It’s Whatcha Reading time! This is where you tell us all about what you’ve been reading. The good, the bad, and the in between. Because let’s be honest, we’re all here to wreck our TBR pile.
Yesterday was also Black Friday! Did you score any book deals? We want to know!
Elyse: I’m reading The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). I just started it so I haven’t really formed an opinion yet
Amanda: I’ve started How to Tame a Beast in Seven Days by Kerrelyn Sparks ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). The world building is interesting, but so far, it’s a bit slow. I’m 50+ pages in, the hero and heroine haven’t met yet, and I’m getting antsy.
RHG: I am reading Lady Derring Takes a Lover by Julie Ann Long ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) and it is DELIGHTFUL and I’ve been giggling a lot. In public! Where people can see!
I’ll be starting Lucy Maude Montgomery’s The Blue Castle ( A | BN | K | AB ), about a woman who gets a terminal diagnosis and decides to rebuild her life to something she actually enjoys living. You know, Last Holiday (that RomCom with Queen Latifa?), but old timey and Canadian.
Sarah: I’m listening to Evans Above by Rhys Bowen ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), and I’m just about to start Love a la Mode Stephanie Kate Strohm ( A | BN | K | G | AB ).
Carrie: I’m on vacation reading Tessa Dare’s The Governess Game ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). Couldn’t be better vacation choice!
What did you read this month? Update us in the comments!
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My cat broke my glasses this week, the horror! My current glasses are superglued together, my new glasses will be ready in a week, and my Kindle font size is up +1 to see through superglue.
Faves
– SOULLESS / CHANGELESS / BLAMELESS / HEARTLESS / TIMELESS by Gail Carriger – and the reread continues! I bought the new illustrated edition of SOULLESS and it is so cute!
– CREATURES OF WANT & RUIN by Molly Tanzer – prohibition, cults, boats, and eldritch horrors!
– BAND SINISTER by KJ Charles – ahhhhhh, it’s adorable! If you need an m/m historical to cheer you up, this is it.
– CHRISTOPHER AND HIS KIND by Christopher Isherwood (audiobook) – a memoir of Isherwood’s life and love affairs in Berlin (mostly) between 1929-39. Gossipy and classist, but that’s very much Isherwood’s style.
– WICKED & THE WALLFLOWER by Sarah MacLean – my very first MacLean! So great, kept picturing Cillian Murphy in Peaky Blinders as Devil. Very good.
Good
– THE PHOENIX EMPRESS by K. Arsenault Rivera – f/f epic fantasy, so great.
– THE CHANGELING by Victor LaValle (audiobook) – naturalistic horror (which is all the more horrifying), with Norse mythology and old books!
– THE CLOCKMAKER’S DAUGHTER by Kate Morton – a house with history wrecks some havoc!
– THE WITCH OF WILLOW HALL by Hestor Fox – um, same?
Currently Reading
– MASTER & COMMANDER by Patrick O’Brian (audiobook) – I don’t know if I’m enjoying it as much as I thought I would. Kinda wishing there were dragons…
– WE SOLD OUR SOULS by Grady Hendrix – yesssssss
I haven’t read a lot this month but I did read The Hollow Of Fear by Sherry Thomas and A Plus I have a tonne of feelings
Mortal Plot by Genevieve Cogman: The latest in the Library series. I like the series, but not enough to buy it, so I get it from my own library. Which seems appropriate 🙂
Brightest Fell by Seanan McGuire: Latest October Daye. Best thing was the Luidaeg singing ‘Poor Unfortuate Souls’ (the SeaWitch’s song from Little Mermaid) at Karaoke night.
Graveyard of the Hesperides by Lindsey Davis. Meh. These are slow-moving, but I like Flavia.
Delerium Brief by Charles Stross: Finally, some A+ material! especially the second half.
Sovereign by CJ Sansom: Latest in the Matthew Shardlake mysteries as Our Hero continues to get more and more jaded. This one makes plain that Henry VIII was a total asshole. Sansom does a good Tudor worldbuild.
It ended badly by Jennifer Wright. This may have been recommended here. Anyway, VERY light discussion of bad breakups in history, including Nero and Poppea, Caroline and Byron, and Edith Wharton and someone.
Red Waters Rising by Laura Anne Gilman: Latest in The Devil’s West series. Continues to be a good worldbuild, but not gripping.
Look Alive 25 by Janet Evanovich: I still like Stephanie Plum, and this is a decent entry in the series.
Next up: The Diviners by Libba Bray.
Okay, I’ve still been struggling with reading, but I’ve still done better than last month. I’m also reading lots of cookie recipes because cold = cookie cravings.
The Good
“Posted” by John David Anderson. This was a book I checked out on a whim. A junior high read (probably too young to be YA) about a group of geeky boys (think about the core group in Stranger Things) deal with growing apart and bullying. This was just a really good book, emotional but more fun than angsty. My favorite thing? There is an awesome female character and at first it feels like it’s going to be the cliche of her ruining everything for thur boys, but instead she saves the day in so many awesome ways. No romance, just friendships.
The Okay
“An Expert in Murder” by Nicola Upson. Josephine Tey (a real life mystery writer) solves a murder in 1930s. Not too twee, not too dark and I love the time period.
“A Fatal Grace” by Louise Penny. Procedural in snowy French Canada. This didn’t hit quite all the notes for me. I found some of it fat shaming? Even from the “good characters” a bit. But I loved the setting and found the detective promising. I liked he was happily married and seemed low angst. I know it’s a popular long running series, so I will probably keep going.
“Four Funerals and Maybe a Wedding” by Rhys Bowen. I may be done with this series. This one was fine, but the reoccurring problems come up again. Georgie not only seems to regress in intelligence for the sake of the plot, but she still goes through bouts of jealousy/distrust of Darcy even though they’ve hashed this out before at least once. Also, Georgie is kind of classist and snobby in a way that is totally realistic for her time period, but kind of annoying for a modern reader.
She hates garlic (way too spicy and “Continental” for her) and I don’t need that kind of negativity in my life. (shrug).
Kink. I’ve been reading kink in November.
MARRIAGE GAMES and SEPARATION GAMES by CD Reiss – I am not the target audience for BDSM romance, especially when the female protagonist turns out to be an outright masochist. Fortunately, her estranged husband is a conflicted sadist, making this another sexual fetish romance where the missing piece meets the big O. My frustration with the conundrum that forms their basic conflict (
) did give me a lot to think about re: activity vs identity when it comes to sex and relationships. However, I disliked the itty bitty chapters and one book stretched into two…especially if the latter was done just so the author could pause dramatically after delivering the completely non-shocking ending to the first book.
CROSSTOWN CRUSH by Cara McKenna – I was reading the comments in the Childfree Romance rec league when this book caught my eye because I had no idea what a cuckold fetish was. Now I do. I really enjoyed the beginning where the wife is wholeheartedly throwing herself into fantasy roleplaying her husband’s fetish; however, I am not programmed for ménage, so when they decided to actualize that roleplay, my delight took a downturn. I was also disappointed when the wife and the lover had a discussion where their respective kinks (exhibitionism and …ménage? troilism?) were deemed acceptable in the shade of the husband’s kinkier kink. Sort of “if we’re going to embrace THAT, then we have nothing to be embarrassed about ourselves.” (Back in March, I read Eve Dangerfield’s Act Your Age and was frustrated because it didn’t spoonfeed me any analysis of daddy kink. After Crosstown Crush, I realize those explanations can easily come across as pathologizing the kink, so now I’m grateful Dangerfield didn’t go there. Still ignorant, but grateful. Act Your Age is a mixed bag of a book which leverages the characters’ age difference in interesting ways. Worth a read, though I think some people could be alienated by the unpretty roleplaying scenario dictated by the hero.)
