Happy Saturday! We’re speedily approaching the end of August. Here’s how we’re capping off the month:
Lara: I’ve torn myself away from Nalini Singh’s Guild Hunter series to try new-to-me authors. I’m reviewing Cynthia St. Aubin’s Love Bites ( A | BN | K | AB ) and Love Sucks. ( A | BN | K | AB ) I enjoyed both (ridiculous) books with some caveats. At the moment I am reading Love at First Fright by Nadia El-Fassi. I usually don’t enjoy books with twee cosy witches. I like my paranormals to have bite. This is a BDSM romance with ghosts though. The witch factor is secondary, so I’m sticking with it. Will report back!
Sarah: I was asked to blurb a book which is a rare request for me, so I am very excited.
It’s called Inequalities of Platform Publishing: The Promise and Peril of Self-Publishing in the Digital Book Era by Claire Parnell. ( A | BN )It’s going to be out later this year – I think October – from the University of Massachusetts Press.
From the book (which I am highlighting the heck out of) “This book investigates the contours of how platforms can act as gatekeepers, creating barriers to entry and equitable participation for historically marginalized authors through their technological, economic, social, and cultural structures.”
Plus I turn a page and think, “Oh! I know them!” Which I love, honestly.
Elyse: I’m reading Briefly Perfectly Human by Alua Arthur. ( A | BN | K | AB ) I have a family member in hospice, and Arthur is a death doula. It’s really helping me navigate the end of life process as it feels like something I’ve never really learned about.
Susan: I’m reading Twittering Birds Never Fly, ( A ) and having fun with it for the mystery/obsessively loyal yakuza BDSM, but also there have been three sex scenes in this volume. That is exactly as many sex scenes as there are bullet holes in one of the participants.
Sarah: It’s important to have balance.
Susan: Need to make sure the blood is still flowing correctly.
Shana: I’m reading Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski. I started it ages ago but wasn’t in the right space to read it. But it’s perfect for me now, I love the mix of science, self help, and feminist rage.
Amanda: I’m going through a manga/webtoon phase. Most of them have been eh, but I’m caught up on Suite Room de Amayakashi Yakuza to Futari Kiri. It’s a romance between a high-ranking yakuza and a hotel concierge. The characters fall in love pretty quickly and it’s a bit smutty (fair warning), but the hero surprisingly isn’t a domineering asshole and is just a sweet, cinnamon roll. It’s very much a “he falls first” scenario.
I’m also reading Butcher and Blackbird. ( A | BN | K ) I have some minor gripes about the age of the heroine, but otherwise I’m enjoying the blend of romance, dark humor, and body horror.
Susan: Oh, I started Suite Room and meant to go back to it! The female lead doing her best to be Unflappable is great.
Amanda: There are only six chapters out so far so it’s a quick catch up.
Kiki: I went to Lovestruck Books with some coworkers this week and picked up the translated version of The Cook of Castamar. I had started the Netflix series and was really taken with the setting and time period and wanted to read the book but when I looked a year or two ago it hadn’t been translated to English—but it has now!
Whatcha reading? Let us know in the comments!
I only managed to finish one book in the past two weeks, but it was quite a good one: Annika Martin’s THE KINGPIN’S CALL GIRL. Before she started publishing her popular Billionaires of Manhattan series of rom-coms, Martin published a number of rather dark romances–including a trilogy that featured three brothers who were part of the Albanian mafia. THE KINGPIN’S CALL GIRL is set in the same universe; it’s full of Albanian folklore, language, traditions, and food (the book is bursting with mouth-watering descriptions of delicious Albanian cuisine). When a corrupt cop forces college student Edie to pose as a call girl to obtain information about the Albanian mafia, Edie catches the eye of Luka, the newly-crowned kingpin. The two fall into what can only be described as a hate-fucking dynamic, fueled by mutual disdain and suspicion. If this was just the story of hate-to-love in a crime family, THE KINGPIN’S CALL GIRL would be a well-written but basic mafia romance; what puts the book a cut above most other mafia romances are the various backstories and subplots running throughout the story. There’s Edie’s missing sister, the catalyst for Edie’s transformation into a “call girl”; there’s the mystery of Luka’s origins and how he rose to the top of the organization; there’s the question of the motivation behind the cop’s increasingly unhinged behavior. All of these elements combine to create a suspenseful, genuinely engrossing story with the added benefit of a solid romance thrown in the mix. Recommended,
I’m reading DUNGEON CRAWLER CARL by Matt Dinniman.
Not sure what I will read after that. I have several cookbooks on my tablet that I’ve been meaning to look at for a long time, but I think cookbooks are one of those things that I prefer in print, especially in a spiral-bound book that I can lay flat on a table.
Looking forward to some cooler weather this week too. C’mon fall! 🙂
Apologies if this gets double posted. I got interrupted half way through.
Nothing too exciting to report. Just got through a boring(ish) stretch of WAR AND PEACE where Tolstoi did a lot of philosophizing about war, some which felt relevant and some which felt like an axe to grind with historians. We’re back in the gossipy society world now (even with the French army rapidly approaching) and he’s doing more of that delicious character work. There’s parts where I read this and am amazed. I feel much like Jane Austen, he gets so much about people and how human nature doesn’t change even though circumstances do.
Other than that one Sister Frevisse mystery, BASTARD’S TALE, which was very slow and had a lot of politics, but then it had a magnificent surprise ending that made me gasp out loud. Definitely not a good point to jump into the series. I was also surprised (and impressed) at how much was based on actual historical events, setting up some of the background for the War of the Roses. I like history but I’m not a historian or specialist so lots of time the details of something take me by surprise.
Also I keep plugging along with Faith Martin Ryder and Loveday cozy mystery series set in early 60s Oxford despite the fact I keep wanting to edit out all the exclamation points and head hopping. They’re fun and the last one ended in (somewhat) of a cliffhanger.
My work flow is really picking up, thanks to cold and flu season (I work in an urgent care) and intern training season, so my quiet work evenings of reading are probably gone. If you live in the US and want to get a covid shot this fall, it may be prudent to do it soon with the “evolving political situation” to put in polite terms. I do have a two day trip coming up. Calling it a vacation would be a stretch (visiting a family member who is going into a nursing home) but I’m not expected to do any driving, so I’m excited to bring my Kindle along and veg on the car ride portion.
It’s finally cooling off a bit here in Chicago – which is a nice relief. Our girls started their sophomore year of high school last week, and I’m still trying to squeeze out a bit more of summer. I took a day off to go to the beach and binge read Ilona Andrew’s new release, THE INHERITANCE. I had followed the story as a serial on their blog, and it was worth the purchase of the book when it came out. But so hard to wait for the sequel.
I finished Sara Donati’s INTO THE WILDERNESS series and reread A SWEET BLUE DISTANCE, which was my gateway book to the author, but I read out of order. It’s still my favorite so far, mostly because the setting in the west (Sante Fe just before the Civil War) was entirely new to me. If anyone has recommendations for US historical fiction/romance with a solid research base and not set in the Eastern US , send them my way.
I’ve reread Ashley Weaver’s ELECTRA MCDONNELL series to catch up for the new/last book ONE FINAL TURN, which I’m now listening to. As someone mentioned recently, this book is heavy on the romance piece, which has been fine. But I’m 75% of the way through and wondering how all the series story bits will get tied together.
I thoroughly enjoyed the audiobook for THE IRRESISTIBLE URGE TO FALL FOR YOUR ENEMY by Bridgette Knightley. The readers were excellent. I laughed out loud many, many times. There’s very good word play. The characters grew towards one another. This doesn’t have a cliffhanger, but it’s not neatly resolved as there’s another book coming with the same leads.
I started listening to THE UNDERCUTTING OF ROSIE AND ADAM by MEGAN BANNEN. It’s moving a touch slow for me, so I’ve set it aside for the moment.
KINGS OF THE WYLD by Nicolas Eames has been in my TBR pile for long time. I finally started it. It’s goofy and heartwarming. I’m enjoying the complicated and yet caring relationships between the men of Saga, and the theme of feeling age creep up on you.
