It’s everyone favorite post! It also might be the most expensive, but it’s an occupational hazard around here. Whatcha Reading is where we discuss all of our reading highs and lows of the past month. This month’s post takes a bit of a detour with reading experiences and the awesomeness of my last undergrad semester.
Sarah: I’m reading the new Lucy Parker, Making Up, almost a month before it comes out and I feel TERRIBLY guilty about it.
I also read a sample of a much older historical that I’d never read, Bewitching by Jill Barnett ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). I’m debating whether I want to keep going.
Amanda: I’m reading More Than Words by Mia Sheridan, who is a new to me author and I’m really surprised by my enjoyment considering musically-inclined characters are my anti-catnip for some reason. The heroine is super into medieval French history and the hero is a famous composer. They knew each other as kids but haven’t seen each other in a decade. He’s on a downward spiral and she wants to help him, but she’s cautious about a romance because he’s turned into a man that reminds her very much of her philandering father. I also like how their first “reunion” goes horrible as he doesn’t remember her and makes an ass of himself.
Carrie: I just started 84K by Claire North. It’s confusing at first but I think I’ve got the hang of it. At the same time I’m re-reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot ( A | BN | K | AB | Au ).
Elyse: I am also reading a book that isn’t out yet, but unlike Sarah I only feel mildly guilty about it. It’s The Real Lolita: The Kidnapping of Sally Horner and the Novel that Scandalized the World by Sarah Weinman.
It’s this wonderful intersection of true crime and literary history I didn’t know I needed, and it’s totally the first book to validated how icky I felt reading Lolita in school.
Amanda: Weirdly enough, Lolita is one of my favorite books BECAUSE of how icky it makes me feel.
It probably awakened my love of unreliable narrators.
Elyse: I think the fetishizing of girls made me super uncomfortable
Sarah: It is so fascinating to me how we react differently to the varying ick factors of different stories.
Elyse: I’m trying to remember if I had to read it for school or if it just read it. I think the latter because I was way too young to process that book.
Amanda: When did you read it, Elyse? I read it as a senior in college, so I’m wondering if our age at when we read it might have anything to do with it.
Elyse: I’m thinking 14-15, so it definitely wasn’t for school.
Amanda: Yikes, yeah, I can see why you’d have a different reading experience.
Elyse: I was a kid who just picked stuff up and started reading it because I could. My mom hid her Thomas Harris books because she didn’t trust me
Amanda: Mine was for an amazing literary criticism class called “Bad Romance” – A Streetcar Named Desire, Giovanni’s Room, Lolita, and Child of God are the only books I remember for the syllabus. We did get to watch Harold & Maude though, which was the real highlight.
Elyse: I may have responded differently if I had the maturity to separate myself from the text more.
It tends to be a really polarizing book though.
Amanda: And I was in a class setting, so it was a book that was heavily discussed and picked apart, which probably adds to the text separation. But yes, I agree with it being a polarizing book.
Sarah: Holy crap that class sounds terrific.
Amanda: It was really awesome. The adjunct professor was top notch! It was the same semester I took a film noir class, where I watched The Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep, The Big Lebowski (which is a modernized retelling of The Big Sleep) and Bladerunner. My final paper in that class was on masculine identity in the movie Drive. Probably the best paper I ever wrote.
Totally unrelated, but I wish I could sort my Kindle books by length because I’ve been super in the mood for quick romances or romance novellas, but I have no clue which books on my Kindle library fall into that category.
Sarah: Oooh that would be a handy feature!
What have you been reading this month? Anything amazing? Let us know below in the comments!
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I read a lot this month, but most of it was older and has been mentioned a lot on here so I’ll just mention some highlights:
THE PRINCESS TRAP and UNDONE BY THE EX-CON by Talia Hibbert- Hibbert first came on my radar a couple months ago and, after reading a recommendation for THE PRINCESS TRAP on here, I decided to bump her up on my reading list. I am so glad I did! I will say THE PRINCESS TRAP took me a chapter or two to get into, but I think that was me not her. It seems like I have that problem with all new-to-me authors lately. Once I did, I really enjoyed it. I love Hibbert’s diverse characters and she does consent so well. Currently I’m reading and loving Hibbert’s A GIRL LIKE HER.
GOOD LUCK WITH THAT by Kristan Higgins- This one doesn’t come out for a while, but I got ahold of a digital ARC of it. I struggled with this book. It’s a women’s fiction book (there’s some romance, but it’s not the main focus) about two women coming to terms with their weight issues after another friend of theirs died from issues due to weight. There is so much talk about weight that at one point I was mentally screaming at the characters to stop thinking about it and get on with their life. This is quite possibly intentional since I know I’ve definitely been stuck in those sort of obsessive thinking loops about my weight before and become tired of myself. I eventually got caught up enough in the characters’ journey that the book started to be easier to read so I ended up thinking about the book positively. I could see it being very triggering to some people. I could also see how some people may be offended by the attitude towards weight and weight-loss in the book. Weight and people’s views and experiences with it are so personal and varied that I can’t see myself actually telling someone else to read this since their reaction could be so different than mine.
THE OTHER LADY VANISHES by Amanda Quick- This was another ARC. I actually enjoyed it more than the first in the series. This is definitely more of a mystery than a romance though. The romance was barely developed and was the weakest part of the book.
THE GOSSIP and THE PACIFIST by Jenny Holiday- These are two of three new adult novellas set at a college during the 80s written by Holiday. Both did a good job of developing the characters and relationships in the shorter format and I really enjoyed them.
MY FAIR BARON by Licie Laine- I checked this one out because it got a Desert Isle Keeper review on AAR. I did enjoy it, but it seemed a little too conveniently historically inaccurate. The heroine is an orphan who receives news early on in the book that her brother died so she has to marry someone acceptable to the ton to keep her childhood home due to the terms of her father’s will. The heroine is a writer, makes her own living, and lives on her own. She’s attending her first season without any sort of sponsor other than a friend her own age who also lives on her own and is always unchaperoned. It just seemed unlikely. The hero is a baron who has fallen on hard times and become a male prostitute in the brothel the heroine’s best friend owns. It’s a bit of a Pygmalion story with the heroine and her friend trying to get the baron ready to be accepted by the ton. Despite my problems with the accuracy, it’s a sweet love story.
LOVE, HATE, and OTHER FILTERS by Samira Ahmed- I liked this book although it tries to combine two very different tones that I don’t think quite worked. On one hand, it a sweet, light romance and, on the other hand, it tries to deal with the prejudice Muslim-Americans deal with in the U.S. This makes sense, since obviously Muslim Indian-American kids are dealing with everyday kid issues like prom, crushes, and dating along with prejudice and bullying. However, I think the choice to have a different POV that ends up intersecting with the prejudice storyline didn’t work. I also thought the ending was rushed, but I loved Maya as a character and the love story was sweet. I’m looking forward to reading future books by the author.
MOONLIGHT IN MANHATTAN by Sarah Morgan- I just loved this one. I really liked the characters, the romance, and most especially the dogs. While I don’t love all of Morgan’s books, she does seem to have a knack of creating the types of stories and characters that leave me feeling happy quite a while after finishing her books. Morgan often asks for help naming the dogs in her books and I always suggest my cocker spaniel’s name, Harvey. For this book, she asked for help naming a female cocker spaniel which she ended up naming Maddie. However, another dog in the book is named Harvey, which probably has nothing to do with my suggestions, but that combined with the spot-on characterization of cocker spaniel behavior still may have biased me a little.
After A GIRL LIKE YOU, I’m going to continue to read KU books until my discounted subscription runs out in a week and a half. Then I have so many books I think I should read immediately. Am I the only one who sometimes gets so incredibly overwhelmed by their TBR, yet somehow can’t stop themselves from requesting the occasional ARC, entering book contests, one-clicking sales, and taking advantage of discounted subscription prices then hits a point where reading almost starts to feel like a chore instead of a favorite hobby? I obviously need some sort of help. Or a superpower that allows me to read and absorb whole books in like a minute so I can read a hundred books a day.
Amanda – LOLITA is also one of my faves for that same reason and I’m dying to read THE REAL LOLITA. Also, if your Kindle books are on your Goodreads account, you can sort them by length there! As to my reading…
Lots of dashing adventures this month! Also, my library had a bag of books sale last week and wooo boy. I am stocked.
Faves
– IN OTHER LANDS by Sarah Rees Brennan – omggggg! Portal YA fantasy with bisexual teen who’s like Harry Potter meets Miles Vorkosigan, badass lady warrior, humor, so much character growth, sex positivity. I loooooved it.
– THE RAVEN’S HEART by Jesse Blackadder – totally surprised by this one. Historical adventure story about a lady-in-waiting/spy to Mary, Queen of Scots. Our lead, Alison/Robert, who I would argue is nonbinary due to the fact that they present as Alison or Robert in public, in private, and in their mind (but the book isn’t marketed that way), is as much a villain as they are a hero, and the writing really supports that.
– CASTLES IN THE AIR: THE RESTORATION ADVENTURES OF TWO YOUNG OPTIMISTS AND A CRUMBLING OLD MANSION by Judy Corbett – a library sale find, this memoir is exactly what it says on the tin. If you like charming stories about quirky people, old buildings, ghosts, peacocks, royality, flooding, book-binding, William Randolph Hearst, and small Welsh villages, check this out!
– THE STRANGE CASE OF THE ALCHEMIST’S DAUGHTER by Theodora Goss – So, the story format takes awhile to get into, with our heroines (the daughters of well-known fictional mad scientists) commenting on the story as it goes, the heroines themselves and their found family-ness, is a delight. Recommended for fans of Gail Carriger and Seanan McGuire.
– TREMONTAINE SEASON 1 / SEASON 2 / SEASON 3 by Ellen Kushner & contributing authors – one of Serial Box’s ongoing series, wherein a chapter (or episode), written by different authors, is released once a week for 13 weeks (per season). These work as prequels to Ellen Kushner’s Swordspoint series but can stand on their own, and they are more diverse, with characters of color, genderqueer characters, characters on the spectrum. It’s real great. And the bindups of the seasons are up on Hoopla!
– UNMASKED BY THE MARQUESS by Cat Sebastian – queer Frederica! Queer Frederica! With a bisexual hero and a nonbinary heroine! It’s sweet, it’s sexy, it’s charming, it’s everything you want from a Cat Sebastian romance.
