Whatcha Reading? January 2021 Edition, Part One

Cozy winter still life: cup of hot coffee and book with warm plaid on windowsill against snow landscape from outside.Wowee, it’s 2021 and our first Whatcha Reading post of the new year. The first week has really been something. At the Pink Palace, we hope you all are doing some restorative activities, especially if that includes reading!

Speaking of reading, we want to know what you’re enjoying!

Sarah: I finished the first Psy Changeling arc and have started Silver Silence. Of course by the time this goes up I will probably be nearing the end of the next one. Which means I should go check for it at the library!

Elyse: I am doing a reread of the Veronica Speedwell books.

After that it might be the Bridgerton series. My brain doesn’t want anything new right now.

Tara: I’m halfway through Network Effect by Martha Wells and that has been an emotional rollercoaster.

Carrie: I’m about to start From Here to Eternity by Caitlin Doughty and I’m excited!

The Ballad of Hattie Taylor
A | BN | K | AB
Sneezy: I speed read through the Worth Saga, not even pausing for the novellas just so I can find out what happens and how all the pieces fit. Now I’m going back to read it all properly, including the novellas.

After that, I’ll need a time machine so I can fine out what happens to @@@@ and *****. I also there to be a book about ~~~~~.

Lara: I’ve just started The Ballad of Hattie Taylor by Susan Andersen… As I’m on page 1, it’s way too early to tell how I’m going to feel about it. But this is a kind of milestone for me because it is the first non-reread (i.e. new-to-me) book that I’ve picked up in what feels like months. I’m ready for new things y’all!

CW for the above book

Amanda: Heads up that there’s a rape scene!

Lara: Gah! Thank you for the head’s up!

Catherine: I have embarked on a reread of the Bridgerton series. The early Bridgertons were some of the first romances I read, and it’s interesting to see how they do and don’t hold up after nearly twenty years. The ones I thought were a bit dodgy then are definitely dodgier now… but The Viscount Who Loved Me ( A | BN | K | G | AB | Au | Scribd ) is still pretty good fun. And in between, I’m reading Jackie Lau’s Cider Bar Sisters novels, which are filling me with delight, especially His Grumpy Childhood Friend. ( A | BN | K | AB )

The Angel of the Crows
A | BN | K | AB
Shana: I just started Teach Me by Olivia Dade. It’s a thawing ice queen romance. I struggled with the beginning, because right now my tolerance for even minor injustices is nil, and apparently that includes talented teachers who are saddled with an incompetent administration. But now I’m loving the main characters.

Ellen: Not sure if I mentioned this last time but I’m reading Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison Allen, which is basically a supernatural Sherlock Holmes retelling. I’m really enjoying it–it’s creepy and suspenseful without being TOO gory but also charming and quite whimsical. The plot is very episodic and I’m reading it fairly slowly, to savor it. I also just read Ten Things I Hate About the Duke which was as delightful and sweet as advertised by the rest of the Bitchery. Definitely helped me through some holiday-adjacent stress!

Catherine: I have become such an Olivia Dade fan!

Shana: Me too! Isn’t she fantastic?

Catherine: Yes! Her heroes are so very sweet and her heroines are Not Here For Your Nonsense, and I love them all.

What are you reading? Tell us in the comments!

Comments are Closed

  1. Jill Q. says:

    This has not been a great start to my reading year due to . . . reasons (gestures broadly out the American government), but I’m really enjoying PALADIN’S GRACE by T. Kingfisher. I feel like it is not too dark and angsty for me (even with mysteries and some dead bodies). It’s not *earnest* (too much earnestness is a turn off for me. I need at least a little snarkiness) and the hero and heroine are both just lovable in their own ways.
    I’m going to try really, really hard *not* to read the news this weekend. I’ve got a lot of books to read, so hopefully I’ll have something good to report for the next check in.

  2. FashionablyEvil says:

    Some fun stuff in the mix of late, although now that I am done with Bridgerton, I am sort of casting around for something else that will give me that book hangover feeling. (I thought I had read some of the Bridgerton books because I have read two with the word Bridgerton in the title, but turns out those are the companion series, The Rokesbys. Anyway, waiting for my holds at the library to come in. As you might expect, the series is popular at the moment!)

    First up, a couple of books that I personally had some problems with, but may work for other people:

    SPOILER ALERT by Olivia Dade. This is a good book where I got to the end and realized it just wasn’t for me. Part of the premise is that April is fat and a whole part of the book is people questioning whether Marcus would really want to be with her. And I can see how people would read this story as wish fulfillment (smart, charming fat girl ends up with smoking hot movie star) but I read romance for escapism and I’m only able to tolerate a certain level of bad stuff/violence/angst. Having the fat shaming hanging over the book just made me feel awful when I finished it. Which is too bad! because it’s a cute story and well written! But I felt miserable at the end having been vicariously soaking in that kind of shame.

    THE COINCIDENCE OF COCONUT CAKE–a love letter to the city of Milwaukee, but the hero keeps a BIG secret for waaaaaay too long for my taste (at the three quarter mark, he still hasn’t fessed up despite multiple opportunities). I just feel like the HEA is weaker when The Secret is allowed to persist because it increases the betrayal–there’s whatever the impact of the actual secret is but then there’s the lie of omission by not speaking up. And I personally think the latter is a lot harder to recover from.

    The Good:
    A PURELY PRIVATE MATTER by Darcie Wilde (the second Rosalind Thorne mystery). Fun and competent, although I didn’t really like the reveal about the villain.

    A COURT OF WINGS AND RUIN–third in Sarah J. Maas’s Court of Thorns and Roses series. I really like these books–the found family, trauma recovery, the friendships. I will say, I could do with a LOT less usage of the word “mate.”

    Up next: THE DEADLY HOURS, an anthology with short stories by Susanna Kearsley, Anna Lee Huber, CS Harris, and Christine Trent. It’s fine, but would probably be better if I knew the characters from other books better. (I’ve read one of Huber’s and a bunch of Harris’s, but none of the other two.)

    Also starting CASTE by Isabel Wilkerson. I was worried this was going to be too heavy, but Wilkerson is such a gifted writer that she really propels you forward even through difficult material.

  3. Carrie G says:

    I started the year listening to ROMANCING MISTER BRIDGERTON by Julia Quinn, narrated by Rosalyn Landor. I know Colin and Penelope’s story is a fan favorite, but it didn’t work all that well for me. Colin is described as easy going, yet he becomes very angry and hurtful to Penelope several times, and never really apologizes. She just excuses his behavior or blames herself. I was left scratching my head.

    I also listened to Books 2 and 3 of Loretta Chase’s Dressmakers series, SCANDAL WEARS SATIN and VIXEN IN VELVET. Both are frothy fun and read by the incomparable Kate Reading.

    The next listen was A FASHIONABLE INDULGENCE, book 1 of The Society of Gentleman series by KJ Charles. Excellent book with a solid sense of time and place. Charles weaves just enough history into the book to satisfy. Matthew Lloyd Davies does a wonderful job with the narration, as usual.

    I also keep a print book going, although I tend to get through those a little more slowly, reading mainly at meals and bedtime. I read BITTERBURN by Ann Aguire, which is a very clever take on the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale. It did suffer in execution however, with some jarringly modern language at times and the resolution,while perhaps not easy, was dealt with too neatly given all the build-up.

