August is nearly over! Let’s talk books!
Catherine: I’ve just finished reading This is How You Lose the Time War by Max Gladstone and Amal El-Mohtar ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) , which I loved to bits – I adored the relationship between the two protagonists, and the way the time travel plot was so perfectly structured that you could almost here the click as it came together at the end. I had to read it twice. And now I’m having a big reread of all my Sarah MacLean books, which is naughty of me, because I really ought to be writing a review of something completely different…
Aarya: I’m reading an ARC of Lush Money by Angelina M. Lopez and I love it so much. It features a billionaire Latinx heroine who offers a marriage of convenience to a European prince/viticulturist because she wants him to impregnate her. He accepts reluctantly because it’s the only way to save his struggling country.
This book is a shining jewel. I’m only three-fourths through so I can’t promise the last quarter will remain perfect. But I’m trying to pace myself and not gobble up this book because I don’t want it to end. The initial animosity is delicious, the authorial voice is magnetic, and I just want to slap these two idiots and make them swear their undying love for each other (this is a compliment!).
Lush Money is a debut but it doesn’t read like one. It’s polished, smart, sexy, and brilliant. I should probably stop praising it so much because I’m not done yet, but I have a gut feeling that it’ll end well.
Update: I finished. I freaking loved it. I’m floating on Cloud 9 but everyone should read it.
Lara Diane: I’m reaching for the comfort re-reads. I’m immersing myself in Fred Vargas’ The Chalk Circle Man ( A | BN | K | G ) . An odd book with odd characters and so much heart. It’s literary marmite – an acquired taste, but if you have acquired that taste, the love is deep and real.
Susan: I’m reading Taste of Marrow by Sarah Gailey ( A | BN | K | G ), the sequel to their alt-history-with-hippos book River of Teeth. So far it’s quite different in tone, because River of Teeth had at least the BUILD-UP of a caper while Taste of Marrow starts with the characters still caught in the aftermath.
(And for those who haven’t encountered the American Hippo thing and the importance of voting: the initial twitter thread is here or the Tor interview is here.)
I’ve also started listening to the audiobook of Widdershins by Jordan L. Hawke, because melodramatic queer fantasy-historical mystery romances are were I live (seriously, give me your recs) and rereading Jordan L. Hawke’s stuff is comforting.
Elyse: Right now I’m knitting quite a bit and listening to The Sixth Extinction by Elizabeth Kolbert. It’s about the major extinction events in geological history but also discusses climate change and what’s happening now. It’s really fascinating, but sometimes it freaks me out a little. Seriously though it provides a really interesting context to what’s happening with climate change without being bleak.
Sarah: I’m reading magazines through my library – Bon Appetit, Cross Stitcher – and cookbooks. It’s two weeks until back to school and the dudes are home from camp, so it’s laundrypalooza over here. I’m also listening to Ekhardt Tolle’s The Power of Now ( A | BN | K | G ) while I stitch, also through the library. I love my local library so much.
Elyse: I love cooking magazines but I hate to cook.
Amanda: My romance reading docket is super light for September, but I have a lot of awesome fantasy and sci-fi waiting for me. Namely The Ten Thousand Doors of January ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) and Gideon the Ninth. I’ve preordered Gideon because the first printing is extra goth with black-stained page edges.
Elyse: Ooooooh!
Maya: I just finished Dragon Actually by G.A Aiken ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) and the audiobook version of Archangel’s Blade by Nalini Singh ( A | BN | K | G ) . I’m trying very very hard not to burn through all of Nalini Singh’s books in a few months and am mostly impressed with my self control so far!
I DNFed A Princess In Theory by Alyssa Cole ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) because of all the lying and stalking by the prince–I was just SO NOT in the mood for that.
I’ve started In a Badger Way by Shelly Laurenston ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) (thanks to Amanda’s heads up on the sale!!!) and I’m about to start the audiobook version of American Spy: A Novel by Lauren Wilkinson. It is narrated by Bahni Turpin who also narrated the The Sun is Also a Star by Nicola Yoon. I loved the incandescent teenage rage Bahni was able to communicate in The Sun is Also a Star, so I’m super excited to see what she does in this story about a Black woman being sent to spy for the American government in Burkina Faso and help facilitate the coup of a communist leader during the Cold War.
Tara: I’m reading Women in the Shadows by Ann Bannon ( A | BN | K | G ) . It’s the third book in her lesbian pulp Beebo Brinker series, which is helpfully all packaged in a reasonably priced omnibus.
This book is the roughest ride so far, since it includes domestic violence in a lesbian relationship, corrective rape, alcoholism, marriage between a gay man and a lesbian, and I’m sure more that I haven’t hit yet. Even so, it’s so well written that I read three quarters of it last night when I should have gone to bed.
In audio, I’m listening to Lead Counsel by Aurora Rey ( A | BN | K ) , which is the f/f novella that was up for a RITA. It’s light and fun and I’m really enjoying it.
Shana: I’m reading Amish Promises by Leslie Gould ( A | BN | K | G ) and hoping the slow pace will be relaxing. I just finished His Until Midnight by Reese Ryan, which met my modern cowboy needs quite nicely.
I’m supposed to be reading The Summer of Jordi Perez (and the best burger in Los Angeles) by Amy Spalding but I’m not in a YA mood right now.
AJ: I’m comfort reading while I recover from a fractured ankle, so right now it’s Beast Behaving Badly by Shelly Laurenston ( A | BN | K | G ) for probably the eighteenth time. If I get a little more headspace to read something new I also have Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) , which I’m super excited about.
Claudia: It’s back to school for my children this week and it’s been quite busy, but in the middle of the chaos I was happy I finally got my mitts on Someone to Honor ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), the newest installment of Mary Balogh’s Westcott series. I rate it among the best in the series so far, and I especially liked the hero, who was an interesting mix of dour and sweet. It’s not for everyone — some may feel it is a bit too slow, but it was exactly what I needed. I continue to enjoy the series’ broader found family/friends theme, one of my favorite in romance.
Tara: I finished Women in the Shadows because I couldn’t not and now I think I need a break before I read the next book, and possibly a cuddle. I’m consoling myself with A Little Light Mischief by Cat Sebastian ( A | BN | K | G | AB ).
Carrie: I am almost done with Turning Darkness Into Light by Marie Brennan. For Lady Trent fans (A Natural History of Dragons series) this picks up the story with her granddaughter as the main character. So good.
Also wading my way through a lot of biographies of emotionally stunted white Victorian men for some freelance jobs I picked up. Oh, J.M. Barrie. So many issues. SO MANY.
How was your reading this month? Let us know in the comments!
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It’s almost fall! The best season! And best reading season!
– GODS OF JADE AND SHADOW by Silvia Moreno-Garcia – a woman in 1920’s Mexico accidentally awakens a god, and he needs her help. Very fun.
– THE MISSING YEARS by Lexie Elliot – a solid gothic suspense, with a big old house and family secrets.
– IN THE SHADOW OF SPINDRIFT HOUSE by Mira Grant – monster hunting crew meets a Lovecraftan house of horrors. I wish it had been longer, but maybe Grant will give us more in this world.
– HER SILHOUETTE, DRAWN IN WATER by Vylar Kaftan – if you enjoyed THE LUMINOUS DEAD (it’s amazing if you haven’t read it yet!), you’ll probably enjoy this. Scifi with caves and mec suits.
– IN AT THE DEEP END by Kate Davies – sort of a lesbian Bridget Jones? Only less funny and ends pondering the roles of heroes vs villains in the telling of stories, which, while interesting, is not the path you think the book will take when you start it.
