We’re back with another Rec League. This time, we’re talking great novellas after receiving this email from Reader Aislinn K:
Amanda: I absolutely loved Will You Be My Wi-Fi by Caroline Linden. It has a chef heroine trying to work on a cookbook in a tiny cottage on an English estate. The estate is also hosting a wedding and one of the attendees is in desperate need of a wi-fi connection and the cottage is where he gets the best reception. It’s so cute and was nominated for a RITA a year or so back.I am specifically looking for shorter romance reads – short stories and novellas. I have this terrible habit of needing to finish a story in one sitting. This means I either don’t pick up a book I know I can’t finish (meaning I read a lot less than I want to! Uninterrupted 6 hour stretches are hard to come by!); or I stay up waaaay too late and my sleep suffers; or I end up horrible grumpy and distracted because I want to get back to my book (if I can make myself put the book down at all!).
So, I find novellas and short stories are the perfect solution to this, but I’m running out of things to read!
For short stories, I was hoping people might know of some good anthologies like the Mammoth ones Trisha Telep edited before shooting herself in the foot. I really enjoyed the quick little bites, even if I didn’t end up loving the story itself. It was also a great way to discover and test new authors. If I didn’t like their voice within the short story, I knew not to bother with their longer works!
As for novellas, I’m slightly more particular. I don’t mind buying either anthologies or individual novellas. Nothing too expensive, or course, since they will be quick reads.
I read all genres. Historical, contemporary, paranormal/fantasy/steampunk, erotica, suspense, etc.
I am particularly fond of beta heroes. I don’t really like the cocky alpha types. I also like awesome ladies and lady friendships. (I’m also open to f/f romance if that helps).
I also love tropes. You can sell me on almost any story by listing the tropes in it. I’m easy like that.
I’m hoping the Bitchery can help me with some great suggestions!
It originally appeared in the At the Billionaire’s Wedding ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Scribd ) anthology with four historical writers doing contemporary romances. It was easily my favorite of the four and can now be purchased as a standalone.
Elyse: I just bought Knitting Diaries ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) and so far it’s quite cozy and fallish.
Sarah: Novellas – Holiday Sparks ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) is one of my all-time favorites. Nearly perfect contemporary romance novella.
The Duke of Olympia Meets his Match by Juliana Gray – lovely.
Let it Shine by Alyssa Cole – I can go one for hours about this novella, and the romance, and the tension and the humor and IVAN THE HERO OH MY GOSH.
RHG loved The Sport of Baronets. ( A | BN | K | AB )
Redheadedgirl: Oh I did. And Be Not Afraid!
Sarah: Craving Flight by Tamsen Parker ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). I don’t remember titles, authors, what I was wearing yesterday, what day it is, or year for that matter, but I still think about the characters in this story, about the portrayal of modern Orthodox Judaism, and the sexual and emotional tension of this story.
Plus just about any novella by Tessa Dare or Courtney Milan!
What about you, Bitchery? Which novellas have you read and loved? Historicals? Contemporaries? The sky’s the limit!
The Scandalous, Dissolute, No-Good Mr. Wright by Tessa Dare. It was really enjoyable.
Here’s a list from 2013 that I found on Maryse’s book blog, lots of good recs. I really liked Hearts of Darkness by Laura Kaye
http://www.maryse.net/books/my-favorite-books/my-favorite-short-stories-plus-reader-recommendations.html
And of course for Christmas novellas there’s Mary Balogh!
My first thoughts were off authors who have already been mentioned (Patricia Briggs, Courtney Milan, Thea Harrison); however, I’ll add a couple that I don’t think have been mentioned ~ KJ Charles and Bonnie Dee.
Oh, and for something totally different (as in not romance at all), I’d recommend Giovanni Guareschi’s Don Camillo stories.
Lily Maxton has some great historical romance short stories and novellas.
“Rose in Bloom” by Stephanie Laurens is a childhood friends all grown up story and “Gretna Greene” is classic Julia Quinn perfection which make up half of the Scottish Brides anthology (which are all Scottish historicals).
“Miss Congeniality” by Shelly Laurenston is a good paranormal. I love the nerdy scientist needs protection (but can also totally take care of herself) storyline. Not necessary to have read any of Laurenston’s Pride series (I hadn’t when I read this novella).
