Happy Saturday! Here’s what we’re reading right now as May winds down:
Lara: Candice Proctor released only seven historical romances and I’m on my second already. The books are phenomenal and have given me a great deal of food for thought.
Elyse: I just read There Is No Place for Us by Brian Goldstone. ( A | BN | K | AB ) It follows five Atlanta families who make up part of the increasing number of homeless (the author uses homeless not unhoused) in America who also work full time or more than full time. It’s a really eye opening book, especially when you learn that these families (usually depending on predatory extended stay motels or sleeping in their cars or crashing on friends couches) don’t actually contribute to the people officially counted as homeless. It’s a hard book to read but really important.
Sarah: I finished Romantic Hero by Kirsty Greenwood ( A | BN | K | AB ) and I actually factually laughed aloud and also cried.
And I just started I Think We Should Kill Other People, ( A | BN | K | AB ) which is starting off zany.
Whatcha reading? Let us know in the comments!
I’ve recently read a couple of romances featuring fake dating, which is not a trope I’m fond of but it’s hard to escape these days. Lynn Painter’s The Love Wager was fun as an audiobook but the characters were kind of underdeveloped and their relationship relied too much on banter chemistry.
Julie Kriss’ You Give Me That Feeling has a much better reason for the fake dating and a more convincing connection between the famous-but-down-to-earth characters but it still felt a bit too easy in the end. Her books don’t ever seem to be very angsty but I would have liked a bit more struggle for the HEA in this one.
Also read A Deadly Episode, the latest Anthony Horowitz mystery featuring himself as the Dr Watson character to fictional detective Daniel Hawthorne’s Holmes. Better than the previous couple in this series, very well plotted and thoroughly enjoyable.
Nearly finished City of Bones by Martha Wells. Good fun! I’m going to return to Murderbot next.
I had some family stuff going on this month–not bad, just busy-making–so my reading and concentration are both kind of shot.
Thirty Love by Tom Wellner
Just a brief note to say I did finish this, and enjoyed it immensely. I wanted to add that the principle focus is on the POV character’s personal growth rather than the tender, mildly spicy romance between Leo and Gabe. This book is a very powerful, very positive sports story about a sport we don’t see too much of in romance fiction. Thirty Love is definitely one for the Comfort Reads folder and I hope to see more from this author..
King of Wrath by Ana Huang
I have mixed feelings about this book and hardly know whether or not I even liked it. It is yet another story about an obscenely wealthy, workaholic MMC, this one with anger management issues. When Dante is blackmailed into an engagement by the prospective bride’s father, he loses his last vestige of civilized behavior, despite the fact that his new fiancée has no idea of her father’s machinations. Dante is a violent, vindictive alph-hole for most of this book, yet Vivian consoles herself with glimpses of his softer side. I think this is supposed to be the lo-cal version of dark romance, a subgenre that has never appealed to me. I did enjoy the FMC and her friends. Also, the writing was excellent. Also also, the ending was satisfying to me. I’ll probably be reading the next in the series, but this is a clear case of ymmv.
The Single Girl’s To-Do List by Lindsey Kelk
DNF @30%
This book originally came out in 2011, but apparently had a glow-up a few years ago. It’s not technically a pure DNF, since I read up to 30%, and skipped to the end (76%}. The first 30% consisted of the heroine attempting to recover from a bad breakup, getting drunk repeatedly with her two besties, making a bucket (handy when someone’s in the loo) list, dropping a bunch of early second decade British cultural refs among the banter, and generally sad-sacking about. Too depressing, so I skipped. Two weeks (book time) later our girl was all growed up, and I found I didn’t really care how she got there. YMMV
To be absolutely honest, I made it further into this book than any of the other five I started and dropped, and I know I would have been fine with a couple of those. I think I’m just having concentration problems. For reasons. Sigh. This too shall pass.
The Unlikely Pair by Jax Calder
Thanks to @Kareni mentioning this a while back, I finally found a book I could really sink into. This m/m romantic suspense novel really ticked all the survival-against-all-odds boxes. Harry and Toby are vocal members of opposing British political parties whose frequent professional debates don’t disguise their personal animosity. When the small jet they are sharing is forced to crash land in a Scandinavian forest, and the two politicians are hunted by armed men, they must learn to depend on each other if they ever hope to reach safety. The love story is tender, thoughtful, and hot. The adventure is harrowing. The only thing missing was a resolution to the suspense plot, which is apparently addressed in the sequel.
Pick-up by Nora Dahlia
This is a weird freakin’ book. Its initial focal point is the drop-off/pick-up time at an elementary school in Brooklyn, but that focus gradually expands as the story is told from the POV of three separate parents: Sascha, divorced mom of two kids; Ethan, divorced dad of one; and Kaitlin, semi-single mom of one. I don’t know if this approach is fully successful. At first it feels like two entirely separate stories being told simutaneously. On the one hand, there is a witty, rather charming romance; on the other, the secondary plot feels decidedly sinister. There are twists and red herrings that sneak up on the reader, but it’s very well written, taut with sexual tension, frequently hilarious, and rewards patience. I don’t know that I would give this my highest grade, but I snickered through the whole thing and would happily reread it.
Sweep of the Heart by Ilona Andrews
I needed some soothing, so I reread the last book in the Innkeeper Chronicles. It’s framed by the kidnapping and rescue of Sean’s mentor Wilmos, but the heft of this story is in the galactic Spousal selection that is hosted by Dina and Sean at the Gertrude Hunt inn. After three or more readings I feel like I have a handle on the huge cast of characters, but I don’t think this would be a great place to dip into the series for the first time. Still, it made me smile.
The Shippers by Katherine Center
This author is an autobuy for me, but this book didn’t immediately grab me. The FMC, Jojo starts out continually embarrassing herself, and even when she doesn’t, her friends and family are happy to do it for her. Jojo is an entertaining narrator, but she also comes across as kind of spineless and lacking in self-awareness. Her interactions with her best friend Cooper make their feelings obvious to the reader, if not to Jojo, and that disconnect is the main source of tension in this book. Problem is, no amount of authorial nudges and winks can make all the multiple big misunderstandings bearable or even believable. This is a pleasant, low stakes, no angst sort of book, but I found it lacking the emotional depth I’ve come to expect from Center.
Enchanting the Fae Queen by Stephanie Burgis
I started reading this two weeks ago, but my mood was not right for it. The greater part of this story is a fairy tale quest rife with riddles and tests, while the rest consists of politics and a love story. Now that it’s done, I’m most impressed by how well Lorelei and Gerard were portrayed without ever sinking into parody. On the surface, each is portrayed as a too-shiny-to-be-true golden child, turning a flawless. impenetrable face to the world. Those faces may differ–stoic general versus mischievous queen–but both hide surprising depth. The slow revelation of their inner characters, while remaining true to their public personas, is very well done. I thought this was an excellent successor to Wooing the Witch Queen, and I look forward to the third book in the series.