It’s February! And it’s also time for the post that often does some major damage to our TBR pile and our wallets. We hope all of you have been enjoying some good books. If you’re in a slump, though, maybe something in the comments will be able to pique your curiosity! And of course, tell us in the comments what you’ve been loving or hating this month.
Carrie: The Burning World by Issac Marion ( A | BN | K | AB )
Elyse: I’m reading The Dry by Jane Harper ( A | BN | K | AB ). It’s a mystery set in the Outback that involves a cold case. So good!
Amanda: I started To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au ) for the book club chat and I’m really enjoying it.
Then I’m having some major TBR anxiety because there’s too much choice! I’m torn between All I Am ( A | BN | K | AB ), which was part of our Harlequin Valentine’s Day sale and Master Professor by Tara Sue Me (a new BDSM romance series, yay!) Total opposite books, haha.
Sarah: I’m reading To All the Boys, but I started Passion Favors the Bold ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), and it’s so freaking charming. SO CHARMING.
It is it own charm bracelet, there is so much of the charm.
Plus it’s a sort of heist/adventure historical which is a hefty dose of my catnip.
Redheadedgirl: PASSION FAVORS THE BOLD IS SO CUTE
I am reading Bedchamber Games by Tracy Anne Warren (cross dressing barrister adventures!) ( A | BN | K | AB )
And I just got Nadiya Hussein’s book The Secret Lives of the Amir Sisters, which I am excited to start.
And also I picked up Frommer’s England and Scotland ( A | BN | K | AB ).
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. Thanks for being a part of another year of SBTB and hopefully, you’ve found some great books to read!
@kkw: I love Mieville, although I’m not actually a fan of the early books he got so much attention for (Perdido Street Station and The Scar). I would rank The City & the City and Embassytown in the top 50 books I’ve ever read. I also liked Iron Council a lot.
@KateB: I think you might really like Richard K. Morgan’s A Land Fit for Heroes trilogy based on the books you’ve mentioned. The first book – The Steel Remains – would also be in my lifetime top 50. There are three main characters, two of whom are gay. Homophobia exists in this world and is one of the primary reasons why the sword-wielding, magic-throwing ultimate badass Chosen One hero became who he is. He is not a good person, and while he has relationships, they are fairly twisty and f’d up because he is. However, his best friend (the last member of a departed alien race; she is also a person of color although the relevance of that in this world is a bit difference – it marks her as nonhuman, not racially different) has an epic romance – the “I will cross oceans and continents and set the world on fire for you” love – with her partner.
His other best friend is a hilarious destructive Viking, and is straight.
It’s an exceptional series, and Ringil Eskiath is a hero for the ages.
I finally got The Hating Game from the library. It almost lived up to its hype. I was pleased we did get to see a little bit of the hero’s journey, even though it was the heroine’s first person POV.
Lab Girl was also pretty good. Had a bunch of laugh out loud moments.
I finished an old Johanna Lindsay, who I normally love. But this book was all rape, all the time. #NopeNopeNope
Slow reading month for me, been in a bit of a slump where nothing appeals.
Joanna Shupe Mogul- did not like as much as the previous books. The hero kept everything from the heroine for no good reason. Very irritating.
Penny Reid Attraction- I really liked it but hated the fact that it ends in a cliffie and there are two other books. It was free but I really wish authors just stopped doing this.
Nalini Singh Wild Embrace- okay reads but aside from the first story, the others barely held my interest.
Kerrigan Byrne The Hunter- This was a re read and I liked it so much more than the first time around. The prologue is heartbreaking and broken heroes are so much catnip for me.
Eva Leigh Scandal Takes The Stage- I disliked the heroine intensely.
Kerrigan Byrne The Highlander- was just okay. The ending was super rushed and the whole thing left me dissatisfied. But it was nice to see the heroes of the first two books.
Currently reading King’ s Captive per the review here and I’m all like whoa! It takes a lot to surprise me after so many years of reading romance but this book is managing it.
This month I’ve finished (or in the most recent case, did not finish):
– No Good Duke Goes Unpunished (Sarah MacLean)
I didn’t enjoy this as much as the others in the Rules of Scoundrels series.
– Hot Dog Taste Test (Lisa Hanawalt)
Funny and weird memoir. I liked this one better than My Dumb Dirty Eyes.
– Sacred and Profane: Priest Erotic Romance (Edited by Torrance Sené)
Full disclosure: I’m mutuals with the editor and another author in the book, Bronwyn Green. I wasn’t into every story in this collection, but the ex-Catholic in me couldn’t pass it up.
– The Princess Diarist (Carrie Fisher)
This was a huge punch to the gut but I loved it. On a more superficial note, how pretty was Carrie’s handwriting?
