Romance Language by A.J. Truman

Title: ⟫ Romance Languages

Author: ⟫ A.J. Truman

Rating: ⟫ 2.5/5

Blurb: ⟫ Can my straight friend help me cash in my v-card by my birthday?

In one month, I turn thirty-five with my virginity still intact. Is there anything more embarrassing than knowing most of my French students have gotten more action than me? Je suis triste

When I accidentally reveal this secret to my close friend and co-worker Seamus, South Rock’s baseball coach, he offers to help me round the bases.

It has to be a joke, because Seamus is one million percent straight.

There’s no way he’d want to fool around with a chubby language nerd like me, even though I’ve harbored a secret crush on him since the day he first walked into the teachers' lounge.

But then I realize he’s not joking.

I’m either entering thirty-five with a bang…or a friendship going up in flames.

Romance Languages is a virgin, nerd/jock, friends-to-lovers romance filled with humor and heart. It's the third book in the South Rock High but can be read as a standalone.

Review: ⟫ Based on the other reviews I’ve seen for this book, I have to assume that this is most definitely a case of it just not being the right book at the right time.

I applaud how the idea of being plus-size in a judgemental world was handled – realistic yet sensitive, and not going for the ‘easy’ answer of having the protagonist lose weight. So where did this book lose me?

Seamus. This completely and utterly straight man not only volunteers to ‘help’ his gay best friend work his way around the bases but leads the way and knows pretty much exactly what he’s doing with nary a qualm about where he sits on the Kinsey scale.

Add to that the surface level Seamus’s addiction was handled (we never saw him attend a single meeting despite this being one of the main facets of his character and who he is) and the fact that, despite his lack of funds, there was only one occasion where money was an issue for him – for example, he buys a new suit for a wedding when only recently he’s been unable to buy a bottle of wine. It sometimes felt like an almost incestuous set of friendships and ‘couples’ from previous stories which were a little offputting, especially as the book states that it can be read as a standalone (which it can if you don’t mind feeling like you’re missing out on a lot of in-jokes) and this book simply didn’t work for me.

However, I would very much say YMMV – the writing style is engaging, the dialogue witty and fun, and the storyline good. As I said, just not the right book for me.

Only One Coffin by A.J. Truman

Title: ⟫ Only One Coffin

Author: ⟫ A.J. Truman

Rating: ⟫ 4/5

Blurb: ⟫ I’m stuck sharing a coffin with the world’s perkiest vampire. This vacation is going to suck.

After centuries of eternal existence, and still mourning the loss of my lover to vicious slayers, I needed a few days of peaceful solitude at the Hotel Draugr.

But thanks to a double-booking mishap, I’m forced to share my coffin with Kilroy, a freshly bitten vampire who loves his new afterlife as much as he loves hanging ten. My unexpected room-mate is determined to show me how “totally awesome” being a vampire can be.

Doesn’t he know vampires don’t do sunshine of any kind?

Through epic snowball fights and midnight meetups at vampire speakeasies, the ice around my not-technically-beating heart begins to melt. And during days sharing our too-small coffin, one part of me has trouble staying dead.

Maybe this budding relationship has teeth…that is, if we can evade the slayers closing in on the hotel.

Only One Coffin is a grumpy/sunshine, forced proximity, paranormal MM romcom featuring a 300-year age gap, coffin cuddling, and a vampire bro who wears flip flops no matter how cold it is outside.

Review: ⟫ With a neat twist on a few tropes such as age-gap, grumpy sunshine and forced proximity, Only One Coffin is mainly played for laughs. The puns drop thick and fast, blood is substituted for some truly entertaining food items and the relationship between Kilroy and Magnus is a sweet, fun read.

Magnus is still in mourning for the lover taken from him by the humans, and is making his annual trip to hide away in a frozen hotel when he is suddenly forced to face the reality of the fact that the rest of the world is still living. Kilroy comes along at a time when probably no one else would try to drag Magnus out into the world again, and is stagnating and, no pun intended, slowly dying.

Kilroy was most definitely one of those glass-half-full people that can be incredibly irritating or endearing depending on the mood you are in. He took being changed into a vampire as a ‘whoa, dude’ thing rather than a path to depression. I loved the idea of a group of vampires who help ‘newbies’ get on their feet, and on the whole Kilroy was fun in a seeing the world from a new perspective.

I did find the constant corrections to Kilroy saying things like good morning and good night a bit irritating after a while – yes, we get it, Magnus’s character is a little stuffy and formal but literally every single time someone said something like that, it felt like overkill. This gave me ‘Hotel Transylvania’ vibes, which was fun, and I did love how casually things like turning into a bat, etc. were discussed.

I would describe this as a nice, easy read, with an interesting take on the whole vampire life, and a sweet love story.