May is on its way out and that means it’s time for our second Whatcha Reading of the month. Time is just flying by!
Spring allergies have sent me into a severe slump, but fingers crossed the pollen will be done doing its business soon.
Carrie: I’m almost finished with Aetherbound, ( A | BN | K ) a book that starts in hard science fiction dystopia and then swivels around to a fairly utopian state of bliss. It’s by E.K. Johnston. I like it even though it’s pretty disjointed.
Claudia: In the very first pages of Betting on the Duke’s Heart by Royaline Sing. ( A | BN | K ) Horse-mad main characters, biracial heroine, marriage of convenience. So far so good and I also love that every chapter starts with a snippet from a Mahabharata tale.
Shana: I’m reading Fattily Ever After: A Black Fat Girl’s Guide to Living Life Unapologetically by Stephanie Yeboah. It’s one of those books that I wish I could give to my younger self.
Elyse: Well I was going to continue reading The Project ( A | BN | K | AB ) and then this happened.
It’s a thriller about a cult in upstate NY and has serious NXVIM vibes. No volleyball, though.
Catherine: I am currently reading my way through absolutely everything I can find that Celia Lake has ever written. I started off with Eclipse, her latest novel, which is a romance set in the staff room of a magical boarding school in 1920s Britain – I think the author described it as Hogwarts, only with a lot more detail about magical pedagogy – and after that I had to immediately download all her previous books onto my Kobo. And I’m just wallowing in them now, and they are so relaxing and charming to read. The plots are very gentle – often the thing that you would expect to be the climax of the story takes place off-stage – and really centre around two people getting to know each other and love each other and work together as a couple and a team.
There is a fair bit about people recovering from the impacts of the Great War, and also lots of fantastic disability representation (I especially liked her heroine with fibromyalgia in ‘Pastiche’), and her characters are just such lovely, kind people. Oh, and there is a Peter Wimsey sort of character, who makes me very happy!
Actually, everything about these books is making me very happy and I am pushing them on everyone I speak to and have been basically waiting for the “Whatcha Reading” to come up here so that I could push them here, too.
Carrie: Well crap, now I HAVE to read them!
Catherine: EVERYONE HAS TO READ THEM!!
Sorry about the shouting, I’m a bit overexcited.
Carrie: Yes ma’am!
Catherine: They are just so relaxing to read, and it’s possible that they were written to plug directly into all the happy places in my brain.
EllenM: Catherine I bought the first book in the series based on your recommendation for the author already!! Have not started yet though. I just finished Act Your Age, Eve Brown, which I found a lot of fun just so long as I figuratively stuck my fingers in my ears and shouted LALALALALALALA whenever my brain started to think too hard about it being an employee-boss romance, which is a trope that makes me feel a little weird!!
Tara: Ironically, I never finished Laziness Does Not Exist because I didn’t feel like I had the time. In good news, past Tara did me a solid and put a hold on the audiobook and in two days I’m already WAY farther ahead. I also bailed on a nonessential 8:30 meeting this morning so I could get a workout in because I could tell my body needed it, so thanks Dr. Price, for encouraging me to set a boundary and take self-care seriously!
Susan: I remembered that I have a Shonen Jump subscription, so I’ve gone diving into that. I’m enjoying the fantastically cheesy Ghost Reaper Girl. It’s got a late-night horror movie aesthetic, which is perfect because the protagonist is a B-movie actress turned magical girl who fights ghosts by fusing with attractive spirits who are all a little in love with her.
Herbert West, Reanimator, has just shown up with his pet murder-maid, Shoggoth, is the tone it’s going for
Lara: I’m reading The Queer Principles of Kit Webb and savouring it… I’m a huge Cat Sebastian fan!
Sarah: I’m reading The Assassin of Thasalon by Lois McMaster Bujold ( A | BN ) – a full Penric & Desdemona novel and I’m loving it immensely.
Catherine: I adored that book! So lovely to get a full length Pen and Des story!
What have you been reading? Tell us in the comments!
Currently reading FAIR, BRIGHT, AND TERRIBLE by Elizabeth Kingston. Heroine is a new widow with a choice between a convent or a political marriage to a man she had an affair with 18 years ago. He’s into it because he never stopped loving her. She’s into it so she can get close enough to kill one of her enemies. Since she’s planning to commit a high-profile murder, she doesn’t want either of them to get too cozy with the relationship. Heroine’s calculating and practical; hero’s a good-hearted idealist. There’s a lot of push-pull between who they were 18 years ago versus who they’ve become. Medieval with plot-relevant Edwardian conquest of Wales.
It’s the second book in the series, and I didn’t read #1 first (though I apparently own it), but there’s none of that annoying “I don’t know what’s going on because I’m missing crucial information not included in this book where it is crucial” that too frequently plagues series.
I have Pen and Des waiting, I have pre-ordered cat Sebastian’s books, and I just bought one of Celia Lake’s stories. I’m in the mood for magic, currently reading Louisa Morgan’s The Age of Witches, which I’m pretty sure was recommended here.
The Wanderer by Robyn Carr. It was very much a series set-up, which I didn’t mind. I did mind that it was just… kind of boring. If it was a drink, it would be a can of room-temperature Coke that’s been left out overnight. Not crisp and fizzy, just cloyingly sugary and kind of flat. The writing was clunky and sometimes repetitive (I don’t need the full story of the h’s messy divorce. I remember it from the first two or three tellings, thanks). Most of the main ‘good’ characters had pretty much the same pleasant and solid personality. The antagonists were slutty, weak or evil and that was pretty much it for character development. There wasn’t much of a sense of place, plot threads meandered to their end, and events that should have been dramatic were related with the verve and energy of an insurance report. HOWEVER, we do get to hear how many bars the hero’s mobile phone has when he makes a phone call.
What was frustrating – and this is what kept me reading, or at least skimming slightly more slowly than I would otherwise have done – was that I did want to see how the plot threads would weave together, and every now and again, there’d be some dialogue that was pretty funny, or a character that stood out such as the heroine’s little brother who is a little bit saintly, but at least has some spikes and spine.
This was the first Carr book I’d read, and wouldn’t have read further if it hadn’t been for an excerpt from another book at the end which had a little bit more life to it. So I tried Sunrise Point and Moonlight Road which were basically OK, but not so good that I could see what made them TV-series worthy. Would read more if the library has them, but wouldn’t chase them up.
