It’s that time again! Settle in to talk about what you’ve been reading!
Lara: I just DEVOURED Cait Nary’s Season’s Change. ( A | BN | K ) Turns out I have a thing for m/m ice hockey romances and this one pushed my buttons in the best way. Love a slow burn!
Sarah: I am reading The Last Daughter of York by Nicola Cornick. ( A | BN | K ) It was a slow start, but then remains are found and kings are betrayed in dual timelines and I’m all in. See y’all in a few hours.
Elyse: I’m in a slump and focused on knitting.
Catherine: As a mad Ricardian I am both deeply tempted by the Last Daughter of York – because Yorkists! Wars of the Roses! Possible Perkin Warbeck retcon! – and also a bit afraid to pick it up, since I will certainly have Opinions and they are unlikely to be remotely fair or objective!
I’m doing very little reading at present but did just read and adore The Magnolia Sword by Sherry Thomas. Such a fun story!
Sneezy: FINALLY got to Dial A for Aunties. ( A | BN | K | AB ) I’m still at the beginning, and even though the details are different, it reflects so much of my personal experience of family and diaspora… If Meddy and I ever met, we would be friends, and a large chunk of our friendship would be us flopped on top of each other in an anxiety puddle, all jittery cuddles and warbles. Then I’d try to hold her up as I make semi-coherent sounds about how healthy boundaries are necessary.
Tara: I’ve started picking up holiday romances and am reading The Great Charade by Gerri Hill. It’s an f/f, fake relationship Christmas romance that’s being released on December 7.
Shana: A new Gerri Hill, with a fake relationship, and it’s Christmas-themed? I clearly need to read this.
I just started The Wild Sight by Loucinda McGary. ( A | BN | K ) It’s a romantic suspense about a reluctant Irish psychic who returns to his family’s home in Northern Ireland.
Carrie: I just finished the House on Needless Street by Catriona Ward. It’s easy to see why it has a lot of hype – it’s incredibly gripping. However it also contains graphic and upsetting portrayals of child abuse/torture/medical abuse and that has been upsetting and disturbing me since I read it.
Susan: I’m swinging between rereading Wotakoi ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) to satisfy my craving for fandom nerds in love, and The Luminous Dead ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) because survival horror is my comfort genre
Where we’re going we don’t need tonal consistency in our reading habits!
What have you been reading? Let us know!
I haven’t been reading a lot lately. I got a subscription to Brit Box, or, as my son calls it, your old lady channel. And then he turns around saying, “Red Dwarf! Awesome!” There’s a lot of nostalgia there. My mother loved British mysteries and I have some very fond memories of watching Miss Marple, etc. with her.
I binged Call the Midwife and Downton Abbey and now I’m watching Jonathan Creek.
Not much, as holiday season bears down upon as and I have travel obligations and fanfic obligations (Yuletide!). I did read MARRYING THE ROYAL MARINE by Carla Kelly which is was very gritty and disturbing at times, but also excellent and possibly my favorite of the channel fleet series (there is a large age gap, that I thought was handled well fwiw). The 9 year old and I have really been enjoying ZEUS THE MIGHTY (silly middle grade books about a hamster who thinks he’s a Greek god) and the ARU SHAH series (slightly older, more serious series with a tween girl in the vein of Percy Jackson). These are the kind of books he likes me to read aloud, but also feels comfortable reading himself, so they’re great for long car rides. He gets carsick reading in the car, I don’t (one of my greatest life skills).
I’m about a third of they way into Miss Moriarty, I Presume, and it’s terrific.
I needed bedrest Friday, so I started reading Someone To Watch Over Me, by Lisa Kleypas.
I haven’t had much luck in reading some of her older historicals, but it’s like when I came across Sugar Daddy last year. Sometimes the right book finds you when you need it the most.
I’ve just realized that nothing I’ve read over the last couple of weeks has been a straight up romance, but I would consider them mostly romance adjacent?
MURDER AT KENSINGTON PALACE. This is the third Wrexford and Sloane mystery. I’m enjoying the evolution of the characters’ relationships and the found family angle.
HEAVY by Kiese Laymon. This memoir (as the title clearly says!) is pretty heavy. Laymon grew up in Mississippi with an abusive mother and there’s just so much in here about trauma, love, social pressure, violence, and a sense of home and how much all of those things shape you. I’ve been thinking about it since I finished it. Oh! And there’s an absolutely FABULOUS interview between Laymon and Tressie McMillan Cottom on the Ezra Klein Show (Tressie is guest hosting) about what it means to revise art and what it means to be a responsible artist and in dialogue with the world around you. Highly recommend.
FUZZ by Mary Roach. Roach writes great popular science books (BONK and STIFF about the science of sex and what happens to human cadavers, respectively, are both fabulous) and this one is about humans’ interactions with wildlife. I learned a lot here and it definitely made me think about how I interact with wild animals.
THE TEN THOUSAND DOORS OF JANUARY by Alix Harrow. I felt like this worked best when it was focused on the doors and the attempts to escape from the bad guys. It has a weird angle on race that I can’t quite put my finger on, but I think the short version is that Harrow gives short shrift to how a non-white girl would have been treated in the beginning of the 1900s, especially when she’s in Kentucky.
Decided to DNF SHADOW OF NIGHT, the second book in the Discovery of Witches series. I stepped away from it for a couple weeks and found I had no desire to pick it back up.
Up next: THRONE OF GLASS by Sarah J. Maas. I (mostly) liked her COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES series so decided to give this one a try. So far it’s fine, although I’m not sure if I would want to continue with the other six books in the series.
I had a stressful week getting ready for my first holiday visitors since COVID. I found re-reading several of Beverly Jenkins’ Blessings series a comforting distraction. After my visitors leave today I plan to cocoon under a blanket with cats and tea and Archangel’s Light – my library hold came much sooner than I expected, in perfect time. I’ll also be checking in for more recommendations!
Argh, I lost my comment due to browser weirdness. Well, just the books, not the commentary, since I don’t feel like typing it all out again 😛
Nightvine – Felicia Davin (f/f, fantasy, sequel to Thornfruit)
Slippery Creatures – K. J. Charles (m/m, post-WWI spy shenanigans)
BEARD IN HIDING by Penny Reid: unsatisfying even though Reid is an auto-buy for me. First, I’ve read all the Winston Brothers novels and the Solving for Pie novels, but I couldn’t remember enough details and ended up being a bit confused in places, which was annoying. Second, Repo just didn’t do it for me as a romantic lead. His love for his biological daughter and his desire to occasionally rein in his fellow Wraiths does not somehow redeem him for being a key part of an organization that (spoiler alert from other novels!) has tortured and murdered people for decades. Yes, even if he had a terrible childhood. His childhood might make his behavior more understandable, but it doesn’t make him a compelling romantic lead for me.
