We’re approaching the end of the year and there’s only one more Whatcha Reading left after this one in 2021!
Lara: I’ve hit a rough patch emotionally so I’ve turned to a series that Sarah has recommended: the Cadfael books by Ellis Peters. They’re a marvel and a balm for the soul!
Sarah: Aren’t they lovely? I am so glad they are giving you the mellow reading feels.
Lara: They’re just the best! I’m trying to convince everyone to read them!
Claudia: Tell you what, you convinced me to read After Dark with the Duke by Julie Anne Long and I’m enjoying it!
Lara: Claudia, I’m so glad!
Catherine: I’m rereading Polaris Rising by Jessie Mihalik, and it’s just as delightful as the first time I read it.
Maya: I’m currently cross stitching to Women and Other Monsters by Jess Zimmerman, which is sufficiently stoking my ever present rage and reading Wild Tongues Can’t Be Tamed, edited by Saraciea J. Fennell. ( A | BN | K ) The book is an anthology filled with stories written by Latinx authors. Contributors include some of my favs like Elizabeth Acevedo and Mark Oshiro. I am really enjoying it so far!
Carrie: I’m finally reading the Intimacy Experiment by Rosie Danan and I am SWOONING over it.
Elyse: I just started Dangerous Ground by Rachel Grant
Susan: I’m in the middle of an accidental Joanna Chambers binge – I’ve read the first three Winterbourne stories, then switched series and tore through Provoked, ( A | BN | K | AB ) and now I’m in the middle of Beguiled. I started reading the first one yesterday.
Tara: I’m reading ‘Nathan Burgoine’s m/m holiday romance Faux Ho Ho. ( A | BN | K ) The bulk of it takes place in the province where I live and I’m enjoying it.
Sarah: Maya what’s your xstitch project?
Maya: I’m making Forged in Fire themed bookmarks — there’s a knife on one side and on the other it says “It will kill”!!
Elyse: I get my booster Friday so I have a Helen Hoang feel good reread set up for the weekend too. My brain can’t accept new material when I’m mildly feverish and tired.
Amanda: Good luck!! My booster made my lymph node so sore and swollen for nearly a week.
Kiki: I’ve recently abandoned the latest Kleypas and am instead reading/rereading some Scarlett Peckham and hopefully will finally be getting to The Rakess.
Shana: I am reading too many books at once and having trouble settling into any of them. The stickiest one seems to be One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston. I lost it to library chicken a few months back and I’m enjoying it.
Sarah: …library chicken?
as in you didn’t read it before it was due?
I am reading…California Girl by Janet Quin-Harkin, ( A ) aka Rhys Bowen, Sweet dreams number 6, published in 1981.
Shana: Yes, I have a bad habit of starting a library book a few days before the due date. Am I the only one who calls this game library chicken?
Ellen: I just finished A Marvellous Light by Freya Marske and I cannot recommend it highly enough for any lovers of fantasy romance!! The magic system was very cool, tight plotting, beautiful angst-filled slow-burn M/M romance. I’m currently reading Wolf Gone Wild by Juliette Cross ( A | BN ) and I’m enjoying it more than I thought I would, haha! It’s a very cozy PNR which is quite relaxing.
Also Shana the due date of library books pretty much determines the order things come off the TBR for me.
What are you reading? Let us know!
On the book front: The Intimacy Experiment: appealing romance between a rabbi and a former porn star, now sex-positive educator, who have more overcome their own and others’ expectations about the contrast in their stations, than any actual difference. Religion thoroughly woven in. Only drawback is now and then characters say something that sounds like a lecture rather than their own voice, and there’s an implausible scene at the heroine’s former high school. But I thought it was both a substantial and an entertaining book.
When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo. This may not be a book for fans of shifter romances despite being about a tiger shifter who fell in love with a human and won her. Said shifter being more tiger in nature than human, it makes for a pretty creepy love story. It’s a book that asks itself, “what sort of stories would a tiger find romantic?” Clever, and very well written.
Secondly, I just got into interactive novels (all so far from Choice of Games, one of whose creators was a podcast guest here this fall) and have been having a blast. Creme de la Creme is set at a snobby boarding school, where you can social climb or rebel, and marry for love or advantage. My first time through I paid the price for playing in character — I was an ethical and kind-hearted but reserved girl who thought a lot about her actions, put a premium on ladylike behavior, would not confront her elders directly, and was always looking to make peace in conflicts. Few people recognized my good qualities, I was unpopular, and my attempted romance fizzled out. A bubbly, impulsive character did much better! Currently, I’m about to start a third run through Trials of the Thieftaker which is even better. It’s set in 18th-century London, where you hunt thieves for a reward and can be corrupt or straitlaced; the writing is great, the setting is fascinating, and it’s quite hard to succeed. Not much romance in this one, but in one runthrough I almost got together with a madly idealistic thief I’d helped escape from prison, interrupted by being arrested myself, convicted and transported to the colonies.
First off, @Maya—OMG, do you have a pattern you could share? My daughter LOVES Forged in Fire. It’s also one of those shows that my husband and I both enjoy—it’s gotten to the point where we yell things at the TV like, “Too hot going into the quench!” It’s fun. (For anyone not familiar, the show is basically Chopped but with knife making.)
Okay, books:
THE MAGPIE LORD by KJ Charles. This one trended more horror than I would normally go for, but it was brisk and it’s KJ Charles, so that makes a difference. Will probably pick up the next two in the series.
THE GUINEVERE DECEPTION by Kiersten White. Pretty sure this was featured recently in a books on sale post. The premise is that Guinevere is a changeling and there’s magic and mystery afoot. I’m not familiar enough with Arthurian legend to figure out what might happen, but found this one intriguing.
SPELLCLOAKED—short story in the Harwood Spellbook series by Stephanie Burgis. I think she comments around here sometimes, so I’ll just make a plea: please make all the Harwood Spellbook books/stories/novellas longer. I love them so much and they always end too soon!
THE MATZAH BALL by Jean Meltzer. Enjoyed this for its Jewish and disability rep (the author and the main character both have chronic fatigue syndrome), but found the romance less of a draw.
