Whatcha Reading? October 2021, Part One

The woman in yellow coat jeans and boots sitting under the maple tree with a red book and cup of coffee or tea in fall city park on a warm day. Autumn golden leaves. Reading concept. Close up.It’s October! My favorite month! I love the cooler temperatures in New England, the changing leaves, and breaking out my fall wardrobe, which I look much cuter in than my summer attire. It’s hard to make boob sweat fashionable.

We hope your reading selections have been bountiful and squee-worthy! If not, you’re always welcome to kvetch in the comments.

Shana: I’m reading Office Hours by Katrina Jackson ( A | BN | K | AB ) and it is fulfilling all my Hot Professor needs. I highly recommend it if you need some counter-programming to The Chair. You still get academic antics, but with a love interest who’s actually worth swooning over.

Neon Gods
A | BN | K
Amanda: I brought Neon Gods for my flight. Will I actually read instead of sleep? Who’s to say!

Catherine: I am reading all the Sarina Bowen hockey romances because I am recovering from a broken ankle, and the first novel in her Ivy Years series has a hero on crutches and a heroine in a wheelchair and it is comforting to read stories in which people are dropping their crutches or trying to manage the logistics of carrying things without falling over. And it turns out I can’t read one hockey romance without immediately reading eight more. (NB: I have never in my life seen a game of ice hockey. Not sure whether doing so would enhance my appreciation or diminish it…)

Elyse: I’m reading Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao and it’s the bloodthirsty feminist rage book I needed

Sneezy: Making my way through the audiobook of Conflict is Not Abuse by Sarah Schulman. ( A | BN | K )

Iron Widow
A | BN | K
I’ve tried to listen/read it several times now, and it’s hard for me because ADHD and the book opens with real life racial violence as an example to ground the ideas Schulman is introducing and synthesizing. I’ve heard other people learning a lot from it, so I’m trying to trundle my way through.

Claudia: I just finished The Runaway Duchess by Joanna Lowell, ( A | BN | K ) which is scheduled to come out early next year. I enjoyed this one quite a bit — unlikeable heroine who remains unlikeable, which was refreshing to me.

Sarah: I’m reading the Wrexford and Sloane series by Andrea Penrose, ( A | BN | K | AB ) which are historical mystery. I am enjoying them a lot, though I should not mainline a series because my brain loves patterns and starts to pick out quirks and repeated elements in the writing. I like the character evolution immensely, though.

EllenM: I’m reading The Devil You Know, ( A | BN | K ) the second mercenary librarians book, and I think I like it even more than the first one so far! A good mix of action and angst and suspense and LONGING.

I also just finished Blood and Ember by Isabel Cooper, ( A | BN | K ) the third book in the Stormbringer series. I thought it was a strong series ender and I liked seeing more of the fantasy world Cooper created, although I did think it had the weakest romance of the trilogy.

Squad
A | BN | K
Shana: Ooh, is that Maya and Gray’s book? I’m reading the first Mercenary Librarians book now, and I keep wishing I was reading Maya’s story instead.

EllenM: Yes it is! and haha yeah I loved the premise and action of the first one but I found myself more invested in both Maya and Dani than Nina (sorry Nina!!!).

Shana: Saaaame! Dani and Maya 4 ever

Carrie: Same!

Tara: I’m reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower ( A | K | G | AB | Au ) and it’s very cute.

Tara: I also started reading Squad by Maggie Toluda-Hall and Lisa Sterle tonight and I gobbled the whole thing in one sitting. Dang, that was fantastic.

Carrie: I’m reading Cackle by Rachel Harrison ( A | BN | K )and it’s really ruining my productivity I can tell you.

So, whatcha reading? Tell us below!

Comments are Closed

  1. Jane says:

    It’s a little too early but I’ve started some Christmas reading – I’m rereading “That Holiday Feeling” which has three stories by Debbie Macomber, Sheryl Woods, and Robyn Carr. I’m also reading “Open Earth” which is a very interesting poly graphic novel.

  2. DiscoDollyDeb says:

    Part I

    Although it’s billed as a dark m/m stepbrother romance, Ella James’s WRATH is actually a beautifully-written but utterly-heartbreaking story about how institutionalized homophobia and “conversion therapy” destroy the mental, physical, emotional, and sexual health of young gay people. As difficult as it is to read in places, WRATH is ultimately a triumphant story of finding love and overcoming trauma, and it is one of my favorite books of 2021. Josh is a gay high school senior; he knows his mother and his step-father are supportive, but the rest of his small Alabama town might not be, so he’s decided he’ll wait until he’s in college to come out. Just before the school year starts, Ezra—Josh’s stepfather’s son—comes to live with the family and attend the same school as Josh for his senior year. Almost immediately there’s a sexual tension between the two stepbrothers, including escalating sexual activity; but Ezra also taunts and goads Josh with homophobic comments and slurs, even when Josh is comforting Ezra after his regular nightmares. At first, Ezra is not very likable—but as the story progresses, we learn what has happened to him: Ezra’s mother, without his father’s knowledge, enrolled Ezra in an academy that specialized in “gay-conversion therapy.” Needless to say, the book comes with many trigger warnings (suicide ideation and attempts, mental health struggles, homophobia, the unrelenting cruelty of conversion therapy, alcohol and prescription drug abuse), and, as sweet and passionate as Josh & Ezra’s relationship becomes, the pain and trauma Ezra suffered as a result of a benighted and completely debunked idea that being gay can be “cured” (or should need to be) will make WRATH a hard no for some readers. However, I found WRATH to be ultimately uplifting: the story of a young man who, with a loving and supportive partner, finds the courage to heal from damage and trauma in a healthy way. Highly recommended.

    WILD AT HEART is the third book in Zoe York’s Kincaids of Pine Harbour series about five brothers who live and work in the small Canadian town on Lake Huron that York created in her earlier Pine Harbour series (some characters from those books do make appearances in the new series). WILD AT HEART is an antagonists-to-lovers romance featuring Will Kincaid, the principal of the local K-12 school, and Catie Berton, who wears many hats—including hairdresser and realtor, along with being a volunteer for the local Search & Rescue (where Will also volunteers). Catie had an unrequited crush on Will in her teens, and he’s always been a bit gruff with her; but now, almost two decades later, as they work together, training for a Search & Rescue competition, the couple begin to grow closer. There were things I enjoyed about WILD AT HEART, especially information regarding the movement in Canada to acknowledge and honor the indigenous people who originally lived on the land, along with the emphasis on how small communities have to pull together, often relying on volunteer efforts, to thrive; but, as much as I love Zoe York’s writing, the story felt cluttered with too many characters and too many subplots (including an utterly eye-glazing one about municipal parking that threaded throughout the story). In addition, Catie & Will (30 and 38, respectively) were just too old to participate in an antagonistic dynamic that basically boiled down to “I don’t want to admit I like you unless you admit you like me first,” and the book was well past the 60% point before their relationship took off in any significant way. If you’ve read the first two books in the Kincaids series, WILD AT HEART is certainly worth reading, particularly for catching up with the rest of the Kincaid family, but the book just has so much ancillary activity going on that it pulls away from the central romance. Unfortunately, I can only offer a rather muted recommendation for WILD AT HEART.

