Hey there! It’s time for our first Whatcha Reading of the month. This is where we invite you to tell us what books you’re reading or finishing right now.
Here’s how we’re kicking off our own month of reading:
Sarah: I read Night for Day ( A | BN | K ) in two days and really liked it. If you like fantasy and mythology and escape rooms you’ll like this I think.
Next is the new Veronica Speedwell, ( A | BN | K ) which I have an audio ARC for (thank you thank you thank you) and I am Very Excited.
Elyse: I have been waiting for The Devil and Mrs. Davenport ( A | BN )to come out and it was released today so I’ll start that at lunch.
Claudia: I’m on to the second Alexandra Vasti novella, among other stuff, and loving it!
That’s In Which Matilda Halifax Learns the Value of Restraint
Tara: I just finished Tempting Olivia by Clare Ashton ( A ) and it’s the first book to make me cry in a very long time. It has a lawyer and her celebrity client falling in love, but my lawyer friend assures me that the situation is handled ethically. This will probably be one of my faves this year.
Sarah: I and my dragon stitchalong cross stitch are delighted to inform you that the new Veronica Speedwell is a cracking good time.
Most especially in audio. They are delectable as audiobooks.
Shana: I’m listening to the audiobook of Love Radio by Ebony LaDelle and it is just delightful. The hero is the greenest of green flags! He’s a teenage boy who’s the caregiver for his chronically ill mom, is a consent checking superstar, and plans dates more thoughtful than most grown men.
Carrie: I am about a third of the way through Fathomfolk. ( A | BN | K ) Love the setting and concept. Struggling to stay engaged with characters and plot.
Sneezy: The English translation of Only Hope season 2 is just coming out and hooooooooohhhh boy. Messy and intense and hot right out of the gate. Didn’t expect shades of dark romance in this one.
I’m normally not a suspense reader, but… I didn’t read the signs and now I have to know what happens.
Lara: I’m reading My Season of Scandal by Julie Anne Long ( A | BN | K ) and is it scorching me, not just because the lust is palpable, but because it feels so genuinely real. I am being allowed to look in as two very real people fall in confused love. It’s unlike any book I’ve read before.
So whatcha reading? Tell us in the comments!
My reading has been so dire lately that I didn’t even bother posting at the last Whatcha Reading. Sniff. I’m taking a lab science class for the first time in mumble mumble years and it’s hard y’all. I am a liberal arts person right down to my bones and this stuff is most definitely not my jam. What I have been obsessed with is with the upcoming Penelope Feathrington/Colin Bridgerton season of Bridgerton after seeing the teaser on Valentine’s Day. They’ve always been my favorites. As I’ve been telling everybody, my whole brain is just Biology and Bridgerton right now. That’s all I can handle. I’ve been vacuuming up Bridgerton fanfic like it’s my job (of course I read the books years ago).
I have 2 books I can recommend (not romances) to somewhat justify my stopping by, both graphic novel picks of unofficial mother son book club 😉 BLOODLUST AND BONNETS by Emily McGovern a wacky, slightly surreal take on Regency England with vampires. There’s kind of a love triangle and lots of shenanigans. One of my favorite things about reading it with my son is that he read it first and he kept telling me about this character he called “that doofus Brian.” Yeah, it was Lord Byron. Who *is* a doofus in this and in my heart will always be Doofus Brian now. My other recommendation is SOFTIES: STUFF THAT HAPPENS AFTER THE WORLD BLOWS UP by Kyle Smealie. The Earth has exploded and 13-year old Kay is the only survivor. Thankfully she’s picked up by space garbage truckers. This is funny and wistful at times (yes, Earth really is gone) but also silly with some good recurring characters and jokes. I would say both these books are on the older side if you’re thinking of middle readers. (Swear words, innuendo, and some very nonrealistic blood in the case of BLOODLUST AND BONNETS) but both are very entertaining.
The dozen books I have most recently tagged excellent in Libby are all by, wait for it, who could guess, KJ Charles! What a surprise!
I would read other things if they were even half as good, I swear.
Also though: JADE CITY, a fantasy novel that is NOT a romance, but incredibly engrossing. Family drama, sort of like a contemporary GoT (in a good way) if the underlying magic system was based in kung fu not dragons. The hold for the rest of the series is taking for.ev.er.
Speaking of library problems, Penric and Desdemona is only available on audio book and I hate audio books but there is so much driving back and forth because of this interminable idiotic move I broke down. Great stories, very comforting, adequate narrator.
Also SLOW HORSES has been great, really actually good narrator and super well written, very intense spy backstabbings twisty plot. I can’t believe how much I have come to care about these absolute asshole fuckups. I’m not done but any romance is burning so very slowly I haven’t a clue it’s there. Dark af, but also hilarious.
I often assert that angst is where character drives plot, so a story moves consistently based on the characters’ personalities, histories, and experiences; whereas in melodrama, plot drives character, so characters may behave in wildly inconsistent ways in order to move a story from point A to point B. I recently read two books back-to-back that had essentially the same premise but were so utterly different in style and execution that one (full of implausibly melodramatic situations) was a DNF and the other (beautifully-written and uber-angsty) a favorite read of 2024. In both CE Ricci’s HEAD ABOVE WATER and Nicky James’s PROMISES OF FOREVER, a man returns to his childhood home after his parents, from whom he has been estranged for many years, are killed by a drunk driver. But beyond the shared premise, the books veer in wildly different directions. In HEAD ABOVE WATER, when Cannon returns home, he reconnects with his stepbrother Easton. I found HEAD ABOVE WATER melodramatic and tedious, by about midway through I was skimming to the end. Neither MC ever acted consistently, therefore what could have been an interesting stepbrother romance ended up being just a plod to the end. I can’t recommend it.
