As we wind down April, we want to know what you’ve been reading!
Claudia: My library copy of Artfully Yours by Joanna Lowell ( A | BN | K ) just dropped and I’m looking forward to reading it!
Carrie: I’m finishing up Below the Edge of Darkness by Dr. Edith Widder, ( A | BN | K ) a fascinating memoir about studying deep and mid sea life
Shana: I’m reading Sorry, Bro by Taleen Voskuni. I don’t usually love adult coming out novels, but the heroine is very relatable. I’m over the closed door sex scenes though.
Elyse: I’m reading The Darkness Outside Us. It’s billed as YA, but really I think it’s a sci-fi thriller that just happens to have to two 17 year old characters. It’s got a big twist and also a queer romance
Sarah: I’m listening to the first Veronica Speedwell, ( A | BN | K | G | AB ) which I read a long while ago, and the narration is really terrific.
Lara: I’m in the doldrums a bit with my reading so I have turned to the ever-faithful Murderbot and started again with book one.
So whatcha reading? Tell us below!
Reading: Maeve Binchy – The Glass Lake. Rereading. I remembered loving this one when I was younger, and I’ve been wanting to revisit it to see if I would still enjoy it as much. So far I really am. It’s nice to read an old favorite after a bunch of dnf reads. I won’t get into those, but I have read some books I’ve actually enjoyed:
Lily Chu – The Stand-in. I’ve seen it warmly recommended on here, and this book was just what I needed. I read it as e-book, but loved it so much I had to order a physical copy.
Ava Wilder – How to Fake it in Hollywood. Seemed logical to follow up The Stand-in with this one. So well written! However, I think personally I prefer my fake relationship stories a bit less angsty.
Jesse Q. Sutanto – Vera Wong’s Unsolicited Advice for Murderers. Such a fun mystery! I have to read more of this author.
Finally, finally, finally! Getting to to watch TED LASSO. My husband has already decided this season is not for him (he experiences second hand embarrassment/anxiety and it’s just getting to be too much) so I can watch it at my own pace. I’ll miss the company, but am really hoping to have a proper binge of the show soon. I realize that’s not directly reading related, but it will definitely cut into my reading time. 🙂
I’ve not read much of note lately, but I did get to the latest Veronica Speedwell A SINISTER REVENGE. I loved it! Might be one of my favorite in the series, setting and mystery-wise.
Onward!
Read BOOK LOVERS by EMILY HENRY and absolutely loved it. Thought it had a lot of emotional heft and character development for both protagonists.
Read THE FIANCÉE FARCE by ALEXANDRIA BELLEFLEUR and found it very disappointing. I thought the author created great sexual and platonic chemistry but no real romantic chemistry.
I DNF’D THE SECRET SERVICE OF TEA AND TREASON by INDIA HOLTON for being classist in the extreme.
I am still reading A PLACE OF GREATER SAFETY by HILARY MANTEL which I am greatly enjoying. If you have a working knowledge of Revolutionary France (not just a Wikipedia deep dive) than this book might be for you. It is historical fiction that follows three provincials in Paris: Danton, Desmoulins and Robespierre.
The writing is among the best I have ever read.
Part One
I loved, loved, loved KD Casey’s m/m baseball romance, DIAMOND RING, the third in her Unwritten Rules series. It’s a beautifully written slow-burn opposites-attract story covering a ten-year span in the lives of pitcher Jake and catcher Alex, who fall in love the first season they work together on a major league team, and then spend the next nine years apart when everything goes downhill after a misplayed pitch (or was it a misplayed catch?) loses their team the World Series. A decade of separation and silence ends when Jake and Alex find themselves back together on the same team and have to determine if the spark between them—professionally and romantically—is still there. DIAMOND RING amplifies and continues themes developed in previous Unwritten Rules books: Judaism and what it means to be an observant Jew in a sport monopolized by Christians; mental health struggles (anxiety, OCD, intrusive thoughts), including interventional therapy, medication, and journaling; the constant vigilance required to stay closeted; the endless stretch of a 162-game baseball season—the heat, the cold, the injuries, the wins, the loses, the travel, the fatigue, the doldrums, the euphoria. A fabulous book for fans of both romance and baseball, DIAMOND RING is my favorite book of 2023 so far—I placed it immediately on my “comfort reread” shelf. Highly recommended.
A few months ago, someone posted about Welton B. Marsland’s BY THE CURRAWONG’S CALL, thinking that I had originally recommended it because it features the “hot priest” trope (admittedly DDD catnip). I hadn’t heard of the book, but I immediately added it to my TBR. Now that I’ve read it, I can report that it’s a lovely m/m historical romance set in rural Australia in the 1890s. Matthew, an Anglican priest in his mid-thirties, arrives at his latest church posting in the small town of Dinbratten, where he strikes up a friendship with Jonah, the local police sergeant, who is a couple of years younger. There’s a gentle rhythm to life in Dinbratten, punctuated by community-wide attendance at football (“footy”) and cricket games. Marsland develops the relationship between Matthew and Jonah with great care, building incident upon incident until an astonishing moment when the completely innocent Matthew kisses the far more experienced (with women) Jonah. This leads to much soul-searching by the two men, but that doesn’t preclude them grabbing opportunities to be together whenever possible. As their feelings continue to grow, the men begin to ponder what it would take for them to truly be together. I liked that Marsland was realistic about the options for a same-sex couple in the 19th century: Matthew and Jonah do find a way to be together, but it requires compromise and sacrifice on both their parts. A gorgeous book with a bittersweet ending. Highly recommended.
