January is nearly at a close, which feels strange because it’s lasted for eighty-seven years.
Here’s what books we’re finishing for the end of the month!
Claudia: I’m reading Headliners by Lucy Parker but distracted by a million things so it’s been slow going!
Tara: I don’t typically read short story collections, but I’ve been slowly making my way through How Long ’til Black Future Month? by N. K. Jemisin and it’s excellent. I like reading a few stories at a time between other novels and there are some serious gems in the first third of it.
I’m also reading Floodtide by Heather Rose Jones. ( A | BN | K | AB ) It’s a lesbian historical fantasy that takes place in her Alpennia world, but can be read as a standalone. She’s so damn good at worldbuilding and her writing is so vivid and gorgeous that I’m really enjoying this one. It’s not a romance and it’s too soon to say if it has romantic elements or not, like Daughter of Mystery did.
Catherine: I’ve just finished Fire & Water by Alexis Hall, ( A | BN | K | AB ) which is the third Kate Kane, Paranormal Investigator novel. I haven’t read the first two, but it stands alone fairly well, and I really liked the dry humour of it. And I am evidently in a lesfic mood, because I have Beautiful Dreamer going on my Kobo I’m about a chapter into it.
Lara: I’m reading The Age of Witches by Louisa Morgan and trying my best to love it… but so far, it’s a “meh”. Fingers crossed things liven up!
Shana: I just finished A Taste of Her Own Medicine by Tasha Harrison, ( A ) which was a warm and gooey post-divorce reinvention story. The heroine is a herbalist who who takes an entrepreneurship class, and is gently pursued by her teacher, a younger man with teddy bear tendencies. Lots of steamy scenes. I’m having trouble getting into another book and keep dropping them in the DNF pile of doom. I’m considering reading Polaris Rising by Jessie Mihalik to pull me out of my SFF slump.
Tara: Shana, do it! I had so much fun reading that recently and it totally helped me beat a reading slump
Carrie: I’m reading The Hanged Man by K.D. Edwards. ( A | BN | K | AB ) It’s the second in a series involving Atlantis, Earth, politics, love, family, and tarot and I heart it.
Charlotte B: I’m reading Strange Love by Ann Aguirre. I tend to find her worldbuilding pretty thin, but something about that really works here – the plot is ridiculous and over the top, and you just have to strap in and jump on board, like Beryl does when she and her dog are accidentally abducted by aliens.
Catherine: Strange Love was such fun!
Elyse: I’m reading Whiteout by Adriana Anders, so far it’s the perfect blend of suspense and romance.
I just finished a and it was so amazing i put it on my comfort reads list
Susan: I’m struggling to read right now, so I’m comfort re-reading Widdershins by Jordan L. Hawk for the ten thousandth time, because apparently queer cosmic horror is just how I relax now.
Carrie: Oooh that one is goooood.
Aarya: I really liked Strange Love. That makes me the fourth endorsement? I blame Elyse for making me read it because her Slack reading updates were irresistible.
I’m still reading the same books I mentioned in the previous Whatcha Reading. No idea why it’s so slow-going, but I might take a break and come back to them in a better mood.
Carrie: Well now I have to add Strange Love to my list.
Maya: I struck out with two cozy mysteries today–the first I DNF after a few chapters because of some weirdly racialized descriptions of people and some generally implausible behavior. The second (Pies Before Guys by Kirsten Weiss)( A | BN | K | AB ) I finished but, didn’t particularly enjoy much about it. It was one of those stories where people show how they care about each other by being casually cruel and dismissive of each other’s feelings (mostly coming from all the secondary characters to the main character). There was a whole lot of codependent behavior and general lack of boundaries. Basically, nothing about it felt charming or interesting. It’s also the fourth book in the series, so maybe dropping in the middle had to do with my general inability to connect with the story.
BUT! now I’m reading an ARC of Girl Gone Viral by Alisha Rai. It’s the #2 book in the series that started with The Right Swipe. Much like the last book, the characters are diverse and I’m generally enjoying it so far!
If anyone has any suggestions for cozy mysteries written by AOCs and/or with protagonists of color (living in diverse communities!!) please let me know. I’d be all about getting into that genre!
Amanda: Maya, there’s Widows of Malabar Hill, though it may be more historical mystery (1920s Bombay) rather than cozy.
Maya: Thanks, Amanda! I’ll totally check out Widows of Malabar Hill!!
Lara: Elyse, perfect blend of suspense and romance is my CATNIP! I’m adding Whiteout to the TBR pile.
EllenM: I just finished Chasing Cassandra by Lisa Kleypas, which i liked but was definitely not blown away by. Currently also reading The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin, ( A | BN | K | AB ) which I’ve been meaning to read for years but am finally getting around to. Of course the world building is excellent which is a huge thing for me.
Shana: Maya, have you read YS Lee’s The Agency series? ( A | BN | K | AB ) They’re historical mysteries with a mixed race heroine.
Also, I think I already recommended Gethsemane Brown mystery series by Alexia Gordon ( A | BN | K | AB ), which are true cozies.
Maya: I haven’t! Thanks, Shana!
Shana: I hope you like them! I really wish Lee would write more books.
Sneezy: A few of the books I have on hold came in all at once, and I’m…low key about to explode. Of joy. Of being overwhelmed. Just general implosion. Either way, I’ll be cracking open the Vagina Bible ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) this week, and I haven’t decided which book I’ll be chumming up with for romance.
What have you read lately?
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I’m about to start Strange Love….glad everyone seems to like it. I also have Sweep with Me lined up to read and the third book of the Case Files of Henry Davenport. Next up after that is The lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanic and The Grace Year by Kim Liggett. Good Stuff!
Read: THE MATRIMONIAL ADVERTISEMENT by Mimi Matthews
This book was really good! The characters were lovable and the historical detail was on point. I drooled over every description of clothing and got ridiculously excited about a short scene where the hero pulls the heroine away from a fireplace because of how common the problem of skirts catching on fire was. It was also a slow burn which I absolutely adore as well. If any of that appeals to you pick up the book!
REALM OF ASH by Tasha Suri
This was a wonderful dark fantasy novel that tackles tough issues like cultural genocide via assimilation and shaming individuals for how they were born. It’s also about reclaiming one’s identity after its lost and recovering from grief. All of this comes from extremely complex characters with lots of depth. About the only reason I wouldn’t recommend this book is if you like your fantasies fast-paced. Suri prefers to take things slow, possibly a little too slow at times, but they are always worth it. Lastly they definitely come with a slew of content warnings, especially racism but they are so, so good.
Reading: MARRY IN SCANDAL by Anne Gracie
It’s an Anne Gracie book, she’s an auto-buy for me, so I love it. I will warn that this book isn’t for everyone since it has a quite
young(18) and naive heroine which I know isn’t for everyone. However if you can overlook that and love a good rescue romance(don’t worry the heroine is not a complete distressed damsel), a gentlemanly hero and found family pick it up. Content warning for mild fat shaming, the book clearly shows it’s bad but it does exist.
