It’s that time again! Whatcha Reading time!
This is where we discuss are the wonderful books, weird things, and perhaps big letdowns we’ve read in the last couple weeks.
Let’s get into it!
Shana: I’m reading Accidentally Engaged by Farah Heron. Kiki reviewed it, and I’m absolutely loving it.
Sneezy: I’m so excited for you!
Catherine: I’ve just started reading The Secret Life of Miss Mary Bennett by Katherine Crowley ( A | BN | K ) and it’s really good! It’s set a few years after Pride and Prejudice, and just after the death of Mr Bennett, and it’s all from Mary’s viewpoint, which I am loving. She is someone who finds social interactions difficult and confusing and so she kind of plans them out, with speeches, based on her extensive studies and reading about correct behaviour, and it’s brilliant because it’s absolutely compatible with her frequently unhelpful commentary in P&P, but it feels absolutely different when you are in her head.
Sneezy: The audiobook for The Dark Fantastic by Dr. Ebony Elizabeth Thomas renewed my platinum membership in the Bad Decisions Book Club, and I’m now relistening again!!!! Dr. Thomas is so gentle and direct and generous.
I also just finished The Devil Comes Courting and COURTNEY MILAN!!!!!! WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME????? I can’t remember the last time a book had me sobbing outright. I had to take sniffle breaks because my nose was running and I was crying too hard to read!!!!! (edited)
It was great, I loved it, and holy smokes did it stab my feels!!!!
Catherine: Isn’t it AMAZING???
Sarah: I am slow reading a nonfiction called The Happiness Trap, ( A | BN | K ) which is about ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) and techniques to address anxiety, depression, and intrusive thoughts, memories or images. I’m slow reading it because there are a number of different techniques to try, and I am experimenting with different options and adding them to my repertoire before I move on to the next chapter. Not only is it extremely helpful but the different options are clearly and carefully explained, and it’s written in a style that my brain really likes. (edited)
I also have an ARC of the new Lucy Parker and it’s my current “In Case of Emergency Break Glass” TBR book.
Claudia: Ah, I have a few of those…
I finished The Devil and the Heiress by Harper St. George, ( A | BN | K ) coming up in June, I believe, and it was a solid read.
Tara: I’m still diving into the history of punk music, so I’m reading Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain. ( A | BN | K ) It’s all quotes from people in the scene, rather than the authors writing anything. The brilliance comes in how those quotes are ordered, because that’s how a coherence narrative comes across. It’s a tough read in spots, because women are very poorly treated, but it’s still fascinating.
Elyse: I just picked up The Frozen Crown. Binging Shadow and Bone left me craving some fantasy with romance elements.
Susan: In a complete tonal whiplash from the other media I’ve been consuming (New Pokémon Snap and far too many trashy romance manga), I’ve picked up The Radium Girls! ( A | BN | K ) Because apparently what I need right now is more rage at the mistreatment of workers
Carrie: My daughter was in a Zoom production of the play so it was all rotting face makeup around here for a while.
Susan: I didn’t know there was a play, that’s really cool!
EllenM: I’m reading Revolting Prostitutes, which is a nonfiction book about sex worker labor rights by sex workers, and it is awesome!!
Susan: This is immediately going on my buy list, thank you, Ellen!
What are you reading right now? Let us know!
Since last time, I read two really good books thanks to the Bitchery!
THE DO-RIGHT, Lisa Sandlin (Delpha Wade and Tom Phelan #1). I would like to thank the person who mentioned this book a while back, I’m really loving it! It’s 1973, Tom Phelan has just opened his PI office in Beaumont, Texas and he hires Delpha Wade as his secretary. (CW/TW: rape) Delpha is out on parole after 14 years in prison for killing her rapist. Tom is new to the PI business and he’s basically learning on the job while Delpha learns to run a PI office and how to exist in a world she has not seen in 14 years. The cases are fun but it’s really the characters that make this book. Tom and Delpha are very appealing, likeable characters and the dialogue is great—it’s like normal people talking to each other while also doing a really good job of establishing their personalities.
THE BIRD BOYS, Lisa Sandlin (Delpha Wade & Tom Phelan #2). While the big case in this isn’t as ambitious as the first, this delves more into the characters from The Do-Right. The author doesn’t try to introduce new characters but instead we get to know more of Tom and Delpha and their friends. Tom is starting to admit that he might have feelings for his secretary but Delpha is too busy trying to figure out what she wants in life now that she’s out in the world (plus, she doesn’t want to jeopardise her job by dating her boss). My only issue with this book is that while it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, it feels very incomplete. Basically I want more of these books!
NAKED, Eliza Redgold. A re-telling of Lady Godiva’s famous ride through Coventry. There might be a good story here but the author chose to over-simplify everything (Danes are bad, Saxons are good, etc.) that the end result is a flat and predictable book.
SWEETWOOD BRIDE, Pamela Morsi. Ugh, this was terrible. I only have myself to blame for reading it the whole way through. Heroine lies to everyone in her small town by saying the hero had sex with her (he didn’t) and now she’s pregnant (she’s not). He marries her entirely against his will and, rightly, feels that she has ruined his life. And she did this because she wants a home for all her orphaned siblings to live in together despite said siblings being perfectly fine with their various living situations (because who wants to live with her). It takes the entire book for all her siblings to go back to the same places they were at the start of the book and for her to realise she was wrong but still, it’s all supposed to be fine because she did it for fAmILy and the hero eventually fell in love with her.
@Catherine: the Mary Bennet book just found itself at the top of my TBR pile!
I enjoyed the very quirky Twenty One Truths About Love by Matthew Green. It’s composed entirely of lists jotted down as a leftover from therapy by the main character, who is freaking out about becoming a dad, quitting his teaching job to open a bookstore and keeping his resulting financial troubles a secret from his wife. He is kind of obsessive but hilariously blunt and emotionally insecure. Very entertaining with a rather touching conclusion.
I also read a few Michaela Grey hockey romances, which all had romantic potential and technically good writing but they were weirdly disconnecting in their structure. In every book I felt dropped into a sequel (although none of them were sequels) in which supporting characters are referred to without any explanation of who they are, as if the reader will already know. And even I who has never watched a hockey game could tell that the initial setup in each book that served to throw the characters together was utterly preposterous.
I found some great books thanks to the Bitchery!
THE GREAT
THE SMOKE HUNTER by Jacquelyn Benson was a lot of fun – Indiana Jones but with a suffragette heroine. It was fabulous. I am going to try her other work.
HER BIG CITY NEIGBOUR by Jackie Lau. Another great one from Lau, the food sounded amazing and the story was good.
WHEN NO ONE IS WATCHING by Alyssa Cole. Spooky and claustrophobic and very well done.
THE GOOD
A TASTE OF HEAVEN by Penny Watson. The hero is super grumpy, but the food sounds delicious and I liked the older hero and heroine.
MAKE IT SWEET by Kristen Callihan. It’s good, but not as good as the first in the series.
