Whatcha Reading? Feb 2023, Part Two

Cup of coffee and yarn for knitting on plaid with books close-upIt’s that time everyone! Gather ’round and tell us what you’ve been reading lately!

Elyse: I just started King of Wrath by Ana Huang.

Shana: I just finished Even Though I Knew the End by CL Polk. ( A | BN | K | AB ) It’s a hardboiled period mystery set in an alternate Chicago, with a lesbian love story. I am totally in love with the heroine, a detective with sexy noir-ish vibes who’s trying to catch a magical serial killer and earn her soul back. It’s a great novella but I thought the romance part was meh.

Susan: My current “No thoughts, head empty” read is Jujutsu Kaisen, ( A | BN | K ) which is IMMENSELY silly.

Sarah: I am reading Anon Pls by Deuxmoi ( A | BN | K ) and it is a digital heir to The Devil Wears Prada. It is a very fast read too and rather fun, though I keep getting distracted by the idea of the “real” Deuxmoi writing a fiction of herself and it makes my brain tired

So, whatcha reading? Let us know in the comments!

Comments are Closed

  1. Wait, what? says:

    @Kareni
    I have actually read Stray, but didn’t continue with the series. IIRC, I ended up being annoyed by the teenage main character. It’s been a while since I read it though, so the details are a little fuzzy. But I appreciate the recommendation! That’s one of the reasons why I love this site in general, and the WAYR post in specific, I’ve gotten so many good recs from it!
    And I think Michele Diener’s Class Five series has totally spoiled me for sci-fi romance, I hold them all up to those books and most suffer by the comparison 😉

  2. Amanda says:

    @Wait, what?: I think Kareni means the video game, Stray, where you play as a stray cat in a dystopian world. I loved it, but it’s definitely a little spookier than I thought it would be.

  3. Kareni says:

    @Amanda: @Wait, what? was correct that I meant the book by Andrea Höst. It is funny though that @Crystal was mentioning the other downloadable Stray!

    @Wait, what?: sorry that Stray didn’t hit the spot for you. And, yes, I am also a fan of Diener’s Class Five series. Have you perchance tried Lyn Gala’s Claimings series? It contains a male/alien male romance set on another planet and is one of my very favorite romances.

  4. Amanda says:

    The new adult series Stray by Rachel Vincent also crossed my mind! So many wires crossed for me this afternoon.

  5. LisaM says:

    After bouncing off a few books in a rough week, I really needed a book with kindness and care, so I re-read Lois Bujold’s Gentleman Jole and the Red Queen – which is also packed with competence porn. I really want to emigrate to Sergyar at this moment – worms and unknown fauna and all.

  6. Jcp says:

    I am continuing to read Laura Frantz’s backlist (clean historical romance). I also recommend My Favorite Mistake by R.L. Kendrickson (a steamy best friends to more. I’m currently reading Glove Save by Teagan Hunter the latest in the Carolina Comets hockey series. The very best thing is that all 3 authors are in KU.

  7. Wait, what? says:

    @Kareni
    I haven’t read anything by Lyn Gala, I’ll give it a look! Thanks for the rec 🙂

  8. Kareni says:

    @Wait, what?:
    I hope it will work for you.

  9. MaryK says:

    @ReadKnitSnark – I also just learned about the Honor Raconteur/AJ Sherwood pen-names, though, to be honest, I’d started to wonder if the “two” authors weren’t at least writing partners. The narrative voices of “their” last few books have been very similar. I’m going to have to take a break and hope my brain forgets enough that I can pick up with at least one of the series.

  10. Ely says:

    I’ve missed a few months, but would like to give this review thing a shot again!

    Great

    SEDUCING THE SHERIFF OF NOTTINGHAM by Cassandra Gannon – the 5th book in the Kinda Fairytale series just sort of appeared on my “recommended for you” page in my Kindle. I blinked at it in surprise and instantly purchased it. I LOVE this series. The 3rd book in the series, THE KINGPIN OF CAMELOT, won the Romantic Times Fantasy Romance award in 2017, and the books just keep getting better. I just have to close my eyes and ignore the copy editing errors (populous instead of populace, for instance). Maid Marion is in jail, having been accused of killing the Sheriff of Nottingham, a gargoyle called Nick Greystone. Through various magical means, she is sent back in time 10 years to find out what happened, and prevent his murder if possible. Nick has been in love with Marion since they were teenagers, while Marion thought she was supposed to be with Robin, who didn’t even try to save her the first time Nick kidnapped her. Eventually Nick and Marion decide to be mutually obsessed with each other, which is probably safest for the entire world, honestly. The whole book takes place over less than a week and it’s just FUN. Strongly recommend this book and this whole series (the 4th book, BEST KNIGHT EVER, is a yearly re-read for me). Although this book is a standalone, it has so many references and call backs to other characters, that it would be more fun read after the first book, WICKED, UGLY, BAD.

