LADIES IN HATING (Belvoir's Library #3), charming sapphic Regency romance

LADIES IN HATING (Belvoir's Library #3)
ALEXANDRA VASTI
St. Martin's Griffin (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$11.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: A pair of Gothic novelists trade rivalry for love in this swoony, steamy, sapphic Regency by USA Today bestselling author Alexandra Vasti.

Celebrated authoress Lady Georgiana Cleeve has achieved fame and fortune. Unfortunately, she’s also acquired an enemy: the enigmatic Lady Darling, whose spine-tingling plots appear to be pulled straight from Georgiana’s own manuscripts. What’s a stubborn, steely writer to do? Unmask her rival, of course.

But unmasking doesn’t go according to plan—because Lady Darling is actually Cat Lacey, the butler’s daughter and object of Georgiana’s very secret, very embarrassing teenage infatuation.

Cat Lacey has spent a decade clawing her family out of poverty. The last thing she needs is to be distracted by the stunning(ly pretentious) Lady Georgiana Cleeve. But Cat can’t seem to escape her infuriatingly beautiful rival—including at the eerie manor where they both plan to set their next books. The plot unexpectedly thickens, however, when the novelists find themselves trapped in the manor together. In between ghostly moans and spectral staff, Cat and Georgiana come face-to-face with real danger: the scorching passion that’s been haunting their rivalry all along.

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My Review: Anyone need an enemies-to-lovers sapphic romance? This one will fill the need with verve and enthusiasm. I'm pretty sure the fact that the enemies are both lady novelists in Regency England is the biggest fantasy leap in the book. I suspect the family dynamic, the class dynamics, while all massaged for our twenty-first century sensibilities really did occur in some form. In reality, families usually find a way to heal where there was a solid foundation of love underpinning them.

As the third of a trilogy I've not read the first two of, I expected to be at sea. I was not. I assume that's down to the nature of romances, but it could easily be the author's real intent to make this a standalone that might convince one to go back and pick up the first two. (They're cishet so that's a firm no from me.) It did lend the story a richer background in that I felt I was coming into the action where everyone knew everyone else and I needed to figure that web of relationship out. I'm okay with that. If you are not, I'll reassure you that the author was careful to supply the kind of details that an experienced reader puts together readily. The picture created is a rich tapestry of emotional relationships that felt very realistic.

Immersed in this story was a very agreeable place to be in a news cycle so filled with horrifying and unnervingly personal murders. I live in the same world as some people with guns who hate me across multiple identity axes. It pays to put your mind into a better place, one where conflict exists but is not going to lead to lethal outcomes but resolutions and HEAs for its lovely people. I'm sure any of my QUILTBAG siblings could find comfort in this story of two of our forebears finding love and healing generational wounds. It should only happen for all of us in this vale of tears.

SOPHIE SULLIVAN'S PAGE: YOU MAKE IT FEEL LIKE CHRISTMAS, latest rom-com contemporary; & A GUIDE TO BEING JUST FRIENDS, Jansen Brothers #3

YOU MAKE IT FEEL LIKE CHRISTMAS
SOPHIE SULLIVAN
St. Martin's Griffin (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$11.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: All bets are off when a single-minded photographer and a professional hockey player are forced to spend a week together on his sister’s Christmas tree farm, perfect for fans of Jenny Holiday and Maggie Knox.

Maisie Smart has a don’t-look-back policy–not on the choice she made to be a photographer (despite her family’s wishes) and not on the one-night stand she had six months ago. Sleeping with someone she barely knew was out of character; sleeping with a professional hockey player who bolted the morning after is a whole new level of embarrassing. Getting invited to spend the week at Tickle Tree Farm with her family this Christmas is a sure way to fill her with holiday spirit. Until the universe throws a Grinch in her festive plans in the form of the one man she hoped to avoid.