– PENRIC’S DEMON by Lois McMaster Bujold – I don’t know why I waited so long to read this novella, it’s been on my kindle forever. It’s funny and sharp, and I want more. Kinda hope she releases all six as one edition.
– NORSE MYTHOLOGY by Neil Gaiman (audiobook) – Neil Gaiman narrates his own work so well! I’m pretty familiar with Norse tales, so it was wonderful just to hear his telling of them.
– HURTS TO LOVE YOU by Alisha Rai – I loooved Eve and Gabe so much. This romance had everything, forced proximity, wedding party, stuck in a cabin, bonding in a hot tub, and the line, “You’re like sex closed captioning.”
GOOD
– SPACE OPERA by Catherynne M. Valente (audiobook) – I love the weird zaniness of Valente’s writing, and Heath Miller’s narration is just tops.
– ALL OUT: THE NO-LONGER-SECRET STORIES OF QUEER TEENS THROUGH THE AGES edited by Saundra Mitchell – some stories were stronger than others, and I would have loved to see a few stories expanded, but I enjoyed the wide of tales, time periods, and diversity of characters.
– THE MERRY SPINSTER: TALES OF EVERYDAY HORROR by Daniel Mallory Ortberg – these are pretty eerie tales on the familiar (that Velveteen Rabbit one? *shudder*), but some are stronger than others. Note: Ortberg has come out as trans and goes by Daniel, but the book can still be found under Mallory.
– THE ORACLE GLASS by Judith Merkle Riley – I picked this up for two reasons. 1) it was mentioned on last month’s Whatcha Reading and 2) I just finished S2 of VERSAILLES (my favorite period drama) and wanted more about the Affair of the Poisons. This does that pretty well, although I thought the first half was stronger.
– STONE MAD by Elizabeth Bear – sequel to KAREN MEMORY, this is very much a one off “case fic” and made me want more, more depth, more story, just more.
– TRULY DEVIOUS by Maureen Johnson (audiobook) – murder mystery at a boarding school? Yes, please! I thought the narration was pretty solid, in a noir sort of way, but the delivery of the lead character’s line left something to be desired.
– THORNYHOLD by Mary Stewart – I love Stewart’s use of gothic atmosphere, but the story and especially the romance, were weak.
– TO DIE BUT ONCE by Jacqueline Winspear – I still enjoy this series but the longer it gets, the more I think Maisie is just a cypher, blank but for the mystery’s forward action.
Meh
– TO DANCE WITH KINGS by Rosalind Laker – Another VERSAILLES inspired pick, but ughhhh this multigenerational story had PROBLEMS. All the women are carbon copies of each other and every single man is the WORST. Do not recommend.
Currently Reading
– BINTI: THE NIGHT MASQUERADE by Nnedi Okorafor (audiobook) -Binti continues to be a draw, even if the romance is puzzling
– THE KING’S GENERAL by Daphne Du Maurier – I am loving this. Honor is a badass, sharp-tongued sexy disabled heroine. Richard is over the top. And from 1947, too!
Renegades by Marissa Meyer: Ok, but I wanted to like it more than I did.
Ides of April and Enemies at Home by Lindsey Davis: The first 2 in the mystery series featuring Marcus Didius Falco’s daughter, Flavia Albia. A little slow but the setting is interesting.
Imposter Syndrome by Mishell Baker: The last in her Arcadia series. Enjoyable. Watching Millie navigate circumstances with her fairly serious emotional problems is educational.
I glommed Holley Trent’s Afotama/Hearth Hotel/Norseton Wolves books and they had things I loved, but also made me realize I’m not a fan of “fated mates” at all. I loved the matriarchal magic society, everything with the faeries (the Hearth Motel books), and the world building in all the books. I didn’t love how often it seemed like the men knew they had met their fated mate and needed to have sex with the woman to make her realize they were meant to be. I feel like in the Hearth Motel books there was a lot more “getting to know each other” stuff than in the Afotama books, which is why I liked them more.
I also glommed every single Jennifer Crusie book I could get my hands on and I love love love her. IDK why I waited so long to pick up anything by her, I know I’ve seen Bet Me listed as peoples’ favorite book for a long time. I got The Cinderella Deal when it was listed on a Books On Sale post, the read it and didn’t love it. It reads like an author’s early work to me, pacing of the story a little off and not quite as much communication as I like, but I loved that BOTH characters changed.
My favorite Jennifer Crusie books are:
Bet Me- everything about the book was perfect. Great leads, awesome friends for the hero and the heroine (I LOVE heroine having awesome friends that support her, but sometimes the hero doesn’t have the same supportive friend group and it makes me sad. I feel like Crusie has really balanced heroes and heroines, both have flaws and great things besides romance in their lives and don’t have problems that falling in love solves/cures), Min uses her actuarial acumen to defend Cal against his cold, rich, intimidating, awful parents and Cal really sees Min and loves her for who she really is.
Maybe This Time- idk if I’d say this was a romance as that part of the story felt a little neglected, but I loved how real the kids felt and how perfect Andie was with them (believable to me bc she is/was a teacher, so I’d expect her to be good with kids, but she doesn’t magically do everything perfectly, just uses common sense and her training and determination to do right by them) and I felt like the HEA was believable even with the romance being such a small part of the story.
Welcome to Temptation and Faking It- Love the Dempseys, adult children of a con artist father who are trying to do/be better. Sophie Dempsey (Welcome to Temptation) falls in love with the mayor of a small town named Temptation while making a movie that she doesn’t want to be porn, but might end up being so. There’s a side romance of a young-ish (20 or so) woman who’s unhappily stuck in Temptation falling for an older (late 40s I think), established man that I was surprised to really support. I normally am not a fan of big age differences and power differences in romances; I like the characters to be on even footing, but Crusie’s writing made me support the characters and their relationship and believe in an HEA for them. In Faking It Davy Dempsey meets Tilda when they both hide in a closet while they are trying to rob the same house, although what they want to rob differs. Hilarious and surprisingly sweet, this book was a great follow-up to Welcome to Temptation.
Manhunting- I wouldn’t have guessed this was Crusie’s first book. Hilarious and surprisingly sweet. I laughed out loud enough times while reading that the 4 year old I take care abandoned her slime (huge deal, she can play with slime for hours) so I could read the book to her while we folded laundry. We read King Bidgood in the Bathtub instead bc I don’t think Manhunting is the best book for a 4 year old to hear, but it is an amazing romance.
Honorable mentions: Agnes and the Hitman, Fast Women, Crazy for You, and Don’t Look Down were all really enjoyable reads but I felt like there was a lot of plot that kind of detracted from the romance and getting to know the characters really well. Also, Strange Bedpersons was good but not great, but had one of the cutest lines I’ve ever read but putting it here would be a big spoiler so I’ll avoid it.
Also, it wasn’t until I’d read about 4 Jennifer Crusie books that I started looking for more from the library and discovered that her name isn’t Jennifer CRUISE, which is what I’d thought I read on every recommendation for Bet Me and Agnes and the Hitman ever and on the front cover of every book I’d picked up at the used bookstore and searched on Amazon. It took the library saying they didn’t have anything by a Jennifer Cruise and some quick googling to realize I was wrong and the I is after the S. For someone who loves to read so much you’d think I’d be better at it.
I read Wired by Julie Garwood too, and kind of wish I hadn’t. The first romance I ever read was a Julie Garwood and it was so amazing at the time, but now I find I’m not a fan of early 20’s heroine who has had a max of 2 sexual partners ever and doesn’t know she’s beautiful (even though in this book she’s literally a model) and is super smart and amazing but needs an older, hot, experienced man to swoop in and solve the problems in her life. This book has a lot in common with The Witness by Nora Roberts, hacker heroine who technically breaks the law but does so to go after bad guys and a law enforcement hero, but Wired lacks the character development and includes more sexist tropes than The Witness and ultimately just doesn’t work for me.
The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillory- Loved this book, I’m eagerly awaiting the next Guillory! The characters were smart and sexy and really well developed. Alexa’s relationship with her sister brought tears to my eyes and Drew was the perfect example of a modern day rake. I also liked seeing a realistic version of a long distance romance.
I read Hurts to Love You by Alisha Rai multiple times too. I feel like I can’t review it because it was just too perfect and I loved EVERYTHING. If I wrote exactly what worked for me I’d just be putting the whole book. And hearing that Rai is going to write Rhiannon’s book! And more books in this world! YAY!
I started The Boss by Abigail Bartlette and I just don’t love it. Age difference plus him being her boss just doesn’t work for me.
Last book I read, I LOVED. Luck of the Draw by Kate Clayborn. Amazing, well developed characters faking a relationship is definitely my catnip. Zoe and Aiden both being so hesitant and reluctant to really open up to each other and the people closest to them hit me right in the feels. Aiden’s determination to buy a camp ground and turn it into a rehab center was admirable, as was Zoe’s determination to help him. The ending of the book was super satisfying, and I felt like it was true to the characters and was happy with how everything worked out.
And I have After the Wedding by Courtney Milan, but I’m not allowing myself to read it until I finish my work for my last class of the term. One assignment left!!! It’s a children’s lit class so it’s interesting and I like the content of the class, but writing the papers is excruciating. The requirements for everything are somehow really broad and ridiculously specific at the same time. Oh well. ALMOST DONE!
Oh, and I got an email for a deal on KU! 3 months for $1.99! It didn’t get sent to my main folder for some reason, and I don’t know if it’s just because I cancelled KU not too long ago, but it’s probably worth checking to see if you have an email like that hiding somewhere!
Still working on Cress on the weekends. One morning I just up and went on a buying spree. Any Duchess Will Do, Hate To Want You, A Princess In Theory, Bet Me, Wintersong. (These have already been covered a lot on the site, so I won’t go into them.)
The last book I got was The Mad Scientist’s Daughter, by Cassandra Rose Clarke. (I ‘think’ it’s supposed to be a post-apocalyptic/dystopian?) It takes place in a society where there was an unsuccessful robot/AI uprising. The main character is a young girl that grows up in the woods. One night her father brings home one of few human-like androids/cyborgs the government hasn’t destroyed yet and announces that Finn is to be her tutor. As Cat grows older and Finn becomes more self-aware, their feelings begin to grow for one another. (I was looking for something that delved more into artificial intelligence.)
