October is here! There are so many damn books releasing this month that I’m honestly a little overwhelmed.
Is the season affecting your reading? Do you want something more spooky in anticipation of Halloween? Let us know!
Aarya: I just finished an arc of Chloe Neill’s Wicked Hour ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), the second book in the Heirs of Chicagoland series. I have mixed feelings despite liking most of it. I am completely invested in the relationship between Elisa and Connor; they have a species enmity/childhood enemies/adult friends-to-lovers vibe. But as with the previous book, I am ambivalent about the PNR mystery subplot. I’d honestly be okay skimming the B-plot and focusing on the couple instead. If you like vampire/werewolf/magic politics, then you might enjoy the series and it’s worth a try (I’m liking it FAR more than the previous series, which I rage-quit after Something Unforgivable happened).
I’m also currently in the first quarter of Rebekah Weatherspoon’s Xeni. I am LOVING it so far, and I think many in the Bitchery are excited for this book. It has a contemporary marriage-of-convenience (forced by a will, of course!), bi MCs, terrific chemistry, and possibly my favorite cover of 2019 (look at it! It’s so gorgeous!). I hope the book lives up to my first impressions of it.
Shana: I’m also reading Xeni right now. Book twins! I adore it so far. It’s so nice to have a hot chubby hero. I just finished Work for It by Talia Hibbert ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). It’s a contemporary m/m romance about a damaged playboy who escapes to the British countryside and falls for a laconic and misunderstood elderflower farmer. I found it delightful.
Lara: I’m in the midst of Safety Breach by Delores Fossen ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). It’s romantic suspense with a surprisingly complex plot. I’m still in the post-reading afterglow of Wolf of Wessex by Matthew Harffy ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). I didn’t realise I loved a Dark Ages quest, but I do!
Catherine: I just finished reading Grilled Cheese and Goblins by Nicole Kimberling, I think based on a recommendation from the Bitchery? If not, consider this a recommendation from the Bitchery. It’s a collection of short stories and novellas about Keith Curry, former chef turned supernatural food inspector (or rather, food inspector to the supernatural or dealing with supernatural issues). It’s funny, occasionally gruesome, and enormous fun. Genre is kind of hard boiled detective but in a fantasy world where the detective works for the government as a food inspector and deals with problems like suspected cannibalism, contaminated blood supplies, and leprechaun versus pixie industrial disputes connected with food additives. Also, there’s a rather sweet M/M romance threaded through the sequence, which I love. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Claudia: I read A Convenient Fiction by Mimi Matthews ( A | BN | K | AB ), with a whole delightful chapter about a Victorian seaside holiday, with bathing machines and snootiness toward day trippers. Right now I’m reading The Clothier’s Daughter ( A | BN | K | AB ), by new-to-me Australian author Bronwyn Parry. It’s set in the “year without a summer,” 1816, and it’s a second-chance romance with a suspense element. So far so good!
Elyse: I just woke up to Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) on my Kindle so I’m sure I’ll be reading that tonight.
Amanda: It’s real weird.
Charlotte: Shana, you had me at “elderflower farmer.”
I just finished Promise of Darkness by Bec McMaster. It was well-written but I had the same problem I often do with McMaster, namely, that the romantic tension resolves a bit too early in the book for me. It’s very, very reminiscent of A Court of Thorns and Roses if you enjoyed that – just with less-developed worldbuilding.
Amanda: A lot of my upcoming books are heavy on dragons. Not a bad thing. I just started Fireborne ( A | BN | K | G | AB ), which has been on my radar since BEA.
And my nighttime kindle, turn my brain off read is Butterface by Avery Flynn ( A | BN | K | G | AB ). I’m a quarter of the way into it and surprised by how much I like it. Cop heroes aren’t my favorite and the initial setup of a kiss cam made me nervous.
Sarah: I can understand that!
Amanda: And I’m very sensitive to second hand embarrassment!
Sarah: ME TOO
Tara: I’m reading Secrets Well Kept by Lynn Ames ( A | BN ), which is a lesbian historical about the women who were making uranium for the bombs in WWII. I thought it was a romance, but I’m halfway in and the two leads haven’t met yet, so maybe not? It’s very good, though.
In audio I’m listening to Chasing Sunset by Missouri Vaun, which is an f/f roadtrip romance with an actress and an aspiring stunt driver. It’s cute.
Maya: I’m reading Bound in Flame by Katherine Kayne ( A ). Mostly I grabbed it because the cover was so pretty!! It’s about a turn of the century Native Hawaiian woman. Not own voices, but there’s magic and the main character seems like a bit of a badass so I am hoping it holds up!
Shana: I’m really curious to hear your thoughts on this one, Maya! The early reviews were brutal which scared me off.
Aarya: I have heard REALLY bad things about that book. I’m curious, too.
Maya: Yeah, I’m a little concerned, too, but I haven’t really gotten past the prologue, so I don’t have anything concrete to say except pretty cover!!
Sneezy: Just finished The Seven Necessary Sins for Women and Girls ( A | BN | K | AB ), and starting Our Women on the Ground! ( A | BN | K | G | AB )
Kiki: I have somehow made my way into the paranormal Viking aisle of romance and just finished Her Viking Wolf by Theodora Taylor ( A ) which was strange and magnificent and honestly I might just go back and reread it. Am now reading The Viking Queen’s Men by Holley Trent!
Ellen: I just finished Gideon the Ninth and it was everything and I loved it so much and all I want is to wrap myself in skull face paint and start shaking bone bits around menacingly (#JustGideonTheNinthThings). Otherwise I have like 40 books checked out of the library right now (this is not an exaggeration) so I’m having a bit of choice paralysis as to what I should start next…
Carrie: For the book club I lead in Sacramento I’m reading Ghost Bride by Yangsze Choo ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au | Scribd ) and I am loving every minute of it.
