April is still here, though it’s quickly on its way out in favor of May! I am personally so tired, but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel in terms of trying to get to normalcy.
We hope you all have been reading something great and we want you to tell us all about it!
Catherine: I am having such a good reading week! Just finished The Devil Comes Courting by Courtney Milan, which was brilliant and sweet and thought provoking. Before that was Book of Love by Erin Satie, ( A | BN | K | AB ) which was a gorgeous romance but perhaps even more importantly it was full of the most explicit and naked book porn that I have ever read (blushes delicately).
Elyse: I am kind of in a slump right now so I’ve been reading a lot of long form articles and knitting blog posts to cleanse my brain.
Claudia: I’m starting Book of Love and really enjoying it so far! Glad to know it worked for you, Catherine!
Shana: I’m bouncing between a bunch of books right now. I just finished rereading Bad for the Boss by Talia Hibbert, which has a CEO + junior employee matchup that should not work for me, but totally does in this book. I’m listening to Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo ( A | BN | K | AB ) on audiobook, and so far it’s a perfect time capsule of falling in love in 1950s San Francisco, I love it so much.
Susan: I’m dragging myself out of a reading slump in my traditional way: binge-reading trashy queer manga! I’ve run out of The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window, ( A | BN | K | AB ) which is a horror-mystery manga about people investigating or creating ghost-based mysteries, and also touching each other’s souls in a suspiciously horny manner! All of the characters are horrible people and I’m so invested in their mysteries. But I’ve just started reading volume five of Candy Color Paradox, ( A | BN | K | AB ) which is a (one-sided) rivals-to-lovers between a highly-strung journalist and a grumpy investigative photographer, and I’m very excited to see how they completely fail at communicating this time.
Carrie: I’m reading Elysium Girls by Kate Pentecost ( A | BN | K | AB ) and LOVING IT.
Tara: I am also bouncing between a bunch of books, but I just started reading Femme Like Her by Fiona Zedde ( A | BN | K | AB ) and I’m enjoying it a lot. I’m also listening to Something That May Shock and Discredit You by Daniel M. Lavery and it’s fabulous. I highly recommend it in audio.
Sneezy: I’m still mostly on my webtoon binge, and recently found that I really really like Your Throne on Webtoon. I thought I wouldn’t like it based on the summary, but instead of two women fighting over one dude and the power associated with him, they- well, no spoilers.
EllenM: I’m currently studying for/doing finals so reading anything that is not comics requires too much brainpower, but I have been reading Blood+, which is an unusual case of a manga being based on an anime (the reverse is much more common). So far we have a teen girl monster slayer with a Secret Destiny and I am enjoying it.
It’s not a book but I’ve also been playing Cozy Grove on my study breaks and LOVING it. Its like Animal Crossing and Spiritfarer had a baby–you play as a “spirit scout” who is trying to help a bunch of sad bear ghosts on an island move on to the afterlife, and mostly how you do that is completing fetch quests and crafting and decorating the island. It’s also time-gated–you can complete all the necessary tasks for the day and then you won’t get new tasks until the next day which is actually nice because it sort of limits how much time I can sink into it at once, ha.
Sneezy: OOOOOOH! I LOVED BLOOD+!!
Amanda: brb, buying Cozy Grove.
What are you reading right now? What have you finished?
These past few weeks have been good! The books:
DEAR ENEMY and MAKE IT SWEET by Kristen Callihan: I enjoyed both. I am usually not a fan of first person or alternating first person POVs, but really liked these.
FIGHTING THE FIRE by Laura Kaye was solid and I liked the frenemies aspect, but I don’t think it was quite as good as the first two in the series.
HIDDEN by Laura Griffin was a great romantic suspense read.
THE SECRET LIFE OF BATS by Merlin Tuttle was an interesting look at his career researching bats and working to save them.
SILVER by Chris Hammer was a solid second entry in his mystery series featuring an investigative journalist as the protagonist.
Well, I’m furious that the site just ate my long-ish comment just as I was finishing it, so instead of rewriting it I’ll just say this: do yourself a favour and read Fredrik Backman’s Anxious People, which is beautifully written, funny and uplifting and full of surprises. Don’t waste your time on Eden Finley’s Famous series unless you’re happy to read romances which get all the interesting parts out of the way early and then drag on forever (I DNF the last two books). And KJ Charles’ Gilded Cage is great, largely because it’s a historical in which the heroine wears the pants in the relationship and the hero knows he’s bloody lucky she’ll have him.
I only read a few books this month, but almost everything I read was entertaining and engaging:
Karla Sorenson’s FAKED features “the wrong twin” trope, but it’s also about truly seeing and being seen by another person. Sorenson exerts excellent control over a rather complicated setup: Grad students Claire and Lia are identical twins—well, physically identical, but with different personalities and attitudes: Claire is quiet and observant; Lia is outgoing and extroverted. Unbeknownst to anyone, Claire has pined for Lia’s best friend, Finn, for years. (Lia and Finn are not and have never been romantically involved.) When Lia can’t go to a social event she had promised to attend with Finn, she casually suggests that Claire take her place…and not tell Finn. Claire reluctantly agrees to the swap, thinking it will give her an opportunity to get Finn’s attention. But then Finn gets sick and sends his older half-brother, Bauer (professional snowboarder, media bad boy, and family black-sheep), in his place. Bauer is expecting Lia and Claire is expecting Finn. Claire is initially disappointed that her date is Bauer—and she allows Bauer to believe that she is Lia, but Bauer is not deceived: he “sees” Claire and knows she is not her twin. Claire also “sees” Bauer: she sees how he is marginalized by his family, particularly his step-mother; she sees how he uses confrontational behavior to mask his hurt at being ostracized by the people who should love and support him. Key quote: “We were products of our circumstances, but we didn’t have to let those circumstances steer the wheel of every choice we made.” Throw in a fake relationship and enforced proximity in a snow-bound cabin and you have one of my favorite reads of the year. Highly recommended.
I liked FAKED so much, I immediately read FLOORED, the next book in Sorenson’s Ward Sisters series. FLOORED is the story of Lia, the other twin from FAKED. At the end of FAKED, Lia was headed to England for a study-abroad session at Oxford University. As FLOORED begins, Lia is sightseeing in London when she’s caught in a shower and ducks into a pub to escape the rain. There she meets Jude, unaware that he is a famous football (soccer) player. They have a one-night-stand, neither expecting anything more from the other, but then a month later—oh no’s!—two lines appear on the pregnancy test and Lia and Jude have to navigate impending, unexpected parenthood—with the added stresses of Lia finishing her Master’s thesis (discontent in JANE EYRE, cleverly incorporated into FLOORED’s storyline), Jude’s strained relationship with his disapproving family, and future decisions about dual custody when parents live in different countries. One thing I especially liked about both FLOORED and FAKED is the awareness that dysfunctional families are not magically made healthy and whole by a few therapy sessions and a group hug: there is hard work ahead when families have been stuck in maladjusted patterns for decades. Highly recommended—but I do think you need to read FAKED first.
BRODERICK is the second book in Katee Robert’s Sabine Valley series (loosely based on “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”—if everyone in SBFSB were beautiful, bi, and having tons of sexy-times in various parings and throuplings whilst plotting Machiavellian political moves and dodging assassination attempts). ABEL, the first book in the series, set the storyline for the series: seven brothers return to Sabine Valley years after they were forced out; each of the brothers enters into a politically-advantageous marriage (the gender of the marriage partner is irrelevant) to help maintain the fragile peace between the area’s three factions; but each marriage brings unexpected elements—usually in the form of a third partner, but also in terms of emotional attachments. In BRODERICK, the second brother marries a woman from the Amazon faction of Sabine Valley—her name is Monroe and she and Broderick begin their marriage with some hot hate-fucking. Broderick, however, has loved Shiloh, a warrior/solder, from afar for years and, when Shiloh is assigned to be Monroe’s bodyguard, Monroe immediately sees a way to cause discomfort in the marriage by seducing Shiloh. Lots of hot FF and MFF (or perhaps FMF would be more accurate) action ahead! As with Robert’s Wicked Villains series, I think it’s best to read the Sabine Valley books for the sexy-times and the emotional growth of the characters—the behind-the-scenes political machinations are rather less interesting. (Also, cw/tw for Shiloh’s backstory which includes being physically abused by her parents.)
