Give us a drumroll! Give us some fanfare! It’s…Whatcha Reading time! I think we can all agree this is everyone’s favorite post. We get to squee and gripe, and also add an unnecessary amount of books to our TBR piles.
Join us, won’t you?
Sarah: I’m currently listening to Bear Meets Girl by Shelly Laurenston ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au | Scribd ), which is exactly the level of snarky and silly I needed, and I’m enjoying it tremendously.
I’m currently between books. I just finished A Dangerous Collaboration by Deanna Raybourn ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), which I enjoyed so much I have Good Book Hangover. I’m waiting for it to fade a bit more before I start a new book. Next on my list is In a Badger Way, also by Shelly Laurenston. But I need to get started on my April list because GOSH HOWDY are there a lot of books I want to read coming out in April!
Elyse: My TBR is threatening to topple and bury me alive. I just started The Woman in the Dark by Vanessa Savage ( A | BN | K | AB ). It’s a thriller with gothic, haunted house vibes
Carrie: I’m almost done with A Curse So Dark and Lovely, by Brigid Kemmerer. One of our readers told me about it because the heroine has Cerebral Palsy. It’s so good. Review pending!
Amanda: I’m in between books, so this is a tough one. I’ll be re-reading The Kiss Quotient for my romance book club meeting in April, which is perfect timing as I have The Bride Test I can jump right into afterward.
I have a cross stitch project to begin. It’s a gift, so I have a deadline and I’ll need audiobooks! I’ll most likely continue my True North series listening with Steadfast ( A | BN | K | G | AB ).
What did you read this month? We want to hear all about it in the comments!
By request, since we can’t link to every book you mention in the comments, here are bookstore links that help support the site with your purchases. If you use them, we greatly appreciate it, and if you’d prefer not to, no worries. Thanks for being a part of SBTB and hopefully, you’ve found some great books to read!
It’s been kind of a meh reading month for me, though I am very excited for the ARCs I have of THE BRIDE TEST and THE AUSTEN PLAYBOOK – they are sitting on my ereader mocking me right now as I wade through crazy times at work. That said, I did really enjoy the newest installment in the Tracers series by Laura Griffin… it’s called STONE COLD HEART & I would describe it as a romantic police procedural about a serial killer with the H/h being a local cop and a forensic anthropologist. Very bingeable & a nice kind of book to sit on the porch & read on a spring day
Finally finished Star Wars: Aftermath: Life Debt, very fast paced and reads like a movie. The Wexley Imperial Hunters Team ends up pursuing expectant father Han Solo and getting tangled in his non-plan for liberating Chewbacca’s home planet, hopefully with none of them getting killed in the process. Meanwhile the Empire sets up a truly nefarious long game that even their Grand Admiral finds despicable. Fast and funny and heart-stopping with a couple of gasp-worthy plot twists, several romantic threads, and as I said before the best big-brother speech I’ve ever read. Chuck Wendig really is one of the best SW writers out there and I wish Disney would get over it and stop punishing him for swearing at a troll on his own blog.
Following that I girded my loins and dove back into Change of Heart by Sonali Dev. It’s hard book, with ALL the trigger warnings (including graphic descriptions of rape, sexual abuse, physical abuse, grief, assault, miscarriage and children in danger)but very timely and asks some hard questions. A really emotionally intense book but very deep and well-written. But I’m going to need some serious fluff after this.
@Kristen
“It’s reminding me of Code Name Verity, a book that tore my heart out of my chest, stomped on it then handed it back to me in a different shape”
I don’t like to tell people they “have” to read anything, but I’m a little aggressive when I recommend Code Name Verity to people. “You don’t understand, they’re best friends! And they love each other so much! And there are Nazis-*bursts into tears*”
I am nearing the end of my first trimester of my first pregnancy which means I am tired all the time – reading, alas, must take a backseat to glorious sleep.
I still managed to do a fair bit of reading!
Excellent:
Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong – and What You Really Need to Know by Emily Oster: This book really digs into the existing research (my version was updated for 2019) to really examine what is safe and not safe during pregnancy. If you are into data, statistics, and risk analysis and are pregnant or trying to get pregnant, I highly highly recommend this book. I can’t wait until April when her follow up book “cribsheet” is out – it will cover what the data says about parenting from birth until preschool – already have it on pre-order!