NICHOLAS by Elizabeth Amber – This is entirely the bitchery’s fault. Somebody in a sale thread last month wrote “glowing fairy nipples” and I had to go there. I skipped from the prologue, in which our hero and his two brothers and their six penes were banging the mystic version of blowup dolls, to the last 10% where…I dunno. There was some kind of fem cult assaulting the heroine with magic dildoes (the evil ringleader is orgasmed to death), then the heroine was drugged to have sex with the hero and his two brothers and their six penes (but it was totally consensual except not), then the hero and heroine had to have sex in the dirt to combat a phylloxera invasion that was threatening his vineyard. I’m sure it would all make sense if I had read the middle of the book (in which case, I am very sorry for the spoilers). Based on the cover copy, this erotica seems to embrace the old school romantic fantasy of a licentious hero discovering that his unassuming heroine is woman enough for him to be faithful, but all the bits I read seemed to be more geared to male sexual fantasies. I want to thank my amazing library for having this book in their Overdrive inventory.
ostensibly less kinky reading starts here
CROSS BREED by Lora Leigh – I might have enjoyed this more if I had read some of the 31 (!) novels of The Breeds that must precede it. It’s not that I was confused by the worldbuilding or the various alliances; it’s that the heroine was such a remarkable, extraordinary example of a “breed” with her hybrid breed/human genetics and two strains of animal DNA and mystical abilities. By book 32 an author might feel the need to level up her paranormal characters to retain the interest of loyal fans, but as an introductory read, the heroine just came across as too special to stomach. Also, I noticed a disturbing trend in which past protagonists were introduced as “[earlier hero’s name] and his mate.” I really don’t like it when a female character who was presumably interesting in her own story is downgraded to an accessory. But I can’t deny the epilogue has me looking forward to book 33 (!!) because somebody owes someone
a huge grovelan explanation.SILENT BLADE by Ilona Andrews – The hero’s character was too underdeveloped for this to be a good romance, and I suspect the novella is too romance-focused to appeal to non-romance fans of speculative fiction. It’s like a story stranded between two audiences. I do think there are some interesting talking-points about the relationship, but they’re all spoilers, so…gah! I need a reading group. On the plus side: even in this short work, the authors make in-depth worldbuilding look effortless. When The Kinsmen Universe is released next month, I’ll definitely be checking out their new short story set in this universe.
For the rest of the month, I’ll be reading my backlog of Kindle Unlimited titles before my underutilized subscription expires.
Not a terribly active reading month for me. I’m gearing up to my busiest month at work (Church-land), so reading is mostly happening as I exercise, and maybe a few minutes before crashing at night.
I got mostly through A Duke By Default (Alyssa Cole) before Overdrive returned it on me. I’m now back on the waiting list to borrow it again so that I can finish the last 100 pages!
And so in the meantime I’m reading Bountiful (Sarina Bowen) – I love her True North series, and this one is living up to my expectations for the series so far.
Today, I’m going to be re-reading a tragic novella called Wenjack as I will be leading a book discussion on it tomorrow evening for work.
My only winner this month was the one I had the most reservations about before starting: CRUEL BEAUTY by Rosamund Hodge. It’s labeled as a Beauty and the Beast retelling (hence my reservations), but other than “young woman goes to live in creepy castle with cursed dude,” it’s refreshingly free of obnoxious Disneyfied fairy tale references (hoorah!). The beauty in this scenario, Nyx, falls under the “unlikable” heroine heading—she’s bitter about being groomed from birth to be sacrificed to this monster, so she starts out predisposed to sharp words and knives rather than being a sparkling sunbeam of kindness and compassion. The beast, Ignifex, is absolutely delighted by her from the moment she tries to stab him. Part of his curse is granting the wishes of people who seek him out and ignore his warnings about the well-publicized negative consequences of wish fulfillment and then blame him when the scenario they initiated and insisted upon carrying out goes to shit exactly as was foretold (playing upon my fondness for djinn stories). It’s quite dark, so the HEA took serious work, which made it all the more satisfying.
Elyse, I hope you’ll be reviewing ‘The Proposal’ because I’m still on the fence about getting it – I didn’t really love ‘The Wedding Date’ (ugh, I couldn’t stand Drew) but I did like Carlos so I’m curious about his book.
A big thank-you to the reader who recommended Mira Lyn Kelly’s ‘May the Best Man Win’ in a previous Whatcha Reading – this was such a fun and tightly written book, with very likable characters and surprising emotional depths. Between this and Jenny Holiday’s delightful ‘Bridesmaids Behaving Badly’ series, I think I may have a thing for books about wedding drama!
I also read Suleikha Snyder’s wonderful ‘Tikka Chance on Me’, which might actually be my all-time favorite contemporary novella. Despite the short length, she’s not only managed to fit fully-realized characters, lots of funny lines, and real heart into the story, but also kept a genuine sense of tension right up to the end of the book. She’s a gifted writer, and I don’t think I’d ever read a book about motorcycle clubs otherwise.
The Fated Mates podcast got me trying Kresley Cole’s ‘Immortals After Dark’ series but I found the first couple of books a bit…dated? I certainly appreciated the fast-paced writing, fun pop culture references, and kick-ass Valkyries, but the heroes were truly awful. I’m not really one for the fated mates trope because of the lack of agency (for either protagonist) but the men in her novels were definitely of the toxic masculinity variety, and that just-keep-wearing-her-down-until-she-gives-in MO was incredibly off-putting, especially in the face of so much resistance from the heroines. Question for the Bitchery: Is it just the earlier books which err on this old-school toxic alpha slant? Do the books (and men) get better later on?
Currently reading: Josh Lanyon’s ‘Seance on a Summer’s Night’, which was previously serialized on the author’s Patreon. Deliciously spooky mystery with a crumbling mansion, grieving relatives, alarmed household staff, ghostly visitors, and a medium who’s faking it – or is she? I love Josh so I’m obviously biased but it’s always a great day whenever she has a new release.
My top read this month was ONE DAY IN DECEMBER by Josie Silver. I didn’t like the book initially and nearly quit reading, as the heroine starts out in NA range, there’s literal love at first sight, and there’s a Big Secret that she should have just mentioned. These are three big “nopes” for me, but I stuck with it and I’m glad I did. The novel covers many years and is more a coming-of-age story than a romance, although there is a lovely romance in it. I particularly liked that relationships sometimes ended without anyone being a bad person; sometimes, it just isn’t the right fit even if both partners want it to be.
I also read a bunch of holiday themed novellas, most of which were forgettable. There were two stories in Mary Balogh’s Christmas collection UNDER THE MISTLETOE that I particularly liked (The Best Gift and Playing House), and a silly farce by Victoria Alexander called WHAT HAPPENS AT CHRISTMAS. That novel was deliberately ridiculous, but I found it entertaining.
This week I’ve been finishing a re-read of Sarina Bowen’s True North series, which I really love, and some of Penny Reid’s Knitting in the City and Winston Brothers books, along with Ilona Andrews’ Clean Sweep books. Am I the only one who failed to realize that the Clean Sweep books are connected to The Edge series? I think I read the Clean Sweep books first, and then took a long enough break before The Edge to not notice the character crossover, but still, I’m feeling pretty oblivious!
