Welcome back! It’s time for y’all to talk about what you’ve been reading. Let’s go!
Sarah: I am reading Crowbones, ( A | BN | K | AB ) and it is creeping me out just enough that I don’t want to read it before bedtime..
Tara: I’m reading You Sexy Thing by Cat Rambo. I was sold on the premise of GBBO + Farscape and I’m having fun with it.
Elyse: I just finished Birds of California ( A | BN | K | AB ) which is a celebrity romance coming out this summer. It was much darker than I was anticipating. Review incoming.
Shana: I’m in the middle of Her Scottish Rogue by Dahlia Rose. Pirate romances aren’t my fave, but this one is fun so far. The heroine is a Black lady pirate who runs an island of escaped slaves…and rescues the not-quite-as-competent pirate hero.
Susan: I’m reading Boyish², which is an f/f manga anthology (!) specifically of butch/butch pairings (!!), and I’m so happy. (Ed. note: This looks like it was a Kickstarter and doesn’t appear to be for purchase anywhere yet.)
Claudia: I’ve just started The Perfect Crimes of Marian Hayes by Cat Sebastian. ( A | BN | K | AB ) I’ve very much enjoyed the previous book in the series and this one is looking promising. Blackmailer main character, but if anyone can pull that off Sebastian can.
What are you reading? Tell us below!
Beasts of a Little Land -Juhea Kim
A generational story of Korea during the Japanese occupation through to the postwar 60s. It mainly follows two characters from childhood, but there are many others who come in and out of their lives. It reminded me a lot of the kdrama Mr. Sunshine (though that is set on a shorter time frame slightly earlier than the start of this). I had some trouble with the point of view. I’ve come to realize I prefer a close third with clear delineation when povs change — this was more universal, dipping in and out of people’s heads. There were also a few quite jarring switches to first person. To me, it felt distracting & kept throwing me out of the story. But that’s pretty minor and overall the novel was interesting.
Satisfaction Guaranteed – Karelia Stez-Waters
I’m so happy I picked this up from an Amazon sale. I have tried for years to find a f/f book I truly like & not succeeding. They usually just don’t really work for me. But I loved this one. I zipped through it. The characters were fantastic, and the rather wacky romcom premise & supporting characters just lifted me out of my dim February mood. I also totally bought their HEA despite the quick relationship, which is rare for me and romcom type books.
Nacer Bailando – Alma Flor Ana tr. Gabriel M. Zubizarreta
I have finished a book in Spanish! I’m so proud of myself for this, y’all. I’ve been trying to come up with ways to work on my reading practice, reading Wikipedia and fanfiction in Spanish. But it finally hit me: middle grade novels are available at the library. This took me 2 months, but I think I got a good sense of the story. 1st generation Mexican-American Margie is obsessed with being a “real” American, only speaking English and doing “real” American things. When her Mexican cousin Lupe, who only speaks Spanish, comes to live with her family, they first clash, then bond.
I was spending most of my brain energy on comprehension, so it was a very different experience from reading English where I can get into a zone sometimes where I feel like I don’t even see the words on the page. But there was one section where Margie is thinking about books she loves where I completely fell into the story. I was quite chuffed about it, really.
In any case, my goal is to try and read 2 or 3 more middle grade Spanish language books this year. We shall see what happens.
@Heather M, I just wanted to say three cheers to you for reading in Spanish! I know exactly what you are going through. I love to read in other languages, but finding the right level material (that won’t end up being boring) can be a real grind. Good for you for sticking to it.
Happy Saturday! I think I fell behind on posting here again, and the beginning of this month was a slow reading period for me.
Romance:
I’VE GOT MY DUKE TO KEEP ME WARM by Kelly Bowen: I enjoyed this historical with some heist-y elements, although Gisele and Jamie both seemed to catch feelings a little quickly. But I liked them together and thought they made sense as very heroic people who had been through some things. Now, the villain was in what I consider “Criminal Minds” unsub territory—a bit over the top. I was able to roll with it, but if I’d been in a different mood, I’m not sure I’d have been okay with it. I’ll pick up the sequels at some point.
CAPTURED by Beverly Jenkins: a very good, horny book featuring Anti-Slavery Pirates and American Revolutionary politics. Clare and Dominic are great together.
THE CHAI FACTOR by Farah Heron: my library finally got a copy! I had forgotten I’d recommended it on Overdrive, actually. I really enjoyed ACCIDENTALLY ENGAGED, so it was fun to see some of the same characters and learn more about Amira and Reena’s friendship. Heron’s ability to handle more difficult topics without flinching around them really shines here. A few things felt a little debut novel-y to me, but overall a good time and I need to catch up on her upcoming releases.
HOW TO FIND A PRINCESS by Alyssa Cole: I really liked this fake relationship/Anastasia-retelling contemporary, but minor spoiler alert that I kind of needed an epilogue. Bez and Makeda are two such distinct and care-focused people that I really enjoyed their courtship and partnership. Also, deciding if a long ship ride is the new road trip.
THAT KIND OF GUY by Talia Hibbert: a really great friends-to-lovers and fake relationship contemporary. Zach and Rae both had their reasons for treading carefully, and Hibbert doesn’t breeze past that to get to the happily ever after. It was also nice to see that Zach and Rae have supportive friends—I feel sad when main characters seem to have no other positive relationships in their lives. Also, as per usual, Hibbert lists some content warnings up front, which is considerate.
Non-Romance:
THE LATINIST by Mark Prins: a chilling but gripping Classics-set academic thriller grappling with Me Too as well as centuries of power dynamics. As a former Classics student, I enjoyed the parts about translation and what roles archaeology and poetry have in understanding the past.
THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH by William Shakespeare: so I had never read or seen this one performed! I think there were some interesting ideas about power and who upholds it and who challenges it and at what costs. That said, Lady Macbeth was done dirty between her first and last appearances.
On deck:
I need to start Courtney Milan’s WORTH SAGA so I can catch up a bit. I also mean to start Ken Liu’s DANDELION DYNASTY series soon.
Okay, still a little slow on the reading front but I finished
WEATHER GIRL by Rachel Lynn Solomon – This was cute, but probably not my favorite of hers. Woman on the rise as a local meteorologist schemes with a sports reporter co-worker to get their bosses together a la SET IT UP, but of course they fall in love in the process. I don’t know how much was the story (she repeated some very specific beats she used in at least one other story, maybe two) and how much was me. One of the main conflicts has to do with the heroine’s feelings about her depression (she feels like people who see the “real her” will run) and a challenging relationship with her mother who is in denial of her own mental health issues and how it may have impacted her kids. Sub the word anxiety for depression (although I’ve had my share of issues with that as well) and yeah, hits pretty darn close to home. I do have to say yay for both characters being normal people with normal insecurities about their bodies. The part where they first become intimate they talked through a lot of things and I found it very sexy.