    THE KRAKEN KING by Meljean Brook – re-read. Happy sigh. I love Ariq. I love Zenobia. I love Ariq and Zenobia together. The story of the Kraken King, who never lets his target go, learning that he has to trust that his love will choose to stay. The story of the woman left behind while everyone else has adventures, learning to trust that someone will choose her as their partner in adventure. Definitely my favorite book and couple in this series.

    GOOD

    A LOVE BY DESIGN by Elizabeth Everett – book 3 in The Secret Scientists of London series. I haven’t read the previous books in this series, but enjoyed this one enough that I’ll track them down. This is a second chance romance for Margaret and George, and while I normally don’t love that trope, this was well done. The reasons for not running away together at 16 were *real* and not just things that could have been solved by using their words. Margaret is an architect trying to make her way in a society that would never hire a woman for that role, while George is trying to cheer her on (but could never marry her, because he needs someone to take on the duties of a countess as his wife). The conflict and growing closeness was real between them, and acknowledged the difficulties they faced. I’m not sure if the villain of the story was supposed to be a surprise, because it seemed pretty obvious and I’m usually terrible at guessing who the bad guy is.

    ILLUMINATIONS by T. Kingfisher – As always, T. Kingfisher made my heart sing even as she broke it. The story of creators and artists, and what they give to make beauty. The family Mandolini was wonderful, and I would love to spend more time with them. I can’t even begin to describe the plot, because it’s T. Kingfisher and it all makes sense, but you have to see how the pieces fit together. The only reason it’s not great is that this book mainly made me want to read the Saint of Steel books again.

    LOVE ON THE BRAIN by Ali Hazelwood – I liked this book. I saw someone mention that if these two had just used their words, the book would have been significantly shorter. While true, I kind of didn’t hate it? Normally that sort of thing really irritates me. Levi and Bee were just so darn likeable. Separately AND together. The bad guy was again so supremely obvious that I started second guessing myself and thinking it was a red herring. Am I becoming someone who can spot villains in books now?

    NOT YOUR EX’S HEXES by April Asher – new to me author. Well written, despite some weird usage of language (I can’t think of any examples, but I remember thinking I don’t think that word means what the author thinks it means). I like the characters, the world-building and the magic, but it just didn’t wow me. Rose was the middle triplet (the other two were named Violet and Olive, and I remember thinking, man Olive got the short straw there). Damian, the hero, was described as grumpy all the time, but I didn’t really think he was that grumpy. Two adults able to have relatively straight forward conversations about their needs and emotions. GASP. I think this is book 2, so I’ll probably get book 1 and keep reading.

    OK

    RUNTIME by S.B Divya – short story read for book club. Crammed a loooot of ideas into a near future California: licences to give birth, transphobia (both of cyber-modification and gender), eco-terrorism, classism, religion … one thing that was excellent was characterization. Even in a few short interactions, each character in the story had a clear voice and was distinguishable from others. Not sure I’ll read any more by this author.

    THE LOST NIGHT by Jayne Castle – pseudonym of Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick. Why am I reading these books!? I can’t stop myself. It’s like eating cheese puffs. This is the insta-lust story of Rachel and Harry, who spend a lot of time standing around having awkward pauses while they think the other is attractive. The plot was interesting (except for some weirdness about a guy that got caught up in some bad shit and did bad shit but wasn’t a bad guy? that was really unclear), but I feel like I missed a lot of backstory. I thought I’d read all the Harmony books in order, but I clearly missed something. Doesn’t matter, I’ll keep reading this series. Dang it.