    Selena Bell’s novella, WILDER FOR THE WIN, is related to her Wilder Adventure series and can be found in the just-released TINSEL AND TATAS Anthology of holiday romances (all proceeds from the sale of the anthology benefit the Young Survival Coalition, an organization focusing on breast cancer survivors who were 40 or younger when their cancer was diagnosed). If you’ve read the first two books in the Wilder series (MAKE ME WILDER and WALK ON THE WILDER SIDE), you know the Wilder brothers have a married sister, Amanda; and, if you’ve read between the lines, you know that Amanda and her husband Heath have encountered a bit of a rough patch in their marriage. Like many married couples with young children, Amanda and Heath are so busy being parents to their three kids that they’re having trouble finding the time to be together as a couple—and Amanda is determined to change that as a big Christmas gala approaches. While Amanda makes her plans, Heath discovers Amanda’s new vibrator in a drawer and he starts making plans too. A nice addition to the “keeping the magic alive” sub-genre of romance from an always reliably-good writer. Recommended—and the anthology is for a worthy cause too.

    The Dare to Try trilogy (DARE YOU, DARE ME, TRUTH OR DARE) by new-to-me authors Ella Frank & Brooke Blaine (who, together and separately, have large back lists, many of which are m/m) was a rather fluffy romance about a firefighter who starts to question his sexuality after he rescues a cross-dressing tech titan from a burning building and begins to develop a friendship, then romance, with him. The trilogy does confront some serious issues, such as homophobia in the fire station, the difficulty of sustaining long-distance relationships, and the significant income disparity between the MCs, but on the whole it reminded me of some recent books (such as Norah Belle’s THE BEAUTY AND THE BRO or Leslie McAdams’s UNDONE) where the previously-straight MC is, in part, attracted to the femininity of the other MC. The Dare to Try trilogy isn’t particularly profound or memorable, but if you’re looking for a quick read between heavier books, it would be a good choice.

  3. DiscoDollyDeb says:

    Part II

    Rant ahead: Clare Connelly’s latest HP, CROWNED FOR HIS DESERT TWINS, is one of a long line of unplanned pregnancy/sheikh romances that are very much Harlequin Presents’ (and Connelly’s) stock-in-trade. Generally, I read books like this without being particularly cognizant of political stances, but when the sheikh hero (father of the title twins) explains that his distrustful nature is the result of a lying, cheating, greedy ex, I sighed heavily because I’m no fan of the “evil ex” character; but when the sheikh went on to explain that his ex had had an abortion and that he had always felt guilty that he couldn’t “protect” the child, I wanted to throw my kindle across the room. Why, in a time when women’s reproductive freedoms are being restricted in ways we haven’t seen in 50 years, would a writer choose to include “she had an abortion” as a means of communicating just how evil an ex-fiancée was? Please, please, please writers, if you have to use the tired old “evil ex” character, so be it, but please do not present having had an abortion as part of what makes that character a horrible person. I cannot recommend CROWNED FOR HIS DESERT TWINS and I’m really disappointed in Connelly for her decision use abortion as a means to vilify a character. /Dismounting soap box now.

    JOYLESS by Nyla K is the second book in her Alabaster Penitentiary series (the first book, the very good & twisty, but very dark & disturbing, DISTORTED, is one of my favorite books of 2021). JOYLESS is an MMF-menage that focuses on three prison guards who were secondary characters in DISTORTED. However, because the time-line of JOYLESS runs in part concurrently with that of DISTORTED and especially because new aspects of what happen in DISTORTED are revealed in JOYLESS, I would certainly recommend reading DISTORTED first. CW/TW: I have to caution that JOYLESS is dark—not quite as dark as DISTORTED, but that’s just a matter of degree—featuring lots of rough, transgressive sex (some of it non-con/dub-con, involving prison guards and inmates), drug use, brutality, and the cover-up of murders. The book is written in Nyla K’s lush, hallucinatory style where you’re not always sure what is actually going on. As with DISTORTED, I’d classify JOYLESS as romance-adjacent as opposed to an actual romance, there are so many other elements at play—especially horror and psychological suspense. Not for the faint of heart, but rewarding if you don’t mind ultra-dark.

    I read a lot of dark romance and one of the recurring motifs is “abduction/captivity/Stockholm Syndrome”; although the syndrome is rarely named, it’s often the case in dark romance that heroines fall for their captors (or their arranged-marriage husbands in dark-mafia/crime romance), who tend to be, if not good guys, at least better guys than the bad-bad-guy villains. What was interesting about Natasha Knight’s latest dark romance, STOLEN, is that the heroine is truly suffering from Stockholm Syndrome and, when the hero rescues her after years of being held captive by a despicable crime boss, the heroine tries to escape and return to the man who held her and the only life she knows. STOLEN features a hero & heroine who were secondary characters in Knight’s earlier WITH THIS RING/I THEE TAKE duet and should be read after reading the first two books. Knight writes to a dark-romance template and you know if you like that sort of thing. Make your decision to read accordingly.

    Cara Dee is hit-or-miss for me. I loved IF WE COULD GO BACK from a couple of years ago and I’ve enjoyed several of her other books. By the same token, I’ve had to DNF some of her work—especially the books that involve people who are heavily invested in the bdsm lifestyle (meaning they live in a bdsm dynamic in non-sexual ways). I did manage to finish her m/m/m BREATHLESS but it was more than a bit over-the-top: not only did this bdsm/menage story feature massive amounts of pain infliction, but two of the three heroes are twins and there is “twincest” (which is a word I never thought I’d have reason to use) in their relationship. Not for all tastes, to say the least.

  4. Plumyum says:

    SEDUCING THE SORCERER by Lee Welch –
    A m/m fantasy romance featuring an unemployed horse groom and a sorcerer. I feel like the title doesn’t do this one service because, though it is light and silly at points, it also gets very intense and emotional at others. Over all I found this lovely and complex and fun and hot. It also had one of the most beautiful and satisfying final scenes I’ve read this year. (CW for death of a beloved horse)

    RULE BREAKER by Lily Morton –
    A fun, snarky m/m romance between a British lawyer and his personal assistant. I know workplace ❤️ isn’t everyone’s jam, but this one didn’t make me feel icky as far as the power dynamics were concerned and I laughed out loud a few times.
    I love Lily Morton and tend to re-read her novels when I’m feeling down or just want to hear all about fancy European vacations I can’t currently go on.

