We’re approaching the end of August and that means it’s time for our second monthly Whatcha Reading post!
We want to hear all about what you’ve been reading, though here are some of our books from the month!
Shana: I’m halfway into the audiobook of Record of a Spaceborn Few by Becky Chambers. ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) It’s a little slow plot-wise, but really hitting my sweet spot with its caring space collective. I also just started One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston.
Elyse: I just finished a A Lot Like Adios which is a second chance, friends to lovers romance. I really liked it. Now I’m reading The Family Plot by Megan Collins. ( A | BN | K ) It’s a strange thriller about a family obsessed with true crime that live in old mansion on an island.
Claudia: Busy time with back-to-school stuff and other obligations plus I’m still on a bit of a reading slump. But I’m finishing The Queer Principles of Kit Webb by Cat Sebastian and it is highly enjoyable.
Catherine: I just inhaled The Scoundrel’s Daughter by Anne Gracie, ( A | BN | K ) and I loved it. Such a gentle tender romance. And the secondary romance was hilarious and adorable.
Also, not a book, but I broke my glasses on the weekend so I spent two days mostly listening to podcasts, and Natalie Haynes Stands Up For The Classics is my new favourite thing. Haynes is a classicist and a standup comedian and each episode is standup comedy about a different Greek or Roman philosopher or poet or empress etc. It’s hilarious and smutty and educational! I am completely delighted by this podcast.
So, whatcha reading? Tell us in the comments below!
@DDD sending you good thoughts! Please keep us updated!
As to books. My TBR is BANANAS right now. All my library holds seemed to come in at once, as they do, and I’ve got a bunch on both Kindle and physically on my nightstand that are calling my name. It’s a good problem to have except it comes along with the secondary problem that I don’t have any desire to do my actual job and just want to stay in bed reading all day long. Consequently, I am about halfway through 2 different books, SIX OF CROWS by Leigh Bardugo which I’ve been meaning to read for like a month, and MAGIC BITES by Ilona Andrews. Their Hidden Legacy series is one of my all-time favorites and I enjoyed the Innkeeper series as well, but this is my first foray into Kate Daniels. I’ve heard people mention that the first KD book is the weakest in the series so I’m trying to keep that in mind.
Since the last WR I also read ROAD TRIP by Beth O’Leary. This was interesting. It feels much heavier than her two previous books, although there are certainly funny moments. Almost all of the characters have some relatively serious mental health issues and though at least one of them references therapy in passing, I found myself thinking that they should all do a separate and intense course of therapy before they were allowed to hang out with each other again. Also, the characterization of the two protagonists is mostly based on snippets of how each one is viewed by the other, which left me feeling like I didn’t fully “get” either one of them or why the other one liked them so much, if that makes any sense. This is a bit of a spoiler but there is a surprise at the end of the book that should probably be accompanied by a trigger warning. So in summary it was kind of a lot, for a book that I had expected to be light and fun. O’Leary is a great writer and overall I enjoyed the read but just saying, if you’re looking at this one thinking it’ll be like The Switch, then maybe think again.
Next up on my Kindle are NEON GODS by Katee Robert (her Wicked Villains series was too much for me but I can’t resist a Hades/Persephone story so I’m going in) and BOMBSHELL by Sarah MacLean, about which I am unreasonably excited and which will hopefully provide some poolside reading enjoyment this Labor Day weekend.
Stay safe, all those in the path of Ida!!
I’ve been rereading Jordan Castillo Price’s Psy-Cop series in preparation for reading the two most recent volumes. I forgot how much I enjoy these books and the development of Vic and Jacob’s relationship. At the beginning Vic is such a mess (or at least he thinks he is — the books are from his POV) and Jacob is seemingly so together, and it’s really interesting to see how the author bring nuance to their characters as the series progresses. But throughout the books they remain firmly in love and supportive of each other, and they’re just what I’ve needed lately.
@KB I agree about The Road Trip. It was an enjoyable enough read, but at the end I was just wondering “why did they like each other?” and “why did their relationship finish in that way?”. And YES to everyone needing lots of therapy. (I can’t remember if it mentioned everyone having had therapy or just the two characters, but I feel like everyone but one character desperately needed a lot of it.)
Oddly, after reading The Road Trip I went back to The Flatshare because I remembered loving it. I’d forgotten how much relationship angst was in that one (with J), but even so, I liked it so much more than Road Trip. I think because everyone (besides J) seems genuinely delightful in The Flatshare, whereas I actively disliked most of the characters in Road Trip. I remembered Flatshare as being a lot lighter than it was, probably because of the warm fuzzies from rooting for all the characters.
Finally ventured into the library and returned with Ruth Ware’s One by One which is not a romance and is good. Corporate retreat and two employees trapped by an avalanche and people start dying. One by one. I enjoyed it.
Get a Life Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert was as good as everyone says.
The Good Lie by A.R. Torres is a mystery, though there is a relationship in there, too, not sure I’d call it a romance. A psychiatrist who specializes in the potentially really violent has a patient die in a murder-suicide and ends up in a bar, takes a man, a lawyer, home who has recently lost a son to a serial killer. The lawyer is now defending the man who is accused of being the killer. They work together. It’s interesting and not too bad on the psych part (I had a friend who was psych at one of the facilities for the criminally insane so I “have standards.”) Would recommend with a few trigger warnings re: abuse and murder of teens.
Otherwise, did comfort re-reads. Things are looking up personally and sometimes, as the darkness lifts, we need the comfort more.
Hi Everyone! Doing a quick check-in because battery power is limited (I do have portable chargers, but trying to conserve usage). Everyone in the family is fine: we made it through Hurricane Ida with no structural damage to the house (I know so many people in Louisiana were not so fortunate). Our area (not far from the Louisiana-Mississippi state line) had less damage than a lot of places to the south and west of us. No power right now, but we’ve seen lots of service trucks in the area, so fingers crossed. Also cell phone/internet service was spotty for a while—seems better now, but…conserving. We’re doing fine—just miserably hot! Thank you for all your good thoughts and prayers.