AS i suspected, putting too much pressure on my readzine had me avoiding it at every turn. Not so much avoiding, really, just freaking out over everything else I had to do. I miss the days when Summer meant taking it easy, little responsibility, cool snacks. My summer has been stressfull, hectic, and chaotic.
But alas, here I am doing my very best. What I did do over the summer is read a lot I wrote a lot I went to an author conference and got (now 4) manuscript requests from big publishers and agents. I got Covid. I saw my mom. I got a raise. I met Casey McQuiston and spent 12 hours in a corset. I cried. God, did I cry this summer. Lots of migraines. Because thats a thing that happens now.
editor love,Pao
It seems fitting that my favorite Greek myth that i tend to infuse into everything I write is Icarus. I often fly too close to the sun, and I always think there’s going to be something to catch me before I hit the ground. But alas. We keep flying.
I can’t promise this issue will be good. Or much of anything. I’ll give you an overview of what I read and highlight my faves And you’ll get some fun insight into my favorite paintings as we go.
Or not, who knows?
Thanks for being here anyway. If you stay. I won’t blame you if you go.
“Green was the silence, wet was the light, the month of June trembled like a butterfly.”
-Pablo Neruda
“It’s July and I have hope in who I am becoming.”
— Charlotte Eriksson
“August is a time of growing up, of forgotten forever’s, full of the sweetest intent.”
— Meka Boyle
This book ruined me for all other books. CMQ at their absolute best. It’s been nearly a month since I finished it and I still think about it every single day, multiple times a day. The Pairing is a different caliber of romance. It goes beyond the two people are the forefront. It’s about romancing life, art, culture, food, pleasure. It’s not just that Kit and Theo are in that kind of love that’s palpable and drips off the page like honey, it’s that their love and their joy is magnified by the wistfulness of France, of Italy, of Spain. These places are so real, you can smell the ocean, feel the heat, taste the sweetness of a peach, the buttery undertones of a white wine, the creamy lightness of a pastry.
This is what it looks like when an author writes something they absolutely adore. About people they absolutely adore and have painstakingly taken the time to get to know and allow them to tell their own story. Theo and Kit are as real as you and me, but so are all the side characters. I fell in love with that entire bus of people.
The most successful thing about this is the voice. The distinct difference between Theo and Kit’s voices that are so clearly infused by who they are, where they came from, how they approach life. Kit is as leisurely and romantic as Theo is impulsive and sensual. Their conversation about gender and Theo’s pronouns is one of my favorite scenes in queer literature. When Kit compares Theo to both the divine feminine in Venus to the divine masculine in Apollo, it serves as a stark reminder that our most beautiful and powerful beings worshipped in the most ancient cultures existed outside the realm of gender entirely. They were simply divine.
and so is this book.
THE PAIRING
I have to believe that this painting inspired the cover art in some way, because it is so perfectly Theo and Kit. A sloppy, drunken kiss, indeed. With the couple being kept purposefully androgynous, melting into one another like spilled wine, absolutely ignorant to the rest of the bar around them.
CO-OP THE
T A R A H D E W I T T
TROPES
MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE
SECOND CHANCE
GOLDEN RETRIEVER BF BLACK CAT GF
TARAH DEWITT HAS BECOME MY NUMBER ONE TRULY, I CANNOT GET ENOUGH OF HER WRITING. SHE SITS IN THIS BEAUTIFUL GAP BETWEEN EMILY HENRY AND ABBY JIMENEZ BECAUSE SHE’S GOT COMPELLING, EMOTIONAL STORIES; FLAWED AND LOVABLE CHARACTERS; HOT ASS SMUT; AND HUMOR!!!!! SHE IS SO FUNNY!!!! TRULY MY FAVORITE THING ABOUT TARAH’S WRITING IS HER ABILITY TO INTEGRATE COMEDY IN A WAY THAT IS NEW, FRESH, UNEXPECTED, BUT REAL NOT CRINGEY OR FAKE IN ANYWAY WHEN I SAY I’M LAUGHING OUT LOUD, I AM.
