It’s Whatcha Reading time! I feel like it’s been ages since the last one. Or perhaps we’re all just in desperate need of some cozy book talk.
I’m not sure about you, but I’ve been struggling with what to pick up lately and I’ve been having some major issues finding something that grabs me. Is anyone else having that problem?
Sarah: I have a surfeit of books, too. I am currently reading Lunch in Paris ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). I’m working on a post about romantic memoirs inspired by my interview with Laura Bradbury last week.
I’m also reading Midnight Blue by Simone van der Vlugt. It’s part mystery and part historical fiction and I’m fascinated.
Elyse: Oooooh that cover!
Sarah: Which cover?
Elyse: Midnight Blue!
Amanda: I finished a book last night, so now I’m having a crisis on what to read next. I finished Bad Bachelor ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), which was really cute and has some amazing banter. I also reread The Kiss Quotient ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) because I’m an adult and I can do whatever I want! Will report back when I’ve Hunger Games’d my TBR pile.
Sarah: Midnight Blue is gorgeous.
Lunch in Paris took me a chapter or two to get into it, but the essays interspersed with recipes hooked me BAD last night and I forgot to go to bed on time.
It’s not quite Bad Decisions Book Club but it was a very close thing.
Elyse: So I anxiety shopped on Amazon this weekend and as a result I have like 10 books showing up today.
So I think I’m going to start Watch Me Disappear by Janelle Brown first ( A | BN | K | G | AB ).
Carrie: I just started Heroine’s Journey by Sarah Kuhn. Review pending. I love this series!
Elyse: I’ve been working on knitting a lightweight summer shell so I’ve been listening to Death in the Air by Kate Winkler Dawson ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). It’s true crime and so far it’s pretty good although I’m not crazy about the narrator
Amanda: I think I’ve made my decision – a Psy-Changeling re-read!
Sarah: Ooooh that’s a good re-read.
Amanda: I’ve been reading a lot of contemporary romances lately and want to switch it up. I just ordered the UK editions of the first five books in the Psy-Changeling series. Might as well break them in.
Redheadedgirl: I’m reading Sarah MacLean’s Wicked and the Wallflower ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) and yes, overhydrating at work so I can sneak off to read more (though it is hot and gross, so it’s really hydrating just enough).
I’m also looking for a good translation of The Pillow Book by Sei Shonagon. It’s a diary of sorts of a lady in the court of Empress Consort Teishi around 1000 CE.
(So, commenters, if you have suggestions on which translations is good…)
And I just acquired a copy of Maison Rustique des Dames, The French Country Housewife ( A ). It’s a 19th century French Mrs. Beeton.
Sarah: I read parts of The Pillow Book in grad school. It was fascinating.
Amanda: I lied. Things have been a little awful lately, so I need to do a 180 and read a Tessa Dare. Elyse helped me narrow down the selection and I’ll be starting When a Scot Ties the Knot ( A | BN | K | G | AB ).
What have you read this month? We hope you’ve finished something amazing! Tell us all about it!
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I’ve had pretty good luck this month with books. So many good books coming out lately. The Good list for me:
DIRTY PLAYER by Mira Lyn Kelly…I really like her characters and banter.
HOOKED ON YOU by Kate Meader….it wasn’t my favorite in the series, single fathers is not my favorite trope, but I liked it.
THE PRINCE by Katharine Ashe…I almost don’t have words for how much I loved this book. It gave me all the feels.
OVERTIME by V L Locey….she knows how to write hockey players and this series is the best. And the polyamorus relationship was an interesting reading diversion.
IMPROPER FRACTION by V L Locey….I can’t ask for much more than M/M, friends to lovers, nerdy/athlete combo. Just wrap it up and send it my way.
UNMASKED BY THE MARQUESS by Cat Sebastian…I have only loved what I have read of CS’s books.
My just OK reads:
A SCANDALOUS DEAL by Joanna Shupe….I really liked the architect heroine, but didn’t fall for the hero. And his grand gesture was a little OTT for me.
SAVOR YOU by Kristen Proby…..love this series, but this one didn’t appeal to me as much. Got tired of the focus on her weight issues and got mixed signals in the hero’s personality that I couldn’t feel good about.
@Crystal, your mention of a ragey, stabby, military commanding woman reminded me that now would be a great time for me to reread Cordelia’s Honor, and once more enjoy what happens to the guy who stole her baby. I’m not generally a person who enjoys a lot of violence in my reading, but that one was so, so cathartic.
Recent reads here ~
— for my book group, Kindred by Octavia Butler. It’s just as depressing as I remember from when I read it the first time some years ago.