STR8 B8 by K.C. Wells (not to be confused with Cate C. Wells or KD Casey) is an m/m bi-awakening story that initially felt slow and exposition-heavy but ultimately grew on me. Tom is a builder whose construction company is in financial trouble. On the advice of a friend, Tom (who, despite some teenage “experimentation”, has always thought of himself as straight) turns to “gay-for-pay” p*rn (as one does) to pay the bills. Tom then starts falling for his first on-screen partner, Denny, an openly-gay graduate student. But how can Tom fall for a man when he’s always been straight? While STR8 B8 breaks no new ground in the “m/m adult movies” romance subgenre (yes, that is a thing), I enjoyed the way Wells drove the plot in a deliberate fashion, accumulating detail, subplots, and supporting characters as it moved along. There’s a “slice of life” feel to the story as we see Tom rebuilding a wall, Denny interacting with his housemates, or the two men spending a weekend together on the Isle of Wight. And I liked how every character and plot point Wells introduced eventually played a part in wrapping up events in a full circle. If you’re looking for a relatively low-angst read that builds into a comfy romance, I highly recommend STR8 B8.
Part Two
Garrett Leigh’s LOVE THY BROTHER is the fourth book in her Rebel Kings series of m/m motorcycle club romances. I wouldn’t advise trying to read this book as a stand-alone because, although the central romantic relationship is confined to the story, there are a lot of characters and plot threads from the previous books, and you’ll probably be a bit lost without plenty of backstory. This is a gritty book with MCs who want to do better but sometimes hurt themselves and others in the process (cw/tw: various forms of violence, drug use and addiction). River is the brother of the Rebel Kings club president, but he (River) has lived alone, away from the club, for years. He has a legitimate business as a mechanic, but he tends to self-medicate with illegal substances and, as another character notes, he’s “surviving, not living.” Rubi, the man River loves, suffers from severe migraine since he took a bad blow to the head a couple of years before the book opens. His memory of that time is also fuzzy, so he doesn’t remember that he and River did finally hook up one night. Through separate actions, River and Rubi earn the ire of some dodgy characters, and they have to stay isolated in Rubi’s house until the threat to them is uncovered and dealt with by the club. Let the enforced proximity games begin! As tends to be the case with Leigh’s characters, the sex is fairly easy, it’s the emotional intimacy that’s hard. LOVE THY BROTHER feels a little bit like a pivot book in the Rebel Kings series in that much of the club’s criminal/unsavory fund-raising activities (drugs, contraband, strip clubs) have now been replaced by above-board business ventures, much of the violence against the bad guys happens off-page, and there’s a added focus on babies, children, and new club members. (And for those familiar with other Garrett Leigh books, Harry & Joe, the MCs from WHISPERS, make a cameo appearance.) Recommended.
NEED A HAND is a cute m/m novella set in Elliott Grayson’s Santa Rafaela universe. Peter (self-described as “twinky” with a few extra pounds around the middle) is trying to rescue a cantankerous three-legged cat when he (Peter, not the cat) is hit by a fire truck driven by hot-but-endearingly-nerdy firefighter, Damian. Fortunately, Peter’s injuries are not severe, and after that rather inauspicious start, Peter & Damian bond over their mutual love of comics and superhero movies (there’s a whole Spiderman theme running through the story). As in most shorter works, there’s not a tremendous amount of room for character development or story arcs, but I like how Grayson leans into the opposites-attract trope and how well she communicates that Damian is fully aware that he’s not the brightest bulb in the box—which makes him far from dim. A quick, sweet, and low-angst read. Recommended.
I put CRUEL & BEAUTIFUL (written by A.M. Hargrove & Terri E. Laine, published in 2015) on my TBR when it was mentioned in either a HABO or a Rec League as a book with a “twist” and an “unexpected” hero. I finally read it this week and, aside from the twist (which involves an astounding level of coincidence), I can’t say the book has much to offer. It’s full of tell-not-show and has some very distasteful representations of women (other than the heroine and her friends) as predatory, man-hungry, mean-spirited, angry harpies. In fact, the further along I read, the more I felt the book’s target audience was mean girls who wanted to be assured that their meanness toward other women was justified. At the beginning of CRUEL & BEAUTIFUL, we witness heroine Cate experiencing a terrible loss (CW/TW: death of a loved one from cancer). The book then moves back-and-forth in time as, in the past, college sophomore Cate meets medical intern Drew, and it’s insta-love/lust. In the present, Cate (now working as an accountant in D.C.) meets Drew again—and they tentatively resume their relationship. But what went wrong between them in the past? And who was it who died? The story—alternating between past and present—unfolds slowly. One of the difficulties I had with the book was how the authors kept telling us (in very over-the-top language) how wonderful, brilliant, beautiful, gracious, and charming Drew (and other men) found Cate, but there was nothing in the book that showed Cate as anything other than an attractive coed who tended to drink too much (before the 10% point in the book, Cate has related three separate incidents of being inebriated to the point of memory loss). Cate is pursuing a double-major and is always writing papers, but we never learn one single concrete thing about what she’s studying or writing. Give me a few details please! And I really disliked how almost every woman, from co-workers to waitresses to hockey fans, have the immediate hots for Drew and corresponding immediate hostility toward Cate—and displayed their feelings for both very obviously. Hmmmm—in what universe (outside of junior high school) does that actually happen? However, I will say that wanting to discover what happened between Cate & Drew kept me turning the pages. The “twist” when it arrives is fairly cleverly done, but you do have to suspend disbelief:
If you’re looking for a romance with a “twist”, CRUEL & BEAUTIFUL is not a bad choice, but overall, purely as a romance, I can’t really recommend it.
