Welcome back to Whatcha Reading! This is where we talk about…well, what we’ve been reading. Pretty self-explanatory!
Claudia: I’ve started Forever Your Rogue by Erin Langston. ( A | BN | K ) I heard good things about it so I’m excited.
Lara: I read two books this weekend. A Demon’s Guide to Wooing a Witch by Sarah Hawley ( A | BN | K ) which I’ll need a whole review to unpack my feelings on because they’re so mixed. Then I absolutely devoured Katee Robert’s Hunt on Dark Waters. ( A | BN | K ) I’m an absolute sucker for a pirate adventure romance.
Elyse: I was just about to start a new book and my friend asked me to please read the door fucking book and report back, but I’m not sure I can handle it.
Unhinged by Vera Valentine
Lara: Handle it… ba-dum-tish.
Shana: I’m on an Amish romance streak this month. I just finished Their Secret Courtship by Emma Miller, ( A | BN | K ) which was surprisingly feminist. The heroine doesn’t want to give up her gardening business to get married and is tempted by the delicious freedom afforded to women in her cute Mennonite neighbor’s church.
So whatcha reading? What books are wrapping up your reading month?
YOU, AGAIN by Kate Goldbeck: Everyone said “oooh, so romantic,” and, yes, they were right, except that “romantic” happened near the end of the book. Before that, we have strangers to antagonists to frenemies to real friends to all the heartbreak to serious personal growth to heavy emotional work and finally to an HEA, all of it interspersed with agonizing periods of no contact.
Yes, I highly recommend this book with all the turmoil and weeping (my own) because the author nailed it: the devastation, sorrow and boundless joy when two thoroughly wounded people figure out their own $hit and make a real relationship. A Bad Decisions Bookclub book written with a steady, caring eye on all the things we do to sabotage ourselves and others. Oh, yeah, it was funny, too. I have never felt so invested in an emotional roller coaster, where something can be amazing and exhausting at the same time.
CODENAME CHARMING by Lucy Parker: I loved every word, did I miss the book about Johnny and the Princess?
IN WEST MILLS by De’Shawn Charles Winslow: Quoting part of the blurb here so I don’t get carried away again by an outstanding read.
Spanning decades in a rural North Carolina town where a canal acts as the color line, In West Mills is a magnificent, big-hearted small-town story about family, friendship, storytelling, and the redemptive power of love.
TRANSLATION STATE by Ann Leckie: I will have to try again with this book, just could not relate after all of the above.
UNLEASHED by Emily Kimelman: Interesting, but ultimately disappointing story about a young woman who becomes a NYC dog walker, finds the corpse of one of her clients, finds more bodies, gets one/some of them killed, solves the mysteries, drinks to blackout and never deals with any of it. I wanted to like this so much and can only hope Sydney Rye pulls herself together in the next book(s).
I’ve got a lot half finished, but sad to say I’ve been slammed with another (!) cold and lots of statistics homework (boo!). I’ve managed to read some short stories and another Gabriel Tavener mystery, INDIGO GHOSTS, by Alys Clare. I find her books so mixed, yet addictive. I think it’s b/c she’s a historical mystery writer who actually knows how to write a romance subplot. I would not recommend her to anyone with a weak stomach or who has a low tolerance for mystical/paranormal elements.
@Darlynne thanks for the review of YOU, AGAIN. I was really intrigued by the blurb but hadn’t seen many reviews. I think I will enjoy it if I go in with the right mindset. I tend to enjoy romances with a long, tangled road to get there.
I just finished Tessa Bailey’s Wreck the Halls and absolutely LOVED it – definitely my very favorite of her books so far, by a long way.
Just started THE WATER OUTLAWS (amazing so far!) by S L Huang, and GENDER MAGIC by Rae McDaniel. I’m excited about both and looking forward to making some progress through them this weekend!
Part 1
Alexis Hall tends to be hit-or-miss for me, so I started his latest, TEN THINGS THAT NEVER HAPPENED, with some trepidation; but, within a few pages, I was caught up in the world of Sam, who manages (not very well, as events prove) one of a small chain of bedroom & bathroom stores, his motley crew of employees, and the chain’s owner—fearsome control-freak Jonathan. When it appears certain that Sam and his staff are going to be fired before the Christmas holidays, Sam takes advantage of having a concussion (from a fall that Jonathan might have caused) to pretend to have amnesia, making it necessary for him to stay at Jonathan’s large and empty house until he recovers (thereby postponing the firings for a while). Go ahead and hand-wave the premise, the story is so, so good—full of Hall’s ability to completely sketch a character with just a few lines, snarky humor (very English humor, I—an Anglo-American—would have to add), big feelings, sharp-eyed asides, found family, Christmas preparations, falling in love, and facing the sadness of a past that cannot be changed. I think this is Hall’s best book since FOR REAL. One of my favorite reads of 2023. Highly recommended.
Claire Kingsley’s OBSESSION FALLS begins a new series and also marks a pivot to romantic-suspense in her writing—although, looking back, most of Kingsley’s series books contain an overarching mystery of some sort, so perhaps her move to romantic-suspense is not such a big switch. Anyway, I was happy to find that the romance is still front-and-center in OBSESSION FALLS as Josiah Haven, a house flipper, falls in love with his tenant, Audrey, who works for the local newspaper and has a very good dog named Max. Add to the mix renovating a fixer-upper while trying to figure out who is stalking/threatening Audrey, and you have a solid romantic-suspense story (although, cw/tw: the stalker’s behavior escalates throughout the book and there are some scenes involving dead wildlife that might be upsetting). If you’ve read Kingsley’s Bailey Brothers books, you will be familiar with the Haven brothers, who were the Bailey family’s arch-rivals until their sister married a Bailey brother in the last Bailey book (REWRITING THE STARS). OBSESSION FALLS is the first book in the series that will feature the six unmarried Haven brothers—and I enjoyed all the little hints that Kingsley drops throughout the book about the other brothers. It’s a great start to a new series and the new suspenseful tone to Kingsley’s books. Highly recommended.
Caitlin Crews’s latest HP, THE SPANIARD’S LAST-MINUTE WIFE, is the second book in her Innocent Stolen Brides duet. If you’ve read the first book of the duet, THE DESERT KING’S KIDNAPPED VIRGIN, you’ll know that the heroine of that book left her marriage-of-convenience fiancé at the altar when the man she had been pledged to marry showed up on her wedding day. The jilted fiancé then impulsively marries a woman who had been at the church to try to make him face his obligations to her late-cousin’s baby—a child she assumes he fathered—and so we have the start of THE SPANIARD’S LAST-MINUTE WIFE. It might seem surprisingly that the writer I think Crews’s style most reminds me of is Henry James—but her ability to create significant drama when very little on a physical plane (besides talking and, eventually, shagging) actually happens reminds me of how James (minus, of course, the shagging) could create so much out of so little—something as miniscule, for example, as a crack in a bowl. In THE SPANIARD’S LAST-MINUTE WIFE, the hero & heroine spend the first 75% of the book talking while staying cloistered in the hero’s Andalusian estate. The mental changes in their outlooks, beliefs, and attitudes toward each other take place slowly, and Crews is really excellent at pulling those feelings apart to the finest detail. Look, you know if you like Harlequin Presents or not, but if you do, THE SPANIARD’S LAST-MINUTE WIFE is a great addition to the canon.