— a re-read of Michelle Diener’s science fiction romances Dark Horse, Dark Deeds, and Dark Minds which were fun reads after the sadness of Kindred.
— an enjoyable anthology of three inclusive historical romance ~ Hamilton’s Battalion: A Trio of Romances by Roser Lerner, Courtney Milan, and Alyssa Cole
— the short science fiction novella Time Was by Ian McDonald. It was a quick read. Generally I don’t notice writing style, but I read a segment to my husband after describing it as poetic.
— re-read Lucy Parker’s contemporary romance Act Like It and Pretty Face both of which I enjoyed once again
— book that my daughter recommended to me several years ago. I’ll recommend it to adults and teens who like fantasy. The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
— a re-read of Thea Harrison’s paranormal romance Dragon Bound which I enjoyed once more. This is currently on sale for Kindle readers for $1.99.
— the Australian set male/male historical romance By The Currawong’s Call by Welton B. Marsland; this is a book I plan to re-read.
— a quick and enjoyable collection of essays: Pops: Fatherhood in Pieces by Michael Chabon
— the contemporary romance Falling Hard: A Colorado High Country Novel by Pamela Clare. While this is the third book in a series, it stands alone well. I found this a pleasant read and it even made me cry a time or two; I don’t think it’s a book I’ll re-read.
— Lucy Parker’s contemporary romance Making Up (London Celebrities) which I quite enjoyed.
— Thea Harrison’s Planet Dragos: A Novella of the Elder Races. I was eagerly anticipating reading this as it’s the final work concerning characters I really like, but the reality fell short of my expectations. Oh, well.
— Beauty and the Geek (Gone Geek Book 1) by Sidney Bristol which is a contemporary romance. This dealt with some interesting issues (stereotypes, appearances, harassment), but I don’t think it’s a book I’ll soon re-read.
— Dead By Midnight: An I-Team Christmas by Pamela Clare (romantic suspense). It’s one in a series, so while it could be read as a stand alone, it features many characters that have been the subject of the author’s earlier books. I found it a pleasant read, but I don’t see myself re-reading it.
— the graphic novel The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang. This was a pleasant read but it was quite anachronistic; it was set in Europe in (my guess) the 1800s but the characters all spoke as if they lived today.
— Dal MacLean’s Object of Desire which I’d describe a mystery with a romantic element even though it does feature a male/male romance. The storyline was involved and kept me guessing; I enjoyed the book (as I did the author’s first) and would like to read her next book.
— The Family Trade, The Hidden Family, The Clan Corporate, The Merchants’ War, The Revolution Business, and The Trade of Queens all of which make up the Merchant Princes series by Charles Stross. These are science fiction/fantasy with a significant amount of economics.
“The Fifth Season” and “The Obelisk Gate” by N.K. Jemisin – Tied for the best book I’ve read all year. Dystopian magical fantasies with all the LGBTQ people of color a girl could want
“Wrapped” by Rebekah Weatherspoon – Christmas second chance romance novella with a fabulously fat baker
“Shadow Blade” by Seressia Glass – I can barely remember this urban fantasy, which isn’t a good sign. The world building around Egyptian mythology was engaging, the characters less so.
DNF:
A Stud in the Stacks – A romance-loving librarian hero? Yes. Too bad I hated the heroine. Her thirst for Tarzan should have been a clue.
Curious by RG Alexander – Yet again I loved the hero — a bisexual comic book writer! But story devolved into nonstop sex with his bi-curious butt virgin bestie.
Currently going through a hellacious round of grief and depression and I’ve really struggled to find something to read.
DNF’d Opal Carew’s Hard Ride. In less than 5 pages the hero did something that pissed me off, and when I skipped ahead to see if it was redeemable….oh hell no!
I got about half way through Mary Roach’s Spook before getting bogged down. Stiff and Bonk were a few of my favorite non-fiction books, but this was a no go for me.
I found a box in storage of audiobooks I bought about five years ago when there was a sale, and lucked out. Apparently I have a huge chunk of the Ilona Andrews backlist in cd format. So I’m listening to Magic Strikes and it’s so wonderful.
I have Pierce Brown’s Red Rising on my pile next, then Craig Johnson’s Longmire series, and I found the entire backlist of CJ Box in hardcover at my local Savers. I’m really hoping I can find something to pull me out of this awful slump soon.
As always, some of my best reads come from the recs at SBTB! I picked up A GIRL LIKE HER by Talia Hibbert and loved it. She has just released the second book in that series, DAMAGED GOODS and I did a happy dance and grabbed it for $0.99. I’m looking forward to getting through the rest of her backlist.
