Mexican Gothic
Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is $2.99! This could be a leftover Prime Day or Kindle Daily Deal, so it could expire at any second. Have you read it? We also recommended it in our Horror Romance Rec League.
From the author of Gods of Jade and Shadow comes a reimagining of the classic gothic suspense novel, a story about an isolated mansion in 1950s Mexico — and the brave socialite drawn to its treacherous secrets.
He is trying to poison me. You must come for me, Noemí. You have to save me.
After receiving a frantic letter from her newly-wed cousin begging for someone to save her from a mysterious doom, Noemí Taboada heads to High Place, a distant house in the Mexican countryside. She’s not sure what she will find — her cousin’s husband, a handsome Englishman, is a stranger, and Noemí knows little about the region.
Noemí is also an unlikely rescuer: She’s a glamorous debutante, and her chic gowns and perfect red lipstick are more suited for cocktail parties than amateur sleuthing. But she’s also tough, smart, and has an indomitable will, and she is not afraid: Not of her cousin’s new husband, who is both menacing and alluring; not of his father, the ancient patriarch who seems to be fascinated by Noemí; and not even of the house itself, which begins to invade Noemi’s dreams with visions of blood and doom.
Her only ally in this inhospitable abode is the family’s youngest son. Shy and gentle, he seems to want to help Noemí, but might also be hiding dark knowledge of his family’s past. For there are many secrets behind the walls of High Place. The family’s once colossal wealth and faded mining empire kept them from prying eyes, but as Noemí digs deeper she unearths stories of violence and madness.
And Noemí, mesmerized by the terrifying yet seductive world of High Place, may soon find it impossible to ever leave this enigmatic house behind.
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Only When It’s Us by Chloe Liese is $1.99! This is book one in the Bergman Brothers series and later books have been mentioned on the site. (They’re also on sale!) This is a new adult romance romance with some enemies to lovers and a main character with a disability (I did some very brief searching on this.)
Prepare for an emotional rollercoaster brimming with laughter, tears, and slow-burn sexiness in this new adult romance that tackles the vulnerability of love with humor and heart.
Ryder
Ever since she sat next to me in class and gave me death eyes, Willa Sutter’s been on my shit list. Why she hates me, I don’t know. What I do know is that Willa is the kind of chaos I don’t need in my tidy life. She’s the next generation of women’s soccer. Wild hair, wilder eyes. Bee-stung lips that should be illegal. And a temper that makes the devil seem friendly.
She’s a thorn in my side, a menacing, cantankerous, pain-in-the-ass who’s turned our Business Mathematics course into a goddamn gladiator arena. I’ll leave this war zone unscathed, coming out on top…And if I have my way with that crazy-haired, ball-busting hellion, that will be in more than one sense of the word.
Willa
Rather than give me the lecture notes I missed like every other instructor I’ve had, my asshole professor tells me to get them from the silent, surly flannel-wearing mountain man sitting next to me in class. Well, I tried. And what did I get from Ryder Bergman? Ignored. What a complete lumbersexual neanderthal. Mangy beard and mangier hair. Frayed ball cap that hides his eyes. And a stubborn refusal to acknowledge my existence.
I’ve battled men before, but with Ryder, it’s war. I’ll get those notes and crack that Sasquatch nut if it’s the last thing I do, then I’ll have him at my mercy. Victory will have never tasted so sweet.
Only When It’s Us is a frenemies-to-lovers, college sports romance about a women’s soccer star and her surly lumberjack lookalike classmate, complete with a matchmaking professor, juvenile pranks, and a smoking slow burn. This standalone is the first in a series of new novels about a Swedish-American family of five brothers, two sisters, and their wild adventures as they each find happily ever after.
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Criminal Intentions: The Cardigans by Cole McCade is 99c at Amazon! This sounds like a queer romantic thriller. It’s also labeled as “season one,” which I’m also not quite sure what that means. Maybe “season one” follows the same characters and further seasons don’t?
ABOUT THIS EPISODE
When a string of young queer men turn up dead in grisly murders, all signs point to the ex-boyfriend—but what should be an open-and-shut case is fraught with tension when BPD homicide detective Malcolm Khalaji joins up with a partner he never wanted. Rigid, ice-cold, and a stickler for the rules, Seong-Jae Yoon is a watchful presence whose obstinacy and unpredictability constantly remind Malcolm why he prefers to work alone. Seong-Jae may be stunningly attractive, a man who moves like a graceful, lethal bird of prey…but he’s as impossible to decipher as this case.
And if Malcolm doesn’t find the key to unravel both in time, another vulnerable young victim may end up dead.
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We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!Blame It on the Billionaire
Blame It on the Billionaire by Naima Simone is $2.99! I believe this was a previous Hide Your Wallet selection and is the third book in the Blackout Billionaires series. This one has a plus-size heroine and a fake engagement!
Will a blackout change everything for these unlikely lovers?
She fell into his arms.
Now she’s falling for his trap.
It was a night filled with secrets, lies…and soul-stealing passion. And now the blackout that turned lowly executive assistant Nadia Jordan and start-up billionaire Grayson Chandler into insatiable lovers leads to a proposal Nadia can’t refuse. As she steps into Grayson’s privileged Chicago world, will his matchmaking mother and vengeful ex destroy her dreams? Or will her fake fiancé make those dreams a reality?
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Several Dorothy L. Sayers’s Lord Peter Wimsey mysteries (including at least two—STRONG POISON and HAVE HIS CARCASE—that feature Lord Peter’s romance with Harriett Vane) and Ngaio Marsh’s Roderick Alleyn mysteries are KDD today. Sorry I didn’t check for prices—had a busy morning.
