Happy April! I hope you all enjoyed the site’s April Fools joke. We have such a fun time planning it every year.
Spring is upon us. I wore short sleeves and sandals the other day in New England.
Also, if you haven’t tuned into out Twitch channel yet, this Sunday, some of us at the site will be playing silly Jackbox games at 2pm eastern. We also invite our audience members to play to!
Elyse: I just started Someone to Cherish by Mary Balogh. ( A | BN | K | AB )
Her books tend to be low conflict and lots of gentle courtship based on dialogue and I need that right now
Claudia: I’m saving that one (for no particular reason). I just finished a book that left me very, very annoyed so I’m taking my time picking my next one.
Tara: I watched The Go-Go’s documentary last week, so now I’m listening to Kathy Valentine’s autobiography, All I Ever Wanted. It’s so good, but I’ve only made it to where she’s 13 years old and it’s ROUGH sometimes. I’m so looking forward to taking in the rest of her journey.
EllenM: I saw the Go-Gos a few years ago when they were at Ravinia (an outdoor music venue in Chicago) and they were REALLY good!
Carrie: I am reading Prospects of a Woman by Wendy Voorsanger, about a woman in the California Gold Rush. I’m not sure what I think of it yet. I just finished a non-fiction collection of letters about a real woman in the California Gold Rush (The Letters of Dame Shirley) and that was fascinating.
EllenM: I just finished a Court of Silver Flames, which left me torn because
Currently continuing with the Elder Races series with Serpent’s Kiss, ( A | BN | K | AB ) which is my favorite one so far.
Kiki: I’m also reading A Court of Silver Flames! I have…very, VERY few positive things to say about the series as a whole (I straight up DNF’ed the third book) but I’m sticking around for my girl Nesta, who I love because she’s mean to all the people I would probably also be mean to.
EllenM: Yeah honestly Nesta is my favorite Maas heroine in a long while.
Shana: I’m almost finished with Love All Year, a holiday romance anthology. It’s a mixed bag, but my favorite so far is Celestine Martin’s cozy Yuletide story about a witch using a love potion on her closest friend and crush. There’s mistletoe, gingerbread, and only one bed! Right now I’m in the middle of Farah Heron’s “Making up with Eid Bae,” and it’s a delicious second chance romance.
Ok, just finished the book, and that Eid story was PERFECTION. So much food porn, and a super sweet feminist hero who’s happy to wear mehndi.
Sarah: Oh this sounds so good!
Catherine: Ooh, I will have to give that one a try! I am currently bingeing my way through Eloisa James’ Wilde series, because it is grant season at work and my brain is tired. Nothing like a reliable series to reread when you have a sad tired brain!
What are you reading? Let us know!
I’ve been reading more mysteries lately, but picked up DEAR ENEMY on yesterday’s sale and will be reading that. I also have the latest Laura Griffin and will be getting into that too. The mysteries:
THE SURVIVORS by Jane Harper. Atmospheric, poignant and emotional.
THE BLUFFS by Kyle Perry. His debut and it is a good one, although flawed. I love the setting and it was spooky and creepy. However, the ending was unresolved and a lot of the story was unbelievable, leaving it as a so-so read. His writing style is good, so I’m willing to try his next book.
THE DIRTY DOZEN by Lynda LaPlante. The last in the Jane Tennison pre-quel series, engaging and scary in parts.
I’ve been flailing around not able to find much to read that will hold my attention, but I liked, in order.
LOVE IN ENGLISH by Maria E. Andreu. My fave of this batch. A YA book about a teenage girl moving from Argentina who moves to the US to be with her father and struggles to find her place while coming up to speed in English. The author has a very beautiful, poetic way of writing and I loved the idea she had for representing confusing English words in a book that was written *in* English (the book is autobiographical and the author is fully bilingual now). When English speakers talk it will be something like “Let’s go #### the car and later we’ll ###. Maybe McDonald’s? A ###? Sound good?” And so help me, that’s exactly what it’s like! In Spanish and in Italian for me. Not English 😉 I felt she captured a lot of emotion and confusion of being in another culture while trying to remain positive. There’s even a love triangle that was resolved in a way I didn’t hate, although I was definitely rooting for one particular guy (he was adorable!) from the beginning. Just a lovely, warm read and particularly meaningful to me as both a language learner and sometimes ESL teacher.
THE JADE TEMPTRESS by Jeanie Han. Part of historical romance/mystery series set in the Pingking Li during the Tang dynasty. This was really good, I was honestly just mostly annoyed at myself when I realized halfway through that it wasn’t the first in the series and I put it down for a while. Wu is a officer of the law and Mingyu is a courtesan and they have a difficult history (which is explained well but I’m still a completist who wishes she read the first book) but they’re thrust together when Mingyu’s most important client is beheaded. I *thought* the mystery was going in a really simplistic direction, but it did have a few satisfying twists. Wu and Mingyu have a bit of slow burn, which I love and the world is richly and fully described. I just need to go back and read the freaking first book. (I even already own it, I just forget I owned it, so annoyed at myself.)
THEIRS FOR A NIGHT by Katee Robert. A woman has a menage with a mysterious prince and his sexy bodyguard. That’s about it, it’s a one sitting read. This was really fun and well-written. I don’t read a lot of stuff on the more erotic side b/c I find myself either skimming the sex scenes b/c they’re cringy and/or boring to me – or – I end up skipping the actual plot b/c I feel like the writer can write sex but not conflict/plot that I personally enjoy. I’ve enjoyed Katee Robert on Twitter and I was in a mood where I needed something quick and sexy to hold my attention and it worked. This did have the annoying ‘end in a cliffhanger’ thing that was popular in erotic romance a while ago, but hoopla has the series, so I can’t really complain. I might go on and read the rest of the series, I might not. I enjoyed it, but I also wasn’t on the edge of my seat looking for a resolution. Sometimes can’t a lady just have a sexy evening and leave it at that? (shrug emoji)
IT TAKES TWO by Jenny Holiday. I was on the brink of DNF-ing this several times, but I stuck it out and am now reading the next one, so the book deserves my begrudging respect for that alone. Wendy is the maid of honor at her friend’s wedding and Noah is the brother of the bride and they have a complicated history, but end up getting tangled up in fling with a side of competition over their bachelor/bachelorette parties. So the first thing, I just straight up hated Noah at certain parts of this book. He was waaaay, waaaay too possessive and over-the-line for me at certain points with Wendy, a grown-ass woman who owed him absolutely nothing. That is just my personal taste and something that turns me off quickly. I’m also just over stories where someone’s main romantic issue ties back to some sort of specific social/romantic rejection in high school, *especially* when the person who rejects them comes back into their lives and it starts messing with their head. If it is a year or two and they’re college-age? Sure? But you’re a lawyer with a successful career in your 30s and this is still bugging you? What? I don’t mean to be without empathy, but I’ve seen it so many times it feels a bit trite and overwrought to me. Get a therapist, get better boundaries, or get a grip! Every time they flashed back to high school, I skimmed. I did like Wendy and I liked a lot of fun details. I’m reading the next one, so obviously I’m glad I pushed through.
That’s it for romance, but can I say I was really disappointed in THE SILVER ARROW by Lev Grossman? I was reading to my kids and I could tell he was going for an old-fashioned kids adventure book, but I felt like it was horribly contrived and had one of the worst deus ex machina endings I had seen in a while. It felt like he banged it out lazily for a quick book. Sorry, I try to keep ranting to a minimum, but ugh (!). Did not like. And I say that as someone who happily read something like THE MAGIC TREE HOUSE books to my kids as long as they’re enjoying it.