“Winter Born” by Sherrilyn Kenyon is a were-hunter novella (can be read as a standalone), and is one of my favorite Kenyon stories. The novella probably has the most believable relationship growth that I’ve read in a novella. Like, I’m totally convinced that these two will stay together beyond the end of the novella. “Red Moon Rising” by Lori Handeland is another good one. Both those novellas can be found in the Stroke of Midnight anthology.
Thea Harrison has quite a few novellas, but my absolute favorite is “Devil’s Gate.” A medusa working as a coroner needs the help of a co-worker/protector Vampyre to rescue her niece? Sign me up! It’s the third novella in a loosely tied series following the path of a Tarot deck, but I’m about 95% sure that it’ll work fine reading it as a standalone.
Liz Fielding has just self-published a gorgeous short story Melting Mr Frosty’s Heart which is delightful and one of the best romances I read this year.
Looks Like a lot of good recommendations already for Historical (T.Dare, C.Milan etc) and Fantasy (I Andrews, MJ Brooks ((especially Here There Be Monsters)). For Contemporary (besides Charlotte Stein who is wonderful) I wanted to throw in “Hearts in Darkness” By L. Kaye. The H/h meet in a totally darkened elevator when the power goes out so no preconceptions about looks! by “Take what you Want” by Jeanette Grey. The Theory of Attraction is also good. Do NOT forget the Charlotte Stein (especially Run to You and Deep Desires.These are stand alone novella’s and not the beginning of a series for the most part. Good luck!
For a really unusual f/f fantasy, I highly recommend Jamie Brindle’s “Modern Serpents Talk Things Through.” It’s part sweet romance, part humorous fantasy, and part spoofy chick-lit. And one of the main characters is a dragon. I was laughing aloud on the train when I read it and probably getting a lot of weird looks.
E.E. Ottoman has written some lovely (and smoking hot) urban fantasy and historical fantasy novellas featuring trans and genderqueer characters.
(Full disclosure: the above are from the same publisher as my own novellas.)
I also zillionth the Courtney Milan rec. My fav Courtney novella so far is probably Talk Sweetly to Me (Irish advice columnist and Black British mathematician and astronomer, 1880s, both totally adorkable).
I have the same problem! I usually need to read a book in one chunk or it distracts me endlessly. I like novellas too but don’t have a lot of them, so I’m loving these recommendations. One thing I like to do though is find a series that has a bunch of novels or short stories as part of it. I save the longer books for my 6 free hours and the shorter ones for other times. For instance, series I enjoy that have shorter works in them are the Iron Seas by Meljean Brook, Phoenix Adventures by Anna Hackett, and Spindle Cove by Tessa Dare. I also read a lot of Harlequin categories for this same reason–I can get through one of them in a couple hours.
There are a number of J.D. Robb novellas that accompany the … in Death series.
Jeannie Lin just had a collection of 5 novellas published – SILK, SWORDS AND SURREND, and it is *wonderful*. I only liked the first novella, but I *ADORED* the last 4 novellas – every single one of them left me with a “good book sigh”! I actually patted the cover of the book when I finished, I was feeling so happy and so affectionate toward it! 😉 And then I immediately read her novella in the anthology GAMBLED AWAY and really enjoyed that one, too!
(But ack, I meant SILK, SWORDS AND SURRENDER, not SILK, SWORDS AND SURREND. Sigh!)
Two contemporary m/m:
Blame it on the Mistletoe by Eli Easton:
Nerdy virgin college student asks his straight best friend to kiss him so he knows what kissing’ like.
Five Dates by Amy Jo Cousins:
Guy has to go on 5 internet dates his sister sets up because he lost a bet.
Both are so so sweet.
Oh oops, I forgot about Wes Kennedy’s To Terminator With Love, a sweet m/m urban fantasy/science fiction/hard to classify thing. An MIT student builds a children’s storytelling robot and a secret agency decides it will ignite the robot rebellion and bring about the downfall of humanity and Must Be Stopped.
