It’s time for our monthly thread of reader recommendation and discussion, where you tell us what you’re reading and we all buy a heaping ton of books because romance readers. Right? Right.
I’ll start: I’m on a road trip this weekend, so the likelihood of my getting reading done is slim, because while it looks like there will be several hours on the road that might be used for reading, this is unrealistic and I have learned. Oh, have I learned. I will be doing the shoulder-dislocating reach into the back seat to retrieve whatever has fallen down, or pass the charger or battery that is needed, or blot up whatever has spilled.
We do (my husband and I mean — the kids do their own thing with headphones, thank the sweet baby version of all available major and minor deities) listen to audiobooks. Lately our thing is audiobook narrations of people’s memoirs, especially if (a) they narrate it themselves and (b) they’re really funny. We’re nearly done with I Must Say: My Life as a Comedy Genius by Martin Short, which we started during another car trip based on the recommendation of Glen Weldon from Pop Culture Happy Hour. Short reads his own memoir, and he’s terrific, because even read aloud, he has the right balance of hubris and humility. As I said on Twitter, Short knows he’s talented, and he’s not wrong, but he also is talented enough to know how not to hit you repeatedly with it. So we’ll finish that, most likely. And, after much convincing from Jane, I read Written in Red by Anne Bishop on the plane home from Dallas. It was addictive with some fun world building and competence porn but it also had a most Mary Sue-ish (-ique? Mary-Sueique! YES!) heroine.
I still liked it, though, because when the Mary Sue heroine has been abused and neglected, and all these powerful beings fall over themselves to care for her, I kinda dig it. That protection appearing when prior to that she’s had none is satisfying for me, even if she is the most perfectly perfect person who has even been perfectly perfect.
Carrie:
I read The Highwayman ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) on the plane home from RT and it was just the most yummy crack ever. Then I got home and read The Spy Who Came in From the Cold until 2AM and I’m still flipping out about the ending.
Now I’m about to start Invisible 2 ( A | BN | K | G ), and anthology edited by Jim C. Hines about representation in SFF, and then it’s on the to pile of books from RT. I am in a very happy reading place.
Elyse:
I just read the entire Stage Dive series by Kylie Scott in one epic binge. Normally I don’t do NA or 1st person POV, but this series worked for me so well. I think some of it is the found family theme but a lot is the humor. These are funny books. Lead was my favorite ( A | K | G | AB | Au ).
Now I’m reading What a Lady Requires by Ashlyn Macnamara. It started off slow but now it’s gaining momentum.
RedHeadedGirl:
I’m reading The Highwayman by Kerrigan Byrne (which is delightful crack).
And I’m also reading Tiny Pretty Things ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au ) by Sonia Charaipotra and Dhonielle Clayton (described as Black Swan meets Pretty Little Liars, which, yup).
And Say Yes to the Marquess (finally).
I’m also reading Tiffany Girl ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) by Deanne Gist (who says I’m adorable).
Amanda:
I really have no clue what to read next, haha. I’m about finished with Ripped by Edie Harris. She has a secondary character who is a ginger with a man bun and tattoos and I was begging her on Twitter for his story. Like that’s not even fair!
I think some sort of contemporary erotica or super angsty is up next. I picked up a copy of Taint ( A | K | G | AB | Au ) at the Avon thing at RT and the author was so lovely. Or Remind Me by Ann Marie Walker ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) sounds pretty melodramatic with the whole forbidden second chance romance. I don’t do well with lots of choices!
I’m dreading getting that package I mailed to myself from RT.
So what about you? What are you enjoying or putting aside right now? Whatcha reading?
Shopping note:
After a Whatcha Reading? discussion, Lisa M emailed me to ask if I could link the books mentioned in the comments to the various retailers to make shopping a little easier. I wish I could! But I can drop some retailer links for you right here, so that if you feel like shopping, you can select your preferred retailer. Some of these links are affiliate-enabled, and SBTB receives a percentage commission from purchases made. If you use them, many thanks. If you don’t want to us them, no worries, mate! (And if your preferred retailer isn’t here, let me know and I’ll add it for you if I can!)
I just finished listening to an audiobook, which also has an ebook, called ‘Confessions of a Hollywood Tantra Masseur’. WHOA!!! I hadn’t listened to an audiobook in forever, so it was quite a treat. I wonder if I would have enjoyed it as much as an ebook, but it was nice to be able to listen as I was in the gym and on the move. Check it out! I think men and women should read it. I don’t know if it’s actually REAL confessions, but it’s definitely an attention grabber.
I loved The Chocolate Touch by Laura Florand, but that series is probably best for someone who speaks at least a little French.
I gave up on The Hooker and the Hermit halfway through. I like stories where the characters overcome fear of relationships (like the heroine), but the hero kept not taking “no” as an answer. Lack of clear consent and BDSM is not a combination I’m fond of, and the writing was occasionally really clunky.
