Last First Kiss by Julian Winters

Sunday, August 9, 2026--San Antonio

I actually read Last First Kiss by Julian Winters two novels ago (between reading Buckeye and Helen of Nowhere), but I just noticed I never wrote about it here.  It is a gay novel set in present-day Atlanta.  The protagonist is a man whose family operates a prestigious event planning agency.  He has just become a planner within the company and has been assigned to plan a rushed wedding event--rushed because the husband-to-be is the son of a famous Hollywood director and is to work with him on a new film starting production in only 3 months.  In meeting with the couple, the wife-to-be's best friend shows up.  He happens to be Jamie--someone that Jordan, the planner, has known since they were adolescents.  But there is a troubled history there.  Jordan is now in his late 20s, and Jamie is the only person he has ever kissed--an event that happened years ago when they were experimenting as children.  All his life, Jordan has never felt right in relationships, and he has never forgotten the feeling he got from that kiss with Jamie.  In fact, a year or so earlier than the time of the story, he had approached Jamie (who has been Jordon's cousins best friend all along and who is openly gay), to see if their friendship could be renewed and if maybe an even closer relationship could be established.  But he did something that caused Jamie to cut off their friendship, and this is the first time they have interacted since.  It's a romance novel, so the reader knows something is going to happen.  They story is really about all the fits and false starts that are part of the relationship before they finally accept that they have been destined to be together from the time of that first kiss.  It was a fun, fast read--a good summer novel.  I have it 3 1/2 stars out of 5.

Land by Maggie O"Farrell

Sunday, Aug. 9, 2026--San Antonio

Land by Maggie O'Farrell has been praised by many others.  It is a novel set in Ireland from before and great potato famine to the rumblings of the war beginning against British rule.  It begins with two young characters who have been sent to the workhouse for children because everyone else in their families have died due to the famine.  It follows their travails in the work house and on through their lives and those of their children.  There is one adventure and misadventure after another over the decades.  The story involves so much of what was happening during those times:  The leavings by those who can to the Americas (and by those who are sold off to go there as indentured servants with no choice).  The great opportunities that some "unfortunates" accidentally get because it is discovered that they have unexpected skills (such as being able to read, write, or do mathematics).  The hardships that most families face because the feudal system of land still belonging to the aristocrats who lease parcels to farmers who can barely make the rent payments and often cannot and face expulsion.  The children of the artistocrats feeling entitled and that they can take advantage those poorer than them.  The priests who hold so much power over the people that their actions cannot be questioned even though they may not be aligned with the teachings of their religion and can create havoc for the people).  Superstitions related to the history of the druids is still a big part of people's daily lives.  The story follows those two original characters as they establish a family on a narrow peninsula of western Ireland, and it continues to cover the lives of the family members as the years pass.  It is a sweeping novel that will hold the reader's attention throughout.  My only concern is that the story of the last years covered seemed to be rushed in comparison to the rest of the novel.  I gave the book 4 1/2 stars out of 5.