Whatcha Reading? August 2018 Edition

A little girl with glasses and a red skirt reading a big book in the libraryIt’s Whatcha Reading time! This is the post where we talk about all the good, bad, and ugly things we’ve been reading. There is squeeing! There is griping! And we might suggest somehow putting your credit card in a block of ice or trying to somehow block the “1-Click” option on Amazon.

Sarah:  I am reading The Phantom Tree which has all these words I like: time slip, dual narratives, lots of women in history, a mystery and a possible romance. It’s incredibly atmospheric, too. I had a hard time putting it down when it was time to sleep.

Elyse: My copy is coming today!

The Phantom Tree
A | BN | K | AB
Sarah: Of The Phantom Tree?

Elyse: Yes!

Sarah: Elyse, The Phantom Tree is so good. Jumps back and forth between Tudor England and present day. Wow.

Elyse: I’m so excited!!

Sarah: Long-running orthodontist appointment? Waiting on a hard bench? PARKING TICKET IN THE RAIN AFTER WE GET OUT?

Don’t care. Got to read book more. All is well. (Seriously I’m enjoying the hell out of it)

Amanda: I just finished unpacking all of my books…I need more shelves. But I’m going to re-read The Kiss Quotient.

Also, some personal things are happening that are making me SO DANG ANGRY. I asked for some recommendations on Twitter for scifi/fantasy with pissed off heroines and I got a ton of recs. So I’ll probably pick one of those!

Something in the Water
A | BN | K | AB
Redheadedgirl: I just finished A Notorious Vow by Joanna Shupe, which I LOVED. ( A | BN | K | G | AB )

Carrie: I am the happiest reader because I’m reading A Duke by Default by Alyssa Cole ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). SO GOOD, y’all.

Amanda: I’ve picked up a lot of scifi lately. That’s just what I’m gravitating toward and I started Shattered Roads ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) last night.

Elyse: I’m working my way through Tana French’s mystery series and I just started The Likeness ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). A coworker and I are also reading Something in the Water together and discussing it. Nothing like talking about murder in the office

Amanda: I have a longer walk to the subway now if I don’t feel like waiting for a bus, so I downloaded Bittersweet by Sarina Bowen ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) on audio to keep me company. It’s free through Audible’s Romance Package.

Tell us all about what you’ve read this month! What were your reading highlights?


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  1. KateB says:

    I had some real surprise favorites this month. Books where I went in thinking, “this’ll be pleasant”, and came out evangelizing instead.

    Faves

    – THE BLACK TIDES OF HEAVEN / THE RED THREADS OF FORTUNE / THE DESCENT OF MONSTERS by JY Yang – silk punk fantasy, horror-sci-fi, queer as all get out, I LOVE these books. I don’t agree that they can be read as standalones, however. Yes, each novella takes a different approach to the larger story, but there *is* a larger, chronological story here, and it’s best to start at the beginning.

    – BORDERLINE by Mishell Baker – best urban fantasy I’ve read all year. So glad I have a new series to dive into.

    – BAD BLOOD: SECRETS AND LIES IN A SILICON VALLEY STARTUP by John Carreyrou – yeah, so, this is nuts. Read it, if you want to pull your hair out and scream, “WHAT?” at the page.

    – RING OF BRIGHT WATER by Gavin Maxwell – I’ve been reading a lot of nature writing this year, and this is one of the most lyrically written. Do you like otters? Small, old homes by the water, in Scotland? Check this out.

    – BELLEWETHER by Susanna Kearsley – slow and not the time slip story Kearsley is known for, but I loved it. Something about the family history, and the community/infighting at the local museum house, and the rescue beagle, and the ghost! By the end, I was making an honest-to-goodness Good Book Noise.

    – THE GIRL IN THE GREEN SILK GOWN by Seanan McGuire – roadside ghost must enter the Ancient Greek underworld to die, again. Very fun, very Seanan McGuire.

    – THE DUKE I TEMPTED by Scarlett Peckman – sort of a bumpy (in a plot way), warmhearted historical with BDSM? Like, Eloisa James meets Tessa Dare with BDSM? I wasn’t expecting that tone, but turns out, that’s totally my thing? I can’t wait for more from Peckman!

    – A DUKE BY DEFAULT by Alyssa Cole – I loved it. Loved the village, loved Portia, loved her group chat, but I feel like Portia & Tav deserve a second book? I would love to see them as a romantic pair, working in their village, I want Portia to have her own business, I want to see them involved with all that royalty and politics stuff. I want more! Also, Reggie’s gonna get her own book, right? Please? Please?

    – JANE DOE by Victoria Helen Stone – yesss, so cold, so much fury, so much revenge! Yesssssss.

    Good

    – SENSE AND SENSIBILITY by Jane Austen – Not my favorite Austen. Didn’t buy either relationship, really. I did think a lot of Austen’s commentary about inheritance was great.

    – YOU WILL KNOW ME by Megan Abbott – I love Abbott’s weird, tense style of writing, but something about how improbable it all seemed threw me out of the story

    – SECRETS OF THE FLESH: A LIFE OF COLETTE by Judith Thurman – I saw a trailer for the new Colette biopic staring Keira Knightley & remembered this had been on my TBR since forever. It’s great!

    – A STUDY IN SCARLET by Arthur Conan Doyle – I’ve read a lot books staring Sherlock, but none of the original. It’s pretty good! Even with the weird Mormon murder interlude!

    – A VERY ENGLISH SCANDAL: SEX, LIVES, AND A MURDER PLOT AT THE HEART OF THE ESTABLISHMENT by John Preston – saw the miniseries on Amazon Prime, it’s fantastic, so I *had* to pick this up. It’s also really really good, but the miniseries follows it to the letter and has a bit more flair.

    – THE RUIN OF GABRIEL ASHLEIGH / UNFIT TO PRINT by KJ Charles – Both were great, but too short! Upside, my library just added a BUNCH of KJ Charles to their digital collection! I hope it means she gets a bunch of new readers in Wisconsin!

    – ACT YOUR AGE by Eve Dangerfield – one of those (erotic) romances I enjoyed in the moment but the more I thought about it… I don’t see the H/h lasting longer than six months. They never discuss the heroine’s issues with the relationship, for example and, AND, he goes down on her at the very end FOR THE FIRST TIME like it’s proof of his commitment. EXCUSE ME??

    – SHADES OF MILK AND HONEY by Mary Robinette Kowal (audiobook) – i like Kowal’s writing but this is thin. Jane Austen with magic, but I forgot there was magic for most of it. I plan to continue with the series, though.

    Meh

    – THE WIDOW’S HOUSE by Carol Goodman (audiobook) – a gothic that does all the tropes, but with a wet mop of a heroine and a mustache twirling mop of a villain.

    Currently Reading

    – ROCKET FUEL: SOME OF THE BEST FROM TOR.COM NON-FICTION edited by Bridget McGovern – compiled for Tor’s ten year anniversary, this is a fun book to dip in and out of.

    – THE GOSHAWK by T.H. White (audiobook) – more nature writing! narrated by Simon Vance! here for it!

  2. Glauke says:

    I’m reading Steven Kluger’s “Almost Like Being in Love”, a m/m second chance romance that a friend gave me. It’s a delight.

  3. ms bookjunkie says:

    I’m reading Magic Binds by Ilona Andrews. Finally. Because book 10 is releasing next week, eeeeeee! Next, I’ll be reading Hugh’s book. Not because I was excited about the April Fool’s joke, but because Ilona Andrews wrote it—and if they write it, I will read.

  4. Ren Benton says:

    The Good were:

    PAPER AND FIRE by Rachel Caine: Second in a series, and starting with INK AND BONE is non-optional. Kiddos assuming their roles in the Library of Alexandria and becoming increasingly aware of the corruption of an institution that controls all the world’s written knowledge. This is the prison-break installment. There are lots of lovable characters, and Caine manages with a word or two to make me suspect almost all of them of treachery.

    THE STARS ARE LEGION by Kameron Hurley: This sold a lot of copies after a 1-star review deemed it “murderous lesbians in space” because… HELL YEAH, MURDEROUS LESBIANS IN SPACE! Fleshy living planets in a war for resources. Protagonist with AMNESIA!! If you need a break from men, they don’t exist in this book.

    CLOCKWORK BOYS and THE WONDER ENGINE by T. Kingfisher: This is a two-fer, but Book 1 ends with them finding something they sought and reaching their destination, so there’s a satisfactory sense of closure for that volume rather than an obnoxious cliffhanger. A forger, a paladin, an assassin, and a scholar are sent on a suicide mission to find out how to stop the clockwork army rampaging across the land. It’s funny and stabby. Loads of social commentary and delicious forger/paladin UST.

    The rest were rage-quit, rage-finished because some trainwrecks are too epic to look away, or all right enough to finish but so meh I never need to read that author again.

    I have to do work-related reading for the rest of this month, but after that, A CONSPIRACY OF WHISPERS by Ada Harper looks like the most appealing of the TBR.

  5. Jill Q says:

    Yay, I’m so happy for “Whatcha Reading.” I missed posting last month for the first time in like, a year. But it wasn’t much of a reading month anyways. This month was good.

    Favorites of this month

    “A Duke by Default” by Alyssa Cole. A+
    This.Book. So good. I liked “A Princess in Theory” but I liked this one even better. I related to Portia being a hot mess. I felt like the chemistry, the attraction, and the conflict we’re all perfectly based. Ohh, the chemistry between her and Tavish. Whew.

