Read This F@!%ing Book (60)

Welcome to a feature we're going to post called:

Read This F@!%ing Book!

This is a feature for us to push our favorite reads that just aren't getting enough attention!

We're also opening it up to anyone who would like to guest post. Do you have a book that you just LURVED but feel like its not getting the play it deserves? We'd be THRILLED to have you post about it here! Especially if it's something we haven't reviewed yet - that's even better (but not necessary)! If you're interested, email us at goldiloxandthethreeweres@gmail.com.

Read This F@!%ing Book Post 60: The Whyborne & Griffin Series by Jordan L. Hawk

(Click book cover to go to Goodreads page)

For Pride Month, I decided that I was going to read as many of my LGBTQ+ books as I could and it was glorious! I read SO many amazing books that I just kept going. My Pride Month reading extended well into August.

Who am I kidding? It's still going.

A few years ago, my friend, Meghan, read this self-published book and immediately started pushing it and the rest of the series on all of our friends online and in real life. I trust Meghan's recommendations a lot because we read and love a lot of the same things. But with this series, I was immediately sold when she told me it was "kind of like Sherlock Holmes meets The Mummy (with Brendan Fraser) if Sherlock was an introverted museum philologist with an ex-Pinkerton Watson who fall in love with each other and encounter secret societies and eldritch-type horrors". I bought Widdershins that day while it was still on sale along with the next two books. Sadly, they just sat on my kindle with my other unread books until last month.

Guys. I freaking loved these books! I binge read all nine books, the two novellas, and the three short stories in less than a week. And I wanted to immediately reread them as soon as I finished. It's magical when a series invokes that kind of reaction.

Why should you read this series? Let me give you some reasons.

The Romance
I was pretty much an insta-shipper of Whyborne and Griffin the moment Griffin was nice to Whyborne in their first meeting. They just work well as a couple and they NEED each other in so many ways. I loved them together by the end of the first book. By the end of the series, they had catapulted through the ranks and landed a spot on my Top 5 OTPs list. Griffin's humor and extroversion balances out Whyborne's seriousness and introversion. They struggle and fight and grow together and I'm just here for that kind of romantic growth.

Christine Makes This Great Series 100% More Awesome
Whyborne's best friend and museum colleague totally gets her own bullet point. I love Whyborne and Griffin but Christine made the series for me! She's a spunky, independent woman who is not going to let society push her into the box they think women should be in. She's an Egyptologist who has made one of the biggest archeological finds in decades. She needs no man to be who she wants to be and I loved that about her!

Her friendship with Whyborne is an A+ platonic relationship that should be the rest of us's friendship goals. She's always ready to back Whyborne up whether it's in a staff meeting at the museum or battling monsters and secret societies. They're each others' found family and their relationship gives me life! Also, I loved that she accepts Whyborne's sexuality without blinking an eye in a time when it meant serious trouble if people found out. And I love that the only outrage she showed about it at all was that Whyborne thought she'd dump him for it. I probably could write a whole post about why I love Christine but I'll stop there for now.

Not Your Normal Town and Not Your Normal Monsters
The worldbuilding in this series is amazing! Widdershins has the totally weird and abnormal town aesthetic down and its history adds so much to the narrative. I want to visit there so badly! One of the most used phrases in this series is that "Widdershins knows its own" and I loved how the author integrated that into the story. I won't tell you how though because spoilers, sweetie.

The magic system is intriguing as is how Whyborne stumbled upon sorcery but what I loved the most was the monsters. They're not your normal paranormal fare. There are vampires and werewolves that show up. Kind of. They aren't your garden variety supes. They've been given an eldritch upgrade and have very few characteristics with the vamps and werewolves that immediately come to mind. Plus, this series boasts some original creatures and it was refreshing to read! I kind of loved them even though one of them kind of scared the pants off me at first. This series would be worth reading for the worldbuilding alone.

The Adventure! Oh! The Adventure!
Whyborne is the reluctant adventurer I never knew I needed in my life. He doesn't like to travel and if he never had to leave Widdershins that would be just fine with him. I love that he lets himself get dragged to far off places almost against his will. He may consent to go and help but he will not be happy about it and I love that about him. The gang have adventures in so many awesome and weird places! They go to places like Egypt and the Yukon and a small town in Kansas. Kansas may not seem very exciting but it really was an interesting and kind of exciting setting. I need more homebodies having reluctant adventures ala Whyborne and Bilbo Baggins in my books and in my life.

Those are just a few of the examples I can think of off the top of my head on why you should read these books. If you're looking for a fun m/m romance series with a lot of adventure, look no further. The Whyborne and Griffin series is just what the doctor ordered! 

Random Aside: If you're a fan of K.J. Charles's m/m romance books, there's a fun crossover novella with the leads from her The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal book and it's utterly delightful! I highly recommend that one as well! Look for my review of it later this week!

Have you read this series?
Let us know in the comments below!
Did we persuade you to add these books to your TBR mountain?

Novellas and Short Stories in this Series:
(A couple of these stories are offered for free and the links will direct you to where you can read them. The rest of the links are to that book's respective Goodreads pages.) 

Eidelon (Whyborne & Griffin #1.5) by Jordan L. Hawk
Carousel (Whyborne & Griffin #3.4) by Jordan L. Hawk
Remnant: A Caldwell & Feximal/Whyborne & Griffin Mystery (Whyborne & Griffin #3.5) by Jordan L. Hawk and K.J. Charles
Harmony (Whyborne & Griffin #5.5) by Jordan L. Hawk
Undertow (Whyborne & Griffin #8.5) by Jordan L. Hawk