September is here and that means it’s time for a new Whatcha Reading! We want to hear how you’re kicking off this month, reading-wise.
Lara: I’ve returned to old habits and am reading multiple books at once. I’m about halfway through Therese Beharrie’s Ghost in Shining Armor ( A | BN | K | AB ) and it’s charming! And then coming in hot, I’m starting Book Lovers by Emily Henry ( A | BN | K | AB ) for my book club. It’ll be my first Emily Henry book!
Shana: I just finished The Second You’re Single by Cara Tanamachi. It’s a cute rom-com but had some weird diet culture stuff. And now I’ve started Kyr by Nikki Clarke, ( A ) which is a sci fi romance about a woman stranded on another planet. Luckily there’s a hot bird dude.
Tara: I just finished Aubrey Gordon’s latest book, “You Just Need to Lose Weight” and 19 Other Myths About Fat People. ( A | BN | K ) It was so, so good. Full of research, but still accessible, clearly laying out how anti-fatness is systemic and with specific recommendations for action for each chapter.
Sarah: She is such a fantastic writer and speaker. I really like listening to her think out loud or debunk things because her insight into a completely radical way of thinking has taught me a lot. Especially as someone who was a teenager in the 90s (to say nothing of the 2000s my gosh).
Tara: Same, same. I want to gift a copy of this to every person I’ve ever met. In lieu of that, I’m telling anyone who will listen to go read it.
Sarah: I am reading The Blonde Identity by Ally Carter – the chapters are VERY short and very fast so it’s a high-octane read, which means I don’t want to read it before bed because it isn’t a winding-down kind of book at the moment. I’m also re-reading Network Effect by Martha Wells. Did you know it’s really good and has Murderbot in it?
Susan: I’m rereading The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window ( A | BN | K | AB ) because I was sure that I misremembered the characters orgasmically touching souls, and yet I had not. After this I’m planning to dive into rereading Jeannie Lin’s Lotus Palace series because I have an absolute craving
Carrie: I am reading The Invisible Woman by Claire Tomalin ( A | BN | K ) which is a biography of Nelly Ternan.
Sneezy: The third season of Under the Oak Tree is back and AAAAAHHHHH MAXIMILIAN’S FIRST FEMME FRIEND! LEARNING MORE MAGIC! THE ART IS SO GOOD!
Whatcha reading this month? Let us know in the comments!
I am reading 2 nonfiction books and am desperately in need of a romance to read. Any recs? I am fond of fake dating!
AFRICAN EUROPEANS: AN UNTOLD STORY by Olivette Otele is the story of dual-heritage African Europeans from the 1st century BC to the present. She does jump around a little bit making this a book you need to be patient with and give your full attention towards.
PUNISHED FOR DREAMING: HOW SCHOOL REFORM HARMS BLACK CHILDREN AND HOW WE HEAL by Bettina L Love is roadmap for how the school to prison pipeline has been constructed and how it can be dismantled. It is not a cheerful book but a necessary one.
Next Week: I am starting IN THE UPPER COUNTRY by Kai Thomas which is a fictional ‘slave narrative’ involving a woman who emancipates herself to Canada and shoots the man pursuing her. She does not run from the consequences of that action and instead agrees to tell her story. If the woman interviewing her will exchange a story for a story. It sounds excellent.
My transition back to reading novels has been interesting after “Short Story Summer.” I finished DAISY DARKER by Alice Feeney and AMERICAN SPY by Lauren Wilkinson both in great big gulps (like a horse finally getting to run loose after a long time cooped up) but I found them both only so-so.
DAISY DARKER is in what I think of as the “post GONE GIRL” psychological suspense genre. Strong focus on female characters, atmosphere, and unreliable narrators. More focus on the domestic, less focus on serial killers (not to yuck anyone’s yum but I don’t do serial killers as a rule). I love mysteries, cut my teeth on gothics, and am always looking for more stories that focus on complex female characters. I try to read one or two books in this genre a year and I often find them okay, but not great. Usually the issue is a promising premise, great atmosphere. Then it all falls down with an obvious or contrived ending. This one had a great moody atmosphere (I wanted the fall feels) and I did *not* anticipate the final plot twist, but I definitely found what got us to the ending as a trifle contrived. I think I’d enjoy it as a movie when I had less time to think. I’d give it a B/B- as a good quick read and might read something else by the author, but not any time soon.
I also found AMERICAN SPY a B/B-. I read it as Book Riot’s Reading Challenge -Read a social horror, mystery or thriller novel -. It had a really interesting, well-developed central character, but the spy element wasn’t really a big part of the story. It kicked into gear for the last third of the book and I enjoyed that. I found it very draggy and observational before that point. Maybe if I had gone in not thinking “thriller” I would have enjoyed it more. It also had the first book problem of a lot of telling versus showing. Sometimes literally telling since part of the story is told as a story to her sons.
I also read ALL THE RAGE: MOTHERS, FATHERS, AND THE MYTH OF EQUAL PARTNERSHIP by Darcy Lockman. Really well-written and made me think about a lot of things.
I’m also trying to read an autumn/fall poem every day on Poetry.org to get in the fall mood, but the heat wave we just got through was not helping.
Too much work, so not much time for reading… I have two books going at the moment:
WEST END EARL – Bethany Bennett (m/f Regency). Had this on my TBR for a while, I think I got it because it was mentioned here. It features a heroine who hides away by pretending to be a man – and she does it successfully. This is an old catnip trop of mine. But I am finding the book hard going, because there’s so much going on, the dialogues are much too modern and Americanized which I find incredibly jarring, and on top of that there’s way too much instalust. So the hero has known the heroine as her male persona for two years and they’ve become quite good friends. He never suspects anything. But the moment he finds out she’s a woman, he basically has a hard-on. Yikes!
REALITY BITES BACK-The Troubling Trugh About Guilty Pleasure TV – Jennifer L. Pozner. This book was recommended here last week or so. It’s a premise that interests me, so I had to get it. It’s a few years old and that shows occasionally, but I am finding it a very interesting read so far and insightful.
One of my seond hand bookshop finds in German:
Warten auf Goebbels – Bernd Schroeder (WWII era novel). This was not a particularly long book, and I’m not usually much interested in WWII stories, but this sounded interesting. It’s a fictionalized account of the filming of the last UFA film in Germany in late 1944/early 1945 which was supposed to have been a triumphant war-winner propaganda movie. I though this was quite good – the film crew forms a small comminunity within the small country village where they are filming. All characters are given back stories and slowly it is revealed why they are there, whilst the director is procrastinating as much as possible to keep everybody there until the war (which he realises is lost) is over. There are the idealists, the die-hard nazis, anti-nazis, the disillisioned ones, the oblivious artists… it’s an interesting mix of people and the end has a few good twists.
