Happy reading new year, everyone! It’s time for our monthly thread of discussion and book purchase, where we share what we’re currently reading and then buy at least 2/3 of what other people are reading because you all have marvelous taste and temptation is tempting.
Woo!
Sarah: I’m reading The Immortals: Olympus Bound by Jordanna Max Brodsky, and I was not expecting to like it as much as I have been. It has a LOT of the things I dislike a lot – there’s human sacrifices involved, there’s some animals as well, there’s fighting and bloody messes and entrails — all the stuff I dislike to read about.
And yet I’m still reading.
I spent most of last Sunday in my bathrobe, beyond delighted to be reading this book. I did try to read it before bed this week, and wow, was that a mistake – nightmares most pernicious. The plot and the pieces of it are making my brain very happy, especially the heroine, who is Artemis, the Greek goddess, immortal and substantially weaker than her former existence as a goddess. She’s cold, ruthless, and ferocious, and even with all the things I dislike reading about, I’m still following her around.
I’m going to need the romance equivalent of six fluffy blankets and a foot warmer when I’m done, though. Yeesh.
RedHeadedGirl: I am working my way slowly through Bleak House ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au | Scribd ) (trying to find a Dickens I actually LIKE reading) (NO ONE SAY GREAT EXPECTATIONS I HATE THAT BOOK WITH A LOT OF HATERADE).
I just finished The Truth About Leo by Katie MacAllister, which is Danish Princess needs English husband to leave Denmark, hilarity ensues and then there’s a bunch of frustrating characters.
And I’m about to start The Notorious RBG ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au | Scribd ).
Carrie: I am alternating between The Last Man by Mary Shelley ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au | Scribd ) and The Witches of Cambridge by Menna van Praag.
Elyse: I’m reading Passenger by Alexandra Bracken ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au ), which everyone already knows because I’ve been pimping it relentlessly.
Amanda: Right now, I’m reading Dare to Run by Jen McLaughlin. I have a weakness for any contemporary romances set in Boston and any main character who’s a bartender. Don’t ask me why I love bartender characters because I have no idea.
I also just bought Risking It All by Tessa Bailey ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), which we featured this week as part of our Books on Sale. I loved Bailey’s Broke and Beautiful series and I’ve been meaning to go through her backlist. Seeing the books dropped to $1.99 is a perfect excuse to stock up.
What about you? What books are you enjoying right now? Anything you recommend?
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 most excellent, and if you’d prefer not to, no worries at all. We are always glad you’re here hanging out with us. Yay, reading!
I just finished Mariana Zapata’s “Kulti”, which I loved—a lot—once I got into it. I’ve been re-reading my favourite bits in bed at night, which is always a good sign. Always fond of a grumpy, more reserved hero, and I have a serious weakness for age-difference romance.
And have just started the most recent book in Laurie R. King’s Mary Russell & Sherlock Holmes series, which I also love. So dense and smart and atmospheric.
I don’t like Dickens at all (and have taught him at University and read a LOT of different kinds of Dickens). Great Expectations is awful, so much sadness and so LONG. Bleak House is worse. I don’t find Dickens funny, so much of it is saccharine, depressing or annoying. Anyway, I do quite like A Tale of Two Cities–though my partner reminded me that only about 25% of it is enjoyable and you could read the Scarlet Pimpernel instead (to which I would add, any Joanna Bourne).
December ended up being a big ball of stress for me and January has just been so cold, so I’ve really needed some good reads to get me through. Yay books!
Faves
– “Hunger Makes Me a Modern Girl” by Carrie Brownstein (audio) – I really loved this. I’m just young enough to have missed riot grrrl and I’m a casual fan of Sleater-Kinney/Portlandia, but this memoir was honest and open and real about being a touring musician and I just loved it
– “Cetaganda” by Lois McMaster Bujold (audio) – a comedy of manners/murder mystery, this was the fun sort of book I was looking for
Good
– “Bright Lines” by Tanwi Nandini Islam – I picked this up randomly at the library after noticing rainbow colors on the cover and thinking, “queer characters?” And YES. The book covers a lot of plot though, and I got a little lost
– “Planetfall” by Emma Newman – More queer characters! Planet colonization! Mystery! I’m really glad I read this
– “Radiance” by Grace Devin – read this for Vaginal Fantasy and I loved the sweet romance of it
– “Dietrich & Riefenstahl: Hollywood, Berlin and a Century in Two Lives” by Karin Wieland – this book made me feel a lot of things. I may have resorted to rage texting (about Riefenstahl, not the book)
Meh
– “The Chimney Sweeper’s Boy” by Barbara Vine – this pains me because Vine/Ruth Rendell was one of my happy discoveries of 2015, but this book signaled every one of the turns it took and they were uniformly disappointing
– “Wide Sargasso Sea” by Jean Rhys – I wanted to like this so much. It’s one of those foundational feminist texts of 20th century fiction! But no, it was confusing and thin and I almost hated it
Currently Reading
– “His Majesty’s Dragon” by Naomi Novik (audio) – I am absolutely LOVING IT. Dragons aren’t even my thing and I am LOVING IT OMG
– “The Likeness” by Tana French – I am LOVING this, too, which is a surprise, since the first book in the series was a 3 star read for me. It is very gothic though, and gothic is totally my catnip
I’m rereading Amanda Quick’s Ravished, because Alisha Rai waxed nostalgic about it on Twitter the other day and needs must. 😀 It’s just as charming as it was the first time I read it. Love!