Nick King is a mess. After a significant injury lands him on the bench for every game for the rest of the month, he has more time to dwell on the one night stand he can’t get out of his head. With time on his hands, his anxiety hovering, and the holidays around the corner, he figures visiting his sister and nephew at their Christmas tree farm will be a good way to lie low and sort himself out. He’s in for a surprise when it turns out Maisie is staying at his sister’s and his attraction for her hasn’t lessened one bit in the last six months. Apparently, neither has her anger at him for bailing. But Christmas is the time for second chances, and the forced proximity may help Nick and Maisie unwrap feelings neither of them can walk away from twice.

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My Review: Apart from renaming "Maisie" to be "Mason" and switching her pronouns...or "how I always read romantic fiction in the past"...nothing needed changing for me to thoroughly enjoy this holiday-themed romance. Its lower-steam (pun intended; you'll have to read the book to see why it is one) level meant I did fairly little skippidy-doo-dah to avoid the squick factor. The forced proximity worked better for me than it usually does because they were both there with their families for a holiday, therefore everyone was very much inclined to find the fun and humor in everything to offset family stress.

Of course they end up in love, it's a category romance. The set-up gives them both real, honest issues to overcome. It's a hallmark (!) of the best contemporary romances to keep the stakes grounded in at the very least plausible conflicts between the couple. Sophie Sullivan is a top-quality practitioner of her craft. Below is another review of one of her works, with a link to an earlier one I read and enjoyed in that series. Suffice to say, I admire craft professionalism wherever I find it.

Nick, in particular, is drawn as a man whose competitive edge is rooted in his need to measure up to his own standards. It's more palatable as a motivation to win than the ordinary need to dominate others. His strong bond to his sister, and his desire to be there in his nephew's life, show that Author Sullivan made Nick's anxiety over his injury and its possible consequences consistent with really positive-feeling issues that still need addressing to move forward in all parts of his life. Needing to contextualize his anxiety and to find good, healthy coping mechanism for it, offer him the additional benefit of being able, and willing, to invite the intriguing and interesting new love into his life on a sound footing.

One of my Goodreads friends really described my response to this read best: "If you’ve ever wanted your holiday rom-com to suddenly morph into therapy with tree ornaments, you’re in for a treat." No one in the entire story does not need some help sorting through their self-defeating behaviors, and responses to others' behaviors, so the playing field is level throughout. It felt very much like being in a positive group therapy session where everyone's honestly trying their damnedest to do the right thing.

Why I'm only at a hair under four stars has to do with the way the mother/daughter conflict utterly dominates the second half of the story. I'm aware that this is a major source of unhappiness for lots and lots of women in the world, I'd've liked a bit less rancor delivered with the effort to reconnect to the genuine loving root of their relationship.

So I was not utterly ensorceled by the story. I was impressed and pleased at how much Nick's efforts to recover a positive mental frame for his ongoing anxiety were foregrounded. I only wanted a bit less of the focus to be on the angrier emotional valance; it's the holidays, let's have *some* fantasy elements!

A top quality read, no matter what.

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A GUIDE TO BEING JUST FRIENDS (Jansen Brothers #3)
SOPHIE SULLIVAN
St. Martin's Griffin (non-affiliate Bookshop.org link)
$9.99 ebook, available now

Rating: 3.75* of five

The Publisher Says: A playful and emotional romantic comedy from the author of Ten Rules for Faking It

Hailey Sharp has a one-track mind. Get By the Cup salad shop off the ground. Do literally everything possible to make it a success. Repeat. With a head full of entrepreneurial ideas and a bad ex in her rearview, her one and only focus is living life the way she wants to. No distractions.

Wes Jansen never did understand the fuss about relationships. With a string of lackluster first dates and the pain from his parents’ angry divorce following him around, he’d much rather find someone who he likes, but won’t love. Companionship, not passion, is the name of the game.