A completely different execution of the “man returns to his childhood home after his parents’ deaths” premise, is Nicky James’s beautifully melancholy PROMISES OF FOREVER, which moves back-and-forth in time as present-day Jersey (a former hockey player in his mid-forties) reconnects with Koa, a friend he made at summer camp 35 years ago, who is now a teacher at an exclusive private school. Before I go any further, I should say that Koa experienced devastating trauma in his childhood (gradually revealed over the course of the book), so be sure to check James’s content warnings before you decide if you want to read PROMISES OF FOREVER. In the scenes set in the past, James captures perfectly the mind of Jersey, a child who has never been exposed to anything truly horrific and can’t understand why Koa acts the way he does. In the present day, Jersey—ashamed of how badly he eventually treated Koa when, as 14-year-olds, Koa tried to kiss him—attempts to connect with Koa on any level (friendship, romance, sex), but it’s clear that Koa has isolated himself and cultivates an almost nihilistic outlook in order to keep his trauma at bay. Jersey (whose estrangement from his ex-wife and teenage son and recovery from pain-pill addiction seem rather tame in comparison to what happened to Koa) appeals to Koa’s former lover and still friend, Niles, for help. Niles (who will have his own future book) is a lovely character—it’s rare for books to have exes function as good friends, but Niles is strongly invested in Koa having a romantic relationship, even if it isn’t with him. James explores the nuances and small steps that gradually lead Jersey and Koa to finally be together. There’s a great deal of angst in PROMISES OF FOREVER, and there were times when I wasn’t sure how the couple would achieve their HEA, but it’s a beautiful book that fully deserves its place on my Favorite Reads of 2024 list. Yes, it’s sometimes a fine line between angst and melodrama, but when you can find a book that moves right up to the line but manages to stay on the angsty side…chef’s kiss! Highly recommended.
Willow Dixon’s BATTLE FOR THE TOP (part of her Heroes at Home series all of which include at least one MC who is a veteran) features two men, both of whom are openly gay, who meet when they are working the night shift for a security company and who eventually become lovers. In an oblique way, BATTLE FOR THE TOP put me in mind of Cara Dee’s TOP PRIORITY in that both MCs are tops and have to determine how they are going to work out their sexual relationship if neither of them are willing to bottom. However, BATTLE FOR THE TOP has none of the immersion into the BDSM lifestyle of Dee’s book (and also none of the decision to add a third party to their dynamic, as the couple eventually do in TOP PRIORITY). In BATTLE FOR THE TOP, veteran Luke appears to be suffering from undiagnosed (or, at least, untreated) PTSD and generalized depression. He has difficulty socializing, although he has a few close friends that he made when he was serving in the military. His co-worker and eventual lover, Jordan, is a far more outgoing and gregarious personality—although when the men are inadvertently caught up in a gas station robbery (cw/tw), it is Luke who takes charge and saves Jordan’s life. This lead to the men’s romantic and sexual connection—although Luke, much more than Jordan, needs to work through a lot of baggage. I enjoyed BATTLE FOR THE TOP and recommend it—although I really wanted Luke to start seeing a therapist and not just “talk it out” with his buddies.
DUKE SEEKS BRIDE by Christy Carlyle was… fine, I guess. I am a fan of fake fiancée stories but not of mistaken identity so it was a mixed bag. Would I read it again? No. Did I enjoy reading it? Yes.
THIS HERE FLESH: SPIRITUALITY, LIBERATION AND THE STORIES THAT MAKE US by Cole Arthur Riley is a profoundly moving book about Black spirituality. Highly recommended.
UNTIL I AM FREE: FANNIE LOU HAMER’S ENDURING MESSAGE TO AMERICA by Keisha N Blain was a very good book about the legacy of Mrs. Hamer. It’s fairly short and very readable for non-scholars.
REALLY CUTE PEOPLE by Markus Harwood-Jones had a LOT of really boring stuff about the protagonist’s job but their slow burn polyamorous romance with the couple was well-developed and sweet. The child in the book was precocious but it was clear the author had actual experience with children so the little girl never became cloying or unrealistic. Somewhere between 3.8 and 4.2 stars.
EMILY WILDE’S MAP OF THE OTHERLANDS by Heather Fawcett is a book I finally finished 2 months after starting. Why did it take me so long? Delightful if not as good as the first book.
MAIN CHARACTER ENERGY by Jamie Varon was trite, cliched, pseudo feminist, sl** shaming, with poorly developed characters and a twist I saw coming from 200 pages away. The only character I liked was dead for most of the book. 1 star. Avoid at all costs.
I am in the “I mainlined a series and loved it and am now bereft that it’s over, please send help or similar book recommendations” stage of reading.
