It’s time for one of our most expensive posts of the month! Bury your wallet, put your credit card in the freezer, do whatever you need to do! Because late fall/early winter time is prime reading time. The last thing I want to do is put on several layers of clothing when I can just burrito myself in a comfortable blanket and spike my hot cocoa with booze.
Carrie: Due to the library having both reads on a display shelf by the front door. I just finished Underground Airlines by Ben Winters ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) and am about to start The Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), after which I plan to read nothing but fun filled romps until January.
Elyse: Basically I’m trying to get as far from reality as possible so a lot of historical stuff. I’m currently reading A Curious Beginning by Deanna Raybourn ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) and The Forgotten Room by Kate White, Beatriz Williams, and Lauren Willig.
I started reading Mr. President by Katy Evans ( A | BN | K | AB )–it’s not a bad book but I had to put it down because I just don’t have it in me for a political romance so far
Amanda: I’ve been in a non-romance mood. So I’m finishing up The Female of the Species ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). It’s so dark and I’m really enjoying it. The chapters are one of three character POVs, which is really keeping my attention.
After that, I have And I Darken ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) from the library. We have a Keeper Shelf post about this book coming up and reading that post made me so jazzed to go out and grab it.
And then I have Nico by Sarah Castille. It’s a Romeo and Juliet-esque, star crossed lovers romance with a mafia boss hero and a hacker heroine, who is the daughter of his rival.
Elyse: Oooh I have And I Darken! I heard the heroine is a glorious rage filled badass who makes no apologies
Sarah: I have The Wood Nymph by Mary Balogh ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), one of her reissued Regencies (YES PLS ALL THE SIGNET REGENCIES NOW PLS YES)
I also have an ARC of Sweetest Regret by Meredith Duran ( A | BN | K | G | AB ).
There is a HOUSE PARTY.
Carrie: I got so obsessed with Underground Railroad that I forgot I had something on the stove and I nearly burned the house down.
Also I did not get anything done other than reading to page 206 and opening a lot of windows.
What did you read this month? Anything going on your Keeper Shelf? Or were you more tempted to chuck your books across the room?
By request, since we can’t link to every book you mention in the comments, here are bookstore links that help support the site with your purchases. If you use them, that’s so great of you, and if you’d prefer not to, that’s cool too. Thank you so much for hanging out with us, and hopefully you found something good to read!
I read The Madness of Lord Ian MacKenzie and it was great, but so far the sequel isn’t holding my attention so I might skip around the series to the characters who really interested me.
Also, just finished The Rebel Heir by Elizabeth Michels and loved it so much I broke my No-Buy to purchase the first book in the series (thankfully my library has her other 3 books).
If a time machine existed I would be 10 days in the future, making Bad Decisions and staying up all night to read Sweetest Regret and Duke of Pleasure. I also added The Female Of The Species to my Christmas list based on Amanda’s tweets.
I’m going to Mexico for Christmas and the hotel doesn’t have free wifi :'( so I’m trying to stock up on recs so I can load up my kindle from the library before I go, but I just keep reading the books instead of saving them.
I have been revisiting Sheri S Tepper’s books, since the author died just last month. I really like her books, despite the sometimes heavy-handed political polemic in them.
I have also been revisiting another favorite of mine, namely Katharine Kerr’s Deverry series. That one sucks me in every time.
Next up on my reading list is some of Jean Johnson’s books – probably her Sons of Destiny series, but I also want to reread the first two books in her SF trilogy _The First Salik War_ before the end of this month (the final book will be available on Nov 29, and I prebought it last year, just after I’d finished the second volume, which should tell The Bitchery everything necessary about my opinion about those books!)
I had some great reads this month and some good ones, which, thank you books.
Faves
– “Imprudence” / “Poison or Protect” / “Romancing the Inventor” by Gail Carriger – some words: awesome, lesbians (both inventor and werecat), house party!
– “You Can’t Touch My Hair: And Other Things I Still Have to Explain” by Phoebe Robinson (audiobook) – comedian and one half of 2 Dope Queens (with Jessica Williams!), Robinson writes a memoir that’s funny and straightforward. Necessary reading, I think. Especially now.
– “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society” by Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows (audiobook) – wonderful, of course, but the audiobook is excellent. Multiple narrators make the epistolary format feel natural.
-“Weird Things Customers Say in Bookstores” by Jen Campbell – need a laugh? Check this out!
– “Vicious” by V.E. Schwab – Her sense of pacing is superb; this story of superheroes who raise the dead and try to kill each other just flies by!