Part 2
NON-ROMANCE
Julia Heaberlin’s brilliant NIGHT WILL FIND YOU straddles the line between thriller and psychological suspense with a dash of the unexplained thrown in for good measure. The narrator is Vivian, an astronomer who spends much of her time staring at the stars, watching for signs of unexplained artificial light. She actively suppresses (or ignores) the part of her mind that sometimes has brief psychic flashes. Her mother, on the other hand, was a psychic who wholeheartedly embraced her abilities (and had a large clientele as a result). When Vivian returns home to clean out her late mother’s house, she reconnects with her sister, Brigit, and is also thrown once again into the orbit of Mike: when they were children, one of Vivian’s visions saved Mike’s life, and their subsequent lives have been entwined—whether they want that or not. Mike is now a cop, and he asks Vivian to help to solve the case of a girl who has been missing for over ten years. Vivian is reluctant to help, especially when she meets Jesse Sharp, the lead detective investigating the case, a man who is completely skeptical of Vivian’s abilities. But events continue to transpire that bring Vivian and Sharp together, especially as Vivian begins to believe (not through psychic ability so much as common sense and sleuthing) that the missing girl is still alive. I’d rather not say much more about the book beyond the set-up; it’s better to go into it just knowing the basic outline of the plot. This book is gorgeously written with dense (in a good way) descriptive passages, a strong pop-culture sensibility (I ended up going down a number of rabbit holes), and a profound commitment to science while not totally discounting the unexplainable. NIGHT WILL FIND YOU is one of the best non-romances I’ve read this year, but keep in mind this is a book that deals with missing children, possible serial killers, and lots of danger from a variety of places. Highly recommended—if thrillers & psychological suspense are in your wheelhouse.
DNF
Much as it pains me to admit, I just could not—for a variety of reasons—get into Sierra Simone’s SALT KISS, the start of her new Lyonesse trilogy, a modern-day MMF retelling of the legend of Tristan & Isolde. While SALT KISS is technically the first book of the trilogy, there is a free “prequel” called SALT IN THE WOUND which establishes the story of the Isolde, the heroine, who is torn between her desire to be a nun and the wishes of her father and uncle who prefer her to marry power-broker Mark. SALT KISS is Tristan’s story: he’s a veteran at loose ends when his father marries Mark’s sister and Tristan in quick order becomes Mark’s step-nephew, bodyguard, and ultimately his sub. While Simone’s writing is as lush & erotic as ever (she’s very good with describing the nexus of sexuality and spirituality, particularly Catholic spirituality), the story basically felt like a retread of her earlier New Camelot trilogy (AMERICAN QUEEN, AMERICAN PRINCE, and AMERICAN KING) which was a modern MMF retelling of the legend of Arthur, Lancelot, and Guinevere. So many of the same themes were there: a young woman manipulated by her male relatives into a marriage she does not want, two men in a D/s relationship, and the power & politics of Washington D.C. Another reason I just wasn’t getting into SALT KISS is that Mark owns Lyonesse, the most exclusive sex club in D.C.—described as a place where wealthy people of all persuasions can indulge (with consenting adult partners) in any sexual activity. I had myriad problems with this set-up, most boiling down to (1) wealthy people having quite enough places and ways to indulge their preferences without needing another, thankyouverymuch; and (2) in the current political climate in D.C., I have to figure about half of Lyonesse’s clientele, regardless of their sexual preferences, would be actively seeking to undermine the rights of other consenting adults to bodily autonomy and sexual expression. TL;DR: the writing of SALT KISS is good, but now is not the time to glorify the premise of a high-end sex club catering to political movers & shakers.
I recently finished AFTER THE CROWN by K. B. Wagers, and I’m looking forward to BEYOND THE EMPIRE, the third and final book in the series.
I also downloaded ALANNA: THE FIRST ADVENTURE and the rest of the books in the Song of the Lioness series by Tamora Pierce. The Protector of the Small series is going to be one of my favorite reads of the year, and I want to read more books in the Tortall world.
I’ve also started watching all the holiday rom-coms and plan to read some too. CHRISTMAS AT CORGI COVE by Annie England Noblin looks cute, and I love corgis, so I’m planning to check it out.
Hyperbole alert!!
I went completely feral for ALLIE THERIN this last month. I inadvertently started reading her ‘out of order’ by starting the Roaring Twenties series first: books one: PROPER SCOUNDRELS and two: ONCE A ROGUE. Realising that I was missing a lot of background, I then devoured the Magic in Manhattan series: SPELLBOUND, STARCROSSED and WONDERSTRUCK. And loved them all. So much that I then immediately re-read Proper Scoundrels and Once a Rogue. And I never re-read anything, so you can see how these characters had me in the proverbial chokehold. Fabulous. M/M, set in 1920s London and New York, in a world where magic is real. If you like KJ Charles, you will enjoy these. I am firmly hoping for a third volume in the second series, the setup is there.
So I needed something pretty damn good to follow these, so I went for the aforementioned KJ CHARLES – ANY OLD DIAMONDS. And my gods was that the right decision. I’ve been working through her catalogue but s l o w l y, so I can savour them. This one did not disappoint. It’s probably my favourite of hers (so far). Such a very sensuous, twisty and sexy book – she writes power dynamics so well. I adored the two leads. It’s part one of the Lilywhite Boys duet. Part two, GILDED CAGE, is an M/F relationship which is unusual for the author. I enjoyed it, as all the characters were involved but it didn’t have quite the pull and tension of her M/M stories for me.
Staying with KJ Charles, I enjoyed THE SECRET LIVES OF COUNTRY GENTLEMEN earlier this year, so treated myself to its companion, her latest: THE NOBLEMAN’S GUIDE TO SEDUCING A SCOUNDREL. And what a treat it is. Dark, almost Gothic in its story and (some) characters. Beautifully written, as ever (she was an editor in a previous life and it shows) and the lead characters’ push and pull relationship is just scrumptious. And again, sexy.
So I was on such a roll of amazing reads that I had to break out FOR REAL by ALEXIS HALL which I’d been hoarding for just such an emergency. What can I say about this book? It is extraordinary. Another of my favourite authors, writing LGBTQ stories, who excels at creating characters and relationships that have you reading into the early hours and again as soon as you can see straight when you wake up. For Real is a highly erotic, angst-filled, age gap M/M which delves pretty deeply into BDSM but is not sensational or prurient. It’s gorgeous. I dread the day when I run out of Alexis Hall stories.
Luckily, that day is not today and I am currently enjoying the final book in his Spires quartet, PANSIES. Will report back next month. Happy reading all.
