Welcome back to Get Rec’d!
This time, I’m featuring two recommendations from readers. I always love hearing about books that may be of interest to the Bitchery. I’ve also included two of my favorite books to suggest, as I feel like they’re vastly underrated and I selfishly want more people to read them.
What recommendations have you received lately? Anything you want to recommend to us? Let us know!
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The Bright and Breaking Sea
This is one of my favorite recommendations to give, especially to readers who aren’t plugged into Chloe’s Chicagoland Vampires series. This is a seafaring adventure romance with a badass captain.
Chloe Neill brings her trademark wit and wild sense of adventure to a stunning seafaring fantasy starring a dauntless heroine in a world of magic and treachery.
Kit Brightling, rescued as a foundling and raised in a home for talented girls, has worked hard to rise through the ranks of the Isles’ Crown Command and become one of the few female captains in Queen Charlotte’s fleet. Her ship is small, but she’s fast–in part because of Kit’s magical affinity to the sea. But the waters become perilous when the queen sends Kit on a special mission with a partner she never asked for.
Rian Grant, Viscount Queenscliffe, may be a veteran of the Continental war, but Kit doesn’t know him or his motives–and she’s dealt with one too many members of the Beau Monde. But Kit has her orders, and the queen has commanded they journey to a dangerous pirate quay and rescue a spy who’s been gathering intelligence on the exiled emperor of Gallia.
Kit can lead her ship and clever crew on her own, but with the fate of queen and country at stake, Kit and Rian must learn to trust each other, or else the Isles will fall…
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As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
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The Family Plot
One of my favorite Southern Gothic horror novels! If you love haunted house stories and climactic third acts, try this one!
Music City Salvage is a family operation, owned and operated by Chuck Dutton: master stripper of doomed historic properties, and expert seller of all things old and crusty. But business is lean and times are tight, so he’s thrilled when the aged and esteemed Augusta Withrow appears in his office, bearing an offer he really ought to refuse. She has a massive family estate to unload – lock, stock, and barrel. For a check and a handshake, it’s all his.
It’s a big check. It’s a firm handshake. And it’s enough of a gold mine that he assigns his daughter Dahlia to personally oversee the project.
Dahlia preps a couple of trucks, takes a small crew, and they caravan down to Chattanooga, Tennessee, where the ancient Withrow house is waiting – and so is a barn, a carriage house, and a small, overgrown cemetery that Augusta Withrow left out of the paperwork.
Augusta Withrow left out a lot of things.
The property is in unusually great shape for a condemned building. It’s empty, but it isn’t abandoned. Something in the Withrow mansion is angry and lost. This is its last chance to raise hell before the house is gone forever, and there’s still plenty of room in the strange little family plot.
New from Cherie Priest, a modern master of supernatural fiction, The Family Plot is a haunted house story for the ages – atmospheric, scary, and strange, with a modern gothic sensibility that every bit as fresh as it is frightening.
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This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!The Family Plot by Cherie Priest
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The House Witch
This one is on my radar because of another reader. They were looking for more cozy fantasies with a hint of mystery and romance, and mentioned they were coming off reading this and wanted similar.
A heartwarming and humorous blend of fantasy, romance, and mystery featuring a witch with domestic powers and the royal household he serves . . . dinner.
When Finlay Ashowan joins the staff of the King and Queen of Daxaria, he’s an enigma. No one knows where he comes from or how he came to be where he is, which suits Fin just fine. He’s satisfied simply serving as the royal cook, keeping nosy passersby out of his kitchen, and concocting some truly uncanny meals.
But Fin’s secret identity doesn’t stay hidden for long. After all, it’s not every day a house witch and his kitten familiar, Kraken, take to meddling in imperial affairs. As his powers are gradually discovered by the court, Fin finds himself involved in a slew of intrigues: going head-to-head with knights with less-than-chivalrous intentions, helping to protect the pregnant queen, fending off the ire of the royal mage, and uncovering a spy in the castle. And that’s only the beginning—because Fin’s past is catching up with him just as his love life is getting complicated . . .
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This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!The House Witch by Delemhach
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The Unofficial Strawberry Shortcake Cookbook
A recommendation to the community! We were emailed about this one and it seems like it’s perfect to tap into some nostalgia.
Bake and devour the delicious desserts featured in and inspired by the world of Strawberry Shortcake with this unofficial cookbook that’s perfect for fans new and old.
There’s nothing sweeter than childhood nostalgia, except maybe a freshly baked cake! In The Unofficial Strawberry Shortcake Cookbook, longtime food and entertainment journalist A.K. Whitney highlights the iconic characters in the Strawberry Shortcake franchise and their berry sweet world. This nostalgia-laden baking book features recipes inspired by and featured in Strawberry Shortcake’s own Strawberry universe. With recipes perfect for entertaining and other grown-up twists, this book is adult friendly as well as being perfect for younger fans.
Reminisce about your time in Strawberryland with desserts, trivia, and nods to the sweetest fandom around!
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This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!The Unofficial Strawberry Shortcake Cookbook by A.K. Whitney
I was just congratulating myself on getting my GBPL reserve list into the single digits and now this.
Thanks?
I loved the bright and breaking sea!
I loved the Kit Brightling book! I absolutely DEVOURED the sequel, too.
Sadly Chloe Neill announced that he publisher did not ask for another in the series and that she’s not under contract for any more books. Someone please have a word with her publisher!
THE BRIGHT AND BREAKING SEA looks right over the plate for me (anyone else getting Lila Bard/Shades of Magic vibes?)—added that to my TBR!
Cozy fantasy is my currently happy reading place, so thanks so much for the recommendation of The House Witch. The description is giving me Lord of Stariel vibes. Bonus points that it’s in KU. I’ve already downloaded it.
Not a book, but I want to rec an indie Canadian film that came out last year, https://www.amazon.com/gp/video/detail/B0B6BRQQWN/ref=atv_dp_share_cu_r
It’s full rom, not rom/com, which I find increasingly rare these days. Just a lovely little tight-90min film that hits a bunch of the genre notes that romance readers are looking for. I included the amazon link, but it’s streaming everywhere for rent.
I was super excited about The House Witch and ended up feeling a little disappointed by it. I loved the magic and watching the kitchen operate, but the plot felt more like a series of anecdotes than a cohesive story, so it didn’t hook me. I also had trouble getting into all the different POV characters’ heads (although, I did laugh when the cat started narrating).
Also, there was a thing that kept happening that I’m not sure how to explain, where some characters used other characters’ homophobia for a laugh or to play a prank, and I just felt weird about it. I wasn’t sure if it was problematic, but it happened several times and each time I felt kind of uncomfortable. I know lots of other people have liked this book, so maybe it’s just me overthinking it.
@Jane – I felt the same way about the plot and DNF’d it. I enjoyed the writing itself but it felt like a bunch of scenes strung together and I got frustrated