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!
Been reding more again between working more and some time off. Last year, with very reduced work, I had an unusually relaxed December (which otherwise was very busy work-wise). This year is just weird, with new stuff being dropped on us and the possibility of home office looming (and I’ve had enough of that). Time to escape into books!
A WINTER’S EARL – Annabelle Greene. Stopped for now. M/M 2nd chance Regency romance which I should love, but couldn’t really get into it. One of the MCs so far has been behaving as immature as I suppose he was when the original big conflict happened, and his reason for calling the other man back seemed flimsy. That felt off-putting, and I couldn’t get into it. I may get back to it later.
SOMEONE PERFECT – Mary Balogh. Nice, sweet classic Mary I would say. Last in the Westcott series, and I liked it better than the previous one. Got by without most of the constant Westcott character name dropping, which was a relief!
ONLY ONE BED – Keira Andrews. Cute, fluffy m/m holiday novella. Typical Keira – Canada, diverse cast, ice skating, holidays… Just right if you need something sweet. Also there will be a full-length book coming in early January, KISS & CRY, that’s about Sam’s brother Henry and his arch-rival Theo. Both have already turned up in the novella and Theo showed himself to be a good guy, though Henry obviously thinks he isn’t. Looking forward to that one and hopefully getting also a glimpse of what happened to Etienne and Brianna.
DOMESTIC DO-OVER – Kate McMurray. Someone mentioned this in comments recently, I think. Another m/m but with an interesting premise (closeted host of house renovation TV program & rugged contractor who decided being on TV might be good promo for his business but he’s not overly comfortable being on TV). I guess what happens in the end with the house is no surprise, but it’s a nice, not very angsty or dramatic story.
HIS LORDSHIP’S GIFT – Samantha SoRelle. Nice little holiday novella following up on the previous two HIS LORDSHIP’s MYSTERIES novels (and it looks like there’s a new one coming next year!) which are m/m Regency romance/mystery/action. Lovely little extra, but really only makes sense if you’ve read the previous novels.
GAME CHANGER / HEATED RIVALRY – Rachel Reid. I’m currently about half way into HR. I’ve read so much about this here, so when there was a deal on on the first three books in the series last week, I grabbed them. Liking it so far. Scott and Kip were just lovely. Both made mistakes, but they got over it and it was just a gread read over all. Shane and Ilya are of course something wholly different, but I am reall interested to see how their story goes on and feelings change. Shanes is so, so… repressed I guess? Wow. He’ll have a lot to work through I foresee, possibly more than Ilya. And then I have a feeling it’ll bee loooong wait til the conclusion of their story will be published next year! But I will definitely read the books in-between too, I like this kind of stories and characters being connected, but it doesn’t feel like obviousl sequel bait.
Reading is very slow for me right now, but I’m currently reading “Marry Me” by Melissa Brayden. Cute contemporary romance between an elementary school teacher and a wedding planner, but CW for infidelity if that’s a major nope for you – they meet when the teacher is engaged to someone else and the wedding planner is hired to plan their wedding.
Also thinking about how much I liked the movie “Imagine You and Me”, but it has the same “bisexual discovery leading to infidelity” trope and I don’t know why I like these movies/books when infidelity – emotional or physical, doesn’t matter, both are cheating – is such a harmful stereotype of bi people and I hate it. I think it’s a little weird that a bi author would write a book with that as a plot point for the relationship, given that bi people have to fight the stereotype in relationships, whether their partner is same or different gender than them. I mean, how many times have lesbians said they won’t date bi women because bi women will leave them for a man, but then criticize bi women for having male partners?
@Midge: It was me! I mentioned “Domestic Do-Over” by Kate McMurray in a sale post because it was all of 99 cents and a nice, low-angst, low-stakes read that I figured would appeal to people who want that sort of thing right now.
@HeatherS – thank you for the recommendation! It was just what I needed. Sometimes I can do without angst and drama, and it’s nice to see a premise for a story that hasn’t been done so many times before!