  5. Jill Q. says:

    Okay, I’m still not reading a lot, but what I’m reading, I’m really enjoying. Still going strong with Miles Morales 😉 but I’ve also read MY BROKEN LANGUAGE: A MEMOIR by Quiara Alegría Hudes. I had never heard of her, but she is a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and one of the co-writers of IN THE HEIGHTS. (READ HARDER CHALLENGE: read a memoir by a Latinx author) This memoir was about growing up in Philadelphia as a part of her mother’s loving and large Puerto Rican family while having a strained relationship with her Anglo dad and stepfamily. This was one of those books that is more poetic and emotionally dense which sometimes I can’t read quickly, but this went fast. It is written more like thematic essays rather than in a straight chronological order. But I found it interesting seeing the development of her as a writer and an artist and the loving way she speaks of the many (very different!) women in her family.
    The other book I really loved was THE GOLDEN THREAD: THE COLD WAR AND THE MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF DAG HAMMARSKJÖLD by Ravi (Read a work of investigative nonfiction by an author of color). In reading this, I realized Dag Hammarsjöld was one of those names I had absorbed as somebody vaguely important in the 60s without really understanding who he was or what he did, so I really appreciated a lot of set up explaining his life, interwoven with an explanation of the political situation in the recently decolonized Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of Congo). This was a book I found very confusing, with so many names and political factions and then once the investigation into the death began, many chases down blind alleys for information. *But* once I realized this was not a pick up put down kind of book, I devoured the last 150 pages in one sitting like a thriller and came away awed and slightly paranoid? (reading about the Cold War will do that to you.). It isn’t tied up in a totally neat conclusion because the author was doing his due diligence in not making intuitive leaps over the uncovered information, but I felt like I did come away with at least some questions answered.
    Plugging away slowly with IL NOME DELLA ROSA (IN THE NAME OF THE ROSE) by Umberto Eco. Lots of monks having philosophical arguments which leave me cold (get back to the murders, please!) but indisputably very good for practicing my Italian. I’m trying to do at least 20 to 30 minutes of reading a day, we’ll see how long it takes to get through an over 500 page book.

  6. LisaM says:

    I got through the week partly by reminding myself that T. Kingfisher’s new book arrives today, and I bought the ebook of Paladin’s Hope first thing this morning (I’d also ordered a hard copy, but I don’t know when it will arrive given the issues with book printing and shipping, especially for small presses,and I didn’t want to wait for the paladins and the gnoles).

    I’m currently reading Seanan McGuire’s latest Toby Daye book, When Sorrows Come, and enjoying it very much. It may send me into a dive rereading some of the earlier books.

    As always, I’m looking forward to seeing what other people are reading, since that always adds to my TBR list.

  7. Deborah says:

    First a couple of audiobook “rereads”:

    BATTLE ROYAL by Lucy Parker, narrated by Billie Fulford-Brown – I think BFB’s voice is the perfect match for Parker’s quick-witted banter, aloof heroes, and empathetic heroines. [A]

    THE LOVE HYPOTHESIS by Ali Hazelwood, narrated by Calie Dalton – I’m mostly familiar with Dalton as the narrator for Mariana Zapata’s romances (a great pairing), and I thought her voice worked really well for Olive (young, a bit snarky and self-deprecating, vulnerable and ambitious). But her performance for the hero isn’t at all how I thought Adam would sound, and I DNF’d the audiobook as a result. I would have handed this book off to Amy McFadden. [A- for the book/C+ for the narration]

    Then the romances:

    THE EX HEX by Erin Sterling – fun read for the witchy season, though I thought the romance was drowned out by the more interesting side characters (including the talking cat) and the business of reclaiming history/magic/family/female pride from a corrupt patriarchy. [B]

    PAYBACK’S A WITCH by Lana Harper – I have some sort of curse where I read books in exactly the wrong order. This story has so much in common with The Ex Hex that I just couldn’t focus on its own merits. Probably the superior romance, but I was too distracted to appreciate it. [??]

    UNPERFECT by Susie Tate – TW/CW for graphically described domestic abuse. A physician herself, Tate usually writes romances in the medical profession featuring strong-but-(very) vulnerable heroines and alpha-light heroes who inevitably pull a jerk move that triggers relationship angst. Take out the medical setting (mostly) and the angst-generating jerk move, because there’s really no space for a jerk hero in a book so strongly focused on a heroine’s recovery from brutal domestic abuse. [B-]

    ICE PLANET BARBARIANS and BARBARIAN ALIEN by Ruby Dixon – I devoured Dixon’s Fireblood Dragon series last WAYR, but was stopped cold by the Ice Planet Barbarians series (see what I did there? Yeah, I hate me too). If IPB had been the first RD book I read, the traumatic rape scene at the start would have made it my last. I was not in the mood for the doting alpha male shenanigans that followed. [C]

    The past two weeks also included a lot of romance-adjacent reading:

    ROCK PAPER SCISSORS by Alice Feeney – “Things have been wrong with Mr and Mrs Wright for a long time.” Nicely layered thriller for fans of unreliable narration. [A-]

    MURDER IN MATERIAL GAIN by Anne Cleeland – I spent the first four weeks of September searching Amazon multiple times daily in anticipation of this book’s release, and it didn’t disappoint. Cleeland is still following through on plotlines started 3+ books earlier in the series, so it rewards the faithful reader. But one of the premises of the series is that Acton literally gets away with murder not just because he’s brilliant but because he’s an aristocrat and a police detective, so no one would suspect…yadda. In the early days of the series, I happily bought into that premise, but now he has dead bodies stacked around him like cordwood and half of Scotland Yard has been brought down by corruption investigations. He needs a better shield than “no one would imagine Chief Inspector/Lord Acton would do such a thing.” Or he needs to buff the one he has. [B]

    THE SHAME GAME by Hannah Murray – Is kinky slice of life a thing? I wouldn’t know how else to categorize this novella about a long-married kinkster couple exploring humiliation kink for the first time. It’s not romance because there’s nothing at stake relationship-wise (they’re committed and the new kink doesn’t expose any fissures in their mutual adoration). Nor did I find it particularly erotic (partly because only one of the four scenes worked for me, but mostly because every scene was followed by a debrief). [B-]

    THIS SIDE OF MURDER by Anna Lee Huber – A war widow attends a house party hosted by one of her late husband’s comrades-in-arms and gets pulled into an investigation of WWI treason. Too much time spent inside the first person narrator’s head explaining and contextualizing. Sadly, I was never able to warm up to her. Worse, I cringed at her ineffectualness during the climactic confrontation with the villains. [C+]

    HIS OTHER WOMAN by Luise Voss – A 50-something man in the throes of a midlife crisis takes time away from his beloved wife and adult children to go on a hiking holiday, is mugged into total amnesia, and ends up in a relationship with a younger woman. This book achieves existential levels of pointlessness. There is no character growth and only the title character experiences any lasting change from the events (which is a bit ironic, since I thought the husband and his wife were the protagonists). [D]

    @DDD – although this doesn’t in any way negate the criticism of Connelly’s use of abortion as shorthand for “evil ex/horrible woman/victimized male,” I want to note that she’s also one of very few romance authors who have written a heroine with an elective abortion in her backstory:

    Show Spoiler
    The Billionaire’s Christmas Revenge

     

  8. FashionablyEvil says:

    Enjoyed my recent reading, with a couple that were a bit more about loneliness and longing than I expected.

    A PSALM FOR THE WILD-BUILT by Becky Chambers. This isn’t my usual jam (sci fi) but it’s brief and lovely story about kindness, purpose, and the meaning of life.

    AMBUSH OR ADORE by Gail Carriger. This is part of a series of novellas that she’s been doing following up on characters from her Finishing School series. It was unexpectedly beautiful and sad and lovely. It will work best if you’ve read Carriger’s other books, but there’s enough context that you could probably read it on its own.

    MISS WONDERFUL by Loretta Chase. I quite liked the hero and heroine, but the villain is very one-note (and is basically introduced as “here’s some heretofore unmentioned character who hates the heroine and wants revenge!”) The resolution between the hero and his best friend is also entirely unsatisfactory—I would consider what happens between them to be a pretty major betrayal and it just gets brushed off. And I hated the very end of the book (the details of which are irrelevant to the plot or resolution) which I felt was not in keeping with the characters.

