Welcome back! It’s our first Whatcha Reading of the month, and that means only one more to go before 2026. Here’s what we’re reading:
Lara: I’m reading and enjoying Dom-Com by Adriana Anders. ( A | BN | K | AB ) I’m finding the growth of trust and intimacy in this book particularly great. There’s a lot of (hot) sex/scenes but each one pushes the characters development and evolution.
Elyse: I’m reading Audition by Katie Kitamura. ( A | BN | K | AB ) It’s not romance but I’ve heard multiple people say it’s wonderful and its shortlisted for the Booker Prize.
It’s also 200 pages which is right where my attention span is right now.
Amanda: I’ve been using my TBR game board and landed on “continue a series.” Throne of Secrets by Kerri Maniscalco ( A | BN | K | AB ) is book two in the Prince of Sin series and I really enjoyed book one. My only gripe is that it’s hardcover and lugging it around is less than ideal.
Carrie: I’m polishing off The Novel Life of Jane Austen: A Graphic Biography by Janine Barchas and Isabel Greenberg ( A | BN | K ) and it is delightful.
Sarah: I’m currently reading Magic and Mischief at the Wayside Hotel, which I just started. I think I might have a thing for “magical hotel/boarding house” stories. I know I like innkeeping stories – one of my favorite Nora’s is Born in Ice, about a woman who runs a bed & breakfast, though magic isn’t a major plot point. I’m very curious about where this book is going.
Shana: So I’m currently hate reading Fascinating Womanhood, ( A ) an anti-feminist self help guide published in 1963. It is WILD.
Sarah: I’m both intrigued and alarmed.
Shana: I can’t really recommend it. The book feels a bit like if NXIVM and a religious cult had a baby, and that baby spoke with hyperbolic mania.
I’m at the point where the author explains that men’s ideal woman has the “charms of femininity, radiance, good health, and childlikeness.” Also domestic skills and inner happiness.
So a child in a frilly dress, who happily scrubs floors using her healthy body and knowledge of cleaning supplies.
Sarah: Yikes on trikes.
Whatcha reading right now? Tell us in the comments!
In no particular order recently I’ve really enjoyed:
– JOHN WILDER GETS SCHOOLED, the second in Lisa Henry and Sarah Honey’s Goose Run m/m series–love the characters and the small town, and loved the relationships between the friends as well as the MCs
– TODD, the fifth in Maryann Jordan’s Lighthouse Security Investigations Montana series–excellent romantic suspense
– CHRISTMAS LANE, GINGERBREAD MISTLETOE, and SWEET TO THE CORE, Amy Aislin’s Lighthouse Bay series–a fun small-town holiday series that ties into her other books (but can be read without having read the others)
– ‘TIS THE DANG SEASON: A CHRISTMAS SMALL TOWN ROMANCE by Taryn Quinn–a low-angst story set in the Taryn Quinn universe. Warm and entertaining
– And I’ve been rereading the multi-author CHRISTMAS FALLS series, seasons one and two. Love the idea of a Christmas themed town, where it’s warmly welcoming and kitchy and fun
Looking forward to seeing what everyone else is reading!
Mostly re-reading older books. A Sudden Wild Magic, an adult novel by Diana Wynne Jones. Stranger than I remembered. Bet Me, Jenny Crusie, which has dated a bit but still stands out for the quality of the writing. I like the hero’s sister-in-law with her owl face. Two of Nora Roberts’s Key trilogy – must dig out the final one. In new books, I read a Christian romance, Katie in Waiting, by Erynn Mangum, which was interesting for a change (I’m not a Christian). Interesting to see how the author played with the heroine’s thoughts around “I want a husband but the Lord hasn’t sent me one so what’s up”. One question for US readers (I’m in the UK) – the heroine has weekly meals at her grandmother’s. She lives in a retirement community where there is help if she wants it but she’s mostly independent. She cooks for her granddaughter, but they eat from paper plates – is that common in the US, or is it meant to show that the grandmother is making changes to her life to make things easier as she ages? And one other new book – Kerry Greenwood’s last (she died in March), Murder in the Cathedral, which was fine but a bit lacking in the Phryne spirit of her best books.
Oh and I’ve just started Nathan Lowell’s new The Wizard’s Cat, sequel to The Wizard’s Butler. The writing is a bit clunky, but I’m interested to see where it goes.