– In Too Deep (Tracey Alvarez)
DNF at 22%. Too much nasty fighting that was – presumably – meant to be the bickering that leads up to the two exes getting back together. I found the characters really unlikable, so I didn’t care if they got back together or not. I love exes with feelings stories, but I prefer when those feelings aren’t 95% being jerks to each other and 5% pants feelings.
So, I’ve moved onto the library hold that just came through yesterday – the Rogue One precursor (a prequel prequel prequel?) Catalyst.
What I am currently reading is mostly recommendations from the Bitchery. Almost done with King’s Captive (Amber Bardon) and it is quite good. Just finished Rookie Move (Sarina Bowen), not my favorite of hers – I was interested in what happened with Leo but did not feel invested in the relationship at all. Don’t think I am going to get the next one because the teaser sample suggests the heroine does some really dumb things plus some triggers for me.
I liked Wake of Vultures (Lila Bowen) – interesting world building, great character. I enjoyed In Praise of Bees (Kristin Gleeson), liked the heroine, loved the view of a part of history that is not commonly used in novels.
I also re-read The Doll’s House (Evelyn Anthony) thanks to a head’s up on an Amazon sale. The romance holds up but I was blown away by how much technology has changed in the last 20 years. This would be a completely different story with cell phones, for instance.
@frida – Gays of Our Lives was so fun. I’ve loved the whole Queers of LaVista series by Keis Ripper so far and I’m impatiently waiting for the final one to come out.
@kkw – you know, I never actually got around to reading H is for Hawk, although I did check it out from the library and carry it around with me.
@Bery – I agree about the cover for that Cat Sebastien book – I’ve seen much worse mm covers but I do expect better from Avon.
READING
Kresley Cole’s No Rest for the Wiked has a different kind of premise. The Hero is a virgin Vampire, who was turned few hundred years ago, by his well-intentioned brother, when the hero was dying. Skip to present and the hero wants to end his miserable existence. Enter our heroine, a badass valkyrie, who is few millenials old and doesn’t have any emotions. Like, really. They were stripped from her, after a tragedy a millenia ago. When the pair meet, he suddenly gets his heatbeat and mojo back, and she gets her emotions, and he realizes that she is her Bride/Mate. Then there is an epic treasure hunt competition that both are partaking, which wasn’t nearly as exciting as the moments the pair got together. The Hero is all emotions and the Heroine is a badasssss!
LISTENING
<bLoretta Chase's Mr Impossibe Starts like the Movie The Mummy. A smart, egyptologian heroine needs help to find her kidnapped brother and gets a big, handsome, testosteroine filled hero from an Egyptian jail to help her. There is mucho chemistry and him wanting her pants off, but also admiring the heroines intelligence. I like the story, but I’m not really into the narrator. When she reads, I get a mental image of a woman in her 50’s and the same goes with the hero. Which would be fine and dandy, but the characters are decades younger. Listening this slowly.
I discovered Becky Chambers. The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet and A Closed and Common Orbit are the best SF I have read for ages!
Forgot to mention Peter Darling by Austin Chant – queer, trans retelling of Peter Pan, who returns to Neverland 10 years later and um, kind of likes Hook. Really enjoyed it.
I found a new author, or maybe not new, her first book is from 2013, who writes sexy stories with a touch of murder. I was recommended to read her by a friend of mine, Clarissa, who I have to thank. this is the type of book I like. The first one, ‘It’s A Crime’ blew me away. It has a sequel, ‘It’s A Shame’ that I’m almost finished and wow, I love it. I am going to fly through her next book.
I always enjoy seeing what others are reading. Thanks for this monthly column.
Recent reads here ~
— In Milady’s Chamber (John Pickett Mysteries Book 1) by Sheri Cobb South. I’d previously read some of her historical romances but this is the first of her historical mysteries that I’ve read. I enjoyed it and will happily read more. It reminded me a bit of Ashley Gardner’s Captain Lacey Regency mysteries
— the historical romance anthology of linked stories Four Weddings and a Sixpence by Julia Quinn, Elizabeth Boyle, Laura Lee Guhrke, and Stefanie Sloane. As with many anthologies, I found the stories differed in their appeal; I liked best the one by Julia Quinn. It was pleasant but it’s not likely a book I’ll re-read.
— 738 Days by Stacey Kade. The book is not too graphic (as regards the 738 days); however, the subject matter might prove troubling to some. It seems a tad odd to say that I enjoyed the book, but I did.
— Mariana Zapata’s Under Locke which is a book I read some time ago. I enjoyed revisiting it as some of the characters play bit parts in the author’s more recent books. That said, it’s not my favorite of her books.