The Return of Antonides by Anne McAllister. The h & H have known each other from childhood, but it’s been an antagonistic relationship fuelled by unresolved attraction as they’ve grown. Some years later, he turns up after years of working abroad, and they find the attraction is still there. However, so is the antagonism. Really, not a lot happens compared to the Carr book – it could be summarised as ‘the main couple have a slightly rough past, but realise they love each other’ – but McAllister is so much better at drawing out the emotions of her characters and highlighting the details that bring them to life, such as a flashback to a prom night that ends disastrously. The H has taken the place of the h’s fiancee as the h’s date (having indirectly contributed the fiancee’s broken leg). The H is pinning a corsage on the h and it’s a moment full of confusion and longing and sexual tension and is described so beautifully.
Doukakis’s Apprentice by Sarah Morgan. I enjoyed this so much. The h’s sister has run off with the H’s father. In revenge, the H has subsumed the dad’s rather shonky and quirky advertising company into his own uber-shiny and efficient one, with the plan to use the takeover to bring dad & sister out of hiding.
The hero does his usual standard-category-romance sneering and brooding, and rather than pressing a trembling hand to her alabaster brow, the heroine just goes along being sunny and determined and subverting the rather clinical atmosphere of the new parent company (fish tanks! plants! babies!)
As is customary in these books, he initially assumes the h is a useless trust-fund baby. In fact she is a driving force in the company, and he gradually comes to realise that someone he’s dismissed as flaky and trouble-making, has in fact has been her doing her best to cope and protect her found family in less than ideal circumstances. Not particularly deep or complex, but a book to go back to when something cheerful is needed. It reminded me of another of Morgan’s books that made me laugh: standard billionaire/ordinary girl set-up but there’s a scene where they’ve argued, she’s run away, then tripped and the H thinks she’s knocked herself out. A doctor checks her, and tells the H that she’s fine, she’s just lying there with her eyes closed so she doesn’t have to talk to the H, and the doctor doesn’t blame her.
Random thoughts as I’ve been reading. I’ve realised how much character names affect my enjoyment of a book. Wrong ones can really pull me out of a story, for example a category where two royal-adjacent children are called Jaeden and Riley. I mean, it’s possible, but considering the pearl clutching when one of the British royals got called Zara they don’t fit in the story very well for me. This next one’s a bit niche. A heroine called Jackson (parents wanted a boy) which was shortened to Jaxie which sounds exactly like jacksie which is a word my family uses as slang for a backside. Never mind. I did keep reading, but alas could not with another where the h was called Analie. Do these people not have a thirteen-year-old they can test these names out on? Or a middle-aged person with the sense of humour of a thirteen-year-old (points thumbs at self).
A UK-specific thing: when characters are travelling between London and Paris, why do they nearly always fly when Eurostar exists? Maybe it wouldn’t be too bad going by private jet, but we’re talking about commercial here. I wonder if people still feel that going by aeroplane has a hint of glamour about it (not seen it myself but then I’m strictly a budget flyer, despite the elevated title. Empressing isn’t what it was). For comparison: the actual flying bit is shorter than the train, BUT involves travelling to outer armpits of origin city, standing in queues for two hours in pit of lost souls- I mean the airport, being wedged in seat designed to comfortably seat a Barbie doll, wait additional hour to escape the airport which is situated in outer armpit of destination city. Eurostar: Gare du Nord at top end of central Paris, hour check-in, seat with ACTUAL LEG ROOM, emerge at top end of central London, job done. In fact, you could probably drive/Eurotunnel it in about the same time as flying, and get to sing life-affirming power ballads at the top of your voice throughout the journey.
Sorry. Will try and stick with actual book reviews next time.
I could not get into the Celia Lake book I tried, even though it had all my catnip. It seemed to be suffering from a lot of first book problems. Maybe I need to try a later one . . .
After months and months of slogging, I seem to have broken out of my reading funk! It still seems like I do better when I can read a book in as close to one sitting as possible , which is not really great for my step count, pile of unwashed laundry, or housework, but a woman’s gotta have her priorities!
In rough order from best to okay
ACT YOUR AGE, EVE BROWN by Talia Hibbert. I have adored this series. I continue my love of “hot mess” heroines with Eve, a woman who has been given a lot of chances in life, but hasn’t always managed them well and is struggling with her fear of failure. She and Jacob, the hero, were just a delight of two souls finding each other and really understanding each other. Plus it’s got the cute, cozy baking vibe but with added sexy times ;-).
THE BARBIZON: THE HOTEL THAT SET WOMEN FREE by Paulina Bren. This was a story that followed the fortunes of the Barbizon Hotel in Manhattan from the 1920s to 1980s. I grew up fascinated by the glamourous New York I saw in old books and old movies (which of course, was just a Hollywood sound stage, but still) and this really satisfied my itch to read about the lost world that probably never was ;-). I thought the author did a great job of capturing the sweep of cultural changes for women and the city. She captured little details about both famous residents (The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Grace Kelly) and the less famous (hardworking girls who just wanted a chance to get a bite out of the Big Apple before they were stuck marrying Ed the insurance salesman back home). Maybe a little bit too much about Sylvia Plath for my taste. I’ve never been a fan and I had no idea she’d written about it in The Bell Jar. It is definitely the history of white, middle-class women with at least some privilege in life (and sometimes a lot!) The author does note this and takes care to delineate what the good and bad experiences of some of the first Black residents were like, including Phylicia Rashad.
WILDE CHILD by Eloisa Jame Ah, this was Eloisa James in perfect, fluffy historical mode. There are some reminders of a past plot point with mental illness (which was a definite low point in the series) but this had a heroine who was a free spirit and a stuffed shirt hero (one of my favorite combos, see Hibbert book above) and good banter and sexual tension. Plus, at this point I consider Lindlow Castle one of those almost magical places I’d love to visit like Avonlea or Wonderland. Just getting to spend a few hours there felt relaxing. I think there is still a big plot point left dangling and I’m kind of annoyed it looks like her next Wildes book is not coming out soon, but ah well. That’s what I get for getting involved in an ongoing series.
WHERE HAVE ALL THE BOYS GONE? by Jenny Colgan. Okay, this was an audiobook and I’ve stopped listing these most of the time for Whatcha Reading b/c I mostly nap through them or have them on as background noise, but this one grew on me as it went along and I really stopped and actively listened to the last third or so, so I’m counting it. It is a chick lit book from the turn of the millennium boom and it shows it in ways charming (soo many Sex and the City references) and ugly (slut shaming and probably some other things that passed by me early on). Katie, our heroine, is in PR (b/c of course she is) and she is stuck moving from London to the Scottish Highlands and assigned the task of finding a way to save a forest from golf course developers. She bumbles about making both professional and romantic mistakes in typical 2000s chick lit fashion. But! But! It has a lovely warm ending with one of my favorite “oh I’m in love” realizations I’ve seen in a long time and it includes a beautiful renovated ballroom and lots of handsome men in kilts and I’m honest enough to admit that bumped it up from a C read to a B, maybe even a B+. I yam what I yam.
