200 Hours

– by Natasha West

 

Well, if you know Natasha West‘s writing style, you know that you’ll have yourself another comedy to read about in her latest. This time, “200 Hours,” is a (very) light-hearted romcom, YA style (uni years). Rich girl/poor girl trope, coming out. It was fun to read how these two polar opposites get together whilst trying to complete their 200 hours of community service under the most horrid social worker’s so-called guidance! Julie. Yeh, or as I’d like to call her, Bodybag!!!! Heh, if you’d watched the prison drama, “Bad Girls,” (which churned out me all-time favourite on-screen lesbian couple, Helen & Nikki, mind!) you’ll know who Bodybag was!! So, Julie was essentially Sylvia “Bodybag” Hollamby reincarnate, what with all her sheer nastiness, that bigoted, vindictive, stupid ol’ cow!! Urgh! But that was the most fun part to read in this book!! OMG! The more the community serving lot (“criminals”) wound her up and took the piss, the funnier it was!

Check out this following excerpt (my favourite slapstick scene!) where Bodybag…I mean, Julie, was barking out her instructions at her tormented criminals to do something to fill the hours:

Return To Doll Island ( Book 2 – Sequel To The Curse Of Doll Island)

– by Ocean

 

Honestly, with THIS cover, could there BE any doubt that this one was gonna leave me panting to catch my breath after?! And that blasted doll!!! Christ, Ms. Ocean!! Now you’ve done it!! Aaargh!!

This sequel…. *ok, honestly, if you haven’t reading Book 1 “The Curse of Doll Island,” do it now before reading this or you’ll be sorely disappointed you’ve missed the crackin’ genesis of all “Return to Doll Island” is offering, not to mention, those bloody dolls!*

…. err, where was I?

Oh, this sequel, right. This one LITERALLY started right after the end of Book 1. So no time for breaks for our MCs, Rosie and Devin! Ocean has definitely hit the nail again with “Return to Doll Island,” a non-stop, heart-pounding, pulse-racing, fast-paced, mad-dash action-adventure that would suck you into the vortex of FUN, THRILLS, and WHIRLWINDS of twists and turns that went from 0 to 60 right from the first page, not to mention BUCKETS of laughter, as Rosie and Devin raced against time to redeem what they “accidentally” LOST by the end of Book 1! Oh yeah, I’m still catching my breath in my mind as I type this! What a wild and absolutely bonkers ride, indeed! And I LOVED every moment of it!!

Meet Me In The Middle

– by Yvonne Heidt

 

Having been one of my favourite paranormal lesfic authors, obviously I’ve read all of Yvonne Heidt‘s books, to date, including this 2017 outing, “Meet Me In The Middle.” My primary draw to Heidt’s books is because of her brilliant writing and narrative style of telling a paranormal story with a nod to her own abilities, which, for me, gives it a more personal, evocative feel when I read it. Doesn’t change even when I re-read her books. Which brings me to “Meet Me In The Middle,” that surprised me when I initially read it because Heidt took a decidedly different route. Yup, she shifted gears and crafted a romantic comedy! Not just any romantic comedy, mind, but one with a cheekily adorable twist, a quirky cast of characters, enriched with emotively written bittersweet moments that evoked deep introspective feels as Heidt manoeuvred the subject of grief. As I read those moments, I couldn’t help feeling that it had a touch of personal realism to it. A conjecture, obvs, but I did feel it, thus, making those moments even more resonating to me. Perhaps there was a reason that my reread occurred at this particular point in time. Oh well… prolly just me! Ignore.

Since I’d read this a year ago (and having been reading so many books since then), I couldn’t remember anything about it other than the fact that I’d enjoyed it immensely. So re-reading it not only gave me a good refresher and helped jog my memory about the plot, to my utter delight, it read even better the second time around! I’m glad I read this again!

Going Up

– by A.E. Radley

Honestly, I feel like A.E. Radley can go no wrong lately with her writing and storytelling, churning out hit after hit that have delighted, warmed and thrilled my heart and mind! Her latest, “Going Up,” was no exception! In fact, I was positively enthralled just by the title of the first chapter, “The Suited Idiot,” alone! I mean, COME ON!!! Who wouldn’t be desperately curious to find out just who the suited idiot was and why they’d garner such an abrasive reference, eh? See, that’s one of the reasons I utterly adore and revere Radley’s writing – her endless wit and dry humour, her vernacular always leave me devouring her stories at not time at all! In other words, her narrative style and storytelling are just my cuppa tea!

Back to this book, it has one of my all-time favourite lesfic tropes – ICE QUEEN. Except in Radley’s case, her ice queen named Selina, was a little different than those I’ve come across in lesfic, thusfar.

Tricky Series (Books 1 & 2)

– by Camryn Eyde

*This commentary applies to the entire Tricky series
(thusfar, with I believe, the 3rd and final installment yet to be released)
including Book 1 “Tricky Wisdom” and Book 2 “Tricky Chances.”

I’m ashamed to say that I had Camryn Eyde‘s Tricky series on me TBR list for a while and actually managed to forget about it until very recently. Thanks to Sheena from TLR who happened to organise a book club read of Eyde’s first book of the series, “Tricky Wisdom,” that instantly kicked me arse into action about reading the series! I’d previously read a couple of Eyde’s shorts a while ago but never her full-length, which was when I had placed the Tricky series on me TBR list in the first place after her shorts. Long story short, I had breezed through both installments back-to-back, never wanting to put them down, whilst berating meself for me forgetfulness in reading them much earlier on! But hey, better late than never, eh?

Now, let’s crack on, shall we?

Camryn Eyde’s Tricky series, “Tricky Wisdom” (Book 1) and “Tricky Chances” (Book 2), essentially is a series that chronicled the personal voyage of one medical student, Darcy Wright, through her eyes and point-of-view as she stumbled her way through medical training in Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital, whilst also getting her previously non-existent love life all bent out of shape by being entangled with her roomie and her best mate! Yeh, Darcy’s life was definitely interesting!

Bugs’ Best Lesfic Books Of 2018

This is me first time publishing me own Best Lesfic Books Of 2018. The list is based on all the lesfic books published in 2018 that I’ve read in the same year. Me Top Ten of 2018 included, obvs! Figure it out. 😉

* Me list of categories was inspired by the incomparable Goodreads reviewer’s, Lex Kent. 🙂

Disclaimer: Me choices of favourites in the following categories are mine and mine alone. The criteria of making the list was solely based on how each book affected me reading pleasure, how it moved, provoked, intrigued, challenged, motivated and inspired me mentally and emotionally. In short, books that gave me ALL. THE. FEELS. End of.

So, here goes nothing…😊