NOTHING HAPPENED by Molly Booth. This was MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING with teenagers set at summer camp and it was cute, but when it comes to contemporary YA versions I still love the webseries NOTHING MUCH TO DO and the Lily Anderson book THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN ME IS YOU more. I think every time I watch/read any MUCH ADO adaptation I just remember how much I love Beatrice and Benedick and how I wish I could skip over all the awful Claudio/Hero stuff and have more bantering people falling in love. Just my preference.
Also, almost caught up with SAGA, thank you Hoopla. Although, I am less enthusiastic about it after the big spoiler that happened right before their long break. Grumble, grumble.
Read several books that I picked up based on SBTB recs on books on sale posts:
HALF A SOUL by Olivia Atwater—this one is a Regency fairy tale. I really liked the heroine, Dora, who reads as neurodiverse because she only has half a soul. Leans a little heavy into the social justice angle (did you know workhouses were an atrocity?), but really liked the hero, heroine, and secondary characters.
BILLIONAIRE’S WAKE-UP-CALL GIRL by Annika Martin. Steamy in the kinda of ways I enjoy (phone sex and a slightly domineering man in bed? yes, please), although I didn’t like either of the villains. (Do I remember the name of any characters from this book? No, I do not.)
THE TYRANT ALPHA’S REJECTED MATE by Cate Wells. I wanted to like this book—the author does some interesting things with perspective/how a situation can look very different to different characters and the title certainly reflects one viewpoint of the plot. But it began to drag towards the end (how long can you sustain a “will they or won’t they??” plot line with a fates mates premise?) and the ending is just meh. I was curious about some of the secondary characters (Mari and Kennedy, specifically) who I suspect will be part of future installments in the series. I probably won’t pick them up, but I will keep an eye out for DDD’s reviews of them.
A PROMISE OF FIRE by Amanda Bouchet. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this one—the first chapter had so many named characters (and I was reading while drinking a cocktail and making dinner) that I wasn’t sure I could get through it. But the plot picks up and it keeps moving along. This is the first in a series and while the ending isn’t a cliffhanger per se, there’s clearly a lot more plot to come. I wasn’t totally sold on either the hero or the heroine. The hero, Griffin, is a bit one-dimensional to me and the premise of his relationship with the heroine (he kidnaps her; they’re fates by the gods to be together) works much better in the context of Greek myth (used heavily in the book) than in the context of a modern romance. He also keeps making decisions that affect the heroine without consulting her, which c’mon dude. Knock it off. The heroine, Cat, was (extensively and violently) tortured and abused by her mother until she escaped as a teenager, and she’s just too well-adjusted for that kind of background?
Up next: HOW THE WORD IS PASSED by Clint Smith and AN IMPOSSIBLE IMPOSTER by Deanna Raybourn (new Veronica Speedwell!!!)
Part 1
Serena Bell’s WILDER WITH YOU is the latest in her Wilder Adventures series about a family who run an outdoor adventure company in the Pacific Northwest. The book features the “fake relationship” and “woman falls for her late friend’s widower” tropes and I thought Bell did a very good job with both as the recently-divorced heroine and the widowed hero grow closer while pretending to be in a relationship (initially as a response to the heroine’s pretentious and self-absorbed ex). The hero struggles with emerging from grief after the death of his wife, while the heroine has to move on from the humiliating way her marriage ended (Bell is very good at showing how an initially charming person can slowly reveal untold levels of nastiness). I enjoyed the love story—which is well-written in Bell’s reliably smooth style—and how the whole “fake/real” dichotomy worked its way through the storyline; and I really liked how the heroine’s Korean heritage—in the form of delicious food and entertaining K-dramas (now I want to watch “Coffee Prince”)—was part of the story (although I defy anyone to look at the book’s illustrated cover and discern that the heroine is half-Asian and is described as dark-haired and slim). However, I felt that a subplot involving the hero’s mother could easily have been jettisoned without disturbing the book (along with the fact that one of the heroine’s siblings is non-binary—a situation that plays absolutely no meaningful role in the story: said sibling doesn’t even appear on page). WILDER WITH YOU also features updates with the Wilder siblings who have starred in the previous books in the series, plus there are set-ups for the future books for the two unattached brothers. WILDER WITH YOU is a nice romance with some humor, some stream, and a splash of melancholy too. Recommended.
In a rather oblique way, Karla Sorensen’s latest book, THE PLAN, reminded me of Tessa Bailey’s IT HAPPENED ONE SUMMER, in that both books feature social-media-influencer heroines who are at a crossroads; they both want to step back from the toxic on-line environment, but are not sure what’s next for them. However, other than heroines in similar situations, the books—while equally good—are quite different. THE PLAN is a bodyguard romance: the heroine (the daughter of the owner of an NFL team) has been in a bad automobile accident caused while she was trying to escape the paparazzi; the hero (a former football player) has been tasked with driving the heroine until she feels comfortable behind the wheel again. Just as the heroine is trying to come to terms with her experience, so the hero is still processing two major traumas that upended his life several years before: a severe ACL tear that ended his football career and the breakup of his marriage due to his wife’s infidelity. As she proved in last year’s FORBIDDEN, Sorensen is brilliant with the slow-burn romance: it’s well past the 60-percent mark before the h&h end up in bed together, but the lead up to that moment is full of wonderfully-detailed yearning of a physical and an emotional nature on the part of both MCs. Another element Sorensen always handles beautifully—and THE PLAN is no exception—is heroines who exult in physical activity and for whom exercise and sports are an intrinsic part of their lives. I loved the scene in THE PLAN where the heroine, raised in a football family and totally at ease with every element of the game, challenges the hero to see which of them can call the best play in his family’s flag football game; and later the heroine planks and does burpees with the hero’s football-playing brother. (The hero comes from a large, extended family, so I’m assuming some of his many siblings will feature in future books.) I recommend THE PLAN, but to get the full scope of the story, it might be best to read the heroine’s sister’s book, THE LIE, first.
Garrett Leigh’s DEVIL’S DANCE is the first book in her new Rebel Kings series of MC romances. DEVIL’S DANCE is an m/m/m-poly romance between Cam, president of the Rebel Kings motorcycle club; Alexei (aka, Teddy), an enigmatic Russian emigre; and Saint, Cam’s long-time unrequited love and right-hand man at the club. It took me a while to warm up to the story—perhaps because the book begins with an anonymous hook-up between Cam and Teddy/Alexei with no build up of sexual tension or growth of emotional closeness between them two before they end up in bed together. However, as the book progressed, I became more engaged with all three main characters as they gravitate toward each other—all the while dealing with external and internal threats to the club. Despite being an m/m/m romance, we only have Cam’s and Alexei’s POVs (the book ends on an HFN, the second part of the story, SAINT’S SONG, is due in June); and it goes without saying that DEVIL’S DANCE is gritty and full of content warnings and triggers, including sex trafficking, references to past abuse and sex slavery, violence, and drug use & dealing. Key quote: “Emotions were complex beasts that did not need to be defined to wreak havoc.” The book does suffer somewhat from the “first book in a series” syndrome, where a lot of supporting characters—who are presumably being set-up for their own stories—are introduced; but overall I enjoyed the story and look forward to more books in the series.
