Welcome back! Here’s how we’re kicking off our September reading:
Carrie: I’m reading and loving Tarot for the Wild Soul by Lindsay Mack, ( A | BN | K | AB ) which is a nonfiction guide to using tarot from a trauma-informed perspective.
Sarah: I have been deep diving into Sarah Morgan’s Harlequin Presents and Mills & Boon Medicals and branching out into other extremely over the top Presents in Hoopla. The recent HaBO has given me another author to add to my exploratory queue.
I welcome recommendations of any incredible Presents you love re-reading!
(I did not remember that Jane Porter wrote Presents!)
Lara: I’ve just started the first journal of The Unselected Journals of Emma M. Lion ( A | BN ) and it is bringing me so much joy!
Amanda: I brought (Mostly) Human Resources ( A | BN | K | AB ) with me on vacation for some poolside reading.
Whatcha reading? Tell us in the comments!
I did a crappe tonne of reading in the past three weeks to celebrate the end of summer. Fingers crossed, it’ll post.
Tangled by Emma Chase
DNFed @14%
This got quite a bit of buzz in the early twenty-teens, and I enjoyed a more recent book by Chase. Sadly, it seems the popular taste is not always mine. The male narrator of this “romance” is such an unrepentant poster boy for virulent misogyny that I couldn’t spend another moment in his company, so out I noped.
Accidental Billionaire Plus-One by Annika Martin
Bingo: Contempoary
I really enjoyed Martin’s most recent billionaire romance. In spite of my general scepticism regarding the virtues of the über-wealthy, the humanity came shining through. In this case, Bruno is a reclusive watch maker who shields a secret that could devastate his brothers, while Kelsey is a dancer who’s been ostracized by her entire family due to a false accusation. Brought together by an impulsive prank, they soon find common ground and support each other in dealing with their family issues. Somehow, it’s both amusing and tender. Recommended.
Earl on Fire by Felicity Niven
By seeking a wealthy bride, Henry Delamere, Lord Ashthorpe resurrected his family fortunes at the expense of his actual family. The single bright spot in his solitary existence is his orphaned granddaughter Mina. In a quest to commission a book by Mina’s favorite author, he meets lonely, frazzled Susannah Beasley. This historical romance was so good, suffused with gentle humor and never losing sight of the MCs’ humanity. Henry and Susannah are in their fifties, so their immediate attraction is a welcome surprise to both. The pace is slow but intense and the side characters –especially the Marchioness and Mina–are believable and entertaining. Enthusiastically recommended.
Between the Lines by Olivia Hayle
Bingo: Mistaken or secret identity
This book starts with a fairly common trople–only one bed leading to a hot one night stand. Charlotte and Aiden are sympathetic characters from the start, but I was surprised by how involved in their story I became. The MCs have both suffered from public embarrassment that changed their lives, but Charlotte’s past is deeply buried and secretly connected to Aiden which is problematic for their roles as ghostwriter and subject. This romance is extremely spicy, but the sexytimes are incredibly well iintegrated with both the story-telling and the emotional growth of the MCs. I also liked that the author didn’t employ any easy or obvious plot twists with this couple’s story. Real communication and honest mistakes, for the win! Recommended.
Fox by Maya Alden
This short novel was mentioned by @DiscoDollyDeb in a recent SB-TB WAYR post. The author was unknown to me, so I was shocked by how much I loved this book. The first thing that struck me was the writing; it is excellent in a witty yet unassuming sort of way. The story itself seems complex with its blown up marriage, trauma drama, and fake amnesia. Underneath all that is a simple plot revolving around broken trust and a man working to repair the damage and make amends. It is less a grovel than someone striving to repay a debt incurred by their carelessness. Highly recommended.
Playing Offside by Jax Calder
Bingo: Place you’d like to vacation
Set in the fictionalized world of New Zealand Rugby, this m/m sports story is a rivals to lovers, age gap romance that deals with familiar issues around celebrity athletes coming out. As a NZ fangirl (the country more than the team), I was very eager to read this novel. And it was fine. However, this plot is so well-trodden, and I’ve read variants so many times, that it takes wonderful characters, outstanding writing, or surprising twists to spark my enthusiasm. As I said, this one was just fine.
Italy and Forever by Leonie Mack
Bingo: Place you’d like to vacation
I believe this is fourth in the Wedding Planners series, and it’s not really knocking my socks off. I like the cast of characters from the adventure wedding company, including Rhys, the asocial photographer MMC. The FMC, Ginny, however, grates. It’s not that she’s horrible; it’s more that she’s a one note tune. It’s also possible that I’ve reached my limit for wedding planners. If you enjoy MCs circling the drain and each other due to their self-described unworthiness until the last damn minute, or you’re just a fan of the series, you might enjoy this. Otherwise, stop reading at book 2 of the series.
The Fall Affair by Vi Keeland
Bingo: Place you’d like to vacation
DNF @47%
I always enjoy Keeland’s writing, but I can’t always wrap my head around the story she tells. In this case, disgruntled attorney Allegra quits her job in New York (justified), then moves to Tuscany to settle an inheritance from her Nonna. There she finds a beautiful countryside, a slower pace, and Matteo, the winegrower who lives next door. So far, so good, until Matteo starts speaking in slightly broken English. A book has to have some extraordinary qualities before I’ll tolerate dialect, and the damn dialect better be consistent. I tried to enjoy the story in spite of the many clichés, but in the end, I couldn’t get past the grating fake accents.
The Faking Game by Olivia Hayle
This 506 page billionaire romance was a slog at times, because it felt like 300 pages were sex scenes. They weren’t bad sex scenes as long as you’re cool with praise kink, but they were a lot. So this book starts with a billionaire boy’s club with secrets and rituals and vows not to touch anybody’s sister. Of course the French boy entrusts the American boy with his sister’s protection from a stalker when she moves to New York. A good bit of the set-up for this was pretty standard for Richie Rich romance, but one thing that kept me reading was the way that the MCs’ feelings for each other developed throughout the novel. The MMC was deeply committed to the FMC’s well-being and their emotions felt really genuine. All I can say is, Reader, I finished it.
Playing at Home by Jax Calder
Turns out that dad and nanny romances are just as problematic when the kids’ carer is a manny. That said, this story really worked for me. Jacob, the rugby playing dad, and Austin, the young-at-heart nanny are an adorable pair. However, it’s the quietly supportive families and teammates that take this story to the next level. Also the kids are realistic and engaging. This sports romance is not heavy on the sport, but it succeeds as a warm, tender love story. Recommended.
Playing for Keeps by Jax Calder
This book is the third in Calder’s m/m rugby romances. It is a complicated second chance/friends to lovers story, heavy on the angst and with a touch more actual rugby than the earlier books. There is also some definite familial hostility in this one. The writing is grand, the relationship, hot, and I enjoyed this series entry quite a bit.
International Relations by Zac Hammett
Bingo: Place you’d like to vacation (London), Contemporary
This novel centers on a marriage of convenience between a young diplomat hoping to advance his career and an American actor whose visa is expiring. Ironically, as the relationship develops and both men are tested in the pursuit of their goals, the story becomes an exploration of issues around lying and honesty. As Max and Hunter become closer, they begin to reexamine their sometimes cavalier attitudes toward the truth. Sexytimes are emotionally intense but not particularly explicit, and the humor is sly and British. I actually liked this quite a bit.
