It’s that time again! Whatcha Reading sometimes sneaks up on me.
Hope you all have been getting some ready done. It’s okay if not! I’ll be traveling next week and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I can make a dent in my immediate TBR.
Here’s what the SBTB staff as been reading lately:
Catherine: I just finished The Dare by Elle Kennedy, who is becoming a bit of a guilty pleasure author for me. I love her heroes, who are all these super hot, athletic, hockey superstars, who are also really very sweet and gentle and into consent when it comes to the women in their lives – but there seems to be a lot of casual sexism / gender stereotyping baked into the overall premise, which makes me wince.
And now I gave picked up the Enhanced Edition of Courtney Milan’s Turner series, ( A | BN | K | AB ) and I’m very much enjoying rereading the stories with Courtney’s commentary and Mr Milan’s helpful input on the subject of syphilis.
Shana: I just finished Honor and Desire by Rebel Carter. Like the rest of the books in that series, it was low-angst, and set in an unusually tolerant and diverse Western town. There wasn’t quite enough groveling for my taste, though. I feel cheated.
Right now I’m in the middle of Justina Ireland’s Deathless Divide, ( A | BN | K | AB ) and I wish I liked the sequel as much as I adored Dread Nation.
Carrie: I’m plugging away at my “War and Peace in a Year” reading (a chapter per day) and just started the The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite ( A | BN | K | AB ) which I am SO EXCITED ABOUT OMG!!!!
Tara: I just started My Heart’s in the Highlands by Amy Hoff. ( A | BN ) It has a woman in Edinburgh in 1888 who’s created a time machine. When she takes it on its first real flight, it drops her 500 years or so in the past, and a magnificent hunk of a woman finds her. So far it’s quirky and fun, so I love it.
In audio, I’m listening to Not the Marrying Kind by Jae. It has two women in a small town. One of them runs the town bakery and the other runs the flower shop, but she’s deeply closeted. They’re going to fall for each other as they work on the same wedding together. It’s cute so far.
Elyse: I just finished Boyfriend Material. ( A | BN | K | AB ) It dealt a fair amount with anxiety related to childhood trauma, which I liked. Also Miffy-short-for-Clara and Alex were delightful
Carrie: I loved that book so much!
Lara: I’m returning to the world of Kate Shugak and reading Dead in the Water by Dana Stabenow. ( A | BN | K | AB ) So far, so brilliant!
EllenM: I’m reading Dragon Unleashed by Grace Draven ( A | BN | K | AB ) and loving it! Such fantasy romance goodness. So far it’s less dark than the first book in the series (Phoenix Unbound). I also just read the delightful romance graphic novel Taproot by Keezy Young. Gardener and ghost love story!
Claudia: I’m about a third of the way through The Making of Highlander by Elisa Braden. ( A | BN | K | AB ) I’m surprised I’m enjoying it that much since there’s a touch of paranormal and a lot of “cannae” and “ken” from the heroine, who is Scottish (and plucky as all book Scots seem to be). The latter is one of my peeves, but the book is really funny and light so far.
Sarah: I started an ARC of a book that isn’t out until September (I think) so I am The Literal Worst but Hench by Natalie Zina Walschots is REALLY fun so far.
The narrator loves spreadsheets and sarcasm. I like her a lot.
Aarya: I’m doing something that I never do, and that’s reading multiple books at the same time. Alternating chapters is weird. It’s an experiment. We’ll see how it goes because so many folks read like this (sooo strange to me. How do y’all just STOP reading one book and flip back and forth?). I’m in awe because the process is not coming natural to me.
The first book is Talia Hibbert’s Take a Hint, Dani Brown. It is a freaking delight and a hug in book form. There are constant pauses where I set my tablet down and try to stop shrieking with laughter. My family thinks I’m weird enough; I don’t need Reading Snort Gurgles on my list of Aarya quirks. Witchy bi heroine, gruff rugby-playing bodyguard hero, fake relationship, and many other things designed to produce good book noises. Only halfway through, but I don’t anticipate changing my recommendation.
The second book is Sarah MacLean’s Daring and the Duke (out June 30). ( A | BN | K | AB ) It is polar opposite in tone to the Hibbert. Angsty AF second-chance romance with a villain hero. I struggle with villain heroes when they’re SO VILLAINOUS in the previous books of the series. The jury is still out; it’s going well so far, but I don’t know if there’ll be enough groveling to make me happy. We shall see.
Carrie: Oh, I’m dying to hear if the groveling is sufficient!!
Aarya: HE IS SO EVIL. But also maybe good? My heart can’t take it.
Shana: Me too. I can never get enough groveling, and that villain in particular has a lot to apologize for.
Susan: NEW CAT SEBASTIAN! NEW CAT SEBASTIAN!
By which I mean Two Rogues Make a Right dropped this morning and I have been waiting for this convoluted relationship since the first book
Sneezy: Finally my turn for The War Priest by Ann Aguirre! GAH! So good!
Which books are rounding out your reading month? Tell us in the comments!
I’m still in a reading slump which is probably due to a) my grandmother passing away, b) virus anxiety and c) the heatwave. Must plan to read a few werewolf books as I’m attempting camp NaNowrimo in July and I’m set on a werewolf story. I want to avoid the pitfalls (chiefly the alpha jerks and the questionable consent, though I’ve never written a sex scene yet even forced kissing feels iffy these days). I’m mainly writing as a form of therapy though, so I’m writing something I will enjoy doing.
Read THE HAZEL WOOD by Melissa Albert, which, like a lot of portal fantasy, lost the qualities that kept me reading at the portal, but since that fell so close to the end, I finished it. I went from that to THE NIGHT COUNTRY (because I had it from a recent sale) and DNF’d around 20%. The heroine is less informed than she was at the start of the first book (by choice!), and I forgot the guy who’s now being pushed as her love interest the instant he dropped off the page in Book 1 because he reeeeeeeally didn’t seem that important to her. Nothing enchanting enough to make me stick this one out.
When reading is going badly, I’ve been comfort-watching COLUMBO through IMDb’s streaming service (free with commercials). Season 2 seems like some clueless executive decreed “Make it edgier!”, and it’s a disaster. Grossly mean-spirited and lacking cleverness. I’m going to skim forward searching for the course correct and never rewatch these episodes (which I don’t remember seeing before, so maybe whoever’s been picking the reruns for the past five decades also chucks these in the bin).
I finished The Hazel Wood, which I liked quite a bit. Also read Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann. I’m always nervous about ace rep because it’s so rare to begin with, and some asexual novels I’ve read have felt really harmful to me personally. But I enjoyed this one. It was cute and fluffy and while I’ve never in my entire life had as many crushes as this girl had in about a week, I thought it did a good job of delineating between aesthetic attraction/romantic desire and sexual attraction/desire. Not all rep is going to fit all people, obviously, but I’ve had some of the exact same reactions to things as Alice did, and held some of the exact same conversations in my head, and it was just nice to see, to know that maybe someone younger than me will have books like this to help figure themselves out earlier.
Other than that, fanfic, fanfic, fanfic. I don’t know why I ever stopped reading fanfic. I just want soft, plotless, low-angst fluff of all stripes right now. It really helps me get through all of *gestures wildly* this.
I have been reading lots and lots of “Never Have I Ever” fanfiction. And maybe writing a little. . .
Other than that, I’ve DNFed a lot. I’ve got a lot of promising stuff from the library checked out. I’ve just got to read it all.