I’ve done a bunch of rereads of Shelley Laurenston’s PRIDE series and THE CALL OF CROWS. Those are easy to pick up and get pulled into.
I don’t have a lot of pressing TBRs at the moment – so here’s hoping I can find some good books to lead into the Fall.
The good news is that my headspace is finally letting me read things that aren’t quite so dark. The bad news is that looking over these notes, I feel like I’m giving people reasons to not read books as opposed to reasons to read books. At least it’s progress. I’m looking forward to hearing what you’ve been reading!
The Man from Stone Creek (A Stone Creek Novel Book 1) by Linda Lael Miller (KU)
bingo: western
I picked this one up because I’ve been reading a lot of mafia flavored romance lately, and I thought I’d balance the scales by reading a romance with a lawman instead. Set in the early 1900s, our hero is an Arizona Ranger going undercover as a schoolteacher to find a gang of outlaws operating near the Mexico border. He finds himself attracted to the sister of one of his students, despite having an “understanding” with a woman back home. It’s a fine slow-burn romance, but annoyed me in spots. Apparently, him having an all-but-fiancee feels a little too much like cheating for me to be comfortable, and the way the book handled it didn’t help. Explaining that is going to need a spoiler tag.
For the record, there’s attraction but the leads don’t act on it until pretty late in the book. So, I guess technically not cheating, but if we are going to be arguing technicalities, and that’s something that matters to you, just skip this one.
A Little Too Late (Madigan Mountain) by Sarina Bowen (KU)
bingo: 30+ main characters, small town, inclement weather
A Hallmark channel movie in book form. She’s the assistant manager of a ski resort who came to town to get over a bad breakup a decade ago and never left. He’s the owner’s venture capitalist son who’s been making money in Silicon Valley. He returns to town when he finds out his dad is selling the resort and is surprised to see his ex working for his estranged dad’s ski resort. It was mostly cute, but may need a content warning. I’m going to put it behind a spoiler tag because the structure of the book wants it to be a big reveal.
A Little Too Close (Madigan Mountain) by Rebecca Yarros (KU)
bingo: small town, roommates or neighbors
Heliskiing is a weird word. This book takes up a bit after “A Little Too Late” with the next brother returning to the ski resort to start a heliskiing business with some of his army buddies. The town is in the middle of housing crisis and the only place left is a spot in a “duplex” in the ski resort’s employee housing. (The duplex has separate bedrooms but a common living area, so closer to college campus housing.) “Unfortunately”, the other half of the duplex is already occupied by the resort’s photographer and her eleven year old daughter. There’s a lot of drama related to the MMC’s family as his dad is a recovering alcoholic. This isn’t anything ground breaking, but it is mostly sweet.
A Little Too Wild (Madigan Mountain) by Devney Perry (KU)
bingo: small town, sports romance (snowboarding)
Is a one night stand a failure if it leads to relationship? When Crew Madigan, X-games star, comes home to the family’s ski resort for the first time in over a decade, it’s for his brother’s wedding. He manages to hook up with his high school best friend’s little sister at the reception, which is perfect for a no-commitment kind of guy like him. Raven has sworn off relationships with athletes and wants a guy who won’t break a date for a good powder day. However, a hookup with a guy as sexy as Crew isn’t a relationship, so it doesn’t count. I think you know where this is going. I thought it was a decent story.
Viscount in Love: A Novel (Accidental Brides) by Eloisa James (library)
bingo: left at the altar
How do you feel about precocious twins? Our hero (Dominic) is engaged to Leonora, who is a Very Proper Lady, when his sister dies leaving him with custody of her children. Leonora, who has absolutely no desire to be anyone’s mother, decides to elope with another gentleman, and our hero decides to marry her sister instead. Our heroine (Torie) is described as beautiful and charming, but illiterate, which has caused her some problems with landing a husband. (She’s dyslexic, but given the Georgian time period, it’s not diagnosed.) The hero also has a temper plus some behaviors which would be unremarkable in a dark romance, but felt out of place here. More details in the spoiler.
Hmm, is Callum McCord too obscure? Who should be the examples on the red flag scale? Can I get a tier list?
It’s fine, but occasionally felt like an anti-bullying afterschool special.
The Adventure of the Demonic Ox (Penric & Desdemona) by Lois McMaster Bujold
bingo: n/a
Novella length addition to the Penric stories. It’s definitely not the place to start as it felt a bit like an “update on everyone we met in previous adventures” type epilog. It’s sweet.
About That Night (FBI/US Attorney Book 3) by Julie James (library)
bingo: 30+ main characters, class differences
Prosecutor and Ex-con. The male lead is the brother of the female lead in the previous book, who had agreed to work with the FBI in order to get her brother’s sentence reduced. Rylann and Kyle first met about 9 years ago when she was a law student and he was a computer science grad student. They flirted and made plans for a date, but due to plot reasons didn’t happen. They meet again when she files the motion to get his sentence reduced. And that would have been the end of it, except the plot throws them together again for a different case. The drama is supposed to come from the ethics of them getting together while working on the case. And that wraps up about halfway through the book, and the rest of it kind of drags as she tries to work out if she’s willing to risk her reputation by dating a high profile ex-con. (He is a non-violent offender. He took down Twitter with a DDoS attack because his ex-girlfriend dumped him via a Tweet, which is admittedly kind of hilarious.) It’s OK, but based on the first two books in the series, I was expecting more action.
When She Unravels: A Dark Mafia Romance (The Fallen Book 1) by Gabrielle Sands (KU)
When She Tempts: A Dark Mafia Age Gap Romance (The Fallen Book 2) by Gabrielle Sands (KU)
When She Falls: A Dark Mafia Enemies To Lovers Romance (The Fallen Book 3) by Gabrielle Sands (KU)
When She Loves: A Dark Mafia Arranged Marriage Romance (The Fallen Book 4) by Gabrielle Sands (KU)
Dark mafia romance doing dark mafia things. The books are connected but each contains a different couple. Books 1, 3, and 4 were fine if you like this sort of thing, and Book 1 had the bonus of the FMC taking out a bad guy with a rock. But the 2nd one didn’t work for me as a romance. It was trying to have a “dude helps her heal trauma from book 1” thing going on, right? And, between the age gap, the trauma, her acting her age, and his boss relying on him to protect her, I spent most of the book muttering “is she trying to get him killed” and “his boss will be completely justified when he shoots him for this.” I kept reading because, yes, I am here for the drama, and it’s all going to be fine.
Hello, Smart Bitches!
I am reading WASTE WARS, THE WILD AFTERLIFE OF YOUR TRASH by Alexander Clapp for my work (I am an environmental advocate/attorney specializing in Zero Waste to protect public health). I don’t know this guy, but so far he is not only telling interesting stories about trash and waste colonialism on the ground, he also sees right through the false solutions that a lot of corporations are promoting. I can give no higher compliment. Check it out!
Why do I keep reading Anthony Horowitz’s mysteries (Agatha Christie with a modern twist — some are two books in one with the editor as detective, some are detective stories that he inserts himself in as a character) when I kind of hate his smug, whiny, writing voice? Because they are very satisfying. I buy one every summer vacation, complain about it every time, but I always come back! This year’s was MARBLE HALL MURDERS the third editor as detective book. I really enjoyed it. And simultaneously want to shake the main character and author. Ah, well. Enjoy!
Two other interesting reads were:
KINGS OF DEPRAVITY by Tammy Andresen (M/F contemporary — dark). Sometimes I want to read a book where the hero is a bad guy, but he will do anything for the heroine. This is that, and I really liked it. RUN, POSY, RUN by Cate C. Wells is the pinnacle of this trope for me. See also KNIGHT, by Kristen Ashley. Most MC books shoot for this vibe, but I can’t stay in the story because the poverty/abuse/crime pulls me out of it. This one worked. YMMV. 🙂
On the opposite end of the spectrum, STARS DIE by Jenny Schwartz was a very unemotional book, not a romance, about a woman being appointed to an important magical ward keeping position on a planet far away and far into the future. It was relaxing in a way, because the whole book was her internal, “Hmm, what should I do to put myself in the best position to build power and make the world a better place?” which is kind of nice when it has nothing to do with the real world. There is also a sentient gremlin who will someday become a djinn, which is a lot of fun. So, if that sounds good to you, pick it up. There is also a second book. However, there was so much telling, not showing! I could not take it anymore. I don’t know if the story could be told so that wasn’t the case (again, the main character is scheming for the common good – can you show that?) but it wore me out.
