Happy Saturday! We’re wrapping up September with our second Whatcha Reading of the month. Here’s how we’re capping off our own TBR piles this week:
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Shana: I just finished the perfect low-stress read, Luke and Billy Finally Get a Clue by Cat Sebastian. ( A | BN | K | AB ) It had all the cozy queer midcentury vibes!
I’m also reading Maya’s Laws of Love by Alina Khawaja ( A | BN | K ) where the main couple meet on a ill-fated flight to the heroine’s wedding. I loved the road trip through Switzerland and Pakistan especially because it involved quite a few Crash Landing on You references. But now I’ve hit one of my least favorite tropes, the dreaded love triangle.
Elyse: I’m reading An Academy for Liars. ( A | BN | K | AB ) It’s a dark academia fantasy about a secret school for people with magical abilities and it reminds me a lot of Olivie Blake’s Atlas Six.
I’ve been super into dark academia lately I think in part because it’s spooky season, but also I loved college and the academic setting in general.
Lara: I absolutely devoured the Ilona Andrews Hidden Legacy trilogy that Sarah recommended to me in the last WhatchaReading post. Urban fantasy is just so damn good.
Or at least, this one is.
Tara: I’m reading The Duke’s Sister and I by Emma-Claire Sunday and I’ve been really enjoying it. I mean, yes, Dukes are problematic (where did they get that money???), but it has a lot of good things going for it so far including a strong consideration of gender politics and even class politics in the UK’s upper echelons.
Susan: I’m reading This Gilded Abyss by Rebecca Thorne, which is basically a lesbian lovers to enemies (to lovers?) response to the Bioshock franchise and I am very excited. I’m really hoping that it leans into the survival horror of its premise — it can’t tease me with ex-girlfriends trapped underwater with potential killers and NOT go survival horror, right?
I’m not kidding about the Bioshock thing by the way. It’s got the glitz and style and stark class differences already, before we even get to The Horrors, and also this is the dedication:
Sneezy: I forget if I mentioned this webtoon before, but Want To See My Cat? Is quickly shaping up to be one of my favourite webtoons.For anyone who fought for your life in Rapture.
Glad to know I’m not the only one scarred by that game.
It has such great humour, I really enjoy its take on regression, it neatly side steps so many misogynistic tropes that’s been rampant in webtoons, the main characters are so caring towards each other, and the animals are ADORABLE.
Dear, Not Cunning Witch is a new arrival and I SUUUUUPER excited about where the story is going. It has some violent scenes, which aren’t explicit, but you know what’s happening.
Whatcha reading? Let us know in the comments!
Good gravy, how is it time for WAYR already, LOL?!
I really enjoyed Lauren Gallagher’s PLAYMAKER, a f/f hockey romance with a rivals to lovers feel to it. She does a great job with both on-ice and off-ice action, and the pages flew by.
Maryann Jordan’s LOGAN is the start to a new spinoff for her Lighthouse Security Investigations series, and is a solid romantic suspense. Looking forward to more in this series.
And have been binging BA Tortuga’s m/m cowboys with families stories on Hoopla—TWO OF A KIND, TWO COWBOYS AND A BABY, EVER THE SAME, REAL WORLD, COWBOY’S LAW, TRIAL BY FIRE… I enjoyed all of them.
Hope you’re all well, and can’t wait to see what everyone else is reading!
I haven’t read anything truly excellent, nor anything truly terrible of late. Although Peckham’s THE MISTRESS EXPERIENCE is dragging in the middle so badly that it might sink under the frothy implausibility. You gotta keep it moving if you want to skate atop. I haven’t given up hope, but it’s not looking good. I am trying to stick with it in solidarity with my younger self, who would have given a lot for a romance with a sexually experienced female lead who was actually sexually experienced. Also, there’s a trunk full of sex toys, and if this one doesn’t get used (still bitter about that betrayal, Murphy & Simone, MERRY LITTLE MEET CUTE and that whole series is scorched earth) I will riot.
I have gone down the rabbit hole of Gabaldon’s Lord John mysteries. I couldn’t hack the Outlander series. I didn’t care about the main characters, did not enjoy all the rape -did not enjoy any of the rape, in fact – and thought the structure of the novel had all the tension of a toddler’s attempt at narration. Interesting historical research and cool overall premise, but just a slog of a book, no desire to carry on. These are different. Lord John is an entertaining dick, and so far the sexual violence (of course there’s still lots) is purely background. The books assume but do not require that I should care about the Outlander protagonists, but they’re rarely on page. I gather the glimpses are meant to be a treat, rather than a minor distraction. At least Jamie is canonically nothing but a fantasy for a refreshing change (even if I remain unmoved by how very large and how extremely red haired he is). Claire, also aptly, is basically an uninteresting mass of nice curly hair, so my take and Lord John’s align nicely. The books are shorter, and there’s less dialect, and a solvable mystery providing a semblance of plot. I am pretty damn happy about this series.