Whatcha Reading? September 2020 Edition, Part One

The woman in yellow coat jeans and boots sitting under the maple tree with a red book and cup of coffee or tea in fall city park on a warm day. Autumn golden leaves. Reading concept. Close up.Hi. Yes. It’s Whatcha Reading time.

If you’re new or new-ish, this is where we talk about what we’ve been reading: all the hits, misses, and everything in between.

Sarah: I’m reading: Tales from the Folly by Ben Aaronovich, ( A | BN | K | AB ) a collection of short stories from the Peter Grant series. Peter seems to be my exception to my disinterest in reading any law enforcement characters at the moment. There’s one short story that takes place in a haunted bookstore that I freaking loved.

But with the start of virtual schooling, my brain has the bandwidth for short fiction, comics, and re-reading. I just mainlined all the Sarah Andersen/Sarah’s Scribbles books in Scribd, which charmed me endlessly, especially Adulthood is a Myth. ( A | BN | K | AB ) And I’m listening to Dani Shapiro’s Still Writing, ( A | BN | K | AB ) published in 2013.

A Nurse for the Wolfman
A | BN | K | AB
Amanda: I’m in full on bonkers mode and impulse bought A Nurse for the Wolfman by Eve Langlais. I saw her on a Canadian authors panel at RT one time and she was a riot.

Tara: Sarah, if short fiction is working for you, I just finished reading Vampires Never Get Old and a lot of the stories in there are excellent!

In terms of what I’m reading now, I started reading Legendborn by Tracy Deonn ( A | BN | K | AB ) yesterday and I’m mad that I have to work today because it’s so good.

Shana: I am having an excellent reading week, I just finished The Relentless Moon by Mary Robinette Kowal, which I devoured, and loved. Now I’m in the middle of The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite. I’m not a fan of the cover, but thankfully the book is a relaxing read.

Vampires Never Get Old
A | BN | K | AB
Sarah: Oh, thank you Tara! That’s on my list!

Carrie: In War and Peace, Anatole is making fuck me eyes at Natasha, who is engaged to Arkady, and she is SO CONFUSED. I am also reading The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan, ( A | BN | K | AB ) sadly, it is more timely than when written.

Claudia: With multiple wildfires, two heat waves, and one ongoing pandemic, it was time to reread a few Meredith Duran favorites. I just finished the Enlightenment series by Joanna Chambers, ( A | BN | K | AB ) and it was very enjoyable. I had been meaning to read that for a while. I am about to embark on The Hidden Moon, the new Jeannie Lin, but first rereading The Lotus Palace. 

Elyse: I have been reading Flirtasaurus ( A | BN | K | AB ) which I was excited for because it’s got a paleontologist heroine and astronomer hero and a museum setting. The problem is the heroine accidentally drinks shroom tea and is tripping when they have sex the first time. He drinks the tea too but is aware she’s high and has limited experience with drugs and that’s a big consent issue. Later he even worries she didn’t remember it or couldn’t fully consent. She tells him it just loosened her up to do what she wanted to do, but that clearly tells me he knows they should have stopped.

Carrie: Noooo it sounded so good…

No True Gentleman
A | BN | K | AB
Elyse: I know. Majorly bummed.

EllenM: I finished Last Song Before Night, ( A | BN | K | AB ) which actually was kind of a bummer because the first 1/3 of the book was really strong and then it all kind of gradually fell apart into a mess of tired fantasy cliches and wildly inconsistent characterization. Sadly it kind of reminded me why I mostly stopped reading high fantasy books for a few years of early adulthood.

Now I’m reading No True Gentleman by Liz Carlyle even though I’m kind of afraid to read historical romance that’s more than a few years old (it’s from 2002) because it always feels like a major crapshoot in terms of whether there will be casual inclusion of really upsetting content. We will see!!

Catherine: I’m finding it hard to read right now for a lot of reasons, so it’s comfort reads all the way for me. This week, I’m bingeing Jackie Lau, and have started Not Another Family Wedding, ( A | BN | K | AB ) which is the sweet, easy, funny read I need at the moment.

Susan: I’m still struggling to read, but I’ve picked up Books on Fire by Lucien X. Polastron ( A | BN ) again, which is all about the destruction of libraries through history! Apparently what I need right now was an excuse to be angry at archaeologists who destroy historical artifacts and profit from thefts. (…Do not get me started on Schliemann. We will be here A WHILE.) (edited)

Feel the Burn
A | BN | K | AB
Shana: I loooove Not Another Family Wedding. What a great comfort read, Catherine.

Catherine: It’s great fun so far!

Maya: I’ve having THE! BEST! TIME! reading the Dragon Kin series by G.A. Aiken. I’m on Feel the Burn, which I think is the penultimate book in the series. After I watched The Old Guard on Netflix, I had the deepest of hankerings for even more ladies kicking ass. Who’s better at that than G.A. Aiken/Shelly Laurenston?

Kiki: I finished Say Yes to the Duke by Eloisa James this week which was exciting because it is the first piece of fiction I’ve been able to finish in over a month, quite possibly longer (based on Catherine’s review from May, this seems to be a magic reading rut busting book). Life has been stressful and hard but I think my ability to focus my anxious mind long enough to read fiction has finally returned from the war. To celebrate that, I’m continuing my Hidden Legacy reread that I started in, ya know, June.

The Purpose of Power
A | BN | K | AB
Aarya: I’m weirdly on a contemporary kick lately (weird for me anyway). I recently finished Therese Beharrie’s Marrying His Runaway Heiress (category romance + South African millionaire + marriage of convenience in Italy) ( A | BN | K | AB ) and Cara Bastone’s Just a Heartbeat Away (grieving widower/single dad + age gap + slowest of slow burns). ( A | BN | K | AB )

Sneezy: I’m still on Her Big City Neighbor by Jackie Lau, ( A | BN | K | AB ) and I LOVE IT! Jackie’s books makes me love Toronto in a way that almost makes me forgive the snow and the 6 months of winter.

I’m also on a non-fiction bend right now, and have recently started The Purpose of Power by Alicia Garza. Yes, THE Alicia Garza! Her book is coming out in October, get your preorders on!

What books have you been reading lately? Tell us below!

Comments are Closed

  1. Arijo says:

    So many Jackie Lau recommendations! It inspires me to bring them on top of my TBR…

    As for me, I’m poring over bento cookbooks these days; back to school for my 2 oldest, back to work for me… the lunch boxes are out of storage for the 1st time in more than 6 months. SO, despite already owning 6 bento cookbooks, I bought 3 more… (what can I say… I love bentos ^^; ) From the new crop: BENTO FOR BEGINNERS by Chika Ravitch has detroned Effortless Bento as my favourite for great quick ideas. I’m just bummed there’s almost no pictures. (If I were just starting on bentos, that’d be the book I’d get, with the Just Bento Cookbook by Makiko Itoh.) For a more esoteric take on bentos, BENTO POWER by Sara Kiyo Popowa seems to be very inspiring. I’ll go to it when I’ll need to get out of a bento rut (y’know, when you always fill the empty space with the same 2-3 combinaisons and everyone is sick of it?), to spruce up.

    (Btw, Bento Power is 2.99$ on kindle right now, for those interested.)

    On the fiction side, EMERALD BLAZE by Ilona Andrews 🙂 I loved it. Grandma Tremaine is one of those despicable character you can’t hate. Like Darth Vader. I hope we’ll see more of her.

    I also tore through S.K. Dunstall LINESMAN sci-fi trilogy, and agree with everyone that recommended it. I loved the hero’s personality, he is so sweet.

    Talking about heroes, I couldn’t get into A CONSPIRACY OF WHISPERS by Ada Harper. Galen is so politically perfect romance hero material, it got on my nerve. He’s all about the heroine, suspending his own life for her; protective, but not too much; he gives her space, he respects her abilities, he doesn’t push…. All good things… but somehow, too much. He’s so considerate, in contrast the heroine comes off as a rock brained harridan. And it’s unfair, because she’s not – she’s a GREAT heroine, in fact. And all the side characters are kick ass too… too bad the couple didn’t work for me.

    THE BEST OF ALL POSSIBLE WORLDS by Karen Lord. Another sci-fi rec, with a Spock-like love interest. I never tought I’d have this complain about a book, but: there’s too much place given to the reader (>_<) The writing is very fluid, but nothing gets a decent explanation. The world building is bare bones, and we're to extrapolate. Same with the story: some facts, half of a description, some allusions to alien cultural practices and it's figure out the rest for yourself. There seems to be all these undertows, but they never surface – I felt I was not given the tools to fully decode it. It got frustrating.
    The last chapter, however, is everything a romance reader could want _<). ONLY THE RING FINGER KNOWS by Satoru Kannagi, I'm actually enjoying; more than I did back then actually. So nostalgic… It has one of the most flimsy plot start I've seen, but the high schoolers are oddly endearing with their intense unrequited love and patented drama. The translation is so very awkward, but somehow, here I like working to decipher what is actually meant. For me, it fits Wataru & Yuichi, since they are young and awkward. Ex: ‘He moved away from the wall bit by bit, shortening the distance to the bed. As no fault-finding look had flown his way, Wataru took another relaxed step toward Yuichi. Yuichi watched the meager effort with a smiling gaze just modest enough not to show he’d noticed it right away.’ There. Awkward. And so Japanese. (I’m having fun marking down the most convoluted descriptions ^_^)

    Have a nice month everyone! Stay safe!