Enjoy the rest of the summer, my friends! Happy reading!
After a string of rather disappointing books by usually reliable authors, I, like most other card carrying members of the BDH, Ilona Andrews’ fandom, was practically salivating to get my hands on THE INHERITANCE. This book was meant to be a short serialized novella on their blog, but because the authors are so good at world building and characterization, it morphed into a fully realized, richly detailed world, hopefully the start of a brand new series, and would make a great entry point for new readers who want to give them a try. It’s firmly in the SciFi genre, there’s no romance in this book, (there is the promise of one in the next), and features a kick-ass 40 YO single mom as the MC. The serial ended at the climax of her quest, leaving questions about the aftermath unanswered, so we all rushed out and made this book the #1 book in the Kindle store in our quest for resolution LOL.
I also enjoyed TEXT APPEAL by Kylie Scott, who never disappoints me with her books.
My current read is THE SUITCASE SWAP by Lish McBride, and I’m very much enjoying it. It’s a lighthearted romance between two Brits, both in their late 40’s/early 50’s who accidentally swap suitcases at the airport as they are each starting an extended visit to NYC, him for business, her to help her adult son and partner. Although the tone is light, the underlying theme is about moving forward, and not letting past tragedies derail you from enjoying life.
I won’t complain about the FOUR books I DNF’d, instead I will tell you about what I am currently enjoying.
The Blue Sword by Lev Grossman is, so far, am enjoyable adventure of a fantasy novel.
The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson may end of being too dark and twisty for me. I am loving it right now. It is really well written.
Make it Ours by Robin Givhan about Virgil Abloh and the changes he reflected in fashion is really interesting and incisive
Sorry for the short write ups. I am still having trouble with my shoulder!
@SaraGale – I have also read THE INHERITANCE by Ilona Andrews. I started reading it on their site, but I really just prefer to read the whole thing at once. Good book. Good world building. Can’t wait for the next book.
I re-read PROBLEMATIC SUMMER ROMANCE by Ali Hazelwood because I needed something familiar. On the second read, the lack of logic around the central plot device bothered me more than it did the first time around. Conor’s age gap hangup went on for just a bit too long in my opinion. But I do love good pining and this had excellent pining. It also made me want to visit Sicily.
Started THE LOVE HACK by Michelle Dayton again and kinda, sorta put it back down again. The premise is just so icky – a creep is about to post a sex tape of the FMC. I just don’t know that I want to read about someone in this situation! I picked up the book initially because it looked like it might be a well done techie book that gets the details right. But I’m a little annoyed that the blurb wasn’t more specific.
Still reading THE GLIMPSES OF THE MOON by Edith Wharton; I enjoy it but I’m reading during freetime at work which limits how much I can read at once.
Finished THE GUNS ABOVE by Robyn Bennis, a steampunk airship adventure. Bloody and no romance, but I loved the detail used to make the airships feel real (and inconvenient to be aboard).
Started PROMISE ME SUNSHINE by Cara Bastone, which I got from the sale a week or so ago. I like it a lot but every so often the grief hits close enough to home I have to take a break (I haven’t lost anyone as close to me as Lenny or Miles are dealing with, but I think it’ll speak to anyone who’s lost someone).
Over the past two weeks ~
— read an entertaining book that made me laugh a lot ~ The Phallus in Nature by Augusta Reilly. The title of the book is the title of a best selling book published by the lead female character who is a photographer of phallic shaped objects such as mushrooms, clouds, etc. The male lead owns a tiny home duplex in Moab, Utah, and rents out half to the female lead. Amazon describes this as absurdist fiction, and that’s a good description. It has some over the top situations, but it’s fun. I thought it was going to be a romance, but it’s not quite. Have you ever been reading a book and turned the page expecting more? This book finished a bit abruptly.
— Last month, I read the first book by a new mystery author; I just read her second book, Leave No Trace by Jo Callaghan. In this book, Detective Kat Frank and her team (which includes a holographic AI detective) are called in when a dead crucified man is found nearby. Sadly book three is not yet available in the US.
— read Marvellous Maps: Our changing world in 40 amazing maps by Simon Küstenmacher with illustrations by Margarida Esteves; this had some intriguing maps and tidbits of knowledge. It is categorized as a children’s book. I read this to fulfill a prompt for my library’s summer reading program of reading a book to increase your knowledge of the world.
— enjoyed The Fossil Door by Celia Lake, a 1920s set fantasy romance in a slightly alternate England and Scotland in which some people have magic. The two leads are tasked with determining why a magical portal has stopped working. The male lead is a young investigator from a very wealthy family (a fact he tries to hide as much as possible); the female lead who is in command of the project is an orphan of Indian descent from a poor and non-magical family.
— enjoyed Stuck with You by Ali Hazelwood; it’s a contemporary romance novella which begins with a man and woman getting stuck in an elevator. Both are engineers, and they work for different companies in the same building.
— enjoyed yet another fantasy by Celia Lake, Sailor’s Jewel. The vast majority of this took place on an ocean liner in 1901; it featured a woman, a healer, about to take on new responsibilities and a man whose brother owns the shipping company.
— enjoyed a historical romance set in 1973 New York City, Daniel Cabot Puts Down Roots by Cat Sebastian. This featured a doctor running a clinic for those with low income and a young man trying to determine his path in life. The two meet and become friends and then feelings develop. (And, yes, it’s sobering when your childhood is considered historical!)
— For my local book group, I read 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World by Elif Shafak. This book is set in Istanbul and begins with the realization by the focal character (a prostitute) that she has been murdered. Scientists have found that the brain can be active for as much as ten minutes and 38 seconds after death, so the first part of the book has the main character recalling significant events in her life and the five people who have become her good friends. The next part of the book focuses on her friends as they come together after learning of her death. This book has dark parts but also camaraderie and humor. My group all liked the book, and we had a good discussion.
— had great pleasure in rereading Linesman, Alliance, and Confluence all by S.K. Dunstall. This is one of my favorite science fiction series.
— enjoyed the contemporary romance The Unlikely Spare by Jax Calder; it features a prince of (an imaginary) England and a man serving on his personal security team. The book primarily takes place on an official tour in Australia and New Zealand. This is the third book in a series; I also enjoyed the first book but the second is by far my favorite of the three.
— also read It Takes a Psychic, the latest paranormal romance by Jayne Ann Krentz. While this was a pleasant read, I don’t see rereading it. (At one time the author was one of my top three favorites; I think it’s been several years now since I’ve read any of her books.)
Finished the month with a lot of reading– I don’t think this pace will continue since Monday is back-to-work day for me.
Choices included four F/F novels: one great, two so-so, and one DNF. Very much enjoyed I’LL GET BACK TO YOU, by Becca Grischow. According to her bio, Grischow has ghostwritten many books but this is her debut with her own name on the cover. Although the events of this novel take place between Thanksgiving and New Year’s, it didn’t feel like a holiday-themed book to me– it’s more a coming-of-age story about 21-year-old Murphy, who feels stuck in the small town of Geneva, Illinois, where she’s living in her childhood home, working in a coffee shop doing both marketing and barista duties, and trying (for the second time) to pass her community college accounting class. If she succeeds, she’ll be able to transfer to the University of Illinois and join her best friend, Kat, in a more exciting world with presumably a bigger lesbian dating pool. Things go sideways during the Thanksgiving break– Kat brought home her new boyfriend and thus doesn’t have a lot of time to spend with Murphy– but Murphy also runs into Ellie, a former high school classmate who is a senior at U of I and needs a fake date to take to Thanksgiving dinner with her parents, one of whom is Murphy’s accounting professor. Lots of complications need to be sorted out in both the long-term friendship of Murphy and Kat, and the newly-forming relationship of Murphy and Ellie, but Grischow navigates all of the characters through their dilemmas with compelling, authentic storytelling. I hope additional novels from this author, under her own name, aren’t too far away.