The Widows of Malabar Hill by Sujata Massey: The first in a mystery series set in 1920’s India following the work and investigations of Bombay’s first female solicitor (the character was inspired by a real life woman), this book was amazing. All of the characters were fully drawn, the setting beautifully portrayed, and the two plot lines terribly engaging. If you like historical mysteries, I can’t recommend this enough. CW for domestic violence and children in peril.
Very Good:
Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI by David Gann: This true crime/history portrays the widespread violence against the Osage in Oklahoma during the 1920’s. The Osage at that time were very wealthy because they owned the mineral rights under land with vast amount of oil. They were the target of everyone from unscrupulous business people to members of the legal system (aided and abetted by paternalistic and racist government policies) to violent outlaws. It is a terrible story and so important that this book brought it back to the modern reader’s attention. I can’t quite put my finger on why I didn’t rate it as excellent, I think because it spent a little too much time on J Edgar Hoover and his tactics in building and running the FBI which have been well documented elsewhere.
Devil’s Daughter by Lisa Kleypas: One of my very favorite tropes is when the hero thinks he is not good enough for the heroine, so this book hit that perfectly. However, for whatever reason this didn’t punch me in the feels like older Kleypas books such as Devil in Winter, Again the Magic, Dreaming of You, or Tempt Me at Twilight.
Meh:
Her Royal Spyness by Rhys Bowen: First book in a mystery series set in 1930’s Great Britain with a madcap/screwball tone and a royal (like 50th in line for the throne) heroine. The behavior of some of the characters was just so baffling to me and over the top, that while I wanted to like it, it was a little bit of a slog to get through. My mom really likes the series though, so I think I will give the second one a shot.
The Bad:
McKay’s Bees by Thomas McMahon: Historical fiction about a group of white New Englanders who go to “bloody” Kansas in the midst of the fight over whether it will be a free or slave state in order to raise bees and sell the honey. What was the theme of this book? No idea. What connections was I supposed to make between the various story lines? No idea. What feeling or message was I supposed to take away at the end? No idea. What was I supposed to make of the characters? No idea.
@Liz I have found Ali to be naive to the point of stupidity in this sequel. He was always written as good-hearted and naive but in a realistic way. In this book, he is just…so naive it is unbelievable.
I was disappointed by some of my “can’t wait to read” books.
Wild Country by Anne Bishop: This book suffered from too many POV. With all the narrators, there were too many stories going on. As others said, I didn’t enjoy the ending. Still, I’m here for her next book! I enjoy the world she created and looking forward to what happens next.
The Huntress by Kate Quinn: Another book with too many POV. I skipped some of the stories completely and didn’t miss any plot points. I enjoyed the Night Witches story arc which carried me through the entire book.
Hoping for better luck next month!
I have realized that 2019 is probably going to be a bad reading year for me. For whatever reason, catching up on tv and movie watching is just more appealing right now. I have read a few books, most of which have been discussed a lot on here so I’ll just mention that I really enjoyed THE BRIDE TEST by Helen Hoang. I loved spending time with the characters and especially loved Khai. Many people in his life have misconceptions about him due to misunderstanding his ASD. Khai internalized and started to believe their misconceptions of him which causes most of the conflict in the book. The heroine, Esme, was also wonderfully drawn as a determined mother who also has to overcome her own false beliefs about herself and her insecurities. I didn’t like it quite as much as THE KISS QUOTIENT mainly because I felt like Esme didn’t seem to try to understand Khai’s ASD on her own or seek out information on his condition to better try to understand him. This may be an unfair criticism. Maybe the language and cultural differences stopped her from doing so, but it seemed like she sought out information on other lesser things so I would have thought she would have done the same to try to get insight into the man she wants to marry. This didn’t derail my overall enjoyment of the book though. Surprisingly, Esme never telling Khai about her daughter bothered me less than I thought it would, but I have a feeling it may bother some readers. I’m now impatiently awaiting Quan’s book.