I second the request for suggestions for AOC written cozy mysteries. I feel like I’ve got a pretty good handle on where to go for that information for romance and even sci fi and fantasy (which are not even genres I read a lot), but I haven’t stumbled across any similar resources for cozy. Poking on Goodreads has been somewhat helpful, but it mentions writers like Alexander McCall Smith mixed in and while I’ve enjoyed some of his books, I’m pretty sure he’s white.
My reading has been shameful this month. Absolutely shameful. I’m craving something fluffy but cleverly written, like one of my favorite Jenny Cruisies or Tessa Dares, except I don’t want to re-read those. I’ve DNFed a bunch of light historicals and almost afraid to try light contemporaries b/c they often get too wacky for me.
I’ve only read three things since the last Whatcha Reading and that’s only b/c I pushed myself to finish them so I would have something to write down today. Yay for random deadlines!
Nothing blew me away and nothing was terrible, so in order that I liked them –
A MAN CALLED OVE by Fredrik Bachman. It took me a while to get into this and I wasn’t really crazy about all the flashbacks (but I also don’t know how else you’d tell it), but I did enjoy it. Yes, this was just as charming and funny as everyone said it would be (Two different people gave it to me as a Christmas present in 2018). I did feel that my emotions were being manipulated at times, but I didn’t even care. If I had to describe it, I would say “what if IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE wasn’t about sweet, adorable Jimmy Stewart, but about a old curmudgeon with a lot of snark.” And yes, I did get choked up a few times. I love stories of communities coming together to help each other out and in the end, that’s what this is.
WHY NOT ME? by Mindy Kaling. Okay, since I was looking for fluffy but well-crafted I went with a Mindy Kaling book of essays. I’ve enjoyed her on Twitter, but I’m trying so hard not to go on there.
Some of these are good, some of them are not so good. Her particular voice can get a little bit grating if you read a lot of her in a row. She talks very honestly about Hollywood beauty standards and priorities which is both refreshing and kind of depressing (it’s a lot of time, work, and money), since she admits she can’t fit “in the Hollywood mold” but still has to do everything she can to come close. And then she admits how depressing it is. She also comes off as looks-obsessed at times (not just her own, everyone’s looks) and then pokes fun of herself as being shallow, which I got to say I’m kind of over that in 2020. It felt very much like I was in college and women would do things like that b/c they were insecure about how men would react to the fact they liked makeup, gossip magazines, etc. Like what you like! Some people are going to judge and some people are going to be bored, but don’t pre-apologize. It also kind of reminded me that I was reading a character and not the “real Mindy.” It felt like joke, setup, joke. I realize it’s her job, but I like it when an essay feels relaxed and personal. For all my grousing, I did enjoy it and it was a quick read. I may binge some more books of essays by female comedians (it feels like there are a million of them) b/c I think that’s all my brain can hold right now.
HEART AND HAND by Rebel Carter. This was a M/F/M mail order bride historical. I read it for a reading challenge and it was cute if not quite my cup of tea. The mail order bride is a Black debutante who decides to go west and have a new life with two husbands. I do have a soft spot for PAINT YOUR WAGON (yes, even with the terrible singing). There was a scheming other woman and maybe also a dead wife who was cold and scheming? I may have skimmed that part a bit. That’s a lot for a short book. Not one of my favorite dynamics. One of the husbands also got very dictatorial in the end saying he would lock her up to keep her from leaving him. Um, yeah, not my personal thing. If it were me, I would leave out of spite at that point. HOWEVER, I really like the chemistry between her and her husbands. It was very sweet, sexy, and loving. I do think for people who read a lot of stuff high on the erotic scale might find it pretty tame, but as someone who reads a lot of “closed door” or “sweet” (ugh, I hate that word!) romance, I found it enjoyable. I don’t think the book ever spelled out if the husbands were lovers or not, but I kind of interpreted it as they were. Also, also the cover is absolutely beautiful. Not really relevant b/c I read it on my Kindle, but I think it was featured here and it definitely deserves that praise.
Mhairi McFarlane is fast becoming one of my favourite contemporary authors. I enjoyed Who’s That Girl, which is about a woman, Edie, who’s kissed by a groom at a wedding — and she’s not the bride. As appears to be McFarlane’s hallmark, there’s lots of great observational humour and depictions of friendship, but a couple of one-note characters pulled this one down for me. Still, I love McFarlane’s writing and look forward to reading more of her backlist. It’s on KU for those interested.
I also read a pretty mediocre non-fiction book, so let’s not talk about that.
One of my goals this year is to read all the femdom romances I haven’t already, so I’d better get cracking!
Cat Sebastian- A Delicate Deception
I haven’t enjoyed Sebastian’s regency impostors books as much as her others, but this one (finally) worked for me. The only thing that bugged me actually had nothing to do with the text, it’s that the cover felt deceiving- where. is. the. beard?
Angie Thomas- On the Come Up
I’ve been sitting on this one a while so finally cracked into it. It was refreshing to read a female protagonist who’s unapologetically angry; Bri has so much going on in her life, of course she’s going to be angry. I really appreciated her arc. I think Thomas might be one of the best voices in contemporary YA right now.
Avon Gale & Roan Parrish-Thrall
This was a book with an unusual format– a semi-retelling of Dracula as a “modern epistolary”- so the text was all email, chat transcripts, descriptions of video clips, etc. It’s also about the world of dating apps and ARPGs, two things I know nothing about, so maybe that’s part of why it didn’t quite work for me. Two queer couples (Lucy and Mina, true crime podcasters, and Arthur and Van Helsing, a social media manager and professor) search for Lucy’s missing brother Harker through a sinister murder game. There were moments it was very effective, but I admit I kept getting distracted by the fact that people were sending erotic emails through company addresses. I guarantee you that those are being archived! They are not private! If you absolutely have to be horny on work time, at least don’t do so on work email!
S.A. Chakraborty- The Kingdom of Copper
Sequel to The Kingdom of Brass. It’s been a bit since I read the first book and consequently this took me some time to get into, but when I did, oh boy. In proper sequel fashion, it is *intense*, and raised the stakes incredibly high. I have absolutely no idea where things are going to go, and I can’t wait.
‘Yours Until Dawn’, by Teresa Medeiros. It’s similar to ‘The Duchess Deal’, except the heroine is hired to take care of the hero, and he doesn’t propose a marriage of convivence.
I also ordered six books with a holiday gift card:
‘An English Bride In Scotland’, by Lynsay Sands
‘The Lady’s Guide To Celestial Mechanics’, by Olivia Waite
‘The Duke And I’, by Julia Quinn
‘An Unlikely Governess’, by Karen Ranney
‘A Lady By Midnight’ and ‘Say Yes To The Marquess’, by Tessa Dare
(I received the novellas ‘Beauty and the Blacksmith’ and ‘Lord Dashwood Missed Out’ for Christmas.)