THE NOT SO GOOD
A SWEET MESS by Jayci Lee started off well, but the conflict felt forced and out of character for both the hero and heroine (a pet peeve of mine). In the end I made myself finish it. I like her writing style generally, so I’m willing to give future books a try.
WHITE WHISKEY BARGAIN by Jodie Slaughter. I liked the idea of the hero and heroine running moonshine businesses, but it’s been slow going so far. I may pick it up again.
ANY ROGUE WILL DO by Bethany Bennett. This was a DNF for me, it started off well but the middle dragged and I gave up.
Next up is BLUNT FORCE by Lynda LaPlante, the next entry in the Tennison prequel series.
I’ve got a case of post novella writing blues and I’m coming up to the two year mark of my partner’s passing away so I’ve not felt like reading much.
The last book I read was Near Temptation by Novalee Swan. Book four of this shifter town series was in the last cover snark (the one with the youngish woman using a grizzly as a leaning post iirc). Not very long or prompt driven but it was free and passed the time.
I stupidly tried to read Her Irish Daddy by Bianca Cole (On Prime reading). It served a purpose: to remind me why I don’t read mafia romances. On reading that the “hero” killed an innocent I had to stop reading. Yes I should have known better. It was also multiple first person POV, so reading the hero’s thoughts made him even more creepy. The heroine was a paid up member of the Ana Steele club and I don’t need anymore passive characters in my books. Also Daddy kink… I just don’t get.
So my novella is entered and I’m waiting to see if it makes the longlist. I just have to get out of the slump now…
Autocorrect strikes again! It’s Bear Temptation, not near!
I’m having a bad book hangover; y’know, when you hate-finish a book and then regret doing it because the bad bits sort of creep in your thoghts for days after, usually when you’re trying to fall asleep?
HOW TO BANG A BILLIONAIRE, HOW TO BLOW IT WITH A BILLIONAIRE and HOW TO BELONG WITH A BILLIONAIRE by Alexis Hall. The Arden St. Ives trilogy. It starts very high then speeds downhill until it hits rock bottom, and never lift up again. The first book was OMG-so-good-I-need-to-have-more-right-now good. The second book didn’t really get anywhere, we saw them settling into happy couple time, a bit fanfic like, but Alexis Hall’s sense of writing was funny and made it not so bad. Then came book 3. The longest, and they spent all of it separated. Ugh. I hate when in a romance the romance entirely consists of pining. Vol. 3 was dark and heavy and the plot was all over the place with an awful lot of wtf moments. Arden kept taking hits after hits and there was not enough groveling to keep their ship afloat IMHO. The end literally goes:
“I also made you feel confused and rejected and devalued.”
“Yeah, those times were rough.” I shrugged. “But I think on some level I knew it wasn’t what you meant to do—so it never stuck. Whereas the good always did.”
No Arden, that’s not how it goes. Studies shows, the negatives stuff that happens to us sticks A LOT MORE than the positive. So much so, it takes eight positive interactions to overshadow a negative one. Your lack of hurt and resentment bothers me a little, I fear ypu may be bottling things. And Caspien came from such a dark place, and changed his mind so suddenly… in short, I didn’t believe in their happy ending.
I felt for something opposite next and picked up WORLD TURNED UPSIDE DOWN by Elyse Springer. For some reason I thought this was a M/F romance and I anticiped positively the idea of a janitor hero with a scientist heroine wintering on an Antartica science station. That it was M/M bummed me a little at first, but I got over it. A short read that the protagonists sweet slow burn romance filled nicely. Very cute.
I wanted to keep on that trend of sweet and chose WRITTEN ON HIS SKIN by Simone Stark. A woman writes to soldiers deployed overseas. The guy who picks her letter writes back and they embark on correspondence. That should be slow burn right? Feelings developing through epistolary exchanges and all that. But, this was a smut story. What I got was insta-lust ignited by… a letter written to Dear Inconnu. For the genre, a good story. I kept wondering why they didn’t switch to emails though.
And finally, I just started a reread of Heyer’s Frederica, to end the week on high note. *thumbs up*
My reading slump continues. I feel like I whine about it every Whatcha’ Reading, so I will just say it’s gotten bad enough that I’m not entering anything into my book list until it’s done (too many deletes.) I’ve even had a hard time finishing audiobooks and that’s saying something b/c I usually nap through most of them.
The only thing that seems to work is the “sit and read in one big gulp” method which obviously can’t work with every book and life often doesn’t cooperate! I think I may wipe my holds on Libby b/c the problem is I always think “I want to read it all” and I hop around too much.
(I’m getting lots of Italian done, so there’s that)
I’ve read some Katee Robert palate cleansers and the one thing I read that I absolutely loved, loved, loved was SECOND FIRST IMPRESSIONS by Sally Thorne. I’m so glad I gave this a chance b/c I felt like I was in the minority in really hating THE HATING GAME (I felt both characters were mean to a minor character and it rubbed me the wrong way). I can’t honestly say this fit my category of “effortless contemporary” (aka this feels like the real world as I know it) b/c it had a little sprinkling of almost fairy tale wish fulfillment and I mean that in the best way possible. Think Rapunzel with anxiety issues becomes good friends/develops a crush on wealthy bad boy who must submit to a series of ridiculous tasks and they rescue turtles together. That’s totally the plot even though it might not sound like it 😉
It did remind me a little bit of LOVE AT FIRST by Kate Clayborn in that the community (a retirement home) was important to the story and that the characters’ conflicts felt fully fleshed out and worked through without feeling traumatic and overwrought. Also I got to say I usually find charmer bad boy heroes annoying in contemporaries (I cut them more slack in historicals), but I felt Sally Thorne totally “got” this type of person and what makes them tick and how to make them sympathetic and more importantly how they need to grow. The hero actually reminded me of a female acquaintance of mine who was very extroverted, extremely charming, and often her own worst enemy. You couldn’t help but love her, but she was sometimes exhausting to be around. I totally bought the hero, why he was who he was and why he was so exasperating and endearing at the same time. The heroine was wonderful too (reverend’s daughter who had a lot of life experiences that pushed her into a shell), but I was really impressed the author could make me love the type of hero I usually hate b/c they’re written in a shallow, lazy way.
Cobalt Blue – Sachin Kundalkar A short novel (possibly novella?) in dual perspectives from a brother and sister who both fall in love with their family’s unnamed male lodger. It’s very introspective and not a whole lot of plot happens (The Big Event is that the sister runs away with the lodger…and then she comes back alone.) But it was interesting, and I also liked that there was a translator’s note where the translator explained some of the language choices he made. I wish more books in translation would do that: there are so many things that come down to feeling and essence and I like seeing how certain choices are made.
The Immortalists – Chloe Benjamin In 1969 four young siblings visit a woman with purported magical powers who tells them each the date they will die. Then as adults they deal with those prophecies and whether it’s really fated, or if they make their own fate. It was ok, though I was expecting to like it more. I thought the characterization and some of the narrative choices where kind of honest to be lazy. Of course one of the siblings is prophesied to die young, so OF COURSE he’s a gay man in San Francisco in the eighties, what else could it be? I don’t know, not that that can’t be an affecting story, but it just felt kind of like…the easy choice? And the entire third act was absolutely absurd to me, there was a character who kept popping up who just made no sense. Anyway. I’ve seemed to pivot from being unable to read at all to sticking with books I should probably DNF. It was fine, but not my favorite.