When Hailey and Wes find each other in a disastrous meet cute that wasn’t even intended for them, they embarrassingly go their separate ways. But when Wes finds Hailey to apologize for his behavior, they strike a friendship. Because that’s all this can be. Hailey doesn’t want any distractions. Wes doesn’t want to fall in love.

What could possibly go wrong?

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My Review: After HOW TO LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR's review from 2022, I got a widget for this book. Accepting it took a minute because, well, straight people's relationship/bedroom issues do not command much attention or sympathy from me.

But Author Sullivan, I reminded myself, doesn't do headboard-knockin' sex or teary-eyed, wearying angst! And so I was sold, again. I'm glad to say that Wes and Hailey were companionable and deciding interesting problems together.

Yes, that's right, I said "together." Wes listens when Hailey talks to him; Hailey, for her part, is glad to have a friend who really *does* listen. There's a couple in a category romance that support each other's goals because they take the time to learn what those goals are. I honestly thought Wes's desire to date a woman for good and ever was ridiculous, but that didn't really last. I knew he was kidding himself, I think anyone over 30 would, and Hailey's relentless focus on her weird salad-in-a-cup thing was always going to burn out.

This read was what I wanted as I read it. I did not need more stress, but I did need some story-beats to hold my attention. This story ended the Jansen Brothers series, which were decent and involving stories; I know now there's more stories comin' (see above) with Author Sullivan's balanced plotting...neither party is perfect; neither party is a basket case...and gift for acerbic observations.

I'd say it's a worthwhile series to read, though the order you read them in is unimportant. I'll take another widget, if St. Martin's/Griffin is offering. Your need for just-enough of all the usual plot dressings in a category romance will determine your desire to procure one for yourself.

LISTEN TO YOUR SISTER, an exhortation at least two Black men shoulda taken to heart

LISTEN TO YOUR SISTER
NEENA VIEL
St. Martin's Griffin (non-affiliate Amazon link)
$12.99 ebook editions, available now

Rating: 4.25* of five

The Publisher Says: For fans of Jordan Peele’s films, Stranger Things, and The Other Black Girl, Listen To Your Sister is a laugh-out-loud, deeply terrifying, and big-hearted speculative horror novel from electrifying debut talent Neena Viel.

Twenty-five year old Calla Williams is struggling since becoming guardian to her brother, Jamie. Calla is overwhelmed and tired of being the one who makes sacrifices to keep the family together. Jamie, full of good-natured sixteen-year-old recklessness, is usually off fighting for what matters to him or getting into mischief, often at the same time. Dre, their brother, promised he would help raise Jamie–but now the ink is dry on the paperwork and in classic middle-child fashion, he’s off doing his own thing. And through it all, The Nightmare never stops haunting Calla: recurring images of her brothers dying that she is powerless to stop.

When Jamie’s actions at a protest spiral out of control, the siblings must go on the run. Taking refuge in a remote cabin that looks like it belongs on a slasher movie poster rather than an AirBNB, the siblings now face a new threat where their lives–and reality–hang in the balance. Their sister always warned them about her nightmares. They really should have listened.

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My Review: "Listen to your sister" is the most oddly edged weapon in the arsenal of control. Listen to her wisdom. Listen to her express while she experiences despair. Listen to her, learn how the wisdom comes out of the same swamp as the despair.

Being tasked with responsibilities beyond your capabilities is a common feature in many child-as-custodian tales. Rising to meet the challenge, failing at it, muddling through...well, that's adulthood as parent or guardian or, to be completely honest, any old thing as a legal adult.

What sets this story above most I've read like it, from The Outsiders as a kid on, is The Nightmare. It's a really big part of Calla's quotidian awareness. It's a looming, energy-sapping Presence...éminence grise writ literal...that defines Calla's every waking thought about her ward/little brother. In The Nightmare Jamie dies, and dies, and dies; the most horrific death. Here's Calla, responsible for the life of someone she honestly should never have been if her parents had...well, what? not died? not run away? where are they and why aren't they there?...not, in any event, left her responsible unhelpfully unbackstopped by her other brother, useless Dre.