The Last Days of Summer by Sarra Manning
This novel may work better as women’s fiction than as a romance. Yes, Cassie and Marc are the clear protagonists, but the tragic secret that their mutual friends share with them is central to the story and weaves in an emotional weight beyond the angsty back and forth of Cassie and Marc’s love-hate relationship. Written in third person from Cassie’s POV, the novel could have used more backstory for the MMC, either from a dual POV or simply better communication. Still, it was very well written and lightened with nice touches of character-based humor. Recommended.
Santillian Triplets series by Kate Canterbary (Reread)
The Magnolia Chronicles (1)
I had a yen for a sure thing, readingwise, and this Walsh brothers adjacent series came to mind. I’ve read Magnolia’s book a couple of times before, and it never disappoints. Magnolia is pushed into the wilderness of dating apps by her mom, suffers through some rough encounters online and face to face, and suddenly finds herself with two(!) very enticing suitors who are both attracted to her mean side but have little else in common. Maggie is a sharp and witty observor of her own life, and I basically grin my way through her story each time I read it. Heartily recommended.
Boss in the Bedsheets (2)
Ash Santillian is the serious triplet, a brilliant accountant weighed down by his responsibilities. Meeting Zelda, a brilliant, caring agent of chaos during a disastrous flight from Denver to Boston is a game changer for both of them. The Santillians are one of Canterbary’s more delightful creations fraught with my favorite combo of angst and humor. I enjoyed this series entry despite the pervasive instalove.
The Belle and the Beard (3)
Loved the family. Loved the writing. Did not love the book. Why?
Every crisis and every celebration ended in a trip to Pound Town, even when a detour to Therapyville was in order. Under all the Santillian charm, Jasper is a classic Crushed Heroine(™) to the point that she describes herself as such at the start of Epilogue 1.
And Linden had such a heavy Zaddy-knows-best vibe that I finally realized how much I loathed this archetype.I am never reading this book again.
An Heir of Possibilities by Grace Burrowes
The latest in the Bad Heir Day Tales finds another reluctant (literal) bastard inheriting an unwelcome title. Richard’s only reason for accepting his inheritance is to connect with his sister and aunt. Meeting his courtesy cousin Amabel who actually runs the estate is an unexpected pleasure. Their courtship is accompanied by a twisty little mystery, but–be warned–the blurb on this is somewhat misleading. A comforting, reliable historical read.
Lost and Found by Tarah DeWitt
The third in the Spunes, Oregon series is my least favorite. Mind you, I love DeWitt’s writing; there is a heft and texture to it that I treasure. Silas and Bea’s book is a moving love story weighted with sorrows. While deep in mourning for her best friend, Bea makes a radical decision that upends her carefully reconstructed life and leads to an alliance with firefighter Silas Byrd, who is struggling with his own literal and emotional scars. When I talk abouu weight, I’m talking about grief, a detailed IVF journey, and the effects of burn scars covering nearly half the body. These things are well handled, but the major problem for me was the dead bff. I really couldn’t stand her. Revealed only through flashbacks and Bea’s nostalgia, she just seemed kind of self-absorbed and shallow. Basically, she bequeaths her frozen eggs to her best friend. (Not a spoiler) It’s like saying. I know you’ll be burdened by grief when I’m gone, but, here, let me put my dead thumb on the scale and force you to make a life changing decision under a deadline. Yeah, what a pal. Rcommended for angst lovers who aren’t disturbed by the heavy subject matter in this book.
@SB Sarah: I love Harlequin Presents and my triumvirate of “angsty HP queens”: Caitlin Crews, Maisey Yates, and Jackie Ashenden, along with the wonderful Kelly Hunter as first runner-up (Clare Connelly is not quite on the same angst level: I consider her more of an “angsty HP princess”). There’s at least one HP series about an interconnected group of royals where each of the writes (Yates, Ashenden, Crews, and Hunter) wrote one of the books—so you could try that and see which writer appeals to you the most. My all-time favorite HP is Maisey Yates’s CARIDES’S FORGOTTEN WIFE, which checks all the HP boxes: fabulous wealth (with an “rose up from the streets” hero), marriage of convenience, operatic levels of emotional turmoil, and—for good measure—amnesia. Yes, in any HP, suspension of disbelief is a must, but I do find that beyond the glittering surface, the wild plots, and the rather discreet sex scenes (I remember my surprise when I first encountered the word “cock” in an HP—it was a Jackie Ashenden, iirc), there are often attempts to unravel rather tangled issues, particularly as they relate to the make-female dynamic. Anyway, HPs are certainly a YMMV line, but when you find an author that hits your catnip center, it’s a fabulous experience.
I zoomed through a couple books this month.
PROBABLE CAWS, the latest in the Meg Langslow series by Donna Andrews. Start with the first, MURDER WITH PEACOCKS (still my fave), but this entry was a lot of fun with interesting characters. FMC is a blacksmith/general family wrangler in Virginia. Extended family is fun and quirky.
KNAVE AND THE MOON, second in the duology from Rachel Gillig. I really liked some parts and was not thrilled with other choices (just my taste), but overall, a strong finish. Romantasy with magic and machinations and a sweetly sad gargoyle.
SCION, a sci-fi novella by James Islington. I love his WILL OF THE MANY and STRENGTH OF THE FEW fantasy books, so I wanted to try this. I liked it, but it suffered from some longer expositions, as it’s clear he wants this to be a novella series.
I’m waiting for the releases soon of a couple books. WE CHASE SHADOWS, the second in Richard Osman’s adult daughter-in-law protection agent and widowed dad-in-law former Met Police officer. The first was a fun and just-complicated-enough mystery with characters that stay with you. And THE VANISHED SISTER, the latest in Sherry Thomas’s Lady Sherlock mysteries. Sometimes Lady Sherlock can be too quirky, but overall, this is a great series with really interesting characters and people.
Part 1:
Wilder at Last: A Steamy Small Town Romantic Comedy (Wilder Adventures Book 5) by Serena Bell
Bingo: Animal on the Cover, Contemporary, Person’s Name in Title, Vacation Setting, Latest in Series
This was really well done example of two friends who have known each other since kindergarten realizing that they might just be perfect for each other. Easton Wilder and Hanna Hott both work for the Wilder’s outdoor excursion business. When the Wilder’s bring in a YouTube personality to headline some outdoor cooking and foraging trips, Hanna needs some help to get his attention. So, she blackmails Easton into helping her out, which is a completely reasonable thing to do. Cue the makeover montage and kissing practice.
Lord of Justice: An Age-Gap, Secret Baby, Forced Marriage, Dark Bratva Romance (The Bratva Lords Book 5) By Arianna Fraser (KU)
Bingo: Flowers on the Cover, Tattoo, Recently published
Look, I do understand that most of you would absolutely hate this book based on the tropes in the subtitle alone. But, if you would consider this one, I thought it was really funny. As an example of the kind of humor, I present a few selected chapter titles: , , and There’s also an inherent social commentary in the choice of villains.