    MURDER IN BLACK SWAN LANE by Andrea Penrose—picked this up based on a recent books on sale post and enjoyed it. It’s well-trod ground (secret societies, alchemy, inventions that could revolutionize industry/war/politics), but fun to read. Just picked up the next two in the series from the library.

    A LADY’S GUIDE TO MISCHIEF AND MAYHEM by Manda Collins. The pieces are all fine, but it doesn’t quite all come together for me, at least in part because the heroine is almost totally opaque. (Also, the cover totally bugs me because she has black hair and he has light brown hair and they’ve reversed it on the cover. Vexing.)

    Up next: the next in the Wrexford and Sloane series, MURDER AT HALF MOON GATE and I am SUPER excited about the next T. Kingfisher book, PALADIN’S HOPE which appears to have just been delivered to my Kindle last night. (Woohoo!)

  9. MirandaB says:

    Mostly, I’m re-reading Written in my own Heart’s Blood by Diana Gabaldon to remember what was going on with all 500 characters (slight exaggeration) before the new book comes out next month.

    I also read Blood Heir by Ilona Andrews, and the mixture of violence and banter was just what I needed while I deal with a relative who’s recovering from a serious injury. I hate red light runners. Hate. Them.

    The Something Girl by Jodi Taylor which was good but made me ugly cry.

  10. As some other folks have said, I’m also reading to start reading holiday romances, including WALKING IN A WITCHY WONDERLAND by Juliette Cross and the MISTLETOE CHRISTMAS anthology by Eloisa James, Christi Caldwell, Janna MacGregor, and Erica Ridley.

    I also have some cozy mysteries waiting on my TBR pile, including TO FETCH A FELON by Jennifer Hawkins and DEATH OF A RED-HOT RANCHER by Mimi Granger, which takes place in a romance bookstore.

    I just finished bingeing out TED LASSO, which was fantastic. Up next, I’m going to watch the rest of the first season of LEVERAGE:REDEMPTION.

    Happy reading, everyone! 🙂

  11. Sophydc says:

    @LisaM, thanks for the reminder! I pre-ordered Paladin’s Hope a few weeks ago and lost track of the date today. Getting ready to cut firewood with my husband and now all I want I do is read!!!!

  12. KatiM says:

    Welp I picked up the first Natasha Knight book that DDD recommended above. Dark romance is such a hit or miss for me. We’ll see if this is a hit.

    I had such plans for spooky book October, but the weather does not feel like fall and alas the books I set out aren’t grabbing me. It’s been a mix.

    Currently reading Anna Dressed in Blood by Kendare Blake. This is a reread for me and I had suggested it for my book club. The story of a ghost hunter and the ghost that he wants to both kill and save. This was Blake’s debut and I think it is still her best book.

    I finally finished All the Shah’s Men by Stephen Kinzer yesterday. I had started out with the physical copy but work picked up so I switched to audio. This book is about the CIA’s involvement in toppling Iran’s democratic government and paving the way to the Iran we know now. The emphasis on Britain’s colonialism, the fear of communism, the casual racism, all just made me sick. Fuck the 50s.

    Also finished Phantom Heart by Kelly Creagh. This was an unusual retelling of Phantom of the Opera and I adored it. The vibe was suitably creepy, the romance worked for me, the characters were good. The only complaint was that it bogged down a bit in the middle.

    The Stormbringer by Isabel Cooper didn’t work for me. I thought the romance was superficial and took second place to the fantasy aspects of the story. I think this might have come off better as a romantic fantasy rather than a fantasy romance.

    A Dance With the Fae Prince by Elise Kova was next and Kova continues to hit all the right notes. This was a good Cinderella re-telling and I loved every minute.

    Also reading A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee. This started out really promising but I’m about halfway through and it feels like there is too much going on. I love the dark academia vibe, but I’m not connecting with the characters as well as I did at the beginning of the book.

    Picked up Tessa Bailey’s Reborn Yesterday because it was on hoopla. I don’t know why I could never remember that there were vampires in that book, but the cover always screamed time travel to me. The heroine was kooky in all the best ways (I suddenly wanted to wear dresses too), the instalove totally worked, the side characters were charming, the end wrapped up neatly. This was a good light read.

    Which I needed after finally finishing the excruciating 26 hour audio for Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White. Dear God. Next time choose a shorter book for the library challenge to read a classic you’ve never read.

  13. footiepjs says:

    It has taken me a while, but I bought Kulti from the sales post all the way back in September. At first I was snuggling into the slow burn but now I’m a little impatient with Sal for being oblivious to all the Kulti-yearning. Other commenters have pointed out other flaws in prior posts and I agree. I’m quite close to wrapping up this long one which is good because I now have three new books downloaded and ready to go. I don’t see myself returning to the Zapata well anytime soon.

    Before that, I read Sierra Simone’s Saint and I never really got into it. I took a long break for Treefort (a music festival) but even before that I was reading it in drips and drabs.

    Between Saint and Kulti came Witch Please. It was light and fluffy almost to a fault and the reason behind Titus’s relationship woes made me roll my eyes a bit. I thought this would be a bigger hit with me, but I will say that it made enough of a good impression that I do plan on reading the sequel.

  14. Heather M says:

    Lyndsay Faye – The Gods of Gotham

    I enjoy what I’ve read of Faye’s before, so I decided to go back to her earlier series about a reluctant New York cop in the 1840s. This one was compelling, but geez was it grim, and graphic. I read it quickly and was quite engaged, but I don’t think I can continue with the series. I enjoyed seeing a crime story in a time that seems rarely portrayed–I much more would have expected this to take place in the 1880s or 90s–and it was interesting unravelling the mystery. But Timothy as a character did not do it for me, especially his constant obsessive mooning over a woman who, surprise, turned out to be a real person with flaws instead of a paragon of angelic virtue (I understand that his worship to disillusionment arc was the point. I still didn’t like it. And, as I said, very, very graphic, so not my favorite.

    Cat Sebastian – Peter Cabot Gets Lost

    This was a cute story of a young man running away from his famous political family (very much the Kennedys) by offering to drive a fellow student cross-country to LA. And along the way, they fall in love. It was very soft, and fanfic-y, and all of the conflicts were worked through by talking like adults, so I enjoyed it a lot. Also read the novella about Peter’s uncle, that was a little forgettable but also cute.

    Aimee Lutkin- The Lonely Hunter: Why The Search For Love is Broken (ARC)

    I had a chance to read this through Netgalley and am still figuring out how I feel about it. Lutkin wrote a viral essay a few years back about being single in her 30s, and wondering when it was socially acceptable to say that she would be alone forever. This book is the aftermath of that. She talks about the rise of loneliness, and how institutional breakdown has facilitated that. But mostly it’s a memoir of her “fitness journey” (gag) and Tinder exploits. Which…ok. I understand that loneliness is an emotion not predicated on how many people are actually around you, that it is a search for connection. But as someone struggling with physical isolation and depression for a long time, it was a bit hard to look at her depictions of friends and travel and hookups all while talking about how dang lonely she was and take it seriously. I wish this was less memoir and talked more about things like how society is structured toward (heteronormative) coupledom, and what it’s like to really exist outside that. Anyway. tl; dr: I’m still processing this one.