Now my full attention is engaged. Starting just before the halfway point I began to listen to my own niggling awareness. Permaybehaps this is Calla finding a coping mechanism to make sense of this utter reorientation of her world...permaybehaps she's tuned in to something like a psychic K-Cthulhu...she might simply be going quietly insane...and in the US a young Black woman whose self-image is of being too hefty who's also now responsible for shepherding a teenaged Black man into adulthood alive and unencarcerated when he has a big mouth and a powerful eye for hypocrisy....

I was deeply interested in the way I wasn't answered as I got these musings phrased into questions. I was instead led to ideas about the answers supported in the story. That we see the narrative through all three siblings' eyes lent the book the air of fairness, until you thought a minute about it when Calla's centrality swims into focus ever more clearly. She is the only one who acts for the clearly conceptualized good of the Family, where her brothers (one too young, one too narcissistic) think only of how The Nightmare and its embodiment in their sister affects them. It is through those young men's eyes that The Nightmare feeds into horror. They mock and disbelieve, thinking she's nuts and/or trying to control them.

Sound familiar, Cassandra fanciers? Calla's awful stresses are external, internal, self-inflicted, inevitable for a young woman of color in a deeply racist white world. They're real. They're just fearful imaginings. They can't be taken seriously. Laugh them off.

That goes as well as it usually does when men ignore sound advice from women. As a subject for social horror, I'm hard-pressed to think of a better, more trenchant way to build a story.

What I ended up enjoying the most in this read was less the plot...first novels are almost always a bit baggy at the knees...than Calla's mellifluous voice and her sense of humor. BE AWARE THAT THE N-SLUR IS USED A LOT. I don't like it, this is something I have trouble with from my 1960s childhood where it was used *very*differently* so I want you to know that fact. Mostly, Calla's a smart, funny woman doing a thankless job she wouldn't have had to do had death and abandonment not landed her where she is.

I can't go a fifth star because of the N-slur stuff. It made me think hard about many things, and might should get that five; but not with the (appropriate, well-thought-out) use of N-words.

YMMV, but in any event I encourage you to find out soon.

IF I STOPPED HAUNTING YOU by COLBY WILKENS

IF I STOPPED HAUNTING YOU
COLBY WILKENS
St. Martin's Griffin Books (non-affiliate Amazon link)
$12.99 Kindle edition, available now

Rating: 3* of five

The Publisher Says: An enemies to lovers romance with a spooky twist where two feuding writers end up on a writers retreat together at a haunted castle in Scotland

It's been months since horror author Penelope Skinner threw a book at Neil Storm. But he was so infuriating, with his sparkling green eyes and his bestselling horror novels that claimed to break Native stereotypes. And now she’s a publishing pariah and hasn’t been able to write a word since. So when her friend invites her on a too-good-to-be-true writers retreat in a supposedly haunted Scottish castle, she seizes the opportunity. Of course, some things really are too good to be true.

Neil wants nothing less than to be trapped in a castle with the frustratingly adorable woman who threw a book at him. She drew blood! Worse still, she unleashed a serious case of self-doubt! Neil is terrified to write another bestselling “book without a soul,” as Pen called it. All Neil wants is to find inspiration, while completely avoiding her.

But as the retreat begins, Pen and Neil are stunned to find themselves trapped in a real-life ghost story. Even more horrifying, they’re stuck together and a truly shocking (extremely hot) almost-kiss has left them rethinking their feelings, and… maybe they shouldn’t have been enemies at all? But if they can’t stop the ghosts pursuing them, they may never have the chance to find out.

Full of spooky chills and even more sexy thrills, If I Stopped Haunting You by Colby Wilkens is the funny, fast-paced romp romance readers have been waiting for!

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My Review: Spooky castle...enemies forced into proximity...sparks flying left and right...bingo! #Deathtober read card filled.

One star off for heterosexualizing a perfectly good plot.

