{"id":22686,"date":"2024-01-07T21:11:07","date_gmt":"2024-01-08T02:11:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=22686"},"modified":"2024-02-05T20:51:36","modified_gmt":"2024-02-06T01:51:36","slug":"rough-around-the-hedges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/22686","title":{"rendered":"Rough Around the Hedges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rough Around the Hedges<\/em><\/a> (2023) Lish McBride<\/a> (Uncanny Romance)<\/p>\n

\"Rough<\/a>Vanessa Woodbridge and her sister defied their father–and paid the price when both were cut off.<\/p>\n

But Vanessa wants to go to school, but to do so she needs her father to verify her education–since she and her sister were both home schooled.<\/p>\n

He sighed. \u201cYou know, Vanessa, I\u2019m not the villain here. This estrangement between us\u2014you and Juliet\u2014it pains me.\u201d He placed a hand over where his heart should be. I had no evidence that an actual organ resided there.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

He is vile.<\/p>\n

Will Murphy is an arcane piercer and works in a tattoo shop owned by one of his best friends. He goes to book club with his grandmother and everything in his life is good–except that he’s in love with he best friend and won’t do anything about it.<\/p>\n

And that, gentlefolk, was my nana. No subject was taboo, and when I\u2019d edged into puberty, my education had been thorough. Nana signed me up for a class through the library, got me books, and made me watch a few educational videos. I had no idea what she\u2019d done for my half-siblings. I guess she\u2019d assumed their parents would handle it\u2026though I\u2019m sure she sent books. Nana thinks most problems can be solved with books. I\u2019m not sure she\u2019s wrong.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I identified a bit too much with Vanessa.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d spent most of my life learning to gag that voice. I knew it was cruel and cutting. It didn\u2019t do me any favors. But still it whispered pure poison in my ear in my weakest moments. It was the voice of bad decisions and poor choices.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This was the problem with dealing with my father. A conversation was never just a conversation. I had to filter everything for subtext, tone, motivation. It was exhausting.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The thing about being around my father was that even when he wasn\u2019t actively doing anything terrible, you were still waiting for him to do so at any minute. Being constantly alert like that was exhausting.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u201cJust because you\u2019re used to something doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s okay.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It was one of those moments where I was just so exhausted with myself. Unfortunately, I couldn\u2019t take turns being anyone else.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Initially I was not sure I loved how Will and Van worked things out. But having stepped back, I think it did work. Van was overwhelmed with dealing with her father and lacked the bandwidth to deal with her feelings for Will. Will recognized this, and did what he needed to do to protect himself.<\/p>\n

Lots of boinking again, but I was easily able to skip it and don’t feel like I missed anything important.<\/p>\n

Publisher: Devo-Lish. Cover design & illustration:Jenny Zemanek<\/p>\n

Rating: 8\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rough Around the Hedges (2023) Lish McBride (Uncanny Romance) Vanessa Woodbridge and her sister defied their father–and paid the price when both were cut off. But Vanessa wants to go to school, but to do so she needs her father to verify her education–since she and her sister were both home schooled. He sighed. \u201cYou […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[12,292,2,204,148,26,56,16],"tags":[50,149,725,217],"class_list":["post-22686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-8-10","category-ebook","category-fantasy","category-good","category-queer","category-romance","category-sexual-content","category-supernatural","tag-boinking","tag-lish-mcbride","tag-uncanny-romance","tag-witches"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-5TU","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":22646,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/22646","url_meta":{"origin":22686,"position":0},"title":"A Little Too Familiar","author":"Michelle","date":"January 4, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"A Little Too Familiar (2022) Lish McBride (Uncanny Romance) Declan needs to get away. His sister has fallen in love with his ex-girlfriend, and since they were all living together, it's mighty uncomfortable. So he's leaving Portland for Seattle. Even after a century and a half of being in the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"A Little Too Familiar","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/A-Little-Too-Familiar.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2377,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2377","url_meta":{"origin":22686,"position":1},"title":"Necromancer: A Novella","author":"Michelle","date":"May 31, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Necromancer: A Novella (2011) Lish McBride One of the things I'm coming to adore about the Kindle (and there are many) is authors can put up short stories and novellas--for free!--to give you an introduction to their work. Which is how I ended up downloading \"Necromancer: A Novella\" because who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/05\/Necromancer.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":10836,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/10836","url_meta":{"origin":22686,"position":2},"title":"Freaks & Other Family","author":"Michelle","date":"May 2, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Freaks & Other Family (2016) Lish McBride You Make Me Feel So Young Halfway Through the Wood This collection is two stories about the characters from Hold Me Closer, Necromancer, Sam and Ramon. Sam is now a necromancer. Ramon is now a were-bear. Luckily, Sam's inheritance also included a house\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/Freaks-Other-Family.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6434,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/6434","url_meta":{"origin":22686,"position":3},"title":"Burnt Sugar","author":"Michelle","date":"January 3, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Burnt Sugar (2014) Lish McBride Ava, Lock, and Ezra have been sent by the Coterie (magical mafia) to collect a tithe from a witch who has missed payment. But when the find a gingerbread house, they know things are more serious than they expected. Lock stopped and crossed his arms,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "7.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"7.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/7-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/burnt-sugar.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":11186,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/11186","url_meta":{"origin":22686,"position":4},"title":"Pyromantic","author":"Michelle","date":"October 24, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Pyromantic (2017) Lish McBride The sequel to Firebug is set a few months after those events. Ava and Cade are adjusting to their changed relationship, and also rebuilding Cade's bookstore, which was burned down amidst everything else. Luckily, the head of the new Coterie believes that the incident was a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "9\/10"","block_context":{"text":"9\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/9-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/Pyromantic.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2560,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2560","url_meta":{"origin":22686,"position":5},"title":"Hold Me Closer, Necromancer","author":"Michelle","date":"October 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Hold Me Closer, Necromancer (2010) Lish McBride Sam can't decide what to do with himself, which means that by default he has fallen to the painful default of food service. His life is going nowhere, he's job is crap, but he has friends, and friends can make anything easier. Even\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/10\/Hold-Me-Closer-Necromancer.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22686"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22686\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}