My jam this year has totally been paranormal, fantasy and SFF/Alien. I am just nearing the end of my stack of SFF/Alien that I inhaled (I have one more Zoey Draven Horde Kings left) and I am a little at a loss of what to do. I am back to Psy-Changeling right now, but am thinking of starting either the Kati Wilde Dead Lands series (I know it is barbarians and not aliens) or the Ruby Dixon Ice Planet Barbarians series. Any other suggestions for Fated Mates/SFF/Alien welcome!
Excellent:
TAKEN BY THE HORDE KING by Zoey Draven (SFF/Alien – M/F – Horde Kings #5): The human heroine is used as “bait” by the group of humans she is with to trap the hero Horde King so he can be sacrificed to improve their position (there is a lot of backstory here, so the books can’t be read out of order). The middle did bog down a bit, but we go from the hero being held prisoner and then the heroine and it was just delicious. CW physical abuse, sexual assault
RULING SIKTHAND by Victoria Aveline (SFF/Alien – M/F – Clecanian #7): By far the best of the series so far, you have to hand wave a little at the set up of why the hero imprisons the heroine. But once past that, this is an excellent Beauty and the Beast retelling with an extremely paranoid (for good reason) alien hero and a tough heroine who is curious, determined and intelligent. There is so much good world building going on here and the pining and the anguish – swoon. How long must I wait for book 8 and then for it to come out in paperback? CW – the hero does watch the heroine in her bedroom without her knowledge which I know would be a big turnoff to many readers
Very Good:
THRONE OF GLASS by Sarah J. Maas (Fantasy – technically classified as YA, but I think maybe that only applies to the first two books in the series – Throne of Glass #1): I am attempting to re-read all ToG, A Court of Thorns and Roses and Crescent City books before Crescent City #3 comes out in February. I devoured this series when I was pregnant with my daughter in 2020 (and mentally escaping the hellscape of Covid). Now, reading it again, I am seeing some flaws I didn’t the first time, but still really enjoying it. There is also a twist at the end of book 2 into book 3 which now that I know what it is makes the story read a lot differently. Still – highly enjoyable.
THE ALIEN’S CLAIM by Zoey Draven (SFF/Alien – M/F – Warriors of Luxiria #8): In many ways, this was the strongest book of the series – many of the heroes of the rest of the books were almost interchangeable (not entirely, but a lot of overlap). They all hold their fated mates in the highest regard and want to spend all of their time honoring them, taking care of them and having sex (at least 3 times a day, every day which I get the fantasy, but frankly that sounds exhausting). In this book, the hero is very ambivalent about finding his fated mate and he lives as a hermit off the grid. So the payoff and romance felt much more real here. The reason I downgraded it from excellent is that everything felt much too neatly tied up and solved at the end of the book – too easy really – not the romance but everything else. But this was a very fun series and a great way for it to end.
RESISTING MAXU by Victoria Aveline (SFF/Alien – M/F – Clecanian #6): The heroine of this book was excited for her new life on an alien planet – she escaped a bad marriage on earth and the controlling nature of her Christian fundamentalist parents. She wants to learn and explore and is not at all excited when the hero claims she is his fated mate. Watching the two of them navigate their strange new relationship was a lot of fun.
Good:
None
Meh:
None
The Bad:
None
@Darlyyne: I thoroughly LOVED Codename Charming! From what I gathered, Johnny and Princess Rose were already a thing when the previous book, Battle Royale, begins. The job of providing the cake and pastries for their wedding is the conflict between the rival protagonists.
I got my Trick-or-Treat Yourself box as they sold out fast, so they shipped fast and tore through Charming the Devil. It wasn’t what I expected, but still solid. It was way less spicy than its predecessor led me to believe it would be, and it still hasn’t managed to make me care enough about the secondary character who steps into the spotlight for the next book, Charming As Hell, to read it. I did re-read Wolf Gone Wild by Juliette Cross in between and I still thoroughly enjoy it.
I’m currently reading Thee Witch is Back by Sophie H. Morgan and at this point, it’s reading for completion-ism. I’m at like, 73% and neither of the character’s major issues have been handled (one of which a character literally cannot talk about), so a lot of exposition and solution is being left for the end. It also has a few plot devices that line up with Sarah Hawley’s How to Fake Date a Demon that I didn’t like in that book or overall, but Hawley did it a little better, so my mind keeps making comparisons. Don’t get me wrong, they are in no way the same book, I’m not saying one is like the other, but they both use identical devices in different ways and it’s working less for me in The Witch is Back than it had for me in How to… There’s just a lot unresolved with no a lot of space left and some of it could have been handled already. I’ll probably find something fluffy and palette cleansing next.
The list is very short. It is still quite dark now when I wake up so I’ve been Kindle spelunking rather than turning on a light to read. I just want to snuggle in and hopefully fall back asleep (because who wants to be awake at five a.m. if they don’t need to be?). Wow, I have a lot of barely readable books downloaded. I had a pretty strict budget while dad was in hospice so I downloaded A LOT of free books. For every Five Packs offered up by Kate C. Wells there are a dozen mediocre to bad, you get what you pay for offerings.
I’m currently reading the latest Thursday Murder Club: THE LAST DEVIL TO DIE. A murder that hits a little too close to home sets our band of octegenarian sleuths and their coterie on the trail of a stolen heroin shipment (that I feel is very much a red herring), there’s a potential new member and, of course, Alan, but a background plot is coming to its inevitable conclusion. It is giving me ALL THE FEELS!! I adore this series and give it the highest recommendation.
Next up IS a spooky read for the cold rainy week ahead: SPARROW HILL ROAD, by Seanan McGuire based on Girl in the Party Dress picked up on the side of the road – we have a local one associated with a Chicago cemetary.
In Romance:
TO THE MOON AND BACK – NR Walker (M/M contemporary). This was cute. New single dad with baby and the desperately needed male nanny. I know boss/empolyee romances can get sticky (and I wholle agree on that!), which is why both MCs spend a lot of time lusting/pining but not moving on their feelings. Until they finally do and they know if they want to get serious, they need to do something about it, also becacausy Toby was hired through an agency. I admired that this was not just brushed under the carpet and that they found a creative, workable solution.
One sticking point is Gideon’s ex though. The baby, Benson (who is cute but realistically drawn I think) is Gideon’s estranged sister’s unplanned child whom she had wanted to give up for adoption. Gideon decided right away to adopt the child, but apparently never really talked it through with his ex. The ex, in what we hear about him, seems to have shown clearly enough that he wasn’t into having a baby or children in general, but also never seems to have clearly said so to Gideon. In the end he just left a Gideon a few weeks after Benson’s arrival, leaving Gideon in the lurch and heartbroken. Gideon suffers from this and it makes him suffer running into his ex in the street one day. Whilst his heartbreak is understandable, it’s kind of frustrating to read how these two clearly never communicated – and also I kind of question how they could be together for so long when they were so obviously different with differnt goals in life. I guess they had to break up at some point but the guild for that is clearly on both of them for not talking about things. Gideon does a lot better with Toby but I would have liked to see him realising that really he should have also communicated better with his ex…
POISON AT PENSHAW HALL – GB Ralph (M/M cosy mystery). Next in the New Zealand-set Milverton Mystery series. I would compare these to Josh Lanyon’s Secrets and Scrabble series. Though I must say this second instalment wasn’t quite as good as the first one. Too much time is spent on Addison’s thoughts, and he does let himself get distracted by nosy Mabel a bit too much. Some might find it cute, for me it was a little too much to still find it cute. And it took some time for the mystery plot to get going! I do hope Addison geht his sh*t together a bit better in the next one… though it seems a solution to one of his dilemmas is on the horizon by the end of this book and he does get his date with the delicious police seargeant. I will probably still read the next one to see how they get on!
