If you’ve got any of the subscription services like Scribd, Kindle Unlimited, or the super-sexy Canadians Only Kobo Plus, I want to know what your latest discovery is.
And this doesn’t mean only the paid subscriptions. Library folks may also be using Hoopla Digital to access ebooks and audiobooks, and services like Kanopy to watch scripted series and documentaries.
So, what are you watching, reading, or browsing?
My latest discovery is the Eve Mallow mystery series by Clare Chase, a nine book series so far, all of which are in KU.
I read them slowly, one at a time, saving each book when I’m stressed or brain-fried because I know about half of the elements I’ll find inside.
- Eve will be commissioned to write an obituary for someone who died in Yet Another English Town With a Very High Body Count
- Ghost soldiers will thunder down the street at night, heralding some Rank Nonsense Murder is about to happen or has happened
- Things will be weird, so she’ll talk with the cafe owner about the mystery over some tea and a Very-Specifically-Described Baked Good that will make me crave some cake
- Eve will walk her dog and tell the dog all her musings about the case – and this could be before or after the Very-Specifically-Described Baked Good recap
- More Specifically Described Baked Goods, more craving of cake
- Eve’s ex husband will be annoying and she still won’t set a hard boundary with him about his trying to manage her life (Argh)
This sounds like I’m complaining, but honestly I am not. The familiarity is very comforting. I can see the structure and I enjoy it. I like knowing the major turns of a series like this and how each book will go, especially when the mystery itself of who killed Yet Another Person in this town often surprises me.
My other discovery is the Sweet Pea series by Kathryn Moon, starting with The Baker’s Guide to Risky Rituals. There are currently two books in the series, and I read both on vacation. Demons move into the town of Sweet Pea because it’s too good and happy and the devil dislikes it, and a group of witches have to prevent their home from being destroyed, except that they keep going to Bone Town with said demons.
I’m always (always) looking for fiction and nonfiction inside the subscriptions I have, so I’d love to know what you’ve discovered that you absolutely freaking loved!
Which subscription services are you using? And what books, audiobooks, or other romance reading have you discovered recently in your subscription that you’d recommend to others? If you can also tell us what genre the book is, that would help a lot for those who like to CTRL-F their rec threads.
So, please share! What recent treasures have you discovered?
I have hoopla through a library. I mostly use overdrive (I am so irritated they’re going to make me switch to Libby because I hate learning new technology, and also that stupid infantilizing illustration) and I tend not to think of either of these things as a subscription service but I guess that’s what a library is, so.
Best thing I read on hoopla is the last Kate Kane book, one of my favorite of Alexis Hall’s. Best thing that I didn’t originally find from a recommendation on this site is …idk, just about every romance and most other things at least get mentioned here, lol. Memory Police, maybe? It’s very very sad and very very Orwellian, be warned.
I recently enjoyed a m/f Sarina Bowen hockey romance if only because I may finally have run out of m/m hockey romances. After dozens of them, I now know that trash talking is called chirping, and…that’s about it, I dunno anything really about hockey still. Or care.
Oh! I have a new webtoon to which I am almost as devoted as Lore Olympus, although that is obvs my favorite. Teenage Mercenary has lots of lovely, kinda mod, violence, and is surprisingly sweet – though not a romance.
@kkw you mentioned hoopla and webtoon so my brain made a connection. I’ve found a lot of comics and graphic novels on hoopla. Two that have been well reviewed here on SBTB:
Bingo Love – a beautiful f/f romance about two Black grandmas. The Jackpot Edition adds their honeymoon (!) in short comics by guest authors including Alyssa Cole.
Moonstruck vol 1-3 by Grace Ellis of Lumberjanes – campy college fantasy with romantic elements, the plot is a mess but it’s funny and pretty to look at.
Scoring a Spouse by Liz Lincoln from Kindle Unlimited. A female soccer player marries a millionaire in a marriage of convenience. She needs health insurance and he wants to making his dying grandma happy. Great book.
On KU, I’ve been reading: all the Ruby Dixon, esp Risdaverse and Icehome – can be a little bit of the same story over and over but somehow i still read the new ones! TL Swan – Mr Series and also Miles High Club. Anything written by Mariana Zapaata. Catherine Miller series with Exile, thrall, trade and some other titles (slow burn for sure). Anna del Mar – Alpha Heroes series – ex military types.