Low stakes thought #2: I have a working theory that mafia romances are essentially contemporary romantasies. It starts with the patriarchal power structures with largely inherited leadership roles, then it meanders through a bunch of enemies to lovers, bodyguard, and arranged marriage plots, and throws in some side commentary on computer hacking being indistinguishable from magic.
Low stakes thought #3: This is a contemporary romance that is part of a series of “second generation” stories. Their parents’ romances were also contemporaries. But, our *cough* hero is 30 something years old. So, how should we work the mental arithmetic? Do I imagine that the parents’ stories really took place 30 years in the past? Assume that these tales are taking place 30 years in the future? Split the difference? Parallel universe?
His Road Home by Anna Richland (KU)
Bingo: N/A (novella)
Mentioned by Kareni in the last WAYR. A military medic in Afghanistan needs a fiance to avoid offending his host, so he grabs a picture of a girl from back home and photoshops it to look like they are a couple. Seems pretty harmless until he is severely injured in an explosion and the media runs the photo, bringing the two of them together. I thought the portrayal of hero’s emotional and physical recovery from his wounds was really well done.
Picture This: A Short Story by Devney Perry (KU)
Bingo: N/A (short story)
Best friend’s brother + wedding. Short and sweet.
The Ex Vows by Jessica Joyce
Bingo: Flowers on the Cover, Contemporary
Second chance romance. Two childhood friends who fell in love and dated in college but whose relationship didn’t survive the challenges of new adulthood. They fake still being friends for their mutual best friend as best they can, but his upcoming wedding is going to throw them more closely together than they’d like. And then the wedding venue burns down, and they are recruited to help set things up for the new location. The book follows them working through the hurts that led to their break-up and checking if maybe it’s not to late to try again. It’s a solid romance.
The Venetian’s Daring Seduction (Italian Billionaires book 2) by Jennifer Blake (KU)
Bingo: Vacation Place (Venice), Contemporary
It’s basically an old school Harlequin Contemporary featuring your favorite tropes:
– Heroine with exciting career –> Art appraiser
– Autocratic, rich, European hero –> got it
– Exotic location –> Venice during Carnivale
– Family secrets –> Of course!
No amnesia or secret twins, alas. It’s not going to win any awards, but it was fun for what it was.
Visions of Heat (Psy-Changeling Book 2) by Nalini Singh (library)
Bingo: Futuristic or Dystopian
Originally published in 2007, this paranormal romance brings together a were-jaguar and a powerful psy with the ability to see the future. There’s some neat world building ideas in this futuristic world where coldly logical psychics are starting to lose their control of society to the more emotional shapeshifters and humans. The psy are not naturally emotionless, but undergo training in order to keep the Silence, which is supposed to keep their abilities from causing insanity. Our heroine, the psy, has realized that unless something changes, she will be imprisoned by her family for her own safety and their monetary gain. She follows her instincts to seek out the only psy she knows of who has survived leaving the psy collective, and who also happens to be the female lead from the previous book. Along the way, she meets a really attractive changeling who makes her question her commitment to her emotionless existence. It’s pretty good, though maybe a little dated. This one is best for folks who don’t mind very alpha heroes.
Part 2:
Devil in Disguise by Lisa Kleypas (The Ravenels Book 7) by Lisa Kleypas (library)
Bingo: Scot, Non-regency historical (London, 1880), Food Industry (Distiller), From a Rec
A young widow has taken over her late husband’s shipping enterprise where she meets a handsome Scotsman who has hired her company to ship and store a shipment of whiskey from his distillery. And then someone tries to kill him. Fans of the author’s Wallflower series will appreciate spending time with some familiar faces as well. It’s a good historical romance.
Last Night With the Earl (The Devils of Dover Book 2) by Kelly Bowen (KU)
Bingo: Artist, From a Rec
This is a regency era historical with a battled scarred lord and the artistic sister of the last book’s teacher heroine. Rose’s family used to be rich, but her parents’ made some unwise investments and left the family in dire straights. Their fortunes have begun to turn around at this point, but while her brother is a baron they aren’t exactly the kind of people that populate the Season’s ballrooms. Rose used to be engaged to a friend of the hero and what happened there is revealed as the story goes along, but suffice it to say that the experience has made our hero one of her least favorite people. She now teaches art classes at her sister’s school and paints portraits. Eli was badly wounded at Waterloo and had been hiding on the continent when he received word that his father’s passing and his presumed death was about to see the title pass to cousin. Our characters meet again when Eli decides to sneak in to one of his properties, and instead of a nearly empty estate finds Rose in her art studio and learns the home is currently leased to a finishing school. This is a very good book, though I think I’d need to be in the right mood to really appreciate it. The inspirational messages are good and well meant but not subtle, and if I was in a more sullen mood they’d probably come across as preachy in the way that someone giving good advice that you aren’t ready to hear can. I do want to ramble a bit about the ending, but that’s going to need a spoiler tag.
The characters in this book are beyond modern in their sensibilities (e.g., how many of you would agree to serve as a nude model for an art class comprised of young adult female students?) And in an ideal modern setting, everyone in this book would get therapy in addition to the support of their found family and friends. But, this is a historical setting, so therapy is replaced our leads kinda bullying each other into doing what they think is best for them in terms of facing their insecurities and fears which feels a little like someone heard about exposure therapy and completely missed the memo on how it is implemented. It’s not like there are licensed therapists available, and falling in love while supporting and healing each other is a time honored tradition in romance novels. But I find it easier to accept it as healthy when the characters feel less modern, since in a modern relationship, a therapist should be separate relationship from a friend. I’m not saying that friends can’t help each other work through things, but these characters have gone through very extreme trauma and could really use professional guidance.
So, we get to the third act break-up. Rose was so severely bullied by the Beau Monde when her previous engagement broke up that she has physical symptoms like nausea and shaking at the thought of reentering high society again. I’m assuming that the author was portraying something like PTSD symptoms. For this reason, she believes that she would be unsuitable as Eli’s countess. At this point, Eli doesn’t understand how bad the situation is, and they fight. Move forward a few days, he makes his grand gesture, she realizes that he’ll stay even if things get rough, and she goes to a ball to prove to herself that she can face her fears. So, in like a one week time span, we go from physically shaking at the thought of a dinner party to being able to handle a ball, and I’m not sure how. The couple of days between “I have to give this a chance” and the ball is largely off-the-page, so I’m assuming that sheer strength of will combined with the power of love got her through. But, I didn’t find it satisfying. If it was something so simple that a couple of days where nothing worth describing on the page happened, then why was it such a big impediment to the HEA? But if it is something more serious like PTSD, then the impression that she’s able to just power through it doesn’t seem very realistic either.
Don’t let me scare you off if this is a book you’d otherwise be interested in. I still think it’s a good book, just a little wobble on the landing.
Respect for Christmas by Grace Burrowes (KU)
Bingo: N/A (novella)
This novella was included as a bonus with Last Night With the Earl. A much admired, and recently retired, courtesan is traveling to her family’s home for Christmas, where she expects an awkward reunion. Along the way, she meets up with a newly minted baron not quite by chance. In order to repay a debt of honor, he has been asked to retrieve (steal) a small book given to her by one of her former clients. Unfortunately, he finds himself reluctant to betray the charming young woman who is quickly capturing his heart. The leads are minor characters from Burrowes’ previous books who are getting a chance for their own HEA, though this story can stand alone. Short and sweet, and I liked it.