PREGNESIA – Carla Cassidy (M/F romantic suspense).Y’all, I gave in and got it since it was on sale last week ;-). I’ve read the review here and laughed along with it a long time ago, but when someone commented that it was on sale, I decided I needed to know what the fuss was all about. And yes, it is bonkers and it kept me entertained. It does show it’s age though (there are faxes being sent!!!) – in today’s world, they would know much more much sooner thanks to the internet and smartphones.
In non-romance:
ALICE’S BOOK – How the Nazis stole my Grandmother’s Cookbook by Karina Urbach. This is fascinating and I highly recommend it! Urbach is a well-known German historian, but here she tells her grandmother’s story who grew up in Vienna and made her own fortune as a woman owning a cooking school and publishing THE definitive cookbook about Viennese cooking in the 1930s. It’s a fascinating story, that also follows Alice’s family and her sons. There are lots of fascinating stories being told in this book, without losing sight of the main person. And what happened to Alice’s cookbook? Well, the nazis had her sign her rights away before she fled Vienna and republished it under a German author name, took out all references to Alice or anything that sounded Jewish, and even after the war it kept being published that way despite Alice’s regular written protests to the publisher (she had moved to the US by then). Even when the granddaughter went after the story and a TV documentary was made about it, they kept saying that all documents were lost in the war and that that was it. As it turns out, this happened with many books by Jewish authors, especially popular factual books that made good money for their publishers. It’s also something that so far hasn’t been explored much. The latest is, after the first edition of Karina Urbach’s book and further articles about book-stealing by the nazis in a well-known German news magazine, the cookbook’s publisher finally gave up and acknowledged Alice Urbach’s rights to ther book. But it took a lot of pressure and there are lots of books out there for which this has still not been done. All in all a fascinating book! It’s the story of a woman who finally made her own way, there’s world history, looks at life in pre-WWII Vienna, what life was like for Jewish refugees in the UK, and the no less interesting stories of her elder son who went to the US earlier in the 30s, then went to China, survived the Japanese attacks on Shanghai and made it back to the US and ended up working for US intelligence.
Completely at one with AnneUK on Allie Therin. Did the same thing! Chose Celia Lake as my next catnip since I’ve read all of KJ Charles but after her blog about Will Darling, re-read those. Just finished THE INNOCENT SLEEP, Seanan McGuire’s book from Tybalt’s POV. Convincingly different voice but still not sure about the last chapter unless it’s a set-up for the next book somehow. [It often is.] Have moved on to Ovidia Yu who somehow published two Su Lin books without my noticing.
I finished I’M YOUR GUY by Sarina Bowen. I’d pretty much given up on her books, but some comments here convinced me to try this one, and I’m glad I did. It was so much better than her other recent novels, which just haven’t worked out for me.
The only problem was that I read it sandwiched between two other m/m hockey romances from a new-to-me author that I simply LOVED. CAUGHT OFF GUARD by Catherine Cloud is about two NHL goalies who hooked up and then ended up on the same team after the backup gets traded. It’s a grumpy/sunshine (but not super sunshine) trope which is my catnip.
After the Bowen book I read another of Catherine Cloud’s books, LOVE & OTHER INCONVENIENCES. It’s really the journey towards acceptance of the main character’s sexuality while dealing with the long term effects of a traumatic childhood and resulting family dynamics. We don’t get a point of view from his love interest at all, but the author skillfully shows us exactly who he is regardless (and I adored him).
I’ll be reading Cloud’s third book this weekend, but I’m already bummed there aren’t any more.
Very excited to catch up with WAYR, I’ve missed a couple due to traveling, etc.
GOOD DEEDS, Kathryn Moon, Sci Fi, Why choose one romance. Short, tasty, strangely sweet. Enjoy!
WHAT IF YOU AND ME Roni Loren, M/F – did not like the protagonists (the guy’s inner life made me really dislike him), did not believe in their love, and just did not land for me. YMMV
ASSISTANT TO THE VILLAIN Hannah Nicole Maehrer, M/F, cozy super villain, slow burn romance? Villain who I would bet is not entirely villainous? Really enjoyed this, though it did meander some. UNFORTUNATELY, IT ENDED ON A CLIFFHANGER AND I WANT THE NEXT BOOK, PLEASE! Put it on your list, and buy both books when the second one comes out. You have been warned.
TWO ROGUES MAKE A RIGHT Cat Sebastian, historical, M/M. If you like CS’s work, and you haven’t read this, I recommend you do what I did – save it for when you really need it – in my case, I read it on a long flight. Perfection! Thank you, CS!
I then went down a Julie Kriss rabbit hole — some rereads and new to me. M/F, MAKE ME BEG, WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT, REVERB, and RHYTHM. They were all very good, and exactly what they say they are on the tin.
I then reread OPEN HEARTS by Eve Dangerfield. I love this book – the two characters are who they are, they truly fall in love with each other, and while they are their best selves together, they are still themselves, warts and all. Sexy, sweet book. I enjoyed it so much, all over again.
Am now reading THE ONCE AND FUTURE SEX: Going Medieval on Women’s Roles in Society by Dr. Eleanor Janega. If you like medieval history, and you like understanding why people are saying stupid shit, and where they got those nonsensical ideas in the first place, this is the book for you. It is good in small pieces, like baklava.
Also wending my way through SPARROW HILL ROAD, which is perfect for fall (see above).
I have TO DYE FOR: How Toxic Fashion Is Making Us Sick by Alden Wicker on my TBR pile (I am reading it for work). Will let you know how it is after I dig in.
Hope you are all taking good care of yourselves, and happy reading!
In which I start a dozen books but only finish the two shortest ones:
THORNHEDGE – objectively great but it messed me up. Since becoming a parent, I relate hard to Sleeping Beauty’s parents and this story is rough on them. I may come back to it later when I’ve recovered from those feels so I can properly appreciate the adorable romance. The author’s note says it was written right after Hamster Princess: Harriet the Invincible, which is a much more lighthearted take on the same fairy tale, much loved by my kid and myself.
GARLIC AND THE VAMPIRE – so cute y’all, cozy and kind with adorable artwork (graphic novel, for all ages)
Avoiding my bag full of library books, because of course by the time those holds came in, I was not in the right mood for them anymore. The struggle is real.