    “Undateable” by Sarah Title. A+

    Grumpy heroine, charming hero. Slow burn chemistry that felt very natural. Set in a city and no one is cowboy or a cupcake baker (before you think I’m a monster I love cupcakes 😉 I’m just sick of reading about them) Funny contemporary and no major angst. Sarah Title, where have you been all my life? Probably my favorite read of the month b/c it surprised me. I read it in one night and got the “floating on soap bubble” happy ending feeling.

    “A Treacherous Curse” by Deanna Raybourn. A

    I always enjoy these, even if I often don’t care about the mystery. I love Veronica and Stoker. I feel like this would make a good Netflix series, if someone had the budget for it.

    “One of Us is Lying” by Karen McManus. A

    YA that crosses “The Breakfast Club” with “Pretty Little Liars.” I actually started this on audio and sucked it up and bought a Kindle copy b/c I could not put it down. Some twists I saw coming, some I didn’t, but it was a nice fast paced mix of YA romance and mystery.

    “Talk Sweetly To Me” by Courtney Milan. A

    I have a hard time with novellas, but this one worked for me. Honenstly, there isn’t much by Courtney Milan that I don’t enjoy.

    The Okay of the Month

    “Too Wilde to Wed” by Eloisa James. B

    I was reading this with gritted teeth to get to “Born to be Wilde”, but it grew on me and then I couldn’t even make it through Parth and Lavinia’s book. The downside of Eloisa James tying all these stories so closely together (aside from it’s hard to read out of order or skip a book) is lots of time I think the most interesting parts of a couple’s story aren’t even “their book.”

    “Venus in Copper” by Lindsey Davis B

    I’m pining for my Ruso and Tila mysteries so I’m backtracking and reading some of the Falco mysteries written in the 90s. Very similar feel, funny, great characters and atmosphere and mysteries are okay if not mindblowing.

    “Crowned and Dangerous” and “On Her Majesty’s Frightfully Secret Service” by Rhys Bowen. B

    The Georgianna Rannoch mysteries I read b/c I love the time period and atmosphere (are we sensing a theme?) These were both cute, but I sometimes think Georgie makes silly mistakes (like a lot of cozy mystery heroines. I’ll keep reading these, but I get them from the library when I’m in the mood. No rush. I do wonder if Rhys Bowen is ever going to bring the characters up to WWII. One of the things I feel like she has written very well in the series is how in ’30s, how unconcerned many people were about Hitler and many even admired him. It adds a nice little unease over the lighthearted setting, but I think if you put Georgie and Darcy “in the war” it would have to have a different tone. Especially since by then (I assume) they would be married with children.

    “Marry in Haste” by Anne Gracie B

    Nothing about this was terribly memorable, but it was a marriage of convenience historical that I read and enjoyed after several DNFs, so that alone was good.

    “The Maze at Windermere” by Gregory Blake Smith C

    Ugh. I almost took to social media to rant about this book. I picked it up b/c it has multiple story threads through time and a hedge maze. I love hedge mazes! It turned out to be pretentious, filled with mostly horrible people, and worst of all, almost nothing with the actual hedge maze. Oh the maze was a metaphor. How clever. If you really like Henry James or stuff about the history of Newport, this may be for you. Most of the storylines just stop without an ending. I also feel like the author was trying to make some “deep statements” about race in America, but I don’t think he pulled it off. He is white and I’m white, FWIW. I just don’t think he was even half as clever as he thought he was.

    Lone audio book of the month

    “French Pressed” by Cleo Coyle B-

    Honestly, I call these coffee porn and that’s why I read them/listen to them.
    There are occasional cupcake references ;-), but mostly coffee and also set in Greenwich Village, so I don’t get cutsey overload. This was a good palate cleanser and it was part of two for one sale on audible. Clare is another cozy mystery heroine who makes silly mistakes, but even worse is that there is a sometimes love triangle (save me from the love triangle! especially the multiple book love triangle!). I don’t really believe Clare is ever going to get back with her ex-husband and I don’t care. But the author throws it in for a conflict every couple of books. I also find the real love interest “Mike the Cop” incredibly boring. I’d be happier if Clare was single and spent more time talking about coffee. (I know what I like)

  6. Another Kate says:

    I haven’t had a great reading month – I started a couple of books then didn’t finish them.

    But…
    I just returned The Kiss Quotient (Helen Hoang) to the library, and All. The. Good. Book. Noise.

    Seriously – so good – I don’t have words to describe how good it is. Delightful characters; realistic conflict (and believable reasons why they couldn’t communicate and sort out their issues on page 10); anti-patriarchal; female-sex-positive; well-written. I really, REALLY hope that she writes more books soon!

  7. DiscoDollyDeb says:

    I ended my summer break in a blaze of book-binging glory. Before the second week of August when school started and I went back to work, I read a wide variety of books, including by some new-to-me authors. Alas, it will be Christmas break before I have so much reading time again.

    PART ONE

    I had the oddest feeling while reading TEMPORARY by Sarina Bowen & Sarah Mayberry (two of my favorite romance writers) that I was actually reading a very modern take on Henry James’s THE SPOILS OF POYNTON. (What can I say? Sometimes, even decades later, that English degree comes back to haunt me!) There’s not a point-by-point comparison between the two works, but I got Jamesian echoes from TEMPORARY’s story of a financially-strapped young woman who comes between a wealthy man and his even wealthier mother when she is hired to inventory the art-and-antique-filled home of their recently deceased relative. I enjoyed the book—the h&h were very likable and, beneath the rom-com plot, there was a real seriousness: there are all kinds of family dysfunction and money doesn’t inoculate a person from them. But I had a bit of a struggle with the central premise of the plot [POSSIBLE SPOILER]: why would a wealthy gay man, who supported many LGBTQ causes during his life, make it so difficult to find his updated will that his estate was left to his homophobic sister, a woman who donated money to anti-marriage-equality campaigns? That seemed very unlikely.

    [CW: rape play] I loved Cara McKenna’s two-book series, WILLING VICTIM and BRUTAL GAME, meticulously-written books about a couple who act out rape role-play scenarios. WILLING VICTIM was discussed favorably on the Victoria Dahl podcast as consensual non-consent done right; and then I discovered I had it unread on my kindle and blasted through it in an afternoon. The book is grounded in Boston life: the hero lives in Southie; the heroine works in Faneuil Hall. The heroine’s life has been muted for several years—she’s almost 30, has a history of depression, and can’t bring herself to pursue a career in her field (engineering), so continues to wait tables. Completely by chance meets a construction worker/underground fighter, they start seeing each other and she gradually comes out of her shell. Rape role-play is the hero’s kink but, as the heroine participates in their increasingly intense games, she realizes it is her kink too. I loved the book’s emphasis on consent, of discussing desires and expectations beforehand; the hero is extremely careful to ensure the heroine is totally on-board with everything they do. I also liked how thoroughly working-class the story is—there are no secret billionaires here—the hero puts in long hours on construction jobs, the heroine is on her feet all day, they live in small apartments, drive unreliable vehicles, and take buses & the subway. The book ends with a mild cliffhanger, so I read the sequel, BRUTAL GAME, which is less about the couple’s role play (although there are a few intense scenes) and more about some emotionally-wrenching events in the couple’s lives as their relationship continues to develop. Taken together, these books are two of my favorite reads of 2018.

    [One other note: WILLING VICTIM is the only romance I can remember reading where there’s even the slightest reference to the fact that STDs can be spread by “swallowing”. Don’t get me wrong: I think it’s great that contemporary romances emphasize condom use and being clean, but I’m always somewhat bemused that the emphasis on consistent condom use is so often juxtaposed with scenes of enthusiastic “swallowing”.]

    After finishing WILLING VICTIM/BRUTAL GAME, I jumped right into McKenna’s AFTER HOURS, which became another favorite read of 2018. An emotional story of two rather closed-off people who find a connection. The heroine is a nurse, newly-hired at a psychiatric hospital. She begins a relationship with an orderly who works in the same ward. He’s a decade older than her, a bit of a lone wolf, and initially quite dominant (with the heroine’s consent) in their sexual encounters; but, as their relationship develops, the couple’s power-exchange becomes more fluid. McKenna does a wonderful job of teasing out the details of these two prickly and somewhat damaged people who nonetheless work hard, care for others, and have the self-awareness to admit to and learn from their mistakes. (By contrast, the relationship between the heroine’s needy sister and her emotionally-immature boyfriend is a volatile roller-coaster of accusations and counter-accusations with occasional dramatic reunions.) The book is also sympathetic and realistic about the limited treatment options available for those suffering from severe mental illness, especially when there’s a component of violence involved. Highly-recommended.

    Charlotte Stein’s absolutely astonishing THE PROFESSOR is so beautifully written and so nuanced in its story of a lonely professor and the equally-lonely college student with whom he falls in love that, if it hadn’t been for the inclusion of some very explicit (and very non-nineteenth-century) descriptions of sexual activity, I could easily have felt I was reading some newly-discovered book by one of the Brontes or Elizabeth Gaskell. Oh, the dialog (and letters) between the hero & heroine—two people who love books and words and who want to be as precise as possible in what say—as they articulate what they feel for each other! Not to mention quotes like this—about women writing erotica from a woman’s point of view: “Never overlook that, in service of realism that is really only a reflection of male pleasure and male desire. The true reality is whatever a woman actually feels, and not what men have been erasing for the last thousand years.” For everyone who has felt at some point that they were from “some place else altogether.” Highly-recommended.

    From its description—an M/F/M ménage between a young woman and her best friends, who happen to be identical male twins—Stein’s DOUBLED sounds like it would be totally porny. But, because Stein’s focus is completely on the heroine’s experiences and emotions (obviously taking her cue from the quote above), it’s actually a very tender and sweet story—albeit one with a lot of hot three-way action. Certainly a different take on the friends-to-lovers trope.