The books in question were Scarlett Peckham’s The Secret of Charlotte Street series which I read out of order (3, 1, 2): THE LORD I LEFT, THE DUKE I TEMPTED, and THE EARL I RUINED. Of the three, EARL was my favorite, but all of them have fun characters and a level of kink that is right at the sweet spot of what I want when I’m in the mood for something spicy. I also appreciate that Peckham tries to do something different with HR—there’s sex work, kink, and religiosity in combinations that don’t always completely work, but are a welcome variation in the genre. (Also, England, but 1750s, so glad to be out of the Regency period.) (SBTB reviewed THE LORD I LEFT and my views were pretty similar to the review.) Of note: there is a scene in DUKE that could be read as cheating. I didn’t interpret it quite that way/felt it made sense in context, but YMMV if that’s something you’re sensitive to. If you have books to recommend that might scratch a similar itch, I’m all ears!
I also read 10 THINGS THAT NEVER HAPPENED by Alexis Hall. I laughed out loud multiple times and EVENTUALLY the main characters got a little less annoying, but if it weren’t for the humor and the solid cast of secondary characters aka the romance had to stand on its own, this would have been a DNF. I really want to love Hall because his dialogue is so snappy and he’s got a great sense of humor, but his tolerance for assholes is just too high.
I finished THE COLD DISH by Craig Johnson. I had watched a couple of seasons of the LONGMIRE TV show before reading the book so I remembered who the killer was, and it kind of spoiled the story/ending for me.
Up next, I am hoping to read BLOOD SONG by Anthony Ryan so I can talk about it with a friend who is a big fan of his books.
I also have DIVINE RIVALS by Rebecca Ross waiting on my TBR pile.
Hope everyone has a good weekend!
Happy weekend!
Have not read tons that I loved lately – mostly because I have been reading when I’m tired at the end of the day.
Recommend Jennifer Estep’s Galactic Bonds series and I read the novella, ONLY HARD PROBLEMS. Sci fi M/F romance. Made me greedy for the next book – Keep writing @JenniferEstep! Total auto-buy author for me! Thank you for your hard work!
Mariana Zapata’s books are weirdly satisfying to me. She writes about women who undervalue themselves/are figuring themselves out, and the men that are incredibly emotionally constipated who love them. By the end of the book the FMC realizes that the MMC would do anything for them, though the MMC has mostly acted like a d!@& for the whole book. WHEN GRACIE MET THE GRUMP is that same formula, only the MMC is a superhero. I want to shake all the characters for most of the book, but then, finally, everyone realizes/acknowledges that they are in love, and my itch is scratched. YMMV.
I highly recommend Liz Tomforde’s WINDY CITY books – contemporary F/M, M is a professional athlete, though focus is almost entirely off court in the two I have read. Taking a break before reading the third. Vivid, unique characters, great emotional growth, and great sexy times. Should have been edited down a little, and I don’t like the third act crisis we often find in this genre, but there is not too much time spent on the discord, so not that big a deal. Assume I heard about them from @DDD – may her reign never end – though these are not as angsty as her usual sports favs.
Started WHILE WE WERE DATING by Jasmine Guillory – M/F contemporary, F is a movie star. MMC is a little too slick for me so far, but I haven’t given up. Writing is upbeat and I like the way characters acknowledge and work through challenges Black people face in society – it’s not swept under the rug.
Also started WHEN HE DARES by Suzanne Wright, the new Olypus Pride book in that series. More of the same, but it’s a very good same.
Also have been doing reread of Murderbot novellas and am now ready to jump into full-length books. Very nervous about how these books will fare on T.V. Very nervous, indeed.
Met the author, Alden Wicker, of a book I use in my work that I like a lot, TO DYE FOR – HOW TOXIC FASHION IS MAKING US SICK – AND HOW WE CAN FIGHT BACK, and I liked her just as much as I enjoyed the book. It ends with recommendations for how you can protect yourself and your family from the toxics in many clothes. If you or your loved ones have chemical sensitivities, have any underlying health issues, or if you just want to make the best choices you can, I highly recommend it.
Happy reading, peeps!
What Feasts at Night by T. Kingfisher: Equal parts funny and terrifying. This is a follow-up to What Moves the Dead, and I’d advise reading that first. ‘Moves’ sets up the world-build and Alex is still dealing with what happened in that book. At 139 pages, I read it in a day.
Hold on…HONK…the kid and I both sick…honk.
FML. I was supposed to go see Mandy Patinkin tonight. Sigh.
Anyway, I jumped things off with One of Us Knows by Alyssa Cole (which I think comes out next month). Very interesting little gothic horror, with the fact that the protagonist has dissociative identity disorder (DID), and the different personalities have different sets of information, but if they’re not communicating, the clues are useless. I have to figure she studied up on DID, because her interplay between the different personas was fluid and mostly easy-to-follow, with all of them having reasonably different narrative voices. Cole is also always good at being very pointy about race and gender and the politics of power around those things, and several of the lines made me laugh. Then I went on to Housebroke by Jaci Burton. The dogs in the book were all Very Good Dogs, and there was some nice humor throughout the book, but it all felt a bit…slight. It filled the time until my current read came out, The Prisoner’s Throne by Holly Black. Look, Elfhame is always going to be my jam. It’s just such a lushly written world, and the court politics and violence are top-notch. I will say, when Oak thought that his sister’s problem-solving style was that “there was no problem that couldn’t be solved with murder”, I damn near did a Breakfast Club fist-pump. In addition, I’m listening to A Rome of One’s Own by Emma Southon. I enjoy her arch humor, and there’s always something gratifying about learning about the underrepresented historical figures, which the women of Rome definitely were. So until next time, may you be able to breathe through your nose, because it’s a privilege.