Comics and graphic novels usually work when I can’t focus on any books. Pretty pictures to the rescue! FLYING WITCH is waiting at the library, seen it recommended a lot as cozy fantasy and there is a cute cat on the cover. SEB AND SPICE is a Webtoon that I recently reread, it’s slice of life cozy fantasy about a wizard in a small village and the demon girl he accidentally summoned who then became his annoying roommate.
Re-reading Murderbot to be ready for SYSTEM COLLAPSE. I got a lot more out of NETWORK EFFECT when I wasn’t speed-reading/self-soothing in May 2020.
I’ll highlight another re-read, Scarlett Gale’s fantasy romance duology HIS SECRET ILLUMINATIONS / HIS SACRED INCANTATIONS. Here’s the author on its origin:
THIS NOVEL STARTED with a Tweet on February 11th, 2019:
Been readin’ romance novels and now I want to write a fantasy romance about a big burly female warrior who buys the contract of a smol sweet male indentured cleric healer and then takes him on an adventure… With sexy results.
Later that same day I opened up a new Google Doc, named it “Oh No, Too Buff…”
Much pining ensues. It’s a fun fantasy read as well, which can be an issue for me with fantasy romance.
I read Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson, a lovely, lovely epistolary novel, launched with a letter from a woman looking back to the time when a book about Tollund Man was dedicated to her elementary-age class. She wrote to the author, and a curator at the museum answered. It is one of those books where I wondered how the author was going to resolve the story. Which she did, fair and square, but I wanted … more, and tossed the kindle when the story ended a few pages too soon. Fortunately, I only tossed the kindle onto the bed.
Tessa Bailey’s Window Shopping is absolutely delightful. A woman in her early 20s, newly post-prison, is gazing at and mentally criticizing a NY department store Christmas window when a stranger comes up and asks her opinion on the window. It was a pleasure to watch these two meet in love, a result of which is that each became braver with their individual family and friends.
I read Miss Ava’s Scandalous Secret by Sofi Laporte, a sweet trifle about a woman who is a fabulous opera singer under a stage name (because Victorian era). In a way, there are two hidden identities here. Hmm. This may be a spoiler: the hero is a cinnamon roll in disguise. I’ve read enough reviews and comments to know that many people dislike books where characters pretend to be someone else, but it doesn’t trouble me when the pretending is not malicious.
Maureen Driscoll’s Where Dreams Merge was floating on my kindle, I’d read and enjoyed her earlier Where Hearts Meet and was pleased to relocate the series. The books are connected through five women friends, who share a small home and -of course- meet just the right men who love them exactly as they are. Three more in the series are what I’ll be reading next.
I have been going crazy on kindle unlimited because I plan to cancel at the end of the month and spend some time on my legendary TBR list. Mostly reading some series/connected books.
RS Grey is a new to me author. These are standalone but there is some overlap in some of the books. I just finished TO HAVE AND TO HATE, an arranged marriage/proximity tale that I enjoyed, she is an artist with a difficult family that she still feels she has to save; he is part owner/heir to the joint family business and sees marriage as a way to break the trust set up by their grandfathers. KING OF THE COURT, he is basketball star, she had dropped out of grad school to care for dying parent and is waitress at the local cafe in very small town TX. I had some questions about the plot but nothing grating, I enjoyed the story. DR DEAREST, two docs secretly in love with each other, some forced proximity, my catnip (especially the burn unit). Etc.
Maya Alden’s Golden Knight series started with THE WRONG WIFE. Arranged marriage, proximity, etc. She has a miserable family background (CW for DV), but they both grow and change and I really enjoyed it. BAD BOSS, friends and coworkers to lovers. Significant TW for childhood abuse. He also has another woman in his life initially. I still liked it. NOT A
MARRIAGE was a little over the top for me but YMMV. Second chance. She is a producer in Hollywood, he is judge, they have trust issues from earlier relationship. He has the mother from heck, needs to (and does) learn to set boundaries.
I tried the SALVATION SERIES by Corinne Michaels and had a lot of trouble with it. Not a fan of “duets” which basically means “cliffhanger.” And my goodness the drama! Given the back and forth, the hot and cold, I could not believe in a real HEA for this couple, not without major therapy. I am not continuing the series, though I have read some other books by this author with pleasure.
Lauren Rowe’s Morgan Brothers. I had read and liked the first and second books. BALL PEEN HAMMER was way over the top and I loved it which I did not expect. Male stripper and film student, road trip. She managed to make the hero totes appealing, to my surprise. I actually did believe in their HEA and would recommend this book though maybe read the series in order. MISTER BODYGUARD was OK, some homage to Kevin and Whitney in there. ROCKSTAR, young man and band breaking into the big time and the girl he leaves behind. Complications ensue, but solid HEA.
I’m reading “What you are looking for is in the library” by Michiko Aoyama. I feel like Japanese authors write the best slice-of-life fiction. In this case, all of the characters end up going to the community house in their ward, which has a library, and the librarian there finds them what they ask for and also what they need. The characters are all very different, but I found myself really identifying with them. The book is broken up into short stories about each character, rather than chapters, so it’s really easy to get into if you’re having a reading slump.
It also got me thinking about the Japanese city pop genre and I borrowed a compilation CD from the library to listen to.
I won a book and 30-minute Zoom chat with the author from that library friends’ fundraising eBay auction y’all linked a couple of weeks ago. (I stalked the listing for days and put in my bid at the actual last minute.) I got the book on Wednesday and chatted with the author yesterday, and that 30 minutes turned into almost 90 minutes of talking about books and publishing. She was super nice! Naturally, I feel like I need to read “The Earl’s Egyptian Heiress” by Heba Helmy as soon as possible, so I think that’s up next on the TBR.
I’m currently reading book 4 of The Guild Codex: Demonized, Delivering Evil for Experts by Annette Marie, having read the first three and really enjoyed them. I found these books in one of the recent WAYR posts, so thank you to the previous poster! I’m down to the lead up to the final battle/conflict in this book, and the final resolution to the romance between the FMC and the demon MMC. There is an epilogue too, though based on how this book ends I’m dreading reading it. If it is a “baby-logue” I’m going to be very mad! My only real quibble with the writing is the author’s use of the word “mince” to describe how the FMC walks. She doesn’t use it always to describe the FMC, but at least four times in this final book of the series, but every time it totally throws me out of the story. Really? The FMC “walk(s) with short quick steps in an affectedly dainty manner”? I just keep picturing Carol Burnett in the Mr Wiggins/Mrs Tudball skits from her show. Not a sexy image!
You all have just added so many titles to my to-be-read mountain! How can there be so many good books and so little time?! My heart is currently breaking as I approach the 3/4 mark of YOU WERE ALWAYS MINE by Christine Pride and Jo Piazza. I didn’t read their earlier book because I thought I wouldn’t be able to handle it but somehow jumped into this one without much forethought. Truly beautiful, but tons of pain.
I read an ARC from a romance author I usually love and was disappointed, but I’m not going to name names. Fortunately I loved (after a somewhat slow start) Angie Kim’s new HAPPINESS FALLS. Again, a lot of pain, but very well done.