    I read ALL SYSTEMS RED by Martha Wells, and I love Murderbot! Then I finished the second Verity Kent mystery by Anna Lee Huber. Very enjoyable.

    Right now I’m listening (again, for the 3rd time) THESE OLD SHADES by Georgette Heyer. I wanted something funny and well written and that I already knew I loved. Stress relief. I’m reading THE FAMILY PLOT by Sheri Cobb South, the third book in the John Pickett Mysteries. The premise of this one has a few holes, but it’s still enjoyable and I’m sure I’ll go on with the series.

  4. Star says:

    I’ve spent the last several weeks reading Steven Erikson’s Malazan Book of the Fallen and am finally on book 8. The Malazan Book of the Fallen is essentially the most epic fantasy ever; it is also extremely not a romance. It is ten books long, which amounts to over ten thousand pages, it requires pretty much every content warning possible, and it has everything that is bad about epic fantasy dialed up to eleven. At the same time, though, it also has everything that is good about epic fantasy dialed up to eleven. It makes for a very strange reading experience, because much of it I absolutely hate, and yet the parts I don’t hate, I love. I can’t in good conscience recommend it to anyone because of its long list of caveats, but at the same time, I think that on balance, I love it more than I hate it. When it’s bad, it’s unbearable, but when it’s good, it’s so brilliant. And it’s so unique; there really isn’t anything else like it.

  5. Arijo says:

    Ah, The Angel of Crows. I’ve got it on my wish list and I’m waiting for it to come on sale. Or maybe I could convince my sister to get it. She has no budget constraint and I don’t feel like it’s stealing when sharing ebooks with my sister. That’s how I got my greedy hands on Murderbot hehe.

    A lot of reread for the holidays. I went through Murderbot for the 3rd time this year. The Earth Fathers are Weird by Lyn Gala. And HIS FORBIDDEN BRIDE by Theodora Taylor. I read it before the events in DC, but if I hadn’t, it would be the perfect cathartic read right now.

    I bit the bullet and read BOYFRIEND MATERIAL by Alexis Hall. I was reticent to read this, because I was sure it couldn’t be as good as it was supposed to be. And at first I was mostly right, but worse, because not only was I bummed not to be in rapture over it, it also was depressing as heck. Alex is a Sad Clown. His outlook on life and about himself was so negative and defeatist, I wondered how he was able get out of bed in the morning. (Even when I was young, sad clowns made me want to cry, not laugh; same with funny home videos, I can’t laugh I’m too busy cringing and worrying – did they break their back? What about concussions? Is this the kind of things my boys will try to do when they’re teenagers???) Then came the midway moment when Alex told Oliver something that made me think of the compliment Jack Nicholson gives Helen Hunt in As Good As It Get (“I started to take the pills. […] You make me want to be a better man” – I always melted at that part) followed by a snarky, Notting Hill-ish meet-the-friends-posse-over-birthday-diner scene. My enjoyment of the story went uphill from there. Conclusion: I loved Boyfriend Material, even if I did not LOVE it. I’ll certainly re-read.

    There was a last Christmas anthology, one I won’t go into because it was a limited edition not available anymore and 4/5 of it was blergh. The good fifth was “The Navy SEAL’s Christmas Bride” by Cora Seaton. That one was funny, I was smiling for a lot of it. I liked their competitive side, and bets, and all the snow fun and did I mention their competitive side? Fun, fun. There was also one of the most logistically impossible sex scene I’ve read in a while… 😀 This novella is part of a series I haven’t read, with plenty of other couples around, but it wasn’t obnoxious.

    SORRY I MISSED YOU by Suzy Krause. Not a romance, but great reading, full of well written passages (the pleasure I had in savouring the text was even greater than when I read The Bookish Life of Nina Hill, in good part because I liked the characters more here than in Nina Hill’s.) The story takes place in Regina, Saskatchewan: “Regina was a funny place. People referred to it as a city, and it technically was, but it was a city in the same way an eighteen-year-old was an adult: just barely, and unconvincingly so.” Small city Regina is full of ghosts, about and around 3 women who rent space in a house newly separated into 3 appartments: the house is haunted & each of the renters were ghosted by someone in their life. Then, a mangled letter is dropped into their lone mailbox, mentionning missing each other and maybe meeting at a cafe. All 3 thinks the letter might be for them. Three POV (2 of the women and their poor, wannabe-has-been landlord) all strangers to each other but forced into reluctant companionship by circumstances. I liked how moving from one POV to another paced the mysteries… so many mysteries: the ghostings, the letter, the ghosts, bomb threats, a cold case of missing teens – it sounds like a lot but it flows well. And in the end, it’s not the mysteries that are important (they get all solved in a rather perfunctory manner, sometimes off page) but the self realizations trying to solve them brings to the characters. Unfortunately, the epilogue is sticky sweet kumbaya, All’s Well That Ends Well… it clashed in tone with the rest of the book. I wish it had stopped before the epilogue, even if it had left one mystery unsolved. If someone were to read Sorry I Missed You, I suggest stopping before the epilogue, wait a few days to savor, then come back and read the epilogue.  

    I don’t know if Sorry I Missed You left me with a book hangover or if was unfortunate in my choices next but there nexr 2 DNF:
    – ALL KIDDING ASIDE: MAGICAL MATES BOOK 01 by Macy Blake. The magical mates series apparently comes after The Chosen Ones series and the Hellhound Champions series. Didn’t read them but I wasn’t lost, the stories seemed to be pretty standard,  there’s no deep thinking to the world. The characters were unidimensional, badly drawn and their jump in bed came so fast and out of nowhere… Add to that insipid dialogues, it reminded me of Stormy Glenn and Joyee Flynn that seemed to be the rage when I discovered m/m. (x.x) DNF right then right there.
    The other DNF was AT YOUR SERVICE (IN YOUR SERVICE BOOK 01) by Sandra Antonelli. Imagine Daniel Craig’s James Bond having a female butler (older than him! I liked that part) and she gets targeted – courtesy of her late husband – by an international villain organisation. As a romance, it was a wash. The characters were not sympathetic and I felt no chemistry between them beyond scrambled eggs. As for the international heist, it was a prop I had no interest in. I’d classify this as espionage with a significant relationship subplot rather than the other way around and since I never enjoyed a Bond movie, it definitely wasn’t a book for me (the handful of Bond movies I managed to finish I found long, boring and bewildering; I keep zoning out and missing how/why Bond moved from one clue to the next).

    The next book I actually managed to finish: THE DEMIGOD COMPLEX by Abigail Owen. A demigod & a naiad hating gods, in the billionaire & executive assistant format. Fairly typical. They’re a well-balanced couple, the respect and appreciation they have for each other clearly comes through, it’s not substituted by waves of lust as is often the case. Not bad, but I found it boring. The weird timeline also didn’t help. It’s as if everything in their life happened thousands of years ago, then today, and in between… nothing. They don’t feel like they’re thousands of years old either.

