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Anna and the French Kiss
Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins is $2.99! This is a contemporary YA romance, Kindle Daily Deal, and many reviews on Goodreads mention becoming a member of the Bad Decisions Book Club in order to finish it. However, some found the heroine a bit too cutesy for their tastes. Have you read this one? It’s on my TBR pile.
Anna can’t wait for her senior year in Atlanta, where she has a good job, a loyal best friend, and a crush on the verge of becoming more. So she’s not too thrilled when her father unexpectedly ships her off to boarding school in Paris – until she meets Etienne St. Clair, the perfect boy. The only problem? He’s taken, and Anna might be, too, if anything comes of her crush back home. Will a year of romantic near-misses end in the French kiss Anna awaits?
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His Perfect Partner
His Perfect Partner by Priscilla Oliveras is $2.99! This contemporary romance features a single dad hero and a dance teacher heroine. Sonali Dev recommended this on a previous podcast episode. She did mention that at times, the book felt more like women’s fiction with a focus on family than a romance.
Three very different Latina sisters. Three dazzling talents with ambition—and passion—to burn. And in this warm-hearted, sexy new series, three chances to figure out if the path to success can also lead to lasting love . . .
Ad executive Tomás Garcia shouldn’t even be thinking about his daughter’s alluring dance teacher, Yazmine Fernandez. Burned by a shattering divorce, he’s laser-focused on his career—and giving his young daughter, Maria, the secure home she deserves. Plus, he’s certain that with her talent, Yaz will be leaving Chicago and heading back to Broadway as soon as she can. But Yaz’s generous spirit and caring concern are sparking a desire Tomás can’t resist—and doesn’t want to let go . . .For Yaz, good-looking workaholics like Tomás simply can’t be part of her life ever again. She owes it to herself to get back her confidence and fulfill the dreams her papá could not. She’s glad to spend time with Maria—and taste the family life she feels she can never have. And she’s sure that she and Tomás can keep their attraction under control because there’s so much at stake. But each unexpected intimacy, each self-revelation, makes the fire between them grow hotter with every step—and every risk to their hearts . . .
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Wow, No Thank You
Wow, No Thank You by Samantha Irby is $2.99! Irby’s essay collections have been mentioned and recommended on the site. I think another one has also been on sale previously. The general consensus is that they’re funny and insightful. Are you a fan?
A new essay collection from Samantha Irby about aging, marriage, settling down with step-children in white, small-town America.
Irby is turning forty, and increasingly uncomfortable in her own skin. She has left her job as a receptionist at a veterinary clinic, has published successful books and is courted by Hollywood, left Chicago, and moved into a house with a garden that requires repairs and know-how with her wife and two step-children in a small white, Republican town in Michigan where she now hosts book clubs. This is the bourgeois life of dreams. She goes on bad dates with new friends, spends weeks in Los Angeles taking meetings with “skinny, luminous peoples” while being a “cheese fry-eating slightly damp Midwest person,” “with neck pain and no cartilage in [her] knees,” and hides Entenmann’s cookies under her bed and unopened bills under her pillow.
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The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook
RECOMMENDED: The Complete Vegetarian by America’s Test Kitchen is $7.99! This is a decent sale price of a big cookbook, especially one I’ve recommended several times on the time. It’s also been a staff pick of mine round the holidays at the bookstore where I work. It’s a Kindle Daily Deal, so grab it while you can.
Best-Selling vegetarian cookbook destined to become a classic.
Everyone knows they should eat more vegetables and grains, but that prospect can be intimidating with recipes that are often too complicated for everyday meals or lacking in fresh appeal or flavor. For the first time ever, the test kitchen has devoted its considerable resources to creating a vegetarian cookbook for the way we want to eat today. The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook is a wide-ranging collection of boldly flavorful vegetarian recipes covering hearty vegetable mains, rice and grains, beans and soy as well as soups, appetizers, snacks, and salads.
More than 300 recipes are fast (start to finish in 45 minutes or less), 500 are gluten-free, and 250 are vegan and are all highlighted with icons on the pages. The book contains stunning color photography throughout that shows the appeal of these veggie-packed dishes. In addition, almost 500 color photos illustrate vegetable prep and tricky techniques as well as key steps within recipes.
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I’m not sure this is an appropriate comment here, but two of my favorite novels are on deep discount today, one of them, definitely a romance and the other with many romantic elements, but a lot of tragedy within. Gaudy Night By Dorothy L. Sayers is both a mystery and a romance, the culmination of Lord Peter Whimsy’s wooing of Harriet Vane whom he finally convinces that it is indeed her mind and personality that made him fall for her. It takes place at Oxford which is catnip for me. It seems to be $2.99 across the board. And The Other Side of the Sun By Madeleine L’Engle, my favorite of her books for adults. It is full of angst and tragedy, but also full of love. Also $2.99 across the board. If this is not an appropriate comment, feel free to delete. Thank you.
@Diane. Totally appropriate and thanks for highlighting Gaudy Night which is one of my all time favorite romances.