A DUCHESS A DAY by Charis Michaels. This was just a pleasant, fluffy historical that filled the moment. The heroine, Helena, has been forced into an engagement she doesn’t want. Her bodyguard, Declan, is supposed to make sure she doesn’t run off. The hero is not a duke, nor is he rich. He also doesn’t magically become either of these things by the end of the novel, which I liked. The whole story is loosely inspired by Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, but it’s not really important to the story other than some references that I found cute (YMMV). It didn’t blow me away, but I finished it and got a few chuckles from me and that is a big accomplishment these days, believe me.
Also, I’m tearing through PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION by Emily Henry and I’m hoping to finish it today. Fingers crossed I haven’t jinxed myself by mentioning a book I haven’t finished (I have a bad track record with that)
I’ve only read a few books in the past two weeks, but I’m counting down the days until school gets out and I can spend uninterrupted hours reading—and also getting some physical therapy for the pinched nerve in my hip (I’m walking again, but still have a “hitch in my get-along” as the old saying goes). Right now I’m halfway through new books by Karla Sorenson and Serena Bell—FORBIDDEN and MAKE ME WILDER, respectively—and I can see that, if the books finish as strongly as they start, both of them are going to be highly recommended: but the final verdict on those books will have to wait until the next WAYR. As for the books I’ve finished:
Leonie Mack’s debut romance, MY CHRISTMAS NUMBER ONE, was one of my favorite books of 2020: a lovely story of two musicians, from completely different backgrounds and cultures, who fall in love after recording a Christmas song together. However, it took me a while to get into Mack’s sophomore effort, ITALY EVER AFTER. Initially, it seemed that ITALY EVER AFTER was going to tell a story that’s been told umpteen times: how a newly-divorced woman gets her groove back by traveling to foreign climes and having a fling with a hot younger man—in this case, in Italy with her daughter’s music teacher. But, I’m happy to report, as the story continued, it revealed hidden depths and the rather melancholy backstories of both main characters as they moved by fits and starts into a relationship. The heroine, informed by her smug, gaslighting ex that she is “ordinary and talentless,” hopes that she will be able to find a talent that she is passionate about while chaperoning her daughter’s music class on a trip to Italy. Meanwhile the Anglo-Italian music-teacher hero deals with the anxiety, stage-fright, and difficult memories evoked by being back in his native country. The couple feel an attraction, but both have a lot to work through before either of them is ready for a relationship (and I wish Mack had given us more time with the hero and heroine individually before throwing them together). As in MY CHRISTMAS NUMBER ONE, Mack’s writing in ITALY EVER AFTER is crisp and vivid (she particularly excels at descriptions of the beautiful Alpine lakes area of Italy); and there’s a similar love for music and musicians (I found myself listening to several pieces of classical music with a new ear as I read); but I wasn’t quite as invested in this book as I was in the earlier one. Final verdict: I liked ITALY EVER AFTER and do recommend it, but it’s no MY CHRISTMAS NUMBER ONE.
Between new releases, I grabbed an older book from my never-ending tbr: Ainslie Paton’s WHITE BALANCE, first published in 2012. It’s a beautifully-written story, full of melancholy and emotion (reminding me in some ways of Kelly Hunter’s MAGGIE’S RUN—a favorite of mine from a few years back), with just a couple of things that kept it from being totally Keeper Shelf Squee for me. The hero is an advertising executive reeling from the unexpected death of his wife; at the beginning of the book, he is barely holding himself together. The heroine is a top-level events planner whose passion is photography (“white balance” is a term for how digital cameras compensate for different sources of light and color); she is also coping with ongoing chronic pain from a back injury. The hero and heroine do not know each other, but when the heroine accepts a job with her old boss (who happens to be the hero’s best friend and new business partner), they meet and feel an instant attraction. They acknowledge their attraction, but take a long time to act upon it (the story is deliberately-paced, taking place over the course of two years). I liked so much of the story: the hero’s gradual shift away from his grief; his mentoring of a troubled young boy he meets through Big Brothers; the heroine’s love of photography and how she selects the photographs she posts daily on her blog; the way we see an entire ad campaign planned, presented, and carried out; and the Greek chorus function performed by the boss & his wife. However, there are a few kinda-sorta “gray areas” in WHITE BALANCE that stopped it from being a full-on favorite: although there is no actual cheating, for much of the story, the hero is dating another woman; the heroine also has an unresolved situation with her (ex?) boyfriend. At different times, both h&h make advances toward the other—and then retreat behind “we can’t do this, we’re co-workers.” Then there’s a very odd scene late in the story where the heroine’s happily-married boss insists on kissing her to show her that there is no sexual tension between them (ummm—what?). But, on the whole, I liked WHITE BALANCE and would recommend it for those who like really slow burns with a splash of melancholy.
Rina Kent’s Deception trilogy (VOW OF DECEPTION, TEMPTED BY DECEPTION, and CONSUMED BY DECEPTION) is a twisty & dark romance that goes back and forth in time to tell the story of a young woman, who clearly has terrible trauma in her past (cw/tw: death of a baby, alcoholism, homelessness, mental-health struggles), snatched from her life on the streets and coerced into impersonating the wife of a high-ranking member of the Bratva (Russian mafia)—a woman the heroine strongly resembles. But what happened to the real wife? And what will the heroine do as she grows closer to both the mob boss and his young son? Kent does a great job of mirroring the action in the first book with the action in the second book (most of the second book takes place at an earlier time than the first); she doesn’t quite stick the landing in the exposition-heavy third book, but the trilogy is still strong. Despite constant casual mob violence and the extremely rough bdsm dynamic between the h&h (cw/tw: non-consent, dubious consent), the overall atmosphere of the story is gothic: the hero’s isolated estate, where certain places are off-limits to the heroine; the ambiguous/unknowable hero; the sense that nobody can be trusted; actions from the past repeating themselves in the present; and the trance-like feeling of the heroine’s nightmares that start bleeding over into her actual life. There are also elements of JANE EYRE, VERTIGO, the ballet GISELLE, and Tana French’s THE LIKENESS in this dark but compulsively-readable tale. Key quote: “A villain is the hero in his own story.” I know dark/mafia romances aren’t everyone’s cuppa, but the Deception Trilogy is certainly a cut above the usual for this genre. Recommended—with all the caveats and warnings noted.