So far the only book I have managed to finish (that wasn’t nonfiction or a re-read) is the beach cafe by Lucy Diamond. It was passable and the descriptions of Cornwall made me want to buy a house there (before remembering that I haven’t got the money to buy a house there). All in all it was a very predictable chick lit that I read in one night (insomnia). The rest of the month was spent playing Free kindle book roulette without much success, The Vampires Throne by AN Tipton had a promising blurb but the story was only a novella length and felt rushed (also Insta love). The Protected Mate by MY Croix was a DNF, also Insta love but just couldn’t believe the characters, a shame because it was mountain lion shifters! Have another vampire one and two alien romances on the roulette so see if I can strike it lucky.
Enjoyed “All The Ways We Said Goodbye” by the 3 W’s (as they call themselves)—Williams, White and Willig. I can’t explain why the VERY end didn’t delight me without spoiling the book. The 3 stories were skillfully told and meshed beautifully, but I didn’t buy one significant plot point which keeps me from giving it top marks. Read The Alice Network first if WW2 spies are your catnip…or Somewhere In France.
I’m hoping to read A QUEEN IN HIDING by Sarah Kozloff. The next three books in the series are coming out in consecutive months for folks who like to binge out a series all at once.
I also want to get caught up on Lucy Parker’s London Celebrities series so I can read HEADLINERS.
For folks looking for mysteries written by AOC, you might try ICED IN PARADISE by Naomi Hirahara — https://tinyurl.com/ur3cv25 — although I’m not sure if it’s a cozy or more of a regular mystery.
[CW: miscarriage] Molly O’Keefe’s WEDDING AT THE RIVERVIEW INN is a reworking of BABY MAKES THREE, a book O’Keefe published through Harlequin’s Super Romance line in 2007. I haven’t read the original book, so I can’t say how significant the changes are, but in some ways WEDDING reminds me of O’Keefe’s ONE LAST CHANCE (one of my favorite reads of 2019) in that it is a second-chance romance threaded through with intense emotion and incredible melancholy. As in ONE LAST CHANCE, the heroine of WEDDING is a professional chef. She is hired by her ex-husband to run the kitchen of his new venture—the Riverview Inn of the title. But can the couple overcome the heartbreak of the past (including miscarriages), not to mention the heroine’s drinking and the hero’s closed-off emotions, and make a go of it? One of the things I love about O’Keefe is that she is not afraid to let her characters screw up (multiple times), stumble, hurt themselves and each other, try again, and learn slowly from their mistakes. Beautifully-written and Kleenex-worthy, I loved it and can’t wait for the other two books in the series to be released.
[I should make two notes about WEDDING AT THE RIVERVIEW INN. The first is that, while I wouldn’t describe the book as “closed door,” the sex scenes are not very explicit. Don’t expect MY WICKED PRINCE or BAD NEIGHBOR levels of sexy-times. Second, this is a book where a woman who has struggled with miscarriages and fertility issues in the past gets pregnant unexpectedly. I know some readers do not care for that trope, but I must say, if any writer can make it work, it’s O’Keefe.]
I read Eve Dangerfield’s NOT YOUR SHOE SIZE with a heavy heart. In the book’s Acknowledgements, Dangerfield announces that NOT YOUR SHOE SIZE will be her last romance and the last book she will publish under the Eve Dangerfield name: she is planning to write in a different genre and publish under a different name. NOT YOUR SHOE SIZE is a novella that checks in with Ty and Kate, the h&h of ACT YOUR AGE (the first DD/lg romance I ever read—and still the gold standard for Daddy-kink, imho). Ty & Kate have been together four years and Ty wants to get married, but Kate doesn’t. Kate wants to move to Paris, but Ty doesn’t. Then, by chance, Kate runs into the man on whom she had a teenage crush, a meeting that forces her to reevaluate her memories of that time. That’s it in a nutshell. NOT YOUR SHOE SIZE is a perfectly adequate story, but if Dangerfield will no longer be writing romance, I wish that instead of simply catching up with a couple from an existing book, she had used her last romance to finish the Silver Daughters series, which I now assume will not be completed. The second book (SO STEADY) ended on a significant cliffhanger (for the overarching story, not the romance), so I guess we’ll never find out what happens to the youngest da Silva sister or if their hippie father ever returns to the tattoo studio his daughters have been running in his absence. Sigh. Oh well, I suppose that’s one reason fan-fic exists.
TOUGH GUY is Rachel Reid’s third m/m hockey romance after GAME CHANGER and HEATED RIVALRY (my favorite book of 2019). In each of her books, Reid uses a different tone and theme: GAME CHANGER was one player’s journey to coming out; HEATED RIVALRY covered ten years in a secret relationship between two players; now TOUGH GUY focuses on a hockey “enforcer” who suffers from depression, anxiety, and panic attacks (and the side-effects of his meds—including intimacy and performance issues). He’s already out, in a quiet way, when he reconnects with a gender non-conforming musician he knew in high school. Much of TOUGH GUY is a slow burn as the hockey player and the musician gradually develop a relationship and work through the hockey player’s sexual issues (refreshingly, not every problem is instantly resolved) while growing closer emotionally. Although I didn’t like TOUGH GUY quite as much as HEATED RVALRY, I still enjoyed it and recommend it. (Bonus points: the hockey player’s favorite book is ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, a battered copy of which he carries with him on every plane trip. Plus the book includes cameo appearances from HEATED RIVALRY’s Shane & Ilya, their relationship still puzzling the hockey world.)
Although billed as a stand-alone, Skye Warren’s novella, THE BISHOP, makes much more sense if you’ve read the other books in her Tanglewood series: THE KING, THE QUEEN, THE KNIGHT, THE CASTLE, and THE PAWN (do you detect a theme?). THE BISHOP is the dark story of a woman who is blackmailed into stealing a valuable chess piece and is later beaten and left for dead. She is rescued by the owner of the piece who also happens to be a doctor—a rather unorthodox one—who takes her to an isolated mansion to recover and to give up her secrets. This is not a book for everyone—it’s dark and both h&h are damaged. Along with CD Reiss, Warren is one of Romancelandia’s most astute writers of gender politics (her Trust Fund duet is all about how rich men use their wealth to impose their wills on the world) and THE BISHOP is no different—an underlying theme of the book is the varying ways (not all of them physical) men can hurt women. Key quote: “There may be moral absolutes, but people are too complex to whittle down to right and wrong. Real people are messy.”
Like Skye Warren, Natasha Knight is one of my favorite “dark romance” writers. Knight’s latest book, DESCENT, weaves the myth of Persephone and Hades through the story of a woman forced into a relationship with a man when her family loses all their money. The couple are connected by complicated threads going back to their childhoods involving parents, siblings, step-siblings, family secrets, a fire, and (TW/CW) a suicide that still haunts them both. There’s a lot of what could be classified as “hate fucking” in DESCENT, along with a roller-coaster of emotions and plot twists. Much like THE BISHOP, DESCENT isn’t for everyone—but I can always count on Knight to hit my catnip centers.