– “Lafayette and the Somewhat United States” by Sarah Vowell (audiobook) – second book of her’s I’ve read and I definitely think audio is the way to go. LAFAYETTE!
– “The Time Traveler’s Guide to Medieval England” by Ian Mortimer (audiobook) – definitely listen to this book. “You” are a character, as you stay in, eat in, shop in, greet in, hunt in 14th century England.
– “My Real Children” by Jo Walton – one woman, two realities. And she’s queer! And has a happy, healthy relationship with a woman! Each reality spins out of control in it’s own way in the background of this woman’s life. I liked this book when I finished it about three weeks ago. Now it keeps punching me between the eyes.
– “The Woman in Black” by Susan Hill – great ghost story.
– “Certain Dark Things” by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – Do you want a fresh take on vampires? This is that book.
Good
– “Daughter of Mystery” by Heather Rose Jones – Delightful lesbian romance, sorta historical, lightly magical
– “Magic Binds” by Ilona Andrews – I can’t believe there’s only one left!
– “The Family Plot” by Cherie Priest – modern haunted house tale! Very “Haunting of Hill House.”
– “Hex” by Thomas Olde Heuvelt – a town in upstate NY is cursed with a ghost. Very “early Stephen King.”
– “The Doll Collection: Stories” edited by Ellen Datlow – are you as scared of old dolls as I am? Oh good! Read this.
– “The Woman Who Would Be King: Hatshepsut’s Rise to Power in Ancient Egypt” by Kara Cooney – HAHAHAHAHA
– “Three Dark Crowns” by Kendare Blake – I had trouble buying the conceit, but I think Book 2 will be awesome.
– “Summerlong” by Peter S. Beagle – the writing was beautiful, the men were the worst
– “Iron & Velvet” by Alexis Hall – funny and fun, not as good as “For Real.”
Currently Reading
– “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” by Malcolm X – I’d never read it, which is absolutely ridiculous.
– “Assassin’s Apprentice” by Robin Hobb – I needed some solid epic fantasy in my life.
I just finished the Napoleon: A Life and am trying to score Eats, Shoots and Leaves from the library. C’mon, download already!
It is almost the end of the term and I am up to my eyeballs in essays and other papers, but I’ve still had time for a wee bit of reading in the past month-ish.
– Last night, I finished “Take a Chance on Me” by Jennifer Dawson – not perfect, but interesting enough that I’ll probably continue with the series.
– I’ve worked my way through the Barbara Erskine trilogy – “Daughters of Fire,” “The Warrior Princess,” and “Time’s Legacy.” If you like time slip novels, you have to read Barbara Erskine! She sometimes gets a bit too scary for me (I don’t do scary in books or movies), but these ones found a good balance between edge-of-your-seat tension and a good story (with some light romance thrown in).
– I also read a poetry collection written by one of my professors – “dust or fire” by Alyda Faber. I normally dip into poetry one poem at a time, but I found this book to be as un-put-downable as a novel. The raw emotion on the page left me breathless, and this book led to a night in the company of the Bad Decisions Bookclub.
– plus loads of textbooks that you don’t need to hear about, and various articles and books for writing essays…
Just finished No Man’s Land a new John Puller novel by David Baldacci. Just recently I reread A Curious Beginnning by Deanna Raybourn looking forward to her next one. I am currently reading Fire Touched by Patricia Riggs.
I was trying to avoid reading this month (NaNoWriMo), but I did end up starting Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow, on audio. So far it’s interesting, but maybe a bit too close to reality for me right now.
And due to general slumpiness this year, I’m going to need to read 16 books next month to hit my reading goal.
Due to massive overtime, I’ve not done much reading this past month. I just finished Sins of the Fathers by Susan Howatch, which met my need for a big, meaty, sprawling family saga filled with plots and revenge and hundreds of characters.
Just started Theresa Romain’s A Gentleman’s Game. I am cautiously optimistic so far. I like the turf setting and am intrigued by the mystery and motives of the main character and it is thankfully free the of the ridiculously twee banter that fill historicals these days.
I tend to spend most of my time with my nose in cookbooks this time of year and I lost a weekend binge-watching The Crown.
Also, prompted by the discussion on yesterday’s podcast, I dug out my copy of Whitney, My Love. Not the new, edited, sanitized version, but the original edition. I haven’t read it in over twenty years and I’m curious to see whether I can even finish it. I gave up on McNaught’s Paradise when I attempted a reread last year.
I’m hoping to do some reading over Thanksgiving weekend. I’m hoping to read Sunset in Central Park by Sarah Morgan before Miracle on 5th Avenue comes out at the end of the month. I also want to read some of the holiday romances in my TBR pile, like The Trouble with Mistletoe by Jill Shalvis.