Jill Santopolo’s STARS IN AN ITALIAN SKY also seemed too slow for me at the beginning, but I stuck with it and was so glad I did. Along with a nice (double) romance, it provided insight into the post-WWII period in Italy that I knew next to nothing about.
A time-travel trip into romancelandia past with Julie Garwood’s HONOR’S SPLENDOUR was delightful. I read it with a book club, and we all agreed that despite a few historical anachronisms and outdated relationship inequities, it had held up beautifully. What a hole her passing has left in our world.
Nora Roberts’s new INHERITANCE left me eager for the next volume (a year away!), but anyone looking for a last minute ghost story should enjoy it. Finally, Suzanne Enoch’s EVERY DUKE HAS HIS DAY was just plain delicious romantic fun.
Stay safe and sane out there, everyone. We live in trying times.
I’m a little startled that is WAYR time again, LOL!
I’ve really loved seeing more diverse offerings from Harlequin, and I was very satisfied with Sophia Singh Sasson’s TEMPTED BY THE BOLLYWOOD STAR and LaQuette’s SECRET HEIR FOR CHRISTMAS. These two writers swept me away in true Desire fashion while immersing me in the lives of these very different, not mainstream America characters.
DJ Jamison’s DON’T BANG YOUR STEPBRO is the latest in her Rules We Break series , set in quirky queer-friendly Granville. The main characters, Beck and Wes, have been stepbrothers and best of friends for years. And an impulsive Vegas night pushes them to figure out what they really feel for each other, and see how those they love most feel about them too. I’ve been enjoying this series a lot.
Beth Bolden’s THE SCORE is a keeper. Ms Bolden’s football romance is stellar, and her characters make me laugh and move me to tears. I don’t really consider myself much of a sports fan, but I am an enormous fan of her sports romance. Her on-field action and off-field scenes are equally well crafted, and her books just keep getting better and better.
Finally I managed to squeeze in Naima Simone’s AN OFF-LIMITS MERGER, which was as good as you can expect Ms. Simone’s Desires to be–really, really good!
Thank you, B*tchery! Love being part of this reading community!
I read the new Andrea Penrose Wrexford & Sloane mystery, MURDER AT THE MERTON LIBRARY. It was very enjoyable. I’m now in the middle of TERROR IN TOPAZ, which is a great Edwardian era mystery set in Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. It’s the 4th of a series, and Alison Stuart self-published this one, because the series got dropped by her publisher. I can’t imagine why, because they’re great books. Excellent historical background, strong characters, original settings, and there’s a hint of a romance coming. Gorgeous covers too. I hope lots of people read it she’ll continue writing them!
@Midge, thanks for the rec of ALICE’S BOOK. My mother was born in Vienna and had to flee on the Kindertransport, and I grew up with a lot of Viennese cooking, so I am definitely following up on that one.
@Karin – Alice escaped to the UK and ended up helping to run a home for girls who had got out on the Kindertransport. There’s quite a bit on that in the book. That chapter was no easy read but I admit I also hadn’t had much more than a general idea of this topic.
Over the past two weeks ~
— continued with my reread of Michelle Diener’s Class 5 science fiction romance series and have now happily revisited:
Dark Deeds (Class 5 Series Book 2)
Dark Minds (Class 5 Series Book 3)
Dark Matters (Class 5 Series Book 4)
Dark Class (Class 5 Series Book 5)
Dark Ambitions: A Class 5 Novella
and Dark Class: Bonus Epilogue
— For my local book group, the memoir Broken Horses by Brandi Carlile. This was an intriguing read especially since I had no idea who Brandi Carlile was when I started the book. I borrowed several CDs from the library to get a taste of her music.
— I’m planning on making a bookmark for a friend and ended up getting sucked into rereading the book it will be based on ~ Naked in Death by J.D. Robb. This is a book I have probably reread about twenty-five times. I read it upon publication in 1995, and I would reread the entire series each time a new book or two was released. I stopped reading the series (now at fifty-seven) in 2011 at book 32, Treachery in Death. I still collect the books and have great plans of returning to the series. We shall see!
— The Daily Zoo: Keeping the Doctor at Bay with a Drawing a Day by Chris Ayers. This was a drawing journal with an animal picture each day that the author/artist started, in recovery, one year after his leukemia diagnosis. It was a quick and enjoyable read/view.
— reread The Marann (Tales of Tolari Space Book 1) by Christie Meierz, a book that I initially read in (let me check) 2017. I barely remembered any details, but I enjoyed it. I’d describe it as science fiction romance.
— read with pleasure:
* Daughters of Suralia (Tales of Tolari Space Book 2) (a reread)
* The Fall (Tales of Tolari Space Book 3) (a new read)
* Farryn’s War (Tales of Tolari Space Book 4) (a new read)
* Rembrandt’s Station (Tales of Tolari Space Book 5) (a new read)
* Food Fight (Tales of Tolari Space) (this is a free short story)
* Into Tolari Space (Two short stories, a reread)
These are all set in the same fictional world; I recommend starting with The Marann. All the novels have a m/f romance save for Rembrandt’s Station which has a m/m romance.
Just sitting here while the teen does her annual viewing of The Nightmare Before Christmas, which remains a perfect movie.
Anyhoo, I don’t have too much reading this time. I’m listening to the audiobook of Starter Villain during my PowerWash Simulator time, and Wil Wheaton’s narration makes it even funnier. I also just finished Born to Be Badger by Shelly Laurenston (which I think comes out in November). I wanted to read something chaotic, which is always a guarantee when it comes to Laurenston’s honey badger shifters. I will say this one was somewhat low on plot, which was probably why it took me 8 days to read it. Don’t get me wrong, the humor, snark, and violence remains on point and highly amusing, but without a propulsive plot, I won’t end up glued to the book wanting to know what happens next. I just finished it this afternoon, and I haven’t figured out quite what I’m reading next. I did have some Libby holds just land, so I has options. So until next time, be good, and never forget, every season can be Spooky Season if you just keep the spooky in your heart.
@Katie C.: if male/alien male romance works for you, I highly recommend Lyn Gala’s Claimings series.
Apologies for length…
10 THINGS THAT NEVER HAPPENED by Alexis Hall (A-) – Sam(wise) Becker fakes amnesia with his Scroogeish boss in an attempt to save his job and those of the band of misfits who staff the bed and bath store he manages. I have to admit that I was past the 50% mark wondering where the “rom” in this rom-com was (all the elements were there, but Hall wasn’t pushing the buttons) when suddenly (deep inhale because I can’t believe I’m going to use this phrase in a mini-review) all the feels. But even more than the love and the found family and the exploration of grief, my favorite bit is Jonathan’s eccentric extended family slyly pretending to accept that Sam — living in Jonathan’s home during his recuperation — isn’t his new boyfriend. No, not at all.