    I also finished a 168 thousand word fic, which is longer than most novels I read, and it gave me the most epic book hangover.

  15. Big K says:

    Weird couple of weeks for reading – tired, busy, and just not very patient. Really looking forward to digging into the recs and reading T. Kingfisher’s new Paladin book – if you haven’t read her others, I am jealous! They are fantastic!
    My favorite book over the last two weeks was really twisted. RUN POSY RUN by Cate C. Wells. M/F contemporary, mob story, all the content warnings. It’s either your catnip or you’ll be horrified, so proceed with caution. Enjoyed it very much (did you recommend it, @DiscoDollyDeb? If so, thank you once again!) Unfortunately, her other stuff are motorcycle club books, which I am just not in the mood for. Have already pre-ordered THE TYRANT ALPHA’S REJECTED MATE, though, because I think it will be just up my alley. I will let you know!
    ESCAPING FATE by Regine Abel, was good. Sci Fi alien (no abduction) M/F/M romance. Unfortunately, not digging the rest of the series. The first book did a solid job with the characters, but the others are a little light on their development.
    BREAKING BADGER by Shelly Laurenston – Shifter M/F romance, contemporary. I have read all four books in this series, and honestly, they barely hold together – I would never recommend them to anyone outside of Romancelandia. Yet I finish them right up. This was one of the better ones. I can’t say they are funny, exactly, or have consistently great characters or plots. I just like the idea of the badger shifters being totally bananas wrecking balls as they move through the shifter world. The romances barely enter into the stories, but I love all the fight scenes.
    THE REVELATION OF LIGHT AND DARK by Sawyer Bennett – meh. Not reading the rest of the series.
    IRONS AND WORKS by E. M. Lindsey – Contemporary M/M romances with strong handicap rep around a tattoo parlor. Some things done well, but ultimately not that satisfying. Skimmed a couple of them, but not quite there for me.
    SUNSHINE AND SHADOWS by K.C. Wells – M/M contemporary. I liked the emotional exposition about living with a handicap and loving someone with a handicap. Otherwise, kind of fell flat – started OK, but I needed more character development as their relationship evolved.
    I MARRIED A NAGA and I MARRIED A LIZARDMAN by Regine Abel, Sci Fi Alien romance (no abduction). They each pose an interesting question – could you fall in love with someone who was not humanoid? Would intelligence, character, and their regard be enough to get you over the fact that someone ate once a month and molted? Clunky, but direct and charming in their own way. And made me thankful my husband is a mammal.
    Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

  16. Vivi12 says:

    I un-ironically liked the Midwife and the Orc, a book that I had downloaded from KU and then couldn’t get into until the ladies at Bonkers Romance read the first one. I skipped the first 13%, all setup about the heroine and the world, and picked it up when she moved near the Orc Mountain to practice midwifery, and meets the hero. I genuinely like the plucky heroine and graceful agile clever orc hero. (I particularly liked that he wasn’t huge and hulking with an Quaker Oats box sized dick.) There is an extended period of the heroine distrusting the hero and calling herself stupid in the last third of the book that got very repetitive, and should have been cut by …75%? I liked it enough to pick up the Librarian and the orc, but the heroine had too little agency to be comfortable.
    I too pre ordered the next Palladian book, and picked up Susanna Kearsley’s new one as well, without even reading a sample. Her writing is so beautiful.

  17. HeatherS says:

    I read both of Cat Sebastian’s Cabot books, but really liked “Tommy Cabot Was Here” more than “Peter Cabot Gets Lost”, mainly because (despite the shorter page count) I felt like the romance was more believable and also it was cozy and comforting as heck while the guys gave their romance a second chance. The latter was more pantsfeelings and just not enough time for me to buy the romance aspect. I would love to read another book with Tommy and Everett, especially if it means more cozy domestic scenes and Tommy facing down with his sucky family. I also want to see more of Patricia (his ex-wife) and her partner Harriet, because they seem like a lot of fun. I hope Cat will write their story, too.

    I also read “The Lights on Knockbridge Lane” by Roan Parrish, the first LGBTQ+ category romance Harlequin has published. I liked it, but felt that the daughter, Gus, took up way more page time and more of the spotlight than she should have. The kid is NOT THE POINT of the story, the romance should be the focus, but when you don’t give the main characters enough time away from the kid to have adult conversations and develop the relationship, it just doesn’t feel believable to me. I liked that there was a scientist hero and – be warned, if you don’t like to even read about snakes and spiders, you won’t want to read this.

    I also read Olivia Waite’s “The Hellion’s Waltz”. Again, lots of great technical and historical detail in this one, but the story built up to this big con to expose the villain to his comeupance for long that the actual event felt rather anti-climactic. I loved both the heroines as people, but felt like there should have been more focus on the romance than on the con job.

  18. JenM says:

    A couple of great books this time:

    You Spin Me by Karen Grey – third book in a great romance series set in the late 1980’s (which is apparently not quite historical but is now being considered vintage? LOL). I was in my 20’s in 1989 and this series has been spot on in terms of the attitudes, setting, and dating culture at that time. The book dealt with some serious themes regarding outward and inward appearances but did it all with a very deft touch. (The hero was scarred in a fire as a child, the heroine was a community theater actress, so was hyperfocused on her outward appearance while inwardly hating it).

    Tell Me Anything by Skye Kilaen – Both leads were bi in this book, and the book had a lot to say about prejudice within both the straight and LGBTQ communities against people who identify as bi. It also had a sweet, caring, beautiful romance with a wonderful, cinnamon roll hero.

    Fate Interrupted by Elizabeth Hunter – last book in the author’s fabulous paranormal women’s fiction Moonstone Cove series. I was very happy with the whole series (and the related one, Glimmer Lake) in which a violent incident triggers paranormal powers in three previously unrelated women. Over the course of the series, they become close friends, maturely navigate their romantic relationships, and deal with their newfound paranormal powers. Their individual strength and the strong, close friendship that grows between them over the course of the series is just so much fun to read. Plus, I loved that this series was a bit more romance focused.

    I’m currently knee deep in two anthologies, both of which are charitable endeavors:

    Pets In Space 6 – supports the hero dogs charity for veterans and first responders with disabilities, and is a fun SF Romance anthology with 11 novellas all featuring otherworldly pets, romance, and SF settings.

    Tinsels & Tatas – supports the Young Survivor coalition that helps women under 40 who are diagnosed with breast cancer. It has 18 short stories and novellas centered around the idea of romance happening at a winter holiday ball.

  19. Kareni says:

    Since last time, week one ~

    — Gravedigger’s Brawl by Abigail Roux. I’m not sorry that I read this contemporary m/m romance, but it was a little too eerie for my taste.
    — The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood; I quite enjoyed this contemporary romance. It made me reflect on some of my own grad school experiences — Chemistry in my case versus Biology for the book’s heroine. I look forward to the author’s next book.
    — Murder in Material Gain: A Doyle & Acton Mystery by Anne Cleeland; it’s the brand new Acton and Doyle book, and I enjoyed revisiting the characters. This is the latest book in a series that needs to be read in order.
    — reread Stray and Lab Rat One by Andrea K. Höst which I enjoyed once again. NOTE: Stray is FREE for US Kindle readers.

