#fave dads

(Go watch Logan, I don’t care who you are or what you think of X-Men, go because...reasons.)

Okay so once again Thelma and I are just too busy to take the time to discuss our picks on a post here pn tumblr, we had to do this behind the scenes and here I come to you with the end result already set!

As Usual:

Here is the Announcement for the theme

Here are the Rules (we break them but we TRY NOT TO)

My Goodreads

Thelma’s Goodreads

Okay, now the actual TOP!

1) Jon Glass from the Lynburn Legacy trilogy by Sarah Rees Brennan (My post, Thelma’s post)

2) Prince Brigan from Fire by Kristin Cashore (my post)

3) Evan from How Evan Broke His Head and Other Secrets by Garth Stein (my post)

4) Dalinar Kholin from The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson (Thelma’s post)

5) Adam from the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs (Thelma’s post)

(This picture does not include the last book in the series because...I couldn’t find a pic that did? Google failed me.)

This is it for this month!

When Thelma reads this she will probably have to sit down and take deep breath because…

This is a contemporary novel!

To be precise this is an adult contemporary novel dealing with a young man suffering from epilepsy that suddenly he is father or a teen-ager and since the kid’s mum just tragically died he has to suddenly grow up –a thing he really is not ready to do- and take responsibility for this child’s life.

He is a musician, his life is anything but structured or typical…this does not look easy.

I grabbed this book in my local library one summer, completely on a whim and devoured it. I was so incredibly surprised about how much I enjoyed it, and to this day it’s one of the few contemporary I can call a favorite that is not a thriller-mystery or adventure novel. It was a little summer miracle.

If you asked me today what caught my eye about it I would have no idea...perhaps the cover.

(This is the italian cover of the edition I read)

Yet what it’s amazing is that once I read the synopsis I did not put it down and never looked back. I took it, read it and never regretted it.

It’s been a while since I read it but so sadly I don’t have a perfectly clear picture of  it yet I’ll try to describe what I loved so much.

Usually I’m a fan of those father that are very reliable, strong and kind they offer support and acceptance to their kids. Evan is so not that! He is a mess, as I said, a sort of Peter Pan. His epilepsy –which he fights with medical use of marijuana too- influences every aspect of his life (and by the way, personally I think the depiction of the illness was great, showed how big it was but never Evan was reduced to his condition) and his career is really not the most stable. YET! He shows his son, Dean, little by little, that even as weird and imperfect and unconventional as they are they can be a family, Evan will do his best and hopefully Dean will help him along the way and show him how to better be a family with him.

This is really it, just the fact that this is the story of how a guy in his thirties gets a teen ager son and is along figuring out how to be a Dad. A Dad to a teen age boy. Wow, am I right?

I honestly completely and totally loved it.

Not much else to add considering this is a contemporary…anything else would be a spoiler, literally!

I just…hope anyone that picks it up can enjoy it too!

Here is the Goodreads’ synopsis.

IMPORTANT LINKS

My Goodreads

Thelma’s Goodreads

Rules

Announcement

(I know the covers are as usual TRAGICALLY BAD and remember: this is not the entire series! check the Goodreads link)

I already had chance to mention that I read a whole lot of LGBTQIA+ romance and I especially have read a loooot of male/male romances.

I stand by the fact that this is my favorite kind of romance and I’m looking forward to finding some Female/female story that steals my heart the same way. (Edit. Avon Gale, one of my favorite author in the romance genre just announced an F/F romance and I’m hoping to check it out and fall in love: the title is The Love Song of Sawyer Bell)

This is the perfect occasion for me to shout out a very nice series in the genre that also gave me some of the greatest parents in my romance reader experience!

The Sinners series is an (apparently) ongoing suspence romance with male/male couples. 

First something about the plot: there is a rock boy band made and an Irish family. The band had an accident and tragedy happens. The Irish family is numerous and basically everyone is in some sort of police-military related activity. Irish boys fall for rock musicians, basically.

This is the kind of esthetic that steals my soul, okay? I love suspense romance because I’m a sucker for thrillers, mystery and any kind of police procedural ever…add to that the rock band edginess and I AM YOURS.

In all this mix, the Irish parents basically end up adopting in the big family the rockers and it’s found family perfection! (If you didn’t know this, Hi, I’m Roby and I’m a sucker for found family. Thelma gets me)

I say parents because even if this is about the DADS I wanted to make sure you knew the Irish mum is AMAZING, we meet her in book 1 and she is a force of nature in a small red head package, but no spoilers you’ll know about her if we ever do a mum top 5 (or you could…you know, read the books? Just saying).

(You say Good Dad, I say Leroy Jethro Gibbs, fight me.)

So let’s talk the awesome DAD!

I love Donal. He is my Ideal Dad™: authoritative but kind, he is warm but solid and a model of strength and fairness to his children (he is a cop, inspired his kids to follow his model and be cops too)…eventually he becomes also the support system for the rocker kids and in particular for Miki who’s the musician (and singer) of the band and protagonist of the first novel.

Guys, Donal is amazing with Miki, who’s had horrible experiences in the father figures department, he is there exactly in the right way simply because he is a patient man and allows Miki to understand himself how and how much to open up. There’s this lovely novella The Devil’s Brew that is all about Valentine’s Day and has Miki and Donal as mains: it’s adorable.

Just in case you needed more pros:

-the LGBTQIA+ representation is great, you see the characters going through the feels process and you have a great family that does acceptance A+;

-Miki is Asian mid-blood but I don’t remember if his ethnic identity is specified…before everyone jumps on me: I think it’s important that it’s specified that he is not Caucasian because he is also said to be an incredible beauty and this goes out to those people that are midblood and maybe struggle with their identity for that, Miki is the ultimate ‘I don’t know my origin but I bear its sign’ and yet he is beautiful…beauty is beyond this. I think in this case it’s done in a way where even if I can’t say he is Japanese or Chinese or Mongolian the representation is still there;

-PTSD and anxiety and so many other mental issues are treated well here…sooooo many!

-song lyrics to die for.

 Triggers: child abuse and rape, ptsd, grief.

I hope if you decide to pick this up, you enjoy it!

IMPORTANT LINKS

My Goodreads

Thelma’s Goodreads

Rules

Announcement