I read an ARC of Wintersong, which I wanted to love, but ultimately found to be a bit of a slog. It’s a shame – with more ruthless editing, I think it could have been a much better novel. The premise was perfect for me: Beauty and the Beast combined with Labyrinth, with a composer for the heroine. The pacing was just too uneven, and parts of it were extremely repetitious. Goodreads is full of raves for it, though, so maybe it’s just me.
Right now I’m thoroughly enjoying Shameless by Anne Stuart, which I think I saw recommended here in the past week or so.
After that, I have to return to A Curious Beginning and Magnate, both of which were put on hold for the previous two books.
I had an up and down reading month and barely read anything in the days leading up to the election due to stress (both about the election and other things). I still managed to read twenty books and four novellas. Here’s the highlights:
Midnight Kiss by Emma Barry and Genevieve Turner- This was a free serialized novella in their Fly Me to the Moon series that I got from signing up for their newsletters. I really enjoyed this one. The heroine is expecting a proposal from her longtime boyfriend on New Year’s Eve, instead they break-up. Hero is back home on leave from the air force and is the older brother of the heroine’s best friend. I loved both the main characters and the way the authors show them falling for each other over the course of a New Year’s Eve dance.The heroine was especially great, coming into her own after a lifetime of trying to be the perfect Southern belle.
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne- I loved this book. The chemistry between the hero and heroine was amazing. I loved their banter and the way their relationship changed from adversarial to romantic. The only problem I had with the book is the hero’s boss (they work for a company that has merged and has co-CEOs with the heroine being one of the CEO’s assistants and the hero being the other’s assistant) is a one-note creepy villain character and is fat-shamed throughout the book.
A Study in Scarlet Women by Sherry Thomas- I tried starting this one in the middle of a super stressful couple of days and I realized right away that it was going to require a higher level of attention than I was capable of giving at the time. I put it down, took a couple days off reading then read a lighter book. When I recommitted to reading it, I ended up enjoying it with a few issues. One of the reasons I had a hard time getting into immediately is that it doesn’t start with the heroine, Charlotte Holmes’s perspective. It actually takes a while to get to her perspective and that through me off a bit. I also didn’t love the fact that it seems to be setting up a romance with a married man, but nothing really happens between them in this book, they have a long history, and I trust Thomas to develop the relationship over the course of the series in a way that I won’t hate. As much as I love Sherlock in movies and on tv, I don’t think I’ve ever read a Sherlock Holmes book so I can’t compare it to the style of those books.
Do You Want to Start a Scandal by Tessa Dare- This is the sweet, low angsty book I read after attempting the Thomas book. It was exactly what I expected from Dare- great banter, chemistry, with a fast pace.
Sarina Bowen- I’m finally starting to work my way through my backlog of Bowen’s books on my kindle. I started with Bittersweet, which I won a while back, since I’d heard good things and I’m trying to keep on top of my won books. I adored it. Griffin was an amazing hero, it turns out I’m a sucker for grumpy farmer heroes. Not sure where that love came from, but it seems to be a thing now so I’m happy. I also really loved Audrey and how she was both a bit of a mess and actually very competent at the same time. I followed Bittersweet with Steadfast and enjoyed it as well. It’s more angsty than Bittersweet, but I enjoyed Jude’s redemption and struggle with addiction. His reunion with Sophie and they way they dealt with the past and his issues was well-handled. The last one I read was Rookie Move which I liked, but not quite as much as the other two. I liked the hero/heroine and their eventual romance, but it seemed a little slow to get off the ground. I still have five Bowen books and one novella to read so hopefully I can work through those in the next month.
Julie Anne Long- I got a copy of Hot in Hellcat Canyon from my local e-library so I used reading that as an excuse to finally get around to the last two Pennyroyal Green books that were sitting on my kindle. Hot in Hellcat Canyon started off slow but I ended up really enjoying it. There was great chemistry between the hero/heroine and some great dialogue. I loved the way the HEA played out; it was really sweet. It Started With a Scandal, was pretty meh for me. I think I had waited way too long to read this one and I was less invested in the series than I once was. I also can’t remember if I was ever rooting for either of these non-Eversea/non-Redmonds to get their own romance. If I did, I had almost completely forgotten about them. I was also pretty disappointed with The Legend of Lyon Redmond. Somehow the feeling of needing these two characters to get together right now never materialized. I know I had that feeling on some level throughout the series, but I never felt it in this book. I think if there had been more time with the couple together in the ‘present’ day, it would’ve worked better.