THRONE OF GLASS by Sarah J. Maas. This was okay—it has a teenage heroine so it has more of the angsty angle which is my least favorite part of Maas’s writing style. Might go back and read the next one in the series, but not super likely.
Currently reading Jackie Lau’s holiday novella collection THERE’S ONLY ONE BED AT CHRISTMAS. Lau’s books are like a favorite local pub for me—somewhat predictable but reliable and delicious. (She’s definitely on the “tell rather than show” side of things, but she’s very funny and writes really good sex. I’ll take it.)
I have never been very into romance short stories and I’ve never been too into Christmas romances, but this year for some perverse reason I decided that I was going to throw myself into maybe due to some lack of holiday spirit and and attention span. It was very hit or miss, but since they were mostly short stories, I didn’t feel bad because I would just dump them when they lost interest. (I’m also currently SINGLE ON THE WAY on Netflix while doing holiday chores)
So, for our Christmassy anthology short stories, from favorite to least favorite-
HOLIDAY HOUSE PARTIES: TWO TALES by Elizabeth Mansfield – I love most Elizabeth Mansfield stories and i feel like she doesn’t get enough love. She passed away some time ago, but she wrote traditional regencies that are very light and frothy and these holiday stories are exactly in that vein. I listened to the audiobook while cleaning and it was delightful.
MISCHIEF AND MISTLETOE ANTHOLOGY by Mary Jo Putney and a whole lot of other people. This anthology was written by the writers of the Wordy Wenches blog and they didn’t try to hard to stick to a theme or style. So every writer got to write something that worked for them, which was a plus.
CHRISTMAS MIRACLES by Mary Balogh – This was my least favorite. I feel like the stories suffered from being read back to back. The first too were sweet, but pretty similar. I also found them kind of overwrought at times, but I think early Mary Balogh just hits me that way. And the last one (spoiler alert but not really) had angels that were trying to bring an estranged couple back together and rather than being charming, I found them extremely creepy and invasive in their privacy. I got a very “Twilight Zone” vibe from them and found it hard to even finish that one.
DUKE, ACTUALLY by Jenny Holiday – Okay, this was not an anthology, but I got to say it was the exact type of holiday romance I was looking for. “Hallmarky but with fun sexy times” is the vibe I was going for and this had a great friends to lovers, slow slow burn. Bonus points for not painting big cities as evil. Even with the kind of silly pretend European country, the characters all felt grounded in reality and recognizable as people. I found the hero particularly charming and I say that as someone who usually reads more for the heroine (she was also great!)
THE SCOUNDREL’S DAUGHTER by Anne Gracie – This was charming and also a bit of a regency throwback (although with sexy times).. There two couples and the main couple was the older set, which was pretty nice.
BATTLE ROYAL by Lucy Parker – This was cute and i enjoyed it even though I’m finding less and less tolerance for romances that are about bakers (love to bake, just sugared out) and that have reality TV components (although this was only a little part of it). It was a great grumpy/sunshine enemies to lovers STORY and it had a lot of other interesting emotional threads going on. I almost never visualize characters as particular people, but for whatever reason, I pictured the hero as Alan Rickman in this prime and I’m not going to lie. . . it did not hurt.
Hope everyone is having a lovely December!
Part I
Tessa Bailey is hit-or-miss for me. When I start one of her books, I’m never sure if I’ll be getting “Tessa Bailey, Queen of the Dirty-Talking Alpha Hero and Smoking-Hot Sex Scenes” or “Tessa Bailey, Queen of the Boorish Alphaholes and Inexplicably TSTL Heroines,” so I went into IT HAPPENED ONE SUMMER with some trepidation. However, I was pleasantly surprised by this story of an L.A. social-media influencer whose latest viral stunt results in her step-father banishing her to the fishing town in the Pacific Northwest where her late father had lived. Once in the town, the heroine meets a gruff widower who captains a fishing vessel. They both make negative assumptions about the other, assumptions that take some time to undo, even in light of their escalating mutual attraction. I liked that the hero and heroine both grew emotionally as their love deepened and that each of them found things to appreciate in the other. I was very glad that Bailey didn’t go the route of having only the heroine learn and grow from her new experiences (falling in love, meeting her grandmother for the first time, making friends with the local population, fixing up her father’s dilapidated bar with the help of her vinyl-record-loving sister), but that the hero had plenty to learn from the heroine too—about being kind, friendly, outgoing, and occasionally spontaneous. I liked IT HAPPENED ONE SUMMER so much, it has replaced HEAT STROKE as my favorite Tessa Bailey book. Highly recommended.
Katie Golding’s WRECKLESS (the second in her Moto Grand Prix series about elite motorcycle racers) is an antagonists-to-lovers/sports-rivals romance between two racers who have been competing against each other for over a decade and, for a variety of reasons, are unable to acknowledge their reciprocated feelings. The heroine (one of the few women on the Moto circuit and a supporting character in Golding’s earlier FEARLESS) has been moving up the rankings until a bad crash shakes her confidence; her subsequent slide down the rankings scale (Golding shows the ranking forms after each race) leaves her at risk of losing her sponsorship. Meanwhile, the hero is trying to erase a long-held family debt and needs every bit of money he can earn on the circuit; he knows he cannot appear to be too cozy with a competitor. Golding excels at describing an insulated world where everyone knows everyone and even blood brothers become rivals on the track. I enjoyed this very deliberately-paced slow-burn romance full of technical detail and competence porn. Golding’s style reminds me of Pamela Clare and Kari Lynn Dell. If you like the books of those two, you will probably like Golding. Recommended, but be prepared for the measured rate of the romantic development and a deep-dive into motorcycle racing.