Kate Canterbary’s SHUCKED (the first in her new Loew Brothers series) is a very busy trope-fest (grumpy-sunshine, brother’s best friend, opposites attract, antagonists-to-lovers) that works best when it focuses on the developing relationship between the MCs. Sunny is in her late-twenties and has opened a vegan bakery/coffee shop in her small Rhode Island town. The shop shares space with a restaurant/oyster bar currently being managed by Beckett Loew (there’s a long backstory as to why he came home to run the family business). Beckett happens to be the best friend of Sunny’s older brother, but that is the least of their conflicts which revolve around both the physical proximity of their two businesses but also Beckett’s insistence on trying to “help” Sunny manage her epilepsy (which she can handle very well, thank you very much, with medication, service dogs, and her own awareness of her condition). Beckett is a born caretaker—good thing too, because his clueless parents and his feckless younger brother need all the help they can get. Sunny has struggled to get away from the smothering protectiveness of her parents and the way they treat her condition as if it has nothing to do with Sunny. Naturally Sunny & Beckett clash. As one of Sunny’s friends observes, “y’all started off on the wrong foot and now you can’t stop pushing each other’s buttons.” Eventually, however, the couple stop fighting long enough to have some very hot sexy-times (as usual, Canterbary handles consent extremely well). I said SHUCKED was “busy”, and I mean it: Canterbary really leans into the various sexualities & cultures/ethnicities of the heroine’s friends group, and there are so many other supporting characters and their stories and interpersonal relationships that it was occasionally hard to keep them all straight, not to mention that the first part of the book left me rather anxious with the unresolved issues of the Beckett’s family and Sunny’s new business. I recommend SHUCKED, but I’m hoping the next book (which I think is going to focus on one of Beckett’s brothers, a former baseball player) will not be quite so, um, stuffed.
On its surface, Caitlin Crews’s latest HP, THE DESERT KING’S KIDNAPPED VIRGIN (the first of her Innocent Stolen Brides duet) seems to have a completely self-explanatory title—and it is correct: Cyrus (king of one of those only-in-Romancelandia desert kingdoms) “kidnaps” Hope as she walks down the aisle to a marriage-of-convenience with a wealthy businessman. However, beyond the surface, the book is really about mothers, how we love (or don’t love) our mothers, and how they love us. Hope loves her fluttery, ornamental mother who has spent her widowhood trying to recapture the love she had with Hope’s late father—always to disastrous effect. In fact, much of Hope’s convenient marriage was to set her mother up financially for the rest of her life. Meanwhile, Cyrus loathes his former supermodel mother—although Hope (and the reader) can see clearly what Cyrus refuses to acknowledge: Cyrus’s father poisoned Cyrus against his own mother. Naturally—this is a Caitlin Crews HP after all—there’s lots of battles between the hearts and the minds and outlooks of the MCs, along with some HP-level sexy-times. You know if HPs are your cuppa—they are mine—and I recommend THE DESERT KING’S KIDNAPPED VIRGIN if they’re yours too.
Winter Renshaw’s HATE MAIL is a quick read about two people from wealthy families whose marriage was arranged for them when they were very young. They have been exchanging letters since they were children (snippets of their letters appear throughout the book), but they really haven’t spent much time together and, when they have, it’s usually been with their parents running interference. By about the 25% point of the book, I was wondering how Renshaw would manage to inject any complications into what, on the face of it, appeared to be a standard rich-people-in-an-arranged-marriage story. Then the book took an unexpected psychological-suspense turn (although the villain was fairly obvious from the time they were introduced)—similar to something you might get in books Renshaw publishes as Minka Kent. As usual, Renshaw does a good job of keeping her plot points untangled and her characters’ actions clear and consistent. Recommended.
FRAGMENTS is the fourth of Nyla K’s dark, twisty, triggery, but (to me, at any rate) compulsively readable books in her Alabaster Penitentiary series about the denizens of a crumbling, isolated prison run by an enigmatic warden. So far, the series has featured an inmate-guard relationship (DISTORTED), an MMF-menage between three guards (JOYLESS), a psychiatrist-serial killer relationship (BRAINWASHED), and now with FRAGMENTS we have the relationship between two inmates, Ren & Lex. Like all the other books in the series, FRAGMENTS cannot be read as a standalone: timelines & characters recur over the course of the books, and events from earlier books are revealed in a different light in later books. Ren is a sex-worker from a wealthy family; an act of arson that resulted in deaths landed him in Alabaster Penitentiary. Lex is a hacker who inadvertently broke through the Pentagon’s firewall (one element of Lex’s story that rubbed me the wrong way was that his rationale for hacking comes extremely close to Q-Anon conspiracy theories, presented at face value without any questioning or skepticism). Ren is self-aware, but his manic-pixie-dream-boy sluttiness (his word) can be exhausting (to inmates, guards, and readers). Lex is young and a virgin, completely unsure about his sexuality and baffled by his attracted to Ren. The book spans five years in the relationship between the two men and also includes a lot about characters from the other books, particularly one of the MCs from DISTORTED. This is a doorstopper of a book (even in e-book form, lol), and there’s lots (and I do mean lots) of sex—including the MCs (particularly Ren) having sex with partners other than each other—and there is no mention of condoms, safe sexual practices, or health status at any point in the story. After a while I was skimming or straight-up skipping the sex scenes as they tended to be repetitive (the book could easily be a quarter shorter if gratuitous sex scenes were removed). That being said, I enjoyed FRAGMENTS, but Nyla K’s style is certainly an acquired taste. Read at your own risk.
I’m reading CODENAME CHARMING by Lucy Parker. I’ve enjoyed Parker’s other books, and I love royal-themed and fake-dating romances so I’ve been looking forward to this one.
Also waiting on my TBR pile are HEROINE COMPLEX by Sarah Kuhn and A NIGHT AT THE TROPICANA by Chanel Cleeton.
And I am so glad that summer is almost over. I am ready for all the fall things — football, cooler temperatures, changing leaves, and pumpkin/apple/s’mores-themed desserts. 🙂
Reading Ben McKenzie’s Easy Money because a) I watched season 1 of The OC as it aired and 2) cryptocurrency skepticism, yeah. He’s not a bad writer (co-author Jacob Silverman probably helps with this) and it’s worthwhile to see what I’ve read in disparate articles all collected together. Can’t believe I forgot about Razzlekhan so quickly.
Hoo boy, I feel like I haven’t read a really good book in a long time. I despised Sara Cate’s The Anti-hero. The MMC was in his mid 30s but was extremely immature for his age, the plot to get back at his dad didn’t make sense and so everything kind of fell apart before it even got going. I don’t think anything about this book worked for me. I kind of hate when characters are like “I can’t possibly have real feelings for this person – or do I?!”