  2. Arijo says:

    (Dang, I’m first. I hate being first. I took so long writing this post, I thought for sure a couple of posters would squeeze by me… ^^;)

    (Aaaaaand, I took so long but managed to screw it up! Between The Best of All Possible World and Only the Ring Finger Knows, there was a bit about a guilty pleasure I’m indulging in since I found an old box of yaoi novels published by DMP-Juné 15 years ago — bad plots about salarymen, yakuzas and high schoolers… )

  3. Jill Q. says:

    THE GOOD

    I loved TODAY, TONIGHT, AND TOMORROW by Rachel Lynn Solomon. YA enemies to lovers team up on the last day of school for an all over the city scavenger hunt and of course fall in love. The hero was a language nerd with red hair (be still my heart!) and you had to suspend disbelief about them finding parking spots/no traffic in a big city (also liability issues of them all racing around all night) but I still loved it.

    BOYFRIEND MATERIAL by Alexis Hall. I had to stick with this for a while b/c Luc, the main character, was so clearly needing help that I wantthed to reach and shake him and scream “get therapy! Not a fake boyfriend!” But I stuck with it and loved the bantery, fake boyfriends cozy world. Too twee for some, just right for me. Special shout out to Alex, the dimwitted uppercrust coworker who was a bit like Freddie from Cotillion or Wooster.

    (If there is banter, I’m there)

    PALE RIDER by Laura Spinney. Yes, still reading a lot about the 1918 influenza epidemic. This one may my favorite for being written in a well-paced, emotional way.

    THE BAD

    MOONRISE by Anne Stuart. I used to like bonkers old-school Anne Stuart (the ones where there were some humor, anyways), but even before Metoo I found the way consent was handled not always to my taste. This had that problem not even just about sex, but lots of basic bodily autonomy stuff that I won’t get in b/c of spoilers.
    Whew! Don’t think I’ll be reading her books again anytime soon. She can definitely write, but her books are just not for me. To each their own.

  4. Katie says:

    I read the true crime anthology Unspeakable Acts edited by Sarah Weinman. I’m actually not much of a true crime person, but I love the You’re Wrong About podcast with my entire heart and soul, and one of the co-hosts had a piece in this book. It was very good; all of it was interesting and thoughtful. The fact that it was a collection of articles meant there were lots of natural stopping places and it didn’t strain my ability to pay attention. That has been a problem for me lately when I’m reading new stuff. Before the plague came, I was planning to read one non-fiction book a month and managed to stick to that for two months before the pandemic led to Ilona Andrews re-reading. It was nice to get back to that non-fiction goal.

    Also read Blood and Honey by Shelby Mahurin this week which was…disappointing. I read Serpent and Dove last year thinking it was a stand-alone, but I was still looking forward to this. And then this one ended on a cliffhanger. Chances of me reading book 3 are very, very small at this point. It isn’t that I object to reading a series, but I still expect each entry in a series to be a whole story. This didn’t feel like a whole story. It didn’t even feel like there was much meaningful progress. I think I’m tapping out.

    The new Carl Hiaasen and the new JD Robb are next up among my library books, so this weekend should be a good time.

  5. FashionablyEvil says:

    Really enjoyed Brit Bennett’s THE VANISHING HALF which is about two light-skinned Black twins one of whom ends up passing as white. It’s a really interesting meditation on the choices and compromises we make in our lives (and, for the record, not a romance.)

    TAKE A HINT, DANI BROWN by Talia Hibbert was a fun read, as was THE ULTIMATE PI DAY PARTY by Jackie Lau. I think Lau may be making her way on to my auto-buy list. I like her sense is humor, the (often) multi-racial families, and the delicious descriptions of food, plus her sex scenes are hot.

    Also liked KJ Charles’s THE SUGARED GAME. It’s the second book in the Will Darling series and it has some typical “second book in a trilogy issues” where some problems have been solved and others are left hanging. In any case, it’s still fun, Will and Kim are still spying, solving mysteries, and trying to figure out their relationship.

    Read THE DEVIL OF DOWNTOWN by Joanna Shupe because I read the first two books in the series and the library had this one. It was okay. I just never really felt immersed in it. I don’t think I would have bothered had I not been able to get it immediately from the library when I had just finished a book and was looking for something new.

    Up next: THE EMPIRE OF GOLD by SA Chakraborty. This is the third in the Daevabad trilogy and I am excited to find out what happens. It’s fantasy but with a number of romantic elements. Normally I have a hard time sticking with fantasy epics that involve shifting politics and alliances because I’m not invested enough to re-read between books and have usually forgotten key plot points by the time the next book in the series comes out, but I’m totally here for finding out what happens to Nahri, Dara, and Ali.

  6. Pear says:

    Romance:

    TAKE A HINT, DANI BROWN by Talia Hibbert–I finally read it and SQUEEEEEE!! I haven’t laughed so much reading a romance since I read Agnes and the Hitman. So much fake dating and friends with benefits and pining goodness going on, it’s been one of my favorite books of 2020 so far.

    UNVEILED by Courtney Milan is the first in her Turner series, and overall I enjoyed it quite a bit! I really liked the heroine’s conflict between what her family wants and what she wants. I devoured her Brothers Sinister series last year and it got me back into reading and enjoying historical romance. I’d been leaving her other books in reserve (partly out of “what if I don’t love them as much as the Brothers Sinister series?”, partly to treat them as “break glass in case of emergency”), and decided it was time to start with the Turners. I also read the novella UNLOCKED, which had me a little nervous (the heroine was bullied by the hero ten years prior to the main plot!) but she handled it well. I’m looking forward to Mark & Smite’s books soon.

    FAIR GAME by Patricia Briggs finally came in from the library, and as with the other Alpha & Omega books, I couldn’t put it down. The Boston setting was fun, and I always enjoy the blend of procedural and werewolves and romance in these books. Just got the next one (DEAD HEAT) in from the library, so I’m looking forward to that.

    HOW TO FORGET A DUKE by Vivienne Lorret did NOT work for me–probably my first D- book of the year. I almost stopped reading it but I have some completionist tendencies and skimmed to the end. I was intrigued that it was enemies to lovers with amnesia, but, whew. One, the heroine’s amnesia was so much that I was constantly reminded of a snarky comment made in a long-ago SBTB Kleypas Lightning Review about what that kind of brain damage would actually look like. Secondly, the heroine *literally almost dies* several times because she refuses to listen to advice (don’t traipse around an old castle under construction, don’t stand too close to the edge of a cliff that may fall out under you). I can’t with the TSTL. I also felt like the hero spent too much time doing that “ugh I have a FEELING” thing.

    On a more positive note, I read THE CHOCOLATE KISS by Laura Florand for the first time and it was delightful. So many luscious descriptions of desserts, do not read while hungry. I have no desire to go to Actual Paris, but it was a nice book vacation while travel is still out of the question.

    Non-romance:

    MINOR FEELINGS: AN ASIAN-AMERICAN RECKONING by Cathy Park Hong was a really engaging blend of memoir and cultural criticism. (I’m probably one of a thousand people who has also read her poetry–Engine Empire is great!) It’s not as much of a polemic as I had expected based on the title and the initial promotion, but I like that it was instead focused on discussing the breadth of the Asian-American experience instead of reducing it and eliminating nuance.

    WHAT YOU ARE GETTING WRONG ABOUT APPALACHIA by Elizabeth Catte was recommended to me by my historian-by-training friend, and it was so, so good. It’s a short, accessible text that, like Minor Feelings, adds nuance and breadth to the common discussion about Appalachia. Highly recommended for people with an interest in histories of activist movements (especially around labor) and an interest in Appalachia.

    I also read Lezlie Lowe’s book NO PLACE TO GO, concerning public toilets and why they are often inadequate. Let’s vote in our local elections for people who will fund public toilets, it’s a feminist, anti-ableist issue.

    So, I grew up in the South to parents raised in the North (is there a term like neo-carpetbagger?), and reading Tony Horwitz’s CONFEDERATES IN THE ATTIC: DISPATCHES FROM THE UNFINISHED CIVIL WAR had me pausing frequently to scream (inside my heart). It’s interesting to see how parts of this book have aged, and how some of the issues he covers are still relevant. For example, he attends a mid-1990s Richmond city council meeting where they discuss what to do with Monuments Avenue, with all its Confederate general statues, and in choosing to keep the statues where they were (and add the Arthur Ashe statue to that stretch), the council essentially punted finding a resolution to the controversy at the time (some wanted the statues torn down then! some were vehemently against the removal or the relocation of the statues!) to future councils.