Appropriately, I read DO NOTHING by Celeste Headlee which I would really helpful. It was along the lines of THE ART OF DOING NOTHING by Jenny Odell, but this was less “arty” and more hands on. I liked that Headlee really took the long view and explained how technology only exacerbates an existing problem. The problem goes back at least till the industrial revolution.
I’m kind of a naturally “do nothing” person (it’s my life skill!) and it’s nice to read something that is affirming that I’m not crazy or lazy for not jam packing my day full of activities.
I read AFTER THE WEDDING by Courtney Milan. I started this months ago, put it down, picked it up again b/c I said “at least let me just finish something” and I still didn’t like it. I wanted to like it, but it was a “shotgun wedding” story with a lot of external conflict around paperwork and other people. The characters genuinely liked each other and were attracted to each other but kept saying things like ‘well, this just isn’t the right way to start a relationship.’ Also the heroine was so downtroddden and love starved with low self esteem, it was painful to read about. I understood why she was that way, but I found it downright upsetting to me in her head. Not something you really look for in a romance.
THE GRAND MASTER OF DEMONIC CULTIVATION by Mo Xiang Tong Xiu! It’s all SB Sarah’s fault!! She did the squee about The Untamed show that sent me toward the novel. Honestly, I wasn’t expecting much; I’d read fan translations in the past and it had rarely been good. Well, GMDC put me on my a$$… I loved it! SO MUCH better than the show! (Books always are 😉 The translation is not amateurish and gets better and better on the way. The story is captivating – the back and forth between present and past works, it made me wonder how could they could go from there to there…? and the characters… they are what made me love this novel. The villains especially (not the Wen sect; the real villains!) Another plus: the author used well-known lines of chinese poetry. So you’re reading along and suddenly comes beautiful turns of phrases, where light kisses are dips of dragonflies and flirting, ‘frivolous peach blossoms pursuing the running stream’. (The translator links to the chinese poetry blog she used as reference, and it reminded me how much I love chinese and japanese poetry.)
So, that’s pretty much it. Everything else I read in the last two weeks was overshadowed by Grand Master of Demonic Cultivation.
I just binge-read the new Cat Sebastian and it’s a very, very slow burn for the first half, after which things properly get going. Not my favorite, but a worthy entry in the series.
I love the TV series “Altered Carbon” so I am reading the novels. #1 (Altered Carbon) was fantastic. #2 (Broken Angels) isn’t quite as compelling, but I’m pretty sure I’ll finish it. And I know that #3 introduces Quell as a major character, so I’ll have no trouble convincing myself to read it.
What’s on the TBR after that? The new fantasy by Katherine Addison (The Angel of Crows), and I need to read The Sixth Extinction for work. Possibly also another reread of Red White and Royal Blue because it always cheers me up.
I’ve been almost entirely re-reading for the last few months, but I did find a new-to-me paranormal series called GRAVE WITCH by Kalayna Price which has kept me entertained, and has been low-stress enough that I could handle it. I’m about four books in so far.
I just finished BEAST BEHAVING BADLY by Shelly Laurenston. It’s light and silly, which is perfect for me right now. Unfortunately it also contains an enormous cast of characters from (I assume) previous and future books, which made it hard to follow at times. I was able to keep up, but there was a fair bit of “Who was that guy again?” page flipping at first.
Now I’m in the middle of ONE NIGHT IS NEVER ENOUGH by Anne Mallory. I saw it recommended online recently, possibly in the Seduction as a Bet recommendation thread. If it wasn’t mentioned there, it should have been. I don’t really know how to describe it, but it’s very different from most Regencies. There’s very little plot to talk about, focusing almost entirely on the hero and heroine falling into mutual lust and eventually love. It definitely has a Dangerous Liaisons vibe and for whatever reason, it’s just what I want in an historical. I like it so much that I actually stopped reading it partway through because I was going too fast and wanted it to last longer. Hopefully the end will live up to the first half.
“She never made it to the end of her TBR list—but was constantly working on it,” would be a fitting epitaph—except, of course, I plan to be cremated (hopefully, many years from now).
Jewel E. Ann’s Transcend books—TRANSCEND, EPOCH, and FORTUITY—are not “traditional” paranormal romances. They do not take place in a world where everyone (or at least a specific community of humans/shifters/vampires) is aware of the supernatural elements that control or influence behaviors and outcomes. Instead, these are books about ordinary people trying to make sense of seemingly incontrovertible proof that something beyond logical explanation is happening to them. The heroine of TRANSCEND is a young woman who spent much of her childhood in and out of psychiatrists’ and therapists’ offices as her parents sought to get a diagnosis for their daughter’s ability to recall oddly specific and random facts about events that happened in their Wisconsin hometown before she was born. Ann shows how exhausting her parents’ search for a “label” was for the heroine and how her greatest joy now is being with her biker boyfriend and his affectionate, close-knit family. But when the heroine takes a job as a nanny for the child of a widowed professor, she realizes she knows many details about her employer’s childhood and adolescence. The heroine and the professor grow closer as they try to understand how she knows these things—which leaves her boyfriend feeling overlooked and jealous. EPOCH picks up right where TRANSCEND left off: the heroine having discovered a terrible current-day link to a two-decades old unsolved tragedy (cw/tw: death of a teenage girl, described in some detail). EPOCH is very angsty—and the paranormal element is more defined than in TRANSCEND—with the faintest echo of THE LOVELY BONES. Also, EPOCH has an epilogue set 100 years in the future! So move over HATE NOTES—your set-26-years-in-the-future-epilogue is small potatoes compared to EPOCH.
While TRANSCEND & EPOCH are really one story and have to be read together, FORTUITY is only tangentially related to the previous two books and can be read as a stand-alone. The hero is the widowed professor from the previous two books. His daughter is now ten and they are renting a beach house in San Diego for the summer. Into the house next door moves the heroine who now has custody of her nephew after his parents died in an accident. Both h&h are in their forties and both have experienced heartbreak & loss, and been alone (romantically) for a long time, but both are also at transition places in their lives and neither is ready for a commitment beyond the summer. A thoughtful, somewhat melancholy romance. Key quote: “Love isn’t an emotion. It’s a force.”
Lauren Blakely’s ONE NIGHT ONLY is a well-paced erotic novella featuring an m/f/m ménage between a woman who owns a chain of hotels, her bodyguard, and his best friend, a rock star. Considering its short length, Blakely does a good job with character development: the driven hotelier working hard to update and refurbish what had once been her parents’ showplace hotel; the ever-vigilant bodyguard who doesn’t want his attraction to his client to interfere with his ability to protect her; and the rock star who can be a jokester but can also see that his friend has fallen in love with the hotel owner and wants to help him help her fulfill her three-way fantasy. ONE NIGHT ONLY includes a strong emphasis on safely exploring kink with consent and with people you trust. The sex scenes are hot, hot, hot (plus there’s a teaser for a forthcoming book involving the rock star and HIS bodyguard). A solid little gem of erotic romance.
DANE’S STORM by Mia Sheridan is a very melancholy second-chance romance with a “survival against the elements” subplot. A divorced couple have not seen each other for seven years, but when the heroine visits the hero to confront him about his family’s plans for a property he gave to her during their marriage, they realize the spark is still there. The hero is a licensed pilot and he offers to fly the heroine from California (where he lives) to Colorado (where she lives). During the flight, the small plane crashes in the Rockies and so begins the couple’s battle as they work together to survive a snow storm and to come to terms with the grief that tore their relationship apart years before (cw/tw: stillborn baby). Nail-biting survival scenes and one of the saddest, yet ultimately life-affirming, second-chance romances I’ve ever read. You will cry…several times.