Sarah, I remember reading “Bewitching” a few years ago and feeling very “meh” for what it’s worth. I had heard all these good reviews about it before the explosion of ereaders and I sought it out on Kindle years later. I finished it, but I found it “cutsey” rather than whimsical. Maybe I just wasn’t the right reader or it wasn’t the right time.
This has been a terrible month for reading. Too much time on the internet and too many DNFs.
So it’s most appropriate I’m reading
“How To Break Up With Your Phone” by Catherine Price. This told me to do some stuff I already do (don’t charge your phone in your bedroom, delete social media), but I still appreciate it. I think I will always struggle with my phone on some level (I’m social/non-shy introvert and phones offer the perfect level of interaction), but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t try.
In related topics, I’m re-reading “Unf*ck Your Habitat” by Rachel Hoffman. I love the tumblr but see above about spending less time on the internet.
May I also recommend the Procrastination articles on the website “Wait But Why?” by Tim Urban. Talks about procrastinating in a clear,funny way. It’s a longish free series of articles, but I’m thinking of buying the pdf because . . .;-)
Are we sensing a theme yet?
I only listened to one audio book this month, but it was a good one
“The Thousand Dollar Tan Line” by Rob Thomas. A Veronica Mars mystery narrated by Kristen Bell, of course. I liked this. I felt like it was “sunny noir.” Kristen Bell read a little too fast (which is easy to fix) and she couldn’t imitate all her co-stars’ voices but I still enjoyed it. A
My favorites for this month were –
“The Grave’s a Fine and Private Place” by Alan Bradley. Finally, a Flavia De Luce mystery that gets back on track (IMHO) with the character doing fun mystery things and not weird government conspiracy.
“Wrong to Need You” and “Hurts to Love You” by Alisha Rai. I may be in the minority in that I liked the last in the series best? I think maybe because I found all the more soapy plot threads wrapped up in satisfying way. They were my least favorite parts for most of the series, but then I ended up appreciatiing the payoff.
In the “Okay Reads” of the month –
“The Husband Test” by Betina Krahn. This started off very promsingly as a lighthearted medieval in the vein of older Amanda Quick. Surly earl goes to a convent to find a marriagable, virtuous woman so that he can break the curse on his land. He gets stuck with a micromanaging nun ego is to adminster his “husband test.” This was really promising, but it petered out into almost no conflict about two thirds of the way through. I’d give it somewhere between a B or C.
I’m halfway through a lot promising books, but since I DNF books with extreme prejudice ;-), I’ll wait until next month to post.
I did CampNaNo, so I didn’t have much reading time this month.
I did read Whiskerella, by Ursula Vernon and reread a chunk of Transmetropolitan, by Warren Ellis.
I liked the former more, but I enjoyed both.
Sadly, I have had no reading-for-fun time this month. But I’m looking forward to some upcoming books, like ROYALS by Rachel Hawkins.
I also want to dig into some of the JESSICA JONES comics in my TBR pile. I hope they will be better than Season 2 of the TV show, which I found very disappointing.
Read:
A Silver Mirror by Roberta Gellis- As always Gellis delivers ,but I wouldn’t call this her strongest book. On the plus side , I loved the hero Alphonse, he was a sweet hero and while similar to Gellis’s other heroes, was a little less prideful than most and a little more of a pacifist. The heroine was likable enough, but very much a retread of her other heroines. I also learned more about Captive/hostage etiquette of for the medieval upper class than I every thought possible. It was interesting though . All-in-all if you come across A Silver Mirror , go ahead and read it especially if you’re a Gellis fan, but I wouldn’t go out of your way to find it.
My Hero Academia Vol. 8 and 9-First off if you aren’t a fan of super heroes or anime these manga are probably not for you, but if you are an anime fan and haven’t checked My Hero Academia , give it a go. The series has great characters, plays with “Shonen” tropes in interesting ways and provides interesting commentary on Japanese society.
Currently reading:
Bed of Spices by Barbara Samuel- to begin with this book contains all the trigger warnings. That said it’s a beautiful story of forbidden love written in an almost Shakespearean tone, it’s also legit forbidden love that doesn’t sugarcoat history and is set During the Black Plague in Germany . It’s a heavy book with a lot of angst and a very disturbing death for one of the secondary characters who already had a tragic backstory. If you can handle that though it really is a great book with a sweet hero and an outspoken heroine who you just can’t help but root for. This is also an older book so Amazon is probably your best bet.
I just finished After the Wedding, the long-awaited book two in Courtney Milan’s Worth Saga of historicals. Loved the first one. Preordered this one. It’s very good and I love the male lead who is a POC and a successful businessman who is persuaded by his (asshole, white) uncle to pose as a valet for nefarious purposes–his conflict is excellent and his character very attractive and strong. Camilla, the mc, is unfortunately the victim of inadequate editing–we are told no fewer than twenty times explicitly that she is hopeful, has never given up hope, hopes so much, is so hopeful–i love her resilience and loyalty, but the repetition was heavy handed. As I always say, any complaint about Milan (who is an absolute GODDESS to me and writes exquisite, believable characters) is really a quibble because of the standard of excellence she’s at. The book is NOT a let down, but i winced every time ‘hopeful’ came up in the book.
This month OH MY GOD. I deserve some sort of Adulting medal for the restraint I’ve shown, really it’s unprecedented. I’ve had the types of books that lead to all-nighters and the types of work weeks when that just haven’t been an option. So I’ve been saving for the weekends.
Talia Hibbert’s Wanna Bet? was one of those. So hot, so angsty, so British! Also excellent: Alisha Rai’s Hurts to Love You and Kate Clayborn’s Beginner’s Luck.
And for this weekend I have the new Clayborn, Luck of the Draw, and THE NEW COURTNEY MILAN it’s been years I can’t believe it’s actually here! I also have the very shiny Space Opera by Catherynne M Valente, described as “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy meets Eurovision” so can’t wait to dive into that. And Leah on the Offbeat by Becky Albertalli should arrive on my doorstep ANY DAY NOW. Probably my favorite YA cover of all time so I need a physical copy.
(I’ve been having trouble trying to post this morning, so I apologize if this thing has posted multiple times. Also, I’m going to try to post in two parts—perhaps my original was too long.)
PART ONE
This month included a glorious ten-day stretch of spring break (I work in the public school system) during which I implemented my version of Logan Pearsall Smith’s famous quote: “Some people say living’s the thing, but I prefer reading.”
Ok—true confession time: when I first started reading books in Lexi Blake’s Masters & Mercenaries series a couple of months ago, I thought of them as crazy-sauce guilty-pleasure fun. But as I’ve read more of the M&M books, my thoughts about them have evolved and I’ve found myself getting more invested in the characters and storylines (each book focuses on a specific couple, and can be read as a stand-alone, but characters and plot lines overlap from book-to-book, so if you read the books out of order—as I have—there will be some spoilers about what has happened in previous books). Yes, we’re still talking about a world where professionally everyone is military/former military/FBI/CIA/spy/former spy/Krav Maga expert/genius hacker/brilliant profiler/skilled marksman with access to a military-grade arsenal of weapons and where privately everyone is living the bdsm lifestyle and who, when they’re not playing scenes at Dallas’s most exclusive and upscale bdsm club, are chasing bad guys across the globe, but somehow the series has become more endearing and less eye-rolling for me (although I’m still waiting for a book with a domme heroine and a sub hero—I may be waiting a long time for that!). Anyway, this month I read a couple more M&M books:
In THE MEN WITH THE GOLDEN CUFFS (which I also recommended on the Rec League request for books with heroines getting their groove back), Blake goes very “meta”: she has written an erotic bdsm/ménage book featuring a heroine who is a writer of erotic bdsm/ménage books. Aside from the heroine’s hot ménage with two bodyguards hired to protect her from a stalker, there’s a lot of interesting things in the book about the creative writing process, how books are marketed, the disdain in which romance novels are held in the culture at large and in publishing world specifically (despite their being the financial backbone of much of the industry), and the genuine connection women feel when they share their favorite romance books and themes. I must admit, I didn’t care for the two heroes when they appeared as secondary characters in THE DOM WHO LOVED ME (primarily because their dynamic involved posing as gay lovers in order to get women to join them in ménages—wtf??), but in this book their back-stories are fleshed out, so how they feel about each other and their quest to find a woman who is willing to share and be shared by them makes much more sense.
ON HER MASTER’S SECRET SERVICE—despite its obviously tongue-in-cheek title—is a rather melancholy entry in the M&M series. The hero and heroine were happily-married FBI agents until several years previously when an attack by a vicious psychopath destroyed their lives. The couple eventually divorced (Blake does a good job of showing how the couple’s differing individual reactions to the attack made staying married untenable), but now the psychopath is back and they must join forces to take him down. This book has less of the espionage pyrotechnics of some of the other M&M books and is much more focused on the changes the H/h’s relationship must go through (including how they will make their D/s dynamic work) if they are to achieve their HEA.
I loved Callie Hart’s MISTER NORTH. It is beautifully written, with a smart and self-aware heroine and an emphasis on slowly developing the H/h’s relationship (if it’s any example of how carefully Hart maps the evolution of the couple’s feelings, their first sex scene does not take place until halfway through the book; and when it does, it seems both perfectly placed and proceeding in a completely organic way from the couple’s growing connection). At first, I thought this story of a financially-struggling law student and the reclusive billionaire who hires her to play chess with him was a Fifty Shades knockoff, but—despite a few bdsm-themed scenes—I was completely wrong. The story morphs into something else; there are secrets, there are lies, there are ways that both the hero and (especially) the heroine are being manipulated by others, there’s a dark mystery in the billionaire’s past, and an ugly trauma in the heroine’s. MISTER NORTH is a book that keeps you guessing, questioning the motives of every character and unsure (in a good way) of where the story is going. This is the first Callie Hart I’ve read, but it won’t be the last. Highly recommended.
I’ve been waiting for Jackie Ashenden’s UNDERCOVER BILLIONAIRE for a while. It’s the final book in her Tate Brothers series and also brings to a close the Billionaire Fairy Tales books (the heroine in UNDERCOVER BILLIONAIRE is the sister of the heroes of the Fairy Tale books). I liked, but did not love, this installment. The hero has essentially been indoctrinated by his late father to carry out revenge against the family of a business rival. This has been a decade-long process, during which the hero grew very close to the rival’s daughter. When the hero has to kidnap her and keep her with him, she begins to realize how much her feelings have been manipulated over the years by the situation. There’s passion, betrayal, hurt, anger, family dysfunction, and coming to grips with that, along with Ashenden’s de rigueur characters with astonishingly-beautiful eyes (the heroine’s are dark blue, the hero has one green eye and one blue). A good, but not great, example of what I think of as “the Ashenden template.”