    On deck:

    I’ll be re-reading the Lady Sherlock series in preparation for MURDER ON COLD STREET coming out in early October, so this afternoon I’ll start with A STUDY IN SCARLET WOMEN. As mentioned above, I have DEAD HEAT in from the library and will be starting that soon. I’ll probably be starting Isabel Wilkerson’s CASTE very soon. Her book THE WARMTH OF OTHER SUNS was phenomenal.

  7. @Pear: Thanks for the info about the APPALACHIA book. I’m from that region, and it sounds really interesting.

    I’m looking forward to WELL PLAYED by Jen DeLuca, which comes out later in September. I also have INK AND BONE by Rachel Caine and TRAIL OF LIGHTNING by Rebecca Roanhorse on my TBR pile.

    I also finished my binge of MISS FISHER’S MURDER MYSTERIES and the CRYPT OF TEARS movie. I thought the show was great — season 2 was probably my favorite — but the movie was a bit disappointing. I would have liked it better if it had been more like the show and less Indiana Jones and especially if Dot, Hugh, etc. had been in more than one scene. Still, I was happy with the ending. 🙂

  8. Dee says:

    My TBR pile is growing but slowly I am getting back into reading myself. I devoured the first two Ice Knights books by Avery Flynn and loved them! (I too enjoy banter and these were so much fun). Then last night I devoured my Patreon e-copy of Sacrifice by Katee Robert and probably will reread a few more times.

    I will read the next Ice Knights book and then probably tackle my TBR pile. Eventually.

  9. FashionablyEvil says:

    @Pear—CASTE is also on my TBR. Isabel Wilkerson was interviewed on Ezra Klein’s podcast recently and I really want to read it (she’s a phenomenal writer and thinker). I’m going to need to get myself in the right headspace before I read it—pretty sure the book includes some graphic depictions of lynchings.

  10. DiscoDollyDeb says:

    School has reopened, so I’m back at work where masks, face shields, gloves, and staying six feet apart is the order of the day. Walking through the hallways looks and feels like a dystopian nightmare. But there’s always reading…

    I thoroughly enjoyed and highly recommend Serena Bell’s four-book Returning Home series: HOLD ON TIGHT, CAN’T HOLD BACK, TO HAVE AND TO HOLD, and HOLDING OUT. Each book features a veteran hero, with combat-related injuries, readjusting in various ways to civilian life. The books are well-written with realistic characters and situations, and Bell cleverly handles several tropes: secret baby, second chance, best friend’s sister (well, sister-in-law), even amnesia. Bell allows her characters to take their time on the road to love, to be ambivalent, to think about the positives—and the negatives—of the lives they live and their circumstances and choices; and she does a great job with the sex scenes, describing both the physical and emotional intimacies of the act. The books are also full of interesting and unexpected details—everything from how prosthetic limbs are designed & fitted to the basics of archery to the best way to build a treehouse. In HOLD ON TIGHT, a veteran, still adjusting to the loss of a leg, unexpectedly reconnects with a woman he had a brief relationship with eight years before—and discovers he has a seven-year-old son. “Secret baby” can be a difficult trope to get right, but Bell makes it plausible that the heroine has been unable to find the hero since they were last together. I especially liked the realness of the little boy—he’s not a plot muppet, he’s a wired bundle of energy with no impulse control. Key quote: “Maybe everything worth thinking about is complicated.” There’s a Cyrano de Bergerac element to CAN’T HOLD BACK: an active-duty soldier meets two sisters and begins dating one of them. Throughout his deployment, they exchange letters and emails—but he is unaware that his girlfriend has a severe form of dyslexia and that all written communication between them is produced by the girlfriend’s sister. When the hero discovers the truth, he’s understandable upset, feeling mislead because he’s fallen in love with the letter writer, not the sister he was dating. Needless to say, things don’t end well; and the letter-writing sister feels guilty, but also incredibly sad because, based on their written exchanges, she has developed feelings for the hero. Fast forward two years, the hero arrives at a veteran’s retreat and, when he shows up for his first physical therapy session, guess who the therapist is? Yep—the sister who wrote the letters. Cue the push-pull of angst and sexy-times! In TO HAVE AND TO HOLD, an active-duty soldier and his daughter’s best friend’s mother—both single parents—fall in love, but when the soldier returns a year later from deployment, an injury has left him with retrograde amnesia. He vaguely remembers the heroine as someone he met through his daughter, but does not remember their love affair. While the hero finds his way to love again, the heroine must decide if she should accept a job in L.A. and move to California with her daughter. A very engaging use of the amnesia trope. HOLDING OUT features the dyslexic sister from CAN’T HOLD BACK. She’s still a virgin in her mid-twenties and asks her brother-in-law’s best friend for “assistance”—with predictable (and some not so predictable) results. And a bonus for those of us of a certain age: ongoing references to Jondalar and the “First Rites of Pleasure,” from Jean Auel’s THE VALLEY OF HORSES (although I could have done without the part where the heroine and her sister remember that they got the book from their Grandmother’s stash: way to make a gal feel old, Serena!).

    After reading all of Zoe York’s excellent Pine Harbour books this summer, I read her earlier Wardham series. There are ten books in the series; the first ones were published in 2013-14, while most of the later ones were published a couple of years after that (also, several of the later books are “revisits” with established couples from the first books). While the Wardham books are well-written, with York deftly handling small-town Canadian life, I do think the Pine Harbour books are superior with stronger characterizations and more intricately interconnected storylines. If you haven’t read either series yet, start with the Wardham books as a sort of appetizer for Pine Harbour.

    There was, however, one Wardham book that particularly intrigued me: the tenth book, ALL THAT THEY DESIRE, which was only published last year. It reminded me of one of my favorite books read this year (although published in 2017): FULL MOUNTIE by Ainsley Booth (which just happens to be Zoe York’s alternate pen name). Like FULL MOUNTIE, ALL THAT THEY DESIRE is an M/M/F-menage romance—and I wish I’d read it before the recent Rec League on pairings because the two books make an interesting comparison/contrast. Unlike MOUNTIE, where both heroes have long been out as bi and even share a romantic history, DESIRE is more one man’s journey to coming out as bi and how that journey affects his estranged wife—whom he still loves—and the (bi) man she is dating—a man he also finds attractive. I like both books, but MOUNTIE is still my favorite. ALL THAT THEY DESIRE is about three people figuring out how to be together in a menage; FULL MOUNTIE is about what happens once they get there.

    Melanie Harlow’s DRIVE ME WILD is a nice opposites-attract/small-town romance inspired in part by Schitt’s Creek (Harlow thanks Dan Levy in her afterword). As is often the case with Harlow, the story begins with a somewhat over-the-top comedic set-up: a woman, wearing a debutante gown and tiara (long story), hoping to start over after her father lost the family fortune, takes a detour to a small town which boasts the world’s best apple pie. A tire blow-out leads to a minor accident and a local mechanic comes to the rescue. Repairs to the car take several days during which the hero & heroine grow closer and the town’s population watches their romance blossom. But beyond its deceptively fluffy opening, DRIVE ME WILD has its share of emotion (the teary-eyed story behind the apple pie recipe), angst (why, oh why, can’t the hero see what’s right in front of him?), and surprisingly hot sex (including a memorable scene where the heroine’s elbow-length debutante gloves are used in a most unorthodox fashion). Much like Julie Kriss or Juliana Stone, Melanie Harlow is one of those romance writers who consistently produces reliably good books but who unfortunately never seems to break through to the top tier. Her books are a nice balance of sweet and heat—and DRIVE ME WILD is a perfect example of that.

    Jackie Ashenden’s latest HP, THE MOST POWERFUL OF KINGS, is connected to her earlier PROMOTED TO HIS PRINCESS, and shares some of the same characteristics: the heroes of the two books are brothers and both of them have been considerably damaged by their childhood with an emotionally and physically abusive father. The hero of THE MOST POWERFUL is the king of a small country near Greece (character and place names are all Greek). He is also a widower with a young daughter. He hires a woman (who has plans to become a nun) as a governess for his daughter—and this woman clearly sees that the king’s attempt to raise his daughter with the same cold detachment with which he was raised will have dire consequences for his daughter. When the novice nun confronts the king, sparks fly. Can each of them overcome the unhappiness of their childhoods and unlearn those dysfunctional lessons in order to find joy and love? As I always say about Ashenden, if you like angsty heartache, you’ll love the way she writes HPs. I do—and I do.

    Clare Connelly, another of my angsty favorites, has been working on two separate series this year: the Montebellos and the Harts. I’ve enjoyed the tropey Montebello books and am very much looking forward to the sixth (and, I believe, final) book in October. However, I’ve struggled with the Hart books—in fact, I almost DNF’d the previous book, BURN MY HART, because it seemed to be little more than a series of disconnected scenes of the MCs either eating meals or having sex. I didn’t have as big a problem with the latest book, HARDEN MY HART, but I still found the numerous sex scenes (especially in the first half of the book) detracted from, rather than contributed to, the plot. The hero has recently discovered that he is not the biological child of the man he thought he was his father—and since he was only half-siblings with the other Harts to begin with, he’s now having to face life not knowing who he is and how he fits into a family with whom he shares no actual blood connection, which only adds to his grumpy, self-isolating persona. He meets a woman who has a similar sense of rootlessness and sadness (cw/tw: stillborn baby, parental alcoholism), and they attempt the impossible-in-Romancelandia no-strings affair. Perhaps it’s just a case of the Dare template (relatively short page count, heavy emphasis on sex) not working for Connelly’s angst-driven style, but HARDEN MY HART is a story that might have worked better without quite so many sex scenes (in fact, I think the storyline picked up when the h&h were separated and Connelly’s strengths as a writer could shine). By contrast, although they have their share of sexy-times, the Montebello books (which are not published by Dare), and other non-Dare Connelly books (including the ones she’s written for Harlequin Presents), have much stronger emotional centers and storylines.