Anita Kelly’s Moonlighters series is a great find on Kobo Plus. Quick reads centering around a queer karaoke bar with some great gender nonconforming representation, and the latest book featured older heroines.
As for Kindle Unlimited, I’m really into the Last Light/Haven series by Claire Kent about coping with life after an apocalypse. I haven’t found another Claire Kent/Noelle Adams book that really clicked with me, but this series is so interesting, entertaining, and hits the spot. The next one is coming in December.
Oh, and I was on the waitlist at the library but I just discovered that Mhairi McFarlane’s newest book ‘Mad About You’ is on Hoopla, both in audiobook and ebook. I’m listening to the audiobook and so far I’m really enjoying it.
I’ve also noticed that Sourcebooks books sometimes get added to Hoopla the same day they’re released – Katee Robert’s Dark Olympus series, some Alexis Hall, etc. – so always worth a check if it’s by that publisher!
There is a wonderful series in kindle Unlimited called The Stariel series. It has 4 books so far with the 5th book aailable soon. AJ Lancaster is the author. This fantasy series has magic, fairies, great world building, a wonderfully strong female protagonist, well fleshed out secondary characters that have their own stories, romance and family drama. I was hooked from the first book and can’t wait until the fifth book is available!
On KU:
Rosalind James withva series of NZ Rugby Romance (14 of them, I think), can be read out of order but starts with “Just This Once”
For Reverse Harem readers Stella Brie has interesting stories: “My Salvation” is contemporary, “The Rowan” is a paranormal series, and “Savage Ruin” is near future scifi, I guess.
On Kindle Unlimited, I’ve been hooked on Lily Morton’s low-angst m/m romances. They’re mostly interconnected (friend in one romance becomes the main character in another) and set in primarily London and Cornwall. I started in the middle and am working my way through her back catalogue. I think my favorites are Oz and Deal Maker, probably because I picture Oz as an Irish Adam Rippon (all that adorable snark) and Asa as a gay British Jason Momoa (which is clearly what the author intends). There are a couple of characters that it took me a while to warm up to, but overall these are full of witty banter and charming characters.
“Ducks:Two Years in the Oil Sands” by Kate Beaton has great reviews, although I haven’t read it yet. It’s on Scribd. It’s a graphic memoir about the time the author spent working in Alberta, Canada, during the oil drilling boom. She undertook this work to pay off her student loans.
So I don’t subscribe to any book services, but I do get Kanopy through my library. Its a really great little streaming service and while a lot of the movies are older, there are some bigger, newer titles (I watched Portrait of a Lady on Fire through Kanopy, I think Parasite is on there, and there are a lot of other little gems.)
I haven’t watched it as much lately because I’ve been on a PBS passport kick, and also because it has a lot of movies (I’m more of a series than a movie person most days.) But one thing I really like about them is they carry a bunch of titles in the Great Courses series–essentially a college professor giving a series of lectures on a variety of topics. Most recently I watched a series on the year 1215. They also have one on Jane Austen that I think I’ll be getting into soon. I’m a dork, I think they’re fun. And while most things on the app take “credits”- I think it varies by library but for instance with mine I get 8 credits a month-the Great Courses ones are “free,” so you can watch as many as you want at a time.
@Karin: That sounds like my thing! I’ve been reading lots of graphic memoirs recently. Do you know a subscription service where I can read “Ducks”?
@Karin: And on rereading your comment, I can see that you already clearly stated that it’s on Scribd… Sorry, friend. I’m having a slow-brain day, haha.
@Mikey Same!
In KU, I enjoyed Lessons in Love: A sparkling tale of mystery, murder and romance by Charlie Cochrane (historical MM, more romance than mystery).
I’ve enjoyed the light-hearted Anty Boisjoly Mysteries
by PJ Fitzsimmons, the Heathcliff Lennox mysteries by Karen Baugh Menuhin, and most of the historical mysteries by Benedict Brown, although I’m finding the last one hard to get through. All three of those series are early 1900s Britain.
I also reread Patrick Weekes Rogues of the Republic. Legends and Lattes was a very sweet FF romance fantasy.