I’ve had very little luck with the romance I’ve tried to read lately, usually not making it past the first few chapters. But I did read one book that was very good: HEAD OVER HEELS by Elyse Springer, which must have been recommended by someone here. It’s the story of two college-aged competitive divers, one of whom has been aiming at the Olympics since he was seven or so and the other of whom fell into diving almost accidentally two years previously and is mostly diving because it’s netted him a scholarship. They are very different, very damaged people, and their relationship unfolds, unusually, over the course of two years.
I don’t have an inherent preference for slow-burn romances per se; what I want are relationships that proceed at a pace that is correct for the situation and characters. Most romances I read do not do this; they all seem to go from nothing to deep commitment in a month, and to me this usually feels very unnatural. So I really, deeply appreciated that Springer let her story take two years. I didn’t completely buy some of the decisions she made to move her characters forward, but I was willing to go with it because these guys absolutely needed those two years. I had some other issues with the book that were similarly balanced by other things done very well; the secondary characters, in particular, were unusually well fleshed out.
Whoever recommended this awhile back, thank you. It was a good reminder of why I read romance at a time when a reminder was needed, and I appreciate it.
With too much work and travelling for work, I don’t have much to report on. Read the last in Grace Burrowes’ Rogues to Riches series, NEVER A DUKE (m/f Regency). This is finally Ned Wentworth’s story, and it has a few surprises with Ned’s past that comes to the fore and interesting heroine, Rosalind. This one again has a mystery at it’s heart and it takes a while to get going, but there came the moment where I couldn’t put it down anymore. Also, it’s a great slow-burn with the MCs learning to appreciate each other. There’s also a found family element and a lot of exploration of what family is – or isn’t. Which is also a theme throughout the series. Ned’s progressive (or seditionary…) political views, his respect for Rosalind and the fact he does embroidery all made me like him even more. It was definitely a great closure to the series, and we get a bit more of a glimpse again of how the other characters from the previous books are going on. Yes, it can be read on it’s own, but you definitely get more out of it by reading this series in the right order. There are things that go back to book one that are being alluded to and finally, we see just why it was so important to Ned to do what he did in book one, in which he already plays a crucial role.
I haven’t had much that I thought worth saying in a while, so I haven’t. But lately:
Seanan McGuire’s InCryptid series is one of my pre-order comfort read series. AFTERMARKET AFTERLIFE does not fit the brief. McGuire takes no prisoners when she has a story to tell, and I know that, and I’m still very invested. But I wish I’d known just how big a gut-punch this one was going to be, and maybe postponed it until some other stuff in my life was looming less large.
Robert Jackson Bennett’s THE TAINTED CUP was written specially for me (OK, no), so no surprise that I inhaled it. This is a fantasy mystery with great leads, a a great world, great everything. He says he started more Wolfe and Archie and ended up with the detective closer to Hannibal, but Wolfe and Archie still works for me. Can’t wait for more, may reread in the meantime.
Shannon Read’s WHY WE READ inevitably has stronger and weaker essays, but her piece on teaching vampire literature and why horror doesn’t work for her was worth the entire read in itself – I can read some horror, but it really gave me a lot to think about.
Also: “signs you may be a female character in a work of historical fiction: A stranger has walked up to you, explained how a system of transportation works, and left before you could further converse with him.”
My week has been sadly light on reading.
I’ve dipped back into EPIGRAMS FROM THE GREEK ANTHOLOGY translated by Gideon Nisbet, and have reached the erotic epigrams! 🙂 (They’re not especially graphic, so far.)
I started reading SOME DUKES HAVE ALL THE LUCK by Christina Britton while I was anxious, and it helped less than I hoped. The hero has an angsty background, and the heroine’s distress expresses itself as chest pain. I can’t tell if it’s meant to be heartache, acid reflux, or anxiety symptoms, but it’s stressing me out and I wish she’d visit a doctor. The circle of women she meets with seem cool but too numerous to throw at me all at once. It’s decent otherwise. The heroine is passionate about entomology, and I’m curious what’s up with the hero’s wards. (I’m only 2 chapters in.)
WORK IT OUT: A Mood-Boosting Exercise Guide for People Who Just Want to Lie Down by Sarah Kurchak is good but I’m moving very slowly thru it. I guess that’s appropriate since it’s about taking things at the pace you need to.
I just finished The Poppy War book 1, by RF Kuang, very good but grim, fantasy but based on a terrible historical period, and not at all a romance, and I needed a very different sort of book next, so currently reading Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherworlds.
On audio, I’m nearly finished with Children of Fallen Gods, by Carissa Broadbent, the second book in a series. I’m very much hoping for a peaceful quiet HEA for the two main characters because they’ve been through a LOT.
@kkw: Same here with SLOW HORSES, my heart belongs to this group that never makes the right or smart decision. I’m pleased to learn you like the narration of the books. Gerard Doyle narrates most of my favorite Irish thrillers and he’s excellent.
INDEXING by Seanan McGuire: This book languished for years in my TBR, so I bought the audio book and have loved every minute. A very smart story about fairy tale narratives that go live and the field team that tries to keep them from killing and mayhem. So much fun.