Haven’t been reading anything interesting in the first half of the month (more In Death books), then just hit a wall mid-month.
Part of it was probably due to buying a Råskog* around then and focusing on arranging books in it over reading books.
I did, finally, read THE SONG OF ACHILLES, by Madeline Miller. Yes, it’s very good. Yes, I cried.
*Utility cart from Ikea. Basically what shows up if you search “craft cart” or “tbr cart” Holds a good amount of books, especially if you have mmpbs. (Row of hardcovers and trades on one side of a shelf and you’re left with room for a row of mmpb on the other side.)
I have several books waiting on the TBR pile, including UPROOTED by Naomi Novik. I love fairy tales so I’m looking forward to checking it out.
I also want to check out THE RULE BOOK by Jennifer Blackwood and A HARD DAY FOR A HANGOVER by Darynda Jones.
I’ve also started watching WILL TRENT — Betty is adorable! — and now I want to try the books by Karin Slaughter.
I thought I’d get more reading done on maternity leave, but honestly, there are some days when walking to the bedroom to get my book seems like too much work, so I decide to check SBTB for a new post (again) or play another round of Angry Birds.
GOOD FOR A GIRL by Lauren Fleshman. Part memoir, part call to action, this book is a reflection of her experiences as an elite distance runner and the challenges women face in training under a men’s model that focuses on appearances and wholly neglects the effects of puberty and menstruation and the effects on long term health (especially bone health) among female endurance athletes. Highly recommend, although there is frank discussion of body policing and disordered eating so if that’s a difficult topic for you, proceed with caution.
THE DUKE GETS EVEN by Joanna Shupe. The Duke of Lockwood has come to America to find a wealthy bride to restore the fortunes of his crumbling estate. Low stakes conflict (can an American feminist and suffragist be a duchess?) (Spoiler alert: of course she can. It’s a romance!) Very much of the “two attractive people have sex and try to figure out how to get out of their own way,” variety of romance, but that’s fine.
Currently reading FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK by Elissa Sussman and THE HOTEL OF SECRETS by Diana Biller. I also got GEORGIE, ALL ALONG by Kate Clayborn and I read the first couple chapters and am waffling on continuing—it has one of my least favorite configurations: first person contemporary with a massively insecure narrator. I’m willing to spot it a few more chapters to see if Georgie starts to get it together, but might be a DNF.
I’m so glad you enjoyed it DDD!
In case I haven’t spent enough time flailing about KJ Charles, if anyone has missed it, to no one’s surprise I have really enjoyed her latest releases. The way I reread yes that’s everything she’s ever written, but her publishing schedule has been extra generous to me of late. That’s KJ CHARLES for those of you looking just for all caps, lol.
Sorry I don’t have time again this morning to write out many thoughts on all I have been reading, but I will just set down a few titles definitely worth checking out if anyone’s tbr is dangerously low.
Up next, very excited for:
MIMICKING OF KNOWN SUCCESSES Malka Older
BRIDE OF THE RAT GOD Barbara Hambly
Currently reading:
CERTAIN DARK THINGS Silvia Morena-Garcia doesn’t seem to be a romance and is a little creepy but so far so great
EVERYONE KNOWS YOUR MOTHER IS A WITCH Rivka Galchen also doesn’t appear to be a romance but irresistible title and extremely entertaining so far.
Just finished:
GRANDMASTER OF DEMONIC CULTIVATION v.2 by MXTX series is adorable. I can see why AO3 is collectively obsessed. I wish it were all one volume, terrible cliffhangers, but so far anyway not too scary for me.
HEN FEVER by Olivia Waite was solid, although sadly short.
SUNSHINE Robin McKinley recommended here recently was great. I’d say not a romance, but really engaging. I totally get why fans want more books in that world even if it doesn’t, to me, require a sequel.
Also worth mentioning as good if not for me:
HONEY AND SPICE Bolu Babalola was so well written and good and funny I am sure it is ideal for lots of people. I can’t handle battle of the sexes as a concept, and new adult is emphatically not my genre, if not quite as bad as YA. Couldn’t finish it but eagerly keeping an eye out for other titles.
PORTRAIT OF A DUCHESS by Scarlett Peckham I found the historical details were neither historical nor detailed and I can’t anymore deal with books that are so overcrowded with secondary characters advertising the rest of the series, but for folks who aren’t bothered by such I think it would be super fun.
BOXING BARONESS by Minerva Spencer was the same deal only more so, unfortunately, because I liked the premise even better. But someone is going to love it for that alone.
My GBPL reserve finally hit the point (one a week instead of six or nine) that I could read a book I actually own. First one the pile: Evie Dunmore’s PORTRAIT OF A SCOTSMAN. Loved it. I really enjoyed the way Hattie grows through the story to the point where she can clearly articulate her need for agency. And then she leaves him so she can become her own self.