    Feeling a bit desperate for a good book at that point, I reached for a sure thing : A WIZARD’S GUIDE TO DEFENSIVE BAKING by T. Kingfisher. *thumb up* Mission accomplished Like Minor Mage, it’s a children’s book too dark for Ursula Vernon’s publishers (I really like how she pour her books in context in the acknowledgement). I liked it, I liked the contrast between the sheltered girl and the street urchin, and the progression of emotions the heroine goes through during the book. Then, once I was done with the book, since the schools are closed and I was the one with the bean in my Epiphany King Cake (it was on Jan 6) I forced the kids to cook gingerbread men with me BWAH HAHAHA.

    I started Marcel Proust, I aim to read the whole In Search of Lost Time this year.  I like it. A lot. A lot more than I expected. When it’s time for bed, I’m all “Yay, I’m going to read Swann’s Way!”. I usually fall asleep after fifteen minutes, and in those 15 min I read maybe two pages (his phrases are so involved, they beg to be read more than once),  but they stay with me as I fall asleep and when I semi wake on the night they’re still with me. They’re soothing stuff to be with while semi-awake in the night.

    Another book I just started is RHAPSODY (The Butcher and the Violonist book 01) by Kenya Wright, from the SBTB cover snark. The one whose heroine has her back tatooed to look like a violin. I’m a couple of chapters in and it’s surprisingly not bad.

  6. Lostshadows says:

    The only book I’ve finished this year is my one stray physical library book, How To, by Randall Monroe (The xkcd guy). It was a fun read.

    The main reason I haven’t finished anything else is I decided to start tackling the unabridged The Count of Monte Cristo late last year. It’s going to take me awhile.

  7. DiscoDollyDeb says:

    For some reason, Voltaire’s famous quote, “Those who can make you believe in absurdities can make you commit atrocities,” has been playing in my mind on an endless loop since Wednesday. I wonder why. Also, not Voltaire but equally appropriate, “‘It can’t happen here’ is number one on the list of famous last words.”

    And now, books—

    It always seems that at the end of every year I read a book that rearranges my favorites list. In 2020, that book was Ainslie Paton’s 2016 release, OFFENSIVE BEHAVIOR, which I finished on December 30. As I was reading the book, I kept wondering why I hadn’t previously read anything by Paton because OFFENSIVE BEHAVIOR is a brilliantly-written book that defies expectations at every turn. A recently-fired tech millionaire—a genius at the technical side of things, but crap at the friendship/emotional stuff (and, perhaps not coincidentally, a virgin)—connects with a former Olympic-level gymnast who pays for her college tuition by being an exotic dancer at a rather down-at-heel club. If that set-up screams “capitalist rescue fantasy” to you, stay with the story because this is one heroine who doesn’t want or need to be rescued and one hero who eventually realizes that he’s the one who needs to transform into a better person. I love everything about this book: the found-family aspects of both the hero’s and the heroine’s workplaces, the way the h&h meet, fall in love, negotiate boundaries, grow emotionally (especially the hero), acknowledge their limits, even the way they argue and make up. So, so good. Highly recommended.

    After finishing OFFENSIVE BEHAVIOR, I added Paton’s backlist to my never-ending tbr and jumped right in to the next book in the Sidelined series, DAMAGED GOODS. Although not quite as good as OFFENSIVE BEHAVIOR, I still thoroughly enjoyed DAMAGED GOODS (the heroines of the two books are friends who met when they were both competitive gymnasts; the heroes have been friends since college and founded a tech company together). The heroine of DAMAGED GOODS is an aspiring costume designer who currently works in customer service at the hero’s company. She had a career-ending back injury over a decade ago and spends much of her time managing her pain (the book has plenty of pointed commentary about how shitty our healthcare system is, especially for working-class people who suffer from chronic pain). The hero suffered a similar back injury in a car accident (that happened at the end of OFFENSIVE BEHAVIOR) and subsequently became addicted to pain medication and went to rehab. The MCs initially bond over their shared pain, then they grow closer—but both of them have performance anxiety: the heroine because she’s a virgin and very inexperienced; the hero because nerve damage from the accident has left him unable to get an erection. So we have a heroine who has never had p-in-v sex and a hero who can’t have p-in-v sex, which leads to some very creative work-arounds. Factor in the hero’s dysfunctional, addiction-prone family and his desire to “white knight” the heroine (totally against her wishes), and you have an angsty emotional story about two people trying in so many ways to get things right. Recommended.

    Misha Horne’s LOOKING FOR TROUBLE was a delightful surprise. The book (published in 2018) was a freebie download and I wasn’t expecting much beyond a quick read; instead I got an engaging and well-crafted slow-burn m/m historical romance (set in 1880s Nevada) with spanking/discipline and daddy-kink elements, none of which felt forced onto the story but developed naturally from the personalities of the two heroes and the dynamic between them. Horne does a great job of differentiating the voices of her MCs: older, laconic Will who has lived alone on his small farm for so long he doesn’t realize how lonely he is; and younger, hot-headed Jesse (Will’s new farm-hand) who wants to live a more settled life but frequently allows his impulsivity and temper to get the better of him. One of the many things I liked about the story is that neither man has any frame of reference for the feelings he has for the other; this seemed far more emotionally and socially accurate to the time period than those anachronistic historical romances where the characters immediately recognize all the dimensions of their feelings upon their initial attraction to a person of the same gender. For example, when Will spanks Jesse for the first time, a 21st-century reader may find the scene both hot and somewhat overdue (they’ve been dancing around the spanking/punishment thing for a while), but Will and Jesse are still baffled by their mutual enjoyment of administering/receiving chastisement and can’t quite grasp all the subtext. Horne beautifully unfolds the heroes’ journey to awareness, acceptance, and ultimately love. Already a candidate for one of my favorite reads of 2021. Highly recommended.

    I liked Caitlin Crews’s latest HP, CHOSEN FOR HIS DESERT THRONE, more for its backstory and set-up than for its follow-through. The ruler of a small Arabian kingdom has spent the last year fighting an attempted insurrection and coup (talk about life imitating art!) led by his brother. Just as the situation appears to be stabilizing, the sheikh discovers that an American doctor, working for a Doctors Without Borders type organization, accidentally crossed into the country months ago and has been imprisoned ever since. While I didn’t quite buy that the ruler had been so busy quashing rebellions that he failed to know he was causing an international incident by keeping the doctor in a cell, I’m pleased to say the sheikh upon learning of the doctor’s fate immediately has her released, apologizes wholeheartedly, and takes complete responsibility for what has happened. The doctor is thrilled to be released, so why does she suddenly suffer the first panic attack she’s had in months as soon as she knows she is free to return to her medical career? All of this takes place in the first few chapters of CHOSEN FOR HIS DESERT THRONE. The rest of the story involves the hero & heroine growing closer, the heroine having to confront her awful father, the hero having to accept that the brother that he loved betrayed him, and the almost de rigueur HP position of, “I can’t love you because I’ve been betrayed by someone I loved in the past, therefore I will just act coldly toward you and freeze you out—except in the bedroom.” Even much-loved conventions are still conventions and I don’t think Crews administered this one as finely as she has in previous books. I can only recommend CHOSEN FOR HIS DESERT THRONE to Crews/HP/Sheikh romance completists.