The Long Game by Rachel Reid (library)
Bingo: Tattoo, Contemporary, From a Rec?
Shane and Ilya are still trying to find their happy ending, but there’s a lot going on. Shane is still scared of coming out to the league. Ilya is dealing with depression. And even though they are now in the same country, it’s still a lot of time apart during the season, with all the associated problems. I still enjoyed spending time with these characters and chuckled at a lot of Ilya “Trash Talk Is My Love Language” Rozanov’s dialog.
Still reading MERCURY PICTURES PRESENTS by Anthony Marra, still loving it. The first half was about trying to stick it to The ManTM while screaming into the void about the creep of fascism into pre-war America. The second half, which takes place after the Pearl Harbor attack and which has the view of Mercury Pictures change from ‘warmongers against American Values’ to ‘prescient patriotic geniuses,’ becomes a story about selling your soul: the studio is hired to film propaganda, never mind that most of their staff is listed as ‘enemy aliens’ due to immigration status, never mind that the ‘enemies’ of their ‘prescient’ film were the US senators and censors who now praise them. Little Tokyo is getting cleared out and Chinese-American actor Eddie Lu has never been more successful, so long as he keeps agreeing to play Evil Japanese Spies. Miniaturist Anna Weber’s talent is recognized by the war department for her knowledge of the cities in Germany they plan to bomb. The movies they could make for the war effort could make everyone rich–and kill their relatives back home, and drive their friends and neighbors (and themselves) into concentration camps. Emphasis that this is not a romance, in fact the most healthy romantic relationship looks pretty much destined to fail because of the social circumstances. I really can’t imagine this will have a happy ending for most of the characters.
DNF’d THE ENCHANTRESS OF FLORENCE by Salman Rushdie. Someone I follow online recommended this, and I’ve heard of Rushdie before, but I detested this. Historical-leaning-towards-fantasy in which a mysterious traveler from Renaissance Italy shows up at the Mughal Court claiming he has a tale he must tell to the king. Repeated theme/motif of the power of stories and belief and how love creates something from nothing, but I hated everyone, hated the ‘aren’t I so clever’ writing, hated the constant constant sex jokes (and I’m not a prude! But tell a different joke! Just once!), hated the way women are treated (how many of the important female characters are even real people within the story? The majority of them are legends, imaginary, or part of the circular story-retelling), just…ugh. I read about 1/4, skipped ahead, read another 1/4, and gave up.
Started FINDING LORD FARLISLE by Cassandra Dean, Regency romance that was advertised as ‘Gothic vibes.’ Haven’t gotten enough of a feel for it yet to have an opinion. Woman wants to ghost-hunt in the manor house she used to visit as a child; the lord she was childhood friends with no longer remembers her. I figured we’re going into spooky season proper, so it’ll be a good match.
Sarah, I love Sarah Morgan’s earlier stuff! My taste is more sweet/wholesome than the usual Presents, but if you’re looking for something a little quirky or different try Anne McAllister’s.
In my personal reading, I got at least some of my romance reading mojo back by reading SWEPT AWAY by Beth O’Leary on vacation. Two people who are feeling a bit lost have a one night stand on a houseboat. When they wake up the next morning, they’ve been swept out to sea. Beth O’Leary is one of those very hit or miss authors for me. I’ve either loved her books or not been able to finish them. This book needs a lot of suspension of disbelief to get into it, but once I did that I was locked in. I was sitting in an air conditioned cabin in the middle of nowhere (heat advisory so nothing to do) on vacation and I just sat and read it one day, almost one sitting. It’s a very different book than THE MARTIAN, but it reminded me of it in the sense so much was about survival. And both authors are very good at letting you think the problem has been solved and then yanking the rug out from under you.
I am still steadily working through Amory Ames mysteries by Ashley Weaver. I keep calling them Avery Ames mysteries, but that’s the pseudonym for a different cozy mystery writer. Look, it’s not my fault people use bland/cutsey names. The last one I read, ACT OF VILLANY, was very satisfying b/c I spotted the red herring as a red herring, but I still didn’t figure out the murderer and was completely surprised by it.
I also finished the second book in the Neal Shusterman Scythe series THUNDERHEAD. I liked this one better than the last one just b/c there were a lot of different plot threads that came together in an exciting way w/a big cliffhanger. I still find the characters and world building thin, but I’m in till the end now.
Not a lot of reading for me in recent weeks, but I very much enjoyed IT’S DIFFERENT THIS TIME, the 2025 debut novel by Joss Richard. It’s a slow burn friends-to-lovers story that becomes a second chance (and eventually a third chance) romance for FMC June, an actor shuttling between Broadway and Hollywood, and MMC Adam, a chef and restaurateur. They meet as roommates who share a New York City brownstone, and their home is also an important “character” in the story, which is told with flashbacks to various portions of a 10-year relationship. Richard’s writing style is engaging and the character development is effective for the MCs as well as for June’s best friend Chloe and Adam’s family members. June’s self-doubts and assumptions (accompanied by lack of communication) sometimes seemed overly extended, but I appreciated her eventual growth. I’m looking forward to reading Richard’s next book.
I also enjoyed BOOK CLUB BOYFRIEND, by Jenny Holiday. This is the third in a very loosely connected set of books that share some characters, but it’s not necessary to read the first two (CANADIAN BOYFRIEND and INTO THE WOODS) before diving into this story. As was true for INTO THE WOODS, the MCs in BOOK CLUB BOYFRIEND are “older” characters– meaning they are in their 40s. FMC Blair is a former actor who is now a movie and TV producer as well as the manager of a celebrity book club. MMC Jack is an author of serious literary works who is invited to be featured in Blair’s book club, and turns her down rather rudely. But Jack, who is suffering from writer’s block, later accepts Blair’s invitation to leave his Minnesota condo and move into Blair’s LA pool house so he can try to finish his book in the sunshine. As I said in my WAYR post about INTO THE WOODS, I think Holiday is very good at exploring and explaining reasons that people like both of these MCs “get stuck” (and in Blair’s case, suffer panic attacks) and then learn how to change their self-perceptions and move forward in their work and their relationships. I liked these characters a lot, even when Jack was exceedingly grumpy, and especially when their banter included rapid-fire exchanges of synonyms or other word games. I’m still thinking about words that describe the unique experience of floating on an inner tube on a lake and not calling the sensation “lakey.”
When I started THE WEDDING PEOPLE by Alison Espach (currently available on KU) I wasn’t sure I’d stick with it, but I ended up enjoying the dark humor (content warnings for references to suicidal ideation, miscarriages, cheating partners, and an extremely self-absorbed bridezilla). I also appreciated the numerous satiric observations of academic life from the perspective of the FMC, an adjunct professor of English literature. I wouldn’t call this a romance or a beach read (terms I saw used in several reviews) but I’m glad I finished it.
ROMANTIC HERO, by Kirsty Greenwood, was OK but I liked her previous novel, THE LOVE OF MY AFTERLIFE, more than this one. The FMC is a novelist suffering from writer’s block who is startled when a villainous cowboy character she created for her books shows up for real in her London apartment. The premise was clever, but I thought the pace was a bit slow.