What books have you finished already in October?
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!
I finished Lost Man by Jane Harper, which I had just started in September’s Whatcha Reading. I was right about it being violent. Good mystery. Trigger warning for descriptions of violence against women and children.
A Useful Woman by Darcie Wilde: Re-read in preparation for the new one in December.
Paperbacks from Hell by Grady Hendrix: Really funny look at 70’s and 80’s horror. I was around for some of these, so it was nostalgic in a ‘rip out your entrails’ sort of way.
Vanished Bride by Bella Ellis: This was a lot of fun. Ellis did a good job in distinguishing the different sisters.
Who’s Sorry Now by Maggie Robinson: Next in her Lady Adelaide series, and still a good, light mystery.
Happy spooky book month everybody! I have not read nearly enough spooky books.
Faves
THE TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY by Alix E. Harrow – this book made me want to hug it (and I was reading it on my kindle, more’s the pity). If you like portal fantasy and books and epic love stories, try this!
TO BE TAUGHT, IF FORTUNATE by Becky Chambers – a thoughtful story about terraforming and humanity’s responsibility in/of space
A SPY AMONG FRIENDS: KIM PHILBY AND THE GREAT BETRAYAL by Ben Macintyre (audiobook) – excellent audiobook but it stirred many emotions. What a dickkkk this guy was. And man, class systems really blind folks to the obvious, hey?
THE KINDNESS OF STRANGERS by Salka Viertel – memoir of an early Hollywood screenwriter. Very good.
Good
FULL ENGLISH by Rachel Spangler – f/f small town contemporary, with a divorced heroine. I loved the teeny tiny tourist town setting, loved the large families, just a warm and fuzzy read.
A DUKE IN DISGUISE by Cat Sebastian – m/f historical, I wanted more the relationship before the romance. I felt like the friendship was easy to see but the hero’s yearning was just sort of there? Verity’s brother/Ash’s best friend had no clue, for example. Maybe I just wanted a straight forward friends to lovers story.
BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER #8 by Jordie Bellaire & David Lopez – Joyce actually at her job! Giles and Jenny on a date!
THE HUNTING PARTY by Lucy Foley – murder mystery at a hunting lodge that goes right off the edge. Still fun though.
TRICK MIRROR: REFLECTIONS ON SELF-DELUSION by Jia Tolentino – essays that are good reads, but cover ground that has been covered before. I enjoyed the personal essays the most.
Currently Reading
THE WARRIOR MOON by K. Arsenault Rivera – third in an epic fantasy trilogy with an f/f relationship at its core. They go to battle the final boss in this one and it gets bleak.
BEFORE THE DEVIL FELL by Neil Olsen (audiobook) – witches! In New England! I wouldn’t recommend the audiobook though, the narrator gives a verrrrrrry flat delivery.
I was feeling like I hadn’t read much this month at all because I’m mostly wanting a particular kind of book that doesn’t exist outside fanfiction sadly but I actually didn’t do too badly.
So I read the Wallflower Wager and it was an absolute utter delight of a book that felt really really affirming and made me good cry (I won’t go into why because spoilers but it really did) and also BABY GOATS and I have to skip sex scenes and I didn’t feel guilty mostly.
I also read For Darkness Shows The Stars which is a Persuasion sci-fi YA retelling (Persuasion is probably my favourite Austen) and I have some…mixed feelings about it.
And then I really just tried to read a bunch of things that didn’t stick.
A few Watcha Readings back there was discussion about getting memberships to libraries in states you don’t live/work in, for ebook loan purposes – I was wondering if the bitchery knew of libraries that would accept international patrons? I read mostly in English while living in a non-English speaking country, and while our libraries are great, their services don’t extend to having a big selection in English.
Reading-wise I’ve been immersed in the audio of Philip Pullman’s new THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH. It’s… I have many feelings, most of which are very muddled. First of all, the audio is AMAZING, a solid 7/5 stars, and I guess the story had to be pretty gripping because I literally couldn’t stop listening until I was done. There’s been some rumbling about the romance being creepy/problematic, but honestly I mostly found it nonsensical (although the in-story commenting on how non-creepy it was has to be one of the clumsiest reactions to a sensitivity beta I’ve ever encountered) and a minuscule part of the story. I don’t want to go too much into what the story actually is, except to say that it was surprisingly harrowing and melancholy, and also that the turn into an indictment of Big Pharma at the end was, uh, quite a swerve from the themes of the first trilogy.
I also read SWORDHEART by T Kingfisher, which was a delight, and a bunch of old Carla Kelly romances which are always solid B reads for me.
Finished ‘Scandal In Spring’, by Lisa Kleypas. I would say that and ‘It Happened One Autumn’ are my two favorite books in the Wallflower series, and then ‘Devil In Winter’. I’m saving ‘A Wallflower Christmas’ for the holidays.
I’m currently reading ‘My Lady Jane’ by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton, and Jodi Meadows. It’s a YA-retelling of the story of Lady Jane Grey, but also with shape-shifters. And all I can say is “Wow!”
Have you ever been so taken with a novel that you find yourself acting like that kid reading that book in ‘The Never Ending Story’? That’s pretty much been me while reading this. It does have a slight ‘Princess Bride’ feel to it. I love the pacing, dialogue, and narration. This one was a surprise and will definitely be going on my keeper shelf.
Still reading ‘Once Upon A Dream’, and ‘The Fiery Cross’.