Currently Reading
– STAY SEXY & DON’T GET MURDERED by Karen Kilgariff & Georgia Hardstark (audiobook) – memoir/advice book from the My Favorite Murder podcast hosts. I’m enjoying it more than I thought I would. It’s very heartfelt.
– AN ECHO IN THE BONE by Diana Gabaldon – a more exciting installment than the last two, as Jamie & Claire travel away from life on Fraser’s Ridge.
Traveling today—so I wanted to post this before I get on the road. Between school reopening and working with my siblings to clear out and prepare our parents’ house for sale (a process I don’t recommend without copious quantities of wine and Kleenex), I didn’t get much reading done, but most of what I did read was choice.
SO STEADY is the second book in Eve Dangerfield’s Silver Daughters Ink series about three sisters who inherit a tattoo shop. Although it can be read as a stand-alone, SO STEADY is a better story if you’ve already read SO WILD, the first book in the series. The heroines of the two books are twin sisters. The “sensible” twin is the heroine of SO STEADY: unlike her inked-up, free-spirited, and unapologetically sexual sisters who both work as tattoo artists, the heroine is an accountant, a professional woman with only a small tattoo on her wrist. She’s self-conscious about her looks (she tends to focus on minor flaws that only she notices) and has a plan for a “perfect life” that includes marriage and kids and a house in the suburbs with her (less-than-perfect) fiance. She’s also sexually reticent (she’s only had three sexual partners and has never been particularly enthusiastic) and doesn’t really understand what all the fuss is about until she meets the hulking, silent, tatted, former biker, ex-con who works at her family’s business. Suddenly she is “being seen”—and she’s not completely sure she likes it. I love Dangerfield’s writing style—there’s always humor, heart, heat, and consensual kink (“It’s okay,” the hero assures the heroine about one of her fantasies, “We don’t choose what does it for us.”): SO STEADY includes all of these, plus a completely unsentimental, unromanticized view of bikers (“bikies” in Australian slang) and motorcycle club culture. Another thing I liked about SO STEADY: this isn’t a book where after one great sexual experience, the heroine sheds all her inhibitions, insecurities, prickliness, and negative self-image issues. Her journey to love and self-acceptance has stops and starts along the way. A really good book—and now I can’t wait for the third sister’s story.
I would describe Julie Kriss’s FILTHY RICH as a post-#metoo romance. The hero, who grew up rough and poor but is now a billionaire real estate mogul, is unfailingly respectful of his super-competent assistant, so much so that she never has an inkling that he might feel the same attraction for her that she feels for him (an attraction she never reveals in any way). Their working relationship is characterized by appreciation, respect, and, above all, complete professionalism—although, unbeknownst to the other, each wishes it could be more, while acknowledging what a mess that would create (especially for the subordinate female employee). Key quote: “I hated that I finally had a boss who treated me with actual respect, and I didn’t want him to. I hated that I was so hypocritical that I expected Aiden not to stare at my ass, yet I had the urge to stare at his.” This being a romance, you know that eventually the two do more than stare—how they get to that point and how they navigate crossing those boss-assistant boundaries is part of the enjoyment of this crisply-written story. The development of their relationship includes several “let’s pretend we’re strangers” role-play scenes; while not as intense as the “bad cop” scenario in Anne Calhoun’s LIBERATING LACEY (my benchmark for really great romance role-play), the scenes in FILTHY RICH are also very good—imaginative, sexy, and understated. FILTHY RICH does suffer a little from what I call “first book in a series syndrome”: quite a bit of time is spent introducing characters who will undoubtedly star in their own books in the future, but the secondary characters don’t overwhelm the main story. There are also some similarities to Kriss’s Bad Billionaires series in that we meet four men who came from the broken edge of the working class and find themselves rich in a world they never thought they’d inhabit. I’m now looking forward to reading more from Kriss (a very underrated writer) and the lives and loves of the FILTHY RICH billionaires.
Tessa Bailey’s SINK OR SWIM is the third and final book in her Beach Kingdom series about three brothers who live in a beach community and work as lifeguards during the summer and help run the family bar year-round. The book has a friends-to-lovers theme with a mild femdom element. The hero and heroine have been best friends and neighbors for 20 years, ever since she arrived as a little girl from India; but now, as they both near 30, the heroine wants the marriage and family that the hero, because of events in his past, feels unable to give her. I liked the dynamic between the hero and heroine—especially as they begin to fall into roles where she is the top to his more than willing bottom—but I could have done without a subplot involving a crooked cop, along with flashbacks to the hero’s childhood (cw for abusive behavior). It’s almost as if Bailey didn’t trust that she had a robust romantic story and felt she had to embellish it with a lot of extraneous material; but I thought the inter-cultural romance was strong enough to stand on its own, the other elements just weighed things down.
After reading (and loving) Kelly Hunter’s MAGGIE’S RUN last month, I read Victoria Purman’s BELLE’S SECRET, the second book in the Outback Brides series. Although lacking the emotional depth of MAGGIE’S RUN, BELLE’S SECRET is still an entertaining book with a lot of information about Australian wine production. A year ago, the Australian heroine (a wedding officiant who works for Maggie’s Outback destination wedding business) impulsively married an American she met at a convention in Las Vegas—and then fled back home the next day. A year later, the hero unexpectedly shows up and sparks still fly. A good portion of the story involves the hero (who owns a winery in Napa Valley) learning about Australian wine production and life in the Outback—so much so that I wondered if the Australian Tourism Board had underwritten the book because it will certainly make you want to take a trip to Oz.
The “woman agrees to be a rich man’s plaything in exchange for forgiveness of debt” trope is a very difficult one to get right—especially when the real world gives us everyday examples of wealthy men behaving very badly towards women and suffering no consequences—so I was impressed with how well Terri L. Austin handled the situation in the surprisingly-nuanced HIS EVERY NEED, the first of her Beauty and the Brit series. Following her mother’s death from cancer, the heroine is running on fumes—trying to keep everything together for her family’s sake while her father sinks deeper into debt and depression and her younger sisters handle their grief in different but equally self-destructive ways: one taking refuge into running with a “bad crowd” at school, the other hyper-focused on academic achievements, but also developing a troubled relationship with food and eating (or, rather, not eating). The heroine is stretched to the breaking point by the time her father’s failed business causes him to lose the family home. Enter the billionaire savior, who alternates between blasé and horn-dog personas to mask his own unhappiness. Austin maintains a nice balance between humorous and serious elements in telling the story—for example, the hero’s much-married parents appear at first to be pure comic relief, but as the book progresses, it’s obvious their thoughtlessness and self-absorption have hurt the hero very deeply. And Austin never ignores the power imbalance between the hero & heroine, something they have to equalize if they are going to attain their HEA. HIS EVERY NEED seems deceptively “fluffy” on the surface, but it actually addresses many questions of family dynamics: How do we recover from loss? How do we adjust to a new normal? How do move forward if we can’t forgive our parents for not acting the way we expect/want/need them to? The book also includes an unwritten romance novel convention: if early in their relationship the h&h agree on a safe word to be used in the event of a sexual situation becoming too much for either of them, later in the story one of them will eventually use that safe word in a non-sexual (but intensely emotional) situation.
[I would not, however, bother with Austin’s TO BE HIS, a companion novella to HIS EVERY NEED. While there’s nothing particularly wrong with TO BE HIS, it’s the same story as HIS EVERY NEED, just told exclusively from the hero’s first-person POV. It adds nothing to the original story which is told in dual third-person POVs.]