Which segues well into Scarlett Peckham’s The Portrait of a Duchess. Also oddly immature MCs and the denial of feelings on the part of Cornelia got so old by the end. My favorite Peckham was The Duke I Tempted and it’s all been less enjoyable from there, oop.
Picked up All Systems Red when it was on sale earlier this week and I’m excited to get into the Murderbot stories. I’ve been delaying getting into this series until I’ve needed a guaranteed good book and I think I’m there now.
Sailor’s Delight – Rose Lerner
A Jewish shipping agent falls for his sailor client. I thought this one was very sweet, and I always like historicals that aren’t just the usual balls and house parties. I learned some things about Jewish culture and some things about maritime history. The romance element was rather tame but I enjoyed it a lot.
The Female of the Species – Mindy McGinis
YA dark revenge thriller (cw rape and murder). I read this in a bid to slim down my Goodreads tbr. I’m not quite sure why I put it on the list in the first place. Some of the plot was kind of outlandish. It was okay. but not something I’d read again.
You & Me – Tal Bauer
A recently widowed man trying to connect with his teen son falls for his son’s friend’s dad. I’ve read raves of this book, but it didn’t work for me. Honestly, waaaay too much football talk. And I’m aware this is an odd complaint for a romance novel but it was…too romantic for me. Just didn’t connect with me.
I’ve also started Heaven Official’s Blessing by MXTX, currently powering through volume 2. The second season of the animation is finally coming in October, and I’m so excited for it.
Inhaled Nalini Singh’s RESONANCE SURGE. More tension than I’ve found in previous installments, plus both Pavel and Yakov finding their mates was a delight. And while I still lobby for a return to Seahome andthat orca or great white shark romance of my dreams, I’m always happy for more bear s
THE VERY SECRET SOCIETY OF IRREGULAR WITCHES by Sangu Mandanna was a delightful low angst reads wherein that dark side of magic is something they witches somehow did to themselves and is sad rather than scary. Hoping there’s more to come for your MC, her found family and her librarian love. Perfect book for easing into the spooky holiday on the horizon.
How is it already time for another WAYR? LOL!
Jennifer Bernard’s THE CRUSH is the latest in her lovely Lake Bittersweet series, and I loved this addition to her small-town series. The hero, Galen, epitomizes the mountain-man type, and is definitely a cinnamon roll hero, at least for Brenda, the heroine. Love how Ms Bernard writes them gently, and we get to appreciate them learning to be vulnerable with each other and appreciate each other and bring out their best selves. I also like how she weaves in family and community. Another keeper for me.
Taryn Quinn’s FOREVER BY MORNING is part of their Brothers Three Orchard series (loosely connected to their Crescent Cove universe) and is an opposites attract between an heiress and one of the orchard owners. Cari Quinn and Taryn Elliott bring the feels, and this was a fun read.
MY FAVORITE KIDNAPPER by Melanie Moreland is an entertaining standalone that leans into the alpha guy who sweeps in to take care of the heroine…. Dante and Brianna don’t seem to have much in common on paper, but Dante likes cake and Brianna bakes the best ones… and well, nothing not to love about an Italian villa! Just the escape I enjoyed after another busy week in the school office!
Also enjoyed SAVAGE RESCUE by Shelli Stevens, a novella in her Savage series, some pageturning PNR; Charlie Cochet’s STACKING THE DECK, m/m RS; and Leighton Greene’s WINTER WONDERS, part of the Friends of Friends contemporary m/m series…
Can’t wait to see what all of you are reading!
My husband wanted to go to the beach so we could sit and read, and then go to our favorite burger place, but the weather did not cooperate. I told him we are going to eat comfort food and read at home! We don’t need to be at the beach to take a day for ourselves!
As a result, I also can’t wait to see what you are all reading!
The last month of reading, with my favs at the top:
THE MIDSUMMER BRIDE – Kati Wilde – Barbarian M/F. I love barbarian romances (who knew?), and this was a good one. Lived up to the hype, and worth the wait.
THE RIGHT MOVE – Liz Tomforde – Contemporary basketball M/F – I liked this a lot. Grumpy/uptight and Sunshine/outgoing pairing, some basketball, but not too much. Nice arc to the relationship. Check it out!
SERGEANT DELICIOUS – Annabeth Albert – Solid contemporary M/M. A.A. is a go to author for me, and I enjoyed this.
MADNESS OF THE HORDE KING and CLAIMED BY THE HORDE KING – Zoey Draven – More barbarian romances, but this time the barbarians are a particular race on a planet where there are also human settlements, and the barbarians fall in love with human women. Solid, and entertaining. Z.D. is a very consistent author.
CROWN OF SHADOWS, CROWN OF MOONLIGHT, THE QUEEN’S CROWN – K.M. Shea – Paranormal contemporary M/F, same couple for three books. Low heat (no sexytimes). Similar to their other books, but a nice way to while away a tired evening.
SHIVER – Suzanne Wright – Yucky. Did not like the power imbalance, not as good as her shifter or demon books. No.
A DEAD AND STORMY NIGHT – Steffanie Holmes – Paranormal Contemporary F and multiple M. Very disappointing. Did not really make sense, inconsistent, and not spicy enough for the premise (lean in, if you are going to go there!). Not going to read the rest of the series.
THE ET GUY – V.C. Lancaster – Alien M/human F contemporary. This did not work for me. I did not believe they actually fell in love. He was interested in her for a long time her (never clear why he was into her) and she found out and went with it? Missing the pieces that I like best in a romance.
THE WEIGHT OF IT ALL N.R. Walker Contemporary M/M – Trying to make the point that weight is not important to attractiveness, but made me feel exactly the opposite? Disappointing.
Hope you are all well and thank you for the recs!
WHO CRIES FOR THE LOST by C.S. Harris: I will never tire of this series, especially when dire consequences are predicted. As long as Harris doesn’t pull an Elizabeth George or whats-her-name killing a major character, we’ll be just fine forever. Normally historical mysteries are not my thing, but these books have always worked.
THE WHITE GIRL by Tony Birch: A heartbreaking but still lovely story about the lives of an Aboriginal family and others before the citizenship act was passed in Australia (1967, I think). So many children lost to the mission schools, families split apart, murdered. The outrage will never go away.
SLEEP NO MORE by Seanan McGuire: 17th in the Toby Daye series and as nail-biting as they come. Anything I say would be a spoiler, but THE INNOCENT SLEEP, told from Tybalt’s perspective, follows close behind.
DARIUS by JR Ward: Number 0.5 in the BDB series, from the beginning with Darius before Wrath took the throne and married Beth. I wish I could quit you, BDB.