After that, I went plowing through my TBR mountain, looking for any other books featuring neurodiverse lead characters and stumbled across A RATIONAL ARRANGEMENT by L. Rowyn which I picked up several years ago. It was SOOOO good. Kind of a historical paranormal romance set in a vaguely Regency-like society with some people who have “Blessings” who can heal minds or bodies, or can telepathically(?) work stone and other materials. That’s a paranormal theme that I love anyway, but then add to that, the heroine was pretty far on the spectrum, not autistic but classic Asperger’s. Her parents were trying to get her married, but she was utterly straightforward, rational, unable to read emotional cues or body language, and therefore constantly got herself into trouble in their regimented social rule-based society. Add to this 2 heroes who are having a forbidden m/m relationship (one of them is a brilliant mind-healer, the other, a rich nobleman), and you have pretty much all the catnip. In addition, the book was quite long, which gave plenty of time for world-building and for relationships to be established. I didn’t find that it dragged, but there was lots of description and the pacing was much more like classic fantasy rather than a romance. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
Have been very lucky with my library holds lately. I just finished HOT AND BADGERED by Shelly Laurenston (honey badgers and bears for the win!) and just got notice that I have THE KISS QUOTIENT ready for pick-up. I’ll have to admit to a big squee over that notification. I know what I’m reading next, with the new Talia Hibbert book right behind it.
Oh, and I forgot to add that A RATIONAL ARRANGEMENT also includes intelligent great cats that are like huge panthers the size of horses, have their own society, but are also fully integrated with the human society, love to cuddle, are very protective….. Did I mention that this book literally has all the catnip LOL?
I’ve been hitting all the YA historical-ish Fantasy I can find [that sucks me in fast because I don’t have much patience when I’m immersed in my own writing world and am just needing escape into other people’s magic and feels].
I just finished THE SMOKE THIEVES by Sally Green. It’s told through five fairly equal points of view which was its salvation for me early on. Catherine, a princess being used as a pawn by her obviously nasty father, under the control of an equally nasty brother, showed a bit of TSTL and her guard Ambrose, another pov character, went even deeper into TSTL. I even noted it on Goodreads that I was tempted to DNF at that point because an entire book of this was not at all appealing. But I guess these were issues of grounding character arcs because she quickly began to claim her own agency, and he had his path. Plus the other three points of view made up for it. Bottom line, I can’t wait for the next book in the series which will be a wait, since his was just published in May. Love triangle. Gay romance. Three characters at this point that I dearly love and can’t wait to read more of. [It’s getting mixed reviews, but I fall on the side of 4 stars, can’t wait for more.]
Sidenote: THE DREAM THIEF by Shana Abé is one of my favorite fantasy romances, so this title actually kept me away from this book for awhile because it bugged me. Because I can be a weirdo like that.
Further Sidenote: Does anybody know how to pronounce Shana Abé? Shanna or Shayna? Ah-bay?
And I’m currently listening to Marisha Pessl’s NEVERWORLD WAKE. Her SPECIAL TOPICS IN CALAMITY PHYSICS is another all-time favorite of mine. It’s a twisting story that blew my mind in ways that would be too spoilery to contain, and the first person voice of this absolute geniue 17-year-old captivated me. I think it was more literary fiction when it was published. Not genre, anyway. But at its heart is a murder mystery.
NEVERWORLD WAKE is definitely YA, and I picked it up even though it’s not historical-ish. [Although Pessl is writing a ‘contemporary’ YA SFF and I am not sure whether it is SF or F because the trap her characters are in could go either way, and she mentions Instagram and the internet, etc., almost all of her cultural references are from the 90s. If not for those few contemporary references it could have been set then. Which stopped bothering me once I accepted okay, this is her world and her characters and if their comfort videos are Heathers and Ferris Beuller, and musical references are Cyndi Lauper and Madonna, that’s cool. Whatever. As if.]
Anyway, it’s captivating. I am caught up in their horrible situation and because I know Pessl can craft a masterful mysterious plot, I am on tenterhooks waiting to see where this goes. And Pessl has a way with a turn of phrase, unexpected imagery, that I love.
I finished King of Code by CD Reiss Friday night and my favorite part was how love snuck up on Taylor which turned it into a really good story. I appreciated how the author admitted she made up a lot of the technical/coding details. In a previous job, I interacted with programmers and White Hat hackers. An eclectic, crazy smart group of people and the author captured that well along with the isolation of Silicon Valley. I thought of the novel yesterday as we drove through a town which made me think of Barrington on the way to our favorite farmstand. I have a feeling the story will stick with me as it touched on so many issues in my technical world and what may be seen in small towns in the fly-over states.