Juliana Stone’s THE THING ABOUT TROUBLE is, like many of her romances, set in the fictional community of Crystal Lake. The heroine is a young widow from a dysfunctional background (references to past trauma are made, but descriptions are not detailed). The hero is a man who has coasted through life on his charm—until he finds himself responsible for an orphaned five-year-old. What I liked best about the book was how consent was handled between the hero & heroine: everything that goes on between them is with the heroine’s explicit consent and the hero is always checking with her that things are going in the direction she wants and at the pace she desires, which leads to a nice slow-burn romance.
I read and enjoyed all six books (five novels and one novella) in Genevieve Turner’s A Cowboy of Her Own series. Originally published in 2015 & 2016, the interconnected stories take place in and around a ranching community in Southern California. The MCs are of various (sometimes mixed) ethnic & cultural heritages—Latinx, Asian, Native American, Black, and White—and all the couples are inter-cultural. In REUNITED WITH HER BULL RIDER, a veterinarian reunites with her ex—a rodeo rider who has suffered a career-ending injury. The passion between them is still strong, but they have to learn to communicate outside the bedroom to achieve their HEA. In HER BILLIONAIRE RANCHER BOSS, the hero’s super-efficient PA turns in her notice. After five years of working together, is now the time for them to explore the never-acknowledged attraction between them? Scenes of family drama balanced with some pretty hot sexy-times. HER BULL RIDER’S BABY features an unplanned pregnancy between a woman who runs a ranch’s stock and breeding operations and a Brazilian rodeo rider. This one was interesting because of the focus on custody issues when a child’s parents not only live in different towns but in different countries. RESCUED BY HER FIRE FIGHTER has more of a romantic suspense plot than the other books: a prickly, type-A research scientist and a laid-back fire fighter (who is leading the scientist on a hike to find some rare desert plants she needs for her research) must pretend to be married when they encounter people running a marijuana grow operation in the Mojave Desert. HER COWBOY RIVAL is an antagonists-to-lovers story about two people who have known each other since high school and who manage rival resorts. Sparks fly when they have to team up and train together for a charity event involving a five-mile obstacle run/race. Key quote: “There was always more than one way to tell a story.” Threaded through the background of the first five books is the story that comes to the forefront in the last, REUNITED WITH HER COWBOY: a man is released from prison after serving a five-year sentence for a DUI crash that almost killed his then girlfriend, leaving her with neurological damage from a traumatic brain injury. The hero is now sober and committed to making amends for his previous behavior (the DUI crash was the culmination of the hero’s—and the heroine’s—impulsivity and recklessness). Despite the fact that both their families warn them to stay apart, the couple want to see each other and they find ways to meet in secret, leading to serious family conflicts. REUNITED WITH HER COWBOY is the angstiest book in the series, with two MCs, who, because of their circumstances, feel they have no control of their lives outside of being with each other; and I thought Turner did great job getting inside the mind of a heroine who can’t always trust what her brain is telling her.
THE FOOTMAN by S. M. LaViolette (aka, Minerva Spencer) is a very good Regency romance about the long-term consequences of an impulsive action. At a ball in 1802, a young woman impulsively kisses the family’s recently-hired footman. This results in the footman being beaten nearly to death before being sent to prison and the young woman being hurriedly rushed into a marriage with a cold and abusive earl. Fast forward 15 years. The woman is now a childless, impoverished widow, living in a shabby dower house and studying medicine with the local doctor. A wealthy American banker comes to town. He has a reputation for helping profligate noblemen raise funds by breaking the legal entails on their lands. The widow does not recognize this man as the footman she kissed a lifetime ago, but she is both attracted to him and worried about what his presence in town means for the crumbling estate now owned by her late husband’s nephew. The story then goes back and forth in time, showing what brought those two young people in 1802 to their current states in 1817 (cw/tw: physical & emotional abuse, miscarriages). This is a revenge story, but a very well-executed one. The hero has a detailed plan that he is carefully putting in to place to bring down all of those who had a part in destroying his life—including the heroine, despite his attraction and admiration for her. The story includes a couple of really good twists, an immensely satisfying grovel, and a lovely heroine who is courageous and strong even when she appears fragile and weak. Highly recommended.
I liked THE FOOTMAN so much, I read one of LaViolette’s erotic historicals, HIS COUNTESS, which has a plot similar to that of THE FOOTMAN: the heroine is a good-hearted and childless widow living in financially-straightened circumstances in a dilapidated country home; the hero is a wealthy businessman who acquires the property. The book features a marriage of convenience trope along with multiple scenes of ménage (of various numbers and gender combinations), voyeurism, exhibitionism, and relatively mild bdsm. HIS COUNTESS also has one of the most unintentionally hilarious proofreading oversights I’ve encountered this year: after a night spent with two women, the hero tries unsuccessfully to recall which one he had buttsecks with: “He couldn’t remember which one he’d taken annually.” Well, I suppose anyone would forget if it only happened once a year.
In an earlier WAYR, Vicky said she had to DNF Dana Marton’s romantic suspense SILENT THREAT because it involved a therapist and her client. Well, one woman’s DNF is another woman’s transgressive catnip. I like books where female therapists fall for their male clients—although they are few and far-between because of being so, well, transgressive. Also, most therapist-client romances I’ve read include some plot element that just manages to keep them ethically from being a full-on “Girl, you’re about to lose your license,”—or, as the therapist in SILENT THREAT thinks to herself, “Attraction toward a patient was the kind of forest fire that could burn down her life and career before she had a chance to blink,”—and that plot point in SILENT THREAT is that the hero is working undercover at the military rehab clinic where the heroine works, trying to discover the identity of the person who is providing military secrets to hostile forces; so he’s technically not actually the therapist’s “patient” (although initially she doesn’t know that). There’s a lot going on in the book—the heroine is an eco-therapist who also runs an animal sanctuary, has a stalker, and is trying to renovate her house. Conversely, while he may be working undercover, the hero actually does have combat-related PTSD, deafness, and an injured arm; and he does benefit from his therapy sessions with the heroine. Although I think Marton could have jettisoned a couple of subplots with no ill effects, I still liked SILENT THREAT and will look for more of her books.
NON-ROMANCE
Charlotte Duckworth’s UNFOLLOW ME is about what happens when a popular “Mummy Blogger/Vlogger” suddenly takes down all of her social media accounts and goes completely silent on all platforms. Several of her followers—all clearly overly-invested in the woman’s life—go to extreme ends to find out what has happened to her. The book is part psychological suspense, part cautionary tale about how quickly followers can become stalkers, and part meditation on how our desire to attain and project the “perfect life” often undermines our ability to accept and enjoy our own imperfect one. I tend to view non-romance novels through a different lens than I do romance, so what might be a dealbreaker for me in a romance (particularly danger to a child) is not so much so in a suspense story where I expect to experience a higher level of anxiety and fear. That being said, while UNFOLLOW ME is well-written, twisty, and convoluted (in a good way), there are definitely some triggers: there’s a flashback to a sexual assault—it’s not described in detail, but it’s there; a character has had a miscarriage in the past and now struggles with infertility; postpartum depression is an ongoing theme; and more then one child is in peril. If you’re looking for a book that might make you think twice before posting that next family pic to Instagram, UNFOLLOW ME is it.
@Kit — I’m very sorry for your loss. Hugs to you.
@Sarah — HENCH is a lot of fun. There need to be more superhero books.