BOLD FORTUNE by M.M. Crane: A woman travels to the Alaskan interior to meet and experience the life of a community founded more than 100 years ago. She is sunshine, he–according to everyone in town–has put himself on the cross of responsibility and is beyond grumpy/angry. They are both smart, instantly attracted, and the FMC meets every challenge set. I really enjoyed this book and a great deal of that is because the FMC is no pushover; her carefully researched and chosen survival gear is topnotch and PINK, everywhere PINK. The question about what we owe communities in pristine environments with a metric ton of natural resources to be exploited is an important one. I liked the answer here.
THIS CHARMING MAN by C.K. McDonnell: The second in the Stranger Times series, set in Manchester, where the ST newspaper reports on all the wild and unproven mystical/mysterious goings on (think The National Enquirer without the malice). I love everything McDonnell writes and this series is especially creative and outlandish; many of the characters struggle with their own (literal) demons, but they look out for each other. So so good.
COMPULSORY by Martha Wells: Very short Murderbot, I’ll still take all I can get.
THE ROAD TO ROSWELL by Connie Willis: A roadtrip! With an alien! And people who aren’t what they seem! Loved it. Learning how to communicate is the essence of this story and Willis does it so well. Highly recommended.
Over the past two weeks ~
— an enjoyable contemporary novel, The Book of Silver Linings by Nan Fischer. The book features a young woman who, in researching the history of her engagement ring, learns the story of a World War I couple. She also learns a lot about herself.
— read and enjoyed Burning Bright (The Extraordinaries Book 1) by Melissa McShane; I’d describe it as a blend of magic and regency era romance mixed with naval battles. Extraordinaries are people who have an exceptional talent such as the ability to wield fire, fly, or make predictions; many in this world have small powers, but those of the extraordinaries are extreme and relatively uncommon. Most individuals come into their powers at puberty, but the heroine of the story awakens in her early twenties to her bedroom on fire.
— Earlier this month, I read Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center. I learned that the author has a prequel story on her website recounting the first meeting of the main characters of that novel, so I read and liked it. The Guy at the Wedding by Katherine Center.
— reread a favorite science fiction book ~ Stray (Touchstone Book 1) by Andrea K. Höst. It is permanently free for Kindle readers.
— My distant book group read A Town Called Solace by Mary Lawson. I quite enjoyed this book and would happily read more by the author. The story, set in a small town in Canada, is told by three characters: an elderly woman who is in the hospital, her seven year old neighbor who has been tasked with feeding her cat (said child’s teenage sister has run away from home), and a newly divorced man (with a childhood connection to the woman) who has been given the house.
– I have about fifteen new library books here at home awaiting my attention, so naturally I am revisiting old favorites. I reread Lab Rat One, Caszandra, and Gratuitous Epilogue.
— and then went on and finished the Touchstone series by rereading In Arcadia and Snow Day by Andrea K Höst.
— I also read many samples.
The Heaven and Earth Grocery Store by James McBride. The Postcard by Anne Berest. Fabulous storytelling.
I love reading these posts and comments!
I recently finished CULTISH by Amanda Montell. Incredibly interesting, but I wish the last section was longer (about Q-Anon etc). It had been languishing on my nightstand for months, mainly due to my ability to get easily distracted.
Currently reading Deanna Rayburn’s first Veronica Speedwell book A CURIOUS BEGINNING which I know a lot of the Bitchery loves!
Also reading the newest Lucy Score THINGS WE LEFT BEHIND. I’ve been waiting for Lucien and Sloane’s story, and am hoping it’s as good as the first one. The second was ok, but I don’t always love a cop love interest.
I’ve been on a contemporary streak lately- all audiobooks.
Roni Loren: Two books from the Say Anything series: YES, AND I LOVE YOU and WHAT IF YOU AND ME. I liked these both. If you’re looking for disability/neurodivergence representation, IMHO Loren does a decent job at organically incorporating aspects into her main characters in an organic way. Examples include Tourette’s, ADHD, social anxiety, amputee. (I have ADHD, so I appreciate this!)
Ali Hazelwood- women in STEM (science) and academia- as a former biology major and having advanced degrees, overall I loved to see this representation!
Novel-length: LOVE, THEORETICALLY. My first Hazelwood, overall I thought it was well done. Main female protagonist has Type 1 diabetes, and secondary characters broadly represent the sexuality spectrum in a positive way. Warning for an inappropriate (psychologically controlling) relationship from an advisor/mentor.
Novella trilogy: UNDER ONE ROOF, STUCK WITH YOU, BELOW ZERO (can be read out of order, I did!).. Some representation of the sexuality spectrum, but overall the shorter lengths and a variety of time jumps made the storylines/character development less cohesive. I liked Below Zero the best, but admittedly I read this one first and I connected to these characters the best.
*oops, the Roni Loren series is called “Say Everything”
I love it when my WAYRs are thematic. This week/month/whatever’s theme is “otherwise very good books that have major sticking points for me.”
I was enjoying Lucy Parker’s CODENAME CHARMING just fine (I would have rated it a B with the comment that I was more engaged by Pet’s character arc in BATTLE ROYALE than in her own book) when the term “human garbage” came up in the FMC’s narrative perspective. It turns out this is a trigger phrase for me, vaulting me back to the first time I heard it, when a father said it to his young son in reference to a street person panhandling outside a bookstore where I worked. (30 years ago now. That child may have grown up into a compassionate person or a carbon copy of his father.) I continued reading, but decided I’d had enough ten chapters later when the term “human trash” appeared in the MMC’s narrative perspective. At least Pet and Matthias have this in common.
On to less personally triggering things!
If you’re looking for your next great audiobook experience, consider the RIVERS OF LONDON (A-) series by Ben Aaronovitch, narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith (A+++++). This is a paranormal police procedural told from the perspective of Peter Grant, a mixed-race police constable who was destined for a career of data entry before he he took a witness statement from a ghost and got swept up in the official-but-niche spooky side of London policing. The worldbuilding is excellent (though the level of detail invites nit-picking), Grant’s sense of humor is engaging, and I definitely have a crush on his Holmesian/Whimseyian DCI, Thomas Valentine. There’s a moderate amount of body horror in the first two novels (RIVERS OF LONDON and MOON OVER SOHO), but what I would actually warn for is the main character’s unfortunate attitude toward women, which tends to focus on their fuckability. I’m only three books in, so maybe at some point he’ll recognize his misogyny? (lol, who am I kidding?) Anyway, setting aside that irritation, Holdbrook-Smith’s performance of the series’ wide-ranging cast of characters is brilliant.