    While reading Penelope Douglas’s very good (and very melancholy) BIRTHDAY GIRL, I had one of those moments that “a woman of a certain age” sometimes has: HOLY CRAP! I’M FREAKIN’ OLD! In Douglas’s story of a 19-year-old woman who develops (reciprocated) feelings for her boyfriend’s 38-year-old (single) father, I realized that the hero was born around the time I graduated college. How did someone born when Reagan was president get to be old enough to have adult children? But, old lady musings aside, I enjoyed the book. The synopsis makes it sound tawdry, but—as is often the case with seemingly lurid subject matter—it all depends on execution; and Douglas makes what could have been exploitive or smutty into something delicate and emotional in the best way. Highly-recommended.

    After reading—and loving!—Penelope Ward’s STEPBROTHER DEAREST and NEIGHBOR DEAREST last month, I read a couple more Ward books: ROOM HATE and GENTLEMAN NINE. I took a strong dislike to the hero of ROOM HATE. In this story of two people who share a complicated history and have to learn to get along when they each inherit a 50% share of a house, the hero is extremely passive-aggressive and sends major mixed-messages about his feelings for the heroine. In addition, for much of the book he is involved with someone else and his behavior skirts the very edge of cheating. Finally, at least twice in the book, when the heroine prepares for a date with another man, the hero accuses her of dressing “like a whore.” I felt the hero’s eventual redemption was too easily achieved and that he never really understood how badly he had treated both his girlfriend and the heroine.

    Ward’s GENTLEMAN NINE was a much better book. A woman, on the rebound after being dumped by her long-time boyfriend, contacts an escort agency to find a man for no-strings-attached sex. The woman’s temporary housemate—a man she’s known since they were both teenagers—inadvertently discovers what she’s planning to do and masquerades as the escort on-line. But what will happen when the heroine wants to meet “Gentleman Nine” in person? An emotional story with lots of feels and especially sensitive in its presentation of character with autism. (I work with special needs students, including many with autism, and one of my own children is “on the spectrum”, so I very much appreciated Ward’s clear and kind characterization of someone with that condition.)

    I love it when I discover a new-to-me author who I like and who has a large back catalog. Last month I read Julie Kriss’s THE BASTARD, her contribution to the King Family series. I liked it enough to read her SPITE CLUB, which I enjoyed very much. So this month I’ve been reading more of her work. Like many romance writers, Kriss has a basic template: her heroines (who are in their mid-to-late twenties) find themselves in a rut—boring jobs, cramped apartments, lackluster dating lives, unresolved family problems, and dreams deferred—and are looking for ways to change their circumstances. Kriss’s heroes (usually the heroine’s age or a little older) tend to be from rougher circumstances (including some who are ex-cons and/or who grew up on the streets) with significant challenges (some external, some self-created). The physical attraction between h&h is almost immediate (Kriss’s books feature lots of unapologetically hot & frequent sexual encounters); it takes a little longer for the emotional circuit to connect. Meanwhile the hero and heroine help each other overcome obstacles and achieve goals—always with a satisfying HEA.

    Kriss’s four-book BAD BILLIONAIRES series (BAD BILLIONAIRE, DIRTY SWEET WILD, RICH DIRTY DANGEROUS, and BACK IN BLACK) is about a group of men who grew up rough on the wrong side of the tracks and what happens to them when they unexpectedly inherit money. [A bit OT here, but some of the books are set in the same rundown apartment complex as M. O’Keefe’s BAD NEIGHBOR.] I enjoyed the books but should note that, while the heroes are now wealthy, they are not really billionaires, but I guess “millionaire” is too downscale a term for romance novels these days! I should also note that all of the heroines meet and feel attraction for their respective heroes before knowing about their wealth; these books are not about women initially being attracted to men in part because of how good they look in designer suits or their patina of wealth and power—and I really liked that. My favorite of the four books was DIRTY SWEET WILD. The hero is a veteran who lost a leg in combat and suffers from PTSD. The heroine is a stripper who hates her job. Their romance is unconventional because both of them are more than a little prickly; but their eventual HEA is that much sweeter.

    [Oddly enough, after making my “swallowing” comment above, I encountered another reference to being careful about “swallowing” in RICH DIRTY DANGEROUS. From never reading any reference to it, to twice in one month! A safe sex breakthrough!]

    The premise of Kriss’s BREAK ME is somewhat similar to Penelope Ward’s STEPBROTHER DEAREST: step-siblings who meet for the first time in their late teens have a single sexual encounter before circumstances separate them. Years later they meet again (he has served time, she restores antique furniture) and feelings are still strong. BREAK ME is not on the same emotional continuum as Ward’s book, but it’s a good read nonetheless.

    Ainsley Booth’s freebie download, PERSONAL DELIVERY, was a breezy read by a new-to-me author. (I then discovered Booth also publishes as Zoe York—how come I never knew that?) The heroine is a greeting card designer who develops a crush on the local delivery guy. The attraction is mutual, but the heroine doesn’t know the delivery guy is really the company CEO doing an Undercover Boss thing (minus cameras). One thing I liked about the storyline is that the lives of the h&h did not match up seamlessly: they have to juggle schedules and months of a long-distance relationship; there’s negotiation and compromise. (One other note: Starbucks and its various coffee drinks are so prominent in the book I started to think they had paid for product placement.)

    I liked Booth’s bright & sexy style enough to gulp down some of her other books. PERSONAL ESCORT features the friend’s-sibling-is-forbidden and fake fiancé/fake marriage tropes, there’s also an age gap of about ten years between the hero & heroine. PERSONAL DISASTER is expanded from a story Booth wrote for the political romance anthology, Rogue Affairs. It’s a romance between a park ranger and a journalist, and it features very timely concern for the safety of journalists in an age where those reporting the news are labeled “enemies of the state”. These books made quite a change from my default dark & angsty favorites. I’d definitely recommend Booth’s books for anyone who’s looking for something on the lighter side that still has some serious elements.

    I wanted to say a little more about another Ainsley Booth book I read: HATE F*@K (that is the exact typography of the title). It’s a bodyguard & enemies-to-lovers romance with a suspense/espionage subplot involving sex trafficking; there is also some violence and the heroine is in peril at one point. However, what I wanted to talk about is the plus-sized heroine. By coincidence, this was the book I’d just started when the Bitchery had an extended conversation about the toxic fat-phobia and fat-shaming in Kristan Higgins’s GOOD LUCK WITH THAT. There is absolutely none of that attitude in HATE F*@K. The heroine is comfortable with who she is and how she looks—and she is variously described by other characters as “beautiful”, “luscious”, and “curvy”. She also dresses stylishly and enjoys wearing sexy lingerie. The hero is completely besotted with her (as much for her kindness and good-hearted personality as for her curves). Her size is not a key plot point—it’s simply a part of who the heroine is, just as she likes to knit and follow the stock market—and that was refreshing too. In fact, the only person to call the heroine “fat” is the villain—who is then promptly pummeled by the hero (for a variety of reasons—not just the “fat” comment). I’d recommend this book as an antidote to Higgins’s toxic sludge.

    HATE F*@K is the first in Booth’s Forbidden Bodyguards series, so I read the other two (I assume one day there’ll be more—several plot threads are left hanging). BOOTY CALL has an age gap of 15 years between its virginal (but not too innocent) heroine and the bodyguard hero. It’s a fun, sexy read—and the first book I can remember that provides a link to a NSFW Tumblr page featuring photos of people having sexyfuntimes (at least they are, according to Booth; I didn’t click on the link to verify, but other readers may be braver than I). I really liked the complicated heroine of DIRTY LOVE: she’s bi, participates in menages, and has voyeuristic tendencies. However, as the book progresses, it’s clear that much of what she does is to numb the pain of traumatic events from her teen years and the subsequent quagmire of her personal and professional lives. The hero—a tech genius with secrets of his own—helps her achieve her freedom from her present entanglements and make peace with her past.

  8. DiscoDollyDeb says:

    PART TWO

    Last year I read and enjoyed Amber Bardan’s sexy crazysauce KING’S CAPTIVE; but, for whatever reason, I didn’t follow up with any more of her books until this month when I finally read a couple more: HIS TEMPTATION and FOR HER PROTECTION. TEMPTATION is about a retired professional baseball player who begins a relationship with the young woman he hires to walk his dog. The couple bond through “Daddy” role-play—not a kink that appeals to me (although, for some reason, this is the second book I’ve read this month featuring it), but Bardan makes it clear everything is fully consensual and between adults; she also provides enough backstory for us to understand why the hero and heroine both find something they need in acting out their DDLG games.

    Bardan’s FOR HER PROTECTION was much more my catnip: bodyguard, enforced proximity, heroine on the curvier side, and a good suspense element (who is trying to destroy the heroine’s company?); plus “violet eyes” alert—for the hero! Lots of sexy-fun-times (including in the changing room of a department store), along with a number of possible suspects and plausible reasons for the heroine to feel she can’t completely trust the hero. Recommended, with a caveat: the book desperately needed a professional proofreading: it’s full of grammatical and spelling errors that sometimes took me right out of the story. Writers, I know a professional proofreading/editing job may be on the pricier side, but please don’t rely on your Facebook group or beta readers to catch all the dropped words, comma splices, misspellings, and “there/their/they’re” errors in your drafts.