I was bummed when I finished UNDERCOVER BILLIONAIRE because I thought I’d read all of Ashenden’s catalog, then I saw that I still had her three-book Talking Dirty series unread on my kindle. Rejoice! The books were published in 2013 and are all set in and around Auckland, New Zealand. The heat level is a little milder than in Ashenden’s more recent work, but each book still focuses on people having to come to terms with how childhoods involving absent/abusive/distant/dead parents have affected their ability to maintain healthy adult relationships and how they must make peace with their pasts in order to move forward. In TALKING DIRTY WITH THE CEO, a tech journalist meets a man through an online game, unaware that he is the CEO of a major tech company. The hero suffers from severe ADHD and the heroine is from a critical and dismissive family. Each helps the other to confront their issues on the way to their HEA. TALKING DIRTY WITH THE PLAYER is a second-chance romance featuring a photographer heroine and a rugby-playing hero who is of Maori descent (although I’m not sure you’d get that from the cover model). The couple first connected six years ago and are thrown back together when the heroine agrees to photograph the hero for a charity calendar. I didn’t care much for either the hero or heroine in this one—they both make selfish decisions and refuse to be honest with each other; and there were too many on-again/off-again moments in their relationship. My favorite of the three books was TALKING DIRTY WITH THE BOSS, which involves an unapologetically-sexual heroine, a hero with OCD, and an unplanned pregnancy. I admire Ashenden for not treating conditions such as ADHD and OCD as mere ailments that miraculously evaporate when exposed to luurrve. Instead, she shows that having a mental illness or loving someone with a mental illness takes commitment, compromise, and understanding.
Carolyn Crane’s AGAINST THE DARK was recommended in the Rec League request for heist books. When I saw it was free kindle download, I grabbed it immediately—and I loved it! Super-competent safe-cracking heroine, somewhat dorky but desirable hero, sleazy and sadistic villain, forced-proximity/fake-girlfriend ruse, nail-biting tension during the heist, and wonderful chemistry between the couple—especially the hero exploiting, in a self-aware way, the attraction the heroine feels for him (he knows the heroine has a thing for his washboard abs and is always casually lifting his shirt). Kudos to a very sexy scene that involves nothing more than the couple discussing the fake story behind their fake relationship while the hero spreads peanut butter on a rice cake.
I liked AGAINST THE DARK so much, I read the next book in Crane’s Undercover Associates series, OFF THE EDGE. I love the heroine in this one—a truly good and decent person who isn’t presented as insipid or naive (it’s sometimes hard for writers to avoid a Pollyanna-ish quality in really nice characters, but Crane makes the heroine a full-bodied person). The heroine is on the run from a horribly abusive ex. She’s ends up in a Bangkok hotel, singing for tourists. Her song lyrics—and her beauty—attract the attention of an English professor of linguistics (the book includes lots of interesting asides about how accents and word choices define who we are). Of course, there’s more to the hero than meets the eye and soon the couple are running from gangs of international terrorists. Beware: there is violence, including a torture scene that I found best to just skim. Crane does not flinch from putting her characters through the wringer!
Then I read more from Carolyn Crane, writing under her other name, Annika Martin. I loved Martin’s Dangerous Royals series. These are books about three brothers who were born into an Albanian mafia family but forcibly separated as children. As adults, they must reunite to reclaim their birthright. DARK MAFIA PRINCE features enforced proximity and enemies-to-lovers as the oldest brother kidnaps the daughter of the man who killed his parents. WICKED MAFIA PRINCE has the second brother reuniting with his true love, now a novice nun with amnesia. I usually don’t go for amnesia plots, but this one was well-handled. (Also, shout-out for a satirical subplot involving the psychopath head of a rival gang who uses an online “leadership coach” to help him act out the empathy he doesn’t possess. Some very sharp observations about the nexus of corporate and criminal activity.) SAVAGE MAFIA PRINCE features the third brother who was in part literally raised by wolves and later kept in appalling conditions in a mental institution. He escapes with the help of a journalist, a woman almost a decade older than him. The couple—being pursued by various groups, each with their own agenda—flee to the Canadian wilderness (beautifully described). Although there aren’t that many actual sex scenes in SAVAGE, there’s an overwhelming sense of erotic possibility as the couple bond on their own out in nature. Because of the overarching story arc, these books, while technically stand-alones, should be read in order.
After reading THIEF last month, I returned to A. Zavarelli’s Boston Underworld series, about the intertwined lives of members of the Irish, Russian, and Italian mafias. Because there are shared characters, plot points, and timelines between the five books, I’d recommend (unlike what I did) reading them in order: CROW, REAPER, GHOST, SAINT, THIEF. The books are dark and violent, with lots of angst; admittedly not for everybody, but I enjoyed them. Then again I like dark, angsty, and complicated—ymmv. The heroine of CROW has had a rough upbringing, spending time in foster care (where she became friends with two women who are later the heroines of GHOST and SAINT), and now fights in underground fighting clubs (she’s a real kickass and rather bossy to those she cares about), who asks an Irish mob boss for help finding her missing friend (the heroine of GHOST), and of course, sparks fly. REAPER is the story of two damaged souls finding a connection. The hero is a killer for the Irish mob who suffered horrific abuse as a child (my advice: skip the flashback sections printed in italics). He’s completely closed off emotionally and still a virgin in his late twenties. The heroine comes from a poverty-stricken background and has had abusive boyfriends—and there’s no way around the fact that the hero has been stalking (and, simultaneously, protecting) the heroine for years. The hero of GHOST is a Russian mobster who rescues a trafficking victim from sex slavery (the scenes describing the heroine’s experiences in sex slavery are very difficult to read) and brings her back to his home to recover. Love blooms—along with family conflict and betrayal. One very interesting element of GHOST is that hero has a disability and, worried that it will be seen as a sign of weakness, goes to great lengths to keep others from discovering it. I found SAINT hard to get into because the heroine was so cold and manipulative. Yes, she’s been treated horribly by some men—but not by the good-hearted hero, so why is she so cruel to him? Not the best of the series, but probably the one with the hottest sex scenes.
[TW for…everything!] And speaking of A. Zavarelli…ever since I read her excellent TAP LEFT earlier this year, I’ve been on a reading binge of her books (such as the Boston Underworld series mentioned above). Zavarelli’s books aren’t for everyone—they’re dark & angsty, featuring emotionally-damaged characters in difficult circumstances where morality is often ambiguous or compromised and the sex is rough and frequently just skirting the very edge of consent. So, I thought I knew what I was getting into when I started Zavarelli’s BEAST, but I wasn’t prepared (despite the book’s series title, “Twisted Tales”) for a plot highlighted by child abuse, video voyeurism, stalking, abduction, captivity, brutality, humiliation, torture, mutilation, rape, brainwashing, and Stockholm Syndrome: way beyond dark into full-blown horror territory. But I must admit, I didn’t stop reading because I was curious to see if there could be any possible redemption in the book. There is—of a qualified variety—but I could not categorize this book as a romance at all. Much as I said about Annika Martin & Skye Warren’s PRISONER a couple of months back, it’s best to think of this book as a psychological thriller with a marginally happy ending (that doesn’t really mitigate the “torture porn” aspects of what came before). IMHO, a well-written but miscategorized book from a writer whose work I’ve usually enjoyed.
But, of course, I got right back on the Zavarelli train and read her erotic novella SALACIOUS, about a ballerina who longs to express herself through paint & canvas and her Banksy-like professor-mentor. Using each other as muses, the couple are both able to overcome problems from their pasts. Beware—transgressive issues like big age gaps (although the ballerina is of legal age) and, more problematic, a student-professor sexual relationship. I enjoyed it, but proceed at your own risk.
Success! So here’s PART TWO:
Meghan March’s DIRTY BILLIONAIRE was a free download—it’s also the first book of a trilogy, but I’m not sure that I’ll continue reading the series. I liked the premise: the heroine has won a country music version of an American Idol-type show and the record label she signs with puts her in a fake relationship with a famous male country singer who isn’t ready to come out of the closet. There’s so many potential storylines there. But once the heroine has a one-nighter with a billionaire (who is, of course, stricken by insta-lust/love), the story’s focus moves on in a somewhat predictable fashion. A serviceable novel, but nothing that really grabbed me.
Julia Sykes’s DARK LESSONS was a competently-written story of a couple exploring bdsm, but was also full of wtf-ery. A woman who is about to start training at the FBI Academy has a one-night-stand with a man she meets at a bar. First moment of wtf: she permits this man—who she has known for less than an hour—to dominate her in various ways without any discussion of limits or safe words. The next day, the woman discovers her one-nighter is one of her trainers at Quantico (in all fairness, he is as surprised as she is). Second moment of wtf: despite being her instructor and acknowledging he should not pursue her, the man continues to do so (following her into the shower, spanking her in his office, etc.). Third moment of wtf: although she knows it’s wrong from so many angles, the woman does not discourage the man’s pursuit in any way, in fact, she actively seeks him out, which results in a bad guy being able to blackmail the couple. But the biggest wtf of all was a complete plot twist half-way through the book that took the story in a completely different (and somewhat bonkers) direction. An odd book—almost as if Sykes welded two different storylines together (and I could have done without the grating “other woman” character who represents all of the worst of “female” traits—a bitchy, gossiping back-stabber, competitive about men—so that the heroine can shine more brightly in comparison)—but I continued to read because I wanted to see where things would go. Not highly-recommended, but not a complete time-waster either.
SUBMITTING TO THE BILLIONAIRE by Georgia Le Carre (wait—that can’t be her real name, right?) is exactly what the title implies: a woman becomes a Russian billionaire’s plaything for a month in order to redeem her husband’s gambling debts. The oddest thing about this rather predictable book is a secondary character named Peter Thiel. Whenever the character appeared (he’s the heroine’s literary agent for a series of children’s books she’s written), my mind kept trying to figure out why a minor character in a run-of-the-mill romance novel shared the same name as the billionaire who bankrolled the lawsuit that destroyed Gawker—and it took me right out of the story.
