What are you reading?
Where I live, in North Carolina, it’s been HOT. Normally this time of year, we’d be headed to the mountains for a week of cooler vacation but–thank you COVID–not this year. In an effort to vacation, a bit, at home over the next week, I plan to work less and read more. I am (still) currently listening to The Stand–King’s ability to, with a few lines, create memorable characters continues to amaze me–and am working my way through Maria Vale’s intricate world of wolves in her The Legend of All Wolves series.
Next up, I can’t decide whether to go with Denise Mina’s The Less Dead or with Minerva Spencer’s upcoming Notorious. (I know, I know, you hate it when I mention books you have to wait for!)
How about you? What are you reading in these dog days of July heat?
On top of some assorted titles, I have been busy with micro managing my anxious dog. I’m tired today….
Let the Right one in – A weird gloomy title. I just started this so it’s going well.
Pets with health problems can be very taxing. I had a cat with a heart murmur for several years, and he was the sweetest boy, but he needed meds 3 times a day and ON TIME!! It was hard to get to the store, much less out for the day. When they get elderly they often have kidney problems too, and that’s a big responsibility too.
Be good to yourself, I’m sure you get frustrated sometimes.
It has been hot in Algarve. Specially the last two weeks: either high temperature (c. 34ºC) or mildly lower but humid (which makes it worse). Great beach time, though. Alas, my vacations only start next week and I have way too many students to advise—my real free time is still to be.
Nonetheless, I have been gathering reading materials, some already in progress:
The Odyssey by Homer. I’m reading Emily Wilson’s translation. It’s a breath of fresh air: great poetic rhythm, modern language, a much more sensible version of some concepts (some in clear contrast with some of the previous male translators). It has become my favourite of all Homer’s translations. Her introduction to the book is also stellar. As companion I’m listening to the audiobook version by Claire Danes. After all The Odyssey was composed in oral tradition… also, I miss Homeland.
Cold Wicked Lies by Toni Anderson. I started her books after finishing the last Rachel Grant’s (Tainted Evidence), which I liked a lot (great mixture between real politics and romance). That book mentioned an event from Anderson’s second book on the Crossfire series (Colder than Sin) and I took the plunge. So far I’m linking it.
The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite. I quite enjoyed her first book on the Feminine Pursuits series (The Lady’s Guide to Celestial Mechanics) and the recent AAR review of it settled the deal for me.
And I’m waiting for the last books on Fletcher DeLancey’s Chronicles of Alsea, which are coming out these next weeks. This series includes my favourite speculative fiction novels ever, with a fantastic mix of science fiction, fantasy, kickass women and romance.
Weather is extremely changeable and that makes everything a bit harder – very intense heat for a couple of days, then days of strong storms & torrential rain – finding the right clothes and the right activity level each day – go out before the heat, or after the rain… – and not getting colds, or sunstroke, or stuff – the weather just needs a lot of attention, right now – I am practicing lots of TLC for the weather ;-)
I am in Central Europe, between Prague and Vienna, luckily with some garden and green around. Travel works, but only very limitedly – basically, where I can go by car and stay mostly distanced, ow with few careful people, which is really near to nowhere – new regional surges all the time.
Corona & the weird summer have led me to a lot of old series books – Essie Summers, Mary Burchell, Sophie Weston. They suit my short attention span and my need to relax far from current reality.
Nothing truly stands out, unless you really like the genre and the olden times in it. If someone does, I will reflect which were special and mention titles.
Thank you Keira Soleore, you kicked off this interest in a comment somewhere, and one led to the other….
Otherwise, a lot of news, commentary, non fiction – of course, Corona, Black Lives, Economics, Finance, but also Europe, and European Union, and and – you can see why series romance is needed!
:-)
That’s a beautiful part of the world. Just thinking about it–we spent 10 days in Berlin, Prague and Vienna and traveled by train–makes me miss travel terribly. Sigh….
Same. Not the trip; the nostalgia. When will be traveling again???!!!
I am happy you saw my region :-)
And trying to be optimistic about traveling again …
So grateful that my consultancy clients are willing to move online from me traveling to them before – so I have work.
I’m doing a lot of re-reading these days, and Suzanne Brockmann’s Troubleshooters series has been a fun diversion. I also listened to Donna Ball’s Flash series, about a small town police chief and her dog Flash. It sounds like a cozy mystery series, but it isn’t. If you like stories about smart dogs and serious crime, this is a good one! She writes wonderful dog characters, she really understands them and portrays them realistically. With the Flash books you get his pov sometimes, which makes it even more fun.
And Diana Gabaldon has mentioned in her Facebook page that she expects to complete the writing of book 9 of Outlander this summer, and after that it’s ‘up to the publisher’. She has taken forever and three days with this volume, so I’m anxious for the novel to be published. Dare I hope by the end of the year? Fingers crossed!