THE CO OP HAS SUCH A SPECIAL PLACE IN MY HEART. NOT JUST BECAUSE DEACON IS PROBABLY THE MOST PERFECT BOOK BOYFRIEND KNOWN TO MAN, BUT BECAUSE IT JUST HIT ME IN A SPECIFIC WAY I SAW MYSELF IN LARYNN, IN HER ANGER, IN HER STUBBORNNESS AND HER (AT TIMES) SELFISHNESS SHE IS A COMPLICATED CHARACTER THAT DESERVES SO MUCH MORE LOVE THAN SHE GETS BECAUSE SHE IS FLAWED AND INSECURE AND SHE IS TRYING HER BEST TO LIVE WITH ALL THE GUILT SHE CARRIES. ENTER DEACON WITH HIS EASY-GOING PERSONALITY, HIS CHARM, HIS FIX-IT ATTITUDE, HIS DETERMINATION TO GET HER TO WORK WITH HIM... THESE TWO HAVE MY HEART IN SUCH A SPECIAL WAY. AND THE EPILOGUE!!!!!! PERFECT.
MICROTROPES MUTUAL MASTER BAITING VOLLEYBALL IN A THONG BIKINI SHE’S SO MEAN AND HE LOVES IT SO MUCH VINYL COLLECTION!
This book hit me so much harder than I expected it to. I loved the Vegas so much because they reminded me so much of MY family, loud and overinvolved and opinionated and made of so much love Yes, they had their problems but what I really loved about this was that it wasn’t a story where the main character says “you’re toxic” and cuts her family off. They all sit, they discuss, they actively take steps to try to solve it and work towards supporting one another. That, and how well these two cultures were melded and represented Such a perfect union of Irish and Puerto Rican heritage bound not just through Liam and Kamilah, but through their grandfathers. They were the true geniuses behind this, and I loved them so so much. This is definitely one of my fave books of the year, and it makes me happy and hopeful to see a lost Latina getting her happy ever after.
THE E X VOWS
ProspectsThe
K.T. Hoffman
T H E W E D D I N G P E O P L E A L L I S O N E S P A C H
Left of Forever TarahDewitt
Dear Stranger...
As you’ve noticed, I have no shortage of praise to give Tarah Dewitt. She doesn’t get half as much hype as she should and I have made it my personal mission to change that. For some reason or another she found it in her to send me a (very) early copy of LEFT OF FOREVER, sequeal to SAVOR IT, and there has not been a day that goes by that I don’t think of Wren and Ellis. I alraedy told you, the Childhood Friends-Lovers-ExesLovers Second Chance is going to have such a beautiful moment and it’s because of books like this. I love it so much that I have a hard time really putting it into words. Just know that Wren and Ellis are everything everyone wants when they fall in love young, and maybe it’s that kind of pressure that led to their divorce in the first place. But there is something to be said about time, about growing apart because you’ve becomed too accustomed close together, about holding on to the communication, to the passion, to the honesty. This had me brusting out laughing but also ugly crying and spamming Tarah at 3 AM and I’ve read it another time since. It is just so special to me. Wren and Ellis are so special to me. The CAMEO in this is so special to me. Tarah is so special to me. I can’t wait to hype this book all the way to the Bestseller list.
I had a lot more planned for this issue but I have been dragging it on long enough and I don’t want to lose my momentum. Thank you to those that have been patient and actually care to read this.
WRITING UPFATE: I have revived and dusted off my boxer romance titled THUNDERBOLT, and have effectively outlined the entire trilogy As such, that is my main focus right now (because in all honesty I’m a point with the Rivers that has me desperately seeking something else to focus on).
The next few pages will have an excerpt, and I do want to send some chapters out to anyone willing to be an Alpha reader :)
Thank you thank you thank you
editor love,Pao
THUNDERBOLT EXCERPT
Jasper Callaghan is a pretty boy fighter with a nose that served as target practice for most of his opponents. As such, Dr. Emory Garcia—who’d grown up close to the Callaghans and is a big fan of Jasper’s—is usually close by to set his nose to rights when things get too bloody.
“Sinus infection,” Garcia sighs.
Jasper sniffs, shaking his head out after the last set of nasal drops. “Nothing new.”
“Try to keep it intact,”
“No promises.”
Marco snickers from behind him, earning a scowl from Garcia. Marco throws his hands up. “What? He’s got to give the rest of us a shot. Motherfucker is still handsome even when his face is beat to hell.”
