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Something Fabulous
Something Fabulous by Alexis Hall is $1.99! Of course, we’re big fans of Alexis Hall at the Bitchery and this is a rompy, road trip adventure. It came out in January. Did any of you pick this one up?
From the acclaimed author of Boyfriend Material comes a delightfully witty romance featuring a reserved duke who’s betrothed to one twin and hopelessly enamoured of the other.
Valentine Layton, the Duke of Malvern, has twin problems: literally.
It was always his father’s hope that Valentine would marry Miss Arabella Tarleton. But, unfortunately, too many novels at an impressionable age have caused her to grow up…romantic. So romantic that a marriage of convenience will not do and after Valentine’s proposal she flees into the night determined never to set eyes on him again.
Arabella’s twin brother, Mr. Bonaventure “Bonny” Tarleton, has also grown up…romantic. And fully expects Valentine to ride out after Arabella and prove to her that he’s not the cold-hearted cad he seems to be.
Despite copious misgivings, Valentine finds himself on a pell-mell chase to Dover with Bonny by his side. Bonny is unreasonable, overdramatic, annoying, and…beautiful? And being with him makes Valentine question everything he thought he knew. About himself. About love. Even about which Tarleton he should be pursuing.
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The Hunting Party
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley is $2.99! Lucy Foley’s other mysteries have been favorably reviewed on the site by Elyse. This one is a murder mystery set in the Scottish wilderness.
Everyone’s invited…everyone’s a suspect…
For fans of Ruth Ware and Tana French, a shivery, atmospheric, page-turning novel of psychological suspense in the tradition of Agatha Christie, in which a group of old college friends are snowed in at a hunting lodge . . . and murder and mayhem ensue.
All of them are friends. One of them is a killer.
During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of thirtysomething friends from Oxford meet to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students ten years ago. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands—the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves.
They arrive on December 30th, just before a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world.
Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead.
The trip began innocently enough: admiring the stunning if foreboding scenery, champagne in front of a crackling fire, and reminiscences about the past. But after a decade, the weight of secret resentments has grown too heavy for the group’s tenuous nostalgia to bear. Amid the boisterous revelry of New Year’s Eve, the cord holding them together snaps.
Now one of them is dead . . . and another of them did it.
Keep your friends close, the old adage goes. But just how close is too close?
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American Queen
American Queen by Sierra Simone is $1.49! This is the first book in the New Camelot Trilogy. This is a menage romance with BDSM, some darker elements, and a cliffhanger. I’ve seen this highly recommended on social media, but there’s something about the description that puts me off. Maybe the political element? If you’ve read this, let me know what you think!
Warned as a girl to keep her kisses to herself, Greer Galloway disobeys twice–once on her sixteenth birthday as she’s kneeling in a pool of broken glass, and another time after a charming stranger named Embry Moore whisks her into the dazzling Chicago night. Both times she falls in love, and both times her heart is broken beyond repair. And so as an adult, she vows never to kiss–or to love again.
That’s until the Vice President of the United States shows up at the university where she teaches, and asks for one thing: for her to meet with the hero-turned-President Maxen Colchester. Maxen, the soldier who was her first kiss in that pool of broken glass.
And the other complication? The Vice President is none other than charming Embry Moore himself.
Soon, Greer finds herself caught between past and present, pleasure and pain–and two men who long for each other as much as they long for her. And as war and betrayal press ever closer, they tumble headlong into a passionate love affair that will change the world…
From the USA Today bestselling author of Priest comes a contemporary reimagining of the legend of King Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot–elegant, carnal, and unforgettable.
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Sailor Proof
Sailor Proof by Annabeth Albert is $2.99! This is book one in the Shore Leave series and seems to have a lot of catnip. One of the heroes is in the military, there’s a fake relationship, and the best friend’s younger sibling trope.
The sexy Navy chief and his best friend’s adorkable little brother…
It’s petty, but Naval Chief Derrick Fox wishes he could exact a little revenge on his ex by showing off a rebound fling. His submarine is due to return to its Bremerton, Washington, home base soon and Derrick knows all too well there won’t be anyone waiting with a big, showy welcome.
Enter one ill-advised plan…
Arthur Euler is the guy you go to in a pinch—he’s excellent at out-of-the-box solutions. It’s what the genius music-slash-computer nerd is known for. So when he finds out Derrick needs a favor, he’s happy to help. He can muster the sort of welcome a Naval Chief deserves, no problem at all.
Except it is a problem. A very big problem.
When Arthur’s homecoming welcome is a little too convincing, when a video of their gangplank smooch goes enormously viral, they’re caught between a dock and a hard place. Neither of them ever expected a temporary fake relationship to look—or feel—so real. And Arthur certainly never considered he’d be fighting for a very much not-fake forever with a military man.