I will say this for Gabaldon, she takes her time but she produces the book in the end. (I’m comparing her with her friend GRRM) I also think she handles the adaptation of her work better- but to be fair I think the producers of Outlander are more respectful to her and her works than the Game of Thrones guys were.
I am very curious to see how she wraps up the whole Outlander saga but that’s still one more book away right?
Yes, one more book for a total of 10. The show has made her a consultant and she has written a couple of episodes, so it does seem she’s more involved in the final product that many novel writers get to be. The wives of several of the producers and the show creator loved the books and nagged their husbands into reading them. So if they alter things too much they might have unhappy spouses to deal with! I think they have mostly done a good job with the adaptation, keeping in mind that visual vs text is always a tricky comparison.
I’ve not read any Martin and I wasn’t crazy about the show, so I really can’t comment on story differences. But, it makes no sense to me to bring a beloved book to the screen but only if you’re going to make it unrecognizable.
Game of Thrones was great for several seasons and for the first few they had GRRM write some episodes as Outlander does with Gabaldon. Unfortunately I think the show’s creators tired of GOT after a few seasons and wanted to take their fame and do something else. So they cut a lot of storyline, wrote things on their own and rushed through the last seasons just cramming to get done. One thing I appreciate about the Outlander series is that everyone involved is committed to seeing it through and giving it the time and attention it deserves. I do think the show lost a bit of luster when Terry Dresbach the original costume designer left last season but the overall quality and commitment is still there. You don’t hear of the actors just wanting to move on or the show runner talking about just wanting to do something else.
I really hope the writing will finish before the series catches up. I’d hate to see another GOT ending happen. The shows writers really need the depths of the novels and complexity to adapt.
I seriously doubt the books will be finished when the tv show ends. We’re starting season 6 next, and it has taken her more than 6 years to write book 9. If the show gets renewed up through book 9, I can see the production taking a long break then coming back for one season to wrap up the story after book 10 is published. It is supposed to end in 1800, so having the actors age won’t be an issue. But I have no idea if that will happen, it’s just my own wishful thinking.
I was sorry to see Terry to as well, and now the head set designer has left also. The creator, Ron Moore, is married to Terry so I hope he doesn’t decide to leave as well. Living in Scotland several months a year probably gets old.
We have had two types of weather……rain or about to rain! Currently, I am reading Heinrich Böll’s The Collected Stories. It’s over 900 pages but the collection of short stories and novellas are perfect for my short attention span. I have been very hard to please lately but I have been indulgent in my reading. Staying home has been a treat for me, especially with my children around.
I just finished reading “Officer Clemmons: A Memoir,” a recent publication by Francois Clemmons, the man who played Officer Clemmons on “Mister Rogers Neighborhood.” His role as a recurring black police officer character was groundbreaking in children’s television history. Unfortunately, Clemmons zoomed past a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff I think a lot of readers would have found interesting- especially now that Mister Rogers has hit a peak in popularity. Most of the book understandably focuses on Clemmons’s life before meeting Mr. Rogers, which makes sense. And he’s an excellent storyteller. But when the cover of the book shows the famous scene where the two of them shared a wading pool in the 1960s, and there isn’t a single mention of that potentially controversial episode- I felt a little cheated. Although in all fairness to Clemmons, he must be sick to death of telling that same story over and over. But still…
Taking a break from nonfiction, I just started reading “Godshot: A Novel” by Chelsea Bieker. It’s a bildungsroman about a teenage girl who lives in a quasi-Christian cult outside of Fresno and finds a forbidden escape by reading a stash of romance novels she discovers. Pretty interesting so far. Since it features romance novels as a major plot point, some commenters at AAR might be interested.
BTW, both of these books were published by small press Catapult, est. 2015. So far, I’m impressed with their catalog. Are any AAR readers familiar with these guys? Here’s their website, in case your TBR isn’t big enough already: https://books.catapult.co/.
I just finished a big glom of Sarina Bowen’s True North series and enjoyed them all. I would definitely recommend them for hot, New England/farm to table romance.
My local library just reopened for browsing, so there were lots of books on the shelves, a fun surprise. I usually request from interlibrary loan and wait. From that trip, I came across:
Big Summer by Jennifer Weiner. I hadn’t read anything of hers since In Her Shoes, and this was enjoyable. Lots of insight into being a social media influencer as well as a murder mystery.
Transcription by Kate Atkinson. WWII and its aftereffects on a single woman in London who during the war came to work for MI6. A fast read and great writing.
The Honey Don’t List by Christina Lauren. A solid B/B+
Next up is Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory. I didn’t love The Wedding Date and The Proposal as much as most others here, but I am hopeful for this one.