Most of my reading lately has been contemporary because … BEACH BOOKS! The perennials are blooming, both in the garden and on my Kindle. A Nantucket Wedding by Nancy Thayer had an older couple as protagonists and I enjoyed their story. By Invitation Only by Dorothea Benton Frank was another wedding planning novel with some fun characters, as usual. I loved The High Tide Club which was a little different for May Kay Andrews with all the twists and turns in the story.
I just started Dreaming of the Duke by Maya Rodale which is really feeling like a contemporary except for all the tea-drinking. I may be a little stuck in the 21st century (it happens) since I am looking forward to when Driftwood Creek by Roxanne Snopek hits my Kindle Tuesday morning and I am moving up quickly in The Perfect Couple (by Elin Hilderbrand) queue at the library.
I like to read books all in one go. Rereads, I’m happy to savor and read a chapter here or there. But my ideal reading experience means lying on my bed and not getting up until I have read for five or six hours straight and have read my book from start to finish. This is all doubly true when it’s a book I’ve been anticipating by a favorite author. All that’s to say, I’ve had Lucy Parker’s “Making Up” on my Kindle app for several days now, but have been waiting until I have an uninterrupted chunk of several hours in which to enjoy it.
I read the “Kiss Quotient” by Helen Huang and it was absolutely fantastic. Both the hero and the heroine were really well developed. It was funny and sad and sweet and utterly lovable. I loved how consent and respect for boundaries were modeled in this romance, in a way that made complete sense for the characters.
“The One You Can’t Forget” by Roni Loren was good, but didn’t particularly stay with me. I can’t really say why. I enjoyed it, but maybe I wanted the lows to be lower? I would imagine it would be really hard to write on that topic (the heroine is a survivor of a school shooting) and getting the right emotional balance of doing justice to the effects of the trauma without being gratuitous.
I also read “Speakeasy” by Sarina Bowen and I think it’s probably my favorite book by her (and I’ve read her Ivy Years series, Brooklyn Bruisers series, and the rest of the True North series). May is one of those heroines who I just feel a lot of personal overlap and connection with, especially in terms of navigating bisexual identity and how it means sometimes getting a little pigeonholed, both by others and yourself. That said, I wasn’t a huge fan of the way at certain points Alex (the hero), would sort of treat May’s attraction to women as a sort of means to his own titillation at a few points. But it was a minor quibble with a book I otherwise enjoyed immensely.
I read “To Have and To Hold” by Lauren Layne, another author I’ve read a lot of. I came away with the same problem I’ve had with a few other of her books – inability to root for the couple to be together due to dislike of the hero. Sean, the hero, is completely overbearing, controlling, and shows lack of regard for boundaries that the heroine tries to set. While this is treated as an area for character growth, any change came too little too late for my taste. But I did love the women characters, the friend group, and the setting, as I usually do for Lauren Layne’s books. I typically love the way she writes relationships between women, but find the romance aspects a bit more hit or miss, personally.
Oops, Dreaming of the Duke is by Eva Devon.
I demolished The Wicked and the Wallflower, and Moxie (which I think someone recommended here). If you read TWATW and DON’T hear Devil speaking with Jason Statham’s voice, you are much stronger than I am. When I finished Moxie, I immediately texted my friend who loves Bikini Kill and riot grrl music to tell her about it. If that’s your jam (or if you just like teenage girls finding their way against the patriarchy), go read it right now yes. These books were exactly what I needed this week. Now, I am on to Nora Roberts’ Year One, with Jacqueline Carey’s Starless (and a few others) lined up afterwards for a road trip reading session.
@LauraL: I strongly recommend you read the next two books in the KING OF CODE series: PRINCE CHARMING and WHITE KNIGHT—so good! PRINCE CHARMING is my favorite of the three, but they’re all great reads. I have PRINCE ROMAN, an associated novella (the heroine is the co-worker Taylor was messing around with prior to the start of KING OF CODE) on my kindle, but haven’t read it yet.
I’ve been struggling a bit, too… I keep feeling like I have TOO much that want to read, but then when I finish something I don’t quite know where to go. I just got done Into the Storm: Two Ships, a Deadly Hurricane, and an Epic Battle for Survival, about the two ships that went down in 2015 during Hurricane Joaquin–that was really good but also very sad, so I felt like going off the nonfiction for a bit.