My recent reads are:
THE BOOKISH LIFE OF NINA HILL: I kept thinking the writing was going to be a little better, but was surprised at how much I was rooting for the characters (especially the secondary ones like Liz and Mr. Meffo, Nina’s little sister, and the other younger girls. I was like, “YES! Role model the heck out of a fulfilling Nd adult life for these kids who feel out of place with other kids for their bookishness and intellectualism!” Obviously, no personal feelings on that issue. At all.)
THE NEW GIRL by Daniel Silva. A thriller (definitely not a romance, although one could say it has some romantic elements) loosely modeled on the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and the involvement of MBS. Silva’s work isn’t light, but it’s brisk and not overly gory and his hero is a Mossad agent and art restorer which I really dig. (CW for the violent death of a child.)
CARRY ON by Rainbow Rowell. Reading this one because a book reading compatriot of mine (who is my most reliable book recommender) wants someone to discuss this and the sequel with. It’s okay—reminds me a bit too much of The Magicians by Lev Grossman (outsiders at a school of magic) and I’m not really into it yet. We’ll see.
Next up is the new Philip Pullman, THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH, which I am SUPER excited about. I’ve only restrained myself because the other three above were library books and needed to go back, but I can’t wait to dig in and revisit Malcom and Lyra.
I haven’t been able to concentrate or read a lot lately. I’m reading a lot about ADHD (yes, there is a connection there) and cookie recipes b/c Fall = baking!
I read “King and Queen of the Bouncy Castle” by Diane Michaels and honestly there is a lot I could pick apart about this book. There were lots of little things that annoyed me, but it was also a novella that I got on Kindle Unlimited and I actually sat down and read it in one sitting, so I’m not going to go too hard on it 😉 It was just sweet contemporary (no sex) about a nerdy guy and a “burned by love” woman who are trying to make sure the bouncy house for a set of twins they both adore (they’re an uncle and close family friend respectively) doesn’t get ruined for their birthday party. And they get to know each other better and end on a “let’s get to know each other better” note.
The one thing I will say that bothered me that I felt the author then backed away from very awkwardly in the last chapter was repeated comments about. . . video games? The two main female characters are really kind of disgusted by video game. They seem to make this very broad assumption that if grown men play video games they will end up spending all day in their underwear and bathrobes, without a real purpose in life and addicted to violence. Somehow in their world, only men play video games and only violent ones exist. I don’t even play video games (they’ve always just bored me) and it still really bothered me. My husband and his friends play video games. They’re all functional adults with good jobs and hobbies (running, art, hockey, etc) outside of gaming. They’re loving fathers and husbands, and I’ve never seen one of them wearing a bathrobe at an inappropriate moment. As a matter of fact, my husband would no more sit around in a bathrobe in the middle of the day (unless he’s really ill) then I would stand on my and recite “Paradise Lost.”
And if you’re worried about men sitting around all day being addicted to violence, couldn’t that just as well be watching football or MMA fighting as video games? Video games don’t have some kind of monopoly on violence or unhealthy behaviors. It reminded me a lot of what other people will say about women reading romance “oh, they just sit around in their bathrobes with bonbons all day addicted to their silly lady porn.” Anyways, rant over. It was fine, but if you’re a serious gamer, that might be too annoying to read, even for a novella. I still give it a B because I finished it and found it enjoyable enough I might read another one.
I read “Dead Man’s Chest” by Kerry Greenwood. Another Phryne Fisher! I found the setting and characters charming for this one, but another one where the plot didn’t make a lot of sense and reading it kind of dragged. I’m close to the end of the series, but I may take a break and come back and finish strong later. I’m very excited for the movie next year. Another solid B.
The most fun reading I’ve been doing lately is the Fudge series out loud to my seven year old. To myself I’m reading the Anastasia Krumpnik books by Lois Lowry. I’m trying to talk seven year old into the Anastasia books, but they’re a little bit more focused on being an adolescent than being a kid, so we’ll see how it goes. There’s also some dated stuff that I may have to edit on the fly, but nothing that I consider egregious. Revisiting them has been delightful and the highlight of my reading experience lately. I even read Anastasia Absolutely which came out recently enough that I had not read it (the rest are all old friends). So those are all As. 😉
1. I’m about to take an all-day train trip, the Kindle is loaded, just finished the previous book I was reading – let’s do this!!
2. The sole ebook copy of Gideon the Ninth at our library has a SIX MONTH waiting list. So I’ll be squeeing in… April, or so.
I’m 75% into THE BOOK OF M by Peng Shepherd. Postapocalyptic story in which the apocalypse is people losing their memories and misremembering things that become reality (i.e., the first victim forgets a market exists, and *poof* it’s gone). It focuses on a couple, one of whom starts to forget and leaves before she accidentally kills her husband, and his quest to find her. It’s heavier on relationships (spouses, friends, traveling companions) than high-stress adventure. I care about all the characters, and the mysterious malady has my interest. At this point, I can’t see a reasonable way for it to have a happy ending, which is actually preferable to the pull-a-rabbit-out-of-the-hat solution I’m afraid will happen. There’s one POV character I feel has either been underdeveloped or was unnecessary to include as a POV character, but I’m too close to the end to start skipping her chapters to test their utility, since if there IS a point, now would be the time to make it.
BONUS: There’s been nary a mention of rape as civilization decays. It’s an authorial choice to make sexual violence the default consequence of vulnerability, and I’m increasingly appreciative of authors who choose otherwise.
Rereading Pride and Prejudice…and simultaneously reading 2 anthologies of stories based on Austen characters…Rational Creatures and Jane Austen Made Me Do It. The trailers for Sanditon are responsible!
And although I generally avoid Christmas romance lit, I am enjoying How The Dukes Stole Christmas. How can you turn down Tessa Dare, Sarah MacLean, Sophie Jordan, and Joanna Shupe?