I’m hoping to read THE ROYAL RUNAWAY by Lindsay Emory, and I want to read some holiday books, like A CHRISTMAS DATE by Camilla Isley and THE CHRISTMAS WISH by Tilly Tennant.
I’ve also been watching lots of holiday rom-coms. They are my comfort food, especially this time of year when family situations/gatherings can get a bit stressful.
Is it the last Saturday of November already?Dang
Read:
ARCHENEMIES by Marissa Meyer
I anticipated this book for a year and then actually got to get it at a Book signing for the first time ever, so that was awesome. As for the book itself I adored it, but it was a little obvious that it was intended to be a duology and was the stretched out three thanks to Meyer’s publisher and the ending suffered for it. However, if your a fan of Marissa Meyer I still recommend picking it up.
THE LUCK of the BRIDE by Janna MacGregor
This book was pretty good with an adorable down on her luck heroine who raised her siblings after their parents died. Desperate poverty forces her to embezzle money from her own funds she wasn’t quite old enough to receive.Also her 9-year-old brother is adorable without being a plot moppet and I like the hero for the most part, although he can come across as a little whiny at times. Anothrr problem is her life seems to run on Murphy’s law without her having much agency in it st all, bad things just keep happening to her and to the point where it just gets depressing. Because of that a lot of the conflicts feel forced, especially the “black moment”.
Reading:
FOR the DUKE’S EYES ONLY by Lenora Bell
If you historical accuracy or depth this isn’t the book for you. However, if you just want the Female-focused Indiana JonesxJames Bond crossover you never knew you needed pick this one up, it’s a super fun book. Also it’s quite high on the heat scale , so if that’s not your thing you might wanna skip this one .
DNF:
RENEGADES by Marissa Meyer
The only reason I didn’t finish this re-read is because ARCHENEMIES came out before I finished it. As always Meyer delivers with this one and it feels far less fillery than ARCHENEMIES.
Prior to the election, for obvious reasons, it was hard to settle my mind enough to grapple with new books, so I immersed myself in comfort re-reads of some of my favorite books: Kati Wilde’s SECRET SANTA and THE MIDWINTER MAIL-ORDER BRIDE, A. Zavarelli’s TAP LEFT, Katee Robert’s UNDERCOVER ATTRACTION, Cara McKenna’s AFTER HOURS and WILLING VICTIM/BRUTAL GAME. After November 6, I felt able to read new books again—with some of the same mixed-bag results as the election had.
I enjoyed Molly O’Keefe’s THE COWBOY, the fourth and final book in the King Family series (O’Keefe wrote the first book in the series, the other two books were written by different authors). When the heroine appeared as a supporting character in the previous three books, I found it hard to warm up to her, she seemed impulsive and self-destructive; but in THE COWBOY, we see her in a new light: she’s trying hard to figure out her path and why her previous relationships with men have failed. The hero is a former rodeo cowboy recovering from a career-ending injury and trying to come to grips with his own past. Their relationship develops in a bumpy fashion with stops and starts and an anonymous sex angle. (Also, if you like romances where animals almost become secondary characters themselves, the heroine’s two mismatched dogs and the hero’s beautiful horse completely fit the bill.) Not the best of the four books (that would be O’Keefe’s THE TYCOON), but a worthwhile read and a solid ending to the series.
Eve Dangerfield’s SO WILD is the first book in her new Silver Daughters series about three sisters who have to run their father’s tattoo business when he decides to travel to places unknown. The heroine of SO WILD is the oldest sister (she’s a twin—but older by a few minutes); she’s very much a wild child: a tattoo artist who is unapologetically sexual and unashamed of her kink (being spanked). She reconnects with a former neighbor she hasn’t seen in ten years. The couple have a very complicated history going back to childhood, and many issues (including class differences and teenage pranks that escalated to dangerous levels) must be resolved before they can achieve their HEA. Although SO WILD includes the humor, heart (puppies!), and consensual kink that are Dangerfield’s hallmarks, it suffers somewhat from “first book in a series” syndrome with the introduction of secondary characters and future conflicts cluttering some of the plot. However, because even mid-level Dangerfield is better than 90% of the romances out there, I recommend this book. And I’m hoping the next book in the series will feature the other twin sister: a very uptight woman unwillingly attracted to a hulking tattoo artist who is her opposite in every way. That one’s gonna be catnip city!
Another book featuring class differences was Tessa Bailey’s MAKE ME—a breezy friends-to-lovers story with serious undertones. The heroine is a virgin in her mid-twenties. She has spent most of her life chasing the approval of her hedge-fund manager father and her icy, withholding stepmother. She feels that she can never do anything wrong or anger anyone without losing their affection. One reason she likes the hero so much is that he doesn’t take his friendship away when she makes mistakes or inadvertently angers him. The hero is blue collar: he co-owns a construction company that he is hoping to expand. The hero’s darker sexual desires (along with the memory of the unhappy marriage of his socially-mismatched parents) makes him reluctant to pursue the heroine romantically. Will a weekend in the Hamptons change things?
One of the most intriguing romances I’ve encountered this year is Ella Fields’s BLOODSTAINED BEAUTY, which I read with a mounting level of anxiety and dread—and I mean that in a good way. As incident-upon-ominous-incident occurred, I found myself mentally yelling at the heroine to Stop! Pay Attention! Run! Part of what pulled me into the story is how neatly Fields confounds expectations about where things are going; she subverts many of the conventions of the romance genre: new adult, insta-love, age-gap, love triangle, fairy-tale reimagining. The heroine is quite young (23) and has had a somewhat sheltered upbringing. She is moving into her first apartment and starting her first post-college job—a kindergarten teacher at an upscale private school. One morning, she bumps into an older man on the sidewalk and drops her phone. The man picks up the phone; but, before he returns it to her, he programs in his own phone number. This is where I started shouting at the heroine: delete and block that number! But, instead, a whirlwind courtship ensues, resulting in an engagement within a few months. More red flags pop up for the reader, but the heroine fails to notice them or, if she does, discounts them—and, of course, her fiancé has answers for all her concerns. (Fields is really good at showing how plausible gaslighting excuses can seem, and also at showing the heroine’s naïveté as earnestly sweet rather than TSTL.) Meanwhile, the heroine has several unsettling encounters with the cold and condescending father of one of her students—another older man, one who seems to know far more about the heroine than he should. I kept thinking I knew where the story was going and then second-guessing myself—but the twisty (and, in parts, violent) plot continued to perplex me. Highly-recommended if you’re looking for something off the beaten path and don’t object to somewhat morally-compromised heroes.
I liked, but did not love, Sarina Bowen’s latest True North book, FIREWORKS. It was a nice second-chance romance with likable main characters and a very serious subplot involving opioids and fentanyl smuggling, but there were things about the story that didn’t ring true. For example, the heroine is on hiatus from her job at a New York tv station because she inadvertently drew a dick on-screen while outlining a traffic jam. Are New Yorkers really such pearl-clutchers that a traffic reporter would be put on leave for, ya know, showing where the traffic is? Secondly, the heroine has been living in New York for over a decade, but has an aw-shucks personality that seems totally at odds with a Big Apple vibe. Then there’s the fact that both hero & heroine think of the other as “the one that got away,” but neither of them have apparently conducted even the most cursory recent social media search to discover what the other is doing. It almost seems as if the relationship takes place in a world where being online is not a regular feature of daily life—which makes the darker elements of the story, including drug dealing and the long shadow of abusive behavior, even more out of tone. A sweet love story that seems to want to belong to another place and time.
Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward’s HATE NOTES has a very interesting premise: while at a consignment shop, the heroine finds a love letter from a man to his future bride in the lining of an unworn wedding dress. The heroine is so taken by the note, she decides to investigate why the couple never married. Through a series of events, the heroine starts working for the former groom—but he never discusses what happened to end his engagement. By halfway through the book, I was thinking it was going to be a rather run-of-the-mill “rich handsome guy overcomes his trust issues and learns to love again with the help of free-spirited-manic-pixie-dream-girl who has no problem calling him on his shit even though he’s her boss” story—not badly-written, but nothing we haven’t read multiple times. And then, when I was not expecting it, there was a very important reveal which puts the hero’s behavior in a whole new light and took the story in a very different—bittersweet, almost melancholy—direction.
[SPOILER AHEAD] Unlike HATE NOTES, SEX, NOT LOVE is a book written by Vi Keeland by herself, without her frequent collaborator Penelope Ward. I’ve liked several Vi Keeland books in the past, but my response to SEX, NOT LOVE was muted. First, it took too long for the reason behind the hero’s commitment issues to be revealed. Second, when it was finally revealed, that reason is a genetic condition that was used to excess in romance novels a few years ago to justify commitment issues. Third, using that condition to generate conflict seemed a rather lazy way to add drama—not to mention dismissive of those who actually live with the condition (because, in every fictional instance I can remember, medical testing showed that the concerned character did not actually have the disease). The book features a very likable heroine (a divorcee whose ex is in prison and who has custody of her teenage step-daughter), but the hero, as he see-saws between over-the-top cockiness and brooding unhappiness, just didn’t thread the needle for me. (As a side note, though, I do have to give Keeland kudos for addressing the ambivalence many women feel toward a man using the c-word during sexy-times).
[CW: suicide, children in danger, loss of a child] I’d never read anything by Aly Martinez, but THE DARKEST SUNRISE was a freebie download—and I blazed through it in an afternoon. It was beautifully-written and had an amazingly-propulsive plot that ended with a heart-stopping cliffhanger, so I was more than happy to pay for the sequel, THE BRIGHTEST SUNSET. I would classify these books less as romances and more as women’s fiction with strong romantic elements. Also, be warned that the books include suicide (off-page), child abduction, a chronically-ill child, children in danger, and the endless devastation of losing a child. There’s a bit of a Jodi Picoult feel to the story and an immense coincidence that requires some suspension of disbelief, but I would recommend this duet—if you’re up for some really heavy subject matter alongside the HEA.
I was unfamiliar with Cassia Leo, but I was attracted to her novella, TEMPERANCE, by its lovely sepia-toned cover. TEMPERANCE is part of the Cards of Love series with books (each one written by a different author and each with a similar moody sepia cover) inspired by cards from the tarot deck. TEMPERANCE is the story of a therapist who specializes in addictive behavior. She becomes involved with a patient who is in counseling because of his sexual addiction—and, yes, the heroine understands how transgressive, inappropriate, and damaging her behavior is; and, yes, she does attempt to end the relationship. Although well-written, I think the book would have been better had it been expanded to a full-length novel. There’s so much going on, it felt as if information was being crammed in at the expense of character development and plot.
TRAPPED and TAKEN, the first two books in Alison Aimes’s The Condemned series, are science fiction romances set in a dystopian future where Earth’s criminals are sent to an inhospitable planet to carve out a life as best they can (think “Escape from New York” on steroids). The heroines of the two books crash land on the prison planet when sent there with a scientific research expedition. The heroes are both unjustly condemned prisoners—one a scavenging loner, the other the leader of a mining gang—and they are both total alphas; but the heroines don’t take any crap, even when they’re physically outsized. Aimes’s world-building and character development are very good, particularly in TAKEN, much of which is set in an underground mining camp and has a runaway “breeder” heroine who has been implanted with a nano-chip that makes her sexual desires overwhelming (it sounds sleazy, but it works in the context of the story).
[CW: non-consensual sex] A few months ago, I read Pepper Winters’s DEBT INHERITANCE and did not care for it. My final takeaway was, “A man treating a woman abominably because he owns her,” and felt no interest in continuing the series. This month I read Natasha Knight’s Dark Legacy Duet, TAKEN (the second book with that title I’ve read this month) and TORN, and, despite having the exact same premise as Winters’s book (in every generation, a family must give one of their daughters to the son of a rival family to settle a centuries-old debt), I liked them so much more. Perhaps it was because Knight’s writing style is better or because she’s one of my go-to favorites (albeit with non-consensual sex, punishments of all varieties, and Stockholm-Syndrome-flavored love stories); or perhaps it was because Knight’s heroine is a feisty fighter who is determined to end the barbaric custom of one family’s daughters being “given” to another family’s sons; or perhaps it was because the hero, too, feels caught up in a tradition not of his liking or making (although that doesn’t stop his “claiming” of the heroine). Anyway, TAKEN and TORN will not be to everyone’s tastes, to put it mildly, but I enjoyed these books which are very much cut from the “Natasha Knight template.”
[CW: abduction, captivity, non-consensual sex] Willow Winters’s Merciless series (MERCILESS, HEARTLESS, BREATHLESS, and ENDLESS) is an extremely dark crime family story. The books put me in mind of both Skye Warren (the social isolation, the damaged protagonists) and Natasha Knight (the lack of consent, the twisted sexual games—both mental and physical). I like dark and angsty, but these books will definitely not appeal to everyone. The story concerns a crime boss who kidnaps a rival’s daughter and keeps her captive in a cell-like room until she submits to him. Is the heroine’s eventual capitulation to the hero motivated by love, strategic thinking, or Stockholm Syndrome? And does the hero love the heroine as he claims, or is he driven by the violence he received at the hands of the heroine’s father or the other traumas of his upbringing? The h&h’s complicated, intertwined backstories are uncovered gradually throughout the books. Winters never presents their extremely co-dependent (although frequently hot) sexual relationship as anything other than dysfunctional; the hero and (especially) the heroine are self-aware enough to understand that their relationship is unhealthy, but they seem unable to break their connection. As the heroine notes, “It takes a broken soul to know one,” and both of these characters are extremely broken.
Winters’s POSSESSIVE is a more traditional love story. Although the hero is still part of the crime family (he’s the brother of the hero in the Merciless series), there is none of the non-consensual element of the Merciless books. The heroine is the former girlfriend of the hero’s late younger brother. Both hero & heroine feel guilt about the younger man’s death—especially because of the unacknowledged attraction they’ve always felt for each other. The book ends in a rather abrupt way; I wouldn’t say it’s a cliffhanger exactly, it’s just that it left me with the feeling that there’s more to the story. The h&h do make occasional appearances in the Merciless books (including a long scene in BREATHLESS where the heroine has her tarot read), so their story does continue, but I’m still wondering if this couple will appear again as the MCs in a later book.
[I must make note of one writing quirk on Winters’s part: her reliance on and overuse of the word “smirk”—a word Winters used so frequently, I had to stop myself from counting its appearances. Winters uses “smirk” as if it’s a synonym for “smile” or “grin”. Since I associate “smirk” with sarcasm, it was odd to read about characters who “smirked sadly” or who “smirked” during a romantic encounter. A competent copy editor would have eliminated 99% of the smirks in these books.]