Maisey Yates published two new books this month: THE COWBOY SHE LOVES TO HATE, the start of a new series of cowboy romances called Four Corners Ranch, and CROWNED FOR HIS CHRISTMAS BABY, an HP that begins a quartet of books about a group of royal friends (with forthcoming books in the series to be written by some of my others HP favorites like Caitlin Crews and Jackie Ashenden). Interestingly, both books deal with the long-term effects of various types of parental abuse: physical abuse, emotional cruelty, neglect, or withholding of affection; in neither book is there any explicit descriptions of abuse, but the MCs of both books have been affected by their upbringing. In THE COWBOY SHE LOVES TO HATE, the h&h have been circling each other since their teen years; on the heroine’s 30th birthday (she’s still a virgin), they finally make love for the first time. Then they have to decide if they can overcome their pasts and create a life together. Both h&h had abusive fathers, but the heroine’s mother removed herself and her daughter from the situation while the hero’s mother took off and left her sons with their brutal father. My one problem with COWBOY is that it is only a novella and the ending felt quite abrupt; I think the intensity of the story required something longer; but I am interested in the upcoming books in the series, especially those featuring the hero’s brothers. Recommended.
Yates’s CROWNED FOR HIS CHRISTMAS BABY is another in a long line of HP royal romances where the hero (a king or a prince) is determined not to be like his monster of a father, but inadvertently behaves in a way that reflects the lessons of a lifetime of dysfunction and has to learn a new way of relating to those around him, especially toward the heroine. In CROWNED, the hero has been slowly dismantling his father’s corrupt regime and wants to use the heroine (the adult daughter of his father’s mistress) as part of a revenge scheme. The heroine (who has spent many years in therapy processing the emotional neglect she suffered at the hands of her mother) is torn between wanting to help the hero and wanting to remain far away from palace intrigue. I liked the inclusion of therapy in the story (which, obviously from the title, also includes that go-to HP trope, the unplanned pregnancy) and I really liked the capable heroine. The storyline is not quite as angsty as many of Yates’s previous HPs, but I enjoyed it—and recommend it—just the same.
Part II
‘Tis the season for re-reading. Of course, number one on my re-read list is Kati Wilde’s Christmas trilogy: ALL HE WANTS FOR CHRISTMAS, THE WEDDING NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, and my all-the-feels favorite, SECRET SANTA. Kati’s angsty/emotional/sexy Christmas stories always hit my sweet spot this time of year. Highly recommended.
I also re-read Alexis Hall’s Arden St. Ives trilogy, HOW TO BANG A BILLIONAIRE, HOW TO BLOW IT WITH A BILLIONAIRE, and HOW TO BELONG WITH A BILLIONAIRE. If you’re familiar with Hall’s work from his more recent “semi-closed-door” books like BOYFRIEND MATERIAL and ROSALINE PALMER TAKES THE CAKE, be prepared for a much higher level of on-page sex and kink. The St. Ives trilogy (about Arden, a young Oxford graduate, and Caspian, a very damaged billionaire) has some 50 SHADES elements—if Anastasia were a gay man with plenty of sexual experience, a lot of self-awareness, and a wonderfully snarky pop-culture-suffused inner monologue. But the main thing I noticed in my re-read is that Caspian is stuck in his 14-year-old persona and hasn’t progressed emotionally beyond a boy who lost his father (and cw/tw experienced a subsequent traumatic situation) at a young age. This makes a lot of Caspian’s behavior in the first two books much more understandable as things come to a head in the third. A good re-read—especially for Arden’s inner-voice—but I recommend viewing the trilogy more as the story of one man’s growth and maturation rather than as the story of two men’s romance.
A final re-read was a book very close to my heart but one that has several admittedly problematic elements: THE ABANDONED BRIDE by Edith Layton. In the late 1980s when I had gotten totally burned out on bodice-rippers and had stopped reading romance, a friend gave me a bag of books that included both THE ABANDONED BRIDE and Mary Balogh’s THE OBEDIENT BRIDE—and those two Regencies paved the way for my return to romance reading. THE ABANDONED BRIDE (first published in 1985) is about a poor young woman, abandoned by her aristocratic fiancé on what should have been their wedding day, and what happens three years later when the erstwhile groom’s uncle—laboring under the misapprehension that his nephew refuses to return to England because of the heroine—insists she (now a governess) accompany him to the continent to resolve the matter. BRIDE is well-written and I love how the decent and good-hearted heroine eventually wins the love of the uncle/hero, but there are some elements that I think would not make the book a great read today without my nostalgia glasses. First and foremost: early in the book, the hero slaps the heroine. The hero is immediately contrite and his behavior is in no way mitigated or excused (the repercussions of the slap reverberate throughout the entire book), but it is undoubtedly physical violence perpetrated by a man against a woman and I know that will be a hard no for many readers. Secondly, the heroine is essentially tricked into accompanying the hero to the continent. She says several times that she is unwilling to go, but eventually, believing she has a governess position in France, journeys abroad…only to discover she has been deceived. Thirdly, there is a character who, while not evil, does some selfish things motivated by self-preservation that cause harm to the heroine; this character is gay and there’s a not very subtle implication that his sexuality influences his decision to implicate an innocent person in his plans. I enjoyed my re-read, but I daresay THE ABANDONED BRIDE’s time may have passed.
Hercule Poirot’s Christmas: I’d never read it before, so I thought I’d put it into the Christmas mystery mix, along with a rewatch/reread of Sherlock Holmes’s “Blue Carbuncle.
Romance-wise, I just begun Bethany Bennett’s West End Earl. Also, my request for Frenchman’s Creek came in at the library.
I’m finishing up True Grit. I loathe Westerns, but love horses, and this was suggested as a cut way above the usual. It’s really wonderfully written, though very Old Skool.
Go Tell the Bees that I am Gone by Diana Gabaldon: It was so bad. It’s on track to be my worst book for 2021, and I normally really like Gabaldon. I won’t spoil it, but at over 900 pages, at least 2/3 were MEANINGFUL CONVERSATIONS between various people. I did a lot of skimming Most of the action is jammed into the last quarter of the book. Grade: D
Paladin’s Strength by T. R. Kingfisher: Much better. I like Istvahn and Clara. I hope that later books go into what killed their god. Grade: A-
Vespertine by Margaret Rogerson: A little too YA in the writing, but the revenant is awesome. Grade: B+
@MirandaB
Ditto on GO TELL THE BEES I AM GONE. I skim read it looking for characters I recognized and cared about. I might have liked the last one less, but I think that was while I still cared about the characters a bit. Now reading was just about sheer nosiness for certain characters, like googling an old boyfriend or checking out your high school nemesis on facebook.
