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?
@Qualisign, sending healing vibes your way.
@DiscoDollyDeb: that line is hilarious! I almost want to read the book to know what else Samantha has to say
I also just read FLIGHT by Laura Griffin. I enjoyed it, but does anyone know why that’s the title? There are boats in the story, but no planes. There are bird feathers, but that just seems … not enough to make it the title. I feel like it’s a lame question, but it won’t go away.
I also picked up ELYSIUM GIRLS because Dust Bowl witches sounds like something I need right now. Just started it, but the beginning hooked me.
@Ellie: I’ve been blasting my way through Griffin’s backlist & I’ve noticed some of her titles seem pretty random. I just finished DESPERATE GIRLS, which has women but no girls & they’re hardly desperate, unless it’s to find the killer.
I’m taking a brief break from the Bridgerton series to read Stranger In My Arms, by Lisa Kleypas. (Just two more to go, and I’ll own all the books I want in her backlist.)
@Neile: I just downloaded BELLE AND THE BEARD and can’t wait to start it! Canterbary is one of my favorites—I can always rely on her for heat, heart, humor, descriptions of delicious food, and (usually) a good dog or two.
@GradStudentEscapist: Speaking of Kate Canterbary, she has written several m/m romances you might enjoy. They’re all part of an interconnected set of stories set in Boston or Talbott’s Cove (Maine), but they can be read as stand-alones: FRESH CATCH (lobster fisherman & tech billionaire), ORIENTATION (two teachers), and my favorite, MISSING IN ACTION (former covert action spy and the office manager of a family architecture firm).
Still finishing up my reread of Balough (now on Survivor Club Series #4) but think I will switch to Redshirts by John Scalzi next just to switch things up. Regencies are just not doing it for me at the moment.
@Another Anne, Chris Brinkley is so, so good! Especially as Cletus 🙂
I just found yesterday that he narrates SWEET TALK by Cara Bastone, which I listened to just yesterday. I loved it so much! If you haven’t listened to CALL ME MAYBE, the first book in the series, I highly recommend you do that. It’s a clean romance, but so good; I’ve listened to it several times. And finding Brinkley narrated book two was such a treat!
I have bought more books than I have read in the last two weeks. I am reading Her Sexy Challenge by Sarah Balance after reading the second book in the series which is a 99 cent deal on Bookbub. Light with firefighters heros.
I had the Moderna vaccine and I had no side effects with the second dose the next day.
Sarah, can we sometime do a read what you have without browsing online and buying more.
Challenge should have been in the last sentence of the previous post
Ooh Yay! I couldn’t do the last one but I think doing this once a month is more my pace. So, let’s go!
When Gods Die by C.S. Harris: I enjoyed the second in the Sebastian St. Cyr historical mystery series. I don’t remember a whole lot now! Next time, I’ll use DDD’s technique and jot down notes for myself in the phone! I will be pursuing this series more, and love that there ARE SO MANY MORE BOOKS to read in this.
The Penderwicks At Last by Jeanne Birdsall: Oh, I can’t wait for my son to grow up and read these along with him. There is such a joy and warmth in these books. This is the last of the series, and it ends perfectly. They deal with grief, sibling rivalry, growing up pains, friendship, love and just so much more. There is so much heart and light in these books. Light, light is the word that comes to my mind when I think of these books. If you like middle grade fiction or have a child in that age group, I sincerely urge you to look these series up. They’re very like Netflix’s Babysitter’s Club series in tone and feel. (I haven’t read the BSC so can’t comment about the books).
To Have and To Hoax: Like I mentioned in the review for the second book, this was a DNF for me. I’d actually started and stopped after the first chapter twice—that chapter was just too jarring for me. It was a chapter that could take place in any regency romance, and there was absolutely nothing in it which made me interested in THESE characters specifically. I, however, gritted my teeth and made it through 60% of the book because people whose views I generally trust liked this book. Then I took a break from the book and realized I WAS ABSOLUTELY NOT ENJOYING THIS BOOK AT ANY LEVEL. And so DNFed.
The Firstborn by Quenby Olson: Oh, a MUCH BETTER REGENCY ROMANCE. The plot, and the characters are not your regular run-of-the-mill. It was also refreshing to see the hero, a titled guy (I don’t remember what), worrying about money and expenditure despite not being in dire straits. The two leads start out as antagonists, and then gradually have a very believable heart of change. This was such a refreshing historical romance to read and I plan on reading more by this author.