Lastly, THE HEART HUNTER (B+) is a graphic novel by Mickey George, illustrated by V Gagnon. On the cursed island of Envecor, everyone is immortal and (literally) wears their heart outside their bodies until they meet their soulmate, exchange hearts, and can escape. (Have to leave, really, since remaining on the island after that will kill them.) “Heart hunters” can spot the thread that links the hearts of soulmates and were originally hired to help people complete their bond but have since become assassins, hired by those who want to preserve their immortality. I loved absolutely everything about this premise and the characters and their back stories and motivations, but the narrative takes place on a conceptual level that ultimately left me unsatisfied.
gah! apologies for the unclosed italics tag.
A LADY IN THE SMOKE by Karen Odden: historical (Victorian England) railway mystery with a secondary romance. The story starts quickly with a terrible train accident and then slows to a leisurely pace until the very end, which gives the author a lot of space to explore the MC’s life. As Lady Fraser investigates what caused the accident, we learn about all kinds of Victorian-era history that doesn’t tend to end up in historical romances. The pace may be slow, but the story is very compelling. I loved it all the way to the end even though I tend to want a much stronger romantic element in books.
BUSINESS OR PLEASURE by Rachel Lynn Solomon: contemporary romance with a teach-me-to-sex plot. Chandler and Finn have a not great one-night stand and then meet up again unexpectedly when Finn, who is best known for having acted in a paranormal TV series, hires Chandler to ghost write his memoir while following him around on the convention circuit. After discovering that the one night stand was not as great for her as it was for him, Finn begs Chandler for lessons. From this point forward, Finn is kind of the perfect man. He pays attention. He is the first to admit his feelings. He goes along with everything Chandler suggests. The tension is really 100% on Chandler’s side as she deals with a lot of anxiety around her career, relationships, and love. I can see how this might be irritating to some and strain credulity at times. By the end you really do wonder how Chandler can possibly not see that Finn is over the moon for her, but I liked both MCs enough to enjoy the whole book, which is scorching hot.
@Deborah, yeah, I really wanted to like Rivers of London, but Peter said some things about women that just annoyed me to the point where I was in mid paragraph and closed it and said “nope.”
A lot of people I really respect love that series and swear he gets better, but my tolerance for that in my fiction is only a smidge above zero. Very much YMMV.
Back to school for me, so less time for reading. My goal this month is to be more focused in my reading. I’ve noticed the last few months I’ll be halfway through a book, then a new release or library hold comes in-and I start on a new one without finishing the old one. Here are some that stood out for me, good or bad.
CURVES FOR DAYS by Laura Moher-I loved this book! I read it through Hoopla, and then bought it knowing I’d read it again. A woman wins a lottery and moves to another town to get away from being hounded for money. M/F MCs-Rosie and Angus are a great couple.
HEX APPEAL by Kate Johnson-cozy book about man who inherits a house in England and he meets a neighboring witch. It took me a bit to get into the story, but once I did I couldn’t put it down.
THE WEDDING CRASHER by Mia Sosa-I really enjoy Sosa’s writing. So much so that I read this one and now am re-reading the first book in the series THE WORST BEST MAN. I love the characters and their interactions, especially the big Brazilian family dynamics.
I am a huge fan of Lucy Score, and could not wait for her latest THINGS WE LEFT BEHIND. It is the third in a series, and I knew from the other books that Lucian and Sloane had a contentious relationship, so I was expecting some angst. Unfortunately, this was almost a DNF for me. The unrelenting nastiness between the two main characters for what felt like at least half the book about did me in. I think Score is a wonderful author, and I only finished the book because I knew at some point the MCs were going to turn things around. I know there are other Score fans here at SBTB, I’d love to hear what other people thought about this one.
UNDERDOG by L.A. Witt-part of the In Vino Veritas world with M/M MCs. Loved this one with an ex-con working at a dog shelter, then taking a second job at a neighboring horse farm. I dip in and out of these series from Sarina Bowen’s Heart Eyes Press, and decided I need to make more of an effort to read them in order. I do think this can be read as a stand alone though.
Happy September everyone!
Had a lot of stressful changes this month so sticking to cozy comfort rereads and pretty pictures.
Webtoons:
– Always Human (f/f sci-fi) – this is a complete story that just came out in print too, by Ari North aka walkingnorth. Their ongoing series Seven Days in Silverglen (f/f fake dating fantasy) is promising but very very slow burn.
– The Moth Prince (m/nb fantasy) – after 100+ episodes of “just friends” we’re finally seeing slow burn romance in its infancy! also gorgeous artwork, interesting worldbuilding, lovely side characters and families adding depth and lgbt rep.
– Summon to Watch Over Me (m/f paranormal / slice of life) – girl accidentally summoned a large muscular purple demon, now they are stuck together. There’s no complete season yet but great eye candy and humor.
Audiobooks (not romance)
– The Wee Free Men and A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett, narrated by Stephen Briggs (who does a decent job, but I want the new audio edition narrated by Indira Varma and that fine lad from Outlander)
Recently finished
ONLY GOOD ENEMIES by Jennifer Estep, which I enjoyed despite guessing most of the twists ahead of time. I just love how freaking competent Vesper is.
BLIGHT by Emily Monosson, a nonfiction book about fungi & the illnesses they cause. It was really interesting and readable but not light at all.
HEY HUN by Emily Lynn Paulson – this was interesting but wow she is not a good person and I don’t feel like she really took ownership of all the harm she caused.
WE COULD BE SO GOOD by Cat Sebastian – just perfect. I loved this so much. More kind, good people as leads! I loved everything about this. I loved how kind and gentle and generous both MCs were. I loved how they talked instead of fleeing! I loved their friends! Just so good.
DNF’d:
GOOD GIRL COMPLEX by Elle Kennedy – it felt like it was heading into cringe-y humiliating reveal and I just really don’t like that kind of thing.
EON by Alison Goodman – just couldn’t really get into it.
WILL THEY OR WON’T THEY by Ava Wilder – again, couldn’t get into it, felt like it was going to have a lot of cringe and I hate cringe. Also hate miscommunication.
Reading now:
FOURTH WING by Rebecca Yarros – I get the hype but I am not sure I’m in the right mood right now. Might be a little too gripping/tense for me. I may let this library book lapse and come back to it.
PATHOGENESIS by Jonathan Kennedy – this is about plagues throughout human history, it’s quite good (non fiction)
Re-read:
All of Nalini Singh’s Psy/Changeling short stories. This world is 100% my comfort read.
I need more romances with kind people who are nice to each other and friends, that don’t involve humiliation, poor communication, or treating each other badly. Stuff is stressful and I would love to escape to kind worlds. I would so love suggestions!