    N.R. Walker wrote both my favorite book of 2020 (the Missing Pieces trilogy) and one of my favorite mysteries with a romantic subplot (TALLOWWOOD), so now I’m on a backlist glom of her work. Walker’s m/m romance, SWITCHED, is a nice slow-burn friends-to-lovers romance with an angsty switched-at-birth backstory. Iz is 26, the only child of wealthy, distant parents. His parents being what they are, Iz’s primary source of emotional support is his long-time best friend, Sam, and Sam’s affectionate, accepting family. Both Iz and Sam are openly gay, but have never ventured beyond friendship with each other. Then Iz’s world is torn apart by the revelation that he and another baby were switched at birth. This throws Iz into complete turmoil and, while he begins to develop a relationship with his biological mother and siblings, he starts to depend on Sam—and think of him—in ways he previously never did. I liked SWITCHED and thought Walker did a good job of showing us Iz’s disorientation and loss of footing as the world as he knows it falls apart. However, I do think Iz was just a little too obtuse about Sam and their feelings for each other, especially after the umpteenth time they almost kissed. Still, I recommend SWITCHED for fans of friends-to-lovers and found-family tropes.

  8. I recently finished THE UPSIDE OF FALLING by Alex Light, which features a fake relationship (one of my favorite tropes). Right now, I’m reading DEAL WITH THE DEVIL by Kit Rocha.

    Up next, I’m hoping to read A WIZARD’S GUIDE TO DEFENSIVE BAKING by T. Kingfisher.

    I also picked up the SAVOR graphic novel at my local comic book store. The CBS owner described it as kung-fu chefs, which sounds awesome.

    And I finally broke down, got Disney+, and watched THE MANDALORIAN, which was so good, especially the second season. I now want to buy all the Baby Yoda merchandise. LOL.

  9. Big K says:

    Well, I don’t need to tell any of you that the first week of 2021 felt very much like most of 2020 here in the United States. I think it is fair to say that everyone is exhausted. I am largely insulated from the pandemic and violence in D.C., and I still plan on spending the weekend knitting, binging “Next In Fashion,” and reading to stay sane. So please share your recommendations!
    Thank you, Loretta Chase, for TEN THINGS I HATE ABOUT THE DUKE. Loved it! M/F historical romance. What is there to say? To paraphrase the movie, Office Space, “I celebrate her entire catalog.”
    The writing in LOVE LETTERING by Kate Clayborn was lovely. M/F contemporary romance. It just was a little boring, yet still stressful? And then at the end, not to give spoilers, I felt like, “Why didn’t we hear about all this other stuff throughout the book? That would have been way more interesting!” YMMV.
    Disappointed by QUEENS OF NOISE by Leigh Harlen. F/F paranormal contemporary romance. Characters, writing, and set up were great, just not enough book there (very short). I will definitely buy their next book, especially if they take their time and really dig into their great ideas. Someone to watch!
    THE ONE DECENT THING by Elliot Grayson was good. M/M contemporary romance. Mentioned on this site, it was really about life after prison as much as anything. Not a story everyone would love, but I felt the conflicts and motivations were well drawn.
    I think Triple D, a.k.a. Disco Dolly Deb, a.k.a. the Lady Whose Recs Keep Us Up All Night, sent me down a Molly O’Keefe and S. Doyle rabbit hole, which was just what I was in the mood for. Were THE COWBOY, HOW MY BROTHER’S BEST FRIEND STOLE CHRISTMAS (both M.O.) or THE BODYGUARD (S.D.), (all contemporary, M/F romances) among others of their works, the best books ever? No, but I enjoyed them a lot. Thanks, @DiscoDollyDeb!
    Liked ARTISTIC LICENSE by Elle Pierson, though it didn’t blow me away. M/F contemporary romance. Different setting (nice to leave the USA and Great Britain once in a while!) and I enjoyed seeing how the heroine made her art.
    LOVE AROUND THE CORNER, by Sally Malcolm, was very good. M/M contemporary, and nice light read.
    THE DEMIGOD COMPLEX by Abigail Owen was good, not great. M/F paranormal contemporary romance. It was entertaining and sexy, though. You just might forget the book as soon as you put it down.
    I was very disappointed by CARRY ON by Rainbow Rowell. M/M paranormal. Given that it was supposed to be Harry Potter, if Harry ended up with Draco, and that I’ve enjoyed other Rainbow Rowell books a lot, I had high expectations. The people and world actually seemed pretty real. I think the plot needed more time, and more subtlety. Maybe I am asking too much – it was kind of fan fiction – but even the way magic worked (using modern phrases that become more powerful the more the meaning coalesces culturally – cool, right?) was neat enough to deserve a lot more page time. And the structure of the plot made sense. We just needed another 200 pages of action and development. I wouldn’t recommend it.
    To end on a high note, my family and I really enjoyed the T.V. show, TED LASSO. This is not news, you have probably all heard about it. Given where the world is right now, if you want to watch something that is the opposite of this week IRL, I highly recommend TED LASSO. I especially enjoyed the relationship that developed over the season between the men, and how it clearly repudiated so many of the toxic sports norms we see everywhere. Worth paying for this weekend!
    Happy New Year! Thank you for all of the recommendations! Sending love to you all!

  10. Tam says:

    I absolutely loved TED LASSO. I thought the premise was a bit daft, but my God, that show had so much heart. When I look back on the things which comforted me in 2020, T Kingfisher’s Paladin romances and TED LASSO will both be up there.

    I just whipped through the MURDERBOT novellas (my God, they’re expensive – I bought the first one cheap, but it turned out to be a gateway drug.) I loved them, but then read the latest novel and was a little less enchanted. I kept getting confused between the different narrators, and even a little resentful of the latest. Go away, I want Murderbot back.

    I also read and enjoyed Loretta Chase’s TEN THINGS I HATE ABOUT THE DUKE in the New Year. She might be an auto-buy for me at this point.

    Currently embarking on TJ Klune’s THE HOUSE IN THE CERULEAN SEA because I’ve heard it’s a gorgeous comfort-read of a fantasy novel. I’m a few chapters in, and it’s reminding me of Diana Wynne Jones, in a good way.

  11. Heather C says:

    I got a threatening email from library (they were going to block my card!) that my copy of Harrow the Ninth was overdue, so I buckled down and finished it. It had very descriptive language and some laugh out loud moments, but it was too dense and confusing for me, especially this week (I rushed out the door to get it back to the library when the news went out that some northern va counties were declaring curfews on wed night) I only rated it 2/5 stars

    I listened to the audio for Shit, Actually and it was so great, I laughed out loud to myself while walking through my neighborhood (My neighbors already thought I was an odd one)

    I absolutely crashed last night. I went to bed at 830, woke up at midnight and got out of bed at 1am. I finished Kiki Clark’s The Deputy and His Enforcer (Kincaid Pack #3) by 5 am this morning. Wolf shifter Marcus is drawn to human Robson, but Robson doesn’t know about the shifter world and has some reservations when he does learn about it. Not the best, but just what I needed to kill time until the sun came up 4/5 stars

  12. KatiM says:

    I started out the year on a reading roll.

