I
t’s time for our second Whatcha Reading of the month, which also means March is nearly over!
Sarah: I just started Burning Hope by Wendy Roberts, ( A | BN | K | AB ) a mystery about a psychic woman who lives in a camper van and oh heck, there’s a murder.
Shana: I’ve been on a SFF kick lately. I finished Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher which managed to feel very cozy despite the severed heads. I know I’m late to the party on that one, have you all read it? And my library hold of Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki just came in. The blurb compares it to Good Omens meets The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet…YES, PLEASE.
AJ: This may not technically count but I had a dream last night that I was reading a superhero romance called The Rich Henchman, the Supervillain and the Spy. Then I woke up and it didn’t exist. I’m not over it.
Carrie: Well now I’m not over it either!
Susan: Time to create the superhero romance we want to see in the world?
Elyse: I’ve been way off my reading game. Between family stuff and world news stuff I can’t seem to focus. I’ve been playing Lego Jurassic World on the Switch instead.
EllenM: I just finished Well Met by Jen DeLuca and I really enjoyed it! I do so love a renaissance faire!
I also maybe talked about this one before because I started it a while ago and then took a break but I also just finished Wine of Violence by Priscilla Royal—a MEDIEVAL FEMINIST NUN MYSTERY??? it was amazing and i already put more of the series on hold at the library.
Susan: My reading life got 100% derailed by a smutty gay gacha game so I’m still reading Boyish²! The best description I have for it so far is that it’s so comfortable. It’s the emotional equivalent of curling up with a blanket and my comfiest socks and revisiting a bunch of my favourite tropes, just with soft butch leads as far as the eye can see.
Claudia: I’m sort of struggling to get into books lately too. I’ve just started the newest Jeannie Lin — Red Blossom in the Snow. I’m happy to be back at the Lotus Palace once more!
Sneezy: I’ve only one brain cell struggling to keep the lights on right now, and webtoons continue to be the thing for me. One of the webtoons I’ve been following is Under the Oak Tree, and the story has been impressing me with the bait and switch. I came for the beautiful art and smut adjacent scenes (unfortunately there’s no 19+ version available), and stayed for the main character’s journey to self actualization. In the most recent chapter, she’s just been lured by the castle mage to learn healing magic so his work load would decrease. It’s another comic on Manta, and unfortunately it’s not one of their free webtoons. $4.99 a month gives you access to the entire platform though, so it could be worth it to some readers
Maya: I just finished listening to Laziness Does Not Exist by Devon Price. It was a great reminder and reinforcement of some stuff people have been telling me, like actually paying attention to when my body is signaling that I am tired and acting in a way that prioritizes my physical and mental health. I know a few other Bitches here mentioned it, so thank you all for the rec! I also just started listening to Real Men Knit by Kwana Jackson because I’m loving the cover and blurb for the follow up that is coming out this summer.
Tara: So, I’m actually listening to a book that pairs very well with Laziness Does Not Exist, called Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals by Oliver Burkeman. It’s not really about time management as much as it’s about deciding how you want to spend your time, and therefore live your life, since you’ll only have 4000 weeks to work with, if you make it to 80.
On a wildly different note, I’m also reading Faux Queen by Monique Jenkinson. ( A | BN | K ) It’s a memoir by the first cisgender woman to win a major drag pageant. It’s fascinating reading and so far I’m loving it.
Carrie: I’m reading How the Word is Passed by Clint Smith. ( A | BN | K ) It is intense, it is painful, and it is necessary. No huge surprises in it so far for me, but I did find the phrase, “a sense of discovered ignorance” which is spot on for a certain experience.
What are you reading? Let us know in the comments below!
Since the last post, my mom had her major surgery and is recovering nicely, but I have been busy busy busy.