Next up is a reread of THE WIDOW OF ROSE HOUSE. Diana Biller has published to more books and I wanted to refresh my memory. Also it is an absolutely wonderful book so it’s wAy past due for a reread.
Rereading: Elemental Blessings series by Sharon Shinn – saw on social media that the 5th and final book is coming this year. Book 3 has been a comfort reread for me, this time I’m starting with book 2. Enjoying the worldbuilding with the blessings, home decorating according to favorite elements, food descriptions, a lot of fun details. Had to pause though, needed a break from the royals scheming with their children as chess pieces.
The Stray Spirit by R. K. Ashwick – adventure fantasy with a romance (m/f low heat). Enjoyable, good mix of action, fantasy world building, character growth, and humor to lighten the mood.
A Duke by Default by Alyssa Cole on audio has been good for bedtime. The friends group chat is my favorite part.
A little slow going for me at the moment. I’ve enjoyed Sara Cate’s Salacious Players Club series but the latest book Highest Bidder was not for me. Ronan has appeared in previous books as a somewhat inscrutable billionaire member of the club and now it’s his turn to be the main character. Unfortunately it’s in an age gap romance where the love interest is calling him daddy. Not my thing at all. My fault for buying it sight unseen because I liked the series so far. To make matters worse, Daisy kind of sucks and is immature and neither of them show a whole lot of growth, apart or together. A dud for me.
Just finished listening to DIAMOND EYE by Kate Quinn. This is a novel based on a real person – Lyudmila Pavlichenko (AKA Lady Death) – a woman sniper in the Soviet Union who had 309 kills during WWII. Very enjoyable listen that humanizes a person who experienced war as a minority at many levels.
I have to recommend BEING MORTAL by Atul Gawande. Written by a surgeon, this is a NF book which proactively changes the discussion on aging and death and “shows how the ultimate goal is not about a good death but a good life – all the way to the end”. Remarkable, thought-provoking with something for everyone to consider.
On a lighter note, I read the 3rd book inRichard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club Mystery series. THE BULLET THAT MISSED is a wonderful read!
@Sujata, whenever I have to answer an icebreaker type question about books that changed your life, BEING MORTAL is always the one I mention. As you say, deeply thought-provoking.
I’ve mostly been reading High Profile Domestic Thrillers That I Am Thoroughly Spoiled On, for some reason, like Gone Girl, Girl on the Train, and Big Little Liars, of which the last is definitely my favourite. It was an almost academic exercise – I wanted to read the books that started the trends – but I ended up liking BLL so much that I forgot to be spoiled, which has never happened to me before.
But I also accidentally read two different YA fantasies and had very different experiences with them. They were not listed as YA, or I wouldn’t have tried them. The first was THE WAKING LAND by Callie Bates, and I had to DNF it halfway through because, while I liked the premise, I really don’t enjoy books where the narrative exists for the emotional validation of the protagonist, and unfortunately most YA reads that way to me, and so did this. Also the execution of the romance was just embarrassing.
But THE MOUNTAIN OF KEPT MEMORY by Rachel Neumeier worked better for me, maybe because it was more NA in feel? which I hadn’t encountered in a fantasy before. This is a book where the princess and her brother have to save their city and world and yet the real emotional conflict is their relationships with their father, and this made it feel young. But I enjoyed it. It reminded me in an extremely abstract way of Sharon Shinn’s Summers at Castle Auburn, which I have no explanation for. The romance is more of a possibility, but it worked given the context.
I also read about a chapter of THE SCREAM OF THE WHITE BEAR, an epic fantasy where the characters are all polar bears, but I had to put it down because it was clear that it was going to be violent, and apparently I can’t handle the prospect of bad things happening to polar bears. Humans, fine, whatever, as long as it’s not torture porn. But possible threats to huge lethal predators who would absolutely eat my face off? No. I think there’s something wrong with me.
@Escapeologist The final Elemental Blessings novel is coming?! Eeee. Do you have the link?
@footiepjs Your comment has made me realise that I am more open to age gap romances if they’re standalone. It’s not my favourite trope anyway, but I don’t immediately feel reflexively disappointed in the hero the way I do if it’s part of a series. Does anyone else feel that way? Or have other tropes they enjoy more or less depending on whether it’s part of a series?
My best recent reads were nonfiction. Jake Bittle’s The Great Displacement is about the climate change impact on the US that’s happening already – there are counties that will have to make tough decisions soon about which parts of their infrastructure to abandon. My big takeaway was to research the state of the insurance market during a relocation, not just assume coverage will be available and affordable. But I’m making this sound very dry and measured, when it’s more a story of people and their experiences.
Patrick Bringley’s All the Beauty in the World is about his years working as a guard in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It’s a great behind-the-scenes look at some of “how things work” there. My biggest challenge was wanting to read when I wasn’t by my computer and able to look up the artworks referenced.
I also thoroughly enjoyed T. Kingfisher’s A House with Good Bones. Of the three of her horror books that I’ve read so far, this probably had the most creepy moments for me, but nothing that really shook me or kept me from reading on.