    This was the final week of my reading challenge on a different sit, and the challenge was to read a book whose cover art you love. I wouldn’t say that I “love” the covers of these books, but they are all attractive to my eye.

    Tattoos & Teacups by Anna Martin
    This romance featured men who were quite different — Robert (Scottish, tea drinking, rather staid 32 year old professor of literature) and Chris (23 year old, tattooed, motorcycle riding, rock band and symphonic percussionist). I almost didn’t finish the book several times in the first half, but then the book became more engaging. I’d describe the book as low angst.
    **
    Honeytrap by Aster Glenn Gray
    I quite enjoyed this cold war era romance featuring an FBI agent and a Soviet agent who are paired to find the person behind an unsuccessful assassination attempt on Khrushchev during his 1959 visit to the US. The first segment of the book takes place over three months or so as the men drive through various states seeking information; during this time, they get to know and care for each other. The next two sections take place a number of years later. I expect to re-read this book.
    **
    A Ferry of Bones & Gold by Hailey Turner
    This book has mages, werewolves, seers, vampires, demons, succubi, Greek and Norse gods and goddesses manipulating others to their own ends, witches, a number of governmental agencies, and let’s not forget the villains; I’d describe it as busy! Our main leads are Patrick (a mage with metaphysical, physical, and emotional scars) who is sent to NYC to work on a serial killer case and Jono (a British alpha werewolf who is packless in NYC). This is the first book in a series; I enjoyed it, but I’m unsure whether I’ll read on.
    **
    Dalí by E.M. Hamill
    This science fiction work is set in space in the future; the title character is an empath, an ambassador, and a changeling third-gender (an intersex human able to assume a male or female form at will). Dalí’s husband, wife, and unborn child were killed in a bombing six months ago and, when the novel begins, Dalí is grieving. Other third-gender changelings have gone missing from various worlds, and Dalí is recruited to go undercover to learn more. I enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the sequel.

    And week two ~

    — My daughter is visiting from South Korea (her first visit in two and a half years), and I’m really enjoying her company. I’m not getting as much reading done as usual but have reread with pleasure the remainder of the Touchstone series I began previously: Caszandra, Gratuitous Epilogue, In Arcadia, and Snow Day by Andrea K Höst.

  20. Jcp says:

    I’m reading Dominic by Kat Mizera. It’s not PC and the heroine Is too stupid to be almost 40 and it is soap operaish (which is not a bad thing…I miss them) but it’s perfect reading for me now. Dominic is free and the first in a series (like I need to start another one).

    I really enjoyed Aftermath in the Vino and Vertias series which I have been talking about lately. One of the main characters is a retired hockey player.

  21. Kareni says:

    @SarahSB, the whatcha tag is spelled differently above than it normally is.

    @Catherine, sending healing thoughts you way. That first Ivy Years is one of my two favorite Bowen books — enjoy!

    @Big K, regarding “And made me thankful my husband is a mammal” — thanks for the chuckle!

  22. Karin says:

    I read “Ten Things I Hate About the Duke”. Kudos to Loretta Chase for creating a very entertaining story out of an absolute wisp of a plot. Really, there is no story to speak of. It’s totally fluff and fantasy and she’s great at it.
    I have been really enjoying Anna Lee Huber’s post-WW1 Verity Kent mystery series, but I was about 3/4 of the way through book 4, “A Pretty Deceit”, when my Scribd app stopped working. Apparently there is no cure, Scribd can no longer be accessed on my antique 1st Gen iPad mini. I used it pretty much only as an e-reader, for Kindle and Scribd. Not wanting to spend the money on a new iPad, I just ordered a Kindle Fire which is supposed to work with the Scribd app.
    I am also reading Anne Gracie’s “The Scoundrel’s Daughter”. She’s very good at eliciting emotions. Usually I am hooked from the minute I open her books; this one took a little longer to warm up to, but I am into it now.
    Oh, and I read “Alec Mackenzie’s Art of Seduction”, which is set about 100 years earlier, but the same family as Jennifer Ashley’s earlier Mackenzie series. Better than expected. The conflict was external, rather than between the H&h.

  23. Empress of Blandings says:

    I’ve missed the last couple of these because I’ve just had a lot on – mostly good, but I’ve just been running out of bandwidth these last few weeks.

    Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey. A woman who everyone thinks of as immature, and an ex-baseball player who’s tired of being seen as a lothario, fake date each other to try and course-correct their reputations. This was well written, and the plot moved at a brisk pace and I could not love it enough to overlook the problems I had with it. Some things felt unlikely – not sure how someone doing children’s parties in a smallish town is earning enough to pay a mortgage. The H is meant to have had suffered depression for a while, but it’s never explored or has any impact on the story – it didn’t need to be treated in a heavy way, but it was just… plonked down in the text and then never referred to again. But then none of the conflicts really felt like they had much actual effect on the plot. Also, the H felt oddly aggressive during the sex scenes. I’d maybe read the next in the series, but only if it was in the library.

    The Black Knights Inc. series by Julie Ann Walker. I was a bit put off these super sekrit paramilitary organisations by the Maya Banks I read a couple of months ago, but really enjoyed the four or five I’ve read of these. The men have that manly man thing going on, but they’re not just overbearing testosterone dumps – there’s some really funny writing in them as well. One speed bump in the text for me at least, was a character who’s meant to be English. I applaud Walker’s efforts to use British slang, but it just didn’t quite land right to my ear/eye/you know what I mean. Also, are there any custom bike shops that don’t harbour a super-patriotic gang of ex-special forces soldiers who are flying under the radar for Uncle Sam & apple pie?

    Undercover Billionaire by Ainsley Booth – it was a freebie, and very pleasant to read in that it was almost entirely free of any sort of conflict. Not so much low angst as no angst.

    The Billionaire’s Fake Fiancée by Annika Martin – this was really good. The billionaire in question is trying to land an account for some financial nonsense or other and his assistant invents a fiancee for him to make him seem more stable (is this an actual thing in real life?). Imaginary fiancee then, of course, gets invited on a cruise by the woman who’s awarding the account. For reasons, he gets his hairdresser to accompany him who is all sparkles and kittens to his dourness and iciness. Of course he unwinds, and of course we find that there’s a reason that she’s always acting so upbeat, and watching them both unravel their feelings and act on their attraction to each other is lovely. And the decisions and deceptions have real consequences for the characters and when everything is made right at the end I felt like they’d earned it.

    A weird cover decision noted on a Harlequin/M&B book that I can’t remember the title of, about a laid-back doctor on a Hawaiian island, who wears sandals and bright shirts, with a cover photo of some guy in a shirt and waistcoat. Another H/M&B collection called Untamed Italians which I kept reading as Untamed Aliens

  24. Penny says:

    I just finished Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling series (which I had never read before this year) with the LAST GUARD this week, and just want to say I love bears.

    Next up, more Nalini Singh! I have the Guild Hunter series queued up, starting with ANGELS BLOOD.

    But I put that all on pause for PALADIN’S HOPE which I started this morning and am trying (unsuccessfully) not too read too fast…

  25. Penny says:

    Oh! And wanted to add….