THE TYRANT ALPHA’S REJECTED MATE by Cate C. Wells: fun! This one has been mentioned here at least a couple of times recently (thank you) and was surprisingly enjoyable. Like many here, I’m so over the 1990s/2000s alpha male. Gag me with a spoon. And the male lead is absolutely awful to the heroine right at the beginning, which was a pretty big character deficit to overcome. But somehow this book works. It’s missing the gross and problematic tropes like the I’m-forcing-pleasure-on-you-but-it-isn’t-rape trope. And when the hero realizes that he was wrong, he goes about correcting his behavior. Is this entirely realistic? No. Of course not. But we’re talking paranormal romance here, so realism is not the point. The writing was good enough that I was convinced and thoroughly enjoyed going along for the ride.
SWEETHEART by Sarah Mayberry: enjoyable right up until the ending, which was too neat for my tastes. This book takes place in Sarina Bowen’s True North universe. I enjoyed the setup here – Haley fell in love with Beck when he was dating her sister. Beck had a tumultuous and damaging relationship with the sister and finds anything to do with her family triggering. Except that Haley is irresistible. Cue plot, plot, plot dealing with conflicting feelings and families and mental illness. Also delicious descriptions of coffee and baked goods at The Busy Bean. Content warning: do not read while hungry. All of this was really great until the ending when everything was wrapped up and tied with a very implausible bow. I’m not seeing how people who’ve been doing X for decades are now suddenly going to realize that X was the wrong approach after someone outside the family points out to them that X is enabling and not working. It felt to me as though the entire book had done a great job of describing how families can reach a very dysfunctional place with all the best intentions and love, but then didn’t spend enough time finding a realistic resolution.
I’m reading DUKE, ACTUALLY by Jenny Holiday. I also have several books waiting on my TBR pile, including A DANCE WITH THE FAE PRINCE by Elise Kova and THE OLD MAN by Thomas Perry.
I’m also bingeing out holiday rom-coms this weekend. LOVE HARD on NetFlix was cute. I was disappointed with THE NINE KITTENS OF CHRISTMAS on Hallmark, though. Not as good as the first movie IMO, but the kittens were cute. Up next, I’m hoping to watch A CASTLE FOR CHRISTMAS on Netflix, which will probably make me yell at the TV: “That’s not what being a writer is really like!” LOL.
Hope everyone has a great holiday weekend! 🙂
Yesterday, our family resumed its day-after-Thanksgiving tradition of going to the races. We couldn’t go in 2019 because I had pneumonia and last year, of course, everything was shut down because of covid. So (with all of us fully-vaccinated and masked) yesterday was our first visit to the New Orleans Fair Grounds in three years. Alas—I had one win in nine races, despite betting on a horse named Russian Mafia because of my love of Bratva romances. Misled by horse names again! As for reading—
Part I
I read two books that made the list of Favorite Books of 2021 on the Fated Mates podcast. On the surface, the books would seem to be complete opposites in style and storyline, but ultimately both books are about men trying to make amends for the awful ways they have treated their women. The first book was AFTER THE BILLIONAIRE’S WEDDING VOWS, an HP by Lucy Monroe. about a five-year marriage that’s in big trouble. The hero has just realized that his wife (currently pregnant with their second child) hasn’t been happy for a long time and he is going to have to do some hard emotional work to change the trajectory of their relationship. I thought Monroe (not one of my auto-buy HP Queens of angsty heartache) did a good job on showing the things that had driven a wedge between the couple—especially the passive-aggressive treatment the heroine received from the hero’s mother and sister and the hero’s cluelessness in recognizing it—but, although we often want romance MCs to “use their words,” there were so many repetitive conversations and abrupt emotional about-faces in AFTER THE BILLIONAIRE’S WEDDING VOWS that the last quarter of the book became a bit of a slog. (By the way, I borrowed the AFTER THE BILLIONAIRE’S WEDDING VOWS, published in February of this year, through Kindle Unlimited; apparently, Harlequin is now putting some of their earlier HP titles on KU).
The other Fated Mates Best of 2021 book I read was RUN POSY RUN by new-to-me author Cate C. Wells. RUN POSY RUN is about a Mafia money man who breaks up with his girlfriend (cw/tw: the breakup was driven by revenge porn posted by an old boyfriend) then, after she’s disappears, has second thoughts. I read a lot of mafia romance, but RUN POSY RUN was quite different from the usual “forced/arranged-marriage with protected, virginal mafia-princess heroine gradually falling in love with the mafia/mob-boss hero she’s been forced to marry” romance. For starters, the heroine in RUN POSY RUN is decided not a virgin, not a princess, and not protected in any way. She’s the daughter of a discredited mob foot-soldier (as the heroine notes, “Loyalty is big in my world because no one has much”); she’s been on her own for years and has been involved with a number of mob guys—none of them, including the hero, particularly generous in or out of bed (cw/tw: the heroine has been physically abused by some of her prior boyfriends, although not the hero). This is another interesting element of RUN POSY RUN: the hero & heroine do not have a passionate, wild, multiple-orgasm-every-time love affair; the heroine does not have orgasms regularly and describes the hero as a sexual “taker.” What the h&h do have in common is their love for all sorts of (non-sexual) games, especially chess—and much of RUN POSY RUN reads like a chess game as the hero tries to strategize how best to get the heroine back (including being a better lover) and the heroine counter-moves and blocks his attempts. Much like the hero of AFTER THE BILLIONAIRE’S WEDDING VOWS, the hero of RUN POSY RUN must learn a new way of relating to the heroine (in and out of bed) if their relationship has any hope of working. I liked RUN POSY RUN, but it is full of triggers (the ones mentioned above are just the tip of the iceberg: there’s all manner of physical violence, sociopathic behavior, and rough sex), so obviously not to all tastes.
However, I liked RUN POSY RUN enough to try Cate C. Wells’s most recent release, THE TYRANT ALPHA’S REJECTED MATE, and struck gold. The book is a wolf-shifter romance where (obviously from the very HP-esque title) the pack-alpha hero does not want to accept that the heroine is his fated mate. The book has excellent world-building (especially wolf-pack politics, the resulting gendered hierarchy, and the way the “unprotected” females band together to create their own underground economic opportunities); a scrappy and self-sufficient heroine, who refuses to give in to self-pity because of her damaged leg or the fact that she’s never been in heat or shifted; an alpha hero, bordering on alpha-hole, who is completely baffled by the heroine claiming he is her mate; and a nice level of sexual tension humming between the two of them. And I love the way Wells describes the interactions between the MCs’ human and wolf personalities—it’s like there are four main characters, two humans and two wolves, each of them with their own motivations and agendas. Plus the book features moments of real humor (as when some of the pack go to an ice cream shop and are completely disappointed with the “thick milk” sold there and feel that the cow statue outside the store has mislead them). The book does contain triggers: there is violence, including the threat of sexual violence in the present and the discussion of how females were forced to have non-consensual sex in the past; the heroine is also ridiculed and threatened because of her disability; and the full story of how the heroine’s leg was damaged is a brutal one; but I thought Wells did a good job of incorporating, rather than normalizing, these elements into the story. I liked THE TYRANT ALPHA’S REJECTED MATE so much, it became a favorite book of 2021 for me. Highly recommended (if the triggers are not a turn-off for you). I’m also hoping Wells continues writing about the other lone females in the pack—especially one who, when she shifts, becomes a male wolf. That is going to be a very interesting story!