Eileen Glass’s three-book series, HUMAN OMEGA—mentioned in the last WAYR—was a delightful surprise. Don’t be fooled by the somewhat outlandish titles (DISCOVERED ON THE SLAVE PLANET, TRAPPED IN THE ALIEN JUNGLE, and BABIED BY HIS GUARDIAN MATES), the HUMAN OMEGA series is well-written with excellent world-building and top-notch character development. HUMAN OMEGA has three heroes (one human and two “aliens”—although the aliens are actually native to the planet they’re on); they are being used as slave labor by cockroach-like creatures totally without empathy (for each other or for their slaves). The human—a space engineer—was seized in a raid and thrown into the cage inhabited by the two aliens who appear to be the same species but have had completely different life experiences (one was raised as a slave, the other was once a warrior). The two aliens feel protective toward the human—whom they see as an “Omega,” to be deferred to and cared for in their social system. I wasn’t expecting the level of existential angst in the book: the warrior alien believes every day will be his last and often acts accordingly; both aliens have to accept that they may have to kill the Omega to save him from a fate worse than death at the hands of their “masters”; and, later in the story, characters have to grapple with concepts of social customs, language, communications, history, reproductive biology, and gender. The books cleverly use linguistic elements: unlike many space alien stories, the aliens and the human cannot initially communicate through language and have to rely on gestures (not always interpreted correctly); and the warrior & the slave, despite sharing a language, do not always understand each other because of their different backgrounds and experiences. There’s an interesting scene where the warrior tries to explain to the the slave what “parents” and “brother” mean: the slave can’t even grasp the concept of parents and thinks a brother must be similar to a “cage mate.” Meanwhile, the human tries to scavenge as much as he can from the planet with an eye to possible escape (this is an alien planet story where the human’s curiosity and training play an important part). If you’re looking for an unexpectedly poignant series (I wasn’t anticipating how much I’d feel for all three protagonists) that’s kinda off-the-beaten path, I recommend HUMAN OMEGA.
DNF
I had to DNF Ava Harrison’s RUTHLESS MONARCH. Even within the somewhat fractured logic of the “arranged/forced mafia marriage” sub-genre of dark romance, RUTHLESS MONARCH had some puzzlingly illogical situations. For example, why would a corrupt, mobbed-up governor—who has presidential aspirations and plans to force his daughter into a marriage with a powerful mobster—not ensure that said daughter has a bodyguard? Or at least has someone to keep watch on her apartment? Easy answer—because how else would a rival mob boss be able to kidnap the heroine and whisk her away to a forced marriage? Add that to info-dumps about the mobsters’ history and business—along with lots of tell-not-show about emotions and motivations—and I found myself heartily bored by this abduct-marry-fall-in-love story. If you like dark/mafia romances, there are far better examples than RUTHLESS MONARCH.
Thank you to who(m)ever recommended SKULLDUGGERY PLEASANT! I started it as a read aloud for the younger child yesterday and he seems to really enjoy it. He’s nine and still likes to be read to sometimes and it’s very hard to find the right fit.
As for my reading, I liked –
FOUR LOST CITIES: A SECRET HISTORY OF THE URBAN AGE by Annalee Newitz. This was an interesting nonfiction look at four “lost” cities. Kalehöyük, Pompeii, Angkor, and Cahokia. The writer tried to give a fresh look at all the cities, their differences and commonalities and how they might have been unusual for their time. I think the thing that I really appreciated about the book is that the author emphasized that even in really dark scenarios (something like Pompeii with sudden devastation) people survived and parts of their culture survived. It made me hopeful and I think that was the intention. The story drew a direct connection between these cities and the intertwined refugee and climate crises of today and without downplaying the difficulties and tragedies, affirmed humanity’s resilience.
A SENSIBLE WIFE by Jessica Hart. Okay, I read this for Wendy the Super Librarian’s TBR Challenge: Old School Edition and enjoyed it quite a bit with the caveat it is a Harlequin Romance written in 1993 (10 years and older qualifies it for “old school” for the challenge) The heroine, Deborah is a bit of flibberty-gibbet who is on a world-wide tour by herself and has lost her purse and all her documents. Gil is a civil engineer who swoops in a rescues her, but he happens to need someone to pose as his wife. Yes, only in Harlequin land! Hart is one of my favorite category writers of all time and this is an early book. It doesn’t completely work (too much telling us they’re in love rather than showing us) and yes, Deborah is a bit of a ditz and Gil is a bit of a jerk, but there was enough of the Jessica Hart sparkle that I read it in one sitting, lazing in my hammock in the sunshine, smelling the first of my spring roses. I need to point out that it’s set in Indonesia and although I didn’t notice anything offensive, it was very much a story centered on white people and Indonesian people barely appear, so that might be (understandably) a dealbreaker for some people. For me in an older book, it wasn’t.
And lots and lots of DNFs including TO HAVE TO HOAX (ranted about that yesterday) and a dual timeline story that had lots of plot stretching coincidences and someone saying in 1791 in London, “That’s okay” when they were bumped into.
. . . . ::facepalm::
I’m not a historical purist (I read lots of fluffy, wallpaper historicals!), but this was not marketed as that and this just seemed like a very lazy, sloppy mistake, not just on the author’s part, but the copyeditors as well.
@DDD, thanks for your rec to write your comments in a doc and cut and paste. I will be doing that from now on!
Read and loved Rachel Aaron’s DFZ [Detroit Free Zone] series, Minimum Wage Magic, Part-Time Gods, and Night Shift Dragons. They have to be read in order, but the series was excellent. (In KU.) Dragons, mages, gods, cyborg-ishness, ghosts, underclass WORK, curse(s), fraught family relations, competence porn, cross cultural dealings. Fade to black, no insta ANYTHING. So good.
Right wrist broken and in a cast and can’t type well, so I’ll stop except to say thanks to all who suggest books! I follow you all so hard.
Happy Saturday! I have to get some work done today, since some of yesterday got derailed by calling my building for a dishwasher repair, but I think I can sandwich it between some reading time! Oh, forgot, got my first vaccine dose on Wednesday! Some arm soreness but nothing else, although everyone I know who got Moderna too said they really were laid out the day after the second dose, and I am fortunate to be able to reserve that day off in advance.
Romance:
WILD SIGN by Patricia Briggs: I spent most of this book going “whoa,” and then at the very end that turned into “WHOA, WHOA, WHOA,” and I suspect I’m missing something by not also reading the Mercy books, but hopefully there’ll be enough context in the next Alpha & Omega book that I don’t need to. (I read the first Mercy book last year and wasn’t feeling like slogging through more early-mid 2000’s paranormal to catch up.)
THE LIAR’S DICE by Jeannie Lin: this was a lovely introduction to Wei-wei and Gao, and it caused my self-control to weaken so I started THE HIDDEN MOON immediately afterwards. Note that this one is first person narration for whatever reason (to fit the original anthology it was in?), but the full book is not!
THE HIDDEN MOON by Jeannie Lin: straight squee from me–loved the romance, the intrigue, everything. (Also, I want Magistrate Li to get his own book now!)
A DUKE TO REMEMBER by Kelly Bowen: I felt like the pacing was off in this, but I really liked both leads, the heroine Elise especially. Noah was very emotionally sensitive too, and Elise is the more gruff one in some ways, but they worked so well together.
HANA KHAN CARRIES ON by Uzma Jalaluddin: I liked but didn’t love her first novel, and I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this one as much as I did. Hana is a delight of a heroine, I liked her relationship with the hero, and I *loved* her complicated family relationships and how those evolved over the course of the story. As an FYI/content warning, the middle of the book contains a hate crime rooted in Islamophobia, which then permeates the rest of the book. I think Jalaluddin handles it well–the consequences are not avoided–but it’s definitely not a “fluffy rom-com” as a result. Also, Jalaluddin’s getting even better at writing evil white ladies, mad respect for that depiction.