    @MirandaB I’m also catching up! but instead of reading I’m doing an epic re-listen of all the audiobooks. Which means I’ll be done and ready to read the new one in approximately 74 months… (Gabaldon is my problematic fave)

  26. MaryK says:

    I’ve been reading the Greenwing & Dart fantasy series by Victoria Goddard and really enjoying it. The first book was kind of slow to start and a bit hard to get into because it drops you into a fantasy world that you learn more about as you go along. By halfway through, though, it was a BDBC read.

    I heard about it on S.K. Dunstall’s website and I’m just going to copy her description since it was so effective. — “Our protagonist returns to the village of his birth, having failed out of university, already infamous because of his father’s betrayal in the army, and gets dragged into capers with his best friend. A light-hearted historical series where two young men solve magical mysteries, all based around a theme of food.”

  27. Musette says:

    After a Summer of reading complete nonsense (I can’t even remember what the hell it was I read!) I’m settling back into more solid (imo) romance and gen fiction.
    But! Not before I finish Shelly Laurentson’s ‘Hot and Badgered’ which has a LOT of characters (almost too many to keep track of) but is funny as hell. I love these three vicious, lethal sisters: badger hybrids who are terrifying, much like badgers themselves – lots of laughs! @Big K, I’ll be back for more.

    I’m also reading Helen Hoang’s ‘The Heart Principle’, the third(?) of her series, with Quan as the MC – I have loved him since he first appeared in her novels – he’s the Weston Ravenel of Hoang’s stories – and it’s good to see him get his own story.
    ‘Antiquities’ by Cynthia Ozick was a luminous little book (only 179 pages in a teeny hardcover, smaller than a trade paperback).
    ‘Hell of a Book’ by Jason Mott which I feel sure is going to break my heart. It starts tonight.

    I have Sarah MacLean’s ‘BombShell’ in the READ IT pile but I’m hesitating – not sure why. I think I want to re-read the 3 previous novels before delving into Sesily’s story.
    Last, but not least, I’m re-reading Pat Frank’s ‘Alas Babylon’ – it was my first Apocalypse novel, which I read back in the late 60s (first published in 1959). A convo about its current relevance got me interested in revisiting (and I found a pristine copy at Salv Army for 25cents!!! kismet!). I’m surprised to remember it almost perfectly and can say that while it still has some relevance the situation is not nearly as bleak as we currently imagine Apocalypse now (no pun intended). There’s a bit of that Confidence in Government that is the hallmark of that time.

  28. Rhonda says:

    I finally made it to a minor league hockey game in October 2019, after years of reading m/f hockey romances from Sarina Bowen, and then multiple m/m hockey series (VL Locey & RJ Scott, VL Locey [solo], AE Wasp, Rachel Reid, and Amy Aislin). It would have been useful if I’d gone with someone who knew the rules.

    So this week’s ARC – Two-Man Team, by Amy Aislin, the next in her series. It’s fun because it moves around through a family/friend group so not all on the same team.

  29. Leanne H. says:

    It’s been a long time since I joined one of these posts. I love reading them, but I haven’t been having a great reading stretch myself. However, I’m happy to report I finally finished some books!

    SILVER IN THE WOOD by Emily Tesh–Loved this m/m magical England setting. It was as lovely and spellbinding as everyone on here said it would be. The author also acknowledged AO3 commenters in her acknowledgments and now I’m dying to know which couple this was when it began. All I could think of was Bagginshield (Thorin/Bilbo).

    HER BODY AND OTHER PARTIES by Carmen Maria Machado–I had read a few of these stories separately, but I finally got around to reading this short story collection. Major trigger warnings apply. The writing was lovely, but most stories left me feeling bereft and depressed about what it’s like to be a woman in the modern world. I actually had to take a break a few times and skip a story because it was so much. But in the end, I can’t deny the writing was top level. It captures some moods that I’ve never seen reflected in writing before.

    THE LOST LETTER by Mimi Matthews–This is cheating somewhat because I read this already once before (and may have even recommended it here). But it’s one of those romances I keep going back to re-read. The miscommunication trope is rarely one of my favorites, but in this one it is handled so exquisitely, it’s wonderful to read. I absolutely die for the moment when the hero realizes he’s been operating under an incorrect assumption, and then he looks at all his past behavior in a new light, realizing HE is in fact the asshole. Oh man. I want to grind it up and sprinkle it over my cereal in the morning!

  30. flchen1 says:

    I quite enjoyed the Tinsel and Tatas charity anthology, and agree with @DiscoDollyDeb that Serena Bell’s story is one of the standouts.

    Have been reading more m/m recently, including Lisa Henry’s Two Man Station which was mentioned in a sale post recently, and Jay Hogan’s Unguarded. Both were excellent.

    And am going through some of Vivian Arend’s backlist so just started Rocky Mountain Heat…

  31. Maureen says:

    You Had Me At Hola and A Lot Like Adiós by Alexis Daria. I really loved these books! I feel like I might have raved about the first book in the last WAYR, but teaching Kindergarten is frying my brain. These books hit the sweet spot for me, they are sexy, funny but with emphasis on the importance of family, either born into or found. It’s funny, I thought the author’s name was familiar, after a search of my kindle contents-I had bought a book Take the Lead back in 2017, by this author. It’s been a while since I read it, but I know I enjoyed it.

    One thing that really struck me with the second book? I could picture this so clearly as a movie. Daria has a way of writing that totally focuses me on the visual. I don’t get that feeling with many books.

    I’ve been reading my way through Vino and Veritas-I think there are 18 books in the series? I’m at the tail end, and some are definitely better than others, but I think all are worth a look. Especially if you are a KU member! For anyone who doesn’t know, they take place in the Bowen Shipley family universe, and it’s M/M romance. I kind of want to move to Vermont right now. I LOVE the descriptions of setting, and how much would I love to visit the bookstore in this series??

    @DDD-I couldn’t agree with you more on the trope of the “evil” ex and the abortion issue. I think we are in a similar age group, and having seen the fight for reproductive rights, only now to be going backwards? It is so disheartening.

    @JenM-Thank you so much for the recommendation of the Karen Grey Boston Classics. I read your comment this morning, and checked out the samples-I’m now deep into the first in the series, What I’m Looking For. I will say as someone who graduated from college in 1984 and worked in a job where I was the only woman? It’s quite hard to relive how accepted it was for men to touch women, without their consent. How I wish my 60 year old self could go back and deal with the guys who put their hands on me because “oops, I was just reaching for that”, or all the other excuses they had!

  32. DonnaMarie says:

    @SBSarah, just picked up the second Wrexford & Sloane this morning. It’s a reread before I tackle the latest one.

    Through some strange confluence of availability I have ended up with three food porn romances. KISS MY CUPCAKE by Helena Hunting, which had me craving a maple bacon bourbon cupcake for three days, was up first. Do you know what no one around here makes? Do you know what else they don’t have around here? Someplace to have a cupcake with a cocktail curated to go with it. And I want this. Also the enemies to lovers and adorable grandpa were a delight.

    Went with a palate cleanser, Vi Keeland’s THE INVITATION, next. Has her usual mix of banter, competence porn, and hot sexy times before she pitches the heartbreaking/gut wrenching twist into the last quarter of the book. Mature solution is achieved as well as HEA. I’d have happier if I knew he’d somehow reacquired grandma’s ring.