ANTARCTICA STATION by A.G. Riddle: A twisty tale of a doctor wrongfully accused to stealing drugs, then offered an alternative to jail by performing research in Antarctica. I had no idea what was going on for most of the book, but the ending was sublime.
THE FINE PRINT (Dreamland Billionaires Book 1) by Lauren Asher: I am skeptical about TikTok recommendations, but gave this a try because it’s about a thinly-veiled Disney World. Instant pants feelings: ok. Doing the right thing ultimately for park/studio employees: priceless, just wish it were true.
Just concentrating on my four- and five-star recommendations this month:
HAPPY PLACE by EMILY HENRY. M/F contemporary, forced proximity, second chance.
Oof, this is an angstfest. Quite a tough read and not quite what I was expecting after falling in love with Beach Read recently. It’s a well-written and heartfelt story but boy, do the protagonists have to work for their HEA. There were points in the book that I actually thought it might not happen for them but then that’s the joy of romance – you know they’ll get there eventually. I shall consider myself forewarned not to expect an easy ride from my next book by Ms Henry.
A TASTE OF GOLD AND IRON by ALEXANDRA ROWLAND. M/M paranormal, bodyguard, enemies to lovers.
This has been lurking on my Kindle for ages. I just needed to be in the right mood for fantasy which isn’t my favourite genre. But oh boy, this book hooked me in and wouldn’t let go. I loved, loved, loved the two MMCs: the beautiful chaotic prince who is so much more capable than he thinks and his stoic bodyguard. Plus there’s also a hint of a love triangle with an equally entertaining and loveable character (who has just got his own novella) and a cast of other likeable (real and found) family. God-tier pining, gorgeously written. Properly swoony. A million stars.
I have been saving DIAMOND RING by KD CASEY (M/M, baseball) and a wet week in March seemed like just the thing. And it is just as good as everyone says. However, I realised when I finished it that I hadn’t read UNWRITTEN RULES, her first book in the series. And you know what? I like it the best of all three. It’s a good job that I knew there would be an HEA because this book killed me and if it had been any other genre, I would have just put it down and walked away at one point. Dreamy.
And I am still working my way through KAJE HARPER’S Hidden Wolves series: book four is UNJUSTIFIED CLAIMS. It’s M/M paranormal, wolf shifters. This story, with elements of hurt/comfort, starts outside the main pack but they become involved part way through. It’s a well-constructed world, albeit not very pleasant (content warning – homophobia) but the story arc is developing nicely, so I will stay with it. The teaser chapter for book five features a character who doesn’t realise he is a shifter, so that looks like fun.
Happy reading all.
Over the past two weeks ~
— read Bride by Ali Hazelwood. The author has previously published contemporary romances and this is her first paranormal romance; I enjoyed it. The story features a female Vampyre who marries a Were (her people’s long time enemy) to forge an alliance. She also has an ulterior motive as she is trying to find her human friend who has disappeared.
— read Rise by Keira Andrews which was a pleasant gay fairytale retelling of Jack and the beanstalk.
— reread The Protector and Mismatched both by Cooper West; these are paranormal m/m romances.
— reread (and then immediately reread again) the contemporary romance, Lucky by Gigi DeGraham. It featured three teens in their last year of high school who have a polyamorous romance. This was a favorite find last year.
— enjoyed a couple of short male/male romance stories — Out in the Cold by Kiki Clark and Catching Starlight by Lisa Henry.
— stayed up late to read the latest book in a favorite series, Murder in Reproach by Anne Cleeland. I enjoyed it until it stopped with a very abrupt cliffhanger. I initially thought that I had downloaded a corrupt Kindle copy as I twice tried to continue reading. Then I checked the Table of Contents and saw that the book did indeed finish at that point. Drats.
— for my book group, read The Library Book by Susan Orlean. I enjoyed this non-fiction work that is about the massively destructive 1986 fire at the Los Angeles Public Library. It’s also a history of that library and has much to say about libraries in general. Everyone in the group liked or loved the book.
— A favorite author (Nathan Lowell) recommended A Space Girl from Earth (The Kyroibi Trilogy Book 1) by Christina McMullen. I found it a pleasant science fiction novel but am not compelled to read on in the series. This book is currently free for US Kindle readers.
— read two more books by author Gigi DeGraham which I quite enjoyed. The first, Prisoner (Steele Pack Book 1), seems to be a contemporary novel until a revelation in the last chapter. The story is about a teenager found guilty of murdering a man who is raping his sister. He serves some years in a juvenile facility (where he befriends/falls in love with another inmate) before being transferred to a prison. When the story begins, he is escaping. After finishing Prisoner, I read and enjoyed the sequel Fugitive (Steele Pack Book 2). Now I need to wait for the next book to be published.
@Star – I really enjoyed Springer’s Suckerpunch which is one of about three books in my fave sub-niche genre of paranormal sportsball. In the case of Suckerpunch, secret paranormals playing hockey. Head Over Heels is on my TBR.
It’s been a month since I last posted. I continue to enjoy following Laura Sackton’s Queer Your Year challenge. My reading was already very, very queer, but the prompts are encouraging me to expand my reading.
A Memory Called Empire by Arkady Martine (prompt: anti-colonial)
4.5 stars. I enjoyed this immersive space opera so much. Not sure why it took me so long to read it. There’s a very low key Sapphic romance (between an ambassador from a independent space station and her liaison in the capital planet of a giant space empire) but the focus is on the political intrigue.
