Things I loved about this book: -The portrayal of Ryan's anxiety -The sexual dysfunction caused by Ryan's meds!! I love that it's included since I've never read a romance that had any kind of earnest handling of sexual dysfunction and I especially love that it's not magically cured by Fabian's raw sexual prowess or whatever. It's cool and it's real and it's fresh and deserves all the flowers. Seriously it will probably be the thing I remember the most from this book. -Androgynous/not traditionally masculine main character. In a series full of buff hockey players I love to see a little gender fuckery get the appreciation it deserves.

Things I did not love: -Fabian as a character felt a little underdeveloped as well as not being the most dynamic character concept overall. -Third act breakup hit really late and was kind of cheap feeling. Definitely a "cmon if y'all would just communicate none of this would be happening" kind of vibe which isn't my favorite kind of conflict.

Overall- not a bad book at all but I'm not expecting that it will be among my favorites from this series.

It’s really sad to me that Lisa Marie wasn’t able to sympathize with her mom more. Apparently they reconciled later in life but there’s a lot of bitterness featured early in the book that’s painful to hear about, especially knowing that they were both damaged by and (to some degree) raised by Elvis. They deal with it in different ways because they had different relationships to him but having read Elvis and Me, it’s impossible to miss that they both had the experience of being caught in his whirlwind- fawning for him and bending to his every whim to avoid his unpredictable tempers while revering him like a god. It seems like Lisa Marie never really recovered from the lack of stability or normalcy in her childhood which is really too bad. It sounds like she suffered a lot. It just goes to show how far the shockwaves of one person’s dysfunction (plus the trauma of fame) can reach.

More love stories should feature ass eating s/o Rachel Reid you're a real one

Let me start with- I have a lot of love and respect for Elton John as a musician and as a queer icon which is why I was interested in this book. He is outrageous and trailblazing and so so talented and my thoughts on this memoir don’t negate any of that. That being said, my thoughts:

There’s certainly a lot of content in this book, and if what you’re looking for is assorted celebrity anecdotes you’ll be very satisfied. Unfortunately it lacks the focus or direction that would make it a great memoir- it certainly recounts events from Elton John’s life but it isn’t particularly about anything. I think a great memoirist could take the interviews he gave and mold it into something really compelling but as is, it’s pretty unremarkable.

There’s also a general sense that Elton is avoiding discussing things, softening the impact of his addiction, and granting himself a pretty unbelievable degree of naivety and good intention. He comes off as an asshole, and not a particularly self-aware one.

Cute book, I just don’t love kids in books most of the time and there’s a lot of kid dialogue in this one. I wish more of the time spent on the kids antics was used to explore Patrick’s inner life and other relationships.