@Suzanne, if you read contemporary, Erin Nicholas, Jennifer Bernard, Serena Bell all write terrific ones with good communicators, kind hearted people, and lovely communities…. If you’re open to m/m, Beth Bolden does the same with sports and foodie romances. Annabeth Albert is another, with more military/ex military…
@Suzanne if you like historical fantasy, you may enjoy Celia Lake’s Albion books, mentioned here before. tag line on her website is “Kind. Caring. Competent. Magical.” Not all books have a romance but 90% do. She does a good job on her website with identifying stand-alones and groups of books better read in order, as well as content warnings.
@Barbara Bibel: you made me look up the books. I want to try the McBride. My one question for you or anyone who’s read it: does it end on a hopefully, happy note or a bleak one? (and yes I understand bleak things may happen in the book. . .but the overall arc, the tone, and the ending is what I am look at to understand more of) thank you!
someone here made me read up Zoey Draven’s Desire in his Blood and Craving in His Blood, and I thank you for it because it was just the right amount of smut and riveting, especially the first one for me to stop looking for some time at some anxiety-causing situations.
Resonance Surge, I loved and kept me company on a 15 hr long flight. So thank you Miss Singh!
Also liked Darci Wilde’s A Useful Woman though I had to go back and look up what the story was.
Someone here (I think DDD) mentioned Julie Kriss’s Road Kings series, and I enjoyed the first one, Duet a whole lot!
Kristina Higgin’s A Little Ray of Sunshine piqued my interest but I kinda skimmed and read it. I’d say it’s. . . not bad.
And my comfort read, Miss Read. Read book 8 of Thrush Green series, At Home in Thrush Green.
My favorite of all my recent past reads though is Uzma Jalaluddin’s Much Ado About Nada. Would recommend!
After slogging my way through The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss, I needed a book that would make me laugh out loud so I am rereading Lauren Willig’s Pink Carnation series, which is guaranteed to do that for me.
Seriously, TNOTW reminded me of nothing so much as my first time reading The Vicar of Wakefield: he has an urgent quest but instead spends years on side quests ostensibly to gather information/resources but that really just waste time that could be better spent defining the character or furthering the plot. And for someone who declares himself the smartest person in the room at all times he makes some seriously stupid mistakes that anyone could see coming.
I enjoyed the bookstore and fabulous library in BOOKSHOP CINDERELLA by Laura Lee Guhrke and thought REIGN (book 4 of the American Royals Series) was ultimately satisfying.
I got to read an advance copy of THE TRAITOR by Ava Glass, which I’ve been describing to people as ALIAS meets BELOW DECK. Lots of spy work on a yacht, with some romance. I also read THE BLONDE IDENTITY by Ally Carter, which was great fun and also had me thinking of ALIAS. (I guess I must miss ALIAS, well, from Seasons 1 and 2. Also CHUCK!)
I’m currently rereading Murderbot since it has been a while, and I have been having some trouble getting into a book this week. I just started KISS THE GIRL by Zoraida Córdova. I am a big fan of celebrity romances but I was a bit concerned about how the author would handle the Little Mermaidness of Ariel. So far I’m enjoying it! Next up is LOVE ME DO by Lindsay Kelk.
I’ve been listening to NETWORK EFFECT by Martha Wells on audio book with my partner all day and it’s made a very long car ride into a not long enough car ride!
It’s been going back and forth between really enjoying some books and then bouncing all the way off others. But I did start playing the 2018 God of War, so I have that going for me.
Anyway, I did some gobbling up of Preston and Child, starting with The Scorpion’s Tail. The combinations of thriller tropes, archaeology, and hidden history works for me. Like a lot. Then I went into The Bodyguard by Katherine Center. It was a very comforting read, which I needed, since I was sick at the time (your basic “oh, school’s DEFINITELY back in” cold, not covid, test came up negatory). I loved the humor in it, and the very cinnamon roll nature of the hero. The only thing that I kind of didn’t love was the fact that the heroine spent so much of the book convinced that she was unworthy of the hero. I was like “WOMAN YOU ARE A BODYGUARD, SPEAK MULTIPLE LANGUAGES, CAN SIZE UP A ROOM IN 0.2 SECONDS AND COULD PROBABLY KILL SOMEONE WITH A PAPERCLIP, YOU ARE A MAGNIFICENT DRAGON AND HE SHOULD BE SO LUCKY!!!”. In the heroine’s defense, she also had an asshole ex that spent quite a lot of time convincing of her unworthiness, and he never did get the throat punch he needed, which was a pity. But it was a sweet story, and the heroine’s journey to realizing how much the hero adored her (as well as the fact that much of that adoration was rooted in her sheer competence) was lovely. Then I bounced off of another couple of books, and decided that since I was unlikely to bounce off of another P&C, so I read City of Endless Night, one of the Pendergast novels. I like an eccentric genius detective. I did think that there was at least storyline that was utterly extraneous. It just didn’t need to be there, and the story would have been streamlined. I also read a picture book during this time, Worm Loves Worm by J.J. Austrian. Why did I read a picture book, you ask? It was in the commission of my duties on the local library advisory board. And I enjoyed it, it’s a sweet, smart story, and it had adorable illustrations. Which brings us to now, in which I’m reading Kiss the Girl by Zoraida Cordova. It’s apparently a take on Disney’s The Little Mermaid (and is from a Disney-approved series). In this, Ariel is a singer trying to break free from her father (who has control of her career) and her developing relationship with Eric Reyes, lead singer of a band on the come up. I liked the way the essential framework of the story has been set against the music world, and I’ve had fun figuring out who the character counterparts are. Also, Cordova was highly straightforward about how much she had fun dropping in as many story and Disney Easter eggs as she could manage. I’ve had quite a few moments where I smile and go “Yeah, I see what you did there”. I started it the same night that I started the live-action Little Mermaid (for the record, I quite enjoyed it, Halle Bailey is a star), so I was certainly already in the mood for me. So until next time, always remember that the fluke IS the Duke of Soul.
@Crystal – Agree with you on the live action Little Mermaid. I watched it last night with my kids and thought it was so good and so well cast, especially Halle Bailey and Melissa McCarthy, and I have KISS THE GIRL on my tbr.
Not much to report so far this month. I’ve started a lot of books, but haven’t really knuckled down to commit to any of them.
@Crystal: Your description of THE BODYGUARD had me checking it out immediately from the library. You are so right, an excellent choice. Thank you!
I love reading everyone’s WAYR because I get so many recommendations! There are a few regular commenters whose taste seems to be the same as mine, so if they enjoy books I immediately track them down. I hope that’s not too stalker-y!
