The Adrien English Mysteries: Books 1-3

The Adrien English Mysteries #1-3

by Josh Lanyon, Christopher Patton (Narrator)

Boy meets Cop. For the first time, books 1 - 3 of The Adrien English Mysteries collected in one volume!


Fatal Shadows - When his former best friend and employee is murdered following a very public argument, bookseller and sometimes mystery writer Adrien English finds himself suspected of murder.

A Dangerous Thing - Adrien English arrives at the Pine Shadow Ranch only to find a corpse in his driveway. By the time the unfriendly local sheriffs arrive, the body has disappeared.

The Hell You Say - It’s Christmas time and the “ill-starred and bookish” bookseller and occasional mystery writer must contend with a Satanic cult, a handsome university professor and his on-again/off-again relationship with the eternally conflicted LAPD Detective Jake Riordan.

And, as ever, murder...

Genres: Mystery, M M Romance, Contemporary, Romance, Audiobook, Suspense, LGBT

Audiobook

First published March 6, 2006

About the author

Author of 100+ titles of Gay Mystery and M/M Romance, Josh Lanyon has built her literary legacy on twisty mystery, kickass adventure, and unapologetic man-on-man romance.

Her work has been translated into twelve languages. The FBI thriller Fair Game was the first Male/Male title to be published by Italy’s Harlequin Mondadori and Stranger on the Shore (Harper Collins Italia) was the first M/M title to be published in print. In 2016 Fatal Shadows placed #5 in Japan’s annual Boy Love novel list (the first and only title by a foreign author to place on the list). The Adrien English series was awarded the All-Time Favorite Couple by the Goodreads M/M Romance Group. In 2019, Fatal Shadows became the first LGBTQ mobile game created by Moments: Choose Your Story.

She’s an EPIC Award winner, a four-time Lambda Literary Award finalist (twice for Gay Mystery), an Edgar nominee, and the first ever recipient of the Goodreads All Time Favorite M/M Author award.

Josh is married and lives in Southern California with her irascible husband, two adorable dogs, a small garden, and an ever-expanding library of vintage mystery destined to eventually crush them all beneath its weight.


Find other Josh Lanyon titles at www.joshlanyon.com
Follow Josh on Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads.

Reviews

[Alexandra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Update! The audios are on sale at Authors Direct! ~4$ I almost cried bc I paid serious money for them last month lol -‘16.12.22

Brilliant

I couldn’t put it down from book one till the end, also I purchased the audio version too. I love Adrien, the story is interesting and the (kind of) romance part is refreshing too. Highly recommend!

[annob [on hiatus] · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed these three first books in the series. I particularly enjoyed how the relationship wasn't following the standard romance novel progression.

As for the mysteries I was hooked by it in book 1, but the ones in book 2 and 3 didn't interest me as much. I'm not very intrigued by the 'who done it' parts nor the sleuthing, which makes me a less than ideal mystery reader.

But Adrien and his love interest for sure have me hooked, no way I can stay away from the next books in the series.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

2022 Audiobook review

My first time listening to the audio version, and it was good. I just love this series and cannot wait to continue the next volume. All the below I am sure is still true. :D

Book 3 review.

First, a big shout out to Elf sleuthing a la Elmer Fudd aka Christelle. :D

Thank you so much for this wonderful gift. I enjoyed it immensely. <3 And such an apropos Elf name considering this is a mystery with an amateur sleuth. :D

I loved this one! The series gets better and better with each story, each page! The one liners are to die for! Josh Lanyon's wit is something I can't get over. So clever and so on point and necessary! Sometimes a story tries too hard to be funny and falls short. That is soooo not the case with JL and this series. I laughed or chuckled so many times at Adrien's humor and sass.