Like a River Glorious by Rae Carson- I really enjoyed this second book in Carson’s The Gold SeerTrilogy. It had a good amount of action which was lacking in the first book.
Others that were decent, but nothing great:
The Boy is Back by Meg Cabot
The Single Undead Moms Club by Molly Harper
Big Vamp on Campus by Molly Harper
Where the Wild Things Bite by Molly Harper
The Twelve Nights of Christmas by Sarah Morgan
Playing by the Greek’s Rules by Sarah Morgan (this was actually slightly above average)
All the Little Liars by Charlaine Harris
I’m currently reading and enjoying an arc of A Perilous Undertaking by Deanna Raybourn.
Beauty and the Clockwork Beast by Nancy Campbell Allen. The back calls it “Jane Eyre meets Beauty & the Beast”. I wouldn’t go that far, but it definitely is a remake of Beauty & the Beast with a Steampunk and supernatural twist. I’m about 99 pages in, so I can only speak to the set-up.
We have Lucy Pickett, an independent woman who is a botanist searching for a countermeasure to a drug that allows vampires to hide in plain sight. They had been banned to Scotland rather than being killed, but some want back to London. She takes a break when a letter from her cousin Kate talks about being ill and believing the family home is haunted.
Lord Miles Blake, the Earl of Blackwell, is Kate’s brother-in-law. A reclusive man with a wicked scar and a frightening reputation due to the sudden mysterious deaths of his new bride and his sister. Oh, and Miles is a shifter.
There are possible vampire attacks in the neighborhood, Miles is worried he might be the reason for his sister’s death. Oh, and that sister is haunting the homestead. So far I’m interested and enjoying the characters.
I’ve also finished The Villa by Nora Roberts, an interesting double romance set in the wine industry. I had a strong deja vu feeling with this one, so I must’ve read it back before I was into Roberts.
I tried The Return by Erin Knightley, one of James Patterson’s Book Shots, but even as quick a read as it was, I couldn’t finish it. Very disappointed because it was in my favorites arena: injured bullrider, small town country setting, former girlfriend as heroine. I had to struggle to get halfway through.
Finally, I read Children to a Degree: Growing Up Under the Third Reich by Horst Christian. It is a prequel to two other books about the characters, but can be read on its own. It was an interesting read, particularly for those who love reading history. Not too graphic.
@SusanH: So bummed to hear about Wintersong. I just got a copy of it because it’s my Covers & Cocktails pick for February. Maybe I’ll feel differently.
Right now I have two books going. I’m reading The Secret Casefiles of Simon Feximal byKJ Charles which is a bunch of related paranormal short stories and a m/m romance. So fsr it’s not bad, but not my favorite by KJ Charles. She has a new one coming out that I’ve got on preorder that I’m on tenderhooks waiting for.
I’m listening to Magic Binds by Ilona Andrews, which is book 9 in the Kate Daniels series, which I heart muchly and HIGHLY recommend.
I have a very distracted brain right now, so I’ve been reading short stuff – graphic novels and “The Secret Loves of Geek Girls”, which is short nonfiction told in a bunch of different ways. I just finished “Extraordinary X-Men” vol 1 and 2 and now I am annoyed that Storm won’t get back with Forge. Also read “Starfire” vol 1, which was cute. Looking forward to “Sunstone” vol 5 coming out next month, and I need to reread “The Queen of the Tearling” and read the second book both over Thanksgiving break to be ready for the third book’s release on the 29th.
Nope. Nothing to the Keeper Shelf this month. Nevertheless, I enjoyed Hold Me by Courtney Milan. Now I’m reading Seduction of a Highland Lass by Maya Banks and Into the Storm by Suzanne Brockmann, quite entertaining both of them, but nothing groundbreaking.
The most interesting books I’m reading nowadays are non-fiction as Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany written by Norman Ohler or Naomi Klein‘s The Shock Doctrine.
This week, I finished Warriors Don’t Cry a first person account of the Little Rock Nine, Devil in Winter ( a recommendation from your site), Sherry Thomas’ My Beautiful Enemey, and Agatha Christies And There Were None.
I mostly start books and don’t finish them. Either they’re too serious or too slight, either they make me feel something (I has too! many! feels!) or they are insufficiently distracting (also too many thoughts)(I hate 2016 every bit as much as it apparently hates me)(oh god, but 2017).
I read some really spectacularly good books by Galdos. Idk if it’s supposed to be Galdos or Perez or Perez Galdos, because I never hear people talk about him. Which is a crime, he’s fantastic, and someone needs to translate all his works for me now please thanks. His stuff is insanely depressing, Tristana has possibly the cruelest closing line I have ever ever read, and Fortunata y Jacintha has just the most despicable hero and at the end the reader realizes they are just like him and it is harrowing. I may give into despair for a while and reread some Hardy and Saltykov-Shchedrin and similar? When things are bleak, maybe it’s time to bring on the bleakness.
