It’s time for Whatcha Reading!
This is where we try to make sense of our reading lately. Clearly there’s one standout that a majority of SBTB has been staying up late to finish.
Aarya: I just finished He’s Come Undone, ( A | BN | K | AB ) an anthology about starchy, buttoned-up heroes with contributions from Emma Barry, Olivia Dade, Adriana Herrera, Ruby Lang, and Cat Sebastian. They’re all authors I’ve enjoyed before and it’s a rock-solid collection. My favorite story is by Olivia Dade because it features murder dioramas (I’m a sucker for macabre humor!), but all the novellas are excellent.
I’m in the middle of Farrah Rochon’s The Boyfriend Project (out June 9). I’m loving the female friendships that anchor the book (the heroine Samiah and her friends meet in a viral encounter when they realize their asshole date is three-timing them). I also like how work-oriented the story is; Rochon doesn’t scrimp on details about the tech startup/app development. However, I’m concerned about the deception storyline; the hero Daniel is undercover for work reasons when he meets Samiah. It’s not my favorite plot device, but I have faith that Rochon will resolve it well.
Maya: Have you heard of the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death???
I’m also reading The Boyfriend Project and agree with everything you said! Samiah and co are so funny, but I’m a little worried about the reveal when Samiah learns the real reason Daniel has started working at her company. But it’s a really fun and engaging read so far!
Aarya: That link is so cool, Maya! Frances Glessner Lee (of forensic science fame in the mid-20th century) is discussed in the Olivia Dade novella; the art teacher heroine assigns a murder diorama project to her students. She also makes/sells intricate miniature crime scenes in her spare time.
I dunno what it says about me that I’m so interested in murder…surely it’s a normal curiosity.
Catherine: I’ve just finished The Physicians of Vilnoc by Lois McMaster Bujold. This is the latest in the Penric and Desdemona series, and it’s very good, but it is also about a plague, so if you are looking for something nice and escapist, maybe save this one for later. And I’ve just started The Roommate by Rosie Danan, which is enormous fun so far, and very funny. The heroine moves to LA to be with the man she has a crush on, but he bails on her and she winds up sharing his flat with a random guy he found online who turns out to be a porn star, and also a total sweetheart. It’s not coming out for a bit – sorry! – but definitely worth looking out for when it does if the first ten chapters are anything to go by.
Sarah: I’m reading the Murderbot series ( A | BN | K | AB ) again because I finished the novel Friday night and am now rereading everything sorry need to go back now bye.
Shana: I’m reading Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert (out June 23) ( A | BN | K | AB ) and it’s making me laugh. I love a grumpy heroine.
Sneezy: I’ve just started The Roommate by Rosie Danan and going back to The Empire of Gold by S. A. Chakraborty for all the scenes I read through my fingers. The Empire of Gold made me sniffy the first time through, and now I’ll let it break my goddamn heart.
Elyse: I just finished The Roommate and I loved it so much. It’s sweet and sex positive and I read it in 2 days.
Aarya: There is a lot of love for The Roommate, and my resolve to wait until September is weakening.
Elyse: Time has no meaning now lol
What is September? What is Monday?
Catherine: Well, I just stayed up until stupid o’clock to finish it, so I say dooooo iiiiit, Aarya!
Tara: I’m kind of floundering between books right now, picking something up, putting it down. Picking something else up, putting that down.
Sneezy: Hugglez Tara, we’ve all been there
EllenM: I finally read Sorcery of Thorns after having it on my bookshelf for months and I LOOOOVED IT!!!! it got me right in my howls moving castle loving feels. I also just read Marry in Haste by Anne Gracie ( A | BN | K | AB ) and while i definitely really enjoyed it and will probably continue the series i never QUITE got over my irritation with the deployment of the extremely anatomically unlikely “Hero Can Feel She’s Not a Virgin During Sex” trope. especially when all the same plot things could have been accomplished with a short postcoital conversation.
Claudia: Oh yes, that ruined Marry in Haste for me, and I loved the premise!!
I picked up Redeeming the Reclusive Earl by Virginia Heath ( A | BN | K | AB ) and once I got past the title it was a very enjoyable Beauty and the Beast-inspired romance. The hero is a true grump.