    I finished Wolfish Charms and then went right into Stranded and Spellbound. These are books 2 and 2.5 of Jenna Collett’s fairytale mystery series. I thought the plot of Wolfish Charms was a little week, but Stranded featured a murder while snowbound which is one of my favorite mystery tropes.

    I also decided to start the Kate Daniels books and wow these are short. I like the world building but the plots seem like they move too fast and skip over getting from A to B. I enjoyed the first one and I’m partway through the second.

    Also reading The Ruin of Kings by Jenn Lyons. This is really a fantastic book. So much detail and the way the story is told between alternate viewpoints of the main character Khirin keeps the plot moving even though I as the reader have no idea what’s going on. I’m just along for the journey.

    It also features a dragon that sings and then gets really pissed when the singing stops.

  13. LML says:

    Emma Jameson offered her latest Lord Hetheridge mystery in December; I got it and in the process discovered -joy!- that she wrote an earlier one when I wasn’t paying attention. Lord Hetheridge’s bemusement at falling in love for the first time, practically at first sight, with a woman almost half his age, a subordinate supporting her young nephew and disabled adult brother, and Hetheridge’s subsequent navigation of their marriage (and work repercussions) is a pleasure.

    I read Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts and enjoyed its fresh originality, sympathetic and quirky characters.

    I blasted through Andrea Penrose’s Wrexford and Sloane series, reading through afternoons and evenings instead of just evenings. Wrexford is an aristocratic scientist and Sloane a caricaturist supporting her household with this work. It was fun to watch sardonic Wrexford falling in love. Thanks to whoever recommended this series here.

    Two early (I assume) Mary Jo Putney novels, The Diabolical Baron and Carousel of Hearts were enjoyable. Both involved mismatched couples plus bonus amnesia in Carousel of Hearts. I especially enjoyed the Diabolical Baron, who plucked his future wife’s name from those suggested by a friend and placed in a nut bowl. I do wish ebooks gave more standardized and complete publishing information.

    After a challenging week, I soothed myself by re-reading one of Betty Neels’ many fairy tales.

  14. Lace says:

    I finished Adrian Tchaikovsky’s Children of Time and loved it all the way through. Interstellar SF without FTL is hard to do well.

    I read and loved Nghi Vo’s fantasy novella The Empress of Salt and Fortune a few months back. The semi-sequel, When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain, is even better. This is a story about a F/F romance and who tells those stories, and how that affects them.

    I’m currently reading Molly Bang’s Picture This, which is a very accessible introduction to story-telling with pictures and how the elements work. It was on sale a couple of times recently, so if that sounds interesting you may want to take a look at a sample.

  15. Liz says:

    Rereading the Discovery of Witches trilogy. I started listening to the audiobook because I needed something for dog walks and got sucked right in. Alternating between books and audio now.

  16. Another Anne says:

    Rereading Vivian Arend’s series about the Coleman family, which is ranchers working in Alberta, Canada. Great way to escape the news these days. I enjoyed these books the first time around and am finding them even more enjoyable this time through.

    I started listening to more audiobooks last year. I generally stick to memoirs and nonfiction in audiobooks, which has opened up new reading areas for me. One hat has stuck with me, is Born a Crime, which I listened to during the first 2 weeks in November. This is Trevor Noah’s memoir and it was really interesting. His stories about his mother were fascinating to me and I kept hoping he would tell more stories about her in the book. AFter I finished, I learned that the book is in development as a film with Lupita Nyongo attached to play his mother.

  17. DonnaMarie says:

    The last new book of 2020 was Nalini Singh’s latest Guild Hunter, Archangel’s Sun. It stretched the older woman/younger man trope. When you are pretty much immortal, what’s a few thousand years age gap, right? It was delightful. Titus with his booming voice and open heart is very different from the other archangel’s we’ve met. He was a welcome reward for my two day 1764 mile trek to Arizona. Yes, I defied the admirable Dr. Fauci. The thought of my 90 yo father being alone for Christmas was too much to bear. I also had a purse full of bleach wipes and my first dose of vaccine before I left.

    The last actual book of 2020 was a reread of Julie James’ Suddenly One Summer. I had returned all my library books before leaving for Arizona and my Kindle has officially died, so I picked something from my shelves that I knew would make me smile and sigh and be happy to start again right after I finished it. Ms. James I am BEGGING you. PLEASE write another book!!!!!!!!

    First book of 2021 was In a Holidaze which was waiting for me at the GBPL upon my return. Another wonderful outing from the Christina Lauren team. It certainly helped me come down from a most unholiday holiday season. It maybe needed one or two more Groundhog Day resets to cement the premise, but all in all a solid holiday romance that is on the reread list for next December.

    This morning I had a choice between Keeland/Ward’s Happily Letter After and The Princess Knight. So, based-on-previous-experience angsty contemporary or rollicking burn-it-down bawdy adventure with warrior nuns and centaurs? I’m pretty sure if you are feeling the way I am about the first week of 2021, you know what I’m reading. Just saying, if I was still in AZ, the Trump banner at the end of my Dad’s street would have the work Traitor painted over it in florescent yellow paint.

  18. DiscoDollyDeb says:

    @DonnaMarie: I liked SUDDENLY ONE SUMMER, but I bet James wishes she hadn’t included a condo in Trump Tower as the heroine’s domicile! In fact, I notice as I’m reading books published prior to 2016, that Trump is occasionally used as a comparison—not in terms of his physical appearance, but as reference to his (perceived) wealth, his business empire, his high profile, and media savvy. I’m sure most writers will scrub those references if they ever republish.

  19. Karin says:

    @FashionablyEvil, the CS Harris contribution in The Deadly Hours is not connected to her mystery series. I enjoyed that one, and the Susanna Kearsley story the best, even though I had never read the Kearsley book with those characters.
    I have basically been trying to finish the same book all week, Madeline Hunter’s “Never Deny a Duke” which is the 3rd in her Decadent Dukes trilogy. This is no reflection on the book, it’s a very good enemies to lovers story.
    I am also still trying to reread Emma Jameson’s Lord Hetheridge series from the beginning, before tackling the new one, “Blue Christmas”.

  20. Darlynne says:

    My blood pressure usually hovers around “make sure she’s alive” and it still hasn’t come down after this week. Feeling like Waffle House hash browns: scattered, smothered, covered. Stay safe out there.

    A KILLING FROST by Seanan McGuire. I love this series, but was lost with all the names/titles and history of things-gone-before. Definitely not for new readers and perhaps that hash brown feeling didn’t help my confusion. Of course, I still recommend most every McGuire writes.

    A COWBOY TO REMEMBER by Rebekah Weatherspoon. This book is filled with practically-perfect-in-every-way characters, which should have been … perfect. I enjoyed the story very much, it just wasn’t the right time.

    THE GOOD DETECTIVE by John McMahon. An interesting premise, much deeper and timelier than I expected. A struggling police detective may have killed the prime suspect in a new horrific crime, implicating himself. The threads run back to the Civil War, personal responsibility and how we’re not dealing with issues of race. I can’t unreservedly recommend it because of violence–there were parts I skipped–and yet I want to see what happens after the resolution of these crimes.

    LONG SHOT by Kennedy Ryan. Every warning about this book was sufficient to skip it, but the author’s opening statement about her journey to/through this story wouldn’t let me. I am glad I read it, heartbreaking as it was, because it was important to understand rather than judge, with grace and compassion as Ryan hoped she did.