COVER STORY, by Celia Laskey, had an interesting premise. It’s set in 2005 and includes a lot of 20-years-ago cultural references to help establish a background for the plot. Ali, an out lesbian, is a Hollywood publicist who regularly advises her gay and queer clients to stay closeted to avoid risking their career success, even though she’d rather be telling them to be out and proud. She’s also dealing (not very well) with the death of the love of her life, Natalie. Ali starts working with Cara, a young lesbian actor who at first resists Ali’s advice about hiding her sexuality but reluctantly agrees and reaps benefits like (mild spoiler) being offered a role in “Star Wars,” which both Ali and Cara assume wouldn’t have happened without the “don’t say gay” strategies. However, Ali and Cara fall for each other, leading to numerous highs and some lows in their professional and personal lives. Also, Ali has a lot of anxieties (and life experiences affected by her anxieties) that are described in excruciating detail, with three, four, five or more supporting examples– for instance, an entire page of examples of how it feels to be experiencing a severe migraine. There were times when I wasn’t sure if the detail was intended to be funny (gently mocking Ali for her extreme focus on her neurotic behaviors) or intended to build empathy for Ali. By the end of the book I thought I understood Laskey’s storytelling goals and her writing style, but getting to that understanding took longer than I had hoped. The author’s note at the end of the book outlines the reasons it was important to Laskey to write about closeted celebrities, and has generated several negative online comments– you can read the concerns for yourself on Goodreads or Amazon, if you wish to. Personally, I don’t think the complaints are warranted.
THE SAPPHIC INQUISITION, by Ashley Halliday, had an intriguing opening chapter– FMC Nic wakes up naked in bed with FMC Skylar, the supposedly straight woman Nic is supposedly only fake dating, and wonders what happened the night before. Most of the rest of the book takes us to the start of Nic and Skylar’s relationship and eventually back to an explanation of the opening scene. I skimmed a lot of the middle of the book, because I wasn’t enthralled with the storytelling, but I wanted to read the ending.
DNF-ed I REALLY DO, by Emily K. Hardy, after a couple of chapters. Like THE SAPPHIC INQUISITION, the plot hinged on one of the MCs arranging a fake date to take to a wedding, but the writing didn’t hold my attention.
I also read several M/F novels by new-to-me authors, with generally positive results. Greatly enjoyed NORA GOES OFF SCRIPT, the 2022 debut novel by Annabel Monaghan. FMC Nora is a screenwriter (mostly of Hallmark Channel-like movies) but she has written a “serious” movie about her relationship with her ex-husband that ended in a divorce, and parts of the movie are being filmed on site at Nora’s home. MMC (and Sexiest Man Alive) Leo is starring in that movie, playing the character inspired by Nora’s ex. When Leo asks if he can stay in Nora’s “tea house” (her writing room) after the shooting ends, Nora agrees. Over several weeks, Leo becomes a valued member of Nora’s family, beloved by her 8- and 10-year-old children, as well as by others in Nora’s small-town community. A romance develops, but then Leo has to leave for a meeting about a new project, and despite saying he’ll be back soon, he ghosts Nora. The unfolding of why that happened and how Nora handles the unexpected change makes the rest of the book enthralling. Monaghan has a terrific approach to describing Nora’s perceptions of herself and others and explaining Leo’s career and personal issues, and I really appreciated the character development of Nora’s kids, which doesn’t always happen in a story where being a parent is significant.
I didn’t think Monaghan’s second book, SAME TIME NEXT SUMMER (2023), was as innovative as her first, but I enjoyed this one also. It’s a second-chance romance for FMC Samantha and MMC Wyatt, who were childhood friends and teenage lovers before a breakup at age 18, followed by a lengthy estrangement. Now 30-year-old Sam is back at the Long Island beach summer home where she and Wyatt first met, planning her wedding to “perfect boyfriend” Jack, wondering about the job back in NYC that she fears she’s about to be fired from, and trying not to think too much about Wyatt, who has reappeared at the beach, too. I continued to admire Monaghan’s ability to create a range of intriguing characters, but Wyatt’s “big secret” that almost no one else in the book is aware of (particularly Sam) wasn’t completely credible– seemed like Monaghan had to contrive a lot to ensure that the secret remained hidden (and the secret was obvious to me from early in the book). Nevertheless, I’m looking forward to reading more of Monaghan’s work.
Also liked THE VILLIAN EDIT, by Laurie Devore, the debut adult novel by an author of several YA books. This is a backstage view of a Bachelor-like reality show– a trope/storyline I like a lot. The top of my list for this trope is still Jodi McAlister’s NOT HERE TO MAKE FRIENDS (plus the other two books in McAlister’s “Marry Me, Juliet” series) but for me, Devore’s novel is a strong second to McAlister’s books. FMC Jaqueline “Jac” Matthis is a romance author whose 3-book contract was canceled because her first effort didn’t have an HEA and sold poorly. She’s signed up as a contestant on “The 1” hoping to generate social media interest in her books and revive her writing career. She learns when she arrives on set that Henry– her one-night stand from the night before the show started, and a guy who told her he “hates his job”– is actually a producer on “The 1”, with a lot of influence on how Jac will be portrayed to show viewers. Devore tells a complex story of how producers as well as contestants in reality-TV world try to nurture their real selves in a continuously manipulated environment, and I liked all of these carefully-built characters. I also enjoyed Devore’s use of multiple perspectives to convey the story elements (such as excerpts from gossipy blog posts, reality show recaps, and other social media commentary on “The 1”) in addition to Jac’s narrative voice. Even though Jac gets “the villain edit” for TV and endure a lot of pain and self-doubt during her 12-week reality show experience, she’s not the villain of the novel– so the HEA is satisfying on multiple levels.
I read a YA book (more F/F than M/F) that used the same trope: NEVER EVER GETTING BACK TOGETHER, by Sophie Gonzales. (In case you’re wondering, the title is the only T. Swift reference.) In this story, the reality show “Second Chance Romance” stars MMC Jordy, the prince of a fictional European country, and the six contestants are former girlfriends of Jordy’s, all in their late teens/early 20s. FMC Maya, age 18, is participating in hopes she can let the world know Jordy cheated on her after dating for two years. FMC Skye– also 18, and the girlfriend Jordy got involved with before breaking up with Maya– isn’t sure if she trusts Jordy, but she’d like to give him another chance, despite what Maya says about him. Eventually, Maya and Skye get together romantically (both are bi), and they team up to ensure that Jordy gets his comeuppance for bad behaviors affecting all of his past girlfriends. I thought the storyline had a lot of contrivances I didn’t particularly care for, but the book overall was an interesting, if not completely satisfying, variation on the reality show trope.
Mary Kay Andrews is not a new writer, but I’d never read her work. I chose her 2009 book THE FIXER-UPPER from Kindle Unlimited after reading an SBTB post many months ago (Feb. 24) about Andrews turning down an award from the state of Georgia because she disagreed with the voting record of the politician who wanted to honor her. I didn’t realize the novel I’d selected had a political element also, featuring an FMC whose life is disrupted after the unethical Washington DC lobbyist she works for sets her up to take the fall for bribing a politician with “incentives” such as liaisons with sex workers. I enjoyed Andrews’ detailed descriptions of the small-town Georgia setting where the novel takes place, as well as the blow-by-blow account of the FMC’s home rehabbing project. Overall, though, this seemed more like women’s fiction than romance, and I didn’t get a strong sense of the FMC’s feelings about herself or the MMC until late in the story. I’ll try other Andrews books, eventually– SAVANNAH BLUES was mentioned by several in the February post, and it’s a KU option now, so I’ll probably start there.
Ever have one of those mornings? I was three books in when my computer decided to have a meltdown. And I had just been thinking about copying my work… Sigh.