After some comfort reading (Star Wars comics yay!) and a false start, I’m trying to get to the last of Peter V Brett’s Demon Cycle books, which I feel like needs a “previously on” but I want to stick with. However, it is a doorstopper which is great and all (I do read these things for the words :P) but I’m also in the mood to get back to nonfiction and read Todd Fisher’s book about Carrie and Debbie, and also read one of the two romances I have on my TBR shelf. (I’ve not been much of a capital-R-Romance reader in the past, though of course I’ve run into and enjoyed books that could’ve just as easily been shelved on that shelf, but I’m trying to get properly into it; the world is depressing af and I need something life-sustaining in between the dense history books and dark fantasy series(es) etc…) So I’m not sure I really SHOULD be reading a near 800 pager right now.
I had a good reading month except that the book that stands out the most is the one I hated.
I decided to try my first Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Ain’t She Sweet and I can’t remember another novel that filled me with so much ire. For what felt like days after I kept breaking into non sequitur rants about it. It’s a revenge plot, a trope which I’ve never really liked but I now realize I hate. So it’s adults taking revenge and humiliating the adult h (named Sugar Beth!)for the admittedly awful things she did as a spoiled kid and teenager, though much of what she did at the time was exacerbated by her terrible parents. Honestly, Sugar Beth is the only gracious and mature person in the story, and there is a large cast of hideous secondary characters none of whom seem to have a speck of self-awareness.
very good:
Lady Helena Investigates: Book One of the Scott-De Quincy Mysteries by Jane Steen. This was the biggest surprise of the month. Lady Helena is frustrating at first as she is reluctant to investigate her husband’s death, but she quietly begins to assert herself. Its not action packed but I’m really looking forward to the next one.
A Duke in the Night by Kelly Bowen. I loved this one, both of the leads August and Clara were interesting in themselves and wonder of wonders they handled misunderstandings with maturity. And it was funny.
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang, I was wary of this because I dislike men teaching not quite virgins about sex only slightly less than I dislike most alpha and the virgin they instruct stories. But the rave reviews made the set up sound plausible and I really liked it though I wasn’t crazy about the epilogue.
Making Up by Lucy Parker
How To Marry A Werewolf by Gail Carriger, though it was only a novella and I would have liked more.
Lie To Me by Starr Ambrose. A fake engagement and a low key mystery. I must have seen a rec for this here at SBTB and I was surprised by how much I liked it.
A Touch of Frost by Jo Goodman, a western historical
The Shadow and The Star by Laura Kinsale. not sure how this one escaped me when I was reading all her others.
Women of Will: Following the Feminine in Shakespeare’s Plays by Tina Packer
The Pastor’s Wife by Elizabeth von Armin.
A comfort re-re-re-read and an underread classic from 1914. a mordantly funny but poignant novel about a young women who no sooner escapes her domineering clergyman father then is co-opted by another pastor to be his wife. This is in the public domain and can be downloaded from Project Gutenberg
good with reservations:
An Affair to Dismember by Elise Sax.
this is book 1 in the Matchmaker Mystery series. I also read book 2-5, Citizen Pain, Wizard of Saws, Field of Screams and From Fear To Eternity. Quick reads while camping, too slapstick for my taste generally and the characterization is a bit lazy, with too much concentration on the female lead’s junk food eating habits and possible weight gain which is annoying and is fast becoming a personal addition to the Bechdel Test (does the internal dialogue contain thoughts other than junk food and weight gain?) Stephanie Plum like but I apparently needed something this fluffy this month and I was willing to forgive a lot because of how the love triangle or is it a square? is handled. I like that the lead, Gladie, has sex with more than one of these guys through the 5 books I have read, though she doesn’t cheat, and its really good sex too, rather than the all too common trope of a woman who has had only 1 or 2 lovers in the past and they were mediocre so that she is a “great sex virgin” thereby insuring that the male lead is able to teach her things.
disappointing:
Bad Bachelor by Stephanie London.
I usually like Stephanie London’s books and I enjoyed the banter and lead characters but I am uneasy about the message. Reed is the Bad Bachelor of the title and is having trouble in his professional life cause he is getting slammed by women he has had casual sex with, on a web site that purports to warn women about men they should avoid. My problem with this is that I didn’t think Reed was doing anything wrong, so what if he only wanted to date casually? there was no indication that he was abusive or dishonest to the women who apparently were hoping for more from him. The thing that bothers me is that this plot reinforces the pernicious idea that women complaining about abusive or predatory men are merely disgruntled and are speaking out to get back at men. And this is made worse by the relative indifference of the woman who owns the site to accusations that some of the complaints on the site are bogus. And I suspect this woman will be getting her own book soon ugh!
audiobooks
I binge listened to all of Julie Jame’s FBI/US attorney series. I love how all her characters are super good at their jobs.