A few weeks ago, I scooped up a bunch of Harlequin category romances at a used book sale. Because the books were being sold by the bag, I didn’t pay much attention to authors, titles, or dates of publication—I’ve just been dipping into the pile and using whatever book shows up next as a sort of palate cleanser between other reads. I can’t say I’ve encountered any gems yet, but these are quick reads that get me ready for the next book on my tbr. Anne Mather’s HIS VIRGIN MISTRESS is an HP featuring the “adult son simultaneously desires and distrusts his father’s latest plaything” trope. Cathy Williams’s BOUGHT TO WEAR THE BILLIONAIRE’S RING was a fake-fiancée story that might have been more entertaining if the book didn’t suffer from one of the worst cases of “you’re not like other girls” I’ve recently encountered.
@Ren Benton, thank you, I am all but stupefied by the catnip you tossed.
@Maile, yes, they do get better as the series progresses, HOWEVER, the Alpha male thing is endemic to the series, so they do keep cropping up. HOWEVER, they learn their lessons at the hands of their true loves a little better. I particularly recommend Lotaire, although without reading all that comes before, I don’t know that you can fully appreciate how Elizabeth brings him down. He is one of the big bads in a lot of the books. My personal favorite is Dark Skye which has a nice take on the virgin hero trope. Delicious.
MY reading? The Brothers Sinister reread I started on my vacation (nothing distracts from the fact you’re on an airplane like Courtney Milan) came to a screeching halt last week when I realized I somehow have never purchased The Countess Conspiracy. How does that happen? Too many financial obligations to address the problem until after the New Year. Brakes or books? Christmas presents or books? Mortgage or books? The eternal conundrum.
The rest of my reading is best summed up as historical mystery with romantic elements. There was the first two books in Anna Lee Huber’s Verity Kent series. Post WWI mysteries with a protagonist who worked as a spy and a returned from the dead husband. She has some ISSUES.
Jennifer Ashley’s Scandal Above Stairs was a good, fun read in which Mrs Holloway gets a new assistant, a new mystery to solve and finds out where Daniel actually lives. Is there romance building between the unconventional Lady Cynthia and intellectual Mr. Thanos? Stay tuned.
The Art of Running In Heels was light and problematic, but it had a hockey team that’s actually winning, so….
I’ll be finishing up Charlaine Harris’ An Easy Death later today. A little different for her. There are still paranormal elements, but the story takes place in a alternative history where FDR was assassinated before taking office, the United States fell apart and got divided up and Czar Nicholas and his family were rescued (along with Rasputin, of course) and brought to the west coast where they now rule. Liking the protagonist, Gunnie Rose, immensely.
Next up will be the long delayed read of the new Guild Hunter book, Archangel’s Prophecy. It’s got Bad Decisions Book Club written all over it, so I was saving it for this long weekend when I could just wallow, but you know, life.
@Maile: What Deborah said! They do get better, but all the heroes are definitely in Alpha territory. Dark Skye was also my favorite until Wicked Abyss came out.
@DiscoDollyDeb: I just want you to know that I look forward to your Whatcha Reading comments every month!
Had another great reading month:
The Duchess War: my first Courtney Milan boom but will not be my last. Can’t believe it’s taken me so long to read her. Loved everything about this book especially the focus on social issues in the Victorian era.
A Girl Like Her by Talia Hibbert. Another great read that deals with issues like domestic abuse. Also loved the autistic representation. It didn’t feel like a plot device but just a part of who the heroine was. The hero was so nurturing and always stopped when the heroine said no. Consent in romance done right.
Never Judge a Lady by Her Cover by Sarah Maclean. I’ve loved every one of the Rules of Scoundrels series and this one is no exception. It sucked me in from beginning to end especially the swimming pool scene.
The Dark Days Club by Alison Goodman. This was a reread for me to prepare to finish this trilogy. YA regency England with a secret demon fighting club sanctioned by the Queen. Starts off a little slow but still a fantastic start to a series. Halfway through book 2 and loving it just as much.
Men Explain Things to Me by Rebecca Solnit. Wonderful feminist essays that should be required reading.
Currently reading: A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole (loving it), How the Dukes Stole Christmas Anthology (great to get in the holiday spirit) and Lady Killers by Tori Telfer on audio. Interesting nonfiction about various female serial killers throughout history.
Just when I think my reading slump is one, I find out otherwise. Part of the reason I didn’t read much this month is because I’m busy trying to watch everything I can on Filmstruck before the service ends. Even when I do read it’s taking me forever to get through books. Here’s the little I managed to read:
Someone to Trust by Mary Balogh- This was a sweet book. I liked the friends-to-lovers plot and the fact that it had an older heroine. It’s not one that will stick with me as being up there with Balogh’s great books, but it was solidly enjoyable.
Dr. Strange Beard by Penny Reid- I enjoyed this one, but not as much as others in the series.
Rebel Hard by Nalini Singh- By far my favorite read of the month. I loved how it dealt with Nayna’s need for independence. Raj was pretty amazing in how he supported her.
Donald Duck: Christmas on Bear Mountain by Carl Barks- I need to read a graphic novel for a reading challenge I’m doing. This maybe stretching the definition of graphic novel, but I’m okay with it. My dad’s a big Carl Barks fan so every Christmas we get him the collections that were published in that year. I think I probably should have went with a later collection where Scrooge was featured more, but it was still interesting to see how the Scrooge McDuck character originated.
A Duke by Night by Kelly Bowen- I enjoyed this one with its business-obsessed duke hero and a heroine who runs a very progressive academy for ladies.
Promise Me You by Marina Adair- I won this one in a Goodreads giveaway. The heroine is dealing with losing her sight due to a genetic condition and I found that aspect of the book interesting. However, the romance never quite worked for me despite being friends-to-lovers which I typically love.
I also didn’t finish The Mortal Word by Genevieve Cogman before my arc expired and I accidentally clicked out of it then couldn’t get back in despite being in airplane mode. It took me forever to get through what I did. I’m not sure how much was the story being slow and how much was my reading slump.
Now I’m reading Hot Winter Nights by Jill Shalvis and it’s fine so far, but I’m still reading at a slow crawl so it probably be a week before I finish it.
I just found a series with kraken characters! I’ve always been a sucker for mer-type characters, but they’re usually a disappointment, either the author glosses over interesting details or the characters are shapeshifters who are only mer in the water. There’s no shapeshifting for these characters; they’re half human and half octopus!
My attention was initially snagged by the train wreck cover, then I saw “kraken” and since it was a Kindle Unlimited book and I’d just signed up for the 3 months for .99 deal, I thought why not? And it was good! Good characters, good writing, good plotting. I’ve started following the author and I’m planning to check out her other books. So I guess the cover actually did its job.
The first book is Treasure of the Abyss by Tiffany Roberts. If you have a thing for mer characters, you should definitely try it.
I used Amazon’s $5 off books coupon to snag FIRE AND BLOOD by GRRM: I’m dying for more ASOIAF and I really enjoyed the fic-history in WORLDS OF ICE AND FIRE so I’m sure I’m the right audience for it. All the fantastical fun, with the source-material wrangling of a real history = thumbs up.
Read:
A COURT OF MIST AND FURY by Sarah J Maas. I got the first two in the series off a rec that said the second was worlds better, but I admit it took me ages to try it: I had found the first one hard to put down but also extremely frustrating with its nonsensically flowery language (I felt like I was saying “What does that even meeeeean?” every chapter) and I rarely read books in a series one after another, so I just wasn’t in the mood. I am glad I gave it a proper go, tho! It IS that much better; I only said “What??” once and the whole thing was overall better written, with much more emotional complexity and a more engaging romance. I kinda knew where the romance would be going, but it unfolded really well (even with the tropes I usually avoid in fanfic, like true mates) and I came away totally sold and looking forward to more. I loved the character growth most, following Feyre from being traumatized to being so fully realized.