Part II
Sybil Bartel’s VICTOR, the latest in her Alpha Elite series of romantic-suspense books. This one features a hero who is hired to find evidence that the client’s much younger wife is involved in corporate espionage at the client’s auction house. The hero figures out almost immediately the wife is not at fault—but that her abusive husband (cw/tw) has gone to great pains to make it appear that way. The hero wants to help the heroine—but can she trust him with her secrets? VICTOR is very much cut from the Bartel template: A hero, once in the military, now part of a private security company, takes an assignment where he connects with a heroine who is in deep trouble; h&h are attracted to each other; hero is an uber-alpha, especially in bed; heroine is not opposed to consensual D/s, but makes it clear that shit stops outside the bedroom; h&h have a lot of personal issues to work through before getting to their HEA; and all this happens against a backdrop of a lot of rough stuff (plenty of triggers), bad guys, espionage, fights, car chases, blood, injuries, elevated body counts, and lots of high-powered weaponry. You know if you like this sort of thing—read (or not) accordingly.
Jewel E. Ann’s NOT WHAT I EXPECTED (published in 2020) straddles the line between romance and women’s fiction. On the one hand, it features a number of romance tropes: age-gap; older-heroine/younger-hero (she’s 42, he’s 30); and antagonists-to-lovers (the h&h own rival specialty-foods stores in a small town that can only feasibly support a single business of that type). However, the book also includes a number of women’s fiction characteristics: the focus is on the heroine navigating her first year of widowhood (her feelings toward her late husband are complicated, to say the least) as she tries to help her four young adult children (one still in high school) come to terms with the loss of their father, make sure her in-laws can stay in their own home, and keep the family’s store running. In addition, we never see anything from the hero’s point-of-view and the book’s ending is on the ambiguous side of the HFN scale, definitely pushing the book into women’s fiction territory. Because we never get his point-of-view, the hero is a bit of a cypher: he’s hot and sexy, he’s kind-hearted and helpful; but he also does some things that are iffy for a romance hero:
The book also features a lot of husband (or late-husband) bashing from the heroine and a number of other female characters (some of whom are in a widow’s bereavement support group the heroine attends)—and that got tedious after a while. I get that in any long-term relationship, partners are going to do things that irritate one other, but to focus on those things to the exclusion of everything else that makes (or made) a relationship work seems both counter-productive and mean-spirited. I recommend NOT WHAT I EXPECTED, but the title is valid on a number of levels: don’t go into it expecting a genre romance and don’t read it purely through a romance lens and you won’t be disappointed.
Finished WANDERERS by Chuck Wendig, which is an apocalypse plague doorstopper that was written pre-pandemic (released early in it) and is uncomfortably close to home about this, ah, cultural moment, albeit escalated to the nth degree. I kept reading because I wanted to know what happened to most of the characters, but it was a struggle sometimes because it was soooo grim. THE STAND is a light-hearted romp by comparison. Particular CW for a rape, which is only briefly described but also never processed; a typical gratuitous bad-man-bad move because we otherwise would have no way of knowing the manipulative, racist, misogynist, ableist, drug-pushing murderer was a villain.
Just started HARROW THE NINTH by Tamsyn Muir.
I’ve started Go Tell the Bees that I am Gone by Diana Gabaldon, and I expect to be here a while.
I’m also reading Paladin’s Strength by TR Kingfisher to calm down at night. I like it better than the first one. Istvhan and Clara are more mature than the first pairing.
I just finished God Rest ye Royal Gentlemen by Rhys Bowen, which was an ok book in the Georgiana series. I didn’t buy the ending, but the descriptions of Christmas and Sandringham were fun.
Halfway through the audiobook of DESPERATE DUCHESSES by Eloisa James and it’s just ok. The primary heroine is clueless and boring but I’m enjoying other characters and hope that bodes well for the rest of the series.
Surprising DNF at 20% of A TWIST OF FATE by Kelley Armstrong (DNF is rare for me). I really liked the first book so this was a disappointment. I may come back to it another time (my library ebook expired), but the initial plot points stretched credulity (and not on the time slip aspect!) and I couldn’t get into the story.
My library hold on CONVENTIONALLY YOURS by Annabeth Albert just came in so I’m excited read that!
I also recently finished PLAYING WITH FIRE by Avery Cockburn and highly recommend this series for great mm romance and really interesting glimpses of modern day Scotland and Glasgow.
@FashionablyEvil You’re two weeks ahead of me! My library hold on Fuzz became available this morning and I think I’m going to be checking out Heavy this afternoon!
Romance:
Lee Colgin’s Mongrel (4/5 stars). A werewolf and a vampire fall in love while trying to solve the disappearance of young girls in Hungary, 1610.
EE Ottoman’s The Longest Night (4/5 stars) Two trans men are pen pals in 1904, when Richard unexpectedly loses his job, Tobias offers him a place to stay. This was a novella that I enjoyed but definitely ended before I wanted it to and I whined “but what happened?!?!”
Non-Romance:
Amanda Montell Cultish: The language of Fanaticism. This is fascinating. I interrupted a friend yesterday to point out what she said was a thought-terminating cliché.
Various Mills & Boon categories. Some days, I feel they should just rename some of their lines ‘Emotionally Constipated Dickheads of the Mediterranean’.
Library suggested Iris Johansen. MAGNIFICENT FOLLY: not magnificent but kind of foolish. Single parent keeps seeing stalker-ish guy who has weird psychic connection to her ridiculously talented plot-moppet daughter. Turns out he’s loved her from afar for years and when h had IVF, got the doctor to use his sperm. Super ethical. Daughter is kidnapped by swarthy forrin types leading to the newly formed family going to a psychic colony in the Middle East. All the good guys are caucasian (although this may not be completely accurate. I read the blurbs for some others in the series and there is a sheik in one. Called Philip. OK then.) Some instalust, but at least the h coming round the the idea that psychic powers being real was well done. I’ve read worse books may God have mercy on my soul. So, I ignored my internal warning system and tried another of Johansen’s. Boy was that a bad move because THE RELUCTANT LARK was one of those worse books.
I thought was published in 2013, but it turns out that’s the re-print. Originally out in 1983 and the nicest thing I can say is that it is of its time.