Logan Chance’s Deceit duet, BRIDE and GROOM, is a take on the “couple must marry to fulfill the terms of a rich relative’s will” theme. The bride is a working-class single mother who works as a cake decorator; the hero is a billionaire required to marry the heroine by the terms of his grandfather’s will. BRIDE sets up a lot of questions that are subsequently answered in GROOM: Why must the couple marry? Who is the father of the heroine’s child? How was the heroine’s late sister connected to the hero’s family? What game is the hero’s brother playing? Who is the shady man who wants an invitation to the wedding? Despite some slapdash editing (“unfazed” is rendered “unphased,” Willem de Kooning, one of the giants of 20th century art, is misnamed “Richard de Kooning”—come on, would that have been so hard to verify?), I’d be interested in reading some more books by Logan Chance, a new-to-me writer with a large backlist.
EARTH BOUND by Emma Barry and Genevieve Turner – Although I’ve only read three of the five(ish) Fly Me to the Moon books, I’m prematurely declaring Earth Bound to be the best of the series. 1960s. Space race. Women in STEM. Hot, hot, hot romance between a wound-tight engineer and an ambitious, brilliant, motivated scientist. But I could have done without both protagonists’ petty female chauvinism. While that level of bitterness is realistic in response to institutionalized misogyny, it still comes across as ugly and unproductive and undermines my enjoyment of a book where the hero is otherwise so compellingly gender-blind when it comes to the human resources he needs to accomplish his mission. [A-]
PROPER ENGLISH by KJ Charles – I loved these women as side characters in an established relationship in Think of England, but Charles strips their origin story of all interpersonal conflict. The protagonists were perfectly agreeable, perfectly pragmatic, perfectly supportive…it’s like Mary Poppins having a romance with herself (which she totally does). The frictive m/m romance going on in the background was much more engaging. [B]
FIRELIGHT and WINTERBLAZE, books 1 and 3 in Kristen Callihan’s Darkest London historical fantasy series – I thought Firelight mishandled the hero’s past crisis. Hearing those events from his perspective rather than via a third party would have been much more compelling. I skipped straight to the third book for its terrific premise — a longstanding marriage is put in jeopardy after the husband discovers his wife has been secretly fighting the supernatural for years — but the romance didn’t grab me. [B/B-]
ADDICTED and SINFUL by Charlotte Featherstone – I think “Charlotte Featherstone” is the name of the entrepreneurial courtesan in Amanda Quick’s Seduction, a tenuous link which I found very distracting because these dark-themed historical romances are about as far as you can get from AQ. Neither book was to my taste, but I liked the unconventional relationship resolution in Sinful. [C+]
ALIEN INVASION 1954 by Melisse Aires – A 30-something widow survives a devastating alien attack on earth, then develops a relationship with an alien. Spoiler alert: he’s not the species that attacked the earth. Further spoiler alert: he needs sex for health reasons. Furthest spoiler alert: the sex was pretty vanilla. [D]
Lindsay Faye- The Paragon Hotel
Set in 1921, a White woman on the run from the Mafia in NYC ends up at an all-Black hotel in Portland, OR. It’s not a light book by any means–racism, sexism, transphobia, threats from the KKK, a missing endangered child, fairly graphic violence at some points–so I was a little wary at first, but I ended up loving every word of it. The voice was just so easy to get lost in, the world was so vivid. Faye’s Jane Steele is one of my all-time favorites and this definitely joins that list.
KJ Charles- Think of England
Reread this in preparation for Proper English; it is my favorite Charles book for…reasons.
KJ Charles- Proper English
I enjoyed it, but I agree with a lot of what Deborah said above. Also I got a little lost in all the plot machinations, the what-room-is-located-where and the this-person’s-alibi-doesn’t-match sort of stuff; the actual romance felt kind of buried in Plot. Which might be something that resolves itself for me on a reread.
Kiersten White- Bright We Burn
End to the trilogy, alt-history with female Dracula. It had been awhile since I read book 2 so it took me some time to get back into the world, but on the whole I enjoyed it.
Maggie Stiefvater- The Raven Boys
YA; I bought this *years* ago so I finally had to sit down and read it. I think I would have liked it better back in 2012 or 2013 when it was first published; I remember it being kind of a huge thing with book bloggers back then. And there were a lot of elements that I liked. The main character, alas, is not one of them: she’s very Not Like Other Girls, and it bothered me a lot. The “villain” was paper thin. But the writing was frequently great, and I was drawn into the plot enough that I will finish the series.
Maggie Stiefvater- The Dream Thieves
Starting with book two. Which I liked better. But for the moment I think I’m done with teenagers so I’m taking a break before the final two books.
Katherine Addison- The Goblin Emperor
This was so long, and so dense, and so difficult for me. I’m a little surprised that I was stubborn enough to stick it out. A young man unexpectedly becomes emperor when the bulk of his male relatives are killed and he immediately faces threats, conspiracy, assassination attempts, etc. For a book with such a lot going on it was very…quiet. And there was a *lot* of worldbuilding to unpick. It was good but…a lot.
I stepped away from most of the internet for the summer (social media, non essential etc) and I found it very relaxing and productive, most of the time. . . . Then there were days where I’d find excuses to endlessly browse Amazon or recipe blogs or my library app. I’m really good at tricking myself about what is “essential” 🙂 Now, I’m back and struggling to find my balance again.
So, my favorites of the summer –
“The Bride Test” by Helen Hoang. I enjoyed ‘The Kiss Quotient” but it didn’t blow me away like everyone else. This one blew me away. I feel like I don’t get to read many stories like My/Esme’s (immigrant, single mom, not as educated as some) in hopeful context with romance. My favorite thing about her is that she had this inherent sense of self-worth, even if she questioned if it was even smart to believe in herself at times, she always did. The hero is very endearing too, but I mostly just wanted My to succeed on every level.
“The Unhoneymooners” by Christina Lauren – This is the third Christina Lauren book I’ve tried (maybe 4th?) and it’s the first one I not only finished by absolutely love. Modern rom com with enemies to lovers? Fake relationship? Forced proximity in a beautiful Hawaiian resort? Yes, please. I read this in like a day and I’m really glad I gave it a try after DNF’ing their other books.
“Something about Sweetie” by Sandhya Menon. Twinkle is still my favorite, but I love this series. I love the realistic family relationships, that things get romantic but not super hot and heavy or angsty (just my personal preference for YA) And I thought I might have spied the next couple for the next book, although I don’t see it on her website. . .
I won’t get into all of the rest of the summer, but I’m still stubbornly reading Kerry Greenwood’s Phryne Fisher series even though I find them wildly uneven. I love Phryne, I’m close to the end, and I won’t let myself sit down and finish the TV series till I finish the book series. It’s leaving Netflix in September, so I better get cracking.
I really enjoyed some early Anna Pigeon mysteries by Nevada Barr. Not so much for the mysteries, but the beautiful evocation of various nature spots. I can also take or leave Anna.She’s kind of a judgy grump at times, but I suppose if you want to spend most time alone with nature, it helps to dislike people to a certain extent.
I also read some Ngaio Marsh and Jerry and Frances Lockridge (Mr. and Mrs. North mysteries) for that feeling of experiencing another time. Blanket warning for both series for possible racist, sexist, possibly homophobic (I actually can’t remember anything, but it wouldn’t surprise if that’s b/c it was so so taboo to talk about) content for both of them. I tend to be able to finish them without coming across something I find too rage inducing, but obviously that’s going to vary a lot from person to person and book to book.
