Another thing that the M/M Romance Goodreads Group does is host a huge voting event for favorite books. I mostly just ignore that because I can hardly keep up with the stuff I choose to read, I can’t be bothered with trying to read things that other people recommend, and then…judge them, or whatever goes on in there. But this year I noticed that it was up, and I went in to the results looking to see what stories won the Readers’ Choice awards for the event. I was hoping Splinterpoint won, but I guess that’s why I should probably have voted.

Because I’ve been saving my favorites for last, so I can end on a high note whatever else I might be reading, I also decided that it would be a good idea to put those three winners into the “Save for Later” slot as well, assuming they couldn’t be too bad.

Assumptions are dangerous things, as it crowd-sourcing the best of anything. But here are my blurbs about the three Readers’ Choice Awards:

fawn by Nash Summers: I read this one first. I read this one first, and my god, if it hadn’t been “recommended” by being a Readers’ Choice, I would have abandoned it. In other words it was a very good lesson that “Readers’ Choice” sometimes translates to “Author with the Most Friends.” I mean, look, it was cute, in the end. There was one kid who was the gay version of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, and this other kid who was pretty much a YA Brooding Hero (both of whom I follow on twitter…), and it was sweet that the two lost and found each other, and that they were fated or whatever, and who doesn’t love a dreamy artsy kid with feathers and bones in his hair? Or the angsty dark-haired misunderstood abused guy he falls for? Or meandering purple prose overgrown with metaphors, allegories, flashbacks, baroque descriptions, cliches, and sentimentality? Me. Me, that’s who. I didn’t like it.

Waiting for Clark by Annabeth Albert: Now that my expectations were appropriately lowered, I read this story second. It was way more in line with what I would expect from a “Readers’ Choice.” It pretty much had everything; subtle humor, less subtle humor, UST, superheroes, cons, pinball, bat caves…pretty much anything you could ask for. And, yeah, I really liked it. I’m still not sure that it was better than Spliterpoint or some of my other favorites, but it was at least on par with them, and I really enjoyed reading it.

Chasing Death Metal Dreams by Kaje Harper: This one was already in my fav’s when I saw it was a RC award, so I figured it would be pretty damn good. But I must admit I hesitated when I saw that it was about a FTM person. Transgender stories tend to be hit or miss with me because it’s really way beyond the scope of my experience, and also I suspect because many authors make a hash of the issues (although I can’t firmly attest to that, because I don’t actually know…). Anyway, I got over my hesitation and read it. And it was good. Like, really good. Like, I don’t think a hash was made of anything important, and it was just a really great story that included pretty much everything about being trans (and colored), without being preachy or patronizing or whatever on any of those topics (as far as my white cis-gendered ass can tell, anyway). The sort of …end plot was…weird and borderline unnecessary, but then again, if it hadn’t been there I would have whined about wanting more, so I guess I shouldn’t complain.

But still. This Reader’s Choice is Splinterpoint.