Gail

It's messed up how much I'm enjoying this. Just hanging out with a girl without worrying about how I'm going to get rid of her or that she's going to start making demands on me.

Garret, that is like the least messed up part of this whole book.

I wanted to try my first hockey romance this year, and for some reason I chose The Deal by Elle Kennedy. I can't remember what or who initially drew me into this book, but I ended up loving the way the author incorporated so many fun tropes — bad boy with a soft spot, forced to share a bed, fake dating, etc. The bickering between characters and the melodrama of the plot made this the perfectly quick read to get me out of my latest reading slump and I devoured it in a day or two.

That being said, this book was also kind of terrible. In fact, I'd like to give a bombastic side-eye to the following:

✦ The part where Garret or Gavin or Graham calls her playlist “wicked eclectic” and it's literally Etta James, Adele, Queen, Ella Fitzgerald, Aretha, and the Beatles. I love those musicians, but I wouldn't call that an eclectic range.

✦ The part where Garret flashes a boyish grin and Hannah thinks to herself,

He really has mastered that little boy look. Except he's not a little boy. He's a man with a big, strong body and a chin that lifts in determination.

I hope the answer to that is yes and that they anal-probed you for ten hours straight, because you deserve it for ignoring me for more than a week

Maybe because I know what a slut Logan can be. I can't even count the number of times I've seen a chick do a walk of shame out of his bedroom.

should

why

The Deal

With all the flag-waving and cavorting, you might forget they was monsters. But I hunt monsters. And I know them when I see them.

I've been on a quest to find a horror novel that has all the elements I love in a horror movie, and this book's characters and dialogue jumped off the page and into my mind like a film projector on a mountainside. Disturbing but beautiful, heartfelt yet brutal, Ring Shout is a study in contrast. The elements of diasporic folklore, the historical setting, and the break-neck pacing all grabbed my attention and refused to let me go for 185 pages.

For how short it was, this book packed a sucker punch. Ring Shout is just the right length — long enough to explore its ideas and build a solid plot, but short enough to leave readers desperate for more. P Djèlí Clark books will be instant purchases for me from here on out thanks to the candid voices of his characters and gorgeous, gorey descriptions. Five stars.

While you slept, the world changed.

I've been a long time fan of the X-Men movies, but I'd never REALLY cracked open an X-Men comic until this August (unless you count the giant-size compendium I bought in high school and never read). House of X/Powers of X is a good jumping in point for readers that already have a cursory knowledge of major characters, but I think it would be a bit disorienting for someone completely unfamiliar. There was plenty of cool worldbuilding and dramatic moments to keep me engaged, and I'm interested to follow these character's stories throughout the Krakoan era.

I love the idea of a robot designed for violence being socially awkward and obsessed with trashy TV. This novella felt like a solid first episode in a great sci-fi TV series — action packed, a memorable protagonist, and a relatively small scope. It was refreshing that rather than being a super skilled Terminator type, that Murderbot's combat method is essentially cannon fodder. For me, the plot itself wasn't the most original story line, but the concept of SecUnits and the internal monologue of Murderbot kept the pages flying.

I'm curious to see Murderbot's journey with his identity throughout the series, and hopefully learn more about how SecUnits work — from what I understood, all SecUnits have human consciousness, just not human will due to the commands of their system. This definitely has me interested in reading the sequel, Artificial Condition.