    DNF/UGH

    THE DEVIL’S DAUGHTER by Katee Roberts – Hidden Sins, book 1. OMG I’m so sick of women becoming FBI agents/police/profilers because of trauma in their history. Can’t we just do stuff because it’s really freaking interesting? Why do women only get to do challenging, non-feminine jobs when an external factor causes it? That really irritates me because the context of this book is really interesting! A FEMALE cult leader instead of male! Unfortunately, her daughter is the FBI agent in question who returns to the small town where the cult is based, and pushes her way into a murder investigation, run by the super hot, ex-military sheriff, Zach. I put it down one night and realized I had no interest in finding out who the murderer was. I don’t know anything about law enforcement, and even I knew that all of them were being incredibly unprofessional!

    IN PROGRESS/UP NEXT

    Slowly making my way through GUNS, GERMS AND STEEL by Jared Diamond, and it’s fine. I find myself wishing for more evidence, which is absurd considering that it’s a 450 page book. He keeps saying “archaeologists found evidence that … ” and I’m here thinking yes!! WHAT EVIDENCE? TELL ME WHAT THEY FOUND! But nope.

    I think I might read MAGIC TIDES next. Or SWEEP OF THE HEART. Or SOCIALLY ORCWARD (thanks to one of the Bitches for the rec!). Who am I kidding, it’ll probably be the next Harmony book by Jayne Castle.

  11. Kareni says:

    @Amanda: are you able to change the post title? (I know that February isn’t your favorite month!) This is February, Part two.

  12. SB Sarah says:

    All fixed – thanks!

  13. KB says:

    I have just finished a huge HUGE project at work and therefore am hoping March will bring me more time for reading because I didn’t get a ton of reading done in Feb. Since the last WAYR I did a comfort reread of the Stage Dive series by Kylie Scott as I was prepping for my project/not sleeping due to work stress. The third book in that series is LEAD and is probably one of my favorite books of all time. Yes you have to seriously suspend disbelief at the initial setup and again at the ending and no I do not care. The book tackles some serious subjects including grief/loss and a sobriety journey for the male main character and for what is essentially a rockstar romance, I think does a good job of not waving these away. Once I finished the work thing, I tackled HELL BENT by Leigh Bardugo, the second book in her adult-oriented Alex Stern series. The premise of secret societies at Yale is interesting but I thought she spent a disproportionate amount of time on things like literary references and glossed over some issues of class and race that were RIGHT THERE but didn’t get any real exploration. I guess that wasn’t the point of the story, but I also felt like any book set at Yale of all places might need to address these in some way. I do love Alex as the main character though, she’s angry and fallible and morally gray, but most of her choices seem to be informed by her love for her friends. Next up for me is a spur-of-the-moment library download IN BED WITH A HIGHLANDER by Maya Banks. This was published in 2011 but reads like a straight up old school Jude Devereaux so far. Potentially problematic but at 15% in, I don’t hate it!

  14. cleo says:

    I fractured my kneecap on Friday and the only thing that held my attention was this delightful novella called Shipwrecked: Being a tale of true love, magic, and goats by Juniper Butterworth.

    I gave it 4.5 stars – B+/A-
    Goblin-core meets cozy fantasy! This Sapphic fantasy romance between two goblins (a pirate and a principle goatherd) is adorable! Also deeply weird. The world building and character development is charming. And with more emotional depth than I was expecting from a low-stakes fantasy novella about goblins falling in love.

    It’s also sexier than I was expecting from the cover and blurb – there’s hot goblin sex and a little unexpected tentacle sex with a magical sea creature.

  15. Kareni says:

    @Cleo: sending healing wishes your way. I hope you’ll find some more diverting reads to help you pass the time.

  16. Meg Napier says:

    @Cleo: Joining Kareni to wish you a very speedy recovery. Yuck. How horrible. Hope you personal circumstances will allow you adequate time to stay comfortably situated with you leg elevated and a great book in your hand.

  17. Joyce says:

    Book #6 of the Kendra Donovan series is finally here—RIPPLE IN TIME, by Julie McElwain! It was great!

    If you haven’t dipped into this time traveling FBI profiler series, start with MURDER IN TIME. It has mystery, CSI-type elements, and a swoony Regency romance.

    So much fun!

  18. CK says:

    omigad @Cleo hope you get better soon!! Wishing you a fast recovery and many good books in the meantime!

Comments are closed.

By posting a comment, you consent to have your personally identifiable information collected and used in accordance with our privacy policy.

↑ Back to Top