Excellent:
The Murderer’s Tale by Margaret Frazer: Sixth in the Dame Frevisse mystery series set in Medieval England, this was the best in the series since the first book. The MC is a nun, but this book found her again outside of her convent. This time on pilgrimage (with a stop at a manor house for convent business) when a death occurs that is attributed to a demon possession. The reader knows who the murderer is and why they did it, but the suspense comes from how Dame Frevisse will figure it out and how she will catch the murderer.
Very Good:
None
Good:
House of Earth and Blood by Sarah J Maas: I am a fan of Maas, but this adult urban fantasy series (Crescent City) is my least favorite of hers. (For the record, Throne of Glass is one of my favorite series – fantasy or otherwise – of all time and overall I really loved A Court of Thorn and Roses although it is a distant second in my heart to ToG). I think part of the struggle is that aside from a couple of secondary characters, I don’t really like any of the main characters that much. Plus the hero in this one is very blah to me.
The Sleepeasy Solution: The Exhausted Parent’s Guide to Getting Your Child to Sleep – from Birth to Age 5 by Jennifer Waldburger and Jill Spivack: As I mentioned on another WAYR, a lot of baby sleep books have very similar main themes/systems/strategies, but they each have their own individual tips and tricks that I find useful and this was no exception.
Meh:
Owned by Tessa Bailey: I have read two series by Tessa Bailey that I loved (Broke and Beautiful and The Academy), so I took this dive into her backlist and wish that I hadn’t. I am guessing this was written after FSOG shot to popularity (I didn’t check) and I can’t for the life me figure out why the hero and heroine had such instant pants feelings for each other and why they supposedly fell in love. That said, it wasn’t horribly written, nothing horribly objectionable happened in the plot – it just wasn’t good.
Death Below Stairs by Jennifer Ashley: The latest pick for my mystery book club – this should have been all of my mystery catnip – the MC is a cook at a fancy house in Victorian England, but I didn’t like it. There was too much coincidence in the plot, I didn’t like the way certain bits of the history of the characters were dropped and just seemed a clunky and obvious way to push the next book in the series, the romance was meh, and for a cook she didn’t actually do much cooking (although what the food that was mentioned sounds delicious). I don’t plan to read the next in the series.
The Bad:
None
@EllenM: May I recommend Peter Tremayne’s Sister Fidelma series? She’s a court advocate/investigator in late 600s Ireland and the series is at least 20 books long. I’ve only read the first two but they are excellent!
@Kareni, Doctor’s Orders is probably the one I’ve reread the most, I love Dr McCoy. The Wounded Sky introduced me to K’s’t’lk and is therefore amazing (SHE AND SCOTTY BELONG TOGETHER and dammit she might actually still be alive when Scotty comes out of the transporter buffer in Relics, she’s of a long lived species with a tendency towards self cloning, I need that reunion fic). Uhura’s Song I liked both for itself and for the fact that it introduced me to Janet Kagan’s other works (of which there are too few and she left us too soon), Kagan’s original novels Mirabile and Hellspark are both in permanent comfort read rotation now. I was brought into nerdery very early so I also have a nostalgic soft spot for the books I first read as a teeny geekling, the Starfleet Academy books for kids and the novelizations of the Star Trek: The Animated Series episodes.
@Qualisign: thank you!! It’s an honor to know we have helped make that reading experience ideal for you.
@Jill Q, your mention of Ngaio Marsh made me think of this one! Not reading, but reading adjacent- I’ve been gobbling up the author Caroline Crampton’s podcast SHEDUNNIT which explores aspects of the golden age of detective fiction in the 1920s and 30s. Really interesting discussions of how genre fiction can serve as a balm in times of societal emotional fatigue. Highly recommend!
Secret at Skull House and Mystery at the Masquerade – Josh Lanyon (audio)
M/M cozy mystery. This series continues to be not incredibly memorable, but is hitting some low angst level button for me currently.
As seems to be a theme with other folks this month, I’ve been having trouble getting any traction reading new things. The exception being SPOILER ALERT by Olivia Dade. I know I’m late to the party but I’m really enjoying two genuinely nice people being nice to each other. I’m about 3/4s of the way through and already looking forward to the sequel. I will admit to a little bit of skimming when it comes to the sections dealing with the heroine’s fat shaming family. I think they are well done but I don’t need those emotions even second hand.