And I comfort listened to really good versions of audiobooks of old favorites, Little Doritt By Charles Dickens
Persuasion, and The Death of The Heart by Elizabeth Bowen
@Deborah (#6): My library had MURDER IN THRALL and I simply had to download it because of your description. That’s some crazy sauce right there and I am enjoying it with less suspicion than the Lucy-Charlie-Brown-football vibe would ordinarily produce. Thank you.
Laura Kinsale’s The Shadow And The Star ruined me for all other books, for a while. It was my second read of hers, since the amazing Flowers From The Storm a couple of years ago. Once again, listened to by the incomparable audio narration from Nicolas Bolton… Sigh, I love love his voice.
I DNF’d two contemporary’s, then was saved from my rut with The Highwayman by Kerrigan Byrne, which stood up to Laura Kinsale’s writing, in my eye. My first from her, I look forward to more.
Currently reading a category romance, by Kira Archer, which I’m completely digging, And… no boner romance in sight, Winning! This is my second from her, I loved 69 Million Things I Hate About You, a really good “what to read after The Hating Game”, and now I’m really enjoying the follow up: The Billionaire’s Unexpected Baby (I know, that name! LOL), which is just as charming.
And listening to Rag And Bone by KJ Charles, who always has the most deliciously sexy British male narrators for her queer historical.
I finished the first three Kate Daniels books and will move on to the others after I clear through a backlog of library books: starting with Jasmine Guillory’s The Wedding Date and then comes Julia Whelan’s My Oxford Year. I adored the premise of Sara Rosett’s Jane Austen location scout cozy mystery series, “Death in an English…”, but some in the series are better than others.
Sally Thorne’s The Hating Game hit me hard. It’s so good as the leads fumble toward a happily ever after. I might reread it soon.
@Iris
“The Pastor’s Wife” is free on Kindle! So of course I 1-clicked it.
Too many things all at once! With summer school about to set in and my Libby obsession in full swing, I’ve been borrowing books from the libraries where I have cards like a fiend (thanks SBTB, cuz I needed another fixation).
So far I’m reading: The Time of Contempt (4th in the Witcher series), War Storm (4th in the Red Queen YA series). I just picked up The Sisters of Henry VIII from the library, and I’m listening to Wolf Hall on audio book. I recently finished The Vegas Diaries another biographical piece by Holly Madison. I also started on the Alexander Hamilton biography, but wasn’t able to make much progress, so I had to shelve it for now. Mostly it’s been audio books this summer.
Speaking of Libby, I say this in complete sincerity….audio books are addicting! Since this May I’ve listened to 4 books by Jane Austen, 3 of the Dresden Files (the rest I had to get on a wait list), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy, and now The Wolf Hall duology. I’ve got 3 more (from a YA steampunk comedy series) that I had to get on a waiting list.
I swear to dog, forget audible.com, get the Libby app! Do that and housework will never be boring ever again. I never enjoyed folding laundry so much in my life than when I started streaming audio books. The best was when I got the new audio system in my car, and now I can listen to audio books when I drive to work!!
@Dani: I really advise against reading Red Rising in your current mood. It starts with the woman the hero’s in love with, who’s more interesting than him, being fridged in the most classic manner, with some revolutionaries telling the hero “she served her purpose by being an inspiration, but your destiny is to be molded into a leader” — and so it is. Then (setting aside the constant misogynistic & homophobic trash-talk that “good guys” as well as “bad guys” engage in, there is *so much* rape & rape threats, directed at every woman in the story; the hero is given the opportunity to “prove” that he is a good guy despite anything questionable he may do by saving women from rape–multiple times. Yeah, spare yourself.
@ DiscoDollyDeb – Prince Charming is waiting in my Kindle TBR file. I didn’t want to jump right into the next book and hope to read it this weekend. I was happy to see the Alpha Wolf’s story was next!
@ Iris – When Ain’t She Sweet came out years ago, my book club decided to read it as a summer “beach book.” We had read some heavy books over the year and it was to be a palate cleanser. Sugar Beth was the most gracious and mature in the end, especially after a really lengthy discussion of all the other characters’ flaws.
@Mara, I keep hearing The Library at Mount Char is good but extremely weird. I need to check it out!
@Katie C., Yeah, I read Artemis Fowl several years ago and was not impressed. If I hadn’t been stuck on a plane with nothing else to read, would have DNF’ed.
Diana Wynne Jones was a happy discovery for me in May when I read Howl’s Moving Castle for the first time. It’s a charming little romance and different from the Miyazaki movie. From there I moved on to the Chrestomanci series and am just about finished with those. She wrote a ton of books, so that should keep me busy for a good long while.
