a HS play – Midsummer Night’s Dream – and even playing a character who was *supposed* to be a bad actor… damn, I was *really* bad at even that!)

If you’ve never encountered a ‘glimpse’ tale, this is genuinely one of the better ones I’ve come across, particularly in the last few years, so it is a great place to start. Long time fans of the type of tale, like me, will likely enjoy this particular tale quite a bit too.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Other Side Of Now by Paige Harbison was originally written on June 2, 2025.

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#BookReview: Lie In The Tide by Holly Danvers

You Think You Know Me. I fully cop to being one of those people that avoids my hometown in my adult life (other than visiting family members who continue to live there) specifically because high school was hell and I don’t care to catch up with pretty well anyone from that era of my life. (To be fair, the feeling is largely mutual. :D)

So for me, a group of former HS friends deciding to catch up by spending a weekend together to celebrate the upcoming 40th birthday of one of them is… weird.

And yet… Danvers absolutely makes the idea work. The first part of the tale is largely “establishing shots”, with each of our four friends introducing themselves and where they currently are in life as they begin to travel to the meeting point on Cape Cod. This section is admittedly slow… but then, so is this section in many of the best thriller/ horror/ disaster movies or stories.

Once everyone begins catching up, the action begins to pick up – including a scene that reminded me of a long ago college Service Spring Break incident, but to reveal that tale here would get into spoiler territory for the book. Hell, I didn’t even connect it until I began writing that last sentence. 😉 From here, the tale goes less introspective and, eventually, more into “what the hell is going on” / “who can we trust” territory, with a fair amount of exploration of the common theme of “who we are on social media isn’t always who we are in real life” that has been explored so much over the last decade. While Danvers doesn’t really add much to that particular discourse with this tale, she does use it to add a touch of depth to her own story.

I will note that the mystery, once it arrives, was perhaps given away a touch too early with one particular detail that one of the characters revealed in her opening monologue. So for those that just cannot stand solving the mystery before the author reveals it… well… “you think you know me”. In other words… there may yet be more to this tale…

The epilogue in particular offers a stinger that takes this seeming one-off tale and offers the possibility that it could in fact become a series, which those of you who pick this book up with the “Book 1” on its title would already know. (I had received an Advance Review Copy of the text months before publication, though I only read the book about 2 weeks before due to other ARC commitments.)

Ultimately, this actually has a blend of the approaches used in say the “Widows” series by Kimberly Belle, Cate Holahan, Layne Fargo, and Vanessa Lillie – where each author seemingly takes one of four widows and they combine to craft an intriguing and rompy series – and the meta-publishing discussions of say Romantic Friction by Lori Gold – among others – and yet still manages to be fairly uniquely its own thing even with those similarities. It will be interesting to see where Danvers takes this budding series and how long she intends to have it run.

Very much recommended.

This review of Lie In The Tide by Holly Danvers was originally written on May 20, 2025.

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#BookReview: The Love Haters by Katherine Center

Ignore The Haters. Seriously, if one “lesson” can be learned from a rom-com, this is this book’s lesson. But also: Seriously, ignore the haters of this book. They’re wrong, they know they’re wrong, and they can sit there in their wrongness and be wrong. And if they want to come at me, well, I’m a big boy and don’t give a fuck what they think anyway, so they can continue to be wrong in their wrongness while I move on to ever more books. 🙂

This is one of those lighthearted romcoms with a few points, and it is crystal clear that one reason Center wrote this was so that she could expense likely a few trips out to Key West as “business expenses” and have a blast while “researching” this book… And yet even if you want to be so cynical like that… clearly, the research fucking *worked*, because Center absolutely *nails* the entire Key West vibe (particularly the eccentric secondary characters, yes, including the dog who has at least as much personality as anyone else in the book). And while I’ve never been in the Coast Guard, I’ve seen them operating enough from being at sea enough (hello, guy that cruises nearly as much as he reads – and he very much has a reading problem 😉 ) to have a decent idea of the job, and Center nails that pretty solidly as well. From the standoffish “I don’t know you yet” they can project to the closest-friend-you’ll-ever-have once they do get to know you – or if you happen to be their brother and share a tragic backstory. 😉

Come for the eccentric Key West vibes. Yes, no matter what the haters claim, they really do permeate the entire book (says the Florida Man 😉 ). Stay for the serious looks at both body image issues and hurricane survival. The haters do have *one* thing right – even broke clocks get two a day – in that there is never any true “body positivity”, but Center, to me, actually handles these issues in a far more realistic manner, rather than simply glossing over the very real struggles the way so many “body positive” books do. And the hurricane survival bits… again, very, very well done – but Center didn’t exactly have to do as much “research” for this, being based in the Galveston region with its history of hurricanes at least as destructive as those that are known to hit South Florida.