I’m not sure how seasons in books work. I figure that the books are written in the style of a drama series? Maybe? it’s quite a common writing style on wattpad and other serialised sites.
Criminal Intentions is organized like a cop procedural tv series, each book (episode) is a complete story, along with long-running character/story arcs (same two detective MCs throughout). I love the series. The content can get real heavy – check the author’s content warnings on each episode, they’re very detailed.
I’m working my way through the Criminal Intentions series and am about halfway through Season Two. McCade is writing this series like episodic TV, so each “episode” has its own story line but each “season” has an over-arching storyline as well. And just like a multi-season TV series, there’s an overall storyarch that comes together over the course of the entire series’ run. So, needless to say this is a series that you have to start at Book 1, Season 1 and read in order. Most of the books are novella length, so each installment isn’t a huge time commitment.
McCade’s writing style can be a bit … effusive, which sometimes comes off as overwritten in his traditional romances. But in this series with a lot of side characters and a format that lends itself to shorter length books, it works in his favor. He’s unflinching in his descriptions of crime scenes and the emotional arc of characters, but he can’t spend paragraphs upon paragraphs exploring it like he has a tendency to do in his trad romances.
Like a TV series it is a bit over the top as well, but I think that’s the point. Think Seattle Grace/Gray’s Anatomy; the series is quite bingeable. I like it and recommend it if you like police procedurals. McCade does take care to write about the horrors of policing in the US with characters who are marginalized within and outside of the department, yet still 100% believe in the work they do. He also is an author who gives trigger warnings for *anything* that may be harmful before each story begins, though some people think his use of TWs are excessive and are spoilery, but you don’t have to read them if you don’t want to.
For anyone wondering about the seasons in Criminal Intentions- it’s supposed to be written like a police procedural TV show, like Criminal Minds or similar. The whole series follows the same couple, and there is development in their romance and then relationship throughout, but each book/“episode” is one complete mystery!
I absolutely love ONLY WHEN IT’S US. The H is a wonderful professional-hockey-playing Shakespeare nerd of a cinnamon roll. (You get to see other pro hockey players acting out a scene from Midsummer Night’s Dream, and it is delightful.) The h has autism and rheumatoid arthritis. The author is autistic, as well—she doesn’t have RA, but I have MS, and the chronic-illness rep is on point.
This book was so helpful to me in better understanding what it’s like to be autistic. One of my friends with autism read it and loved it, as well, and said it gave them so many feels (in a good way) that they had to take some time to just sit with their feelings and process them.
Highly, highly recommend.
@M: I’m intrigued by your thoughts on McCade’s books, which I’ve never read. Looking at the sample on Amazon, I’d have to say he uses all the TWs, and personally I appreciate that. I’m not interested in the killer’s POV and usually skip those parts; I mean, if the police don’t witness the crime, why should I?
So thanks for commenting on this series. I’ll give the first one a try.
I did enjoy MEXICAN GOTHIC, but could NOT understand why the ancient English colonial family who even shipped English soil in was called DOYLE. It’s SUCH an Irish name. I suspect that the Irish Catholic Doyles back in my family tree would have been outraged at being associated with English colonialism, and as for the English side – well, they’d probably have renamed a servant called Doyle to ‘Smith’ on the grounds that Doyle sounded far too Irish.
Some of the characters were sketched out a little thinly, but I loved the atmosphere enough to give it a thumbs-up. Definitely not a romance, though.
@Darlynne I have about seven autobuy authors and McCade is one, which says a lot b/c my most of them are SFF writers. His authorial voice is so distinct and, frankly, refreshing for me in romance — though I will always caveat that his writing style may not be for everyone. You can tell that he has a particular interest in psychology that he explores in nearly all of his books and the Criminal Intentions series really gives him a new playground to do so.
The prologue to most of the CI books are from the victim’s point of view and sometimes I’ve had to skim that chapter b/c I’m not into knowing the last few minutes of a victim’s life. Occassionally there are POV chapters from a bad-guy, but that has more to do with the overrarching series storyline than the criminal responsible for a crime in a particular episode. (I hope that makes sense.)
@Liz, I think that’s Always Only You, the second book by this author.
My problem with Only When It’s Us was that at several points if people had just talked to each other the conflict would have been nonexistent or greatly reduced, starting with the professor and moving on from there. Why hide useful and sometimes important information except that there wouldn’t have been a book then. However, I haven’t seen any other reviews that address this so it may only be me! I also enjoyed the book enough to read the second one.
@Vivi12 oh shoot, you’re right! ♀️ I got so excited, lol. I did enjoy ONLY WHEN IT’S US, but I agree with you. The professor is not a super sympathetic character; I was surprised he was an MC in book 3. I’m really looking forward to WITH YOU FOREVER, though
Really wish we could edit comments on here—turns out ALWAYS ONLY YOU and EVER AFTER ALWAYS (Bergman Brothers 2 and 3) are also $1.99 each, after all *fist pumps* https://smile.amazon.com/Always-Only-Bergman-Brothers-Book-ebook/dp/B08BZNQN7X/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=always+only+you+chloe+liese&qid=1624834745&sprefix=always+only+&sr=8-1
I liked Mexican Gothic. Definitely worth picking up!
Mexican Gothic and Only When it’s Us are both great, but that’s just my O.
MEXICAN GOTHIC just won the 2021 Locus Award for Horror!