A couple of general recs: Dracula Daily will be starting up again soon. I thoroughly enjoyed it last year – Dracula is chronological in journal entries etc., so you can read it “as it happens” from May through November, sent to your email. I’m now following Whale Weekly, a project that will get me through Moby Dick eventually.
If you like the idea of chiseling away at the classics, but maybe not Dracula, I’ve also been using an app called Serial Reader, which breaks books into pieces intended to be about 20m/day of reading. The free version is quite functional, and a reasonable purchase gives you features like saving titles for later. There’s also an option for importing DRM-free ePubs, which I’ve been using to read some of my TBR that takes sustained effort. I’m really happy with this app.
@Star here is the announcement from Sharon Shinn’s Facebook with a snippet of the novel (eeee!)
https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=pfbid0x1hrmeq9GyeFk1m7nozuq9FcjGs6w47i9xC6rBG1sGyeSCJjX1BUwZdjQDjCe6Tdl&id=100063786483461
Just read: Romantic Comedy by Curtis Sittenfeld: I enjoyed it. Currently reading: Madison Square Murders by C.S. Poe: thank you SBTB for putting this on my radar. Asking for a Friend by Andi Osho is next on my TBR. Happy reading, all!
Struggling through some tough times for my emotional health so I’m taking comfort in re-reading Mary Balogh’s Bedwyn saga.
I finally got my hands on Jackie Lau’s “The Stand-Up Groomsman” and devoured it whole within 48 hours. Excellent writing! I’m going to get back to “How To Win a Wallflower” by Samara Parish. That’s been off to a good start.
@Janice, I also re-read the Bedwyn saga recently to get me through a hump/slump….hope it’ll do the same for you!
Just finished the duology THESE HOLLOW VOWS and THESE TWISTED BONDS by Lexi Ryan, the first of which was mentioned in a Books On Sale post earlier this month.
The good: Brie really loves her sister. This love is clearly stronger and more important to her than romance, which allows her to make better decisions than she might otherwise make.
The bad: I just cannot get past the way the Unseelie, including Finn, use humans to counteract a curse. The only word to describe it is monstrous.
I kept hoping that there would be some kind of moral reckoning, but there wasn’t.
Read all 4 books in Kiki Burrelli’s m/m Lunar Wolves series. They all involve a dominant wolf shifter (usually with baggage) and twinky witch (with more baggage) and a forced or fated mates situation. The stories are entertaining as long as you don’t mind some ridiculousness, some violence and references to abuse (not by main characters) and lots of sex with a light D/s dynamic (everyone has a good time). I wouldn’t put this in the same class as something like Charlie Adhara’s Big Bad Wolf series. For me, BBW is dark chocolate. Lunar Wolves is jelly beans.
A mixed couple of weeks, in chronological order: DEVIL’S DANCE (book one in the Rebel Kings MC series) by GARRETT LEIGH. My first ever foray into the world of a motorcycle club and set in the UK which was a nice change from most of my contemporary reads (I am UK-based). M/M/M, set in a predictably tough environment, with language and violence to match (not a problem), the twisty, emotional story kept me reading. The characters have a basic honour code and some goodness, even though killing is involved(!), so I found them likeable enough. Not sure it’s a subset for me though. If another in the series was on offer I might indulge but I didn’t particularly enjoy the world (from a woman who watched every episode of Sons of Anarchy – go figure?).
GARRETT LEIGH can really write though, so I tried another of hers: DREAM (book one in the Skins series). M/M contemporary, two damaged people, one physically the other mentally, find their way to each other with some hot, voyeuristic sex along the way. All a bit too realistic and angsty for my taste but I wasn’t tempted to DNF at any point because of the quality of the writing. I suspect, from browsing other titles, that this is her lane, so I think me and Garrett probably aren’t having a long term relationship but I’m glad I gave her a try.
THE BEAST’S BALL (an event, rather than a body part…) by EVA DEVON was free and I needed something lightweight after the gritty realism. Scarred, reclusive earl in need of an heir encounters a feisty bluestocking and decides that she will do. Pleasant and entertaining, goes exactly where you think it will but that’s absolutely fine. There’s a coach journey, only one bed, a huge Scottish castle plus an insightful mother/mother-in-law and it’s all rather warm and lovely.
As I so enjoyed KRISTEN CALLIHAN’S Darkest London series, I clicked on a contemporary of hers, DEAR ENEMY, when it was on offer. Enemies to lovers with childhood antagonists reunited as adults in forced proximity. The reasoning behind the story is a bit weak but I held faith, went with it anyway and ultimately enjoyed it. It is a very slow burn and there is a bit too much to-ing and fro-ing before they admit how they feel, so it won’t appeal to everyone. I think she’s a writer who just works for me, so I shall continue to explore her catalogue.
And talking of writers who just work for me, I’ve been waiting impatiently for SOMETHING SPECTACULAR by ALEXIS HALL. I will say right up front that Alexis Hall is one of my favourites. I am in love with his brain. I was also delighted by the email I got (of course I’m on his mailing list…) which details some research and recommendations into the musical subject matter. So, as you can see, I was primed to love this book. And I did. The end.
Another favourite also released a novella: A THIEF IN THE NIGHT by K J CHARLES.
This is directly connected to The Gentle Art of Fortune Hunting. And it’s a delight. If you are a fan, you will love it. If you haven’t tried the author before, just read it, it will make you smile. M/M historical, a down on his luck earl and an opportunistic (“needs must”) thief are thrown together.