Actually I will mentioned one other book and just echo the previous love mentioned for THE LOST MAN by Jane Harper. I already know it will hold up as one of my favorite reads of 2019.
GOOD: I read Devil’s Daughter, and it was okay. It’s always fun to see Sebastian and Evie, but I agree with the other commenters, it didn’t pack the punch of Kleypas’s best books.
BETTER:
I finally read “Act Like It”, and it was very good. The hero was so obnoxious in the beginning, but his development into a mensch was believable.
BEST: I loved “Polaris Rising” and I can’t wait for the next one to be released. If you’re with me, and don’t mind heroine-in-peril and a good bit of violence in your space opera, I recommend reading Michelle Diener’s Class 5 series in the meantime. It has aliens and AI and space pirates, guys!
This was my month to ferret out used books, and I bought the 3 Dinah Dean books in her Russian-set Napoleonic War series that were affordable, “Flight From the Eagle”, “The Eagle’s Fate” and “The Ice King”. I previously read Dean’s “The Cockermouth Mail” based on an SBTB rec, but these were even better. They were published by M&B in the 1980’s and they really need to be released as e-books so everyone can enjoy them. “Flight From the Eagle” is the best of the 3, it’s a road trip romance, but the road trip is a convoy of wounded Russian soldiers escaping from the French in 1812. The original title was “The Road to Kaluga”, and if you see any of these in a thrift shop or rummage sale, I beg you to snap them up! Besides the delightful romances, with poor Cinderella type heroines, I learned so much history. I ended up Googling Russian maps to see the route they traveled, and reading Wikipedia. Being a WWII buff, I knew how Hitler’s army came to grief in the Soviet Union, but the details of Napoleon’s invasion of Russia were new to me. Dean followed the actual history very closely, and it’s fascinating. I should add, these are all slow burn, and the most sex you will see on the page is passionate kisses.
Books that I liked this month were:
HOLD ON TIGHT by Serena Bell — this had good real-life romance problems centered on a wounded vet with an amputation
FLIRTING WITH THE FRENEMY by Pippa Grant — this had great banter along with the typical warm and fuzzy feelings that Pippa’s books can give the reader
WHAT A LORD WANTS by Anna Harrington — a great historical with an artist hero and the cover is a definite contender for the Cover Awe segment
SAY YES: JACK by Amelia Mae — my first read with this author, but the friends to lovers story that I love so much pulled me in. This is the third in the series revolving around a rock group and I want to go back and read the first two now.
REALIGNED by Becca Seymour — a M/M short story worthy of the time spent reading about childhood friends turned to lovers. And bonus that it is free right now. (-:
Books that were just ok for me:
THE NAKED TRUTH by Vi Keeland — the Hero was just a bit too needy and possessive
ICE HOT by Tracy Goodwin — fairly cliche story
MY MAINE MAN by Holly J. Martin — a M/M story that involves conversion therapy in the backstory. There was some editing problems that bothered me along with some unresolved details.
PLAY TO WIN by Kelly Jamieson — I loved the hockey parts, but I wasn’t crazy for the hero. Plus as the first book in a new series, there was a lot of characters to keep straight in the family-building.
DATE WITH A DEVIL by June Winters — there were too many word choices that I didn’t like
It felt like this past month had many DNF’s – I ordered a slew of YA from my library but I have to be in the right mind space for my 47 year-old self to connect with that genre and it just didn’t jive. Looking at what I *did* finish –
Becoming by Michelle Obama – LOVED this book, and honored to share a name with this amazing woman
Educated by Tara Westover – fascinating and inspiring but had to read it in short stints because of the heaviness of physical abuse, family dysfunction
Three Little Words by Jenny Holiday – loved it, which was a surprise as Gia’s character hadn’t really resonated with me in the previous books
Josh and Hazel’s Guide to Not Dating by Christina Lauren – Hazel’s character drove me crazy but the writing kept me hooked and I was curious where the story would go
Devil’s Daughter and Devil in Spring by Lisa Kleypas – I hadn’t read Kleypas in a while and enjoyed both these books
Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins – LOVED this story and it kept me wondering how the HEA would work out.