Le Carre’s BLACKMAILED BY THE BEAST is more of the same: a woman must become a billionaire’s sex toy because of…reasons. Of course, the billionaire likes it rough and wants to “punish” the heroine—again, for reasons. There are some bdsm elements to the story, but as with much of the 50-Shades-knockoff genre, the book is more of a capitalist rescue fantasy (the hero brings the heroine to his gorgeous mansion and fills her closet with designer clothes and Louboutin heels) than any attempt to present how a couple might actually negotiate a sexual power exchange (you’d have to read Tamsen Parker’s Compass Point books or C.D. Reiss’s TE MARRIAGE GAMES and THE SEPARATION GAMES to get that).
Speaking of C.D. Reiss, I followed up last month’s reading of her KING OF CODE with two more related books: WHITE KNIGHT and PRINCE CHARMING. Although technically stand-alones, both books are richer experiences if you’ve read KING OF CODE first. WHITE KNIGHT is a second-chance romance. A once-wealthy heiress reconnects with the boyfriend of her teenage years, a guy from the wrong side of the tracks. He is now extremely wealthy while she has lost almost all of her money (through no fault of her own). They must put aside what they wanted to be as teens and focus on what they want to be 13 years later. I loved both the maturity and self-awareness of this couple; plus this is the rare book where the hero’s ex-wife is a decent person and not the shrewish harridan character the ex is in so many books. In PRINCE CHARMING, an FBI agent feels an unwanted attraction to the man she is investigating for financial cybercrime. Lots of very sexy flirtation between an extremely intelligent (and very cagey) couple in this one, not to mention a sex scene during which the hero makes the heroine memorize an important string of computer code: you’ll never see web access in quite the same way again!
Callie Harper’s IN DEEP was a nice romance between an Olympic swimmer and his physical therapist. I liked that both the hero and heroine realized that, despite their overwhelming attraction for each other (leading to some very hot, initially unconsummated, sexy-times), they had to be professional and stay focused on their jobs (his to win Olympic gold in Rio, hers to keep his muscles in condition to win that gold). I also liked one of the book’s secondary themes: letting go of a toxic friendship. I’m sure we’ve all been in a situation where we have to break off a friendship with someone we’ve known for a long time because it had morphed into something hurtful and damaging; IN DEEP handles the subject with sensitivity and understanding. Characters from other books in Harper’s All In series make appearances, but the book can be read as a stand-alone. Of course, there’s a big secret leading to a big misunderstanding, but all is happily resolved in the end.
Harper’s stand-alone, TAKEN BY THE SEAL, is the story of a former SEAL who abducts a young woman to prevent her being taken hostage by mob thugs. It’s an enforced proximity plot that takes place in part in an isolated snowbound cabin (hello, catnip). Of course, the cabin has functioning plumbing, hot water, sufficient food & drink, and plenty of fuel for the roaring fire to keep things cozy. I think I would have enjoyed the book more if the heroine had been older (she’s just 20) and if the decade-older hero weren’t so sure at every turn that he knows what the heroine wants, likes, and needs (in bed and out of it). I’m not opposed to an alpha hero, but the heroine has to have enough moxie to push back when circumstances warrant—and the heroine here is just so young, innocent, and lacking in self-confidence, the hero seems to bulldoze over her at times.
The four books in Kendall Ryan’s Forbidden Desires series (DIRTY LITTLE SECRET, DIRTY LITTLE FLING, TORRID LITTLE AFFAIR, TEMPTING LITTLE TEASE) were quick reads in dire need of rigorous editing: scene locations change mid-paragraph, time-frames are askew, and characters are frequently surprised by information they’ve already discovered in previous chapters. The series also has one hugely problematic situation: The three brothers who are the heroes of the books own a business together—the business is an upscale escort service. Although Ryan goes to great lengths to explain that the women who work for the service are hired only to attend high-society functions on the arms of the service’s rich male clients and that any sexual activity is negotiated separately between the woman and the client, there’s no way around the fact that the brothers are, in essence, pimps. While I was reading the books, I used my famed DiscoDollyDeb’s Edit-As-I-Read feature to pretend that the brothers were running a different type of business (office supplies, house painting, lawn maintenance, you name it). If you’re not capable of that level of cognitive dissonance, you might want to skip these books—the stories may be breezy, but there’s no getting around the escort agency elephant in the room.
The plot of Leslie North’s category romance THE GREEK BILLIONAIRE’S BLACKMAILED BRIDE is fairly self-explanatory from the title. Nonetheless, it was a fast, fun read with lots of yummy references to delicious Greek food. Warning: don’t read this when you’re hungry or you won’t be happy until you get some moussaka and spanakopita (speaking from experience here).
Katee Robert’s HIS TO TAKE is a small-town story of a struggling actress who reconnects with her on-again-off-again boyfriend (a marine) for a Christmas-time game of truth-or-dare. Nothing particularly memorable—or objectionable—about this novella-length romance.
Alexa Riley’s HIS PRINCESS is a light-hearted erotic novella featuring vaguely-East-European royalty. An intense and totally alpha King has an arranged marriage with an innocent princess. I really enjoyed the character of the princess’s older sister in this one—she also has a love interest, and I’d like to read the story from her p-o-v. Beware: as with several other Riley books I’ve read, this one has a strong subtext of breeding fetishism. So if alpha males claiming their women by impregnating them is not your catnip, you’ve been warned!
I started the month with the box set of the first 5 Masters & Mercenaries novels by Lexi Blake. Thanks, I think? to whoever recommended these. I am so conflicted about these books. I thoroughly enjoyed them (so much so that I actually paid full price for the next 3 books in the series…), the plots are total crazy-sauce, I love the snarky, sarcastic tone of a lot of the dialogue, and I did find them sexy & hot, BUT… why does DOM=MASCULINE and SUB=FEMININE? The series is like 15 books long – why can’t there be at least one pairing that doesn’t fall into that paradigm? Also there seems to be a fetishisation of anal sex that I’m not really comfortable with. The later books in the series seem to be less BDSM-focused and I liked them better for that.(They’re more kinda ‘dom for you’ – ‘she was the only woman he would ever Dominate, because she needed it…’) Also now reflecting, I can’t remember any POC. In a series set largely in Dallas. Really?
I followed Masters & Mercenaries up with the ‘Windy City Kink’ box set by Kelly Jamieson. I thought all 3 books were so, so good. They were about exploring & accepting your kink even when other people around you don’t. The emotion just shone through on every page.
Next up was the Women of WAR series, thanks to the podcast. I’ve followed the AFLW closely since its inception and I thought the Catherine Evans novel most closely captured the intense feeling of what it might be like to play, and had a very intense sense of place, both in Sydney and in the small Riverina town that both MCs come from. The Amy Andrews book featured an amazing hero – I loved Levi – and the sex was super hot, but I thought there were a couple of miscues in terms of understanding the game (there’s no way these players, who have been working towards a professional league for ages, would go nuts spraying champagne after just the first game of the season, or have late nights with drinking & partying after every win). Funnily enough, even though Nicola Marsh is the biggest footy fan of the three authors, and I’ve enjoyed some of her other books (especially those in the late, lamented Kiss line), I was more ‘meh’ about her book.
I do think that it was a massive missed opportunity not making one of the Women of WAR series a f/f romance. One of the joys of the AFLW was that so many of the players were out & proud (which has not happened in the men’s competition). There was more than one couple who played for opposing teams! Think of the CONFLICT there!
I picked up ‘The Hooker and the Hermit’ by Penny Reid & LH Cosway and DNF’d at the beginning of the second chapter. Penny Reid is hit & miss for me and I’ve never read anything by Cosway before. Both MCs rubbed me the wrong way, and I felt the heroine’s ‘hobby blog’ was mean-spirited and un-funny.
I picked up Kristen Ashley’s ‘The Gamble’ in a sale and LOVED IT. Partly it’s because I really identified with the gamble of the title – I married my Australian husband after knowing him less than six months, and we both have upped stakes & moved countries to be together, and the Ben Lee song ‘Gamble Everything for Love’ is kinda our theme song. So. The book had way more than I was expecting – all of a sudden there was a bunch of suspense and all sorts of plot complications, and I did sometimes think Max was too good to be true, but I still loved it. Normally I’d go out & glom the rest of the series but after reading the blurbs & reviews I’m actually not inclined to do so. Does anyone recommend any more of this series?
Next I re-read ‘After Hours’ by Cara McKenna. I bloody love this book. It’s about two regular people in a drab Michigan town, nothing remarkable or spectacular. But there’s just something about it that grabs me and gives me all the feels. It’s gritty, it’s real, it’s just wonderful.
After that I picked up ‘Out of Control’ by Suzanne Brockmann. I really enjoyed the complex, layered storyline, and loved Ken, he was adorable (although that sounds a bit odd to describe your typical Navy SEAL). Savannah drove me around the bend not trusting him to look out for her though! I immediately re-read ‘The Unsung Hero’ which had a similar complex, multi-stranded plot and brought me to tears more than once. The rest of the Troubleshooters series is now on request at my library.
Then – YAY free Mary Jo Putney! ‘Thunder & Roses’ – this was a thoroughly satisfying book. It’s set in a Welsh coal mining town. The heroine is eminently practical and the hero is half-Gypsy, and acknowledged both positive and negative things about Romany culture. I promptly bought the next two books in the series so that freebie worked well! The second in the series, ‘Dancing in the Wind’, has a hero who is deliberately seeking emotional intimacy and shies away from meaningless sex because it leaves him feeling empty & depressed. This felt totally new, something I hadn’t seen in a romance novel before – often the heroes do seek emotional intimacy but they aren’t self-aware enough to know that’s what they want – or they’re total rakes and meaningless sex isn’t an issue. Anyhow I adored it and would love MORE PLEASE of this type of hero!
I’m in the middle of ‘When a Scot Loves a Woman’ by Katharine Ashe. I’ve really enjoyed some of her other Falcon Club novels but in this one the Scots dialect is driving me bonkers. I really dislike puzzling out what the main characters are saying and this is worse than most Scottish ‘dinna fash yerself lassie’ dialogue – sometimes it’s nearly indecipherable. It’s really pulling me out of the story.