The free Sweep in Peace serial by Ilona Andrews is wrapping up, and I’m really excited by it. I also recently bought the latest in her Kate Daniels series, which was considerably better than the previous one.
I also binge-read the entire Tales of Shareem series by Allyson James. The Shareem are genetically engineered sex pseudo-slaves in a largely asexual matriarchal society. The Shareem tend to be doms sexually but are second-class citizens culturally. The layers of control and consent are deep, the world is fascinating, and the sex is hot.
I’d love it if y’all could do an article on good books in the Kindle Unlimited collection. I haven’t found any particularly good ways to find books I’ll like. This article gave me the best help so far and I just ended up searching for each book individually.
I’m reading the Stage Dive series too, because I have a bit of an obsession with rock star romances right now, and I’m about 3/4 of the way through Play and finding it a hard slog. I think Mal is a bit too wacky and quirky for my tastes. And also the characters are very young, or feel very young, which is sometimes something I have a hard time reading because I expect them to make more emotionally mature choices than is perhaps realistic and then I get frustrated.
Especially because I just read Karina Bliss’ Rise which was really good for characters being real grown ups and also possibly the most satisfying rock star romance I’ve read.
I’m also a few chapters into KA Mitchell’s No Souvenirs which I think may be too dry and too much about sex for my tastes, partway through Suzanne Brockman’s The Defiant Hero, and nearly three chapters into High-Stakes Playboy by Cindy Dees which seems to be full of the cliches I don’t like. Which is a shame, because I picked it up at the supermarket because the cover and blurb made it look so fun but I think it’s just not my thing.
I think after these I’m going to go on an m/m and f/f binge.
By Any Other Name got available on Kindle this month and cos I am TOTALLY ADDICTED TO ALL THINGS LONGMIRE of course I got it and read it immediately 🙂
Bryony and Roses by T Kingfisher also known as Ursula Vernon – a fantastic retelling of Beauty and the Beast, so dry and funny. Who doesnt love a heroine who is staunch about wetting herself in fright!
Dragon in Exile – Liaden series by Lee and Miller – while its a necessary book to tie together so many plotlines, as an actual story I felt it was a bit of a letdown myself
Oracle by Michelle West is also out but im saving that til after I complete my study and exam for this current paper!
@Celine – Feed by Mira Grant is excellent, and the 2nd one is OK and the third wraps it up pretty good. Be warned the ending of Feed will rip your heart and and stomp it into tiny tiny pieces tho!
The best things I read this month were The Kraken King by Meljean Brook (very satisfying, if overly long due to the original serialized format) and Dark Currents by Jacqueline Carey (Urban Fantasy that’s really well done… romance is slow burn, but this like the Sookie Stackhouse books but with stronger world building & more agency for the heroine). I also got through the first 4 Kate Daniels books– very thankful that the world was interesting enough to get me to read the second one, as the first was not very good IMO. From the second one onwards it is a truly great series. I will be sad to catch up because I hate waiting! 🙂
I’m reading The Winner’s Crime and thoroughly enjoying it (more than I did The Winner’s Curse, which feels a little odd). I’m looking forward to possibly laying in bed until a late-ish hour tomorrow and seeing if I can polish it over before taking the kids to a cookout.
Good times.
I read the first book in the Spring Fling collection, American Idle by Alesia Holliday (aka Alyssa Day), and really liked it – fluffy and fun though more chick lit than romance, I think. I am also reading Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koontz, part of his Odd Thomas series which I have really liked so far (and I also like the movie). I like this one OK though at times it seems as if he is trying a little hard to keep up the quirkiness and humor of the series. It’s not reading but I also did the marathon Lord of the Rings movie cycle with my grandson over three weekends and it was great watching with someone young and relatively new to it. Now thinking I need to read the books for the umpteenth time.
I just finished listening to “Mort” by Terry Pratchett and I want to SQUEE over the book “A School for Unusual Girls” by Kathleen Baldwin!!! You must go read it now! I’ll wait & we can squee together. 🙂
I have been recovering from some major surgery, so I’ve had some time to read this month. I’ve been doing some re-reading (Windchime Cafe by Sophie Moss, which hit the spot this Memorial Day weekend) and catching up on some TBRs, including a couple of Christi Caldwells’ historicals. I finished Erica Monroe’s Rookery Rogues books and read Gennita Low’s Crossfire, so I’ve been all over the place, thanks to my Kindle and some good drugs.
@Cordy – I read Sweet Release a while back and while it is hard to get past the setting and those neighbors, I thought Pamela Clare told a good story. Someday people will look back at our times and say “WTF.”
Just started My Beautiful Enemy by Sherry Thomas and enjoying it so far!