About halfway through Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine, which is both sad and hilarious.
Started listening to Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman on a long drive last week. It’s good but I have to be in the right mood to listen, so it may take a while to get through.
I agree Libby/Overdrive is a great way to listen and read books from your library! I would also mention Hoopla that has streaming books, movies, music and comic books from your library–although only 8 checkouts per month. Sadly, our library’s Hoopla no longer carries audio books (very sad!)
So I’ve been on a “try to use the library more” kick to try and get my book-buying budget at least somewhat under control. My library tends to have pretty spectacular wait lists for e-books, which means I’ve been on a ton of wait lists and then they all seem to come up at once and I have like 50 books to read in the next two weeks….so yeah, that’s about where I am this month. I read Take the Lead by Alexis Daria, LOVED although there was one thing that took away a tiny portion of my enjoyment. This is totally a personal thing but I have a hard limit concerning use of the word “c u next Tuesday” during a sex scene. Just NO. I can’t. It’s like my brain all of a sudden makes that record scratching noise and I’m totally taken out of the scene. But that is just me and otherwise the book was great so don’t let that deter anyone who hasn’t read it yet. I also read The Thing About Love by Julie James. Oh I love that series. I know some people found this entry a little disappointing but I fully enjoyed it. For some heavier stuff, I read Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates. DUDE. It was amazing and beautiful and also made me cry uncontrollably at points. My mom, who is retired now and living her best life and reading like a book a day, sent me The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn to read. I started it but it’s giving me a creepy feeling. Speaking of creepy feeling, my library finally produced a copy of I’ll Be Gone in the Dark by Michelle McNamara, about her search for the Golden State Killer, and that is incredibly interesting and also making me freak out and check the locks on all of our doors and windows at 11:30pm. So now I am in the process of reading a whole bunch of books, including those two as well as Making Up (I kicked down real dollars for that one because yay), and Love and Other Words by Christina Lauren. The Christina Lauren one has to go back first so that’s getting my attention right now. It’s good, moving fast, but making me a little sad for reasons I can’t really explain. Let’s hope I get through all of these before I have to start paying the library fines!
I watched All or Nothing-about the New Zealand All Blacks on Amazon, so I was in a rugby mood, so re-read the Escape to New Zealand series by Rosalind James. There are 11 books in all, and I do love this series.
Read my first Loretta Chase, The Earl Takes All, and it certainly won’t be my last! Really got caught up in the angst; the characters are so relatable you’re rooting for them even when they’re doing terrible things. Need to find the rest of this series now.
Now I’m about halfway through A Sky Full of Stars by Samantha Chase (related?) and really enjoying that as well. I’m not much on contemporaries but I love that the hero seems to be somewhere on the spectrum but isn’t treated any differently than anyone else in his family, and that both the H/h challenge each other to get out of their respective comfort zones while respecting that those comfort zones may sometimes be necessary for their mental well being. It’s been a lovely read so far, and I’ll look for more of her books too.
As a children’s librarian I’ve spent most of June reading new kids early readers…1st-3rd grade books and picture books. But I’ve been listening to Circe and loving it. I’ve borrowed it using Overdrive, but I like it so much I may purchase it. I rarely ever buy books any more but the audio is very well done.
Thank you for the heads up @Vasha! A classmate suggested it but that doesn’t sound that appealing in general.
Last month I forgot The Real by Kate Stewart. Love her books lately especially Drive. And I continued by re-read of Penny Reid by reading Love Hacked. I actually liked it better the second time around
–Downed by Jen Frederick. I like this series. I don’t normally read NA but lately it seems like I’ve been reading it a lot.
–Good Boy by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy. I love me some Sarina Bowen. This book is a kind of a sequel to The Us and Him series but it features Jamie’s flaky sister planning their wedding and their teammate/neighbor.
–The Understatement of the Year by yet again Sarina Bowen. NA sport m/m romance. His new teammate is his old boyfriend. They were separated by bullying and religious parents. This book was really good.
–Making Up by Lucy Parker. Enemies to Lovers featuring a circus, but I’m sure everyone on this site knows about it.
–Speakeasy by Sarina Bowen (again) 5th book in her True North series. –Let’s Get Textual by Teagan Hunter. Wrong number turns to friendship. The banter in this book was great.
–Banking the Millionaire by Max Monroe. 2nd book in the series. I love these books they are so funny.
–The Hitwoman in a Pickle by JB Lynn. I think this is the 18th book in the series. Hitwoman who doesn’t kill people (at least not a lot) 3 crazy aunts, the mob, and talking animals.