Since last time I’ve read mostly contemporary which is a bit unusual for me and it’s all because of Jodi Taylor.
A BACHELOR ESTABLISHMENT by Jodi Taylor. The St Mary’s series is quite a favourite here but I decided to start with her other stuff because I didn’t want to start a new series. Anyway, this is her first (but hopefully not last) HR. The romance is between a widow and a her absentee landlord neighbour who has come back to strip his estate of any remaining assets and run off again but things don’t quite go as planned, obviously. I really enjoyed the characters and the dialogue–the banter is fun and witty without being off-putting. (TW: domestic violence)
WHITE SILENCE by Jodi Taylor. The start of her Elizabeth Cage series, billed as a “supernatural thriller” which is accurate I guess but the thriller part is kind of funny when you realise what kind of character Elizabeth Cage is. She’s more like Bilbo Baggins than, I dunno, Jessica Jones. She can see people’s auras and know what people are feeling and thinking which doesn’t lend itself to an active social life. She has isolated herself from the world as a coping mechanism. She has no friends, doesn’t work and her only connection to the outside world is her husband. But then her husband suddenly dies and the place he worked for, a mental institution run by a man who specialises in psychological warfare, want Elizabeth. Her love interest is Michael Jones, a spy staying at the clinic after a botched assignment. He is also an example of what I’m starting to think of as a typical Jodi Taylor hero—highly competent but doesn’t take himself, or anything, too seriously. Anyway, Cage and Jones decide to break out and go on road trip. There’s ghosts, castles, and even some time travel (and some parallel universe thing too). It’s fun! I haven’t read much urban paranormal or anything like that so I don’t have much to compare it to but almost everything in this book worked for me.
DARK LIGHT (Elizabeth Cage #2) by Jodi Taylor. I am disappointed after the excellent first book. This suffers from your usual second book issues: too many new minor characters and plot threads brought up but never developed. Also, it just lacks the charm of the first one. My biggest issue though has to be how almost everyone woman in this book except Elizabeth Cage is portrayed as hysterical, manipulative, or murderous (or all three). And there are a lot of women in this book, like a village full of them.
THE NOTHING GIRL by Jodi Taylor. A story of a girl and her imaginary talking horse friend (TW: attempted suicide). Jenny is an orphan who suffers from chronically low self-esteem and severe social anxiety. She spends her life in her uncle’s attic and hardly goes anywhere. Then her talking horse friend convinces her to hang out with a childhood friend who eventually proposes some kind of marriage of convenience—Jenny is an heiress and he needs the money to restore his estate and in return he gives her a home away from her overbearing relatives. I recognise that this is supposed to be nice feel-good story about a woman finding confidence and strength after being underestimated all her life but I just didn’t have the patience for Jenny and kept wondering why no one has advised her to go to therapy.
THE GUEST LIST by Lucy Foley. I preferred the her previous book The Hunting Party—same premise as this one: remote location, murder, thirty-something dysfunctional group of friends. I felt like this was a bit too obvious and the ‘reveal’ relied too much on coincidence.
I started THE PRINCESS TRAP by Talia Hibbert last month. Read 5 pages and stopped. I didn’t feel it, and the heroine did not make a good first impression. But I really liked the cover so I picked it back up last week – I did well to wait because this time around I was in the right mood and I loved it! I’m not sure how the author managed, but the hero is both arrogant and smug and vulnerable and deprecating at the same time, and without coming off all crazy head. I pinned it down later in the book: he’s cocksure when it comes to sexuality while deep down he believes he’s unlovable, but he’s not bitter or angsty about it. Another good thing was the male friendship. And the heroine of course, she was great and I loved her family. In fact, thinking back on it, there’s nothing I didn’t like in this book.
Next I read THE PAPER MAGICIAN by Charlie N. Holmberg. I don’t rightly know what to say about it. It wasn’t bad, but wasn’t great either. Good-ish I guess? It was lopsided, with lots of details for certain things and lack of descriptions (where there should have been more) for others. Like the heroine’s sentiments, they seemed to spring out of nowhere; or why or how Lira sent her into Thane’s heart – it felt unjustified and contrived, like a villain’s monologue at the end of an action movie. I do have the other two books and I liked this one enough that I’ll read them. I just hope the story becomes more engrossing.
Aaaaand that’s it! Only two books completed in two weeks. (o.0) On the other hand, I finished my second quilt ever! That’s where my reading time went
@Arijo, yay! Quilts I love quilts. Something beautiful, functional, and taking small bits of things and making a bigger beautiful lasting thing? what’s not to love? Amazing stuff. I love looking at them, looking at other people sewing them. When I’m stressed and burnt out, I browse quilting fabrics and patterns on the internet and watch people sew quilts. Unfortunately I also hate to sew, so the chances of me ever making one are very, very slim, but high five to you. 🙂
Reading-wise, this month I’ve been in the DiscoDollyDeb Den of Dark & Angsty (subtitle: Where It Doesn’t Always Have to Be Dark, But It Almost Always Has to Be Angsty), so what else is new? You could play a drinking game where you take a shot every time I use the words “angst” or “angsty,” but, for various reasons, I’d advise against it.
Although Nyla K’s DISTORTED is marketed as a dark erotic m/m romance, for well over half the book there are strong elements of both psychological suspense and horror in this well-written but very dark story about the relationship between an inmate and a prison guard. As in psychological suspense, characters’ words, and actions are ambiguous and subject to various interpretations; and, as in horror, logic is often suspended and a hazy, trance-like quality pervades the atmosphere. If you go into DISTORTED expecting a standard romance, you’ll be disappointed; but if you go into it expecting something twisty and dark, you may (like me) enjoy the ride. After a bank robbery goes wrong, career criminal Dash awakens in a prison with no memory of where he is or how he got there. The conditions in the prison are appalling: the buildings are old and deteriorating, the warden is rarely seen and has given the run of the prison to guards who veer on a whim from friendly to predatory, punishments for infractions are swift and brutal, and exchanging sex for basic items (like toothpaste or soap) is common. It doesn’t take long for Dash to catch the eye of one particular guard—and so begins their “relationship” [cw/tw: non-consent, dubious-consent, power imbalance, pain infliction]. But while Dash and the guard continue to have lots of very transgressive sexual encounters and Dash tries to analyze his feelings for the prison guard (which Dash acknowledges could be a clear case of “Stockholm Syndrome”), there are also ongoing questions about the prison: where exactly is it located; what did the inmates do to be placed here; where are the missing inmates; what happens in the dreaded “East Wing”; and can anyone ever escape? In her Author’s Note, Nyla K asks readers not to share or read spoilers, so I’ll just say that I did not see the twisty revelations coming and I immediately reread the book with a completely different eye. I’ve added DISTORTED to my list of favorite books of 2021. Recommended—if you’re looking for something out-of-the-ordinary and don’t mind the dark stuff.
One of my favorite queens of angsty heartache, Caitlin Crews, released two books this month: THE SECRET THAT CAN’T BE HIDDEN, an unplanned-pregnancy romance, published by Harlequin Presents; and THE PLEASURE CONTRACT, about a woman who rather unwillingly accepts an arranged position as a girlfriend to a billionaire, published by Harlequin’s Dare line. I’ve said before that in Harlequin Presents an occasional sex scene interrupts the angst, whereas in Dare books the angst interrupts the almost non-stop sex. Not every writer can handle the different requirements of the two lines, but Caitlin Crews (along with another of my favorites, Jackie Ashenden) can write books to both templates and make them perfectly suit the individual requirements. THE SECRET THAT CAN’T BE HIDDEN has exactly two sex scenes—including the first one where (par for the HP course) the virginal heroine gets pregnant—although the h&h spend lots of time, together and apart, thinking about what their lives might be like if they could overcome the terrible lessons of their different but equally dysfunctional upbringings. On the other hand, THE PLEASURE CONTRACT is only a couple of chapters in before the MCs are having wild sex up against a wall in an alleyway. Between the casual barrage of ‘fucks,” “cocks,” “clits,” and “pussies,” and the frequent, explicit sex, the h&h grow closer emotionally, although the closed-off hero resents it and the post-doctoral academic heroine eventually decides she’s had enough of being in a legally-arranged relationship. It goes without saying that Crews bequeaths HEAs to the couples in both books—but she brings them about in ways that are individually organic to the MCs of the books and the differing requirements of the specific publishing imprint. It takes true talent to write to the dissimilar styles of category romances and make each book fresh and distinct—and Crews does just that in these two very different but uniformly good books.
[cw/tw: cheating] Ainsley Booth’s SHAME is about one couple’s attempt to salvage their 20-year relationship after the wife discovers her husband has been having an affair. I know infidelity is a hard no for many romance readers and there is no way around the fact that in SHAME the husband has chosen to be unfaithful to his wife, but I think Booth did a great job with a difficult subject. The heroine, Grace, discovers her husband Luke’s infidelity in the most prosaic of ways: while Luke is in the shower, a text message pops up on his phone. Grace idly glances at the screen and, in an instant, her world is demolished. Luke’s infidelity is not mitigated as it sometimes is in romance novels (Luke & Grace were not ‘on a break,’ nor did they have an open relationship); and Grace goes through a panoply of emotions—anger, rage, devastation, grief, vindictiveness, sadness, sorrow—trying to decide if her marriage is worth saving, or even if it can be saved. I had a harder time relating to Luke, who also goes through his own darkness and sorrow—but his sorrow is self-created, so I had less sympathy for him. SHAME takes Grace and Luke through the stages of separation and reconciliation: Luke moves out, Grace dates a few different men (although her heart really isn’t in it), Luke tries to find ways he and Grace can reconnect, Grace continues to work on her upcoming art exhibit, Grace & Luke go to couples therapy, Luke also goes to therapy on his own (where he has to accept some hard truths about his attitude toward not only Grace, but toward his brother and other people in his life), Grace & Luke reconcile and (at Grace’s behest) incorporate some mild Daddy-kink into their sexual relationship. There are steps forward and steps back. I’d almost classify SHAME as more women’s fiction than romance. Recommended—with all of the provisos necessary for a story with an MC who cheats on his partner.
As is often the case with Cara Dee’s books, I was intrigued by the premise of her WE HAVE TILL DAWN, but I was less enthralled with its execution, which doesn’t quite stick the landing. Nick, who was once a sex worker, is persuaded by his former boss at the escort agency to take on a special client: Gideon, a wealthy man in his mid-forties who has autism. Gideon is engaged to be married (to a woman) but is attracted to men—an attraction he has rarely explored. Gideon is willing to pay an exorbitant sum for two months of exclusivity with Nick. Nick could use the money to help fund the music school he runs with his brother, but the arrangement with Gideon does come with very strict instructions—including that Nick must always wear a mask, be available during night-time hours, and only speak if asked a direct question. I found this setup fascinating and hoped Dee would take time to delve into it—especially the ways Gideon’s autism expresses itself in his need to plan and control his encounters with Nick. Unfortunately, it takes only a couple of sessions before Nick convinces Gideon to throw away his rule book and, from there, the story becomes a basic m/m romance featuring age-gap and wealth-gap tropes, with Gideon sometimes acting in a way that could be explained by his autism but occasionally feels as if Dee simply wants to up the drama level. Gideon never seems consistent in his autistic behavior: I work with special-needs students, many of whom have autism, and one of my daughters is at the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum, and there’s one thing they all have in common: change comes slowly and in increments, so Gideon’s abrupt about-face regarding a situation he took great pains to establish and control does not ring true. (In contrast, I read Tamsen Parker’s INSIDE TRACK last month and one of the many things I liked about it was how the characters were not magically transformed by love into people who no longer had mental-health challenges.) While WE HAVE TILL DAWN is in no way a bad book—it’s well-written and has a lot of heart and heat—I was expecting something different. Not a terrible book, but one that had the potential to be so much more.
There were initially two big obstacles getting in the way of my enjoyment of Karina Bliss’s RISE (recommended in the recent “one practical partner and one flamboyant partner” Rec League): the first was how hard it was to suspend my disbelief that a prominent academic scholar would be willing to accept the position of helping to write the memoirs of the front man of a world-famous rock band; the second was how unreliable that front man was—he makes promises he has no intention of fulfilling, he doesn’t follow through on his commitments and obligations, and he deflects when questions get too probing or personal. At first, I didn’t like him at all and I felt for the heroine, who has proved herself capable of writing a Pulitzer Prize-winning biography but can’t get the man who hired her to sit down for an hour to discuss the outline for the book he wants to publish! Fortunately, Bliss’s excellent writing and the development of some self-awareness on the part of the hero helped alleviate matters—and I’m glad I stayed with the story. Naturally, an attraction develops between the rocker and his biographer, and I liked both the slow-burn aspect and the concerns the biographer has about getting involved with her subject. (I also saw some parallels between the heroine of RISE and the heroine of Caitlin Crews’s THE PLEASURE CONTRACT, mentioned above, in that they are both academics who unwittingly attract the attention of the tabloids because of their personal relationships—and both have valid concerns about how this will reflect on their future scholarly activities.) Another element of Bliss’s writing style that I really liked is that she brings in the points-of-view of secondary characters (several of whom are MCs in later books), including the rocker’s P.A., one of his former girlfriends, and the wife of another band member, all of whom have pivotal roles to play in moving the plot forward. Recommended—just keep pushing through the first few chapters.
[cw/tw: off-page death of a family member] THE SHEIKH’S BABY SURPRISE is the seventh and final book in Clare Connelly’s Montebellos series about a large, extended Italian-Greek family. (In this case, the Sheikh’s mother was a Montebello.) Obviously, based on the title, there’s an unplanned pregnancy involved, but there’s also a surprising amount of sadness (the family’s beloved matriarch passes away—not unexpectedly, but she was a force in the earlier books) and much conversation about grief, regret, and how hard it is to correct the mistakes of the past (including what caused the long estrangement between the Sheikh’s mother and the rest of the Montebello family). One thing I did find interesting in the book was how much the heroine fights against having the wealthy, powerful Sheikh make unilateral decisions on her behalf—even when they were positive decisions and to her advantage. She fights for her autonomy and her need to be consulted beforehand about decisions that affect her. Key quote: “It isn’t possible to live a perfect life. Everyone makes mistakes—of different magnitudes, admittedly. We all do things we regret. It’s how you fix the situation after that matters.” I can read angsty books like this as easily and compulsively as eating a jar of peanuts, but YMMV. If you think you’d like THE SHEIKH’S BABY SURPRISE, I’d definitely recommend reading all the other books in the Montebellos series first because characters do recur, especially in this, the final book.