Jasper smirks, shaking his head. Marco isn’t wrong. While Garcia has lost count of the amount of times he’s had to readjust his nose, even with the crooked bridge and deviated septum, he’s a pretty boy. Tack on a sharp jaw, full lips, thick eyebrows, and a floppy head of hair with a seamless fade—it doesn’t matter how much you fuck him up in the ring, he still has that annoyingly winning smile and glint in his hazel eyes that knows he’s hot shit.
His gaze flickers to Everett when the doors open, hand pausing midway to bringing his headphone to his ear. Opal stays close to Everett in the surprisingly vast locker room, her cheeks pink, the cutest fucking rainbow sweater on her shoulders.
Jasper straightens. His hands are wrapped up already, tape brushing against his jaw as he lets his headphones drop to his shoulder. “Opal?”
“Hey,” she tosses him a small wave, chewing her lip. Maybe it’s that the last time she’d seem him, he was in his bartending uniform—a simple black tee, some jeans. But now, with his tanned, tattooed skin, taut over bulging muscle—those powerful arms are a sight to behold.
His shorts are gold to match his gloves, high up on his waist. Any movement or adjustment he makes tightens and carves out his abs. Her eyes linger on the snack tattoo on his shoulder, dropping down to the lightning storm on his forearm. There’s a shine to him like he’d already started sweating, or he’d been oiled up. It’s enough to have anyone drooling over him.
She swallows.
“What are you doing here?” He asks, much more accusatory than he meant. And then, in an attempt to lighten it, he adds. “What are you wearing?”
Opal blinks, looking down at her sweater. It’s a soft, oversized thing that’s comfortable and had been perfect for a long day at school. Evidently, not as perfect for Fight Night.
Jasper hops off the table, and she meets him in the middle, holding the bag out semiawkwardly, feeling too many eyes on her. She smiles at Jasper, and the way the lights pour down make her eyes look caramel. “I told you I owed you.”
He pulls an Adidas box out of the bag. Black Ultra Boosts that are perfectly his size. He looks at her, eyes widen. “Opal, you really didn’t have to.”
“I wanted to,” she says. “I couldn’t stand the thought of you trying to wash the shoes after I puked on them.”
Behind her, Everett’s eyebrows shoot up at his brother. He’d yet to hear that story. Jasper cuts him a look. He smiles at Opal. “Well—thanks—“ he blinks. “How did you know my size?”
“My sister has this weird talent of guessing people’s shoe sizes,” she shrugs. “It works maybe, 70% of the time. So don’t be too impressed yet.”
“Which sister?” Marco asks, shushed by an irritable Sal.
Jasper chuckles. He sets the shoes aside to try them on later and looks back at her. He’s not sure what else to do.
He catches her looking at his hands and flexes his fingers. “It’s so I don’t shred them up.” She glances up at him. “You usually get hurt?”
“Kind of comes with the gig. The goal is to make the other guy uglier than me.”
She scoffs out a laugh, shaking her head. “You’re not ugly.”
Jasper smirks. “So I’ve heard.”
He’s thrilled to see her blush.
“Let’s not get too excited, though. We don’t know where my nose will end up after Martinez is done.” He clears his throat. “Are you going to stay for the fight? Or is this a personal shoe delivery service?”
THUNDERBOLT EXCERPT
Opal giggles. Her face is still hot. She presses her hands into her cheeks and wonders if she’s as feverish as she feels.
“I’d love to see the fight,” she says. “If I won’t distract you too much, of course.”
He smirks, nodding his head at Everett to keep an eye on her. “Hopefully that sweater catches Martinez’s eye and wins me the match.”
“What is this problem with my sweater?” She huffs, pulling it tighter aroundd her. “You got a problem with me, Thunderbolt? I threw a punch at your brother today, I’ll KO you right now.” As if to prove her point, she gives him a halfhearted punch to the chest, her breath hitching at just how firm he is.
Jasper throws his head back with a laugh, his hand over his middle, every muscle in his core contracting. “It’s a cute sweater. I’ll get one for my next press conference.”
The organizers call 10 minutes to bell, and Jasper retreats for prep and pre-fight rituals. He holds out his headphone to talk to Everett when his brother takes Opal’s hand to lead her to their seats. “Hey E, watch your shoes.”
It’s Opal’s turn to laugh, flipping him off as she trails behind Everett. “Don’t break your nose, Callaghan.”