Part 2
Several years ago, when she was transitioning from writing light contemporary romances to publishing much darker fare, Amelia Wilde co-wrote a book with one of my Queens of Dark Romance, Skye Warren. Unsurprisingly, Warren’s and Wilde’s styles are similar: the innocent and socially-isolated heroines, often older than their years because of dysfunctional upbringings; the emotionally- (and often physically-) damaged heroes, frequently unaware of how much they are acting out their own dysfunction; the sexual games (usually featuring a D/s element and pain infliction); the ongoing secrets and shocking revelations; a specific motif (from mythology or the arts) running through the entire story; and, needless to say, all the trigger warnings. So it’s no surprise that Wilde’s Wealth trilogy (NET WORTH, HOSTILE TAKEOVER, and BINDING CONTRACT) reminded me of Skye Warren’s Trust Fund duet in that both series are about the uses and abuses of wealth and how people’s lives are often secondary considerations in the pursuit of it. In the Wealth trilogy, Charlotte is an aspiring clothing designer with an Etsy store (sewing is used as a metaphor throughout the three books), but she puts her future on hold while trying to bring her alcoholic father’s real estate development business back from the brink of bankruptcy; she appeals to Mason, son of her father’s late business partner, unaware that Mason is manipulating events in order to exact revenge against Charlotte’s father because of the role he played in the death of Mason’s parents. Charlotte agrees to enter into a relationship with Mason during the course of which she learns many things: about Mason and his siblings, about the deaths of his parents, about her own parents, and about herself. Although the Wealth trilogy is a dark/revenge romance and won’t be to all tastes, I enjoyed the evolution of Charlotte’s character from an innocent young woman whose uncritical, unquestioning love of her parents causes her to enter into a relationship with a man bent on destroying them into a self-aware woman who takes steps to control her own future and pursue her own dreams. Key quote: “People don’t think the act of stitching can be violent, but they’re wrong. You have to destroy parts of the cloth to make it into something else. You have to cut it. Slash it. Punch it. Make holes. Stitch it back together. Reinforce the damage you’ve made.” Recommended, if you like the occasional visit to the darker side of romance.
I’ve been attempting (with varying degrees of success) to go through the older books on my Kindle read or delete them. I have trouble deleting a book, even if I got it for free, because I always think to myself, “What if this is an undiscovered gem and I’m the only person who can save it from obscurity?” (Note to self: that has never happened.) Anyway, in the course of this “Kindle clean-out,” I’ve read some older books:
Kelly Hunter’s WHAT A BRIDE WANTS (2014) is very much the well-written romance with engaging characters that Hunter excels at producing. In WABW, set in a Montana ranching community attempting to rebrand itself as a wedding destination, the daughter of a wealthy rancher falls for an Australian man who is temporarily tending the local bar. He appears to be a drifter, but he has secrets. Nice scenes of the couple growing closer (picnicking in the snow, working together to help a cow deliver a breached calf) are juxtaposed with some real tension created by the hero’s family situation. Recommended.
A GAME OF BRIDES (2014) by Megan Crane (aka, Caitlin Crews) is a little less angsty than much of her work. A woman, returning to her hometown for her sister’s wedding, reconnects with the man who was the unrequited crush of her teen years. There’s an instance of “we have to share a cabin that only has one bedroom,” along with not one but two meddling grandmothers, and a Bridezilla sister who reveals hidden depths. As the h&h grow closer, the give each other the courage to move on from jobs they dislike, meanwhile clinging to the notion that they’re just having a fling that will end when the sister’s wedding is over. As if! Key quote: “If it’s that hard to do the right thing, it’s probably because it’s not the right thing at all.” Recommended.
It was hard to believe that the same Kelly Jamieson who wrote the melancholy and lovely DANCING IN THE RAIN (which I read last year and loved) wrote the clunky MMF, ONE WICKED NIGHT. The book’s emotional development was all over the place: the “good girl” heroine suddenly jumps into bed with two guys; the heroes have been sexually involved since high school and have been living together since college, but one hero only just now realizes he’s in love with the other one? And there was a whole subplot from the POV of the mother of one of the heroes about her attempt to escape from a stultifying marriage, bringing the central story to a complete standstill. ONE WICKED NIGHT is more than ten years old and Jamieson’s later books show her writing has vastly improved over the course of a decade.
I’m reading Stranger’s Choice by Jen Lynning (as an ARC – comes out in March). It’s the third book in her Treaties of Moial series, and I’ve enjoyed the whole series just so so so much. Fantasy-of-manners style romance where the main characters have really interesting powers (in book 1 heroine is an empath and can sense others’ emotions, hero is an incubus and can manipulate emotions) and a hefty sideline of political machinations as the series centres around various treaty negotiations.
Hey, Smart Bitches! It’s a beautiful sunny, snowy, day here in New England – quite a juxtaposition to how truly f@*%ed up everything is in the world right now. As always, thank goodness for books.
Really enjoying LEGENDS AND LATTES by Travis Baldree, which I believe was suggested as a cozy fantasy book on Twitter. It IS. I LOVE IT SO FAR. The main character is an Orc who starts her own coffee shop. You’re welcome if you haven’t heard about it yet!
I was feeling impatient and exhausted this week, and Anna Carven’s DARKSTAR MERCENARY books were just the ticket. Formulaic, fated mates, alien romances — I read about four of them out of order and it did not matter – they are exactly what you’d expect in the best way.
Read three novellas I liked a lot – MUST LOVE HOCKEY by Sarina Bowen (M/F contemporary), THE MABON FEAST by C.M. Nascosta (Monster romance, M/F), and WINTER’S DAWN by Arden Powell (M/M fantasy). The first two were just the right length for the amount of story there. The last would have improved with more exposition, but was still enjoyable. In some ways, wanting more book is the best compliment, I suppose, but I also felt this book would have been more if we got the other MC’s viewpoint, and if their relationship was able to keep developing – it felt a little insta-love.
MISS DELIGHTFUL by Grace Burrowes (M/F historical) was solid, but not remarkable. And SECRETS AND TRUTHS by Whitney Hill (M/F contemporary paranormal) was unremarkable. Too much inner life of the heroine, not enough actually happening for this genre. Ilona Andrews’ books have spoiled me forever.
I read somewhere that my anxiety does nothing toward solving the world’s problems, so try and enjoy life when you’re not actively working to make a difference. I thought that was good advice, and the recs you all post today will help me achieve that goal, so thank you! Stay safe and sane!