Someone in Time: Tales of Time-Crossed Romance by Jonathan Strahan. (prompt: anthology)
4.5 stars. Enjoyable anthology of time travel romance short stories. I liked some more than others but the overall quality was good. I liked the range of pairings and variety of types of time travel. For genre romance readers, be warned that not all of the love stories have HEAs.
I bought this on sale for the Zen Cho story, which was quite good. My favorite was probably the story by Ellen Klages, a new to me author.
Quietly Hostile by Samantha Irby (prompts: A memoir by a Black author, queer humor)
4.0 stars. Entertaining book of essays that’s perfect commute reading.
Maurice by E.M. Forster (prompt: published posthumously)
3.5 stars. I wanted to like this gay classic more than I did – it was hard for me to get in to because I didn’t feel much emotional connection to any of the characters. But it’s a pretty amazing record of life for gay men in Edwardian England.
A Fragile Enchantment by Allison Saft (prompt: Chronically ill protagonist)
3.0 stars. Meh. YA fantasy bi romance about a poor, magical seamstress hired to dress a cranky prince for his upcoming wedding.
I wanted to like this more than I did but both the world building and the main characters annoyed me. I probably would have been less annoyed with the world building if it’d been set in ALT Regency England and Ireland with magic instead of in two made up countries that are very, very obvious stand-ins for England and Ireland. I think for the right reader, this would be a fun, fluffy commoner-rescues-stuffy-royal type romance with bonus bi and disability rep, but it didn’t work for me. I was so bored I kept skimming ahead.
My favorite reads since the last WAYR were Travis Baldree’s LEGENDS & LATTES and BOOKSHOPS & BONEDUST. I didn’t realize that cozy fantasy was just what I needed, but these so were. Just lovely.
Maryann Jordan’s ALWAYS A HERO is a love after loss story in her Baytown Heroes romantic suspense series, and was well done.
TRADED, an m/m baseball romance by Kimberly Knight and Rachel Lyn Adams is not one I can recommend. Aside from the fact that it ends on a cliffhanger, the whole thing also somehow felt like it was written by someone not truly familiar with being queer, and I felt very uncomfortable as a reader. It felt like reading those books written by men trying to write women but who don’t put even the slightest effort into truly understanding them first. Obviously YMMV…
I followed it up with SWITCH-HITTER by EM Lindsey, an m/m contemporary story about a baseball player and a bodyguard turned chef who have somewhat twisted connection and who end up romantically involved. Player Pietro Bassani and Thierry Bourget met when Pietro was dating Thierry’s friend/employer, and hadn’t seen each other for quite some time after that.
EM Lindsey’s characters are interesting, and I enjoyed seeing their physical and emotional imperfections and felt those well portrayed. Pietro’s ADHD and Thierry’s concerns from a spinal cord injury definitely impact their daily lives, and affect their overall landscape.
Switch-Hitter kept my attention, and I am interested to read more by this author.
Finally, I just started Richard Osman’s Thursday Murder Club, thanks to recommendations here!
@Lace I picked up my copy of AFTERMARKET AFTERLIFE on Tuesday, and I immediately looked to see who was featured in the novella at the back of the book – which immediately told me a major character had died in the main story. I was shocked to learn that, and then the second death came as such a surprise. And the ending left me a bit frustrated: what happened in the six months’ jump? Such a build-up to the big plan, and we don’t even know if it worked. I am wondering where Seanan McGuire will take the series now. Will we get another story from Mary’s POV, and can anyone help Artie?
After seeing recommendations from Jo Walton and several others on GoodRead, I bought a copy of Rosemary Kirstein’s THE STEERSWOMAN. I did not find the story or the characters that interesting, but I hung on despite the increasing violence, until one of the MC murdered a teenaged victim of sex trafficking so she couldn’t identify the MCs to her wizard keepers – despite a third character out searching for his sister, taken from their town by a wizard. Even though that was in the last few chapters, I DNF’d that book so hard, and I’m frustrated that I bought it. Also frustrated that no one in the reviews I read thought to mention either that murder or all the other violent deaths.
I’m currently reading Yangsze Choo’s THE FOX WIFE, set in Manchuria in 1908. I have avoided reading blurbs and reviews, so I don’t know where the story is going, but it’s fascinating so far (CW for death of a child [remembered by the FMC], threats of sexual assault, and descriptions of foot-binding.)
@flchen1: I had exactly the same response to TRADED: it seemed as if it would be right in my wheelhouse—an m/m baseball romance featuring the antagonists-to-lovers and enforced proximity tropes? Yes please! But the story didn’t flow as either a romance or a book about baseball. It was a DNF for me.
I just started BRIDE by Ali Hazelwood and it’s delicious. One of those books where I don’t want to pick it up again until I can really dive deeply into it to get immersed in the story.
I just finished SIMPLY THE BEST by Susan Elizabeth Phillips and it was a satisfying and fun addition to her Chicago Stars series, but you will be craving artisanal chocolate truffles before the end. You’ve been warned!
