Rating: 5 stars out of 5
Welcome to Webcon. Where the biggest and brightest internet celebrities come face to face with their fans.
Brought up in the ‘live for likes’ culture, Digi Lynch has amassed an impressive following. His channel is taking off, and Webcon always delivers a boost in numbers, thanks to his rivalry with ex-vlogging partner, Gram Saito.
Gram is popular, confident, and rising to the kind of fame worthy of a second gen internet sensation. And he’s up to his old tricks.
Digi can’t turn a corner for fear of being pranked and his reaction blasted online. And after one of Gram’s most high scale pranks yet, Digi decides it’s time to get even.
The animosity between Digi and Gram heats up as old feelings resurface, and Digi is forced to decide whether a life in the limelight is worth it …
Before they both go too far.
A YA contemporary novella, To Be Continued is the prequel to Not Gonna Lie and will show you where it all began for Gram and Digi.
To Be Continued (#lovehim #3.5) by S.M. James is the last of the available stories in this author’s must read YA series, a fact that’s making me sigh already. That it’s ending here, on the “first half” of Digi and Gram’s story? Worse because this is not one of those happy stories. It’s full of pain, the punch in the gut ways only family and those we care for but have blinders on can deal blows. It’s being young and trying to figure things out. It’s real, sometimes mean and in every way authentic as S.M James gets under these characters skins and emotions like no other.
You have two boys now teenagers who used to be friends only a year ago, their animosity fueled in part by their mother’s who are competitive in their online blogs and make sure it carries over to their sons, who have blogs and followers of their own. A twisty world, a heartbreaking way to grow up online and Digi has had enough.
The strength and pain of his feelings come through so powerfully that we are carried swiftly along through several days of events to an abrupt end. It will make sense and make us want to grab for the story still out of reach until May. We need to know what happened to everyone next. But as James tells us in the title this is To Be Continued….
If you ask me to pick a couple as a favorite, I probably would have swayed towards Brooks and Damien….but there’s something about Digi and Gram. Well of of them. They get to you. In their struggles to find themselves. Their sexuality and their path to love. Each and everyone has a deep place in my heart. This story is just one more reason why.
But don’t start here. I listed all the books below. They are short and incredible. Read them in the order they are written and then wait with them to see what happens with Digi and Gram. Is it time yet? Are we there?
Cover art: Story Styling Cover Design. That’s perfect in a way. Brands the series and has the tone down.
Sales Link: Amazon
Book Details:
Kindle Edition, 114 pages
Published April 4th 2019 by May Books
ASIN B07P3SMSSR
Series #lovehim #3.5
Series #lovehim
That Feeling When (Archie and Landon)
“He’s a bad boy—cocky and damaged. So, why can’t I stop thinking about him?”
This book is the second in the series and it would help to read them in order, but there is enough subtle recapping to read this alone. The series has a fun modern noir vibe. Be aware they describe brutal murders and this case deals with cannibalism. Lowell is a gruff, cuddly sort. Being a packless wolf shifter and ex-cop makes him a little prickly what with the prejudice and lack of respect the public has for either. Lowell’s boyfriend and business partner is John, pyrokinetic and mystery author. How he manages to not set certain people on fire makes him a better person than me. The series is set in Boston and they serve a diverse praeternatural community. They get hired by a young Terran named Fergus to look into the murder of his Beast (lion shifter) boyfriend Mateo. Lowell’s obnoxious hedgehog-shifter stalker is back to help with the case. The reader gets to see more of John’s friend Macy. I hope she gets to help on a case in the future. The few “good” cops are highlighted as helping them. As with the first book, most of this is “pounding the pavement” to solve the case with brief moments of their life they try to fit in around trying to find the killer and not getting killed.
Ben wants to find a new home.
Seth Tanner and his brother Jesse’s fun evening debunking local urban legends ends with Jesse’s gruesome murder. Seth vows revenge on Jesse’s killer – too bad the murderer has been dead for a hundred years. Seth uncovers a cycle of ritual killings that feed the power of a dark warlock’s immortal witch-disciples, and he’s hell bent on stopping Jackson Malone from becoming the next victim. He’s used to risking his neck. He never intended to risk his heart.
Can a wealthy but frustrated CEO and a guilt-ridden stripper find what they need in a consensual, nonsexual whipping boy arrangement?
Raze halts his midnight joy ride to give chase to twinkling lights that appear in the road before him and then lead him deep into a forest, where he falls into another world. There, magic is real, wishes are granted, and no one is considered odd or out of place.
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 