I’ve been waiting for WAYR. I need it. And here it is!
I’ve been in a funk for a few weeks, and my reading has suffered for it. I have so many DNFs (ain’t nobody got time for boring books!)! As I’m also a very unorganized reader who foolishly doesn’t make notes of all her reads, here is a sample of what I’ve enjoyed the last weeks:
SAY YES TO THE MARQUESS by Tessa Dare. It was a re-read, and I read it because I love it and needed some good book-lovin’. It’s got a bigger-than-a-starved-sparrow heroine about to end a looooong engagement to a marquess, and his prizefighter brother stepping in to make the wedding happen. It has everything I love with Tessa Dare. I hope this last paragraph was unnecessary since you all read it. If you haven’t, I recommend you save this one for a comfort read.
SWING AND A MISHAP and KISS MY PUTT by Tara Sivec. These are about a professional golfer and a professional baseball player (see if you can place them in the right books). They’re set on a small island, so have a small-town feel to them, and have great female friendships! They’re light and enjoyable.
And since I was reminded of how I really like Tara Sivec, I did a re-listen to HEIDI’S GUIDE TO FOUR LETTER WORDS (co-written with Andi Arndt, who narrates it beautifully). I think this was my fourth time, and I still laugh out loud! Heidi is of Norwegian descent (we have these «uffda»s and lutefisk with bacon), and she is so wonderfully naïve. She ends up working at a recording studio that records romance books, and she ends up at home with some old equipment for podcasting and a box of wine. So, so funny!
Anyway: To try to sling myself out of this funk I’m in and force an end to a series of DNFs, I tried going outside my comfort zone. I ended up with JA Huss.
So I read TOTAL EXPOSURE. The h is a child prodigy violin player who grew up to be a social recluse, and she’s about to have a big concert. She’s been in therapy for years, but as a last effort to cure her for the concert, she’s going into shock therapy; she’s set up in a house with cameras everywhere to follow her around, and a guy is there to watch her.
And then THE PLEASURE OF PANIC, next in series. She’s a control freak, he’s an FBI agent and there to protect her, there’s some misunderstandings as to his role…
Are these what one calls dark romances? They were great, really, and the author had all these plot twists to mess with the reader, and they were hot. I think this is the limit of darkness for me, though.
As I enjoyed my time out of my comfort zone anyway, I did a dip into the mafia. The first one was TWISTED LOYALTIES by Cora Reilly. And then the next book, TWISTED EMOTIONS.
Do one need TWs with mafia romances? There will be triggers, I understand. But let me at least say that the H in TWISTED EMOTIONS… What a man!
So at that point, I realized I needed lightness again. And then I did a re-read of Annika Martin’s THE BILLIONAIRE’S WAKE-UP-CALL GIRL. Because I loved it the first two times I read it, and I loved it this time, and I’ll probably re-read MOST ELIGIBLE BILLIONAIRE by the same author too. But not the third in the series, because it was a huge disappointment.
And yesterday I did a re-listen to PUCKED by Helena Hunting. This is a hockey romance. I love hockey romances. Both h (the step sister of a professional hockey player) and H (team captain of the step brother’s new team) are total dorks, and I absolutely love them in this book. I believe I mentioned before that the h unfortunately seems to undergo a personality transplant in the later books in the series, but PUCKED should be read, IMO.
I’ll probably do a re-read of PUCKED OFF (4th book in the series) some time next week. It’s a lot heavier, but so very satisfying. Yup. I just talked myself into it. Maybe tomorrow, even.
And today I’ll keep a close watch to WAYR because I need some new books in my life.
Hope you all have a nice week end!
The Very Good
CLOCKWORK BOYS and WONDER ENGINE by T. Kingfisher. This is technically a duology, but it’s really just one very long book, IMO. I love Kingfisher’s writing, the way she approaches people’s past mistakes and trauma with compassion and directness, and her sense of humor. I have Feelings about the ending and the way the love triangle is resolved, but I am willing to concede that it’s excellent overall.
The Meh
SEASON FOR SCANDAL by Theresa Romain. There’s a LOT of set up in the first couple chapters (a lost fortune, a marriage of convenience, a villain from the past, emotional drama) and I didn’t feel like Romain quite managed to weave all the threads together. Also, in old school romance, I often felt like yelling, “USE YOUR WORDS!” and here I was like, “Points for using words, but not those ones, for heavens sake!”
IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMEWHERE by Roan Parrish. Picked this up because it was free and recommended by Cat Sebastian and Olivia Waite. There’s a lot of angst and drama that moves very slowly and then there’s a mid book plot twist that I didn’t really like and basically functions as an extended set up for the next book in the series. (Also, I am VERY unclear as to why anyone would want to read about a horrible closeted homophobe who used to beat up his brother because the brother was also gay? That’s a long way to a redemption arc, but that’s apparently book two!)
Up Next
THE DUKE HEIST by Erica Ridley. I am not normally one who is bothered by historical inaccuracies or small things, but the spelling of the heroine’s last name (Wynchester) is killing me. Just make it an I! Also, the heroine wears a dress that’s described as “seafoam green” and my brain was all, “Er, it’s 1817 here, not the 1980s….?”
Anyway, I am enjoying it more now that Chloe’s last name isn’t getting mentioned on every page; hopefully that persists!
@Arijo
The Arden St. Ives trilogy. It starts very high then speeds downhill until it hits rock bottom, and never lift up again.
I skimmed rather than read the last two books in this trilogy back in the day, but…yes. This exactly. If only it had stopped when it was good.
@Jill Q
THE HATING GAME (I felt both characters were mean to a minor character and it rubbed me the wrong way)
The would-be boyfriend who had just started freelancing? Or the lax coworker with the migraines?
* * *
I read my first Courtney Milan, UNLOCKED, and was frankly surprised by a number of things, but mostly that it was a fairly traditional romance. I appreciated the heroine’s strength, the complexity of her feelings about her mother, and that the bullies were allowed to redeem themselves. I really couldn’t give a rat’s ass about the bully-hero’s enlightenment through mountaineering, however. The repetition of the life-altering experience where he was saved by a French commoner bordered on the narcissistic.
I also read Anne Cleeland’s latest Doyle and Acton mystery, MURDER IN UNSOUND MIND. Typically, I enjoy checking in on these characters and their obsessive, quasi-paranormal love, but this time I was a bit distracted by what appeared to me to be unjustifiable collateral damage from one of Acton’s schemes. I wouldn’t still be reading at book 13 if I had a problem with Acton killing people who represent a threat to Doyle (Doyle does have a problem with it but is erratically effective as his moral compass). However, there were murders in this one that I believe were stage-managed (if not committed) by Acton that …well, I’m repeating myself, but I’m trying to avoid spoilers. They were collateral damage, and neither Doyle nor Cleeland call it out. Cleeland could surprise me by dealing with it in the forthcoming 14th volume, though.