Recently finished Beyond Innocence, the latest in the series by Kit Rocha. I liked this one more than # 5 and 5.5 – the hero and heroine were both different types of characters than the last few and there was a much higher plot-to-sex ratio. Rocha has already said who the heroes and heroines (yes, multiples of both!) for the next book are, but I have high hopes for some other side characters to get their book soon.
#30 Kate and I must be in the same book club (Vaginal Fantasy FTW!) since I also read Driven by Eve Silver. I liked it and will definitely read the second (though disappointed to hear there is no third). Kind of Mad Max meets Ice Road Truckers, with a one-dimensional bad guy. Silly, but entertaining.
Also read Scandal in the Night by Elizabeth Essex. Not my favorite in the series, though I did love the descriptions of India. 95% of the story is told through extended flashbacks, which I didn’t realize going in. Really looking forward to reading book 4 though!
I borrowed a Shelly Laurenston collection for some fun reading. Read 3 of 4 books – The Mane Event, The Beast in Him and Big Bad Beast. It was odd having books 1 & 2 and then 5 & 6 in the same collection – I didn’t get to book #6 because it felt like I was missing too much. Will definitely go back and read the middle ones. I’m also on the hold list for The Unleashing, which sounds really good – woo hoo Vikings!
I’m blazing my way through the Elemental Assassins (aka Gin Blanco) series by Jennifer Estep. I’ve read 5 of the books in the last week. Woohoo! Book Binge Alert! I’m also wildly anticipating the release of “The Invasion of the Tearling” on 9 Jun.
It was the last month of the Scribd trial, so I tried to squeeze in as much as possible.
I read The Deal (loved), Claiming the Courtesan (lots going on, but after all that the slut shaming of his mother, really?), Chase Me (cute!), Static (interesting concept, but a little predictable), Changing His Game (I liked it, but real rich people don’t borrow wet vacs), The Hook Up (oh! which do I love more The Deal or The Hook Up?), Romancing the Duke (loved), Taken (my first Charlotte Stein; I’m going to say quirky), Tangled (surprisingly really enjoyable), and now Say Yes to the Marquess (love it so far).
I’m starting road trip next week (ha! apparently that’s when I’m going to plan it as well), so I have no idea how much reading I’m going to get in.
Happy Reading!
Liberating Lacey, what a great rec you guys! A very fine erotic contemporary. In previous books I’ve read in this category I found that the characters were so…empty, like it was all about the sex and nothing else. And that is so NOT the case with Liberating.
I also did not know what to make of The Shameless Hour. The best of the series is, hands down, The understatement of the year. On an aside, I had a bit of a problem with how virginity is treated along the series. In book 1, the heroine has an accident during her last year of high school and this is given as a reason for reaching college a virgin. In book 2,I think the heroine gives an explanation for this (I think she was ostracized at school bec of a scandal involving her coach dad) and I honestly thought an apology was coming. And in number 4, the hero’s lack of sexual experience is somehow linked to his ethnic/religious background. There seemed to be no place in this universe for virginity being the product of your own choice, I felt like it was treated as an anomaly that just had to be explained.
I’ve been binging on Cora Seton’s “E-Mail Order Bride” series – reading #3 now (the Marine)- enjoying ranch life with hot armed forces guys. Finished “Bedroom Games (the complete series) and “Glutton for Pleasure” (so HAWT!) by Alisha Rai, and started her “A Gentleman in the Street” – I really like her writing style and her fun(ny) characters. Consent is clear, which I really enjoy.
I finished up the Roaring Twenties series with “Grave Phantoms” by Jenn Bennett. Didn’t like it as much as the first two, but still pretty good. I also read “A Dangerous Invitation” (Rookery Rogues #1) and am stuck in “Secrets in Scarlet” (Rookery #2). I also enjoyed the “Hunting Season” by Shelly Laurenston (read as a prequel-type for “The Unleasing”).
From the library I devoured “Of Noble Family” and reread “Shades of Milk and Honey” by Mary Robinette Kowal, and absolutely loved, Loved, LOVED “The Royal We” by Heather Cocks and Jessica Morgan (why? – not really sure since I’m not a real royal-watcher, but I really enjoyed the history of the characters). Also enjoyed “Palace of Spies” by Sarah Zettel (I enjoy her other books) and “Garden of Lies” by Amanda Quick.
I’ve also been binging on Tiny Homes books – people who build and live in them, and how to simplify down to fit into them. I am entranced with the idea of a small house, but maybe not a really tiny one.
@EmilyZ (#42)
I’ve also been enjoying the “Sweep in Peace” serial by Ilona Andrews – so sad when it wraps up but then I can get the book, so . . . .
“SiP” has some fabulously evocative writing in it – moved me to tears.