VERY SINCERELY YOURS, by new-to-me author Kerry Winfrey, also was OK. I liked the MMC, Everett, frequently referred to as “hot Mr. Rogers.” He’s a puppeteer with a children’s TV show (based in Columbus, Ohio) known for helping children talk about their feelings. The show is a comfort watch for 30-year-old FMC Teddy, whose life has fallen apart (over-controlling boyfriend broke up with her and she’s crashing in friend’s apartments while trying to figure out next steps). Teddy reaches out via email to Everett; he’s intrigued and writes back, and their connection grows. For me, the character development was better than the plot development, but I discovered a couple more of Winfrey’s books in my Kindle TBR stack and will probably give them a try.
I have finally found my reading groove after a brutal reading slump. I read four books so far this month.
Boys Among Men: How The Prep to Pro Generation Redefined the NBA and Sparked a Basketball Revolution (Jonathan Abrams) was good but not great. Some of the conclusions I didn’t think were necessarily supported.
History Lessons (Zoe B Wallbrook) was a fun cozy, academic mystery. The joy was in the protagonist and her voice. The mystery was only okay.
The Next Chapter (Camille Kellogg) was an okay romance. Fun but predictable.
See You Next Tuesday (Kate Stayman-Young) was great for the 80% and okay for the last 20%. I thought the conflict of the two characters at the end could have been more evenhanded and nuanced.
A Study in Sparkling (Jodi McAllister) was the worst book I have read so far this year. I was so excited to read it. I was so disappointed by it. I found the FMC to be utterly unsympathetic (maybe she was supposed to be) and her relationship with the MMC to be awful. She was awful and he was an emotional doormat and that was not romantic to me. At all.
STAR SHIPPED is the first Cat Sebastian I’ve read (primarily because I rarely read historical romance, and I believe this is her first contemporary), and I enjoyed it very much (although whoever designed the cover did her no favors: it’s not a bad cover, per se, but it certainly doesn’t scream “this is a contemporary romance”; the cover makes it look like the book is set on a tv show from the 1960s). Simon and Charlie are actors, co-stars on a long-running sci-fi tv show, and they are (at least from Simon’s POV) antagonists—although it’s clear that after seven years of working together, they know each other quite well. For the entire book, we are in Simon’s head—not always the greatest place to be because of Simon’s social anxiety, self-isolation, frequent migraines, and (it must be said) sarcasm and cruelty. We understand the reason for some of Simon’s nastiness, but that only alleviates things partially. There are rumors that some members of the cast are going to leave the show at the end of the current season—and that is the throughline of the story as Simon and Charlie end up on a road trip searching for Charlie’s missing stepfather. The two men eventually share a hotel room and, finally, a bed…but there is much more happening than hooking up. Simon has to decide how much of his closely-guarded self he is willing to share, and Charlie has to decide how best to face the difficulties of his childhood. Sebastian does an excellent job of showing how the men negotiate their personality quirks and reveal themselves emotionally to each other. STAR SHIPPED was a lovely read, made more fun by the interspersed social media posts from avid fans of the TV show (who constantly ship not just Simon & Charlie’s characters but sometimes Simon and Charlie themselves). And now I’m really looking forward to WASHED UP, the next book in the series. Highly recommended.
Nicky James’s STORMZ RISING features two rival tornado chasers who are part of a reality show about (you guessed it) strom chasing; but like many of James’s books, the setting of the book (in this case, Oklahoma) is ancillary to the way the characters must deal with their own circumstances and trauma. Oz (short for Ozrick—and one of the many Wizard of Oz references in the book) chases storms because it’s a way to escape the machinations of his mentally ill mother (who has Munchausen by Proxy and spends most of her time either obsessing over Oz’s health or trying to make him sick to confirm her beliefs). Gale is an extremely closeted former seminary student who—after a horrible betrayal—lives a solitary life photographing nature as a way to get closer to God. Initially, two storm-chasing groups are assembled for the reality show, but ultimately Oz and Gale grow closer. Perhaps because I read STORMZ RISING and STAR SHIPPED back-to-back, I found a lot of commonalities between the MCs: in both books, the men have to decide how much to trust and share and how much to retreat behind their established personas. While I wouldn’t classify STORMZ RISING as on the level with some of James’s really great work (like the Doyle & Valor or the Krause & Domingo series), it’s still an enjoyable romance with a sympathetic understanding of people who have survived traumas and find a way to move forward. Recommended.
This is only partially on topic but the BBC had a profile of Barbara Cartland in advance of the biography on her coming out. I know this article will be if interest to the bitchery. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20260910-the-extraordinary-story-of-barbara-cartland-the-forgotten-billions-selling-romance-author
Over the past three weeks ~
— enjoyed Special Delivery (Star Runners Book 1) by Rex Burke which starts with a soldier in the Federation army who disobeys an order (for very good reasons) and strikes an officer. He is given the choice of a lifetime of hard labor or an off the books mission on a distant planet with a small team. He chooses the latter and the adventure begins. I would read on were the next book to magically show up on my Kindle.
— enjoyed Chase Hooper Likes It Hot by Lisa Henry and Sarah Honey, a contemporary romance featuring a young man with a difficult past and a baker. When the story begins, the former is working the night shift at a gas station and is generally rude to customers one of whom is the latter who always stops by on his way to work to begin baking bread.
— happily reread Blind Date with a Werewolf by Patricia Briggs. If you are a reader of the author’s Alpha and Omega or Mercy Thompson books, I suspect you’d like this, too. It features Asil, a very old werewolf, and the five blind dates that he is maneuvered into taking.
— very much enjoyed a reread of Turns of Fate by Anne Bishop. If you like her books about The Others, I suspect you’d like this, too. It has a fairly sizeable cast but a major character is a detective who has joined a team which specializes in crimes that might involve the Wyrd. This is set in a world that is ours but not as there are cellphones and references to Star Trek, Star Wars, and Doctor Who. (Violence and gore)
— for my book group, I read West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge. This story is based upon the historically true facts that a pair of young giraffes survived the hurricane of 1938 while at sea, arrived in New York Harbor, spent some time in quarantine, and then were driven cross country to their new home at the San Diego zoo. A zoo employee accompanied them and his occasional telegrams are included in the book; the young man (a teen) who drove the truck, Woodrow Wilson Nickel, is a fictional character. He is the one, at age 105, who is recounting his memories of the trip. I enjoyed this book.
— very much enjoyed rereading Season’s Change by Cait Nary, a contemporary romance featuring two hockey players. The story showed the leads moving from strangers to friends before the relationship moved to a romance.
— quite enjoyed the contemporary hockey romance Scoring Position by Ashlyn Kane and Morgan James. It featured one lead who is traded to a failing team with the (not so hidden) intent that he will befriend/turn around a talented player, also gay, who is in a slump.
— also quite enjoyed Unrivaled by Ashlyn Kane and Morgan James which had a pair of hockey players with a history of fighting on ice who meet off ice through an app. The sister of one of the leads signed him up for what was supposed to be a dating app but is actually an app for hooking up. Initially their connection is physical but then feelings develop.