    Despite its rather obvious double-entendre title, A.E. Via’s WOOD is a serviceable slow-burn m/m romance with enforced-proximity and age-gap elements. Wood (it’s his last name) is 46 and has just been released from prison after serving a 17-year sentence (the circumstances behind his crime are slowly revealed in the course of the book). His only friend offers him a place to stay—a small trailer—until he gets back on his feet. The only problem? Wood will have to share the space with Trent, another ex-con, who has a big chip on his shoulder about…well, everything. So begins a rather confrontational roommate situation with a lot of tension—sexual and otherwise. Trent is 29, but his emotional immaturity and his tendency to retreat behind sarcasm and hostility make him seem younger (I thought Via did a good job of making us see a person who wants to do better but often gets in his own way). Unlike the openly-gay Wood, Trent is still struggling with his sexuality, making his attraction to Wood even more volatile. Although Via is not the smoothest prose stylist, I thought WOOD was still an interesting book—especially how grounded in the working-class it is: Trent works construction and landscaping jobs, Wood works as a janitor while trying to regain his tattooing license. This is the world of taking the bus (Uber is too pricey) and pay-as-you-go cell phones; and there’s a very telling moment when Wood, looking at meat prices, realizes beef will not become a fixture of his diet. A slice-of-life romance that doesn’t shy away from the realities of being poor and marginalized.

    I was unfamiliar with Jenny Schwartz, but in the recent Rec League for book pairings, someone recommended pairing Schwartz’s BEAUTY CONQUERS THE BEAST with one of my all-time favorite books, Kati Wilde’s THE MID-WINTER MAIL ORDER BRIDE, so I had to check it out. I enjoyed BEAUTY CONQUERS THE BEAST which is a well-written short story about a young noblewoman trying to free a prince (a man she’s known since childhood) from a spell that has turned him into a beast. Considering its short length, BCTB had a good amount of word-building and character development. I’m not a big SFF fan, but—based on BEAUTY CONQUERS THE BEAST—I would certainly recommend Schwartz to those who are.

    I recently discovered that one of my favorite romance writers, Jill Sorenson, has been publishing under the name Susan Cliff. I was pleased to see my library had Cliff’s latest Harlequin Romantic Suspense, INFILTRATION RESCUE, and immediately checked it out. As well-written as it is, INFILTRATION RESCUE is not a comfortable read, dealing as it does with the abuse (sexual and otherwise) of children, especially girls, in a religious cult, and that same cult’s connection to a white supremacist militia (perhaps that element is just a little too on-the-nose in the current political climate). The heroine is a woman who escaped from the cult as a young teenager, the hero is an FBI agent who wants to infiltrate the cult and bring it and the militia down. I had difficulty with the problematic behavior of the hero—he uses emotional manipulation to coerce the heroine into agreeing to something she has made clear she wants no part of it. It’s obvious that the heroine had never fully processed the events of her childhood and she has no wish to return to the compound; but the hero uses the possibility of the heroine being able to find a relative to compel her to pretend to be his wife. Despite his feelings for the heroine, the hero still takes her into a situation that makes her re-live the trauma of being in the cult—yes, he is ultimately contrite, but that doesn’t ameliorate what he did. I’m pleased that Jill Sorenson, regardless of the name she’s using, is still publishing, but INFILTRATION RESCUE is not a book I can fully recommend.

    DARK FAIRY TALES is an anthology of fairy-tale adaptations, each written by an author well-known for writing “dark romance.” The stories are interconnected—all related in some manner to a masquerade & costume ball where a birthday is being celebrated and members of two rival crime families are in attendance. If you know dark romance, you know all will not be sweetness & light at the ball. My favorite of the bunch was Sierra Simone’s THE PRINCESS AND THE PEA, which is related to her New Camelot series. The hero & heroine are a divorced couple who encounter each other at the ball. The spark is still there—and the “pea” that is irritating the heroine is…well, in a very private place and is most assuredly not a pea! Oh—and did I mention that the heroine is also the Vice President of the United States? (Kamala fanfic?) Simone really knows how to pace a short story and she does a great job of getting inside the heart and mind of an older woman caught between what she wants and what she thinks she should want. I also enjoyed Skye Warren’s KING MIDAS where a broke college student who sells her virginity to a wealthy man, with predictably Warrenesque results. Another good tale was Celia Aaron’s RUMPELSTILTSKIN which features a heroine who went looking for a Sugar Daddy, met a predatory loan shark instead, and finds his repayment requirements very demanding. And, although I’m not a big fan of Aleatha Romig’s work (imho, some of her heroes are utterly irredeemable), her CINDERELLA was an engaging read—although I think you’d get more out of it if you’re familiar with Romig’s romantic suspense books about the Sparrow Organization. I was ambivalent about Marley Valentine’s JACK & THE BEANSTALK, which is the only m/m tale in the collection. While it is well-written, the story (involving organ harvesting, serial killers, and sharps & blood play) has a very odd pseudo-incestuous subtext and was rather off-putting. I could have done without Karina Halle’s LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD, where the hero & heroine are both contract killers. The same for CJ Roberts’s THE UGLY DUCKLING, in which a group (with the unfortunate name of “The Vagina Vigilantes”) exacts vengeance on sexual predators: I’m not opposed to bringing predators to justice, but the horrific nature of the punishments got to be overwhelming. I don’t want to read anything so OTT that it inadvertently rouses even the slightest sympathy for child molesters and serial rapists. The rest of the stories in the collection were fine, especially if you are already a fan of “dark” writers like Natasha Knight and Cora Reilly (which I am). DARK FAIRY TALES is certainly worth the $2.99 price—for the Simone, Warren, and Aaron stories alone.

    NON-ROMANCE

    I’d classify Lucy Foley’s THE GUEST LIST as psychological suspense rather than a murder mystery. Yes, someone is eventually murdered, but the book has an ongoing and pervasive sense of menace that gives the story an ominous feel: something terrible is going to happen at a destination wedding on a remote Irish island. The book goes back and forth in time from the day before the wedding, as the wedding party arrives and uneasy relationships between characters are exposed, to the reception after the wedding ceremony, where a body is discovered while a wild storm howls—cutting off both electricity and access to the mainland. Foley gradually pulls together the seemingly disconnected threads from various characters’s lives—the crisply-efficient wedding planner, the ambitious bride, the troubled bridesmaid, the sad-sack best man, the MC’s wife, who is puzzled by her husband’s close friendship with the bride—into a tightly-plotted story of how a single person can cause devastation to so many. Recommended—with all the standards caveats for this genre, including suicide, murder, self-harm, and gaslighting.

  11. Big K says:

    Happy Saturday, Smart Bitches! How nice to start the day talking books! Looking forward to hearing what you have all been reading, so hope you have the bandwidth to comment.  Arranged by most conflicted to most straightforward reviews:
    HOT LEAD, COLD IRON, Ari Marmell – B-/C+? Not a romance, urban fantasy/noir 1930’s. I liked so much about this book – the main character, this version of the Fae, the plot, the juxtaposition of the urban fantasy/noir elements really worked on one level. However, this book was largely ruined by being in first person. Using the 1930’s P.I. vernacular verbally works. It does not work when we are hearing a narrator’s thoughts. It just doesn’t. I am really sick of first person in general, and wish we could ban it almost entirely. Give me an omniscient author please, and this would have been a really good book. Would be curious what others thought if you’ve read it.
    THE GUEST LIST Lucy Foley – B- Not a romance. You know someone dies at a destination wedding reception almost immediately, but the reveal of who died and who killed them doesn’t happen until the end. Very atmospheric (storm, isolated craggy island) and kind of a bummer. But well written and interesting, so check it out if it sounds like your jam.
    EMERALD BLAZE Ilona Andrews B M/F Paranormal Romance — I love all thinks Ilona Andrews, and auto-buy all their stuff, so I enjoyed this. It’s nothing on the first three Hidden Legacy books, though, about this heroine’s sister. I recommend you read BURN FOR ME (which is awesome) and the other two books first. This one is not compulsory reading. The best part of the last books is what we don’t know (the Hidden part), and that second layer is missing here, so it’s just not in the same league.
    THE ROOMMATE ARRANGEMENT – Jae B- F/F contemporary romance. Meh. I liked both characters, but I didn’t buy that they were that into each other (though they should have been). And the steamy scenes were less than steamy, which was disappointing. However, loved the insight into the world of stand up comedy. I’m no expert, but that felt real to me.
    CARPENTRY AND COCKTAILS – Nora Everly DNF M/F contemporary romance. First person narrative, switching from Hero to Heroine, and both were boring. Too much telling, not enough showing.
    THE SWITCH – Beth O’Leary- A Two M/F romances, one an older couple, though the building of communities, not the romances, were the main focus of the book. Please read the SMTB review for more – that review nailed it. Great book, but content warning for loss and cancer — someone died of cancer prior to the book and a lot of the book is about grappling with that. Loved B.O.’s last book, and looking forward to the next!
    THE SUGARED GAME K.J. Charles – A M/M domestic spying 1920’s romance set in London. I devour everything K.J. Charles writes, and this was no exception. If you read the first book, this was more of the same good stuff. I also enjoyed the way race, class, fashion, queerness, unplanned pregnancy, and everything, really, were discussed – felt like an acknowledgement of what life was like then, and now, for many people, and woven into the plot so it was necessary to understand realistic character motivations. Thank you, KJC!
    Like a lot of you, feeling tired, down, anxiantic (Pronounced An-Zan-tic — word my son made up – part anxious, part frantic) so I’m digging the comfort read recs. I myself think I will be diving into some cozy mysteries – Georges Simenon’s Inspector Maigret books are calling me (I wish my name was Georges Simenon). Also have found Alan Horowitz’s mysteries interesting in the past (THE MAGPIE MURDERS is a two-fer – a cozy mystery book inside a regular mystery that I highly recommend). Hope you are all safe, and staying sane, my friends!