My biggest disappointment of the summer was Tessa Dare’s latest. 🙁 I consider myself a Tessa Dare fangirl, so it wasn’t that she didn’t hit her usual notes, I just found the heroine a little one note, despite the reveal (heavily telegraphed) at the end of why she was the way she was. I also found her male friends’ overprotective natures annoying rather than funny. But there was a baby goat!
I also couldn’t get into Cat Sebastian or Loretta Chase, but I’m trying people. Might have just been right book at the wrong time..
I’ve had a couple rough books in a row, so I’m reading “The Austen Playbook” b/c Lucy Parker hasn’t failed me yet!
Happy almost fall, Northern Hemisphere folks!
Southern Hemisphere, enjoy spring!
I guess if you’re in the tropics, enjoy it all 😉
I recently finished ‘It Happened One Autumn’, by Lisa Kleypas, and liked it much better than the previous book. Definitely looking forward to starting ‘Devil In Winter’ in the next few days.
Finished ‘Stranger Things, Worlds Turned Upside Down. It was an interesting read on the Netflix series. My only two complaints are that the font is too small (ours is a physical copy), and they kept mentioning who plays who throughout, when they could’ve just mentioned the name of the actors. I hope they put out books like this for the remaining seasons.
I’m about to finish ‘Once Upon A Castle’ (by Nora Roberts and other authors), and start ‘Once Upon A Star’.
I really loved Kristen Callihan’s “The Game Plan” and “The Hot Shot.”
This is more of a ‘what did you read this summer’ as I missed a couple ‘what are you reading’ check ins.
GREAT
Ilona Andrews – SWEEP OF THE BLADE [M/F]. Vampires in outer space with swords and the single mother who fits right in.
VERY GOOD
Daniel, Janet – SHETLAND SAGA: A SOOTHMOTHER’S STORY. [Nonfiction] An account of a middle aged middle career couple moving to Shetland from Wales. A well written story with insights into the protagonist and the culture she moves into.
Easton, Eli – HOW TO HOWL AT THE MOON series. [M/M weredogs]. These are a cute series with an interesting premise. What if dogs could become humans like Pinocchio became a real boy. What would they be like? It was an engaging series and different interesting couples in each book. I’d like more in this world.
Himes, SJ – NECROMANCERS DANCE series ( the Beacon Hill Sorcerer ) [M/M Urban fantasy]. This was recommended in the Slytherin/ Slytherin pairing post and I thoroughly enjoyed the series. More urban fantasy than romance but great reading. Thank you to whom ever posted it!
Gray, C.W. – MERCENARY’S MATE series [M/M mpreg sci-fi] and HOBSON HILLS OMEGA series [M/M mpreg contemporary]. Good plot lines and good characters. I thoroughly enjoyed both series. Also lots of pets both alien and earth based. A couple of times I was worried that characters were headed for big misunderstandings, but they behaved amazingly rational no matter what kind of crazy plot twist came their way.
Kingfisher, T. – SWORDHEART [F/M fantasy] Adventure with a somewhat older heroine and a guy stuck in a sword. There are adventures! Bandits! And a good story.
Lane , Amy – HOMEBIRD and REGRET ME NOT [M/M contemporary ] Homebird was very good- well written main and secondary characters. I would read more of the group of friends, romance or not. Regret Me Not was good and still it felt unfinished. I wanted to know the rest of their stories. There were unfinished questions. However at the same time it made me laugh with the Target analogies and scenes.
Raconteur, Honor. YA/NA adventures. The Shinigami detective was recommended on SBTB and I have proceeded to enjoy her entire backlist, especially the Artifactors series. Thank you for the recommendation- she is now on my autobuy/ auto read list.
GOOD
Atherton, Nancy – INTRODUCING AUNT DIMITY [M/F Cozy romances]. Sweet and of their time. I’ll continue with this series but not at full price.
OK
Aarons-Hughs, Rikva – MR. MARCH NAMES THE STARS [M/M trans contemporary]. I felt like this story was trying so hard to be innocuous and perfect about the characters that it wasn’t a story. Somehow it just didn’t hit the right note and I found myself not really caring what happened to the characters. Which was sad as I had been really looking forward to reading it.
Morton, Tom – IN SHETLAND: TALES FROM THE LAST BOOKSHOP [non-fiction] Totally not a romance but a non-fiction collection of musings in Shetland and it’s characters. A bit of repetition and it could use some editing, but a nice read nonetheless.
Ottoman, EE – A MATTER OF DISAGREEMENT [M/ trans- fantasy]. I had great hopes and yet they weren’t quite there. The characters were good, but I felt I didn’t understand them. I may try to read it again to see if it hits me better, but right now it’s just a meh.
Various Authors – THE BROTHERHOOD OF OMMARR series [M/M Dragon shifters]. Four brothers romances told each by a different author. It’s a case of insta lust and and some other plot holes but ok. And quite the baby epilogue at the end.
Also continued my re-read of Viola Grace’s Tales of the Citadel as well as her new origins series. True comfort reads no matter how jetlagged I am.
Recently I read WHEN WE WERE MERMAIDS by Barbara O’Neal, who also published as Barbara Samuels. I love her women’s fiction, and this was no exception. Then I discovered she had written historical romances, and I already owned one, so I gave LUCIEN’S FALL a try. This book was pretty much all of my catnip, so I can’t give it a fair review. I have a weird, probably unhealthy fascination with Samuel Richardson’s Clarissa (the book and the miniseries with Sean Bean) and Dangerous Liaisons (book, movie, and what I imagine the play was like with Alan Rickman in it). Lucien’s Fall shared a lot in common with those two books but gave the heroine more awareness and agency. I absolutely adored it and eagerly read another of her historicals, THE BLACK ANGEL, which sadly didn’t work for me at all.
Lately I’ve been reading Penny Reid’s KNITTING IN THE CITY and WINSTON BROTHERS series. Some of them are new to me, and a few are re-reads. I really enjoy her writing. There is so much community and friendship, and all of her characters look, act, and speak in very distinctive ways. They don’t all blend together in my mind as happens with some writers when I binge read. I just wish the Winston Brothers books had different titles, as it’s nearly impossible for me to remember which book goes with which characters.
I recently finished TAKE DOWN by James Swain, which is about a cheater who is trying to scam a Vegas casino. I love books about thieves/heists, and it was really interesting to read about how some of the scams work.
I’m hoping to check out A HIGHLANDER WALKS INTO A BAR by Laura Trentham and THE CHARMER IN CHAPS by Julia London. I’m also interested in checking out NOTTINGHAM by Nathan Makaryk, which is a Robin Hood story.
Read:
THE VICTORIAN CITY: EVERYDAY LiFE in DICKENS’ LONDON by Judith Flanders.
I finally finished this book. I won’t go into it too deeply since it’s nonfiction which isn’t everyone’s thing. In sum it’s a great reference book if you need a clear picture of London when Charles Dickens was writing read it; other than that though it is quite a dense book and heavy. All content warnings apply.
Reading:
FANCY DRESSES DESCRIBED by Ardern Holt.
This one hardly counts since I mostly skim more than anything, mostly because it is literally descriptions of dresses and not just any dresses “Fancy Dress”. Fancy Dress is a term used in the Victorian era to describe costumes , as in costume balls. Again, I can’t really recommend it because it’s niche, but if you want to read about historical costumes pick it up( particularly around Halloween) . One really neat thing about this book is that the original volume was written in 1896 as a guide for woman of the time, so again pick it up if that I interests you.