— enjoyed Remember That Day by Mary Balogh which is a regency era romance. It features a military colonel who is strongly considering marrying the daughter of his commanding officer and a young woman, a pacifist, who is hoping that a gentleman with whom she shares friendship and many interests might propose to her. Her friend is the colonel’s brother. Both couples end up at a house party (This is a very chaste romance.)
— enjoyed Confetti Hearts by Lily Morton, a contemporary romance. This story begins with one of the leads, a wedding planner, asking the other, a businessman, to sign divorce papers. We see the beginning of their relationship in flashback; in the present, the businessman is a guest at the remote venue where a wedding is being held. The wedding party is snowed in.
— enjoyed Face Off by Riley Bauer which features two players who had a previous negative encounter in a handshake line; in the present day, they are teammates on a newly formed team. They each adopt a kitten from the team cat; as the kittens are a bonded pair (is this a true thing?), they are forced to spend time together.
— Before the Fire by Riley Bauer was a very enjoyable prequel introducing a number of hockey players who are forming a new team and beginning to bond.
— enjoyed Before the Trade by Riley Bauer, a novella about two players who have a significant fight when they are opponents but who now become teammates and roommates.
— enjoyed The Distant Hills and Other Stories, a compilation of mostly short romance works by author Kaje Harper.
— Between the Pipes by Quinn Ward was a pleasant contemporary romance featuring a bar owner, who is also a mostly retired hockey goalie and zamboni driver, and a bartender, who is also a carpenter.
I just got back from a short vacation and while I didn’t get to do as much beach reading as I would have liked I still finished two books.
I finished This Kingdom Will Not Kill me by Ilona Andrews which I got on Kindle when it was recently on sale. I did really enjoy reading it even though I’m a bit disappointed that it is more of a high fantasy setting rather than urban fantasy. I’m much prefer urban fantasy settings to traditional fantasy settings and with the current popularity of romantasy/high fantasy books I was hoping for more of the urban fantasy settings that I have loved from previous I.A. series. (I knew going in that it wasn’t going to be urban fantasy but I hoped after all the rave reviews that it would change my mind and make me love the setting but alas, I continue to be ambivalent towards traditional fantasy settings)
This definitely has a bit of Game of Thrones inspo which is very much my not my cup of tea so that somewhat decreased my enjoyment but I liked the main character and will certainly be continuing with the series. I did find all of the various characters confusing so I think I’m going to have to re-read this before the next book comes out to try and sort out all the various plot lines. I’m hoping for a Graphic Audio version listen to on my re-read.
The second book was Daggerbound by T. Kingfisher and I really can’t overstate how much I loved it. It is a cozy fantasy with heart and while perhaps a little bit darker than Swardheart (the first book in the series) it is overall a very comforting read. It also made me laugh out loud several times (like really laugh out loud, people turned to look at me in confusion but it was worth it)
I love the World of the White Rat and this is an excellent instalment. I do recommend reading the Clocktaur War Series (only two books) and Swordheart before Daggerbound because I think it would enhance your enjoyment because those set up the world very well and introduces some of the characters.
The Saint of Steel (also set in the World of the White Rat) series is amazing as well but I would say you don’t have to read those before Swordheart and Daggerbound because the don’t interconnect much as far as I can tell although some characters do appear in both. (I certainly recommend reading both of course, I just think you can read in whatever order you want).
@Dreamingintrees ~ thank you for the link. When I was a teen, I had a collection of over a hundred books by Barbara Cartland all of which I’d read.
@Kareni– bonded pairs of cats are definitely a real thing. When I worked at an animal shelter we required bonded pairs to be adopted together, because they are so strongly attached to each other that they become very distraught if separated for any length of time. Often 1 cat is timid and the other is more outgoing. Sounds like the cats in that novel, however, are just friends because regular play dates would not be sufficient to keep cats in a bonded pair from going into a decline.
@Merle ~ thank you! In fact, the characters in the book learn that the kittens need to be together almost all the time (even when the leads part company for a time).
I am bereft because the Boston Hunters lost their WPBL playoff series last night. Anyone have good (gay or straight) baseball romances to recommend? I’ve read all of KD Casey’s and definitely loved them!
Currently reading DARK SPACE, SECOND HELPINGS, FOSSIL FEUD, and LOVE IT OR LIST IT. They said you couldn’t read four books at a time, and they were wrong, but you probably shouldn’t, honestly. DARK SPACE seems like relatively shameless smut so far, SECOND HELPINGS is painfully cute like all of Dylan Morrison’s books, FOSSIL FEUD has been great but I’m at the 3/4 mark where I always abandon books, and I am much more invested in the home renovations in LOVE IT OR LIST IT than in the romance so far.
LOVE FELT LIKE THIS by Julie Olivia features a rock star and a puppeteer. He’s a bit of a grumpy rock star with writer’s block, she’s the puppeteer, sunshiny but with a core of steel, and if you like competence pron, she has it in spades. After a meet cute on a variety show goes viral and gives her a shot at a new show featuring her beloved puppets, he volunteers to write the music for the show. It seems he’s raising his 2 YO daughter and he can’t seem to write any songs other than age appropriate jingles for toddlers so he figures maybe he can get that out of his system and get back to writing adult songs if he helps her out. The puppetry details were fascinating, both of them were completely dedicated to their art and craft, very caring of each other and their friends and family, and the romance was lovely.
I also very much enjoyed DOLLY ALL THE TIME by Annabel Monaghan, mainly because of the title character, Dolly, a 40 YO single mom of a 13 YO who has been putting her family first for so long that she honestly can’t even articulate her wants and needs. Over the course of a fake romance that turns real very real with a wealthy guy in her home town, she finally finds her voice and learns that it’s better to express your feelings instead of just bottling them up and moving on. The romance was good until it went off the rails a bit with the third act breakup. But I’d still recommend it on the strength of how much I loved Dolly.
F/M contemporaries
Two of these really hit me these last few weeks: Maggie North’s FOSSIL FEUD about two paleontologists and Jenny Holiday’s BOOK CLUB BOYFRIEND about a producer and a writer. Both had strong characters in life stages/situations that resonated with me and both books felt a touch a more powerful than most to me. Both also included good things about the characters’ relationships to their work. Two strong books which I heartily recommend.
In FOSSIL FEUD a paleontologist has her academic work and reputation stolen by a manipulative boyfriend and is racing against the financial clock to complete a discovery that will both redeem her and keep it possible for her to continue her work and help support the indigenous family who owns the land she’s digging on and are part of her team. A lauded male paleontologist suddenly, suspiciously, arrives on the scene. This deals with academic vs private collectors, academic prejudice and fraud, and an intriguing romance.
@EditChief describes BOOK CLUB BOYFRIEND really well, above so I won’t go into more detail here myself. Thank you, @ EditChief!
I also quite liked Chelsea Curto’s IN STORMY WEATHER about rival weather experts vying for the same job. The FMC. who demonstrates her smarts multiple times, is vying with her best friend’s brother who has been her rival since childhood. They both studied atmospheric sciences and he is now TV-famous while she works hard to keep afloat with her weather video podcast. There are storms a-plenty here. This was fun.
