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The Boxing Baroness
RECOMMENDED: The Boxing Baroness by Minerva Spencer is $2.99! Carrie reviewed this and gave it B+:
The more grounded in history the novel was, the more I liked it. For instance, I enjoyed seeing how Marianne trained every day. However, people with more patience for plot than I will love the same increasing complications that just made me want to take a nap. There’s something here for everyone and I look forward to the next book, The Dueling Duchess.
Inspired by the real-life Boxing Baroness, acclaimed author Minerva Spencer sparkles with this brilliantly imagined story of her romance with an infuriating duke in the first of a witty, Regency-set, feminist series exploring the role of women in a rigidly patriarchal society. A new generation of readers and Bridgerton fans will delight in the rapier sharp wit, sexual fireworks, and thought-provoking entertainment of The Boxing Baroness.
Magnetic and educated, Marianne Simpson has the manner of a lady and the looks of a lover, not a fighter. Neither of which explains her occupation as a boxer in her uncle’s circus, Farnham’s Fantastical Female Fayre. Nonetheless, when St. John Powell, the exquisitely handsome Duke of Staunton, begins turning up at her shows, she finds herself dangerously distracted by the powerful peer’s mysterious presence. With her safety at stake, Marianne’s days in the ring are numbered. But how long can she fight her attraction to the man the ton calls Lord Flawless?
St. John Powell doesn’t just want Marianne Simpson, he needs her … to rescue his brother, who is being held for ransom by a treasonous English baron—the man all of Britain knows as the Rake of Rakes.
No matter how little Marianne wants to see her duplicitous ex-lover, the man responsible for the humiliating nickname the Boxing Baroness, St. John must convince her. Even if it means climbing into the ring with the beautiful boxer and taking everything she’s got . . .
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A Memory Called Empire
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine is $2.99! It’s the first book in a new sci-fi series and we had Arkady on the podcast. The episode focuses on narratology and I found it fascinating. Did you listen to this episode?
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining Station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn’t an accident–or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court.
Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her Station from Teixcalaan’s unceasing expansion–all while navigating an alien culture that is all too seductive, engaging in intrigues of her own, and hiding a deadly technological secret–one that might spell the end of her Station and her way of life–or rescue it from annihilation.
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The Lies of Locke Lamora
RECOMMENDED: The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch is $1.99! This is a gritty fantasy with an anti-hero protagonist. I loved this book and it’s a lot of fun. I also believe it was recommended by Sarah’s husband on a previous podcast episode. It’s a lot of fun, but definitely is heavy on violence and some gross stuff.
The Thorn of Camorr is said to be an unbeatable swordsman, a master thief, a ghost that walks through walls. Half the city believes him to be a legendary champion of the poor. The other half believe him to be a foolish myth. Nobody has it quite right.
Slightly built, unlucky in love, and barely competent with a sword, Locke Lamora is, much to his annoyance, the fabled Thorn. He certainly didn’t invite the rumors that swirl around his exploits, which are actually confidence games of the most intricate sort. And while Locke does indeed steal from the rich (who else, pray tell, would be worth stealing from?), the poor never see a penny of it. All of Locke’s gains are strictly for himself and his tight-knit band of thieves, the Gentlemen Bastards.
Locke and company are con artists in an age where con artistry, as we understand it, is a new and unknown style of crime. The less attention anyone pays to them, the better! But a deadly mystery has begun to haunt the ancient city of Camorr, and a clandestine war is threatening to tear the city’s underworld, the only home the Gentlemen Bastards have ever known, to bloody shreds. Caught up in a murderous game, Locke and his friends will find both their loyalty and their ingenuity tested to the breaking point as they struggle to stay alive…
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Zero Sum Game
RECOMMENDED: Zero Sum Game by S.L. Huang is $2.99! This was previously self-pubbed, I believe, so you may have read this one. Carrie wrote a Lightning Review for this book and gave it a B+:
Zero Sum Game is an awesome, fast-paced, inventive science fiction thriller about a mercenary whose superpower is her ability to do complicated math almost instantly.
A blockbuster, near-future science fiction thriller, S.L. Huang’s Zero Sum Game introduces a math-genius mercenary who finds herself being manipulated by someone possessing unimaginable power…
Cas Russell is good at math. Scary good. The vector calculus blazing through her head lets her smash through armed men twice her size and dodge every bullet in a gunfight, and she’ll take any job for the right price.
As far as Cas knows, she’s the only person around with a superpower…until she discovers someone with a power even more dangerous than her own. Someone who can reach directly into people’s minds and twist their brains into Moebius strips. Someone intent on becoming the world’s puppet master.
Cas should run, like she usually does, but for once she’s involved. There’s only one problem…
She doesn’t know which of her thoughts are her own anymore.