NIGHT OF FIRE by Barbara Samuel. This is a fantastic Georgian Eda set romance that I highly, highly recommend, and i’m Not finished with it yet. Before I get into why though I have to issue a content warning for on page abuse of the hero and abuse in the heroine’s backstory.
Normally, I’d recommend this book as a post #metoo, but this book was written in 2000, so not only is it great, but it was a little ahead of it’s time.Basically the story follows Basilio and Cassandra who started exchanging letters sometime before the story began and based upon that formed a deep friendship based entirely on the meeting of like minds. Now, at the beginning of the book both assume the other is middle-aged and therefore romance is totally off the table, not to mention Cassandra is a widow , so Basilio invites her to his house in Tuscany so they can spend some actual time together. Turns out to no romance reader’s surprise they are both young and hot and their deep friendship quickly turns into love.
Unfortunately, Basilio has a long-standing betrothal to an old family friend, so he and Cassandra cannot be together beyond one incredible week and boy howdy is it a hot one(if you know what I mean 😉 )
The #metoo stuff comes in when Basilio( one of the sweetest beta heroes ever!)finds out that due to her horrible husband Cassandra is extremely nervous when it comes to sex and all it takes is one panic attack on her part( she didn’t tell about her trauma until that point ) for Basilio to let her take the lead when it comes to love making and the moment they finally do go all the way is one the most beautiful scenes in the book.
Of course their week must come to an end and he does have to marry his betrothed and this begins the least interesting part of the book so far, Cassandra and Basilio’s long separation , since he is kinda of married. I know cheating of any sort, even emotional is an immediate turn off for some people, but hear me out, before you give this book an immediate pass. Samuels makes sure the reader is aware that the other woman, Analise has no interest in Basilio or sex in general, more than anything she wants to be a nun, but due to circumstances beyond her control she can’t do that and Samuels never lets her come across as prudish or cold( I think you could even read her as asexual and aromantic, even though Samuels never says it, the book was still written in 2000 after all.)
I haven’t finished the book yet, but despite the cheating I still cannot wait until I found out just how Cassandra, Basilio and even Analise get their HEA.
I finished THUNDERSTRUCK by Erik Larson–the last of his histories I needed to read before I was all caught up. So glad he’s working on a new one! I really liked it; very engaging despite the main dudes being either an asshole or a murderer, respectively. (There’s something funny about how the guy who DIDN’T off anyone alienating most of his family and multiple people around him and generally being a dick, while the guy who rather horrifyingly killed someone was such a nice guy to everyone he knew/met and ended up with a lot of sympathy, even from those who pursued and arrested him.) There are multiple interesting women here, too, esp the girlfriend of the murdery fellow. Slight spoiler, but it’s hard to know what to make of her till the very end. She’s the one you come away thinking about the most…
KIDNAPED BY THE PIRATE by Keira Andrews–quite enjoyed it. I did appreciate it was playing with old skool tropes but for me, in this context, it all worked fine. There are still many nits I could pick, but overall it’s the first book period I’ve read in a LONG time where for a good chunk of it I was desperate to get back to it. Not just ’cause of the sexiness (which was–whew, actually what lead to my having to take a break from it as well. Distracting, that.) but the characters and story. I also really liked the bits of historical accuracy I recognised… So yea, it was a bit of fun.
Just started BIRDS BY THE SHORE by Jennifer Akerman. I vacation not TOO far from Lewes, DE, but I think I’d be enjoying it even if I didn’t. She has a way with words that’s unpretentious yet never quite holds your hand. I’m reading even more slowly than normal, in order to fully see the pictures she’s drawing. So far at least I don’t mind that it’s also a personal story as well as being all birbs and beaches.
I finished the Morgan Brothers series by Lauren Rowe that I was halfway through during the last Watcha Reading. I’m glad I finished, because I do think the writing improves by the last two books, but it also gets a bit more new adult by virtue of the author telling the brothers’ stories from oldest to youngest but without all that much time going by over the whole series.
THE RIGHT SWIPE by Alisha Rai, which I liked but didn’t love. I felt the heroine was almost too prickly and stand-offish, to the point where I couldn’t always buy the hero’s attraction to her. I did enjoy the dating app setting and the discussion of CTE in football, and I think this could be the start of a fun series, it just wasn’t my favorite.
A trio of novellas:
OPERATION BAILEY WEDDING by Piper Rayne, which is a novella about the wedding of the couple from the first Bailey book. It was cute to see all these characters back together and made me excited for the next book in the series.
THE CANDLE PALACE by Devney Perry, which covers the story of a couple that has so far been in the background of the rest of her Jamison Valley books. Sweet, angsty, wouldn’t read unless you’re a fan of the series.
PLAYING HOUSE by Ruby Lang. This was a fun one because I’m familiar with NYC real estate from my work. I loved the characters and the story so much I wanted this to be a full length book – there’s so much potential here that the novella length kind of sold it short.
HIRED by Zoey Castile. This is the sequel to STRIPPED, and I actually enjoyed this one more. I like that Castile writes diverse characters with rich back stories. The love story in this one, while still a bit rushed, felt better fleshed out than her debut novel.
Currently reading SWAGGER by Liz Lincoln, the second in her Milwaukee Dragons football series. These are cute quick reads with smart nerdy heroines (the first one had a science teacher who likes cosplay, this one has a physics PhD student heroine and an injured pro football hero who decides to finish his BA during his injured season). Lincoln writes good sexy times.
New job (teaching), no time to read or even listen to audio! I was reading THE WOMAN LEFT BEHIND by Linda Howard. I liked the heroine and the hero but the special forces physical training stuff dragged on. I didn’t finish. Now I’m on RED RISING by Pierce Brown. Loving it, tiredly. 🙂
I’m reading “When Islam Is Not A Religion: Inside America’s Fight for Religious Freedom” by Asma Uddin. Asma is a religious liberty lawyer and scholar who works on religious freedom for people of all faiths in the U.S. and around the world. This book takes the “Islam is a political ideaology, not a religion” nonsense being peddled by a lot of right-wing politicians, pundits, and evangelicals as the basis for why Muslims shouldn’t have constitutional rights protections.
For example, all the brouhaha that kicks up when a group of Muslims want to build a mosque, as happened in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. They buy the land, present the plans to the board for approval, and suddenly there’s an uproar and mixed in with all the “it’s gonna be an ISIS training ground!” or “why do they need that much space with only xyz number of people?” (because it’s like people build a house of worship for projected growth of their community, not just the number they currently have) are comments about traffic, parking, ground water, housing values, etc etc, that mask anti-Islam/anti-Muslim sentiment – the NIMBY syndrome (not in my backyard). “Sure, you can have a mosque… just NIMBY.”
Also, she lays out why failing to protect Muslims’ religious rights is a slippery slope that undermines religious freedom for all, both here in the US and abroad. I’m only about halfway through, but it’s given me so much to think about and vocalized some of my own frustrations as a Muslim with evangelical Pentecostal family members who have told me “just remember, this is a Christian country” (the implication being that I should be glad I’m tolerated at all, and that I should just sit down and shut up). You can’t claim to protect religious freedom (hello, GOP) and then make it a caveat that freedom and religious rights belong only to those religions that you agree with/approve of.
Way heavier reading than I would normally have going, but I’m really on a non-fiction kick lately.