Michaela Grey’s BROKEN RULES is an m/m bdsm romance set in Vancouver. One hero is an Indian immigrant who works as a dom in a bdsm club. The other hero is a young Canadian (he seems to be Anglo, although his last name is a French one). He’s not completely out to his family (TW/CW for homophobic and transphobic comments from the man’s father) and still has trouble accepting that he might be a sub. I know a lot of readers don’t care for bdsm romances, but very little of BROKEN RULES actually takes place in the club or involves “scenes.” I really rooted for the heroes to overcome obstacles both external (homophobia, racism) and internal (the Dom’s attempts to dictate non-sexual aspects of his lover’s life, the younger hero’s struggles with his identity and his family).
Shantel Tessier was a new-to-me writer and, based on her mafia/forced-marriage CODE OF SILENCE, not one to whom I’ll be returning. About the only things that distinguished CODE OF SILENCE were the appallingly piggish attitudes the hero and his friends (all of whom are apparently being set up for their own books) have toward women and the inventively gruesome levels of violence rival crime families visit upon each other (one scene involved bear traps and razor blades—and that wasn’t the worst one). I’m all for dark/crime romance, but this book was too bloody for me—and nothing about the run-of-the-mill love story elevated the book above its insistent misogyny or its carnage.
NON-ROMANCE:
Jordy Rosenberg’s CONFESSIONS OF THE FOX is not a romance novel (although it includes two key romantic relationships), but I discovered it through a romance novel. In Ella James’s On My Knees duet, WORSHIP & ADORE, one of my favorite reads of 2019, one of the heroes (a closeted pastor of a mega-church) is asked to name the best book he’s read recently. He knows he can’t name his true favorite—CONFESSIONS OF THE FOX—because it will cause his parishioners and the public to get “ideas” about him. I was curious: is CONFESSIONS OF THE FOX a real book? It is—and it’s a remarkable, gender-fluid, very meta reimagining of Jack Sheppard (an actual 18th-century criminal who was the inspiration for Macheath in Gay’s The Beggar’s Opera and Mack the Knife in Brecht & Weil’s The Three-Penny Opera). CONFESSIONS purports to be an undiscovered manuscript that reveals Jack to be transgendered and Edgeworth Bess, his equally famous consort, to be of Asian heritage. There’s a lot going on here: a transgendered college professor is the (unreliable?) narrator; the manuscript and his on-going footnotes to it form the story; and threaded through it there are indictments of late-stage capitalism, the prison system, over-policing of the powerless, treatment of sex-workers and the transgendered—attitudes that we are struggling against today and that the narrator shows have their roots in the 18th century. CONFESSIONS put me in mind of two different books: David Foster Wallace’s INFINITE JEST, with its multitude of footnotes telling parallel stories, and Emma Donoghue’s SLAMMERKIN, a decidedly unromantic view of what it was like to be poor and dispossessed in the England of the 1700s. CONFESSIONS OF THE FOX is a challenging but ultimately rewarding book.
@Jill Q seconding “I’m craving something fluffy but cleverly written”.
I keep trying new recs and bouncing off. Got most of the way through The Wallflower Wager but had to put it down – I’m too anxious for anything new, even Tessa Dare. January is hard.
Currently rereading and re-listening to Very Good, Jeeves! while playing Merge Dragons.
I’m currently about 3/4 through Roni Loren’s The One For You the final book in her The Ones Who Got Away series. I made the mistake of starting it during the week, leading to several late arrivals at work, and now I have purposely put it down after nearly three hours because I have THINGS TO DO. Sure it’s snowing, and I have zero plans to leave the house, but good lord, the house. Even now the vacuum cleaner is glaring at me from the corner. I get to finish it, if I finish the chores. Adulting is a bitch.
Earlier this month was a small Molly O’Keefe binge after I discovered her latest, A Day In The Death Of Walter Zawislak is on Kindle Unlimited. Yes, FREE ON KINDLE UNLIMITED!! Anyway, it reminded me that I still had the first two installments of her The Debt series already downloaded, so I took a deep dive into those. The GBPL is a demanding mistress so I interrupted the binge for the Roni Loren. I feel guilty keeping a brand new book that I know has a bunch of reserves on it for any longer than absolutely necessary.
Speaking of new releases, the GBPL has gifted me with a plethora this month. I also finished JAK’s latest, The Vanishing and a long awaited new Kristen Callihan, Outmatched, written with Samantha Young. Ex-boxer trying to keep his struggling gym going in the face of gentrification and a numbers geek trying to get her dream job in renewable energy. It was lovely and packs a nice emotional wallop.
After the Molly O’Keefe I have Charlaine Harris’s next Gunnie Rose book burning a hole in the tbr pile.
I love you all and I love Whatcha Readin’? I finished my work for the week, so I will be getting my read on this afternoon — Thanks for all the good recommendations!
Last weekend I was away, and read two books that had opposite problems, which I thought was interesting and wanted to share with you all, as well as my opinion on a book mentioned above.
1. Recommend — SciFi Romance- Shards of Honor, Vorkosigan Saga, Lois McMaster Bujold (CW for violence, space war, attempted sexual assault, and off page sexual assault)– I have tried to read various Bujold books in the past, and DNF’d feeling disappointed, but there was enough great stuff there for me to think I should try again. Laura Sackton at Book Riot’s blog on VS reading order recommended that this was the book to start with — the one that was about Miles’ (main character of VS) parents getting together. Really good book, which it amazing considering that it was LMB’s first and was written over 30 years ago, and still works today. Definitely reading the next one LS recommended, Barrayar, and will keep reading in order.
That said, it was clunky, and it felt like a lot of the book was missing (was only about 280 pgs), and the epilogue made no sense to me (suddenly we met different characters? think it was to show aftermath of war? maybe I wasn’t paying close enough attention?). It needed another hundred pages to really build suspense, let you understand the h/h’s emotions, and sink into the book. I think the next book, which LMB wrote much later in her career, will probably not have these problems. Hoping it will be similar to how crappy The Gunslinger is compared with rest of Dark Tower series (King wrote first book when he was 19). So, if you like a lot of action, vivid characters, and true Sci Fi, I highly recommend it. And am hopeful about the rest of her books!
2. Don’t Really Recommend — Mystery with slow burn romantic elements — I was looking for a true mystery novel, so I picked up fourth Robert Galbraith/J.K. Rowling book, Lethal White. Was on par with the others in many ways, but just TOO LONG. 650 pages! I wanted to take out a red pen and cut whole sections. The prose was very digestible, but I think I could have cut 200 pages easy-peasy and enjoyed it a lot more. And, unfortunately, a lot of the same emotional pieces were worked over as last book, so there wasn’t any forward movement there, either. The mystery was also not great — felt like she came up with the idea after she’d written half the book and worked the mystery plot onto the characters she’d already developed. I will probably read the next one, because I am invested in the characters, but I wouldn’t have finished it if I hadn’t have been on vacation. Meh.