Author Wilkens does a fine job of entertaining her readers with a ghost story inside Gothic-novel trappings. Her domestic-violence opening...the woman throws a book at the man hard enough for the injury to bleed, and to leave a scar, and it's...somehow okay...? Like, a woman injuring a man isn't a problem but if he'd done the same to her the howling banshees would be all over it!


I was not thrilled by this.

I just barely got to a three-star rating because Author Wilkens made me chuckle many times *in*spite*of* my existing irritation. That is some serious talent! Causing an irked old curmudgeon to chuckle is a feat!

I really don't know what to tell you about the violence. You know your own tolerance for the abuse passed off as humor trope.

FAKE IT TILL YOU BAKE IT, well-written but slightly troubling romantic novel & SURROUNDED BY NARCISSISTS, a survival aid

SURROUNDED BY NARCISSISTS: How to Effectively Recognize, Avoid, and Defend Yourself Against Toxic People (and Not Lose Your Mind)
THOMAS ERIKSON
St. Martin's Essentials
$28.99 hardcover, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Part of the bestselling Surrounded by Idiots series!

Internationally bestselling author Thomas Erikson shares the secrets of dealing with everyday narcissists.

Are the narcissists in your life making you miserable? Are you worn out by their constant demands for attention, their absolute conviction they are right (even when they’re clearly not), their determination to do whatever they want (regardless of the impact), and their baffling need to control everyone and everything around them?

In this thought-provoking, sanity-saving book, Thomas Erikson helps you understand what makes narcissists tick and, crucially, how to handle them without wearing yourself out in the process. With the help of the simple, four-color behavioral model made famous in Surrounded by Idiots, Erikson provides all the tools you need to manage not just the narcissists around you but everyday narcissistic behaviors as well–something that is becoming more widespread in the age of social media.

Engaging and practical, Surrounded by Narcissists will help you free yourself from the thrall of others' toxic agendas so you can pursue a happier, more fulfilling and successful life.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: US society, it seems, is a narcissism-generating machine. Largely dealt with in silence, the harm narcissistic people cause in public and private spheres impacts all of us. In any relationship, a narcissist uses very specific strategies to control you, and the conversation about them, so they appear noble, shining and brilliant with Truth and Justice, generally flawless at all times. A recent scandal involving a specific Hollywood star's behavior towards another person is understandable more completely in this light. Doubtless you can see many traits in the stories the author uses to explain narcissism that adhere to lots of folks you know...but never knew why you had trouble warming up to them.

A word of caution: Don't think you're suddenly a mental-health professional and run around diagnosing others. They won't like it, and it will bite you hard. The author is careful, unsurprisingly since his brand is based on his skill as a communicator, to state that he is synthesizing research and presenting conclusions based on data, not on his mental-health expertise. This clarity is admirable and increases my own willingness to put my faith in his findings.

Your Kindle copy will set you back $14.99 but is, frankly, an investment worth the cost. (non-affiliate Amazon link)

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FAKE IT TILL YOU BAKE IT
JAMIE WESLEY
St. Martin's Griffin
$16.99 trade paper, available now

Rating: 3.5* of five

The Publisher Says: A reality star and a cupcake-baking football player pretend to be a couple in order to save his bakery in this sweet and sexy romance from Jamie Wesley, Fake It Till You Bake It.

Jada Townsend-Matthews is the most reviled woman in America after turning down a proposal on a reality dating show. When she comes home to lick her wounds, Jada finds herself working at San Diego's newest cupcake bakery, Sugar Blitz, alongside the uptight owner and professional football player Donovan Dell.

When a reporter mistakenly believes Jada and Donovan are an item, they realize they can use the misunderstanding to their advantage to help the struggling bakery and rehabilitate Jada's image. Faking a relationship should be simple, but sometimes love is the most unexpected ingredient.