Lynn Raye Harris has acquired the rights to some of the books she previously published through Harlequin Presents and has republished them with revisions, expanded scenes, and new titles. I had not read SPANISH MAGNATE, RED-HOT REVENGE, the original book that Harris has now republished as FILTHY RICH REVENGE, but I have to assume the bulk of the revisions & expansions Harris has made are related to sex scenes—which are far more detailed, explicit, and frequent here than you would find in an HP. Despite the preponderance of sex scenes, FILTHY RICH REVENGE has a plot clearly cut from the angsty HP template: a Spanish billionaire (and former bullfighter) has spent the past five years believing that the woman he once loved used him to get information that enabled her father to acquire a hotel chain the hero had plans to buy. He has carefully plotted his revenge, planning to destroy his former lover and her hotel empire, but—oh no’s!—feelings keep getting in the way. You know if you like this operatic level of angst & drama & misunderstanding—especially when a power couple spend so much time in the horizontal position you wonder how they’d ever find time to run a photo booth in the mall let alone multi-billion-dollar businesses—but I love this kind of book, even when—as is the case here—it’s not exactly a flawless example of the type.
DEAD OR ALIVE, Derek Landy, of the Skulduggery Pleasant series. Book 13 or 14, I can’t recall, there is to be one more to finish the series. I stumbled upon this fantasy/YA series some years ago, thought it had finished but recently found out there was another arc of the series. They are kind of like Harry Potter in that they start off for younger children, but then **it gets real. And dark. But in between there is some of the most clever banter I have read, deals with some gritty issues. Love this whole series.
My only regret is that since it’s published in Ireland, the books offered here have very boring covers compared to the original covers. I have most of the series with the bland covers and I wish I’d put in the time to get the originals.
Light From Other Stars by Erika Swyler- This is a dual timeline narrative about a woman aboard the first manned (crewed? Is that the correct neutral term?) mission attempt to colonize another planet, interspersed with accounts of her space-obsessed childhood in Florida in 1986. On the day of the Challenger disaster, an experiment that her father has been working on goes…wrong, and it would be a shame to reveal any more than that as it all unfolds slowly and beautifully throughout the story. I thought this was a really gorgeously written book. It is also a very poignant mediation on the various manifestations of grief. A cw: the plot involves an infant death, and as someone who has experienced that tangentially, there was one particular chapter that absolutely wrecked me. So, tread with care. But a very worthwhile read.
Lab Girl by Hope Jahren – this is a memoir of a botanist describing her work and life as a scientist. I probably would not have picked it up (I’m not generally a memoir person) but it was a library giveaway for a readalong program. It’s very well written and interesting, so, glad I went for it even though it’s not my usual cup of tea.
Very science-y reads the past few weeks. Hmm.
Also, it took me four or five months, but I have finally finished my first book in Korean sans translation! I picked up a few books about Line Friends characters (kinda like Sanrio if that’s a more relatable reference) with short chapters and lots of pictures, and I finally got through one. I’d say my actual comprehension was about 30% but that wasn’t actually what I was doing it for — I started to practice my sight reading and pronunciation, and in that I think it helped tremendously (I did also look up vocabulary but that wasn’t the main focus). Also, one of the ways I liked to study is to get through something and revisit it about 6 or 8 months later to see what new things I understand. So maybe the next time I dig into this book I’ll comprehend 45%.
Not exactly a book, but: I know in a WAYR post earlier this year I talked about how much I loved the Chinese webnovel Heaven Official’s Blessing. Well, the first season of the animated adaptation is now on Netflix! I’m about halfway through and I think it’s beautifully animated, and so far seems pretty close to the source material. There aren’t many episodes so I don’t think it will go very far into the book, but hopefully there will be more seasons. So if anyone was interested, I wanted to mention it.
@Arijo I had to DNF The Paper Magician and I didn’t want to in a way. The story was brilliant in theory and if the author had chosen to write it as a contemporary, set in a present time alternative universe it would have worked. Alas, it was set in an alternative Edwardian England t and the authors lack of research into the era really shows. After too many anachronisms and Americanisms I had to stop reading before I hurled my kindle (I believe SBTB calls it potato rage). I know lot of people love this book and are not bothered when the heroine cooks pasta for dinner (no!) But I am and I couldn’t carry on. On a final point lots of people found the romance between an eighteen year old and her thirty year old teacher a little too squicky but as always YMMV.
Which brings me to my readings, since my KU membership finished I’ve moved on to prime reading the first three Merrily Watkins mysteries are on there. Interesting to read about Anglican exorcism but since it was written in the late nineties some of the attitudes towards woman are a little dated. Best treated as a historical fiction rather than a contemporary novel. I know my mother watched the tv drama and found it awful though!
Apart from that, the usual Reverse Harem romances. I don’t know why I read these, I have no desire to be in a relationship like this and can’t see how it would work in real life, but there you go. Procrastinating over whether to shelf the novella I’m currently writing or persevering with it.
Happy Saturday! I did enjoy the April Fool’s joke this year! Romance reading was a little slower in the last two weeks, but I’m picking the pace back up.
Romance:
THE EX TALK by Rachel Lynn Solomon: Enemies-to-lovers + fake dating at a public radio station in Seattle–there were fun parts, but I largely agreed with the review here that the radio details were incredible (I also enjoyed the Seattle setting due to the ongoing travel-is-inadvisable thing), I liked the main characters alright, but the lying to the public was tougher and OMG the awful misogynist boss. I experienced a lot of dread in the second half of the book waiting for the lies to be exposed. I’d consider reading another adult novel by this author, though–I think she did a good job with fleshing out the characters.
ALONG FOR THE RIDE by Mimi Grace: I thought this was really good! Some early (first?) novel kinds of pacing issues, but I really enjoyed Jolene and Jason’s relationship. I will say, the enemies-to-lovers on a road trip part took up much less of the book than I expected (I think they were done by the first third?), but in retrospect that makes their subsequent relationship much more believable. I think the review here found the detail on everyday life a little excessive, but it was actually kind of fun to read due to the aforementioned not-going-places bit–“ah, right, this is what life was like outside of a global pandemic”–so I liked that. B+, will pick up her next book (fake dating and wedding shenanigans, favorites of mine).
Non-Romance:
PIRANESI by Susanna Clarke: the author did a really good job of walking the narrow line for the reader’s psychological dread (because you start guessing at some things before the narrator realizes) and tenderness (for the narrator). Some really beautiful language in here, and overall I liked this a lot, although I felt mildly dissatisfied by some of the conclusion. B+
THE WHITENESS OF WEALTH: HOW THE TAX SYSTEM IMPOVERISHES BLACK AMERICANS AND HOW WE CAN FIX IT by Dorothy A. Brown: Nerdy and worth reading through all the math explanations (although, yeah, progressive taxation isn’t exactly calculus) because Brown has such good insights into the various and connected ways in which the tax system increases wealth inequality, and she’s clearly thought through commonly proposed solutions. Highly recommend, I did not know how much of a wealth scam joint tax returns were. A
WATERBABY by Nikki Wallschlaeger: fantastic poems, many forms and feelings examined (I am not great at articulating why I like poems). A
THE GILDED ONES by Namina Forna: much-hyped YA fantasy with some West African-inspired mythology with overt feminist themes. (Refinery29, what are you doing claiming Forna could be the “Toni Morrison of YA Fantasy”??? Really? Why ignore all the very talented Black fantasy authors?) I really liked some of the worldbuilding here, and there were a few twists that weren’t too heavily foreshadowed. I was neutral on all the discussions around purity culture–I think as a teen I would have found it empowering to read such a book, but as an adult well out of the school system that hired some lady to tell adolescents having sex before marriage made you like a licked Oreo, I was just sort of like “yep heard this already, okay.” The pacing felt funny to me and I’m struggling to explain why. I think Forna has done screenwriting and this is her first published novel, so maybe it felt a little more like a screenplay in structure. I think there were so many things going on in here, it felt like the book had to rush through them. I loved the parts with the monster girl army at battle school and wished we’d gotten to slow down and linger there. B-
EXIT STRATEGY by Martha Wells: OMG MURDERBOOOOOOOOOT okay I loved the pacing in this novella and am going to make myself wait to not immediately get Network Effect and burn through that. A-
On deck:
WILD SIGN by Patricia Briggs is finally in from the library, and I need to start it but I’m not sure I’m well-rested enough for the darker content (per some of the Dear Author reviews) yet, so I may start THE LIAR’S DICE by Jeannie Lin first. Love Wei Wei from her other appearances.