    [CW: abuse of various kinds, in all nine books] I was in the den of dark & angsty for a week reading Skye Warren’s Stripped series—nine loosely-connected books (some can be read as standalones or duets/trilogies) about the lives and loves of people who work in a strip club in a rundown neighborhood in a town called Tanglewood. (Tanglewood, and its ongoing regentrification, is a background element in many of Warren’s books.) In Warren’s world, all families are dysfunctional, almost all parents are absent/abusive/distant/dead, and everyone is damaged physically and/or emotionally. But, also in Warren’s world, even the damaged express (and deserve) love and compassion—although, she makes it clear, sometimes the damage is so deep that only an equally-damaged person can understand and help the healing process and, as a result, sexual expression between a couple may reflect that damage:

    The heroines of TOUGH LOVE and LOVE THE WAY YOU LIE are two sisters, the daughters of a Vegas mob boss, on the run from the older sister’s abusive fiancé. The older sister starts working as a stripper to support them. Then she makes the mistake of getting involved with one of the club’s customers—a man with secrets of his own. The younger sister’s story takes place several years later in HOLD YOU AGAINST ME where she marries the man who helped her escape in TOUGH LOVE. He’s now a ruthless mafia don and his motives for marrying her are rather murky.

    HEARTBREAK, BETTER WHEN IT HURTS, and EVEN BETTER tell the story of a couple who first meet as teenagers in foster care. The heroine lies to protect the hero, but the lie backfires. Years later, he shows up as a bouncer at the club where she is stripping. He wants revenge, but we know how that will go. The hero of CAUGHT FOR CHRISTMAS is a secondary character in EVEN BETTER. The heroine is a stripper, the child of two grifters. He catches her trying to rob the club’s safe on Christmas Eve. How will this play out?

    There’s a lot going on psychologically in PRETTY WHEN YOU CRY. The heroine escaped from a religious cult as a teenager and ended up working at the strip club. (Warren is very insightful about the connection between men in fundamentalist religious systems and men who patronize strip clubs: they’re both using male privilege and control to ensure that a woman’s sexual expression reflects male desires and not her own.) The heroine has been involved for years with the strip club’s owner—a man with terrible physical damage and, possibly, even worse emotional damage from childhood abuse. The couple play very intense “Daddy” sex games, but eventually the heroine wants to try to live on her own and come to terms with her past (which seems to be catching up with her); but will her lover/daddy/protector let her go?

    The heroine of TO THE ENDS OF THE EARTH is another cult escapee. She was raped by the cult leader and has a child as a result. She is on the run from cult members who want to bring her and her “miracle” baby back. She is assisted by a former club bouncer who is now an MMA fighter and gambler. The heroine’s abusive, misogynistic religious indoctrination is deep and she’s wary of even the slightest kindness she receives—which, to me, is a very realistic portrayal of someone raised the way the heroine was. My only complaint about the book is it seemed to end rather abruptly, resolving several plot points within a page. I would have liked to stay with the heroine a bit longer as she decompressed from her upbringing and learned to give and receive love.

    Callie Hart’s FREAKS is the third book of her Dirty Nasty Freaks trilogy about a woman who joins forces with an ex-priest-turned-hitman (who was hired to kill her) to discover who wants her dead. As usual with Hart, there’s lots of bloody violence and an equal amount of hot, wild sex (including a scene where a rosary is used as a binding device and a clerical collar is used as a gag). The appearance in the story of a main character from Hart’s BLOOD & ROSES series was a bit confusing as it was obvious that the character was not yet involved with the woman he eventually ends up with, and so I had to adjust the time frame of Dirty Nasty Freaks accordingly (and I’m not sure attempts to shoe-horn characters from one series into another is ever very successful). Also, not all of the plot threads were neatly tied up, so I’m assuming we’ll see the h&h at least as supporting characters in future Hart books. (One aspect of the book that really struck the wrong note was Hart’s presentation of an old family servant, a black man in his eighties, whose speech is rendered in patronizing, cringeworthy dialect. Ugh—no! This “lovable old black retainer not afraid to speak his mind but devoted to the white family he works for” is a character we might have encountered in a 1970s bodice-ripper set in the pre-Civil War south, not in a book published in 2018 and set in contemporary New York. If Hart re-edits this book, here’s hoping she removes the elements that make this character an offensive caricature.)

    I enjoyed Elia Winters’s TIED SCORE about a couple exploring a domme/sub relationship as they fall in love. In certain ways SCORE reminded me of Audra North’s GIVING IT UP, in that the heroines of both books have no previous experience as a domme before getting involved with their subs, but they quickly adapt to the dominant role. However, TIED SCORE is far more steeped in the bdsm scene and the intensity of role-play (including public play) between the couple.

    I continued my stroll through Kati Wilde’s Hellfire Riders MC romances with CRAVING IT ALL, about a woman (on the run from a dangerous stalker ex) who gets involved with a member of the club. The most interesting element of the story is that the heroine is a Muslim of Lebanese ancestry. I liked the matter-of-fact way her heritage and faith were presented—she’s a practicing Muslim, not particularly devout, but she does observe some tenets of Islam (as she explains, it’s like being a Christian who only goes to church on Christmas and Easter).

    I found Tessa Bailey’s ASKING FOR TROUBLE on a list of enemies-to-lovers romances. In this case, I wish the h&h had spent more time being enemies before they became lovers; there wasn’t much development of sexual tension before they got together. Most of the “enemies” element of the story is based on class differences rather than personality clashes: the hero is a working-class cop who has a second job as a mechanic. The heroine is from a very wealthy and socially-prominent New York family. Both of them—especially the hero—internalize these roles and the way they assume the other sees them. A serviceable story, but not one for the reread/keeper shelf.

    I read two books by Laura Kaye: HEARTS IN DARKNESS and BOUND TO SUBMIT. Both were ok. HEARTS IN DARKNESS has two strangers stuck in a malfunctioning elevator (with the lights out). Neither of them has a working phone, and the hero suffers from claustrophobia; but this is a romance novel, so you know how “several hours alone in the dark in an enclosed space with a stranger who smells good and has a sexy voice” is going to play out. The most interesting thing about Kaye’s bdsm romance, BOUND TO SUBMIT, is the heroine: a former marine who lost an arm in combat. She’s a sub and she reconnects with the dom she was involved with before she enlisted. It was refreshing to read a book where the heroine, rather than the hero, is a veteran—one who carries physical and emotional scars from her time in the service. Unfortunately, the rest of the book was a rather run-of-the-mill bdsm romance with lots of “telling not showing” and paragraphs of catching up with characters from other books in Kaye’s Blasphemy series. Other than the heroine’s backstory, the book isn’t particularly memorable.

    In the Bitchery’s discussion of the “boner-led hero”, we talked about how rapid cultural shifts can suddenly transform a trope that was once unremarkable into something no longer acceptable. Such is the case with two Whitney G free downloads I recently read, REASONABLE DOUBT and NAUGHTY BOSS. Although both of them were published within the last few years, I find it hard to believe that these stories of sexually-harassing bosses (one a partner in a law firm, the other the CEO of a publishing company) would be released today without extensive edits and rewrites in light of #metoo. Although both books had some plot points of interest—a mistaken identity element in REASONABLE DOUBT that I wish Whitney G had strung out further; and an email sent to the wrong person in NAUGHTY BOSS—it was impossible to read the books with the lack of awareness that they probably received when originally published. It just can’t be done now.

  9. K.N.O’Rear says:

    Read:
    THE SEVEN WONDERS by Adam Christopher
    I read this more because it relates to a WIP i’m Been working on. I have to say this was an interesting take on the superhero novel with a lot of layers. The only bad thing was there was a twist in the 3rd act that took some time to get on board with. However, eventually I did and enjoyed it over all, but I don’t think I’ll read it again.

    THE AUTUMN BRIDE by Anne Gracie
    This was a cute Regency full of the saccharine tropes, but I loved it anyways. Basically, it follows four sisters (two by blood and two found family style ) who end up in dire straights after the eldest and heroine of the book rescues the other three from a brothel they were kidnapped to. Out of desperation the heroine breaks into a nearby house to steal something. Instead of stealing and running she finds a bedridden old woman who is being abused by her servants (yes that’s about as contrived as it sounds, but still awesome). The old lady adopts them and they put her house back in order until they discovered by her nephew whose been abroad for almost ten years because of his own dire straights. He’s a grumpy hero and he and heroine definitely channel Elizabeth and Darcy if that’s your catnip. The one problem in the book is that there’s far too much set-up being the first book in a series , but it was a cute enough story that I want the rest of the series as soon as possible.

    AGAINST THE SUN by Kat Martin
    Nothing much to say about this book, except that it was a fun romantic suspense. Also It’s part of a bag of Kat Martins generously given to me by my grandmother , so the book had that going for it as well .

    Reading:
    JAGUAR EYES by Casey Claybourne
    This book isn’t going to be for everyone since it is super old skool , but if you have a morbid curiosity about it like I did when on found it in an antique store you’ll probably enjoy it. Basically the novel is a 1995 adventure novel with a scientist hero and an Amazon heroine ( yes, of the Wonder Woman variety ) . If you’re interested I’m sure you can find it on thriftbooks.com or something like that.

    DNF:
    FIRE SONG by Roberta Gellis
    Not that this book is bad, but after starting strong it got very historical and political and I simply wasn’t in the mood for that sort of thing at the time. More likely than not i’ll Probably pick this book up again and give it another try later.

  10. Lora says:

    I’m reading/just finished the following:

    Court of Frost & Starlight by Sarah J Maas
    Grade C
    Maas’s writing is just as engaging as her worldbuilding but this ‘short story’ is a two hundred page bridge to the next book. It’s character soup without much in the way of plot. The notion of a heartwarming holiday gathering for Feyre, Rhys, Nesta, Az and company is ironic and should be the opposite of festive. I like the characters, the last book was particularly harrowing, but this was tonally such a departure from the series itself that it left me going MEH.