Cafe by the Sea by Jenny Colgan – had this book out of the library for 2 weeks and hadn’t opened it. Thought I better try it before returning it and ended up reading it in 24 hours. So many fun aspects – grumpy hero, food porn, Scottish village, dogs. So Enjoyable!
@Michelle-you don’t have to wonder how the HEA works out in Forbidden! “Breathless” and “Tempest” continue this family’s story, with the 2 daughters of the heroine all grown up.
I just started “The Bird King” by G. Willow Wilson (of “Ms. Marvel” comic fame). It’s a fantasy that incorporates Islamic themes. The cover is heckin’ gorgeous, too.
Otherwise, another reading slump month for me. I have been watching too much TV. Lol
Well, the surprise book of the month was The Girl He Used to Know by Tracey Garvis Graves. I received a free copy and didn’t read it as soon as I should have due to ongoing drama in my life. However, when I did get to it, I loved it. It’s women’s lit, but it is a romance. A second chance romance with a neuro-atypical heroine – lots of catnip there. First person narration which I had no problem with. Instead of info dump, she has a therapist. It alternates between their initial romance in college and after and their running into each other accidentally a number years later and re-establishing a relationship. Highly recommend this.
Also read Anne Bishop’s Wild Country. I like it though not quite as much as some of the others. I think Ms. Bishop decided to write a Western and this is it. Nicely done and, if Western’s are your thing, this is your book. Complete with a shifter sheriff. And one night of vampire sex. (Finally!)
Also read Snowspelled by Stephanie Burgis. Alternate history with men having the magic and women the politics. I enjoyed it. Hush by Anne Frasier has a woman profiler helping find the serial killer who killed her child. No romance but good look at the relationship/early friendship developing with the lead detective.
Did two Sarina Bowens – Brooklynaire, which I liked mostly – finally getting together with the boss and the concerns/conflicts around the balance of power as well as a possibly unresolved prior relationship. There was another potential conflict thrown in that I thought was totally unnecessary and detracted from the story. Overnight Sensation I like more – Holly dealing with her father and Castro dealing with, well, Holly’s father, also.
There have also been a number of books I have started and not made it past the first chapter. I am blaming it on my life rather than the books (my therapist says she does not know how I am still standing in this s$!tstorm of stress). So I will not list them at this point.
Now I need to look at everyone else’s posts and add to my wishlist and my TBR. Happy reading, all!
I only have one book recommendation this month, but it’s a doozy! Definitely start this novel on a weekend because you’re going to want to read it non-stop!
It’s called #fashionvictim by (former fashion writer/editor) Amina Akhtar. It’s a mystery told from the POV of the murderer so the reader already knows “whodunnit” but you’re waiting to see if/when the killer gets caught.
It’s a riveting, riotous sendup of the fashion world circa 2018 including all relevant social media accounts (hence the title.) Main character Anya is killing it on her way to the top position at La Vie magazine. With the first murder, I found myself uncomfortably laughing “man, bitches be crazy!” By the fifth murder, I was just reading with my mouth hanging open. #girlboss #squadgoals #blessed
I somehow missed February’s post so this isn’t going to go into detail unless it needs it.
–Vicious by LJ Shen–Liked it. Would read more of hers
–The Unyielding by Shelly Laurenston. 1st of series is still my favorite.
–99 Percent Mine by Sally Thorne. I won this copy. It was good.
–Own My Soul by Jade West–Ok
–Long Shot by Kennedy Ryan–Trigger Warning for abuse. It was an excellent book. Everything by her I’ve read so far is great.
–Sin and Ink by Naima Simone–Ok
–Motion by Penny Reid–Good
–Hate Notes by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward–Good
–One Last Time by Corinne Michaels–Ok but cute
–Double Down by Alessandra Torre–ok
–The Warlord Wants Forever by Kresley Cole–ok
–That Guy by Kim Jones–Was recommended as a funny book. It wasn’t.
–I Wanna Text You Up by Teagan Hunter–Not as good as the first one.