I also have PEACES by Helen Oyeyemi in from my preorder and I am very excited for that. I’ve got A DUKE TO REMEMBER by Kelly Bowen in from the library and I liked the first book so much in that trilogy, I’m almost nervous to actually start this one, but I’m craving British-set historicals, so I’ll probably get that started soon.
@Jill Q., I had the same reaction to IT TAKES TWO in that both Noah *and* Wendy are running around 10+ years after high school with some serious hang-ups and was like, “why aren’t either of them in therapy for this???” and it made it hard to enjoy the book. I may still pick up Gia’s book at some point, since she’s been so interesting in her scenes in the first two books and Holiday does a great job with the inherent absurdity of modern weddings, but I’ve not loved the romance plots.
Short list for me this time:
THRESHOLD by Jordan L. Hawk, the second book in the Widdershins series. Slightly outside my usual tastes (a bit more horror/suspense than where I’d normally go), but I really like Griffin and Whybourne.
BUSMAN’S HONEYMOON by Dorothy Sayers. Not a romance, but this one is Peter and Harriet’s honeymoon (with a dead body, naturally), and her descriptions of how Peter feels about Harriet are some of the most lovely and charming I’ve ever read. This book is testing my reading ability like very few I’ve read—some of the characters have such thick accents that I have to read the dialogue out loud to figure out what they’re saying and even then there are some words I can’t figure out. Regardless, it’s still great.
Up next: TO SIR PHILIP, WITH LOVE (Eloise’s book in the Bridgerton series.) I’m not sure how far I’m going to get. Penelope and Eloise are my favorites, and I didn’t really like Penelope’s book (Colin didn’t deserve her!) so I’m proceeding with caution on Eloise.
Not romance, fiction: Currently reading/just started: A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles because I’ve heard many positive things about it. Have any of you read it and if so, do you recommend?
Non fiction: Brain Lock by Jeffrey Schwartz, M.D. with Beverly Beyette: Recommended for anyone with OCD, OCD-like tendencies, or anyone who struggles with rumination or intrusive thoughts.
Romance: I’m re-reading Night into Day by Sandra Canfield. Published in 1987 it is dated in many ways but the theme of coping with chronic illness and pain and believing you are worth love is personally very therapeutic.
Otherwise I’m flailing around DNF-ing one amazing romance after another because: brain, and returning to my emotional support character MURDERBOT currently listening to Exit Strategy, and my emotional support author Jane Austen: currently re-reading Sense and Sensibility.
Happy reading to you all. 🙂
I’m reading A CURIOUS BEGINNING by Deanna Raybourn, which has a lot of fun banter between the heroine/hero.
I also have some YA books waiting on the TBR pile, including STORM GLASS by Maria V. Snyder and WHISKEY WHEN WE’RE DRY by John Larison. I also have ONE BY ONE by Ruth Ware. I’ve seen a lot of good reviews for her mysteries, and I’m looking forward to checking them out.
I also want to read some Falcon and Winter Soldier comics, as I am loving the Marvel TV show.
Happy reading, everyone! 🙂
Blind Tiger (Jordan L Hawk, m/m) This is an extension of the hex world series, historical paranormal. Witches and their familiars ( shape shifters) but takes place in Chicago during prohibition at a speakeasy. The romance fell a little flat for me, but the world it takes place in is fantastic. 4/5 stars
Rebel (Sally Malcolm, m/m): short story to set the stage for King’s Man. This was a story to setup the MC’s relationship because we know they will end up on opposing sides of the American revolutionary war. 4/5 stars, This got me excited to read King’s Man
King’s Man (Sally Malcolm, m/m): After the American revolutionary war, Sam has lost everything as a Loyalist and lives in London surviving on criminal enterprises. Nate arrives in London, working to stop traitors to the Continental Congress. Second chance, close proximity, so interesting! This also has a trope that I don’t really know the name of: 2 people who can’t get married have rings or tokens to demonstrate their commitment to each other. 4/5 stars because although I was very invested in Sam, I didn’t really click with Nate.
Captured Shadows (Richard Rider, m/m): Victorian London. Jim works at a photography studio that takes family photos during the day and pornographic photos at night. The studio hires a new assistant, Archie. Jim and Archie fall in love and start producing photos for a niche market. I downloaded this story because KJ Charles liked it. It had some situations that are (what I thought was) a hard nope for me, but I was so invested in the story. 5/5 stars. I liked this messy, disturbing story so much.
@Jill Q. hope you don’t mind typo correction to help others find book you enjoyed: The Jade Temptress is by Jeannie Lin
@Maria F. Not at all! I looked it up beforehand and I still misspelled it 😉 I need more coffee, clearly. (I also love Jenny Han, but she’s a very different type of writer)
I’ve been reading all nonfiction lately – all books about running by women. I’m wanting to take it up again, a decade after leaving the Army, because although I hate DOING it, I like the way I feel afterward. So I’ve read:
“Running: A Love Story: 10 Years, 5 Marathons, and 1 Life-Changing Sport”
by Jen A. Miller: Honestly, this book seemed to less about running and more about the author’s string of dysfunctional/failed relationships. I honestly felt like her fourth unhealthy relationship was with running – she almost never had anything good to say about. The cover didn’t really fit with the vibe of the narrative, either.
“Running Like a Girl: Notes on Learning to Run” by Alexandra Heminsley: This one was SO much better than the previous book I mentioned. This is a woman who actually goes on the journey and learns to love running. The author is British, and usually I don’t like to read books published in the UK because… I dunno, it just doesn’t work for me. This one, however, did, and I loved seeing her confidence grow as she got better at running and ran half- and full marathons. There’s a whole section of helpful advice for new runners in the back.
“A Beautiful Work In Progress” by Mirna Valerio: This book is different from the previous two in that 1) Mirna is a fat, Black woman who runs (she blogs as “Fat Girl Running”), and 2) she is a ultra trail runner. She is a teacher who has lost family members at young ages to heart disease. When she weighed over 300 lbs and the doctor told her that she had to make some changes if she wanted to live to see her son graduate high school, Mirna began not only walking, but swimming, group classes, and weight lifting, almost all on a near daily basis. She does half and full marathons, then takes up ultra trail running; the main race of the book is the Javelina Jundred. She emphasizes the need to break out of the mindset that athletes look a certain way and her radical self acceptance and body positivity isn’t something she had to grow into – her whole family looks like her and she never had any hatred for her body. A really good read!