Fake it Till You Bake It is a sweet confection of a novel, the perfect story to curl up with and enjoy with a cupcake on the side.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: I started out this read sure as sure could be that I'd be giving it at least four stars, and that Donovan was in line to be my next cinnamon roll hero. (Never mind he's a pro athlete! They got troubles too!) Things...did not pan out that way.

I'm a wary old campaigner in matters of the heart. Donovan's assumption of control over Jada, no matter that it imposed structure on the tornado that her life has been for all around her, rang loud alarm bells for me. No, nothing untoward happens...yet. Control is addictive, as is power in general. It doesn't need to be a bad thing IF it's part of the relationship by mutual consent and this was not the case here.

Normally this would've led me to Pearl-Rule the book, and this June...#PrideMonth!...especially I'm aware of relationship role models needing to be on balance positive to earn my accolade of a review. What happened that made me reassess my initial discomfort was seeing how Author Wesley used every chance to lead Jada into growth and greater maturity. Jada went from rudderless, spoiled girl to a focused, other-directed partner. That was a pure pleasure to read.

Get your Kindle copy today. It's $10.99 spent well. (non-affiliate Amazon link)

STARRY-EYED LOVE, my first Helena Hunting, second in Spark House series

STARRY-EYED LOVE
HELENA HUNTING
St. Martin's Griffin Books
$16.99 trade paper, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: Charming, hilarious, and emotional, Starry-Eyed Love is Helena Hunting at her very best!

Having just broken up with her boyfriend, London Spark is not in the mood to be hit on. Especially not when she’s out celebrating her single status with her sisters. So when a very attractive man pays for their drinks and then slips her his number, she passes it right back to him with a ‘thanks, but no thanks’. As the business administrator for their family’s event hotel, the Spark House, London has more important things to worry about, like bringing in new clientele.

As luck would have it, a multi-million-dollar company calls a few months later asking for a meeting to discuss a potential partnership, and London is eager to prove to her sisters, and herself, that she can land this deal. Just when she thinks she has nailed her presentation, the company’s CEO, Jackson Holt, walks in and inserts himself into the meeting. Not only that, but he also happens to be the same guy she turned down at the bar a few months ago.

As they begin to spend more time together, their working relationship blossoms into something more. It isn’t until their professional entanglements are finally over, that London and Jackson are finally ready to take the next step in their relationship. But between Jackson’s secretive past and London’s struggle with her sisters, London must question where she really stands—not just with Jackson, but with the Spark House, too.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: It's a very, very different experience to read a straight-people romance than my usual M/M reads. In this case, I think I came in after some character work had already been done in the first Spark House book, When Sparks Fly, on this entry's PoV character. London Spark, to those who might not know her from before, is a rather serious-minded and goal-oriented participant in a family enterprise called Spark House. It is an event hotel-cum-venue, and London has somehow been foisted the job of numbers lady. She's not a natural number-cruncher but she knows about sacrificing for a greater goal and gets her considerable wits marshaled to the task of making the finances run.

I, like all other readers, am meeting Jackson the love interest with London. He lets her know he's interested without being more than ordinarily persistent. She declines; he leaves her possessed of his details and accepts his rejection without drama. So far, so good. When a time has passed and Spark House attracts business interest from a tech-bro investor, one who's made to sound like Elon only hot, absolutely not one soul is surprised it's Jackson the rejected suitor.

We know this drill: what's going to happen, the misunderstandings, the idiotic miscommunications, the resolution of HEA or HFN; so the point of reading this book is *how* not what.

The satisfaction of a superior craftworker's results is this very thing. Now, the M/M romance world will usually have something very sexy pretty early. Not so this book. London's been burned and isn't in a huge hurry to try the waters with a tech bro. She is, once he shows back up as a potential financing source, perfectly happy to work with him. They come to know each other, and the readers each of them, as their work brings out facets of their lives quite naturally and unforcedly. Again to no one's surprise Jackson is a good guy, and he's got a solid head on his shoulders; he comes to like and respect London, he fully engages with her as an equal in business (if one with different skills from his); the result is a slow-burn low-steam character study of two young people whose lives are pressurized by goals instead of ambitions.

