Review: (Un)masked by Anyta Sunday

Jay Walker has two wishes: to perform the play of his dreams alongside his best friend at Wellington’s Tory Street Theatre, and to meet that special someone. Someone he’d go to the ends of the earth for. Someone who might only exist in fairy tales.

When Jay meets accordion busker Lethe Cross, it’s like living a dream come true. Lethe’s music captivates Jay, and he resolves to meet the man who plays so beautifully. But then he discovers Lethe’s life is more like a nightmare. The phrase “down on his luck” can’t begin to cover it. Determined to help, Jay does some snooping for answers—and winds up on the wrong end of a centuries-old curse. The good news is there’s a way to break it. The bad news is it might cost Jay his life.

This is one of the most romantic and heartbreaking stories I've read. I'm going to try very hard to review this without spoilers though because I really don't want to ruin this story.

The characters: Jay, Lethe and, my favourite, Gristle. Jay is the MC and Gristle is his best friend. I've never seen two characters who love each other more (maybe Jean & Locke from The Lies of Locke Lamora), and yet aren't in a romantic relationship. While Jay is gay, Gristle is straight, but he still truly, deeply, madly loves his best friend. This friendship, relationship, was so achingly beautiful. Gristle wanted nothing more than to protect his best friend, to keep him safe. Jay just had endless love for Gristle. Honestly, this friendship it grabbed my heart and didn't let go.

Lethe is the busker Jay sees, the one who catches his eye and make him think about wanting more than what he already has. Lethe is evasive and enigmatic and all is not as it seems. For Lethe's part, Jay is the end to years of people not seeing him as he really is. Jay is the one person who knows him properly and, for a boy then man who has kept himself away from society unless his face was hidden, being with Jay is like being able to breathe again.

The story: This is a contemporary story with a magical twist. A curse passed down through the centuries blights Lethe's life. I loved this element of the story, it was so well written - and the sub-story of it, of being hidden in plain sight; of people seeing what they want to see. It's both terrifying and real and I couldn't get enough. Although Jay loves both Gristle and Lethe, this isn't a love triangle, at least not in the traditional way. Lethe is his boyfriend, Gristle his best friend - but they can't meet, not properly and at times Jay is torn between the two.

Anyta's way of addressing the issues at hand is so natural, nothing feels forced or convenient in her stories and the same is very much true of this one. The New Zealand setting is beautiful, beyond beautiful really. The lives of these characters so real, even with the magic mixed in. I want to tell everyone to go and read this...but a word of caution, your heart will not be intact by the end of it. I'm not sure mine is yet but it is so worth reading. If for no other reason than to meet Jay, Lethe and of course my wonderful, beautiful, Gristle.

Review: The F Words (Enemies to Lovers, #4) by Anyta Sunday

Rory A. Phillips is sick of being haunted. Sick of hurting. Sick of being so fucking lost. Whenever he ‘sees’ his best friend William, he’s packing up his motorbike and on the move. But is there a place he can run to that will ever be free of William? A place where he could ever learn to love? A place he can call home? 

After losing his last living relative, Eric Graham moves to Wellington to start a new job and a new life. Alone—save for his grandpa’s ashes he can’t bring himself to scatter in the sea. The only guy in the city he knows is a homophobic prick that he’d rather have nothing to do with—but he just can’t stop running into him. 

Rory and Eric, both grieving and alone, are searching for a way to move on. And maybe the best way to do that is together. 

I'm still fangirling away in my little corner of the stable. This review has previously been seen on Goodreads.

I've loved all the 'Enemies to Lovers' books by Anyta Sunday, but this one is my favourite. Why?? I hear you ask. Well one word really, Rory. Rory, Rory, Rory. He's hurting so much and needs someone to love him and he just took hold of my heart from the start. 

The pain of the character is so real and the healing very gentle and believable. Eric is also a wonderful character - not without his own demons - and together the two complement each other perfectly. Though billed as Enemies-to-Lovers, for me I see much more of a friends-to-lovers theme. Whilst they may not start off best buddies the friendship develops before the relationship. 

I like these books because we catch glimpses of the characters from the other EtL stories, but they don't take over the story. We see the connection, but they are fresh stories that could absolutely be read as stand alone novels.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, along with Eli Easton, Anyta Sunday is the queen of UST - and there's nothing I like more than a bit of unresolved sexual tension. *fans self* If you're a fan, then this book is for you...a slow burn that's SO worth it.

If you love a good old love story then this is totally for you. Go on, give it a go!!

Review: William (Enemies to Lovers 3) by Anyta Sunday.

William needs to learn to think before he speaks. He accidentally outed his last boyfriend to his bigoted family. Looking to make a new start, he escapes to the most distant place he can think of: New Zealand. There he boards with a substitute mom and her too-hot-to-be-real son, Heath, but Heath and his homophobic friend Rory want William to leave before things “crash and burn,” whatever that means. 
Unfortunately, traveling to the end of the world isn’t far enough for William to lose his runaway mouth.
But is it far enough to lose his loneliness?

The third in the Enemies to Lovers series William is lovely little story. Moving away from the generic setting used in the first two novels, William is firmly based in New Zealand, the author's place of birth. It is a rich setting but, as ever, it is the characters that shine through in the book.

This is not my favourite of Anyta's books, but it was still a fabulous read. William, uprooted from America, struggles to fit into his new life across the ocean. His landlady is overly loving, her son overly distant. Whilst he enjoys his work and his colleagues his home environment is not very easy to fathom. There is a mystery that he feels the need to solve, though god knows sometimes it's best not to poke the fire.

His growing attraction to Heath is hampered by many factors, not the least being his homophobic friend, Rory.William is fighting against the odds to find a chance of happiness. He'd already had his heart broken once (by Karl from St-St-Stuffed) is he about to get it broken again? 

All the trademark Anyta Sunday traits are in this novel - fab characters, great story line and UST to blow the roof off. I literally cannot wait every time I start a new novel of hers because I know I'm going to love it and that, for the time it takes me to read, I'll be in a world that I love, with people I love, hoping for an HEA, safe in the knowledge I'm very likely to get one.