I finally went back to my local B&N and picked up some new books (wearing a mask/socially distancing). Ahhh, being around books feeds my soul.
I’m looking forward to reading IF I NEVER MET YOU by Mhairi McFarlane; THE WORST BEST MAN by Mia Sosa; and HEAD OVER HEELS by Hannah Orenstein, among others.
I struggled a bit with reading the latter half of this month.
THE TOURIST ATTRACTION by Sarah Morgenthaler unfortunately never got better for me and I eventually DNF’d i. Just too cutesy for me and I wasn’t really feeling the romance. I know some others have liked it, so YMMV.
Another Jill Shalvis Lucky Harbor book – ONCE IN A LIFETIME, typical Shalvis potato chip of a book. Widowed hero and reformed bitch heroine.
ATTACHMENTS by Rainbow Rowell – I know, how have I not read this already, but I was one of the few who just didn’t enjoy Eleanor & Park, and hadn’t given Rowell another shot since then. The premise of the book is a bit tough to get over – the hero, who’s experiencing a bit of arrested development in his late 20s, has a job in IT security for a local newspaper, but basically he’s just tasked with reading any emails that get flagged. We only see the heroine through emails she writes between her and her best friend, which the hero keeps reading despite knowing its kind of a gross invasion of her privacy. Despite the weird setup, the heroine’s relationship with her friend is really lovely, and Rowell has a really kind and gentle way with her characters that I do appreciate. Strictly speaking this is a romance, but you’ve got to stick it out to the end because the characters don’t actually meet until the very, very end.
YES, NO, MAYBE SO by Becky Albertalli and Aisha Saeed was so, so wonderful, and just the book I needed for this time. YA story about a Jewish teen boy and a Muslim teen girl who were childhood friends, and reunite while volunteering for a local political campaign in Atlanta, somewhat mirroring the Jon Ossof campaign that happened in 2017. The heroine is whip smart and a bit prickly, and the hero is swoonably nerdy and cute. Their budding romance is sweet and gentle, and they both help each other grow. The adults around them are imperfect but kind in a very realistic way. The politics are urgent (the republican candidate they’re running against wants to pass a bill that would ban hijabs), but hopeful. This book gave me the best book hangover.
Highly recommend The Other Bennett Sister…not P&P fanfic. If you enjoyed Longbourn, you will probably like this continuation of the P&P saga. Not a romance, but Mary’s search for love (Romantic and self love/respect) is the focus.
Enjoyed The Lovely War by Julie Berry. Although shelved as YA, I wasn’t disappointed. Good look at racial prejudice endured by Black American soldiers fighting in WW1. The story is told through the eyes of the Greek gods…this gets tiresome, but the story is good enough to stand under the weight of this literary device. Not a romance, but 2 love stories are the heart of the plot.
Off to a good start with The Vanishing Half.
@DiscoDollyDeb – I also read THE FOOTMAN but forgot to mention it here. I totally agree with your review of it and recommend it.
The GBPL came through big time with Nalini Singh’s Alpha Night. I must say I am really enjoying the Trinity books: Ocean shifters (although if I don’t get my great white shifter I’m gong to be so disappointed) bear shifters (ALWAYS the most fun) and now (finally) a kick ass female Alpha in her own right, not as an adjunct to a mate. Did I guess what was going on with Ethan pretty much immediately? Yes. Did it effect how much I enjoyed this book? Not one little bit. Also, I have an idea about The Architect that I’m looking forward to having confirmed or shot down.
I wanted to like You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle, more than I did, but I had huge issues with the heroine and the desire to yell at both of them to just TALK TO EACH OTHER!!!! The book starts with the couple’s first date then jumps forward a year and a half and two months before their scheculed wedding date. The relationship has become dysfunctional, to say the least, but neither will address what’s gone wrong. When Naomi deduces from Nicholas’ behavior that he also wants out, but doesn’t want to be the one to call it off, hijinxs ensue. Don’t get me wrong, some of this is hysterically funny, but some of it just made me want to slap a bitch. For instance, at some point in the recent past Nicholas, a dentist, receives a really good job offer in Madison, a large city/college town/state capital, but he ends up turning it down because Naomi refuses to move. “You exoect me to give up my job/life/friends?” This would make sense if this was her hometown, it’s Nicholas’. Her family, which she has almost no relationship with, all live scattered an hour away in every direction; his awful parents are very much a presence. Her job is a dead end in a store that is about to go under. She has one frienTd, and that friend plans to move to Alaska as soon as she saves enough money. There is NOTHING about this town that Naomi can’t or won’t have to learn to live without. While her objections are seated in her “low self esteem”, I find myself with zero sympathy, because she comes off as spoiled and self centered. Since we only see the story from her point of view YMMV. While Naomi sees a nemesis, I see Nicholas as someone who is trying to break the status quo of their relationship. He starts executing make it or break it moves. Doing things that he’s been denying himself, because Naomi’s behavior frees him to think of himself first. God help him, what he ultimately wants is her. There are things that made me laugh hysterically, and occasionally have sympathy for Naomi, but it’s Nicholas who gets all my feels. Read at your own risk.
I’m currently reading The McAvoy Sisters Book of Secrets by Molly Fader which I picked up after an earlier post this week revealed she is AKA Molly O’Keefe. It’s definitely “women’s fiction” rather than romance, but since she’s an I’d-read-her-grocery-list author, I had to give it a shot. Alternating POV between two sisters, their mother and the teenage daughter of the younger sister. Something happened before Brin was born that broke the sisters apart, but now that their mother’s health is deteriorating they are forced to come back together. Revelations on the horizon.
Comfort rereads in audiobook form, on repeat.
Romance:
Anything by ALYSSA COLE narrated by Karen Chilton. A Princess in Theory has been on repeat for months. Chef’s kiss of a book and audio. Finally finished a Prince on Paper, liked it a lot, and it sets up the next book coming later this year – How to Catch a Queen.
ATTACHMENTS by Rainbow Rowell library hold came in, so I gave it a try – it’s very good but too much angst for me right now. Back to the comfort rereads…
Not romance:
JUNONIA by Kevin Henkes, narrated by Stina Nielsen. 10 year old girl on a beach vacation, kind people being nice to each other, seashells. Goodreads rating is too low (people complain that “nothing happens”, which is actually a plus for quarantimes brain); my go-to children’s media review site gave it 5/5 stars. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/book-reviews/junonia
JEEVES stories by P.G. Wodehouse narrated by Jonathan Cecil, also the BBC adaptation with Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry. Endlessly rereadable, so much comedy gold.
THREE TIMES LUCKY series by Sheila Turnage narrated by Lauren Fortgang. Cozy mysteries with kid detectives and oodles of southern charm.
PAWS VS CLAWS by Spencer Quinn, dual narration by the cat and dog. Also a cozy mystery with a couple of tense scenes but mostly gentle and hilarious.
Speaking of mysteries, finally watched KNIVES OUT. It’s good and twisty, lives up to the hype. CW: there is a tad more blood and violence than I would prefer, and ugh those terrible people fighting over the inheritance… aaand back to the cozy rereads again.
Y’all stay safe and be kind to yourself.
Just re-read Sunshine, my favorite Robin McKinley book and always worth revisiting.
I really enjoy Rosalind James’ New Zealand set novels (most on KU!) and just read Kiwi Strong. It’s a bit of wish fulfillment for a young mother: a super handsome doctor finds you hot and lovable right after giving birth, as a nursing mother with 2 other young kids. The beginning grabbed me, it slowed at 2/3, and then end was sweet.