And the dog. My god, the damn dog. Seriously, dog lovers are going to love this dog, and even cat people like me will find this dog fucking hilarious. To the level of damn near stealing most scenes he is in. 🙂

Oh, last note: spice scale: Slightly warmer than a warm glass of milk, I don’t think I’d put this up there with even a jalapeno. Maybe somewhere around a bell pepper or so – enough to have some flavor, but also gentle enough that all but the most sensitive stomachs should be able to handle it easily.

Very much recommended.

This review of The Love Haters by Katherine Center was originally written on May 19, 2025.

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#BookReview: Other People’s Summers by Sarah Morgan

Another Solid Sarah Morgan Book. Long time fans of Morgan know what to expect with her non-Christmas books (nearly the same thing as with her Christmas books, but generally in a more “Summery” location and without the magic of Christmas playing a role). For those new to Morgan, this is actually a solid enough representation of her style to welcome you in.

The characters are (mostly) fleshed out well enough, particularly our various female characters, and they’re all flawed enough in those real world kind of ways to make them relatable to most of us to some degree or another without being so flawed as to be caricatures. The men… could probably have been better fleshed out, but meh, that can be said of most of Morgan’s books. At least with Morgan you’re never going to get a man shown as utterly irredeemable… even as he may not be the *best* man around. (And yes, amongst our men in this book, there is absolutely one that is… not so great, let’s say… among a few that are much better.)

The conflict here is tense enough to drive the plot and provide for at least some Hallmarkie level drama without being such that anyone’s pulse will really raise at all. For those looking for “spice”… not exactly Morgan’s style, and this is no different This, as with most of Morgan’s books (at least in my few years reading many of them now), is about as “spicy” as a warm glass of milk… even with the super hot actress and the adultery discussed herein.

One interesting thing for me in particular is that I’m currently playing Atomfall, which was released just weeks before this book, on my XBox, and both happen to be set in the same general region – the UK’s Lake Country – yet tell *very* different tales. (Atomfall being an alt-history in the style of the Fallout games, but based on a real life nuclear accident in this region back in the 1950s.) So it truly was quite interesting seeing the region from such different perspectives. 🙂

Very much recommended.

This review of Other People’s Summers by Sarah Morgan was originally written on May 1, 2025.

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#BookReview: In The Beautiful Dark by Melissa Payne

Beautiful Execution Of LGBT / Elderly Story Wrapped In Murder Mystery. This was an excellent and beautiful story of several different types of people who don’t often play lead roles in stories coming together to create a particularly powerful one.

You’ve got women loving women – in 1972. You’ve got a whole group of elderly people living in a retirement community in 2024… along with a much younger recluse living in an RV she parks near the community. And yes, you’ve even got both cameo and more expansive scenes with different dogs and even a cat.

Payne handles all aspects of this tale with remarkable care and a particular penchant for showing that no matter our backgrounds or where we find ourselves, we all strive for community and family… and often times, we can be our own worst enemies in having them if we aren’t careful.

The fact that she was able to bring so much near psychological horror level tension into the tale, and even a brief sprint of (somewhat comedic, though this may have been unintentional) action late in the tale truly shows just how well Payne knows her craft, as everything was done pretty damn close to perfectly.

Yes, this is a slow tale – it moves along at about the pace of the elderly people using walkers that so many of the characters are. But it is also a particularly beautiful one in both the characters it chooses to use and the story being told here.

For those looking for more elderly people in books or more naturally LGBT – without feeling forced or preachy at all – this is absolutely a book you should check out, and I genuinely believe you’ll enjoy. If you’re a reader that, for whatever reason, *doesn’t* want to read about either of those types of characters… eh, this really isn’t your book. Just move on in peace rather than one starring it because it has such characters.