@Quinn: I love HERCULE POIROT’S CHRISTMAS. It’s my favorite of all the HP books I’ve read.
I’m reading DUKE, ACTUALLY by Jenny Holiday, and I also want to check out THE MATZAH BALL by Jean Meltzer. That will probably be it for my holiday romance reading this year.
I also want to check out THE LOVE CON by Seressia Glass, and I have a bunch of books/series I want to catch up on, like THE DEVIL YOU KNOW by Kit Rocha.
I’m still bingeing out holiday rom-coms. Maybe it’s me, but they just haven’t seemed as good this year. A CASTLE FOR CHRISTMAS on Netflix was cute, though.
KJ Charles – The Sugared Game. I am really enjoying this series (in fact, I’m almost done with the third book, though that will have to make the next WAYR.) I’m not always a fan of single-POV romances (then again I don’t know that this is strictly a capital R romance. More of a mystery/adventure with strong romantic elements?) and a part of me really wishes to see Kim’s interior, but then again, that’s rather the point, we only get to see Kim through Will, and how that changes over the course of the series is quite well done.
Tana French- The Searcher. French always seems to do really well with an outsider perspective, and I really liked how this one built a sense of real menace in the backdrop of a tiny Irish village. There weren’t a whole lot of suprises here, but that’s okay (in her previous book she went for surprises and my feelings were…mixed.) I do think she writes rather too many middle-aged, disillusioned white male cops and I’d love to see a different kind of character from her. The prose was beautiful as always.
@MirandaB—definitely read PALADIN’S HOPE. The ending? Combination of chef’s kiss and howling, “Wait!!! I need the next book IMMEDIATELY!!!”
@HeatherM KJ Charles has a free epilogue that is half from Kim’s POV, so we finally get to hear his voice (the other half features my favorite of her couple’s, who are hinted at in Will and Kim’s books. She has said this will be the last of their stories.)
Hello, Smart Bitches! Haven’t finished anything lately — work has been all consuming. However, I have started a few things (Rogue I’d Like to F*** (five novellas), The Goblin King by Jovee Winters, and Duke Actually by Holiday), all of which I am enjoying, just not finishing. Will be poring over all of your recs for Xmas presents, so I’ve been looking forward to this post! Hope you are all safe and enjoying/tolerating the holiday season in whatever way brings you happiness!
Read THE EX-HEX by Erin Sterling. While it gets a B at best from me, it had some nice elements. Not quite to the level of fluff, but definitely not dense. On the plus side, it was the use of tarot cards in the book coupled with Carrie S’s review of the Labyrinth deck that sent me off on the rabbit trail of books about tarot reading and contemplation through tarot.
Currently reading FALL by Kristen Callihan. At 40% in, it is very good. CW for depression and [off screen and past] suicide attempt. What makes it particularly interesting is that Callihan has used endnotes at the end of each chapter that show what she was thinking as she was writing the book. As a semi-reformed academic, I love her involvement with the book that shines through the notes.
I’ve not been reading much lately because I’ve been watching Yogscast Jingle Jam streams. But that’s almost over. (Check out the games collection if you’re looking for some new games and have 35 pounds to spare.)
Finally read The Brightest Star in Paris. I liked it! The Widow of Rose House was a pleasant surprise and the follow-up was also quite good. The Moore family might be my favorite part of the story and I’m looking forward to Maggie’s book.
Currently reading Rake I’d Like to F… and liking it well enough.
@Fashionablyevil, I don’t read horror at all, but I still loved the Charm of Magpies trilogy. They were my first KJ Charles books. I listened to them on audio and the short story she wrote after each book was included. They are worth it if you can find them.
This has been an awful week. We are stuck in a hotel while the floors on our main level are repaired and I had no idea what I wanted to read. So back to old comfort favorites. Finished the Elenium trilogy by David Eddings and also the first 4 of the Belgariad series also by Eddings. 80s and early 90s fantasy can be just as problematic as old skool romance and I actually see some of the same issues that were a staple of 80’s romance in reading these books as an adult that I didn’t catch when I was 15. Coupled with the fact that Eddings went to jail in 1970 for child abuse and I don’t recommend that anyone buy them and give his estate money.
I’m also playing library chicken as The Inheritance Games Jennifer Lynn Barnes is due on Monday and I haven’t started it yet.
My favorite book this month so far has been Seducing the Sorcerer by Lee Welch. (Not crazy about the title.) It was a little slow to start, but picked up nicely. Welch has a gift for setting up interesting magic systems that aren’t overly complex and for writing multilayered characters. I loved the worple horse! Her first novel, Salt Magic Skin Magic, is even better.
Mostly read lots of perfectly acceptable unremarkable romances, all of which I have already forgotten. The only standouts of late are cross-genre.
Thoroughly enjoyed a couple of older fantasy/romances, Swordspoint and Lord of the White Hell (whyyyy does my library only have part one, cruel).
Can’t stop thinking about some Victoria Goddard fantasies I have read recently which are objectively terrible from a structural point of view, just a where was her editor redundant plotless mess, all tell no show, that have nevertheless enjoyably redefined the genre for me. It made it really hard to appreciate the standard aristocratic worlds of Swordspoint and LotWH although they had relatively good world building. Basically as long as we’re making up fantasies in which people with power can be uncorrupted by it, I now want them all to be providing universal income and flawless postal service.
On the detective/romance front I have pretty conclusively established that I am incapable of finishing an Ashley Weaver book, or resisting the impulse to try. Ideal in theory, every time, but relentlessly uninteresting pov characters. I also tried a whole bunch of wildly unsatisfying cozy mysteries, like an embarrassing amount, and still needed someone else to point out to me that the reason I don’t like them is there’s no sex and that’s (who knew) a requirement of the genre.