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“Something Fabulous” is entirely fun. There’s only vague conflict, everyone is some variety of queer or queer-friendly. If you want a brain-cleansing read that’ll make you giggle out loud, I say grab it.
AMERICAN QUEEN is the first book in a trilogy and all three books need to be read in order to get the full arc of the story. Sierra Simone is a fantastic writer of erotica, but you sometimes have to handwave the social situations in her books. For instance, the heroine of AMERICAN QUEEN is 26 and already a fully tenured college professor. Yeah, no. If you can shrug that off, the entire New Camelot series is a sexy and entertaining read.
“Sailor Proof” is chock full of catnip. Aside from the military hero, fake relationship trope, and best friend’s younger sibling trope, there’s also a big meddling extended family. The “younger sibling” protagonist is a virgin, so FYI and YMMV if you dislike that trope (or like it).
I read it in one sitting and found it to be a low-stress, fun read with characters I enjoyed spending time with. The second book (featuring the best friend/older brother and whoever he’s going to fall for) is out now.
I noticed that Sweep of the Blade, book 4 in the Innkeeper Chronicles by Ilona Andrews, is $2.49 at Amazon today. This is a great book and different from the other books in the series because it focuses on Maud, Dina’s sister. I love this take on vampires, and this book is really good.
For non-romance SFF lovers, the first book in the Expanse series, Leviathan Wakes, is $2.99 at Amazon. I listened to this series on audio and loved it. They are big books, with lots of action and politics, and some great characters at a really great price.
I found Something Fabulous fun at first, but a bit shallow and hollow after a certain point, with the same sort of joke being repeated over and over again, not much of a plot, and no real emotional conflict. Like a meal of birthday cake, which sounds like a fantastic idea at first, but gets a bit monotonous and makes you feel kind of hungover and longing for salt at the end.
I have read and enjoyed Something Fabulous, The Hunting Party and Sailor Proof. I also just realized I let Lucy Foley’s newest, The Paris Apartment return to the library unread! Back to the long wait list!
I hated Something Fabulous. The main character spends the book being mocked, belittled, and treated like garbage by his supposed love interest and LI’s sister, who are both horrible people. It’s supposed to be “humorous.” I found it painful and wish he’d gotten away from everyone else in the book.
@NT:
Couldn’t agree more about Something Fabulous. To me it was so mean-spirited that I was actually quite upset.
@NT
I gave up on it at the halfway point because the more I kept reading, the more annoyed I was getting with all of the characters.
It’s the only book by this author that I have DNF’d. My only regret is that I didn’t quit it earlier instead of continuing to push through it. The humor was way off for me.
It’s nice to know I’m not alone! I think if SF had been marketed more as a slapstick comedy versus a Regency romance, I might have been more prepared. Even then (for me) constant physical humor doesn’t work terribly well on the page. And there really was no chemistry between the two main characters, because, yes, it was basically just one of them bullying and playing tricks on the other one.
Something Fabulous has it’s moments, but I agree – it’s better to be forewarned, it is so OTT. If you like the idea of a tropey m/m take on Regency romance but without going over the top so much, try KJ Charles’ Band Sinister. I cannot recommend this book enough, it is so good.
Agree with all the comments about Sailor Proof, it’s cute and low angst. A total comfort read to me!
Adding on to what others have already said, Something Fabulous was a DNF for me. I typically love the humor in Hall’s books but in this one it felt cruel and belittling towards the main character. The love interest was horrible, and I couldn’t bring myself to finish a book where he ends up with the main character. Really hoping this book was a one-off and Hall returns to their typical witty humor in their next book since it’s a sequel to one of my favorite romances from the last few years, Boyfriend Material.
There’s 153 KDDs today, including a lot of popular and acclaimed recent releases of the last few years.
Beautiful World, Where Are You by Sally Rooney is 2.49
Crossroads by Jonathan Franzen is 2.49
Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi is 1.99
Death on the Nile by Agatha Christie is 3.99
How High We Go in the Dark is 2.99
Dead Silence by S.A. Barnes is 2.49
The Stand by Stephen King is 1.99
Wahala by Nikki May is 2.99
Those Who Leave and Those Who Stay, book 3 in Elena Ferrante’s Neapolitan novels is 3.99
Here’s to Us, the sequel to What If It’s Us by Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera is 2.99
Any Way the Wind Blows, the 3rd book in Rainbow Rowell’s Simon Snow trilogy, is 1.99
White Smoke by Tiffany D. Jackson is 2.99
The Last Days of Night by Graham Moore is 1.99
The House on Vesper Sands by Paraic O’Donnell is 2.99
The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor is 1.99
American Queen was a bit like a car crash for me. It was ultimately a DNF but I couldn’t look away for far longer than I expected, there was something compulsively readable about it. It read like a Pete Buttigieg BDSM fic at times (I was reading it during the primaries). As DiscoDollyDeb said, there is a LOT of suspension of disbelief. I just couldn’t get over the fully tenured professor with only a master’s degree thing.