Happy Saturday! A slower start to the month for me, but I’m hopeful I’ll get to a few more books later in the month.
Romance:
BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DUKE by Kelly Bowen: thanks to Lisa Kleypas, I always enjoy any historical set in a gambling club, and that was true here! I loved Angelique–what a math nerd–and liked Alex here, and there were some twists I didn’t expect! I did want more of an internal conflict than was present.
DIAL A FOR AUNTIES by Jesse Q. Sutanto: this was a lot of fun! I wasn’t quite rolling with laughter, which may have been more a reflection of reading while I was stressed, but I thought this was funny and a wonderful tribute to family. The romance plot features reunited lovers, which worked well here due to all the hijinks going on. I got some Crusie vibes in terms of humor and shenanigans, and now I need to go find more contemporary romances in that vein (and read more of Crusie’s backlist).
Non-Romance:
WORLD OF WONDERS: IN PRAISE OF FIREFLIES, WHALE SHARKS, AND OTHER ASTONISHMENTS by Aimee Nezhukumatathil: a really lovely series of poetic memoir-essays focused on the natural world. I appreciated Nezhukumatathil’s argument for more individuals engaging with their own environment and learning about what’s there as a means for caring about it.
PEACES: A NOVEL by Helen Oyeyemi: I love that she’s finding new ways to write very weird novels.
THE ART OF GATHERING: HOW WE MEET AND WHY IT MATTERS by Priya Parker: a friend had recommended this a while ago, and I do some event planning as part of my job, so it was finally time to read this! I think she has some really great points, but Parker also gets lost in the weeds of her many examples, and probably most of us don’t need to go all out for our dinner parties, but even just incorporating some of her advice on gatherings is useful, I think. Her manifesto against being a “chill host” had me reconsidering events I’ve attended or facilitated in the past.
THE BLACK MARIA by Aracelis Girmay: haunting and tender poems that will have me never looking at flies the same way.
Currently reading / on deck:
WE KEEP THE DEAD CLOSE: A MURDER AT HARVARD AND A HALF CENTURY OF SILENCE by Becky Cooper: not very far into this true crime work recommended to me by my aunt, who warned me it’s pretty intense in places, so I’ll likely be pausing periodically to read romance as a palate cleanse.
I have a copy of FAKING IT by Jennifer Crusie, and as it was recommended in that Rec League on Heists another commenter kindly reminded me of, I’ll probably start that very soon.
Since the last WAYR, I’ve read a tremendous run of good books, including a couple that made their way onto my list of Favorite Reads of 2021. I’ve had such a great reading fortnight, it almost makes up for the pinched nerve that stopped my right leg from cooperating when I tried to walk and put me on bed rest for eight days. Oh well, silver lining—I had more time to read!
I have no excuse for why I’m so late to the Roan Parrish party, but I just read my first three Parrish books and loved them! I almost joined the Bad Decisions Book Club while reading THE MIDDLE OF SOMEWHERE (published in 2015), a beautifully-written, deeply-emotional m/m romance set in rural Michigan about two broken people who manage to find each other and fall in love—but not without some bumps along the way. Daniel is a newly-hired professor working at a small college in the area; Rex is a handyman who dreams of expanding his custom-furniture business. Both of them have trauma in their backgrounds (cw/tw: both men have been the victims of horrific homophobic violence—which has resulted in physical and psychological damage; and both men lost their mothers at young ages). Daniel has never been part of a committed relationship: his distant father, bullying brothers, and unfaithful snob of a previous boyfriend have made him wary and judgmental. Rex struggled as a teenager and uses helping others as a way to avoid revealing too much about himself. How these two men stumble into love and acquire a found-family along the way is lovely and poignant. If anyone out there hasn’t already read THE MIDDLE OF SOMEWHERE, I highly recommend it.
So, I almost joined the Bad Decisions Book Club with THE MIDDLE OF SOMEWHERE, but I definitely joined it with Parrish’s next book, the (imho) even-better OUT OF NOWHERE, which focuses on Daniel’s viciously-homophobic brother Colin. It’s the sign of a good writer that they can take someone who seems irredeemable in one book and make them sympathetic in another one—and Parrish does this with the depressed, anxious, miserable, panic-attack-prone, self-loathing, and deeply-closeted Colin (cw/tw: homophobia, violence, a dubious consent sexual encounter in the past, suicide ideation, mental health struggles). A mechanic in his mid-thirties, Colin’s life consists of work, working out, obsessively cleaning his apartment, and surreptitiously visiting gay bars. Parrish does a great job of showing how untreated depression and anxiety manifest themselves in variety of ways—all of which are slowly destroying Colin, although he doesn’t realize this until he meets Rafe, who runs a program for LGBTQ teenagers and persuades Colin to present a workshop on car maintenance. Colin & Rafe grow closer, but can Colin overcome decades of anger and shame and admit the truth about himself? A brilliantly-written book, almost as much about a person gradually reclaiming his humanity as it is a romance. A favorite read of the year. Highly recommended.
(As a side note, I do think you need to read both MIDDLE OF SOMEWHERE and OUT OF NOWHERE as one story. Not only do you get the entire arc of Colin’s character, but you also see how brave Daniel has been for coming out to his family when he did and living out and proud since his teens despite the amount of violence and cruelty he has encountered since then.)
While I enjoyed WHERE WE LEFT OFF, the third book in Parrish’s series, it didn’t affect me quite as deeply as the previous two books—perhaps because Daniel & Rex are only minor supporting characters here. WHERE WE LEFT OFF is the story of Leo (Daniel’s friend from Michigan) and Will (Rex’s ex—and I liked how the story showed that, while Rex and Will weren’t long-term material, they remained friends after their relationship had run its course). Leo moves to New York for college (he’s been attending community college in Michigan, so he is almost 20) and reconnects with Will whom he’d met through Daniel & Rex. I think one of the reasons I had a bit of a hard time with these characters is that Leo read as a much younger teenager to me (skateboarding everywhere and “dude” in every sentence); whereas Will, although still in his twenties, acted more like someone in his mid-thirties. So, an experience-gap if not quite an age-gap romance. Also, it was hard to get a fix on Will who seemed so capricious, simultaneously pulling in and pushing away the vastly less-experienced and understandably baffled Leo. While WHERE WE LEFT OFF is well-written, I didn’t find it as compelling as the previous two books.