As I think others have mentioned, it’s rather cool over in England right now. Recent reads include Daring and the Duke (underwhelming and disconcertingly improbable) and Sherry Thomas, The Luckiest Lady in London (a re-read, but I just love this book!). I am currently listening to an audiobook of Phillip Pullman’s, ‘A Secret Commonwealth’, narrated by Michael Sheen – and it’s great! I am also in the middle of reading Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo. The book follows the stories of 12 different characters (mainly Black British women), and I’m in awe at her gift of creating fully-realised, diverse characters.
Michael Sheen did such a great job on that series. I can’t wait for book three!
Yes, he is rapidly becoming one of my favourite narrators, along with Stephen Fry. He really has a knack of making a story come to life. It is also objectively a really good book, I’m thoroughly enjoying returning to Lyra’s world. So excited for book three too!
I keep wondering if Will will reappear. (A girl can dream….)
Ahh I wish…The Book of Commonwealth was full of Lyra’s pining, and it made me miss Will! That’s one of the reasons why I love romance books, I need happily ever afters:)
The two books that have made me sob the most as an adult are The Time Traveler’s Wife–the death scene devastated me even though I knew it was coming–and the ending of The Amber Spyglass–Will and Lyra on the bench in Oxford, imagining a future without each other. So lovely and so so so sad.
I wept buckets at the death scene of The Time Traveler’s Wife too. I actually live in Oxford and have visited the bench in the Botanic Gardens, where Will and Lyra are supposed to meet. It is full of various iterations of W+L. It’s such a beautiful, poignant end to their love story.
Broke my heart.
Dying of the heat while finishing off The Highlander’s Excellent Adventure by Shana Galen for the site!
I’m reading The Smoke Thief, by Shana Abe. AAR grades are so disparate for this one – Lynn gave it a D+, in 2005 (https://allaboutromance.com/book-review/the-smoke-thief/); Sandy gave it an A-, in 2007 (https://allaboutromance.com/book-review/the-smoke-thief-shana-abe/). Based on 30% of the book, I’m leaning towards the ‘B,’ range, but it’s a very enjoyable ‘B’ so far!
I’m curious if other AAR readers enjoyed this one? Who got it right?!
Em, I just ordered The Smoke Thief and The Dream Thief! Sherry Thomas doesn’t recommend many books on Goodreads, but she had this to say about the Drakon series:
“I don’t follow series as a rule–but I do follow Shana Abe’s Drakon series. It is rare that a writer combines both mesmerizing story telling with mesmerizing prose. Shana Abe does exactly that in her Drakon books, combining beautiful, precise, yet sweeping world-building with intimate, passionate love stories between equals. I can’t get enough of those dragon shapeshifters.”
I ordered them on the strength of that recommendation, the A grade here, and the fact that both titles appear on Dear Author’s list of 100 best romances from 2009. I’m also a huuuuge fan of paranormal historicals so here’s hoping I like it as much as you do.
I hate to say it, but I felt very similar to Lynn on this one! My grade would be slightly higher just based on the premise and the fantasy elements – I love the whole idea of Turning (smoke, dragon, man/woman) & the many ways in which the drakon foiled each others ability by blocking crevices & the black hood/bandana. But ultimately, I didn’t like our hero or the way he treated a person who seemed to be perfectly happy w/out him or the future he insists she share…so. C- maybe?
Oh, yikes. I wonder how I feel, I’ve been craving really meaty writing but this summer, I’ve read way, way too many jerk heroes. Thanks for the head’s up!
We’ve had a few unusually hot days near 100 degrees here in Portland, Oregon, but it’s supposed to get cooler again this week. The lingering tear gas wafting through the air every morning has been more uncomfortable than the heat though. And yes, Covid has delayed our summer plans (and our fall plans & our winter plans & probably any future plans until there is a national strategy).
I’m finishing up Mia Vincy’s A Dangerous Kind of Lady and really enjoying it. Next up for me is Mexican Gothic and fingers crossed it’s as good as many have said. Maggie recently gave it a DIK review.
Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s Mexican Gothic! I forgot the author’s name and wanted to make sure I included it. She is a new author to me.
I’m reading MG for book club!
Blackjack, I’m in Portland too (*waves*)! My car said it was 103 degrees out today so I’m glad to hear that it’ll be getting cooler soon. :)
Hi Cecily! Sheesh – 103 degrees! I hate hot weather and so I obsessively follow PDX weather group on FB. Looks like we’ll be back in the high 70s – low 80s next week.
Oh, thank god. The past few days, I’ve felt like going outside was like stepping into an oven so high 70s/low 80s sounds perfect.
I forgot about my book club books. For August, one is reading American Dirt and the other is reading The Dutch House. Everyone who’s already read American Dirt loved it so I’m interested to read it given all the hullabaloo around it.