I would say the theme of my most recent romance reads has been “not a lot of substance,” lol. “Mangoes and Mistletoe” by Adriana Herrera was a f/f novella featuring a relationship between two women who are paired as teammates on a holiday TV baking competition. Not a premise I was expecting a nuanced narrative out of, but I did want more reality TV baking drama! This was like a Christmas sugar cookie — sweet, fluffy, you’ll forget about consuming it after a day.
“Humbug” by Joanna Chambers was another Christmas novella, a m/m romance very loosely based on A Christmas Carol. I read this mostly to see if I liked Chambers’ writing enough to check out her longer books and it was fine! Looking forward to trying one of her historicals.
“Before You Say I Do” by Claire Lydon… this book drove me crazy. The premise sounded like it would feature so much fun drama and it completely let me down. Basically, Abby is getting married to her rich and nice-but-boring fiancé Marcus. She’s stressed out by wedding planning and her judgmental mother-in-law-to-be, so Marcus hired Jordan, a “professional bridesmaid” who will act as a sort of combination event planner, PA and emotional support best-friend-for-hire. Jordan and Abby become real friends, Jordan doesn’t do relationships because so busy with her job but starts to fall for Abby, Abby has cold feet about the wedding — they fall in love, obviously. As much as I initially responded positively to this premise, it needs strong chemistry between the leads to work, and it just wasn’t there. As a reader, you’re thinking the exact same thing any rational friend of Abby’s would think IRL — she’s not that into her fiancé, so of course she’s developed an infatuation with a hot new person whose job is to tend to her every whim. And even though half of the chapters are from Jordan’s POV, I really couldn’t tell you what she sees in Abby at all. Most of what Abby does in Jordan’s presence is talk about hating her job and then try to cheat on her fiancé. And Marcus is such a non-character who barely interacts with Abby, even though they’re about to get married, that the conflict is barely present. This book left me thinking “man, I wish someone else had written a better version of this.”
A lot of words for a book I didn’t like! Anyway, “Good Enough to Eat” by Alison Gray and Jae was one that I thought was just fine. It’s a paranormal romance in which Robin, a vampire trying to stop drinking blood, decides to try going to AA to develop some coping strategies. She meets Alana, who agrees to be her sponsor without knowing why she’s really there. Alana is a real recovering alcoholic but unbeknownst to Robin is also a former djinn who gave up her powers to become human. They’re very attracted to each other but shouldn’t date because Alana is Robin’s sponsor and is also very obviously hiding something. This book features some heavy subject matter with the focus on alcoholism and recovery, but because the stakes of these character’s lives are so removed from real life (Robin’s parents want her to drink human blood! Alana’s best friend is a djinn who lives in a cell phone!) it’s a pretty light and breezy read. The main characters don’t find out each other’s paranormal secrets until quite far into the book, which I imagine would bother some readers, but it’s also handled pretty lightly.
I also read “The 7 1/2 Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle” and had mixed thoughts. The premise is that the main character has to solve a murder mystery by living the same day eight times, as eight different people. It takes a long time for either the protagonist or the reader to get even a basic grasp on what’s going on. I found the resolution of the murder mystery itself to be really satisfying and well-executed, with some great page-turner plot twists. But the other mystery of who the protagonist is (he remembers nothing about his life outside these eight days) and why this is happening to him will leave you saying “Wait, what? THAT’S what’s happening? …Why?”
TAKE A HINT, DANI BROWN – You all kept recommending Talia Hibbert, I bounced off a few of her older books, this one finally connected and it was so good. Started off funny, light and sexy, the emotional stuff built up slowly and the payoff was so cathartic.
A SPARK OF WHITE FIRE by Sangu Mandanna – retelling of an epic saga with gods and mortals, set in space with a YA romance subplot. Held my interest for the whole trilogy. CW for violence, parental abuse, bad things happening to good people. The story unfolded beautifully and ended on a hopeful note. It’s a completed trilogy.
ONCE MORE UPON A TIME by Roshani Chokshi – fun premise, funny moments but the characters felt a bit cardboardy. I stalled out halfway through, may or may not finish.
currently reading:
MYTHIC DREAM anthology – SFF, been eyeing it for a while. Myth retellings in modern settings, some quite intense so check Goodreads reviews for content warnings. The T. KINGFISHER short story is funny and refreshing; the one by SARAH GAILEY much more intense, seething with feminist rage and beautifully written.
PALADIN’S STRENGTH by T. Kingfisher – really enjoying these characters and world.
THE OUTDOOR SCIENTIST: The Wonder of Observing the Natural World by Temple Grandin – nonfiction, takes me back to childhood summers at grandma’s farm fascinated by all the animals, insects, plants, rocks, clouds, stars… oh, this reminds me of the comic SEDNA about a little girl who loves space/astronomy and her best friend who loves dinosaurs. Adorable and informative, lots of free content available in the website archives or on Webtoon.
COLOR OUTSIDE THE LINES: Stories About Love edited by Sangu Mandanna – “An anthology of YA stories that explores the complexity and beauty of interracial and LGBTQ+ relationships.” Just picked it up this morning, looks very promising based on the editor’s note and authors names.
I was kinda annoyed at the lack of breadth of the Goodreads choice awards in the romance category (they were all contemporary rom-com-y types) that I perversely decided to read everything BUT contemporary rom-comy-y types
I just finished AFTER DARK WITH THE DUKE – by Julie Anne Long – It was wonderful!! Just lovely, lovely, lovely.
FATED BLADES – by Ilona Andrews – the most recent sci-fi romance novella in their Kinsmen series. They write to my happy place and this little tight, action filled romance was perfect for me.
AWAKENED – BY Lauren Dane – the third in her Diablo Lake series about a witch/shifter town with a lot of bubbling under the surface politics and factions. A little low conflict for my taste but I like all the characters in the series.
Catching up on my Penric and Desdemona books by Lois McMaster Bujold – so just finished THE PRISONER OF LIMNOS and THE ORPHANS OF RASPAY – both were excellent.
Next up I have A WICKED CONCEIT by Anna Lee Huber and SOMEONE PERFECT by Mary Balogh.
Well, the surprise under door number one of the advent calendar turned out to be… Covid! Well, yay. Nobody’s seriously ill, but still.