Non-romance:
FIRST TEST by Tamora Pierce: re-read of the first of my favorite TP series during a bout of insomnia. Baby Kel is so principled and precious, and I’ll have to read PAGE again soon.
Two contemporary poetry collections I enjoyed recently (happy National Poetry Month): SLOW LIGHTNING by Eduardo C. Corral and THE WILD FOX OF YEMEN by Threa Almontaser.
Also, finished reading THE TRUE BELIEVER by Eric Hoffer and wow some things really do repeat themselves through history.
On deck:
I might finally start PEACES by Helen Oyeyemi today. I also got WORLD OF WONDERS by Aimee Nezhukumatathil as a Christmas gift that arrived late due to backorders, so I’ll probably start that as a belated Earth Day celebration. Romance-wise, I’ve got BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DUKE by Kelly Bowen in from the library so I can complete that trilogy!
A lot of my mind space last week was occupied with numbers and deciphering governemental guides, but now it’s over! Our tax forms for the last 3 years are filled and submitted! *confetti*
When it came to choosing what to read, I felt so overwhelmed by my TBR pile, I decided to be conceptual rather than go by feels. At first I thought I’d read all the “Lady’s Guide…” titles I’ve got, but there were too many and it discouraged me ^^; Then I noticed I had one book that was featured on Cover Awe and one on Cover Snark and that’s what I went with 🙂
First was the Cover Snark : HUMMINGBIRD AND KRAKEN by Reese Morrison. The cover really is awful. The kraken kinda self-identify as Norwegian even if he predates Norway, so the bleached smiling All-American kid on the cover is the opposite of the kraken’s description, except for being blond.
As for the book, it was m’okay. If I’d been up to my usual reading speed I’d have cleared it in a day and found it cute – I’m fond of characters with Declan’s personality, re: hummingbird, hyperactive and flipping quicklike from one thought to the next (…out loud…), especially when they’re paired with taciturn slow moving partners. I also got a kick out of the numerous tentacles and partial shifts. But as it took me a week to get through the book, I became bored with the characters, especially as I’m not found of Daddy play. Or rather: I like the dynamics of what is called Daddy play, but I hate the word “Daddy”, I get a Yuk moment every time it comes up between a couple. I really liked the kraken though.
Next, the Cover Awe: SILENT SIN by E.J. Russell, featuring the guy with The Cheekbones. M/M story set in silent movies era Hollywood between a movie star and his wholesome, just-stumbled-out-of-Idaho-farm-boy-turned-chauffeur. I loved the setting. There was sometimes the feel that the author crammed a lot of what she’d researched into the book but overall, it wasn’t too overdone. The setting even stole the show, IMO – I was more interested in the early 20s movie stuff than in the couple… It’s rare for me to like this kind of romance, I usually prefer characters driven stories, but I enjoyed Silent Sin.
I kept on with the concept and chose my next read also based on cover: THE SPACE BETWEEN WORLDS by Micaiah Johnson. This could also have been on cover awe – except I pictured the heroine’s skin as much, much darker than is pictured on the cover. The book was great, it kept me away from sewing until I reached the end, that’s a feat these days, haha! Very griping story, and well written. It’s sci-fi, and there’s a romance, but the romantic relationship was the least interesting relationship depicted. I especially liked the heroine’s relationships with herselves (mostly perceived and internalized).
And that’s it. Hope April ends well for all. We had our last snow last week, we should be done for this winter, I’m looking forward to nicer temperatures~
I feel like I’m able to read a bit more easily these days which is a relief. Good stuff of late:
PALADIN’S STRENGTH by T. Kingfisher. This is the third book of hers I’ve read and I have loved them all. With this one, I was reading on my kindle and didn’t know how far into it I was and then reached the end and was totally dismayed that there wasn’t more/I wasn’t going to get to spend more time with Clara and Istvhan.
THE SMOKE HUNTER by Jacqueline Benson was as described (Indiana Jones meets Lara Croft, though I would add “without the Lara Croft wardrobe”). Fast and entertaining, although I thought the romance angle was a bit forced/didn’t need to be pushed as hard.
The Meh:
WHEN HE WAS WICKED and TO SIR PHILIP WITH LOVE. I know why I keep reading these (because I want to know what will happen on Bridgerton!) but Julia Quinn is just not the author for me. The Bridgertons as a family are great and Quinn writes fun, snappy dialogue but her heroes are kind of a drag/not really worthy of the women they marry and her plotting is totally pedestrian. (I completely guessed the ending of Penelope’s book and Benedict’s book is 100% Cinderella with an extra Ever After layer of rip-off.) Eloise deserved SO MUCH better than the titular Sir Philip. I am SO OVER the “man is saved by the love of a good woman” trope. Quinn also has what I would consider to be some problematic treatment of mental illness and infertility.
Next up: the Teresa Romain that was in the books on sale list recently (SEASON FOR SCANDAL.) There’s a lot of set up in the first few chapters (a lost fortune, marriage of convenience, communication mishaps) so I’ll be interested to see how Romain spools it all out.
Only Mostly Devastated by Sophie Gonzales. This was a m/m YA with a Grease setup (two boys have a summer fling, one boy unexpectedly ends up moving to the place where the other one lives and finds out uh oh he’s a closeted jock.) That seems to be where most of the resemblance ends (which I was thankful for–seventh grade choral class has forever made me hate Grease). It was mostly cute, and a fast read, though there are some heavy things (the reason the viewpoint character moves is because of a relative with terminal cancer). I thought it navigated young relationships well as the characters learned how to talk to each other and how to both make sacrifices and show support. There were a couple sections where the prose turned very PSA and stilted (in particular, a spot where a girl monologues for three pages about PCOS–valuable stuff for certain readers, I’m sure, but it read like it came out of a textbook when it was supposed to be a lunch conversation). But there were some really lovely romantic moments and overall I enjoyed it.
Lie With Me by Philippe Besson. Sigh. This is a French novel of a young gay man’s first love as he grows up in the eighties, and then encounters with the lover’s son a generation later. I’ve been trying to read more books in translation and it was…fine. The mood felt very Call Me By Your Name, especially initially, and I found it interesting that this is very obviously autobiographical fiction and trying to find the line of what was real versus what was false or embellished (For instance, the book is dedicated to a person with the same name as the lover–but is/was he a real person?) Unfortunately, it ended in tragedy. I’m so far over queer tragedy. Beyond done. I wish books would come with some kind of ‘bury your gays’ warning sticker or something because I don’t care how lyrically written or well executed it is, I just don’t want to read it anymore. Perhaps I should have seen things coming, but I didn’t, and the book just completely soured for me.
Saga of the Volsungs The Norse Epic of Sigurd the Dragon Slayer translated by Jesse L. Byock. I was out of library books and needed something to read at work, so I grabbed this off my shelf since I’d never sat down to read it. It was certainly interesting, though wow, there’s a whole lot of ‘woman gets mad at husband, woman kills all her children in retaliation’ going on. Still, I’m not as familiar with Scandinavian myths as I am other cultures, so it was cool to dig into something new. Kinda want to go back and rewatch Vikings now, to be honest…
CLAIRE deWITT AND THE CITY OF THE DEAD (Sara Gran): Raymond Chandler & David Lynch had a baby. This is it: urban noir set in post-Katrina New Orleans. The number 1 book on CrimeRead’s Top Ten of the last decade list. I’m really looking forward to the next two Claire deWitt books.
THE ONLY GOOD INDIANS (Stephen Grahame Jones): A botched elk hunt on the rez comes back to haunt the hunters. That’s the #ownvoices horror framework on which Jones has hung his meditation on cultural identity & history. Winner of this year’s Ray Bradbury Prize.
STOKER’S WILDE (Steven Hopstacken): Bram Stoker. Oscar Wilde. Together, they fight vampires (& werewolves)! Great silly fun; I’ve ordered the sequel.
LOST SOULS (Poppy Z Brite): Reread. Queer horror from the 90s. Still pretty transgressive today (all the CWs, seriously). And very very bloody, just the way I like my vampires.