A Big Ship At The dge of The Universe by Alex White: This was a nice sci-fi story that I couldn’t wait to tear through but on thinking about it later I don’t think I want to continue reading the series. I’m sort of maybe getting a little tired of stories which are created with straightforward evil villains, and heroes who save the world. I’d like something without outright villains and quest-y plots.
So I read Wild Sign by Patricia Briggs, and that sent me back to the beginning of the Alpha and Omega series for another read. I love her books, and even though I had a real issue with one of her books in this series-there is something about her writing that feels like falling into a comfort zone. Which is strange because they can be quite violent. Briggs is quite a world builder, and I finally discovered her several years ago with the Mercy Thompson series-and I haven’t looked back!
This had to be a SBTB recommendation-Rescue Me by Sarra Manning-I LOVED it! Two people with issues sharing custody of a rescue dog. It is super sweet they are both so concerned about the dog’s welfare. The protagonists are both prickly, but written beautifully. I might just be a sap for characters who treat animals with a huge amount of respect.
I spent the last few weeks reading all the Mercy Thompson books and all the Alpha and Omega books and all the short stories written in that world, in chronological order (vs publication order) before I read Wild Sign. Which I totally loved. And somehow all of it snapped me out of the longest running reading slump I’ve ever had. Happy days! I bow to Patricia Briggs.
As usual, I’m having some difficulty remembering what I read. I know I finished up Martha Wells’s last 2 Raksura novels — not quite up to standard because they took For Ever to get moving; it wasn’t until halfway through the second book that they became gripping, but at that point, they went on to provide a most satisfactory conclusion to the series and an answer to some points that I’d had problems with at the beginning. There are also a couple of top-notch fics for this series.
I also read a Discworld novel that’s new to me (I’ve been saving them up); it was Monstrous Regiment and I fear my feelings are severely mixed. It did have quite a bit of Pratchett’s characteristic brilliance and quotable paragraphs, but I really can’t recommend it to anyone who’s sensitive to transphobia.
Finally, there was Ring Shout by P. Djèli Clark, as narrated by Channie Waites — a gory, energetic tale of extradimensional monsters in 1922 Macon. The main character is Maryse, a young Black woman who divides her time between bootlegging and fighting Ku Kluxes, eldritch creatures summoned by the movie The Birth of a Nation, which find that Klan members make apt hosts. The joy of the story is the vivid description of southern life and, especially, the cast of characters, including Maryse’s eccentric best friends.
@Juhi, I adore the Penderwick books! Some critic dismissed them as books adults like better than kids do, but I DON’T CARE.
@@Jill Q. Thanks for reminding me about Jessica Hart! I used to love her categories. Will look them
Up again!
@Jcp, when I used to participate in “what are you reading” discussions at BookCrossing, there was a “Climbing Mt. TBR” badge you could award yourself for reading things you’d already owned at the start of the year, along with other reading challenge badges.
I’ve been in a slump that ended yesterday – thank you to whoever mentioned the Webtoon Remarried Empress! Inhaled all.of.it. in one day. Another good fantasy Webtoon is Suitor Armor, trying to go slower on this one since there aren’t many episodes.
April has been a mixed bag o’ books! I just finished Christina Sweeney-Baird’s ‘The End of Men’ which I really enjoyed, though I happily could’ve done with fewer characters (first person narratives, all, it gets a bit overwhelming).Interesting dive into the notion of a world where 90% of the men are now dead and how women traverse that new world order. Carl Zimmer’s ‘Soul Made Flesh’ which is fascinating. As I’ve mentioned before I’m new to the Romance genre and am reading a lot of Lisa Kleypas ahead of a post I’m writing on getting in to the genre (SBTB is mentioned in Glorious Praise all over the post because I LUH y’all!) Read the Hathaways series as well as Sarah MacLean’s Bareknuckle Bastards trilogy – I found that I loved the brothers’ backstory way more than the romances (except for Evan’s which was delicious).
Also reading ‘How Pleasure Works’ by Paul Bloom. Makes me want to eat oysters – and I don’t even like oysters!!
@Karini, I didn’t realize there is a new BINTI novel out – thanks for the tipoff! I loved the first one.
@Musette, there are three Binti novellas now, so enjoy!