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$.99:
– Dangle the Ring (Blue Ridge Mountain Hockey Book 2) by Elizabeth Lynx
$1.99:
– The Empress of Salt and Fortune (The Singing Hills Cycle Book 1) by Nghi Vo
– Heated (Burned Inc. Book 1) by Naima Simone
– American Dreamer: An LGBTQ Romance (Dreamers Book 1) by Adriana Herrera
$2.99:
– Awfully Ambrose (Bad Boyfriends, Inc.) by Sarah Honey, Lisa Henry
– Horribly Harry (Bad Boyfriends, Inc.)by Sarah Honey, Lisa Henry
The Bad Boyfriends books are so funny! I started with Horribly Harry and it stood alone fine but they would be better if read in order.
@Escapeologist, I totally agree! I think they do stand alone fine, but you get to see the characters in all the stories, and the third is even more delicious if you’ve read the first two.
I loved A Memory Called Empire, as well as The Empress of Salt and Fortune (mentioned in flchen1’s comments). Both had amazing world-building, interesting characters, and twisty plots that headed in directions I didn’t expect. The first is set in some intergalatic, post-Earth place, and the second takes place somewhere inspired by imperial China.
Despite the part I read being good, I DNF’d The Lies of Locke Lamora after peeking at the end. Bad things were starting to happen that made me worry for the characters’ well-being, and I needed to know how they’d end up. This is why I don’t often read outside the romance genre.
The Thing About Home by Rhonda McKnight is $2.99
Diamond Ring by KD Casey is FREE today! Second chance love story between a pitcher and catcher during a playoff run (M/M – queer female author)
$.99:
– Shower Of Stars by Nancy Herkness
– Music Of The Night by Nancy Herkness
With sincere apologies for the vagueness of this comment: Locke Lamora is very good, albeit very dark, but I wasn’t able to read further in the series because something in the way the female characters were handled really bothered me. It was subtler than usual — much subtler — so I wasn’t quite able to pinpoint exactly what I didn’t like (also I read it over a decade ago, which isn’t helping), but it left a bad taste in my mouth. If anyone else had the same reaction but was able to figure out why, I would love to hear about it.
(In the interest of full disclosure, Lynch also gave me and several of my female acquaintances at the same con a vaguely sleazy/sketchy vibe, but none of us interacted with him directly or heard of any problems, and this was a few years after I’d already read the book and decided not to read further, so I don’t think this impression influenced my feelings about the book.)
KD Casey’s Fire Season (the second in the series) is also FREE! Squee!!
Annabeth Albert’s Conventionally Yours: An LGBTQIA Rivals-to-Lovers Road Trip Romance (True Colors Book 1) is $1.99
Also Annabeth Albert’s Arctic Sun: A Gay Romance (Frozen Hearts Book 1)
And Hard Job: MM SEAL Bodyguard Romance (A-List Security Book 2) is $2.99
KD Casey has been my major “discovery” this year, and I strongly recommend grabbing the two freebies referenced by @omphale and @flchen1 above. The first book in the series, UNWRITTEN RULES, is $4.99 right now—but that means you can get all three books (UNWRITTEN RULES, FIRE SEASON, and DIAMOND RING) for less than $5. All three are beautifully-written m/m baseball romances with characters dealing with a number of issues on and off the field. Highly recommended!
MISTAKES WERE MADE by Meryl Wilsner is $2.99 – not sure if this is a limited time sale or not, but I like Something to Talk About well enough to grab this one!
https://smartbitchestrashybooks.com/bookinfo/mistakes-were-made/
I don’t think what I’m about to write is a spoiler about A MEMORY CALLED EMPIRE (I hope not, at least). I read it 2+ years ago, and a fascinating world building elements still sticks with me. The height of sophistication or demonstration of one’s intelligence, I guess, was being able to pull out a clever literary quote at the right point of any conversation. Not the obvious quote, but one that shed a new light on the conversation or makes everyone think about it differently. It was so fascinating, reading these conversations that had layer on layer of meaning. Even now, when I see a meme or quote dropped into an online forum, it makes me think of this book. The gif/image changes the shape of the conversation, drawing from a shared language. I don’t think I’m a good enough literary critic to know whether Ms Martine meant this as a tribute or mockery, but I love this facet of world building, either way.
I liked Unwritten Rules (KD Casy) so I snatched up the two follow-up freebies, thanks y’all! Will note for author newcomers, Unwritten Rules has A LOT of baseball. Like, a lot. So be prepared to skim sportsball biztalk if you’re not a true fan.
@ Star: I don’t know whatever became of the suit, because I can’t find anything recent about it, but in 2020 Scott Lynch and his wife the sff writer Elizabeth Bear were accused of sexual misconduct and grooming so…your feelings may have very well been on point.