  12. CLAUDIA (the other one) says:

    Trying to work through all my library books in order to focus on spooky and suspenseful reads for October!

    In the middle of:
    – WELL MET: halfway through and I just? Keep waiting for the h to have some agency and for the H to do anything swoon-worthy or romantic?
    – WONDERSTRUCK: one of my favorite movies ever, so it was time to read it
    – MONSTER, SHE WROTE: giving me a huge reading list for October! Covers a lot of authors that are new to me.
    – WHO KILLED THE HOMECOMING QUEEN? I just love R.L. Stine, even when it’s bad.

    Finished:
    – EVERY HEART A DOORWAY: I loved it. Reminded me of Dia Reeves’ weird and creepy novels.
    – THE LEFTOVERS: interesting premise but then… all the exciting stuff… happens before the story itself. You keep waiting for something to happen and nada. Also the rampant fatphobia was hella unexpected.
    – HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES: Some of the stories were amazing (The Husband Stitch), others just too vague or unfocused for me.
    – CHECK, PLEASE! 2: this series was never quite what I wanted but it was sweet enough.

    Also a couple of manga series (Knight of the Ice, Your Lie in April) I’m excited to continue.

    Also! Just preordered Claire Saffitz cookbook and it came with a booklet of bonus recipes. Can’t wait to try her coconut angel food cake!

  13. Pear says:

    @FashionablyEvil, I will also be readying myself mentally for CASTE. I think it will tie in well with some of my other recent nonfiction reading, which now that I look at it starts to look like a syllabus for race & ethnicity in modern America (MINOR FEELINGS, WHAT YOU ARE GETTING WRONG ABOUT APPALACHIA, CONFEDERATES IN THE ATTIC, and then CASTE).

    For intense subject matter like CASTE, I probably won’t be able to read it immediately before bed. I might dedicate a day next weekend to reading it and giving myself lots of time to pause and process.

    @Jennifer Estep, happy to get more attention to the Appalachia book! The friend who recommended it grew up in East Tennessee.

  14. Qualisign says:

    Non-fiction worth a read and a discussion: Disfigured: On fairy tales, disability, and making space” by Amanda Leduc. Coach House Books, released August 2020.

    I came across this book while thinking about the rec league book pairings. I have a love-hate relationship with fairy tales dating back to my five-year old self and following me through years of reading and studying (through three degrees) folklore and especially folktales in the original versions and in several languages across multiple cultures. To this day I love fantasy and science fiction done well, especially if it incorporates satire and/or alternate histories as I see them as contemporary folktales. When I first started reading romance (in my 50s), I was most comfortable with historicals as they allowed (for a time) enough suspension of disbelief that I could pretend that they were just another type of fantasy. [Well, as it turns out, they are; just not a fantasy world that one can continue to support.] In this case, the book pairings I was considering for the rec league had to do with the incorporation of on-going disability into life and into the storyline.

    Fiction with disfiguration/alt-ability: Heidi Cullinan’s Roosevelt two-book series (“Carry the Ocean” and “Shelter the Sea”) fits here along with, perhaps even better, E.M. Lindsey’s ouvre [available in KU] that includes deafness, blindness, muscular dystrophy, spinal injuries, mental health issues, etc. along with religion (especially Judaism as an outlier in a small community) and queerness. In the last couple of weeks, I reread some of these books, just to see if they were holding up, and, yes, they were. (Most were in the B+ to A- range, which is high praise for me.)

    Also glommed Annette Marie’s Guild Codex series. It was distant enough from reality (but based in a city I know well) that I couldn’t stop reading them. Tried another of her series but had to tap out. I need happy endings right now.

  15. Carrie G says:

    I just finished SLIPPERY CREATURES by K.J. Charles, and enjoyed it, although I thought the Charm of Magpies books were better. Part of that might be because I listened to the Magpie series on audio with a superb narrator. I also just finished THE MOST DANGEROUS DUKE IN LONDON by Madeline Hunter on audio. It was good, but the poor narrator diminished my enjoyment.

    Up next is A MATCH MADE FOR THANKSGIVING by Jackie Lau. I read ICE CREAM LOVER a while back and I wasn’t wowed by the story. Part of that might be the first present present POV. Not my favorite. This book is written in third person, so I’m optimistic.

    On audio I’m still deciding, but I have the second Miss Fisher Mystery and I recently bought CLOSE UP by Amanda Quick as an Audible deal of the day, so those are options. Or I might splurge and buy book 5 of the Rockville series, HAZARD, and listen to the wonderful Alex Wyndham’s narration.

  16. Carrie G says:

    @Qualisign

    The Guild Codex books are kind of perfect for me right now. They are an alternative reality, great characters, easy reads, fast paced, and exciting. It was my husband who found them and got me hooked last year.

    I read the first Red Winter book,and tried the second. They are beautifully written books, but I put it aside right now because the story goes across all three books and felt a little heavier than the Codex books. Even with the struggles in the Guild Codex books, there is enough humor to carry it. I’ll probably go back some day, but I’m decidedly a “lower angst” reader right how.

  17. DonnaMarie says:

    My reading has been mostly sans romance the last few weeks, although thanks to the GBPL, that’s about to change.

    My one forte into romance was MaryJanice Davidson’s newest, DANGER SWEETHEART, which I was not unexpectedly disappointed by. I loved most of Betsy the Vampire Queen, and always love visiting the Wyndham Pack, but she kind of lost me with her other books. It had been a while so I thought, why not? I found the first third of the book confusing. Starts with a woman tat-taing out after a one night stand, then she tracks him down to tell him she’s pregnant. He’s patently uninterested, she nopes out. Next chapter starts with a character with the same last name as the baby daddy, in fact I thought at first it was the baby daddy and this was going to be about them getting back together, but no it’s one of the babies all grown up (did I mention she was pregnant with twins?). He’s filthy rich, he constantly refers to his twin as awful and he’s done something that ends him up banished to the small town his mother grew up in. The next chapter is the story of how he ended up not a bastard and then rich beyond imaging. Are you confused yet? I sure as hell was. I finished it, but found soooo much about it to be unsatisfying. Except the pig. The pig was great.

    Is this becoming a thing, because this is the second book in a month with a pig for soothing and/or comic relief?

    On to HAMNET, which is a fictional story of the family Shakespeare left behind and the loss of the titular son. There is no documentation of how Hamnet died, and certainly nothing about Agnes (Anne), his wife, being the daughter of a healer (witch) or being one herself. Agnes is raising her children without the support of her family or his, other than the roof over their heads. Dysfunctional barely covers it, in fact her stepmother seems to relish causing her pain. It starts on the day the twins fall ill, then moves back and forth in time ending with the first performance of Hamlet. This is not an easy read, but it is beautifully written.

    Take the Rolling Stones at Altamonte and mix it with Conan the Barbarian and you have KINGS OF THE WYLD. In this epic fantasy Clay Cooper is enjoying his retirement from the mercenary trade guarding the wall of his sleepy town and the love of his wife and young daughter. He’s happily left the life of hunting down creatures in the formidable Wild until his former bandmate comes to his door begging his help to get the band back together to go rescue his adventuring daughter who is trapped in a besieged city surrounded by a horde of every conceivable monster. LOVED IT!

    On to DARLING ROSE GOLD. If you like unreliable narrators and gaslighting, this is for you. Rose Gold was victimized by her mother as a child. Once she is old enough to understand that she does not suffer from any of the multiple illnesses her mother has conjured symptoms for or exaggerated, Rose Gold helps put her mother away. Now Mom is getting out of jail, and she has plans for her ungrateful daughter. Rose Gold, of course, has plans of her own. If it’s important for you to like a character in order to enjoy a book, take a pass because Rose Gold doesn’t come out of her childhood a saint. Twisty.

