It’s our last Whatcha Reading of July. Here’s what we’re reading as we reach the end of the month:
Lara: Inspired by my best friend, I’ve been reading old Tessa Dare books obsessively and voraciously. It has brought me a tremendous amount of comfort with trumpetings of Good Book Noise.
Shana: I’m reading Single Player by Tara Tai. ( A | BN | K | AB ) I love the setting—a queer romance in a video game company—but I’m feeling kind of meh about enemies to lovers romances these days.
Amanda: I couldn’t get into The Governess Game by Tessa Dare. The heroine meets the hero for all of five minutes and spends her days fantasizing about marrying him. I’ve moved onto King of Wrath by Ana Huang, and that’s hitting much better. The dark and dark-adjacent romances are really doing it for me right now.
Susan: I’m reading The Silent Concubine by Qiang Tang and Bai Li Jun Xi, ( A | BN ) and I’m not sure how I feel about it. The translation is Bad, and the protagonist is both passive and oblivious, which is a bad combo in a palace intrigue book.
But the love interest is unhinged and I do want more queer palace intrigues, so…
Update: protagonist has lost his temper, none of the love interests were prepared for this
Sarah: I read Liars Like Us ( A | BN ) and the romance was missing from my romance novel. You know the unclean hands doctrine, where evidence is declared inadmissible because the means of acquiring it weren’t valid? This guy has, forgive me, unclean peen. Not that his peen is itself unclean (there is at least one shower scene) but everything about this relationship is supremely fucked because of how it began.
There was a lot of horniness though.
Elyse: I finally had to DNF Soulgazer ( A | BN | K | AB ) because after six chapters I still didn’t understand the magic system or the world. It felt like a lot of Romantasy word salad.
Lara: You lasted longer than I did. I made it about a chapter before I gave up.
Tara: I’m reading Relationship Material by Rachel Spangler and I’m enjoying it. It’s an f/nb romance and the author is nonbinary.
Susan: I’m also reading a webtoon called Sealed With Lips, and it’s very silly. The protagonist is on a revenge spree after being reborn, and there are regular reveals of new Horrors that she’s been through. But she and the love interest match each other’s level of ruthless and vengeful, and it’s very dramatic with all of the face-slapping, so I’m enjoying it
Whatcha reading? Let us know in the comments!
@DonnaMarie, so sorry about your dog (I’m leaving it as “your” dog as it sounds as if she was one of the dogs of your heart).
In my case, it’s more like “What have you been buying?”
I will never leave historical romance, but I (re)bought couple of Shel Silverstein’s books earlier this year. And now I just want to focus on expanding the classics and children’s classics sections of my book collection, as well as adding illustrated books and poetry.
Recent additions:
The Brothers Grimm
Alice in Wonderland/Though the Looking Glass
Persuasion
The Turnip Princess and other Modern Tales
Hans Christian Andersen
Black Beauty
Beauty and the Beast, by Marianne and Mercer Mayer
(Which is a beautiful illustrated retelling from 1978.)
Heidi
A Little Princess
The Secret Garden
A new copy of Sense and Sensibility
I did get a newer copy of Little Women, but it was only HALF of the book. I’ll have to try again in 2026.
My advice for those who want to collect nice editions classics and NOT break the bank: Consider getting the Puffin In Bloom or Word Cloud Classics collections. They are just as nice and as pretty as the B&N leatherbound classics. I would have saved myself a LOT of time and frustration had I known about these editions sooner.
Next on my to-buy list are more children’s illustrated books. And some poetry books, including Amanda Lovelace. (I’m aware of the trigger warnings.)
Other than that I haven’t done much reading this summer. Much like last year.
@fichen1 I read some of Barry’s nonfiction when I was young and found it quite funny. I had no idea until this month that he’d written any novels!
@Merle I haven’t read REFUSING COMPULSORY SEXUALITY yet, but it’s in my hoard of ebooks!