I’m also spending a lot of time in the archives at the Toast, but that brings its own sadness.
I read The Invisible Library and OMG OMG, I now love dragons. I need more dragons. I’m #9 on the hold list for the 2nd book in the series.
Just read an ARC, Workation, which was super cute, fluffy romance. The characters are funny and quirky and I read it in one day, mostly because I wanted to spend more time with characters.
I read Smut by Karina Halle and really enjoyed it. It wasn’t the greatest book ever, but if a book can keep my ADD from kicking and my keep my mind from wandering then I consider it pretty good.
Unplanned travel led to me finally reading The Duchess War (flight out) and The Heiress Effect (waiting rooms)and coming to the sad realization that I had somehow not purchased The Countess Conspiracy which is just as well since on the flight back I was way more focused on the Cubs game scroll on my seat mate’s phone than my Kindle. Where was I when the Cubs finally won the world series? Final approach to O’Hare with a plane load of fellow die-hards cheering and watching fireworks go off all over the Chicago area. Even Courtney Milan can’t compete with that.
Since then, the good book noise has continued at a nice warm pitch with The Queen’s Accomplice, the latest installment of the Maggie Hope series. Then I moved on to A Study in Scarlet Women. My reading history is littered with different takes on Sherlock Holmes -this is my third one this year- and I’m eager to see where this goes. This morning started with finishing Alice Clayton’s Nuts which was every kind of sexy slapstick fun.
Next up is The Hating Game, but only if I get the pre-Thanksgiving cleaning done. Incentive is everything in housekeeping. And I’m saving Archangel’s Heart as incentive for my post-Thanksgiving recleaning. Nalini Singh is the definition of incentive.
I’ve needed some major comfort reads this month, so I’ve been turning to a lot of my favorite authors to tear through some backlist titles I haven’t hit yet. The most satisfying of these were the Innkeeper books from Ilona Andrews and “The Witness” by Nora Roberts. “Clean Sweep” and “Sweep in Peace” were both light and funny takes on a sci-fi/urban fantasy-esque world. Also, charming inns! When it comes to world building, I feel like few people do it better than Ilona Andrews. I also love that the way that team ratchets up tension is to have incredibly strong heroines who have seemingly insurmountable problems, rather than a more average heroine with more manageable problems.
Actually, I guess that’s the common denominator with Nora Roberts’ suspense heroines. I loved how smart & capable the heroine was in “The Witness.” She was brilliant and had no problem taking care of her damn self.
Didn’t realize I was gravitating to books filled with bad ass bitches who get shit done, but I guess this month I just needed to remember that women are powerful and capable.
My favorite book of the month was Curtis Sittenfeld’s Eligible. This is her Pride and Prejudice updating set in reality-show America, and I didn’t expect to do more than take it for a walk from the library. Instead I inhaled it in two days. Sittenfeld doesn’t strangle P&P’s plotline, thankfully, which works surprisingly well. I felt one of the best choices was splitting one Austen character into two of her own, which made far more sense in a modern plot than I think a literal take could have.
I also loved Tansy Rayner Roberts’ short story “Kid Dark Against the Machine,” which is free online at the Book Smugglers. She’s written a couple of pieces in a world with machines that make superheroes, and this one is about the former Robin to Australia’s Batman. Good fun and some thinky bits with superhero tropes.
I keep hearing disappointing things about Connie Willis’s new Crosstalk, including here, but I went back and encountered her short novel Bellwether, which I really enjoyed. It’s a screwball comedy with scientists.
Probably the other Lois McMaster Bujold fans wlll read her latest Penric novella, “Penric’s Mission” irrespective of comments, but in my view this one is cliffhanger-y and the weakest to date. But I’ll keep reading them too, so…
I read six of Mary Balogh’s old regency e-reprints last month, and they were an interesting bunch from ugh to decent. I find that satisfying on the whole – from early on, she has enough range in her work to not keep writing the same story and characters every time. I wanted to drop the female lead in An Unlikely Duchess down a well – very stupid and selfish (she reminded me of Miles Vorkosigan minus the brains and charm – not a good thing!). OTOH, The Double Wager was one of the most Heyeresque books I can remember reading, like some of Heyer’s lesser Georgian arranged-marriage books, with added Frederica overtones. The others were somewhere in the middle.