This month I read ELIZABETH THE FIRST, which is a fun women’s fiction/chick lit with a background romance. It involves a Shakespeare professor living an overly safe and quiet life whose now-famous ex-husband convinces her to go to Oregon with him to help him through a performance of Midsummer Night’s Dream. The book was lighthearted and entertaining.
I also read my first historical by Mary Jo Putney, SHATTERED RAINBOWS. This was a frustrating book for me, as I absolutely loved the first half and felt like the second half belonged to a completely different, much worse, novel. The majority of the first half takes place just before the battle of Waterloo, and I loved the realism of the setting. The hero and heroine are noble and good but not overly perfect. The heroine is married, so the hero is determinedly ignoring his attraction to her with none of that “Oh, I’m so mad you give me feelings” nonsense. He blames himself for falling in love with someone he can never have, but he still chooses to continue their friendship since that’s all they can ever have. All in all, I absolutely loved it. Then … the second half happens. The action moves back to England after the war has ended. It becomes a contrived mess with a mustache-twirling villain and over-the-top action. So very, very disappointing.
Finally, I read Ilona Andrews’ SAPPHIRE FLAMES. I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about following Catalina instead of Nevada, since I’m not that into YA or NA fiction, but it worked for me. It definitely helped that the authors moved the action ahead a few years after the last book and had her spend the intervening years taking a crash course on how to run a House and navigate her complicated world. I liked reading about her tackling her new responsibilities, but it wouldn’t have worked for me if she were still a sheltered teenager. The romance was a lot of fun without feeling at all like a retread of the Nevada/Rogan love story.
I’m currently reading A MATCH MADE IN MEHENDI by Nandini Bajpai. I had the print book on my TBR pile, and I grabbed the ebook thanks to the SB deal post earlier this week.
I also want to read WELL MET by Jen DeLuca. After that, I’m probably going to break out the holiday romances, including 10 BLIND DATES by Ashley Elston.
I read “Love Thy Neighbor: A Muslim Doctor’s Struggle for Home in Rural America” by Ayaz Virji. I found that it wasn’t structured well and think it would have flowed better if the talk/speech he gave was a chapter or two of its own, rather than interspersed with other events. However, he did voice very well the sense of anger, betrayal, sadness, frustration, and fatigue of Muslims who woke up that day in November 2016 to find that their friends and neighbors had voted for Trump, despite his hateful rhetoric about Muslims all throughout his campaign (and ever since. Dude seriously hates Somalis, which is why he’s always going after Ilhan Omar).
“In the Name of God” by Paula Jolin: a YA about a 17 year-old Syrian girl who is radicalized as her anger against “the West” grows because of foreign policy meddling in the affairs of Syria, Iraq, and Palestine, and her anger at her own society grows as her friends and relatives turn to America and UAE for work and to live. She determines that an unjust society can only be fixed if it is run in accordance with the sharia, and that the way to do that is to cause a tragedy that will spur people back to Islam and the social good and away from the corruption, immorality, and individualism she sees in “Western” societies and those Muslim-majority countries who become like the West.
I went into this book prepared to be angry for much of it – the cover shows an angry girl dressed all in black, frowning, holding out an open Qur’an, which panders to stereotypes of Muslims as “angry extremists”. However, I found the character instead to be driven by her devotion to Islam and her anger at the way she perceived rich Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia to have forsaken Syria, Iraq, Palestine, and others where Muslims are oppressed. It really illustrated the way our (US) foreign policy impacts people in other countries and how people, when they are desperate and feel they have no other choice, will act in ways that they otherwise wouldn’t. It also showed how people who are “higher up” in terrorist organizations leverage the anger and hopelessness of the poor to get them to commit acts like suicide bombing, which those higher ups wouldn’t ever do themselves.
Thanks to Major League Baseball’s post-season playoff games, I didn’t read quite as much as usual, but everything I did read was good—and a couple of the books are candidates for my top reads of 2019.
Kelly Hunter has been my favorite new-to-me discovery this year. I’ve loved everything I’ve read by her; her books are beautifully-written, well-plotted, with complex and occasionally prickly heroines. Hunter’s lovely and melancholy THE MAN SHE LOVES TO HATE has a unique premise: for many years, the heroine’s mother was the mistress of the hero’s very married father, with the requisite rending of friendships (the hero’s sister and the heroine had once been best friends) and social ostracism of mistress and daughter (but, of course, not the rich & powerful adulterer) in their New Zealand town. In a few swift strokes, Hunter lets us see both the heroine’s resentment of the situation and the hero’s determination not to be like his philandering father. Years later, the still antagonistic hero and heroine are stranded together on a ski-lift gondola during an avalanche and later have to climb to shelter (these scenes are written with the tension and economy of really good action-adventure). While waiting in a snow-bound ski station for rescue, the h&h give in to the mutual attraction that has simmered between them for years, but this does nothing to alleviate the anger and bitterness each feels toward the situation involving their parents. After their rescue, the hero & heroine have to find a way to move beyond family history and social animosity if they want to pursue a relationship. A lovely, nuanced book, deeply emotional and highly recommended.
Someone in a previous WAYR post suggested that the word “antagonists” often works better than “enemies” in romances using the “enemies-to-lovers” trope—and, that is certainly the case in two Karina Halle royal romances that I read: THE WILD HEIR (which I liked) and A NORDIC KING (which I loved). Both books make effective use of both the opposites-attract and the antagonists-to-lovers tropes. THE WILD HEIR is an arranged-marriage story about about a fast-living prince (who clearly suffers from undiagnosed ADHD) and his chosen bride, a princess more comfortable arguing for environmental causes than spending time with her negligent family. I usually don’t respond well to humor in romances, but I liked Halle’s sly and amusing style in this book. My only quibbles with THE WILD HEIR are the rather slangy, distinctly non-European way the royal characters (all from Norway or Liechtenstein) often speak and Halle’s continuous use of nominative-case pronouns when she should have been using the objective case.
Halle’s A NORDIC KING was a far more emotionally-complex and melancholy story (and, therefore, imho, the better book by far). The hero is a widowed king who lost his wife in a tragic accident two years before. The heroine is an Australian nanny hired to take care of the king’s two young daughters, who are still adjusting to life without their mother. Both hero & heroine are keeping devastating secrets, and the pressure of those secrets is gradually destroying each of them. The king believes himself to be unworthy of love; the nanny has never experienced a love that makes her feel safe and secure. Can they risk confiding in, trusting, and loving each other? This is a slow-burn romance—it’s past the 50% point before the first kiss takes place—and the pace is perfect as the couple’s feelings for each other evolve and intensify. Unlike many nanny-employer romances, A NORDIC KING doesn’t shy away from addressing wealth and social status imbalances in the relationship or about how the couple will be perceived in public. There will be angst and heartache before the HEA. Key quote: “We’re all just broken children covering our guilt with adult clothing. We make peace with our guilt or we don’t, but either way, we keep moving on. The only question is, will you move on with me?” A lovely, emotional story. Highly recommended.
I enjoyed Ruth Cardello’s well-written THE BROKEN ONE, which begins when a businessman finds a child’s lost stuffed animal and then meets the child’s mother when he returns it. The relationship develops slowly: the hero is still mourning his late wife; the heroine is very cautious about introducing anyone to her daughter. I liked how the heroine admits to herself that she wants an emotional connection with the hero but not at the expense of being a doormat, so she’s not afraid to call him out when she finds some of his behavior cruel or boorish. She’s also not perfect—and is willing to learn from her mistakes. Although they differ in setting and plot, THE BROKEN ONE reminded me in some very fundamental ways of Melanie Harlow’s AFTER WE FALL, one of my all-time favorite romances and a reliable comfort reread. Both books feature a widower hero who blames himself for the death of his late wife; and, even with the promise of new love, the hero cannot move on without confronting the grief and guilt in which he is mired and arrive at a place where he can forgive himself and allow himself to love (and be loved) again. (I also just realized that is also one of the themes of A NORDIC KING.) THE BRKEN ONE is the first book in a new series (The Corisi Billionaires), so there are a number of secondary characters introduced. There is also a background story featuring a precocious nine-year-old trying to fill in missing branches of her father’s family tree. I found the chapters with this girl rather distracting, but I assume her connection to the hero’s family will be revealed in future books. I recommend THE BROKEN ONE, especially for its intelligent, understanding, and straight-talking single mom heroine.
Sierra Simone’s MISADVENTURES IN BLUE is part of the multi-book, multi-author Misadventures series: spicy, stand-alone novellas with both heart and heat. In MISADVENTURES IN BLUE, the heroine is a police detective in her late thirties who has cultivated an icy reserve since the death of her police officer fiancé in the line of duty over a decade before. While investigating a series of robberies, the heroine encounters a rookie cop, a little older than most new recruits because he served in the military before joining the police force, but still about 14 years younger than her. Chemistry explodes between the two and soon they are having a steamy affair. But can the heroine handle a relationship with a fellow cop, remembering how her fiancé died? And can she ignore those who call her a “cougar” or worse? This is a very hot book—and I enjoyed it—but I felt there was an element of fetishizing the young hero. This does happen in some “older-heroine/age-gap” romances where, by dint of his youth, the hero is presented as so much freer, sexier, stronger, with more stamina (ahem) and confidence than the hide-bound men of the heroine’s generation—and, of course, he knows how to give the heroine both the multiple orgasms and the emotional intimacy she craves because, after all, what 24-year-old male isn’t ready to provide all of that? MISADVENTURES IN BLUE is a diverting read, but it’s best not to examine too closely what the book says about the dynamics between older women and younger men.
In Willow Winters’s second-chance romance, TELL ME TO STAY, a couple has to learn to stop repeating the patterns that caused them to end things years ago. The hero has to stop being emotionally unavailable; he has to verbalize his feelings to the heroine, rather than assume that love makes her a mind-reader. Meanwhile the heroine has to move beyond the break-up/make-up template she learned from the contentious and abusive dynamic between her mother and step-father. Both h&h have internalized the money/wealth/power imbalance between them (materially, he appears to have everything, she has very little) and, while their sexual chemistry is off the charts, they will have to work at making a go of their relationship outside the bedroom. An interesting, rather clear-eyed look at two imperfect people who love each other enough to try to end the on-again/off-again cycle of the past.
I didn’t enjoy the first book in the Heirs series. I adored the original series. I may try this one to make sure but I’m not a fan of Elisa. She’s very bratty.
I am reading Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo, The Price year f Scandal by Lucy Score, and A lesson in Thorns by Sierra Simone.
@Disco Dolly Deb:
I read some of Kelly Hunter’s stuff; I seem to recall that her “The One That Got Away” kicked off the now-defunct Harlequin KISS category line. I’ve long been disappointed that that line didn’t make it; it was like Presents in that it was contemporary and sometimes glamorous in setting, but with more normal people who had normal jobs like radio show host, rather than being idle rich people, and not so much pregnancy/secret baby plots. As a childfree woman, a line with a noticeable lack of pregnancy/baby/kids – always off-putting for me – was very refreshing and desirable.
