dobbsthedog's reviews
1663 reviews

Audio ARC received from NetGalley, thanks!

Happy sigh…  Pete Cross so totally did this book justice with his fantastic narration.  Really elevated it, and gave Des and Orion so much depth, it was really great.

Received from NetGalley, thanks!

CW: suicidal ideation

I am SO happy to have a new Kris Ripper book to read!  And did I ever devour this.

While it's not my favourite Ripper book, it is still so, so good.  It's incredibly readable and I loved both of the characters.  Plus, I think this is the first book I've read that has a character names Orion in it???  (that may be the name of one of my children, so I'm a bit biased)

Going into the book, I wasn't really sure about the premise; how could anything happen between a former reporter who publicly outed the then star soccer/football player?  But, it worked.  Ripper made me believe it, and in a totally real way, too.  Des and Orion both struggled with their past and their current feelings for each other and how to deal with all of that.  While maybe not entirely realistic, it felt real enough to me and I totally bought it.

I am also a huge sucker for forced proximity as a trope, which is basically all this book is.  Well, the majority of it, anyway.  Des ends up trapped at Orion's secluded cottage after a freak snow storm in April.  I think that everything that happened while they were forced to share a space was realistic and something that could actually happen.  Maybe finding a limping, nearly blind dog in the middle of a snow storm is a bit less likely, but I don't care, it worked for me.  Rescuing a stray dog as a plot device to bring the two characters together 100% worked for me.

I'll say it again, I am SO happy to have a new Kris Ripper to read and I can't wait to have the actual book in my hands so that I can add it to my ever-growing mountain of KR books.

ARC of the rerelease received from Edelweiss, thanks!

HAPPY SIGH. 🫠
This has now become my most reread book ever, at 9 times.

This book was a fantastic look at intersectionality and gender.  However, I must say, that I didn’t find it overly accessible.  I haven’t read anything else from Butler, but I’ve heard that their writing tends to be quite high level.  This was by no means an easy read, but it was worth it.

Some of the bits that I found to be most interesting:
• how colonization is at the root of A LOT of anti-gender laws/attitudes
• that the pervasiveness of the English language has negatively impacted on non-western gender identities
• sexual discrimination actually also covers queer folks (if you think about it logically)
• how terrible TERFs are (obvs I already knew this, but Butler really digs into this topic and it’s fascinating)

I listened to this as audio, and Butler narrates it themself, and I’ve got to say, I don’t know if I was entertained or mildly offput by the number of times this mid-60s non-binary person said the word penis. SO MANY TIMES. It was in the section about TERFs and how it basically boils down to the fact that they blame penises for rape, and it was an excellent take down of TERF rhetoric. But, so many penises…

Overall a fascinating read, though quite academic.

If you want a more thorough review, I highly recommend this one, which is the entire reason I picked this book up in the first place.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6101982360

I don’t even know how to rate this…

It was absolutely bonkers, but also hilarious.  I really appreciated the authors CWs at the beginning, because dubcon is very much not my thing, so I’m glad that I had a heads up, as well as the rationale behind it.

As I said, a fucking bonkers book about a hitman who falls in love with his mark, a bi-awakening, and sweet sweet revenge.  I also appreciated that mixed in with all of the bonkersness there was also time for Brody to try to understand his internalized homophobia, the challenges of an open marriage, a bit of meta trope use analysis, and found family.

Definitely an enjoyable read (though if you’re considering it, please check the CWs, as this book is rife with questionable content that not everyone will be okay with), and I’ll be looking out for the next in the series!

*SPOILERS AHEAD!*

This was another bookstagram/good reads made me do it!  I’ve been seeing this book everywhere and initially wasn’t going to bother with it, after not enjoying the author’s debut.  But then the audio popped up on Libby, so I thought I’d give it a try.  And it was fine.

I quite disliked Wren Martin for the entire book, he was not a likeable or sympathetic character.  Part of this could be that I’m just really over YA, so I have zero time for mean, whiny protagonists who don’t see much development over the course of the book.  Wren is still mean and whiny at the end of the book.  I also thought that he treated Leo quite badly, including intentionally embarrassing him in front of their friends with PDA.  Like, that seems mildly dubcon to me.

I also didn’t like that he really seemed to dislike his dad.  Like, constantly making snide jokes and comments about his dad’s OCD (NOT FUCKING COOL) and lifestyle choices.  Maybe it was meant to be more of a stereotypical *all high schoolers hate their parents* thing? But it just added to Wren’s overall unlikeability.

Also, bad chicken rep.  At one point Wren has been cleaning their coop for an hour and is a disgusting mess, which just wouldn’t happen.  To clean a coop for five chickens should take 10-15 minutes MAX, and if you’re filthy afterwards, you are doing something very wrong.  Also, Wren should have been getting just as filthy (but likely more so) sitting with the chickens while he did his homework and having them sit on him, than he would cleaning their coop.  

And again, as with DeWitt’s first book, I don’t entirely get the point of the asexuality part.  Like, it plays virtually no role in the overall story, which is disappointing.  At most Wren uses it as an excuse to not date, which is not asexuality, that is aromanticism.  And I know it’s not up to me to be any sort of asexuality police, it’s a spectrum and is experienced differently, but to me it feels like it’s just stuck in there to make the character more interesting (maybe?), and not as an actual part of the character.  Like, *I’m asexual so I don’t date and hate Valentines dances!*, but then behaviourally there is nothing there to indicate Wren’s aceness.  I guess I wanted more from the character being ace, and maybe that’s because I’ve read other books with asexual protagonists that were excellent, and this one just fell flat.

And lastly, did everyone else figure out who Buddy Boy was almost immediately?  Was it supposed to be some sort of big reveal?

Okay, I think I’ve actually talked myself down a star rating over the course of writing this review…

I am really unsure of what to think about this book.  I listened to the audio, which felt really chaotic and difficult to follow.  And then the ending felt very fast and sort of abrupt?

I feel like I could probably benefit from reading this again, yet really don’t want to.  It was a bit much being in Enid’s head…

Ugh, it’s like I forget how fucking good Kris Ripper books are if I don’t read them regularly. 

And this one was SO good! I’m back to my SMU reread, including all of the side novellas, and this was a new-to-me story!  Which doesn’t happen in SMU much anymore.  I don’t know why I waited so long to read it, it was excellent.

I really loved all of the conversation happening between Ally and Paul.  I liked the frank discussions about Paul and his use of a wheelchair.  I’ve read one (I think?) other book with a wheelchair user in it, and it wasn’t nearly as good as this one (imo, I’m obvs not the wheelchair user rep police).  I also really appreciated that this was a book with a lot of sex in it, but with zero PIV sex.  It was about exploring what made each of them feel good and erogenous zones and what sex can look like for someone with no sensation below their waist.  

It was also great to see Justin from Fail Seven Times, as the class (BDSM and Dating) that this story revolves around is mentioned in FST.  And I loved getting to meet Paul and see how he and Ally met/got together.  In the New Years novellas, he just kind of pops up, so I really enjoyed getting to read his and Ally’s story.

I can’t wait to continue with the reread!