FENCE vol 1 by by C.S. Pacat & Johanna the Mad. This was rec’d here, I think? I really loved it–I just wanted more! Good thing the next vol is out early in the new year. (Nothing will truly feel that Yuri on Ice void unless/until they make some more, but I could def get into more sporty comics/animated stuff.)
Teen Titans by Geoff Johns Book One & (watching) TITANS. I really enjoyed Johns’ Aquaman run (one of my favorite runs of anything, tbh, and I rarely even like DC at all) and since I was watching the new TITANS show, I thought I’d try this. I’m sad to say I didn’t rly love it. The art was too old fashioned for me, with the super sexy outfits and just…meh. Overall meh-ness. Annoying horny teenage boys are def becoming a comic/superhero pet peeve (also seen when trying to rewatch Young Justice, the animated show due to resume in next year), but as I almost never see them in current books I think I’ll be ok, lol!
I had hoped to enjoy this, but I think I will stick more or less to the show for now. It took me till ep 3 or 4 to get properly into it as it can be super dark and a bit dull early on, but I’ve loved it pretty much since the middle/end of ep 4 and I’m excited to see where it goes. It felt like a pale reflection of Marvel’s much better streaming shows when it was going for the violence early on, but as the characters and their relationships (of found family, romance, and conflict) grow and more characters are added it feels much more distinct and emotionally resonant in its own right. It’s still super dark, but not without restraint (for me anyway) and if I can love the characters–and I love every single main character so far!–I can deal.
Not sure what to read next…I need to sort thru some old books and try/skim some things.
I originally read The Blue Castle as a young teenager and thought it was absolutely incredible … haven’t read it since but I hope it holds up! Possibly one of LMM’s best books imo
Mostly want to sub to the comments, but some of my best recent reads have been WHITE FRAGILTY any Robin Diangelo, RED SISTER by Mark Lawrence (magical boarding school in a convent of warrior nuns!), and VISIONS IN DEATH by JD Robb. I think DIAMOND FIRE by Ilona Andrews will be my reward for surviving this week
My nanowrimo project. I haven’t had enough brain space to read more stuff. But I’ve been reading a Johanna Lindsey title off my backlog.
Warrior’s Woman is weird, but pretty enjoyable. There’s something interesting about how the heroine has to go on a crash course for the culture of the planet. That outfit made out of twelve scarves is very suggestive.
I’ll probably pick up some comic books off comixology once november is over. And if anyone wants to send any comics my way, I’ll try them out.
Ones that were good for me this month:
THE GOVERNESS GAME by Tessa Dare — her books rarely fail to make me happy and this one was a good one. Chase was so swoony and the way they started each morning? Tessa Dare-Gold.
EXMAS by Winter Renshaw — this co-workers-to-lovers story made me stay up too late to read it all at once.
RECKLESS KISS by Alexis Anne — this is the first in a duet, which is not my favorite way to read a story, but this sucked me in from the start…good characters and steamy
HOCKEY HOLIDAYS anthology — I usually like to wait until December to read holiday stories, but when this hit my kindle I couldn’t wait because….hockey. I like anthologies during the holidays because it is a shorter commitment during a busy time for a complete story. If this one interests you, snap it up before November 30.
Ones that didn’t work as well for me:
DISTURBING HIS PEACE by Tessa Bailey — wasn’t crazy about Greer
PERFECTLY INAPPROPRIATE by Stacey Kennedy — it was interesting regarding the story was about a senator using a Dom app to find subs for a week, but it was a little too neat and tidily put together. It was amazing how quickly he fell for the heroine.
LONG, TALL COWBOY by Vina Grey and Viki Lyn — a M/M story about a rancher and photographer. I never got into the MCs.
JOSH AND HAZEL’S GUIDE TO NOT DATING by Christina Lauren — I had high expectations from all I had heard about it. But it dragged on a little in the middle about their incompatibility.
AN AFFAIR WITH A SPARE by Shana Galen — this is the third in a series that I have enjoyed and I love Shana’s writing, so that is not a problem here. I think it was just me and my mood was not meshing with the historical story.
I am finishing THE ROGUE NOT TAKEN by Sarah MacLean. I have loved some of her books, so I had high expectations for this one. But the overemphasis on how plain and boring the heroine is, along with her self-esteem issues has made me long for finish the last page.
Just finished Sarah Morgan’s The Christmas Sisters nad Samantha Young’s Fight or Flight. Enjoyed both
@Amanda: Thank you!
I love The Blue Castle!! It is absolutely one of my desert island books.
Just finished Lark the Herald Angels Sing by Donna Andrews, the latest entry in her “bird title” series of mysteries. I always love how she expands her cast of regular characters, and the humor (the Christmas pageant rehearsal and the dénouement set piece).
Andrews’ light touch is just the therapeutic balm I crave in these times.
A WEEK TO BE WICKED by Tessa Dare is now my second favourite romance book. I spent my time reading it feeling warm inside, with a smile on my face and often squirmed and hummed with happiness.
ROGUE SPY by Joanna Bourne was great. I am much happier when the H&H are musing upon each other’s skills and trustworthiness rather than body parts so this REALLY got to me.
My most bizarre read of the month was DEVIL IN WINTER by Lisa Kleypas, the greatest romance book ever written (allaboutromance 2018 poll). I give it 3 stars, and if I didn’t know it was so beloved, so there must be a spectacular ending (there wasn’t) would probably have DNF. To be honest, not only didn’t I like it, I have no idea why people love it, let alone consider it the best ever.
@MO, isn’t Rebecca Solnit great? I just bought 3 copies of “Hope in the Dark”, one for me and two for my nieces.
Pre-election it was all Christmas comfort reads, “A Christmas Romance” by Betty Neels, which was great; then a HH anthology called “Convenient Christmas Brides”, which was good but not great, the Carla Kelly story was not one of her best; and “A Holiday by Gaslight” which was also OK, but not as enjoyable as Mimi Matthews full length books.
I have to mention one more Betty Neels book I stumbled across, “Only By Chance”, because she really went wild! Not only is the hero not Dutch, but some of the story is written from the hero’s POV! I can’t think of another book where she does that, and it makes for a lovely read. It’s available on Scribd.
But now for the really exciting news. Neither Scribd nor my library carry many of Anne Cleeland’s historical romances, so I decided to try her contemporary mystery(actually it’s more a police procedural)series. The first book is “Murder in Thrall”. Our hero is a Scotland Yard Chief Inspector, who also happens to have a title(he’s Lord Acton), and our heroine is the lower class Irish Detective Sargeant Doyle. It is ALL the crack. I wolfed down that book and the next one so fast, and then I only took a break before starting the third one due to sleep deprivation. There are some real shocking plot twists. I was reminded of the “Deep Diving in our OTPs” podcast episode where the Bitches discussed the attractions of a sociopath hero, where his obsession with the heroine is the only thing keeping him from wreaking complete havoc. Basically, Acton is so crazy about Doyle that the power differential(he’s older, richer, higher class, her workplace superior) disappears. Unlike the slow burn Sebastian St. Cyr mystery series, their relationship progresses at a breakneck pace, and I’m all about the instant gratification. I’m now up to #4, “Murder in Containment” and each one is full of surprises, with a great bunch of secondary characters. Probably a series to avoid if situational ethics really bother you, but I’m loving it. I’m now trying to space them out so I don’t run out of books too quickly.