3.Don’t Really Recommend — Lastly, I read Ann Aguirre’s Strange Love (discussed above) last night (it was free with Kindle unlimited) and it was just weak. Not very sexy, didn’t quite make sense, really no worldbuilding. That being said, I did finish it, so not offensively bad. Only read it if you can get it for free, and only if you are into alien romances. Meh.
Thank you for all the great recommendations!
I’m on a book high at the moment after finishing INSIDE TRACK by Tamsen Parker, (currently on sale for $0.99). This book featured a sex puppy hero, a trope I adore, although I never had a label for it until a Rec League last year described it perfectly. Nick, the hero, has severe ADHD, thoughts constantly bounce around in his head like little pinballs, and he has no filter. Nonetheless, he’s cheerful and accepting, has figured out ways to keep himself mainly out of trouble, and when he falls for a heroine who has severe anxiety and agoraphobia (CW and TW for mental illness and abusive backstory), he just shrugs his shoulders and decides that if she can’t leave her house, no problem, he’ll make do with her limitations. Oh, and did I mention that he has an adorable, 50 lb bulldog named Fiona that he likes to dress up in princess costumes? However, sample it before buying because reading Nick’s stream of consciousness POV can be exhausting and not for everyone.
Aside from that, I loved THE BLACKSMITH QUEEN by G.A. Aiken. I bounced off it when it was first released even though I normally love her writing style, but when I went back to it, I tore through it.
Another book I loved this month was BANE, a SF Romance by Bex McLynn which was as good as her first book, THANEMONGER, although the world building is starting to take a more grim turn. Finally, I loved SO CLOSE by Serena Bell, which features another favorite trope, a character trying to save a quirky old inn. Serena’s books tend to have that perfect mix of lightness and seriousness so they are always good reads for me.
Finished SWEET TALKIN’ LOVER by Tracey Livesay. This one had a promising setup as the start of a series about a group of girlfriends (each book will focus on a different friend), but fell through a bit in the romance. There was a lot of telling, not showing. The hero and heroine were constantly going on about how obsessed with each other they were, but they don’t actually spend very much time together or know anything about the other, so it all feels a bit unbelievable.
I’ve been on a bit of a Nora Roberts suspense kick – CHASING FIRE was a good read about smokejumpers one Montana, with a kickass heroine and a hero who truly loves how kickass she is, which I always appreciate. The secondary characters in this one are also really great, plus you get a sweet secondary romance between the heroine’s father and an age appropriate (50s!) new flame. I loved seeing into the fathers perspective, how nervous he got around her and how straightforward she was about going after him.
PUBLIC SECRETS was an old Roberts suspense from 1990, with a bit of a bananas plot. Big rock band in the 60s (think Beatles/Stones), lead singer discovers he has a daughter with a truly awful drug addicted woman he previously slept with, adopts her, his infant son with his new wife is murdered, daughter grows up, marries abusive man, leaves him, is being stalked, falls in love with son of the detective who investigated her baby brothers murder, also follows the band over the 25 year time span of the book. This was a good read, though major trigger warning for domestic violence, and there’s some language that feels a bit dated now. It also had that trademark Roberts perspective shifting, which can give a bit of whiplash given there are so many characters and whose perspective you’re getting switches without much warning.
Read another Mhairi McFarlane, IT’S NOT ME IT’S YOU, which I enjoyed, but was probably my least favorite of hers so far. The PR office/journalism hijinks all felt a bit far fetched, and the romance didn’t feel fleshed out enough in the end. As always though, excellent characters, great humor.
WOULD LIKE TO MEET was a really excellent debut by Rachel Winters about a woman who wants to be a screenwriter but has stalled out in an assistant level position who, in a bit of a nutty situation, has to try to recreate as many “meet cutes” from classic Rom Coms as she can, and falls for a swoonworthy single dad in the process. In less capable hands this could all be very eye roll worthy, but it totally works. The relationship between the heroine and her friends is also great. It could be because I’ve been reading so much McFarlane right now, but the humor felt very similar. I’m definitely looking forward to seeing what else Winters puts out. I would love to see Netflix turn this into a movie with all their rom com renaissance going on.
I tried to read WE MET IN DECEMBER, the debut from Rosie Curtis, but I got several chapters in and became worried that I was going to see the main characters dance around each other and see other people for the majority of the book, and that’s just not what I needed, so I DNF. Probably won’t revisit it.
A trio of young adult novels:
SERIOUS MOONLIGHT by Jenn Bennet. 18 year old girl dealing with grief and some serious sleeping issues meets 19 year old boy coping with anxiety and depression. She’s obsessed with mysteries, and he loves magic (as in magic tricks). They team up together to solve a mystery. The whole thing is also a bit of a love letter to Seattle as well, which made me want to take a trip back to the Pacific Northwest. I loved that the hero, while totally swoonworthy, also wasn’t perfect (ahem, To All The Boys…). For anyone wondering on age appropriateness on this, I think this one is fine for high schoolers but there is some sex (all with a focus on consent and protection) that some might not feel comfortable with middle schoolers reading.
MY SO CALLED BOLLYWOOD LIFE by Nisha Sharma. High school senior obsessed with Bollywood movies breaks up with her boyfriend, who she thought she was fated to be with according to her star chart. This was cute, though some of the plot felt contrived and there was a glossiness to it that felt like a written version of a Disney channel show. Despite this, I couldn’t help but be charmed at times.
FROM TWINKLE, WITH LOVE by Sandhya Menon. High school junior and aspiring filmmaker teams up with the dorky-cute twin brother of her crush to make a movie, ends up falling for him instead (of course). All written through letters she writes as a sort of journal addressed to her favorite female filmmakers. Very cute. I also love the little text message snippets we get between the hero and his friends, which lets you see how much he likes her and how nervous he is to let her know. Both this and the one above would be totally appropriate for younger (middle school) readers.
For those looking for something cozy and competently written, I’d suggest Tamara Berry’s SEANCES ARE FOR SUCKERS. (She also writes romance as Tamara Morgan.) She’s a fantastic writer with a snarky, funny voice, and the story involves a fake medium who travels to a dreary English castle to cast out the “ghost” haunting the family. Smart and fun, with a hint of romance.
Also read HEADLINERS this week. I agreed with the SBTB grade of B–it was fine, but I read it over several days, as opposed to inhaling it in one Bad Reading Decisions night. Also read DAUGHTER OF THE GOD-KING by Anne Cleeland. I have no idea where I got the recommendation, but I liked it. It’s actually set in Egypt (mostly) while Napoleon is in exile in Elba. I enjoyed it because the heroine is allowed to be smart and adventurous (and admired as such by the male lead) without going from “sheltered Regency Miss” to “rope-swinging badass” in two chapters, a trope which drives me BANANAS.