I’m listening to La Nora’s MacGregor series (narrated by the awesome Angela Dawe—OMG she does distinct voices and carries them consistently throughout the whole series!) in order of I-feel-like-it. Sadly, I’m running out of books, and have to make the choice of what to listen to next. Do I stay with the author? Or narrator? What do I have that I’m in the mood for? Will I be in the mood for it when it comes time to listen? Decisions, decisions! I don’t have the brain capacity to handle such decisions, this is why series are great for listening! o_O
Also. I’m reading KJ Charles’ A Fashionable Indulgence and loving it. I do love me some KJ Charles! One of the heroes is being prettied up for the marriage mart and falls for his teacher. Social issues, arranged engagement, grandpa holding the purse strings… Regency m/m, what’s not to love? (Fans of Courtney Milan should check it out, KJC books carry the same sort of je ne sais quoi—competence and awesomeness?—I associate with CM.)
Oh, and I read Lois McMaster Bujold’s latest, Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen. Twice. I made the mistake of reading the first four chapters online, then being forced into buying the eARC because I couldn’t wait. Could not wait. (Damn you Baen and your enabling ways! *shakes fist*) It was amazing. Mature. Insightful. Mind blowing. Emotionally satisfying. Like, oh em gee! Vorkosigan aficionados are in for a treat—the romance loving ones, anyway.
If you’re not familiar with LMB’s Vorkosigan saga, don’t start with this one. Start with any other book, but not this one. It’s a much richer experience for knowing all the backstory and having some of it filled in.
And good lord that eARC was cleaner copy than many published books I’ve read from traditional (let alone self-) publishing! I counted one italics issue (IMO) and one misspelling. Wow!
Also…”being forced” into buying it… I used some of my Christmas money. I’ve received worse gifts! ;D
Currently reading: Season of Storms, by Susanna Kearsley. I’m mostly finished and I like it, but don’t love it.
The Hero With Ten Thousand Faces, by Joseph Campbell. Slow going, shows its age in a number of ways, but interesting.
Recently read: The Night Circus, by Erin Morgenstern. *Happy Sigh* I loved this book.
That’s it for the year so far. The good book hangover from TNC and the density of THwTTF aren’t really helping my read count.
I recently read The Magicians by Lev Grossman. I spent a lot of time wishing everyone would get a grip, but I still read feverishly to find out WHATHAPPENSNEXTOMG. I’ll be interested to see how it translates to TV.
I just finished The Tears of the Rose by Jeffe Kennedy and Truthwitch by Susan Dennard. For some reason, the cold weather makes me want to curl up with fantasy books.
So far, I’ve been sticking to my New Year’s goal to make more time to read books for fun, instead of work. We’ll see how long it lasts. LOL.
This isn’t book-related, but I’m really looking forward to the return of Agent Carter next week. Bring on Peggy and her new adventures.
I just finished “Honey Girl”, about a half-Hawaiian girl who loves girls and spends most of her time trying to get in with the cool girls on the mainland beach in SoCal in 1972. A really fast read that managed to confuse, delight (yay! Learned a bunch of Hawaiian and surfer speak from 1972), and the heroine doesn’t call herself lesbian (“funny kine”) but just resolves to see where life and love take her. Seeing a girl not feel pressured to put herself in a labelled box was awesome.
Also just finished “The Millionaire Upstairs” by M.J. O’Shea, the first book in the Dreamspun Desires m/m category line from Dreamspinner Press. I loved Sasha, but Harrison was a cold/hot/cold/hot jerk. He was a turd to Sasha off and on throughout the book and had the worst case of jerk foot in mouth syndrome. Any time Sasha made him feel something unaccustomed, he lashed out and said nasty, mean things. So the ending seemed rushed and I wasn’t convinced Harrison wouldn’t lapse right back to being a tool. Dude needs a therapist, stat.