Have really been enjoying reading through everyone’s comments on these posts.❤️
I have a few books on hold at the library so I decided to binge watch Bridgerton!
I LOVED season 2! Kate is superb. I loved almost everything about it. I felt the Edwina/ Anthony storyline went on too long but I loved seeing Edwina get a backbone finally. And Anthony is no Simon but those were tough shoes to fill. The scenes with Queen Charlotte and Lady Danbury interacting were an absolute hoot. And the friendship of Pen and Eloise was fun and devastating to watch.
Yes, superhero romances please!
I finished the ‘Love By Numbers’ trilogy by Sarah MacLean yesterday. (I admit that the last book made me cry a little. lol) Overall, I’d rate the series 3.5 to 4 stars.
Started ‘Love Is a Rogue’ by Lenora Bell really early this morning.
Well, if we’re sharing, I once owned this gem:
https://fanlore.org/wiki/Spock_Enslaved!
Yes, an early 70s gem that my 15yo self could not deny herself. It disappeared while I was away at college, extra sad as I see it’s selling for a couple hundred dollars.
@DonnaMarie, drats on the disappearance of that piece! I’d happily give it a read.
@DejaDrew, I’m glad to meet another Doctor’s Orders fan! You are also making me think I should reread The Wounded Sky.
:::tiptoes in to the strains of Everlong, because I will miss that sweet drummer’s beautiful smile:::
Been a month, lemme tell ya. I remained in something of an urban fantasy mood, and liked what I was hearing about Anne Bishop, so I read Lake Silence. I really liked the concept of this town that was acting as a refuge for both humans and not-humans, and that much of the concept of this town was that it was a place designed for them to learn how to best co-exist. The little quokka-adjacent creatures with the fangs were adorable, and I greatly enjoy it when bad guys keep insisting that their foul actions will still win them the day and they get their asses kicked and in many cases, ripped in half. Has it been mentioned that I’m bloodthirsty? It has, hasn’t it. Moving on. By this time, I needed comfort food and comfort read. My beautiful boy cat, Jack, who was nearly 17 years old, was declining. I had noticed weight loss, and when I took him to the vet (where he’s spent a lot of time over the past year), he told me that Jack had the kind of renal failure that is common to elderly cats reaching the end of their life. I thought that meant “not right away though” and switched him to the recommended kidney diet. Didn’t work. Jack continued to go downhill, and fast. In just over a week, he could no longer walk and was only licking at his food. This past Monday, I made the difficult but entirely correct decision to let him go. I was really okay day of (had already done a lot of grieving, as I said), but I’m trying to keep my brain as comforted as possible, and decided to go in The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi, which was perfect for where my head was at. I loved literally everything about it: the kaiju, the main character’s blend of cleverness and compassion, the quickly formed found families, Laertes and his firebombs, the often-hilarious one-liners, even the science. It was, as they say, the right book at the right time. Right as I finished it, my hold on Marrying Winterborne by Lisa Kleypas dropped into my Kindle, which was again, good timing, since I tend to throw myself into historical romance when I’m upset or sick, and well, grief and back pain (I think my body was keeping score of my emotional state, which was, as we’ve established, having a bit of a week). I flew through that. I always enjoy Kleypas’s characters, even if I can fully say that all of the conflict in this book could have been solved with literally one conversation. Which brings us to now, in which I’m reading Star Wars: The Fallen Star by Claudia Gray. Enjoying it, since Claudia Gray remains a deft hand at working in the Star Wars universe, and this book brought back two of my faves, the Vintian Geode and the Wookiee Padawan Burryaga. I love those two. I imagine I will have more to say about this book in the nearish future, but I have to finish it first. So until next time, may your snuggles with your furfriends be plentiful.