I also need to start making note of who/where I get a book rec from because someone is owed a big thank you for HEARTSTONE. I went in knowing nothing except that there was a dragon on the cover. That’s really all it takes sometimes. Elle Katharine White has created the Pride and Prejudice retelling I never knew I needed, mostly because I never need one. This reimagining takes place in a world populated with every kind of mythical creature and MR. DARCY ON A DRAGON. It coincidently also met my manifesting kindness goal, not so much because of the way her characters interact with the world, but because of the way she gave grace to characters that Austen made ridiculous. The mother’s matrimonial focus is as much about her grief over a lost child as social climbing. The Mary character is loved and her talents respected. For those of us who have always felt a vague anger over Charlote’s fate, the Mr. Collins redux is revelatory. Is he still, well, Mr. Collins? Yes, but in a way that also allows for the understanding that a choice made in desperation has led to actual happiness. White’s reimaging is full of charm and danger. And dragons.
Abby Jimenez’ latest SAY YOU’LL REMEMBER ME is the story of what happens when you meet the perfect person at the absolute possible time. Samantha has anything but romance in mind when she brings a lost kitten to the local vet. Nothing gets her dander up more than the hot vet gives said kitten a very poor prognosis and dismisses Sam’s insistence that he is absolutely wrong. She sets out to prove him wrong and get a well-earned apology. She does, he does and what follows an epic never-ending perfect date. Then the revelation that there’s no hope for a future. She’s moving back to California to help care for her mother. He’s just started his practice. He has bills and loans and employees. Uprooting himself is impossible. But love has its ways. There are sacrifices and missed connections and sleepless nights as Sam and Zavier keep failing at saying goodbye. Ultimately, it’s through the kindness of those around them and the wise council of a retired vet that Xavier is able to make following his heart a reality. I was especially impressed by the way Jimenez portrays the way Sam’s family interacts as they care for her mother as she slips further into dementia. It’s honest and emotional. There’s a versimilitude there that someone who has been there can appreciate.
Sarah MacLean wrote one of my all-time favorite historicals, so how could I pass on her first entry into contemporary romance? She does not miss a step in the transition. THESE SUMMER STORMS is mostly romance, partly family drama. Lots of family drama. Alice Storm is the prodigal child, returning to her family’s private island after five years of exile. Her tech mogul father has suddenly died, and she has been summoned home. Her icy mother has decreed a gathering of family and associates that is not to be referred to as a funeral. Additionally, there are her elder sister, clone in process of their mother, the coattail riding older brother with is unloving wife and their two children, her crunchy granola baby sister and Jack Dean, her father’s right-hand man. He’s also an unfortunate grief driven one-night stand. Awkward. Jack brings with him letters from their father. They all have assignments to complete in order to receive their inheritance. Except for Alice. No letter, just the requirement that she stay for five days. She leaves, everyone loses. The assignments seem to be rooted in disrespect, and in one case, outright cruelty. Sure, they could all say “Fuck him” and leave, Alice certainly wants to, but her family has billions of reasons to make her stay. Hearts are broken, secrets revealed, truths spoken and love is found. MacLean doesn’t miss a step in this new direction, and I look forward to more.
Vi Keeland’s excursion into suspense was much less successful. I generally enjoy her writing, but SOMEONE KNOWS just hasn’t worked for me. I think she lost me when the character slept with the son of the man she murdered (no spoiler, we know she did this from the beginning), she didn’t know it at the time, but does it again after she does. No, just no.
Not wanting to end on a low note, I am currently reading THE STONE WITCH OF FLORENCE by Anna Rasche. Ginevra de Gasparo has spent a decade in lonely exile after using her magic to stop the illness spreading through her city. Now she’s been called back to Florence. She believes it is because those in power are finally willing to recognize and accept her healing abilities but finds herself assigned a very different task. Someone has been stealing all the holy relics from Florences’ churches. Arms, fingers, feet are disappearing. The bishop expects Ginevra to find the culprit and restore the holy relics as their only protection from the plague ravaging the city. Ginevra must confront both her past and the dangers of the present as she returns to a Florence decimated by the Black Plague. So far nothing not to love including the least intimidating Inquisitor in the history of the Catholic church.
I stayed up way too late (Bad Decisions Book Club alert!) for C.S. Poe’s “Hudson River Homicides” the day after it came out. Did I read the whole book, unable to close it, until mumbledy-mumbledy A.M.? Yes, yes, I did.
Currently reading “Austen At Sea” by Natalie Jenner and “When The Bones Sing” by Ginny Myers Sain. Very different vibes – Austen-focused adult historical fiction and a modern-day YA paranormal.
Also, on the topic of platform publishing, indie author Elisabeth Wheatley was talking recently about how the Big River company is changing their audiobook royalties and basically incentivizing authors who agree to be exclusive with their audiobooks and punishing authors who aren’t exclusive – by siphoning royalties from non-exclusive authors and giving them to the exclusive authors. She has a whole video where she explains it better than I can, but I think we can all agree that this is just another level of horrid on the Big River Company’s part.
https://youtu.be/1ur9398YdrA?si=_QeTgq5LM19IWuGL
I don’t have too many this time, which I chalk up to the fact that I am hoarding a few items for Greece and the plane trips to and from. I did read the newest Shelly Laurenston, To Kill A Badger. I liked it, it had the snark and action sequences that I enjoy from her, but it felt oddly plotless. I think that’s why it took me so long to read. Then I read A Lot Like Adios by Alexis Daria (hey, it’s only been sitting on my Kindle for 4 years, no biggie), and ripped through it in 2 days. I liked the competence of the two main characters, and the fact that the narrative was fashioned around the fact that they both had some serious emotional development to do in order to be ready for a relationship. I also liked the supporting cast a lot. But that’s the lot. So until next time, folks. I have an Acropolis to visit.
Back to school for us this week – time to adjust to a new schedule as my son started kindergarten and my daughter is back to preschool!
Excellent:
LONG LIVE EVIL by Sarah Rees Brennan (Fantasy, Time of Iron #1): A terminally ill woman is offered a chance to save her own life by being dropped into her favorite fantasy series (books) and completing a quest. Only problem is, she skimmed the first book. Brilliant, funny, sad, genre-bending, and brain-bending (in a good way). There is a small romance plot, but I would call this one mostly fantasy. Also, although the twist was telegraphed from the beginning, that seemed as intentional choice by the author as a nod to the genre. Highly recommend (but check the CWs).
ROSE IN CHAINS by Julie Soto (F/M Romantasy, Evermore Trilogy #1): This book evolved out of Dramione fanfic. I absolutely devoured this – the yearning and pining from the hero (that the heroine doesn’t see!). This is very dark, so check all the CWs. Did all of the world building elements make total sense? No. Did I care? Also no.
Very Good:
PHANTASMA by Kaylie Smith (F/M Romantasy, Wicked Games #1): I am so torn on how to grade this. The heroine has moderate OCD and this is the best depiction of it I have ever seen, so for that reason, it is excellent. Her author’s note at the end about OCD also nailed it. And I really appreciated that this was a different kind of romantasy (not another heroine with hidden but world changing powers who has to save everyone). But although the setting was dark (and got really violent at the end), the hero seemed just too perfect – especially for a dark romance. Also the clues that the heroine really missed about the hero were frustrating. And the heroine’s behavior and personality from the first 2-3 chapters of the book are completely different than how she is in the rest of the book – so, yeah, the character development was really uneven and sometimes flat.
DOG ON IT by Spencer Quinn (Contemporary Mystery, Chet & Bernie #1): A re-read for my mystery book club – Chet the Jet (the dog narrator of the series) is as funny as he was the first time.
Good:
A PROMISE IN PERIDOT by Kate Golden (F/M Romantasy, Sacred Stones #2): Just like the first one, there is nothing new here, but it was good enough to finish.
MY FUNNY DEMON VALENTINE by Aurora Ascher (F/M Romantasy/Urban Fantasy, Hell Bent #1): I found the story here fresh – after thousands of years in hell, 4 demons have been evolving and developing these funny things called feelings!?!? They have escaped Hell and are on the run on present day Earth. The hero of this one loves to play music and meets the heroine by bonding over jazz. Did all of the elements land? Not for me. For example, do I really think immortal beings would refer to each other as bro? No. But overall I enjoyed it and I am really looking forward the second one.