I am currently reading “A Truth Universally Acknowleged: 33 Great Writers on Why We Read Jane Austen”. A bit slow moving, but it is early days yet. Maybe it will pick up. After that, I am gonna start on Dreamspun Desires #2, “First Comes Marriage” by Shira Anthony. It has a marriage of convenience!
Oh, I am also reading “The Opposite of Loneliness” by Marina Keegan. Yes, I read multiple books at a time, which is probably why it takes me so long to finish one.
I’m reading Good Omens. Recently read Anything for You (Kristan Higgins), which I really enjoyed, and The Sport of Baronets (Theresa Romain).
I’m reading the Lovecraftian anthology MADNESS ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS (horror stories all involving, in some way or another, the most famous train ever), edited by James Lowder. After that I have several books lined up, including I LOST IT AT THE VIDEO STORE, HOLLYWOOD MONSTER (the autobiography of Robert Englund), DUNGEONS AND DREAMERS (about fantasy video games, not BDSM), FANTASY FREAKS AND GAMING GEEKS, and more.
I just finished reading Love in the Light by Laura Kaye last night. It is the sequel to her novella, Hearts in Darkness. The hero and heroine get trapped in a pitch black elevator for several hours and have not seen each other’s faces. The novella deals with the elevator and the night after. The novel starts about two months after.
One of the things I love about Laura Kaye is that she is able to write characters who behave believably but are also suffering from depression, anxiety, PTSD, and the like. Caden, the hero, has life long battle with anxiety, claustrophobia, and PTSD and it is so sadly beautiful to watch him in this relationship with Makenna (the heroine). I highly, highly recommend this series.
You know what time I wish I could have back? All the time I have spent trying to find a Dickens novel to love. I have a special hate for Bleak House because it has real promise and passages of actual beauty and some excellent plotting and still his fucking shopkeeper morality induces hulksmash rage.
There’s a character in Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell who thinks she has hired Strange to wreak repeated death on her MiL who is so proud of her housekeeping, and it was like she pulled it from my brain. I spent all of Bleak House revising suitable deaths for whatshername, the narrator. Burned to death in her hearth. Drowned in her laundry. Crushed with hot irons. Nibbled by vermin. Self effaced to fucking death already.
She’s like Mrs Elton from Emma, only as a model of domesticity. Oh my friends say I’m just a ray of sunshine. I don’t know why they’re so kind. Let me tell you all about important people I know, who have been so kind as tell me what a sweet little woman child I am.
Ok ok, rant over.
At least postponed.
I’ve been enjoying the Phrynne Fisher novels. Finally read the latest Galbraith and I want the next one so badly already it isn’t reasonable. Rereading lots and lots of Nora Roberts because sometimes one needs comfort, and new books are uncertain.
I’m also working my way through Phryne Fisher. She keeps veering into Mary Sue territory for me, but the supporting cast is rich enough to keep me interested. Oh, and I just finished Seanan McGuire’s second ‘Indexing’ novel, which I found a bit disappointing (especially after reading her gorgeous hitch-hiking ghost novel). The climax was very – anti-climactic.
I finally hit the buy button on the new McMaster Bujold. I think I still need therapy for the death at the end of the last one.
What? Third Wednesday of 2016 already? Yikes!
I attacked my Oysterbooks reading list first, since they are “sunsetting” this month. Heart-Shaped Hack by Tracey Garvis Graves was even better than the review I read.
The Game and the Governess by Kate Noble was a delight and the first of her books that I have read. It is always a pleasure to find a new-to-me author. I followed up with The Lily and the Lady, but as expected I didn’t enjoy it as much. I didn’t feel much empathy for the heroine (sister of The Game and the Governess’ heroine).
Following another review, I read the Good Time Bad Boy by Sonya Clark and enjoyed it. I’m not sure what it is with me and these bad-boy musicians, but I have enjoyed the several books I’ve read with these characters.
I’m do not recall how I came across The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society by Annie Barrows and Mary Ann Shaffer. Aww, it was sweet, and sad, and charming all rolled into one. It reminded me a bit, at the beginning, of 84 Charing Cross Road, but then went its own direction. It was pleasant, though, being reminded of 84 Charing Cross Road – a book I liked so much that I refused to see the movie.