GREAT
THE DEVIL YOU KNOW (The Grumpy Devils Book 3) is about Ben (Hayes’ lawyer from Book 1) and Gemma, who work at the same law firm. This book was SPICY. Gemma was so incredibly competent and didn’t apologize for the fact that she was ambitious and enjoyed her work. And her taste in high heels made me wish for about 2 minutes that I didn’t work from home (then I remembered the pain). Some fantastic angry sex and great banter as 2 people slowly work out that they’re not really rivals at all.
GOOD
I worked my way through the FIREBRAND 7 book series by Helen Harper. The series follows Harper’s standard formula: FMC who is alone (or near enough to it), is competent but believes herself to be relatively unskilled in a supernatural/paranormal environment. Turns out she’s some mythical/unknown/rare variant that makes her super threatening, but she doesn’t know how to control it. The MMC love interest is a typical powerful person who starts out thinking the FMC is a pain in the butt and ends up loving her and still thinking she’s a pain in the butt. This series stood out to me in that the FMC Emma Bellamy is a London detective, so each book was a standalone mystery, and quite enjoyable. There wasn’t as much overarching plot, and the romance with vampire lord Lukas Horvath was almost non-existent. As in, they were together by book 3. Enjoyable enough, but I doubt I’ll re-read.
THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA (The Grumpy Devils Book 2) is the story of Drew (Tali’s BFF from book 1 below) and Josh, who is the older brother of her on/off boyfriend Joel “Six” Bailey. It’s a good enemies to lovers story, but there are about three thousand plot points and complications thrown in (the on/off boyfriend, Drew’s manager, Josh’s work as a doctor in Somalia, Josh’s mum has cancer, Josh’s ex-girlfriend, Drew’s childhood history, Drew’s controlling stepfather …).
HIGH NOON by Kati Wilde is set in her Wolfkin and Berserkers world and tells the story of werewolf Ethan Grimmson and Makena Laine, whose parents were killed by bears when she was a teenager. It’s an interesting spin on the “I want you, but I have to leave” because Ethan’s reasons for leaving are good: he’s trying to track down who killed his parents, and if he stays, he’ll hate himself. Of course, all plot threads join up and there’s no need for him to leave after all. Solid Kati Wilde, with great characters and sexytimes.
ILLUSION TOWN by Jayne Castle (Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick) is set in her Harmony series, this one featuring Elias Coppersmith and Hannah West, who wake up with very few memories of the night before but appear to be married. An enjoyable story of two competent people who MacGuyver their way through some very complicated situations. In fact, my only real complaint is the number of times that Elias says “I’m an engineer, I’ll work it out” or “I’m an engineer, we’re not known for social skills” or some variant of these. It got to the point where I was literally counting the number of pages between “I’m an engineer” – the shortest I found was 5 pages.
OK
THE BABY MAKER by Lili Valente is about a FMC who gives up her cushy silicon valley job to become a vintner. Her neighbor is one of the infamous Hunter family, who apparently will make a woman pregnant if she even looks sideways at them. Since the FMC wants a baby and just got out of a very shitty relationship, she decides to propose a deal: the MMC will give her a baby and she won’t outbid him on some land he wants. It’s a mediocre book, but the main reason I keep thinking about it is that the cover has a half-naked man worth looking at instead of the cover snark we usually get. It’s a very attractive man in a normal pose, with the top button of his pants undone and showing just enough hip bone …
A DEAL WITH THE DEVIL (The Grumpy Devils Book 1) by Elizabeth O’Roark. Pretty sure someone in the comments here mentioned when this was on sale, so thank you! While I didn’t love this book, I enjoyed the series as a whole. Each book is a standalone romance, with one person from each couple being a part of previous stories. The MMC in book 1 is Hayes Flynn, cosmetic surgeon to the stars, who also happens to be an enthusiastic enjoyer of 1-night stands and a lot of alcohol. His assistant/life-wrangler needs to go out of country to finalize the adoption process for his new baby daughter, so in steps Tali to be the perfect, all-talented, beautiful saviour. Tali is so beautiful that Ben’s clients literally say, “make me look like her”, even though she’s never had surgery. She 23 years old, has a 5-figure book advance based on a 50-page spec script and her ex is a world-famous movie star. It’s sweet and hot, but I just couldn’t get over Tali.
THE DEVIL GETS HIS DUE (Grumpy Devils Book 4) by Elizabeth O’Roark is about Gemma’s (Book 2) BFF Keeley and Ben’s brother, Graham. Similar enemies to lovers as all the other books, but this one involves a drunken Vegas wedding and secret/surprise baby. Keeley is convinced that she’ll die before 30 (every woman in her family up to her great-grandmother has), so she’s determined to have fun. Watching her try to get herself together for a baby she wasn’t sure she wanted, because she knew she wouldn’t be around to see the little one grow up was heartbreaking. I think I would classify this book as good (even great?) but it hurt just a little too much (and Graham was a butthead about some of her choices).
DNF
Had my first DNF in a long time and I’m still cranky about it. QUEEN OF STARLIGHT (Sheerspace Book 1) by Jessa Slade seemed to be along the lines of Firefly, which I have good memories of, despite everything Joss-related. The FMC is a geisha-type – a highly trained, widely educated courtesan who chooses a patron. The MMC captains a ship and he was kicked out of whichever military he was in for refusing an order he thought was unconscionable. Seemed like a relatively good start, yeah? The MMC refers to the FMC as “slave-whore” repeatedly. She attempts to explain that she’s not. His crew picks up this terminology, he tells them off for using it, and continues to call her that. I gave up when he called her that the day after they had sex. Nope. Just nope.
Currently reading SLEEP NO MORE by Seanan McGuire, but I may put it down and re-read 4-5 of the preceding books, just to remind myself of everything that has been going on. At some point I convinced myself that I knew who Maeve was, but now I can’t remember if I dreamed that or not.
@Ely Your complaint about the number of times that the MMC makes the declaration, “I’m an engineer,” in ILLUSION TOWN by Jayne Castle (Jayne Ann Krentz/Amanda Quick) is precisely why I stopped reading Amanda Quick books. The one(s) I read had the FMC constantly declaring “I’m so smart” and then immediately would follow up by doing something TSTL. ARGH. Between the telling and not showing and the inanity of the MC’s following actions, the mantra “QUICK is not quick” was drilled into my head, so no matter how well reviewed a Quick/Krentz/Castle book is, I simply won’t go there.
I paused my reading of T Kingfisher’s What Moves the Dead to read the first Heartstopper book. Since it’s in a graphic-novel type of format, I knew it would be a super quick read and I was right. I am almost finished. I’ll pick WMTD back up later tonight most likely.
LOVED:
THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE THE TIME WAR by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone – Sci-fi romance. Wow. Beautiful. The epistolary style, which I can be a little leery of, worked perfectly here.