TENDER VOL 1 (Nigel Slater): a cook’s love letter to his vegetable garden, with recipes. Slater’s writing is absolutely lyrical.
SECOND FIRST IMPRESSIONS (Sally Thorne): Hilarious & touching.
I’m also working my way through Laura Griffin’s backlist, since I enjoyed
HIDDEN and FLIGHT. I’ve just finished ALPHA CREW & TRACERS series & I’m about to start WOLFE SECURITY series.
I’m reading NAVIGATING THE STARS by Maria V. Snyder, which is a YA sci-fi book.
I also have A HEART OF BLOOD AND ASHES by Milla Vane; THIN AIR by Lisa Gray; and THE GRAY MAN by Mark Greaney waiting in my TBR pile. I’m also looking forward to checking out THE SEAT FILLER by Sariah Wilson, which comes out next week.
Happy reading, everyone! 🙂
Happy WAYR Day! I’ve had a couple of rough weeks work-wise, and just general pandemic malaise/COVID anxiety, as I’m sure many of you have, too, so I am especially excited about WAYR this morning. I love reading all of your thoughts about the books you’ve read.
Recommended:
MERRY MEASURE Lily Morton, M/M Sweet, romantic contemporary. I fell in love with both h’s, and I immediately went looking for her other books.
RULE BREAKER Lily Morton, M/M Grumpy boss, sassy assistant. Power dynamic was handled well, if HR concerns temper your romance reading. Enjoy!
DEAL MAKER Lily Morton, M/M Grown-up star, younger model who is ready to grow up, found family with two flawed, emotionally beat up men. Really enjoyed this, and I didn’t think I would (I get very anxious when children are in the mix, but this was handled really well).
PALADIN’S STRENGTH T. Kingfisher, M/F fantasy. Great book from one of my auto-buy authors. Dragged a little in the middle (though I suspect the problem was more my stressed-out brain than the book) but the character development and evolution of the relationship was perfect. Would like to see how they transition back into their regular life. Beware there is quite a lot of violence and real loss – if that is hard for you, this might not be your book. That said, it was not gratuitous, and the plot really made sense and was well conceived. Will definitely reread this one. PLEASE KEEP WRITING, T. KINGFISHER!
SO WILD Eve Dangerfield M/F contemporary. Realistic characters, good development of feelings and growth. Enjoyed it. Also, smexy times were smexy!
Not Bad:
RISK TAKER Lily Morton, M/M contemporary. Didn’t quite land, but not bad.
THE GIRLS I’VE BEEN Tess Sharpe, action/suspense with romantic elements, featuring young adults. Plot was strong, characters were great, but there was too much time analyzing feelings and talking about those feelings. There was so much that could have been shown – so much happened, and we heard about it all in passing. I don’t know this author’s work, but it felt like first efforts from an author that will be fantastic, but hasn’t quite gotten there yet. Keeping my eye out for more of their work – action scenes were great, just too much time in the heroine’s head. This is a pretty dark book, btw, so proceed with caution (or gobble it up, like I did, depending on where you are at).
SIMPLY WICKED Kate Pearce M/F BDSM, historical romance. As someone else said on this site, this book was bananas. Kinky, often historically unbelievable (which I feel like was explained away with “well, they’re from France”) and I’m not sure I believed the romance, or that Shibari works like that, exactly, but if you eat a bag of potato chips, don’t complain that they are too salty. I don’t think I will read more of the series, but I would bet if you are in a certain mood, you will really enjoy this. And I dare you to suggest it as a book club book, just to see people’s heads explode. Double-dog dare you!
CINNAMON ROLL Anna Zabo M/M BDSM, contemporary. I usually love Zabo’s work. I actually pre-ordered this one. I felt like this was a better “how to enjoy kink responsibly book” than romance. There wasn’t enough of a conflict or character arc to feel like the story moved. While that may often be a realistic romance (they started dating and were great together — my husband and I fit that description well, actually) it’s not a very interesting story to read. If you need a sure thing, however, relatively low angst, with lots of kink, check it out. And check out Zabo’s backlist, too!
Did not work for me:
THE BOSS Abigail Owen M/F paranormal. Like Christine Feehan’s Dark Series, only with dragons, and missing that drama and intensity that is her special sauce.
JON’S DOWNRIGHT RIDICULOUS SHOOTING CASE A.J. Sherwood, M/M paranormal contemporary. Really looked forward to this, and love the premise, but it’s just tell and not show all day. And the plot was weak. Not going to read the rest of the series, I think.
PEACE ON EARTH Audrey Faye – “An Assassin Christmas Carol” sounds like just my thing, but it was all over the place. DNF.
LOVE DIRECTIONS A.F. Zoelle, M/M contemporary – DNF. Meh.
Have a great weekend, and I look forward to poring through your bookish thoughts!
Not done a lot of reading since last time. Most of it has been whatever I can find on prime reading. So far I’ve had one serviceable read, one meh and two DNF’s (hard DNF, as in stopped reading because something in the book annoyed me, rather than a soft DNF, the book isn’t working for me at the moment.
So the serviceable Shadow Thief by Eva Chase. Reverse harem paranormal, good world building and ok characters. I’m betting the heroine’s got some hidden powers of some sort. I’m not sure if I’ll carry on the series, maybe if I get another free KU membership and I’m looking for something not too taxing.
Meh:
Nanny with benefits by Cassie Cole. Another RH but not paranormal. It passed the time but I’ve read another work of hers and it’s exactly the same story more or less. Also I feel RH doesn’t really work in the real world because stuff. I couldn’t see this woman introducing her boyfriends to her Dad, although the HEA was bordering on a HFN with the poly group (hope this the right term) accepting it may not be a long term arrangement. Also content warning for it being set in the pandemic and all the associated issues, so it may not be for you if you’re avoiding any literature featuring Covid (never actually mentioned in the book).
Ok the DNF’s
Magitek by BR Kingsolver. One of those books in first POV and you dislike the character. The idea of a rift letting all sorts of supernatural in should be right up my alley but I just found the character too much of a Mary Sue for my liking. She also had a work partner who may have well been a cardboard cutout, there was no chemistry (heck they don’t have to have an attraction, they just had to have some feelings). Oh and the world building info dumps got annoying after a while and I was baffled how after a sea level rise of hundreds of feet and five nuclear bombs, America was still habitable. Look, paranormal doesn’t have to be believable but there has to be an explanation to why people could survive. Maybe this series is just suffering from first book syndrome but I don’t like the MC enough to carry on.
The other book was Brimstone Bound by Helen Harper. Starts with police officer MC boasting about arresting someone and it’s pretty violent, oh no! It gets worse, she gets psychotic mixed up with psychopathic, oh dear. Maybe it gets better? Nope. Also set in London and there’s some notible American expressions from British characters (one of them says “Don’t get your panties in a twist” and there’s talk of a paycheck, these are not used by British people generally). Also it’s another first person POV from another irritating MC.
So yes, a bit of a mixed bunch. Not going to get much read in the next week, writing and editing for a contest deadline a week Sunday, could be some late nights in there.
Hmm, let’s see. I took a week off from work and I’ve been tearing through books. I read Act Your Age & Not Your Shoe Size after the former was on sale. Good and once again made me wish I knew how to skate even though I’m too much of a wuss for roller derby.
Also, read Sarina Bowen’s The Ivy Years series after the first one was on sale. I think the first was my favorite of the bunch.
Read Book of Love by Satie and finished it earlier this morning. Very sweet – in a good way. I remembered Book 1 as having more sexual chemistry than this one and spicier on the page action, but it’s been a while so I might be wrong. I love the romance between Cordelia and Stroud, very gentle and lovely.
@Jill Q: I hear you. I just DNFed an HR this week set in 1853 where someone said “we’ll keep in touch so we can coordinate our schedules.” Couldn’t get over that line.
Anyway, as for me, I’ve been comfort reading mostly murder mysteries after one of my papers got rejected for publication (*insert rant about misguided research priorities in my field + lots of swearing*).