Speaking of classic Trek novels, does anyone remember Fotonovels? I had The Trouble with Tribbles and Amok Time, as well as the movie ones for Grease and Ice Castles.
https://www.thriftbooks.com/series/star-trek-fotonovel/52781/
I’m reading Put Up Your Duke by Megan Frampton which really fits my mood right now. I love historicals where the couple gets to know each other after marriage.
@Crystal: I’m so sorry you lost Jack. Virtual hugs.
I had a coincidentally helpful reading experience of a different sort when one of my cats died unexpectedly. I was then reading Reindeer Moon by Elizabeth Marshall Thomas, a novel with a few fantasy elements set in the Ice Age. There’s a lot of death in that book, both human and animal, depicted in a compassionate yet very matter-of-fact way that I found comforting.
About Star Trek books, do you have to be a diehard fan to enjoy the books or can they be enjoyed by someone with a casual knowledge of the shows?
If you’re interested in superhero romances, I can recommend Love for the Cold-Blooded: Or: The Part-Time Evil Minion’s Guide to Accidentally Dating a Superhero by Alex Gabriel. It’s a humorous romance that’s pretty much exactly what the subtitle says it is.
Almost forgot to come back and post about the book I just finished.
Travelers Along the Way: A Robin Hood Remix by Aminah Mae Safi – YA, 4 stars / B
I enjoyed this reimagining of Robin Hood set in the Middle East and told from a female and Muslim perspective. It was fun but a little uneven – I had to take a break around the halfway mark because the main character started behaving irrationally and irresponsibly and I felt like the MC’s behavior was driven more by the plot need to become a merry band of clever thieves than anything else. I really enjoyed the 2nd half – there’s an excellent heist and a daring rescue. There are two very low key romances, one f/f and one m/f but it’s definitely not a genre romance.
@StarlightArcher – Lathe of Heaven is not one of my favorites by LeGuin but it is one that I find myself talking about more than some of her others because the premise is so, so interesting. I read it years ago – it’d probably hit differently now because of the pandemic.
@kkw – I’ve done that! Amazing how easy it is to forget I’ve read a book.
@MaryK – It might depend on the Star Trek book. I’m a pretty low key fan, especially of the first show and I really enjoyed Uhura’s Song by Janet Kagan (when I read it, which was quite awhile ago).
@cleo oh, sure – I forget books all the time, or only realize I have read them part way through, but they’re generally average books with nothing particularly memorable about them. I really *liked* this one! Thought it was refreshingly distinctive! I even remembered that you had recommended it previously, but thought my library didn’t have it, and was so excited they had gotten it since the last time I checked.
Since yesterday I read After Dark with the Duke which I did not care for, at all. Found the Duke extremely unpleasant and unrealistic. Probably not a good fit if for example you know much military history, or have read Harriet Wilson’s memoirs.
Also finished The Bone Ships, which has no boning whatsoever and I feel cheated. Cheated! Perfectly decent fantasy novel, but by the time my hold on it came in I forgot there would be no romance.
@MaryK, I think casual Star Trek knowledge would be fine for the titles I listed on the previous page.
No notable reads to mention, but since everybody is talking about Christie and Ngaio Marsh, I want to mention that Patricia Wentworth’s classic British mysteries are way under the radar, and now finally on Kindle, some very cheap. Some of my favorites are The Case is Closed, Wicked Uncle, The Alington Inheritance, and Nothing Venture. Always a bit of a romance subplot to go with the murder mystery.
@LML, I think it was me who recommended Vienna Waltz last month(not to be confused with Vienna Waltz by Teresa Grant which also happens to be a good book). Mary Lancaster is so prolific that I sometimes think she is a team of people writing under that name. Some of her books are so-so, but if you are looking for more, I very much liked her Crime & Passion series. The first one is “Mysterious Lover”.
And thank you @SBEllenM for the feminist nun recommendation! Although neither of us are Catholic, my husband and I met through a very fierce member of the Maryknoll Sisters, and if you are old enough to remember who they were, no more need be said.