When it comes to Caitlin Crews’s Harlequin Presents romances, the angsty heartache is a given. What I was not expecting in HER DEAL WITH THE GREEK DEVIL, Crews’s latest HP, was how dark it was (nor was I expecting the heroine of an HP to utter the words, “blow job,” but that’s a different expectation). In this story of a Greek billionaire who has spent years plotting revenge against the woman who was briefly his step-sister, Crews has created a hero who is close to irredeemable—the kind of hero one is much more likely to encounter in a dark/mafia romance than anything from a Harlequin line: supremely cold and focused, using his power and influence to crush the woman he has hated for so long. In a plot appropriated wholesale from dark romance, the hero manipulates the finances of both the heroine (a model) and her mother so that there is nothing for it but the heroine to become his mistress in exchange for saving herself and her mother from bankruptcy. There’s a very long, slow, sexy build-up to the book’s single sex scene as the hero & heroine play a series of mind games with each other and the heroine tries to retain her dignity even when required to be naked most of the time. Naturally, during this time, both h&h begin to see their brief stint as step-siblings in a different light—particularly the hero in relation to his parents’ divorce and his father’s remarriage. I know HPs and/or dark romance aren’t for everyone, but I found HER DEAL WITH THE GREEK DEVIL a brilliant example of both, pushing the boundaries of what might be acceptable in terms of an HP storyline and hero. This immediately became one of my favorite books by Crews and one of my favorite reads of the year. Highly recommended as a example of how a good writer can elevate, even transform, the conventions of a category romance.
One interesting aspect to Kate Canterbary’s latest, THE BELLE AND THE BEARD, is that both MCs are bi. Canterbary has written several m/m romances, but I’m not sure she’s had bi MCs in her previous m/f books. (The heroine only makes a couple of vague references to past relationships with women, whereas an earlier situation involving another man factors significantly into the hero’s approach to relationships now.) The heroine is a political consultant who has lost her job because of a “hot mike” incident. She retreats to her late aunt’s crumbling cottage in a wooded area outside Boston, where she meets her grumpy, gruff, growly, bearded neighbor—and sparks unwillingly fly. The hero (brother of the heroine and hero of THE MAGNOLIA CHRONICLES and BOSS IN THE BEDSHEETS, respectively) is an arborist who enjoys his solitary life and doesn’t need a partner thank-you-very-much. But when the hero’s meddling mother (who almost borders on caricature) gets involved, all bets are off. THE BELLE AND THE BEARD is about how two independent, self-reliant people gradually learn to not only care for each other but, perhaps more importantly, also learn to allow themselves to be cared for by someone else. The book also features a great consent dynamic where the hero insists that the exhausted heroine take as much time as she needs to recuperate from the blows life has thrown at her before they take their physical relationship further. Key quote: “Nothing blooms in every season…You shouldn’t expect that of yourself when it doesn’t occur in nature.” Recommended.
WITH THE LIGHTS ON, Jackie Ashenden’s latest and (because Harlequin is discontinuing the line next month) last Dare release, has something I haven’t encountered in the Harlequin universe before: a sex-worker heroine. I liked Ashenden’s matter-of-fact presentation of sex work, neither glamorizing nor making lurid the heroine’s job with a high-end escort agency. The heroine has a roster of clients that she meets regularly, one of whom is the hero—a wealthy inventor who is losing his sight. The heroine has a persona that she adopts for her clients just as the hero has adapted strategies that make it impossible for others to realize that his vision is limited—but when these two lonely people drop their pretenses, their relationship expands beyond the confines of sex worker & client. WITH THE LIGHTS ON is very much of the “Ashenden template”: both h&h come from dysfunctional backgrounds featuring absent/abusive/dead/distant parents—but it’s only when the MCs see the similarities between their upbringings that they can be completely open with each other. I liked how Ashenden guided her hero & heroine to their HEA—and it saddens me that the Dare line never did find its footing because WITH THE LIGHTS ON is a good example of what the line could achieve. Recommended.
Much like STOLEN HEARTS, the first book in M. O’Keefe’s Midnight Dynasty trilogy, the second book, BROKEN HEARTS, reads so much like a Skye Warren book that I kept having to remind myself that this dark romantic suspense story of a young widow on the run from an organized crime family was written by Molly O’Keefe. Picking up right where STOLEN HEARTS left off, BROKEN HEARTS is set primarily in an isolated cottage on the Irish coast. The heroine and the hero (who is totally out of the Skye Warren “ambiguous/enigmatic good-bad/bad-good hero” playbook) must spend time hiding out while planning their next move. During this time of enforced proximity, we learn more about the hero’s troubled upbringing and the role played in it by a nearby church and its solitary priest. There’s plenty of sexual activity (none of it p-in-v) between h&h and a tremendous amount of angst as the heroine attempts to understand what has happened to her and how she feels about the hero. (This is a dark romance and all the standard triggers are involved, including abuse in the hero’s past, a history of miscarriages in the heroine’s, plus gun violence and murder.) Naturally, BROKEN HEARTS ends of a cliffhanger and now I have to wait until August to see how things resolve themselves in UNTAMED HEARTS.
E. M. Lindsey’s books have been mentioned in previous WAYR posts and sounded interesting, so I tried FREE HAND, the first book in Lindsey’s Iron and Works series of m/m romances that revolve around a tattoo studio. FREE HAND is about Derek, a tattoo artist who suffers from PTSD & panic attacks (cw/tw for Derek’s backstory which includes an abusive, homophobic father), and Basil, a Deaf florist who has had a bad experience dating a hearing man in the past. Derek and Basil meet when they are briefly trapped in an ATM vestibule during a power outage. Derek has a panic attack and Basil helps him calm down. Their relationship develops slowly from there. If there is one word I would choose to describe FREE HAND’s story, it is “kindness.” All of the artists at the tattoo studio (because this is the first book in the series, we are introduced to a number of characters) have a disability of some sort and all of them treat each other with kindness, care, thoughtfulness, and absolutely no ableism. I enjoyed the deliberate pace of the romance between Derek and Basil—it never felt like it dragged, just a quiet escalation of feelings and events. And I liked how the other characters’ lives were intertwined with the story—especially a man who uses a wheelchair and is trying to adopt the daughter of his drug-addicted cousin. I also thought Lindsey did a good job of incorporating information about the grammatical structure of ASL and about the Deaf community in general into the story. I will certainly read more of Lindsey’s books. Recommended.
I’m generally a big fan of Juliana Stone’s interconnected stories set in and around Crystal Lake, Michigan, and I was looking forward to her older-heroine/younger-hero romance, SLOW KIND OF LOVE. Unfortunately, I found myself rather “meh” about the whole thing. Perhaps because other than the age-gap (the heroine is 46 and already a grandmother; the hero is in his early thirties), there didn’t seem to be too much—other than small-town gossips—holding the couple back from a relationship; and that made the “big mis” feel very contrived—it could have easily been avoided with a frank conversation. Then there was a lot of info-dump/expositional dialogue. I understand writers need ways to incorporate backstories, but having two people who have been best friends since grade school say things to each other like, “You’re 46 and your late husband was awful and your marriage wasn’t a good one and you met this guy on a hook-up app…,” just didn’t work for me. The book was also cluttered with secondary characters’ stories—an unplanned pregnancy for one, an unfaithful spouse for another, along with set-ups for what will undoubtedly be future Crystal Lake books. Add to this the fact that the hero—a wealthy Brit raised in a manor house and educated at a Swiss boarding school—irritatingly peppers his conversation with “luv,” “mate,” and “blokes,” words that are totally wrong for a person from his class (I was an East End Londoner before I became a smooth, polished American and I know from English social-class shibboleths), and, all-in-all, we have a rare misfire from Stone. Hopefully, her next book will right the ship.