I’ve been looking forward to this post all week. I love hearing about people’s reading lives so much. Thank you all for sharing!
As for me, I’ve been struggling with reading romances these past couple of weeks. I want escapism, but not too fluffy–I want realism, too, because I’m having enough problems irl with people not seeing the reality in front of them–but also not too dark, because bleak odds don’t feed my soul right now. Trying to find romances with the right amount of conflict and the right tone is a struggle right now. I want stories of people coming together and shifting their perspectives, desperately, though.
A couple low-on-interpersonal-conflict romances I really liked recently were Michelle Celmer’s Caroselli’s Christmas Baby (friends-to-lovers I could really believe in) and Phyllis Bourne’s Falling into Forever (reunited lovers where their support of each other made me tear up).
If anyone has recs for lower-conflict-but-not-fluffy romances, in any subgenre, I’ll take them! I can probably subsist on rereading older favorites (deep diving into Susanna Kearsley rereads sounds really good right now), but I’d love some new reads.
I read and thoroughly enjoyed Paul Krueger’s LAST CALL AT THE NIGHTSHADE LOUNGE. OMG, so much fun, set in Chicago, where bartenders are the invisible superheroes and saviors of the world. Plus a mixology dictionary that explains the magical properties of drinks.
Also listening to GEMINA, the follow up to ILLUMINAE. It took a while to understand the action, but I am loving every syllable from the full-cast narration.
I recently got a library card for the next town over and omg it’s been awesome! This month I read some back catalog books that aren’t in my local library. Three by Sherry Thomas whose books I LOVE (and have bought from time to time even though I rarely buy books, just so I can reread them whenever I want) – Delicious, His at Night, and Private Arrangements. So fun to see glimpses of characters that I know from more recent books. Also two by Lisa Kleypas – Then Came You and Dreaming of You. I have a couple Caroline Lindens up next.
On audio, I’m listening to A Woman Entangled by Cecelia Grant. I do love the Blackshears.
Ah, I’m going to finally come out of hiding and post because I always love reading about what other people are reading!
This past month, I finally tried my first Lisa Kleypas. I picked up the Wallflower quartet and rolled through Secrets of a Summer Night. It was so satisfying. Kleypas sometimes sounds as though she’s paraphrasing her research in the beginning, i.e. “This is a historical oddity. Here is what it does. Here is a list of qualities about it.” That started to put me off, but by the end I was delighted and amazed at just how endearing her characters were, and just how she managed to write a story that felt both familiar and surprising. Also, the boots. Sigh. The boots made me swoon.
I also just read The Dare and the Doctor by Kate Noble. I read an early copy for Heroes and Heartbreakers, and it was SO DAMN AMAZING. It’s a book where every person but the hero and heroine knows that they’re in love. It involves a friendship, letter writing, lots of adorable science (she’s an amazing horticulturalist, he’s a doctor), and proof that love and best friendship can go hand-in-hand. Noble manages to make things so funny, but also emotionally charged, so I was often audibly laughing, or screaming in frustration, or swooning because of the sexual tension. I want to throw this book at everyone and make them read it because it was so perfect for me.
Other things of note: I’m reading The Fire This Time, a collection of essays on race in the U.S. It’s a response/continuation of the James Baldwin work of a similar title. The essays are impactful, moving, and visceral. Totally worth it.
I also am reading the manga Demon Love Spell, about a shrine maiden in high school that accidentally traps an incubus and they have a ~romance~. It’s cute.
Otherwise, I’m hoping to read the next Wallflower book, Jill Shalvis’s latest full-length Christmas story, and several other things while I’m on Thanksgiving break (senior year of undergrad is a special sort of purgatory right now.) Binge-watching Transparent season 3, the Gilmore Girls revival, and The Crown are all on my list as well…it’s going to be a very busy break, but well worth it.
The Book of Joy by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Adams. Also participating in a global reading group on Facebook.
@Carrie, that’s a hell of a one-two punch to the metaphorical balls in your reading. Seriously, spend the next month looking at kitten pictures (I really want to read both of those, but the wait list at the library is REAL).
All right, then. Time to assess the past month. :::peers at Goodreads::: God, I’m glad this semester is almost over. I say that like I haven’t already registered and turned in my employee scholarship paperwork for spring.
