Treadmill ~ Sat., 1-Oct. > Sun., 9-Oct
That’s a screen shot of my Apple watch workout that was recorded while on the treadmill. My goal is to read while walking on the treadmill for at least one 30-minute mile per day.
I did some off-treadmill reading for these books in addition to the treadmill workouts shown.
The Sixth Sense Series by Sarah Madison
This has long been one of my favorite series, and I’ve read it countless times. And I plan to read it again and again.
Way back in April of 2017 I did a Treadmill/AmReading post featuring book 1 in the series, Unspeakable Words. You can read those snippets, here.
A few years ago I made a handful of posts about my all time favorite series, and in October of 2019 I wrote about Sarah Madison’s The Sixth Sense series. You can read that post, here.
Both the romance arc and the mystery span the series. Basically, it’s about two FBI special agents, Jerry (Lee) Parker and John Flynn. Jerry has an eidedic memory, and the series hits on some of my favorite tropes.
Book 1 feels a little GFY at first, but we’ll discover it’s more about John’s self-acceptance than him “turning” gay. Another of my faves, amnesia, will come into play, temporarily, at one point, too. The series is technically paranormal and/or fantasy in that they discover ancient artifacts that bestow special powers, and they are accidentally afflicted with a couple of these (mind-reading (John) and a “Freaky Friday” incident). Put that all together and this is just so much fun!
One of the recurring little “jokes” is Jerry’s analysis and categorization of John’s smiles in book 3 while he’s reacquainting himself with John during his temporary amnesia phase. My snippet selections are all on the theme of John’s lovely smiles, with most of them coming from Book 3.
The whole series is told from Jerry’s POV, with books 1 & 2 being 3rd person and book 3 being 1st person (past):
UNSPEAKABLE WORDS
“Thanks.” Flynn gave him what Jerry was coming to think of as his customary half smile, the polite one, as opposed to the real one. He suspected that somewhere along the way, Flynn had been told that his genuine smile made him look like an idiot. He’d probably spent hours perfecting the sexy one in the mirror.
WALK A MILE
“You’re questioning me about a quotation?”
Flynn threw his hands up with a laugh. “No, never, what was I thinking?” Flynn’s real smile came out from behind his defenses, the one that made him look like an absolute goof, which was why Jerry suspected he was so sparing with it. “See. I told you Watson had his uses.”
TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES – Jerry has temporary amnesia at this point, though bits and pieces are coming back. He’s taken to categorizing John’s smiles:
He’d locked gazes with me and had given me Smile Number Two, the dead sexy one that made me think about sweeping the table clear of dishes and taking him right there. Or begging him to take me. Either would have worked for me. The way his eyelids had lowered and his gaze burned into me, I’d thought maybe some of my desire was apparent on my face. Or maybe it could be smelled in the air, like a dog in heat.
TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES
I gave him my best dirty look. The one that said he wasn’t fooling me.
In return, John gave me Smile Number Three, which was so full of boyish charm, I was supposed to forget what the original question was. Hah. I was done with forgetting things.
He gave his lopsided shrug. “Things were a little rough at work today.”
I got Smile Number Three again, and I didn’t want Smile Number Three, damn it. I wanted Smile Number Two. Hell, I wanted Smile Number One, and I wasn’t even sure what that looked like. “You might be cool with things the way they are. I’m not.”
TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES
Some of my doubt must have been apparent, because I got Smile Number Four, the half smile, the one that engaged one side of his mouth, self-deprecating and slightly encouraging at the same time.
I could work with encouraging.
TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES
Though his eyes were covered by the mask, I could see he wore what I strongly suspected was Smile Number One. The smile he only showed when he’d just had the best sex of his life.
Which made it all the more painful that I still couldn’t remember having been with him before.
TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES
That brought a genuine smile to his face—Smile Number Five—the one that made him look like a complete dork. His eyes narrowed briefly, and he bent down to brush my lips with a kiss. “You’re right about that much, at least,” he murmured.
TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES
Smile Number One made a brief appearance, blinding me with its brilliance, and then dimming as though eclipsed. He crossed toward me in swift strides, took hold of my face with both hands, and kissed me within an inch of my life.
TRUTH AND CONSEQUENCES
Ostensibly John was speaking to me, but he was staring at our colleagues when he spoke. Ooooh. That was a new smile, one that to my knowledge, I hadn’t seen before. It was astonishingly sharklike. I labeled it Smile Number Six.
The Sixth Sense Series by Sarah Madison
Paranormal M/M Romance
Spreading more book love!
Here are more of my…
✓ recent reads
✓ current reads
✓ re-reads
✓ want-to-reads
(all genres included)
About My #Treadmill / #AmReading Posts
I started out with this being a Sunday thing, but sometimes I’d rather not mash multiple books into a single post, so now, you never know when you might see one of these posts.
Rather than give a true “review,” which I’m not entirely comfortable doing as an author myself, I share snippets from books I’ve read and enjoyed, letting the authors’ words speak for themselves.
As you’ve possibly noticed, if you’ve been following along, I highlight snippets for reasons of my own which might veer from what is often seen. Sometimes my highlights have more to do with a paragraph simply impressing the heck out of me for its fabulous writerly technique, other times it has to do with the lovely way it gives subtle insight into the story/characters. Still other times simply because it made me laugh.
Anyway, I sometimes add a little commentary, but not always, which is not in any way, shape, or form, to be taken as unwritten commentary. Most likely it just means I’m short on time and/or context isn’t needed to understand what’s happening, and/or my brain doesn’t feel like putting out the effort in that particular moment.
Also, I’m going to try to spread the book love by tacking on covers of more books at the end of the post that I’ve either recently read, am currently reading, or want to read. Not seeing a full post with snippets for any of these books is not a commentary on anything other than how much time I have available in a day either to read or to create a post about what I’ve read. It might also mean I listened to the audiobook only or that it’s a reread that I’ve featured previously, or it’s not M/M so probably not a good fit for featuring on this blog.
Happy reading!