MILLIONAIRE MISSION by Brian Preston (Personal Finance): I have been listening to the Money Guy podcast for probably 10 years, so I got his book when it came out. If you listened to the show for as long as I have, there really isn’t that much new material except in the last few chapters. But it is still a good refresher.
Meh:
None
The Bad:
None
A huge, heartfelt thank you to @DiscoDollyDeb for her repeated and well-argued recommendation of Eve Dangerfield’s ACT YOUR AGE. I would never have picked it up on my own because large age gaps, boss/employee, and stepfather/stepdaughter kink are extremely not my thing, but @DDD made such a compelling case for it that I eventually decided to give it a chance, and even though it didn’t quite end up working for me at the very end, I’m very glad I read it because it did so many things so well.
I don’t normally read kinky romance, for two reasons: they almost always feature male doms and female subs, which doesn’t interest me, and the FMC’s sexuality usually seems weirdly predicated on the MMC, even in books where she’s the toppier one. He is generally already aware of his taste; she often only seems to discover hers because of him, and conveniently her taste just happens to be exactly how he wants it.
In ACT YOUR AGE, Tyler and Kate are incredibly compatible sexually, but both of them already know exactly who they are and what they want the first time they end up in bed. Kate may be young (25) and fairly inexperienced, but she has a fully developed sexual identity, and I liked how Dangerfield showed this to the reader by having her show Tyler, who wants to be very certain she is doing this for herself before getting involved. I have never seen an author do this as well as Dangerfield does here.
As for Tyler, his POV reveals that he’s always struggled a bit with the awareness that what does it for him sexually is treating other people very badly and has worried what that says about him as a person. Most MMCs with Tyler’s inclinations seem to take it as a given that they like what they like because they are Men, and it was refreshing to see this instead. I don’t think I’ve ever seen another author explore that, and as a sadistic woman who had to learn the hard way that she doesn’t have a subby bone in her body, I could relate to Tyler.
There were just so many great things about this book. I liked the leads, and Kate’s journey to self-empowerment, which is very much her own, and Kate’s roller derby teammates, and how the supporting characters all felt like real people with their own lives. Dangerfield has a very good grasp of human psychology.
That said, the book did not quite work for me as a romance, and I wasn’t really rooting for them as a couple by the end (although I was at first). Some of this is probably me rather than the book: I genuinely cannot get my head around why someone would be eager to sub for someone who had recently treated them rather badly out of the bedroom. I’m not saying that I don’t believe someone might feel that way; I just deeply am not capable of understanding it.
But, more substantively, I just wasn’t convinced by the end that Tyler was good for Kate. I loved Kate; I wanted good things for her; I liked Tyler too, but I was not convinced that he was a good thing for her. There wasn’t enough time at the end of the book for Dangerfield to convince me otherwise.
BUT. Even though it didn’t quite work for me as a romance at the very end, I’m still really glad that I read it, because it just did so many things so much better than I’m used to reading. I should look into more of Dangerfield’s work, as this was my first experience with her and I was very impressed.
So, @DDD, thank you so much for your advocacy for ACT YOUR AGE!
My comment has maybe been eaten. Maybe it was too long? I didn’t get an error message saying it was too long (it just didn’t appear), but maybe I wasn’t supposed to?
I just finished A Fate Forged in Fire by Hazel McBride, and I think it finally helped me figure out why I don’t generally like all these new books being marketed as romantasy: the way book 1 always ends is unsatisfying as both a romance and fantasy.
The romance is unsatisfying because inevitably he’s betrayed her or hurt her, or otherwise disrupted whatever kind of happy ever after it looked like they might have.
The fantasy is disappointing because book 1 nearly always ends with the heroine in a terrible place, where it seems like all her efforts have been for naught, and the problem of Saving The World is much bigger than she thought.
It’s all so depressing! Who can be excited about book 2 when everything is so terrible all around? Combined with tropey characters making terrible decisions, I think it might be time for me to give up modern romantasy altogether, or at least the ones that are going to be series.
I want cozy, happy, sexy, powerful characters who triumph over evil. Is that so much to ask?
Finished HUDSON RIVER HOMICIDE by CS Poe – the next instalment in the Memento Mori series. I thought this was going to be the end of this series, but there’s going to be another book! The cases get more and more connected and this book comes to really breathless conclusion – nail biter! As cleverly as they are constructed, I do hope the next book will wrap this up and that our MCs will be ok. I love Larkin and Doyle together and they get some wonderful moments in this boot. But the perp behin it all is looming larger and larger.
On that note, I also had to dive back into the other books, just because everything is so connected, and this instalment took a lot longer to make it’s appearance.
HE’S TO DIE FOR – Erin Dunn. This was mentioned here not long ago. Murder mystery with a side of m/m romance. The romance was cute, though since it’s between a police detective and a potential suspect, it did feel a little uncomfortable in some places. And the murder mystery itself? TBH, I’ve read better ones. I think this went off in too many directions that sometimes weren’t followed up. A bit of tightening of the story might have helped.
In non-romance, I read PURPLE HIBISCUS by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. My best friend loved this and recommended it to me, so I finally went for it. It’s beautifully written, but it’s not an easy to digest story! Religious fanatism and domestic violence feature prominently in the MC’s life, and I admit the story line with the young priest had me raising my eyebrows (though nothing much happened on that account in the end). Absolutely recommend it, but proceed with care I would say. There were parts of this book that were really not easy to read…
@SaraGale:
Now all you’ve got left is Donati’s Waverly Place series. It is NYC set, but is about descendants of the Wilderness Series and the Sweet Blue Distance.
@Star, the “I can’t see my post” glitch has been happening to me, too, for several weeks. I post, and then I wait several minutes and refresh several times in order to see my post and the most recent posts by others. I enjoyed your review of ACT YOUR AGE and I’m glad the cyber-demons didn’t eat it!
@Star: so glad you enjoyed ACT YOUR AGE. I think Eve Dangerfield is one of the best writers of kink, role-play, and self-understanding. There is a sequel called NOT YOUR SHOE SIZE which checks back in with Kate & Tyler a little later on in their relationship, but I must admit I didn’t find quite as engaging as ACT YOUR AGE.
@Kareni: If you think it’s bad your childhood is considered historical, imagine it’s your early adulthood! I’m demanding that the time period has to be at least 100 years ago (though 125 would be better) to be considered historical!! I think I’m going to go curl up in a corner and cry now.
I’ve had a discombobulating several weeks but have managed to keep reading.
THE IRRESISTIBLE BILLIONAIRE by Serenity Woods follows a early 30’s widow to the isolated mansion of a billionaire to be his nanny. There is her withdrawal from the world, his refusal to let anyone discuss his dead wife. I kept expecting it to turn into a Gothic but it didn’t, mostly because much of the time everyone communicated like adults. The Horror! I enjoyed it a lot.
GOAL LINE by Julia Connors, one of her hockey romances. Mid-20s athletes, they elope when she gets pregnant (not his kid).I enjoyed this book.They are both appealing characters. I enjoyed seeing them realize that they never really wanted to be just friends. I liked seeing them deal with their issues and become stronger as persons and as a couple.
CAIN by Maya Alden. He is her boss and now her lover. Then someone frames her for robbing him. She goes to jail and he refuses to believe she is innocent. Cue major heartbreak. If you loved weeping over Sara Crewe, you will love this book. Happily, he still loves her and the police also believe she is innocent. So he starts to try to win her back. The rest of the book is a long grovel. I liked it but then Sara and her compatriot, Elsie Dinsmore, were serious favorites when I was young.
My daughter was visiting and forced me to read BLOOD AND BUTTERCUPS by Shari Tapscott. Young woman florist gets tangled up with some attractive men, one or more of whom may or may not be a vampire. It was cute and fun. And that thing at the end is not really a cliffhanger, according to my daughter.
Also continued my deep dive into Rebecca Yarros’ backlist, courtesy of Libby and the fact that, as a California resident, I can have a card at every county library in the state if I can just get in there and apply. Sadly, many people seem to be reading Ms. Yarros now so there is some wait. This time I read THE LAST LETTER. She, a single mother, has been writing to her brother’s army comrade. When brother is killed, he asked the penpal to take care of his sister. Penpal feels guilty about brother’s death so doesn’t say who he is. Great book but enormous tearjerker. I would recommend if you don’t mind ugly crying. BTW, I have never been able to get into her Empyrean series, don’t know why.