Oh, well. It’s not much, but it’s there. It looks like the month started with Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo, which was reliably excellent. Then there was Gemina by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff, which was the sequel to Illuminae, and is epistolary in nature (it reads as communication files that are being used in a tribunal), and also there are monsters, and wormholes, and a character that is simultaneously a spoiled party girl and freaking John McClane (she was amazing), and SPAAAAACE!!!! It was awesome. Treat yo self and read it. After that, I blitzed through Apprentice In Death by J.D. Robb, which was quite good. The past couple of In Deaths have seen an uptick in writing quality. Basically, and this may sound bitchy, I think someone may have gotten Nora a new editor. Then I read America’s First Daughter by Stephanie Dray and Laura Kamoie. It was good, and definitely researched. I did find the narrator to be irritatingly codependent much of the time. I’m also still listening to Dead Wake by Erik Larson and am almost done (I really only get to listen when the kids aren’t in the car, since I don’t feel like explaining how someone dies of hypothermia on the way to school).
I started out the month with Madeline Baker First Love Wild Love 3 stars. After reading Ellen O’Connell this past summer, I’ve been on the hunt for more NA romance but this one was just meh for me.
Tamara Morgan In the Clear 3 stars. Short, quick read. Can’t remember a thing about it.
Anne Mallory For the Earls Pleasure 3 stars. Looked like a straight Recency but was really a PNR. Threw me off and I had a really hard time with the hero though I love unrequited love tropes so I read it in one sitting.
Roberts Vision in White 3 stars. Loved the hero but the heroine was very familiar just read like she recycled it from one of her other books.
Sherry Thomas Tempting the Bride 4 1/2 stars. Loved this one even if the heroine got on my nerves a few times. Carrying on with a married man also not my cuppa and I just couldn’t get over it. Otherwise it would have been a perfect read.
Karina Bliss Rise 4 1/2 stars (‘re-read) this was a re read and I think I liked it more this time around. Love, love the hero.
Currently reading Larissa Brown’s Beautiful Wreck but having a hard time getting into it. Listening to Jeanine Frost’ s Halfway to the Grave and the narrator’s English accent is atrocious. I may DNF it and just read the book.
Besides the usual stuff: “Archangel’s heart,” “Curse of tenth grave,” “Magic binds,” I have been re-reading some reeeallly old stuff to decide whether they stay on the keeper shelf or not. I got to the W’s and started on Margaret Way’s “The wild swan.” By some coincidence I happened to read Elsie Lee’s “The diplomatic lover” at the same time, and it’s amazing what a difference there was in the two books. “Wild swan” was published in 1978(but you have to start by subtracting 10-15 years because, well, Harlequin and Australia)while “Diplomatic lover” came out in 1971. In WS, like in most vintage Way books, the heroine is about 15 years younger than the hero, and is depicted as beautiful in an other-worldly way and “feminine,” as a code word for needing a big strong (but rich and sexy) hero to sweep her off her feet. Hero and heroine are even vaguely hostile to one another, as though masculine and feminine are polar opposites that both attract and repel, but never really “get” one another. Needless to say, the heroine, though depicted as intelligent, is never really serious about a career. “Diplomatic lover,” on the other hand, although the older title, has a heroine who has a high-powered job in the British Embassy in D.C. as a translator/minor diplomat, is a investment whiz, and paints in her spare time. She’s also, at 23, decided that’s she’s bored with being a virgin. She’s not looking for a Mr. Right, just a Mr. Right Now. She settles on a distinguished British actor/manager (think Richard Burton crossed with Kenneth Branagh). They have a lovely sailing vacation together, and he gets serious. She isn’t sure she’s ready to settle down. It could almost be a NA novel; it definitely doesn’t feel like an early 70s romance.
I read Shipmate by Mariana Gabrielle, a free prequel novella, historical fiction set in England in the early eighteen hundreds. I enjoyed it enough to get the next book in the series. I don’t think I’ve heard that author mentioned on this blog before. Since the novella is free for the Kindle, it’s a way to try out her writing.
I’m not supposed to be reading during NaNoWriMo, but I find myself unable to stop, so I’m reading The Protector by Jodi Ellen Malpas (rec’d here) and Between the Sheets by Molly O’Keefe in tandem. Because if you’re going to wreck your goals, do it big.
I also inhaled Jana Aston’s Wrong series in two days while I was laid up with my bad back. That’s what happens when you fall down the stairs but try to save your hand that’s healing from carpal tunnel surgery.
I’m still waiting to get to the top of the waitlist for The Hating Game. Someone seems to be hanging on to it far too long to be fair. Hrumph!
Here’s hoping for a better year in 2017, though I certainly can’t complain about 2016 in terms of reading material. Many thanks to everyone here for contributing to my mountain of a TBR pile!
I’d love to know folks opinions of Underground Airlines vs Underground Railroad. I’m putting together an activism/issues book club and want to do a mix of fiction vs. non-fiction. Already have Daughters of a Nation from a previous SBTB recommendation.