CLOSE UP (Burning Cove #4) by Amanda Quick. This is my first Amanda Quick book and in keeping with me reading series out of order, I decided to start with this one because of the photography aspect (heroine is an art photographer/photo journalist). It was okay, neither the romance nor the mystery was compelling enough to make it more than an above average read.
DEATH COMES TO THE VILLAGE (Kurland St. Mary #1) by Catherine Lloyd. I really enjoyed this one! Major Robert Kurland is the local squire come home from war with a serious injury that leaves him bedridden and Lucy Harrington is the vicar’s eldest daughter trying to take care of everyone. They start noticing strange things in their village and decide to investigate. Or Lucy investigates while the Major is stuck in his bed and gives her orders which she doesn’t care for.
DEATH COMES TO LONDON. Didn’t love it as much as the first one. The action moves to London and the pool of suspects are mostly rich society types.
DEATHS COMES TO KURLAND HALL (Kurland St. Mary #3). Better than the second but still not as good as the first book. Everyone’s back in Kurland St. Mary for a wedding and since the murder victim is one of the guests, the pool of suspects are limited to the wedding guests. One of things I like about this series is that Lucy and Robert tend to figure out the murderer quickly when they get the relevant facts instead of having them run around to draw out the suspense.
THE WOLF HUNT by Gillian Bradshaw. A retelling of Bisclavret, a lais about a werewolf set in medieval Brittany. The author managed to strike the perfect balance between rooting the story in a specific time and place and giving it a timeless atmosphere, befitting of a story about knights and werewolves. The scenes set in the semi-mythical forest of Broceliande are especially lovely.
BOOK OF LOVE by Erin Satie. DNF’d this one at 50%. This is the follow-up to BED OF FLOWERS about a hero who grows rare orchids for a living. This features Cordelia Kelly, the best friend from the first book. I’m disappointed by many things in the book. First, the sloppy writing (see above about anachronistic language). And also, Cordelia’s characterisation feels inconsistent—she claims to oppose marriage because the institution is a trap for women but when she meets a guy who is halfway decent to her, she suddenly wonders if she was wrong. The hero is described as a big blond man who loves harmless pranks and I guess we’re supposed to find this adorable but he just sounds like a bored aristocrat with too much time and money. I’m reminded of the pranks from The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, harmless and silly but designed to carry a larger message. And Frankie and her friends are teenagers; here, none of the pranks are witty.
&Jill Q & Lainey: I’m sure we all have our “favorite” HR anachronisms, but my favorite is an old bodice-ripper set in the mid-1800s where the hero told the heroine her name (which, iirc, was Samantha) was “old-fashioned,” and she responded with, “Well, I was named for my grandmother who was a very old-fashioned Victorian woman.” This exchange taking place when Victoria had probably been on the throne about 20 years and wasn’t yet 50! Not to mention the word “Victorian” meaning high-toned morality had yet to be coined. And don’t get me started on “Samantha” being an old-fashioned name in the 1850s…
@arijo – Thank you for a new Kraken novel! I can’t wait to dive in. My favorite (one can have favorite Krakens, right?) is WRIGGLE AND SPARKLE – THE COLLECTED TALES OF A KRAKEN AND A UNICORN by Megan Derr.
On to the books read..
GREAT – none this time
VERY GOOD
Fox, Kelly – WRECKED series (M/M contemporaries) Based in an Austin gym for veterans, these reminded me of E.M. Lindsay’s Irons & Works series with lots of found families. The spin-off GUARDIAN is more action, less romance.
Raconteur, Honor – IMAGINEER series (YA Fantasy). This tale of a highschooler who becomes aware of magic was slow to get started, but has some amazing world building and wish fulfillment.
Sanderson, Cedar – TANAGER’S FLEDGLINGS (Science Fiction). A young man making a solo trading voyage with his merchant ship. Thoroughly enjoyable. Reminded me of Nathan Lowell’s Quarter Share.
GOOD
Blake, Macy – BORN THIS WAY. (M/M Shifters). It is short, it is frothy. There are rockstars (and their homework). It made me re-read SWEET NOTHINGS by Macy Blake, and I might have to re-read the whole
TRIAD OF MAGIC series, just because.
Chandler, Mackey – ANOTHER WORD FOR MAGIC (Science Fiction). The latest book in the FAMILY LAW series, it is more plot than character. The whole series is very good, but this installment was just ok.
Derr, Megan – LOST SHIFTER’S series. (M/M/M Shifters). These are sweet and short, but interesting. The first starts with a snake shifter discovering two wolf pups abandoned in his woods.
OK
Hart, Lorelei – CANINE LOVE YOU (M/M Shifters). It is frothy, with instant love, but cute. I’ve enjoyed the whole River’s Edge series and this a nice edition.
Moore, TA – NIGHT SHIFT series (M/M Urban Fantasy Werewolves) More of an fantasy suspense than a romance and both books end on cliffhangers. I think I will wait until the series concludes before reading farther.
Nuttall, Christopher – SCHOOLED IN MAGIC series (Fantasy). I’m three books in and enjoying the heroine, a 16/17 year old transferred to a magical world. CW for the use of corporal punishment in the school and the casual use of the term ‘fatties’. I’m not in favor of either of these, but am cautiously reading onwards because I want to know what happens to the heroine.
@Arijo – I read HUMMINGBIRD AND KRAKEN and agree with everything you said. If you like the “hummingbird” paired with taciturn dynamic try The ABC’s of Spellcraft by Jordan Castillo Price. I really enjoyed them. I tried the audio version at about book 3 and never looked back. The narrator does a really good job.
Just finished The Last Warrior by Jennifer Ashley, which was another installment in her Shifters series. The hero is a character who has been woven in and out of other books in the series and the heroine is new. I enjoyed this installment very much and look forward to the next.
I also read Sarina Bowen’s latest book, Bombshells, which is about a women’s hockey team and set in Brooklyn. I really enjoyed the story, especially the perspective of the women’s team members and the characters from the other series that pop in for cameos.
I’ve been listening to the audiobooks from Penny Reid’s Winston brothers series and Knitting in the City series at night for the past few months, to help me fall asleep. These are included in my audible subscription. I have to listen to books that I’ve already read when I’m using them to go to sleep, so I’ve been working through the various books that are part of my subscription to find books that have good narrators. The male narrator for the Winston brothers series is especially good (particularly when he is narrating for Cletus Winston).
Not sure what I’ll read next. I’m currently listening to the podcast with Priscilla Oliveras, so maybe one of her books.
Nalini Singh and Lucy Parker are my two drop-everything-and-read-it-NOW authors – and in incredible luck, I got ARCs of both of their new books this week, and they’re WONDERFUL. Singh’s Last Guard is one of the most emotionally resonant and powerful of all her Psy-Changeling books so far, AND it’s the first time I can ever remember seeing such incredible disability rep for a romantic hero in a paranormal romance. And Parker’s Battle Royal is just delicious in every way – SUCH great, witty chemistry between the leads, delicious baked goods descriptions, AND such a funny parallel to the Great British Bake-Off setup!
So. A couple of weeks ago, I downloaded Bleacke’s Geek, since it sounded interesting. Sadly…. it stomped the idea of consent until it was shattered into tiny pieces. It started in the opening scene, and continued with several more stomps until I DNF’d (which was roughly 1/3rd into the book, which was way longer than I should have kept reading). So. If you have it in your TBR pile, proceed with caution since as far as I know it doesn’t have a content warning. Which it should have.
More joyful books I’ve read… I read Zoe Chant’s Bearly together yesterday and it was so much fun. I love the Green Valley novels. They are just delightful.
I also re-read Dana Marie Bell’s Sound’s Familiar which was also so good. I loved the interaction between the characters.
Where do the weeks go? I’ve suspended all my library holds so that I could, you know, read the 2000+ books I already own. And then I went to our local independent bookstore today for Independent Bookstore Day and, well, yeah. My name is Darlynne, I have a book-buying problem.
A STRANGER IN TOWN by Kelley Armstrong: How much do I love this series already, and it continues to ramp up the tension and plot. So highly recommended, must be read in order, and I hope Armstrong never stops.