I cannot NOT recommend Franzen’s CROSSROADS enough. That’s all I have to say about it.
Ilona Andrews Kinsmen Universe anthology, which includes SILENT BLADE, SILVER SHARK, plus a new short story, and three original illustrations, is $.99.
Also, Ilona Andrews’ Sweep in Peace (Innskeeper Chronicles 2) is $.99.
SAILOR PROOF was cute and I like Albert’s writing style, but I found that there wasn’t really enough to keep my interest. I like flawed characters who face have to do some work to overcome them, or who work out solutions to problems in spite of those flaws. These two were really just too “perfect” for my liking and the conflict was tame.
I think I posted something similar regarding the second book in this series. I had the same reaction to them both, as well as TOUGH LUCK, the first book in her latest series.
I’m choosing to be optimistic about HARD JOB which is due out soon!
A day late, and a different format, but I consumed Something Fabulous on audio, and the narrator absolutely made the book for me. I agree that the story is very OTT, and that there are some very real issues, especially surrounding the treatment of both Arabella and Valentine. But the narration was so good that I just got completely swept up in the story and didn’t really regret my meal of birthday cake at all.
Sailor Proof was an OK read for me. It had perhaps the best demi-sexual rep that I’ve read in an mm romance, which was nice. The story had some pacing issues though.
Something Fabulous worked for me, but I was kind of surprised that it did. To me, the humor was more silly but I can see how other readers would find it mean-spirited.
Here’s a little from my GR review:
Despite a slow start, I truly enjoyed this very silly, campy send up and queering of Regency romance tropes. I suspect this will be a polarizing book – I’m not sure what readers who discovered AJH through Boyfriend Material or Rosaline Palmer Takes the Cake will think of it. And I’m also not sure what trad Regency fans will think either.
It’s a romance novel written about characters who read A LOT of romance novels and I think it will chiefly appeal to avid readers of Regency romances, especially those who also are aware of the limitations of the genre and enjoy camp / have a silly sense of humor.
What you won’t find is any unchecked slut-shaming or fat-shaming or misogyny or homophobia. And all of the sex is joyful and consensual. And there are so, so many queer people. It’s very much a fantasy version of Regency England, as well as a commentary on other fantasy versions of Regency England.
In a lot of ways I think this is to the Regency romance genre as Terry Pratchett’s Discworld is to the fantasy genre. It’s a smart, knowledgeable and loving satire and it’s also deeply, deeply silly. Read the sample.
@cleo – oops, it’s the second book in the series that has the good demi rep, not Sailor Proof. I enjoyed Sailor Proof but it didn’t stay with me – very fluffy and tropey.
So, I immediately clicked on SF ‘cause I love the author. After reading the reviews here I’m not sure it’s gonna be my fav, but I still wanna try it. We’ll see.
@gail – curious to hear what you think.
I love Alexis Hall – have been reading him since his first book (and before if you count blogs) and his books are really hit or miss for me. He’s such an eclectic writer – you never really know what you’re going to get when you open a new AJH.
I have a sort of working theory based on almost no evidence that readers who loved A Lady for a Duke won’t like Something Fabulous and vise versa, because they are so very different in tone. And also because I really didn’t care for ALFAD.
I’m not sure whether this will help anyone sort through the differing opinions on Something Fabulous but here I go anyway…
Valentine is a Duke. He has been trained to assume that everyone else exists to cater to his needs. He does not give a second’s thought to whether anyone else has feelings, thoughts, or opinions. Actually, he doesn’t consider whether he himself has feelings, thoughts or opinions, he’s just a Duke. A Duke is not a random appendage to his name, it is who is supposedly supposed to be.
He suffers many indignities in the course of chasing after the young woman who – much to his bewilderment – refused his (a Duke!) proposal of marriage. Things do not go well for him as he discovers that saying ‘But I’m a Duke’ does not give him licence to eat without paying/take horses at will/barge into people’s houses and demand they hand over young women.
The Duke gets put in bad positions but, you know, he’s still a Duke so he knows his nightmare will end. I’m not sure why all the sympathy is on his side? And certainly not when Bonny is right there…
Bonny is the brother of the pursued young woman, the one urging Valentine on to do the best thing, the person who is steadfast in trying to explain to Valentine how human people work, the one who keeps trying to put some lightness into Val’s world… Yeah, that Bonny. (He’s not faultless, but he’s kind, imaginative, loves the heck out of good sex, his curvy body is beautiful in a way that still doesn’t get enough love in Romancelandia, and I fucking adore him.)
TL:DR I loved it, just expect a Duke who gets many well-deserved kicks up his arse before he learns some shit.