THE STONE COLD WOLF’S REJECTED MATE by Cate C. Wells (B) – Wells serialized this novella on her website, but now it’s gone…I hope in preparation for its release as an ebook because I didn’t download it. *sob* The protagonists, Clay and Wrenlee, are from the “Ditch” class in the North Border pack (laborers who work on North Border’s walls, apparently) until Clay reveals an ability to fight and gets pressured to move into the “Claws” class and start fighting on the shifter circuit. The story’s strengths were in Wells’ worldbuilding (as always) and the appearance of Abertha, Killian, and Una. The protagonists themselves were pretty meh and their romance/conflict was a shadow of what we’ve already seen in Heir Apparent… and His Curvy…. However, at this point I am going to announce that my head canon (until Wells breaks it) is that Last Pack is secretly the most progressive pack and their reputation for stealing females and pups is actually a front for sheltering abused women and children. (Please don’t be spoiler outraged. To the best of my recollection, Last Pack wasn’t even mentioned in this novella. It’s just that all the packs are so patriarchally toxic that I think it would be great if the pack rumored to be the most backward were secretly awesome.)
SEDUCTION OF A PSYCHOPOMP by Elsie Winters (B) – a slow burn “cozy” fantasy romance in which a reaper is bound in matrimony to a fae princess because his immortality magic is the only thing that can save her life. Not quite my cuppa: I prefer my worldbuilding to be a little more organic/embedded in the action of the story and less encyclopedic POV infodumping, but this was a story with very little action. This would probably be a good addition to the recent Books without Consent Violations rec league. Also recommended for anyone who likes an intelligent, caring, shy, cinnamon roll hero.
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I’m still working my way through the Kate Daniels series (A) by Ilona Andrews, but am temporarily stymied because the audiobooks for volumes 8 and 9 are unavailable at any of my libraries. So I decided to switch to the Hidden Legacy series (also A). The first Hidden Legacy trilogy (BURN FOR ME, WHITE HOT, WILDFIRE) was my introduction to Ilona Andrews 6 years ago, and I’m glad they were because otherwise I think I might have found the protagonists — not the worldbuilding or the delightful Baylor family dynamics — a bit derivative of Kate and Curran. Unfortunately, the repeated portrayals of weak, clingy, wannabe OWs in both series just saddens me. Kate and Nevada are insanely kickass women. They don’t need to be contrasted with misogynistic portrayals of romantic rivals to bolster their worth. It’s a narrative choice that demeans everyone involved: the heroines, their love interests, the readers, and the authors. It says a lot for how good the good parts of these series are that I can still rate them an A despite this.
* * *
In the last WAYR, I mentioned that I was burning through some melodramatic trope series on Kindle Unlimited. (My KU subscription expired today, so I once again wait for a tipping point to inspire me to re-subscribe.) I think what I’m seeing in these books is an attempt to apply those outrageous HP tropes to relatable (?) contemporary women while also providing the male lead’s POV for justification/explanation, and it’s just not working for me. Dear authors, the melodramatic trope isn’t intended to be realistic or a gateway to a healthy relationship. It’s meant to be dramatic and angsty and inspire a grovel..from the dude! The absolute last thing I am tuning in to romance for is to watch women apologize to men. (Can women be wrong IRL? Yes! Should they apologize when they are? Absolutely. Is romance once of my coping mechanisms for escaping oppressive male bullshit? HELLO!) Sorry, I got a little carried away there. I don’t mean to imply that the female lead being in the wrong is an element of all these books:
• The Kings of Sin by Ana Huang – KING OF WRATH (B-), KING OF PRIDE (B-), KING OF GREED (C) – One thing Huang does well is pepper characters from future books and other series in her world. I may come back when King of Gluttony is released. These books were my introduction to Huang. One of the Goodreads reviews pointed me toward Huang’s TWISTED HATE for an example of an extremely angsty scene, and I have to agree that this new series is nowhere near as powerful in comparison, so longtime fans may be even more disappointed than I.
• The Windsors by Catharina Maura – THE WRONG BRIDE (C-), THE UNWANTED MARRIAGE (DNF), THE BROKEN VOWS (DNF, also one of the “she’s in the wrong” books I ranted about above) – The premise of this series (powerful billionaire brothers allow themselves to be railroaded into arranged marriages by their vicious grandma) makes no sense, but that would be okay if only the internal logic of the narratives held together. I read these books in reverse order: was turned off by VOWS, bored by UNWANTED, and managed to ride the over-the-top other woman villainy in BRIDE all the way to the end, only to have the author attempt to rewrite the entire premise of the book (guy in love with one sister is forced to marry the other) in a way that just deflates the male lead completely.
• Golden Knights by Maya Alden – THE WRONG WIFE (B), BAD BOSS (B-), NOT A LOVE MARRIAGE (C) – Alden differs from the two authors above in that she lets he “heroes” be assholes, with the promise of a grovel as payoff. My problem with the books is the suddenness of the switch from asshole to devoted lover, accompanied by inadequate groveling.
More KU:
CONVENIENT MAFIA WIFE (B-), URGENT VOWS (B+), and DEMANDING MOB BOSS (B) by Lucy Monroe – the first three books in Lucy Monroe’s Syndicate Rules indy-publised mafia series. Technically, these could go with the melodramatic trope series listed above, and it makes me wonder if those books follow a closer line of thematic descent from mafia romance than from Mills & Boon/Harlequin Presents. Regardless, Monroe did write for Harlequin, so I felt safer heading into her version of a mafia world than I do the average dark romance, but there’s plenty of violence and amorality here. Demanding Mob Boss also has a somewhat fetishistic portrayal of a heroine with autism spectrum disorder that I think would lead many readers to reject the book outright. I chose to treat it as a fairytale with archetypal characters without any real-world implications because that’s really the only way I can read mafia romance, anyway.
HOOKED (Never After Series) by Emily McIntire (B-) – This “dark contemporary romance” offers a remix of various versions of Peter Pan. There was just enough clever stuff going on that I found myself trying to attribute significance to what felt like the not-clever stuff. For instance, Wendy’s father is named Peter Michaels, which appears to be a mashup of Peter Pan and Michael Darling, so…the ultimate man-baby?
TIS THE SEASON FOR REVENGE by Morgan Elizabeth (B-) – a legally blonde heroine is dumped by her lawyer boyfriend for not being serious enough to be wife material so she dates his hot boss for revenge…without the boss being aware of her motivations, naturally. I love the premise, the ex deserved everything that came for him, but the heroine got off way too lightly for using the hero.
Popping back in to report another graphic novel I inhaled last night before bed, SNAPDRAGON by Kat Leyh of Lumberjanes – the art style is a bit cartoony but the story has emotional depth, lots of heart, queer rep, racial diversity, friendship, supportive family, an adorable dog named Good Boy, also skeletons and ghosts for spooky season. The title was originally going to be SNAPDRAGON AND THE ROADKILL WITCH. 10/10 would read again and share with my queer teenager.
@Deborah: I do think that Ana Huang’s Twisted series is better than the Kings of Sin series (at least the ones I’ve read so far). She seems to have ironed out & evened out the idiosyncrasies that gave the earlier books their cachet. My favorite of her books is TWISTED GAMES, a bodyguard-royal romance with a high level of angst, longing, and sexual tension.
