Coming in from the Cold (Gravity Book 1), Sarina Bowen

I'm not going to finish or count this one but I figured I'd type it up to remind myself not to try and read it again. There's nothing actually wrong with this book, but the level of melodrama left me cold, and I didn't think the hero was sympathetic enough to try to keep reading.

So: He's a professional skier with a dark secret - his brother and mom both died from a degenerative disease that left them unable to speak or move over the course of years. He's afraid that now that he's 30 he's about to develop symptoms, too, and doesn't want to tell anyone because of his career. He has decided to never have a relationship or a child, so no one else will ever have to deal with this. He goes so far as to say he never even sleeps with anyone; he fucks a lot but he's always out before morning.

Obviously he meets a nice girl and they get stranded in a snow storm and have sex, and he can't run away. Then they have sex again, this time without a condom, even though he NEVER does that, and then he leaves, and even though he warned her -- and even though he repeatedly and wistfully wishes he could stay and have this kind of life, with a house and a girlfriend, and somewhere to belong -- he vanishes.

When he reappears, obviously, she's pregnant, and he won't tell her anything except he doesn't want her to have the baby, and then he storms away, and she cries, and at this point I gave up. It wasn't fun, he wasn't especially sympathetic, and the level of melodrama had hit critical for me. "NO, YOU CAN'T HAVE MY BABY, BUT I WON'T TELL YOU WHY!" "WAAAAAAAAAAAH, BUT I LOVE YOU AND I WANT A BABY." Just talk to her.

I have loved several other Sarina Bowen books, but this one didn't feel worth finishing. Sorry. Maybe I'll try the second book anyway.

Grade: DNF

Us, Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy

!!!!!!

This is a sequel to Him, a book I love in spite of it being a) about hockey players b) written in the present tense d) written in the first person and c) switching POV every chapter or so. Those three things should have knocked it off my to-read but someone gifted it to me, and I was on vacation with no internet, so I read it, and I loved it. And now the sequel is out, and it is EVEN! BETTER!

I mean, it seems like it was designed just for me. First, it's about two guys trying to figure out how to be in love and live their lives and communicate about stuff like money and job stress. I will read that story every time -- I always wish romance novels would go on a few months after the happily ever after. And THEN there are major plots about the stress of coming out, about a famous person dating a not-famous person, AND someone gets terribly sick and needs to go to the hospital and be looked after. This book was coming after every trope I, personally, love.

Other things I love: Jaime's family, Wes's team, Jaime's hockey players, Jaime's repeated reminders to everyone that he's bisexual, not gay. And the sex is hot. Just a delight from start to finish -- I was supposed to go shopping and instead I sat in a Chipotle for an hour and finished the book.

Grade: A

#20 in 2016