@Kristen: see my comments above re Masters & Mercenaries. As far as I can tell, in all of Lexi Blake’s books, the males are always doms, the females are always subs. But she’s written a lot of books (as Lexi Blake and as Sophie Oak), so perhaps someone who has read more of her work than I have could let us know if that paradigm is ever reversed.
@Amanda it is not the same as on your Kindle, but if you use Goodreads to keep track of your books, you can do a sort by the number of pages in the book
I had an amazing start to the month, reading 4 really good/great books in a row until the fifth novel broke my lucky streak. Highlights and lowlights:
THINK OF ENGLAND by KJ Charles – A m/m romance set at an Edwardian houseparty featuring a corrupt military-industrial complex, overt homophobia and racism because verisimilitude, and intertextuality with H. Rider Haggard’s King Solomon’s Mines. This was my first Charles book, so I’m stunned by how deftly both the social attitudes and vocabulary about homosexuality at the dawn of the twentieth century in England are handled. (Whenever I praise historical accuracy, I worry people will read that as “this book is dry” and be turned off. I assure you the romance is twisty and heart-tugging and quite moist. It will appeal to fans of stiff upper lipped Englishmen, poets objectified by orientalists, spies, and wickedly clever female side characters.) Trigger warning for gun violence.
THE DUKE OF SHADOWS by Meredith Duran – The publication of The Sins of Lord Lockwood prompted me to read this epic at last, and all I can say is I’m so relieved I wasn’t reading mainstream romance ten years ago when it was released because waiting ten years for Lockwood’s story would have turned me whiny. In fact, encountering Lockwood in The Duke of Shadows without the benefit of having read A Lady’s Code of Misconduct first would have baffled me: who is this insouciant lord with the troubled marriage and some undefined past connection to…what? a penal colony? WHAT? My curiosity would definitely have distracted from the romance between Julian and Emma, and considering how powerful their story is, that’s saying something. (For all that Lockwood is a distraction, having read both novels, I prefer The Duke of Shadows for its tortured, angry heroine. I think I’m a little burned out on extremely wounded heroes in need of healing. Spotlight: Emma’s rage, bitterness, and need.)
THE UNWANTED WIFE by Natasha Anders – On its own merits, this is not a very good book. As a 1990s-style Lynne Graham Harlequin Presents (not published by Hqn and not written by Lynne Graham), it…is…awesome. Theresa married Sandro because she fell in love with him at first sight; Sandro married Theresa because her evil father is extorting him to father a son on her. It has been 18 months (and one miscarriage) since the wedding, and Theresa has finally glommed on to the notion that having her husband cap off their thrice-weekly orgasms with the injunction to “give me a son, Theresa” is not a good sign. Plus, her husband hasn’t introduced her to his friends or family and is always being caught by the paps in clinches with supermodels. So she asks for a divorce. And eventually asks why he wants a son so damned badly, which tips Sandro off to the fact that she doesn’t know about her father’s machinations and she is completely innocent and all his months of scorn have been unjust and he should probably try to be nicer to her. But she is having none of that and he has to work himself back into her good graces while working out his issues.
ACT LIKE IT by Lucy Parker – I read the ebook, then immediately checked the audio out from the library and have just been listening to it on a loop all month. Lainey and Richard are my perfect couple: an umami heroine with strong family ties who bickers her way into a sexy human grumpycat’s heart while pursuing her professional and humanitarian goals. I appreciate that Richard’s misanthropy is neither excused by nor wholly attributed to his tragic backstory. (And, yes, I fell in love with him at the vegetable tent because *nerd*.) I want Lucy Parker to include a cameo of this couple in every London Celebrities book (thank you, PRETTY FACE). I want every fictional theatrical professional in England to continue to despise Richard but also grudgingly acknowledge both his unparalleled talent and the good he’s doing for arts funding and education. I’m probably the last SB to have read this book, but if I’m not: go! Read it! (And when you get to the climactic scene and think it’s melodramatic overkill, please go back to chapter one and re-read the analogy Lainey uses for her first description of Richard. It makes the ridiculous climax downright literary in its significance.) Also, I strongly recommend Billie Fulford-Brown’s narration of the audiobook. My only disappointment with her performance was the scene where Richard is supposed to be so affected when Lainey is calling cat!Richard to eat. “Intriguing tone of command” my foot.
Meanwhile, a horrible thing happened. The West End setting for Parker’s series inspired me to drag a couple of ancient Jacqueline Gilbert books out of storage. DEAR VILLAIN and EVERY WISE MAN are 1970s Mills & Boon romances also set in the theater world. In Dear Villain, our heroine is a brand-new deputy stage manager at a theater where her b-i-l is the managing director, and a past near-miss love interest of hers appears as the guest director for the season. Our heroine takes her job v. seriously, which is demonstrated for the reader by her refusing to join her roommate for a night out in the swinging seventies British club scene because she has some kind of theater-ledger-based homework to take care of. The position of stage manager at the theater is currently open, and our heroine is hoping for the promotion…but, no! she learns halfway through the book that the position has gone to an external (male) candidate, and then she’s told by a vengeful actress she offended that the guest-director-love-interest voted against her being given the position. When she confronts the GDLI, he admits it, claiming that the crew could never respect a woman as stage manager since she would be unable to carry out the job’s more physically demanding tasks without male assistance. (Please note the GDLI called her off a ladder where she was capably hammering some repair in the ceiling in order to have this conversation.) Then Mr Gender Discrimination makes some kind of half-articulated side remark indicating that he also didn’t want her to get the job because maybe he was hoping that their relationship was heading for something permanent, and I’m just…NO. You did NOT just interfere in the career of a woman you are not even dating because you don’t want your hypothetical future wife to have a job. So…the seventies. Thank you, sisters who ploughed the way. You all deserve freakin’ medals.
But Dear Villain was not the book that destroyed my lucky streak. That honor goes to UNBREAK MY HEART by Nicole Jacquelyn. Kate’s teen crush and true love rejected her and married her significantly hotter best friend, whom he serially impregnated between overseas deployments. During said deployments, Kate swooped in to co-parent the children with her bff, who eventually dies, leaving the crush heartbroken and giving Kate the opportunity for a night of drunken regret sex. The whole thing is a badly written angst fest, with the crush being as horrible to Kate as humanly possible and Kate being both a doormat and a creepy stalker. I wouldn’t even mention having read it except it has 4+ stars at Goodreads with over 6000 ratings, so clearly I’m in the minority and this awful book is secretly awesome.
Anyway, that experience scared me back to Harlequin Presents for the rest of the month. Having read the available ebook backlist of the authors I knew pre-21st century, I consulted Goodreads for recommendations and discovered a reviewing community that has produced some wonderfully snarky, insightful, affectionate reviews of category romance. I’ve probably logged more time reading HP reviews this month than reading the novels.
@SBSarah, you should be deeply ashamed for yur lack of guilt. Deeply.
I read A Strange Scottish Shore the latest installment in Julianna Gray’s new historical/paranoral series. I understand foreshadowing, and I DO NOT like where I think this is going next.
Last week my reading took a strange turn with And Then You’re Dead: what really happens if you get swallowed by a whale, are shot from a cannon, or go barreling over Niagara by Cody Cassidy and Paul Doherty, PhD. It’s a series of essays, and the one I read before going to work Tuesday was about what would happen if the window on your airplane fell out during flight. Then, later that day I look at my newsfeed and…. Let’s just say I know more about how that poor woman died than I want. Wednesday morning was what would happen if the elevator cable snapped. Yes, I hesitated when I walked into the lobby that morning. Stairs are better for your health anyway.
Now, thanks to the Rec League, I’m starting Zoe Sharp’s Killer Instinct. I think this series and I are going to get along just fine.
Whatcha Reading is probably my favourite Saturday of the month!
I’ve had a pretty good reading month this time around. In no particular order, I’ve read:
The Fact of a Body (Alexandria Marzano-Lesnevich) – I read this fairly quickly as it drew me in to the overlapping layers of story; but I don’t think that it will be particularly memorable in the long term.
Hate to Want You (Alisha Rai) – This, to me, was the sort of book where the world of the book is more real to me than the so-called “real world” while I am reading it. I’ve got Wrong to Need You from Overdrive to read while I pack up my apartment this week…
Airs Above the Ground (Mary Stewart) – I picked up a bunch of Mary Stewarts from Kindle this winter when they were on sale. I read them all (usually multiple times) in high school, and it’s been fun re-visiting old friends!
Kulti (Mariana Zapata) – this one is currently a DNF, but I haven’t given up on it completely (yet). Kulti has just done something that I consider to be pretty unforgivable; but I also know that Zapata managed to write a believable reconciliation in to The Wall of Winnipeg so I may go back at some point and finish Kulti.
Kissing the Witch (Emma Donoghue) – feminist / queer re-telling of interwoven fairy tales with the characters actually given character. It was a quick read, and part of the fun was trying to figure out which fairy tale was being re-told. Particularly memorable were The Tale of the Rose (Beauty and the Beast), The Tale of the Handkerchief (The Goose Girl), The Tale of the Spinster (Rumpelstiltskin), The Tale of the Voice (The Little Mermaid), and The Tale of the Kiss (original).
And now I’m downloading audio books from Overdrive and Hoopla for my cross-Canada road trip / move next week. 6 days in a car with an unhappy cat – I’m going to need these books to keep me sane!
@Kristen, I had the same reaction to “The Hooker and the Hermit” as you did. Big DNF.
Heroine’s blog felt mean, despite how the authors tried to write around it. I also felt like both the hero and the heroine had a “she’s not like/I’m not like *those other girls*” attitude which felt really retro to me, and I don’t mean that in a flattering way.
Also didn’t the hero forbid the heroine from having other male visitors in her house? Wow, just wow.
I’ve yet to find a Penny Reid that works for me, which is frustrating because some of them come so close.
I tried a new-to-me author this month, Susie Tate. The first book I read, BEG, BORROW, OR STEAL, was a solid read for me, but the second book, LIMITS, was even better. I’m glad I read them in that order, since the heroine of Limits is set up in the first book, and it helps you feel connected to her from the beginning of the novel. The heroine has severe social issues, and I particularly liked how the hero learned how to work with her needs over the course of the novel. It didn’t hurt that I was completely incorrectly picturing the hero as Ravi from iZombie. I don’t care if he’s written as an Englishman of Greek heritage, his personality is totally Ravi. And Ravi’s super hot.