I haven’t read too many Ruby Dixon romances. Other than the Bedlam Butchers MC series, most of Dixon’s work is human-alien SF romance; but I read Dixon’s BAD GUY because it’s part of a thematically-linked series called Villains in Love and one of the upcoming books from the series is EVIL TWIN by my girl, Kati Wilde. Despite a lot of violence (Dixon prefaces BAD GUY with a fairly detailed description of possible triggers), I enjoyed this story of an abducted human female who has been a slave on an alien planet for several years and is given to an alien gladiator (also a slave)—and how their relationship gradually evolves as they begin to look beyond their initial perceptions of each other and start plotting to escape their captors. There’s quite a bit of humor in BAD GUY, especially from the heroine who possesses a tart and sarcastic turn of mind, along with a very nice consent dynamic. And, of course, the bad guy isn’t quite the bad guy everyone has said he is. If you like SF romance, BAD GUY would be a good choice.
Clare Connelly’s CINDERELLA’S NIGHT IN VENICE is a typical HP with a self-made gazillionaire hero and a lawyer heroine who has always felt like an outsider in her own family. The hero is a client of the PR firm where the heroine works and, after she agrees to attend a ball in Venice with him, their relationship grows by stops and starts. Throw in the hero’s baby niece and the heroine being the only person who is apparently able to stop her from crying—and you can see where the story is going. An unobjectionable example of the Harlequin Presents template.
@Fashionably Evil: As the old saying goes, no two people ever read the same book. I loved both IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMEWHERE and OUT OF NOWHERE—but especially OUT OF NOWHERE because Parrish really does redeem Colin, even after he seems utterly irredeemable in the first book.
@Var: I read a lot of dark/mafia romance (Cora Reilly is one of my favorites) and I usually include a blanket phrase such as “all the standard triggers apply”—because they usually do.
@Jill Q: I always feel like an old curmudgeon when I say it, but I really disliked THE HATING GAME. I always refer to it as “an office romance that reads as if it were written by someone who has never actually worked in an office—or possibly even been in one.” The MCs seemed like 8th graders doing some “Let’s pretend we’re adults with jobs” cosplay. But finally I think it’s a shame that THE HATING GAME gets so much love while Sarah Mayberry’s HER FAVORITE RIVAL—about actual adults working in an office environment and falling for each other even while they are both vying for the same promotion—generally gets overlooked. To me, HER FAVORITE RIVAL is the book THE HATING GAME wanted to be.
@Deborah, I believe it was probably the would be boyfriend, but honestly I tried to scrub most of the book from my memory. I feel like they both blew the character off b/c they found him annoying and then later in the book (spoiler alert)
***********
the author inserted some “oh look, he’s actually not a great guy so it’s okay they were rude jerks to him.” I only have hazy memories of the details.
*******
END OF SPOILER.
I just didn’t buy it and it made me dislike both of them and think “you deserve each other.”
Oooh, tangent alert!
Speaking of mean people.
I forgot to mention above (curse myself for not writing down books) I loved YOU DESERVE EACH OTHER by Sarah Hogle not sure what it says about me that after a year of mostly quarantining with my family that I got so much joy about characters playing vicious pranks on each other b/c they’re stuck together, but I really did.
Why did this work when I hated TO HAVE AND TO HOAX? I think b/c in the opening scene here the author carefully set up the pitfalls of their relationship that the characters are skating right past b/c they’re young and attracted to each other and it’s fun to fall in love! You want it to work out! TO HAVE AND TO HOAX felt like “we have to recapture what’s lost” and YOU DESERVE EACH OTHER was more “I have to get to know this person I thought I knew.” Which is what real long term love feels like to me. I also read it more of a “women’s fiction with romantic elements” than a romance novel. Unlike Naomi, I *did* go to college, but I’ve mostly had one job after another, not a “career” with a capital C and I really related to her struggle to figure out what to do with herself and find work she valued.
I loved it but two things but be warned 1) Nick has a real mama’s boy issues which could be a deal breaker 2) they get super nasty with each other, but I feel like each one gives as good as they get.
@DiscoDollyDeb—hahaha, I read your review and had pretty much the same response! I think it’s an interesting contrast to see how what totally works for one reader really doesn’t work for another. I am definitely someone who prefers low-angst—high angst either frustrates me in the “omg, just get to the freaking point!” kind of way or makes me throw up my hands and say, “you all need therapy! please go get some so I can believe in this HEA!”
I always read your comments and recs because they’re so thoughtful, but I also know they’re unlikely to work for me. It’s the great thing about books—so many options that there’s something for everyone out there.
WAYR! WAYR! Looking forward to poring over all the recs!
I ended up going down an alien, fated mates rabbit hole thanks to all of you. Elizabeth Stephens’ series that begins with TAKEN TO VORAXIA consumed most of my reading time over the last couple weeks. These books are like Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies, wrapped in Pringles, with a cheap rum and Coke chaser. My only real critique for these bananas books was I got very sick of the first person.
You want tails? Check. You want a male obsessed with just that one woman, despite her self-perceived physical imperfections (body type, scars, limp, etc.)? Check. Pirates, more different kinds of aliens than the Mos Eisley Cantina, female warriors, and human diversity? Check, check, check, check. A pile of inexpensive electronic books you can pick up and put down easily? Check.
There was also a significant amount of violence, rape and abuse backstories, and almost sexual assault that might be triggering, so proceed with caution. There was also a woman annihilating her rapist in a warrior’s challenge, so again, lots of (violent) catnip. I think I read about five of them, skipping the books and passages that were not for me, so that tells you something right there. Thank you for the recommendation, Bitches. You make me better every day.
Have a great couple of weeks! Hope everyone is staying safe and sane!
@arijo, I stopped at How to Bang a Billionaire and decided I’d just go with that HFN and be done. I read the synopsis of the last two books and knew I wouldn’t like them.
What I’ve read lately:
The first two Lord and Lady Hetheridge books by Emma Jameson,and enjoyed them. Not sure I’m sucked in enough to keep going, though.
Forensic History: Crimes, Frauds, and Scandal from the Great Courses on audio. Interesting and informative.
Better than People by Roan Parrish on audio. I liked this a lot, especially how she handled the character with severe social phobia. Well done.
Several books by go-to authors– a couple of books Annabeth Alberts Out of Uniform series, plus her Served Hot novella and the third book in the Frozen Hearts series, Arctic Heat on audio. The last one wasn’t a favorite Also Rachel Reid’s Tough Guy from her Game Changer’s series. Heated Rivalry is still my favorite of this series,and I reread it, too.
Evvie Drake Starts Over by Linda Holmes on audio. Great narration by Julia Whelan, but I didn’t connect with Evvie, and was frustrated with her passiveness and the way she lied to make people happy. This is a WF book with some romance, not a romance book. I still liked this book, but wanted to warm to the heroine more.
The Raven Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt, narrated by Moira Quirk, who does a lovely job. It was entertaining.
@Lainey: I read a different Pamela Morsi (Love Overdue) a few years ago and it prompted rageful reviews and a resolution never to read another one of her books. Even now it makes me angry to think about it.