    Speaking of twisty, LION’S DEN, by Katherine St. John was this morning’s read. Very engrossing story of friendship, murder and revenge. I guess friendship gone horribly wrong would be more accurate. Isabelle and Summer met as teens and became bffs in that way you only seem capable of as teens. Fast forward a decade and their lives are very different, but they are maintaining a friendship. Isabelle is waitressing between acting gigs in LA and Summer is drifting from man to man. She has no ambition other than being taken care of. Enter artist Eric. I was expecting a big twist, and there was one, but not the one I was expecting. It ties up pretty neatly, so much so that I was expecting something to explode as the story ended, but no, it appears good triumphs.

    On to THE RIGHT SORT OF MAN by Allison Montclair. A nice little historical mystery featuring a matchmaking business. I think it will be a fine way to spend a rainy afternoon, but first, vacuuming. Sigh.

  18. Darlynne says:

    My typically short-worded entries will be shorter still, thanks to shoulder repair and one-hand typing.

    Squee:
    Justina Ireland’s duology, DREAD NATION and DEATHLESS DIVIDE. I read them back-to-back, such great characters.

    THE MERCIFUL CROW by Margaret Owen. I seem to be gravitating to stories of strong women in impossible, deadly situations.

    Highly recommended:
    ALL THE DEVILS ARE HERE by Louise Penny
    EVERY STEP SHE TAKES by Kelley Armstrong

    Good:
    HERE AND NOW AND THEN by Mike Chen
    A STAR IS BORED by Byron Lane

    Reading now:
    David Litt’s DEMOCRACY IN ONE BOOK OR LESS (How It Works, Why It Doesn’t, and Why Fixing It Is Easier Than You Think). Outstanding, rage-inducing, accessible, informative, from a former Obama speech writer.

  19. Heather M says:

    I thought I’d reached my lowest point of my quarantine reading struggles, but nope, it’s gotten much, much worse these past few weeks. Sigh. I did finish and basically enjoy Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell…but after that, things haven’t improved. I struggled through about two thirds of The Somnambulist and the Psychic Thief by Lisa Tuttle despite the plot barely keeping my interest and the persistent feeling that she chose the wrong POV, but when the male lead showed up cross-dressing as an “exotic” “extremely buxom” Spanish dancer in order to trick his way into some sort of investigation I was like, okay, I’m out.

    Since then, I’ve started Just Like That by Cole McCade because sometimes I like an age-gap romance. And it’s…ok. But it seems like every other word is italicized and it’s bugging the heck out of me. There are other ways to show emphasis! Maybe it’s a small stylistic prose thing, but the small things are really getting me these days. It takes almost nothing to throw me out of a story right now. For now I’ll keep on with it, but who knows how long it will last.

    I’m just not excited about books, recently, and it’s really got me down 🙁 But I guess all I can do is keep trying in hopes that something sticks.

  20. Fiona McGier says:

    I just finished Origins-The Chosen One is Home by Celia Breslin. This is the 3rd and final book in the Trunqilli trilogy, full of a heroine coming into power she didn’t know she had, but wielding snark that she knows she has, over everyone. It’s hot and funny and a great reaad! Note: I read the 1st one, but skipped the second. I also enjoyed Blurred Lines by Nikki Prince, about a female counselor in a jail, and the guard who has been in love/lust with her for a while, and how they overcome their fears of losing their jobs if they get together. Very hot! And I can’ forget to mention my most recent book, Worth the Wait by Fiona McGier, the second in my werewolf series. This one continues the 2 romances from the first book, and gives 2 supporting characters their own HEAs. It just came out on the 4th of Sept.

  21. HeatherS says:

    I read volumes 1 & 2 of “BL Metamorphosis”. It’s about an elderly women who buys a manga, only to find it’s BL, and the young woman bookseller who loves the same series, and how they become friends through shared fandom love. It’s really cute.

  22. Rachel says:

    Hello, everyone!

    I am currently working my way through COME AS YOU ARE by Emily Nagoski. Given that BURNOUT is on top of my list of the best books of, well, ever (I can’t think of another book that I have both reread and gifted more times than I have fingers on a hand), it is no surprise that I’m taking my time with this one, and have been capturing bits for my reading journal every single night.

    I also just did a reread of A CURIOUS BEGINNING (Veronica Speedwell #1 by Deanna Raybourn) so that I could remind myself what was going on in order to read A PERILOUS UNDERTAKING. I read them both back to back, and it had been just long enough that CURIOUS BEGINNING was still full of surprises again. It was just as delightful the second time around! PERILOUS UNDERTAKING did a nice job of building on the foundation and expanding both the universe and the depth of the character relationships, all revolving around a wonderful mystery.

    @Tara – I also read FIRST POSITION, my very first Melissa Brayden. I’ve never read a Georgia Beers book I didn’t love, and have had several of Brayden’s works on my TBR for quite a while, but I finally broke the ice. It is a lovely story set in the world of professional ballet about an opposites attract pair with a thawing ice queen dynamic. I enjoy the thawing ice queen trope in f/f (I think Queen Elsa is my spirit animal 🙂 ), and I appreciated her effective use of the setting. My daughter was on a preprofessional ballet track, and I also spent part of my career as a musician working in performing arts with professional dancers, so I thought she handled those aspects of the story really well. Now I have to figure out where to go next to enjoy Melissa Brayden’s writing! Suggestions are always welcome!

    On a little bit of a downer note, I also read FAKING FOREVER, the fourth installment of Catherine Bybee’s First Wives series. I absolutely adored volumes 1-3!! I appreciate the mix of strong character development supported by great female friendships, with just a touch of suspense and thriller dropped in for spice. Unfortunately, this book seemed to be liberally sprinkled with my anti-catnip. There is a present and repeating jealousy dynamic which tends to rub me the wrong way, some of the language the couple used to describe the relationship referenced “ball and chain” imagery which I really don’t like, and there was an incident about a third of the way through which felt to me like a serious boundary violation. It just went unremarked for a significant portion of the book while the relationship developed, and then when they discussed it, the characters just laughed it off. Once again – I simply LOVE Catherine Bybee’s work, and I can certainly understand all of the choices from the perspective of the characters. I just hit the wrong notes for me and my tastes.

    On the TBR pile – TAKE A HINT, DANI BROWN along with HARROW THE NINTH (although I’ll probably have to it back to back with a reread of GIDEON THE NINTH to make sure I can fully appreciate it – not that that’s a chore 🙂 ).

    Great reading everyone!

    Rachel

  23. Teev says:

    August was a month of meh for me (including Harrow, which I had been looking forward to so much), but September is looking up!

    I THINK I MIGHT LOVE YOU (Christina C. Jones) is a hoot! Definitely on my top ten funny romances list. Weaponized lactose intolerance! It’s a novella but it doesn’t feel too fast. So good.

    DEVEN AND THE DRAGON (Eliot Grayson) is a sweet m/m dragon shifter romance. It’s got a lighthearted TJ Klune feel to it and I enjoyed it a lot.

    THE WIZARD’S BUTLER (Nathan Lowell) is a story about what goes on in a wizard’s house entirely from the POV (3rd person) of the butler. I liked it and recommend it.

    BEACH READ (Emily Henry) was as good as everyone says and IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMEWHERE (Roan Parrish) was angsty but good.

    Lots more that were just ok that I won’t bore you with. Also re-read Leckie’s Imperial Radch series which was awesome as always.

    It’s 9:30 am and because of smoke I have the light on and the windows closed like it’s the middle of winter. Be safe and well, you all!

  24. Heather C says:

    @Maya, watching the old guard definitely steered my reading choices in some new directions for a few weeks!

    @FashionablyEvil I was considering the vanishing half

    @FashionablyEvil, @Pear. Caste is also on my TBR. I think I’ll process it better in audio

    Brothers of the Wild North Sea (Harper Fox, m/m): Cai is a monk whose monastery is attacked by vikings. One of the attackers is left for dead so Cai nurses him back to health. I wish I had the words to describe how and why this story affected me. Cai partially joins the monastery because he has a crush on one of the other monks. Another brother joins because his family can’t afford to feed him and the monastery provides daily meals. It was an example of how a group of people could appear to share a common faith (and do in small threads) but all have very different overall beliefs. And the book also compares different leadership styles and interacting with different people in our communities. I gave it 4/5 stars but I suspect its a book I’ll remember for a long time.

    Bitter Springs (Laura Stone, m/m): 1870s. Mexican-Texan Renaldo is sent to train under a freed slave named Hank to learn how to catch and train wild horses. This story starts with some circumstances that I found upsetting and I didn’t fully commit emotionally because of it. Its a one-off story but I would love to read a sequel where Renaldo’s brother finds love

    Femme (Marshall Thornton, m/m): Femme cocktail waiter Lionel with straight-presenting softball player Dog. This was funny, but Dog does some pretty rude things on dates.