Ellie Palmer’s MARRIED WITH BENEFITS was the tale of an artist with debilitating migraines struggling to keep her life afloat in the gig economy in a small tourist town. It turns out the house she has been living in with her grandmother gives her squatters’ rights to but the main property has just been inherited by a charming (but also struggling) architect.
I liked Joss Richard’s IT’S DIFFERENT THIS TIME more than her second book, LET’S KISS AND TELL. It’s the tale of a sex columnist and a news reporter and their fake relationship.
Fantastical
Celia Lake’s UNKNOWN DEPTHS follows the gentle romance of a seal shifter and a selkie dealing with mysterious happenings in Orcadian waters. I love Orkney and selfies and Celia Lake’s Albion books. They are some of my greatest comforts these days.
Sheila Masterson’s THE POISON DAUGHTER is a strong dark romantasy with so much I like about these stories. Lots of trauma and trigger warnings but so engaging. The FMC, the youngest in a family ruling a city walled against zombie-lik creatures, has the magical ability to transmit poison, and her horrible parents marry her off (for the second time, she killed her first husband) to the son of a family leading a neighboring fort they thought had been destroyed. Politics, murder and those terrible parents. Good story, though!
Brittany Arena’s Edge of Glass duology A DANCE OF LIES and TO DANCE WITH DEATH was a complicated political tale of a dancer who rose to fame only to be framed for murder by her patron king who then forces her to be a spy. Another good story.
There’s no magic in Autumn Woods’ Sorrowsong University duology NIGHTSHADE and DAYBREAK but it does take place in an unnatural, Gothic university. Stay away if obsessive love isn’t your thing, though I did understand why these two damaged people fell that way and that hard. They both needed a lifeline and (mostly) believably become each other’s.
@DiscoDollyDeb: All your words about STAR SHIPPED x 100, including the cover. What a story! I loved everything about these characters, their struggles and triumphs. Possibly my new favorite book so far this year.
THE BOOK WITCH by Meg Shaffer: Shaffer continues to delight me, this time with a book-hopping witch. Rainey March is a third-generation Book Witch. Her grandfather disappears, a priceless book is stolen, so she and her familiar are on the hunt through novels to find clues and fix malicious changes. It’s a romp and what’s real/fiction blurs all over the place. Loved it.
THE GOD AND THE GUMIHO by Sophie Kim: A contemporary take on the Korean tale of Hani, the Scarlet Fox, and Seokga, the trixter god; eternal antagonists who must team up when a demon escapes the underworld. A very satisfying emotional ride, not an easy one at all with lies and secrets.
A TRADE OF BLOOD by Robert Jackson Bennett: Things continue getting darker for Dinios Kol in service to detective Ann Dolabra. This may be the twistiest yet, but with a real contemplation about the world WE inhabit now. I’m still thinking about this weeks later. Highly recommended, provided the first two books have been read.
THE LAST CONTRACT OF ISAKO by Fonda Lee: Wow. Apparently a taxing book for Lee to write because of its very bleakness, which she does so well. A corporate samurai takes one last contract on a barely-inhabitable planet where the struggle between business/haves vs. the unlicensed/have-nots is boiling over. Outstanding world building and characterization in a complicated story.
THE DIVINE GARDENER’S HANDBOOK by Eli Snow: Simply an absolute hoot. The blurb says it best: ” … a sapphic dystopian fantasy of botanical sabotage, a questionable god named Saul, and a woman falling for the person mostly likely to ruin her life.” Brilliant.
It feels like the Venn diagram of my September reading and this thread has a startlingly large overlapping section (colored in the rainbow) (and especially the STAR SHIPPED and UNRIVALED love):
I’m doing a few new books but a lot of comfort re-reads b/c between the world and crazy busy life stuff, a family funeral, and a new book release, I need known quantities of good book noise, so here it goes:
Baseball book: I am in the middle of LINE DRIVE by EM Lindsey (new)- it’s really good, single dad book. I skipped the first one b/c I didn’t want enemies to lovers trope, and just started at #2 and I am very happy. Other good baseball books beyond KD Casey are KD’s co-authored series like DIRTY SLIDE with Lauren Blakely, and the first book in the FAKE BOYFRIEND series by Eden Finley, FAKE OUT.
Last night I re-read POWER PLAY by Avon Gale (I love Misha and Max).
Night before last, I re-read UNRIVALED by Ashlyn Kane and Morgan James, and YES this is one of my top five re-reads (I think I’m on my sixth time through it). The initial catfishing misunderstanding and the date at the Gladiator-style obstacle course will never not be funny to me. I think of the Great Wolf Lodge “lilypads” I *tried* to do in their pool and then I think of competitive hockey dudes doing those only 15 feet in the air without the steadying rope ties and I die.
Also earlier in the month I read STRANGE LOVE by Ann Aguirre (new) and I was like, okay, so how does an author make a bug alien love story sexy and darn, if she didn’t manage it. It was a cool book. The dog given the power of speech by the alien is THE BEST DOG EVER.
I am first on the library hold list for IT TAKES TWO TO TUMBLE by Cat Sebastian (I previously listened in audio, so reading it will be a different experience and my brain is 56 yrs old so it will be almost like a brand new book to me!).
I also did several Briar Prescott books recently, an author who was new to me. My favorites were PROJECT HERO, THE DATING EXPERIMENT and THE UNDERDOG. If anyone has read a bunch of her work, I’d appreciate pointers for what I should read next.
The print edition of STAR SHIPPED has been sitting on my desk for three months and I probably read two random chapters every other day. I loved the audio so much, I bought the print edition afterwards b/c I was in the middle of formatting my own MM romance and I was like – “This. I want it to look like this and give people this feeling.” I felt like I needed to see how it looked on the page. One of my characters talks a little bit like Simon, so I wanted to see how Cat Sebastian punctuated all of that – ellipses, em dashes, what? I needed a physical copy, and I just keep dipping into it like a bag of chips.
(Also, Barbara Cartland!!!!! I haven’t heard that name in a long long time, but my grandmother has a few and I would read them at her house. So many ellipses! She was … the Queen … of excessive punctuation.)
Shout out to Charlie’s Queer Books in Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, by the way – where I got Star Shipped and it’s a cute bookstore in a little cottage, if you’re in Greater Seattle.
And thanks to C for reading HIS ROAD HOME! I did a recent re-read of that too (I was updating the back matter to include links to CHECKING OUT THE LIBRARIAN and I ended up re-reading basically the whole book even though I was only supposed to get in, update links, and get out. I think I have a reading problem).
And this thread has given me more reading problems, thanks!
I have been reading AI slop. I know, a ballsy (boobsy?) thing to admit on this site, but it’s my truth.
About a year ago, AI “assisted” works began proliferating in my guilty pleasure subgenre: grovelmance. I called it a deluge then, because the AI slop outnumbered the human-authored books by about 3 to 1. I clearly didn’t know what a deluge actually looked like. Back then, AI slop looked like it was coming from fans of the genre who thought they themselves couldn’t write and wanted to get their ideas out there. Now, AI slop in grovelmance has become industrialized. We’re talking Henry Ford adopting the assembly line here. HUNDREDS of cookie-cutter books have been released in the past three months.
When they started appearing in my goodreads feed, I despaired. “Please don’t feed the beast,” I thought. Don’t give them money, don’t give them attention. STARVE THE SLOPPERS.