    Light My Fire by Molly Jameson
    Grade A-
    I love her Royal Romance series, which isn’t concluded yet, and she’s launched a series about the royal familiy’s cousins in Scotland. I’ve loved me some Scotland since Braveheart /hangs head/ and certainly Outlander. This is contemporary and it’s very romantic, but it’s more angsty than the RR series. Finn is from Tennessee and lost everything in the fires that tore up Gatlinburg a few years ago, so she took her insurance money and moved to Scotland to open a shop there. She meets the local prince/squire/viscount who is a hot grumpy guy that runs a greenhouse at his old castle. He’s sexy and pretty up front about wanting to be with her, but she resists because some crap about her ex boyfriend and the fire and stuff. I loved Teddy, the guy, and descriptions of his gardens and how soulful and sexy he was. It was good and i’ll read the series, but Finn was kind of a whiner. This was redeemed by the fact that, at one point, Teddy wears an actual kilt!

    Season of Storms by Susannah Kearsley
    Grade: Unknown, still reading it.
    It’s intriguing and atmospheric like all of Kearsley, but it’s also slow and flowery, like all of Kearsley. The heroine feels sorry for herself, which i don’ have a lot of patience with, but it’s supposed to be set in Italy so i’ll hang on.

  11. I’ve been reading some royalty romance, including A DUKE BY DEFAULT by Alyssa Cole and PRINCE IN DISGUISE by Stephanie Kate Strohm. I also have THE SWEDISH PRINCE by Karina Halle on my TBR pile.

    I also want to read TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE by Jenny Han. The Netflix movie was super cute.

    And I want to check out UNTRACEABLE by Laura Griffin. I’ve heard a lot of good things about her Tracers romantic suspense series.

  12. Laura says:

    I consider myself pretty up to date on popular alphahola heroes but somehow I missed the boat and just discovered Killing Sarai by J.A. Redmerski which I thought was a pretty good crime/dark romance. Not as dark as some motorcycle books I’ve read but still satisfying. Definitely trigger warnings for the book, tho. It’s only .99 cents on Amazon.

    However I then got the second book in the series, read about a quarter and had to bow out because it instantly became like The Princess Diaries for assassins. YUCK. I tried the third in the series and finished it but it wasn’t what I was looking for.. I’ll be done with that series now but still recommend the first book!

    Finding that book led me into a dark, deep Goodreads-list hole where I had about 7,766 tabs open trying to find another good book (as you know is difficult when you’ve been reading only romance for 20+ years) and I found Blood Type by K.A. Linde which has SO MUCH POTENTIAL but the execution is CRAP. Bowed out at 80%.

    I love these posts so I can see what everyone else is trying out! I need your help to find a good one!

  13. pamelia says:

    I am anxiously awaiting Magic Triumphs by Ilona Andrews although I mistimed my re-read of the series and finished two weeks ago.
    Kerrigan Byrne’s Duke with the Dragon Tattoo is also coming out the same day, but I am on vacation this week, so I am definitely set to read both before I return to work. YAY!
    I am currently reading Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse, and it is really good so far. It’s post apocalyptic, Native American magic and monsters which is super cool.
    I read 2 older Julie Garwood books back to back last week (The Wedding and Honor’s Splendor). Not a great choice since I find her books a little too similar and should have spaced them out.
    I also recently finished JT Geissinger’s Melt For You which was awesome with one of the best heroes—Scottish rugby star—-sigh.

  14. Magenta says:

    Made it so far without buying more than four books. Not sure if this is a good or a bad thing.
    (@Elyse I just finished the Tara French Dublin Murder Squad-series in unchronological order and found it a rather bumpy – though unconventional – road. How did you like it?)

  15. Deborah says:

    The best
    IRON AND MAGIC and MAGIC RISES by Ilona Andrews – I thought Iron and Magic was a very strong start to an urban (?) fantasy romance, but it pretty thoroughly spoiled me on Hugh’s arc in the Kate Daniels series, so I thought I ought to go meet him there. Magic Rises includes the Harlequin Presents Other Woman plotline hinted at in Iron and Magic…perhaps not the best introduction to Kate and Curran. Mostly Curran. Idiot. (Seriously, Ilona Andrews has to stop creating these floozy other women. Their strong heroines don’t need to be propped up by comparisons to embarrassingly weak women.)

    MARRIAGE MADE IN SCANDAL by Elisa Braden – This is the ninth book in Braden’s Rescued from Ruin series, and the author has apparently decided that historical verisimilitude is for losers. By this point, I’m so deep in the Huxleys’ social circle I just don’t care that Genie’s millinery apprenticeship would have done as much damage to her family’s reputation as the indiscretion that preceded it and no one in 1825 would have described a sexually unresponsive woman as “frigid.” Just give me more Huxleys, thank you. Also, Phineas is exactly the sort of leashed, Spock-in-pon-farr hero I melt over, even if his lifelong trauma is fixed with a good talking-to. Note: don’t read this book without first reading book 7 in the series.

    MURDER IN ALL HONOUR by Anne Cleeland – the fifth book in the Doyle and Acton series. It’s Christmas! Nuns and pregnant women are being murdered. Doyle and Acton agree that dishonesty is an essential component in their marriage. Predictably, I find this adorable (the lampshading, not the nun/mum murders).

    The rest
    ALL YOUR PERFECTS by Colleen Hoover – a tearjerker about the impact of infertility on a marriage. The romance didn’t work for me, but I had a nice cathartic cry over the concept of painful realities that can’t be changed.

    I LOVE YOU *SUBJECT TO THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS and UNCONDITIONALLY by Erin Lyon – I was excited when I saw the premise for Lyon’s duology: in place of marriage, the characters live in a world of 7-year domestic partnership contracts. You can do a lot of interesting things with a relationship that has written rules and a defined deadline, but all Lyon wants to do is prenups and divorce law. We already have that with regular marriage. Plus (or extra minus), the male lead was Mr Steal Yo Girl, a so-called “contract killer” who was only interested in hooking up with women who were currently “signed” (in a contracted relationship) because he was afraid of commitment. We already have those with regular marriage, too.

    THE DUKE I TEMPTED by Scarlett Peckham – BDSM-themed historical romance with a submissive hero. It was…okay. Maybe even good. I’m waffling between two extremes on what might have made it better for me: either seeing the heroine exhibit more stereotypically alpha behavior or having her wholeheartedly accept his need for submission but not herself feeling inclined to deliver the pain he craves (so he continues to visit the domme at the whipping den with his wife’s approval). Because this really felt like a book where the latter could work: the protagonists could be in a loving, mutually supportive relationship without his fetish becoming the defining factor in their sex lives. But I know nothing of BDSM, so maybe it’s naive of me to think fulfilling that need outside his marriage wouldn’t be a form of infidelity on his part while indicating limited acceptance (of him) on hers.

    The literal worst
    *** SPOILERS for DEMON by Kristina Douglas below ***

    * I mean it. I’m spoiling the whole thing. Please scroll past or accept the spoilage. *

    // SPOILERS //

    RAZIEL and DEMON by Kristina Douglas (aka Anne Stuart) – Raziel was a fairly benign tale of a blood-drinking fallen angel who doesn’t want to fall in love because it’s so darned painful to watch human bondmates wither and die century after century, so he’ll be aloof and cruel to the sassy heroine to prevent feelings. Whoops, it happens anyway. Demon, on the other hand, makes me rage. The male lead is another bloodsucking fallen angel who is grieving over the recent death of the saintly human bondmate he had loved more than any other woman he had mated with over the centuries, and the heroine is/was Lilith, the “demon” whom he resents because he is prophesied to bond with her and rule over hell. Azaxazeezel doesn’t want a baby-killing succubus for a wife, thank you very much, so he decides to kill amnesiac human Rachel (who is/was Lilith). Then he decides to rescue her from his kill trap. Then he has sex with her to prove that he is invulnerable to her succubus ways. Then he hands her over to a torture squad for enhanced interrogation. (*pause* Please go back and read that sentence again.) Then, once Rachel has been thoroughly tortured and is being given time for her voice to recover so she can be questioned one last time before they let her die, Azalemon decides to rescue her and take her to his paranormal homeland to be healed while he grieves some more over his dead bondmate. As a special side effect of the torture, Rachel now remembers the curse she suffered as Lilith, which wasn’t to kill infants, but to cradle the babies who died stillborn or in their cribs while also taking on the sorrows of barren women while also being raped for hundreds of years by monsters. So, basically, Azzazhole judged and punished her because of his patriarchal misreading of the text. Good job, hero. Then, just when I think I can’t hate him or this book any more than I already do, Azzhat decides to go through with the bonding to fulfill the prophecy because it will drive the bloodsucking fallen angels’ main adversary bonkers. When they consummate their arranged marriage, he insists on lying on top of Rachel which she strenuously protests because this is exactly the form of submission Lilith wasn’t willing to give Adam, but Azazdiaf forces it anyway. To have that symbolic gesture come in a context of anything other than mutual love and respect (we’re so not there yet) was just repulsive to me.

    // END SPOILERS //

  16. Another Anne says:

    This summer I’ve started and stopped reading more books than I care to count. I find it hard to concentrate, so unless a book grabs me in the first chapter, I usually put it down and start something else.

    I bought the Sarah Morgan box set of Puffin Island books a few weeks ago (even though I already owned one) because SALE on 4 books! I have read two of the three that I had not already read and enjoyed them immensely. It was nice to get the back stories on some of the characters who are mentioned in later books. Then I read the final book in Jill Shalvis’ Cedar Ridge series which was also a sale book. It featured a soldier on leave reuniting after years of silence with his family and a heroine who was being tormented by her ex after a messy divorce. By tormented, I mean petty, annoying mean behavior. Even though nasty exes aren’t my favorite trope, I enjoyed it.