So, I’ve been reading a bit more non-fiction these last couple of weeks, including BONK by Mary Roach. Informative and entertaining look at the science of sex. I kept reading some of the funnier lines out to the spouse, then got to the bit about penile implants and decided to spare him that. Roach has an easy conversational style which was just right for my poor, knackered brain.
Having said that, I’m very much enjoying ISLANDS OF ABANDONMENT by Cal Flynn which is much quieter in tone. The book is about places that have been left to nature by humankind, and how nature has reclaimed them, and while it feels elegiac, it’s also hopeful about how life can come back to some of the most desolated places.
Back to fiction!
I actually managed what I thought was impossible, and found a Sarah Mayberry book I didn’t enjoy. It’s called ISLAND HEAT and while it’s well-written, I kept losing interest and skipped to the end. There just seemed to be a lot of plot trying to fit into to little space. The main romance was between two chefs who parted on bad terms some years before. The h thinks the H slept with her for a bet, in return, she led him to believe he had a job at a top restaurant and for which he’d cut ties and spent all his money moving across the country. This felt so disproportionate a revenge, I lost sympathy with her and struggled to get it back. The dispute was patched over quite early in the book, and gave way to plots about (a) an antique necklace that the h has been lent, and which a blackmailed ship employee is trying to get back and (b) the h trying to track down the son of her brother who died some years ago, whose photo she spots in a local paper. Neither really took off for me, and I’d rather she’d just hacked off at least one of these, and spent more time on developing the central relationship.
CITY MOUSE by Amy Lane and Alexsandr Voinov. I saw Voinov recommended on another site, and quite enjoyed this one co-written by him. This is an m/m novella that turned out to be a sequel but could be read as a standalone. It’s low-angst and not hugely deep, about a fairly new couple finding their way past early relationship obstacles. Malcolm is interesting, because he’s a stereotypical city trader ie a pretty awful human being. Somehow, he’s fallen for Owen, a laid-back lefty American tourist. When Owen decides he needs a job, Malcolm is insistent that he needs to get a ‘proper’ job, by which he means working for some financial institution or other and is very disparaging about the run down co-op offices Owen actually wants to work in. Malcolm ought to be more repellant than he is, but he’s funny as well as foul-mouthed, and Lane and Voinov peel back the layers to show how desperate Malcolm is to put an unhappy, bullied childhood as far behind him as possible, and money and status and work are how he proves he’s done that.
Otherwise, I’ve been re-reading a lot because my brain is so tired right now. A few Tara Pammi who reminds me a little of Maisey Yates and Caitlin Crews. Like Crews, she has overbearing heroes who quite often tip over into outright ghastliness. However, when they do fall, they go down with a satisfying thump. She has a habit of dropping you into the action and leaving you to figure out who’s who, but I enjoy that.
Also Dani Collins. Not every one’s a winner, but she has unconventional heroines, a quirky turn of phrase, and often some gently pointed feminism. In THE MARRIAGE HE MUST KEEP, there’s a baby-swap by an evil cousin at the beginning of the book, and the hospital staff doubt the h and the other new mother. When the H demands a DNA test, suddenly everyone jumps to action and one of the women murmurs to the other how odd it is that nobody seems to hear women’s voices, to which the other replies that they must be so high only dogs can hear them. This isn’t my favourite of hers, as it felt a bit uneven. There’s lots of drama loaded into the front (said baby-swapping evil cousin), which disappears quite quickly, but still, the h&H working past the difficulties in their marriage and figuring out what they wanted from life and each other was a satisfying one.
@DiscoDollyDeb, I just reread the Kati Wilde Christmas books again and they hit the spot! Then fell into a reread of the Deadlands stories 🙂
Before that, Rake I’d Like to F… knocked my socks off in a good way. Went back to pull Duke I’d Like off the TBR…
@Empress of Blandings: If you like Aleksandr Voinov’s style, I recommend the Market Garden series he co-wrote with L.A. Witt about the denizens of an upscale escort service, especially QUID PRO QUO, TAKE IT OFF, and PAYOFF. Short and sexy reads, but with emotional connectivity too. Voinov also wrote a massive m/m series called SPECIAL FORCES about two soldiers (one Russian, one British) and their 25-year relationship starting in Afghanistan. It’s very violent in parts (all the triggers apply) and both men have other relationships during the course of the series, but it’s quite a tour-de-force.
@DiscoDollyDeb thanks, they sound most interesting.
Also, just saw an advert for a Christmas romance (un-festive guy has the Christmas spirit beamed upon him) and has anyone ever written one where the non-festive person is just be allowed to be goddamn grumpy if they want to be?
I, for example, have absolutely zero Christmas spirit this year and if it wasn’t for family stuff, would cheerfully spend the day in yoga pants and pyjama top, eating lebkuchen out of the packet. I think if anyone came along being all perky and bouncy and full of seasonal joy I’d have a fair go at yeeting them into the sun. Anyway./endrant
@Empress of Blandings – I am definitely team Leave the Grumpy Person Alone, Not Everyone has to Like the Holidays. I don’t know that I’ve ever read a holiday romance where the grumpy was just allowed to stay grumpy but I definitely avoid the ones where the main plot seems to be “convince the cranky person to love Christmas” – bleech.
Is anyone submitting nominations for the Swoon Awards? I’m starting to make my list. I’m still annoyed that none of the books I voted for in the GR readers choice awards won.
I also play a lot of library chicken. I get most of my library books from holds and sometimes they become available when I don’t have a lot of time for reading or I’m not in the mood for that specific book.
But I did successfully read two library books this month before they came due! And they were both good.
Archangel’s Light (Guild Hunter #14) by Nalini Singh. Really, really loved this one, even though I haven’t read the rest of the series. I know, don’t @ me. I read like 20 of the psy/changeling books but Guild Hunters always looked too dark for me. But the promise of her first m/m romance, plus rave reviews from a couple trusted reader friends, convinced me to give it a try. The mystery plot was really dark and creepy, too dark for my taste, but I skimmed those parts and focused on the friends to lovers pining. I really like romances where you see the couple figuring out how to be with each other and this was excellent.