I loved This is How You Lose the Time War. It’s amazingly creative and lushly written. I also get a lot of fun out of seeing SF writers putting out 100% romance and getting away with it.
I just finished Ayesha At Last, which was fantastic. It’s definitely a re-read book.
I’m also in the middle of Wanderers, by Chuck Wendig. I’m enjoying it, but I have to take breaks when the right-wing characters get to be too much.
Next up is either Anna Zabo’s Outside the Lines or Eve Silver’s Dark Desires.
The last two weeks I was concentrating on an old fanfic project I go back to from time to time and put reading to the side.
Although as the Downton Abbey movie is coming up (oh my god I just CAN’T WAIT) I ventured into period television again and binged all three seasons of Jamestown, rewatched the 2008 BBC adaption of Sense and Sensibility and finally got around to starting Poldark. Love it. I should have started it years before.
Now I’m more than halfway through Mrs. Drew Plays Her Hand by Carla Kelly – it is a very relaxing and hearfelt historical romance, and has great Christmas vibes.
I’ve also started The Promise of Jenny Jones by Maggie Osbourne – after reading and loving Silver Lining by her earlier this summer, I am determined to read more of hers.
Wild Dead by Carrie Vaughn: Sequel to her post-apocalyptic mystery Bannerless. Pretty straightforward mystery in an interesting setting.
Nobody’s Sweetheart Now by Maggie Robinson: The ghost of a woman’s philandering husband has to help her out in order to get into heaven. And there’s a murder. Cute, and the ghost admits he was a dick while still being funny.
Labyrinth Index by Charles Stross: Latest in the Laundry files, and I didn’t find it as good as the others. Too much jumping around in time, too many POVs, and Mhari (who was supposed to be the driving character) didn’t have a clear voice.
Love and Death among the Cheetahs by Rhys Bowen: Meh. Latest in Georgie series and very slow-moving. The murder doesn’t happen until half-way through the book.
Where the Dead Lie by C.S. Harris. Definite content warning, since this deals with a serial killer preying on London’s street children. The killings don’t occur on the page, but there’s some fairly detailed description of what happened to them.
Hope for the Best by Jodi Taylor: SO GOOD OMG. Latest in the St. Mary’s series and now my favorite book of the year (spot previously held by Tana French’s Wych Elm).
Deceptions by Kelley Armstrong: Still liking this series, but there’s a lot of calf eyes at each other.
Book 3 of Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson: Epic fantasy is epic. I’ll be reading this for approximately ever.
Read The Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory and renewed my membership in the Bad Decisions Book Club to finish the last two chapters one night. I was definitely team Theo, especially after one of Maddie’s decisions towards the end of the book. This was my favorite book in the series.
I ended up discussing Rebel with my history buff husband quite a bit. I appreciate all the historical details Beverly Jenkins puts in her books and her listed source books often get borrowed or purchased around here. Almost forgot, I swooned over Drake and Valinda’s love story as well.
I am half-way through Project Duchess by Sabrina Jeffries and enjoying the read so far while meeting Lydia’s blended family. Just have to remark that Grey and Beatrice suffer from a little too much insta lust, but that probably happened in the 19th century, too. There are a number of siblings to pair off, so I’ll be watching out for this series.
Next up is Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes from the library and then, finally, The Wallflower Wager, if the library slows down on delivering my holds….
@LauraL, I read Evvie Drake Starts Over last weekend and really enjoyed it. It reminded me, very faintly, of both Jennifer Crusie and Kristan Higgins. Maybe it was the sense of community, of friendship over time. It’s quiet and gentle but solid, and I’m kinda flailing in its aftermath, struggling to find what to read next.
@Viktória I love Poldark SO MUCH. I am both dreading season five b/c nooo my show is ending, but also so excited for it since I think this means they’ll be ending on its own terms, and I miss my darlings. And the scenery.
I can honestly just watch the show over and over again. (Although I actually dropped it the first time I watched season one, which is insane to me now, lol! So glad I went back and tried again.)
(Also, I totally love that’s a show basically entirely run by women. My beloved Grantchester is similar, and I think it shows w/ both series in a very good way.)
The end of July and August have been great for reading for me. I re-read Say You’re Sorry by Karen Rose and the Mad Morelands series by Candace Camp. I also read 4 new/new to me books, ranging from meh to awesome.
Meh–Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey. I eventually liked it, but it annoyed me for a good portion of the story. The heroine’s entire family is awful, but her older brother was literally the worst. I felt like he was a complete Narcissist (just without the diagnosis). He tried to control everyone–not just the heroine. Also, her family didn’t take her seriously because she was the baby of the family. I did like the hero, but he annoyed me as well. He at least got better as the book went along. If anyone hasn’t read it, don’t let the cutesy cover fool you–the sex is very on the page and hot.
Good-ish– The Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory. It took me a while to get into this book. I started it on a Thursday night and read it for 2 hours both that night and Friday, and only managed 60 pages. If a friend hadn’t reminded me how long it took me to get into the Harry Potter books, I would have DNF’ed the book on Saturday. Instead, I binged the book that night and all day on Sunday. It got so much better. I loved the relationship between the hero and heroine once they decided to have a relationship.
Great–The Right Swipe by Alisha Rai. This was my first Rai book and I don’t know why I waited so long to read something by her. It was so much fun, but should have come with a TW regarding the #MeToo movement. I was surprised by how big a part this played in the book and feel like it should have at least been alluded to in the cover copy.
Great–Brazen and the Beast by Sarah MacLean. I was leery about reading this book as I DNF’ed Wicked and the Wallflower last year, and her books have been very hit or miss for me. The only reason I even bought it was because of the Harlequin sale, which allowed me to get it for free. I’m so glad I gave it a chance because it was so good. I loved both the hero and the heroine as well as everyone in their extended circle. I 100% want at least a novella about Annika and Nora. I am a little nervous about the next book in the series because apparently the hero in that was the villain in this book. He caused several people to die, so to me he isn’t really hero material. IMO, Grace deserves someone much better than him.
Currently, I am reading It’s Hard Out Here for a Duke by Maya Rodale. She’s another hit or miss author for me, and the last one I tried to read was DNF’ed so hard. It also happened to be the book just before this one in that series. The only reason I even decided to try this book is because of an interaction between the hero and heroine in the other book. I’ve read about 22% of the book last night, and so far it is okay.
Blown Away By:
Have any of you read anything by Craig Schaefer? I read a short story of his in an anthology about villains and enjoyed it enough to buy SWORN TO THE NIGHT, the first in his Wisdom’s Grave trilogy. We start with a middle-aged author who’s been kidnapped by a criminal enterprise in order to get information about the Witch and the Knight she writes about, the same duo who are wreaking havoc and angry justice in New York. (Not a sentence I ever thought I’d write.)
I think I read the entire thing with my mouth open at the–to me–complex, violent and word-perfect world Schaefer built. This series has crossover characters from his other series (plural) and it is OMG wonderful on every front, if you like dark, other-worldly fiction, curses and powerful, angry women. I have bought more of his books, trying hard not to binge them all and would love to know if anyone else is familiar with his work.
Loved:
Ivan Doig’s LAST BUS TO WISDOM. An 11-year-old on a bus from Montana to Wisconsin in 1951, felt like reading a contemporary Mark Twain. It is that good.
Linda Holmes’ EVIE DRAKE STARTS OVER. Small town close friendships and the things they don’t know. Funny, great dialog, wonderful characters.
@Darlynne: What’s the anthology about villains?