I got totally burnt out for this half of the month, didn’t read basically anything. Mostly podcasts (You’re Wrong About and Judge John Hodgman) and random youtube. Hoping March will be better for reading…
Total creative control- Joanna Chambers & Sally Malcolm
Workplace m/m romance. Had seen this recommended a few times here and found it really enjoyable.
Something Fabulous – Alexis Hall
M/M historical romance (with lots of creative license)- enjoyed this one apart from the antics of one of the supporting characters which had me at times skimming paragraphs. In general I loved the sense of an author of great talent playing in genre they seem to respect and enjoy.
Season’s Change- Cait Nary
M/M contemporary hockey romance. Sooooooo good! Very angsty at points but also full of humor and found family. Cinnamon roll giant who preaches the importance of therapy and tightly wound grump who really needs said therapy. Would 100% recommend for fans of Avon Gale’s Game Changer series or Rachel Reid’s Game Changers. TW for both internalized and externalized homophobia.
The Tyrant Alpha’s Rejected Mate- Cate C. Wells
M/F paranormal. Picked this up after seeing multiple folks recommending it here. I found the world building really interesting and the characters surprisingly complex. I ended up giving myself license to skip sections given the numerous references to sexual assault sprinkled throughout the book (none happening to the MC, all in the past) but still found this a very satisfying.
Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake by Alexis Hall – enjoyed it so much I pulled a bad decisions book club. Lots of hilarious banter, great friendships, lovely romance, personal growth. Some parts hit a little too close to home with the critical parents and gaslighting, so tread carefully and mind the content warnings.
Nice Dragons Finish Last by Rachel Aaron – thanks to the books on sale post here. Others have recommended it more eloquently, I just wanted to chime in that I loved the main characters’ kindness and how it was proved to be not a weakness but a damn near superpower.
currently reading:
In Other Lands by Sarah Rees Brennan (reread) – halfway through, still hilarious, but I got to a bleak moment and don’t have the energy to push through that right now even though I know I enjoyed it before.
Moominsummer Madness by Tove Jansson (reread) – wanted cute cozy fluff, this is exactly that.
Coffee and Crushes at the Cat Cafe by Kris Bock – ditto cute cozy fluff. And cats. Very soothing when the world outside is too much.
I thought The Billionaire’s Wake Up Call Girl was very funny, if a little repetitive. The hero does not do a good job of not meddling in the heroine’s life as she requests. I’m interested in reading the other books in the series.
Right now rereading Firelight to see how it holds up after a few years.
Not much time to read for fun lately. Boo! Hiss! LOL.
I am slowly making my way through several series. Up next, I want to read A PERILOUS UNDERTAKING by Deanna Raybourn; THE NOWHERE MAN by Gregg Hurwitz; and MAKING UP by Lucy Parker.
I also have lots of James Bond and other comics to read.
And I’m hoping to start watching either REACHER or the latest episodes of OZARK this weekend.
Just put down MURDER AT THE ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, the latest Wrexford and Sloane from Andrea Penrose. Got a little tense there, just had to keep remembering who is always the villian… And now that they are joined in wedded bliss, will the murder investigations stop? Heaven forfend!!
Also, thanks to @TripleD and everyone else on site for the rec of THE TYRANT ALPHA’S REJECTED MATE by Cate Wells. I never pick up books with this type of longwinded title, so if you all hadn’t spoken up…. Unlike @FashionalbleyEvil, I am enjoying it immensely. I haven’t gotten to the point where she started to have issues, so perhaps that will change. And someone better get a well-deserved ass kicking soon. It was pretty disappointing to find that somehow I had drained my Kindle battery to 0% when I went to finish it last night. It also meant I got to sleep early.
Speaking of @TripleD, I finally picked up a Skye Warren book, THE PAWN and found it immensely readable. It’s not generally my taste, but I have to say, it kept me engaged and up late. For someone who grew up reading what we did, I can see the appeal, although his asshatery as nothing on Old Skool asshatery. I don’t get the appeal of criminality in a romantic hero, but since it’s only really hinted at and not overtly practiced on the page, I can play the is he actually a criminal or is it the heroine’s belief? game. And, yes, she’s a bit of a doormat, but I’m looking forward to her spine getting stronger.
Next up is THE DUKE UNDONE by Joanna Lowell since I’m about to lose Library Chicken, but then I can pick up FUGITIVE TELEMETRY which is waiting on a hold shelf at the GBPL as we speak.
DIAMOND IN THE ROUGH by Skye Warren I’ve liked Warren’s books before, but this one didn’t quite hit the spot. The heroine mostly spends her time being passively shuttled between various states of captivity although reading reviews of the next two books of the trilogy, I think she might pick up a bit. It’s not that I mind characters not being complete bosses that own every situation – sometimes you can’t fight your way out of something, and just existing in and reacting to difficult circumstances can take every scrap of determination you have – but the h doesn’t really have a lot of personality beyond ‘being in distress’.
THE INVISIBLE LIFE OF ADDIE LARUE. Expected to like this a lot more than I did. Beautifully written, and I was caught by the opening describing her early life, of wanting to be free of the drudgery that having husband and family would have been in rural 1700s France, but being forced into it anyway. So, she makes a deal with the darkness, which goes as well as you’d expect. She escapes her fate, but only because she’s doomed to be forgotten as soon as she’s out of sight. Also, she’s immortal now. So she’s spent the last couple of centuries ghosting through other people’s lives, and experiencing the best and worst of humanity.
As the ‘bad’ guy points out, someone who’s separated from normal human relationships and mortality is likely to lose touch with their own humanity. But I didn’t feel that the book delved into this very deeply. There are mentions of terrible, traumatic events, or her going mad, but then they’re sort of shuffled off the page, and the circumstances or consequences are rarely explored beyond being skimmed past with a ‘yeah, that happened’ comment. When the book does show her in a bad situation, ‘bad’ guy usually turns up and plucks her out of it. Modern day Addie often came across as someone with an annoying job that they can’t change.
I didn’t want every detail of her suffering, but I did want to feel the depth of her emotions, good and bad. There was the odd poignant moment – her terror at being forced into marriage early on, or when she’s realising just how profoundly the spell will affect her life. Glimpses of her weariness at never being able to build on any human connection, her delight and fear when she finds someone who actually remembers her, but she never really lifted off the page for me.
I think I’m meant to admire that she’s a survivor, and I do, but that survival seems to have come at the cost of being kind of bland. Even the ending was a bit limp. No wild emotion, no deep sense of grief or anger for the loss of one of the only real connections she’s made in hundreds of years.
FULL MOUNTIE by Ainsley Booth and Sadie Haller. m/m/f trio where the sex is great, but the emotional stuff proves a bit stickier to work out. A bit too much storming off at the end, but a fun, enjoyable read.
A couple of re-reads from the Knitting in the City series by Penny Reid: NEANDERTHAL SEEMS HUMAN and MARRIAGE OF INCONVENIENCE. I enjoyed these originally, but found them a bit annoying the second time round. Everyone’s a bit too perfectly perfect, and the antagonists cardboard cut-outs.