Just started reading TIME SERVED by Juliana Keyes based on a recommendation from Smexy Books. I had Jasmine Guillory’s ROYAL HOLIDAY cued up, but decided I was in the mood for something more angsty, but that will be next.
I took way too long to get through THE PRICE OF SCANDAL by Lucy Score, the first in the Bluewater Billionaires series which is a sort of collaborative effort between Score, Claire Kingsley, Pippa Grant, and Kathryn Nolan (who I haven’t read). I don’t know guys, this was a lot and I’m not sure it all worked. I like the idea of lady billionaires, and I’ve enjoyed the quirky worlds that Grant, Score and Kingsley have created in the past, but this felt like a whole lot of elements jumbled together and thrown at the wall to see what sticks. I appreciated the friendship between the women (who will each get their own book), but the romance felt weak, the villains were somewhat cardboard like and the comedy often fell flat. These are KU, so I may pick up the next one at some point in the future to give them another shot. I’m willing to chalk some of my disappointment to the fact that it’s the first in a series and needed to establish both a new world and a new group of characters.
I reread GETTING SCHOOLED by Emma Chase in anticipation for GETTING PLAYED, and oh man I really love both these books. First one is a second chance romance between two high school teachers and just really made me feel warm and fuzzy. The second is about the playboy best friend of the first book’s hero, who is also a teacher. He has a one night stand with the heroine, and then it turns out her teenage son is in his class, and oops, she’s also pregnant. Again, so warm and fuzzy, and I love a player man child actually doing the work and realizing how his past behavior could have hurt people. One thing I will say I noticed while reading these that I didn’t notice before is how much Elle Kennedy-like penis-talk Chase has – ie “my dick hardened,” “could feel my pants get tighter behind my zipper,” “went straight to my dick.” It gets a little eye-rolly at times, but not enough to hamper my enjoyment of these books. I also love the main characters’ interactions with their students.
I read the novella prequel to Meg Cabot’s new Little Bridge Island series, BRIDAL BOOT CAMP – it was cute, very short, Cabot’s books are pricey so I’ll read the next one when I’m next on the waitlist for it at the library.
THE PLAY by Elle Kennedy in her Briar U series. This was just ok for me – there was a love triangle of sorts (the heroine has a boyfriend for the first half of the book, she and the hero are just friends), which I don’t love, but there was great chemistry which I enjoyed. I saw somewhere Kennedy sort of compared this to the main couple in The Deal, but I didn’t get the same sort of gleeful feeling I get from that. She did introduce a couple more characters whose story I would love to read, and also if Hollis and Rupi don’t at least get a novella I will riot. I have to know what’s going on with those two.
A WICKED KIND OF HUSBAND by Mia Vincy. Her debut novel. LOVED IT! Full of character driven humor, snark, heart and growth. They had married two years ago to secure her inheritance and were never to meet again. But they do. Also, non titled hero (although probably a duke in the future book). Seriously laugh out loud funny for example:
“That woman is colonizing my house. Do you know what that means?”
“Years of bloodshed, oppression, and exploitation, perhaps?” Replies his South Asian Secretary.
I liked them both. I liked how knowing each other changed each other. CW: miscarriage
Grilled Cheese and Goblins. – gimmee! I’m a sucker for paranormal civil servants/bureaucrats/men-in-black. Lisa Shearins’s SPI Files series and Helen Harper’s Slouch Witch series come to mind.
@HeatherS: I’ve loved everything I’ve read so far by Kelly Hunter—especially her complicated heroines.
@EmilyB: I love TIME SERVED and it’s one of my comfort rereads, but some readers have objected to the portrayal of heroine’s co-worker at the law firm as “slut shaming.” I didn’t find it so (and that woman gets her own story in IN HER DEFENSE). Also, there’s a scene where the hero admits to a (never-acted-upon) rape fantasy involving the heroine. It didn’t bother me in the context of the story and the very emotional scene where he tells her about it, but ymmv.
Re Elle Kennedy & Emma Chase: I kinda gave up on Elle Kennedy because of how phallocentric her heroes are. I don’t need to read about a guy’s detailed reaction every single time he gets a boner—which might be an odd thing to say when discussing a genre where that happens a lot, but there can be overkill and I think Kennedy reaches that point. I hope Chase isn’t headed down that path too.
Not much reading due to the Guiness Book of World Records level of phlegm I’ve been trying to move out of my lungs. Two paragraphs followed by five minutes of coughing is not an engaging sort of reading experience. Still…
@SBSarah, I may have found a new Historical mystery with romantic elements before you! Andrea Penrose’s Murder on Black Swan Lane features an aristocratic scientist hero and a struggling artist heroine. There’s a touch of the Baker Street Irregulars in the two street urchins that Charlotte has taken in. She is a widow with lots of secrets left to reveal. Actually all of them. There are interesting little threads hanging about Charlotte waiting to be pulled. He has a delightful valet and a dissolute best friend who turns out to be both helpful and reliable.
Ellie and the Harpmaker by Hazel Prior. Which I have mixed feelings about. It has tons of stars, but still… At the beginning of the book Ellie is in what she believes is a happy marriage. However she also discloses right at the beginning something that would have sent me exiting stage left. She meets the Dan, a reclusive artist who is definitely on the autism spectrum. I go back and forth on Dan’s portrayal. I found him endearing. I was happy to see an autistic character making his living as an artist rather than some sort of STEM savant. Someone with more intimate knowledge of autism will need to judge this.
Lastly, Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson. While she has never shied away from using some dark themes in her books, this one was definitely a departure. There’s no romance. Amy is very happily married at the start of the book, and her actions throughout are aimed at keeping the happy life and loving marriage she has achieved. There are lots of twists and turns as the cat and mouse game between Amy and her nemesis Roux proceeds. Luckily I was down to two minutes of coughing every 10-15 pages.