I just got a copy of “A Tempest of Tea” by Hafsah Faizal from the library, so I’m looking forward to that one. Still in a reading slump, tbh, so I’m hoping this one will be good enough to help me break out of it. My reading always drops off in Ramadan, though (which starts tonight!). Reading non-religious books just doesn’t feel right then. 🙂
I binged the first 5 ELLIE JORDAN, GHOST TRAPPER books by JL Bryan but wished the author had stayed with the individual haunted houses for a few more before ramping up to Big Bads so quickly. Finally caved and jumped on the Sarah J Maas train with A COURT OF THORNS AND ROSES yesterday and couldn’t put it down. Sadly I have several commitments today and can’t just read like I would prefer to.
Currently on a reading wane rather than wax, alas.
Continuing from last month I started book 2, CURSE OF THE PHAROAHs by Elizabeth Peters, but have stalled around 40%. I think it’s because the MC’s inability to consider herself anything other than right started to grate too much on me.
I went for a re-read to pick back up, with A TASTE OF GOLD AND IRON by Alexandra Rowland, and I echo AnneUK’s enthusiasm above. It was just as good second time round, and I love how both MC’s develop over the book, both in themselves and in their relationship. Plus great world-building and non-romantic relationships. Mmmm.
I then started CONSORT OF FIRE by Kit Rocha as the sample I read had me intrigued. It was going well and I was intrigued by the world and how the two FMCs will achieve their task, but I’ve stalled about 70% after the sex scenes started to feel more like sex-sex-sex and less like character developing scenes, and I didn’t like the way characters viewed or talked to/about each other.
I’ve nearly finished Zen Cho’s SPIRITS ABROAD anthology, and Cho does a great job of crafting the character’s voice so that it leaps off the page.
Will I or won’t I DNF the two above? Will I try something new or retreat to another re-read? Your guess is as good as mine at the moment!
HIDE ME AMONG THE GRAVES by Tim Powers
Aftee the MY BROTHER’S KEEPER review on this here site, I realized I’ve never read Tim Powers before. HIDE ME AMONG THE GRAVES is a sequel to an earlier work about vampires and the Romantic poets. This time, it’s vampires and the Rosetttis and some effed up family dynamics. There’s a sweet romantic subplot too. Loved it.
Now off to read THE STRESS OF HER REGARD.
For my Amazon First Reads I picked a book called WHAT IS LOVE by Jen Comfort. It will be available on April 1st-and I LOVED it! When I first saw it I thought it was a take on a song, but no-it’s about trivia and it is absolutely delightful. The protagonists (M/F) are prickly but lovable, and the plot of a trivia contest (which I am a huge fan) feels totally authentic. Can’t recommend more highly!
@Liz CHIRP audiobooks has a special on R F Kuang’s POPPY WAR Trilogy with all three audiobooks bundled for $4.99US. I also stopped reading after I finished the first book a couple of years ago due to the grim, but now that I have the set on audio, the series is up next.
Still reading a lot of Harlequin, especially Medical. One stood out: Ali and the Rebel Doc by Emily Forbes. Part of a series set at an Australian hospital but can be read as a stand-alone.Finally, a romance where the heroine does not want children and the hero is fine with it. I love kids, well, obviously since I’m a pediatrician and I have kids of my own, and I am happy for people who want and have children. I also know that there are women who do not want kids for various reasons and that’s fine, too. I am happy to see them being given representation. Especially since the heroine is Chief of OB, someone you would think would want kids. Liked the book, too.
Another one I liked, not a Harlequin and more mystery than romance, though it has romance, was All On a Pewter Sea. Set in the Hebrides, the heroine is Second Officer on a ship; the Second Engineer is someone she has a fairly dark history with in childhood. They start as enemies. She hears an emergency call while on her own small boat and rescues him. He tells her that something seemed fishy about an errand he was running for a friend, And off we go. Lots of ship life, and Gaelic, and music and a very competent heroine.
Finally read the fourth book in Samantha Whiskey’s Billionaire’s Game, Crossland. Fake relationship nicely done. Can be a stand-alone. Enjoyed it, liked the main characters, the billionaire and the struggling young woman raising a sister.
@Vicki, I go through Harlequin Medical binges every once in a while. Amalie Berlin’s are some of my faves.
After a sequence of meh reads, I tackled Hexed in Show by Gretchen Galway and found it a satisfying combination of cozy mystery and witchcraft-centered paranormal. This is the sixth in the Sonoma Witches series and works best if it is read in series order. While characterization, dialog, and world building are well done in this series, it does suffer somewhat from plot holes and illogic in the magical system. The central character, Alma Bellrose is supposed to be extremely powerful, but she do get her butt kicked a lot. I believe Sonoma Witches was one of the earlier entries in the witchy paranormal trend, but, imo, Galway’s books have not really gotten the attention that they deserve. I really loved some of her earlier romances.
I also read Emergency Contact by Lauren Layne & Anthony LeDonne, a 2nd chance, road trip tale, combining one of my least favorite tropes with my most favorite trope. I got quite a few snort laughs out of this tale of exes mired in bad luck, harsh weather, holiday dissonance, and forced proximity. I really enjoyed the intelligent writing, though I had some issues with the handling of the FMC’s devotion to her career and the MMC’s having gone all nuclear on their marriage because of it.