Then I treated myself to an undisturbed evening with A Lily Among Thorns, since Rose Lerner has written another book for us so the wait won’t seem everlasting. Bliss.
Determined to up my NF quotient, I read A Higher Call and wow! was it gripping. I’m not sure if it is considered a compliment to say that a NF book reads like fiction, but this one had great narrative. The author, Adam Makos, began collecting stories of WWII pilots when he was a pre-teen and turned that young interest into his life’s work. So cool.
I read The Walnut Tree by Charles Todd, a stand-alone which made me want to gather his series novels into a great orderly stack and read them non-stop.
Act Like It by Lucy Park was pleasant, but not to the high level SB Sarah enjoyed, so I think I’ll go back and read her review again to see what I didn’t appreciate.
During the holidays, I read Dancing in the Duke’s Arms by Burrowes et al, learned of Christmas in Duke Street and read the stories there, then realized I purchased Christmas in the Duke’s Arms last year which became lost under the deluge of books on my kindle so I had it to read it also. That was fun, three in a row, all at my fingertips. The authors within these anthologies are Grace Burrowes, Shana Galen, Miranda Neville and Carolyn Jewel.
My other holiday reading was the anthology Sugar Cookies and Sweetheart Swap, which was … sweet.
I found an e-copy of G. Heyer’s A Convenient Marriage on sale and -to my surprise- didn’t like it at all!
So for fun, I read a couple of old M.C. Beaton’s regencies: My Dear Duchess and The Desirable Duchess. Ooh, her sense of humor just tickles me and it is such fun to see the germination of Agatha Raisin within earlier characters.
I’m alternating between listening to the third Lord of the Rings book (for something to listen to while I knit,) and a reread of The Night Circus, which I’m loving even more the second time.
I’ve gone Old Skool have been on a Sidney Sheldon reading kick. Classics like Rage of Angels, Stranger In The Mirror, The Sands of Time and Windmills of the Gods. Sheldon helped put the ‘T’ in Trashy Books.
I’m been gobbling up the backlist of Christian fiction author Jody Hedlund. I’ve read 3 so far.. A Noble Groom, The Preacher’s Bride and The Doctor’s Lady I loved them all. If you are looking for good s which are considered clean (plenty of sexual tension though, imo)and you want to feel like you as a reader are there with the characters I highly recommend Jody Hedlund. My favorite thus far is A Noble Groom:)
The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe. I’ve tried some highly recommended and loved authors recently, but they’ve all left me saying, “Meh!” I couldn’t even finish When a Scot Ties the Knot by Tessa Dare.
My son gave me both volumes of Young Romance for Christmas, so I’m having a lot of fun with them. Otherwise, I’ve been sticking to non-fiction, yaoi manga and wallowing in fanfiction.
I just finished listening to Station Eleven by Emily St John Mandel. It was lovely and evocative. Unfortunately, I also came down with a cold this week and every sniffle had me convinced I’d be dead in a few hours.
I’m also reading Furiously Happy by Jen Lawson. It’s quite funny. I have a feeling my husband would identify with her husband.
I read The Devilish Mr Danvers by Vivienne Lorret after I saw it here and liked it so much I picked up the rest of the books in the series. I’ll read one of those next, I think.
My Goodreads shelf of Boston based Contemporary Romances I have separate shelf on goodreads for Boston based romances. All are contemporary although some are also erotica.
War Chest by Lynne Connolly. Newest in her Even Gods Fall in Love series. I like that it is Georgian set historical mixed with Greek gods.
I read my very first Lorraine Heath this month, “Falling Into Bed With a Duke,” and it was absolutely delightful. Looking forward to reading more from her… I think I smell the beginning of a historical binge, because I just got a notification from the library that “A Rogue Not Taken” from Sarah McLean and “Dukes Prefer Blondes” from Loretta Chase are ready for me. I usually fixate on 2-3 genre binges a year, so I guess I’ll finally be getting to all the historicals on my TBR!
A couple weeks ago I really enjoyed A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong by Cecilia Grant. Thank you for highlighting that when it was on sale. Other than that, I am struggling to think of a *new* author or book I actually finished this month – despite starting several. Instead I read a couple of my favorite Georgette Heyers, took a Mary Balogh reread detour in late December (the Survivors Club books) then returned to Lois McMaster Bujold (Shards of Honor remains one of my favorite books). And now I am rereading some Susanna Kearsley. Struggling to find a new author or two that I like as much as these tried-and-true authors.