I’ve also gotten into novellas in the past couple of years. I recently read Joanna Shupe’s Tycoon, very light and angst-free. Sharon Cullen does fabulous historical novellas, my favorite so far was “His Saving Grace”, a married couple romance. The hero is a veteran who comes home with a traumatic brain injury, he was thought to be dead, and in his absence his wife was mistreated by the rest of his family. It gave me all the feels.
Jo Beverley’s “Three Heroes” contains 3 good short novels, it’s pricey right now, but wait for it to go on sale.
Susanna Fraser does great novellas, some of them featuring POC and interracial couples, and one of them, “A Dream Defiant” is .99 right now. And “An Infamous Marriage” and “A Marriage of Inconvenience”, both MOC stories, are $1.99. “The Sargeant’s Lady” a cross-class military romance(Napoleonic Wars) is $1.49. I loved all of these.
I forgot to add that His Saving Grace has a very beta hero, and so are the heroes of A Dream Defiant and The Demon’s Mistress, which is one of the Beverly novellas. That one has a older heroine/younger hero, and you can get it as a standalone for $2.99.
SB Sarah might want to check out “Eight Nights” by Keira Andrews. Hannukah m/m romance.
I love novellas! Here are a few recs I haven’t seen yet.
Wicked West by Victoria Dahl – Am western historical bdsm erotica. Demure British widow seduces dominant American sherif. I think this a damn near perfect novella – it’s hot and sweet and the character development and world building is really good.
Midnight Assignment by Victoria Dahl (in the Midnight Kiss anthology). Rivals to lovers holiday novella. Two FDIC agents working on a bank foreclosure over Christmas and New Years – unusual setting, excellent UST, excellent everything.
The Trouble with Truffles by Lisa Cach – buttoned down American dietician meets handsome Belgian chocolatier on vacation in Europe.
I really liked Erin McCathy’s novellas back when she wrote light and sexy stories.
Several have mentioned Julia Quinn et al’s linked novellas. I want to put a plug in for The Further Observations of Lady Whistledown.
Carla Kelly – I don’t think I’ve seen Coming Home for Christmas. It’s three historicals set during three different conflicts and all three are excellent.
Thought of more:
Alisha Rai’s Veiled series – mf contemporary. Both are variations of friends to lovers, both are great.
The Belle and the BDOC by Amy Jo Cousins – f/f 90’s set NA. Light and fun rivals to lovers.
Complementary and Acute by Ella Lyons – ff NA, friends to lovers.
Am I the only one who doesn’t know what is meant by Trisha Telep “shooting herself in the foot”? I’m curious! I’m not much of one to read novellas, but if I enjoy the author’s longer works sometimes I will get their shorter ones. Unlike Aislinn K, I usually pick my books by the theory that the longer, the better! When I was a kid visiting the library, I scanned the shelves for the thickest books – and then looked at them to see if I was interested in reading them. Of course, that was when I had unlimited reading time!
And on a completely unrelated note, and please forgive me if this is too personal/nosy, but how does Aislinn pronounce her name? My sister knows a young woman with that name, and she says it “ace-Lynn.” I read The Wolf and the Dove when I was in high school, (when dinosaurs roamed the earth :), and have wondered ever since then how it should be pronounced.
And on a slightly-related note, can I rant a little about character names? It drives me insane when the author uses a name that is unpronounceable, or ambiguously pronounced. I assume they are trying to make that character unique, but it makes me crazy! (Just as an aside, my husband has nicknamed me “word nerd” because of my love of words and language.) And especially if they use Welsh or Gaelic languages as the base for the names! It throws me right out of the story every time that character’s name is used, because I have the internal argument of how it should be pronounced. Sometimes I just settle for “oh, HIM…” Okay, rant over!
Hi Karenski!
To answer your question my name is pronounced Aish-lynn. (The S is a silent ‘sh’ like in Sean). It’s from an old gaelic name “Ashling” which means true dreaming (like, dreaming something that actually happened/is happening/will happen).
As for Trisha Telep…well, the links in give a good idea as to what happened with her.
Thanks to everyone who has posted such wonderful suggestions! I’m happily drowning in novellas now. 😀
Hi Aislinn! You don’t know how excited I am to finally have the correct pronunciation of your name!! Thanks for responding and satisfying my curiosity And it’s also a beautiful name, especially knowing the meaning.