    Most recently, I turned to my TBR folder on kindle and alphabetized my books from Z to A, looking for unread books by authors with names at the end of the alphabet. I landed on the Cottage by the Sea, which was written by Ciji Ware. It is set in Cornwall and is a time slip. I was reminded of two of my old favorites: Green Darkness and Lady of Hay, as well as Susanna Kearsley’s books about the Jacobites. If this interests you, please note that unlike many Kearsley books, the bedroom door isn’t shut. The historical period in this one was the late 1700s in Cornwall, so it was a new historical period for me. It turns out that I bought more of Ciji Ware’s books, so I’m looking forward to exploring more of her work.

    @Jill Q – I was a big fan of the Falco books in the 1990s. I’m not sure if I finished the series, but I remember binging on paperback copies of the first six or seven, after I found them in a used bookstore.

  17. MirandaB says:

    As far as I can tell from Iron and Magic, it’s supposed to come before Magic Triumphs. After Magic Triumphs, the next 2 in the Hugh trilogy happy. Anyway, I read it, and it was awesome.

    The Masked City by Genevieve Cogman: 2nd in the Invisible Library series. I still like these, but they’re ‘library’ grade, not ‘must buy’.

    Breach of Containment by Elizabeth Bonesteel. They took a sharp turn in this series, and I’m not sure what’s going to happen.

    Scandal Above Stairs by Jennifer Ashley: Good mystery and the romance with Daniel advances. I want Kat to cook for me.

    A Death of No Importance by Mariah Fredericks: Lady’s maid to nouveau riche gets involved in a murder. I think more could have been done with the nouveau riche part, but the writing was good.

    Dissolution by CJ Sansom: Mystery set in Tudor England. Matthew is a hunchbacked commissioner of Cromwell solving a murder of another commissioner in a monastery they’re trying to close. The book isn’t specifically anti-Catholic, but Matthew is a Reformer and is anti on his own behalf,

  18. Kati says:

    I read a bunch of books this month but so far my stand out is Obsidio which I’m still reading. This is the last book of The Illuminae Files and do far it does not disappoint. Humor! Angst! Pretty pictures! Redacted swear words!But this is a series that it is better to read the physical copy because of the way it is formatted.

  19. Rebecca O. says:

    Serious reading -The Road to Unfreedom: Russia, Europe, America, by Timothy Snyder. Given the current political climate, this book is equal parts enlightening and terrifying. Trump supporters should read it.
    Fun reading: The Guido la Vespa stories, by Veronica Bell. There are three and they are delightful! From the covers I was doubtful, but it’s three romance e-novellas (with some relatively hot s*x) and each has a Canadian heroine and an animal rescue theme, which was originally why I took a chance, being both a Canuck and an animal-lover. Lots of humour and heroines who aren’t silly.

  20. JUDYW says:

    @KateB
    I also thought BORDERLINE was very well done and unique. In Preparation for the New Andrews book I re-read

    The REALLY GOOD

    IRON AND MAGIC- Grade A. nuff said!

    THE PLAN by Qwen Salsbury – This was SOOOOO funny to me. I loved the heroine’s snark and will definitely go back to this one for a laugh.

    THE DUKE I TEMPTED by Scarlett Peckham. Like many above I liked this story and thought it had a fresh perspective. So yeah!

    THE MURDERBOT DIARIES BY Martha Wells. I love this science fiction story about a security robot/organic that hides the fact that it has a broken restrictive device and now has free will. It still handles bodyguard duty to humans that it doesn’t particularly like because it’s kinda lazy and bored. Surprisingly touching and funny. Go for the library because the books are fairly short and expensive.

    Everything else I read was either middle of the road or somewhat flawed so I won’t waste the space for people looking for recs!

  21. JJB says:

    Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse – Much hyped urban fantasy post-apocalyptic Native-inspired first in a series. I liked it, esp the main character. The world was interesting, clearly well researched and carefully constructed; it was ok for me even tho I’m not much for urban fantasy (I’d say this was more “road trip fantasy”, if that’s a thing, anyway) or post-apocalyptic. I don’t wanna spoil but if you’re reading and think the romance(s) might be iffy, don’t worry. No handwaving of dodgy actions by questionable men. It didn’t wow me overall, but I’m willing to read more in the series.

    My Girls: A Lifetime with Carrie and Debbie by Todd Fisher – Great book, for me. Fisher is an excellent writer (no need for ghost writing here). Though, boy, I had thought the end wouldn’t be too hard to deal with since I know what happened, but I was wrong as hell. 🙁 Super worth it, though. (Warning for some underage ickiness, tho. Not traumatic, apparently, for those involved, but not super fun to read about. Obviously, there’s a lot about addiction and horrifyingly bad husbands, but I expected that going in.)

    The Weaver’s Daughter by Sarah E. Ladd – I wanted something light, and this was that. I appreciated the industrial revolution history and such, but I wasn’t thrilled by the romance or characters overmuch. I kinda felt like the romantic rival could have used…more. IDK, something more in her story. It was just okay overall.

    And I’m currently on Gibraltar: The Greatest Siege in British History by Roy Adkins and Lesley Adkins… It’s hard for me to follow some of the head-spinning number of names and I’m super glad there’s maps, but the beginning was very exciting and well written so I’m looking forward to getting back to the more action-y parts. I hope I can finish it before I go on vacation, because I know I’ll be too distracted there to properly enjoy it.

  22. It’s been a very good few reading weeks for me. First, I just finished IRON AND MAGIC yesterday because I wanted to save it as a way to get hyped for MAGIC TRIUMPHS. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about a whole trilogy for Hugh, but ermergerd, cannot wait for more in that storyline! It made me very optimistic that they will be able to build exciting new story arcs in that world, even if Kate & Curran are only in the background. Also… I. cannot. wait. for. the. finale.

    I had some fun hate reading/vlogging reading an old skool Diana Palmer called ROGUE STALLION on my channel. I got it as a “Blind Date with a Book” from The Ripped Bodice. I had a great experience with getting a few of those & trying some books I wouldn’t have tried! Totally go check those guys out if you’re in LA

    Two very, very dark YA thriller mysteries that I very much enjoyed were SADIE by Courtney Summers and THE CHEERLEADERS by Kara Thomas. I especially liked the Kara Thomas one, but please do some research on the CWs for these books as they get pretty brutal.

    JOSH AND HAZEL’S GUIDE TO NOT DATING by Christina Lauren is another great romcom from that team (I think it comes out Sept 4?)- if you’ve been on a high from CRAZY RICH ASIANS and TO ALL THE BOYS I’VE LOVED BEFORE, you might want to check this out to keep the romcom buzz going.

    And finally… I’ve been using the four years under the current US administration to be more purposeful in reading about histories of totalitarianism, oppression, injustice, etc. to try to understand more about how we got here. This month, my entry in that project was THE COLOR OF LAW by Richard Rothstein, and I really recommend it. He basically documents how the US government itself, not just private entities, colluded to keep black Americans out of the housing boom of post-Depression America and outlines how this exclusion has materially impeded black Americans’ ability to build wealth and pass that wealth onto the next generations. He also gets into the horrible segregationist policies that I think we’re more familiar with in the historical narrative, but having it all brought together in one book is heartbreaking, brutal, and very thought-provoking

    Up next: VISIONS IN DEATH by JD Robb, THE PHANTOM HILL by Nicola Cornick, and THE WITCH OF WIND HALL by Hester Fox

  23. Kareni says:

    FYI: A Girl Like Her by Talia Hibbert is currently free for Kindle readers.

    https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07B9Z6846/?coliid=I1GVBKZKUS6I8I&colid=1L56ZUCOVIJHD&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it

  24. CelineB says:

    I have hit peak reading slump. I’m having a hard time even listening to audiobooks and going with podcasts or music instead. Currently I’m attempting to read Untouchable by Talia Hibbert. Here’s the thing, I’m loving it when I can concentrate on reading it. I’ve highlighted about half of what I’ve read before. I relate to Hannah and her struggles with depression a lot. However, I still can’t seem to sit down and read for more than fifteen minutes at a time and usually no more than thirty a day tops. It’s really frustrating me. Here’s the highlights of what I did manage to read (2 whole books) and listen to :

    Sweet on the Greek by Talia Hibbert- Another good Hibbert book. It’s not my favorite by her, but still very enjoyable.

    Iron and Magic by Ilona Andrews- So amazingly good. It still took me nearly three weeks to get through. Hopefully I’m done with this slump by the time her new book comes out since I think I’m first in line on the holds at my library.

    A Duke by Default by Alyssa Cole- I listened to this one and loved it! So much fun with great characters.

    The Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club books by Theodora Goss- An enjoyable take on a lot of classic literary characters and their relatives, I recommend both books in the series so far

    A Treacherous Curse by Deanna Raybourn- I continue to love this series.

    There’s actually more, but everything was just okay and I don’t feel like going through those. I have to deep clean the house today and I think I may try to listen to Phantom Tree on audio since I just found it on Scribd. We’ll see if my brain accepts it. After that, maybe I’ll finally be able to concentrate enough to finish the Hibbert book and then dive into Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik which I just picked up from the library.

  25. Iris says:

    VERY GOOD
    COMPETENCE by Gail Carriger – I really liked this 3rd book of the series. Basically charming mashup of a paranormal, steampunk novel of manners. This series is about the adult children of the main characters from Carriger’s Soulless series. The relationships are diverse with this installment mainly focusing on a f/f pairing.

    Iron and Magic: Iron Covenant, Book 1 by Ilona Andrews I listened to this firs because the narrator Steve West is one of my very favorites. In fact it was my love of the narrator which made me jump right in despite having only read the first 4 of the Kate Daniels series.