    Slippery Creatures (KJ Charles, m/m) 1920’s Will inherits a book store. But scary people keep coming in and demanding “the information” and he doesn’t know what they mean. He has few friends in life so when a cheerful, upper class guy offers to help he’s too trusting. And of course that guy wants “the information” also. But he also seems to genuinely be drawn to Will.
    Reviewing everyone’s comments it looks like people have read the 2nd in the series. I’m looking forward to it! Ill probably start it after Joyfully Jay’s reading challenge month

    Now reading Speakeasy (suzey ingold) Yale graduate Heath meets Speakeasy owner Art

    I’m definitely on a historical kick

    in Non-Fiction:

    Hood Feminism:Notes from the Women That a Movement Forgot (Mikki Kendall) Taking this slowly to really take it in

    How to be a tudor: a dawn-to-dusk guide to tudor life (Ruth goodman). My poor dad listened to me go on and on about what I was learning in this book

  25. Rachel says:

    @Heather C – HOOD FEMINISM is on my TBR, too. I am glad to hear it is worth taking slowly and really disgusting. I may have to do that as my next non-fic!

    Rachel

  26. Rachel says:

    Ouch autocorrect and thumb typing on a device! I don’t know if there’s a way to edit posts, but I meant “taking slowly and really DIGESTING!!!!”

    Rachel

  27. Julia F says:

    @Jill Q.

    Anne Stuart is definitely someone who either works, or doesn’t, I’ve found. I read Moonrise YEARS ago (probably when it came out?) and while I kept the physical copy I had, I seem to recall not liking the book very much. I prefer her historicals, honestly. The Devil’s Waltz and To Love a Dark Lord are favorites of mine, and I liked her Rohan series when I read it at the time (haven’t reread it).

    I’ve been listening to all of the Immortals After Dark books on audio, as I’ve finished what’s out (and now, like everyone else, I have to wait for Munro). Robert Petkoff – I can’t say enough good things about this man’s narration (he does have some minor accent issues with Cadeon’s book, I can tell when he slips from South African back to Estonian on occasion). I’m right now on Pleasure of a Dark Prince, and I think I probably should have taken a break, since Kiss of a Demon King was my first 5 star in the series (Sabine is my Queen!) and I’m just not back in the Lykae groove yet.

    I also read a book from 1999 that was kind of horrific with the subplot – The Lady’s Tutor by Robin Schone. I had bought a physical copy of it some years back, read to about page 20 or so, and stopped. Picked it up because of a Reddit thread and half-wished I hadn’t. Not going to spoiler here, but OOF, that book shows its age, I think.

    I’m also slowly working my way through Sarah MacLean’s backlist for historicals and Ilona Andrews’ Hidden Legacy series for PNR/Contemporaries. I really want to finish (I’m on Wildfire) these and get to the most recent one, so I can catch up in a book chat on Discord!

    I also realized I am an “old” when it comes to romances, as no one in any of the communities I’m on knows what RRA-L was (still is, though now on Yahoo), and it makes me sad to remember all the authors who used to participate there and have now passed on. 🙁

  28. Nancy C says:

    @Julia F: I was on RRA-L back in the day. I may even still have one of the t-shirts (Never apologize for your reading taste!). It is sad to think of all the authors who were regulars on there and are no longer with us. But you aren’t alone in being an old timer in Romancelandia.

  29. Margaret says:

    Anyone else find it difficult to remember which books they mentioned last time? I think I need to start copying my contributions to make sure I don’t repeat myself. What I know for sure is that in the past several weeks I read some real winners and gave up on numerous losers.

    Winners: THE LAST TRAIN TO KEY WEST by Channel Cleeton. Not only was this book well-written, but it contained a boat-load of fascinating US history in general, and the 1935 hurricane in particular, that I knew nothing about, AND it has three sweet love stories. My only complaint, and I know I’ll no doubt regret typing these words: I listened to the audiobook, and one of the characters is a very recent immigrant from Cuba with a strong accent. Her part was narrated by a woman with a last name that lends one to believe she speaks Spanish, but I swear the accent sounded Slavic to me.

    28 SUMMERS by Elin Hilderbrand. So I’m not sure whether to recommend this or not. I loved it—the characters, the setting, the history, and the gut-wrenching love story—and am very glad I read it, but I was sobbing at the end. It was my first book by Hilderbrand, and I see she’s written many, but I’m not 100% sure I’m ready for another one.

    THE ANSWER IS by Alex Trebek was short, but worthwhile, especially if you’re a Jeopardy fan like I am. I listened to the audio version which was narrated jointly by Alex and his they’re-not-saying-it-yet-but-it’s-completely-obvious successor, Ken Jennings.

    So-so: ROMANOV by Nadine Brandes. Many reviews of this quasi magical-realism account of the Tsar’s family are overflowing with praise, but I found it only mildly captivating. As someone who has both studied the actual historical accounts and heard her kids’ animated movie Anastasia, with its singing bat, Bartok, playing in the background way too many times, I found this book’s account to fall somewhere in between the two!

    Then there were so many “yucks – I just can’t read this,” that I found myself returning to Robyn Carr’s Virgin River. There are countless elements I’m able to ridicule in these books, but I nonetheless find great comfort in them when the world around us seems unbearable. I zipped through #6, TEMPTATION RIDGE and am now happily ensconsed in #7, PARADISE VALLEY.

  30. Alex says:

    Happy September all! I recently finished EMERALD BLAZE which I loved but I think it had been a bit too long since I’d read the series so I probably missed some of the overarching developments. So of course I’m planning a series re-read, just waiting for my copy of Wildfire to arrive so I have all the books and can go straight through. I also finished EUROPEAN TRAVEL FOR THE MONSTROUS GENTLEWOMEN by Theodora Goss, the second in her Extraordinary Adventures of the Athena Club series. It was a super long book and maybe could have done with some harsher editing but I really enjoyed her world and like spending time with the characters. It did end on a bit of a cliffhanger which I don’t love but it was the kind of cliffhanger where the main plot of the book is sorted and it is just that we are learning about what starts off the next book so it didn’t bother me that much in this case. I’d recommend the series to anyone who likes classic horror/early syfy books. I think you get much more out of the books if you have read the books that Theodora Gloss samples from. Frankenstein, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Island of Dr. Moreau are all very much a part of the plot of book one. Of those I have only actually read Frankenstein and I was still able to follow along pretty well but book two incorporates aspects of Dracula which I read not too long ago for a college English class and I felt that I appreciated the twists and turns even better.

  31. Julia F says:

    @Nancy C – I also have the t-shirt still! I try not to wear it too much so I don’t wear it out.

    Some of the old regulars still post on the substitute Yahoo group. We just had a discussion about JoBev’s peerage titles information!

  32. DiscoDollyDeb says:

    @Margaret: Willie Drye’s STORM OF THE CENTURY: THE LABOR DAY HURRICANE OF 1935 is an interesting nonfiction about the hurricane that inspired LAST TRAIN TO KEY WEST. He used a lot of first-hand accounts from WWI veterans who were in the Keys helping to build the Miami to Key West Highway.

  33. Scene Stealer says:

    Shadows in Death (J.D. Robb)- It took me 2 days to finish it and that was done reluctantly. There was no mystery surrounding the murder and the story felt pieced together from previous books.

    Runaway Road (Devney Perry)- A great read up until the end. A former runaway that ended up having a good life finds herself divorced with no plans on how to live the rest of her life. She decided to head back to CA from Boston in a restored classic car that used to be her home in a junkyard. She has a flat tire in a small town in WVa and finds that a small town has a lot to offer. I would recommend it for the setting.

  34. Another Anne says:

    I re-read the later books in the Amelia Peabody series earlier this summer, when I had been in a reading slump. I was surprised at how well they held up, although I hadn’t realized that you should actually read some of the books out of publication order in order to read them chronologically. Amelia’s son and also her ward narrate parts of some of these books and it is interesting getting their perspective on Amelia. I found her perspective on colonialism, WWI and British involvement in Egypt and parts of the middle east really interesting and I think that the books held up well.

    I also read the Summer Deal by Jill Shalvis and Butterfly Bayou by Lexie Blake. Both were lovely contemporary books and helped keep my mind off current events. I’ve also been reading the chapters that Ilona Andrews has been posting of the first book in the Aurelia Ryder series, which has been a delight. I’m looking forward to that book.

    Currently, I’m reading Destined to Last by Alissa Johnson, which is the last book in her Providence series. The heroine is a musician, an earl’s daughter and very clumsy. I’m not sure what to think about the hero, who is somewhat mysterious and works for the War Department.

    Both Chris Hayes and Preet Bharara (sp?) had Isabel Wilkerson on their podcasts and I think that I am going to read Caste sometime soon. Maybe next? Maybe not, since I also have Louise Penney’s latest at the top of my kindle.