Oh I am listening to the audiobook of Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater and enjoying it. I like YA audiobooks because they tend to be shorter and I am confident I can finish them during the library loan period. I love her Raven Boys series.
I didn’t hate Bleak House. It’s probably my favorite Dickens because of the chancery backdrop.
Got a date tonight with The Score (Off-Campus #3) by Elle Kennedy which came out this week. I have been saving it until I finished the Fevered Hearts Series by Heather Long which is a Shifter/Magical/Paranormal Old West Series.
Like her Wolves of Willow Bend Series, the first 2 books were a hard slog – only 2 stars for me as she set up the various plot threads and many, many, many paranormally gifted characters. But the Series improved and Books 5,6 and 7 (all 5 Star) have gone to my All Time Favourites List – they were just amazing. Finished Book 7 Thursday night and jotted the following comments asap…
Whoa, just finished The Quick and the Fevered which is Book 7 of Heather Long’s Fevered Hearts Series. There was so much going on that I will need to go back tonight and re-read it while I am still steeped in that world, so it can all settle in. Do not read this book on the subway if you are half way through, or you will likely miss your stop you will be so engrossed!
If you have read the series, do not read this one without a box of kleenex handy. There are so many gut-wrenching, heartfelt, loving moments in the last third of the book, I had to stop and sniffle and wipe my eyes and blow my nose at least half a dozen times.
Ended feeling Wow and a little wrung out. A complex and complicated story arc has run through the seven books and I was pleased to catch onto some of the reveals in this book early on…but there were also Ah! Wow! and ‘Didn’t see that coming but OMG that makes sense’ moments. Hopefully also read some of the hints for the resolution in the next and final book…Wyatt please!
@RedHeadedGirl — SAMEY SAME SAME on Great Expectations. No one in that book is anything resembling a good person outside of Joe. Everyone else pretty much needed a good throat-punch.
I’m only on my 3rd book of this year, it’s been slow. Not because of the books have been had, but actually because they’ve been really good. I read Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo and LOVED it. It was violent and fast-paced and I’m a sucker for a heist plot. I then read A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab and greatly enjoyed that. It was a little slow getting going, because (and this struck me as unusual), it spent a lot of the book (easily the first quarter), just really establishing setting(s), which was important in the world building for this one. Once it got going, it was (again, I’m clearly having a bloodthirsty month) violent, and complex, and the characters were pretty much all winners. Especially Lila Bard, she rocked. Cross-dressing thief with designs on being an interdimensional pirate? HELL YES, get in my eyeballs. Now I’m reading A Thousand Pieces of You by Claudia Gray, and enjoying it. There’s dimension hopping in this one too, and I appreciate the levels of distinction between each dimension. The heroine is a bit on the angsty and impulsive side, but if I can’t deal with angsty and impulsive, I probably shouldn’t read YA ever. It’s not a deal breaker. I’m also reading Uniquely Human by Barry Prizant for work (I’m starting a book study on it with some elementary school teachers I consult with), and I very much appreciate the perspective he’s being when it comes to what are perceived as “autistic” behaviors. I’ll be seeing Dr. Prizant at a conference in a couple of weeks and will be resisting the urge to fangirl out. I probably won’t be as bad as when I met Temple Grandin and John Elder Robison. Probably.
I”m reading Forever Your Earl by Eva Leigh. I’m finding some of it a bit on the nose and a lot of people’s attitudes anachronistic – the earl is thinking a lot about his privilege, for example, which I find implausible. However, it’s a fun read and unless it takes a sharp left turn I expect I’ll get the next one too.
I just finished Glutton for Pleasure by Alisha Rai. It was one of her early books and it showed; there were some aspects that were not as polished and did not flow quite as well as A Gentleman in the Street. But it was very enjoyable and steamy hot (love her prediliction for m/m/f threesomes!), and I’ve already bought the sequel.
I finally read the Game On Series by Kristen Callihan and really enjoyed the first two books. Book 3 was good, but I didn’t like it as much as the first two.
Also read and enjoyed the Captain Lacey series by Ashley Gardner.
Now I’m reading The Deal (so far so good) and The Mistake by Elle Kennedy so that I can read her new one.
Bought Written in Red by Anne Bishop since it’s on sale right now, so that series is up next!
Damn you people, I just put holds on Honey Girl and The Devilish Mr. Daniels at the library. Today I’m picking up Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie by Muriel Spark, and Fingersmith by Sarah Waters because they were all books by women on David Bowie’s 100 Favorite Books list (there were more but they looked too arty and highfalutin’ for me).