— Vi Voxley’s Alien General’s Bride which I picked up some time ago when it was free. It’s not a book I’ll revisit.
— a very enjoyable historical romance which I recommend: The Lawrence Browne Affair by Cat Sebastian
— All of Me by Gina Sorelle which I enjoyed and which also made me cry.
— B N Toler’s Where One Goes which had my husband enquiring from the other room about all the sniffling and nose blowing he was hearing. Can you say tear jerker? I enjoyed the book despite my tears.
— read and enjoyed A Boy Made of Blocks by Keith Stuart which has a blurb on the cover from Graeme Simsion, author of The Rosie Project. The book is quite British and it took a couple of chapters to get me hooked; I was ultimately engrossed in the story. I recommend it.
— re-read with pleasure three contemporary romances by Mariana Zapata ~ Kulti, The Wall of Winnipeg and Me, and Wait for It.
— a re-read (my fourth, perhaps) of Andy Weir’s The Martian: A Novel. I will continue to recommend this book.
— if you like books about books, short stories, or writing, you might enjoy Am I Alone Here?: Notes on Living to Read and Reading to Live by Peter Orner. It was eminently readable; it’s a book that might be read and deliberated over or read more speedily.
— One Good Turn by Carla Kelly. I enjoyed this historical romance but be aware that it deals with some heavy topics.
— two male/male romance shorter works ~ Voyageurs by Keira Andrews and Bound by Amelia Bishop (both were free to Kindle readers)
— and an excellent male/male fantasy romance: Wolfsong by TJ Klune.
— I also read the contemporary romance Finding Your Feet (Toronto Connections) by Cass Lennox. This romance features an asexual heroine and a trans hero, a combination I’ve not previously encountered in a romance. I enjoyed the story and will happily read more by this author.
— Close to You: A Novel by Kara Isaac. This is contemporary fiction with an inspirational component. It’s set in New Zealand, so it was fun to hear some place names and terms that were familiar after the trip my husband and I took a few years ago. If you have an interest in Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings, you would probably appreciate this book even more that I did.
— a re-read of Radiance (Wraith Kings Book 1) by Grace Draven
— And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini for my book group. Initially, I didn’t care for the book due to a feeling of impending doom; however, I became engrossed with the book as I continued on. This book is set in Afghanistan but also in France, Greece, and the US. Each section of the book features a different character (and sometimes a different time); it was interesting to see how the various people/threads connected. I’ll recommend it.
— re-read some stories from Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson by Patricia Briggs.
— the light-hearted How to Howl at the Moon by Eli Easton which is a male/male romance featuring what might be considered weredogs.
— the historical romance The Dare and the Doctor by Kate Noble; it’s the third book in a series, but it stands alone well. I enjoyed it, but I doubt that I’ll re-read it. It featured a heroine who was a botanist specializing in rose hybrids.
— Hard Wired (Cyberlove Book 3) by Megan Erickson and Santino Hassell. It’s another third in a series and while it could be read independently, I think it makes more sense to read the series from the start. I’m definitely unfamiliar with the gaming/con/online setting; however, that did not stop me from enjoying the story.
I downloaded “The Lawrence Browne Affair” by Cat Sebastian the day it came out and pretty much read it straight through. Georgie was as much a delight as I expected, and seeing Lawrence struggle with anxiety and an inability to understand social and emotional cues from others made him a fascinating and very human character.
But, yes, Avon dropped the ball on the cover again. One of the two guys on the covers of poor Cat’s books always ends up looking bizarre. I can see it with smaller indie presses, but a powerhouse like Avon? No excuse.
Other than that, it’s been a slow month and my brain difficult to engage.
I haven’t had a great reading month, tbh. I think I read 3 books in total and am currently on my 4th.
I re-read Apprentice in Death by JD Robb in preparation for the new book, which was probably a mistake as Echoes in Death was much slower paced and very different in tone. I did like Echoes in Death, but I think I would have preferred it had I not read the other one first.
I also read Accidentally on Purpose by Jill Shalvis, which I really liked, although I kept thinking about the old Jenna Elfman show of the same name.
I’m currently reading Off Base by Annabeth Albert, which I think is part of a new series, but features characters from her Gaymers Series. So far, I really like it and is the first book this month that I’ve read so quickly.
I have also listened to a few audiobooks. I was really excited to see that there was an audio version of Debbie Macomber’s Changing Habits, which I read about a decade ago. Unfortunately, I didn’t realize it was abridged and DNF’ed it when I realized that my favorite storyline was completely cut.
@cleo – omg, “Peter Darling” looks AMAZING
@cbackson – I think I’ve heard of “The Steel Remains” (maybe in conjunction with “Traitor Baru?) I’ll check it out!