Hypocrisy, thy name is Deborah.
I peeked. Then I followed the patterns. Then I marvelled at the outright cloning. I desperately need an academic to analyze this swamp because I am obsessed with what is going on here. Are the stories all following the same slightly off pattern because this is the pattern AI knows? Or because there’s a dark web of grovelmance prompts all the sloppers paste in? Maybe I need an economist to weigh in, because I’m wondering if there could be a tribble effect here: could the market become so oversaturated with slop that it’s no longer worth the nanosecond it takes the sloppers to produce and self-publish it?
The writing is bad. The plot logic is bad. The books are bad. While I don’t think a human can with 100% accuracy identify every book that uses AI, I do think there are many sad efforts where AI use is obvious and any grace the naysayers extend to the sloppers is ignorance or malfeasance. No, calling out AI use is not a witch hunt.
Here’s what appalled me most (beyond the ethical considerations on inhuman publishing, since I apparently threw ethics out the window when I started down this rabbit hole): the return of the secret baby. Decades after Kramer vs Kramer (not a secret baby story, but you’ll get the connection), romance had reached a point where it recognized a woman had a responsibility to her child, her baby daddy, and herself to inform her unborn child’s father of his impending parenthood. Dozens of these books have a pregnant FMC walking out on her marriage and giving birth without ever informing the father because how dare he dance with his hot female legal counsel at the big charity gala for which his wife did all the planning and flower arrangements? Consequences for being a selfish, spiteful b*tch? None.
*whew* Okay, now my truth is out there.
Two questions for the bitchery:
1) Are other trope-heavy subgenres — omegaverse, RH/Why choose — experiencing the same AI overload?
2) Is there any grassroots effort to persuade/compel Amazon to require AI-generated works be acknowledged as AI slop?
I’ve probably not been reading as much as usual, as 1)I got sick, and 2) My Time at Sandrock owns my brain. That said, since last go-round, I read The Hollow by Michael Connelly, which is doing some interesting work around the fact that Harry Bosch is an old man, and in this one, he’s solving a case that has bothered him since he was a kid when a friend of his was murdered and no one bothered really doing a proper investigation, because the friend was a Black foster kid. Then I dived right into Last Man Standing by Gregg Hurwitz, the new Orphan X that will release in February 2027. I’ll not say much as a result, just know, Evan remains Evan. Then I went with the new S.A. Cosby, and he got to play in the Marvel universe and write a Luke Cage book. That one was super interesting, because it had a lot of Cosby’s favorite things: Southern rural setting, small-town corruption, complicated race relations, and an overarching need to find justice for people that won’t get it otherwise, and then incorporated Luke Cage into that. Which brings us to now, in which I’m reading We Chase Shadows by Richard Osman. It’s British. Boy is it British. Until next time, take care of your brains, it’s the only one you get.
I have just read the four Betty Lee school stories from the 1930s by Harriet Pyne Grove. They are on Gutenberg. The first is Betty Lee, Freshman. Found them interesting, particularly as a non-American, comparing them to the British school stories of the time.
@Deborah, I admit that I recoiled when I started your comment (in my head, not in real life, where I am staring dully at my computer screen. I can add dramatic lightning and a scare chord if you want). But then I read the rest.
Before the news broke about just how much of Amazon’s offerings were made with artificial artist flavoring, I ended up with several “totally real, trust me” thriller/mystery novels on my Kindle–some of which were literally the same books in SBTB’s eventual article about AI slop. The recognition of Short Punchy First Name/Adjective Last Name authors with covers featuring moody weather of a house/forest/lake, often with one glowing window, and BIG CAPITAL TITLES in bright colors to the tune of “SHE DOESN’T KNOW”/”THE MAN WHO KNOWS”/”WHO DON’T YOU KNOW” called me out. I’d ended up with nearly a dozen of them, and I know at least some of them were because I saw the similar cover and title and thought “Oh, I thought I downloaded that one already, let me just get it–”
The plot/trope repetition is more limited than what you’d get if you used a MadLib to fill out the story premise–Give me an adjective for a murder. Okay, now give me a dark childhood secret for a detective. There’s some variation on murder vs. missing vs. stalking, but it’s the same basic set up and progression. Detectives/private investigators/FBI agents, often female, who are hard-boiled and take no shit but also have childhood trauma, possibly of the exact same crime happening now in their adult lives; female victims who are either attractive young women or children; a lot of ‘police procedural television show’ snarky dialogue. Trends follow the general social bias–edgy backstories involve physically abusive parents, drug use, sex work, or any combination of the three; crime is when Good Christian White Girls are attacked by scary men; mental illness means you act like a horror movie monster. All of that could be normal genre fiction, though; jumping on trends and using cliches are standards for mass-produced paperbacks (and the ebook equivalents).
What makes it abundantly obvious is when the writing is not just bad but obviously not proofread–think “She walked into the bedroom. She picked up her bag and walked into the bedroom. She picked up her gun and went looking for her bag. The bedroom was right ahead.” as a general example. Sometimes it’s broken up a little more, but even the ‘good’ writing still has weird repetition and logic fails that a human editor would catch. This was noticeable, and in many books by many “different” authors. It’s why I dropped so many of them. AI is just generating new sentences off the same basic prompt over and over, it has no idea what it just wrote or what is cliche or overused.
I really think there will be a reckoning with how much copyrighted material has been plagiarized by language learning models, and I expect a lot of “just mediocre” works to disappear off the internet when the hammer comes down. Mapping out AI generated novels (let alone nonfiction/reference texts!) could be very enlightening.
I admit I have some qualms with overcorrection too–I’ve seen authors and visual artists complain someone has accused them of AI use on novels/paintings that were published decades ago. I don’t buy into the ‘witchhunt’ accusations because they generally come from people who admit they use AI but don’t want to be judged for…not doing their own work, burning the remaining natural resources on the planet, stealing other creators’ work, creating cliched garbage that no one needed, etc. etc. But having people use ‘AI’ as a kneejerk response to anything they think they couldn’t make themselves rather than a legitimate judgment based on evidence isn’t fixing the problem of plagiarism and AI overuse.
That being said, again, tracking what tropes/plot arcs/individual repeated sentences these LLMs use as the ‘genre standard’ for their plagiarized works could at least give us an idea of how pervasive the sloppification has become, possibly give us clues as to what to look for, maybe give real authors some basis for bringing copyright cases in the future by being able to backtrack as to who’s work was stolen when. But at least tracking how bad it’s gotten on the consumer side, if nothing else.
@Deborah, you’d probably be interested in the research in this paper:
Generative AI floods and dilutes the market for books by Tuhin Chakrabarty et al.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2607.20349
(ArXiv.org is a self-published and not a peer reviewed research forum.)
Currently making my way through the ‘Blood and Ash’s series with book 3 ‘Crown Of Gilded Bones’ and enjoying it though the ‘modern’ terms “go big or go home. Whatever etc” used in a what’s supposed to be a ‘fantasy’ series is a tad grating.
For Sarah, the Presents line is my favorite of the Harlequin line. It’s wonderfully crazy sauce and my absolute favorite is ‘A Royal World Apart’ by Maisey Yates. To this day it’s my favorite Maisey Yates that I’ve read