I finished reading Edge of Sight by Roxanne St. Clair, it was a pretty standard Romantic Suspense, but enjoyable.
Right now I’m in the middle of a YA alternate history book where the Nazis won WWII called Wolf by Wolf. In the book it revolves around a Jewish girl who was experimented on by the Nazis and got the ability to “Skinshift” which is basically the ability to change her appearance as long as the appearance she takes is a woman. Any injuries or tattoos can’t be hidden either. Basically she’s part of the resistance and is entering a motorcycle race in order to kill Hitler all the while trying to figure out who she really is.
It is a really good book, although the writer’s voice may be a little strange for some people.
Next up Heartless by Merissa Meyer
Audio format: Chaos by Patricia Cornwell, Escape Clause and Deadline, both by John Sandford, Apprentice in Death by J. D. Robb. Because of Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn.
Kindle format: Frostline by Linda Howard, Radiant Angel by Nelson DeMille, Slow Burn by Pamela Clare, Because I’m Watching You by Christina Dodd.
November has been a wonderful reading month. Reading is the only thing keeping me from sinking into a fit of depression due to the election.
I am looking forward to Duke of Pleasure by Elizabeth Hoyt and When All the Girls Have Gone by Jayne Ann Krentz.
I rattled off all the books I’ve read in the last month and forgot to mention the one I’m currently reading. Good one, me.
It’s Magnus Chase: The Hammer of Thor by Rick Riordan. It’s pretty standard Riordan. Gods causing problems, mortals cleaning up the messes, narrow escapes from painful death, snark, the usual. There are two things that are making it stand out a bit from the normal Riordan. The treatment of the deaf elf, Hearthstone, is lovely, and reading as his friends help him when his father tries to victimize him is lovely. There is also a character that identifies as transgender/gender-fluid, and the character is clearly being set up as Magnus’s love interest. Pretty brave thing to do, especially in the current climate.
Just finished ripping through Mary Balough’s Survivor’s Club series and picked up my first Stephanie Laurens, The Lady Chosen. It was like driving at 70 mph down the highway and taking an exit straight into a 20 mph school zone. Is it just me or is this book r-e-a-l-l-y s-l-o-w? I mean, come on, heroine, somebody is trying to kill you, don’t you think you should be spending your time figuring out who and why instead of having sexytimes in other people’s linen closets? And if you’ve already demanded that the hero jump your bones once just to satisfy your curiosity, why are you so surprised and put off that he wants to keep doing it? Between her and all the damn sentence fragments, I got so frustrated I’ve had to alternate between that and the novelization of The Force Awakens (which actually is very helpful as it fills in some of the holes that the movie doesn’t have time to get into. Also, I’m glad they let Alan Dean Foster write it, since he wrote the original.)
“The Sellout” by Paul Beatty, which recently won the Booker prize. I’d call it satire, but it is kind of hard to classify. It is laugh-out-loud funny, in a very painful kind of way, because it is about race in America. If it was just funny and topical, I’d like it, but it is more than that. Each sentence is beautifully crafted.
Also, I reread “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood, for a couple of reasons. (1) I had a nightmare about it after the presidential election; (2) Kindle Unlimited had it available for free.
So–this has been my literature month. Haven’t actually seen any romances that caught my eye. Or maybe just not feeling romantic…
I haven’t reading much for fun lately as November is my busiest month at work. When I get some Kindle time, I fall asleep quickly. I am currently reading Dirty by Kylie Scott. I am usually not a fan of first-person but it really works with this book. Lydia starts out as a fish out of water in Vaughan’s world and I love how she adapts.
I am looking forward to December when work will be less busy and I get to celebrate my annual holiday reading month. The Christmas in America anthology, Emily March’s Christmas in Eternity Springs and Grace Burrowes’ The Virtues of Christmas are all at the top of the list.
So I had quite a few misses this month. First I finished the trilogy by Addison Cain with the third book Reborn. I cannot express my extreme hate for the way this story ended. I was so hoping for a good grovel payoff and got a heroine rape story. Also disappointing for me was both Hotline by Quinn Anderson which was just OK to me and Hyde and Seek by Layla Frost. Both books were good for me not great and both had pretty high scores on Goodreads. I Did really enjoy Keepsake by Sarina Bowen (Not as much as Jude’s story) and Pansies by Alexis Hall. Hall does not disappoint in her writing. I was let down by The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde. I was so excited by the premise and bummed about the execution.
As a pick me up to all the mediocre books I re-read Last Hour of Gann. Now THAT’S a story you will NOT forget soon. I loooved this book even more with the re-read.