DEMON COPPERHEAD by Barbara Kingsolver – Favorite read of the year. Heartbreaking. Such beautiful writing. Very real rendition of the foster care system, addiction, rural America, poverty, systemic disenfranchisement. It’s amazing how well Kingsolver captures the voice of a teenaged boy, and her love for the land and community of Appalachia come through strongly as well.
LIKED:
Nothing in this category this time!
DIDN’T ENJOY:
IN THE LIKELY EVENT by Rebecca Yarros – This military-tinged romance by the author of the popular Fourth Wing fantasy was not my favorite. I didn’t like either character much – felt both the MMC and FMC were stereotypes, and the depth of their connection vs their decisions felt off-kilter to me. Felt long as well. Will wait a bit before reading Fourth Wing to avoid tinging my opinion of it, or overly noticing writing tics.
CURRENTLY READING / UP NEXT:
THE ADVENTURES OF AMINA AL-SIRAFI by Shannon Chakraborty
A LADY IN THE SMOKE by Karen Odden
@Darlynne, “I wish I could quit you, BDB.” LOL.
I ended up reading two novels, FUNNY GUY by Emma Barry and ROMANTIC COMEDY by Curtis Sittenfeld, that featured protagonists, who are members of a late night, weekend sketch comedy show that strongly resembled SNL. Both authors clearly drew upon the same sources for their inspiration from memoirs by past SNL cast members to gossip about SNL members’ romantic lives. And for both books – comedy is seen as tool used by comedian protagonist to keep others at a distance and to mask their own personal feelings of insecurity.
In FUNNY GUY, Sam, the MMC, has a successful comedy career. He writes and acts for the late-night show as well as does stand-up comedy. But his life is currently a hot mess because his frustrations about the endless speculation raised by the ex’s song, a catchy, devasting portrait of his many failings, have led to a viral video of him lambasting gossiping people at his local coffee shop. Trying to avoid paparazzi, Sam hides out in the apartment of his best friend since childhood, Bree, an urban planner. Bree, of course, has been secretly in love with Sam since they were teens, but she has never told him because she’s afraid that he will freak out. All of Sam’s romantic relationships have been disastrous flops, so he absolutely refuses to think about Bree that way, because he doesn’t want to lose the best person in his life. There is a lot to like about this book – Barry does a good job of showing that Sam is both a hot mess and a person worthy of Bree’s love. Bree is also not blindly in love with Sam, she recognizes that he is quick to lash out when he is angry (and that his anger and his comedy are both defense mechanisms to avoid dealing with his real feelings), and she lets him know that she doesn’t need him to protect her when he tries to justify his self-destructive behaviour as “defending her”. She also knows that Sam is deeply loyal, often kind to others, and romantic. Bree is the more adult of the two; but her emotional vulnerability to Sam means that she has too long put her own life and plans on hold to support him. Where this book wobbles I think is around certain aspects of the plot that concern Bree’s career. It becomes a bit stagey and predictable as it moves towards its climax and final scenes. Still it was overall a good read.
Sittenfeld’s ROMANTIC COMEDY starts in the spring 2018. The MFC, Sally, is a successful comedy writer who has been working for a decade at her late-night show, while Noah, the MMC, is a popular singer-songwriter, who is to be the week’s guest host. This book is basically a three-act play, followed by an epilogue. The first act/chapter, which is about half the book, is basically a blow by blow of that week in 2018 when Noah is the guest host. The second chapter, set in mostly in the summer of 2020, is an epistolary email exchange between our two MCs as they reconnect at the beginning of the pandemic, while the final and shortest chapter is set in late summer and fall of 2020, when the 2 MCs finally reconnect in person. Then there is an epilogue set in the present. And this is, of course, a HEA epilogue, because somehow this novel is supposed to a romance book that is also doing meta-commenting on something to do with romance. And there lies my problem with this book, because I’m not sure that Sittenfeld understands or has worked out exactly what it is that she wants to offer commentary upon. Is it on the state of romance during the Trump presidency and the pandemic (especially the state of romance for white heteronormative people with vaguely progressive credentials)? Is she trying to comment on trends in contemporary romance novels or on modern romantic comedy movies? (If so, then she’s going to have to do a better job of convincing me that she understands the differences between two forms and their history.) Sittenfeld’s prose style is good, probably better than Barry’s, but ROMANTIC COMEDY is in many ways a less engaging book. The first chapter/half of the book sacrifices character development to Sittenfeld’s need to (re)create a perfect fictionalized version of a production week at her SNL-inspired show; the result is too many pages spent on extraneous scenes and unimportant characters that just stop the story dead. (In this area Barry does a much better job of using show details to illustrate her MMC’s character and to advance her plot.) Furthermore the “romance” in Romantic Comedy remains muted in part because Noah’s character never really develops or changes. He remains that perfect ideal throughout the book — a nice, unassuming hot guy who loves Sally because he loves Sally.
Other books read: COMFORTABLE ALLIANCE by Catherine Kullmann, a good historical romance about marriage of convenience between a woman, who lost her finacée at Waterloo 6 years before, and an earl, who needs to marry because he is the last direct heir. This is a nice, low-key romance that is grounded in some good historical detail. ROLE PLAYING by Cathy Yardley, a decent, low-key book about two middle-aged introverted gamers, grumpy divorced Maggie, and kind even-tempered Aiden. They become virtual friends when Maggie joins Aiden’s online gaming group – but she assumes that he must be a young college student, while he thinks she must be feisty 80-year-old senior. I liked both Maggie and Aiden. And the whole plotline of how Maggie is the first person who really gets Aiden and is just fine with his sexuality is nicely done. But the plotting at times felt a bit contrived and several characters clearly just existed solely to move the plot forward. The ending also felt bit rushed. THE MIMICKING OF KNOWN SUCCESSES by Malka Older, a science-fiction cozy-mystery novel with a very understated F/F romance. Humanity has made a mess of Earth and Mars (and one assumes their moons); so people now survive on a series of rail-linked floating colonies resting upon the gassy upper surface of Jupiter. Our protagonists are Mossa, an enigmatic Holmesian-type investigator and Pleiti, an academic whose research is part of larger project to restores Earth’s devasted ecosystems. Mossa contacts Pleiti when she is assigned to investigate the strange disappearance of another academic. And it soon becomes apparent to the reader that Pleiti and Mossa were once lovers, who are both interested in finding their way back to each other, but not always certain how to do it. Both the mystery and romance depend almost on as much as what as is not said and the first part of two-thirds of book slowly meanders along. In the final chapters the mystery hurtles along too quickly to its finale – and I was left feeling a bit unsatisfied with how quickly it was wrapped up. But the romance is handled much more deftly and subtly. Finally I love how Older imagines life on Jupiter as analogous to life in the Victorian era.