I’d preordered Olivia Dade’s At First Spite and then kept misplacing it in my Kindle Library, so I decided to tackle it next. The cover of this one is really cute, but a bit misleading. Despite that arched eyebrow and the crossed arms, the MMC is only mildly sardonic; he is mostly full of lawful good and kinda Dudley Do-Rightish. I really loved Matthew. It quickly becomes obvious that he is at heart a nurturer with an abundance of kindness. Athena, on the other hand, was a problem for me. She is clever and funny and has genuine issues that I could empathize with, but none of that was enough to completely overcome her reasons for becoming engaged to Johnny in the first place. Even Johnny’s proven assholery didn’t excuse it. There is also a content warning-worthy description of mental health issues nestled among the small town charm and humor. Overall, the book is entertaining, and has a great setting and a stellar cast of secondary characters supporting the central couple.
After my mixed feelings about At First Spite, it was a real comfort to fall into the familiar patterns of J. D. Robb’s Random in Death. No big surprises and definitely not a cozy, yet still and always a comfort read for me. I find the conventions of the In Death series very soothing, but I was particularly glad that I didn’t have to spend a lot of time in the killer’s head.
Finally, finally–Paladin’s Faith lifted me out of the reading doldrums and steered me to Paladin’s Hope which had been languishing in my TBR. The result: a double dose of Kingfisher excellence in an outstanding series. Both these fantasy romances hit all the high points of fine characterization, plotting that is both solid and complex, road trips full of swash and buckle, slow burns that sizzled like sleet on a griddle, and imaginative world building. I feel like there’s too much violence for a cozy, but all the necessary elements for perfect comfort reads, and that sums up the difference between cozy and comfort reads in my mind. Cozy is a subgenre with specific conventions; comfort is determined by the emotional needs of the reader. For me, comfort trumps cozy every time.
Sitting around with a broken foot, so I needed to “go” to Three Pines: ALL ThE DEVILS ARE HERE and THE MADNESS OF CROWDS. Louise Penny now seems to write 2 different kinds of Gamache books, the regular mysteries and the huge conspiracy/thriller kind. All The Devils was the conspiracy thriller kind and although I love the characters, the plot was full of ridiculousness. I very much enjoyed The Madness…, though, which was a more traditional murder mystery.
Read BLOOD SALT WATER by Denise Mina — not my favorite Denise Mina. Just didn’t grab me.
THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD by Colson Whitehead was amazing. What a fantastic author. Tough but important to read. I’m always knocked out by writers who can wield language so powerfully but with simple elegance.
THE UNRAVELING OF CASSIDY HOLMES by Elissa Sloan is about a former girl group (Think Bangles or Spice Girls) who break up; years later they reunite when one of the group dies (TW: Suicide). Melancholy, with a look at the way fame can break your heart and make you a different person.
Hoping to get the “You don’t need foot surgery” word from the doctor later this week….fingers crossed.
@DiscoDollyDeb, glad to see your thoughts on Traded too, and glad you saved yourself the grief of reading more! I’m thankful there are plenty of other books with which to console myself, LOL.
@Big K — Thanks so much! Glad you are enjoying the series.
@Carol S.: Sending good wishes that you can avoid surgery and that your foot will heal well.
This month I’ve only read 2 books (so far), Last Call at the Local (by Sarah Grunder Ruiz) and What is Love (by Jen Comfort). I enjoyed both of them, and have started Luck and Last Resorts (also by Sarah Grunder Ruiz… I’m going to work through her books backwards).
I don’t think I’ve commented since sometime last year – so hi everyone, I have been reading all your recommendations and comments. The last month or so has been a mixed bag reading wise. I had a couple of longish flights so I was able to tackle a fair number of books. Here’s a quick summary
VERY GOOD:
ONLY HARD PROBLEMS Jennifer Estep. I’ve been up and down on other series that I’ve read by Estep, but this one has really been working for me and I’m anticipating the next one in the series eagerly.
GOOD:
DEMON DAUGHTER, Lois McMaster Bujold. I was mildly disappointed with this newest novella in Bujold’s Penric and Desdemona series. I found the six-year-old “demon” daughter overly wise for her age – she felt very plot moppet. And I think Bujold is beginning to fall in love with Penric to detriment of his character. But even a flawed Bujold story is a good story.
THE SITCOM STAR and THE RELUCTANT HEARTTHROB, Jackie Lau. Lau did a kickstarter for these books. I enjoyed them both although I felt THE SITCOM STAR was the stronger and better developed story. (My kickstarted package also contain the short story, “Welcome to Millfield,” which was fine, but felt too short.)
THE NIGHT ISLAND, Jayne Ann Krentz. It’s JAK and for some reason I just find her books a comfort read, even when recognizing that she is just recycling plots, tropes, characters, etc.
FLAWED, MIGHT WORK FOR SOMEONE ELSE
AT FIRST SPITE, Olivia Dade. Dade is someone that for the most part I like, but sometimes I just bounce off her books and that’s what happened with AT FIRST SPITE. The set-up was intriguing, and parts of the book were very well written. However, I became increasingly uncomfortable with romance – by the end it felt like the MMC/MFC were sliding into a similar unhealthy dynamic that the MMC had had with his younger brother (protector/protected). There just were so many issues and plot points in this book that too much was left hanging or underdeveloped and this one of key issues.
REREADS THAT ARE STILL GREAT
THE UNKNOWN AJAX, Georgette Heyer
HEADLINERS, THE AUSTEN PLAYBOOK, Lucy Parker