    On to Lucy Parker’s BATTLE ROYAL which has been much mentioned in recent posts and absolutely deserves to be. I laughed, I cried. I cried A LOT. Royals are not my thing, especially made up ones, but I found myself not caring at all because I loved all the characters so much. Looking forward to Pet and the monolith. So far it’s winner winner chicken dinner.

    ALL STIRRED UP as going to have to work hard to come out on top. I don’t feel the palette cleanser is needed as the characters run actual restaurants as opposed to bakeries. Also, it’s set in Scotland, where the BFF is currently having the Outlander trip of her dreams, so I can picture her enjoying a dinner.

  33. HeatherS says:

    @Heather M: It’s funny that we had the opposite reaction to the Cabot series! I enjoyed “Tommy Cabot” more than “Peter Cabot”. Road trip romances are tough sells for me; I enjoy them, but when everything is happening in like a week, it’s hard for me to buy a romance coming out of that. I can believe they like each other, sure, but not love.

    @JenM: Thank you for mentioning “Tell Me Anything”. That sounds like a good story and I’m 100% here for cinnamon roll heroes, especially in fall, because fall is cinnamon roll season. 🙂

  34. Midge says:

    I loved both of Cat Sebastian’s Cabot stories – and agree, I want more!

    Anyway, upon recommendatione here, I also went for Lisa Henry’s TWO MAN STATION and the follow-up, LIGHTS AND SIRENS (very loosely tied – each is a perfect standalone). I loved both of them, not least because whilst theres’s some conflicts and the MCs have stuff to work through, theres no big mis. They talk and work it through.
    Also been mentioned/recommended here, Aster Glenn Grey’s BRIARLEY and the new THE LARKS BRAVELY SINGING. Two completely different stories, but loved both. In the latter – again, MCs talking about things, working it through, no huge drama. And yes, both have returned from war with a limb/part of it missing. But that’s not what it’s about, as it normally would be in these types of stories. It’s the emotional stuff and PTSD that they’ve got to work through. I liked that.

  35. Vicki says:

    I have read nothing but Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changling since the last time. To the point where I have started dreaming in Psy-Changling. And I regret nothing! Now on the last book.

  36. JenM says:

    @Maureen – I know exactly what you mean. I also graduated in 1984 and started working in a traditionally male field. When I read the first book in the Boston Classics series, What I’m Looking For, there were situations that were eerily similar to my own experiences and I had to put it down a few times to cool off. Sometimes it seems like we’ve made no progress at all, yet reading a romance set in the late 1980’s reminds me that things have in fact changed for the better, it’s just that the pace of change is so much slower than I thought it would be back when I was young and hopeful.

  37. DiscoDollyDeb says:

    @Maureen & @JenM: As the old saying goes, “Whenever Progress advances a mile, you can be sure Tradition will amass an army to push them back.” Although I know we have made strides (when I got my first post-college job in 1980, the idea that you could file a complaint against every “handsy” male who thought he had the right to hug, rub, or touch you in any way would have been laughed out of HR—or the Personnel Office as we called it in those days), but when shit comes up like what’s happening in Texas right now (and, make no mistake, if the Texas law is upheld by the Supreme Court, every red state in the country is ready to pass similar legislation), I tend to have my reading radar on higher alert than normal. So Connelly’s use of “having an abortion” being shorthand for “evil woman” really jumped out at me when I read it. Ugh!

  38. Crystal says:

    Haaaa, I only have one book, because I started a big doorstop vampire book last weekend and am still reading it. I’ll probably finish it today. It’s Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff. It’s a lot profane, a WHOLE LOT violent (trigger warnings for days and nights and weekends, animal death, violent deaths of children and monsters that look like children, violence against women, I mean, it’s A LOT). It basically involves a half-vampire that belongs to a holy order dedicated to protecting humanity from the actual very horrible and vicious actually vampire, telling his life story. Nobody sparkles. And it’s a biggie.

    Also, I got to see Hamilton live last weekend (Philip Tour). It was the best, and there is nothing like live theater. Nothing at all.

  39. Deborah says:

    I lost yesterday in the best way to Kylie Scott’s REPEAT [A-] and PAUSE [B]. Although I don’t recommend reading the books one after the other (not enough differentiation in the protagonists’ voices), each presents a “heroine 2.0” scenario in which the first-person narrator goes through a traumatic experience that causes a life reset.

    The heroine in REPEAT suffers from retrograde amnesia after a mugging. While she’s attempting to piece together the facts of her prior life, she encounters a man she broke up with just one month earlier. I’m dinging the book a third of a letter grade for the suspense plot (a little transparent, a little overblown), but I feel amply compensated by the heroine’s amnesiac “Martian anthropologist” unfiltered personality. If I could ask one thing of this book, it would be MORE: I would love to read the story from the hero’s POV (he’s living the angst side of the equation), I would love to have seen the heroine sifting through differing 3rd-party versions of her pre-amnesiac personality (imagine if people you knew in different contexts had to help you piece together who you were), and I would have loved more focus on the pre-amnesia impact of having nursed her mother through a terminal illness (at least, that’s the life event to which I am attaching heroine 1.0’s insecurities). This all sounds so heavy but it’s handled with a light touch. (THE DOG! ❤️)

    The heroine in PAUSE wakes up from seven months in a coma to discover that her husband has started an affair with one of her best friends. She connects with the hero, who was also injured in the hit-and-run, when she goes to thank him for attempting to help her at the accident site and when she was comatose. I understand his motivation for the latter, but it feels a little intrusive to me, especially when one of the book’s main themes is establishing boundaries.

    I wonder if the third Larsen brother will get his own trauma-reset heroine?

  40. Carrie G says:

    The highlight so far in October has been MADISON SQUARE MURDERS by C.S. Poe. The hero, Everett Larkin, is so original and so well written. He suffers from a condition called hyperthymesia due to a head injury and remembers everything that happened in minute detail. Things like sounds, weather, and more can force him to recall an event and sort of lose himself in it. He’s a detective in the Cold Case department. When a skeleton is found with a death mask, he gets paired up with a forensic artist Ira Doyle to figure out what’s going on. This is definitely in my top 10 for 2021.

    Other than that I’ve also read THE ONE AND ONLY CRYSTAL DRUID by Annette Marie. I’m a fan of her Guild Codex books and enjoyed this first of a new off-shoot series. I also re-read AFTER FELIX by Lily Morton (comfort author) and two mm holiday anthologies from several years ago. Trying to get into the spirit, if only the weather would cooperate.

    On audio I’ve listened to book 3 in the RED DIRT HEART series by N.R. Walker, narrated by Joel Leslie. I LOVE this series set in the Australian outback, and Leslie’s narration is superb.

    I’ve also listened to AMERICAN DREAMER by Adriana Herrera,narrated by Sean Crisden (solid B for both the book and narration), and SAILOR PROOF by Annabeth Albert, narrated by Joel Leslie and Greg Boudreaux. You can’t get a more A+ narration team than those two, and they didn’t disappoint. The story,however, wasn’t my favorite Albert book. I gave the book a C+/B-. On the fence a bit with that.

    I’m now reading POWDER and PAVLOVA by Jay Hogan, and loading the 4th book in the RED DIRT HEART series on my phone.

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