January is soon coming to an end. Here’s what we’re reading right now:
Lara: I tried to read a book featuring a disabled/chronically ill couple but instead of relating or learning, I just felt deeply triggered. So that was that. Now I’m flailing looking for something to take me out of my head.
Sarah: Oh heck I hate when that happens. I’m sorry you’re going through it. Do you have a “break glass in case of emergency” book?
I’m listening to Grave Expectations by Alice Bell, ( A | BN | K | AB ) which is entertaining if not compelling. I love one of the side characters but the main character is giving me increasing feelings of frustration.
Lara: Sarah, I had an emergency nap which always resets me. I’m going to dive into one of Jodi McAlistair’s bachelor inspired books tonight. Something new to me from an author I really enjoy. I’m hoping that’ll set me on the right path.
Elyse: I’ve really been on a historical fiction kick this month. I just finished Meet the Newmans ( A | BN | K | AB ) and now I’m reading The Star Society. ( A | BN | K | AB )
Claudia: I ‘ve just finished an amnesia Harlequin historical and loved it, much to my surprise! It’s A Marquess to Remember by Jenni Fletcher.
Susan: I’m reading the first volume of Art Thou Ailing by Ru Si Wo Wen, and all of the beats of the romance feel very familiar. Not in a bad way, just in a “Ah, here is where they pin each other to a wall to hide from a guard… Here is where there’s only one bed… Here is where they fall over and one protects the other from snow…”
This is not a complaint, btw. I read fanfic, you KNOW I will read these tropes in every form they come in.
Shana: I’m reading Make Room for Love by Darcy Liao ( A | BN ) and it is such a perfect comfort read. It’s about a trans woman healing from a bad breakup, who moves in with butch woman who has some healing of her own to do. There’s union organizing, and forced proximity, and so much yearning.
Carrie: I am reading The Shocking Experiments of Miss Mary Bennet by Melinda Taub ( A | BN | K | AB ) and it is a delight.
Amanda: My latest game board square is to read something published ten or more years ago. Motivated by our latest solved HaBO, I picked up book one in the series: In Bed with a Highlander by Maya Banks. ( A | BN | K | AB )
Whatcha reading right now? Tell us in the comments!
I’m currently listening to The Antidote by Karen Russell and reading A Court of Wings and Ruin by Sarah Maas.
It’s been a minute since I’ve posted in WAYR, but some recent highlights/ones I’d recommend:
THE KEEPER OF MAGICAL THINGS by Julie Leong. Sometimes you just need a low-key book with magical bees, giant daffodils, and a catdragon. This is that book.
HER RADIANT CURSE by Elizabeth Lim. The pacing on this one is relentless from start to finish, the character arcs are fascinating, and it made me cry (unusual for me!).
HER BASEBORN BRIDEGROOM by Alice Coldbreath. I have realized that I actually like insta-lust stories–this one is definitely “let’s bang and then we’ll figure out if this might work.” Bossy men in bed? Also my catnip.
ALL OF US MURDERERS by KJ Charles. Can KJ Charles do wrong? I don’t really think so. This one’s more gothic and the ending felt a little abrupt, but I still enjoyed it.
Not a romance, but THE CORRESPONDENT by Virginia Evans was great. It’s entirely epistolary with a great sense of the evolution of character and unspooling of plot.
Two books that did NOT work for me:
ICEBREAKER by Hannah Grace–the characters are all wildly immature, no one seems to go to class despite being in college, the resolution with the villain is deeply unsatisfying, and the epilogue is the most bananas thing I have read in quite some times. If you ever thought The Cutting Edge would be better if it were set at a college with a bunch of immature trust fund babies, you might like this more than I did.
HIS FORSAKEN BRIDE also by Alice Coldbreath. I mentioned this in the Coldbreath thread, but this book needs sooooooooooooooooooo much more grovel/I’m not actually sure there is enough grovel possible to redeem the hero. I kept looking for him to say he was sorry at any point for being so terrible to the heroine and the closest he gets is “Sorry I overreacted.” So, he’s sorry for being a jealous twit, but not, you know, for demeaning her, berating her, and coming perilously close to the line of sexual assault. (There’s a scene where she, not unreasonably, asks him whether someone is his mistress and he decides to prove a point/punish her for asking the question by making her have sex he would have with a mistress with him. I suppose she nominally consents, but it was a lot and I was really uncomfortable with it.)