I mostly use Hoopla for graphic novels and comics. I’ve loved pretty much everything from Boombox, including Lumberjanes, The Backstagers (theater stage crew at an all boys high school), Misfit City (a town famous for a movie like The Goonies), and Goldie Vance (black teen in 1950s drives fast and solves mysteries). Hoopla also haves the adorable Breaking Cat News and Phoebe and her Unicorn comics. Plants Versus Zombies is surprisingly cute as well.
This is tangentially related, so I hope it’s ok to ask as part of this thread – has anyone used one of the subscription/recommendation services? (TBR is the example I’ve stumbled across, but I know there are others.) If so, what did you think? I’m in such an awful reading slump, I’m desperate.
Lucy Score is a fairly new to me author, who I love! She has quite a few KU books. I’ve been working my way through them. I get lots of use out of my KU subscription-saves me so much money.
Hoopla/graphic novels:
– most of Ben Aaronovitch and Andrew Cartmel’s Rivers of London/Peter Grant graphic novels.
– Kurt Busiek’s Marvels Snapshots, a collection of single-issue graphic stories from “ordinary people” living in and experiencing the Marvel Universe.
– Keith Giffen’s Scooby Apocalypse, with the gang and the Mystery Machine at the end of the world. Kind of all over the place.
– Most anything in graphic novels written by Kieron Gillen or Tom King.
– Ray Fawkes’ One Line and One Soul, two unusual graphic novels that follow multiple people in individual panels.
Hoopla/other:
– Lonely Planet and other travel guides – time them to make best use of the 21 days.
– British Library Crime Classics anthologies edited by Martin Edwards – lots of lesser-known golden age mystery stories, excellent information about the creators and their other works.
– Newly minted MacArthur Genius J. Drew Lanham’s The Home Place, his essays about experiencing nature as a Black man.
– They also have lots of T. Kingfisher, some in audio, some in ebook.
Scribd:
– Lately I’ve mostly read Jackie Lau’s romances and listened to SFF novellas from them.
Hoopla is great. If only their search engine was better. 🙂 Anyway. I’ve found that they sometimes have Acorn TV series. I say sometimes because the shows tend to come and go. I’ve put off getting an Acorn subscription so it’s nice to be able to try/watch some of their series. Hoopla currently has season 1 of the Madam Blanc Mysteries that I’ve been wanting to try. The trailer looks great and I really like the actress who plays Madam Blanc.
Older regencies by Carola Dunn, Elizabeth Mansfield, Barbara Metzger, and Joan Smith are heavily represented on Scribd. Although in general I think the mystery selection on Scribd is larger and deeper (entire series) than their romance section, new romance titles are often available in audio format.
A reminder – which I learned here – that if you pay for an entire year at once, the cost is approximately $8.00 per month.
Burned through all the Cate C. Wells and Katrina Jackson on KU. Currently reading CHARMING YOUR DAD about a witch getting back at her ex by hooking up with his dad who happens to be a Demon. Love a Slytherin+Slytherin pairing.
I’ve been listening and re-listening to all of the T. Kingfisher audiobooks on Hoopla and Scribd. They have a lot of Ursula Vernon middle grade books on there too which have been very fun with kids in the car.
New KJ Charles just dropped on Audible Plus (the least bang for your buck subscription service IMO but I’m on the free trial).
Maria Vale just released an audiobook for FOREVER WOLF (Scribd, Hoopla, Libby). I realized during a recent conversation about tear-jerkers that I almost never cry at books unless they make me really angry (I’m a rage cryer, I guess) but I finished FOREVER WOLF after midnight and sobbed while brushing my teeth. Devastating HEA. Perfect.
I read the first 2 books in this series as audiobooks and LOVED them but it’s hard for me to switch mediums mid-stream, the wait for this audiobook was so worth it! I think this series is uniquely suited for audiobooks because the Beowulf references that make my attention drift from a page only pull me in deeper when there’s a great narrator to keep it moving.
I mentioned this in part over in the Book Beat post, but there’s an m/m erotic romance series on KU called P*rn Stars in Love by HB Lin. Although not the smoothest prose stylist, Lin does a good job with the dynamics of characters who discover that performing sex acts in front of the camera and having physical & emotional intimacy with another person are vastly different things. I just finished NOEL & BELLAMY FALL IN LOVE which is basically what HEATED RIVALRY would be if Shane & Ilya were p*rn stars rather than professional hockey players.