@Karin, thanks! I was wondering which of Mary Lancaster’s many series to read next.
HEAVY by Cate C. Wells – [A-] – Wells has such a gift for exploring characters. I put off reading this for a very long time because I hadn’t enjoyed Wall or Forty (two earlier books in Wells’ Steel Bones MC series that also intersect with both her Stonecut County series and the standalone title Run Posy Run). 1%er MC romances are not my jam, and while the romance is solid in this book, there’s so much more going on in Heavy’s life that outweighs it. I would say ignore the pun, but the book won’t let you. The atmosphere in Heavy is weighted, the dominating theme is the burdens Heavy carries (the wellbeing of the club plus all the crimes they've committed both to thrive and pursue vengeance). Still, Wells manages to slide some sly humor into the darkness. (I don't know why it amuses me, but every time one of the club's victims is mentioned, Heavy recalls the species of tree they're buried under.) Still, I'm eager to leave the MC world behind and return to Wells' shifter universe.
UNDER ONE ROOF by Ali Hazelwood, narrated by Emma Wilder – [B] – I feel like I could go on forever about this novella. First, the positive: Hazelwood's romcom brand of mutual pining works for me. (It worked a little better in The Love Hypothesis, where the heroine’s demisexuality offsets the extreme lack of emotional intelligence displayed.) Next, the negative: based on a sampling of two books, Hazelwood “always” manages to throw something in that creeps me right out of the romance. In TLH, it was the incredibly inappropriate PDAs encouraged by the heroine’s best friend. Here…it’s a spoiler, sorry. It’s paired with another spoiler at the end which I also want to talk about, because I think the second spoiler is a thing that would spark interest in the book, but such are spoilers. Mostly, this is a novella and gets the judgment novelle typically receive: it could have been better if it had been longer. There are so many points that needed more development. Finally, what’s the marketing advantage in releasing the audio weeks prior to the text?
MURDER IN IMMUNITY by Anne Cleeland – [B] – This is the fifteenth volume in the Doyle & Acton series, and I need to confess that I stopped paying attention to anything except the protagonists’ interactions a long time ago. Case in point: early in the novel, Doyle mentions the death of a tertiary character and its impact on a family friend. I’m immediately distracted, because one of Cleeland’s strengths is seeding plot points in earlier books in the series. This would have been a pretty big seed, but I don’t remember it. Was this death mentioned in the preceding book? I dunno, because all I read in the preceding book were Acton and Doyle canoodling and/or interacting with their son or their butler. Also, I’m sad this character had to die. It destabilizes me, in the way that Acton’s creepy “epigraphs” did in the first volume. All the signs point to an upcoming confrontation with another character I like, and if Cleeland was willing to casually off this one, I don’t feel that anyone is safe. Except Doyle, of course.
GOING NOWHERE FAST by Kati Wilde – [B-] – I feel guilty even rating this when hate sex is not my trope (*points to fluffy romcom pining in Hazelwood’s book*). The angst is strong in this one (the break-up is all the more devastating because it feels like a rejection from two of the three most important people in the heroine’s life), but the grovel is weak.
Lastly, I miss comment numbers. I know Sarah is working on returning them, so no pressure. Just know your effort is appreciated and I’ll be thrilled if they come back.
Aw, crabapples. Unclosed italics tag up there. Sorry!
I’ve taken up knitting again after a long, long hiatus. Since I’d forgotten quite a bit, I had signed up for some knitting classes at the local yarn store, but Covid played havoc with that. So I’ve been looking through my knitting books, reading blogs, watching YouTube videos and of course actually knitting (and at times frogging and starting over). I’m enjoying rediscovering knitting. Strangely enough it doesn’t feel like I’ve lost any reading time by taking up knitting once again.