I’m proselytizing for Written in Red ($1.99 digitally right now!) because I adore that series, and I’m generally not a big fantasy reader.
Glad to hear that Glutton for Pleasure isn’t Rai’s best work — it’s the only one of hers I read, and I was so disappointed. She’s great on Twitter. I’ll try again. I DNF’d Forever Your Earl for the same reasons Taffygrrl cited. Way too much tell, not enough show about privilege and feminism.
Loved Margo Rabb’s Kissing in America — very funny (and sad) YA novel with a road trip, a quiz show, feminism, friendship, pining and a contemporary acculturated non-shtetl Jewish main character.
Currently reading Unnatural by Joanna Chambers. Very well-written, but for me the reality of what it must have been like to be a gay man in that place and time is keeping me from getting lost in the fantasy. I can’t suspend disbelief enough to enjoy the surely-impending HEA. I’ll finish but won’t read the others in the series because I can’t shake the feeling of sadness for actual humans.
I have to agree with all the dislike for Dickens. I read A Tale of Two Cities my sophomore year of high school and was having a hard time with it so decided to read the Cliffs Notes for the first time. After reading the Cliffs Notes I thought it was such an amazing story that now I’d be able to read the book and love it. Nope, the great story was ruined by Dickens’s writing. I have always planned on trying Great Expectations because my grandma reread it when I was in high school and called my mom to tell her there was a prostitute named Celine in it. I have a feeling I’ll never get around to it.
The majority of the last month was me trying to finish books before they expired from Scribd. I read a lot of Jill Shalvis, a lot from Melanie Shawn, a couple by Sarah Mayberry, and a couple by Karina Bliss. All were good, but nothing really noteworthy. I do remember that a few months ago someone was looking for a story with a widow or widower that didn’t make the dead spouse a bad person and Melanie Shawn’s Magic Kiss fits that description. The heroine is a romance author whose husband died in Afghanistan and the hero was his best friend. Shawn writes sweet small-town romances that I find very enjoyable even if they aren’t anything super original.
I have to talk about Broken Resolutions by Olivia Dade. It’s a novella about a singles night held after close on New Year’s Eve at a library. I really liked the author’s voice and the interaction between the heroine and her friend in the beginning. It was downhill from there. The romance wasn’t developed, I didn’t like the hero, there was no chemistry, but none of those was the big deal breaker. They made a bed out of the stuffed animals in the children’s section to have sex on then decide they have to cover it with a tablecloth because the heroine’s seen how the kids handle the toys. Seriously?!?!? So wrong on so many levels! I have no idea why I finished reading it. I guess it was so short and I was so close to the end I felt compelled to.
The highlight from my Scribd books was One Final Step by Stephanie Doyle. I had read a lot of good reviews about this book when it came out, but never bought it for some reason. It was so good! I don’t want to give away spoilers, but both the hero and heroine are dealing with issues you don’t see a lot in romances and the issues are handled so well. I highly recommend it.
I also enjoyed Finding Christmas a novella by Jeannie Moon. The heroine is a veteran who lost her leg when her plane was shot down. The hero is a former professional basketball player who lost his career due to injury very early on and became a teacher. I did find it a little weird that he was a teacher at her high school her senior year, but he was never her teacher and I think the heroine is about 30 (I think he’s 39) so I was able to get past it.
I liked Act Like It a lot, especially the grumpy hero. I also read Second Sight by Amanda Quick, my first Arcane society book. I loved it and can’t wait to read more in the series.
Right now I’m about 20% into The Game Plan by Kristen Callihan and I’m liking it so far, but not as much as the first two. Up next is Ice Like Fire by Sara Raasch since it’s due back at the library this week and then The Score by Elle Kennedy through Scribd.
The best:
Listen to the Moon by Rose Lerner. Another story from the rich setting of Lively St. Lemeston. As usual Lerner excels in developing characters and conflicts in detail, and as usual there are lots of other stories going on at the same time as the main characters’. Have to hope she writes a bunch of novellas for all the side plots. (And also as usual with Lerner, the great majority of people in the story are improbably decent — but that is one of the things romance can do, create a world where people have some of the real world’s problems but actually work toward solving them and improving their relationships with other people.)
Cuckoo Song by Frances Hardinge. A wonderful surprise for me: a children’s book which I and other adults I know really appreciate, rich in language, characters and themes. I will not say too much about the plot; but I do urge people to check out this creepy, twisty tale set just after World War I.