    IRON AND VELVET by Alexis Hall. Had to read this after professing my love for BOYFRIEND MATERIAL. Definitely not the same thing, still so fun once I got into it.

    DUNCAN DELANEY AND THE CADILLAC OF DOOM by A.L. Haskett. In my TBR for YEARS and finally read it. An enormously talented young painter travels to LA to make his career, which he does, aided/pursued/threatened by an astonishing group of outrageous characters. There is horrible doom in the end, deserving of a TW, which everyone here would see coming, and I am conflicted about how much I loved this book. This one’s going to hurt for a while.

    TUFFY CLAUS by Linda Mooney. CarrieS gave this book a nod and it was sufficiently cute and silly to be read. I enjoyed it.

  21. Darlynne says:

    @DonnaMarie: Which one is this: “rollicking burn-it-down bawdy adventure with warrior nuns and centaurs”?

  22. Janice says:

    Starting right after I finished up some work duties that ran past the Christmas holiday, I opened up the Murderbot collection on my ereader and devoured them all, finishing Network Effect early in 2021. An excellent way to ring in a new year!

    I’m a third of the way through Tressie McMillan Cottom’s Thick – just as good as her online writing would suggest.

    I’m not certain what’s next – I’ve been knee-deep in work all week, even today, but I’m thinking maybe Elizabeth Lim’s Spin the Dawn or maybe the most recent Lady Sherlock?

  23. DonnaMarie says:

    @Darlynne, The Princess Knight by G.A. Aiken aka Shelly Laurenston. Book two her Scarred Earth series. Bawdy, bloody and so much fun.

  24. Pat says:

    I am still finishing off my holiday reading with some great results. After reading The year of saying No by Maxine Morrey which I loved, I read 3 of her winter/holiday books, Christmas Project, Winters Fairytale and Winter at Wishington Bay and thoroughly enjoyed all of them. I am a fan of the sort of Brit lit romance and I enjoy her well defined characters and British humor. Great for a snowy afternoon on a council in front of the fire. I also thoroughly enjoyed In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren and although I agree she was a bit inconsistent with the time travel component, I found it refreshing and enjoyable. I gave all 4 five stars on goodreads.
    Sadly, I DNF Jingle Wars by R Holmes. I realized early on I couldn’t relate to leads but doesn’t mean it wouldn’t work for someone else.

    I have one more holiday book to read…Christmas at Holiday House by Rae Anne Thayne who is an auto buy for me then I am done!

  25. Margaret says:

    I have been doom-scrolling every night instead of reading–a very bad idea. So any non news-related words I’ve absorbed have been via audio, but given my fractured attention span, I abandoned almost all of them. What I did finish: IN A HOLIDAZE finally came up on my library queue; I liked it, but it wasn’t their best. I also finished THE TWO LIVES OF LYDIA BIRD by Josie Silver. I liked that, too, but not nearly as much as ONE DAY IN DECEMBER. I’m now struggling to write a promised review of an audio romance I definitely did NOT like, so coward that I am, I crawled back into comfort and am now listening to RETURN TO VIRGIN RIVER. So very predictable, but somehow macaroni and cheese-like in light of the world outside.

  26. MichelleG says:

    @Tam, I just finished Ted Lasso and it was one of my favourite escapes – sweet, funny, surprising. As for books, I’ve had good luck in my last few choices. Adored Alyssa Cole’s How to Catch A Queen, which was also sweet and funny. Finished audio of You Should See Me in a Crown, loved it. I’m curious if the intensity about prom is realistic? I feel like prom is a bigger deal in the states than in Canada, where I am. I’ve been picking up Milla Vane’s A Heart of Blood and Ashes – so much good buzz about this book but I have to be in the right mood to read Barbarian romance, it appears. Does anyone else find themselves trying to read outside of preferred genre because *more books* but it doesn’t always jive? Anyway, I’m not giving up on AHOBAA!

  27. lainey says:

    I read some great stuff at the end of last year because I spent the first few days of my holiday going through previous WAYR and Rec league posts and adding so many titles to my TBR. This is just to say, you’re all awesome and thank you!

    Anyway, the first book I finished this year is the non-fiction MONUMENTS MEN by Robert Edsel about the work of the MFAA (Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives) division in the Allied army saving artworks and historic monuments throughout Europe during WWII. It’s great; but the author’s tendency to dramatise scenes sometimes felt more like reading historical fiction than non-fic. I saw the movie written and directed by George Clooney and uh…I didn’t like it. Is he supposed to be considered a good writer? Because while the source material is incredibly rich and fascinating, the movie was just meh.

    After that I started THE RAPE OF EUROPA by Lynn Nicholas which covers the bigger picture of what happenned to the artworks in national and private collections during the war.

    I was also reading NIGHTS IN EDEN by Candice Proctor/C.S. Harris until about 25% in where the hero says that since he was basically raised by slaves, he knows they’re careless and cannot trust them with children. Uh, what?! That’s DNF for me. I was going to read the rest of her HR backlist but if this is what I can expect from the rest of her stuff, no thanks. I’ve read many the Sebastian St. Cyr novels and I don’t remember something like this from that series.

    Some books from my TBR came out this week–HATTIE TAYLOR, THE WIFE UPSTAIRS, and OUR DARKEST NIGHT. I read OUR DARKEST NIGHT by Jennifer Robson. It’s about a young Jewish Italian woman who, with the help of one of her father’s patients, poses as the wife of an ex-seminarian in an isolated farm in the Veneto region. They fall in love but tragedy soon follows. I think this book has a problem of under-developed characters and pacing issues (not a lot happens most of the time and suddenly it’s one thing after another). Nina and Nico are very likeable people so it’s easy to why they fall for each other but we don’t see the how…Also, the hero has a large family (six other siblings and their dad) but aside from the elder sister, it’s easy to forget they exist most of the time because they’re never given individual personalities (the younger sisters are Angela and Agnese and throughout the novel, Angela and Agnese are practically the same person, same with the younger brothers Paolo and Matteo, it’s worse than not being able to tell the Bridgerton brothers apart in the Netflix series).

  28. Kareni says:

    Happy new year! Since last time ~

    — a book I received as a Christmas gift, One Giant Leap by Kay Simone, which I quite enjoyed. You could describe it as a slow burn and a long distance romance. For about three quarters of the book, one character is on the earth while the other, an astronaut, is in space. I expect that this is a book I’ll reread.
    — Sourdough: or, Lois and Her Adventures in the Underground Market: A Novel by Robin Sloan. I’d describe this as enjoyable fiction with a hint of magical realism.
    — read and enjoyed Greyson’s Doom (The Endurance Book 1) by Tracy Cooper-Posey which happens to be currently FREE for Kindle readers. It’s a science fiction romance; I may or may not read on in the series.
    — read about half of Unbreak Me by Michelle Hazen. It was telling a good story; however, it was making me sad. I may continue with it some other time.