I’m still reading a lot of non-fiction.
MOTHERLAND: A JOURNEY THROUGH 500,000 YEARS OF AFRICAN CULTURE AND IDENTITY by Luke Pepera was interesting and informative. It’s also quite short, for anyone else who may be feeling too exhausted to take on a giant book right now. I recommend it.
WHERE BIOLOGY ENDS AND BIAS BEGINS: LESSONS ON BELONGING FROM OUR DNA by Shoumita Dasgupta. Especially in the current hellscape, reading a book which clearly dismantles attempts to use bad or misunderstood science to divide and oppress was delightful. She addresses race, gender, and disability and is careful to use appropriate and respectful language. Highly recommend.
THE SALMON CANNON AND THE LEVITATING FROG: AND OTHER SERIOUS DISCOVERIES OF SILLY SCIENCE by Carly Anne York is written more as popular science, although the author is a biology professor. She aims to entertain while also explaining the value of curiosity driven basic science. Fun read.
Fiction:
INTO THE LEOPARD’S DEN is the latest Bangalore Detective’s Club mystery by Harini Nagendra. This one venture out into a different part of India with a mystery involving Indian coffee growing in the 1920s. Excellent series, but start at the beginning.
THE ENCHANTED GREENHOUSE by Sarah Beth Durst is not exactly a sequel to The Spellshop, but takes up the story of the librarian who made Caz the spiderplant sentient. The descriptions of the various greenhouses were the best part of the book for me– I really wanted an animated tour through them. Just a warning– I had to put this book down repeatedly because the descriptions of greenhouses dying as the magic failed were so upsetting to me and I couldn’t deal with the looming threat as they struggled to find a way to fix the magic. This may be a me thing– I worked in the biology department greenhouses in college.
Read a few other things I enjoyed, but that’s all I have the energy to describe. As always, really appreciate getting all the recommendations here.
I’ve been on a Mimi Matthews binge, mainly her Somerset Stories series. I read the first one, THE WORK OF ART, which is great, years ago, and even though I buy every one of her books as soon as it’s released, I stalled out on reading the rest of the series because the plot setup for #2, GENTLEMAN JIM, is one I find too angsty. The MCs are childhood sweethearts, but are cruelly separated for many years due to the villain. Anyway, I decided it was time to give it a try, so I could continue with the rest of the series, and I ended up really liking it. Matthews has a lot of shy and downtrodden heroines, but this one was very assertive, and there’s plenty of action in the story. Those 2 books are set in the Regency, and the following 4 are set a generation later, in the Victorian era, and feature the offspring of the couples in the first 2 books. So far RETURN TO SATTERTHWAITE COURT is my favorite, it had a heroine who takes the initiative in pursuing the hero. APPOINTMENT IN BATH, the hero made a jerk move, but was forgiven rather quickly, and the ending was a bit abrupt. A LADY OF CONSCIENCE was a sweet story, with an animal loving heroine, and a stiff hero who gets totally unraveled. Next up is THE GOVERNESS AND THE ROGUE, a pairing that is definitely my catnip. Somewhere in there, I had to refresh my memory with a reread of THE WORK OF ART, and ended up also rereading THE VISCOUNT AND THE VICAR’S DAUGHTER and THE MATRIMONIAL ADVERTISEMENT for maybe the 4th or 5th time because it never gets old. So that’s 7 Matthews books in the last 2 weeks, and I’m pretty sure it will be a bad decisions book club night tonight with THE GOVERNESS AND THE ROGUE. Oh well, tomorrow is Sunday.
OK, since the last WAYR, my standouts:
A reread of IT HAPPENED ONE WEDDING by Julie James. Hadn’t reread this in a few years, and it was a satisfying revisit. Vaughn and Sidney’s not-meet-cute where she all-too-accurately shoots him down is one for the ages, even if it takes him a little too long to realize that he’s rather gone for her.
Then some hockey romance…
GOAL LINE is the fourth in Julia Connors’ Boston Rebels hockey series. Backup goalie Luke Hartmann and figure skater Evangeline Wilcott have been best friends since they were kids. When a secret pregnancy threatens her career, they land on a marriage between friends to smooth the way forward for them both. In reality, it gives them both exactly the stuff of long held dreams and the biggest challenge to their formidable self restraint they’ve faced yet…
Julia Connors ups her A-game with every story and Goal Line is no exception. Luke and Eva’s steady friendship has been a constant comfort to them both but has also in some ways had them in a bit of a holding pattern. Their years of having firmly friend-zoned each other has been a source of strength but also has kept them from admitting their very deepest feelings to the other.
I’m not always a fan of accidental pregnancy stories but Ms Connors uses this to great advantage here, and it helps jolt these two into facing their real hearts and finding a way forward for themselves and each other. I greatly appreciated the work they put into themselves and their relationships, and I loved seeing the growth and how they begin to truly flourish not just with each other, but with their families and friends as well. Excellent portrayal of therapy as an effective tool to that regard, as well.
BREAKAWAY GOALS is a standalone m/m hockey romance in Beth Bolden’s inclusive sports universe. Morgan Reynolds is a god among men in the hockey world. First round pick, incredible all-around player whose career has solidified that he’s merited that status… but he’s thirty-five and facing the reality that he is essentially living on borrowed time. The Four Nations tournament brings him face to face with the up and coming Hayes Montgomery, who is a first round pick himself and being touted as the next Morgan Reynolds… So it is the very best and the very worst thing ever when it appears that the wicked attraction is hardly one sided. But neither of them actually has any idea what to do with that, and being together is completely out of the question.
Beth Bolden likewise continues to raise her own bar with each new release, and Morgan and Hayes prove that to be true. They break each other’s hearts along the way, and their journey to finding a way to be honest and to be with each other is agonizing at times. Breakaway Goals is an excellent second-chance hockey romance, and I loved Morgan and Hayes’ story, as well as getting a glimpse at some of the others around them who love and support them.
Switching gears from sports romance, THE UNLIKELY SPARE is the third in Jax Calder’s Unlikely Dilemmas series. Detective Sergeant Eoin O’Connell is assigned to act as Prince Nicholas Alexander’s personal bodyguard. Unfortunately the prince is currently the target of numerous attacks and while Eoin and the others on Nicholas’s protection group are working to uncover the perpetrators, Nicholas and Eoin are also dancing around some intense attraction.
Jax Calder’s story is fun and funny and thrilling in all the best ways. Eoin and Nicholas make a formidable pair and I couldn’t put their story down. I particularly enjoyed how their story gave them a bit of space to get to know each other underneath the exterior that the rest of the world sees, and how that bit of trust gave them what they needed to build on.
Can’t wait to see what everyone else has been reading!
@Karen H near Tampa ~ I will happily second your demand that historical romances be at least 100 years ago.
Fell into a little reading drought, partly because of an issue with the main book I was reading. I was digging THE DUKE & THE PIRATE QUEEN by Victoria Janssen (low/no-magic fantasy × erotic romance), but then the main characters turned stupid. When the privateer abducts her noble employer to thwart a plot against him, she locks up in her ship and puts off telling him why she has done it. Meanwhile he assumes it’s a sex game, and I wonder what is wrong with both of them. That slowed my reading way down, but she’s finally about to tell him, so hopefully the rest of the book will be good again.
Well, I’ve done some fairly pleasant reading over the last fortnight, with a couple of mini-squees and one DNF.
Well, Actually by Mazey Eddings
Thanks go to SB Dahlia for mentioning this book in an HYW post. For anyone who has ever yearned for more gender reversed grumpy sunshine romance, this book is perfection. Acerbic Eva makes her living eating lukewarm weiners and sticking pins in the egos of minor celebrities during her online show, Sausage Talk. Frustrated with a career that falls so far short of her journalistic dreams, she launches a booze fueled online rant aimed at Rylie Cooper, who let her down in college and now has a podcast advising men on how to treat women. Her blunt screed goes viral, and her employer jumps on that opportunity like a duck on a junebug. The interactions between mean girl Eva and cheerful, resilient Rylie were funny and touching and pure relationship gold as they edged their way from online opponents to much more than friends. Enthusiastically recommended.