The one that didn’t grab me was Olivia Dade’s 40-Love, which I preordered because I loved Teach Me. It was instalove, in about a week, and I didn’t relate to either of them. I finished it because I’d been looking forward to it and have been DNF-ing too many books. Regardless, I read the preview of her next book and pre ordered it!
COMPLETELY OUTSTANDING, SOMEBODY HERE REVIEW IT PLEASE OR DID I MISS IT?:
Quan Barry’s We Ride Upon Sticks is the best thing that’s happened to me this year. A 1989 girls’ field hockey team discovers their power in the town made infamous by the Salem witch accusers.
I loved it so much, I immediately bought my own copy and have chosen it for our Zoom book club in August. Girls, sports, the 80s, strength, growth, power, friendship, finding one’s path and hysterically (intended) funny. If I can’t read anything else during the clusterf*ck that is 2020, I will go happily.
I just finished reading Beach Read by Emily Henry which I enjoyed more for the writing talk than the romance. I wished that we’d been in the hero’s head too so that left me feeling a little unbalanced though I enjoyed it. I liked Evvie Drake Starts Over slightly better but I feel like both books kind of compliment each other and reminded me that I do like contemporaries sometimes.
In terms of books, I loved, I loved Swordheart and Yes, Chef, T. Kingfisher’s books keep me up too late reading. Yes, Chef was a wonderful and thoughtful memoir. How Long ’til Black Future Month was good but a few too many stories about the end of the world for me. I love Jemisin’s writing but need to balance with Pratchett for more hope. Also read an unexpected nonfiction called The Dinosaur Artist about the world of finding and selling fossils, good read.
I just started Slippery Creatures which I”m really liking, the 20s has always been a time I find interesting and Will Darling is a great character.
The BPL opened up in a small way this week so soon I’m going to be able to get new physical books and return my pile that I’ve had since March.
WHEN SHE PURRS by Ruby Dixon is the latest book in her Risda series that is legit awesome- she does bonkers plots but somehow anchors them with real pathos in a way that is hard to find
I just went on a Joanna Shupe reading spree (it turned out that I’d bought loads of them as Kindle Daily Deals and then just forgot I had them) and whew, that was a mixed week. One of her earlier Regency books was so infuriating that I’d have thrown a paper copy across the room (“My God, so you WERE a virgin and not a hymen-less trollop after all, I LOVE YOU!” is one of my least favourite romance tropes ever. There was definitely insufficient groveling on the part of the hero.
A few of her later ones were lovely, and I was pleasantly startled by her historical heroine who chose to remain a) unmarried, and b) childless at the end of the book. I mean, I was also a bit baffled as to why a wealthy and privileged young girl raised in The Age of Innocence era would willingly go scorched-earth on her entire social standing just so she could run her own casino (?!) but OK, there’s nowt as odd as folk.
I read Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe this week by Heather Webber and really loved it. Small southern town/magic/finding one’s place in life. Midway through the read the author’s name started ringing a bell and I checked my bookshelves and discovered I had the first 3 of her series set in Boston about Lucy Valentine, whose family is able to find your perfect match based on the color of your aura. Unfortunately Lucy lost her ability to read auras following an electrical zap when she was 14 and her talent is now finding lost objects, which leaves her out of the family business. I bought the first one in 2010 in a small town bookstore. They carried the next two, then stopped. Back then I didn’t think to order books online. Now I am re-reading and enjoying the 3 I have and my library has the next one as an ebook so I will finally be able to finish the series
Anyone else absolutely hate when they don’t remember how they first learned about a book? It drives me crazy! Seeing Miss Hearthstone by Nichole Van was very good – a little longer than it needed to be, but well-written, so I didn’t mind too much. (Smart woman offers to help desperate man, he turns her down, then meets her years later and falls in love without remembering her. Sounds kinda dumb, but it works.) Loving the Lieutenant by Elise Marion was beautiful and a timely read in that the heroine is mixed race and treated like crap by people who should have known better (except for the hero who was instantly and forever smitten – no stupid misunderstandings). Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian was poignant, engrossing, and heart-breaking (a story of mismatched victims of Hitler’s Germany). I mentioned him in the last Whatcha Reading (Red Lotus – great!) and I find it hard to believe he never crossed my radar before this year. Finally, I just finished the phenomenal Sleepwalker’s Guide to Dancing by Mira Jacobs. I listened to it on audio, and it was narrated perfectly by the author. The story of an immigrant Indian/American family, it was written a few years back but somehow seems very current.
I know I’ve said it before, but YIPPEEE! I love WAYR!
Thank you for all of your recommendations — I’m going to take a few days off this week, and I plan on reading like books are coke and I’m at a 1980’s Hollywood party.
Briefly, the excellent, the very good, the good, the DNF:
The Excellent:
None, b/c I’ve been saving them for next week. 🙂
The Very Good:
CONVENTIONALLY YOURS Annabeth Albert, M/M contemporary. Similar to her other work, but satisfying.
MUSCLING THROUGH J.L. Merrow, M/M contemporary. Professor and blue collar guy fall in love, through the eyes of the blue collar guy. Did not feel comfortable with the classicism, but that was the point? And the emotional arc dealt with a lot of it very well. May not be for everyone.
The Good:
TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE Kristen Higgins Cute, Contemporary, M/F, but kind of annoying. And I wasn’t convinced that she was OK with the hero having been in prison. She went from looking down on him to kind of looking down on him.
BLAME IT ON BATH Caroline Linden – Regency M/F Prob relatively realistic for attitudes of the time, but the hero really didn’t respect the heroine, and she seemed a lot brighter than him, so I just didn’t get it.
WANT ME Neve Wilder – M/M contemporary. Really more erotica than romance. Kind of insta-lurve based on sex.
HOME IMPROVEMENT Tara Lain – M/M contemporary, between rock star and contractor. The timeline was totally unrealistic – you can’t even line up a contractor in the time frame they set out, never mind getting any substantive work done, no matter how much money you had, or who you knew. There literally wasn’t time for the grout and paint to cure. That kind of hurt my enjoyment of a relatively cute story.
DNF
SHADOW MAGIC – Nazri Noor Meh.
STAR CHAMPION – Susan Grant – Sci Fi romance with space gladiator heroine – Thought this was going to be my catnip, but I just can’t care about the characters.
CHANGING EVERYTHING — A FORGIVING LIES NOVELLA – Molly McAdams – I hate this hero. I hope she dumps him next month for a guy that doesn’t think he knows more than every woman alive.
REBORN YESTERDAY – Tessa Bailey – Too twee, can’t do it.
Thanks again! Stay safe and sane, bitches!
Week by week ~
— The Hallowed Hunt (Chalion Book 3) by Lois McMaster Bujold. I enjoyed this fantasy, but my favorite of the series is the first, The Curse of Chalion. While the first two books are linked, this one (while set in the same world) seems quite separate. Ah, I see that the author describes this book as an independent prequel.
— a collection of stories that I won from a Goodreads giveaway ~ Glow: A Collection of Stories by Jason Messina. The stories were somewhat eerie, and I don’t expect to read then again.
— Hemingway’s Notebook: A Love Across Time Story by Jackie North. It’s a time travel male/male romance that I quite enjoyed.
— Field Notes on Love by Jennifer E. Smith. This is a young adult novel which I quite enjoyed. I would happily read more by this author.
— Wild as the West Texas Wind: A Love Across Time Story by Jackie North which I enjoyed.
— Eating Stars by Angel Martinez, a science fiction romance novella which I quite enjoyed. The alien lead is bipedal but plant like.