Much like the Deception Trilogy, B.B. Hamel’s THE KILLER’S NEW WIFE is also a cut above the standard forced/arranged mafia marriage sub-genre generally available through Kindle Unlimited. Although the plot is fairly typical (a mafia hitman must, because reasons, marry the daughter of a sex-trafficker he has killed), Hamel’s writing elevates the book beyond the ordinary. For example, here are the opening sentences: “Ash from the burning building drifted down and landed on my tongue like a snowflake. I swallowed and felt burnt wood stick in my throat.” Or take this description of the hero as the heroine watches him socialize at a party: “He seemed to glow, and the laughter that followed him like baby ducklings was music and raindrops on pond-water.” Yes, she’s describing a cold-blooded killer, but still….the story may be run-of-the-mill, but the writing in THE KILLER’S NEW WIFE takes the book a few steps above the regular KU offerings of this type.
Whatcha Reading
Where Have All the Boys Gone? By Jenny Colgan
Barbizon
A Duchess A Day
Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert
Wilde Child by Eloisa James
After months and months of slogging, I seem to have broken out of my reading funk! It still seems like I do better when I can read a book in as close to one sitting as possible , which is not really great for my step count, pile of unwashed laundry, or housework, but a woman’s gotta have her priorities!
In rough order from best to okay
ACT YOUR AGE, EVE BROWN by Talia Hibbert. I have adored this series. I continue my love of “hot mess” heroines with Eve, a woman who has been given a lot of chances in life, but hasn’t always managed them well and is struggling with her fear of failure. She and Jacob, the hero, were just a delight of two souls finding each other and really understanding each other. Plus it’s got the cute, cozy baking vibe but with added sexy times ;-).
THE BARBIZON: THE HOTEL THAT SET WOMEN FREE by Paulina Bren. This was a story that followed the fortunes of the Barbizon Hotel in Manhattan from the 1920s to 1980s. I grew up fascinated by the glamourous New York I saw in old books and old movies (which of course, was just a Hollywood sound stage, but still) and this really satisfied my itch to read about the lost world that probably never was ;-). I thought the author did a great job of capturing the sweep of cultural changes for women and the city. She captured little details about both famous residents (The Unsinkable Molly Brown, Grace Kelly) and the less famous (hardworking girls who just wanted a chance to get a bite out of the Big Apple before they were stuck marrying Ed the insurance salesman back home). Maybe a little bit too much about Sylvia Plath for my taste. I’ve never been a fan and I had no idea she’d written about it in The Bell Jar. It is definitely the history of white, middle-class women with at least some privilege in life (and sometimes a lot!) The author does note this and takes care to delineate what the good and bad experiences of some of the first Black residents were like, including Phylicia Rashad.
WILDE CHILD by Eloisa Jame Ah, this was Eloisa James in perfect, fluffy historical mode. There are some reminders of a past plot point with mental illness (which was a definite low point in the series) but this had a heroine who was a free spirit and a stuffed shirt hero (one of my favorite combos, see HIbbert book above) and good banter and sexual tension. Plus, at this point I consider Lindlow Castle one of those almost magical places I’d love to visit like Avonlea or Wonderland. Just getting to spend a few hours there felt relaxing. I think there is still a big plot point left dangling and I’m kind of annoyed it looks like her next Wildes book is not coming out soon, but ah well. That’s what I get for getting involved in an ongoing series.
WHERE HAVE ALL THE BOYS GONE? by Jenny Colgan. Okay, this was an audiobook and I’ve stopped listing these most of the time for Whatcha Reading b/c I mostly nap through them or have them on as background noise, but this one grew on me as it went along and I really stopped and actively listened to the last third or so, so I’m counting it. It is a chick lit book from the turn of the millennium boom and it shows it in ways charming (soo many Sex and the City references) and ugly (slut shaming and probably some other things that passed by me early on). Katie, our heroine, is in PR (b/c of course she is) and she is stuck moving from London to the Scottish Highlands and assigned the task of finding a way to save a forest from golf course developers. She bumbles about making both professional and romantic mistakes in typical 2000s chick lit fashion. But! But! It has a lovely warm ending with one of my favorite “oh I’m in love” realizations I’ve seen in a long time and it includes a beautiful renovated ballroom and lots of handsome men in kilts and I’m honest enough to admit that bumped it up from a C read to a B, maybe even a B+. I yam what I yam.
A DUCHESS A DAY by Charis Michaels. This was just a pleasant, fluffy historical that filled the moment. The heroine, Helena, has been forced into an engagement she doesn’t want. Her bodyguard, Declan, is supposed to make sure she doesn’t run off. The hero is not a duke, nor is he rich. He also doesn’t magically become either of these things by the end of the novel, which I liked. The whole story is loosely inspired by Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, but it’s not really important to the story other than some references that I found cute (YMMV). It didn’t blow me away, but I finished it and got a few chuckles from me and that is a big accomplishment these days, believe me.
Also, I’m tearing through PEOPLE WE MEET ON VACATION by Emily Henry and I’m hoping to finish it today. Fingers crossed I haven’t jinxed myself by mentioning a book I haven’t finished (I have a bad track record with that)
I love the Celia Lake books. I picked the first one up after seeing it in the ad side-bar here. Such a lovely cover. They’re everything Catherine said. Gentle and inclusive. There’s a class structure, though seemingly less rigid than the actuality, but race, gender, orientation, doesn’t matter when it comes to jobs and magical abilities. The focus is on two people getting to know each other and deciding to build a life together, and the plot is background to the relationship.
Happy Saturday! Got my second Moderna dose on Wednesday and took Thursday off work to recover. I was pretty fatigued, comparable with a bad night of insomnia, but was fortunate to be spared the aches, chills, fever and other symptoms some people I know had from their second dose. I have now gotten the “vaccine arm” redness on my second dose too (switched arms), but at least mine’s not itchy.
Apparently, my recent romance reading has been “authors I remember reading and liking before 2016 and now have mixed results” the past few weeks.
Romance:
ALL I EVER WANTED by Kristan Higgins: I liked the heroine and hero together, there are cute dogs, and the subplot with her grandfather was touching, but wow were there a lot of things that would not fly in 2021 from this 2010 book. (CW: Ongoing sexual harassment of the heroine by her mother’s assistant, the client company CEO also hitting on the heroine and that going relatively unaddressed, some very 2010 “look I’m making some nods towards racial equality” bits that don’t hit well, the whole “oh she’s been in love with her employer and there’s no discussion of #MeToo or retaliation” response to the plot, probably something else I’ve forgotten.) I’m assuming Higgins has had better editing / sensitivity reading in her more recent works, but I’m also unlikely to read her women’s fiction or the other romances of hers I’ve not read, so I’ll just keep a sort of fond nostalgia.