The last couple of weeks have been fantasy/paranormal romances reading time: two more library holds from months ago showed up in the last two weeks: Payback’s a Witch by Lana Harper and Guild Boss by Jayne Castle (Jayne Ann Krentz). The third book I read was The Tyrant Alpha’s Rejected Mate by Cate C. Wells, which I downloaded when it was being offered for free.
Payback’s a Witch is a fun, light-hearted book that I realized about half-way through is a girl-returns-to-her-small-town-and-realizes-that-it’s-where-she-really-belongs romance but with magic. I’m usually ambivalent about small town romances, especially ones that insist that not only does the protag need to return home, but also that only in their hometown can the protag be their authentic self. And certainly, that’s true here to some extent – there is no other place where the heroine and all the other witches can do magic. Leaving the town means that their magic fades and can even disappear. But there is also no downgrading of the progtag’s experiences in Chicago – the big city is not villainized and devalued the way it often is in small-town romances. The romance between Emmy and Talia (the goth witch that Emmy had secretly had a crush on in high school) was sweet. And I overall I enjoyed the story of how Emmy, her best friend Linden, and Talia managed with the help of Linden’s twin Rowan to upset the town’s magical hierarchy and revenge themselves on the wealthy, clueless dude, who had hurt them all.
Guild Boss was a return to Jayne Ann Krentz’s paranormal, futuristic world of Harmony. For quite a few years Krentz was publishing 3 books a year, one historical romance (as Amanda Quick), one contemporary (as Krentz), and one paranormal, futuristic romance (as Jayne Castle). She hadn’t published any new Castle books since 2016, so I thought she had decided to focus solely on the historial and contemporary settings, but last year Guild Boss came out. It was pretty much what I expected – there were dust bunnies, a feisty heroine, a stolid hero with a deadpan sense of humor, a cast of quirky secondary characters and a couple of villains. I find her world building a bit thin in all Harmony books – for all that Harmony is supposed to be set hundreds of years in the future on a colony that lost contact with Earth – it is amazingly like contemporary America. Krentz also has for the past decade or so been loosely linking many of her books published under all three of her names into a nebulous overarching story about secret societies of good and evil paranormal people doing battle against other through various time periods. Guild Boss has scenes in it that only make sense if you have read some of the other “Arcane Society” books along with previous books set on Harmony. Enjoyed Guild Boss, but it is a book, I think, for JAK/AQ/JC fans.
I just finished The Tyrant Alpha’s Rejected Mate and am still thinking about it. First impressions – overall positive. I thought using werewolves to discuss gender politics, class issues, and the struggles small, insular communities have been undergoing during the massive upheavals of the last 80 years was clever. I did think the book dragged a bit at times – some of Una’s thoughts about the injustices and unfairness began to feel too repetitive and as a result began to lose effectiveness. But I liked how Wells showed how it was possible for both Una and Killian to both be right about various issues and that compromises were possible both in their private life and for the community at large. I’m not sure that I will track down Well’s motorcycle or Wall books, but I’m interested in the next book in this series and may pick it up.
@Deborah: no worries – all fixed!
I am not having a great time reading-wise of late, I think due to a combination of extra stress plus extra exhausting days. There’s just a lot going on right now, both personally and world-wide, and I mostly read at night before bed but instead have just been falling asleep the instant the light goes out. All this has resulted in me having tons of books on my Kindle that I’d dearly love to read, but I’m at about 35% into HOUSE OF EARTH AND BLOOD by Sarah J. Maas and I am stalled. It’s not that the book is bad. It’s actually fine, although I agree with @Katie C that the male main character is not super compelling. The female main character is great. The mystery is interesting and I really do want to know what happens. But I’ve taken more than a week to get to 35% and I can’t seem to make any progress. I am determined to finish it before we go on vacation in 2 weeks so that I can spend the full vacation reading all the rest of the stuff on my Kindle that is waiting for me!
Been away on a trip but also had to go into isolation because… yes, the virus caught up with me. Triple-vaxed and no symptoms – could have been worse! So I caught up on some reading and my TBR pile!