@Karin: I’m also a fan of the Harriet Gordon mysteries and Alison Stuart/AM Stuart said there will be more books in the future!
The Fall That Saved Us by Tamara Jerée – 4.5 stars
I just want to tell everyone about this debut with an absolutely stunning cover. It’s a moody, sexy Sapphic urban fantasy about a former demon hunter with angelic blood and the succubus who was sent to seduce and destroy her but ends up helping her heal. The last third isn’t as strong as the rest (and I’m not sure I buy the ending or the hea) but it’s a great debut and I really enjoyed it.
There’s an interesting mix of cozy and dark. There’s a lot of cozy comfort – the protagonist, Cassiel’s bookstore, her best friend’s coffee shop and the way the succubus Avitue initially woos her with beautiful teacups full of fragrant tea. But be warned that it also gets dark. Cassiel’s mother taught an extreme version of discipline and denial and and Cassiel struggles with shame and self harm.
I also read Illegal Contact by Riley Hart and Neve Wilder – mm sports romance.
B- ish? I enjoyed this tropey, bi4bi rivals to lovers NFL romance. It doesn’t break any new ground but it’s fun. It has a similar vibe as Heated Rivals but is better written imo and is a much more convincing interracial romance. It’s the 3rd in the series and overlaps with the timelines of the previous 2 books. I hadn’t read the other two and it still worked for me.
After plowing through a bunch of Alice Coldbreath’s Karadok novels which I thoroughly enjoyed, I took a much needed break. Coldbreath’s romances are set in a thinly disguised Europe with little to no historical authenticity and lots of eye-rolling anachronisms, but they are cheerfully blatant about it and lots of fun–excellent comfort reads in fact. However, after burning through the three Vawdry Brothers books and starting the Brides of Karadok series, I needed a change of pace.
Celia Lake provided the perfect palate cleanser with Four Walls and a Heart, a very gentle M/M romance set in her magical alt-England. Also, very much a comfort read.
Next up (continuing the theme) was Sarina Bowen’s two new steamy m/m hockey romances. Bowen is a mistress of character building and these two books were no exception. I enjoy almost anything she writes, and The New Guy and I’m Your Guy fulfilled my highest expectations, though I wouldn’t consider them comfort reads.
Finally, I dug into my tbr pile and came up with Thank You for Listening by Julia Whelan, which I just plain adored. Thank You for Listening focuses on a voice actress who has made a successful career from reading mostly nonfiction audiobooks. Her attitude toward romance in life as well as fiction is decidedly cynical. She is dealing with the long term repercussions of a disfiguring injury and the deteriorating condition of her much loved grandmother when she meets a guy who rings all the chimes. That first encounter should win a special award for best banter evahhh. But wait, there’s more! More banter, more angst, more thoughtful reflections about romance in fiction and life, even more thoughtiness about life in romance and fiction. I don’t know if I’ve ever encountered something so meta that wasn’t equal parts supercilious and pretentious, but this one totally worked for me. Yeah, I loved it, but it’s gonna be a bear to find the next read.
Helena Hunting’s A Love Catastrophe was a little too cute with its cat sitter female main character, but the male main character was really lovely and I still enjoyed the story and looked forward to their happy ending.
I’ve been so-so on the past few Tessa Bailey books that I’ve read – I thought Secretly Yours, the first in her series set in wine country in California, was too convoluted and the female main character was a bit too kooky to be believable, but I really enjoyed the follow up, Unfortunately Yours. Give me a big burly alpha but also secret cinnamon roll with excellent dirty talk and I am putty in your hands. This was an enemies to lovers, marriage of convenience story that I stayed up way too late to finish.
Kylie Scott’s End of Story was a really intriguing set up that I don’t think I’ve seen before. The two main characters, who are not romantically involved, find a divorce certificate from 10 years in the future. The story revolves around their developing friendship and how this certificate, whether it’s real or fake, where it came from, what could it mean, impacts their growing feelings for one another. The characters were really lovely, their banter was excellent, and their issues around trust and relationships and their ensuing conflicts felt very true to life, thus the resolution felt so well earned. Kylie Scott has really impressed me with several of her standalone and this was no exception.
Hannah Grace’s Icebreaker – I know, I know, I was warned about all the issues with this one. But, I can’t help it, I love Elle Kennedy’s The Deal – like absolutely love it. I know it has its issues, I know there’s stuff that hasn’t aged super well there, but it’s one of the first books I read when I was getting into romance and it just makes me feel so happy. I was really hoping for something along those lines with this one, and Hannah Grace is clearly a big fan of Kennedy’s, but while with the Deal I can feel the characters’ pull towards each other and the growing affection for each other, Icebreaker felt like two people who really don’t even like each other. It also went on for so long, with just about every conflict imaginable, that I just wanted it to be over. I think at least 100 pages could have been cut and that at least would have made for a tighter story. Also, and this is rare for me to say, the sex was just a little too much for college age characters. Kennedy’s Briar U books don’t shy away from sex, but in a way that feels true to the characters and doesn’t take me out of the story. Grace’s sex scenes felt like they were inserted from a much smuttier book. I can see how this could have gone viral on TikTok, but I would honestly tell anyone curious to read The Deal, or Kristen Callihan’s Game On series, or Sarina Bowen’s college hocky series instead.
I just finished “Mooncakes” by Suzanne Walker. This graphic novel is utterly adorable, and I fell in love with the characters and the story immediately! “Mooncakes” is a beautiful example of how making room for people who have not been traditionally included in fantasy stories will make the world within the book all the more rich and insightful.
I devoured the first three of the “Hidden Legacy” books by Ilona Andrews, which were buckets of fun and went down super easy. I love a good mystery, especially when it features a resourceful and scrappy PI such as Nevada who understands that tackling the big bad alone (especially when your mom is an ace sniper) is not always the way to go. Three cheers for a family which fights together!
I’m currently splitting my reading time between “The Sun Down Motel” by Simone St. James (thank you Elyse for the awesome review which convinced me that being scared is worth it!!!) and “Silver by Nightfall” by Rin Chupeco.
I’m about 2/3 done reading “Sun Down Motel” and I’m having to resist reading it while at work because that excellently spun ominous momentum is REALLY ramping up and I am here for it!!!!
As for Silver Under Nightfall, I’ve just barely grazed the surface but I am LIVING for the excellent action sequences, odd but dear friendships and the romantic/sexual tension between the 3 lead characters (I’m pretty sure this is going to be polyamorous, so yes please) is entrancing and enticing in equal measure I’m excited t see where this story goes!
@Katie C. – sorry for the late response. I’d recommend the Xiveri Mates series by Elizabeth Stephens starting with Taken to Voraxia. The MMCs tend to be initially clueless about the FMCs they fall for, and make a lot of cultural assumptions and mistakes in trying to figure out how to deal with their mates but quickly switch into the “worship the ground she walks on” mold. The FMCs are usually strong, smart, and independent.Definitely a CW/TW for violence, and discussions of rape and exploitation, sexual and otherwise (off page and not by any main characters). I read Captive of the Horde King and to me, this series has a similar vibe.