Interestingly enough, I started another book right before Limits featuring a heroine with social anxiety called THE HOOKER AND THE HERMIT by Penny Reid and LH Cosway. I usually love Reid’s novels, but this one was a DNF for me. The hero seemed to think it was really a turn-on to frighten the heroine, encroach on her space when she clearly wasn’t enjoying it, and otherwise make her very uncomfortable. Also, her job was forcing her to spend time with him and keep him happy, so she had to put up with that jackass whether she wanted to or not. There’s a scene in Nora Roberts’s Dance Upon the Air where Zach tells Nell that there’s a line between making a woman a little nervous and scaring her, and he would never want to cross it. This hero found the line and tapdanced right on over it with a big smile on his face.
I really liked THE ONES WHO GOT AWAY by Roni Loren, about the survivors of a terrible school shooting. It’s definitely not for everyone, but I thought the author handled the subject matter very well, and I loved the main couple. The heroine had a great friend group that I’m assuming will star in the next few books, but the author did a good job of introducing them in a way that didn’t feel like sequel bait. Even though it was.
Other recent reads include the historicals MY DEAREST ENEMY and ALL THROUGH THE NIGHT by Connie Brockway. I loved them both, but when I tried one of her contemporaries, SKINNY DIPPING, it didn’t work for me and I stopped reading about halfway through.
Sarah, I read Bewitching and loved it but I have a pretty high tolerance for a-hole heroes who eventually see the light, especially in historicals, so YMMV. I’m normally not a fan of naive, twee, virgin heroines, but as I recall, Joy was naive, but not stupid. She knew what she wanted and wouldn’t put up with less.
I read a depressing blog post last week by Naima Simone about how the first book in her new series with Entangled, SCORING WITH THE WRONG TWIN, way undersold the second book in the series, and the only reason she and her editor could come up with was that the first book featured an African American hero on the cover (he’s a football player and he looks pretty darn HOT!), while the second book had the usual white guy cover. For all of you who read sports romances but complain about how unrealistic the football ones are for not featuring more African American heroes, this book is for you.
I promptly bought the book, even though it’s a trope I don’t love (twin swap) and found it to be engaging, well-written and pretty typical of Entangled romances, so I’m forced to agree with the author on the reason for the lack of sales. I should add that the heroine was a somewhat geeky, extremely competent Puerto Rican app developer who was standing in for her twin sister (an up and coming model) and that the relationship between the sisters was pretty heartwarming.
Aside from that, I read and loved SLOUCH WITCH by Helen Harper, a UF featuring a witch who drives a taxi and would much rather lie around watching TV than working for the Magical Council, but who accidentally gets tethered to a top investigator and is forced to help him solve a crime. It was a refreshing break from the usual kick-butt UF heroines.
I’m currently in the middle of SMALL CHANGE by Roan Parrish and absolutely loving it. The first two books in the series are m/m and I haven’t read them yet, but this one is m/f with a heroine who is a bi tattoo artist who has always struggled to find her place in the world and express her art, while the hero is an incredibly sweet guy who owns a sandwich shop in the neighborhood and is constantly dropping by to feed her and her staff sandwiches that he thinks they will love. He’s just so thoughtful (and he’s a ginger!). I want one of him for my own LOL.
Just finished VE Schwab’s Shades of Magic trilogy this morning. Enjoyed quite a lot. Next on my list is A Gentleman in Moscow which I had on hold forEVER and am looking forward to reading finally.
Continuing my habit of listening to YA, I made my way through all four books of the Lunar Chronicles this month. Many many many times I felt like screaming at the characters (except Scarlett, she was consistently cool, and less Crescent than the others) but happily in the end they redeemed themselves in my eyes.
Then I listened to We Were Liars by E. Lockhart and if you haven’t read this you should, but for maximum effect don’t read ANYTHING about it before you do. I mean not even the cover blurbs.
What should I listen to next? Always the question.
A huge Anna Hackett fest this months. Just discovered her and read the entire Hell Squad series.
Plus
Fast Justice by Kaylea Cross
To die but Once by Jacqueline Winspear
Cyborg by Anna Hackett
Breaker of Chains by Jordan L Hawk
Born of Darkness by Lara Adrian
Among Galactic Ruins by Anna Hackett
At Star’s End by Anna Hackett
Unmasked by the Marquess by Cat Sebastian
Taking Vengeance by Cynthia Sax
Chance by Pearl Foxx
Hollywood by Pearl Foxx
Crocus bt Any Lane
Now on Fallout by Sara Paretsky. It’s been on my tbr pile for a while
Feel as if I didn’t do as much reading this month and much of it was re-read.
I did read Her Best Worst Mistake by Sarah Mayberry. Recommended here. I did enjoy it despite the characters being initially slightly off-putting. You get to see why they are the way they are and there is character growth.
I read Meet Cute, collection of meeting your love (or potential love) stories. Most cute and engaging, some thought provoking.
The Fixer by HelenKay Dimon. Romantic suspense, heroine with lots of agency, tortured hero. Beauty and the Beast? Did enjoy it and the backstories did make sense for the most part.
I read Royal Player by Katie McCoy. Unfortunately right after reading a twitter thread of women describing themselves the way a male author would. All I could think about was how much a part of the story her large breasts were. Almost their own character. Story was otherwise OK, standard plot of I love her because she is not impressed that I am in line to the throne. No real surprises.
Re-read Mercedes Lackey’s The Fairy Godmother. I have a conflicted relationship with Lackey. Her Valdemar books were very important to me at one time and I tend to read her because I enjoy the stories. However, she tends to sound as if she were writing stories meant to be read aloud to seven year olds. Even when she is writing about sex.
Also re-read the first three books in Anne Bishop’s Others series. Again, I enjoy the stories a lot and her writing is a little idiosyncratic in ways that I occasionally find jarring.
I DNF’d 3 out of 5 books at the beginning of the month and sent reading to the corner to think about what it did, but I’m bookmarking this post for future budgetary indiscretion…
OBSIDIO by Amie Kaufman was as outstanding as I’d hoped, a satisfying end to the Illuminae files. I borrowed the hardcover (600+ pages) from the library for the epistolary experience, but have all three books in digital format for re-reading.
I’ve read two fantastic books recently. Women in Sunlight by Frances Mayes. I wept. This is one of the most beautiful books I’ve read EVER! Word by Word by Kory Stamper is a sonnet to the English language. It’s marvelous.
@Darlynne thanks, I’d missed that release! Really liked the first two. I listened to the audiobooks which are AWESOME. My teenagers liked the paper experience.
Two opposite standouts for me this month – first was Wrong to Need You by Alisha Rai and I am DEAD, DEAD I TELL YOU because it was so good and I want to keep erasing my memory and reading it again just to experience it for the first time over and over. I enjoyed Hate to Want You, but the second book was just amazing.
On this other end, there was A Bollywood Affair by Sonali Dev, which was completely enraging. It started off with a nutty bollywoody plotline, the heroine had some mildly annoying tropes but was otherwise very enjoyable, and then the hero turned out to be an absolutely garbage human. Like, before the HEA he’s all whiny and his friends start calling him Devdas and I was all IF ONLY he could pathetically die of alcoholism RIGHT THIS VERY MOMENT, and it would still be too good for him. I had Sonali Dev’s A Distant Heart on my TBR, but there’s no way I’m going to touch it now.
I also read These Broken Stars by Amie Kaufman and Megan Spooner. A YA scifi novel, opposites attract and are stranded on a mysteriously uninhabited planet. I really enjoyed the creepy atmosphere, but there wasn’t much resolution and I have to keep reading the series to find out anything, I guess.
The first 2 novels of Mira Grant’s tapeworm zombie trilogy. I like the first book much better than the second, enough that I haven’t started the third book.
Alyssa Cole’s A Princess in Theory was pretty great, but I kept thinking how much I wanted to read the next novel about her fuckup of a friend Portia, but it doesn’t come out until summer!
To properly break out of my month’s long reading slump, I have to find some new authors. I mean, I’ve been re-reading for several months now, plus reading new entries in ongoing series like DARK IN DEATH (Eve Dallas), BURN BRIGHT (Alpha & Omega), and PROMISE NOT TO TELL (Jayne Ann Krentz). I’ve read new spin-offs from old series–HOT AND BADGERED (Shelly Laurenston), THE CHOSEN (Thea Harrison), and each dribble of Maud’s novella as it comes off the word processor of Ilona Andrews. I found THE RAT QUEENS graphic novels, and I now have all four that are out (No.5 due out in July!). So… I have been reading at random, hoping for something to jump out and demand to be read.
I did read a very nice book called SHELF LIFE: ROMANCE, MYSTERY, DRAMA, AND OTHER PAGE-TURNING ADVENTURES FROM A YEAR IN A BOOKSTORE, by Suzanne Strempek Shea. The author is also a novelist, but after her experience with breast cancer, she found herself with a part-time job in an independent bookstore (which I hope is still there–I’m can’t bring myself to Google it and find out). It turns out that working in a bookstore has a lot in common with working in a library, so I did a lot of “Yup, I’ve had that question”; or, “Wow, I know that patron.” So I can recommend that. I also read an mystery anthology called CRIME THROUGH TIME: ORIGINAL TALES OF HISTORICAL MYSTERY. The stories range in time from Tuthankhamun’s Egypt to the age of AIDS. Anthologies are always a good way to find new authors, or to re-connect with old ones. My favorite was the one by Barbara Paul, “Portrait of the artist as a young corpse.” Years ago she wrote a trilogy of opera mysteries (A CADENZA FOR CARUSO, PRIMA DONNA AT LARGE, and A CHORUS OF DETECTIVES) featuring Golden Age Met stars Enrico Caruso and Geraldine Farrar as the detectives. This story once again features the incomparable Gerry solving a mystery during a production of La Boheme. That sent me to a book called OPERA ANECDOTES, which I would recommend to any opera fans who lurk on this site.
I found a book called LICENSE TO ENSORCELL by Katharine Kerr, an urban fantasy that I liked well enough to order the other three books in the series. The heroine works for an agency born out of the CIA’s distant viewing experiments back in the late 70s. It’s one of those agencies that officially don’t exist, but is still being funded somehow because it turns out that there really are thinks that go bump in the night. Trying to identify a serial killer who had murdered one of her relatives, the heroine is saddled with an Israeli agent who officially works for Interpol, and who is initially skeptical about all the woo-woo stuff.