    I’m glad I listened to this before the later Daniel’s books showed Hugh to be truly brutal and cruel. Now that I have read the rest of them I find it harder to buy into Hugh’s redemption plot or more accurately Hugh’s path needs to be much harder. I probably need to read it again. There is some mention in one of the later Kate Daniel’s books comparing Julie’s inability to defy Kate’s orders to Hugh’s relationship to Roland but still…I don’t think Hugh is shown to be anywhere near horrified or remorseful enough at his own actions so what he has bad dreams I think I need tears! But he is totally hot! and Alara is great. I definitely want to know more about her and they do work as a believable couple.

    kate daniels series books 5-9.
    MAGIC SLAYS
    MAGIC RISES
    MAGIC BREAKS
    MAGIC SHIFTS
    MAGIC BINDS

    My feelings about this series are mixed. The world building is interesting as are most of the characters, I love Kate and don’t hate Curran as her partner/mate. The problem, and why there was a long gap between reading the first few books and these last is that shifter stories which focus on pack dynamics and politics make me really uncomfortable. The alleged benefits of close knit familial groups and security never outweigh the horror of a violently maintained expectation of obedience to an individual who is leader through brute strength. I was happy once they left the pacK.

    THE TRIALS OF MORRIGAN CROW By Jessica Townsend – (audiobook) This was a real surprise. One of the best juvenile fantasy books I’ve encountered in a long time and I only include the adjective juvenile because that is how the library classifies it. About eleven year old Morrigan Crow who is told she is cursed and responsible for a community’s every misfortune. For instance she is expected to write letters of apology to a boy who lost a spelling Bee, a woman who broke her hip and to someone whose marmalade didn’t set correctly! Both the characters and world building are very interesting and I actually laughed at loud at some of the dialogue which was quite witty. The narration was excellent. I have a group of recommendees who will love this.

    LANE: A CASE FOR WILLOWS AND LANE, Book 1 by Peter Grainger – A short but surprisingly engaging thriller that is basically Sisters Are Doin’ It for Themselves. The thriller/suspense category is one I usually avoid because I hate to be scared but thankfully this was relatively low on violence and while women are threatened throughout the book they are neither tortured nor sexually assaulted which is refreshing.

    A SPLENDID DEFIANCE by Stella Riley – (audiobook) I read this years ago but decided to give it a listen. Excellent narration. The story is set during the English Civil war and is heavier on the history than the romance which is fine when done this well.

    LIKE NO OTHER LOVER by Julie Anne Long – 2nd book in the Pennyroyal Green series. Not quite as good as the first in the series but still very good. The writing is strong and the characters are believable and mature (in behavior rather than years)even when faced with the irrationality of falling in love.

    comfort re-reads
    THE MORGESONS by Elizabeth Stoddard – my very very favorite discovery from an earlier extensive binge into underread women writers whose work is now available through the public domain. A really fascinating book written in 1862. Somewhat Jane Eyre-ish in parts which seems to be what Stoddard was going for and yet the style and heroine are remarkably unsentimental.

    FAKING IT by Jennifer Crusie – my favorite of all her books with the best mediocre sex ever! I love sexy and confident non alpha heroes.

    Good
    TRAPPING A DUCHESS – Michelle Bekemeyer
    This has an interesting premise but the whole is a bit of a mess. A Duke and his former fiancee are attempting to manage the inevitably awkward social interactions 7 years after she left him standing at the altar. The match had originally been arranged by their fathers although why the marriage was to take place when she, Sophie, was only seventeen is just one of the many things left unexplained. Throughout the book Andrew’s (the duke) actions are manipulative and his motivations are unclear and erratic. Sophie’s motivations, not wanting to get married because all the men she has ever known including her father, brother and former fiance are overbearing bullies, are well founded but as written she seems immature. They are both quick to anger and to withdraw from any conversation that might address Sophie’s legitimate concerns. I suspect some of the problems are the result of being (possibly?) a first effort. I will at least skim read book 2.

    THE WEAVER TAKES A WIFE by Sheri Cobb South (part of Audible’s romance package). Short, Cute. My ongoing attempt to find Georgette Heyer like books for my wonderful sister.

    Meh
    SOME GIRLS BITE by Chloe Neill
    This wasn’t very good. The world building is minimal, everything happens in too compressed a time period for the emotions to be believable and the female lead is basically a vampiric Mary Sue. There are many books in this series so I have to assume it improves but I won’t be continuing with it.

  26. Kathy says:

    It was a reading month with a startling divide. The books tended to be either very good or very bad. Several DNFs, something that is unusual for me. I am either getting more picky, or I have bought a lot of cr*p this month. Most of the good has already received mileage on the Bitchery–doesn’t hurt to plug it again, they are all worth reading or even re-reading.

    For the good:
    Taking advice from the Bitchery I read Emma Barry and Genevieve Turner’s engaging FLY ME TO THE MOON series, which stands at five books now. As a child of the sixties, I thoroughly enjoyed all of them, although I understood the complaints about the last one, FREE FALL, which deals with a large age-gap between the hero and heroine. She was in many ways more sophisticated than he was, which made it work for me, but there were some moments of discomfort even I had a hard time dismissing. The authors did a great job of taking us back, Mad Men fashion, to the sixties, as well as the forties and fifties. It sometimes gave them permission to show behavior which wouldn’t be acceptable now, from smoking to some dreadful male sexism, but the books didn’t seem to cash in on that enough to bother me, and even in some ways showed how men and women navigated the bs to have rich and fulfilling relationships.

    I am a little tired of STEM heroines, especially ones who might as well be baking cupcakes for all you hear about their jobs. Nevertheless, I picked up and enjoyed Susanna Nix’s STEM trilogy, REMEDIAL ROCKET SCIENCE, INTERMEDIATE THERMODYNAMICSand ADVANCED PHYSICAL CHEMISTRY, which were fun, flirty and romantic. The second, in particular, actually dealt with on-the-job issues of working in a science based field and drew me in to its lovely romance. By the third, we spent more time with the knitting club than the sciences, but maybe that’s about right! The first one is free, and the second may still be on sale in the US (but not here in the UK).

    The Rita awards forced me finally to read Alexis Daria. Of course, all the praise was well deserved and I loved both of the DANCE OFF Books, with the second even better than the first. Her style of romance reminds me a little of Alisha Rai in that they are both truly, even despairingly edge-of-the-seat romantic.

    I enjoyed Allyssa Cole’s new Reluctant Royals book A DUKE BY DEFAULT more than many of the reviews lead me to believe I would. I was rather indifferent to the first of this series, so I was pleased that the second engaged me. It is not so much that I disagree with most of the complaints—it is more that when the romance works I can usually dismiss the ridiculous plot fantasies. I am a bit irked that women who are happily gulping down Tessa Dare’s moronic Scots plots (I read them with enthusiasm too) and improbable billionaire falls for the secretary stories are now complaining that Cole is ignoring the intricacies of the Scottish laws of inheritance and peerage in this contemporary romance. Jeesh. I did think we might have had a bit more sword porn and female sword competence, but that is a small complaint.

    For believable British contemporary, I read Talia Hibbert’s UNTOUCHABLE, which I really, really, really loved. The lipstick!!! The angst!!! The texting with her sister!!! The HOT sex and hotter hero!!! I have not read another contemporary author who writes England so accurately and her portrayals of autism and depression seem realistic to me. I reliably enjoy everything she writes from her incredible books to her Frolic Media blog posts. Hibbert is offering the first of the Ravenswood series, A GIRL LIKE HER, for free for the rest of August (I think) if you want to start at the beginning of this series. And they are also available on KU. Quite frankly TH is at the top of my list these days.

    I enjoyed Roxanne St Claire’s DOUBLE DOG DARE which came out a couple of weeks ago. She writes very white-bread romance, but she does it well and her Dogfather series is fun and lovable. There are tears as well as laughter, and some great dogs, if that is your catnip.

    Finally, I have continued with my summer #romanceclass reading. What a remarkable group—the output is consistently high. FEELS LIKE SUMMER and SOUNDS LIKE SUMMER by Six de los Reyes and and WHAT KIND OF SUMMER by Mina V. Esguerra are as good as anything I’ve read this year. They are definitely not American or even European, which for me was part of the charm. I loved the food descriptions! They are also romantic and relatable. I will be sorry when I finally catch up with the output of these talented Philippine women and can’t find a new title to pull me out of a reading slump.

    The DNF dross (YMMV): Man Candy by Lila Score and At the Stroke of Midnight by Tara Sivec. The latter got some good reviews for its fairy tale retelling but both employ the sort of vulgar humour that doesn’t work for me. I feel like they are trying too hard for the laughs, while the romance is non-existent. Little Pink Taxi by Marie Laval—I am not a fan of twee British romance and although I tried, this one is painfully stupid. Not a believable character in the book and the gangsters are laughable. But the worst is that I didn’t care if the hero and heroine ever got together. The Opposite of Wild by Kylie Gilmore and True Colours by Judith Arnold were both free from Bookbub. Small town romance at its most saccharine and banal. I would be better off cancelling my Bookbub email, but just when I decide to, they offer a winner.

    I began to despair of finding a good book for awhile mid-month, so I thought I might try Phrynne Fisher after reading some enthusiastic comments here. But I couldn’t get into the first one—maybe I will be in the mood this winter, so I might try again later.

    Looking forward to Beverley Jenkins’ Second Time Sweeter, Tessa Dare’s The Governess Game and mopping up the rest of the #romanceclass reads. Let’s hope there are some unlooked for gems as well as I move into Autumn reading, although I may be too busy to spend as much time as I did this month.

  27. Julia aka mizzelle says:

    Alyssa Cole’s Agnes Moor’s Wild Knight. I remembered I hadn’t finished this when Duke by Default came out. Loved the scenes at court.