The rest:
The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson. Sword and sorcery in an alternative Africa. It’s grimdark and gory, and contains a love story that ends anything but happily. In retrospect the way the author went out of his way to stomp on any shred of happiness seems excessive, but while I was reading I enjoyed it a lot for its inventive narrative and language, its setting and its main character. Good thing it’s a novella; longer would have been too much.
The Infinite Loop, reviewed on this site and by me. Liked, didn’t love. Bad translation from the French was a drag.
Newton’s Wake by Ken MacLeod. Light-hearted space opera. The humor was more miss than hit for me.
I’ve enjoyed hearing about all your recent reads. As for me:
— The Golden City by J. Kathleen Cheney. This was an enjoyable fantasy.
— The Seer’s Choice: A Novella of the Golden City by the above author; also enjoyable.
— a re-read of a new favorite fantasy, Grace Draven’s Radiance.
— the short work Breaking Out: Part I by Michelle Diener; this is by the author of Dark Horse which I really enjoyed. This was okay but didn’t really speak to me.
— a fantasy novel that I saw on many Best of 2015 lists: Updraft by Fran Wilde; it was quite good.
— The Golden Songbird by Sheila Walsh is an older regency romance; it was a pleasant story but not something I’m likely to re-read.
— re-read the contemporary romance Artistic License by Elle Pierson which I enjoyed once more. (I’ve been hearing good reviews recently of a book by Lucy Parker and learned that she and Elle Pierson are one and the same.)
— I read with pleasure The Thames River Murders by Ashley Gardner; it’s the tenth in a series of mysteries set in the regency period. Ashley Gardner is a pseudonym of Jennifer Ashley. FYI ~ The first book in the series is available free to Kindle readers:The Hanover Square Affair (Captain Lacey Regency Mysteries Book 1)
— I also read a beautiful and very short book The Fox and the Star by Coralie Bickford-Smith which has lovely illustrations.
— K. J. Charles’ A Fashionable Indulgence: A Society of Gentlemen Novel (Society of Gentlemen Series Book 1) which is a romance featuring two men set in regency era England; I enjoyed it.
I finally read The Three Musketeers at year end – go me! I’ve read The Count of Monte Cristo many, many times but kept bouncing off the copy of TTM that was my take-on-plane book for years. At Thanksgiving I picked up the Richard Pevear translation of TTM and finally got some traction. I’m not a d’Artagnan fan, but Athos is more enjoyable and Milady is just amazing.
I’ll mention A.C. Wise’s The Ultra Fabulous Glitter Squadron Saves the World Again since it’s small press and easy to miss – nothing very deep, but a fun set of stories of queer heroes saving the world through sheer force of awesome.
Lately I’ve been plowing through Catherine Aird’s Inspector Sloan mysteries and really enjoying them. They’re somewhere between police procedural and cozy, written and set in 60s-70s rural England. They’re largely about the case at hand – we don’t spend a lot of time in the main character’s private life, and there isn’t much backstory growing from book to book. But in general they’re solidly written and plotted and I’m surprised I hadn’t come across them before.
Like Tam, I was disappointed by the ending of Seanan McGuire’s Indexing: Reflections. I’ve read a few of the Kindle serials, and they all (the original Indexing among them) seem to reach installment twelve with far more plot to wrap up than remaining word count permits. I’ll come back for more if she writes another in the series, but I hope another installment arrives outside the Kindle serial format.
I read Fighting For It: The Ringside Series by Jennifer Fusco. It was a great debut! I really enjoyed it. Filled with 2nd chances for the fighter in all of us. https://smile.amazon.com/gp/cdp/member-reviews/?ie=UTF8&ref_=ya_your_reviews&sort_by=MostRecentReview
I started the year with Kresley Cole’s latest Sweet Ruin. Did not love it as much as others in the series, but I see where these new characters can be a pretty rich vein to mine. Especially the one who’s due to turn into an oversized slime monster.
This morning I finished Mockingbird and had one of those whoo-whoo moments when I read the liner notes in the back and realized I started a book written by the author of The Man Who Fell To Earth on the same day that David Bowie passed. Life is full of strange coincidences.
Next up is Secret Sisters by the inimitable Jayne Ann Krentz. The temperature here is about to drop to zero. JAK and some Earl Grey sound like a perfect Sunday to me.
Although I’m still pretty pissed at Kristen Ashley for not making a were also mentioned along with a Nightingale Investigations name drop. Dang it Ashley! I can’t stay mad at you.
Nick is completely transformed but has lost the woman he loves and Olivia is jacked from growing up in a crime family. When they fall for one another they both help each other heal. Olivia was a hard nut to crack and it took forever for that to happen. Nick just came across as so caring I was startled. I really liked who he became. He made Olivia believe in hope for her future from the beginning until the end of the story and that is what made it so beautiful.