Once again Adrien finds himself immersed in a murder mystery and it is not just on one front. There are several players involved and Adrien doesn't know who to trust, or why he has been singled out. But he is determined to get his answers, come hell or death, lol. Seriously, with Adrien's bad heart, the poor man should not be running around and getting hit by cars, or finding dead bodies where they should not be. And Jake. Sigh. Jake. What can I say about him? He is still a jerk, and Adrien knew the truth about Jake, his relationship with a woman, and what Adrien and Jake's relationship was and wasn't. It wasn't healthy and put Adrien in so many awkward positions for having to lie. Jake is so scared of his secret getting out that Adrien fears how far Jake would go to gray the police line to keep it hidden. How can a relationship built on lies and secrets be real, or healthy? It can be real if both parties are happy and agree and are doing it for the right reasons. Jake isn't happy, Adrien isn't happy, and the reason while legitimate, isn't enough of a reason to hide the way Jake is. He is deliberately putting himself on a path to deny his true self. So sad. There is a scene in this book where Jake is trying to figure out what made Adrien gay: his mom putting Adrien in ballet class? Adrien's lack of a strong father (figure) in his life? Lisa herself being Lisa. What is unsaid is that even if one of those could be tied to "making" Adrien gay, none of those reasons explained Jake. It's again a sad and touching moment. Jake hates being gay and if he could beat it out of himself, if he could pray it away, if he could beat Adrien to death to get rid of this fact about himself, he would. And Adrien knows it. Which is why I think Adrien would have been the one to end things with Jake. Even though technically Jake ended things because he got his "girlfriend" pregnant and they are getting married it was really Adrien who was did it. He didn't like what he was seeing from Jake during this investigation and like I said earlier, Adrien was afraid of how far Jake would go to keep their relationship a secret, and Adrien couldn't live like that.

I give this one 4.5 stars and the series as a whole 5. I am going to hunt down the next book in the series and I absolutely remember what happens in that story. And oh, boy. The world is surprisingly small and Jake and Adrien, who had managed to never meet for years before book 1, can't seem to stop meeting over and over. The fates clearly have plans for them they don't know about. ;)

Highly recommend. Don't let book 1 fool you. This series gets better with each book.

Book 2 review.

Wow. Jake is still a jerk. And Adrien needs to buy an island with no one else on it to avoid finding dead bodies, or to chance being one of those DBs. I do love this series. And gah, I know Jake is going to break my heart (and Adrien's), and I am so dreading that moment.

Jake's self hatred and his feelings towards gay men is hard to see. He does indeed relax more in this book and finally kisses Adrien, and has sex with him. One would think things are going to go good for them and how I wish they were.

Lisa is too funny. Good thing Adrien knows how to take care of himself. 😁

This one ends better than the last and if the series had ended here one would assume they live HEA. And they doooooooo, but not without serious heartache. 💔

Of course I recommend and give this 4 stars.

Book 1 review.

I read this year's ago and gave it 3 stars and I am sticking to that rating. This is a great series and I can't wait to keep reading, but this first installment is not the best example of how amazing JL is. The relationship between Adrien and Jake is non-existent, which I didn't mind exactly, but it is such an abrupt turn around on Jake's part that it's like whiplash. He calls Adrien baby at the end and it's like, whoa, where did that come from? And he is almost forcing himself on Adrien to be in a relationship, basically telling him they were and how "hard" it would be. Oh, boy. They have NO idea how much worse things can and will get. I may not have fallen in love with these guys in book 1, but this time around I knew what to expect and I was able to pick up things I didn't notice before. I was like a puppy wagging it's tail I was so giddy to get to the good stuff. 😁😁😁😁

Starting book 2 now. 💋

[Ekollon]

On sale now for $.99!

Via https://www.bookbub.com/books/the-adr...

[Jewel]

OMG!!!! Thank you Elf sleuthing a la Elmer Fudd for gifting me this book! WOWWW I'm so stoked to read this!

[Andria Potter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Finished book one! 5 ⭐! I'm going to have to request the trilogy off of hoopla again next month because this was delightful and though I guessed the killer halfway through, I still enjoyed it.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was so lovely revisiting Jake and Adrien. Sigh.

[Imanewreader ✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

i have reviewed each book on their own but have listened to the first pack on scribd/everand.

[~Kristin~]

I just can not pass up this deal, $.99!

[Cyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 but rounded up to 3.

I saw this series mentioned in one of the Husband Material reviews - claiming this series does “romantic angst” better so I thought I’d give it a try. I like mysteries too, so even better.