    — The first book I finished this year was an enjoyable reread. My husband and I were talking about this series on New Year’s Eve thus my interest was piqued. Written In Red (A Novel of the Others Book 1) by Anne Bishop.
    — Then I reread Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens for a meeting with my old nineties era book group that is now meeting on Zoom.
    — Good Mail Day: A Primer for Making Eye-Popping Postal Art by Hinchcliff and Wheeler was a fun book to browse through.
    — a number of m/m stories and novellas; some I liked and others were ho-hum. Some favorites were: Winter Term by Neil S. Plakcy, Enthralled by A. H. Lee, and The Last Text by Alice Winters.
    — read with pleasure A Wizard’s Guide To Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher. This book is appropriate for teen readers as well as adults. It also happens to be on sale for 99¢ for Kindle readers.

  29. Marci says:

    I spent most of December 2020 and the first few days of January 2021 finally diving into Mary Balogh’s historical series. I’d read the Bedwyn books years ago but barely remembered them. So I started with the first prequel Bedwyn book, One Night For Love, and continued through the whole Bedwyn series. I liked the series much better this time around, and especially enjoyed Slightly Scandalous, Freyja’s book. I think Freyja and Joshua are my favorite couple of all Mary Balogh’s books so far.

    After the Bedwyn series, I read the Simply Quartet and then the Survivors’ Club series. The Survivors’ Club books started to feel too repetitive to me, so I knew it was time to take a break from Mary Balogh and move on to a different author for awhile. I’ve got the Westcott series on my TBR list for sometime later this year.

    Mary Balogh’s books helped me complete my 2020 Goodreads Challenge, with a few extras to get my 2021 challenge off to a solid start. Now I’m stuck trying to figure out what I’m in the mood for next.

  30. Lynn says:

    I’m so glad this post has come up because I finished “Deception by Gaslight” by Kate Belli a few days ago and I need to scream about it to someone. I think I found it through a Hide Your Wallet post in December and it was so good. While I wouldn’t categorize it as a romance novel (the mystery aspects were more important) it definitely has romantic elements and tropes (fake courtship, omg <3) and I can imagine the romance between the main characters might develop more throughout the sequels. Now that it's been a few days there are some aspects that I wish would have been developed/explained more in the end but overall it was such a fun and exciting pageturner that kept me awake until 3am.

    I also started the new year great bc I read Tessa Dare's "The Wallflower Wager" and it was so heartwarming and lovely and I immediately want to pick up the books about Penny's girl friends. The dynamic between Gabe and Penny is my favourite kind (grumpy person whose world gets rocked by a happy/energetic person) and I found Gabe's hangryness so relatable.

    Next I'm going to re-read Diana Biller's "The Widow of Rose House" which I read around this time last year and decided to make it a tradition to re-read it in January. It was the one that started my journey with romance novels (and this community) and I'm so glad about it.

    Lastly I hope all of my American friends on here are staying safe and not doomscrolling too much.

  31. Pear says:

    I’ve not read much romance since the last Whatcha Reading — I think it’s a combination of some holiday blues, library holds coming in, and having started ROOKIE HISTORIAN GOO HAE-RYUNG and watching that at a faster clip than I normally do K-dramas. (I read quickly and watch TV shows slowly, go figure.)

    Romance:

    A DUKE IN SHINING ARMOR by Loretta Chase: solid historical romance, I really liked the hero and heroine together — my favorite Chase is MR. IMPOSSIBLE, and this reminded me of that in terms of the couple being on-the-run for part of the novel. I like when a couple is teaming up to accomplish a goal, I guess! I’m on a long hold list for TEN THINGS I HATE ABOUT THE DUKE at the library, and I’ll be curious to see how she redeems Ashmont — he doesn’t do anything extremely egregious on-page in this one, but he’s not exactly looking like hero material either.

    Somewhat romance-y, AURORA BURNING by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff: I deeply enjoy this YA sci-fi series as kind of a mash-up of various Star Trek: The Original Series episodes (there’s cryogenically frozen people, and mysterious powers, and space elves at war with the humans) with a dash of The Next Generation (a Borg-like entity as villain), but featuring teenage crews for Reasons, so it’s what I would call a touch hornier and also they’re all emotionally less mature. I’m here for the space elf boy getting with the mysteriously gifted human girl! Be warned, this one ends on a serious cliffhanger and I don’t know when the final book in the trilogy comes out, so if you’re looking to start the AURORA CYCLE and hate cliffhangers, maybe wait for a bit, or just read the first one and wait for longer to read this one.

    Non-Romance:

    PARADISE LOST by John Milton: I was never required to read this for class and I was curious about it. Milton’s very skilled with writing verse, but sections of this were deeply dull to me. I think my favorite books were I and IX–more happening with Satan, who makes for the most compelling figure, and some interesting subtext around Eve. I wasn’t quite ready for the misogyny (and I do mean misogyny in the way Kate Manne defines it in DOWN GIRL–God is punishing Eve for transgressing from her expected feminine duties) but I should have been.

    GHOST WALL by Sarah Moss: novella set in the UK (apparently in the 1970s but I didn’t fully pick up on that) about a teen girl whose parents have taken her to an archaeology live-like-the-Iron-Age course as a vacation. Horror slowly seeps in as you learn more about Silvie’s home life and as the men’s ideas about the past start to impact their present behavior. I thought this was unsettling to read, which was probably the point, but I don’t think I’ll read it again. CW: physical abuse and assault.

    TOO FAT, TOO SLUTTY, TOO LOUD: THE RISE AND REIGN OF UNRULY WOMEN by Anne Helen Petersen: I listened to this on audio during walks & runs, it was a good level of informative and engaging but not dense. I did get distracted a lot thinking about what female celebrities she might use in 2021 to explain the categories of unruly behavior. I think some of the discussions would have benefitted from additional examination of how intersectionality affects perceptions of unruliness–e.g., misogynoir influencing fatphobia. AHP discussing celebrities is always a treat.

    THE FRANGIPANI TREE MYSTERY by Ovidia Yu: I just finished this today, and wow what a great job with the setting–not just description but also an examination of the effects of British imperialism on various characters, of class, of patriarchy, of ethnic background. I’ve requested the next one from the library and am looking forward to reading more about Su Lin as she steps further into detective work!

    Not sure what I’ll start next, but I’ll have to scroll through comments again for inspiration.

  32. Crystal says:

    :::stumbles in feeling slightly punch-drunk:::

    I’m buying a weighted blanket tomorrow. 2021 is already doing the ultimate most, and I need something to hide under. Not just the national stuff, either Frak this week.