SLOW DANCE AT ROSE BEND by Naima Simone. Short but sweet novella. Motorbiking jewellery maker who’s escaped a bad relationship tries to avoid falling for gorgeous hunk of bar-owner. Fails. Happy sigh. Now waiting for the rest of her books to be available at the library.
ABIGAIL’S SHOP by Rachael Herron. Heroine who is escaping relationship/stalker trouble inherits part of a ranch, and plans to start a business in knitting classes & yarn sales. The H had expected to inherit everything, and is cheesed off. The H is a decent person at heart, even though he’s upset about the property. Annoyingly though, he flip-flops wildly between having his head up his bum about some stupid pre-conception about the heroine, and then warming up to her when he’s proved wrong. And then some minor thing has him deciding she’s a terrible person, and attempting another recto-cranial transplant. Then he’s proved wrong again. Rinse & repeat. I liked Abigail, who’s gently determined about starting a new life. She also has a great best friend – a kind, confident, fabulously dressed, successful businesswoman who is generally rocking late middle-age (I think she’s meant to be black, as the book mentions her dark colouring) and gets a cute side-romance of her own. Moar best friend pls!
A few British romances of the ‘Adorable Happenings at the Twee Village Business’ line. I’m not generally a fan, but did discover Debbie Johnson. Her books do have a cosy, reassuring feel, but there’s more going on than nice middle-class girls having a sad because but their boyfriend won’t put a ring on it. Her characters have a bit of grit to them, as they negotiate messy and complicated emotions, and the business of trying to adult (and sometimes failing), with a nice dry humour. Ah, the true British love language of sarcasm, tea & carbohydrates.
I read “Salaam, With Love” by Sara Sharaf Beg. It’s her debut novel. Why, yes, it was a Bad Decisions Book Club read – I was up until 1:30 the night I picked this book up, y’all. A sweet romance and personal growth story about Dua, whose summer plans with her best friend are disrupted by her parents announcing that they’re going to spend the whole month of Ramadan with her uncle and his family in NYC, and how she finds a deeper connection with her faith, family, and culture, along with a (totally halal – no hugging/kissing/holding hands/other stuff) romance with Hassan, the cute drummer in her cousins’ Muslim rock band.
The book definitely suffered some continuity errors and writing issues that an editor should have caught and there was a dramatic point of Islamophobia that felt shoehorned in as an excuse to shift focus to a family member who had been pretty much ignored in the story up to that point, and ultimately it was really unnecessary to the development of the story. However, the information about Islam was relayed so it didn’t feel like a textbook, but a natural way of talking and living that is reflective of the reality of so many Muslim families, Dua was a great character I wanted to spend more time with, and I’d really like a sequel, please.
Pretty sure I read other books, but in true Me fashion, I can’t remember a single one right now.
My life is stultifyingly routine so after stumbling onto and greatly enjoying Janet Elizabeth Henderson’s romantic suspense novels last year, I’ve sought out more of the same, with mixed success. I read all of Rachel Grant’s series with pleasure and look forward to this author writing more books.
I read and enjoyed Susan Stoker’s series Securing, which I describe as short novels, excellent characterizations, mildly suspenseful. Then I read Stoker’s Protecting series, which were fine although by the time I finished, I had enough. Noticing an author’s “tics” is a hazard of reading a lengthy series straight through. In Protecting, the men constantly put their hands on the back of “their” women’s necks. To encourage, to comfort, to gently steer, to show solidarity, but ugh, get your hands off my neck.
I didn’t find a Rec League for romantic suspense but did find Elyse’s excellent review of Adriana Anders’ Whiteout and recommendations in the comments to read Anders’ novella Deep Blue first. Which I did and it was great and I anticipate reading Whiteout this weekend.
Despite reading rather a lot of books since, I continue to have wavelets of pleasure recalling Second First Impressions (Sally Thorne), Things We Never Got Over (Lucy Score), The Billionaire’s Wake-Up-Call-Girl (Annika Martin), Kulte, and Wait for It (Mariana Zapata).
I have some misgivings, prattling on about books when fellow readers are enduring the battles of war and fear for friends and family. You are all in my thoughts.
@HeatherM Felicidades! Es fantastico que esta leyendo en español! Estoy seguro que ud. trabajó mucho!
I just finished House of Sky and Breath by Sarah J Maas and it was horrible. Absolutely awful.
About to start an arc of You Were Made to Be Mine by Julie Anne Long and Eclipse the Moon by Jessie Mihalik.
I finish a heist novel called Portrait of a Thief (April 5) and it was quite good.
Also reading One Night On The Island by Josie Silver and I haven’t decided what I think of it yet.
I’ve kissed a few book frogs this month that haven’t turned into princes, but I have a few decent ones to share.
I loved STEP IN by Jay Hogan,the third book in the excellent Painted Bay m/m series. This series might be Hogan’s best work yet. Recommended.
I read my first Lucy Parker, ACT LIKE IT and I was captivated by the clever writing and grown-up characters. I’m struggling to enjoy most m/f contemporary books and found this refreshing. I’m now listening to BATTLE ROYAL on audio and enjoying it very much.
At the beginning of the month I listened to A PSALM FOR THE WILD BUILT by Martha Wells and can’t say enough good about it. I immediately wanted to read it in print so I could savor some of the passages. My husband read a library copy, and we both loved it so much we ended up buying a hard copy of the book, even though it’s a bit pricey.
I bought WITCH & WIZARD by James Patterson and Gabrielle Charbonnet the other day. I was told it’s awful, and that it’s the kind of thing that’s just trying to jump onto the YA trends that were big back then. Once in a while I like to intentionally read something that’s really bad.
Another vote for The Tyrant Alpha’s Rejected Mate by Cate C. Wells – it’s not one of my usual romance genres, but the recommendations convinced me to try it and I really enjoyed it.
I also read (twice!) Entangled Threads by M. Louisa Locke – it’s the latest in a historical mystery series set in 1880s San Francisco. This one focused on working women in a woolen factory.
I don’t know if it’s really fair, as it is a book that won’t be published for a month, but I got an ARC of A Light Beyond the Trenches by Alan Hlad, which I enjoyed. It’s not a romance, although there are people who fall in love, but a look at Germany during World War I and the guide dog school that was founded for veterans blinded in the trenches by shrapnel or chemical warfare. There’s some serious darkness and no HEA, but real love and a touching story.
Yay, my work is finally back to pre-COVID level… so back to normal pay, but of course also less free time to read. Though I get to read on my commute and sometimes on lunch break. But Bad Decisions Book Club is out of the question during the week…!
Still working on THE BURGUNDIANS by Bart van Loo (it’s a big book!). Really good, I love also how the arts and artists of the time get a good look.