Why I enjoyed reading it enough to rate it more than a solid three or possibly three-and-a-half stars of five was London's affectionate but exasperated relationships with older sister Avery and younger sister Harley. They were...warm. They didn't ring swords of wit in battles for prominence, they half-ribbed and three-quarters snarked and generally behaved the way friends do. It worked to give me a sense of their bond that was less intense than the Three Musketeers and more positive than the Three Stooges but still very real.

You can't go wrong with a read that does this kind of work when one accidentally reads book two in a series. I am glad I spent time with the Spark family.

THE OBAMA HATE MACHINE, a 2012 title that should've prepared us for 2016

THE OBAMA HATE MACHINE: The Lies, Distortions, and Personal Attacks on the President--And Who Is Behind Them
BILL PRESS
St. Martin's Griffin Books
$26.99 hardcover, available now

Rating: 4* of five

The Publisher Says: In Toxic Talk, Bill Press exposed the ways in which the extreme right-wing media has done an end run around the American voting populace by exerting a disproportionate control over open political debate. In The Obama Hate Machine, Press returns to show how the Right has taken rhetoric to slanderous new levels in attacking the nation’s forty-fourth president.

While presidents and presidential candidates routinely have been subject to personal attacks, the outright disdain Obama’s extremist opponents have for the facts has inspired an insidious brand of character assassination unique in contemporary politics.

Obama was born in Kenya . . . Obama sympathizes with Muslim terrorists . . . Obama is a communist who wants to institute death panels and touch off class warfare…The extent to which these unfounded assertions have taken hold in the American mindset shows just how ruthless, destructive, and all-powerful the right-wing machine—hijacked by extremists in the media and fueled by corporate coffers—has become. The author reveals how corporate interests such as the infamous Koch Brothers continue to steer political coverage away from fact-based dialogue into the realm of hysteria. Bill Press also observes this phenomenon is not limited to the airwaves and provides an “I Hate Obama Book Club” list, calling out the scores of anti-Obama tomes—and even some from the Left—that have helped drag politics even deeper into the mud. 

In his characteristic on-the-mark arguments sure to appeal to anyone on the Left or in the Center, Press shows how the peculiar nature of Obama-hating subverts issue-driven debate and threatens not only the outcome of the 2012 election but the future of the American democratic system.

***REPOSTING A 2013 REVIEW IN LIGHT OF RIGHT-WING DUMBFUCKERY ABOUT THEIR TREASONOUS ORANGE SHITGIBBON***

My Review: I do not know what to say about this book. The people who should read it won't. The people who do read it will, if not sociopathic by nature, weep uncontrollably for the horrific fate of our country.

I tell myself that it's good, this outrage and pain I feel when reading the horrors perpetrated in the name of partisan conservatism, because when I stop feeling those feelings it will mean that I have given up any hope for change AWAY from the viciousness, the brutal ignorant selfishness, that is characteristic of today's “conservatives.”

Go to the library. Read Chapter 5, “The Brothers.” Sixty pages of documented and repugnant thuggery perpetrated by the Koch brothers against the democratically elected president of the United States of America. If it stirs in you no outrage against the monstrous, vile, and greedy people who pretend to care about the fate of the Americans who do the work that makes them rich, go buy your jackboots and practice your “Sieg heils” because that's the world people like you are passively agreeing to live in.

The Right is WRONG. And their actions against President Obama (not my favorite person, but still he's the president) are very, very, very close to seditious. They talk treason and call it free speech...which they've paid their millions to ensure for themselves and their horrifying, selfish, greedy views.

I tell myself it's good that these betrayals hurt me so, these smacks in my besotted citizen's face, because when they don't hurt anymore, I'll have given up on change, on reason, on life. I skate ever closer to this dread eventuality.