A CHANGE OF HEART by Sonali Dev: *major* content warnings here for sexual assault and violence depicted pretty graphically on page. I’d forgotten that Dev’s earlier connected Bollywood books were a touch heavier on the angst than I tend to read in contemporary romance, and it’s a nice change of pace for me once in a while. That said, I’m very glad I borrowed this one from the library as the aforementioned graphic violence was a lot. I do feel like we get to see the hero and heroine work through their tragic backstories on page enough that the HEA feels real & earned, and there’s some level of catharsis for the villains but not completely. I’ll probably read A DISTANT HEART soon to get Rahul & Kimi’s story, but maybe in, like, two months, not in the next week. Side note, it looks like the eBooks may have reissued covers in the illustrated/cartoon style, which REALLY bugs me for the level of darkness for the books–it feels inherently confusing to readers!
Non-Romance:
(CW: murder, misogyny, intimate partner violence, sexual assault, homophobia, probably more I’m forgetting here:)
WE KEEP THE DEAD CLOSE: A MURDER AT HARVARD AND A HALF CENTURY OF SILENCE by Becky Cooper: a lengthy true crime investigation of the murder of Harvard archaeology grad student Jane Britton back in 1969, which at the time went unsolved, and what effects the murder had on the community. This is fairly long and there’s a postmodern archaeological approach (can you tell I almost went to grad school for archaeology?) to the structure of the book, so I’d advise planning to read it in a shorter time frame than a longer one for clarity. I did find this a good examination of how insular communities have worked to protect their own, particularly for white men in power, and how the people vulnerable to that power have enacted survival strategies.
RACE AGAINST TIME: A REPORTER REOPENS THE UNSOLVED MURDER CASES OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS ERA by Jerry Mitchell: solid work explaining how Jerry Mitchell came to investigate many Civil Rights-era murder cases that had gone unsolved in Mississippi and the rest of the Deep South while he was at the Clarion-Ledger, and the challenges present in getting such cases to be put to trial, both culturally and logistically. I wish he’d not waited just until the epilogue to more overtly address the issues with leaving such horrific, racist acts of violence undiscussed–namely, that failing to publicly address this history leaves many white supremacist communities thriving in the present–but I think he was going for something more understated and letting the surviving family members of the victims speak of their pain from 25+ years later.
On deck:
I’d started Cat Sebastian’s Regency Imposters series last year with A DUKE IN DISGUISE, which is the second entry, and I’m finally getting to the first one with UNMASKED BY THE MARQUESS today. I’d mentioned last time that I’d hoped to start FAKING IT by Jennifer Crusie soon, so maybe next week!
Also, I now have NETWORK EFFECT by Martha Wells on my shelf, so it’s a matter of time before I forget everything around me and dive into that.
I’ve just started From All False Doctrine by Alice Degan, which so far I am really enjoying. As far as I’ve got it’s a bit different; two pairs of friends meet on the beach in Canada in 1925 (in their swimming costumes so some good historical mental images) and start getting to know each other. Good writing and interesting characters. There is a mysterious manuscript lurking.
I inhaled The Assassins of Thasalon which has made me want to go back and read the other Pen and Des books (apart from the one about the contagious illness).
I have some mysteries/thrillers on my TBR pile, including VANISHING GIRLS by Lisa Regan and ONE BY ONE by Ruth Ware.
I’ve been loving season 2 of NANCY DREW on the CW — and totally shipping Nancy/Ace — so I picked up THE BIG LIE, a Nancy Drew/Hardy Boys graphic novel at my local comic book store. If you like/watch any sort of fantasy/supernatural/sci-fi show, there is probably a graphic novel for it. LOL.
Happy reading, everyone! 🙂
The Man From the Train: The Solving of a Century-Old Serial Killer Mystery – Bill James and Rachel McCarthy James
A lengthy but fast-paced in-depth dive into a series of ax murders of families that happened across wide swaths of the US in the first decade of the 20th century. James normally writes about baseball (and I believe is a statistician) so it was an interesting approach to true crime. I’m not sure I’m completely on board with his entire theory, but he gives you the space to be skeptical and also explains his reasoning very specifically. My main takeaway is, wow, there were a *ton* of ax murders in the early 20th century. They blended together really quickly in the telling. But the suspect they provided was compelling, and as good a suspect as we’re likely to get from an era with spotty reporting, vastly different approaches to evidence collection than there are now, and just huge gaps of knowledge that will never be filled.
Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation – Anne Helen Petersen
I heard Anne Helen Petersen on an episode of The American Girls Podcast, of all things, and I knew I wanted to read this book. It’s an exploration of millennial burnout as a wide societal problem rather than just a personal failing, as so many of us often feel it is. How the economy got us here, how and why the media continues to infantilize us as a generation, how the way we raised led us to who we are now, how social media is really, truly destroying our psyches and our lives. It doesn’t have any ‘answers’ per say, but this book for me was a case of feeling seen. Oh. That’s why I’m like this. That’s why I feel like a failure for doing x, or not doing x. That’s why I feel so guilty and tired all the time. That’s why work sucks. It really, really resonated.
The Disaster Tourist – Yo Ko-Eun
A Korean novel in translation. Ko Yona works at an agency that organizes tours of disaster zones (after earthquakes, tsunamis, etc). She’s feeling stuck and burnt out in her unsatisfying job (hey, guess that’s my mini theme this month) and after unwanted attention from her boss and hints that she’s about to be pushed out, she’s given the opportunity to take a “vacation”–secretly go on one of the tours and determine whether the company should continue to fund it. After that, things get weird. She finds herself in the middle of a conspiracy to *create* a disaster, and things spiral from there. This book is unsettling, strange, and uncomfortable, and I found it super compelling. CW for workplace sexual harrassment/assault and…well, then, also a cw for basically everything else. It’s not a light read by any means. But interesting nonetheless.
FINAL GIRLS, Riley Sager – Not as scary and twisty as I thought it would be (which is good since I’m too much of a scaredy cat for horror movies). I like that in the end it was about the women looking out for each other.
HOW TO SAVE AN UNDEAD LIFE, Hailey Edwards.- This was kind of a fun. A necromancer assistant with a sentient house who leads ghost walking tours at night. Most of the plot revolves around vampire-necromancer politics and hierarchy which wasn’t that interesting to me.
HEROES ARE MY WEAKNESS, Susan Elizabeth Philipps – DNF’d this one after the halfway point. (TW: suicide) I thought there was a lack of compassion from the main characters when discussing mental illness. The hero’s wife committed suicide and he blamed himself for it. He also keeps describing her as crazy and needy and comparing her to the obviously more wholesome and quirky Annie. I picked up on the Jane Eyre parallels and the hero is no better than Rochester when it came to his wife.