My highlights, in the order they were read, because spreadsheets ya’ll!
Not the Girl You Marry by Andie J Christopher – I don’t know that I’ve read another book that so accurately reflected my own biracial experience/feelings and it was so refreshing. Hannah was a great character and I fully bought her mistrust and general grumpiness given all that she had experienced with her relationships in the past. I was less invested in Jack, mostly because I didn’t buy or care that he was THE BEST at relationships. Plus I’m not really a fan when MC’s purposely deceive one another. That said, I still thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir – I have nothing to add to what has already been said about this book. I agree with all of the praise and am eagerly awaiting the next instalment.
Sweep With Me by Ilona Andrews – Innkeeper is my favourite of the Ilona Andrews series (tho that’s kind of like choosing a favourite child) so I loved returning to the Inn and getting to see Dina and Sean navigating their new relationship and their chosen roles. Also, the supporting characters in this series are so entertaining that they almost make the book themselves.
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern – Wow, what a treat. This book was absolutely amazing. Her writing is gorgeous and, while the story itself was complicated enough that it took me a while to get into, I just loved every moment I was able to be a part of it. I’ve been meaning to read Morgenstern’s first novel, The Night Circus, for so long but after The Starless Sea it has definitely been bumped to the top of my TBR.
Iron Kissed by Patricia Briggs – I’m slowly making my way through the Mercy Thompson series for the first time. This book was a lot darker than the previous two (CW/TW for sexual assault), but I also feel like Briggs has hit her storytelling stride with this book. It felt like she spent less time telling us about the world and her characters and let these aspects develop within the telling of the story, which was far more compelling. I could have done without the aforementioned CW- I don’t think it was necessary to drive any plot or characterization forward, but I’ve heard the rest of the series lightens up from here so I’m going to keep reading.
Some good books for me this last part of the month are:
PUPPY CHRISTMAS by Lucy Gilmore — this series of pairing service puppies with forever people is just so dang charming. This one pairs the puppy with the daughter of the single dad hero. There is just feel good vibes from Lucy’s writing.
ANIMAL ATTRACTION by Jill Shavis — this is many years old, but I have just started getting in to listening to books while I am working around the house and I am looking at what is available at the library. This one popped up and has a sexy veterinarian that I was down for. I would mention a needed CW for assault.
SO CLOSE by Serena Bell — is a nice small beach town, enemies to lovers story.
THE CRUELEST STRANGER by Winter Renshaw — I like Winter’s not-the-average complex characters with some twists thrown in writing. I didn’t always like these characters, but that is not a requisite for me to like a book. If all the books I read only had characters that checked off all my “likes” then all the stories would be the same.
I’m in the middle of reading a fantastic story, I guess I’d call it near future/cyberpunk/dystopian sci-fi fiction? It’s a long excerpt from Cory Doctorow’s new book “Radicalized”. The story is called “Unauthorized Bread”, and it’s available online! I highly recommend going there to read it RIGHT NOW. https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/
On the other end of the spectrum, I read “Miss Buncle’s Book” which was written by D.E. Stevenson in the 1930’s. It’s delightful and funny and very meta; it’s a book written by a woman, where the MC is a woman who wrote a book, and then the MC writes another book about a woman who wrote a book.
There is a very low key romance but it’s mainly a portrait of a small English village early in the last century.
I just started a Victorian mystery by Karen Odden,”A Dangerous Duet”. I really liked this author’s previous book, it had great atmospherics. This one has a heroine who disguises herself as a man so she can make money working as the pianist in a music hall.
I read “Rough and Tumble” by Rhenna Morgan which is subtitled “A Steamy, Action-Filled Possessive Hero Romance”. That was definitely truth in advertising, and I enjoyed it enough to buy the second book in the series. The second one was a bit repetitive, same tropes, and the heroes are all a bunch of buddies who are very similar. But if you’re in the mood for this kind of escapism, it will hit the spot.
On the sexy historical side, I’m reading “The Duke Identity” by Grace Callaway. It’s my least favorite of her books so far because I don’t like the Mafia Princess/bodyguard pairing. But I’m kind of hooked on Callaway, so I’ll continue reading.
@Karin: Cory Doctorow is a frequent contributor to the Boing Boing website (https://boingboing.net/), writing about the intersection of technology and politics. I enjoy the site, but have to limit my exposure to political stories at any site these days—even when the position of the writers and the commentariat generally aligns with my own.
Sorry – just realized that I read different book last night — not Ann Aguirre’s STRANGE LOVE. So ignore my comment. Going to read it now. 🙂
Delighted to be wrong, after reading that Smart Bitches liked it.
Just finished THE STARLESS SEA, which I enjoyed, although I found the ending confusing and the video game references oddly jarring. It’s strange, I play a lot of games but when they get referenced or mentioned in books it throws me and I’m not sure why, it’s like I don’t expect those streams to ever cross. Regardless, the language and imagery were stunning and the plot was almost an afterthought by comparison and that’s about what I expect from an Erin Morgenstern.
Also just read PUMPKINHEADS by Rainbow Rowell and Faith Erin Hicks, a very adorable graphic novel. I liked it, though the romance felt kind of unnecessary and out of place for me. But it made me crave autumn and pumpkin related treats.
I finished another route of CLANNAD, the MASSIVE Japanese high school romance tearjerker visual novel game. So far I’ve wooed Nagisa, Yukine, Ryou, and now Kyou. Kyou’s route was ROUGH because it’s all love triangley and I wanted to shake everyone involved. It wasn’t outside the bounds of standard adolescent idiocy and drama but dear god it mostly made me glad I’m not a teenager any more. Sometimes I am able to get in touch with my inner teen and enjoy a story in that headspace but sometimes a YA narrative will make me feel very VERY thirty-something. I was yelling YOU ARE GROUNDED YOUNG MAN at my protagonist. Anyway, four routes down. Thirty hours in. Six or seven routes to go. Dear god this game is going to kill me.
Just got GIDEON THE NINTH from my library holds. I’ve heard so many good things while at the same time somehow… not really getting any real sense of what the book is actually about? Most of the recommendations have boiled down to inarticulate squeeing with occasional shouts of NECROMANCER LESBIANS WITH SWORDS IN SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE *insert Avatar the Last Airbender frothing at the mouth gif here*. I guess I’ll find out!
When I ordered Charlaine Harris’s new novel A Longer Fall I discovered she had a collection of short stories about a couple of terrifying characters in a book called Small Kingdoms. I got both and loved both for totally different reasons
I read the Arrangement, Alex Jane. This is a m/m historical/shifter marriage of convenience romance. I’m not sure how to describe it. Gabriel’s pack is slowly falling apart without an alpha. From Goodreads “Gabriel is to marry Nathaniel Hayward, the Alpha who was badly injured in the accident that killed his brother ten years before” So the two grooms knew each other before, but Nathaniel is damaged and was shunned by society. It was so good (5/5 stars) and it put me in a book hangover, so I probably rated the next books lower as a result
I read 3 books from Charlie Cochet’s North Pole City Tales: The Heart of Frost, Vixen’s Valor, Loving Blitz. Its a series that takes place in the North pole around a society that revolves around a yearly Big Flight by the Rein Dears (who are elves who fly by planes and the lead Rein Dear is Rudy with bright red hair) Its fun to read a different take on a Christmas world.