Ultimately this really was yet another strong tale from Payne, who has done a phenomenal job throughout her career of creating just such tales.

Very much recommended.

This review of In The Beautiful Dark by Melissa Payne was originally written on April 8, 2025.

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#BookReview: Desperate Deadly Widows by Kimberly Belle, Layne Fargo, Cate Holahan, and Vanessa Lillie

Less Romp. More GirlBoss. Set in the aftermath of Young Rich Widows (though with curious timing, as that book was supposed to take place in 1986, this one is supposed to take place in 1987, and yet at least one character has had events happen that would mean this book would need to be in 1988 at minimum), this is less of the borderline comedic romp Young Rich was and far more GirlBoss now as the titular Widows all find themselves in various positions of power and influence themselves. Oh, and there is a complex murder mystery here with even more twists and turns – of more serious, if less life threatening, natures – than the first book.

And this is actually a good thing, as it shows a great deal of growth of our four lead characters even from the first time they show up in this book all the way through the end. The friendships they managed to create through the first book are going to be put to the test in several different ways here, and while there is a decent amount of comedy still left to be had… it is almost more of a Sisterhood Of The Travelling Pants / Crossroads (the 2002 movie with Britney Spears) type tale here (and indeed, Spears’ last line in Crossroads could well be the ending line here).

Ultimately this really was quite good and a remarkable follow up to Young Rich Widows… specifically *because* it didn’t follow the exact same type of tale and instead went the direction of showing growth in all aspects, even as it remained true to the core of the tale and stylings of the book that came before. This noted, much like say a Big Fat Greek Wedding or a Mamma Mia, while a second tale works much better than one might expect given where the first tale ended… maybe the series ends here. Or maybe Belle, Fargo, Holahan, and Lillie find a way to continue it one more time that makes sense without being a blatant cash grab. But for me at least, this really does work as a finale to these characters and this world, so we’ll see what happens going forward.

Very much recommended.

This review of Desperate Deadly Widows by Kimberly Belle, Cate Holahan, Vanessa Lillie, and Layne Fargo was originally written on April 8, 2025.

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#BookReview: Young Rich Widows by Kimberly Belle, Cate Holahan, Vanessa Lillie, and Layne Fargo

Wild NYC 80s Romp. I really can’t say enough great about this book. The fact that I was able to read it at least partially in a not-so-smoke-filled cigar lounge made it even better personally, if only because it made it that much easier to get “in character” as a dude of the era. (Btw, even though I *was* born in the early 80s, my God, to have been able to be a young adult in that era… the 2000s of my own 20s were wild, but I’m pretty sure that era would have been even more fun. 🙂 ) Moving on…

Seriously, this starts out with a bang… nearly literally… and while the action itself doesn’t start picking up as much until at least the 1/4 to 1/3 or so mark (and *really* in the back half, when it becomes almost a different book), here really is quite a bit to enjoy here. The ladies are clearly distinguished characters – likely stemming from likely having one author handle each? – and the initial “come together” scenes are done particularly well given the overall setting and specific events that have taken place to this point. From there, it becomes a somewhat classic tale of people who think they know each other – and largely hate what they know – being forced to work together to achieve some common goal… before shifting from that into a more action/ thriller tale that Michael Bay would have loved to shoot.

The entire “New York, 1980s” setting hits particularly well as well, complete with the strippers and the drugs and the largesse of the lowlifes, and… well, what I was going to say there gets a touch too close to spoilers, so let’s just say that truly everything about this book simply SCREAMS “1980s NYC”, to the level that you begin to suspect that at least some of the authors had to have at least a version of lived experience here. Yes, it is *that* real and *that* visceral, at least in the side of NYC in this period that it chooses to show.

Overall a book that starts slow but picks up steam, one that people who don’t like multiple POV stories should check out anyway, as it is truly well done in this particular instance. You’ll be glad that its sequel is now ready – I know I was, as I was able to finally start my Advance Review Copy edition of the sequel moments after finishing this book – and yes, you really are going to want to start it right away as well.

Very much recommended.

This review of Young Rich Widows by Kimberly Belle, Cate Holahan, Vanessa Lillie, and Layne Fargo was originally written on April 1, 2025.