The Vanished Birds by Simon Jimenez – SF with queer characters. Not at all a romance and the last 1/3 is substantially darker than the first 2/3rds, but it’s just lovely.
I’m currently reading Payback’s A Witch by Lana Harper (f/f PNR) – also a library book, one that I put on hold quite a while ago. It’s cute – about a reluctant witch returning to her home town to arbitrate a magical tournament and falling for one of the contestants. There’s revenge plot that I think requires some suspension of disbelief – I’m not sure why these 3 women care enough about this boring dude-bro to plot revenge against him.
I’m also reading Silver Moon by Catherine Lundoff – ff UF about a town where menopausal women become werewolves. Very relatable.
Since last time ~
— Quicker (an Ell Donsaii story #1) by Laurence Dahners. Though it strains credulity in a number of ways, I did enjoy it. Unfortunately, none of my libraries carries the sixteen book series.
— White Trash Warlock (The Adam Binder Novels Book 1) by David R. Slayton which I quite enjoyed. I look forward to reading the next book in the series.
— the novella Silver Shark (The World of Kinsmen Book 2) by Ilona Andrews. It was a quick and enjoyable read.
— the contemporary male/male holiday romance novella The Best Gift by Eli Easton which I quite enjoyed.
— Last year I enjoyed My Ideal Bookshelf by Thessaly La Force and Jane Mount. I was quite interested to see that Jane Mount had collaborated on a new book, Bibliophile: Diverse Spines by Jamise Harper and Jane Mount. I enjoyed it and would recommend reading this in paper format to best enjoy the art. As you may surmise, the book celebrates diverse authors and their works.
— Redhead by the Side of the Road: A novel by Anne Tyler. It was a quick pleasant read (which is not always the case for book group books), but I’m left wondering ‘what was the point?’
— a fun book with a title that’s rather reminiscent of an old Harlequin romance ~ The Tyrant Alpha’s Rejected Mate by Cate C. Wells. I’ll be rereading this, and I look forward to the next in the series. Thank you to @DDD and others who mentioned this here.
— the contemporary romance Good Time Bad Boy by Sonya Clark. I definitely enjoyed this and could envision rereading it.
— the contemporary romance Managed (VIP Book 2) by Kristen Callihan; I enjoyed this.
— a fantasy novella, On Winter’s Eve by C.D. Alexander, that was rather fairytale-like and I quite enjoyed it. The story is appropriate for all ages. I recommend it.
— My Past, Your Future (Deerbourne Inn) by Gabbi Grey was a pleasant read. This novella is set in the present and features two men, one of whom was a freed slave who fought and died in the Civil war.
@Carrie G: Thank you for Seducing the Sorcerer — just today I was trying to remember the book I heard about recently… um, it had the word “magician” in the title and the blurb was something about horses…not much luck finding it that way. So I just read it and thoroughly enjoyed. Good romance with a third-act breakup that feels inevitable not contrived. You’re right about thetitle, should be “Flight of Horses” or something
I have nothing significant to report, but thanks, @Escapeologist, for the Temple Grandin rec.
Did read some new books this time. Montana 1948 by Larry Watson is not a romance. It is, however, set in Montana in 1948. Narrated by the twelve year son of the town sheriff, grandson of the retired sheriff, nephew of the town doctor newly returned from WWII. This is set in a fictional town but I kept thinking somewhere like Glendive, out in the eastern part. Basically, an Native American woman accuses the doc of being inappropriate during exams, the sheriff starts an investigation and finds other women who say the same. The original accuser dies, possibly suspiciously. The retired sheriff wants to shut the investigation down. I found it nicely done. Would throw in trigger warnings for rape accusations. Would recommend with that caveat.
Rogue Countess by Amy Sandas. Married at 16, both parties under duress, husband leaves immediately following the ceremony, returns a number of years later after his father dies. He wants an annulment but doesn’t recognize her at a party and puts moves on her which pisses her off so she is, maybe I won’t sign the annulment papers. She also a strong business woman. The book is getting to know each other and figuring out how they ended up married. Some of it was a little over the top but I enjoyed it and would recommend.
Don’t Call Me Greta by Angie Stanton. A girl stolen at birth is found at 17 and about to be reunited with her birth family which she does not want. I thought it was good at showing that the reunion, while maybe good for the birth family, can be a disaster for the child. (As a pediatrician, I have stories.) It’s YA, there is a relationship that develops. I enjoyed it and would recommend.
The Tyrant Alpha’s Rejected Mate by Cate C Wells is basically what the title says. The alpha and his supporters are “macho,” the rejected mate is pissed and takes action. Interesting but did not get totally into it. YMMV.
Currently reading The Girl’s Weekend by Jody Gehrman. Imagine JK Rowling (only not a TERF) having a weekend reunion after nearly two decades with her four college BFFs. Imagine this narrated by the ex-girlfriend (one of the BFFs) of the author’s husband. Imagine the author being kind of a bitch. Imagine her disappearing, possibly murdered in the middle of the weekend. It’s fun. I keep thinking that our narrator should have gotten over some of the issues but she does do that during the weekend and emerges a better and living person, which same cannot be said for the author. Also, I did not guess the murderer correctly until the end which is a good thing.
Happy holidays, all. I am doing locums (temp work for docs) in a small northern California town. The town has set up an ice skating rink in the middle of town and it is too cute for words. Hoping you have something just a fun in your lives.
I just finished Bobby Gillespie’s TENEMENT KID…the Primal Scream singer’s memoir definitely has its share of rock excess, but his honesty, lack of pretense, enthusiasm, and love of music make it inspiring overall. (Can’t wait for next year’s audiobook in his Scottish burr!) In that vein, I did hear the audiobook of Alan Cumming’s BAGGAGE—it’s like a cross between his YOU GOTTA GET BIGGER DREAMS (still my favorite of his, all dishy and sexy fun) and NOT MY FATHER’S SON (overcoming life’s traumas). Ron and Clint Howard’s THE BOYS is entertaining, but who’d have thought that *Ron* would be the oversharer? Finally, Sosuke Natsukawa’s THE CAT WHO SAVED BOOKS seems almost written with a manga adaptation in mind, but it is brisk and charming and will make for fun book club discussions (even though many readers will feel personally called out).