Trying to recall what I have read so far. First was a couple of cozies involving a bookmobile driving librarian and her cat. One was a reread and the other is the newest one. The heroine is quirky and stubborn and her cat Eddie is a scene stealer.
I also read the newest Gena Showalter (the Warlord) and loved it. Great world building, love the characters and the banter. I can’t wait to see what the next one will be about.
Then I discovered a new to me author. I love soccer and was so happy to find a romance series involving the sport that wasn’t about people 21 and under. I accidentally started with the latest release first (Replay by Amy Daws) and am now going through the backlist. I love banter and humor and this has both! She has a couple of other series I may check out as well.
@FashionablyEvil I read “In the middle of somewhere” and “out of nowhere” a couple years ago. I remember really liking out of nowhere at the time. I don’t know if I would buy the redemption arc now, but I guess I did at the time? (shrug)
Edit: sounds like @DiscoDollyDeb thought the redemption still works! I did not read “where we left off” because I saw a review that mentions situations that are a big turn off for me in a romance (vaguing for no spoilers here)
Human Omega: m/m/m alien slave planet. I started this after the last Whatcha Reading. I liked the premise, but not the delivery. 3/5 stars
The night beyond the Tricornered Window (horror-mystery manga) . Another suggestion I started because of the last Whatcha Reading. The horror part really gets me (in a good way), like I would be flipping through pages, hit a panel and actually yell out loud!
Quill Me Now (Jordan Castillo Price, m/m paranormal). Dixon thought he would be joining the family magic business, but he failed the exam. While trying to make money in other ways, he runs up against the head of security of a greeting card company. I’m not sure how this story ended up on my TBR but I didn’t know anything about it when I started reading. This was a case where I made assumptions based on the cover and was super confused 1/3 way into the book. I REALLY thought one of the MCs was going to be a ghost. 3/5 stars
Beyond that, I read a lot of fanfiction but its usually one shots or less then 6 chapters. I somehow got sucked into a fanfic that would have been 600 pages if it was a book.
Last night was a Bad Decisions Book Club night when I stayed up to read the entirety of The Intimacy Experiment. I loved it so much.
Martha Wells’ FUGITIVE TELEMETRY, duh. And reread all the prior novellas. I’ve probably read the HOME short four or five times as well. Will probably reread NETWORK EFFECT soon.
I’ll mention THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF FUTURISTIC ROMANCE, ed. Trisha Telep, even though it didn’t work for me. I like the subgenre and hoped to get some new authors out of it, but it’s an alpha-heavy collection and I don’t gravitate that way. If you do, it could be a useful read at a reasonable price for the page count.
Uzma Jalaluddin’s AYESHA AT LAST is certainly a first novel, but what a fun one. I wanted more of Khalid and his unexpected clients.
Lily Anderson’s UNDEAD GIRL GANG is about a high-school witch who brings back her best friend to investigate her death, and ends up with some unintended company. A surprisingly touching story of teen girl friendship that bounced off some of the tropes I was expecting.
@HeatherS: I was hoping to find another Simple Jess from among her backlist but now I might just stay away.
Week by week since last time ~
— continued the Touchstone series and reread Caszandra, Gratuitous Epilogue, In Arcadia and Snow Day all by Andrea K Höst. I enjoyed them again. Start with the first book Stray which is FREE to Kindle readers.
— In This Iron Ground by Marina Vivancos. (Content warning for child abuse) The first Amazon review is titled “A fantastic story of recovery from abuse (oh, and it has werewolves),” and that’s a good description. The book reminds me in part of TJ Klune’s Wolfsong which is itself quite different from his more recent and better known The House in the Cerulean Sea. I think some readers might appreciate knowing that therapy is used to help the main character address repercussions from abuse. I would definitely read more from this author.
— Time Waits (Out of Time Book 1) by C.B. Lewis was an enjoyable male/male romance with a strong time travel component. I hope to read on in the series.
— Rising Star: A Roommates to Lovers Hollywood Romance (Starstruck Series) by Susannah Nix. I enjoyed this contemporary romance.
— This Is Not the End: A Polyamorous Love Story by Sidney Bell. I enjoyed this book, too.
— enjoyed The Cybernetic Tea Shop by Meredith Katz, a science fiction fantasy romance featuring an asexual woman and an AI.
— enjoyed the contemporary male/male romance Finders Keepers by N.R. Walker; I don’t think though that this is a book I’ll be likely to reread.
— read Silent Blade (The World of Kinsmen Book 1) by Ilona Andrews. This author pair (husband and wife) write books that are incredibly popular but most of them I read only once; in fact, I almost did not finish this novella. (The only Ilona Andrews books I’ve reread were a couple in The Edge series.) I do enjoy the blog that the female half of the duo keeps.
— The Night Tiger: A Novel by Yangsze Choo for my book group. I found this an intriguing read. Those who like historical fiction set in unusual locations (it’s set in 1930s Malaysia) or with an element of magical realism might enjoy this.
— quite enjoyed That Distant Dream (The Satura Trilogy Book 1) by Laurel Beckley; the only problem is that it ended on a cliffhanger and the next volume is not yet published. This seems like military science fiction but it also has a fantasy element.
— enjoyed Fire Ant (The Navy of Humanity: Wasp Pilot Book 1) by Jonathan P. Brazee which was a quick read; I’d describe it as military science fiction. This is currently FREE for Kindle readers.
— enjoyed the fantasy novella, The Solstice Kings by Kim Fielding, but I don’t expect to read it again.
— Last month I started rereading the Acton and Doyle mysteries and read the first three books. I’ve continued on and have now reread through book ten. I enjoyed revisiting them all.
I just finished NAVIGATING THE STARS by Maria V. Snyder, which is a YA sci-fi book. I’m looking forward to reading the other two books in the trilogy.
I’m also looking forward to BATTLE ROYALE by Lucy Parker, and I have THE AUSTEN PLAYBOOK and HEADLINERS by her waiting in my TBR pile.
I also want to check out COUNTING DOWN WITH YOU by Tashie Bhuiyan.
Happy reading, everyone! 🙂
Hi Bitches!
I always wanted to comment! Here goes.
I read THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY which was not my favorite book with ‘library’ in the title but it was ok. CW suicidal ideation.
Finally read PALADIN’s GRACE which was as delightful as everyone said.
Finished the shattered sea trilogy with HALF THE WORLD which was a bit disappointing compared to the other books. I didn’t fall in love with these characters as much and it felt a bit rushed. Typical series ending stuff.
Last time someone suggested CLAIRE
DEWITT AND THE CITY OF THE DEAD which was pretty great.
I also really liked CHOSEN ONES by Veronica Roth. This kind of book rarely comes in a standalone and I really appreciated not having to read two more books to get to the end of the story.
I just started A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES and I haven’t made my mind up about it yet. Do people like this better than the Throne of Glass books? I think I like the other heroine better? She’s maybe more kick ass?
Also started watching SHADOW AND BONE on Netflix. How do we feel about it? Delighted to see these characters on the the screen, did not love how they mashed the two series together.