    Cowboy Pride by Lacy Williams. This was the Overdrive’s Big Library Read. Pride & Prejudice meets westerns. I actually didn’t hate it (and I’m not a western fan really), but it really needed editing near the end.

    Romancing the Werewolf by Gail Carriger. Warm fuzzies m/m werewolf romance. But I wouldn’t recommend reading it unless you’ve read her earlier series.

    Underwater Ballroom Society anthology edited by Stephanie Burgis & Tiffany Trent. LOVED it! Such a fun mix of fantasy and historical and romance in the different stories.

  28. nehouse says:

    Thanks to a SBTB recommend, I’ve been reading Jennifer Holiday, 49th Floor Novels this past week. Are billionaires the contemporary “Dukes” of romance? Fun, real characters with real problems money can’t solve. I’ll be going further into her backlist.

  29. Susannah says:

    CLOCKWORK BOYS by T. Kingfisher was an absolute delight. Funny and delightful (and the premise is that all the characters are facing certain death in what is almost guaranteed to be an unsuccessful mission. Am now reading the sequel.

    A DRAGON OF A DIFFERENT COLOR by Rachel Aaron which is fourth in the series. I’ve enjoyed the first three, but I am finding with this one that there is one plot line (dragon shenanigans) I care much more for than the other one (the survival of humanity).

    MURDERBOT was (as noted above) both short and expensive, but also highly enjoyable and the kind of book I can pass on to my husband which makes it easier to justify the price.

  30. AmyS says:

    Good books for me this month:
    WAR & LOVE by Winter Renshaw – – kept me turning the pages to see how the hero could be redeemable since he starts the relationship on a lie and must continue to lie to her throughout.

    THE FIRST TIME AT FIRELIGHT FALLS by Julie Anne Long – – I love her historicals and have tried each one of the books in this new contemporary series without success….until this one. This ex-SEAL, now grade school principal ticked off all my boxes!

    DON’T FIGHT IT by Samantha A. Cole – – new to me author with a winner ménage that starts with a married gay couple who are mourning the loss of their wife/mother of their daughter. Did I mention that the husbands were Cowboys? Oh, yes they are!

    STUD IN THE STACKS by Pippa Grant — she had me at (male) hot librarian with a romance book blog.

  31. MaryK says:

    @Kathy – “I am a bit irked that women who are happily gulping down Tessa Dare’s moronic Scots plots (I read them with enthusiasm too) and improbable billionaire falls for the secretary stories are now complaining that Cole is ignoring the intricacies of the Scottish laws of inheritance and peerage.”

    To me, the difference is that while billionaire/secretary stories are improbable they’re not impossible, whereas laws of inheritance and peerage pretty much do make creative inheritance impossible.

  32. Anna says:

    I had a rough start to August, so I went to Sarah Maclean’s “recommendations” page on her website and downloaded a dozen that I hadn’t already read that sounded good. I binged Louisa Edwards’ Recipe For Love chef/kitchen based series, which I really enjoyed. I couldn’t get into the first one, so I skipped to the second and it was excellent from there on. I also really enjoyed Jenny Holiday’s IT TAKES TWO, best friend’s older brother/secret crush. Alyssa Cole’s A DUKE BY DEFAULT was SO good!!! I liked it way better than the first one. I finally also read DREAMING OF YOU, and now I kind of get where all those Derek Craven fans are coming from, but it’s still not my favorite Lisa Kleypas. I read Sonali Dev’s THE BOLLYWOOD BRIDE, which I thought was intereseting. I really liked Julie James’ A LOT LIKE LOVE. I enjoyed Eloisa James’ BORN TO BE WILDE, and I actually think this may have been my favorite in this series. I’ve also been re-reading a lot, although I’m trying to limit that so I can read some of the new stuff. I’ve just been really unhappy with a lot of the new books that I’ve read, even from authors that I generally love!! I’ve had at least two auto-buy authors get put back on the “request from the library first” list, which is disappointing to me. On the other hand I read a few very good books this month, so I guess it wasn’t bad overall. Hopefully September will be better!

  33. Lulinke says:

    Just finished Spinning Silver, which was just amazing. You get your HEA, your Jewish heroine, the political mastermind, competence porn…. In any case, dearly loved. I adored Uprooted but could skip 1/3 of it and enjoy it more. This one was occasionally suspenseful but compulsively readable.

  34. Deianira says:

    I just finished rereading an omnibus volume from my Favorites Shelf – Sharon Lee & Steve Miller’s “The Dragon Variation.”. It’s three short novels which are essentially Regency romances (arranged marriages, duty to clan, exquisite manners, wealth, class differences, ruthlessness) with a space opera overlay (three interstellar species – although only two, Terran and Liaden, appear in these). One heroine, Aelliana, is “the foremost mathematical mind on the planet” which appeals to my own geeky sensibilities. There are more books in the series – it’s a family saga – but none of the others wedged themselves into my heart. These three, though… I have World of Warcraft characters named from them!

    On the non-fiction side, I’m currently reading “The Sociopath Next Door” by Martha Stout. Having know a few people in my life who I suspect are sociopaths – including an ex-sister-in-law – I find my self nodding inrecognition a lot.

  35. LauraL says:

    @KateB – you described The Duke I Tempted perfectly! I loved the way Poppy figured out what the Duke needed. The gardening/botanical part was a bonus to me. I am looking forward to Scarlett Peckman’s next book.

    Looking back, it was almost all contemporaries this month, due to my annual Beach Book Quest. Most notable was All We Ever Wanted by Emily Giffin, a REALLY contemporary read, as the story revolves around a picture posted on social media during a teen’s party. Definitely puts the spotlight on entitlement and kids’ ignorance of consequences. I really enjoyed Beach House Reunion by Mary Alice Monroe, especially after seeing the movie based on the previous books on the Hallmark Channel earlier this summer. And there are sea turtles. Last night, I finished Dune Drive by Mariah Stewart and, as always, enjoyed my visit to the Chesapeake Bay.

    Then I started reading Love at Last by Claudia Connor and fell asleep Kindle in hand before renewing my membership in the Bad Decisions Book Club. The author has a knack for getting me all wrapped up in the main characters, this time a veterinarian and a teacher. I caught myself thinking about the story when I saw Halloween decorations (already!) while out shopping today.

    After all this modern angst, I am looking forward to finding The Governess Game by Tessa Dare on my Kindle Tuesday morning.

  36. Paula says:

    @Rebecca, I just read the second Guido la Vespa book, ‘Talk to the Hand Model.’ I couldn’t resist the title and I am so glad for that, because I thought the book was a hoot! I loved the heroine. So now I’ll check out the other books in the series. I’m not Canadian, but I do have a Vespa and I appreciated the animal-rescue side story in ‘Talk to the Hand Model.’

  37. Shana says:

    My favorite reads this month were surprisingly sci fi, not romance: The Stone Sky by N.K. Jemisin and Akata Warrior from Nnedi Okorafor. Jemisin is so talented that I worry she’s ruined me for other writers and Akata Warrior made me want to eat Nigerian food all day long. Since it’s billed as an African Harry Potter I hope there are more books to come!

    Other faves:

    Once Upon Marquess by Courtney Milan – interracial couple, a twisty turn-y trope-busting plot that kept me guessing and the most memorably hilarious secondary characters ever.

    Meanwhile, I read a bunch of just ok M/Ms:

    Annabeth Albert’s Out of Uniform series — heavy with age differences, and inarticulate alphas. Squared Away was probably my fave. Asexual relationship, ethnically diverse characters, and a wacky setup with two uncles raising their dead siblings kids together

    R.G. Alexander’s Finn Factor series – memorable, interesting characters but weirdly heteronormative sex.

    DNF:

    Proof by Seduction by Courtney Milan – I didn’t think it was possible for me to dislike a Milan novel, but when the hero went alphahole and started sexually pressuring the heroine, I was out.

    A Kind of Justice by Renee James – Mystery with a trans woman protagonist but the transphobic antagonist was just too gross for me to handle.

  38. Allyson McGill says:

    I love Tana French!

  39. LML says:

    @DIscoDollyDeb, I enjoyed reading about your reading, but one title in particular yanked me back to the late 70s so fast I almost had whiplash. I read a book where the heroine had sex with a complete stranger in a stalled dark elevator car. A complete stranger! I was shocked (and young…). I even think they were extracted in the dark and never saw one another or exchanged names. And perhaps her OB/GYN “fired” her because (you know there’s a baby coming or there wouldn’t be a book here, right?) he found himself falling in love. Ah, books. Thanks for the memory.

  40. Summer sucks—this is this second one in a row that I can count the number of books I managed to read on one hand. I’m really starting to wish we can junp from mid-May to October just to avoid the crap that happens during the summer.

    I bought a bunch of books—even some paperbacks, but haven’t made it through any of them.

    The furthest I got was about 100 pages into Little Girl Lost by Wendi Corsi Staub. It is a mystery involving a serial killer in NYC in 1968 abd 1987. My main issue with it was that every single character was black, but the author was white. Whenever they talked about how bad they had it, I felt like I was reading a summary of a history book. I also wondered how often black families actually talked about how much they struggled because that’s pretty much all these characters talked about, so it was very depressing. Also, because it took place in 1987, there was a lot of focus on what happened in Howard Beach in December of 86. (For those that didn’t grow up in that lovely little shithole, a group of white, Italian teenagers murdered a group of black men who wandered into the neighborhood when their car broke down.). I’m sure there was a lot of talk going on about that in the following year, but the author even made the partner (they’re cops) of one of the characters a friend of one of the killers. I really wish that the author was black. This could have been a great story if it was “own voices.”

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