I checked out just about every running memoir the library had. I still have a big stack to work through. 🙂
@JJ, I adored A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW, so much so that I bought a copy after I’d gotten it originally from the library. On its face, there’s not much “action” and no real plot since the Count lives his entire adult life confined to the hotel. Yet somehow, the author managed to convey the spirit and feeling of the rise of Communism happening outside the hotel while still telling an intensely focused and personal story of how one man not only survives, but thrives in such limited circumstances.
As for my reading, it’s been pretty meh for awhile, with lots of unmemorable ARC reads. (I’ve really got to stop requesting books from Netgalley if I don’t already know the author LOL). However, I just started ACCIDENTALLY ENGAGED by Farah Heron and so far, so good. Between a good friend who got into the sourdough starter craze last year, and my partner, who started baking bread thanks to GBBO, I’m well-versed in the baking aspects of the book. I should also mention that this is one of those books that you really don’t want to to read on an empty stomach. I’m only about 25% in and already my food cravings are getting out of control while I read.
@FashionablyEvil I love Busman’s Honeymoon on so many levels! The way Sayer’s wrote Peter’s reaction to the consequences of bring a killer to justice is heartbreaking and so real. I loved Peter’s devotion to Harriet, and how Sayer’s brought Harriet and Buntner together over their shared devotion to Peter.Thinking about it makes me want to reread the whole group of Lord Peter books involving Harriet. Or maybe just read the entire series again. They are some of the best mystery books ever written.
The last few weeks have been a train wreck around here so I did a deep dive back into Stella Riley’s Rockcliffe series on audio, along with some other relistens. I needed great writing and good stories I knew would make me happy.
Since last time I have finished The Hero and the Crown by Robin McKinley. This is either the second or third book of hers that I have read, and while I have enjoyed them all I have the same issue with them: it seems as though there is a narrator reading the story to me, even the parts that are in the main character’s “voice,” so that the events in the story feel very removed, even the tragic stuff. I’m not sure I’m describing this very well, but while I enjoyed the story it didn’t affect me on an emotional level, if that makes any sense. And the ending came very quickly, and felt unresolved to me. Sort of like Elaine on Seinfeld “yada yada yada-ing” sex, “and they went on to live productive lives . . .”
The Heir and the Spare by Kate Stradling: cw/tw for bullying, and on-page verbal/physical abuse by a sibling and parent. This is probably classified as YA, in that the main characters seem to be in their early 20s. This is a fantasy setting, feudal, with castles and servants, but no magic. The main characters are all members of the aristocracy. The heroine (Spare) is the younger sister of Heir (also a woman), and has been abused by Heir her whole life, to the point that their parents have sent Spare off to live away for long periods of time to keep her safe from Heir. Spare meets the hero on one of these trips away, at a school for the children of the aristocracy. Spare’s time at this school was horrible, she was bullied by the hero and his cronies. Now there is to be an alliance marriage between Heir and the hero to unite their two countries, so hero comes to Heir’s home for treaty negotiations and the marriage. And because Spare has been hidden away for so much of her life, and tries to stay out of Heir’s way to keep from being abused, she doesn’t know that this alliance is happening. I enjoyed this book while I was reading it, but now that I’m trying to describe it I had to refer to the description to remind myself of what happened. Probably not a good sign . . . tl;dr – Good story, kept my interest, but the ending felt rushed.
Paladin’s Strength by T. Kingfisher: Loved! Can strongly recommend, though I agree with a comment from the last WAYR that there’s not enough gnole 🙂
The Seventh Bride by T. Kingfisher: Also very much enjoyed, though this is a different style than the Paladin books, much closer to the Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking. The main character Rhea, is the daughter of the miller in a small village and ends up engaged to a nobleman, against her wishes. This is also very fairy tale like, as Rhea has to face challenges set by the nobleman to avoid bad stuff happening. This is not a romance, but there is a happy ending and a hedgehog 🙂
The Rising Wave by Michelle Diener: This is a prequel novella to the Turncoat King, which I am now reading. I love Diener’s Class 5 series, they are total comfort reads for me, so I thought I would try these books. This is fantasy romance with magic, not sci-fi. So far I’m enjoying the story, though there is extreme insta-lust/insta-love happening. The Rising Wave is where the h/h meet, and then the Turncoat King continues their story. It looks like it will be a series also, though none of the other books are out yet. I’m only about halfway through at this point, so I don’t know whether it will end on a cliffhanger. The story involves a war between the evil empire and the rebellion army, so we’re on the march to where the battle will commence. There are (of course) secrets between the h/h, and forces trying to keep them apart. I like that Diener seems to have her main characters communicate, instead of allowing a Big Misunderstanding to occur that could have been easily solved with a two-minute conversation. Also, Diener writes well, though there have been a couple of word-usage issues. I wish authors could figure out the difference between “poring” over a document and “pouring” over it! At least so far there haven’t been any discrete/discreet issues 😉
I really need that SmartBitches device from the April fool’s post. I keep striking out with books that sounded great until a couple chapters in.
In other media, I’ve been going deeper into the rabbit hole of British comedians on panel shows. Taskmaster led me to look up Bob Mortimer, which led to Would I Lie To You – YouTube has compilations of his best bits on that show, pure comedy gold. His true stories are often more unbelievable than the tall tales made up on the spot, all are surreal hilariousness. Big Fat Quiz led me to Sarah Millican stand up and guest appearances on various podcasts, top among those James Acaster and Ed Gamble’s dream restaurant – Sarah was on a Christmas episode and went ALL OUT with her imaginary meal, earning my undying love and respect. Tried her autobiography (a book! Everything leads back to books!) but didn’t get far yet.
This post brought to you by deep shower thoughts. Literally typed it out standing outside my shower. Gotta share my deep thoughts asap before squirrel brain takes over again. Dang these real life responsibilities. Wishing you all pleasant escapes, whenever and wherever you find them.
@JenM: Thank you so much! Sounds perfect for me. 🙂
@Jill Q & Pear— l agree with you both about It Takes Two.
I was super frustrated by the high school focus too—these people have been tangentially in each other’s lives for years since then, and haven’t addressed it? Really??
I almost DNFed it when Wendy started talking about the case she was defending of “vehicular manslaughter”, and regretted pushing forward when she referred to section 11 of the Charter. I’m a criminal lawyer in Canada. There is no such thing as “vehicular manslaughter” and that section of the Charter was completely incongruous with the point she was trying to make. Also! Noah is supposed to be a prosecutor in New York but it’s not until the end that we find out what kind of prosecutor (state or federal), which seems like a small detail but added to the lack of reality.
I found all of their work-stuff completely unrealistic and unnecessary and distracting from the also unrealistic angst in their relationship. Lawyers deal with conflict and uncomfortable situations all the time, and I really didn’t buy that Wendy still would’ve been so obsessed with the prom
I really liked the first book but found Jane annoying in this one, and I know I’ve read Gia’s book but remember almost nothing about it. Holiday’s writing works for me—the banter!—but I want more substance, I think.
@HeatherS: Ive read Running like a girl! I also thought it was great!
I’ll have to checkout A Beautiful Work in Progress
I also liked Marathon Woman: Running the Race to Revolutionize Women’s Sports by Kathrine Switzer (the first woman to run the Boston Marathon with a bib). I was raised playing girls’ soccer, but when I started running as an adult and then told my parents I was going to run a marathon, my parents were super concerned I was going to “hurt myself” and tried to talk me out of it. This helped me understand their mindset.
So soon?
WE HAD A LITTLE REAL ESTATE PROBLEM by Klif Nesteroff: The author delves into the little-known but important role of Native American comedians on the comedy scene. Few resources, no press and they were still influential in stand-up and TV writing. Eye-opening.
LOATHE AT FIRST SIGHT by Suzanne Park: My first Bad Decisions Book, I loved all of it. Readers here warned about the sexism, racism–all the isms–and rightly, so I went in prepared. Melody/Mel is amazing and she absolutely takes no shit from anyone. My fear was that she’d muzzle herself as so many of us do in an effort to go/get along. Honestly, if I ever grow up, I want to be her, while recognizing how every step is a battle professionally and personally. Highly recommended.
A HEART OF BLOOD AND ASHES by Mila Vane: After all the raving about this book, I finally read it and was thrilled. Yvenne is “The Woman Who Should Be King”. She is exactly the strategist and rock the Parsatheans need to unite the western realms against the Destroyer. Excellent.
LOVE LETTERING by Kate Clayborn: My next Bad Decisions Book, just last night/this morning. Good heavens, I loved this book, the characters doing really painful work, the conflict, the letters. Didn’t see the Big Thing coming, but it made perfect sense. And funny. A new favorite.
RELATIVELY NORMAL by Whitney Dineen: This is the first in the author’s Masterton series about a successful business woman from an oddball family. Cat is trying to be like her uptight fiance, but introducing him to them makes it clear she is not. When a review describes a book as “laugh-out-loud humor,” my skepticism immediately taps the brakes. So I’m torn. Parts were funny, grandmother Nan especially, but I felt like everyone was trying too hard.
@Heather C: I actually have “Marathon Woman” on order from ThriftBooks since the library didn’t have it.
Oh, and I did manage to read one fiction book: “The Viscount Who Loved Me” by Julia Quinn. I think this is the second book I’ve read by her after not being all that into whatever I read by her some years ago. It started really well, but I found the climactic scene that follows stupid Anthony realizing that – yes, he loves his wife, DUH – to be, well…. STUPID and contrived. I’m going to give Eloise’s book a try because she was my favorite in the show, but after that I may have to throw in the towel and admit that Julia Quinn is just not an author who works for me.
Since last time ~
— the contemporary m/m romance Throwing Hearts by N.R. Walker which I enjoyed.
— the contemporary romance The Tourist Attraction (Moose Springs, Alaska, 1) by Sarah Morgenthaler which made me laugh. And the follow-up short story, A Christmas Bun for Ulysses: A Moose Springs, Alaska Story.
— the contemporary romance Superfan: A Hockey Romance (Brooklyn Book 3) by Sarina Bowen which I also enjoyed.
— a contemporary novel that I quite enjoyed ~ Float Plan by Trish Doller.
— the newest Alpha and Omega book by Patricia Briggs, Wild Sign. I enjoyed it, but it definitely left me with questions. This is a series that must be read in order; if interested, start with the beginning novella, Alpha and Omega.
— Over six days I slowly read (aka slogged through) The Ministry of Utmost Happiness by Arundhati Roy for my book group. As you may have surmised, this book did not work to me. I was grateful to read it on my Kindle as it allowed me to frequently search the names of characters (who were present in abundance). This was a sad book with a lot of death; it also featured frequent profanity (which is not something that generally catches my attention). It left me with no desire to visit India.
— read and enjoyed the Victorian era romance The Duke Undone by Joanna Lowell. (I think I would have enjoyed it more had I not just read the review here. I can’t dispute anything in the review, but it made me hyperaware of some issues.)
— the novella, I Wed the Sea by Lauren G Flanagan, proved to be a pleasant read. It seemed to be a romance until the last five or so pages. Interestingly, the author gives a warning to stop reading if you want a happy ending.
@Kareni: re the author’s warning toward the end of I WED THE SEA—that reminds me of a quote attributed to Orson Welles: “A happy ending depends on where you end the story.”
THE SONGBOOK OF BENNY LAMENT – by Amy Harmon. LOVED IT. Also I listened in audio and the audio narration was superb. Set in the 60s against the backdrop of the civil rights movement it is a love story between a white song writer and a black singer. It is also about the music business, the mob business, family business and there is a nice little mystery running through it.
WILD SIGN – by Patricia Briggs. Excellent installment. Boffo ending. Lots of great new information about people we thought we knew.
SOMEBODY TO WATCH OVER ME – Judith McNaught – originally published in 2003. Holds up well. Nice little romantic suspense.
THINGS YOU SAVE IN A FIRE – By Katherine Center – Liked the scenes set in the firehouse and the interactions between the heroine and the other firefighters.
ALL RHODES LEAD HERE – By Mariana Zapata – I have been disappointed in her last several books to the point that I didn’t even read the most recent and debated picking this one up. But I am glad I did. The storyline is great of course has her signature slow burn.
Continued not reading heavy stuff this month.
Very Good
Glass, Eileen – Human Omega series (discovered on a slave planet, trapped in the alien jungle, babied by his alien mates) (M/M/M aliens). A very enjoyable read – you get into the character’s head and truly ‘know’ them. Much deeper than the title would suggest
Ramsey, Sherry – One’s Aspect to the Sun (Science Fiction). Being the adventures of a space pilot, her aged husband, her crew, and a search for her lost mother. Enjoyable and there is actual character development.
Yin, Leong – The Geomancer’s Apprentice – An urban fantasy set in DC with a background of Chinese magic. Nice to see DC away from the politicians. The action scenes dragged on too long (I ended up skimming them) but the plot and characters were different. Obviously a set up for a series, but the rest hasn’t been written yet!
Good
Miranda Howe, Dragon Hoard trilogy. (M/Mpreg). The characters were interesting, although there were some plot holes. Good enough for me to read the third the day it came out. Also read her Alpha Triplets series, of which I like the second one the best.
Derr, Megan – Main Gauche and other tales (M/M Fantasy). Short stories about swordsmen.
Fielding, Kim – Muffin Man (M/M fantasy). A covid era contemporary romance between a Stuck-at-home based worker turned baker and a fairy tale prince who also loves the baked goods.
Grace, Viola – Recruiting Measures (F/M sci-fi romance). I’ve liked the Terran Reset series (older ladies transformed into younger bodies and sent into space. Definitely one of her better series.
Royal Powers Series – By multiple authors, these are light superpower M/M romances. While written by a number of authors, they maintain a lightness which is needed these days.
SoSo
Martinez, Angel – Geoffrey the Very Strange (M/M fantasy)Fairy tale romance between a pink demon and a necromancer. Cute characters, but plot holes.
Richardson, Lesli – Her Vampire Obsession (M/F). I wanted to like this better than I did. It started strong, but I started to wonder why the two main characters were even together by the end.
:::dances in like Zemo:::
What? His treacherous ass was incredibly cute with his dorky dancing.