In romance: TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN – A.M. Johnson. This is a novella in her m/m For Him series. Can be read as standalone, cute, fairly short. But it’s still more fun if you’ve read the other three books in the series: LOVE ALWAYS, WILD; NOT SO SINCERELY YOURS; DEAR MR BRODY. I did a dive back into these and I love them all. They all have an epistolary element and it all revolves a bit around the literary world, with some of the MCs being involved there. However, all of them have also elements that I know may be deal-breakers for some here. In the first book, one MC is still in a kind-of on-off relationship and the other one almost gets it on with another character. No, there’s no cheating, once they get back together (it’s a second chance romance), that’s it, but I know, some mileages vary. The ex from MC1 one and the other guy whom MC2 almost got in with get their story in the second book – as boss and temporary employee. They are aware that that’s not ideal and it’s well done. It’s also my favourite because some of their e-mail and text exchanges are so laugh out loud funny. And yes, the temporary work ends and they are good. In the third book, the MCs are the creative writing teacher and student (the student is 24 and the teacher in his 30s, so consenting adults) – but only for one course and a few months. They hook up anonymously first through a dating app and only realise what’s going on when they meet in real. And again, it’s well done, they know the risks and ultimately the prof gives up his part-time teaching job because the relationship is more important. Even though the course ends and then he wouldn’t be his teacher anymore, they’d still be at the same college and things could get sticky – he is well aware of that. Some of the MCs also have to deal with homophobia or non-understanding families. But all in all, these books have all the feels, and though there are a few angsty moments or moments of conflict, they get their thing together, talk and resolve it.
FRESH CATCH – Kate Canterbary. I know there have been some great comments on other books by her recently. This was from my TBR pile, I had picked it up because it was a m/m and sounded interest. It certainly has it’s cute moments, but the conflict at the end and the root of it made me feel a bit meh. That Owen doesn’t recognise Cole as the tech-company wonder boy that apparently everybody should know… ok, he lives a pretty low-tech life away from the crowds. But it’s not like Cole’s hiding, and that nobody else should recognise him when they go places? Seems questionable. So he tries a few times to tell Owen the truth about himself, but Owen doesn’t want to know, though he has been given some hints but still just wants to shut reality out for as long as this lasts. And Cole doesn’t press too hard into trying to tell because he too likes what they have, even though he knows they can’t keep it up like this forever. Owen also know Cole does some work for his company remotely and that seems to be going fine, and Cole has already pretty much decided to keep it that way, when Owen finds out who he really is and then decided that their relationship just can’t be possible. Duh… this just didn’t feel right. Thankfully they worked it out quickly, but still, this moment of conflict felt overblown and a bit unnecessary.
Since last time ~
— Bel Canto by Ann Patchett which my local book group discussed. What an interesting story! Often I read my book group books as though they are assigned reading, but this proved to be quite gripping.
— quite enjoyed the fantasy Paladin’s Strength by T. Kingfisher (a gift!); T. Kingfisher is a pseudonym used by children’s book author Ursula Vernon for her books for adults. The author has a dry wit, and I laughed a lot while reading this.
— enjoyed the contemporary male/male romance Fair Isn’t Life by Kaje Harper.
— Paladin’s Hope (The Saint of Steel Book 3) by T. Kingfisher (a gift!) was a fun fantasy. While it could be read as a standalone, I think it works best to read the series in order.
— I was able to get some books via interlibrary loan so was able to continue on in a young adult science fiction series I recently started. I quite enjoyed Earth Star and Earth Flight by Janet Edwards. Be aware that the reader must be willing to suspend disbelief!
— a very short book, I Can’t Keep My Own Secrets: Six-Word Memoirs by Teens Famous & Obscure by Larry Smith and Rachel Fershleiser. This had a variety of entries many of which were poignant.
— the contemporary romance Pipe Dreams by Sarina Bowen; I enjoyed it but it’s not amongst my favorites by the author.
— just finished The Dry: A Novel by Jane Harper which my distant book group will be discussing next week. A mystery is a very atypical book for my group; I found it a gripping read and finished it in two days. And, no, I didn’t guess the murderer.
I’m currently reading the 4:50 FROM PADDINGTON after finishing THE MIRROR CRACK’D FROM SIDE TO SIDE and POCKET FULL OF RYE, shifting Marple in my Christie read marathon. I never knew THE MIRROR CRACK’D was based on a real case! I think the mysteries themselves are a bit less clever than the Poirots, but the characterization is really wonderful. Miss Marple was based on Christie’s own grandmother.
Add me to the SOMETHING FABULOUS camp. I think if you like Georgette Heyer (and always wanted Heyer to be more gay), this is up your alleyway. So it’s definitely in my wheelhouse, although I kind of find the characters more comic than romantic. So it’s silly fun, but not much heat.
I am obsessed with figure skating, but right now I’m finding COLD WAR just very okay. Like, it’s a good book to read in a waiting room or with something on in the background, but the characterization just isn’t detailed enough for me to really feel invested in it.
I love these threads! What a great group of posters and bookshelves!
Two Bad Decisions nights, worth every bleary-eyed minute.
THE DEEPEST OF SECRETS (#7 in the Rockton series) by Kelley Armstrong was everything I wanted it to be. All kinds of murderous skullduggery and double-crosses, ultimately hopeful. One of my favorite series.
Elle Cosimano outdid herself in FINLAY DONOVAN KNOCKS ‘EM DEAD. I had low expectations–could she maintain the humor and complexity of the first book or was it a fluke–and am delighted to say it was very much not a fluke. Finlay is again behind on her promised manuscript, still crime-adjacent (not her fault), with an ex-husband who doesn’t know he’s in deep trouble with organized crime. All this while trying to sort her personal life and figure out what’s going on with her nanny/housemate/closest friend. Loved it.
@Quinn Wilde – if you don’t know it, you should try Band Sinister by KJ Charles. Definitely “like Heyer but gayer”. As for Keira Andrews and figure skating, I agree re. Cold War. You might like Kiss and Cry, her latest, better. I thought this one was more fleshed out.
Having a pretty good reading month.
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree, A- / 4.5 stars, ff fantasy
Delivers exactly what the cover and title promise – a cozy high fantasy about an orc opening a coffee shop, with a lovely slow burn ff romance.
Viv is an orc and a retired mercenary who’s set out to change her life and open a coffee shop. There is some plot – but it’s mostly about Viv finding community and creating a home. It’s like a D&D quest to make friends and open a coffee shop.
How to Find a Princess by Alyssa Cole, A- / 4.5 stars, ff contemporary
Fluffy, feel-good Black, queer ff re-imagining of Anastasia. It’s very tropey and over the top, and it also gleefully explodes and subverts genre tropes.
Tactical Submission by Ada Maria Soto, 4 stars
The bi, poly kinky erotic romance that I didn’t know was missing from my life! Seriously, I can’t believe it took me so long to try this author.