WRITTEN IN BLOOD, Anne Bishop – I wanted to like this book more than I actually did. Well I really liked the first half and pulled a BDBC because I just wanted to read all about Meg training a wolf puppy but I there were some issues as the book went on that really bothered me. I’m not a big fan of the “we must protect the fragile super special woman at all costs” trope and this really leaned into that. I thought the gender stereotypes were not great and the lack of nuance in the terra indigene vs humans conflict was also a problem for me. But despite all that, I really liked the characters (Hi Tess!) and the world was interesting. I read a bit of MURDER OF CROWS but had to stop. I like Meg’s character but apparently the terra indigene cannot stop fawning over her.
Anyway I went and tried WILD COUNTRY because it has a new set of characters and I liked this one better. The outdated gender stereotypes still bothered me but at least nobody is treating Jana like a fragile porcelain doll. Virgil Wolfgard is all broody at first but he has a good reason to be (he lost his entire pack) and him and Jana trying to raise a puppy was just really funny.
I find myself still avoiding angst and overall dreariness as much as possible. Thus a bunch of so-so books, which matched my mood.
Very Good
KINGFISHER, T. – PALADIN’S STRENGTH (F/M Fantasy). Very good for all the reasons people have said before. However I didn’t like it as much as Paladin’s Grace. There was a lot of plot crammed into the book with bits that could have been explored, and weren’t.
MARIA SNYDER – SENTINELS OF THE GALAXY (YA Science Fiction). Finished this trilogy based around the terracotta army, multiple dimensions, and archeological digs in space and enjoyed it. However, I must be old as I sympathized with the secondary adults rather than the 17 year old heroine at times.
Good
CARI Z. – EVERGREEN (M/M Astronauts). It was good but not memorable. In some ways it felt like there was so much story to be told that wasn’t on the page.
So-So
BREA ALEPOU – OUR KING OUR MASTER series (M/M Paranormal Harem). These
books are episodes in an ongoing story. They remind me of Macy Blake’s CHOSEN ONE series, but much shallower. At the same time, I am interested in seeing how the story continues.
CHARLIE RICHARDS – BENEATH AQUATICA’S WAVES series (M/M Aquatic shifters). These are popcorn stories about aquatic shifters who live/work in an aquarium. The plots are all similar – meet cute, insta-attraction, shifter reveal, plot point, end. There is very little character development. That said, they are like popcorn and you can’t just have one kernel. And, the lack of angst is totally refreshing. Plus I googled coconut octopus and watched a bunch of cute videos.
Catherine Heloise, I’m so glad someone else has found Celia Lake! I’ve been reading her and mentioning it here since her first book. In the current one, ECLIPSE, I could have used about 35% less talk about teaching, student evaluation, curriculum, etc etc. She’s still an auto buy because I love the world, and is unlike anybody else.
I finally read A ROGUE OF ONE’S OWN by Evie Dunmore and really liked it. It took awhile because the hero is unlikable at first, and the heroine so single minded she doesn’t seem to have room in her life for anything else. Of course he has hidden depths, and she needs human interaction too. I particularly liked how Lucie lets her friends get closer and support her.
Eliot Grayson’s Mismatched Mates series has m/m supernatural pairings. I read the first 2, and particularly liked THE ALPHA’S WarLOCK. Quick light reads in a world with shifters, vampires,fae, and a few more.
Happy Saturday!
Based on the positive reviews of ‘The Roommate Risk’ I picked it up – and barely put it down, I liked it that much. It’s difficult to portray a (potentially) tiresome heroine in a sympathetic light but Hibbert does well here, giving us just enough backstory to explain how and why the heroine’s psyche is so fragile, without victimizing her or making us (well, me) dislike her; surprisingly, the hero’s ‘edge-snatching’ moment (delivered by the bf’s girlfriend)blindsided me and it was PERFECT! The only complaint I had was my own mental laziness in expecting only the heroine to have to do some emotional work.
I’m still working through ‘Soul Made Flesh’ by Carl Zimmer because his writing lulls me to sleep – that sounds like a slam but it’s not – he’s an excellent writer but this is a gentle meandering through the ages from Aristotle to present day on how the brain (and its function in our bodies) was discovered. That’s a LONG time and he takes his time, so I’m taking mine as well.
Penny Reid’s ‘Truth or Beard’ was charming – reading the synopsis of her other Winston brothers’ stories I’m eager to read Jethro’s because the idea of a curvy movie star lost in the wilds of the Great Smoky Mountains makes me smile, then I’ll give her work a rest for awhile. I love me some Cletus (who doesn’t?) but bingeing a series/writer always backfires for me and I want to save Cletus for a rainy day.
WAYBACK MACHINE: Miss Read’s Fairacre/Thrush Green, etc novels. I found a couple on a freebie shelf in a library in TN and am forever grateful I took a chance – written in the 50s onward, they are gentle glimpses into English village life – but they aren’t pablum; Life happens to these people, joys and sorrows. But I always leave a Miss Read novel feeling a bit more intact than I was before.
Lastly, ‘Clean’ by James Hamblin about our obsession with the notion of cleanliness. It’s a fascinating read.
Hello, my comment seems to have been lost in moderation – there weren’t weird links in it or anything and curious as to what pinged the alarm.
Nothing that really knocked my socks off recently, but some decent stuff in the mix:
A LADY’S CODE OF MISCONDUCT by Meredith Duran. This was recommended in a recent books on sale post so I decided to give it a try. It’s an amnesia plot (usually not my jam at all), but really well done. I may read the others in the series to see if there’s more about the villain—he’s pretty creepy and I wouldn’t mind seeing more of him (and not in the antihero/would get his own book angle. He’s legit creepy/full on bad guy.)
HER BIG CITY NEIGHBOR by Jackie Lau. Lau’s books are like a favorite meal at a favorite restaurant—no big surprises, but always familiar and satisfying.
THE ROOMMATE by Rosie Danan. I liked the main characters, but I had a hard time believing that Clara would be totally cool with being with a porn star, but otherwise very enjoyable. I’m exited to read Naomi’s book when my hold comes in at the library.
THE DUKE HEIST by Erica Ridley. I’m normally with SB Sarah on the “the duke could drive a Porsche into Almack’s and I wouldn’t care,” but the anachronisms really started to get to me (as did the spelling of Wynchester. Seriously, an I in there would have been fine. That Y felt way too modern, like Madisyn instead of Madison.) Also, I have to complain about the fact that there isn’t a heist! There’s a plan for one but it doesn’t actually happen. If you’re putting “heist” in the title, that should be the main plot angle!