I’ve had a very satisfying last few weeks of reading.
“Hana Khan Carries On” by Uzma Jalaluddin was great, better than her first book. To say it’s You’ve Got Mail set in a Muslim community just scratches the surface. There is a lot going on plot-wise, and the author makes some timely points without being heavy-handed.
Also great, “What the Dead Know” by C.S. Harris. This is an above average addition to the St. Cyr mystery series, excellent twisty plot, high body count as per usual. It was interesting to read the author’s note at the end and see how much of the story was based on real historical events. I will say that the surprise at the very end that people mentioned did not surprise me, I saw that coming a mile away.
Prior to that I read “Death Among Rubies” by R.J. Koreto, an Edwardian era cozy mystery. The first book in this series, “Death on the Sapphire”, was a pleasant read but not memorable, but “Rubies” was just so charming and the characters were so likeable. There is a bit of romance and multiple HEAs. A delightful escape. I’m sorry the author seems to have stopped writing these after the 3rd book, so I only have one more to try.
Stepping outside my normal genre, I read a contemporary sports romance, “Faked” by Karla Sorensen. I must have heard about it somewhere at SBTB so I gave it a try and was not sorry. Between the twins switching places and getting snowed in, and the room with only one bed, it was really a trope-palooza. Despite the fact that guys with tattoos and sports are of no interest to me, I totally enjoyed it. I may even read more of these!
I have not read a lot of straight historical romance this past month, except for some shorter Harlequin Historicals, none of which were memorable.
Re: Pamela Morsi, I don’t even understand the love for Simple Jess. How is it an HEA when the MCs are going to live out their lives in this horrible, backward community? So many white trash/Appalachia stereotypes, which are still with us *cough* Hillbilly Elegy *cough*.
@Karin Do you think it would work to read Death Among Rubies without having read Book 1 first?
I’ve beenin a reading slump lately which is fine because I reactivated my Netflix account. Happily binged all of Shadow and Bone and now I’m dividing my time between Bridgerton and The Ghost Wife. Both are lovely and I’m enjoying them immensely.
I did read all of Summers at Castle Auburn by Sharon Shinn, which I believe was a Smart Bitches rec. I adored it. The romance was quiet and understated and the fantasy was perfect. It reminded me if when I first read Robin McKinley back in the early 90s.
Reading has been hard lately because I have been so tired at night, but I did recently start the hockey romance UNTIL YOU by Jeannie Moon on Kindle and am liking the characters so far.
Then when my tablet battery died and prevented me from reading ebooks for a bit, I picked up YOU by Caroline Kepnes, which I have heard 2 people talk about this week. It is not a romance but definitely a page turner and making me quite uncomfortable even as I can’t help but keep reading.
Oops, did not mean to bold the entire phrase above.
@Stephanie Burgis, yes, you can read Death Among Rubies alone, because as I said, the 1st one was not that memorable. I had read it a couple years ago and totally forgotten everything. But I did go back and reread the 1st one afterwards, to satisfy my curiosity about the characters’ backstories.
THE CONSTANT RABBIT by Jasper Fforde: The usual Fforde fun with a really heavy social justice undertone, featuring sensient rabbits and government efforts to re-settle them in Wales. Jarring, horrifying, clever.
PROJECT HAIL MARY by Andy Weir: All the science you can handle in an attempt to save Earth from imminent destruction. It’s a buddy story in space with an extremely likable alien whose planet is facing the same issue.
THE GALAXY, AND THE WORLD WITHIN by Becky Chambers: Next in the Wayfarers series, where several ships’ crews are stuck on planet Gora because of satellites falling from the sky. This is Chambers at her best, exploring cultures, societies, people and how we cope and struggle, no matter where we’re from.
THE BETTE DAVIS CLUB by Jane Lotter: Published posthumously by the author’s daughter, this is a story about mistakes, second/third chances and figuring ourselves out in the end; 50+ is not too late. There is an almost wedding, a runaway bride, a road trip with the gilted groom in a classic MG, a hunt for a possibly priceless Orson Welles’ script and a ton of family baggage. Funny, sad, hopeful and ultimately so satisfying. Highly recommended.
SIRI, WHO AM I? by Sam Tschida: After an SBTB review, I had to give this a try and I was not disappointed. Mia, our amnesiac heroine, is not who either of us thought she was. Her struggles to piece herself back together are funny and heartbreaking; it’s quite a journey, one I enjoyed very much.
@Sarah, I’m glad your reading THE HAPPINESS TRAP. My therapist bad me read it last year and it’s become my go-to recommendation for people dealing with abuse and depressive thoughts. I find the ACT philosophy much more helpful to me than CBT.
Well, like everyone else in the world, I found the old copy of Shadow and Bone that my grandson read. in middle school. He liked it but not enough to spend his book allowance and the second book. I am reading tin bits and pieces and liking it well enough. Watching the show the same way.
Actually reading or read: The Chosen Ones by Veronica Roth. Kept my interest and I enjoyed it. Took a while to truly understand and like Sloane but it was worth it. Also a look at living with fame as survivors. Each one does it differently. Two embrace it in different ways, two avoid in different ways, one seems to just deal. Also looking, though the FOIA documents, at how the government used these children.
The Space Between Worlds by Miaiah Johnson, about travel between alternate worlds (kind of like The Chosen Ones, now that I think of it). was interesting. Looking at the consequences of travel. Also looking at the gap between haves and have-not, political maneuvering, romance, I enjoyed it.
Re-reading some of John Buchan’s Richard Hannay stories. My dad loved them, I loved them as a younger person and still enjoy them now. Adventure, spy, derring do set around the First World War. Sadly some of the attitudes do not do well in more modern times. So there is that.
I would like to think I read more than that but I don’t thinks. I am languishing, to the point that I complained to my doc about it and she is applying some aversive conditioning. She is sending me to the lab in hopes that I will learn not to complain.
OTOH, I bought a bunch of books from the sales here on Smart Bitches and hope to have read more by next time. That’s the first step in getting better, right? Expanding the TBR?
Apologize for all the typos, busy day at work and the nurses kept calling much of the evening, too. So I did not pay attention to proofreading.
I love the description of Rex, one of the heroes in THE MIDDLE of SOMEWHERE; heavy frame, wide hips and wider shoulders, big hands and feet – the romance standard of wide shoulders and super narrow hips gets so repetitive and unimaginative.
I read and really liked FALLING LIKE STARS by Eve Kasey on KU, it’s about commercial space fight with the hero a Chinese astronaut and the heroine an expert special events planner. It’s a fun premise, set in SoCal where I grew up. There’s something different about the writing style, and I think it’s that there’s very little exposition, you just know what the characters think, do or say.
I joined the bad decisions book club and stayed up late with the new Murderbot novella Fugitive Telemetry (Martha Wells) the day it came out. I have no regrets and I’m going to reread it soon!
I also read and enjoyed What the Devil Knows by C.S. Harris and The Galaxy and the Ground within by Becky Chambers. Neither is a romance, but both are excellent.