So. First off. There.Are.So.Many.Stereotypes. I didn’t understand “lazy writing” when I read other reviews that used this term. Now I know. Let’s not talk about when the series started (2006/2007 based on the version I read - regardless of the era, lazy writing is inexcusable). Some negative reviews claim the author “hates” certain minority groups and also homophobic. I think “hate” is a strong word. I would rather choose “ignorant” and “lazy” in the sense that she chose not to do her research and rely heavily on misconceptions of certain communities - and ran fast and furious with it. In a sense, this is disrespectful to those communities and continues the harmful stereotypes. But again, just totally ignorant (and she had absolutely no problem with using the derogatory “f” describing m/m attraction). In Fatal Shadows she linked “cats” and “Thai restaurant” - yes it is what you think and yes she went there. In A Dangerous Thing, “Pocahontas” was used to refer to a female of a certain community. And she did it unapologetically. So. If this type of thing bothers you, I’d recommend steering away. I’m not excusing this type of writing but I am more…tolerable.

Now, about the genre. Some seem to believe that this is a romance series first. I see this as a mystery series first with tinges of romance. Majority of each book focuses on the mysteries with the main character involved with someone one way or another. In my mind, romance novels tend to be focused a lot on the main characters’ relationship to each other and not so much on side plots.

I see this series as an amateur sleuth or non-cop/detective (with support from the police) cozy mystery. The mysteries are interesting, nothing hard-core.

Now, about the romance. A bit of a spoiler alert. If you are ok with self-loathing, self-disrespecting, one-sided pining of the characters with a cheating significant other (not cheating on the protagonist but on the side character to be with the protagonist - still cheating no matter how one sees it), then you may be interested in this series. The romance is actually the larger arc that is making up the backbone of this series. You’ll have to read the series in order to get the full romance - it’s a slow build-up with a lot of open-ended situations with a lot of unspoken angst that are implied. These type of writing is unsatisfying and frustrating for me - but I’ll live. In The Hell You Say, the romance seem to have been built to a peak and it is heading down another path.

I rated this 2.5 stars (overall for books 1-3) because of the lazy writing - it’s not exactly forgivable. But I know I will finish this series because it is interesting enough for me to continue and I’m not annoyed enough to stop - and I really want to know more about Adrien’s subsequent life after the third book…I hope I won’t be disappointed.

Also, I am reserving my opinions of the main characters until the end of the series. But for now, Jake annoy the hell out of me and Adrien needs a stiffer backbone. That’s all.

[Pontiki · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fatal Shadows-5 stars-when Adrien’s best friend from high school is found dead in a dumpster, he’s the main suspect. Jake Riordan is one of the two cops who are investigating the case, and they keep meeting as the clues are uncovered.
It seems there’s a connection through Adrien’s high school chess club, where there were only 5 members. Adrien and 3 other guys, though he was out of school while ill for awhile, and a girl.
The murderer puts a queen chess piece with each of the men killed, and though it take Adrien awhile to figure it out because the killer is thought to also be dead, it all comes to light in the end. So begins the relationship of Adrien and Jake. The plot is tight, nice twist near the end.

A Dangerous Thing-5 stars-Adrien needs to get away from the tentativeness of his and Jake’s relationship. So, he goes to his grandmother’s farm, where he immediately happens upon his caretaker’s dead body. Which disappears.
He then discovers the caretaker’s other activities, including growing marijuana, and letting a group of scientists rediscover and set up an historical scene at an old mine on his land.
As he’s unravelling the story, Jake comes to lend a hand, and the head of the expedition turns up dead, making two murders needing solving.
The police are of little help, of course, but between Jake’s detective skills and Adrien’s sleuthing, they figure out who’s responsible.
Their relationship also grows as they have a chance to be themselves away from the prying eyes of Jake’s colleagues.

The Hell You Say-3 stars-Adrien’s hired help at the bookstore, Angus, gets himself into trouble, so Adrien gives him some money to take a break from it all. But things heat up, with 2 bodies found, both linked to a Satanic cult. Adrien continues being harassed by the bullies after Angus goes, has an upside down pentagram left on his doorstep, and is then sent by Angus to his apartment, where he finds a third body, a woman who was part of the group harassing him at the book store.
Though Jake asks him to leave it alone, Adrien digs deeper, meets Guy, the teacher of the class that led to the coven being formed, and learns more about the occult than he ever wanted to.
He loses Jake, who decides to marry Kate, the woman he’s being seeing while he’s with Adrien, to try to have a “normal” life with her and the baby she’s pregnant with.
Keeping their relationship secret is a tall order, but Adrien manages it, and accepts the inevitable. Guy is cute and out, so he may be in the picture next. As for the mystery, the Satanic group is exposed, and Angus is freed, but leaves town, so Adrien needs a new assistant.

