A few weeks ago I won a $25 gift card through a program I’m running on my computer. It’s a little thing and not a big deal. I completely forgot about it though until yesterday afternoon when I got mail and there was my gift card.

$25 can buy a lot of books so it’s no wonder that I have spent the past 24 hours trying to figure out what books I was going to buy. Finally, I settled on four books that came up to $27 (including like tax and stuff). I’m a little over my gift card’s limit but essentially I’m getting four awesome books on someone else’s dime (and supporting authors I LOVE in the process!)

Here’s what I got with my hard earned gift card because these are all amazing books that everyone should read:

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The Betrayal of Renegade X by Chelsea M. Campbell

Damien thinks he has the whole hero thing figured out—he’s getting good grades at Heroesworth and acing all his missions—at least until he zaps an unarmed bad guy he believes tortured and murdered children. It turns out the “bad guy” was actually a superhero working with the school. The mission was staged, and Damien blew it.

Now his best friend refuses to work with him, his dad is considering getting him professional help, and everyone’s questioning whether or not he has a future as a hero—including his grandpa, who will do anything to ensure Damien’s future lies in villainy. His grandpa creates a villain organization called the Truth, intent on exposing the way heroes really treat villains. But when the Truth launches its plan and the whole city erupts in chaos, Damien is caught between the opposing sides, and his future is anything but certain.

With heroes and villains bent on destroying each other, it’s up to him to do whatever it takes to stop the fighting, even if it means betraying the people closest to him.

This is the third book in Campbell’s Renegade series and I can’t get enough of it. I read the first two books in the series last year while I was out of the country and when she announced that the third book was coming out, I just about lost it. I love books about superheroes and this is a YA novel that feels like it was pulled from out of a comic book.

This book is going to rock!

Pulp Friction: Uncovering the Golden Age of Gay Male Pulps by Michael Bronski

Long before the rise of the modern gay movement, an unnoticed literary revolution was occurring, mostly between the covers of the cheaply produced pulp paperbacks of the post-World War II era. Cultural critic Michael Bronski collects a sampling of these now little-known gay erotic writings–some by writers long forgotten, some never known and a few now famous. Through them, Bronski challenges many long-held views of American postwar fiction and the rise of gay literature, as well as of the culture at large.

This book been on my to-read list for years.

Finally getting it feels so good like it has been a longtime in coming and I am so excited. The pulps are my second favorite parts of American culture history and it’s a book about queerness??

There was no way that I wasn’t going to buy this book.

Trailer Park Fae  by Lilith Saintcrow

Jeremiah Gallow is just another construction worker, and that’s the way he likes it. He’s left his past behind, but some things cannot be erased. Like the tattoos on his arms that transform into a weapon, or that he was once closer to the Queen of Summer than any half-human should be. Now the half-sidhe all in Summer once feared is dragged back into the world of enchantment, danger, and fickle fae – by a woman who looks uncannily like his dead wife. Her name is Robin, and her secrets are more than enough to get them both killed. A plague has come, the fullborn-fae are dying, and the dark answer to Summer’s Court is breaking loose.

Be afraid, for Unwinter is riding…

I only started reading Lilith Saintcrow’s books recently. I bought her Dante Valentine series around the time when I got my current job and then fell head over heels with her writing style and worldbuilding. Seriously, her world building is expansive and I just want to roll around and just like learn from an obvious master.

I’ll read anything about the fae and since her books were already an insta-fave, giving this book a chance was kind of a logical step to take.

Serving Pleasure by Alisha Rai

Hungry for a touch…

Rana Malik is over being her family’s resident black sheep. She’s on a mission: ditch the casual hook-ups, revamp her bad-girl image, and fall in love with a proper Mr. Right even her conservative mama can’t find fault with. Not on the menu? The beautiful, brooding Mr. Right Now who lives next door, and all the ways he whets her appetite.

Starving for love…

Artist Micah Hale had it all-women, success, friends and family-until his world changed in a single act of senseless violence. Now struggling to conceal his scars and get his life and career back on track, he knows he has nothing to offer a woman except his body. He’s not looking for love…but he can’t control his craving for the sexy bombshell voyeur he’s caught looking at him.

Just one bite.

Their attraction boils over, and their defenses are stripped off along with their clothes. They promise they’ll walk away if it gets too hot. But it’s hard to do the right thing…when being wrong feels so good.

Alisha Rai is both adorable and a fantastic writer. Everything I’ve read from her has been wonderful and she balances sexy and sweet so very well. I love her heroines who are often full figured and fully fleshed out women of color. On top of that, her heroes don’t stick to one trope. They’re alphas when they need to be but they’re multifaceted guys instead of one trick ponies.  Ah! I’m so excited to settle down and read this book because the first one in the series was scorchingly hot!!

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Aaah!

Best $25 spent ever!

Keep an eye out for reviews of these books later and livetweeting always!