Up next: HIS GRUMPY CHILDHOOD FRIEND also by Jackie Lau. I’m not sure I’m going to finish this one—no fault of Lau’s but the characters keep going to these cool bars and I’m like, “but, but, Covid! What are you doing!!?”
Celia Lake’s books appear to be absolutely a must-have for me. I’ve purchased one already. Sometimes we need comfort reading, plus magic and WWI? I’m there, thanks for the rec!
I’m still in a reading slump resulting from work trauma, so I’m struggling to read and enjoy books. It may be time for a power re-read of some old favourites to re-start my verve, but I’ve had some fun with the crazy-sauce aspects of Sophie Jordan’s “The Duke Effect”, I totally need to wrap up Sherry Thomas’ “The Hollow of Fear” and I just finished the very-useful-to-my-moment non-fiction “13 Things Mentally Strong People Don’t Do”.
Becky Chamber’s latest cozy space opera, THE GALAXY, AND THE GROUND WITHIN. Really lovely, just people thrown together at a waypoint by a minor inconvenience for a few days, going through the experience together. Very little happens in the most soothing way.
Hannah Templer’s graphic novel COSMOKNIGHTS. Do not try to make sense of the backstory, just enjoy all the beautiful artwork of lesbian space knights.
Gene Luen Yang’s graphic novel SUPERMAN SMASHES THE KLAN. Yang is such a genius at playing with the form and making connections between elements – Superman-as-alien is a great piece of this one, and the 1940s setting does nice work with the origin story. Plus (no spoiler!) Superman smashes the Klan.
Enjoyed Milla Vane’s A HEART OF BLOOD AND ASHES, on the fence about whether I’ll continue. Loved the character of the female lead and some of the worldbuilding, felt like there were – gaps? – where elements needed more fitting together. Which is saying something, in a 500+ page book.
I think like Empress of Blandings, my comment is also waiting moderation. . . Maybe I tried to double post?
I am a little intimadated with all the serious reading everyone always seems to get done here. I am book five of the Pine Harbor series by Zoe York. I always sem to be buying more than I read. For example, I boughtt the first box set of The Miss Silver mysteries by Patricia Wentwoth when it was a daily ebook kindle ebook last week for $4.99 and I put the other 7 box sets of the series on my Amazon wish list and last night while I was scrolling through said wish list box sets 4,5,6, 7,8 were each $3.99 each. Now mind I have not read set one but I’ve wanted to armchair visit a English village in the time between WWI and WW2. And so they join the 2600 unread books on my Kindle.
Do the Celia Lake books need to be read in order, or are they stand alone?
You can receive Outcrossing by Celia Lake free if you join her newsletter list.
I, too, have questions about Celia Lake’s books, there appears to be at least three series: Mysterious Charm, Mysterious Powers and Charms of Albion. Thoughts?
SISTERS OF THE VAST BLACK by Lina Rather: A novella about nuns living/working on a senscient spaceship, Our Lady of Impossible Constellations, who travel to far-off colonies to care for the inhabitants. The resurgent Central Governance and the male-dominated Church are getting in the way and the sisters have to decide whether to obey. I am here for upstart women and nuns.
LEAVING ISN’T THE HARDEST THING by Lauren Gough: Unflinchingly honest memoir/essays about growing up in a cult built around sex, pseudo-religion and intimidation. I follow Gough on Twitter and the crucible she grew up in is heartbreaking. Whatever rough edges she still has have been earned; that she has found a way through is nothing short of remarkable.
Currently reading A MASTER OF DJINN by P. Djeli Clark. So far, so awesome.
I posted the following on DA for their Open Readers section:
By limiting my library borrowings, I’ve returned to some wonderful, favorite series with delightful results. So what sparked joy lately, had me feeling as if I’d gone home and met up with old friends?
Adrian McKinty’s Sean Duffy series set in 1980s Belfast, smack in the middle of the Troubles. Duffy is a Catholic serving in a militantly Protestant police force. He is smart, funny and heartbroken over what’s happening in his city. He can’t trust his neighbors not to put a bomb under his car every night or trust that his fellow officers will have his back. Part of the fascination for me is that things have changed in Belfast and yet so little has changed deep down. I’d like to think there are many Duffys doing the right thing today.
Caimh McDonnell’s Dublin Trilogy series and McGarry Stateside series. OMG, so much impossible fun in deadly circumstances and I have loved every book. The setting is mostly contemporary Dublin where a hapless new PI unintentionally joins forces with a disgruntled, incredibly smart nurse and a former disgraced Dublin police officer in order to save their lives, possibly the lives of others. There are killer nuns, too, in a special short story collection available if you sign up for the author’s newsletter, and that’s how the disgraced Dublin police officer ends up in New York City. I had to stop reading these in bed at night because of the spontaneous laughter. The first Trilogy book, THE MAN WITH ONE OF THOSE FACES, is frequently available for free at most retailers.
Elliott James’ Pax Arcana series. John Charming is from THAT Charming family; prince, dragon-slayer, eternal warrior, Knight Templar until he became a werewolf and now the Templars want to kill him. He teams up with marvelous characters, including a Valkyrie and vampire, to help others/save his life. Another smart, funny, violent series–definitely seeing a pattern here.
Thanks for all the tips in the comments, as well as news of a new Pen & Des story!
I’ve been rereading the Phryne Fisher series in order, and loving it as much as before.
Since last time ~
— Project Hail Mary: A Novel by Andy Weir was a good read. I liked it more than Artemis but not as much as The Martian.
— completed my reread of Anne Cleeland’s Acton and Doyle books by reading the last three books. I’m done… until such time as book 14 should arrive on the scene!
— enjoyed Time Lost (Out of Time Book 2) by C.B. Lewis which is the second book in a series I recently began. I hope to read on in the series. This is a future set m/m mystery/romance that involves a company dealing with time travel.
— enjoyed rereading the m/m science fiction romances Dark Space, Darker Space, and new read Starlight by Lisa Henry.
— enjoyed When Are You? by Addison Albright which is an m/m romance with a time travel element.
— read a compilation of two m/m novels and two shorter pieces by the same author, Vows Box Set by Addison Albright. I particularly enjoyed the first novel, Til Death Do Us Part, and imagine I will reread it.
— the contemporary romance Italy Ever After by Leonie Mack; it started slow, but I enjoyed it.
— The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk Wallace Johnson was an informative and intriguing read. I enjoyed discussing it in my first in person book group discussion in over a year!
— White Silence: An edge-of-your-seat supernatural thriller (Elizabeth Cage, Book 1) by Jodi Taylor was a gripping read, and I’ve just requested the second book in the series. Incidentally, this book is currently 99¢ for Kindle readers.