This and the aforementioned Alexis Hall really brightened up my week.
Where to go from here? I await your recommendations.
Dealing with some stress and anxiety over a loved one’s health for the past three or four weeks, so I turned to rereading (as one does)—in this case, a prolonged NORA ROBERTS binge. I reread WHISKEY BEACH, THE LIAR, THE COLLECTOR, the Inn Boonsboro trilogy, and the Key trilogy, and I’m currently in the middle of TRIBUTE. All are favorites of mine, for one reason or another, and the familiarity is very comforting. If I continue the NR binge, I’ll probably turn to one of the fantasy-romance trilogies next: the Three Sisters Island trilogy, the Guardians trilogy, the Cousins O’Dwyer trilogy, or the Circle trilogy.
In between, I squeezed in MURDER AT QUEEN’S LANDING by ANDREA PENROSE—I am loving this Regency-era mystery series with a slow burn romance! This one deals with some of the evils of colonialism, particularly in re China, opium, and the tea trade. It also contains delightful homages to Ada Lovelace and Charles Babbage (albeit several decades earlier) in the form of two fictional characters. The mystery itself is a bit complex, and could perhaps have been made a trifle clearer, but I enjoyed it immensely anyway.
I also reread SPARKLING CYANIDE by Agatha Christie, for the #ReadChristie2023 challenge. I had forgotten whodunnit, but partway through, I remembered who was next to die, and how. It’s not one of my favorite Christie novels, but it wasn’t bad.
@Jennifer Estep, I hugely enjoyed UPROOTED by Naomi Novik, not only because of the links to my ancestral culture, but the sometimes prickly, sometimes warm relationship between the master sorcerer and his apprentice as they unravel the mystery of a possessed forest was just my catnip.
Currently reading Novik’s second fairy tale SPINNING SILVER, which has turned out to be much more layered than I expected, with not one but two extremely slow-burn enemies-to-lovers tropes that you can’t at first even imagine happening. This is a masterwork of writing first person from at least six points of view yet always knowing whose POV you are in at any given moment, and even more points for marginalized and overlooked women discovering their own inner strength and power.
@Escapeologist Thank you (eeee!)!
:::comes in humming the theme from The Phantom of the Opera:::
My first love, and the first show I got to see on Broadway (in 2019).
Anyhow, since our last go-round, I tried a spy novel that absolutely did not work for me. When it didn’t, I tried something reliable, and went with Desert Star by Michael Connelly. I always like the procedural work in the Bosch books, and having a retired Bosch put his skills to work in a cold case unit with his protege/successor Renee Ballard is a smart way to keep Bosch involved in the LAPD. Now I’m working on Blitz, the third in The Rook Files, by Daniel O’Malley. These books seem to come out every 6 years or so, but since the Checquy is a consistent entity throughout the books and they’re easy enough to understand (a combination of MI6 and Xavier’s School for Gifted and Talented), you don’t really need to remember a huge amount to still enjoy the books. One of the best aspects is the casual nature that the Checquy vets take toward explaining the nature of their jobs, and the arch British humor that results from it. This one is interesting, too, as it involves a woman that comes into her power well into adulthood. She’s a librarian married to a cop and has a child, and the fact that she randomly starts having electricity come out of her body is, to say the least, incredibly disruptive. I really only started it last night, but I’m enjoying it. So until next time, it may have ended its Broadway run for now, but I think the Phantom of the Opera is probably always there, inside my mind.
I haven’t posted about my reading in awhile so decided to step up this month. First off the GOOD.
A BAD DAY FOR SUNSHINE by Darynda Jones. This features a sheriff named Sunshine returning to her small town with teenage daughter in tow. I started it only because it already had 3 books published so no forgetting the plot between reads. This is the first book and sparse on romance with a kidnap mystery to solve as well as the backstory progression about when Sunshine was also kidnapped as a teen. Hopes are high for book 2 and 3.
A TASTE OF GOLD AND IRON by Alexandra Rowland. Loved, Loved this story and the cover (Goodreads) is gorgeous and accurate. This book had a Lot going on and is a fantasy M/M with a Prince that suffers from panic attacks and anxiety. He’s very happy as second fiddle to his sister but a public mistake forces Kadou to be assigned a new personal guard. It is obvious that the rigid rule following bodyguard disapproves of him. But watching the Prince navigate tricky politics and investigate a counterfeit threat makes bodyguard Evemer begin to see him as an astute and something to be admired. Excellent world building and touching love story.
A RIP THROUGH TIME by Kelley Armstrong. This is by no means the first book about a female cop/scientist/FBI agent that is sent back in time and uses their skills to solve a crime but it is one of the better ones. This time it’s homicide detective Mallory sent back to Victorian England. She arrives in the body of a 19 year old housemaid of questionable ethics. Luckily she now lives and works in the home of an undertaker with a budding forensics aptitude toward death. Nicely done and first of a new series.
THE SECRET LIVES OF COUNTRY GENTLEMAN by K.J. Charles. I think this is one of Charles best. It has an ethical and honorable hero who reluctantly inherits a title and all the estate problems that go with it. Including a hateful half sister and the local smuggling leader that looks really familiar. Gareth the hero is wonderful and I wanted all the good things for him.