–Rebel Heir by Keeland & Ward–Good
–Shame on Him by Tara Sivec–Ok
–The Something About Her–Rachel Higginson–good
–Space by Penny Reid–Good
–Beyond Surrender by Kit Rocha–Good
–Appealed by Emma Chase–Good
–Off the Air–L.H. Cosway–Good
–The Deal by Elle Kennedy–Excellent!
–Field Tripped by Nicole Archer–ok
–Anti Stepbrother by Tijan–Good
–Dear Bridget I want You–Keeland & Ward–ok
–Butterface by Avery Flynn–ok
–Practice Makes Perfect–Julie James–Excellent but now I’m all caught up
–Personal Geography by Tamsen Parker–Ok
I started but haven’t finished yet Co-Wrecker by Meghan Quinn. I’ve gotten distracted by TV shows. I binge watched and I’m now caught up on Schitt’s Creek which I really like. And I also started watching a Turkish Tv show (soap?) called Erkenci Kus which I am loving. Only problem is, every episode is over 2 hours long and there is right now 34 episodes!
I always miss this post when it first goes up but in a way that’s good because then I get to see all of the great recommendations in the comments! I did more sleeping than reading this month unfortunately, but there were a couple good ones in there. I read Pleasure of a Dark Prince and Demon from the Dark to keep up with Fated Mates. Kresley Cole has a lot going on in her imagination and it is getting more and more involved and crazy/amazing with each passing book. This series is awesome. Also read A Scandal in Spring to round out the Wallflowers series. I loved Daisy and Matthew but it was going to be hard to top Devil in Winter for me. And I read 99 Percent Mine. I actually really enjoyed this. It was VERY different from The Hating Game and lacked some of the sharp humor, but I really felt the connection between the characters and I enjoyed the “prickly” heroine who was indeed prickly but with some good reasons and without being a total jerk.
@Berry I am giving you some virtual solidarity about having DNF’ed Making Up by Lucy Parker. I don’t exactly count that one as a DNF because for me that is usually reserved for a “this book made me so mad that I wanted to kill it with fire” feeling, but I started reading it more than 6 months ago, put it down halfway through to read something else, and never picked it up again so….. It didn’t make me angry, I just found it a little boring once they got together and I didn’t know where the rest of the book could possibly go. I love her writing and the other books in that series so I thought it was weird that I never wanted to go back to that one.
So far, in March…
The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye – David Lagercrantz
I liked this one better than the previous one, which is written by a “new” author continuing Stieg Larsson’s ideas.
A Pocketful of Crows – Joanne Harris
A friend lent me this and it’s cute but not my preferable type of story to read.
The Reluctant Swordsman – Dave Duncan
Fantasy story that has been in the pile for too long… not bad but fantasy without a romance sub plot or not being romance-centered no longer “speaks” to me.
At Last Comes Love – Mary Balogh
A good one, with solid situations to discuss/develop. Not my favorite by her but met the goal.
Bitter Legacy – Dal Maclean
Very interesting m/m mystery with touches of romance but the romantic relationship was seriously unbalanced for me.
The Trouble With True Love – Laura Lee Guhrke
Cute! I liked the previous one better but it was still entertaining. I’m looking for to read the next one.
Meet Me at the Museum – Anne Youngson
Blurbs can be so misleading! I thought this would be a conventional epistolary romance but nope… good enough story though, for those who like fiction. Just not what I imagined.
The Matrimonial Advertisement – Mimi Matthews
Had many good elements but I thought it would be even more romantic.
Wild Country – Anne Bishop
The weakest of the Others universe for me. Some rules of the world start to annoy me. The end wasn’t very uplifting! But I’ll still try another one, when/if it comes out…
Silence is Golden – Robert Thier
Same as the previous one, protagonists go on an adventure, they like/love each other but don’t admit it between all the kissing. Not really advancing the plot, though.
Heart of Stone – CE Murphy
Another one too long in the TBR. I struggled to like the heroine and the story and failed at both. Not continuing the trilogy.
Jacob’s Return – Annette Blair
I understand the appeal but the Amish culture wasn’t represented as I imagined from the (little) I know about it and the protagonists weren’t as amazing as I hoped for.
Pisces Hooks Taurus – Anyta Sunday
…reading…