Blog Tour: The Wrong Kind of Weird by James Ramos

 

The Wrong Kind of Weird
James Ramos
On Sale Date: January 3, 2023
320 pages  

A high-energy YA contemporary love story, following multicultural geek and nerd club member Cameron Carson... and his secret relationship with school queen bee Karla Ortega.

Cameron Carson has a big senior-year secret. A secret with the power to break apart his friend group.

Cameron Carson, member of the multicultural Geeks and Nerds United (GANU) club, has been secretly hooking up with student council president, cheerleader, theater enthusiast, and all-around queen bee Karla Ortega since the summer. The one problem—what was meant to be a summer fling between coffee shop coworkers has now evolved into a clandestine school-year entanglement, where Karla isn’t intending on blending their friend groups anytime soon, or at all.

Enter Mackenzie Briggs, who isn’t afraid to be herself or wear her heart on her sleeve. When Cameron finds himself unexpectedly bonding with Mackenzie and repeatedly snubbed in public by Karla, he starts to wonder who he can truly consider a friend and who might have the potential to become more…

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What I thought about The Wrong Kind of Weird

I don't read a lot of YA but occasionally a blurb intrigues me.  I'm always on the lookout for something I can read with a family member and this looked very interesting in that respect, a good book to talk about some of the social things that tend to happen in high school.

Namely, high school popularity.  Seems like there is always a group that is at the top of the pecking order and goes out of their way to judge others according to that yardstick.  This book captures this perfectly with Cameron Carson's story.

Cameron is your average senior.  He's not the most popular, but he has his group of friends.  Others might call them nerds for their love of gaming and anime and all sorts of things that I wasn't familiar with having graduated many years ago, but that didn't matter.  It was easy to get the idea of the way the lines were drawn here.  The story is told in Cameron's point of view and I really liked that about this story.  I felt I really got to know him and his life through his eyes.  And I liked this character and his group of friends. I felt at home with them.

Things get interesting when he starts a secret relationship with Karla Ortega, one of the most popular girls in school at the same time he is developing a relationship with Mackenzie, the sister of Karla's back-and-forth-ex.  It's not as complicated as that sounds and again, I could recall things like this happening in high school, even at my ripe age. 

 

You just know it's going to blow up in his face at any moment, yet, he can't seem to extricate himself. He thinks about dumping Karla until she decides she wants them to lose their virginity together.  But he's really compatible with Mackenzie.  It's all so dramatic and realistic for the YA crowd. 

A class production of Pride and Prejudice becomes the backdrop for all this drama and I thought the author handled this is a very sweet way as unexpected relationships form.

While it's not a linear telling of the story and it jumps around a bit, I did enjoy Cameron and his friends and thought this story captured the drama that is high school.  We all know it. There is a diversity of characters that I really liked the most about this one.  Perfect for the YA reader and their friends as it makes for good discussion. Cute story, likeable characters.  A good reading experience -- I will be watching for future work from this author.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

 James Ramos (he/they) is a nonbinary, unapologetically dorky Minnesota native who now calls Arizona home. Weaned on a steady diet of science-fiction, comic books, and classic literature, James wrote his first story at eight years old and hasn’t stopped writing them since. He counts Jane Austen and Frank Herbert as his biggest literary influences, and believes in the unifying power of the written word. James is passionate about storytelling, particularly stories that give voice to marginalized people, especially those within the LGBTQ+ community and people of color. When he isn’t writing he can usually be found cosplaying with his friends or surrounded by his amazing family of cats.

 

SOCIAL LINKS:

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/thejamesramos

Twitter & Instagram: @thejamesramos

Release Day Review: 5 Stars for A Vampire's Kiss (A Dark Protectors / Rebels Novella) by Rebecca Zanetti

 

 A new threat means everything is about to change.

A Vampire’s Kiss, a sexy, action-packed, fated mates, paranormal romance from New York Times bestselling author Rebecca Zanetti, is now available!

Unlike several of his brothers, Athan Maxwell accepted the curse inherent in his DNA and solved the problem a century ago by mating his one true mate and saving her life at the same time. Now they only meet up four times a year to exchange blood and keep themselves healthy because that was the deal. Yet after a hundred years, his mate has only become more beguiling and intriguing, and when he discovers a new threat on her tail, his promise of sitting back and leaving her alone goes right out of the window.

Ivy O’Dwyer has enjoyed the last century as an immortal being, evolving from being a farmer’s daughter to the successful CEO of an Internet company. Sure, life gets lonely without the chance to date, and yes, she’s grateful to her vampire mate for saving her life so long ago, and yet the dreams she has of the sexy male won’t desert her. So when he storms in to save her life, in all vampire-possessive mode, it’s difficult to stand her ground. Unfortunately, when they finally discover that living forever but alone isn’t worth it, it might be too late.

 

Grab your copy today exclusively on Amazon!

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3W7u91w
Amazon Worldwide: https://mybook.to/avampireskiss

Add to Goodreads: https://bit.ly/3synz6S

 

What I thought about A Vampire's Kiss

1001 Dark Nights presents A Vampire's Kiss by Rebecca Zanetti.  I love what the 1001 Dark Nights series represents as a means to sample a new series, or enjoy more of a series that you already love.  I'm fairly new to the Dark Protectors series from Rebecca Zanetti, so this was exactly what I was looking for and I wasn't disappointed.

Athan and Ivy have been mated for years, seeing each other once a year for a blood exchange that keeps them alive and well.  But as time goes by, blood isn't enough to keep Athan well -- he needs to mate with his mate so that he can continue to thrive.  But he'll have to convince Ivy that they need to consummate their relationship in that way.

Ivy is in a bit of a quandary -- she likes Athan and has wanted him sexually.  But she also likes to live her own life, which at the moment consists of some very dangerous behavior.  Between Ivy and Athan's enemies, things get very tense for a bit. 

This book is a quick read with lots of action and plenty of alpha goodness to enjoy.  I think this is a very interesting world of the dark protectors and with each book I read, I am more enamored of the series.  It's wicked sexy and just a lot of fun.  I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to getting caught up with this series. 

Meet Rebecca Zanetti

Rebecca Zanetti is the author of over fifty romantic suspense and dark paranormal romances, and her books have appeared multiple times on the New York Times, USA Today, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and iBooks bestseller lists. The New York Times reviews has found that in her books, “humor surfaces in even the tensest moments, giving the high-stakes drama humanity and warmth.”  She lives in the wilds of the Pacific Northwest with her own Alpha hero, two kids, a couple of dogs, a crazy cat…and a huge extended family. She believes strongly in luck, karma, and working her butt off…and she thinks one of the best things about being an author, unlike the lawyer she used to be, is that she can let the crazy out.

 Connect with Rebecca

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