ANY DAY and SALVAGING CHRISTMAS by Brian Lancaster – went into these because I loved Lancaster’s Companion Required. All m/m contemporary, all in the same universe, but they are also all fine as stand alones. If you don’t want any spoilers about Kennedy and Kieran, the MCs from Companion Required, read this one before Any Day. Any Day also features older MCs, for those who like this. I liked them all, they are all pretty low-angst and satisfying. Terrible exes or a bit of drama from exes in all of them, but no big angst in the actual romance, and more queer side characters.
WAIT FOR IT by Jenn McKinlay – I bought this upon recommendation here. I liked it in general, though some of the heros actions and motivations didn’t seem realistic to me. Ok, I can understand in part why the hero totally cut himself off from everything and I did have an idea about his panic attacks early on, but still this seemed a bit overdone, and him “retiring” from his business – yeah, but if you make that much money, you have company, employees… what happened to those? And then he dives right back and is in business again? It just seemed a little unrealistic to me. And maybe I read too many wounded hero Regency romances where the hero hides himself away for sometimes all too flimsy reasons. Yes, PTSD is real, but in some of those, or at least some of the older ones I remember, it was all a bit overdone, and that was a bit of the vibe that I got here.
UNFORGIVABLE by Joanna Chambers. This m/f Regency romance was just re-released with a new cover and some minor edits to make it the first in a new series. The next book will be a reworking of The Lady’s Secret, Chambers’ first romance (and then there will be a third in the series, a totally new one, that will be m/m). I am very much looking forward to this one, as it has a cross-dressing heroine (and not the one-minute-in-the-stable-boy’s-clothes variety!). I have read both books in the “original” version before. I still think that the hero of Unforgivable behaves terribly and should do more grovelling…
Non-romance:
GOOD BONES – Margaret Atwood. My best friend recommended this. Short stories, I liked some better than the others. It’s not new, but some of her thoughts on environment, women and gender are not outdated at all. Have we really progressed so little? The best story though is “Gertrude Talks Back” – which is Gertrude from Hamlet. So good!
BAD BOY and CLOSE TO HOME – Peter Robinson. Two Inspector Banks novels, one that I had missed before and the latest that I hadn’t read yet. I love these and wish there were more still to read!
TWILIGHT MAN – Liz Brown. Biography of Harrison Post and William Andrews Clark Junior (heir of the Clark copper empire) – Post was Clark’s lover/boyfriend/partner in the 1920s when their relationship would have been illegal. Post basically reinvented himself and his life story and for a while moved among all the Hollywood glitterati of the time. Then his story turns a lot darker… it’s hard to describe it without giving away too much, but it was an interesting look into two very different families and lives and a part of the history of the American west. Post’s real life story is almost unbelievable, also what happened later in his life after Clark died. Truly stranger than fiction! The author did a good job I think in piecing a story together where sometimes it was hard to find any official records, or to find out what was fact and what was fiction.
THE HABSBURGS The Rise and Fall of A World Power – Martyn Rady. More history reading! I thought it would be good to catch up on the Habsburg story with a new book – the only other Habsburg book I have dates to the 60s originally and is the book that got me into history at first, as an 11-year-old. Rady’s writing is good, and I deeply appreciated the closer look into the family’s origins, which aren’t far from my home. However, in general, it focuses more on the politics and policies and less on the personalities and personal stuff of the emperors. It’s well-written but if you want to know more about all these larger than life characters and the family dynamics etc., this isn’t the book for you.
I have been laid low by COVID so my brain is not at its best – have reread the Hathaway series by Lisa Klepas and am now working my way through the Bridgerton series.
Next on my reread/comfort read list is Jennifer Crusie.
@JenniferH: I hope you feel better and better each day. Sending much warmth!