SYSTEM FAILURE (Have you tried restarting your warship?) by Joe Zieja: The last in Zieja’s screwball Epic Failure trilogy about the end of the Two Hundred Years (and Counting) Peace. The military has had nothing to do for 200 years except drink and barbecue, so no one is prepared when galactic war actually breaks out. At first blush, I thought this might be a guy book, but the best characters are the women, a reassembled murderous AI and the hapless ex-sergeant who manages, despite his complete ineptitude, to save each day with their help. The first book is MECHANICAL FAILURE (Please restart your warship) followed by COMMUNICATION FAILURE (Please restart your warship harder).
A TASTE OF HEAVEN by Penny Watson: I was afraid I wasn’t going to be able to stand the grumpy (read: asshole) Scottish chef who took way more liberties with his competition partner Sophia than I felt comfortable with. Things turned out OK, at least I didn’t have to marry him. Sophia’s evolution as a woman and chef was so great.
A FREQUENCY OF ALIENS (audio) by Gene Doucette: This is the follow-up to THE SPACESHIP NEXT DOOR, which I loved. Annie Collins, our hero from book one, is now attending college and “Shippy” the spaceship is kind of hanging around in space. All the other wonderful and weird characters are back, too. This series has been my comfort listen these days.
A WIZARD’S GUIDE TO DEFENSIVE BAKING by T. Kingfisher: Everything you all said it was. I loved it.
I’ve been on a kind of grim streak as my library holds came in: listened to MEXICAN GOTHIC by Silvia Moreno-Garcia and enjoyed it, though it took me to the end of the book to be ok with the Big Reveal. I did not love the narrator who had the odd habit of pausing midsentence, likely at line breaks, as if she were reading it for the first time.
RING SHOUT by P. Djèlí Clark is horrifying and gripping, and gotta love a team of badass women slaying monsters and giving no fucks.
Currently listening to SAY NOTHING by Patrick Radden Keefe about the provisional IRA during The Troubles. Somehow I hadn’t made the connection that the same author wrote the terrific New Yorker article on how Mark Burnett created Trump the candidate and also did the wonderful Winds of Change podcast. I might have developed a major crush on this dude.
Doing a re-read of the M/M hockey romance HEATED RIVALRY by Rachel Reid via audiobook and love it so much. When I read it in print, I had to get farther in the story before I felt Ilya was not a total jerk. Upon listening, I have so much love for it. I know I will be listening to it again. And probably again.
Another audiobook that was so good is a non-fiction book called THREE WISE MEN by Beau Wise and Tom Sileo. Three brothers that all served their country….one as a SEAL, one as a Green Beret, and the lone survivor as a Marine. It was a very emotional story and very well done. The Forward had me in tears, the Afterward had me in tears, and multiple chapters in between. I could only listen to one part a day because of how it affected me. But I’m glad to have listened to this family’s story and sacrifice. Highly recommend if you don’t mind emotional crying.
I’ve been exclusively reading m/m since late February.
The Great
Wilde Love by Lucy Lennox: This is the 6th book in her Forever Wilde series, which follows an LGBT family in small town Texas. The family is led by Grandpa and Doc (aka Major and Liam), who have been together for 45 years. Wilde Love is their story. It is so good–they meet in 1968 when Liam ends up a medic on Major’s helicopter in Vietnam and after going through a truly harrowing experience they become best friends. Over the next 8 years of their lives, they become family–Major takes a job working for Liam’s father-in-law (yes, Liam was married when he and Major met) and Liam’s kids consider him their uncle. Major and Liam’s wife becomes really good friends too, even when she realizes that Major is both gay and in love with her husband. He is what keeps the family running when Betsy (the wife) gets sick and dies (not a spoiler), and it is only after Betsy’s death that Liam comes to understand that the strange things he’s felt for Major since the very beginning was attraction. There’s a really hot scene where he walks in on Major receiving head, which leads to this discovery about himself. This is absolutely a tearjerker of a book, starting at around 36% and lasting until the very last page of the book. (Normally Lucy’s books are more rom-com, so this is a big change from the norm.)
Saving Ren by Sloane Kennedy: This is the 3rd book in her Barretti series, but is part of a much bigger shared universe, which as of last year includes 26 books! The seeds for this book are actually planted in Logan’s Need, the final book in her Escort Series. The main characters in Logan’s Need are Logan Bradshaw and Dom Barretti–Logan has never been attracted to a man before but can’t seem to stay away from Dom, which leads to a lot of questions about himself and his sexuality. It is through their relationship that almost all of the following books spring. Dom has three brothers, Vin, Ren, and Rafe, but Ren and Rafe are both lost to them (they lost custody of Rafe after their parents died and Ren disappeared a year prior to the start of this book when his team was ambushed in Afghanistan). Eventually all of the brothers are reunited, but because of his time being tortured by terrorist in Afghanistan Ren is really screwed up. He ends up hunkering down in a cabin in the woods that is owned by Dom’s former brother-in-law, Declan, who is the only person who knows Ren is there. Declan’s been infatuated with Ren for about 10 years, but no one knows he’s gay and that’s how he prefers things. Everything gets more complicated when another man joins the mix. Declan finds himself drawn both to Ren and this other man, Jagger, and all three of them develop a relationship. This book is really hot, but also very emotional (all of her books are).
The Secret by May Archer: This is the 3rd book in her Love in O’Leary series, which is basically what Hallmark Channel movies could be if they had LGBT protagonists. It is an age-gap, enemies to lovers book about florists, so very Hallmark Channel. Constantine is 24 and is viewed as a bit of a fuck-up in his small town because he made one very stupid mistake 9 years ago. As a result, he works for his mother in an unpaid position and has a part-time job that doesn’t really pay him enough to live on. He ends up being hired for a 3rd job by Micah, the 40 year old florist who is in direct competition with Con’s mother. Not a single person in town knows about their working relationship or that it develops into a romantic relationship. One of my favorite scenes happens about 6 months into the relationship when Micah wakes Con up for work in the morning and they realize that they both have started thinking of Micah’s place being Con’s home too.
Fools by Lucy Lennox and May Archer: This is the 3rd book in the Licking Thicket series and is friends to lovers/idiots in love. At the start of the book, Dunn decides he needs to find someone for his best friend, Tucker, to fall in love with because he can’t love Tucker the way he needs. He calls Tucker his best best friend and can’t imagine a time when they wouldn’t be in each other’s lives. Somehow, the entire town understands this to mean that they’re meant for each other (including Dunn’s mother who refused to believe this his brother was gay for 10 years), but Dunn doesn’t see this, even though he admits to wondering what it would be like to be with Tucker in a sexual way. He sees himself as straight, so doesn’t consider a romantic relationship a possibility until he almost loses Tucker. So good.
<The Not as Good, but Better than Meh
Vengeance by Sloane Kennedy: This the 5th book in the Protector’s Series, but somewhere in the middle of the extended universe. It is another m/m/m and has an age-gap as well as a friends to lovers trope. Memphis is the second in command of a vigilante group and has specific rules for any hook-ups (he doesn’t do relationships) and his biggest rule is that he doesn’t share, so when he starts hooking up with 21-year-old Brennan he is adamant that Brennan not be involved with anyone else, especially since Memphis knows Brennan has a thing for his best friend, 19 year old Tristan Barretti. What he doesn’t expect is to have equally explosive feelings for Tristan as he does for Brennan. The three begin a sexual relationship while Memphis is protecting Tristan from someone who wants to kill him, but things are complicated by Tristan’s HIV+ status. One of the things I really liked about this book was that it was up front with everything that someone with HIV has to do to keep sexual encounters safe for all participants. There’s even talk about PreP. The only reason I downgraded this book from Great was that there is an on the page rape of one of the main characters. The book has a trigger warning, but I don’t think it was a strong enough warning. The rape is a very hard scene to read as are the following few chapters, dealing with the fallout.
Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid: This is the second book in her Game Changers series. It is hard to classify this because they aren’t really enemies nor are they friends, but it has elements of both enemies to lovers and friends to lovers. The main characters are hockey players, who play for rival teams (so basically if a guy on the Rangers fell for a player on the Flyers) and they also have a reputation as being rivals in their own right. While they enjoy beating each other, there is no real rivalry there. Their relationship actually develops over a period of 8 years, starting when they’re both 17 and playing for their countries’ teams in a Junior hockey championship. Ilya is from Russia and desperately wants to see Shane play and while Shane doesn’t admit it, he wants to meet one of the best young hockey players around. They don’t start hooking up until a year later and neither character admits to not being straight until more than halfway through the book (Ilya describes himself as 70% straight at one point, but this is more of a defense mechanism because he has to go back to Russia where being gay or bisexual is not safe). The reason this is good but not great is that it took me a while to get into it. The first half of the book is Ilya and Shane hooking up whenever they’re in the same city, but not really having any contact outside of that. Eventually things shift and they start to become friends as well as lovers. Once this happens, the book gets so much better. The author has confirmed that they’re getting another book (the 6th in the series) where they get a true HEA (this has more of a HFN), so I can’t wait for that to come out.
Jumping Jude by Lucy Lennox: This is the 3rd book in her Made Marian series. It is a body guard romance, which is definitely my catnip. Jude is a closeted country music singer, who has had a thing for his body guard, Derek from day one, but as far as anyone knows Derek’s as straight as Jude is pretending to be. When it comes out that Derek is gay, they decide to be fuck buddies since neither one is ready to come out. I loved how their friendship actually develops out of their sexual relationship. My main issue with this book was all the secrecy, which is usually something I enjoy, but in this case it didn’t make a lot of sense. Jude’s family is very LGBT friendly–two of his biological brothers are already out as gay and he has three adopted siblings who are gay. His family 100% would have accepted them as a couple (one of them even began to suspect that there was more to their relationship before Jude comes out to them).
Last week: I took a trip! On an airplane! With people in masks! I spent a week at the beach in Mexico to celebrate my acquired immunity and read 8 books. The top 3 were: A Bollywood Affair (this is now a desert island read and holy moly this was a debut and gorgeous) Ever Yours, Annabelle (I laughed and I cried) and Marianne (this was a gentle low angst PG romance that reminded me of Georgette Heyer) BTW if you have the time, the means, and the acquired immunity run away to Mexico. I felt safer there than I do in the town I live in.
@Susan: I read Candy Color Paradox V5 too! I love them!!
And then I was on a Sam Burns (m/m) kick
The Fairest (3/5 stars): Prince Carwyn and a huntsman Gareth were childhood friends. Now Carwyn is anxious he won’t be a good king and worried people are trying to assassinate him so he runs away. Gareth chases after him.
The Fantastic Fluke (5/5 stars): Sage thought he was a weak mage. But after his father dies, a familiar shows up. And then a ghost shows up to train him (because it turns out he’s incredibly strong and has a rare magic talent). The romance was bland, but I loved Sage’s fox familiar and everything about their relationship. The story totally made my week
Fluke and the Faithless Father (3/5): sequel to the Fantastic Fluke. Still funny, but I didn’t love it like I did the first one
Not a romance: Secret Lives of Church Ladies. I don’t know what I’m going to end up rating this, but half way through reading my library copy I bought a copy to keep on my shelf
Watching: Finally started Gentleman Jack on HBO
I read way too much and remember too little—I don’t track my reading well recently.
But I just finished (like, minutes ago) Kate Canterbary’s new THE BELLE AND THE BEARD and greatly enjoyed it. It’s a mismatched couple scenario that worked well, and I closed it with a happy sigh.
Also really ended up liking Olivia Dade’s 40-LOVE. I had a bumpy start with it because at first I couldn’t figure out what these two saw in each other (and their meet cute felt SO implausible to me) then it grew on me enough that I didn’t DNF then there was one conversation they had that was utter delight and I was hooked from then on.
Enjoyed Lauren Rowe’s LOVE-HATE duet, but it didn’t overshadow other books of hers for me. (I loved BALL PEEN HAMMER—the energy of that couple is so delightful.) Anyway, LOVE-HATE just had a little too-much-ego-making-the-couple-lie-to-each-other business. I understood why those two characters would do that, I just didn’t love that part of it. I did love the longer-than-usual time where the big bad issues were cleared up and the couple was simply growing together. What a nice and rare thing!
I liked the couple and the representation in Anna Zabo’s REVERB. I’m a sucker for rock romance and enjoyed the family the band and their significant others created. I believed in them and enjoyed the characters a lot, though had less patience with the crisis-time break up.
I also listened to Loretta Chase’s Dressmaker series and enjoyed them. And Penny Reid’s LAWS OF PHYSICS series which was a powerful in my ears as it was on kindle. I love her hypothesis series and hope she writes the third one someday.
That’s a lot but I know there’s more. I do need to start at least listing what I’m reading again. I did that for year, but haven’t for the last few.
Next is THE DEVIL COMES COURTING. Can’t wait.
:::does a dive roll in because the semester is OVER and my Hurricane Michael paper got an A:::
No more pencils, no more books…well, until August.
Anyway, we kicked this off with The Worst Duke In the World by Lisa Berne, which was light and fluffy, and very much a wish-fulfillment kind of read. I did wish the hero was a little bit more straightforward, instead of being such a closed-off dick at times, but I was amused by the fact that the person telling him that he was being a closed-off dick was his son. Then I decided to stay in the Regency, but do murders instead, so I read Where Serpents Sleep by C.S. Harris. I am steadily working my way through this series, and it is a good time. I fully believe that every time Sebastian St. Cyr beats the living shit out of a reprobate that’s attempting to kill him, an angel gets its wings. I followed that up with Hidden by Laura Griffin. I think I had the same problem here in that, while I enjoyed the central mystery and the competence of the hero and heroine, I had a bit of a problem with the way the hero treated the heroine for much of the book. He spent a lot of time mistrusting her, despite the fact that she had given him no reason to do so, and then is pissed when she does something without telling him. Dude, why should she? You’ve been a total dong to her constantly. I wouldn’t tell you, either. Which brings us to now, in which I’m letting my brain enjoy Hindu mythology, fun adventure, and plenty of humor by reading Aru Shah and the Tree of Wishes by Roshani Chokshi, which I am having a good time with. It’s kind of perfect for the post-semester brain hangover. So until next time, the Humpy Dance is your dance.
Sarina Bowen novels are my new comfort read. I’ve burned through six of them in the past couple weeks. I also want to Squee! about two books that aren’t romances. UNCONQUERABLE SUN by Kate Elliott is a gorgeous space-opera with tidbits of queer romance and enemies-to-lovers romance, and a polyamorous queen with very poor taste in spouses. OR WHAT YOU WILL by Jo Walton is about the very best of friends, trying to save each others lives, in a fantasy world that took its inspiration from both Twelfth Night and The Tempest. It’s indescribably good.
Ack! I forgot to mention Mariana Zapata’s new ALL RHODES LEAD HERE. She is another author who has slowly grown on me and now is a favourite (Penny Reid and Sarina Bowen are the others). I love her balance of personal drama, people who are working hard to do their best in life, and slow-burn romances where the HEA feels earned. Loved this one. So much heart.
Oh, and Lauren Blakely’s MUSE wasn’t a DNF, but wasn’t for me.
I went to visit my mother after her hip replacement (at 94!) and, next to the bed in my old room was A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine, left behind gym y brother. It was on my wishlist so I was thrilled. And it was as wonderful as I had been led to expect by the butchery and others. Good writing, interesting story, interesting universe.
I am now halfway through The Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth. from yesterday’s books on sale and very immersed. It is dark, though, so not a blanket recommendation depending on your state of mind.
Marry in Haste by Anne Gracie, a nice marriage of convenience story that I enjoyed. Finally read The Madness of Lord Mackenzie and loved it. I had read the second book. Lady Isabella’s Scandalous Marriage a couple years ago and also enjoyed that. He’s Not My Boyfriend by Jackie Lau, one night stand into “I con’t stop thinking about you”, not her strongest and still very good, especially with family relationships (the h moves in with her grandmother early on).