— Her Cold-Blooded Protector by Lea Linnett. It was a pleasant read but not a book I’m likely to reread.
— The Omega Objection: The San Andreas Shifters by G. L. Carriger. It was an enjoyable read but not a book I’ll be quick to reread. G. L. Carriger is the name that Gail Carriger uses for her titles with ‘sexy queer joy.’
— Cetaganda (Vorkosigan Saga) by Lois McMaster Bujold which I enjoyed. I would not, however, recommend starting the Vorkosigan series with this book.
— continued on with my read of the Vorkosigan series and finished Ethan of Athos and the novella Labyrinth. I enjoyed them both.
— Borders of Infinity (3-novella collection – Vorkosigan Saga by Lois McMaster Bujold. I’d previously read two of the three novellas, but I enjoyed the title novella which was new to me as well as the framing story.
— The House of Broken Angels by Luis Alberto Urrea, my book group book. It was definitely an intriguing read.
More by Lois McMaster Bujold ~
— Brothers in Arms. This was a somewhat tense read compared to others in the series, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
— Mirror Dance which proved to contain some rather dark events.
— Memory which I quite enjoyed.
— Komarr (this might be my favorite of the series this far).
— A Civil Campaign which I enjoyed (despite the bugs!).
— the novella Winterfair Gifts which I also enjoyed.
— My summer reading program challenged me to read a book in translation; I chose to read Brazen: Rebel Ladies Who Rocked the World by Pénélope Bagieu (translated from the French by Montana Kane). I was only familiar with about a quarter of the featured women, so I learned a lot by reading this graphic novel. (What is the correct terminology for a graphic work of nonfiction? The spine label says Graphic Novel, but this was no work of fiction!)
— Another challenge was to read a book of poetry, thus I read with pleasure The Apple That Astonished Paris: Poems by Billy Collins.
— Another challenge was to read a biography or autobiography. I read a children’s book, Enormous Smallness: A Story of E. E. Cummings by Matthew Burgess.
— reread with pleasure Linesman by S. K. Dunstall.
— read a historical male/male romance novella, Refugees by Kim Fielding which I enjoyed. It had a slight otherworldly aspect to it.
— I continued with the Vorkosigan series and read Falling Free by Lois McMaster Bujold. (Well, this book is actually set two hundred years prior to the others and thus features no Vorkosigans at all; I enjoyed it anyway.) Also enjoyed Diplomatic Immunity and Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance.
I saw some mentions of an old Mary Balogh book, “The Secret Pearl”. and I thought I had read all her older historicals, but I had no recollection at all of this one. It was very good, but just about tore my heart out. So much angst! I think this may have been her Jane Eyre tribute.
I’m happily in the middle of the latest Sebastian St. Cyr mystery, “Who Speaks For The Damned”. The quality of this series continues to be excellent.
An older Vanessa Kelly book was on sale for .99, “His Mistletoe Bride”. It’s still just about my favorite of all her books. The H&h have a realistic conflict about resolving problems using violence(she’s a Quaker pacifist, he’s a former soldier), something you don’t usually see in a romance.
I am also rereading one of Michelle Diener’s historicals, “The Emperor’s Conspiracy”. Very tricky spy plot and cross class romance with a titled hero and a heroine who came from the gutter. I enjoy her sci-fi books, but I would love to see Diener go back to the Regency or Tudor era of her earlier books.
Oh, and I skimmed/almost DNF’d a truly awful Harlequin Historical, “To Win a Wallflower” by Liz Tyner. I love the wallflower trope so it has to be pretty bad for me to not like anything about it.
@Kareni, that sounds like a great summer reading challenge!
Just a couple reads to report for this WAYR.
Excellent:
None
Very Good:
The No-Cry Sleep Solution: Gentle Ways to Help Your Baby Sleep Through the Night by Elizabeth Pantley: I think there are a lot of great ideas here about how to encourage babies to fall and stay asleep including white noise, bedtime routine, etc.
The Thief by Megan Whalen Turner: I decided I am going to have a summer of YA reading and as I finish a book (I often have up to 5-6+ going at one time), I am going to replace it with a YA. This is the first in the The Queen’s Thief series and revolves around a skilled thief trying to steal a literal gift of the gods. I got lost in some of the descriptions of the geography and terrain at times, but otherwise found this to be a great adventure story. I added the next in the series to my TBR.
Good:
None
Meh:
None
The Bad:
None
Is anyone else getting sidetracked from their TBR list with re-reading old favorites? I’m so happy to have the new Rosalind James (LOVE HER!) Kiwi Strong-but somehow I took a detour to once again read her Escape to New Zealand series. I love these books so much!
New books-The Bachelor by Sabrina Jeffries-the second in her Duke Dynasty series. I really enjoyed this, BUT I find the family connections so complicated I had to stop and sketch out a family tree. I read the first book Project Duchess quite a while ago, and I remember even then finding this confusing. The books are good though, and looking forward to the next one.
Diablo Lake: Moonstruck and Protected by Lauren Dane-I’ve read a lot of her contemporary novels, these paranormals were fun! I want to read more …
I’ve started Take A Hint, Dani Brown-I was laughing so hard that my husband came in to see what I was watching-he was disappointed when I said it was a book! Yes, I love a man who isn’t a reader 🙂
Read again-Katie Ruggle, her Search and Rescue and her Rocky Mountain K9 series. Why? I bought her new book, Risk It All-Rocky Mountain Bounty Hunters-Book 2.
So basically, I buy a new book by a favorite author, but instead of reading the new one, I gear up by reading their backlist. That explains most of my June reading!
Oh dear, I read that No Cry Sleep Solution twice – first with my first child, who didn’t sleep through the night until he was three, and then again with my second child, convinced that there was some kind of magical solution in there which I’d just missed in the haze of sleep deprivation the first time around. Finally came to the conclusion that there was absolutely no advice in there which any parent with half a brain wasn’t already doing, and chucked it as utterly pointless. (Other people’s mileage may vary, of course – BUT WHAT SOLUTION?!)
It’s been a long time since I’ve added to anyone’s TBR by posting here. My reading slump comes and goes; I’ll find a stack of books that I enjoy very much, devour the lot, and then for a while nothing else measures up. Then I find another book, subject, or author to glom, and off I go again. I have been in the mood to read mysteries–straight-up mysteries, not suspense or thrillers. I tried, again, to read Agatha Christie, an author I have never been able to get into. I thought I try one that wasn’t either a Poirot or a Marple, and settled on a mystery set in ancient Egypt called “Death comes at the end.” She still doesn’t do anything for me, but I found two other series set in ancient Egypt, one by Lynda S. Robinson and one by Paul Doherty. (It’s hard to wrap your head around how MUCH ancient history Egypt had. “Death comes at the end” is set during the Middle Kingdom period, about 2,000 B.C., so 4,000 freakin’ years ago. Paul Doherty’s series is set during the first years of Queen/Pharaoh Hatshepsut’s reign, about 600 years later, while Lynda S. Robinson’s series is set during the reign of Pharaoh Tutankhamun, about 150 years after Hatshepsut, which is still 3,300 years ago!) Paul Doherty specializes in historical mystery series, including at least three set in medieval England, but the four books I read set in ancient Egypt all center around various plots to prevent Hatshepsut, here called Hatusu, from claiming and keeping the throne. The series detective is Judge Amerotke, but Hatusu is the center of the series. In Lynda S. Robinson’s Lord Meren series, Meren is “Friend of the King”, Tut’s go-to investigator, kind of like the FBI Director. There are only six in the Lord Meren series, all set when Tutankhamun is about 14 years old. I’m sorry that there are only six, because they’re good mysteries, and Tut is just an adorable kid, but glad that the series ends before Tut dies about 4 years later.