–Barbarian Alien–Ruby Dixon. I got people reading these at work and I think they are finished but I am taking my sweet time. Woman who are kidnapped by aliens but are rescued by the good aliens. The books are good. Don’t judge by the blue alien on the cover?
–How Not to Fall by Emily Foster. I read this book because it was a read along in one of my author groups on Facebook. I didn’t really care for it. Basically the H/h are in FWB relationship and she falls for him after he tells her not to and she gets mad because he doesn’t and then there is a cliffhanger. And I don’t care enough to read the 2nd book.
–In Bed with the Beast by Tara Sivec. 2nd book in Stripper princess series. Beauty and the Beast theme with Tara Sivec humor. I liked this one but I liked the 1st book better and I’m really looking forward to Kiss the Girl in September.
–Beauty and the Mustache by Penny Reid. Re-read. Middle of the Knitting in the City series spinning off into the Winston Brothers series. Daughter is going home to Tennessee because her mother is ill, falls for brother’s friend. Has one of my favorite quotes ever in a book but I’m not saying what it is because everybody is different.
–Pucked by Helena Hunting. Romance with a hockey player. Don’t remember much about it but I thought the heroine was immature.
–Stepbrother Dearest by Penelope Ward. I bought this book awhile ago but I never read it because I figured it was a basic smutty book. I was wrong and I loved it. Stepbrother comes to live with them over the summer and is basically an asshole. Ends up becoming friends with his stepsister and sleeps with her the night before he goes back home. Flash forward to years later and they meet again at his father’s funeral. I was surprised by how much I liked it.
–The Varlet and the Voyeur by Penny Reid and L.H. Cosway. 4th (and last) in their Rugby series. Didn’t like this one as much as the others. Felt like something was missing.
–Ain’t She a Peach by Molly Harper. This is in her Southern Ecletic Series. Features a mortician heroine and her one night stand from Atlanta that she was never suppose to see again that is now the Chief of police for her small town. Molly Harper books seem to be focusing on other things and not really the romance. I don’t even remember if the characters were together at the end.
–Midnight Blue by L.J. Shen. Heard this book was really good so I decided to read it. It was ok. Woman becomes a sober companion to the lead singer of a rock band trying to make a comeback. It was good but I guess I was looking for something different.
–The Undoing by Shelly Laurenston. 2nd in Call of Crows series. Looking forward to the 3rd one in the series.
–The Wedding Date by Jasmine Guillroy. It was cute. Thought the characters were immature at times.
–The Shameless Hour by Sarina Bowen. College girl unashamed of her libido sleeps with male virgin. She ends up humiliated on social media by a college fraternity and he becomes her friend and helps her recover.
–Beating Ruby by Camilla Monk. 2nd in series. Her boss ends up dead and her new boyfriend is not who he says he is. Turns out the OCD assassin she has feelings for turns back up out of the blue.
–Archangel’s Enigma by Nalini Singh. I didn’t really want to read this book because I wasn’t a fan of Naasir. He was odd and seemed childish. I don’t know why I doubt Nalini Singh because she can make me love anybody.
My work has been so busy I’m not reading as much as usual.
I really liked American Bando by Gloria Chao, a YA/NA (17 YO heroine in her first year of college), about an American-born girl of Taiwanese parents dealing with coming of age and coming to terms with their expectations.
I also really liked Bookish Boyfriends: A Date With Darcy, a YA book that’s better than the title makes it sound, which is playfully subversive of retellings of classic books.
I liked Nora Roberts’ Shelter in Place, though I agree with the review above that the romance was an afterthought and not particularly interesting. This book has a huge, huge body count even after the shooting, which is effective as a reminder of what is lost in mass killings.
I bought Wicked and the Wallflower, and I’m struggling to get through it. Sarah MacLean has always been hit or miss for me, and this hero (called Devil, which. . . /eyeroll) is a Lisa Kleypas knockoff (much like some of her other heroes). He’s got a lair in a not-so-great part of town where he keeps order/is feared/blah blah. He’s out for revenge and has no personality, just a bunch of cliches strung together and I’m bitter. I really, really liked Day of the Duchess. I read somewhere that she scrapped the first draft when she was nearly done with it and rewrote it in the wake of #metoo, and I’d love to see her scrap more books and rewrite them because she can do better than this. I appear to be in the minority with this opinion, judging from the other comments here.
I’m really looking forward to The Emerald Sea by Richelle Mead that just came out. She wrote vampire books I haven’t read, but I picked up the first book in this series a while ago and it was better than I thought it would be and has stuck with me–just really fun.
I read Crazy Rich Asians which was also fun, though I thought it went on a little too long. The trailer for the upcoming movie looks great–I love Awkwafina.