  35. Merle says:

    Very mixed reading recently.
    I read the first 3 of Lilith Saintcrow’s Dante Valentine series (not romance– SF?). Interesting world, but I quit because I felt the main character lacked self-respect. SPOILER ALERT: In book 1 (Working for the Devil)I liked a scene where Dante perfectly sets a boundary: she tells a character who previously betrayed her that she will accept his help with a current project as compensation for his previous betrayal but will never trust him and after this never wants to see him again. He proceeds to completely ignore this and shove his way into her life (and house!)because he “loves” her (and wants sex), and then she spends the next book feeling guilty because she doesn’t love him back and won’t have sex with him. That was bad enough, but when she later decided her sweetie physically overpowering and bullying her and lying to her was fine because he was just trying to protect her, I was done. Grr. Gave Saintcrow another chance with The Iron Wyrm Affair (Bannon and Clare series), steampunk, not romance. Enjoyed the story and characters, but it was too violent for me to continue the series.

    Finally read The Flatshare (Beth O’Leary), and really enjoyed it BUT somehow I had missed any warnings about the emotional abuse, so that was extremely triggering and I ended up having to read part of the book backwards from the end to avoid panic.

    Bride of the Rat God by Barbara Hambly (historical fantasy) was a very mixed experience. It was fun to read, and I loved the 1923 Hollywood setting, with lots of fun details of movie making. Nice to read a historical book with working people, not useless aristocrats or worker exploiting tycoons. The use of Chinese culture to provide the threat (cursed necklace, evil rat god), with Chinese characters only involved to protect the White characters, seemed to exoticize and exploit, which is disappointing. Would love to recommendations for books with a similar setting but without the exploitation.

    Inspired by a rec league, read Some Buried Caesar by Rex Stout (mystery), and enjoyed it enough to start checking out the rest of the series. Just finished Fer De Lance, the first of Stout’s Nero Wolfe mysteries today. I like the minimal violence and gore, interesting characters, and opportunity to see 1930s New York state. Unfortunately Fer De Lance has blatant prejudice and xenophobia, not surprising for when it was written, but still troubling.

    Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin absorbed me so completely that I started reading as soon as I checked it out and was unable to put it down long enough to eat lunch until about 3 pm. Odd to read a book set when I was a child– so much the 1976 setting is familiar, language, the material culture (books, clothes, furniture), but I’m seeing it from the alien perspective of people who were adults then. The White person pretending to be Black plot seemed very timely– according to Maupin’s autobiography, he originally wrote the character as Black but people wrote into the newspaper where Tales was serialized to complain that he just wrote a White person in blackface, and after he stopped being offended he thought, well, OK. How would that work? Still a dodgy plot device, but I appreciated his willingness to accept criticism.
    Just picked up More Tales of the City today, looking forward to that.

    Finally got Carriger’s Omega Objection (m/m romance/werewolves) from the library hold list. (Only 4.5 months until I get the 3rd book!) I hope she’ll find a way to add more characters to the pack, because I’m enjoying spending time with the San Andreas Shifters and their friends, but she’s running out of pack members to pair up.

  36. Karin says:

    @DiscoDollyDeb, The Most Powerful sounds like a bit of a Sound of Music plot? I definitely won’t be reading it though, I’m too much of a geography nerd to enjoy contemporaries with imaginary countries. I spend the whole book trying to picture exactly where they are supposed to be on a map.
    I just finished “The Summer Before the War”. World War I era women’s fiction. It had such an old-fashioned flavor to it, it seems like it could have been written by Rosamund Pilcher or Maeve Binchy. Which is not a bad thing, it’s well written. But there were certain things that made it seem dated, like there is an obviously gay character, but nobody can ever say that he is gay, just that he writes poetry and has a very close male friend. Also the Romanies being referred to by the characters as gypsies. The author talks about her research into the history of Romany people in the British Isles, so I’m sure this was done not thoughtlessly but because that was what people called them. I had put off reading this one after hearing it was darker than Helen Simonson’s first book, and indeed, beloved characters do die in the war, but I was surprised by how much I still enjoyed it. It was just a very well constructed story, and the MCs were lovely.
    I also read “Snow Angel” a very good old Mary Balogh book.
    “A Rogue of One’s Own” just came up on my library wishlist, so I’m really looking forward to that. I feel like such a dummy though, because I only just realized that the title is a pun on Virginia Woolf’s famous book!

  37. FashionablyEvil says:

    @Merle—I love Gail Carriger in general and really liked Sumage Solution, but I couldn’t cope with Omega Objection. The main character suffers from excruciatingly low self esteem and it was just hard to read. I’ll probably circle back to The Enforcer Enigma, but I haven’t read it yet because Omega Objection was such rough going.

  38. Carole says:

    I started two or three books and just could not finish them, so returned to Penny Reid’s Winston Brothers series. Trying out audiobooks and they are all in Audible Escape for one low price – loved them. Also listened to Molly Harper’s quirky and light Mystic Bayou series. Just starting to listen to charming magician romance New Orleans Rush by Kelly Siskind on Audible Escape as well. Off to get lost in Emerald Blaze ebook by Ilona Andrews – they never disappoint.

  39. Crystal says:

    The party don’t start ’til I walk in. So here I am.

    Lots of books this time, since there was an extra week and a holiday in there. Let’s see, I followed up Nina Hill with Milady by Laura Sullivan, which was clever, and really turned the Three Musketeers on their pointy heads. I liked that it was about a woman that was about her survival, and did what she had to do. I did find the pacing of it a bit odd, but nothing that I couldn’t handle. I read Whiteout by Adriana Anders. I hatey-hate-hate the great outdoors and camping, and really enjoy survivalist fiction. Pretty sure this is a holdover from when I was a kid and two of my favorite books were Hatchet and Julie of the Wolves (the latter is also a favorite of my daughter’s). I enjoyed it, especially the parts where they were outsmarting the bad guys. Also, was I the only person that read the hero as being neuroatypical? It did end on a cliffhanger, which was kind of mean, so you know, mileage may vary. Then it was time for The Inheritance Games by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, which was twisty and smart, and the Knives Out vibes were real. After that, I felt like it was time for some hissy-fic (see what I did there?), and fired up Above the Bay of Angels by Rhys Bowen. Great work with setting and characterization, but I got kind of a false advertising vibe once I finished it, since according to the book jacket, the plot hinged on a character being poisoned and the main character being being suspected of it. Which yes, all that happened, when the book was already almost over and the whole thing was resolved inside of like, 20 pages. If you’re me, and you wanted that mystery with your hissy-fic, I expect a body to drop fairly early on and be a major plot driver. At this point, my brain had reached a whole “this planet is dumb” thing, and that seems like a great time to pull out Strange Love by Ann Aguirre. It was funny and I loved the talking dog, and really enjoyed the competition aspect of the Choosing. I also liked that both characters were people (beings?) that had some serious self-esteem struggles and a lot of their communication involved building each other up and validating their worthiness of the other. Once that was done (there was a Bad Decisions Book Club incident, lots of yawning that next day), I pulled out the new J.D. Robb, Shadows In Death. I enjoyed it from the procedural aspect (these books have a lot of strong procedural work) but I’m going to straight up warn everyone. There is a graphic animal death, and it was upsetting to read. I powered through it, petting one of my cats nearly the whole time and reminding him what a good boy he is and how much I love him. Stay safe, people. Which finally brings us to now, in which I’m poking through two books, actually. This is not normal for me, but one of them is a required text for this semester’s class. It’s Ex Libris by Anne Fadiman, which is a series of essays about the experience of being a reader. I’m enjoying it, as I can identify with a lot of it. For making my own fun, I yanked out a book I was saving for spooky season, but let’s be real, the whole of 2020 has been one big terrible haunted house. So The Year of the Witching by Alexis Henderson it is. I’m only about 20 pages in, but it’s already showing signs of being witchy and spooky and atmospheric, so let’s do it. Until next time, folks, Cobra Kai is on Netflix now, so long life the 80s.

  40. Blackjack says:

    Well, I’m here in Portland, Ore., where air quality has been officially declared “hazardous,” but we’re hoping to reach “unhealthy” by tomorrow as more moisture and fog rolls in. The fires have taken over the entire state, as has the smoke, though here on the west coast, it’s hard to tell if the rest of our country understands what’s happening to the entire west coast. Looking out my window, the sky is just a surreal orange. Anyway, I’m still reading and it takes my mind off things a bit.

    I read Beth O’Leary’s _The Switch_ and found it to be a gentle and thoughtful book. I truly enjoyed the focus on seniors in the book and the way in which intergenerational friendships are handled. Older characters are needed in so many more books. This book also features a 70s-something female protagonist enjoying a pretty active sex life. I loved that!

    I read Jasmine Guillory’s _Party of Two_ but didn’t enjoy it as much as I had hoped. I felt that the Issues overwhelmed the romance and the book ended up feeling overwritten and didactic.

    I just read Evie Dunmore’s _A Rogue of One’s Own_ and liked the romance a lot though with lots of conditions. The romance entranced me but the representational problems tied my stomach up in knots while reading.

    Currently reading Mhairi McFarlane’s _Don’t You Forget about Me_ and am loving it thus far. Discovering McFarlane has been one of the few positive things to happen for me in 2020 and I look forward to binging on all of her books. She’s just so insightful about women and creates some of the best heroines out there.

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