@Frida – I hope you like “Amberlough”! The whole time I was reading it, there was a sustained, joyous squee in my mind.
I’m reading Zero to Sixty by Marie Harte in the Body Shop Bad Boy series. I found the first 2 books a very good read and this one just came out. Book 4 in the series will be out in October and looking forward to that one. Lots of sexy, hot tattooed men with a bad boy attitude but a heart of gold.
February has been a good reading month for me:
Wires and Nerve, Volume 1 by Marissa Meyer (YA) — Fun graphic novel that is a sequel to the fabulous Lunar Chronicles series and focuses on Cinder’s android friend, Iko.
Breathless by Beverly Jenkins (historical) — Reviewed last week by Sarah and I agree with so many of her comments. A beautiful story.
Between the Devil and the Duke by Kelly Bowen (historical) — Math genius heroine goes to work for a bad boy gambling hell owner to save her family from ruin. So much catnip!
The Duke by Kerrigan Byrne (historical) — Crazy plot and over-the-top characters that I have come to expect from this series. Heroine was wonderful though hero was an ass for much of the book and had to do some major groveling.
Body Rocks by A.M. Arthur (contemporary M/M) — Romance between musicians with a music festival, well-developed friendships, and major angst which is part of the author’s trademark.
Fullmetal Alchemist, Volumes 4-6 by Hiromu Arakawa (shonen manga) — Steampunk story of two brothers who are trying to find the Philosopher’s Stone and discover a much more sinister plot within their country’s government and military. Full gamut of emotions in this series and some of the best character development I’ve read. Great anime based on the manga as well.
The Strangely Beautiful Tale of Miss Percy Parker by Leanna Renee Hieber (historical fantasy) — I read this for the February TBR Challenge and liked the worldbuilding and characters. The romance was too quick for my taste, but I liked it enough to possibly check out the sequel.
I’m currently reading:
A Better Man by Candis Terry (contemporary) — I’m not usually into small town romance, but I am enjoying the second chance plot with a hockey player and a teacher.
If the Duke Demands by Anna Harrington (historical) — Masquerades, mistaken identities, falling for one’s crush’s older brother? I’m loving it so far!
@Crystal, I cannot do steampunk, either. I want to like it, but so far no go.
I’m trying to make a significant dent in my TBR pile, so committed to reading a TBR as soon as I finish a new book:
Unveiled by Courtney Milan – meh, did not like the hero
Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty – picked it up in an airport and blew through about half on the plane. Liked it better than What Alice Forgot
American Heiress by Jeffrey Toobin – I was about 6 when this happened, but we were living overseas. Really interesting to see what kind or turmoil was going on in the 70s, but it really dragged in places.
The Hanging Tree by Ben Aaronovitch – I <3 this series
The Brightest Day: A Juneteenth Anthology – I’ve had this on my tablet forever and finally got into it this weekend, starting with Alyssa Cole’s wonderful story. All the feels!
Argh! Because reasons, my reading pretty much went off the rails this month… I managed to only finish one book – a cozy mystery called Sprinkle with Murder by Jenn McKinlay. It was cute – not great, not bad. It is the first in the Cupcake Bakery Mystery series and I plan to read the second. There seem to be two love stories developing as well so that added to my interest in continuing the series.
I was wrong – looking back at my records I actually finished two books last month – in addition to Sprinkle with Murder I also finished Death of a Ghost by Margery Allingham which is from the Golden Age of British mysteries and is 6th in the Albert Campion series. This was much darker than the earlier books in the series and less of a mystery than a thriller I would say since the whodunit was revealed fairly early. It was good, but I think I enjoyed the earlier more farcical books where Albert is fearless and somewhat blase.
Late to the party, but here’s what February has looked like for me so far:
I read some new-to-me authors and discovered some new keepers:
Kulti by Mariana Zapata
Beautiful Stranger and Beautiful Player by Christina Lauren
Six of Hearts by L.H. Cosway
I read some books by favorite authors I know I can count on:
Wait For It and Bad Neighbor by M. O’Keefe plus Crazy Thing Called Love by Molly O’Keefe
Truly and Madly by Ruthie Knox
The Cad and the Coed by Penny Reid and L.H. Cosway (which is why I’m now reading Cosway’s other titles)
And I reread Beard Science by Penny Reid because I had to.
Honestly, I’ve had a good reading month, and haven’t found a clunker yet. Yay!
Just finished Rainbows by Katherine Stone. Wow that was some good soapy crazy sauce but omg with the purple prose! Seriously. Every paragraph had the characters talking about their great love. Every. Paragraph. Yet, I loved it. It should have annoyed the hell out of me but…the crazy sauce soapyness was SO good.