Be very careful if you read Anna and the French Kiss. I ended up spending a lot of money to finally take a trip to Paris because of that book LOL! I’m just sayin’……
@Diane
Thank you for the catnip. 🙂
Another book in tbr pile.
😀
@Diane, do you need to have read the prior novels to enjoy Gaudy Night? And thank you for the Madeleine L’Engle rec! I just bought it!
@Diane: Gaudy Night is my favorite Wimsey. I was recently thinking it was time for a reread and I didn’t have it in ebook yet. Thanks for the heads up.
@Diane: Years ago, I was stocking books in the required reading section of my college bookstore when I saw Gaudy Night on the shelf. I have no idea what course it was for (not one of mine) but I bought it immediately…and fell into the Sayers rabbit hole. My love for that book remains strong, but I still have the occasional guilty pang when I wonder if I caused some poor student to have to scramble for a class copy.
I used to walk by Dorothy Sayers house everyday!
I’ve only read Strong Poison and I don’t know why I haven’t read more books because the banter is delightful.
@Monica: Not all the Wimsey’s. But definitely Strong Poison and Have His Carcase, both of which feature Harriet Vane. Strong Poison for sure, since that’s where they met. Then follow up with Busman’s Honeymoon. Read all the Peter Wimsey books if you’re into Golden Age mysteries. But they’re all awfully expensive still, even in ebook. I would think they would be close to being in the public domain by now.
Monica, the only Lord Peter books with Harriet and Peter are Strong Poison and Have His Carcass, but I think one could read Gaudy Night without those two. I think one would learn enough about their past in Gaudy Night. He saves her from a murder charge. He ask her to marry him repeatedly. She says “no” repeatedly. They solve a mystery together, while he continues to ask and she refuses. All with a great deal of witty dialogue. Then Gaudy Night. And all the Lord Peter books have been going on sale with deep discounts recently.
@Monica: imho, you have to read STRONG POISON, HAVE HIS CARCASE, and GAUDY NIGHT as a trilogy. Each mystery is solved within each book, but the overarching romance of Lord Peter and Harriett takes all three books to play out—and I really think you miss a lot of the nuances of their relationship in GAUDY NIGHT if you haven’t read the previous two books. BUSMAN’S HONEYMOON is analogous to those “bonus epilogues” that you sometimes get with a romance novel—catching up with a couple after they get to their HEA.
My memory is somewhat blurry on the timeframe, but in either the 1980s or 1990s, there was a very good adaptation (by the BBC?) of the three Lord Peter & Harriett books with Edward Petherbridge as Lord Peter and Harriett Walters as Harriett. They’re not entirely faithful to the books, but really capture the right sense of time & place.
I would recommend Strong Poison at the very least for Gaudy Night, and probably also Have His Carcase (probably the weakest of the three). Gaudy Night is Sayers’ best novel, but Strong Poison is a first class mystery novel, and not a lengthy one. It’s not the first Wimsey, but the one that introduces Harriet Vane, and I don’t think you strictly speaking need to have read the earlier novels to get the setup for it. (Lord Peter Wimsey is both insanely rich and insanely smart, and thoroughly enjoys playing the high society idiot while pursuing his hobby of solving crimes. His valet, Bunter, was his batman during World War I. He suffered a bad case of PTSD after the war.)
The BBC has made adaptions of the novels for TV twice, once with Ian Carmichael in the 1970s, and the other with Peterbridge and Walters, tackling Strong Poison/Have His Carcase/Gaudy Night, in 1987. Both have fans and were critically well received, but the Carmichael version doesn’t take a stab at those novels (0 overlap between the 2 versions, I believe). They’re on Youtube, as well as video/DVD.
As you might guess I’m a huge fan of these novels!
Oh, yes, “Gaudy Night” and “Busman’s Honeymoon” are regular rereads and comfort friends. Strong Poison is the start for Harriet and Peter followed by “Have His Carcase” which is the clunkiest of them all mystery-wise but still filled with wonderful relationship tidbits.
I also really love the Edward Petherbridge and Harriet Walters 1980s adaptation and am still bitter Busman’s Honeymoon was under contract elsewhere and couldn’t be filmed by them. That set is a regular rewatch for both me and my husband.
There are also several sequels by Jill Patton Walsh using the notes and clues that Sayers left behind for Peter and Harriet’s future, starting with the never completed by Sayers “Thrones, Dominations.” Mileage varies on those but I still find myself diving into them, too. They are better than most sequels of beloved books/series.
Finally, years ago when I was shelving books at my library, “A Civil Campaign” by Lois McMaster Bujold fell open to the dedication page. It is dedicated to “Jane, Charlotte, Georgette, and Dorothy”, AKA novelists Jane Austen, Charlotte Brontë, Georgette Heyer, and Dorothy L. Sayers. Well, I loved all of those, too, and had to dive in to any book written by someone with those tastes, especially in the science fiction section. Which is how I became a Bujold and Miles Vorkosigan fan, too.
Another day, another new-to-me author. Thanks Bitchery!