My next read will be “My One and Only Duke” by Grace Burrowes, and it appears to have some of my favorite plot catnip. You know, when the hero is about to be executed, or is on his deathbed, and marries the heroine just to protect her/give her his name, but then he doesn’t die after all, and now they’re stuck in an unexpected MOC? I love when that happens!
I’ve been on a real Agatha Christie binge this past month. I was re-watching Murder on the Orient Express when it occurred to me I’d never read one of her books before, which kinda surprised me. So, I unleashed Libby’s audio book feature, and I’ve plowed through most of the Miss Marple books (I’m working on the Caribbean Mystery right now), just a few of the Poirot books (I really don’t like him as a character – mostly because there’s a lot of context info that gets left out until the last second when he’s all “what, you didn’t notice she was wearing a lot of eye shadow… clearly that makes her the killer” and I’m all O_o? where the hell was her makeup mentioned??).
But so far, my biggest read was finishing Ron Chernow’s, Alexander Hamilton behemoth of a book. In audio form, it’s over 35 hours. I know, it wrecked me a bit and took 2 months to get through.
Other than that, I’ve been nibbling at different romance novels, but I think I’m in the wrong head and heart space to read them. Everything I pick up seems to offend right now, so the genre feels like trying to walk barefoot through a sticker-bur patch during summer. And I’m beginning to think that if I ever want to see a heroine or plot I can really connect with, I’m gonna have to write it myself.
That said, one favorite read from last month I really do recommend is “Smut” by Karina Halle. Because as great as the sex was, I needed the laugh of a manly hero running through his apartment buck-ass nude trying to put an escape artist tarantula back into its enclosure, while meebling like a toddler the whole way. Seriously, it was worth the $4 for that alone.
Welp, here we are. Almost Christmas, and thanks to Hurricane Hell, man am I behind on the Christmas shopping…but I have read a lot. Not as much as last month, because I wasn’t without power for two weeks unable to do literally anything else.
Well, I left off on LIFEL1K3 by Jay Kristoff. I enjoyed it. He continues to have a nice grasp on how to leaven really grim stuff with necessary humor, and I loved the “Anastasia, but make it ROBOTS” aspect to it. Then it was Mating the Huntress by Talia Hibbert, which made me laugh. Every time the hero was like, “OH GOD SHE WANTS TO KILL ME AND IT’S SO CUTE AND HOT I MUST GET HER ALL THE CUPCAKES”, I just wanted to hug him. Then I read Tangled In Texas by Kari Lynn Dell. I greatly enjoyed the setting of the story against rodeo culture, and that both people in the story were people that had experienced and were still working through trauma. It made for a nice modern western romance. After that, I read Outlander for the first time in :::mumblemumble my son was a literal babby last time he’s fifteen now:::: years. I really enjoyed it, again. Maybe this time I’ll actually continue with the series (not sure what happened last time, but I remember that I had Dragonfly In Amber, but never finished it). Once I was done with that, I read Chase Me by Laura Florand. I really enjoyed the hero’s humor and I liked that the heroine was a hyper-competent, no effs to give chef with a ton of ambition, and no patience for that which gets in her way. Which brings us to today, wherein we can see my tendency to reach for the REALLY big fantasy epics (fall is my season for fantasy epics and doorstop historicals) in the fact that I am reading Kingdom of Ash by Sarah J. Maas. It’s to be the last in the Throne of Glass series. It took a little while to get going (which is probably to be expected in a 984 page book), but it’s moving along nicely now, and I’m enjoying the George R.R. Martin-esque vibe I’m getting. I am always here for a warrior queen that’s coming to get hers, in fire and blood. Well, until next month, folks, I need to get some online shopping done…may we all keep current on the Christmas shopping.
Since last month, I read ~
— enjoyed AJ Rose’s Reaping Havoc which seemed seasonably appropriate as it features a reaper. I then went on to read the sequel Reaping Fate.
— enjoyed a re-read of Cooper West’s Parker’s Sanctuary: A Guardsmen Novel along with the FREE prequel Rescued: A “Parker’s Sanctuary” Story and the very short sequel, Second Chances. Also re-read Cooper West’s The Protector.
— Shadow Hunt (Disrupted Magic Book 3) by Melissa F. Olson which I enjoyed. This is definitely a series to read in order.
— enjoyed re-reading Tigers and Devils by Sean Kennedy.
— read Out of Bounds (The Boundaries Series) by A.R. Barley. This was a pleasant read, but I doubt it’s a book I’ll be re-reading.
— the novella The Tea Master and the Detective by Aliette de Bodard which proved to be an interesting read. Somehow I’d hoped for more, but I would try another work by the same author.
— Martha Wells’ novellas Rogue Protocol and Exit Strategy — these are the third and fourth novellas in the author’s Murderbot Diaries series;.
— Kelly Jensen’s contemporary romance novella Best in Show which was enjoyable though I don’t think I’ll be re-reading it in a hurry.
— Jennifer Gracen’s contemporary romance It Might Be You (The Harrisons Book 5). While this is the fifth book in the series, it’s the first I read and it stands alone well. That said, it took me two weeks to finish, so I didn’t find it that compelling.
— the anthology Irregulars: Stories by Nicole Kimberling, Josh Lanyon, Ginn Hale, and Astrid Amara which I enjoyed.
— Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren — this was an enjoyable contemporary romance with a fun heroine.
— Fortitude Smashed by Taylor Brooke — this is a male/male romance set in our world but with an interesting science fiction twist.
— A Walk Between Stars by Tyler Parsons — this is a science fiction short story in which a man is rescued by aliens after the destruction of his space ship. It is a mystery.
— On Basilisk Station (which is currently free for Kindle readers) plus The Honor of the Queen (Honor Harrington books one and two) both by David Weber — these are military science fiction novels; I’ll happily read on in this series.
— For my book group: I Will Send Rain by Rae Meadows — this was set in the depression era dust bowl and was admittedly depressing. I’m happy to have read it though, and we had a good discussion tonight.
— These I found not terribly exciting: The IT Guy by Wynter St. Vincent and One Broke Girl by Rhonda Helms
— I did not finish Carrots: A Shelby Nichols Adventure by Colleen Helme — this is the first in a cozy paranormal mystery series with an intriguing premise; however, I gave up after some thirty percent of the book as it was not speaking to me. Too bad.
— Grace Draven’s fantasy romance Phoenix Unbound (The Fallen Empire Book 1) which I quite enjoyed. Now I’m wondering if the series will continue with more about the two major characters in this book (I think not) or whether secondary characters in this book will get their own books (I think so).
— The Short Victorious War (Honor Harrington Book 3) and Field of Dishonor (Honor Harrington Book 4); the latter had me crying.
— went on to read Flag in Exile (Honor Harrington Book 5) and Honor Among Enemies (Honor Harrington Book 6). There are ONLY 13 more books to read in the series. I may take a break as I’d like to read some other books.
I HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS POST because I’ve been anxious to tell everyone to read “Jane, Unlimited” by Kristin Cashore. We just finished it for my “Adults Who Still Read YA” book club and I LOVED ITTTTTTT! It’s a wonderful – and completely strange – reading experience.
It is inspired by Choose-Your-Own-Adventure stories, except you still read this novel in chapter order from start to finish. Each chapter is a certain genre: one is a mystery, one is a romance, one is a horror, one is sci-fi, etc. I loved the huge mansion, and that the characters were contained to the rooms and its grounds for the majority of the book. I loved that the stories build upon the reader’s knowledge: so that when characters entered and exited a scene, I understood what was happening even though Jane hadn’t a clue.
In fact, this book kinda reminded me of the board game Clue! I hope people try it – I can’t stop thinking about it. (There is also a very sweet dog, and I’m not even a dog person.)
This has been the first month in which my stress level wasn’t turned up to 11, and so I was actually able to read. Huzzah!
1. Twice in a Lifetime by PJ Treblehorn: This was a f/f featuring slightly older heroines (one was in her early 40’s and the other was in her late 30’s. It was so good, although I could have done without learning that the late wife of one of the heroines was so jealous of her firbed that she lied to both women about the way they felt about each other.
2. Rogue Nights: This is an anthology of resistance themed romances featuring either POC or members of the LGBT community. I much preferred the stories by Talia Hibbert, Hudson Lin, and Shae Conner. At $0.99 it is worth the read.
3. The Hidden Heart and Secrets of the Heart by Candace Camp. I read both of these years ago, but it has to be at least a decade since I read then. Portions of them are over the top, but I expect crazy sauce when I read a Camp novel.
4. The Other Miss Bridgerton by Julia Quinn: I am not a fan of pirate romances, but took a chance on this one because it was written by Julia Quinn. The first few chapters were really sliw, but the chemistry between the hero and heroine makes up for it. This was definitely more of a slow burn romance even though it only took place in just over a week. I spent most of the day on Thanksgiving reading it and I already want to read it again.
5. It Happened One Wedding. This was another re-read. Loved it just the same.
DNF’ed
1. Wicked and the Wallflower by Sarah MacLean. I really wanted to like this book, but couldn’t get over the fact that the hero was using the heroine to get revenge on his brother. It was bad enough that her own family was doing that to her, but dhe should expect better from her hero.
2. Duchess by Design by Maya Rodale. I was enjoying this book, but got sick in the middle of it. I’m going to try is again in a couple of months.
Currently Reading:
The Wedding Challenge by Candace Camp. I remember enjoying this when I read it in college. I haven’t gotten far enough in yet for me to decide if I still like it.
My brother got me a $40 Amazon gift card for my birthday, so I’m going to have a few new books to add to my TBR soon.
@Karin, the Acton and Doyle books were one of my favorite finds last year. My experience is that people seem either to love or hate them. I don’t think I’d want to encounter a real life Acton, but the fictional version intrigues me.
I read a bunch of things this month, but the last few days it’s been Amanda Bouchet’s KINGMAKER CHRONICLES trilogy. I am currently about a quarter into the third one, and it’s… going well enough that I’m going to finish? Everyone else seems to have really liked this, but I’ve got very mixed feelings.
This series is definitely absorbing, and I do really like some things about it, particularly the heroine and her unapologetic refusal to be a beacon of sweetness and light. Some of the secondary characters are great as well, and the pacing of the larger plot and the balancing of that plot to romance plot in terms of page time is pretty good overall. But the world-building feels sloppy to me in exactly the way fantasy romance world-building often does: it’s definitely a cut above the usual, but not enough so to satisfy me. The onomastics make no sense. The banter is nice, but there’s so much of it that I’m rapidly getting sick of it, and while I really like the heroine, I wish the whole thing weren’t constantly in her POV because her Snappy Snarky Paranormal/Urban Fantasy Heroine inner monologue is wearing on me. I hate the hero and pretty much everything about the romance, so that’s no good, and I’m skimming all the sex scenes, which is a thing I never do.
And I’m also deeply bothered by the way in which the author insists on consistently impressing on me how all you need to recover from a traumatic blood-drenched childhood with the most horrifically dysfunctional of families is to be exposed to a different family where it’s all loyalty and hugs. It doesn’t work that way. My childhood was not nearly as brutal as the heroine’s, thank goodness, but I ended up with trust issues, and that shit doesn’t just evaporate after four days of knowing people who are all huggy-huggy on you. Worse, neither the hero nor his family seem to have any respect or consideration for the heroine’s boundaries, and the series treats this like a good thing. I have a lot of trouble with that.
So idk, I had really high hopes for this one, but… man, I think fantasy romance is maybe just not for me. Although I’ll probably keep trying it anyway. Surely I’ll find something I like eventually?
Not yet reading, but I did just preorder “Once Ghosted Twice Shy” by Alyssa Cole, which is about Likotsi from “A Princess in Theory” and I am very excited! Not only was she a great character, this is the first romance series I’ve read with both het AND queer romance.
Nanowrimo ate my reading time this month, so I didn’t get much in. Simon St James’ “The Broken Girls” was a great exception. A mystery/gothic/horror type novel with an actually satisfying ending.
I also DNFed “Unbound” by Cara McKenna with GREAT prejudice. First we have to hear all about the heroine’s weight loss, and her thoughts about that, and how that’s magically given her sex superpowers (okay, no, but hey, fat people have sex too. Kinky sex, even!) and the “new her” and every time I thought she was done it was out of the blue recollections of “over-indulging herself to x pounds”. Then enter the hero, who is very much a sub, which was the only reason I kept reading the book. But he’s just this giant pit of self-loathing about his kink and I just. could. not. take it anymore.
Currently reading Everyone Brave is Forgiven by Chris Cleave. I’m not overly impressed, so I don’t get why it’s on every single bookclub pick list.
Also read this month:
A Duke By Default by Alyssa Cole
(and then I reread) A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole
The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal
The Other Half of Happiness by Ayisha Malik
Trade Me by Courtney Milan
Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal
The Ship of Brides by Jojo Moyes
Loved most of what I read this month 🙂
November has been an awful month in terms of fun reading time: so little time for fun reading as I power-read tonnes for work (teaching a new prep along with renewing one senior and a graduate seminar, then there’s the research reading). I haven’t given up on fun reading, I’m just not getting much done.
I’m currently reading Yuletide Happily Ever Afters, a set of five(?) Regency holiday novellas. Mostly quite good fun and a wide range of characters as well as situations. I’ve just started Hate Notes by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward which, so far, seems to have an intriguing shift between madcap and heartfelt.
I started the month with Snowdrift and Other Stories, a collection of Georgette Heyer short pieces which may be TOO much Heyer, even for yours truly. You see her tropes shoved in your face over and over again. On the other hand, if you love Heyer, it’s a pretty fun little collection. I quite enjoyed a cozy mystery, Address to Die For by Mary Feliz, and will look up the rest of her series.
Oh, and I re-read Midnight in Austenland because reasons and I regret nothing.
I’ve been too busy watching old seasons of Madame Secretary and catching up on HTGAWM to do much reading this past month.
I did enjoy Taking the Heat by Victoria Dahl –I’ve been struggling with contemporaries lately, but this is probably the first time I read a book with a deflowering a virgin trope that managed to do it in a feminist way. Super likable characters who avoided many potential minefields, like when the hero said his favorite book was Gone with the Wind [eek!] and went on to describe how problematic he know it was [crisis averted]. This was a bitchery suggestion that didn’t steer me wrong.
Also liked A Taste of Pleasure by Chloe Blake and Rafe: A Buff Male Nanny by Rebekhah Weatherspoon, although the latter I liked the idea of more than the actual execution. I wanted more adorable awkwardness from the sheltered heroine and less slangy language that didn’t feel super believable. Mostly I want Weatherspoon to write me more f/f novels, so I can stop being so squeamish about squicky descriptions of male genitalia.
A Taste of Pleasure should come with a warning because reading about cooking Italian food made me SO hungry. If you need to be eating a cookie while watching British Bake Off, you will need a bowl of pasta to get through this book.