Although the topics were serious, Ashley had comic relief too. I laughed out loud when Nick told his brother what a bossy motherf*cker he was and Knight replied, “You don’t know the half of it” while he grinned. I wish there would have been a longer epilogue even though it was long.I would like to to know how they played out years down the road. Besides that, I really have no complaints… actually, I have one. I really need a blue painting for my living room.
My previous post got messed up…
Although I’m still pretty pissed at Kristen Ashley for not making a sequel to Knight, I went ahead and read Sebring. Welcome to the top of my man harem Nick Sebring!
All of the unfinished heroes were also mentioned along with a few others from her previous stories and a Nightingale Investigations name drop. Dang it Ashley! I can’t stay mad at you.
Nick is completely transformed but has lost the woman he loves and Olivia is jacked from growing up in a crime family. When they fall for one another they both help each other heal. Olivia was a hard nut to crack and it took forever for that to happen. Nick just came across as so caring I was startled. I really liked who he became. He made Olivia believe in hope for her future from the beginning until the end of the story and that is what made it so beautiful.
Although the topics were serious, Ashley had comic relief too. I laughed out loud when Nick told his brother what a bossy motherf*cker he was and Knight replied, “You don’t know the half of it” while he grinned. I wish there would have been a longer epilogue even though it was long.I would like to to know how they played out years down the road. Besides that, I really have no complaints… actually, I have one. I really need a blue painting for my living room.
The last 8 or 10 weeks have been ridiculous in my life.
My mother was in and out of the hospital three times which culminated in her fifth spinal surgery the last week in November. She’s been having terrible nerve pain and weakness in her leg but refuses to take the medication that will ultimately have some beneficial effect on the nerves while she continues to take more and more of the narcotics that absolutely will not. She has fallen repeatedly, she broke her foot, bruised her tailbone, and has scraped and bruised most of the rest of her.
And she’s my responsibility. I am her caretaker. Her husband is helpless, and worthless. And she refuses to accept help from anybody else.
Meanwhile, I’ve been preparing to have my own surgery, to remove ovarian cysts and an ovarian remnant. I’ve had that, and I’m home now, and while I should be having somebody take care of me, while I recover from major surgery, I am back to taking care of her.
So yeah, reading has been catch as catch can for me lately.
I started Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie but my loan expired before I was able to finish it. I didn’t want to check it out again without being sure that I could finish it so I’m waiting on that. I will get that back, it is very interesting.
After that I read Midnight Secrets: The Wildefire Series by Ella Grace. It was good, not great, a bit predictable. I’ll probably read the rest of the series eventually. The other sisters, whose stories would be covered in the other novels, seem somewhat more interesting to me.
Then I read Dark Horse by Michelle Diener. This is the first in the Class 5 Series and I do want more.
Rose Mackenzie, is kidnapped by a race of aliens (the Tecran) and taken away from modern day earth. She is then rescued by the artificial intelligence, Sazo, that is embodied by the Class 5 ship that the aliens are on, and by another group of aliens of a different race (the Grih) who are much closer to humans in appearance.
The author chose to make Rose not terribly impressed by all of the tech. This makes sense to me because we have science fiction. We have seen what we believe tech will evolve to be. That amused me because it’s something that bothers me when I read stories where the human is absolutely overwhelmed by the tech of the aliens even though the human likely would have seen a Star Trek episode at least once. The author used this as a bit of a plot point where the other aliens, an allied group of five alien species (the UC – United Council), had expected her to be less advanced, but seeing that she could use their tech, became concerned that she might be more advanced, perhaps even a spy from a more advanced group, than she was presenting herself to be.
For this alone, I feel like I will want to read more of her. Because I don’t feel like I need to worry about being pulled out of the story by a character who is completely flummoxed by a self driving car on a different planet even though they are currently being road tested on earth, or who can’t figure out how a universal translator might work even though there’s a kind of app for that on your smartphone.
Grrrrr.
I am currently reading For the Love of Pete by Elizabeth Hoyt / Julia Harper. I don’t have any opinion on it as yet, I’ve only read about five short chapters.
I don’t know what I will read next. I really am still in the mood for sci fi. Perhaps something in that direction.
@Tina Z, I pre-ordered Sebring and devoured it. Nick is one of my favorites now too.
I read Playing For Keeps part of the Neighbors from Hell series. It was really funny. Jason reminded me a lot of Garret from The Deal.