@MirandaB: URBAN ENEMIES, stories from Jim Butcher, Kevin Hearne, Kelley Armstrong, Seanan McGuire, Jonathan Maberry and others. I was hooked by Schaefer’s SIXTY-SIX SECONDS, featuring Daniel Faust and (I think) Harmony Black.
So I had been in a bit of a reading slump and then an unthinkable opportunity presented itself…on the 14th one of the servers at work that happens to house everything for my department was compromised by a virus or hacker. I’ve heard a few stories so I am not sure what is the truth. To make matters worse, my computer has had a “Do not use” sticky note on it since the 15th. In between helping my department with filing and having “meetings” with my coworkers (Where we basically played Uno, Bullshit, Blackjack and something called the “Drinking Game”), I’ve been reading on my kindle. So here is my list (must warn you, I’m not good at reviewing):
The Evil Queen – Gena Showalter (LOVED IT so much)
Finished Lady No says Yes – by Jess Michaels (another winner)
Project Duchess by Sabrina Jeffries (loved it, can’t wait for the next story)
Then I went on a Katee Robert kick: Meeting His Match, Wrong Bed Right Guy, Chasing Mrs Right, Two Wrongs, One Right and Seducing Mr Right. Which were all easy to suck me in and very compelling reads. Then I fell into the Wedding Dare series, but I have not been able to finish Best Man with Benefits.
I also need to read Brazen and the Beast but I know that Sarah’s books tend to get me right in the emotions and I do NOT want to cry at work. I will probably read it on my upcoming Nashville trip. If I can cry in front of anyone, it would be my best friend.
I’m reading Call Me home by Julie Kibler and enjoying it a lot.
It’s a novel told by two main characters–one a 90 year old woman and her 30 year old friend traveling to a funeral. On the way, the older woman tells the story of her high school love (a young black man in 1939 Kentucky when interracial relationships were forbidden. This novel was inspired by the author’s grandmother who was in a similar situation. It alternates between the present and 1939 Kentucky.
@Darlynne: Thanks! I read that one a while back, but I’ll have to re-check the story.
Not a book but I’m currently obsessed with the MTV dating reality show Are You the One? Perfect palette cleanser to the fifteen or so minutes I watched of this seasons The bachelorette. 16 twenty-something sexually fluid/ bi+ folx trying to find love in a mansion in Hawaii. It’s the most wholesome trashy reality show I’ve ever watched.
The best book I’ve read this period was A Little Light Mischief by Cat Sebastian. FF historical revenge fantasy. I enjoyed the story a lot but wanted more from the romance. I didn’t think the connection between the h h was well developed. I did truly enjoy Alice ’s triumph over the horrible men from her past.
I’ve read a fair amount of queer fantasy this month. Most of it was ok but not great. Lisa Henry’s Anhaga was good but not as good as her contemporaries imo.
I thought Sera Trever’s Earthly Pleasures was good but the world building annoyed me. It’s an mm forced proximity romance between a playboy Prince and pious acolyte in a fantasy world that’s a lot like recency England but with no homophobia and with an earth goddess religion. The similarities were a little too on the nose for me.
I also read The Mercenaries of the Stolen Moon by Megan Derr. I liked the premise more than the execution. A queer fantasy with a love triangle that smoothly turns into an MFM poly triad and set in a world that’s matter of factly trans and bi friendly. Too bad I didn’t care for the writing style. The world building is both detailed and hand wavey and there wasn’t enough character development or depth of emotion.
That said. I had the same complaints about the previous three books and I’ve read them all. So there’s obviously something compelling about this series for me.
I am currently reading Wayfarer’s Keep by TA White. It is the third book in her Broken Lands series. This series is the first I have read from her and I am really enjoying it.
Tuesday Ilona Andrews’s Sapphire Flames is released and it is one of the books
I am most excited to read
@HeatherS, I just read the whole preview of that book and it seems really good. Definitely going to need to read the whole thing. I’m rly glad you mentioned it!
Every year, when August is hot and disgustingly humid, I fantasize about running away to a small cottage in some remote part of Scotland. In the past two weeks, two books have helped fuel my Scotland fantasy. The first was Jenny Colgan’s newest novel, The Bookshop on the Shore. It’s not exactly a Jane Eyre retelling, but there are multiple nods to Jane Eyre. The second was a reread of the Golden Age mystery The Singing Sands by Josephine Tey: not my favorite of her books, but I found a very old hardcover copy on my library’s book sale cart, and was inspired to reread it when I realized I remembered very little of the plot.
I signed up for three free months of Kindle Unlimited, and have read a couple of books I liked on that. One was Something Human by A.J. Demas: a historical m/m romance set in a sort of fantasy version of the ancient world, in that the cultures described are obviously inspired by Greece and/or Rome and the Celts or “barbarian” tribes, but the place names and geography are clearly fictional. Another was Love Among the Chickens by P. G. Wodehouse. It’s not one of his best books, though it’s enjoyable, and I picked it because I needed a humor book for a reading challenge, and wanted a Wodehouse I hadn’t read before.
Finally, I just started The Wedding Party by Jasmine Guillory. I was lucky enough to find it on the “speed read” shelf at the library, and it’s taken priority over other books because it can’t be renewed.
Having a bit of a book hangover run from a series of really good books:
THE CITY OF BRASS—totally my catnip with a kickass heroine, some questionable identities (are people really who they seem to be? How does our past define us?), and people pushing against social norms. Oh, and magic. I am dying for my hold on the next one in the series to come in.
THE RIGHT SWIPE—I really enjoy Alisha Rai. This one is adjacent to her Forbidden Hearts series and manages to be highly topical, snarky, and sexy. Yes please.
RETICENCE—this is the last one in the Custard Protocol series and also wraps up the Parasolverse novels by Gail Carriger. I really did not like the next-to-last book in the series (COMPETENCE; found the main couple to be totally meh and irritating) and so almost didn’t read this one but found it on the new release shelf the day before I went to the beach. Glad I picked it up since I love the main characters (how can you not love a woman named Arsenic?), there are delightful cameos from other books in the same universe and it ties everything up in a nice bow.
BRAZEN AND THE BEAST—Fun and charming. I enjoy heroes who are giving and un-self centered.
Meh:
THE BRIDE TEST (boring and unevenly plotted), THE PROPOSAL by Jasmine Guillory (no plot; do people in her books do anything besides eat and drink alcohol? It seems like not), and A DEVIL OF A DUKE by Madeline Hunter (overbearing duke and both too much and not enough sex—way too often and used to gloss over said duke’s annoying traits and yet not steamy enough.)
DNF: TRAIL OF LIGHTNING: picked this up without looking too closely. Mistake. Waaay too violent for my taste.
Well, since I’ve discovered free books through the library and also through Amazon Prime, I’ve read a certain variety, maybe a little exploring.
Ones I liked via Libb:
The Girl Who Drank the Moon by Kelly Barnhill. Every year a village sacrifices a baby to a witch. Except the witch places the baby with adoptive parents. The evil “witch” is not who you expect. A well told story with good writing that, as all good fairy tales do, illuminates some of what we face in life.
Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole. Has been mentioned here enough to just say I liked it, too.
Notes from Ghost Town by Kate Ellison. YA, teen’s mom confesses to killing teen’s love.Is that what really happened. How do you deal with that? I liked it. Especially the portrayal of living with mental illness.
Mr. Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Ella MacNeal. Young woman in London becomes a secretary for Churchill at the start of the war and uncovers a spy ring and finds that her father is not really dead. Fun and good history.