While I was waiting for the rest of the Kerr series to show up, I picked up a YA book by Peter S. Beagle called TAMSIN, and, just, WOW. Helllooo Bad Decisions Book Club! I had a hard time getting into it at first because it was just written that well. The heroine/narrator is looking back at the year she turned 13, and, well, it brought back so many memories that I had suppressed. Being 13 is awful enough; being forced to remember it should be a violation of my constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment. It reminded me how I felt when my body turned against me, every social interaction was a minefield, Ididn’t feel like I fit in anywhere and no one understood me (including myself), and I was young enough to still act childish, but old enough to KNOW when I was, but not able to keep myself from doing it. Once I got through that part–deep breathing helped–the story just sucked my in. It’s a ghost story and a love story–not a romance, but definitely a love story. It’s deeply entwined in the history and folklore of England in general, and Dorset in particular. The theme of the heroine who is able to see and interact with a ghost who is of a particular time and place reminds me of an old favorite of mine, Elizabeth Marie Pope’s THE SHERWOOD RING, but TAMSIN is much deeper and darker. I wholeheartedly recommend it, and I am definitely going to get a copy for my sister to read to my 11-yo niece.
The past month of reading has been interesting but relatively positive. (Of course, I can’t count manuscript reads but let me just say this month has been FABULOUS for that, and the worst part about working in publishing is the limited amount of books you can help bring into the world.)
Some highlights from this month
HATE TO WANT YOU – I’ve been SAVING this series and buying it as it’s been released. Alisha is such a phenomenal writer, and she’s one of those writers that I purposefully savor because I know that nothing else will fulfill me in the same way. This book was meaty in conflict and angst, and I love that we get a satisfying romance while also getting great family relationships that will span over multiple books. It feels like a new way of doing a romance series for contemporary, this level of closeness to the secondary characters. I’m here for it.
SOME LIKE IT HOTTER – This is a Blaze by Isabel Sharpe. I love and miss Blaze. While it started off slow, I liked that Sharpe took her time with the romance. Super sexy, twins that both own coffee shops in NYC and California switch places to get a change of pace and fall for dudes there. Lots of stereotypes but they’re pretty cute (i.e. uptight NYC versus relaxed California). Would recommend for anyone that misses romantic comedy romances.
EVERYTHING FOR HER – This Alexa Riley book was bonkers but in a good way????? I think it’s very much Not for Everyone. Lots of hyper insta-love from the hero. His obsession is specifically coded as obsession for the purposes of the romance. I found that interesting, but it was engrossing, an easy read (Riley has a voice like potato chips – you just vacuum up the words and scenes without even thinking about it). I think I’d like to read more of Riley’s full-length books. Especially because she has some killer sexy scenes. It really had me thinking about what can make for an enjoyable read, and how that can sometimes be something totally against our politics/what makes for an IRL healthy romance.
I’m currently reading Christine Feehan’s BURNING WILD. I like her leopards and I can’t read her all of the time, but every so often I crave a Feehan book and the bonkers-sauce gender politics involved. The levels of angst and drama are super high, everyone has a Russian name (which I think, in today’s political climate, doesn’t stand up well) and the alpha-levels of the heroes can reach critical mass. BUT. Somehow, I keep going back.
Amanda, which kindle do you have? I’m not sure if this helps but I have a paperwhite and have my books displayed in a simple list format rather than as a grid of book covers. Underneath each book title there is a line of dots which is a visual indicator of percentage read but also the length of the book.
For instance Naked in Death has 9 dots, Charles Dicken’s Our Mutual Friend has 38 dots and Angela Slatter’s 158pg novella, Of Sorrow and Such has only 4 dots. To change from grid to list, touch the all items arrow.
I’m in the middle of Pretending He’s Mine by Mia Sosa and I’m loving everything about it. It’s best friend’s little sister trope with a dash of fake relationship. The characters are realistic and complicated in a compelling way.
On audio, I’ve just finished Tessa Dare’s When the Scot Ties a Knot, which was great. I don’t read much historical but I find her books totally hit the spot for me. I also finished K.M. Jackson’s To Me I Wed, which is a funny contemporary about a woman who throws a wedding for herself. I admit I was nervous about how the author would pull off a romance while respecting the character’s desire to celebrate her commitment to herself, but it ended up being one of the most perfect endings I’ve ever read. It was a great mix humour and heart. The narrators for both books were fantastic, too.
Since we are in the midst of Stanley Cup playoffs, I am deep in my hockey romance pile. This morning I finished the third book in the Cayuga Cougars series, COACH’S CHALLENGE, by V.L. Locey. My only regret is that there are not more to read at this time. If you like M/M romance with a hockey theme, this is an excellent series.
I’m trying to read Marissa Meyer’s Heartless but my attention keeps wondering away from it.
@KateB, I think The Oracle Glass was my rec and I’m glad you enjoyed it! The first half definitely is stronger, but it’s one of my favorite books. 🙂
I started the month by finding that my library had all the modern day mysteries that Ellis Peters wrote and which I’d only read one of on Hoopla. I ended up reading through four of them before deciding I needed a break because I was recognizing her writing patterns and not liking all of them.
Rainbow’s End is a lovely village mystery where Peters pokes a bit at the trope of the trophy wife by giving her agency. Peters is brilliant at setting and that comes through his this one where it hinges on a rich interloper and how the town reacts. A pleasant surprise.
A Nice Derangement of Epitaphs has one of the best titles but annoyed me as a favorite trope of hers appeared and kept pulling me out. The two main romances have age differences to them and while the characters were compelling, the way the romances were written jarred me out of my reading. The setting for this one is Cornwall and there’s modern and past mysteries.
As a reader of mysteries and romances, I wish she’d chosen to focus on one aspect and cut the other one out.
Black is the Colour of My True Love’s Heart was my favorite as it changes up the house party to a music seminar about folk music being held in an old gorgeous house. The characters, the setting, the music, it all comes together in a wonderful way. If you’ve ever wanted to read a Peters’ that’s not medieval, I’d recommend this one.
City of Gold and Shadows was good, nothing bad, nothing that good though I did enjoy the main setting being an old Roman town near Wales.
I had a break this month and two long train rides which meant I got a lot of reading done.
Tricks for Free, the new Incryptid book which was a wonderful romp, I loved the setting and all the new characters. This is a series that’s like popcorn to me. I tend to read them in one or two days and while they’re not the heaviest of books, they’re always fun.
The Duke’s Bridle Path where I enjoyed both novellas while wishing they were both longer. The second one especially which involves a con artist, there was too much referring to the characters having time together when I would have liked to have seen it. It would have made the romance more believable for me. For the first one, where it was two good friends who’ve known each other their whole lives reconnecting, the novella length worked slightly better. I still wished it was longer as there were entire huge scenes that were off screen that I wanted to read. Two of my favorite romance authors but neither was their strongest work.
The Bear and Nightingale is a fantasy set in Russia which deals with the back and forth between old and new religions as well as bringing in references to a lot of Russian folklore. The author does a great job of setting the scene of this isolated homestead in the middle of dark woods, but I ended up liking it less after the afterword where the author says they chose to use certain spellings since they were more exotic. It took away a lot of my goodwill towards them.
Sweetness and Light is a history of beekeeping and sort of a history of bees. The author discovers her local beekeepers which set her off researching. Its a light science book with a mix of travelogue in it as honey like wine reflects the area its from, an enjoyable read.
The Duchess Deal was frothy goodness that I enjoyed a lot though near the end it felt like there were a few too many obstacles. It reminded me a lot of The Arrangement by Mary Balogh which is my favorite of the Survivor books. They both do unexpected arranged marriage with self-confidence issues on both sides really well.
Still Life is the first Inspector Gamache book, a series my mother adores and I’ve been curious to read. I enjoyed the setting of the same town in Quebec with its diversity but kept getting jolted out by this young woman cop who is working with Gamache for the first time. She’s very ambitious and he’s a far more collaborative leader so she doesn’t fit. His ways of correcting her to me read as rude and since we were in her head at times, I didn’t know how much I was meant to sympathize with her. It felt like an extra subplot that took away from the main story. I’ll probably read another one as I liked the writing.
The Knocker on Death’s Door was another Ellis Peters’ which leaned into the village setting with history and what everyone thinks they know. An intriguing mystery that kept me reading.
Lost Stars by Claudia Gray is a book that I’ve been meaning to read since I loved her two Leia books. Sadly its not as strong. It follows a boy and a girl from the same planet but different social classes who bond over wanting to be pilots when they’re about seven. They work together to get into the Imperial flight academy and we track them from the time of their planet being part of the Empire, seven years after the end of the Clone Wars to after the battle of Jakku. I don’t think its a spoiler to say that one goes to the Rebellion as this book’s been advertised as a kind of Romeo and Juliet in Star Wars.
This is one where I wish everything had been pushed a little harder because there were powerful moments to do with the good and bad of the Empire and the Rebel Alliance. Yet it felt like in terms of the Empire especially, there wasn’t a balance in terms of what both characters saw. After a certain point, I wasn’t sure if I truly bought one of the character’s choices. Also the ending went on a little longer than it had to. Claudia Gray has a great gift for writing the Star Wars’ universe and making it feel vast, complicated and rich. These aren’t her strongest characters but its a good read.
I was also able to snag a copy of Last Shot, the new Han and Lando novel which I read while waiting to see if I’d be picked for jury duty.There were elements in the plot that I wished had been pushed harder at but hopefully they will be in the movie and Holder writes good action.
He also gets that a big part of the appeal of the Star Wars’ universe is its diversity and complicated ethical issues around everything with nothing as black and white as it seems. It left me almost wishing they’d shrunk the plot since the character work was so rich. I recommend with caveats of a slightly convoluted plot added on. Without spoilers, it feels like a very James Bond movie plot but with Star Wars’ issues.
Don’t have time for a full run down, but I wanted to subscribe to this thread since I love this post every month & I’ll mention that I absolutely loved THE BROKEN GIRLS by Simone St. James (Shout out to SB Elyse for the rec!) and really enjoyed the first book in the Witchlands series, TRUTHWITCH by Susan Dennard.
Next up is an ARC of MAKING UP by Lucy Parker and I AM PUMPED and unlike SB Sarah, feel no guilt haha