Heroine is a drippy Irish singer managed by controlling uncle. Controlling billionaire kidnaps her and he and all his staff treat her like she’s having a toddler tantrum when she objects. Housekeeper takes her to see a collection of the photos and reports billionaire guy has been compiling for the last few years. Housekeeper seems to think this is a sign of his devotion rather than needing a restraining order. Heroine muses that at least this shows H’s interest is of long standing and isn’t going to burn out quickly LIKE THAT’S A GOOD THING.
At one point she runs away, falls in a lake and gets hypothermia and he nurses her. She is less angry with him because this is a bond between them. Because he looked after her after being the indirect cause of the hypothermia. Stupid stuff happens. In the end, she rejects controlling uncle to go with controlling billionaire because she feels like her real self when it’s him pulling the strings.
Also, subplot of uncle supporting the IRA (0_o).
I went through the whole book (why? why did I do it to myself?) looking like that meme of the minion going ‘whaaaa?’ Oh, and she finds one of those Keane big-eyed-child paintings hung in her bedroom ’because it reminds him of her’ which was just so classy /sarcasm. (Keane paintings are very not m thing, but the life of the artist is fascinating and comes complete with arsehole husband and fraud and everything, but for once it ends OK) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Margaret_Keane
However, at the end were excerpts from a couple of books by other authors one of which I was intrigued by and that was how I came to be saved by our lady Ruthie Knox. Novellas BIG BOY and HOW TO MISBEHAVE, after which I went and bought ALONG CAME TROUBLE. Real people, with normal jobs, juggling work and family and trying to get through each day doing their best. Funny without being over the top (in Along Came Trouble, there’s an excellent scene where the h’s pop-star brother is trying to win back his girlfriend by doing an impromptu concert and strip act. It does get him in her house, but he has to work a bit harder for a proper reconciliation.) I feel like the characters have worked to understand what’s stopping them getting their HEA and are going to make it work.
MEET ME UNDER THE MISTLETOE by Skye Warren et al. I should have taken the advice of @DiscoDollyDeb and dipped into the stories at intervals instead of tearing through, because even edginess and darkness feels a bit less transgressive when similar features are trotted out again and again. Oh, they’re having sex in a place where they might be discovered? Frankly I’m amazed they could find an unoccupied niche. And her dress is backless? So daring and not at all like nearly every other dress.
Having been snarky about it, Skye Warren’s story fitted quite a lot of depth into a short space – I prefer the ones where there’s a bit of background, a sense of how the protagonists (and the antagonists) got to be this way. On the whole I had a lower hit rate than @DiscoDollyDeb – I liked maybe three-fifths of the stories well enough to re-read. My least favourite was one about a woman writing anonymous letters to a closed-off SEAL turned politician which just didn’t work for me due to choppy pacing, an abrupt ending, and a pointless big misunderstanding. Also, the letter writer is a professional speech writer who’s meant to be able to draw out her clients’ deepest motivations, but the letters themselves are juvenile and shallow.
Amelia Wilde’s story made me chase down a couple of her book.
SECRET BEAST – a take on Beauty and the Beast. It features an H who wants to hurt the h, an h who discovers she likes it, and who gradually helps him overcome the past abuse that left him in chronic pain and vengeful agains the h’s family. The h is likeable, but slightly passive, although not so much that she’s too sugary.
Really enjoyed DARK REIGN, about an artist who becomes an object of obsession for a rich art collector (a tale of two stalkers this month) It’s quite slow-paced, but for me this gives the book room to show how the h & H got to this point, and why they’re attracted to each other. Unlike the Johansen, the stalking is depicted as Very Much Not A Good Thing. The book leaves you in no doubt that what’s developing between them is spiky and twisty and not very healthy. Like a lot of these darker romances, it ends on a cliff-hanger, and I’m looking forward to the next instalment coming out.
LEAD ME ON by Victoria Dahl. Lovely – witty, heartfelt and pacey with well-written characters. The h has had a wild time in her youth, and is trying to sort of simultaneously atone for, and hide her past by being upright and respectable, and dating very upright, respectable men. Then a big, tattooed demolition expert walks into her office one day…
Not long ago there were comments here about how, if SBSarah liked a book, another person would be certain to also like it – or to not like it. While not so with romance (Act Like It squee…really?) I align completely with enjoying the mystery series Sarah mentions here. When The Frangipani Tree Mystery was on sale, I bought it. It was 100% excellent and I quickly purchased and continued reading the series. I finished a book last night, logged into SBTB, linked to Amazon to buy the most recent book in the series, and found that … I had just finished reading it. Aargh! Big disappointment. It was published in 2021 so … I might have a long wait for another.
In other reading news, I finally read a book by Beverly Jenkins. Rare Danger is not set in early America west/midwest (a time and place I don’t enjoy reading about for woo-woo reasons) and it was perfect. Bonus, now I understand why novella reviewers almost are include “too short” in their review.
My pre-order of Janet Elizabeth Henderson’s Run arrived earlier this month and I saved it for a weekend. I doubt the situations in this series hew to reality, but the Benson Security characters have such interesting work and personal relationships that I relax and enjoy the stories. One of the characters was injured and the author thoughtfully did not leave those of us invested in these [fictional] people on a cliff until that particular arc concludes next July.
I bought and read Puppy Love by Lucy GIlmore and Puppy Christmas when it was recently on sale. Both were enjoyable. Then I read Puppy Kisses, the third sister’s story. The first two are my favorites.
Jackie Lau’s A Match Made for Thanksgiving was fun and I look forward to reading more of her books.
Currently reading and enjoying “Sword of the Guardian” by Merry Shannon, which is a fantasy f/f romance featuring a princess and her bodyguard who is secretly a woman disguised as a man. It’s right up my alley and I’m loving that it’s a meaty book with a slow burn romance after reading a lot of novellas. Also just picked up “Black Sun” by Rebecca Roanhorse, which was highly recommended by friends.
I skipped through Tamsen Parker’s “Seduction on the Slopes” (m/m featuring skiiers) and “Fire on the Ice” (f/f featuring skaters). Both were like 70% sex scenes, a little much for my tastes, but fun. In the latter, the conflict between the characters was a lot — one of them crosses a line I didn’t think they could realistically come back from, but no spoilers.
I enjoyed “How to Find a Princess” by Alyssa Cole but was disappointed it wasn’t really the f/f Anastasia retelling I was promised! Hoping someone else will write that, it’s a niche in the market that needs to be filled.
Romance and adjacent:
AGNES AND THE HITMAN by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Meyer – this was mentioned on here. Cranky Agnes is my new hero, the romance is sweet, the mystery plot kept me turning pages, there’s humor and cooking and found family and snarking at biological family.
BELLWETHER by Connie Willis (reread) – the romance is a subplot but the snark is top notch.
Middle grade:
@Jill Q – thank you for mentioning ZEUS THE MIGHTY (silly middle grade books about a hamster who thinks he’s a Greek god). It led me down a fun rabbit hole that ended up discovering HAMSTER AND CHEESE, book 1 in an adorable looking series called Guinea PIG, Pet Shop Private Eye by Colleen Venable and Stephanie Yue – my kid recently enjoyed Katie the Catsitter by the same author and illustrator.