@Jess: I think “Marry Me” by Melissa Brayden (which I’m currently reading) is a better version of this, not counting the whole “bisexual discovery leads infidelity” thing. Allison has no idea how to plan a wedding and she’s marrying into a wealthy and influential family, so of course they pick the top-tier party/wedding planning company in town to do it. Meghan and Allison become friends, then realize they have feelings for each other, and so it goes. I’m about 2/3rds of the way through it and I always enjoy Brayden’s books.
@Escapeologist, you said, “This time of year makes me nostalgic on a whole another level, for childhood stories, winter scenery and fantasy/folklore.” You might take a look at On Winter’s Eve by C.D. Alexander; I think it meets all three.
I have been doing a lot of rereading because that just seems to be about what my brain can handle in 2021. I did finish another book (I think #6) in the Kate Daniels series but the next one is unavailable at the library so I will have to wait to continue down that particular rabbit hole. Also read DEAL WITH THE ELF KING by Elise Kova. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with this one. At times the writing seemed clunky–the reader is often jerked from one scene to another with no flow in between, and there were lots of things partially explained or not explained at all. The dialogue felt very immature, as well. But then….I kept reading it. And I might even read the next one in the series. So did I like it? Did I hate it? Do I just have an unshakeable love for anything at all that involves a hot elf?? The answer is unclear!
@Empress of Blandings, sending you healthy thoughts and also–agree about Dani Collins! Not all of them are awesome but a few of her Harlequin Presents are among my favorites. I’m currently rereading her Sauveterre siblings quartet of HP’s and they are mostly really great. Book #2, HIS MISTRESS WITH TWO SECRETS, is my favorite despite the wild HP suddenly-she’s-pregnant-with-twins-omg-good-thing-we’re-hella-rich drama. If you feel like taking a dip into the archives, she wrote one called XENAKIS’S CONVENIENT BRIDE that I really enjoyed. Again, wild setup. Heavy on the angst. But I really connected with it emotionally which is not always the case with the short category romance format.
Next week I start a much-needed and highly appreciated holiday break. My work will be “mostly closed” meaning check email in case anything is burning but no meetings, etc. I plan to read CROOKED KINGDOM by Leigh Bardugo which has been sitting on my nightstand forever and also try my hand at baking a Yule Log (thank you, GBBO for the inspiration). I figure even if it rolls up into a cracked, insane-looking mess, I can just cover it with frosting and sparkly crap and it’ll still taste good!
Thanks to a recommendation here, I read and enjoyed Frost and Raine by K.L. Noone. Sweet fantasy m/m romance, and I love the way she describes things, very poetic. Also read another by her (Magician, if I remember correctly)which was m/m romance in a more high fantasy sort of setting, also a good read.
Most of the rest of my reading has been non-Romance. I’ve been re-reading the first 3 books of the children’s series Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place, about a plucky 15 year old governess caring for 3 children raised by wolves, in the Victorian era. Very funny, looking forward to getting the next 2 from the library.
Enjoyed the new expanded edition of Zen Cho’s short story collection Spirits Abroad. I think some of the stories are in the same world as her Sorcerer to The Crown, others are Malaysian based fantasy more like Black Water Sister. Highly recommend.
Also really liked the YA fantasy This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron. Made me stop and think about why I found making classical Greek characters Black seemed odd to me, when so many fantasies based on Greek mythology turn everyone into blue eyed blonds, and that’s if anything less likely, but seems “normal”.
Currently reading Alexandra Horowitz On Looking: Eleven Walks With Expert Eyes. It’s interesting non-fiction, but for some reason not as enjoyable as I expected. Would still recommend if the idea of exploring a city through different expert perspectives (insect expert, geologist, etcetera) sounds appealing.
I see Tara is reading Faux Ho Ho, a Christmas romance by Nathan Burgoine. I read that last year and really enjoyed it– strongly recommend his website https://apostrophen.wordpress.com/ which has some free stories, and lots of very thoughtful blog posts about books and writing.
Currently reading On Looking: