Welcome back to Get Rec’d!
There’s a big variety today between fiction and non-fiction, from history to picture books. We’re also approaching Volume 69 (nice)! Thank you all for chiming in with your recent recommendations and especially if any of these suggestions interest you or are a perfect match for someone in your life.
Have you received any great reading recommendations lately? Please share in the comments!
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The Game of Hearts
For those who have loved Carrie’s columns: Real Life Romance and Kickass Women in History, this one may be up your alley!
Meet the Real Women of Regency Romance
Fans of the Bridgerton books and Jane Austen will love Felicity Day’s collection of true stories from women who have lived and loved in Regency England.
Welcome to London’s marriage season. Six high society women are preparing for the biggest moment of their lives: finding a suitable husband. But their stories aren’t what you may have read in historic romances by Julia Quinn or Georgette Heyer. In The Game of Hearts, go behind the drawing-room door with history author Felicity Day and delve into the competitive world of love, scandal, and fortune. With shocking revelations about London’s most eligible heiresses and the society they live in, you’ll see British history and love stories from a whole new perspective.
May the best lady win. For our six privileged debutantes, life wasn’t like a Regency romance; they had to work for their happily ever after. Even if it meant competing with dozens of other women who want the same thing. By using the letters, diaries, and other confessions from our heroines, Felicity Day shares how they and many other Regency women combined attraction with practicality to navigate upper-class British society, known as the ton, and its courtship rituals. And with obstacles such as scandals, rakes, and social warfare, you’ll discover how love and success may not always win, but perseverance shall.
Discover more true stories from real Regency heroines, including:
- How the survival of Britain’s elite families depended on their children’s marriages
- What really happened during a grand ball and promenade
- How the game of conversation and attraction unfolded between a lady and her suitor
- What became of those who did and did not secure a match
So if you liked historic women biographies like Jane Austen at Home, The Palace Papers, or A Room of Their Own, then you’ll love The Game of Hearts.
Add to Goodreads To-Read List →
This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!The Game of Hearts by Felicity Day
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Goblin Mode
I love how we’re all embracing “goblin mode” into our present day lexicon. This is a cute, little gift book for those of us who like to get cozy and rot on the weekends.
Embrace your inner goblin! Learn to decorate, dress, craft, forage, and live according to the goblin principles of community, diversity, and joyful mess.
Do you ever feel strange, gross, chaotic, underappreciated, or like you don’t quite fit in? Great news: you might be a goblin! That means your imperfections and idiosyncrasies are the most awesome things about you, and you can build a more harmonious life by accepting and honoring them—taking inspiration from the frogs, fungi, moss, rocks, and dirt that goblins love.
Goblin Mode includes life advice for celebrating physical and mental diversity, rejecting prejudice, and generally hanging on to a little joy. Can a mushroom give you fashion tips? Can a snail teach you to be a happier person? You bet they can—and in this book you’ll also learn to:
- Create a moss garden for your lair
- Grow and use medicinal plants
- Forage for berries (even in the city)
- Mend your cozy sweaters
- Display your cool rock collection
- And more!
Featuring 25 whimsical illustrations by Marian Churchland, Goblin Mode will help you rethink your relationship with your self, your home, your community, and the earth.
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This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!Goblin Mode by McKayla Coyle
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My Daddy Is a Cowboy
This picture book is worth all the buzz; I feel like I’ve been seeing prepub news about this for months. I especially like the color palette and how bright and lively it is.
A young girl and her father share an early morning horseback ride around their city in My Daddy Is a Cowboy, a picture book celebration of “just-us time,” perfect for fans of My Papi Has a Motocycle.
Tall. High as the clouds.
Strong as a horse’s back.
Like a cowboy.In the early hours before dawn, a young girl and her father greet their horses and ride together through the waking city streets. As they trot along, Daddy tells cowboy stories filled with fun and community, friendship, discovery, and pride. Seeing her city from a new vantage point and feeling seen in a new way, the child discovers that she too is a cowboy—strong and confident in who she is.
Thoughtfully and lyrically written by debut author Stephanie Seales, with vibrant illustrations from award-winning artist C. G. Esperanza, this beautiful picture book is a celebration of Black joy, outdoor play, and quality time spent between child and parent.
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This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!My Daddy Is a Cowboy by Stephanie Seales
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NerdCrush
This is a nerdy, debut, YA romance with a main character who feels most confident while in cosplay.
Happily Ever Afters meets You’ve Got Mail in this geeky, Black Girl Magic filled debut romance about cosplay and finding the courage to be yourself.
Ramona Lambert is a typical shy, artistic sixteen-year-old. She has a best friend whom she’s known since they were in diapers; parents who love her; a love for cosplay; and a crush on the cute boy in her class.
The only problem? Her best friend moved away; her parents don’t quite understand her love of cosplay; and she is pretty sure her crush has no idea she exists.
To escape her troubles, Ramona turns to cosplay and her original character, Rel, who gives her the confidence and freedom that she lacks in real life. Embracing this confidence, she decides to strike up an email conversation with her crush, Caleb Wolfe, from her cosplay account in the hopes getting to know him . . . and maybe win his heart. Then as Caleb and Ramona are swept up in their emails back and forth to each other, and Ramona falls even harder as he opens up about his hopes, insecurities, and his own geeky loves. However, as Caleb starts to grow closer and closer to Rel, he also strikes up a friendship with Ramona, who knows she can’t keep the truth about Rel from Caleb but isn’t sure she is ready to risk losing him. With an important cosplay convention coming up and the anxiety of her double-life weighing on her, Ramona has to decide if she’ll hide behind her cosplay character forever or take the chance and let Caleb see the real her–because he might actually like her for who she is.
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This book is available from:
As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases.
We also may use affiliate links in our posts, as well. Thanks!NerdCrush by Alisha Emrich
The Oxford Inheritance by Ann M. McDonald Is 75 cents on Kindle right now. Elyse gave it a B+ in 2016.
Maria Vale’s Molly Molloy and the Angel of Death is currently 99 cents for US Kindle readers. I quite enjoyed this book.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BTPT4JB2/?coliid=I21QWLWEN82FL2&colid=3CSN0J6AJQZSR&psc=0&ref_=list_c_wl_lv_ov_lig_dp_it
Picturebooks & YA?
@Erica—the Get Rec’d posts are often non-romances that may appeal to romance readers for a variety of reasons. Also, there’s plenty of YA around these parts.
Along the same lines as The Game of Hearts, I picked up Bitches in Bonnets:Life lessons from Jane Austen’s Mean Girls by Sarah J. Makowski at my local indie bookstore recently.
I haven’t read much past the intro and the first chapter on Caroline Bingley (the original mean girl, it’s been said). It’s definitely a scholarly take on Austen. But so far the social and literary commentary is on point.