Biggest Player by Sara Ney
This is the book you need if you’re in the mood for a totally angst-free read. Football player Dex is the epitome of the dumb jock. What makes him tolerable is that he’s sometimes surprisingly self aware, though clueless when it comes to other people. Margot is an excellent match for him due, in part, to her experience wrangling first graders as well as her scarily smart ten year old daughter, Wyatt. She is fierce in protecting her kid, but otherwise pretty unflappable. I found this a fun read, though it fell apart a bit toward the end when the MCs did not really react in believable ways. The stakes may have just been a bit too low for me to fully buy in. Wyatt, however, was the star of the book and made it all worthwhile.
Not Your Biggest Fan by Sara Ney
I was wrong. THIS is the book you need for a totally angst free read. It has a pro football player and a dating app developer bonding over food poisoning and their midwestern roots. It has delightful banter and a quiverful of excellent supporting characters including a cowboy corgi named Kevin. It has little actual football, but a great “prince in disguise” fairy tale trope. It has steam and attraction and an HFN, but my Magic 8-Ball predicts that “signs point to yes” for an HEA.
A Gentleman of Questionable Judgement by Grace Burrowes
The ninth outing in this Regency mystery series takes place at a private racing meet. Lord Julian is tasked with winkling out any attempt to tamper with the horses or racing results. During his reluctant investigation, both Lord Julian and the reader are schooled in the fine points of the sport of kings. As always, I enjoyed the interactions between Lord Julian and his fiance Hyperia, and my one issue with this mystery was an unexpected twist inserted in the solution to the mystery. It seemed a weird motive for the culprit’s riskier crimes. A decent read.
The Sinner by Molly O’Keefe
This book–formerly known as The Salvation of Savannah O’Neill–is pretty dang good. The 2020 version has been converted from third person to dual first person POV and has otherwise been updated for current sensibilities. O’Keefe is one hell of a writer, and that hasn’t changed, but I really could have used a disclaimer so that I could CHOOSE whether to update (repurchase) this book. It’s not the money (4 bucks x 3 for the series), it’s the principle. If you haven’t read O’Keefe, and you like highly emotional and sensually vivid romance with great characters, you are in for a treat. So, recommended, in spite of my butthurt resentment.
Box of Frogs by Helen Harper
This urban fantasy set in Manchester England is the first in The Fractured Faery Trilogy. The central character is a Fey woman known as the Madhatter, who wakes up with amnesia in the middle of a golf course next to a headless guy. Hijinks ensue as Maddy grapples with strange abilities and tries to track down her actual identity.despite the many, many people hatin’ on her. It takes awhile, but she begins to suspect she may not be the good guy here. I found it quite entertaining though it does end in a cliffie.
The Inheritance ny Ilona Andrews
Released first as a serial on the authors’ blog, this short novel is a gift from House Andrews to their righteously devoted fans. I cannot recommend it enough to any devotee of urban fantasy or paranormal adventure. At this point it is not a romance, but wait, there’s more! If you like fierce badass moms, quest storylines, oversized yet goofy German shepherds, monster battles, neon spelunking, a slow apocalypse, swift justice, and critter tartare, this is the book for you. I can’t wait for the promised sequel.
To be continued. . .
Part,l the second
(fingers crossed)
Paris Daillencourt Is About to Crumble by Alexis Hall
Second in a series set on a fictional British Baking Show, this book was an unexpectedly difficult read at times. Paris is a young man with undiagnosed mental health issues who takes solace in baking and whose roommate enters him in a reality tv show. If this appeals to you, read the “Content Guidance” before you commit to this book. On the show, he meets fellow contestant Tariq, and both feel an immediate attraction. The reader spends a lot of time in Paris’s very messed up head. I often found myself empathizing and cringing at the same time. I also caught myself frequently laughing out loud, because the author is purely brilliant. The humor is clever and hilarious and derived from sharp observation of human nature. Although The author doesn’t take cheap shots, I was sometimes uncomfortable (which is not necessarily a bad thing) with the juxtaposition of humor and obvious mental health issues. . What this book isn’t about is British baking shows. It isn’t cozy. It is barely even a romance. The best way I can explain it is that I found Paris’s unhappiness saturated everything and was not adequately balanced by his gradual move toward better mental health. The fix seemed way too quick and easy compared to the dark hole he’d been living in, but that was because I got the grand tour of the latter, while the former was more the cheap excursion. So, ymmv.
A Change in Tide by Freya Barker
DNF @29%
Retired hockey player and his pregnant sister move in next door to agoraphobic former midwife living on a quiet Canadian lake. This sports adjacent romance had potential, but bad writing (grammar & style) and boner-led decision making spoiled it for me. Still, I tried.
Stealing the Elf King’s Roses by Diane Duane
Despite the suggestion of the title, this book is neither a romance nor a fairy tale. It exists in that liminal space where science fiction and fantasy duke it out and jointly spurn the speculative fiction label. There is a murder mystery; there is magic; there are parallel worlds; and there is complex political maneuvering. The world building and the characterization are extraordinary. It took me a bit of work to get into this, but the ride was definitely worth it. My only regret is that there don’t appear to be any further books set in this world with these characters.
Battle Royal by Lucy Parket
I woke up a couple of days ago knowing I needed a comfort read. The newest Ilona Andrews soothed the immediate need, but the dreams were bad, and I needed more. Battle Royal was the perfect choice. This is perhaps my third reread, and it is still a perfect romance–enemies to lovers, opposites attract, grumpy/sunshine, all done right. As the layers of tropey expectation are peeled away, Sylvie and Dominic transcend all the cliches and, in doing so subvert them. Core values like integrity, loyalty, work ethic, moral standards are the foundation of Sylvie and Dominic’s relationship. And that’s what makes this a comfort read for me. (Samesies for the Ilona Andrews.) Recommended.
The Love Haters by Katherine Center
The first time I picked this up, I stalled on page six. I am so glad I chose to pick it up again. Welp, if anyone still needs a romance with inclement weather, this one fills the bill. Katie is a video producer with an insecure career and problems with accepting her body. She heads for the Florida Keys to create a promo film for the US Coast Guard featuring her supervisor’s “perfect” brother, rescue swimmer, Hutch. I really enjoyed this book, and will read it again, but it had some odd emphases–like someone who doesn’t read music trying to sing a song they’ve never heard. There is literally one major source of conflict in the relationship, and he is so awful that he sucks up all the oxygen between the pages. And yeah, he’s not a “villain” and he acts out for “reasons,” but he just sucks so hard he bleaches out all the other characters.
Still, I love Center’s writing and would recommend this wholeheartedly.
Enjoy the rest of the summer, and I’ll see y’all in September.
I’m working my way through a huge library hold pileup – so many books became available at once, even though I’d put them on hold at many different times.
Daughter of Tides by Kit Rocha
4.0 stars – queer m/f/m fantasy romance – I loved the previous duology in this world (starting with Consort of Fire). This was good but it lacked the emotional weight of the first two books, imo. It ends with the three MCs together but with more plot to resolve. And it’s definitely not stand alone.
I’m starting to wonder how long this series will be. And if there’s a planned end. Because it seems like other things are happening off page in this book and I’m wondering if some of that is a set up for another duology.
Bingo: why choose? inclement weather
In the Form of a Question by Amy Schneider
4.0 stars. Really enjoyed Amy Schneider’s memoir – I watched her whole run on Jeopardy and was already a fan.
Cosmic Love at the Multiverse Hair Salon by Annie Mare
4.0 stars for this strange, strange sapphic multiverse time travel romance.
The Romantic (The Vers Podcast #2) by Riley Hart
3 stars. This tropey, fluffy m/m romance about acquaintances who woke up married was fine. One of the MCs has a podcast with his best friends, which is why I read it.
Bingo: works in audio
I enjoyed A Bitter Remedy by Aline Hawkins. Historical mystery set in Oxford in the 1880s, focussing on women trying to be accepted at the university. Also interesting about Welsh culture in Oxford. No romance.