    Anyhoo, we’ll kick things off with The Cousins with Karen McManus, who has rapidly become one of my favorites when it comes to clever YA mysteries. This one dealt with three cousins that don’t know each other very well that are summoned to the Kennedy-like compound by the grandmother they’ve never met, who had disowned their parents years before. You had family secrets, murders, cover-ups, you name it. Nice and twisty, and like many of McManus’s books, a final line that just makes you know she grinned maniacally when she wrote it. Then I went headlong into The Law of Innocence by Michael Connelly, which I loved. It was just so damn SMART, and I really enjoyed the characters. After that, I had just finished Bridgerton, so I decided to read a Bridgerton book, and since I had decided Eloise was my favorite Bridgerton, I read her book. She is a bit different in the book, which may be differences in writing or the simple matter that in her book, Eloise is quite a bit older than she was in the show. I liked her interactions with Phillip’s children and thought she had good chemistry with him, but think he spent a bit too long being a complete doofus, especially where the safety and well-being of his children were concerned. Once that was done, I went with So You Want to Be A Wizard by Diane Duane. I thought that it did an amazing job with setting, and really enjoyed the sentient star that showed up, and it contained some really beautiful writing, but I also found some of the book to have some very herky-jerky pacing, which tends to drive me kinda nutty. Which brings us to now. Two days before that disgusting display at the Capitol, I had just started Ten Things I Hate About the Duke, which is lovely, and funny, and has all the references, and is a balm to my brain, which is currently very angry and very sad. I’m hoping some of my bandwidth comes back soon. Under normal circumstances it would have taken me a couple of days, but in these, it’s taking me a little longer. Well, guys, until next time. Call your senators, call your reps, drink water, drink hot chocolate, get a damn weighted blanket. Just take care.

  33. Gabrielle says:

    @lainey I agree re Monuments Men book vs movie. Enjoyed that and Rape of Europa. Along the art theme but in fiction was “The Madonnas of Leningrad” where a young woman lives out the siege with other museum staff inside the Hermitage. Dark siege content but fascinating.

    I love these threads so much. It’s like browsing the library shelves when I can no longer do it in person.

  34. Kris Bock says:

    I recently read Midlife Bounty Hunter by Shannon Mayer, which I think the Bitchery would like, if you’re one of the people who enjoys good female rage. The main character returns to Savannah after a divorce. she was familiar with the ‘shadow world’ as a child but got away from it. She gets a chance to work for a company that deals with werewolves, bigfoot, demons etc, but everyone dismisses her because she’s a woman and ‘too old’ for the work at 41. Rage fuels her to get past her weaknesses, and a natural kindness helps her make friends who are beneficial. Lots of action, a great character, and good fun. And the series is in Kindle Unlimited..

  35. Amy S. says:

    I really dropped the ball last year with this so I made a promise to myself to keep up.
    –My Soul to Keep by Kennedy Ryan. You can’t go wrong with a Kennedy Ryan book. It was my first book of the year and the first 5 star read. It follows Bristol’s (heroine from the Grip series *good book noise*) brother Rhyson and Kai. Be warned though it ends on a cliffhanger.
    –Rock Chick Reawakening by Kristen Ashley. This is Daisy and Marcus’s story and a prequel to the Rock Chick series. It was just ok. I don’t know if it was because it was a novella or that every time I read a KA book I feel like I read it before.
    Dr.Neuro(tic) by Max Monroe. 3rd book in a series but can be read as a standalone. It’s about a doctor and a headhunter that left his daughter’s uncle at the alter years ago. Didn’t seem like this one had the same slapstick quality to it but still a good book.
    –Playing with Fire by LJ Shen. I love her books. This was a new adult book about a girl ashamed by her burn scars and a guy who keeps everyone at a distance. It was really good and highly recommend Shen’s books.

  36. Maeve says:

    I’ve been rereading Elizabeth Hunter’s Elemental books. I don’t like the main couple for the Elemental Mysteries books but I reread it anyway, and I love the Elemental World & Elemental Legacy books. But be warned, these are like popcorn.

  37. lainey says:

    @Gabrielle: Thank you for that rec! I also plan to read Saving Italy by Robert Edsel and The Night Portrait by Laura Morelli which is historical fiction about da Vinci’s Lady with an Ermine, stolen by the Nazis from Krakow and eventually recovered by the Monuments Men.

  38. Katie C. says:

    Still waiting for the arrival of Baby Girl – I thought she would be here by now!

    Excellent:
    None

    Very Good:
    The Twelve Dogs of Christmas by Lizzie Shane: a small town Christmas romance which felt like a fairly realistic version of a Hallmark movie. It is acknowledged several times that living in a small town can be hard – both breaking into the social circle if you are the new person in town and dealing with everyone knowing everyone else’s business. The hero works for the town as their government IT person and as a councilman. His sister and brother-in-law died in a car accident and he has been the sole guardian of his niece since that time two years ago. The heroine is a freelance photographer in town to help her grandparents with their dog rescue. I really really appreciated that the neither the hero nor heroine had it all together. The hero was drowning in his to-do list, but too stubborn to ask for help. The heroine was trying to find her place in the world both professionally and personally. Highly recommended – can’t wait until this summer when the second book in the series drops between the Ivy League lawyer hero and free spirit princess party performer heroine. A note, the heat level on this one is very low (kissing only).

    Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz: Horowitz has a way of taking a format I would normally hate (in this case a book within a book) and making me enjoy it. The same was the case with The Word is Murder (that format had Horowitz as a character in the story). The book within the book is a small English village mystery where first the housekeeper and then the lord of the manor are found dead in the 1950’s. The larger story is about the present-day author of that book and his suspicious death. I marked it down from Excellent because I wasn’t crazy about how the contemporary mystery was resolved.

    Baby-Led Weaning Tenth Anniversary Edition: The Essential Guide―How to Introduce Solid Foods and Help Your Baby to Grow Up a Happy and Confident Eater by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett: Confession, I started reading this when my son first started solids about nine months ago, but then set it down until now. I figured since baby #2 is on the way way, now was a good time to finish. A very good guide to a different way to start solids.

    Good, Meh, and Bad:
    None

  39. Kareni says:

    @Katie C., best wishes as you await the arrival of baby girl!

  40. trefoil says:

    @Arijo – I didn’t realize Sorry I Missed You was set in Regina! That quote perfectly describes the city—it’s really only a capital city because there are only two cities in Saskatchewan. I don’t live there anymore but I’m looking forward to seeing it again through the book.

    My goal this year is to actually track my books (I lost track in April last year, when all I had read for weeks were Pippa Grant’s kindle unlimited series). So far:
    IN A HOLIDAZE – as other posters have said, I needed another Groundhog Day moment or two for it to work but it was fun.

    NEEDLEMOUSE – a delight. A woman in love with her boss makes some bad choices and ends up improving her life.

    THE LION’S DEN – bad decisions book club. I had expected more murder! I desperately want to travel and this was armchair travel at its best

    TAKE A HINT, DANI BROWN – squeeeee. Zaf is the first hero who reminds me of my partner, in all the best ways.

    MOONLIGHTER – I love a book with a smart powerful woman and wish there had been more of Alex doing business.

    A PRINCESS FOR CHRISTMAS – cozy and comforting and surprisingly emotional. I’m excited for the next book.

    ALL STIRRED UP – so much amazing food. I was surprised that the Lauren/Chris pairing wasn’t explored more or weirder for everyone.

    CHRISTMAS ON THE ISLAND and CHRISTMAS AT THE ISLAND HOTEL – cozy Scottish ensemble with romance!

    WAITING FOR A STAR TO FALL – political staffer and her older boss, so relevant in the Me Too era.

    GROWN – I was NOT expecting this to be as brutal as it was. I read it all in the bath one night. So good, so much like the R Kelly stories.

    A SKY PAINTED GOLD – lovely and very like I Capture the Castle.

Comments are closed.

By posting a comment, you consent to have your personally identifiable information collected and used in accordance with our privacy policy.

↑ Back to Top