I was inspired to read it by this lovely article on Book Riot – “THANK YOU, ROMANCE: ON DATING IN MY 30S, GLORIOUS CONVERSATIONS, AND QUEER ROMANCE NOVELS” at https://bookriot.com/thank-you-romance/ The author thanks / lists many authors of queer romances and Ada Maria Soto was the only name on the list that I didn’t recognize and only 1 of 2 that I haven’t read. Since I like to love everyone else in the list, I had to try her.
Fire Becomes Her by Rosiee Thor – 3 stars, YA fantasy
I wanted to like this more than I did.
Just like the last time I posted to WAYR, today was a day of major house cleaning and decluttering. My mom (who lives with us) is preparing for major surgery so we are trying to get everything in its place and be ready to go.
Excellent:
The Secret Adversary by Agatha Christie: The first in the Tommy and Tuppenance series, I was delighted by this espionage/murder mystery which takes place right after WWI. It reminded me in places of Nick and Nora from The Thin Man series and in other places of Hitchcock. I just loved it.
Friday The Rabbi Slept Late by Harry Kemelman: First in the Rabbi Small mystery series, I adored the academic, book-loving rabbi who gets caught up in congregation politics but then a dead body is discovered on the synagogue’s grounds. A party is wrongfully accused and the rabbi must find the real killer. CW for anti-Semitism
Very Good:
March: Book One by John Lewis, Andrew Aydin, and Nate Powell: The first in the graphic novel trilogy telling the story of Congressman John Lewis.
The Tyrant Alpha’s Rejected Mate by Cate C. Wells: Let me start by saying that this trope was something I didn’t know I really wanted in my life, but I do, I really do. Now I want all the recommendations of books where one of the MC is rejected by the other at the beginning of the book and the rejecter then has to make up to the rejectee the whole story – whether fated mates or contemporary or historical or fantasy I need all the recs. No idea this was my catnip, but there you go. I only marked it down from Excellent because I didn’t like the final conflict in the end – can’t say much more without major spoilers.
Good:
Murder on St. Mark’s Place by Victoria Thompson – second in the Gaslight Mystery series – I love the main characters – a midwife/widow/former aristocrat who is back on a case and finds herself having to ask her former nemesis – a New York police detective – for help. The murderer in this one was so obvious that I was terribly frustrated, but those two main characters kept me going – and I plan to read the next.
The Happiest Toddler on the Block: How to Eliminate Tantrums and Raise a Patient, Respectful, and Cooperative One- to Four-Year-Old by Harvey Karp: As a mom of a one year-old and a two year-old I need all of the help I can get. I found this book to be easy to read and had some tips that were helpful. But I still have a huge stack of parenting books to read that I am hoping I will connect with a little more.
Meh:
None
The Bad:
None
I did some reading and re-reading.
The Billionaire’s Wake-up-call Girl, courtesy of SB recommendations was cute and wonderful.
The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea by Elizabeth O’Roake. Enemy to lovers. Young female pop star with trauma history falls in love with and starts and affair with her ex-rockstar boyfriend’s MD brother. Plenty of drama and I did enjoy it. It’s in Kindle Unlimited.
Battle Royal by Lucy Parker, another SB recommendation. Finally got around to reading it and enjoyed it.
Re-read The Obsession by Nora Roberts (serial killer stalks photog who is rehabbing mansion and falling in love with a hot mechanic) which is a comfort read for me. Now re-reading The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison, another comfort read. Between the kids with long Covid I am dealing with and my traumatized teen dealing with a very ugly breakup while I am doing a locums 3 hours away (actually took an emergency day and went home and sat with him after some bad midnight phone calls), it is going to be all comfort reads all the time for the next little while. And I am willing to take recommendations.
I hope all of you are doing much better than this. And, really, thank the goddess for comfort reads.
My second time at offering comments on WAYR and this time I’m not doing it 2 days after everyone else has commented. My attempt to read from my TBR and library holds pile and not buy a new book until I had read at least 3 out of the stash suffered a small setback this last week as I added 2 books and only managed to read 3 out of the TBR.
After about 3 months of off and on reading I finished His Perfect Partner by Priscilla Oliveras. I’ve read a couple of her other books set in Florida Keys that were okay, but not memorable. This book is set in Chicago (which is one of my favorite cities). The heroine is a professional dancer and the oldest of 3 sisters (the other sisters also have their own books). She had a fairly successful career in NYC ( I think on Broadway, but maybe with various modern/contemporary dance companies, I wasn’t quite clear about that), but she’s lost her confidence (both professionally and personally) after catching her ex-fiancé in bed with another dancer. When the book opens, she’s teaching at her old dance studio in the Chicago suburbs and taking care of her ailing father. The hero is an ambitious, hardworking ad executive, whose equally ambitious (but evil) ex-wife dumped him and their adorable daughter, because she didn’t want a family. The daughter is taking dance lessons with heroine. The storyline and characters are pretty much romance standard, no real surprises. And there is no real tension about whether the heroine and hero will each compromise (he giving up his search for an “unambitious perfect” partner who loves children, she turning her back on the bright lights of NYC for the joys of the Chicago burbs). What I think kept me at least skimming and DNFing this book is that I really enjoyed how Oliveras worked in the heroine’s Puerto Rican culture and background into the story. The food, music, dance, the expectations about how families should be – those aspects of the story worked well. The hero is Mexican American, but his background plays a much smaller part – the focus really is on heroine and her family. Content warning death of character.
After seeing comments about Bethany Bennett’s second book, West End Earl, at SBTB recently, I dug up my copy of her first book, Any Rogue Will Do. What I enjoyed was that there was an attempt to insert some historical background into book in a way that made at least some sense. Also the hero Ethan recognizes that he was an utter jerk years ago about the heroine Lottie and tries to make amends for his stupidity – which is always good to see. But using “tae” and “lass” over and over to signal that hero has a Scottish burr was distracting. And there was way too much character backstory and plot crammed into this book, trying to make it all fit together meant that the characters didn’t always act consistently (especially Lottie – whose ditherings in the last part of the book were excruciatingly overdone). But Ethan and Lottie both were for most part enjoyable characters, and I like how Bennett showed that they both were committed to helping others and ensuring that the lands under their care would flourish. I may, if I managed to make a dent in the TBR pile, pick up the second book.
I’ve read and enjoyed all of T. Kingfisher’s Paladin books and Swordheart, but although I’ve had the Clockwork Boys sitting in my TBR, I hadn’t read it until now. It takes place in the same world as those other books and is the first book in Kingfisher’s Clocktaur War duology. A forger, an assassin, and a disgraced Knight-Champion of the Dreaming God, all under sentence for various crimes, are promised pardons if they go on a suicide mission to discover how to stop the mysterious Clockwork Boys (aka Clocktaurs), the almost-indestructible, magical, mechanical, machines of war, which the city-state of Anuket is using to slowly conquer its neighbour, the Dowager’s kingdom. This book sets up the story and characters and then sends them off on their journey from Dowager’s city through war-torn countryside and into the Vagrant Hills to the gates of Anuket. There are freaky tattoos, demons both dead and alive, spooky woods, a virulent plague, some violent moments, a very slowly developing (possible) romance, and lots of sardonic humour. But this book isn’t a standalone novel — and since I didn’t have the second book of the duology, The Wonder Engine, in my TBR, I just had to buy it even though I hadn’t read enough books from my TBR pile to purchase another book. Oh well these things they happen.