Snow Day yesterday in ND, so I read A Christmas gone Perfectly Wrong by Celia Grant, a delightful opposites attract; serious, upright city hero, unconventional, free thinking country heroine, carriage accident, pretend marriage, only one room, only one bed available… just a sweet novella.
Twisted Strands by Lila Moon, an erotic novella set in Kootenay Lake in BC – and I love a setting I recognize – an artisan rope maker and a shibari master. Fun, bdsm w/o pain.
Lisa Kleypas’ Then Came You and Suddenly You, love an independent heroine!
I read American Radicals by Holly Jackson, about various radical movements of the 19th century. It was a bit single-note through the Civil War period, but interesting.
The Water Dancer by Ta-Nehisi Coates was great, but much more of a straight forward historical with only slight touches of magical realism compared to what I was expecting based on how much attention that aspect was getting in reviews.
Then I read The Rat-Catcher’s Daughter by K.J. Charles, asexual romance novella with a transwoman heroine and defenestration of a very worthy person by the hero of an upcoming book in the series, which was just fun.
I read The Silent Companions by Laura Purcell to prep for my library’s book club, a very traditional Gothic horror novel. At first I thought it was good enough but didn’t really live up to the descriptions, and then I realized it was better.
Impossible Causes by Julie Mayhew was an enjoyable enough suspense novel in a small, island community, but nothing particularly special.
The season is unknowingly affecting my reading! All I wanted was “lesbian rom com with magic” and instead I got “lesbians fighting for their lives”. Twice in a row, I struck out like that! First with Gideon the Ninth, and then These Witches Don’t Burn. Both were great, but neither had a happy ending. I was tearing up with These Witches. Taking happy book recs, SOS.
I just finished Xeni and it was so good. Just the book I needed. I also re-read A Firefighter’s Christmas gift by Vivian Arend. And I also re.read Owl be yours by RJ Blain for the mumble mumble time. (I had a migraine most of the week, which kept me from going to work, so I needed comfort.)
@DonnaMarie: Oh, YES! Thank you!!
This is How You Lose the Timw War by Amar El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone.
2 female assasins working ro kill each other through time/space manipulation fall in love and maybe save all the worlds- it’s so much more than that! Writing is so good, if it wouldn’t scare people I’d say its poetic
I read an ARC of THE WIDOW OF ROSE HILL by Diana Biller last month and was waiting for it to be released before I mentioned it. It’s a fantastic historical romance set in the upper Hudson River valley in the 1870’s or so with a cinnamon bun, absent-minded professor hero and a strong determined heroine who was abused by her (now dead) husband and is trying to reclaim her life. The copy makes it sound gothic, but it’s really more of a solid romance with some light paranormal elements. Just a few creepy moments, not enough to get really scared, but a good read for Halloween season.
Sorry, that’s THE WIDOW OF ROSE HOUSE, not Rose Hill (which is the name of a different book LOL).
My reading the past two weeks has been all M/M.
HEART2HEART Anthology has a lot of great novellas in it. Each one starts with an ad in a gay app called Heart2Heart and the stories have all kinds of different tropes to fall in to. I have not completed the entire book, but have read most of it and have not been disappointed in any. (If you are interested in getting it, be aware that it is only out for 90 days.) I love charity anthologies since it gives the reader the chance to try out new authors and raise money for charity.
LIFE ACCORDING TO LIAM by VL Locey — a fairly story about a hockey goalie and a humor blogger/web designer that also happens to be a big fan of the aforementioned goalie. This book does have heat, but it is super sweet and romantic without big angst. Really enjoyed it.
I love these posts so much but I have an issue. Why do the amazon links to purchase a book go to a separate page on this website instead of straight to Amazon? The links to buy the book from iBooks, Google Play, etc. go straight to those sites. I don’t understand.
At the end of last month I started C.S. Poe’s Snow & Winter series (Antique dealer and cop). I continued it with The Mystery of the Curiosities and The Mystery of Nevermore. I thought this series was delightful and the dialogue was fun. 4/5 stars
I also continued L.A. Witt’s Anchor Point series with Afraid to Fly. Its two navy guys, both with PTSD, one with chronic back pain and one a recovering alcoholic. I didn’t like this book as much as the first one ( Just Drive) I read the blurbs for the rest of the series and I think Im going to skip a couple to one further in the series. 3/5 stars
For my book club, I just reread the bell jar. I know I had read it in the past, but I enjoyed it so much more this time around.
I have the best kind of book hangover after tearing through the 4 Kathleen Gilles Seidel Audiobooks on audible escape. I CAN NOT BELIEVE I’d never heard of her until a week ago! shout out to @JaniceG for posting about ‘Again’ in the rec league for knowledgable heroines! I kept thinking about the Fated Mates Dreaming of You episode where they talk about there being something in the water for romance in the early 1990’s because WOW.
‘Till The Stars Fall’ feels more like a response to the more recent iterations of the rockstar romance than it’s forbear. I’m thinking specifically of the rockstar books I’ve read (by Erika Kelly, Liora Blake, Kylie Scott, Kristen Callahan, Nalini Singh…) in which the fantasy is being welcomed into backstage life, getting to travel with the band, feeling embraced by celebrity, inspiring the music and being NEEDED by the rock star. In ‘Till the Stars Fall’ that need IS the conflict. The heroine sees herself being consumed by the needs of the band and is willing cut off her hand to escape. The reconciliation part of the second chance romance can only happen when she has anchored herself to an identity outside of her relationship with the hero.