I finished watching Bridgerton II, and felt – I don’t know, rather dissatisfied with it? Jonathan Bailey definitely did his research, and romance hero’d his heart out – he brooded, he fumed, he looked wounded and seductive and enchanting AND managed to fall in a lake in a white muslin shirt. But feisty Kate? The actress seemed wooden when I wished she wouldn’t be (there was a lot of standing very still with her arms flat down by her sides as if she didn’t know what to do with them), and honestly, it sounded as if she was fighting battles with the accent half the time. (The girl playing Edwina did a much better job.) And then I couldn’t work out why they actually liked each other.
Anyway, I picked up one of my old favourite romances, trying to see why I liked it so much when I first read it and why I found the HEA so convincing, and it was STILL terrific (What I Did For A Duke by Julie Anne Long).
First up thank you Bitchery for all the wonderful recs!
I just finished THE CITY BETWEEN series by W.R. Gingell (urban fantasy, YA). I am a late comer to these but much recommended. I devoured the series; awesome world building, great overarching coming of age plot and slow burn romance. I particuary loved the way the author focused on found family and different kinds of relationships, not just romance. Strong heroine who really grows into herself and the romantic plot is really sweet. Very chaste which is suitable for YA heroine who is only 17 and 18 years old during books and who has had no prior romantic relationships. Warnings for violence, blood, death of characters, also some descriptions of murder scenes.
For any Ilona Andrews fans I highly recommend following their blog for the next installment in the INKEEPER CHRONICLES series- SWEEP OF THE HEART (fantasy/ urban fantasy). Each chapter released FREE weekly. I am a paid up 100% member of the Book Devouring Hoard and I have no shame when it comes to my love for all things Ilona Andrews *que grabby hands* Books must be read in order for overarching plot.
WEATHER GIRL by Rachel Lynn Solomon (contemporary). It was a B rating for me. I wanted to love it more, totally agree with a previous comment about the heroine’s angsty moment later in the book not working because- your an adult with a very high level of emotional intelligence because of your circumstances- use your words. I really loved the H in this though and I thought the first sex scene was particuarly well done.
THREE NIGHTS BEFORE CHRISTMAS by Kat Latham (contemporary). This is book 3 in a series but can be read as a stand alone (I have not read the other books). I really enjoyed this slow burn, enemies to lovers between an ex- prisoner and the forest ranger who helped put her there. I thought the heavy themes were dealt with really well and the romance was given time to develop and be believable. Great rep for competence porn in this one and an extra shout out for a heroine who is both an engineer and works on trains!
HUNT THE STARS by Jessie Mihalik (Scifi). LOVED THIS. I am a JM fan and was not dissapointed. Competence galore, kick ass heroine, great supporting characters. Points for great consent- in lots of different situations, but its really crucial to the plot of this one and both romantic leads are super aware of personal boundaries. They are also great “protector” archetypes so you see them take care of each other in big and small ways.
The Patricia Wentworth books are also free on Faded Pages, if you are ok with Canadian copyright.
I’ve had a bit of a mixed couple of weeks of reading. Finally read Paladin’s Grace, which I’d seen recommended in so many places. It was very pleasant and I will read the next in the series, but I think for me it lacked a slight edge. Possibly I’d just overanticipated it as I’d read so many recommendations.
DNFed Christina Lauren’s In A Holidaze – couldn’t get on with the characters.
Read Rachel Lacey’s Read Between the Lines, but struggled with this one too, particularly the character who described herself as an introvert but was happy to throw herself into the other’s extrovert life and partying.
Re-read Celia Lake’s Fool’s Gold, which I like a lot – the redemption in this one is great and I love the young, enthusiastic dragon.
Read a lot of 19thc religious fiction – Pansy and the like.
Started Umi Sakurai’s A Man and His Cat, but not sure I’m getting it yet.
Re-read Nora Roberts’s Dark Witch trilogy.
Re-read Jenny Crusie’s Charlie All Night, which is a fun quick read.
If anyone tries Marsh’s A Man Lay Dead and doesn’t get on with it, I think they get much better as the series goes on.