I also read a couple other mysteries that have been around a while, “Bimbos of the Death Sun” and “Zombies of the gene pool” by Sharyn McCrumb. I remember that I had read some of her first mysteries, and I tried “Bimbos” when it came out, but at the time I didn’t get all the SF fandom references and the all-around geekery of the book, so I never really got into it. I now know enough about the subject, or at least the 1987 version of it, that I can appreciate the humor of “Bimbos” and “Zombies” as well as the pathos. The underlying theme of both books is how is it that some people’s real lives are so crappy that they take up permanent residence in someone else’s published fantasy worlds?
I also read a bunch of nonfiction books about books and/or reading: Anna Quindlen’s “How reading changed my life”, Nick Hornby’s “Housekeeping vs. the dirt”, Wendy Lesser’s “Nothing remains the same”, A.J. Jacobs’ “The Know-it-all” and Anne Fadiman’s “Ex libris: confessions of a common reader”. Lesser and Hornby write beautifully about books that I confess I have no interest in reading, and Jacobs writes about trying to read the entire Encyclopedia Britanica in a year (spoiler alert: he does make it). The two I enjoyed the most were the Quindlen and the Fadiman, but I would recommend any of them for someone who loves to read. (That’s all of us, right?)
Added two books to my TBR from previous comments… (haha, as you do) One Night Only, by Lauren Blakely, and The Footman by SM Violette…
Previously, I read Lover Awakened (book 3, Black Dagger Brotherhood series by JR Ward, yes I’m late to the party!), 5 stars, leaving a huge book hangover! All the feels and content warnings. Listened to Yours In Scandal by Lauren Layne, 3 1/2 stars – a cute easy listen to soothe my heart. Finished listening to Seige in Storm by Leigh Bardugo, a series re-listen, to continue to the spinoff’s, 4 stars YA Fantasy.
Currently Reading Heart of Obsidian by Nalini Singh – have been loving this world, and have been highly anticipating Caleb’s book, which is turning out to be an intense slow burn… and listening to From the Moment We Met by Marina Adair – cute, easy listening.
I have library books waiting on the arm of my lounge: Lover Revealed by JR Ward (book 4, Butch’s story, highly anticipated after my last reads of the series); Brazen and the Beast by Sarah Maclean (yaaaasss, finally continuing this series now that book 3 is here).
I’m a bit miffed that I’m only hearing about THE FOOTMAN a week after my KU subscription expired. I mostly use KU for hate-reading, but managed to squeeze in a few good books at the very end of a year-long subscription:
BY A THREAD by Lucy Score – financially strapped heroine goes to work at the fashion magazine owned by the mother of the grumpy hero whose complaints got her fired from one of her many side gigs. Lots of #metoo anxiety roiling off the honorable hero (who makes an adorable drunk). I think my favorite parts were just reading about the protagonists petting the hero’s dog…I realize how lukewarm that makes the book sound, but this was REALLY GOOD petting. [B]
SPACER’S CINDERELLA by Adria Rose – Sort of an HP in space with engaging world-building. Not a parallel to anything that’s happening now, but somehow a parallel to everything that’s happening now: the impoverished heroine comes from a dying space colony that has been abandoned by the corrupt space government. Through her genius, hard work, and a series of scholarships, she has made her way to a cutthroat academic colony where she is researching terraforming in order to save the lives of the family she has left behind. I think the produce-or-die world of academia in this book would have given me a sympathetic aneurysm if I had read it back in my grad student days. Also, there’s a hot billionaire cyborg engineering professor, because romance. [B+]
LIMITS by Susie Tate – This was actually a Kindle freebie I picked up yesterday. Brilliant radiologist with debilitating social anxiety disorder eventually discovers that the hunky, extroverted consultant surgeon who is pushing her to present at a conference was using her to get his own lecture spot at the conference. [B+]
…now off KU and back to the library.
BEACH READ by Emily Henry – I agree with @Kate K.F.: this was better for the talk about writing (and grieving) than the romance. The post-crisis reconciliation scene pulled the plug on the romance for me. The romantic interest explains his decision to the narrator in one of those poorly-constructed speeches designed to make her think he’s saying the exact opposite of what he’s trying to convey. It’s grossly artificial, and I honestly don’t know what the author was trying to achieve there. We’re at the 97% mark, so you’re not fooling me into thinking he’s anything but a poor communicator unnecessarily distressing the heroine. [B]
… and I do occasionally buy books.
HER BASEBORN BRIDEGROOM and HIS FORSAKEN BRIDE – @MaryK, who compared Coldbreath’s writing to “the best of Amanda Quick” in January’s Whatcha Reading. Yes, and I miss vintage Amanda Quick. One warning to woke readers: Coldbreath’s heroines in the quasi-medieval Karadok books I’ve read so far have even less agency than the average AQ heroine. These are not your badass mistorical ladies pursuing highly unlikely careers and overturning the patriarchy while still being invited to aristocratic social functions. The heroes, however…if you love a gruff hero who aggravatedly dotes on the heroine because he’s in love without knowing what love is, these are the books for you. [A-]
This post actually encompasses a few months of reading, because last time when I tried to post to WAYR my iPad kept eating my comment – so I gave up 🙁
I’ve had a few DNFs, I tried Dreamer’s Pool by Juliet Marillier, and just could not get into it. I was interested in Blackthorn and Grim’s story, but the story kept going to whiny Oran and his definitely-possessed girlfriend, and I just couldn’t. It’s weird, I loved the whole Sevenwaters trilogy, actually bought it in hardback when it first came out, but I’ve since tried a few other JM books and they just are not for me. I end up being kind of bored.
I also DNF The Merciful Crow by Margaret Owen. It started strong, and then I lost interest. It may have been a little YA for my taste. I could see where the story was going, and apparently didn’t want to go with it.
Add me to the group squee about Murderbot! I read Network Effect, and loved it. Murderbot is awesome, and I can’t wait to read its next adventure with ART. Though I always feel bad referring to Murderbot as “it.” It somehow feels disrespectful to me. I wish there was a better pronoun for a being who does not identify as any gender.
The Witch Elm by Tana French. I have loved all the six Dublin Murder Squad books, and expected to love this one. Reader, I am conflicted. In the Dublin books, it feels as though justice is done, that the perpetrator will be held to answer for the crime. The Witch Elm is very well written, is an involving story, I was on pins and needles about what was going to happen. And then the end. . . I don’t want to spoil it for anyone, but it was a gut punch. I actually had to debrief myself by telling my husband about the book, because I was so unsettled. I wish I knew someone who had read the book so I could talk about it with them!
Linesman by SK Dunstall. It was a reread in preparation for reading the next two books in the trilogy. I’ve just started the next book, Confluence, and so far am really enjoying it. I fully expect to enjoy the heck out of these books! Though I do hope Jordan Rossi gets his comeuppance . . . And if anyone else has read these books, do you have a read on how old Ean is? As near as I can figure he’s somewhere between 25 and 30, but seems a lot younger.
Bessie Bell and the Goblin King by Charlotte English. Loved this! It was very light and entertaining, I snickered my way through the book. Bessie is someone that I’d like to hang out with! I usually don’t care for books where a character speaks in “dialect,” but this one didn’t bother me. It wasn’t too dense, and I could hear it in my head, which helped a lot. It is a romance, though there’s not really a HEA or HFN at the end, it just seemed like we left the characters living their lives, like we would check back in with them later and see how they progressed. This is the third book in this series, and there is one more. I started here, and didn’t have any trouble following things.