The OK
THE WOMAN IN CABIN 10 by Ruth Ware. This is a closed door mystery that occurs on a cruise ship. It keeps you guessing but the pace doesn’t really pick up until the last few chapters. The slow beginning almost made me give up but finally we get out of our heroine’s head (It’s a bit wonky and boozy in there) and into some action.
THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO by Taylor Jenkins Reid. Maybe I was in a bad mood because everyone seemed to love this book and I found it just so-so. It’s a flashback told tale of an older Hollywood star who finally picks some nobody young journalist to write her blockbuster memoir. Think Elizabeth Taylor. The twist at the end wasn’t really that twisted to me and I found the life of Evelyn interesting but not really compelling.
LAMENT AT LOON LANDING by Josh Lanyon. I really like Josh Lanyon but this is more Lanyon lite. Part of an ongoing series. This is more a cozy mystery set with loony small town characters. The romance has become nonexistent and the side characters have taken over the story.
FAKING MS. RIGHT by Claire Kingsley. This is a fake girlfriend trope between a boss and his assistant. Done better than a lot of others but it takes a lot to overcome such a common trope. The H is the grumpy for no good reason and the banter was sometimes really great but this one falls solidly in the middle tier.
THE NOT SO GOOD
BACHELOR BEAST by Grace Goodwin. This was a televised “The Bachelor” only sci fi. The H or bachelor must find a bride to tame his inner beast before it destroys him and the h is the show’s makeup artist. No courting. Just insta fated mate. Ugh.
HOW TO MARRY A MARBLE MARQUIS by C.M. Nascosta. I loved Morning Glory Milking Farm raunch and all. Not so much this one by the same author. This was supposed to be a Regency style monster story but the only regency thing about it was the parties and the hero wore a cravat. There is a “teacher” element concerning monster sex and it was pretty much a hot mess. Beautiful cover though!
Over the past two weeks ~
— Continued my reread spree with Full Share and Double Share (Trader’s Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper Books 3 and 4) by Nathan Lowell which I enjoyed once again.
— finished Trading in Danger (Vatta’s War Book 1) by Elizabeth Moon which I enjoyed. This is a science fiction novel, and I would happily read on in the series.
— also read two stories that I enjoyed. The first, 120 Seconds by Michael Robertson, is military science fiction novella. The second, “The Distant Hills”, is the title piece in The Distant Hills and Other Stories, an anthology by LGBT romance author Kaje Harper.
— reread Captain’s Share and Owner’s Share (Trader’s Tales from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper Books 5 and 6) by Nathan Lowell. Once again the final volume made me cry. And as always I remain impressed that the author managed to begin book one and end book six with the same sentence.
— For my local book group read The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan which was a rather depressing nonfiction account of the Dust Bowl era.
— read Do I Know You? by Emily Wibberley which I quite enjoyed. This was about a couple married for five years who have grown apart who find a way to re-connect.
**Hope you enjoy the weekend and some good books!
@DiscoDollyDeb, I loved DIAMOND RING too, and agree that KD Casey does such a beautiful job of representing mental health struggles, and also really brings a love and respect for the game of baseball to life. I can’t say I’m much of a fan of real life baseball, but have loved reading it as portrayed by Ms Casey.
Enjoyed Piper J Drake’s newest, WINGS ONCE CURSED AND BOUND, the first in her new Mythwoven paranormal series. I enjoyed the story overall, and really liked the weaving of Thai mythology with the more familiar shifters and vampires, and am very interested to see where she takes the other characters she’s introduced.
Borrowed Julie Ann Long’s WHAT I DID FOR A DUKE from a recommendation (I think possibly here? for age-gap), and loved it. I found it funny and poignant and vastly entertaining. I hadn’t read much if any of Ms Long’s writing before, but will definitely pick more of it up.
Picked up Beth Bolden’s HIT THE BRAKES (Food Truck Warriors 2) on a whim, and had to reread the whole thing. I really love this whole series, and especially this second-chance, fake dating story about two guys who’d mutually crushed on each other in high schools but didn’t realize it at the time.
And picked up most of Kait Ballenger’s Seven Range Shifters series, and read COWBOY WOLF TROUBLE, the first. Enjoyed the world building and the story, and have just started the second, COWBOY IN WOLF’S CLOTHING. The writing seems solid and interesting…
I’m working on THE FOXGLOVE KING by Hannah Whitten and am really enjoying the main character and her world! I love a story with some good scheming, and this one seems like it’s going to deliver.
LASSITER by JR Ward: After all these years, after my eternal disappointment over Payne’s book, which stopped any further reading of the BDB books, this one HAD to be read. I needed answers. Short answer: shit’s complicated. So complicated I had to go back to the two previous books to make sense of … WTF happened at the end of LASSITER. Still not sure.
THE WOMAN IN THE LIBRARY by Sulari Gentill: An interesting and implausible locked library mystery in which four strangers are present at the same table when a terrifying scream is heard. They immediately bond, suspect each other of murder throughout the narrative, and the reader gets a book within a book within a book. At least I think that’s what happens.
BE THE SERPENT by Seanan McGuire, 16th Toby Daye: Here’s another entry in the “This Can’t End Well” category of books I’ve read lately. I didn’t see this curve coming either and at least there are two future titles to stop my head spinning, I think.