I’m half way through The Hitman’s Guide to Making Friends and Finding Love (Alice Winter) It is pretty long but the dialogue is making me laugh
And I’m 1 chapter into Gideon the ninth
Thank you everyone for all your suggestions. These posts are some of my favorite on the site, because I get lots of ideas from them.
My reading
CITY OF GIRLS by Elizabeth Gilbert. This is literary fiction. I absolutely loved this book. It sparkled and popped in a way historical fiction rarely does. But it’s polarizing. I noticed how divided reviews were on it.
WAITING FOR TOM HANKS by Kerry Winfrey. This was merely okay. I file this one under rom com, but even in that category it wasn’t near the top. However, there were some side characters I really liked, and I noticed the next book in the series is about them. So I am interested.
A HUNGER LIKE NO OTHER (Immortals After Dark) by Kresley Cole. I am following along with the Fated Mates podcast for this series. This one gets a mixed review from me. The romance fell FLAT. Because the male hero was a jerk and behaved abominably I just couldn’t get into it. However, the world building was fantastic. The writing was also great. So I will read another and see if it improves.
@Karin, I read Miss Buncle’s Book and its sequel a couple years ago and found them delightful.
Thanks, @DiscoDollyDeb
I am finished with January – cold, dreary, snowy with the occasional ice and freezing rain storm thrown in to add insult to injury. I am ready for warmer weather and sunshine! As for reading, I feel like I have been reading a lot, even though I don’t have a ton to show for it.
Excellent:
The Lawrence Browne Affair by Cat Sebastian: This is the first time I have read Cat Sebastian and I loved it. This is a m/m historical – one hero is a con artist (a trope I normally hate) and the other a reclusive scientist Earl who is worried that he will go insane like his brother and father. There was so much emotional depth to this story – found family, the importance of empathy, kindness, and compassion, and how to accept yourself even when you are “different.” I added the next in the series to my TBR.
Very Good:
None
Good:
Life Will Never Be The Same: The Real Mom’s Postpartum Survival Guide by Anne Dunnewold and Diane Sanford: This was a good overview of “healthy/normal” postpartum emotions as well as covering postpartum mood disorders. They placed a heavy emphasis on self-care and touched on additional emotional issues experienced by adoptive moms, single moms, moms who struggled with infertility issues, and “older” moms (that last one applies to me). It was nothing groundbreaking and it probably would have been more helpful if I had read it BEFORE I delivered our son, but it was still a decent read at 14+ weeks post-delivery.
Meh:
A Cold Day for Murder by Dana Stabenow: I read this mystery set in rural Alaska on tribal lands for the mystery bookclub I am in. The MC is an Indigenous/Native American female investigator (but I will mention that this is not an own voices story from what I can tell). I enjoyed the various characters in the book, but felt the mystery was pretty boring and there was a lot of info dumping about the history of Alaska that really interrupted the flow of the story. TW mentions of child sexual abuse.
The Bad:
None
New favorite author Xan West just posted a belated list of Fave Winter Holiday Romances 2019.
https://coreysbookcorner.wordpress.com/2020/01/25/fave-winter-holiday-romances-2019/
Based on Xan’s recommendation, I bought Casper Gets His Wish by R Cooper, & A Fake Girlfriend for Chinese New Year by Jackie Lau.
@ Kirstie Pecci
Love,love,love the Vorkosigan series. I first read Cordelia’s Honor (Shards of Honor and Barrayar together) many years ago. The month I joined an online SF book club this was the pick — I honesty took a look at the cover and read the blurb and thought to myself — Nope, not for me. But, since I said that I would participate, I reluctantly decide to read it. I started it on a Friday night and stayed up until early Saturday morning finishing it (I was an early Bad Decisions Book Club person!!!). That afternoon, I drove to the local Waldenbooks (about an hour away) just so I could purchase the rest of the series (at least what was available at that time).
The person who recommended that we read this title started me on a 20 joyfest of reading whatever Bujold writes. I love her characterization, world building, and the ethical and moral dilemmas she puts her characters through.
I envy you reading the “shopping scene” in Barrayar for the first time!!
This has mostly been the month of “nothing really wrong with it, just doesn’t work for me.” It happens that I’m a reader who really responds strongly to writing style, and finds relatively few that I like in that respect. Let me start by mentioning the book that I almost couldn’t finish because of the prose: Lord of the Last Heartbeat by May Peterson. This is a fantasy novel with wildly convoluted worldbuilding and even more wildly convoluted writing, which almost prevented me from connecting with the human heart of its romance, an age-gap story between one gloomy self-punishing hero and one nonbinary hero who seems all too young at the start of the story but who I enjoyed watching growing up and maturing in confidence and understanding.
I also got around late to two holiday novellas. Mangoes and Mistletoe by Adriana Herrera was hit-or-miss. It started out with some over-the-top lusting, some awkward comedy, and some internal monologuing … but then the two women talked to each other seriously and it came to life. They’re coming from different places emotionally, but are capable of understanding what the other tells them. Their shared Dominican roots, one as first-generation immigrant one as second-generation, do give them something in common but it’s not simple to figure out what, and they start out with mismatched ideas about that and think through assumptions. So though I didn’t buy the intense instalove in the one-week timeframe, still there was something to engage with (plus delicious baking).
A Christmas by Gaslight by Mimi Matthews was my favorite read of the month. A m/f historical set in 1861 England, where a draper’s-son-who-got-rich courts the daughter of a country gentleman who is bankrupting himself by installing a private gasworks at his estate — he never give her a sign he liked her during two months of meetings partly by being a naturally quiet guy and partly by trying ferociously hard to be on best gentlemanly manners. What she does to break the stalemate is delicious, as is the slow-burn attraction that develops within constant mannerliness and practicality. There’s a respectful mistletoe kiss: he asks her whether it’s a good occasion to take a sprig of mistletoe out of his pocket, and then, after setting it on a shelf above their heads, asks again before they kiss.
There’s actually a reason I sought out a book set in 1861 (and A Christmas by Gaslight definitely delivered on incorporating social history). For the last year I’ve been working on a Wikisource project digitizing an 1860s upper-middle-class magazine, and the extreme racism and classism in it gets me down more and more over time. I need to see the other people of the 1860s; though I will find some Victorian writers of color to digitize next, in the meantime, modern fiction is a way out, since there are smart writers who are doing the work of finding not-upper-middle-class-straight-white-English people in historical sources and writing books that center them. The last book I read that I thought filled this need very well was After the Wedding by Courtney Milan; I’m going to keep looking.