Reading next – The Wonder Engine and at least 3 books from TBR.
@Midge–I’ve read quite a bit of KJ, but haven’t delved into Band Sinister yet, so I will bump it up on the TBR! Her recent stand-alone THE GENTLE ART OF FORTUNE-HUNTING also had a nice Heyer vibe, with lots of references to the original book that inspired it (THE MASQUERADERS).
It’s nice to know I’m not the only one to feel that way about COLD WAR. I will give the author another try, though, since I wanted to like the book. It wasn’t bad, just….fine.
@Katie–yay, another Christie reader! I think Agatha is the only person getting me through this month, sometimes.
I’m currently reading the ‘Love By Numbers’ trilogy, by Sarah MacLean. (Currently on Book 2 – Ten Ways to Be Adored When Landing a Lord.)
Echoing what Vicki said. Between ‘life stuff’ and world events, thank goodness for comfort reads. I’ve definitely needed them these past couple of weeks. At least I’m flying through my TBR list for 2022.
@cleo, that article is excellent. Really cool to hear about her journey. As a straight cis woman, totally different motivation for picking up these books (I just love a good romance novel) but I still feel I’ve learned a lot from many of these same authors. Looking forward to checking out the rest.
@Big K – happy reading! There’re so many good authors in that list, excited for more people to discover them.
@cleo and Big K: I also really enjoyed that article. I think that’s what I really like about romance – that it gives us space to explore our feelings and realize what we need and want in a relationship and the vocabulary to be able to communicate our needs to a romantic partner. It’s a safe place with no bad consequences and we can nope out at any time if we don’t find it appealing.
@Vicki: since you asked for comfort read recommendations, here are some of mine.
The Goblin Emperor
Linesman by SK Dunstall
Touchstone series by Andrea Höst
Claimings series by Lyn Gala
Murder in Thrall by Anne Cleeland
Uhura’s Song by Janet Kagan
:::walks in quietly:::
Anyone else just want to hole up and be very quiet right now? And yet there’s also the incandescent rage, so that’s confusing.
And my reading seem to be embracing the incandescent rage, which is a weird coping mechanism.
I started with Out of the Dark by Gregg Hurwitz, 4th in the Orphan X series. I really love this series, and how things progress with Evan, especially when it comes to his relationships with others. In this one, he has a bone to pick with none other than the President of the United States, and it felt a bit like Hurwitz might have been working out some feelings. It was very clever. The only thing that gave me some trouble, and if anything, it was too well-written, was the side mission. It involved a young man, clearly on the autism spectrum, that has some VERY BAD things happen to him, and it’s what brings him into The Nowhere Man’s orbit. It was deeply upsetting to read, as the parent of two teenagers with autism. I actually had to call my dad, who had already read this book, and have him reassure me that the bad guys were going to get shredded. I’m bloodthirsty, we’ve covered this. Then, because clearly I’m still dealing with a dark mood, I moved on to The Turnout by Megan Abbott. This is a deeply disturbing book. Every trigger warning in the metaphorical book, for just about every kind of abuse you can think of. It is about two sisters who run a ballet school, and it’s framed around the run-up to their annual Nutcracker spectacular. This club has everything: murders, fires, infidelity, every kind of weird codependent relationship you can think of, body horror for days. I tore through it, and I’m relieved to be done with it. I don’t know what I’m going to read yet, because the world is on fire, and my head is in a weird place for it. So until next time, please, please take care of yourselves, and in the meantime, all the aid and support to Ukraine. All. Of. It.
@KatieC – JAK Silver Linings@KatieC, that trope where the male MC rejects the heroine and then spends the rest of the book trying to get back into the her good graces? Jayne Ann Krentz has used it several times. The first one that comes to mind is “Silver Linings”, and I’m sure it’s in several of her old 1980’s category romances written as Jayne Castle or Stephanie James, but good luck figuring out which ones!
And speaking of JAK, last WAYR we talked about not enough romance in her suspense novels. I happened to read “The Vanishing” and it was a clone of any number of other JAK books, yet I can’t stop reading her! The romantic relationship was fairly well developed anyway, comparatively speaking.
I read 2 Cate Wells books, Hitting the Wall and Against the Wall. They were gripping, Bad Decisions Book Club reads. But there was a big time gap between them, with important events happening in between. I figured out that gap was covered in “Heavy” which is part of Wells’ Steel Bones motorcycle club series. That is so not my genre, but I read “Heavy” because I was interested in the story about the Wall brothers’ neurodivergent sister. Good book, and I feel like I’ve gotten closure but the whole MC world is too seedy and violent for me. Will not read more of them. It seems like I can’t stick with a contemporary series for more than 2 books. Same thing happened with Kate Canterbary. I got the rec here for her Walsh series. Really liked the first one, then by the end of the second one I felt like I had my fill. So much heavy blackout drinking in those books, the whole Walsh family seems to be alcoholic. It disturbed me and distracted me from the story.
So back to historicals! I did a reread of one of Liz Carlyle’s earliest books, in fact I think it might have been her first book, “My False Heart”. She is such a good writer. It’s not so old that it’s a throwback bodice ripper. The heroine has a believable profession, is self-sufficient and supporting her entire household. Yet old enough that it’s really complex and meaty compared to a lot of current historicals(450 pages!), with great character development.
I’m now reading “City of Lies” by Victoria Thompson. I started this new series because the next book in her Gaslight Mysteries was not available at my library. Great so far, early 1900’s a con artist heroine gets caught up in the suffragist movement. And I’m also reading “The Siren of Sussex” by Mimi Matthews. Beautiful writing about people who are not rich or titled, and have real world problems.
@Katie C: for your “hero rejects heroine and then spends rest of book trying to get her back” catnip, I’d recommend trying another of Cate C. Wells’s books, RUN POSY RUN, which is a mafia romance and interesting because the MCs don’t really have much of a “romantic” relationship. I discovered RUN POSY RUN through the Fated Mates podcast—their Best of 2021 episode. One of the two hosts said the “hero rejects heroine then tries to get her back” is one of her favorite tropes. I’d also recommend looking at the synopses of some of the older HPs of both Maya Banks and Maya Blake (they have similar names and similar writing styles) because that “oh, why did I reject her? I can’t live without her!” was a frequent theme of their books. In fact, it used to be a common HP theme, but I haven’t seen it so much lately.