Carrie: I just started The Trials of Koli, which is the second book in the Rampart Trilogy by M.R. Carey. I loved the first book (The Book of Koli) ( A | BN | K | AB ) so I am much excited about this.
Aarya: Ellen, I freaking love Sorcery of Thorns and I raved about it last year. That book reinforced my weakness for sardonic/Slytherin-like sorcerers with silver-streaked black hair (hey, nearly perfect alliteration!). I blame Vanyel.
Catherine: Am I allowed to say I just devoured Paladin’s Grace in one day and loved every minute of it?
Tell us about your reading month!
:::slides in the sound of some little orange avian hellbeast, my daughter is watching The Zoo:::
There were more books this time, which weird. Let’s see, I followed up Butterfly Bayou with A Heart of Blood and Ashes by Milla Vane. I really enjoyed it. I had been craving something kind of like The Blacksmith Queen and this more than sufficed (it didn’t have the same humor, we all know Aiken is about that funny). I’ll table the rest of my opinion on it…for now. Then I went with The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix, which I LOVED. I am not easily scared, but there were some genuinely terrifying moments in that one. Plus, as someone who has watched their fair share of true crime docs (where my Forensic Files peeps at?), I found the book to have one of the statements I’ve ever read: “She had learned two things: 1) we’re all in this together and 2) if their husbands started taking out life insurance policies, they were in trouble”. The truth of it all, my dudes. Then, because I had it, I went ahead and read The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins (unwieldy title, I would have just gone with Songbirds and Snakes). I found it to be a mixed bag. Things I liked: the callbacks to the original series, getting the background on The Hanging Tree, having Snow be the ultimate Nice Guy (internet for a person that thinks he’s a perfectly nice guy that deserves everything he wants, including girls, and is actually a huge sociopath along with being an entitled dick), seeing an early iteration of The Games and how they would later become a huge spectacle. Things I didn’t: thin characterization of the Manic Pixie Dream Tribute that Snow is mentoring for the Games, too many damn songs, seriously weird pacing. So a mixed bag, but I didn’t leave mad at it. Which brings us to today. I dithered, but eventually settled on Circe by Madeline Miller. It only took me a few passages to realize that this was going to be like when I found a book of Greek myths in my aunt’s house when I was staying there for a few weeks when I was about 9. Tore through that in about a night and then began hunting for all the Greek and Roman mythology I could find. Again, there is some seriously skilled writing in this one, so I think I’m going to have a good time with it. So until next time, folks. Enjoy your reading, stay safe, be nice to the service workers. You guys know what’s up.
I’m going through a pile of old Jayne Ann Krentz books that I arranged by age. Gotta say some of the early 80s stuff is old skool and rapetastic. And from sorting boxes in the basement… kid books. I am reading Heidi, which I at least remember. There’s Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, which I don’t remember. Then Eight Cousins and Rose in Bloom. Nice to know the 19th century had the same tropes. Rose wants the exciting, handsome cousin but (spoiler alert) ends up with the quiet one who always loved her.
Only one lone entry to report for this WAYR – it doesn’t feel like I have been reading a lot less, but time is a funny concept right now.
The Devotion of Suspect X by Keigo Higashino: This was May’s selection for my mystery bookclub. I would rate it as Good. From the very beginning, you know who the murderers are and who is helping to cover up the crime. The book revolves around whether the unofficial police helper who is also a physics professor can outsmart the mathematics genius co-conspirator. Despite all the audience knows, there are a few twists and turns to keep things interesting. Unfortunately, I found the ultimate revelation to be very un-genius of the so-called genius and the characters somewhat flat. And even though the ending resolved the crime, there were a lot of hanging threads on how the characters would move forward that left me unsatisfied. CW: for two suicide attempts and domestic violence
Thank you to @donnamarie! You saved me $5 as I had already spent $20 on books since May 21st.
I’ve been doing mainly re-reads. I guess I don’t have much headspace for new things.
BLUE SOLACE series by CW Gray. (M/M mpreg) Space mercenaries with pets and, as the series goes onwards, lots of kids. Leti riding to the rescue in his lucky baby bunny sweater just makes me smile.
DREAMHEALERS series by M.C.A. Hogarth. (Ace?) A winged furry centaur and an eldritch meet at med- school in outer space. Part of a larger universe of stories, but no familiarity needed.
EMPTY NESTS & BOWERBIRD by Ada Marie Soto (M/M contemporary) . Sweet but realistic romance between a tech guy single dad and a Silicon Valley CEO. Telenovellas, drunken phone calls, and first date shirts – this romance had depth.
Good
EDEN SPRINGS – Ada Marie Soto . (M/M western) short story about a tracker and a schoolteacher.
KURTHERIAN GAMBIT series (Science fiction although it starts like fantasy). They start slow but have interesting plots and strong female characters.
ONE NIGHT IN BOUKOS by A. J. Demas. This is a cozy alternate ancient world novella.
ULL by M.K.Eidem (M/F) Alien and earth woman. Good, but the others in the series were so much better.
OK
Poke the Bear by Ezra Dawn. (M\M shifter). There just wasn’t much there.
Having finished AN INFAMOUS ARMY (I kind of hate when Heyer forays into actual history; all the characters take a back seat to the Battle of Waterloo, described in such excruciating detail that actual historical records look fanciful) I couldn’t remember much about Julia Taverner and Lord Worth so I had to go back and reread REGENCY BUCK. This allowed for many a snerk at Older Julia pretending to be a Proper Matron and looking down her nose at Barbara’s antics when Younger Julia was easily just as rackety if not more so.
Currently reading Quinn’s THE SECRETS OF SIR RICHARD KENWORTHY and bristling at Iris’ parents immediate assumption that her compromise was entirely Iris’ idea, even when they are bluntly told otherwise by the compromiser himself. I find that a little off-putting in a Quinn novel as she doesn’t usually do things like that, although it’s been a while since I read the other books in the quartet so it may be perfectly in character.
Mostly Urban fantasy lately. The Myth Manifestation, latest SPI Files book by Lisa Shearin, was as exciting and funny as the rest of the series. (The irresistible goblin bad boy is named Rake). Decided to try her Raine Benares series and raced through the first 4, am now moving more slowly through book 5 (Con & Conjure)– less funny than SPI files, and I’m not as fond of the characters. Wish I could skip to books 8&9, which focus on my favorite character in the series, Tam Nathrach, but that probably wouldn’t work well, alas. My public library finally started providing curbside service, so I got the book I put on hold in March, Boundary Broken, book 4 in Melissa Olson’s Boundary Magic series. It was good, but characters have new relationships they appear to have developed by visiting her parallel Scarlett Bernard series, which I’m not reading, so I kept feeling out of the loop. Theoretically, the series can be read independent of each other, but I felt like I’d skipped a book, and I hadn’t. I’ll still read the next one.
I noticed that lots of commenters on this thread said, “I am getting no reading done,” then shared a list of several (sometimes many) books they read over the past month! So, give yourselves credit because re-reading and comfort books still count as reading, and I’m impressed. I’m constantly in awe of how many words romance readers consume. You’re all lovely and amazing. (And if you’re not getting reading done, there is no shame in that… I don’t mean to imply that at all. Quite the contrary… I think we don’t give ourselves enough credit.)
My list…
After several recommendations, I finally picked up Big Magic by Elizabeth Gilbert and surprised myself by absolutely loving it. Being creative during the times of Covid has been a huge struggle for me, and that book (about creative living beyond fear) struck the perfect note for me right now. I enjoyed how many quotes and references and anecdotes she included. It’s a very quick read (I actually sat down to read a bit of it and read the whole book in one sitting – about three hours. It was that good). I recommend it for anyone who is trying to reclaim creativity despite the many ways that the world (or anxiety, or Covid) try to knock it down.
I also re-read a YA contemporary favorite, The Fill-in Boyfriend by Kasie West. There’s something about West’s writing that is definitively “high school” and yet it gets to my emotions in a way I can’t explain. In this one, the heroine Gia comes to terms with her own selfishness and self-absorption, which is honestly a really hard plotline to pull off, yet I thought West did it effectively and cathartically. Bonus points for a cute fake boyfriend romance (that is albeit very YA and only involves, at the hottest, heavy kissing). The dialogue is real and funny. YA contemporaries hit a very specific spot for me that I guess I would call “comfort reads.”
I came back to say that Heart of Fire improved as I got into it. Errors down to easily ignored and certainly not a problem. So, yes, now enjoying it and willing to recommend.