[Cara · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF’d 2 books in ***a generous 1.5 stars***

I picked up these books after Lily Morton recommended them in her newsletter. All I can think is she was either paid for that or regularly reads them in order to remind herself how not to write a m/m story.

From the first chapter I couldn’t help feeling that this was not set in the year this book was published (which was 2017 as I purchased the book 1-3 bundle) my first clue was Adrien running a moderately successful mystery bookshop in LA, I was further clued in when comments such as being able to catch aids from a tea cup served by a gay man and the liberal use of the word fag were used.

Having done a bit more research I realised this book was written in the early 90’s so I thought ok maybe the writer was writing from their own experiences - wrong again Josh Lanyon is a married woman from South California.

I read the first 2 books (so maybe the mystery side of it wasn’t terrible but was mainly because I had time to kill and no other options) but the characters have no depth and are either homophobic and/or racist, every gay character fancies each other and the ‘love interest’ is a truly horrible character- in book 2 he tells Adrien that the reason he’s queer is because his mother let him take ballet lessons, he later then refers to the Native American character as Pocahontas.

Without realising I found myself starting to read book 3 but closed out of it as soon as I found myself reading the narrative of Adrien describing quite calmly how the ‘love interest’ Jake had been in a relationship with a woman the whole time and he seemed completely fine with this! In fact it was written as if we the reader should feel sorry for him and his sexual confusion.

Honestly how does this book have such a high rating, it’s insulting!

[KarenHe · Rating 5 out of 5]

To experience from the ground to haven then to hell.


Rating: 4.5 stars

My mood is like a roller coaster ride when reading books 1 to 3 in one go...

In Book 1, in the beginning, we can only see the good interaction in Adrien and Jake's conversations. No intimate relationship, but terrific chemistries. It's like racing on the ground, trilling and fascinating, but steady still. Adrien is the prime suspect, which made the mystery part very nervous. There is no complication between Adrien and Jake, from suspect-and-detective to friends, therefore, the emotion part is kind of plain.

Book 2 is like flying in the haven. Adrien and Jake are more than friends at the beginning and become lovers at the end. It's so so good to see these two guys getting closer and closer, and solving the mystery together. The first kiss between them was so beautiful and the first sex between them was so sweet.

Well well, then Book 3 drops me to the hell... Adrien and Jake become lovers, yes, however, they built their relationship in a frustrating way. Hiding from people, secretly enjoy the pleasure of love like that you are doing something guilty. But love is never guilty, right? That's why it hurts Adrien that much, and that's why it makes Jake such a selfish bastard. They separated in the end... Hell.

Nevertheless, I love Adrien and Jake so much!

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ok but not on par with Lanyon’s more recent work

These books are okay but were a disappointment for me. I had previously read Lanyon’s recent work which I very much enjoyed. This three volume set of her Adrien English series just doesn’t live up to the standard set in the most recent works.

For starters Adrien is not a character I wanted to root for. He was irritating and naive and foolish...much to reminiscent of the TSTL female MCs we find in romance suspense books. In fact, I think that’s one thing that bothers me about this series...it is too easily gender switchable..make it a female Adrian and not much changes in the story line. That irritates me in a m/m romance.

Jake is a jerk...not a good reaction to your other MC and the romantic interest of your MC. His self-loathing is getting old now and I despise his throwing around the f-word (homophobic not rhymes with buck!) I think the author has dug this hole too deep and it will be an unbelievable job to get out of it, especially with the added complication of pending marriage and child.

I’m not sure I’ll read further in the series. I would dismiss it entirely were it not for the plethora of good reviews, many of which comment on re-evaluating these earlier books after reading the later ones. We’ll see.

[Katherine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fatal Shadows
Adrien and Jake first meet. I was horrified by a number of things in this story - 1) there is a lot of drinking and driving in this book, realistic but I had forgotten how prevalent it used to be, 2) the obnoxious amount of slurs and insults thrown about in casual conversation, the complete lack of acceptance or tact about being gay, 3) the lack of prep and protection in many of the couplings in this story. I was also horrified by the fact that Adrien was raped near the end of this story and it is never really dealt with or acknowledged.

A Dangerous Thing
A new location for the next Adrien mystery.