— Death Sworn (Death Sworn series Book 1) by Leah Cypess was an enjoyable (perhaps not the right word for a book dealing with assassins) young adult fantasy. I’ve requested the sequel from the library.
— Playing with Fire: A Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count) by R.J. Blain; this was a rather over the top silly and fun fantasy romance read.
— read 140 pages of Finders (Firstborn, Lastborn Book 1) by Melissa Scott. I was enjoying it initially and then my interest waned.
@Jcp – Miss Silver is wonderful! Both interesting and soothing. And they do not need to be read in any particular order. I started reading that series 30? years ago (Jeebus, I’m getting older by the second!) and re-read every now and again – and they’re just as fabulous the 2nd or 5th time around.
@Msb FYI: There’s a new Phryne Fisher due out June 1: DEATH IN DAYLESFORD
@Jennifer: The Cecilia Lake books have some cross-over characters, especially in the Mysterious Charms series. But you should be able to start anywhere. The romances are all stand-alone, and the books were not published in internal chronological order.
@Sandra- Thank you!
Re the new Phryne Fisher book- I’m a huge fan of the series overall, but the last book was so, so, SO bad that I’m kind of dreading the new one.
I read The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo. Beautifully written, contemplative story, a bit unusual. It just consists of a duo of historians, Chih (a monk) and Almost Brilliant (a talking bird), listening to an old woman, Rabbit, tell about the days when she was the closest servant of an exiled empress. There’s a lot of Big National Events in the backstory but they’re offstage and often the reader has to figure them out from snippets, since of course Rabbit doesn’t have to fill the historians in on what everyone in their world knows! There’s a running theme about different kinds of history: what does the public narrative the Empress of Salt and Fortune created about her life mean for the construction of national identity? And what is the place of secret counter-histories? Interestingly, when I read reviews of this novella, American reviewers all thought the worldbuilding was immersive, whereas the one Vietnamese reviewer thought the worldbuilding was patchy and didn’t make sense because it mixed up elements from Vietnamese, Chinese, and Japanese history. I was in the middle: I didn’t know where all the historical elements came from and to me things were mostly just a bunch of names with basic relationships to each other — I thought it was quite adequate, but admittedly it could have been richer if there had been more dimensions that I knew about. NB: I read the text version of this novella rather than the audiobook; had to give up on the audiobook immediately because Chih uses they/them pronouns and in every sentence the narrator would stress the word “they” heavily. Why??? It’s just a pronoun, pronounced the same as every other pronoun.
Right now I’m into “Take a Hint, Dani Brown.” It’s hilarious, but I’m getting into a weird ball of tension because everything between the MCs is going swimmingly (on the surface), and it’s only chapter 7 out of 21, and clearly the unspoken stuff that both MCs are determinedly burying in their minds is going to lead to a crash, and I like them together so much that I don’t want them to be hurt and disappointed.
So many books, so little time…
Excellent:
None
Very Good:
The Game by Laurie King: The seventh entry in the Mary Russell/Sherlock Holmes series – this one was much more a spy thriller than an actual mystery. I loved the setting (1920’s India), but the first half of the book dragged. It really picked up in the second half when Mary went undercover in a small border kingdom at a house party hosted by the ruling maharaja. CW for killing and cruelty towards animals
Good:
Crooked House by Agatha Christie: A standalone mystery, my mystery book club picked this for our May meeting. I thought it read more like a screen play than a novel at times and was unsatisfied by the end. The family’s patriarch is found dead, poisoned when his insulin was swapped for eye drops and he injected them. The very rich, multi-generational family all live together in a giant, but crooked, house and all the family members are suspects. CW for child in peril.
The Queen of Blood by Sarah Beth Durst: First in the Queens of Renethia trilogy, this is a fantasy set in a world where evil spirits of nature (think earth, water, fire) are kept from harming humans only through the power of a human queen. This book really skipped forward in time and a lot of the secondary characters weren’t that well developed, but I really enjoyed the main characters and the world building. CW for children in peril
Meh:
I Love You Rituals by Dr. Becky A Bailey: This was recommended at a Parents as Teachers meeting I attended. The first few chapters point out why to do I Love You Rituals – to connect with our children in a fast-paced, ever-connected world, but much of that seemed repetitive and should have been edited to be more concise. The bulk of the book is actual activities to do with your child(ren). I tried a couple of different ones with my toddler, but I think he is still a little too young to appreciate these particular activities – I think in 6 months to a year he will be in a better spot developmentally to get real benefit from them.
The Bad:
None
I just finished Trail of Lightning, and it was amazing!! I can’t wait to read more from Rebecca Roanhorse!
I injured my leg and mainlined the entire Psy Changingling series in 2 weeks. I regret nothing.
@DiscoDollyDeb, I just finished Serena Bell’s MAKE ME WILDER, and I loved it! I hope you’ll find it just as satisfying!
Also really enjoyed Tracy Solheim’s BACK TO BEFORE and ALL THEY EVER WANTED, two in her Second Chances series. Set in Chances Inlet, North Carolina, these live up to the second-chance premise.
On the lighter-hearted and steamy end, had a blast reading Mari Carr’s MAKING HIS PLAY and UP IN FLAMES, as well as Erin McCarthy’s DATING THE PLAYER.
Just started the anthology A MIDSUMMER’S NIGHT ROMANCE, and the first story is entertaining so far… looking forward to continuing!
I’m in a bit of a reading slump. I finished BLUNT FORCE by Lynda LaPlante, which is the most recent one of her Jane Tennison mystery prequel books. It was pretty good and I will pick up the next one when it’s published. I am muddling through THE FIRE IN THE GLASS by Jacquelyn Benson. I loved her debut novel but this one is a different style and I am struggling to finish it. I’m also partly reading TEN THINGS I HATE ABOUT THE DUKE by Loretta Chase and TRUST by Chris Hammer.
@flchen1: I’m over halfway through MAKE ME WILDER and am loving it. (It’s amazingly similar in tropes & setup to one of my all-time favorite books, Melanie Harlow’s AFTER WE FALL; although completely different, but equally good, in style and execution.) As I posted on Book Beat this morning, the only problem I have with the new book is that it’s not part of Bell’s Tierney Bay series, so I’ll continue to wait for SO GOOD, the next scheduled book in that series. Oh well, two simultaneous series from one of the best romance writers around? That’s not a bad problem to have!
@Kareni: I love the Elizabeth Cage series! I pulled a BDBC reading the first one cause stuff just keeps happening–ghosts and spies and time travel!
@Lainey, it may well have been a comment of yours that had me reading the first book, so thank you! I see that book three is coming in July (Kindle) or January (paper).