Hey all! It’s our first Whatcha Reading of 2022!
Check out which books we’re currently diving into!
Sarah: I finished 2021 by re-reading the Call of Crows series. I can’t imagine why I enjoyed reading a series where “Let rage be your guide” was a major theme. What a mystery.
Now I’m reading Cursed Luck by Kelley Armstrong ( A | BN | K | AB ) – a curse breaker teams up with a luck worker to un-curse a famous necklace.
Carrie: I’m reading the print version of Ice Planet Barbarians. ( A | BN ) I gather from the afterword that some changes were made when the print version was published and I’m liking it much more than I thought I would – a page turner for sure.
Shana: I just finished Role Model by Rachel Reid and I cried like a baby at the ending. My heart.
Catherine: I have just started reading A Most Unusual Duke by Susanna Allen, and so far it appears to be a traditional regency marriage of convenience renovation romance, only with werewolves and werebears and other werecreatures and . I’m enjoying the combination ‘we must restore this dusty manor to its former glory’ and ‘oh no, there is only one bed!’ with ‘and incidentally the butler is a turtle’.
The were stuff is all handled in such a prosaic, matter of fact fashion, which is making me chuckle.
Elyse: I just got Crash Site by Rachel Grant ( A | BN ) in the mail but haven’t started it yet.
Maya: I just finished The Kindred by Alechia Dow. Aliens that look like POC crash land in Florida and need to hide from royal assassins! Also they have a whole mind-speaking thing with each other! And their love is forbidden! The cover is gorgeous and the inside parts are pretty great, too!
I’m also listening to Archangel’s Prophecy by Nalini Singh. ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) I’m on book 11 out of 14 and will be totally bereft when I run out of books!
Susan: I’m reading Still Sick by Akashi, ( A | BN | K ) which is about an office worker whose coworker discovers she draws f/f fancomics. So far, it’s making me grin! I too would pray for the ground to swallow me if my coworkers found my fic, let alone read it in front of me .___.
So, whatcha reading in the new year? Tell us below!
@Ana, you just said the magic words. I was being tempted to pick up Worst Guy anyway, just from the description but if the hero reminds you of Roy Kent, I’m ALL over it! I’ve been in a bit of a drought lately with either “meh” or “liked it but didn’t love it” reads. My only bright spot has been the fourth Stariel book, The King of Faerie, by AJ Lancaster, which I’m dragging out just to savor it.
So far, I’ve had a slow reading start to 2022.
The best book I’ve read recently is a re-read – Role Model by Rachel Reid.
The rest were C+/B- reads.
Silver Moon by Catherine Lundoff – f/f PNR bi romance.
B- I wanted to like this more than I did. I love the premise – queer middle aged women werewolves? Who are the guardians of their town! And they get their powers when they hit menopause?!? Unfortunately, there was too much bonkers plot and not enough romance for my taste.
Unspeakable Vice by Quinn Wilde – mm late Victorian romance / mystery
B- I enjoyed this more than I expected to based on the first chapter and the insufferable narrator, but still struggled a bit with it. The romance is very understated but the plot was a lot of fun (also just A. Lot.) – blackmailing rent boys, dog-nappers, bullies at Oxford, controlling exes and so many coincidences.
I suspect the authorial quirks and flourishes might have worked better if I were familiar with the work of Oscar Wilde (the blurb says the author is kind of like if Jane Austen and Oscar Wilde had a love child).
C+ Because of Ben by Lisa Henry – mm contemporary
Bad boy bi rockstar unexpectedly spends a few days in a hotel in Dayton and a cute, closeted fundamentalist college student at a Christian conference catches his eye. The first quarter would probably work pretty well as an erotic short but the whole story really didn’t work as a romance for me. Not only don’t I think they’ll stay together, I’m not convinced that they should.
This is Lisa Henry’s latest, in her new series pairing stars with regular people and I think series just isn’t for me, even though I often like her work. I didn’t like the first book and I didn’t like this one.
Almost forgot.
Really enjoyed Jeremiah by Jayce Ellis. B+
What a delightful surprise from a new to me author. MM IR contemporary slow burn romance set in D.C. between two late 20 somethings who are looking to make some changes in their lives.
The romance takes a while to develop – the h/h have like 3 meet cutes before they actually have a conversation. And honestly, while the romance is cute, what won me over was the depictions of the h/h’s family and friends. I particularly liked how Jeremiah’s loud and loving family was portrayed and how his concerns about coming out are handled. It felt so real to me. Nice to see something between insta acceptance and toxic rejection.
I finished 2021 reading strong with CROOKED KINGDOM by Leigh Bardugo, which had been sitting on my nightstand for a while but I just wasn’t ready for it. I had a little vacation at the end of the year and was able to sit and read this for an hour or so each day and it was glorious. Starting 2022, I read CHERISH HARD by Nalini Singh. Her writing is great but I’m not sure if this was the best example of it. There was literally no reason why the main characters couldn’t be together and in fact everyone around them was like “hey, you should totally date” so the conflict here, such as it was, fell flat for me. Then the library kindly served me the next in my Kate Daniels binge, #6 in the series, MAGIC RISES. I found it heart-wrenching in spots but overall one of my favorite stories in the series so far and BOY did it ever move the plot along. Now I’m reading GIRL IN THE TOWER by Katherine Arden, which is the 2nd book in the series that starts with THE BEAR AND THE NIGHTINGALE. For a long time I avoided starting this because I loved the first book so much and am a little bit afraid that books 2 and 3 are going to rip my romance-reader heart to shreds without putting it back together at the end. If anyone out there has read the entire series and can reassure me that I won’t be devastated by the ending of book 3, I would be forever in your debt. No plot spoilers needed, I just need to know if I will be filled with
happiness or if I will want to throw my Kindle across the room! Next up for me will be THE WORST GUY by Kate Canterbary. I gifted myself a 6-month Kindle Unlimited subscription and have heard a lot of great things about her writing, although @DDD I respect your opinion that this is not the best of hers to start with. I’m starting here because I like the setup but I will keep that in mind. Quick PSA for anyone who got a gift card at the holidays and considered using it to purchase KU–after much frustration and a Kafka-esque chat with 3 different customer service reps, I have discovered that they do not allow the use of gift cards as payment for KU subscriptions. Just in case anyone was looking to do that and running into the same slightly maddening experience that I was!
@KB — I have read all three Arden books, and you will not be devastated by the ending of book #3. 🙂
@KitBee awesome!! VERY much appreciate that info!