About a Rogue by Caroline Linden, older sister takes younger sister’s place in arranged marriage to a rogue who may be a duke’s heir. I liked it. Subversive by Colleen Cowlely: in a fantasy USA, where magic is only for men, a new wizard comes to town and hires, rather against her will, a young woman with hidden magic whose family is part of a society for abolishing magic. It was interesting and, of course, the battle of wills leads to something warmer.
The Business of Blood by Kerrigan Byrne. A young Irish woman in old London who has had a friend killed by The Ripper and whose job is to clean up the scenes of violent becomes involved when it appears that Jack has resurfaced. Definitely e=held my attention and I did enjoy it. It’s the first in a series and I will be interested to see her further involvement with a certain member of the police.
Marked by Death by Kate Harper. A possessed young man becomes involved with the necromancer he asks for help; they have history. Good M/M.
I attempted All the Breaking Waves by Kerry Lonsdale. A woman and her daughter fled after a family disaster and now find themselves having to return home. I just was not feeling it; it seemed like I’d read many similar stories. Others might enjoy it.
The Moonlight Child by Karen McQuestion: an older woman thinks she’s imagining the little girl next door but her foster daughter sees her, too, and helps her solve a mystery. Not a romance but good.
I have mentioned many times here that my dad and I have a two person book club, but what I am not sure that I have ever mentioned is that for the last several years my mom and I have had a yearly book reading competition with our own unique rules (for example, anything over 400 pages counts as two books, anything over 800 counts as three). I have won every year so far, but this year she is kicking my butt – she says I will come on strong at the end of the year once Baby Girl gets older and sleeps better, but I am not sure I can overcome the deficit I have at this point!
Excellent:
How Doctors Think by Jerome Groopman: Dad and I read this after we read Your Medical Mind and I found it to be incredibly helpful. Groopman highlights many cognitive errors doctors make when trying to reach a diagnosis or decide on a treatment. And he then shows us how to ask questions in order to get past those mental roadblocks. As my dad said at the end of our discussion, he will now always ask “What else could it be?” and “Is it possible there is more than one thing wrong with me?” whenever he faces a major medical issue. Highly recommend both this book and Your Medical Mind.
Very Good:
The Secrets of Wishtide by Kate Saunders: The first in the Victorian-set mystery series, Laetitia Rodd works to make discrete inquiries for her brother, a barrister. An extremely wealthy family hires her to find out the background of the son’s new love interest (an unsuitable match), but very quickly a murder occurs. I loved the main character (an older, impoverished widow of a clergyman) and her landlady/best friend. I also enjoyed the complicated plot. I marked it down from excellent because it is in first person, which while done very well here, I don’t love in mysteries and because the ending was a little too melodramatic for my taste. I plan to continue on with the series. CW for child in peril.
Good, Meh, The Bad:
None
My slightly guilty pleasure is SF Romance, the kind featuring fated mate, alien/human pairings, where the alien hero, who is totally an alpha warrior type turns totally gushy and cinnamon rolly for the human heroine (bonus points if the hero has a prehensile tail LOL). I finally signed up for KU last year so that I could fully indulge myself and in a search for SFR authors writing PoC characters, I came across Elizabeth Stephens and her XIVERI MATES series. There are 5 books so far, and I just got through binging on 4 of them (TAKEN TO VORAXIA, TAKEN TO NOBU, TAKEN TO HEIMO, and TAKEN TO KOR). The world building is a cut above normal for SFR and the series has pretty much everything I love, but there may be problematic elements for some readers. The blurbs for each book give a pretty good idea of what might be a problem so you can judge for yourself.
Right now I’m reading SUDDENLY PSYCHIC, paranormal women’s fiction by Elizabeth Hunter, and I just got notified that my library hold for ACT YOUR AGE, EVE BROWN by Talia Hibbert is in so that’s up next.
@Jeanette: I did read Wriggle & Sparkle and I think I prefer R. Morrison’s Kraken. I admit, I got the teeniest bit impatient with him in the course of the book, but he completely redeem his kraken badge in the last part of the book.
Then again, I also liked how Derr made her kraken gender fluid and such a clothes horse ^_^
@MaryK: thanks for the rep, I’ll look it up! I used to be a big fan of Jordan Castillo Price, ever since the first Psycop came out (and it was torture to wait for every next installment 😉 ) I reread them so many time… I kinda lost sight of her after book 7, but I’m more than willing to renew our acquaintance. Txs again!
Loving the Heated Rivalry shout outs here! Have also been mostly reading m/m all year, I’m not sure why but M/F has been consistently disappointing me recently. I read Charlie Adhara’s entire BIG BAD WOLF series in a week(5 books! following the same couple!). And let me just say, I. Was. Mind. Blown. Perfect balance of mystery and romance. And the relationship development is absolutely brilliant and complex too. I always say I don’t care for werewolves but I have now fallen in love with two m/m series involving werewolves (Charlie Adhara + Joanna Chambers’ historical romance duology). Adhara’s series also does a really thoughtful job of exploring systemic bias in law enforcement. 10/10.
I remember enjoying Ashlyn Kane’s WINGING IT last month, a hockey m/m romance, but can’t remember anything about it now for the life of me.
Went through Lily Morton’s backlist – CHARLIE SUNSHINE and MERRY MEASURE were good (m/m contemporaries). AFTER FELIX was fine. She tends to have a formula (evil ex, smexy times, complicated histories); it isn’t always particularly original but I go to her when I can’t find anything else I want to read and her banter is excellent.
I read TWO TO TUMBLE by Cat Sebastian too. I like CS but she tends to have these characters that are so inherently good. It always prevents me from getting really invested in the story, because I’m like, “this is nice”, but I never want to stay glued to the page to finish the book.
Lastly, BITTER LEGACY by Dal Maclean. M/m romantic suspense. Very good, emotionally put me through the wringer, lots of angst and pining and unrequited love, but I figured out the culprit early on.
Will be following the m/m recs provided here!
Firekeeper’s Daughter by Angeline Boulley was amazing. The main character is indigenous, and she becomes a confidential informant for the FBI to track down those responsible for drug dealing in her community.
This book is full of complicated relationships and I loved the tribe’s elders! CW for a violent death and a sexual assault. This shouldn’t be considered a romance but there are romantic elements.
Shout out for The Remarried Empress on Webtoon. It opens at the end (or middle? still posting) of the story with the emperor asking the empress for a divorce so he can marry his mistress. She in turn says she’ll agree if he gives permission for her to remarry the ruler of another land.
Then you get to see her fall in love with Heinrey while butthead, oh, the emperor, chases her away despite all she’s done for the country.
Since last time ~
— Galaxies and Oceans by N.R. Walker; I enjoyed this contemporary m/m romance that is set in Australia.
— the short story The Judge Senser (The Sensers Secret Society Book 1) by Soleah Kenna Sadge. This had an interesting premise, but I won’t
be reading on in the series. Note: It is currently free to Kindle readers.
— read Human Omega by Eileen Glass. This was an okay read, but I don’t plan to read on in the series.
— reread the first three books in a favorite series: Murder In Thrall, Murder in Retribution, and Murder in Hindsight by Anne Cleeland. I enjoyed revisiting them all.
— a raft of Kindle book samples.
— the science fiction novel In the Quick: A Novel by Kate Hope Day. It definitely strained credulity and the ending was … curious; however, it was a quick read and I enjoyed it.
— Binti: Home by Nnedi Okorafor, the second Binti novella; this one definitely ends on a cliffhanger. I will likely continue on to the third story. These definitely need to be read in order.
— The Cold Between: A Central Corps Novel by Elizabeth Bonesteel. There are a few things I’d quibble with, but overall I enjoyed the book and hope to read on in the series.
— a reread of Stray (Touchstone Book 1) by Andrea K. Höst which I enjoyed once again. This book is currently FREE for Kindle readers.
— continued my reread of the Touchstone series with Lab Rat One (Touchstone Book 2) by Andrea K Höst; I enjoyed it once more!