The Hell You Say
Adrien and Jake break up - Jake has knocked up his girlfriend and has decided to marry her. He wants to be normal so badly. And he cannot accept that he is gay. It hurts.

Great narration, and really good series. Dark at times, lots of angst, and reminders of how difficult it was to be gay in the early 2000’s and before.

Bought from Authors Direct

[Pam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant I have really enjoyed the Adrien (with an e) English series the 2 boxsets of all 6 stories made the process so much easier. Adrian owning a bookstore, writing his own novels and investigating on the side made these stories that little bit more compelling. The side characters are engaging and add to the overall story, his relationship with Jake on how it developes, is so not your usual run of the mill and worth continuing to miss out on sleep, eating, bathing ha only joking. This has got to be one if it not the best m/m series I've read, I read a lot !!!!! Well worth the effort my only gripe .......its over OMG I can't believe there are no more so sad.
Highly recommend this series also as a bonus it was available in kindle unlimited.

[Rissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

So technically, I finished Fatal Shadows on 10/3, A Dangerous Thing on 10/4, and The Hell You Say on 10/5, lol.

I couldn't put this book down. The mysteries were good! I wanted to know whodunit!!!! I also really like Adrien (don't ask me about the other one, I can't even say his name... He makes me both want to cry and throw things at him!). I like his sarcasm.

I don't know why it took me so long to read these books. I like this author's works! I want to read the other books in this series ASAP!

[Jan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great!
Each book has a well executed murder mystery with plot twists and sneaky red herrings. The concurrent story is the development of interaction (and more) between a homophobic homicide detective and an openly gay bookseller from a rather wealthy family (even that's complicated). All the characters are engaging and the verbal humor makes for a veritable snarkfest!
I bought the audio narrated by voice actor Christopher Patton who makes each character and story come vibrantly alive.

[Emilie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read the individual books, and got this convenient bundle, quite probably because it was on sale. Highly recommended. These are mysteries with romantic elements. Jake, the man Adrien is attracted to, is less than enlightened about relationships. Read especially the third in the series for the mystery aspects rather than looking for Jake to become enlightened. Jake gets better about feelings later in the series. Josh planned that there would be a character arc for Jake.

[Suzun · Rating 4 out of 5]

Excellent series

The writing is crisp and the characters are engaging. The climax isn’t stupid and it’s a heck of a lot of fun. There’s some sex involved but that’s not what it’s about. The stories are good, they just happen to have a gay main character. All gay romance should be like that!

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars. Sharp, witty, noir! I enjoyed every minute of these first three books, especially Adrien's charming Neo-noir/vintage-ish tone of voice.

Notes from book two: How can a walking red flag be so damn likable?

Notes from book three: If we didn’t already have a hate/love relationship with Jake, we do now. Ffs. Great mystery, Adrien is too relatable.

[Dawn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant

Absolutely loved these first three books, couldn't stop reading them and now desperately need some sleep before I start on the next books in this series. The only disappointing part is that Jake is such an asshole.

[MJ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 1 - Fatal Shadows - 3 stars - 8/10/23
Book 2 - A Dangerous Thing - 3 stars - 3 stars - 8/10/23
Book 3 - The Hell You Say - 3 stars - 8/10/23
Book 4 - Death of a Pirate King - 4 stars - 8/11/23
Book 5 - The Dark Tide - 4 stars - 8/11/23
Book 6 - So this is Christmas - 4 stars - 8/11/23

[robert · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great writing.

I always enjoy this author. The stories and characters are fun, and the mysteries engaging. Thanks for another great series. Highly recommend any of these books.

[Joel D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming quick read

I love gay sleuths and there aren’t many nowadays. This is a very fun read. I’m actually dying to know what happens with Adrien and Jake in the future.

[JSidelinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread for the pleasure of it.

[Raygun ∆ Gothic · Rating 1 out of 5]

"[He] fell out the window of some posh hotel--12 stories high--in a polka dot cocktail frock with white pumps--white pumps, darling--and it was weeks past labor Day."

This was dnf. I got really sick of the stupid detective. I hate that effing dude. He's awful. And Adrien's friends are all dead, so it's EFFING SAD. He needs a reason not to walk into traffic and I can't find one. 😭😭😭😭

If you started reading this book thinking you were going to be reading about a British secret agent.....you're not alone.