So, I finally got around to what everyone else was doing and read A Long Way To A Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. I loved how careful and lovely everyone in the book was with each other, and would love for Dr. Chef to fuss over and feed me. Then I read the third one in the Rick Riordan’s Trials of Apollo series, The Burning Maze. It had some genuinely funny stuff in it, and I really enjoyed seeing the dryads of the southwestern United States. It also had some genuinely heart-wrenching stuff, including the death of a main character, which I honestly did not see coming, since I am very accustomed to characters in these kinds of series having a crapton of plot armor. I like Apollo’s voice more and more each book, in that yes, he’s been an immortal god for millenia, and has that knowledge base going for him, but he’s also still learning how to be a person, and the innate selfisness and remove of a god doesn’t work when you have to person. I also liked that one of the OTPs from one of the Greek hero series has broken up, and for good reason. Because they’re TEENAGERS, and as such are still figuring out what they want from life and relationships. Which brings us to now, in which I’m reading Do No Harm by Christina McDonald. It starts off with a doctor who finds out that her son has a rare form of cancer, and in order to fund the only treatment that stands a chance of keeping him alive, begins to deal Oxy. It’s an interesting setup, somewhat reminiscent of Breaking Bad. She knows that what she is doing is incredibly, horrifically wrong, that she’s saving her son’s life at the expense of the lives of others (and she acknowledges the opioid epidemic that fuels her business), but she’s also rationalizing the living shit out of it left and right. I blew through about half of it in one sitting, and will like blow through the other half in a second one. So until next time, I think we can all agree that anyone who doesn’t take the Dora Milaje seriously deserves every bit of the very funny ass-kicking that they’re going to receive.
My reading has slowed down in the last few weeks (sometimes you just have to grind for Raven in Fortnite), but I did read some good stuff recently:
THE WRONG STARS by Tim Pratt- The first in a space opera series called The Axiom. It reminded me a little bit A LONG WAY TO A SMALL ANGRY PLANET. Lots of LGBTQIA+ rep, action and adventure, and snark. Recommend if you’re looking for cozy-ish sci-fi.
AXIOM’S END by Lindsay Ellis- This was wild and goofy in a fun way. It’s an alt history sci-fi First Contact novel. Apparently the author is some kind of Youtuber. Had never heard of her so didn’t go in with expectations re: who she is. I’d recommend doing the same if you can. It gave me some SLEEPING GIANTS vibes, and others who have actually watched Transformers have compared it to that. The sequel comes out in October, and I will be reading it.
Currently Reading:
WAKING GODS by Sylvain Neuvel- Speaking of SLEEPING GIANTS, reading AXIOM’S END made me finally want to finish The Themis Files.
THE DREAMING STARS by Tim Pratt- The sequel to The Wrong Stars. I like the space-faring crew of this series too much not to try to finish it.
@DDD, thanks for sharing the Orson Welles quote. I quite agree!
@JJ, I also liked A Gentleman in Moscow. Enjoy!
A few of the things I’ve read recently that I’ve quite enjoyed:
– Laura Kaye’s FIGHTING THE FIRE. It’s the fourth in her Warrior Fight Club series, about veterans at a gym who work out together weekly, and build friendships as well as muscle. This one is a frenemies to lovers, and I loved it so much, I reread it immediately after I’d finished.
– with thanks to @DiscoDollyDeb, Julianna Keyes’s TEAM PLAYER and BENCH PLAYER. While I’m not much of a baseball fan, I thoroughly enjoyed these baseball romances. Ms Keyes brings the love of the game to life, and I wish there were more in the series 🙂 And I also have to confess that I was initially leery when I opened Bench Player, since it was first-person PoV, but I ended up enjoying it as much as I did Team Player (third-person PoV). A great series.
– Tess Sharpe’s THE GIRLS I’VE BEEN. I think I saw it here, and borrowed it from the library for my daughter. We both ended up reading it almost straight through, and enjoyed this story of some smart teens surviving a bank robbery immensely.
– Erin Nicholas’s TWISTED UP and TANGLED UP, in her TAKING CHANCES trilogy. Set in fictional Chance, Nebraska, target of near annual tornados, these stories are the best of small-town romance… all the heart eyes 🙂
Lauren Willig’s Band of Sisters is historical fiction, based on a group of women’s college alumni who go over to France during WWI to help people. It’s not a romance (though one character has a very satisfying romantic arc) but it’s very immersive.
Arkady Martine’s A Desolation Called Peace was the best book I’ve read in months. This one is science fiction with a first contact plot, and there’s interwoven threads about memory, identity, and communication. Plus our main characters from A Memory Called Empire, who I heard described as “disaster space lesbians” and that’s exactly correct.
I also read Julianna Keyes’ Team Player and Bench Player after seeing them recommended here. I liked learning about baseball and there was a great cast of secondary characters, especially in the first book, plus plenty going on apart from the romance. But in both books the romance was a bit underwhelming, with the characters just coming together in a moment of lust, becoming comfortablw with each other and then deciding to stay together by the end of the book. That’s how real life relationships evolve, I guess, but I was left wishing for more.
Just finished Anxious People by Fredrik Backman, a remarkable book that is ostensibly about a group of people who bond over being held hostage together by a bank robber, but it turns into something else altogether. It is cleverly constructed, wise and touching and funny and full of surprises. I doubt I’ll read anything better for the rest of the year.
@Kit: I did not catch those details at all… thanks for the info, I’ll try to see if I can spot any incongruity like these on the second book. If the pace doesn’t pick up at least this would keep me entertained 😉
@Jill Q. : quilting is incredibly satisfying. I did a throw sized blanket for my oldest and what I liked most was choosing the fabric. His two favorite colors are black and white and you might think how boring, but no-oh, if you enjoy looking at fabrics you know what range there is even in black and white! What I really liked : putting old stuff next to the nifty modern fabric, like my grandmother’s old sheets, our old curtains, costumes my dad brought the boys as gift from his travels, old t-shirts. I accidentally sewed a stained part of our old curtain so I embroided a fly over the stain to hide it (yes, a fly… it was my son’s request ^^) I also decided to try a big NO-NO and sewed all sort of fabric together – t-shirt, satin, cotton, polyester – and it went great! I really like the result. I chose a herringbone pattern and one of the thing I liked most was to grab all the scraps and crumbs of fabric left over from cutting my pattern, and sewing them every which way to make a row I added to the back of the quilt – it was a relief to move between the very structured herringbone pattern for the front to the mindless sewing of scraps for the back (^_^) Then there was the actual quilting (I went easy on myself and just did straight lines), and the binding, one of the thing I like the most because it means it’s almost done! (Hahaha, how many parts of making a quilt do I like the most ? 😉 ) but now I miss hand sewing so I guess I’ll go back to embroidering my crazy quilt victorian style and oh no, you had me start talking about quilting and now I can’t stop! *puts hand over mouth*
But, wait, I’ve got to add one last thing: if you enjoy watching quilting videos, I suggest you check out Angela Walters Free Motion Quilting tutorials. It looks so smooth and easy and I CAN’T WAIT to try it (I ordered the special sewing machine foot for quilting, I’m waiting for it then I’m so practicing free motion quilting!!)
And I’m sorry SBTB, this post doesn’t speak of books at all (>_<) Or I could say how much I like poring (not pouring! 😉 ) over Miss Rosie's Favorite Farmhouse Patterns, or salivating over Gemstone Quilts by MJ Kinman (will I one day be expert enough to do a gemstone quilt…?) or bookmarking Beyond the Tee-Innovative T-shirt Quilts by the Cannizzaros…
I’ve read 3 books so far this month. Two are worth mentioning.
Something like Love by Christina C Jones – engaging MF opposites attract bi romance between two Black small business owners in an urban neighborhood with a small town feel. I enjoyed the bi rep, although I felt like there were too many bi 101 explanations.