Not so great from Libby: September 2010: Harlequin Presents. Not their finest month. I wanted to slap so many of the heroes and shake so many of the heroines. I did like the princess one.I though I liked secret babies but not so much in these books.
via Amazon Prime: The ones I liked. Lying Next to Me by Gregg Olsen. He is pretty reliable for mystery/suspense. This one has a wife abducted in plain daylight and the investigating officer knows the husband. Explores relationships, secrets. Does have a twist and most of the characters are not such nice people but I did enjoy it.
Phantom Limb by Lucinda Berry. Right in the second part of the title it tells you that it is A Gripping Psychological Thriller. Um, yes. TW for abuse. And the first part of the twist I saw a long way off. Still an OK read.
I started reading What Happens At Christmas by Victoria Alexander. Supposed to be a mad-cap Christmas farce/romance. Just could not get into it. Too mad cap perhaps.
I bought and plowed through the Dark Glass novels by Barb Hendee – a series of four in which women in medieval times, faced with difficult choices, are offered a chance to see the outcomes in a magic mirror. Fun.
I also started listening to Audio Digest, the Pediatric edition for 2019 in the car and, if you need medical CMEs and can get your hands on them, I am loving them.
I have got to get more reading done! The amount of new books that are coming out that I am so anxious to read is growing and growing!!
The only fiction I have finished in the last two weeks is RED WHITE & ROYAL BLUE by Casey McQuiston. I was kind of on the fence about it. I liked the writing and the premise of the first son and royal prince falling in love. I just wanted more of their romance and less politics. Plus a little more open door sexy times would have been nice.
A good non-fiction book I read was KEEP GOING: 10 WAYS TO STAY CREATIVE IN GOOD TIMES AND BAD by Austin Kleon. It is a smallish book with some decent wisdom in it presented in a very readable way.
@HeatherS, we had one of those NIMBY/mosque controversies in a very wealthy suburb here in NJ, so I hear you sister! The nonsense about how many parking spaces, and how many lights in the parking lot went on for years, until the town lost in court, after wasting a lot of money on legal fees. Luckily the one closer to my house is very well accepted in the community, with interfaith groups attending occasional services and iftars, and politicians showing up looking for votes before every election!
I didn’t get a whole lot of reading done, but several books were very good:
A Duke By Night(Kelly Bowen), maybe the best of hers I’ve read yet, great characters, female competence porn, and lots of action.
The Work of Art by Mimi Matthews-a fairly short book, with a plot that’s been done many times, but in her hands it packed a strong emotional punch. It had all the tropes I love-MOC, damsel in distress, wounded war veteran hero.
A Scandalous Deal by Joanna Shupe-more female competence porn! This is the first of the Four Hundred Series I’ve read, and I must say her writing and character building has gotten so much better since her early Tycoon/Magnate/Mogul books.
I also read a old Paula Marshall book that had somehow previously escaped my notice, “The Black Sheep’s Bride”, which is set in Elizabethan England. For some reason I love her slightly quaint, but tongue in cheek, style of writing, it fit the time period.
:::sways in to Cowboy Take Me Away, because I’m hearing rumors about new Dixie Chicks music:::
A lot more reading happened the past couple of weeks, largely because I finished Dark Age (it was a lot of book, and it was BRUTAL in part, who hurt you, Pierce Brown?), and also there was a weekend where I was staying at a friend’s house while my son was at flight camp and it was pretty much me and her dogs. So yeah, Dark Age was where I left off, and it was excellent, but DAMN PIERCE. I followed that up with The Wallflower Wager by Tessa Dare, which I loved. There is some TW/CW stuff that is well-covered in the SB review, so be aware of that, but it really was so very funny and sweet. The animal stuff was adorable (OMG the parrot) and the parts where Chase and Ash were being competitive about who was now Gabe’s BFF had me just sitting there snickering. I then read Last Chance Rodeo by Kari Lynn Dell. I really liked the other books I’ve read by her, but this one didn’t hit me in quite the same happy place. I think I could have used more exploration of the characters that lived on the reservation and the dynamics of that. Also, there was some genuinely mean stuff done by the two main characters to each other, and I don’t think the grovel was sufficient. I mean, there was A LOT to work through there. Then I was in the mood for something twisty, so I settled into Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson. It took a minute to get going, but it had some nice twists and I liked the battle of both wits and wills between the protagonist and antagonist. It also made me vaguely want to learn to dive. Um, trigger warning for some child abuse, though. Be aware of that part. I blew through Birthday by Meredith Russo in one day. It follows two best friends that are born on the same day, and one of them gradually realizes that she is a trans girl. It was heart-breaking in parts, because she goes through such pain for a lot of the book, but it ends on a nice, hopeful note. Which brings us to now, in which I am reading Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson and YOU GUYS. Magical library with monster books (you guys remember the Monster Book of Monsters from Harry Potter? This is library full of that and scarier). It’s so yummy so far. Till next time, guys. Always abide by the checklist.
I just finished Hot Under Her Collar (Book 1) by Amber Belldene. This book was AMAZING.
Ok, first of all, it has one of my favorite romance pairings (professor/recent graduate.) I mean, I’m on board already. But then! This story is set in seminary school and the recent graduate is a new priest and her former teacher is a professor of ethics. OMG.
And the novel is just so wonderful with complex emotions and backstory and rich detail. And it circles religion obviously but it’s not about sex = sin, and the love scenes are very specific but without being explicit (IMO.)
Reading Purakau. It’s a compilation of retellings of Maori myths & legends. Because they never went over Maori myths in school (a lot of Greek, a lot of Roman, some Norse… not much else), these stories are new to me – and the authors are excellent.
Did I know the story of “The Battle of the Mountains”? Nope. Did I know that I needed to read it styled as a music magazine Where-Are-They-Now style article? Nope. Am I really happy I did? Oh yes.
Some of these are straight retellings, some of them play with genre, some of them are modernized, some are told from what seems to be alternative perspectives.
I’ve been savoring this one. Many of the stories are just truly beautifully written and I’ve now been exposed to new-to-me stories and new-to-me authors.
I’m telling pretty much everyone to GO READ THIS BOOK!
I was reading up a storm for the first part of August and then this last week has been devoted to preparing for the new semester, so :/ But today I devoured ALWAYS AND FOREVER, LARA JEAN.
But still! LAST RITUALS was fine? It’s a thriller set in Iceland, and the MC is a single mom. Still, I could not be disturbed by the whole “body mods!!!” Part?
Read the folklore book EXPLORING FAIRY TRADITIONS thanks to ILL, and it was very interesting.
HEART BERRIES is a memoir by an indigenous author and I’m still chewing over a lot of what I read.
FISH GIRL was actually a heartbreaking children’s book?
INSIGNIFICANT EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF A CACTUS is about a child born without arms, and the ways she navigates middle school in a new city.
HUNGRY GHOSTS by Anthony Bourdain was just. Not my style. But interesting.
DATING YOU/HATING YOU, CLEAN SWEEP, ROYAL RUNAWAY, UTTERLY UNINTERESTING AND UNADVENTUROUS… (read because someone here suggested it!) and MY PLAIN JANE were a lot of fun.
THE INVENTION OF HUGO CABRET: I love the film and it is very faithful to the book.
HELLO UNIVERSE was interesting at the time and I appreciated the deaf character. But it was largely forgettable.
I read THE BODY for a book/movie club, where we also watched STAND BY ME. Wow that cast was just wonderful.
A special thanks to everyone here for recommending so many of these wonderful books.