GUILD BOSS by Jayne Castle – Ghost hunter hero (“ghosts” in this series are randomly occurring alien energy, not dead people) rescues heroine from alien tunnels beneath Illusion Town (Harmony’s answer to Las Vegas) then has to go off immediately to tend to urgent guild/Arcane business. When he returns, heroine is extremely pissed that he left her to deal with the consequences of her misadventure on her own. (Gossip has it that she got drunk at a party and wandered into danger; heroine insists she was drugged and dumped down there. She loses her weather-magic consulting jobs and is forced to work as a tour guide to support herself. Meanwhile, hero gets promoted to boss of the new Illusion Town guild.) As far as I can tell, they met for the first time during the rescue and spent all of thirty minutes together before he left. WHY IS SHE SO ANGRY AT HIM? He didn’t drug and dump her. He didn’t start the rumors. He isn’t her husband, lover, or boyfriend. It would be like me getting angry at a firefighter who pulls me out of a burning building for not sticking around to fill out my insurance paperwork.
BROKEN BY THE HORDE KING by Zoey Draven – fourth in the Horde Kings of Dakkar series about slightly orcish, very alpha alien warlords who fall in love with human heroines on a planet where humans are a second-class species. I like the world Draven has built of nomadic warrior tribes (hordes) answerable to the will of a corrupt king who keeps a sedentary court in an urban center, so I’ll keep reading until the uber king is overthrown. Oddly enough, this book has more in common with the rejected fated mate stories I’ve been reading recently than it does with the first volume in the series. No shifters here, but when the human heroine (found abandoned as a baby in the forest and raised by a respected dakkar family) declares her love for the hero, he shreds her heart then comes back years later with an
Currently listening to FATED BLADES by Ilona Andrews, narrated by Aaron Shedlock. I usually read a book before listening to the audio, but I was out running errands when Hoopla died on me (okay, I had failed to download the file for THE HATING GAME and didn’t want to use data to stream it), so I grabbed this from my Audible library. Now I can’t read the book because I can *just* tolerate the male narrator’s performance of the heroine’s voice, but if I read the written word, I’ll start hearing a more feminine version in my head and the narration will annoy me.
:::slides in to some kind of song that would work well for a graduating person, because barring some kind of very unlikely grade catastrophe, I am toting around a degree in information science now:::
Totally did the thing. Now to figure out what to do with it. So I started things off with The Love Hypothesis by Ali Hazelwood. I really enjoyed the banter between the leads, setting the story against academia the challenges people experience with it, and it had a good portrayal of demisexuality. I did think the setup got a bit rich, but hey, I don’t get into rom-coms without expecting some heightened reality. Then I read You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo. Definitely hits the same funny bone hit the Wayfarer series by Becky Chambers, and I enjoyed the slightly snarky sentient ship for much the same reasons I think one would enjoy Murderbot. It had great use of found family, even if some of that family has to be watched for possibly trying to kill you if they decide that it’s more likely to keep them alive (looking at you, pastry-chef bird lady). Which brings us to now, in which I’m reading Rule of Wolves by Leigh Bardugo. I find that due to the setting, which has one country based on Russia and another that yells Scandinavia, Grisha books work great in the winter (which okay, I’m trying to figure out if that’s ever coming, I kid not, my rosebushes are blooming again right now, they are so confused). I really like Nikolai, both his determination to be a good ruler, and the back and forth with the force that lives inside him. I’m also enjoying Nina’s POV chapters, as she contends with the constant tension of living behind enemy lines and the new relationship that she is building. I am hearing that this is the last that we’ll be seeing of Ravka and the Grisha, but I cannot be too upset. It’s had a good run, and we’ve gotten some good stories from. So until next time, if anyone can, this would be a good time to throw some donations to the people affected by those hurricanes. It’s going to be a very rough time for them.
Ugh, I meant tornadoes. I live in FL, I’m used to hurricanes.
@Crystal, congratulations on your graduation!
In addition to holiday stories, this time of year, I love books set in really cold places and found a winner in THE ARCTIC CURRY CLUB by Dani Redd. Don’t be fooled by the cute title, cover, and its description as a romance. This is a fantastic, hopeful but serious novel about an Anglo-Indian woman with moderate anxiety disorder who joins her boyfriend (at his urging) in the Arctic at the start of the dark winter season. While there, she fights her anxiety in a realistic manner, makes friends, starts a new job, dumps the loser boyfriend, learns some secrets about her past, and becomes more connected to her Indian heritage as she learns to cook traditional Indian dishes from her mother’s cookbook. A lot of ground is covered in this relatively short novel and I stayed up way past my bedtime (no regrets!) because I couldn’t put it down. Bonus points for absolutely luscious food descriptions as well as descriptions of Longyearbyen, Norway, a place I will probably never visit but now really want to go to in the middle of the winter.
I’m sure you all know the cheat for Library chicken — put your device on airplane mode. Of course, that does mean you can’t download and read new books. But at least you don’t lose the one you’re in the middle of!
It’s been a tough month, so I haven’t read much that’s new. Comfort re-reads all the way. Although I just started Paladin’s Stength last night and am loving it so far.
This time of year makes me nostalgic on a whole another level, for childhood stories, winter scenery and fantasy/folklore. Stories and traditions that have stayed with humanity across many generations are comforting during the darkest time of year. Also I miss the pretty snow I grew up with.
So I’m starting rereads of wintery children’s fantasy – GREENGLASS HOUSE and GHOSTS OF GREENGLASS HOUSE by Kate Milford, WINTERSMITH by Terry Pratchett and rewatching the WINTER SOLSTICE episode of the Little Bear cartoon based on Else Homelund Minarik’s books. I have a soft spot for the first NARNIA movie, with all the gorgeous winter scenery and little Lucy’s face full of wonder. And the SECRET OF THE WINGS from the Disney Fairies movies.