HANDLING SIN by Michael Malone, audio version: Finally able to hear my beloved Thermopylae, North Carolina residents as they chase all over the South to follow the quest Raleigh Hayes’ father has set him. This is LOL territory with a side of Drinks Come Out Your Nose when the action, and Raleigh’s reactions, take another hilarious turn. Then the real, uncomfortable racism, sexism, antisemitism and body shaming come roaring to the front and will not be ignored, which I believe was Malone’s intent. Perhaps because of all this, HANDLING SIN is ultimately the most joyous, satisfying and redemptive book I have read. All the stars.
Sujata: In the middle of BEING MORTAL and liking it so much. I’m 71 and live alone so it has great resonance with me!
KKW: I love…love…love BRIDE OF THE RAT GOD. A memory of my late mom: When she asked if I had read anything good lately and I replied with this title, there was a long silence. Then she said, “You scrimp and you save and you send ’em to college…”
@flchen1: I am a huge baseball fan, so DIAMOND RING resonated with me as both a great romance AND a great book about baseball. I actually thought about DIAMOND RING a couple of days ago when the pitcher for the Chicago Cubs had a perfect game going into the 8th inning (for the uninitiated, a perfect game is the rarest thing in baseball and there’s only been a handful of them in the game’s history). Anyway, both the pitcher and the catcher ran to snag a fly ball and got tangled up with each other—meanwhile, the batter made it to first base, and, alas, the perfect game was no more. I have to imagine that the pitcher & catcher (outside of romantic feelings, lol) felt exactly like Jake & Alex when that misplayed pitch cost their team the World Series. As KD Casey said in the book, baseball can sometimes be a very cruel sport.
@DiscoDollyDeb, that somehow makes Ms Casey’s books even more stellar for me, knowing how well it’s representing the sport. And I think truly, most sports can be incredibly cruel–that is part of the appeal I think, for the players and spectators… (said as a soccer and dance mom, so not quite a stranger to the vast spectrum of emotions roused by live performances).
I ended up reading both Cody Daigle-Orians’ I AM ACE and SOUNDS FAKE BUT OKAY by Sarah Costello and Kayla Kaszyca this weekend. Both books are nonfiction guides written by acespec writers. Daigle-Orians realized he is ace at the same age I realized I’m demisexual (42), so his experiences as an older ace (and rethinking what he thought was allo experience) really resonated with and comforted me. Since he’s also poly (he and his husband each have secondary partners), he has good advice about negotiating relationships and explaining why being ace doesn’t make your needs lesser in them. SOUNDS FAKE BUT OKAY is a little more anecdotal, with lots of stories from interviewees. Even though it basically comes down to the thesis “don’t ‘should’” (and I admit I hoped for a little more demisexuality info given that one writer is demi), it did feel really affirming. I’d go with I AM ACE if I had to pick one, but I’d recommend either in a heartbeat over Angela Chen’s ACE (both books cite it positively, but Chen’s cursory misrepresentation of demisexuality is dangerous and makes ACE irredemably flawed).
Shou Harusono’s Sasaki and Miyano light novel FIRST-YEARS came out this week…each chapter deals with a different (not always romantic!) pair from the series, so it’s much more fast-paced than other light novels I’ve tried. Sasaki and Miyano are adorable as ever (my favorite BL boys!), but Kuresawa’s story stuck with me most (we learn why he’s so fiercely devoted to his girlfriend, and it’s quite touching). The translation feels a little formal at times, but I loved the bonus comics at the end.
Mari Yoshihara’s DEAREST LENNY is a fascinating examination of Leonard Bernstein through the eyes of two very different fans in Japan: a female fan raising a family while working in publishing, and a man in the entertainment industry who had a relationship with him. The research is amazing, and the letters make for fascinating reading.
I should mention a couple of potential dealbreakers in SOUNDS FAKE BUT OKAY: there’s a pretty clunky reference to mental illness at one point (the authors claim it’s their own, but it’s just sketchy in context and badly explained). Also, the mentions of JK Rowling are far more positive (perhaps even glossing over?) than one would expect in a book that cites a fair amount of trans people’s experiences. So, your mileage may vary. (I’ve never heard the authors’ podcast and didn’t scan the QR codes for sound samples, so I have no info for you there.)
@Sue the Bookie: your memories of your mother’s remark made me double over in laughter, and then, of course, I had to check out the book. It looked like it might possibly interest me, but then I asked the Mister, the primary keeper of our hoards and hoards of books, and he said, “Yes, we have lots of her books, but I don’t think that one.” And before I could even take a breath, he had ordered a copy. Thanks for the laughter and for the newest addition to our over-flowing library, I guess!
@Meg Thank you, Meg! This is one of my most cherished memories of my mom and I’m happy to share it! I hope you enjoy BRIDE as much as always have!
Late entry due to grandkid drama and work.
The winner this time was The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo. Fantasy and politics someplace that seems a lot like China centuries back. Framed as story told to someone collecting history, it follow the maid and the young woman sent south to marry the emperor. Picaresque in a way. Listen for the clues. They are there though if you are not careful, the reveal may be a little surprising.
Also loving Louise Bay’s The Doctors series. The first book, Dr. Off Limits, does the student/supervisor thing so well. Now on Dr. Perfect who turns out not to be all that thrilled about being a doctor. She gets the medical part right enough that I can keep reading and her characters are engaging.