@HAT I love A Civil Campaign by Bujold! I would recommend anyone who hasn’t been in that world to start with Komarr,the previous book, Bujold herself said that Komarr is a good entry point for new readers and it shows how Miles and Ekaterin meet. Both are wonderful stories. Then finish with Winterfair Gifts, a novella set after A Civil Campaign.
For those who enjoy audiobooks,the Miles books are wonderful on audio.
I love the BBC adaptations of the Harriet and Peter books! So well done. I do recommend reading Strong Poison at least before Gaudy Night, but even if you don’t, Gaudy Night is not to be missed.
Ah, Gaudy Night is magnificent! I think it’s possible to read as a stand-alone. It’s so wonderfully atmospheric, and it’s rare for a book to be both a mystery but also a meditation on marriage, work, women, and romance.
I was actually underwhelmed by the first Lord Peter, so just starting with the books when he meets Harriet might be a good way to go. I often find many mystery authors take a book or two of a series to hit their strides.
@Carrie G
Oh I agree Komarr is the place to start for Miles and Ekaterin’s cycle without having to read the entire series (which is great, I love them all). I love all of the Miles books but I usually start comfort rereading at Memory (right before Ekaterin but really crucial to Miles’ growth preparing him for marriage) then Komarr then A Civil Campaign and conclude with Winterfair Gifts. Now I also add the novella that is Ekaterin’s own, The Flowers of Vashnoi. Diplomatic Immunity gives some insight into their relationship, too, but it’s second fiddle alas. Although in DI, Ekaterin grows further into her role and technically saves the day.
TRIVIA bit: Ekaterin’s maiden name, Vorvane, is a tribute to Harriet Vane, love interest/wife of Lord Peter Wimsey in Dorothy Sayers’ Peter Wimsey mysteries.
I listened to all the Miles series on Audible for the first time last year in the final months of lockdown and they were such a joy despite technically being the umpteenth read of the series for me.
If you’re jumping into the middle of the Vorkosigan saga, I’d suggest reading the stand alone novella The Borders of Infinity. An incident from that story is mentioned in Komarr and it’s a great introduction to the genius of Miles for those who haven’t read the earlier novels.
If you want to read romance in the Vorkosigan saga by Bujold start with Shards of Honor and Barrayar, the first two books, which is the wonderful romance between Cordelia and Aral, Miles’ parents which can totally help you understand why Miles would be attracted to a strong, smart, resourceful woman like Ekaterin. The romance(s) in Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance are fairly awesome also, but you pretty much have to read the whole series to truly understand Ivan. And btw, A Civil Campaign is hilariously funny (as are a lot of Bujold books which would make sense for any writer who loves Georgette Heyer).
I haven’t read Anna and the French Kiss, but from what I’ve heard, if you don’t like characters cheating in books, it’s one to skip.
So, I’ll just point out that in addition to writing wonderful mysteries, Dorothy Sayers was a total badass Renaissance woman type—she was also a scholar (translated the Penguin edition of Dante’s INFERNO) and! came up with the “Lovely Day for a Guinness” advertising campaign when she worked in advertising (MURDER MUST ADVERTISE benefits from that knowledge and skill.) Really, she’s just amazing.
Oh, and BUSMAN’S HONEYMOON has some of the craziest dialects in it—I literally have to read it out loud to figure out what the characters are saying. And it has the most wonderful depiction of marriage. Just love them all.
@HAT I never made the Vane/Vorvane connection. That just delights me, thank you.
Love, love, love the Vorkosigan books. I think one of my favorite quotes about Miles is from A Civil Campaign when Simon is talking to Ekaterine and he says: “Do you know all those old folk tales where the Count tries to get rid of his only daughter’s unsuitable suitor by giving him three impossible tasks? … Don’t ever try that with Miles. Just don’t.” Perfectly sums up Miles!
For Canadians, Gaudy Night is on the public domain so you can find it on websites that make such books available (e.g. Faded Page).
As a general rule for everyone, never be afraid to share a deal you’ve seen for books you love!
Joining in all the Sayers and Bujold love. I enjoyed the Walsh continuation novels, particularly The Attenbury Emeralds. I just saw an attractive new edition of Gaudy Night, with a foreword by (Dame) Harriet Walter.
As to Bujold, Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance has a nice scene with Miles, Ekaterinburg and family, as well as being a good riff on several Heyer books. I like Miles best in small doses, and prefer Bujold’s world of the five gods, both the three novels and the Penric/Desdemona novellas.
hah! I just finished a re-read of three of the Penric stories (they’re out in paperback). Love just about everything Bujold wrote, even have a copy of The Spirit Rihg.
And there’s a short story sequel to Sayers’ Busman’s Honeymoon – I read it in a collection called Lord Peter. They’ve settled into domesticity and it includes at least one child (it’s been a while since I read it).
I enjoyed Anna and the French Kiss, but LOVED the next book in the series, Lola & the Boy Next Door. I personally had a semi-bitter breakup with San Francisco years ago and this book reminded me of why I loved it. Stephanie Perkins is so great at giving her books a romantic sense of place.
Have always meant to read Lord Peter Wimsey, so thanks for the heads up!