Currently rereading one of each genre, hah:
A MATCH MADE FOR THANKSGIVING by Jackie Lau – thanks to the review and comments here for a much needed escape from real life Thanksgiving;
and THE AMAZING MAURICE AND HIS EDUCATED RODENTS by Terry Pratchett — the new edition illustrated by Laura Ellen Anderson. The cover and illustrations are spot on, whimsical and just creepy enough. It’s been a stressful month so I treated myself to a Discworld Emporium order of this and THE WEE FREE MEN (of which I already own the ebook and Stephen Player illustrated edition). Worth every penny and worth the wait for international shipping. TREAT. YO. SELF.
Hello, Bitches! Been very busy, but still managed to get some reading done. Three categories this week — all M/M, but big range in how much I enjoyed them:
TOTAL CREATIVE CONTROL by Joanna Chambers and Sally Malcolm – Excellent contemporary, already been discussed on this site. Boss/admin assistant relationship, not squicky, lots of interesting thoughts on writing, fanfic, and character development (they write TV scripts). Loved it! Will be eagerly awaiting their other work. Others have done it, but JC and SM do it very, very well here.
A MARVELLOUS LIGHT by Freya Marske – “Marvellous” describes this perfectly. Historical alternate Great Britain with magic. Some interesting family dynamics, bureaucratic element, built an interesting world with magic power tied to land and also inherited magic power, and very much first in the series, so lots left to reveal. Well written, and even though I have read lots of this kind of book, did not feel derivative. If you like KJ Charles’ Magpies series, this will be right up your alley (If you don’t like KJ Charles’s work, I will fight you. Any time, any place.). Will be reading the next book as soon as FM drops it. It’s called “The Last Binding #1,” so fingers crossed that FM is working on the next book this very moment!
THE BACHELOR’S VALET by Arden Powell –Enjoyable historical, sweet story. Recommended.
WAITING FOR CLARK by Annabeth Albert – Enjoyable second chance contemporary. Recommended.
THE LABOURS OF LORD PERRY CAVENDISH by Joanna Chambers – Enjoyable historical. Recommended.
SLOW HEAT by Leta Blake – Proceed with caution – if you have ever had a miscarriage, or had reproductive issues that have affected your health, or if you or people you love have been in relationships where reproduction/fertility was used to control or judge your or them, proceed with caution.
Someone on this site said that you either liked these books or you didn’t, there is no middle ground. I found this book really unhappy, and that is not what I am looking for with an mpreg/fated mates story. In an alternative future, there are no women, and genetics have altered men so they are alphas, betas, and omegas. Betas can’t reproduce and date/love as they like. Alphas and omegas have a destined match that they either meet or they don’t, and they can’t resist each other for physiological reasons. The omegas carry children, and can be impregnated by any alpha, but it is a process fraught with danger for them and there are many miscarriages. They also go into heats that are debilitating and painful for long stretches if not relieved, whether they find their mates or not.
In some ways, this is a more realistic, honest representation of what mpreg/fated mate systems would actually be like, so I thought I would like it. However, I did not. Fated mates, are, by definition, magical – if it were just genetics, you could be matched for more than one person, like identical twins, for instance, or it wouldn’t work to help the species to survive – so let me enjoy the fantasy, not wallow in the real problems it would present. If there are any actual experts who have thoughts about this, I’d love to hear them. Anyway, the whole society here is based on the repression of omegas, which I suppose calls out how women’s fertility is used to oppress and control them, but just didn’t work for me. Thoughtful enough to be a bummer, not thoughtful enough for me to feel like I learned something.
WED TO THE BARBARIAN by Keira Andrews – Barbarian story in alternative world. The barbarian was such a jerk, I just couldn’t. It ends with the other H finding out the terrible fate the barbarian’s family had in store for him (kidnapping and sending his hand back to his royal parents as proof of life to spark a war – very similar to what Vizzini planned for Buttercup in the Princess Bride) and the victim has not forgiven the barbarian for this, even though the barbarian changed his mind. He is done, and so am I.
For those in the United States, hope you had a restorative and loving Thanksgiving Day /Day of Mourning. We had two family celebrations, which were great, though we are now a little wrung out. Going to sit very still, eat pie, and read for the rest of the weekend! Thank you for adding your recs – can’t wait to go through them.
Due to lack of funds, I’m reading Lucy Parker’s London Celebrity series out of order. I just finished the audiobook of The Austen Playbook (still on sale!) and loved it, so now I’m re-listening to the next one, Headliners. The narrator (Billie Fulford-Brown) is fantastic. I want to manifest a good quality screen adaptation of these books- with the way the characters weave in and out, something along the lines of how Bridgerton was adapted could really work!
I tend to “read” via audiobook these days- I’m in an online masters program and so my reading/writing energy tends to be more academic. Audiobook fiction helps me get through chores and organizing projects. I’ve also been bingeing “Castle” episodes on Hulu this fall- I’m on season 6/8 and it’s my first time re-watching since it was originally on air. For TV, the romantic storyline holds up decently—I hate the way that writers can jerk characters around, all in the name of drama.
I just read “Breathe, Annie, Breathe” by Miranda Kenneally, part of a contemporary YA sports romance series. The main character, Annie, is training to run a marathon because that was her boyfriend’s goal when he died. Now she’s graduating high school, getting ready for college, and discovering feelings for her running coach’s younger brother that she does and doesn’t want to have. It’s all about grief and loss, how those things disrupt our lives and relationships, and learning to move forward again while holding the memory of a lost loved one close. I really liked it a lot and it has me wishing there were more fiction books that have women running as a major plot point.
BDBC’d my way through MISS MORIARTY, I PRESUME. Worth it. Loved seeing Charlotte’s delightfully playful sexuality now that she and Ingram have become lovers. Also enjoyed her take on the Reichenbach Falls that relies on female solidarity and ingenuity. It remains to be seen if Moriarty Jr. becomes an ally in the-enemy-of-my-enemy-is-my-friend way, another nemesis, or if she will be removing herself from the fray entirely.
I reread MURDER AT HALFMOON GATE in preparation for MURDER AT KENSINGTON PALACE, which I only realized I’d missed when I checked out MURDER AT QUEEN’S LANDING, and it mentioned a change in their relationship… I lost track of a lot of things in the last year… I should be caught up before MURDER AT THE ROYAL BOTANNIC GARDENS hits my reserve.
Read A SPINDLE SPLINTERED at the laundromat waiting for my stuff to dry. Broken dryer, no PTO, long story… Anyway, delightful retelling of Sleeping Beauty wherein the mc has done an exhaustive study of the fairy tale and then has a chance to change the fate of the cursed princess. Short and delightful and made me full of the feels.