In fact, after getting a bit into it I decided this was 1990s historical fiction. People talked so much about AIDS It must be. ☹️😦

I thought it must be the '90s because I'm not sure if they had answering machines in the '80s, but I'm pretty sure they didn't have cell phones--like, reasonably sure. But no one is faxing or paging each other either, so....

God, It's always so hard to read about a time where people can't call each other where they are instead of calling around to other people's houses or some shit. A bygone era.

But actually then after reading 2/3 of this collection--and thinking Josh Landon was doing a phenomenal job of imitating '90s vernacular--I finally looked up when they were written--early 2000s so it kind of doesn't make a lot of sense, but okay...Yeah this is not historical fiction. These are just extraordinarily old books lol. It still makes no sense that people are walking around without cell phones. By 2000 everyone had a cell phone. I was there.

DUDE, THEY HAVE NEVER HEARD OF BISEXUALITY IN THIS BOOK. They don't seem to know it exists. They don't offer it as a thing that could be going on with this awful d-bag Jake. Didn't offer it as a valid option.

And he says, "I like women. I just like men better."

Bro, that's still a bisexual. I'm pretty sure it was still a working definition of bisexuality at the time. So weird. It's weird because Jake is like a rough precursor to Chief Jack from Pirate's Cove (or kind of a Commissioner John from Bedknobs, who isn't bi). It's like the author was trying out this sketchass and truly TERRIBLE version of hot and cold older bisexual cop that she then amended to be not as douchey, but still annoyingly distant. Also it occurs to me that Adrian is like an early version of Ellery. God even the names are kind of similar aren't they? Jake and Jack; Adrian and Ellery. A white bookstore owner in about the same age range, I think. God, at one point Jake refers to a woman as "Pocahontas." Wtaf he's the worst stake him

The 1990s were a deeply unwoke and horrifying time--just like I remembered.
In fact both of the black characters who show up in here end up dead--one completely off-screen, one after being a particularly camp and ridiculous side character. It's yucky as all f****. It's also pointless. Plus he doesn't go with the rest of the scheme at all, victimology-wise. Why couldn't you have just been injured g**dammit?

Wow. Also I'm guessing this was the time period when Josh lanyon was writing "as a man." Weird. I still find it unbelievable that she's a woman because of the sense of humor being soooooo cheesy.

It's weird to look back and realize how much of the vernacular ad campaigns were at the time. Everyone watch TV so everyone heard at campaigns and so everyone memorized them and said them--like spells.

I can at least give Josh lanyon credit for acknowledging camp stereotypes of the time period and to making sure her main character did not necessarily align with them. I mean wasn't this the time of Queer Eye? I just looked it up and yes the second story is in the time of Queer Eye.

It's so funny because, having read Josh lanyon's most recent books, I was amazed that she somehow become more British over the years?!? I mean people are "calling" each other instead of "phoning" each other. I can only remember a handful of "have got's".

The fact that I lived through the decade doesn't mean I didn't have to look a lot of stuff up, like the phrase "colorized by Ted Turner." What even. Also people saying "swell" and "neat" and "a-ok" all the time? That sounds like the 50's, right? The 90s was all "awesome" and "cool" and .... Idk "tight"? "Sweet"? "Off the chain"? "Bad" but in a good way? ..... No I'm questioning myself. Everything back then was referred to as "cool" no matter what. Then in the early 2000s everything was "hot". When were things "dope"? Hmmmm.

God I remember the 1990s being so problematic about stigmatizing mental health and especially intellectual disability. Ugh.

Here are my notes from when I was just aghast at the author's stuck in the 1990s-ness:

He talks about circling things in the TV guide?!?!?? He has a literal answering machine, Sarah McLachlan references, computer disks. Hey, he has a laptop. We still have those.

Had to look up who Evelyn Wood is.

And then this like 32-year-old man pulls out a pocket flashlight instead of using his f****** phone like everyone else.

I also don't know what "the unmistakable ping of a phone being hung up" sounds like. (Note: I can now amend this to say that I think he's talking about a cordless phone with push buttons)

[T · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love Adrien and all the quirks. John breaks my heart.

[Hilcia · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5/5.0 Reread. Audio.

[jo firstofhername · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first book was really captivating. And then is was great to see how Jake and Adrien went through all the stuff :)