Till The Stars Fall also manages to do something fresh with the ‘brother’s best friend’ trope. Rather than the obligatory fight for his sister’s purity or whatever because patriarchy, the heroine’s brother is deeply invested in the relationship as a rope to keep both MCs tied to him. Whew, 1994
The second book in the Bluewater Billionaires series is out,”The Mogul and the Muscle,” by Claire Kingsley. I enjoyed it, but found it less humorous than the first book,”The Price of Scandal.” Still entertaining to read about female billionaires though.
I’m midway through Melanie Moreland’s Invested series in KU.I like the premise of the series, each book is primarily told through the male POV. The bet is are damaged men who escaped horrific childhoods to become partners in a thriving firm in Toronto.
Read since last time ~
— Ends, Means, Laws and an Angry Ship by Lyn Gala. This is a new book (the fifth) in an existing series, but it introduces new characters. I liked where the book ended; however, much of the book felt like an introduction for what comes next. Don’t get me wrong — I am certainly interested in what comes next. I do miss my favorite characters (Liam and Ondry) from the previous books.
— Clutch (Forbidden Desires Book 1) by Piper Scott which was a light male/male romance that I enjoyed.
— reread Earth Fathers Are Weird by Lyn Gala which I enjoyed once more. This is a human/alien romance.
— A Beginner’s Guide to American Mah Jongg: How to Play the Game & Win by Elaine Sandberg. I’m a fairly new player, but I would say this is a good book for someone who wishes to learn to play National League Mah Jongg.
— the non-fiction The Red Dragon & The West Wind: The Winning Guide to Official Chinese & American Mah-Jongg by Tom Sloper which clarified a few Mah-Jongg questions that I had and taught me some new things.
— Solitude: A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller (Dimension Space Book One) by Dean M. Cole which proved to be an interesting read. Basically, something happens and there is a one man left on Earth and one woman left on the space station. This is first in a series that I might continue at some point. (If you have Amazon Prime, this book is in the Prime library.)
— the six story Forward collection which features stories by Blake Crouch, N. K. Jemisin, Veronica Roth, Amor Towles, Paul Tremblay, and Andy Weir. Each story ended with me going hmmm. I liked all of the stories to some extent, but my favorite (which had me going back to read the end, and even now I’m not convinced I quite know what happened) was Ark by Veronica Roth. Should you have Amazon Prime, these stories are all in the Prime library.
— I was fortunate to win an advanced readers’ copy of Nora Roberts’ forthcoming The Rise of Magicks: Chronicles of The One, Book 3. It proved to be a somewhat spooky read. I enjoyed the book, but I don’t think this is a series I’ll be quick to reread.
— I also read a boatload of samples.
@MEME – I so agree with you about Kathleen Geilles Seidel. I went on a glom of her about 8 years ago and three of her books were five star reads for me:
– Summer’s End – which is the perfect summer read about a blended family
– Don’t Forget to Smile — takes place in a blue collar, rust belt town
with an ex-beauty queen heroine and a union rep hero. Perfect read for people who don’t want to read about billionaires
– And Til The Stars Fall — the one mentioned here. Fantastic book about a rock band and the three personalities that were critical to it. I loved the structure of the book — especially the chatty flashbacks that felt almost like a VH1 behind the music special with reminiscences from other band members, roadies, session musicians, groupies etc. I feel a re-read coming on….
I’m working on two books:
CRANKY LADIES OF HISTORY is a fiction anthology about interesting women historical figures. It was reviewed on this very website! I don’t have anything to add to the review, except I am also liking the book.
THE FUTURE OF ANOTHER TIMELINE by Annalee Newitz is a feminist sci-fi story set on an Earth where people can create stable two-way wormholes to the past by tapping out patterns on special rock formations known as Machines. The book alternates between two narratives. Beth is a teenage riot grrl in 1992 and she and her friends are trying to balance everyday teen life with their growing side hobby of serially murdering awful men. Tessie is a 2022 agent of a secret feminist time-traveling conspiracy group trying to gently nudge the timeline towards women’s rights and stop the evil machinations of a rival group of anti-feminists. Tessie is already connected to Beth, but I’m still early in the book and the author hasn’t revealed exactly how. The book is very in-your-face about the intersectional feminist themes, but I’m not complaining about that!
@Tina OMG YES ‘Don’t Forget to Smile’ is SO GOOD! I needed to triple check the publication date because the class consciousness and overt feminism are so not what I associate with rose petals on the cover from 1986. I kept forgetting why nobody has cell phones.
‘After All These Years’ is the one that made me cry but I can’t imagine a book published this decade being quite so sanguine about ending on a reveal that the finger-banging teenagers are (SPOILER) cousins.
Adding ‘Summer’s End’ to my TBR
Anybody know anything about her new series? Looks like she’s got a release coming out in November and the last one is on sale for .99 https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07GV12483/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_hsch_vapi_tkin_p1_i1
Right now I’m reading Jackie Lau’s “A Match Made For Thanksgiving” & also “I Love You, Luke Piewalker” by Eliza Gordon. Digging the former more than the latter.
Currently reading When Strangers Marry by Lisa Kleypas and having an odd reaction to it. I have read the same tropes many times in Georgette Heyer (Hero older than heroine, marriage for revenge/arranged marriage with heroine used as a pawn, cheerful, progressive heroine upending the family, hero burned by previous wife finding new happiness with heroine) but for some reason in this novel they are really feeling squicky. I realize it’s one of her older books but in her notes she says she “updated it” — mostly, I’m assuming, in terms of consent issues — but a lot of it still feels dated to me in a very uncomfortable way. It started with the fact that the hero has two sons the heroine’s age who both fight over her before their father decides “She’s mine” and kind of went on from there… I am really not sure what to think about this book.