ALL STIRRED UP (book 3 in the food porn read off from last month) turned out to be a PERSUASION retelling with the the Anne character working to save her grandfather’s legacy restaurant in Scotland while her family fiddles and Wentworth is an acclaimed chef who left her grandfather’s employ, and her, to find success in America. I found the reasons her aunt interfered in their relationship entirely justifiable. While Anne and Wentworth would have been happy together if had they not been separated, having not essentially changed over the years apart, Susan and Chris would have ended in disaster.
And now I’m heading back to the Laundromat.
Over the past two weeks ~
— for my local book group ~ Yellow Bird: Oil, Murder, and a Woman’s Search for Justice in Indian Country by Sierra Crane Murdoch. It is not what I would call an uplifting read, but it was very well researched and readable.
— Someone to Wed (The Westcott Series Book 3) by Mary Balogh: I enjoyed this historical romance.
— the contemporary romance Sweetheart (The Busy Bean) by Sarah Mayberry which I quite enjoyed. Thank you for the recommendation, @DDD.
— The Lost Letter: A Victorian Romance by Mimi Matthews. I enjoyed the book, but I don’t think it’s a book I’ll be rereading.
— a reread of The Protector (Guardsmen) by Cooper West which I enjoyed once again. This is a male/male romance with a paranormal element.
— continued re-reading the Guardsmen series and finished Rescued: A “Parker’s Sanctuary” Story (this is a FREE short prequel), Parker’s Sanctuary, Second Chances (an epilogue available from the author), and the novella Mismatched: A Guardsmen Romance Novella all by Cooper West. My favorite of these are the Parker’s Sanctuary pieces.
— the contemporary male/male romance Role Model (Game Changers Book 5) by Rachel Reid which I enjoyed.
— reread Silent Blade (The World of Kinsmen Book 1) by Ilona Andrews; this was an inadvertent reread as I only recognized the story after I began reading. It’s a fairly short work, and it was a pleasant read albeit with violence.
@BigK thank you for mentioning A MARVELLOUS LIGHT by Freya Marske, it sounds wonderful. I googled it and found out the first chapters are included in the Tordotcom Publishing 2021 Debut Sampler, FREE on kindle. These samples are longer than the typical Kindle sample and the curated selection is worth a look.
SPOILER ALERT: the spoilers are spoilery.
THE TYRANT ALPHA’S REJECTED MATE by Cate C. Wells – The Hallmark movie version of the rejected mate trope, this book is fun and sentimental and I was really enjoying the deft worldbuilding until The Thing happened. {B+}
I followed this up with Wells’ non-MC romances:
RUN POSY RUN is a mafia romance with a sociopathic hero. Wells doesn’t attempt to make antisocial personality disorder or criminality appear romantic, which is one of the reasons this book doesn’t work for me as a romance. (If she had employed the same sentimentalism as Tyrant Alpha, I would probably have liked it more.) But it’s an excellent character study of the heroine, whose sense of belonging was torn away as a teenager when her entire family was disgraced after her uncle tried to run a scam on the organization’s capo. She’s basically been trying to sleep her way back to that childhood feeling of security.
HITTING THE WALL – Forget romance. This is a brilliant treatise on privilege, specifically how privilege blinds the hero to the motives and actions of the people closest to him. It also illustrates how othering works in social and business interactions involving people who would generally consider themselves nice/thoughtful/unbiased. (Privilege isn’t new to romance — most of the HPs I read riff on that conflict — but the conflict usually disappears once the heroine is absorbed into the hero’s privileged strata. Rarely does the author shine the light on the hero’s ignorance in a way that suggests he might recognize the need for change.)
TOMMY CABOT WAS HERE by Cat Sebastian – This is a slightly melancholy, very sweet second chance romance about two men who fell in love at boarding school in the 30s but one of them didn’t realize it until 1959. Unfortunately, the setting of Tommy Cabot Was Here also evokes a particular white male privilege that rankles for a book set smack dab in the middle of the Civil Rights era without a single mention of race. But nothing can detract from the awesomeness of Patricia Mulligan Cabot; I hope she gets her own story. {B+}
TAKE ME by Jen Trinh – a married couple experiments with polyamory when each confesses their attraction to (separate) longstanding friends. I’m not sure who this book’s audience is, but if you follow me under the spoiler cut, I will be spoiling it for you. {C-}
I recently went on a spree of watching author interviews on YouTube. Mostly, I was looking for info on Martha Wells’ next book, Witch King, with no luck (2023!! ). In the process, though, I saw an interview with Jonathan Stroud which prompted me to read/listen to The Screaming Staircase. It’s YA/Middle Grade so I was surprised by how much I enjoyed it. I don’t generally like reading about kids but in this world kids are very mature because they’re the only ones who can see hauntings so hire out at an early age to do dangerous work. The heroine joins a ghost banishing agency and they go around having (potentially deadly) adventures.
@Deborah: I totally agree with your assessment that, in RUN POSY RUN, Posy is trying to sleep her way back to the security she knew as part of a big, interconnected mafia family before her uncle screwed things up and she and her family were collateral damage. That’s why Posy is not particularly concerned with having orgasms or even having had previous boyfriends (although not the hero) who were occasionally physically abusive. I thought Wells did a great job of capturing the good and not-so-good elements of being part of a large group where everyone knows everyone and everyone has their role/place. Cate uses that same social structure in THE TYRANT ALPHA’S REJECTED MATE, which I liked more than you did. I have to disagree with your comment about the hero that you put in the spoiler box because in my recollection of the story
Just finished The UnHoneymooners by Christina Lauren and The Hating Game by Sally Thorne (I know, I know, everyone’s probably read them. I usually read 50-100 books a year and they’re usually British police procedurals or gritty historical fiction. Idk why but I really needed a break and picked up Hating Game and felt like an invalid finding a tonic. SO entertaining. And now I remember the gothic romances I used to DEVOUR 20 years ago as a 15 year old. I stumbled on this site and I’m crying laughing at the charming reviews and honest observations. Definitely working romance back into my bookshelves.
Just getting toward the end of GABRIEL by Grace Burrowes; having met the characters in the previous book, BECKMAN, I needed to find out what happened to them after they departed that story on their own errands. Luckily (for my wallet) I found this next title in the series for a buck at Biblio, and snatched it up along with a few others in the series. Any time I can get four books for the price of two (including shipping) I am all over that. So I guess I will be burrowing through the Burrowes for a while… Anyway, good book, with a very tender and emotionally intelligent hero, though I feel bad for the heroine who keeps beating herself up for a youthful mistake that really was not so much her fault as something that she got pressured into. With bonus B-plot of a couple who entered into a marriage of obligation and now have to decide whether they want to stay married despite the legal loophole someone else is exploiting to break them up.
Like @DDD I dipped into Cate C Wells, and enjoyed both the Alphas Rejected Mate and Run Post Run, with all the caveats she outlined. I also read Charge, one of her MCC books, with a very young single mother heroine. She has zero parental support, but a great friend who backs her no matter what, which I loved. There is sexual assault described but it doesn’t happen on page.
Someone in the last Whatcha Reading mentioned they were reading Dorothy Grant, and really liked Going Ballistic and Blood, Oil and Love, both SF romance, closed door but with great serial tension.
:::comes in softly singing Tonight Tonight by the Smashing Pumpkins:::
It’s in my head, I was listening to it while cleaning.
Let’s see, as soon as it landed on my Kindle, I dived headlong into All The Feels by Olivia Dade. It was so great, and I kind of wish Gods of the Gates was a real show. I liked the dynamic between Lauren (controlled, but self-sacrificing to a fault) and Alex (an adorable chaos muppet). They both have issues to work on, but they had a ton of chemistry and the love languages at work (Lauren making sure Alex eats a good breakfast so that his ADHD meds don’t make him sick, Alex buying her a soft blanket the color of her eyes) were incredibly sweet. Already looking forward to Ship Wrecked, the next (and possibly last, sob) in the series. Then I read The Art of Theft, the 4th in Sherry Thomas’s Lady Sherlock series. I always enjoy the mystery of these books, and Charlotte as a character. I also like what I’m seeing of Livia’s development as a character, as she becomes both less sheltered and less downtrodden by her parents. That said, the back and forth between Charlotte and Ash, at this point? Look, you crazy kids, you’re nuts about each other, stop pretending you’re not and get bizzay. Which brings us to now, in which I’m reading White Smoke by Tiffany Jackson. It’s supposed to be spooky and atmospheric, but I’m only on about page 10 or so. So far, I’ve got the mention of bedbugs giving me heebies and jeebies, a 10 yo stepsister that is possibly a tiny budding sociopath, and the book opens with an introduction by a vengeful spirit that is clearly not okay with people moving into its home. Should be fun for the whole family. So on that note, let the holidaze begin.
@Vivi12 I’m glad you liked the Dorothy Grant books! I really enjoy her works – competence porn in a Sci-Fi setting. For this month, it hasn’t been a great reading month, but I live in hope…
Very good
UNDEADING BELLS by DREW HAYES (Urban Fantasy) The continuing story of Fred, the Vampire Accountant. A series of novels told episodically with lots of interesting characters.
Good
ACADEMY OF UNPREDICABLE MAGIC by SADIE MOSS (F/MMMM Paranormal). Somewhat interesting series about a girl going to magic school.
THE BOTANIST’S APPRENTICE and THE BACHELOR’S VALET by ARDEN POWELL. (M/M slight magic) The second was a Jeeves/Wooster retelling.
MISSION CATASTIC by C.W. GRAY (M/M Superheros). Interesting story and premise, but very short. Felt like the author was rushing over things in order to fit into a small setting.
TEA AND SYMPATHETIC MAGIC by TANSY ROBERTS (M/F Regency Fantasy) Short novella set in a regency-like setting. Interesting setting, and I’ll read onwards, but the story wasn’t great.
WOLFY by TIA FIELDING (M/M Werewolf contemporary). The premise was interesting, but it read like a short story instead of a novel. I’d have liked more and deeper from the book and the characters.
OK
ALIEN’S VACATION FLING SERIES (ALIEN/M Shifter) OK stories about aliens coming to earth on vacation and falling for earthlings. Somewhat insta-love and not bad, just not great.
It’s been a little while because the last two times I tried posting, I lost it and it was too much to re-type. So I’m going to try again….
M/M I have enjoyed lately:
LOVE AT FOURTH SIGHT by Ariella Zoelle — lovable characters with sweet feelings and pretty high heat. I was smiling, as well as swooning and the sibling relationship was perfectly crafted.
PRETTY OBSESSED by JR Gray — Gray is becoming a favorite author of mine and this story was great between a rock star and an author. I’m not a rock star romance fan, so I have to really like the story/author to even start one. This is the first in a new series that will involve the band members and I will be anxiously awaiting each one.
MERRY MEASURE by Lily Morton — this was a re-read for me in audio form. I enjoyed it so much in print, but listening to it took me to another level of happiness.
THE CHRISTMAS TENOR by VL Locey — a significant age gap between a widower and a college-aged opera singer. I loved the way Locey handled the difficulty of the husband moving on from his loss.
TAKEN BY CHANCE by Isla Olsen — This is my favorite in the series so far. This is a smaller age gap with the best friend’s little brother trope. There was classic funny banter that I love from Olsen, and the epilogue had me swooning.
M/F book:
HOW THE DUKE SAVED CHRISTMAS by Anna Harrington — I find her writing very lovely and found this one extra interesting because of the heroine’s physical challenges after having an accident. It is a second chance with a very wonderful Hero and lots of holiday goodness.
Still reading KU, except for some library waitlist stuff that came up.
I read Adriana Anders “Uncharted”, which has some similarities to her previous book, except this one has a Black heroine. The subtitle “a scorching hot forced proximity romance” says it all. Lots of bad guys chasing the H&h, competence porn and trying to survive in the freezing cold wilderness. In this case Alaska instead of Antarctica.
Mary Lancaster writes so many historical romances that I wonder if she is a consortium rather than an individual. Yet they are all at least readable(I haven’t DNF’d any yet) and some are really good. The writing and editing is decent, unlike some other very prolific authors. I’ve been going through them like French fries. I’m on the 3rd in her Season of Scandal series, the book is “Married to the Rogue”. It’s a classic MOC, where the couple only gets to know each other after the wedding. If you like this sort of stuff, the boxed set of 3 books is on sale for .99 right now, can’t go wrong.
My best read of the month though, was from the library, “The Brightest Star in Paris” by Diane Biller. I loved “The Widow of Rose House”, and this one is even better. It had more ghosts and female rage and revenge. And we get to see a lot more of the hero’s eccentric family of scientists, such a treat. Biller also has a prequel novella “A Christmas Spark” which was fun. There is still another siblings, so I’m counting on seeing the Moores again.
I hope everyone in the US had a great Thanksgiving (I just polished off a piece of leftover chocolate cream pie – yum)!
Excellent:
None
Very Good:
Locked Rooms by Laurie R King: The eighth book in the Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes mystery, this entry finds the pair in San Francisco unwrapping Mary’s history and the mysteries it contains.
Bright From the Start: The Simple, Science-Backed Way to Nurture Your Child’s Developing Mind from Birth to Age 3 by Jill Stamm: Very good information on why attention, bonding, and communication are so important for early child development and activities for each.
A Fatal Grace by Louise Penny: Second in the Inspector Gamache series, I have such mixed feelings about this. There was a lot going on – many threads that continued from the first book and will continue to the third. The murder was so outlandish and complicated (and actual murderer I found so unbelievable) that I could not suspend disbelief. BUT the writing is so great, the characters so deeply drawn that I still found it compelling and will continue with the series.
Marian’s Christmas Wish by Carla Kelly: I know Carla Kelly is highly recommended by other commenters here at SBTB and this is the first book of hers I read. I absolutely adored this book and inhaled it in one sitting (and this turned into a Bad Decisions Book Club selection) BUT I could not include it in excellent for one reason. The heroine is 16 and the hero 28 – while I assume that this is very historically accurate – as a modern reader, I really had a hard time with how young she was compared to the hero. I decided from the beginning I was just going to go with it, but I couldn’t completely ignore it.
Good:
The Good Sleeper: The Essential Guide to Sleep for Your Baby (and You) by Janet Krone Kennedy: Most books about baby sleep share a very similar premise, BUT I always find little helpful hints and tips in each and this book was no exception.
Mission Impawsible by Krista Davis: The fourth entry in the Paws and Claws cozy mystery series centered around a small town that turned itself into a resort town for people AND their pets. I don’t really read these for the mysteries, but for the description of the town and all the food at the B&B the MC runs.
Heart of Barkness by Spencer Quinn: Ninth in a mystery series narrated by Chet the Dog – any time spent with Chet is time well spent (so funny), BUT the mystery in this one was very confusing while still making the villain very obvious. One of the weaker entries in the series.
Meh:
Mousse and Murder by Elizabeth Logan: The first in the crazy Alaskan Diner mystery series, this one fell very flat for me (the killer was obvious from the very start). The only true strong point was that it really developed the location as unique – from the weather to the lack of law enforcement personnel to investigate various crimes. I do not plan to continue the series.
Singapore Sapphire by A.M. Stuart: A historical mystery series with a heroine that was once jailed as a suffragette in England – the premise sounds so intriguing, but, alas, this entire book was a slog. Nothing much seemed to happen from about 10%-60% through the book and then a few mildly interesting twists towards the end, but nothing that could redeem the book for me.
The Bad:
None
Last week I read a novel which I can’t for the life of me remember, so I guess it must not be worth remembering. This week it’s Marvellous Thieves by Paulo Lemos Horta, a book about five translators of the Arabian Nights — lots of colonial condescension to be found but the occasional crosscultural moment of illumination too. Made me really want to read the memoirs of Hanna Diab, a Syrian traveller who, while in France, told some stories (including Aladdin) that made their way into the Nights. And I look forward to the chapters that’ll cover the absolute weirdness of Richard Burton.
I’ve almost made it through the holiday weekend, just finished 58 hours of in-house and call and only 10 hours to go tomorrow. Let me just say that hospital food was disappointing this year. I hope you all had much better dinners and a happy weekend. And as pleasant company as I had. I do love the nurses I work with.
I went to Goodwill for senior day and found a new copy of His Majesty’s Dragon which I grabbed based on the recommendation of the Bitchery. I did enjoy it. I did enjoy it. Very much British Navy fights Napoleon with dragons. The dragons were great, very much important characters. Would recommend.
Then two mysteries from Kindle Unlimited, An Accidental Death by Peter Grainger and But for the Grace by the same. English procedurals, nicely done, nothing graphic though references to other cases that might have been. I like the main character, middle aged, newly widowed, smart and thoughtful. Not romances but would definitely recommend if you like this sort of thing.
Then I fell into the Stage Dive hole – found Lick by Kylie Scott on KU. Young woman in Vegas wakes up married to rock star. Ms Scott makes this very realistic and makes the marriage make sense. Plus interesting characters trying to figure out how to make things work. So, um, I just might have bought the next three books, Play, Lead, and Deep, and ignored my house and my online work and my family for a day. Total BDBC. Yes, somewhat sexy and a lot of fun as the other band members find love. The second book, Play, I found the hero a little annoying. Then I realized he reminded me of my middle brother, annoyingly silly but with hidden depths. Actually helped illuminate my fraternal relationship. Which makes it a really good book. Would recommend all of these if you have the time or, alternatively, the self discipline to not bogart the whole thing.
The Stillwater Girls by Minka Kent. Three sisters who have been living off the grid with their mother. Mother and younger sister head off to the hospital and disappear. The older two find their way to the world, go into foster care, try to make sense of all the strangeness around them while looking for their family. Their foster family also has issues. Trigger warning for post-partum depression towards the end. And, as someone who discussed PPD with now moms on a regular basis, if you are not enjoying your new baby at least some of the time, please ask for help. Would recommend.
Prime Minister by Ainslie Booth and Sadie Heller was not my cup of tea, though I don’t regret reading it and can see that some persons would really like it. I did not find it all that transgressive. She may be an intern and he the Prime Minister of Canada (fictional) but she is an adult and an ABD PhD student. And very smart.
Lizzie and Dante by Mary Bly, the heroine goes on vacation while dealing with sad personal news and meets a chef and his daughter. I did like it but trigger warning for serious illness and HFN, I think, rather than HEA. Would recommend.
I have been reading mysteries as that is what was available at the library
THE MADNESS OF CROWDS by Louise Penny was an interesting instalment in the series – looking at the impact of the pandemic
THE NOWHERE CHILD by Christian White was very good – gripping and I didn’t see the twist until the last moment.
Next on the list IS MURDER AT THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS by Andrea Penrose.
I have also been working my wy through Celia Lake’s backlist. I am now up to date, having read FOOL’S GOLD. Fantasy romance with mystery. Well worth the read
@Empress of Blandings – I totally remember The Reluctant Lark from reading it in the early 90s. Even then, my biggest takeaway was that unlike 90% of the heroines in the Loveswept line, she had zero agency. It almost reads like one of Johansen’s historicals transposed into a modern key.
My partner recently discovered Mary Roach, so a library copy of Fuzz showed up at my house with any effort on my part. I haven’t read her since Stiff and Bonk came out, so I’m excited to read new material.
The Remains of the Day – I don’t remember why I requested it from the library (F***bois of Literature podcast, probably). It wasn’t at all what I was expecting, in a very good way. Quietly political, and totally oblivious of interpersonal relationships.
The Other Black Girl – contemporary suspense. So good! I read it within a few weeks of Ace of Spades, which had a similar “POC in white spaces, bad things happen” vibe and now I want to write an essay comparing the two.
Still Life – Everyone seems to love Louise Penny, but I DNFed this at about 1/3 of the way through. The casual fat shaming combined with the wildly inaccurate Canadian criminal procedure meant I spent more time grumbling than enjoying.
I’m starting to dip into holiday romances, and am back on my annual quest for the perfect cozy British Christmas book. Jenny Colgan’s Christmas on the Island books hit that spot last year and the year before. This year I pulled out some Jilly Cooper paperbacks and decided to just read the Christmas scenes in each. The one at the beginning of Polo where Hamish leaves Daisy is a perfect antidote to “Christmas is magical and everyone is happy.”