Hey, all! It’s our last Whatcha Reading for March. Here’s how we’re closing out the month:
Lara: I’ve just started the latest Emily Wilde book. ( A | BN | K | AB ) I’m only a couple pages in but my hopes are high!
Sarah: I am reading The King’s Messenger by Susanna Kearsley. ( A | BN | K | AB ) It’s set in 1613 so it’s perfect for my wanting to read books set “not here, not now.”
It’s set during a politically and culturally volatile time, which also resonates for some reason.
Elyse: I’m currently on a 9 hour road trip (not the driver lol) and we’re listening to Fathomfolk. ( A | BN | K ) It’s an underwater fantasy novel where aquatic creatures (mermaids, sirens, water dragons) are second class citizens to humans.
The main characters are a rebel and a half-siren who is the first Folk member of the military.
Shana: I’m reading A Quantum Love Story by Mike Chen ( A | BN | K | AB ) and loving it so far!
Claudia: I’m on another reading lull! Nothing feels worth finishing.
Tara: I’ve been reading Sweet Home Alabarden Park by TJ O’Shea and absolutely loving it. Also, I’ve been reading The Vanquishers by Kalynn Bayron ( A | BN | K | AB ) with my 10 year old and it’s super fun. We’re both really enjoying that one.
Carrie: I’m reading This Wretched Valley by Jenny Kiefer. ( A | BN | K | AB ) It’s a serviceable horror/thriller that would be much better if we got to know the character before they started dying off.
So, whatcha reading? Let us know in the comments!
I’ve been on a fantasy romance reading binge lately. Of those books, the following were the most memorable:
WOOING THE WITCH QUEEN by Stephanie Burgis. A fun and easy read that would have been forgettable except it inverted a lot of fantasy romance tropes. In a sea of fantasy romance shadow-daddies, the MMC was a kind man who started powerless and grew into his power over the course of the book, while the FMC was a powerful witch-queen branded as evil by opposition forces. I just wish the FMC had started the book a little more evil! When am I going to get a shadow-mama?
TEARS OF THE WOLF by Elisabeth Wheatley. You can tell the author did her research and drew heavily from Viking and Anglo-Saxon history. I enjoyed the unexpected depths to the story and the complexity of the main characters. In a genre where books often stitch together a series of pseudo-historical tropes, the setting, major and minor characters and stakes all felt very real. Can’t wait for the next one in the series!
WICKED ABYSS by Kresley Cole in the Immortals After Dark series. This book had everything that would usually have me rolling my eyes and DNFing: it is yet another take on Beauty and the Beast and begins with a comically large power, age and size difference between the MMC and FMC. However because the FMC was shown to be intelligent and resilient (rather than the author just telling us that she is) and was able to achieve her goals under her own steam, I really enjoyed it. I’ve read a few books in the After Dark series at this point and was getting bored of the alphahole MMCs, but this book pulls it off well.
Currently reading ONYX STORM, which is, uh, something. TBH even though I read the first two books only about 6-8 months ago I’d forgotten a lot so I spent the first quarter totally and completely lost, for the first couple chapters I even wondered if I had missed a book and had to look it up? I dunno, it’s just careening along and I do want to keep reading but it’s also so messy.
RE some earlier comments & today’s post, I re-read THE SHADOWY HORSES by Susannah Kearsley which I absolutely loved when I first read it – maybe 10-12 years ago? Sadly it did not hold up quite as well, I found it much more sexist than I remembered and pretty dated/inappropriate in the work stuff. So that was a bummer. Sometimes I think it’s better not to read stuff I loved in the past!
I also read three Hannah Bonhan-Young books, OUT ON A LIMB (liked a lot!); OUT OF THE WOODS (pretty good, though I also just wanted to shake both MCs and send them to therapy); and NEXT TO YOU, which I did not like, MMC was too perfect and FMC needed therapy not a relationship.
DNFd THIS WILL BE FUN because I just couldn’t with all the magical equivalents of modern tech stuff even though I typically really like the trope of “what happens to the heroes later”.
For non-fiction, I read ON LOOKING by Alexandra Horowitz, which was pretty interesting – she walks around her block in NYC with all these different experts and they show her different things that she never noticed. Like, a geologist shows her fossils in the building blocks, and a doctor shows her various health problems he can diagnose by watching people walk, and her toddler points out random things she doesn’t notice like vents on the sides of buildings, and an animal expert shows her all the traces of animals around (mostly rats TBH).
I’ve been chasing the absolute high of Sara Donati’s books ever since I finished the ninth one in mid-February and I can’t find a single damn thing that even comes close to the bar she set. It’s frustrating!
@S – DNFd THIS WILL BE FUN because I just couldn’t with all the magical equivalents of modern tech stuff
Ditto. Or, rather, I indecisively stopped listening to the audiobook for this reason and your comment gives me the fortitude I need to just put the book behind me once and for all.
Read and enjoyed Tomb of Dragons, though did have some feelings about the romantic arc.
Read Sarah Grunder Ruiz’s Last Call at the Local. She writes really well, but I found the ADHD rep clichéd and a bit naïve. Not an author I would read again.
Read Jenny Crusie’s new Honey Pot Plot, the last of the Rocky Start books. Loved the writing and the characters but the plot is a lot.
Read or re-read all the Astreiant series, which were lovely.