Happy reading, everyone, and stay healthy!
A haaaaardd month for reading. Mostly relied on the beauty of audiobooks.
I am also doing SO BADLY on the Romance Bingo :((( The only romance I read was A LITTLE LIGHT MISCHIEF
I’m in the middle of HOCKEY (queer comic! Loving it) & THE LADY’S HANDBOOK FOR HER MYSTERIOUS ILLNESS (devastating, but as a chronically ill person who has experienced a lot of shit at the hands of the medical field…. I feel seen).
Finished THE FACELESS OLD WOMAN WHO LIVES IN YOUR HOUSE. It was weird and upsetting and good.
Same could be said for ROLLING IN THE DEEP & INTO THE DROWNING DEEP, of course. Now I keep talking about deep sea creatures to my friends
Read OPERATING INSTRUCTIONS by ANNE Lamott, about her first year with a baby, and it was so so good.
Some YA: DOWN A DARK HALL (serviceable horror at a boarding school), TYLER JOHNSON WAS HERE (devastating).
@Wait, what? ~ I think that Ean is in his late twenties. He worked for Rigel for ten years before Linesman begins, and he was late to apprentice. Enjoy the remainder of the series; all three books are favorites of mine.
@Karin, I’m enjoying the summer reading challenges as they get me to read more widely.
@Deborah, thanks for the Coldbreath rec. Medievals are usually so problematic and yet I can’t resist them.
Hi hi All,
I’ve been a lurker on the site for a hot minute now… I added a bunch of your TBR and reviewed books to my TBR, cheers for that!
I just finished The Girl On The Train by Paula Hawkins. Not romance, but its a good thriller.
Ordered Exciting Times by Naoise Dolan today, I’m excited yo sink my teeth into it. Also bought The Marriage Contract by Katee Robert. Looking forward to it because I’ve heard it gets steamy.
For my comfort re-read, Shalador’s Lady by Anne Bishop. I like watching the journey’s of the H/h.
New reads:
Field of Prey John Sandford I have read a lot of his books, though nowhere near all. This is a solid addition to his Prey series. Not too many surprises. I did enjoy it. It would work as a stand-alone
Next Girl to Die Dea Poirier. Police officer woman returns from Detroit to the small Maine island where she grew up and where her sister was murdered. Another girl has been murdered in the same way. Will she be able to help? Will she find that there is actually a serial killer among her neighbors and family? Will her life be in danger at several points? Of course! There is a romance interest but that is not the focus. I did enjoy and may at some point get the second book. Or not.
C’mon Get Happy, Fear and Loathing on the Partridge Family Bus by David Cassidy. As an older teen who did watch the original as it came out and did listen to the music, this was interesting. I did also find it sad even though it was not intended that way. But, as a very young performer, he really did not have anyone watching out for him. And there is a subtext of longing for belonging, especially with his father. A solid addition to my ongoing reading of musician autobiographies. And he does acknowledge his ghost writer.
Lady Isabella’s Scandalous Marriage by Jennifer Ashley. Light and fun. He was kind of an over-bearing alpha hole; she was a little too feminist and open for her times. But fun.
Talia Hibbert is everything. I’ve been saving TAKE A HINT DANI BROWN so I can binge tomorrow after my long-awaited haircut.
At this point in my Covid-19 experience, I’m hungry for new-to-me books & authors, but hypersensitive (to the point of nausea) to misogyny &/or the lasting impact of imperialism, colonization, & racism. I’ve had to dnf several promising historical romances because of this.
Besides SBTB, I’ve found Corey’s Book Corner (https://coreysbookcorner.wordpress.com/,) to be really helpful. CBC (by author Xan West,) offers really thorough cw’s. The author’s favorites don’t always align with what I like, but the warnings are spot-on.
Two of my favorite recent new-to-me finds are:
LOVE LANGUAGE by Reese Morrison. Sexy grieving widower slowly falls for the patient new man in his life. Age difference, D/s, Deaf MC. Very sweet & hot.
Beverly Jenkins (I have been a fool, how come it took me so long to wise up & start reading her?) DESTINY’S EMBRACE was my starting place, now I’m savoring her backlist as they become available through the library.
The Boyfriend Project by Farrah Rochon. Cute. Loved the workplace competency. Loved the female friendship. The romance was just ok. I did feel the book tried a little too hard to name drop various places in Austin.
Alpha Night By Nalini Singh. Liked where it went with the couple. Liked the little mystery surrounding the hero. Am not as thrilled with the motivations of the over all story arc’s villain so far. Listened on audio and Angela Dawe does such a nice job.
Dragon Unleashed By Grace Draven. Enjoyed it quite a bit. Very happy with the ending of the story because it ties up a loose end left from the first book.
Dance Away With Me By Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I thought I was going to love it up to about 40%. But I ended up not really liking it very much. It felt like a bit of a hodge-podge and so many of the characters just outright annoyed me and nothing they did made sense.
Beast Behaving Badly by Shelly Laurenston. This was a re-read and honestly I needed it. The crazy energy of Blayne Thorpe was just so welcome. She is one of my top 5 Laurenston heroine favorites. I just love her. Also I listened on audio and Johanna Parker just brings Blayne to life so vividly.
@Vicki: you might enjoy Allison Pearson’s I THINK I LOVE YOU, a novel featuring a woman who was a teenaged Cassidy fan. I confess I barely remember the love story, but at the end Pearson interviews Cassidy. You really learn a lot about fandom from both sides, though I warn that it felt rather poignant even before Cassidy’s decline and death a few years later…
TWO ROGUES MAKE A RIGHT is my favorite Cat Sebastian since the Turner series…the friends-to-lovers plot melds cuddliness and pining well, making it feel low-angst even though the guys face real problems (the sexytimes work, too) One partner reads as biromantic demisexual to me, which is a bonus.
Pick of the month is Eli Easton’s m/m THE REDEMPTION OF RIVER, involving a 26-year-old sexological bodyworker/tantrik and a 39-year-old coffeehouse owner struggling after his wife’s death two years earlier. There are a ton of tropes involved beyond the ones listed, but they never feel contrived and work in unexpected ways. The use of tantra doesn’t feel culturally appropriative or “woo-woo,” and the intimacy conveyed is just gorgeous (though my quarantined demi self took the reminder of deprivation pretty hard at times). CW: ovarian cancer illness/death of an offscreen character; River suffering an attempted sexual assault taking place before the current story. It’s on KU, and works for “I’m on a boat” and “Healthcare professional” in Ripped Bodice Bingo…
@Wait, What? – I agree COMPLETELY about The Witch Elm, and I, too, harangued my husband about the ending. It actually upset me so much that I decided I probably wouldn’t read any more of her books. I appreciated the first two Dublin ones, but there are lots of other fish in the sea.
And since I commented yesterday, I finished SEP’s Dance Away with Me. I liked it. It’s certainly not groundbreaking, and I don’t know how much their friendship plays a part in this, but I almost felt like I was in Robyn Carr’s Virgin River during parts of Dance Away with Me. But while there was a bit more darkness in this novel than in many of her past stories, I nonetheless felt wrapped in a warm, comforting embrace while reading it, and I was glum when I finished to think how long I’ll now have to wait for another new book.
Cannot believe we’ve plowed through another month. Stay safe, bitches.