Lastly, another shorter story, Gifts of Spring by Shira Glassman. Amiable but a little bit bland (writing style issues again)… but one nice thing about it, two mature main characters who are absolutely straightforward about recognizing their mutual sexual attraction, and both think that doing something about it is an uncomplicated matter. I must quote:
“How do you like to be kissed?”Rosamund blinked rapidly. She’d never been asked before, so she’d never thought about it. “What are my choices?”“Well,” Eli began, “there are hungry kisses, like a beast.”“That has its appeal,” Rosamund replied, “but I am not food.”“Or quick kisses, as a bird stealing a ribbon.” He traced the path of a stray golden curl over her shoulder and collarbone, and she shivered and moaned softly. “You aren’t stealing,” she pointed out.“Shy kisses.” He swept his fingertips, unbearably light as if he were a ghost, up the side of her face to cup her cheek with tenderness.“You aren’t afraid.” She leaned forward, eager and waiting.“Which kisses do you want, my magical beauty?”“I wish for pleasure,” breathed Rosamund into the heel of the hand that now massaged her cheek and jaw.“I understand,” said Elias. “In that case, I will draw out your pleasure.”
Well, since last go-round, there was class starting, and I had a conference to speak at (yiiiikes, but I did okay, got really good feedback), so I have not exactly had a lot of time to read. I finished One Of Us Is Next, and really loved it. It moved along at a good pace, the humor in it was great, and I have to really give a lot of credit for McManus’s talent with a twist ending. That’s twice now I haven’t seen it coming. Then I read Chilling Effect by Valeries Valdes. It was a lot of fun, between the psychic space cats, the cute interspecies romance, and spaaaaaace! shenanigans. Also, since the main character speaks Spanish sometimes, I picked up a few new Spanish curse words, which was fun, since Duolingo hasn’t taught me those (not yet, anyway). It took me several days to read, which I attribute to life being really, really busy. Bringing us to today, and like several others, I’m reading Headliners by Lucy Parker. I am a sucker for the London Celebrities, and I love the characters, their British snark, and the gradual change in their relationship, which is given the time and space to come about naturally. Until next time, folks, read all the books you want, because the news cycle gets weirder by the hour.
Since last time ~
— The Last Painting of Sara de Vos by Dominic Smith which I read for my book group. I quite liked this book as did everyone in the group.
— another reread of The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison. I enjoyed it once again.
— Dear Data by Giorgia Lupi and Stefanie Posavec was a book that is quite unlike any other book I’ve read; it’s very visually rich. I enjoyed it.
— Strange Love: An Alien Abduction romance by Ann Aguirre which I found quite different from other books I’ve read by the author. It was entertaining; after all, who can resist a talking dog?
— the contemporary romance The Inside Track: A License to Love Novel by Tamsen Parker which I quite enjoyed. The hero has ADD and the heroine is agoraphobic; the point of view alternates from chapter to chapter.
— And a boatload of book samples.
I’ve been catching up on the Skeleton in the Attic series by Leigh Perry. They’re cozy mysteries where the main character is a adjunct professor and single mother of a teen girl. Her best friend is an animated skeleton. They don’t try to explain it, which actually works well. The mysteries often take place at universities, and the skeleton helps investigate but has to keep hidden from other people.
PROTECTING WHAT’S MINE by Lucy Score is her latest in the Benevolence series. A stressed out trauma surgeon heads to the small town of a former patient that she treated in the Army. She’s on the verge of burn out and needs a slower pace of life to recover and recoup. The sexy fire chief with his own issues takes one look at her and decides she’s the one. Their romance is fluffy and serious at the same time and involves a very cute dog. It’s a good book to just read and relax with.
After a few rather unfortunate book choices, I ended up with Maya Rodale’s THE WICKED WALLFLOVER, WALLFLOWER GONE WILD and WHAT A WALLFLOWER WANTS. Because rakes and wallflowers…. What’s not to love?
A WICKED KIND OF HUSBAND by Mia Vincy was a rare find. Brilliant, sexy and funny. I highly recommend!
Then I went for Kristan Higgins. First THE BEST MAN, then THE PERFECT MATCH. I skipped big parts of the first book, and DNF the next. I believe I was supposed to like these, but I really didn’t feel it. At all. You know the kind of books that don’t need sex in them to keep them good? These are not among them. Apparently the chemistry was in the parts of the books that faded to black. I was disappointed.
Being afraid of ending up in a series of disappointments again, I listened to PRIDE AND PREJUDICE and SENSE AND SENSIBILITY by Jane Austen. Because it’s rather a safe bet, and I needed to finish up my Harry Potter cross stitch project and didn’t have time to look for good books. These were narrated by Rosamund Pike. I have listened to several recordings of P&P, but this was the best one yet. Very, very good.
And then I discovered Mimi Matthews! WHOAH! The woman can write!
You know the kind of books that don’t need sex in them to keep them good? These are that kind of books! Really, really, really love them! A lot! I read THE WORK OF ART, THE MATRIMONIAL ADVERTISEMENT, A CONVENIENT FICTION, THE LOST LETTER and THE VISCOUNT AND THE VICAR’S DAUGHTER. I give them all an A+.
I really needed a HR break, though, so I’m now listening to BEARD SCIENCE by Penny Reid again (because I know that it will bring me great pleasure and smiles).
OK, I just read STRANGE LOVE by Ann Aguirre and I loved it. If you are looking for a SF Romance in which the alien really is alien, this is your book! The hero is not just a really tall human looking guy who happens to be blue or have horns or a tail. He also does not have human-like appendages, so the sex scenes were pretty inventive LOL. Also, the heroine was fantastic. Absolutely no TSTL behavior, nor was she saved or rescued by the hero, in fact, she was often the one doing the saving.
I have some recs for cozies by AOC! Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien is great. It’s set in an Asian mall, so most of the characters are Asian. The Gethsemane Brown series had too much ghost for me, but it’s not bad. Gesthemane is African American, but all the other characters are white. I’ve heard great things about the Blanche on the Lam series by Barbara Neely. Other cozies by AOC on my TBR: Auntie Lee’s Delights by Ovidia Yu, Hollywood Homicide by Kellye Garrett, the Mahalia Watkins series by A.L. Herbert, and The Plot is Murder by V.M. Burns.
I have some recs for cozies by AOC! Death by Dumpling by Vivien Chien is great. It’s set in an Asian mall, so most of the characters are Asian.
The Gethsemane Brown series had too much ghost for me, but it’s not bad. Gesthemane is African American, but all the other characters are white.
I’ve heard great things about the Blanche on the Lam series by Barbara Neely. Other cozies by AOC on my TBR: Auntie Lee’s Delights by Ovidia Yu, Hollywood Homicide by Kellye Garrett, the Mahalia Watkins series by A.L. Herbert, and The Plot is Murder by V.M. Burns.