We just read The Vanishing Half, by Brit Bennett for bookclub. EXCELLENT discussion book. And BTW, I kind of love Zoom for book club! How are you doing yours? My group is sort of random – they were all co-workers before I moved, but we never spent much time together as a friend group. The Zoom format is great for that – we’re very book focused and I always have group guides on hand to guide our conversation. I’m really enjoying it. We’re reading Mexican Gothic now.
I also started another “club” with my sisters and we are radically different readers! My older sister reads self help/non-fiction memoirs almost exclusively. She has the first book pick. We’re reading Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams. I might have been curious about this book…but I’m 100% sure I would never have read it if she hadn’t picked it. My little sister has the next pick; she’s more of a current events reader and sometimes Romance reader if I send her books. I can’t wait to see what she picks.
I really really want to read The Vanishing Half, I’ve heard such good things about it! Also love having book club over Zoom, we recently read and discussed Patchwork by Ellen Banda Aaku. It was my friend who hosted the book club, so most of the others were people I never met (although we’re all post-graduate students/academics) It’s amazing connecting with strangers over our love of reading. Mexican Gothic has also been on my radar, would you recommend it?
How many sisters do you have?!?!
Ha! Just the two. We’re a tiny club. Looking for something non-Covid, stuck in our house, kids are so lazy/just want to play video games blah blah to discuss! I think I’m going to pick a cookbook! :)
A cookbook? Hmmmmm….
My daughters book club just read American Dirt and everyone loved it so that’s my next read. The Dutch House was one of my favorite books this year
I have been binging Sawyer Bennet’s Arizona Vengeance hockey series and also a new to me author (thanks DiscoDolly) Megan Crane’s Alaskan Force series which I very much enjoyed.
It is hot and humid here in Maryland, which is normal for this time of year. I’m cooling off with some of Jo Beverly’s medievals (inspired by the recent blogs about medievals). I’m currently reading Lord of Midnight. I really enjoyed the first two in this series, The Shattered Rose and Dark Champion. The books have been sitting in my TBR pile for a long time and are a nice change from the Georgian and Regency romances I usually read.
Next on the agenda is reading something for a book club, An Artist of the Floating World by Kazuo Ishiguro. The book club members all volunteer at an Asian Art museum and the book somewhat relates to a current exhibit on Hokusai.
Karen – have you read any other Beverly books? People keep telling me to pick up her Medievals, too – but I didn’t like her Regencies. I’d love to know how you would grade these. I think I have one or more of them in my TBR, and I just keeping passing them over.
I’ve read most of her books. I like the first few in her Malloren series (Georgian) best. I didn’t really start reading her books until a few years ago and quickly went through all the Rogues World and Malloren first and now I’m slowly ticking off what is left over. Some of the Regencies were uneven, but most were fun reads.
I’m starting another Canham series today & then I think I’m going to try the Beverly’s. Lots of recommendations – we’ll have to compare notes.
Weather here has been hot enough to need to run air conditioning most days.
A week ago I tried to read Boyfriend Material by Alexis Hall, which got positive mentions here, and could not force myself to finish it. DNF books are rare for me—fewer than one in a thousand—but the reason with BM was the same as with Shopaholic years ago: I find it extremely hard to enjoy stories with messed up narrators who show no learning or improvement.
Yesterday I read The Dare by Elle Kennedy, my first new 3-star read in almost a month.
In squeezed out moments of reading time, I’m rereading an old traditional Regency: The Primrose Path by Jean Reece.
The Hall was a rare AH miss for me, too. I didn’t DNF it, but I was tempted.
It’s wet and windy today in the south of England – I’ve just driven back from the Vet’s in the pouring rain. The cat has to stay indoors for 24 hours so keeping the patio doors shut isn’t a hardship! Can’t say the same about the wailing to get out though………….
I’ve just finished reading Adriana Herrera’s American Dreamer, the first in her Dreamers series. I enjoyed it a lot and am looking forward to reading the rest of the series. I read her Finding Joy a few weeks ago and thought it was lovely.
I’ll wait, though, before reading the other Dreamers as I need to have the decks cleared for Friday, when Gregory Ashe’s Keeper of Bees is released. I reread the 4 previous books in the series a couple of weeks ago to test out my theory of who is the Keeper – and now think it is someone else!
I have also just reread Lily Morton’s Charlie Sunshine in preparation for her new one on 2nd August. It’s such a sweet book.
Other recent reads are Flat Whites and Chocolate Fish by Jay Hogan (okay but the villain freaked me out), Daring and the Duke by Sarah Maclean (overwrought nonsense), Sixty Five Hours by NR Walker (loved it and it’s free), Red Dirt Heat by NR Walker (enjoyed it but one book is enough – there are 4), and Blood and Milk by NR Walker (very odd).
Between now and Thursday I’m going to pick off some of the short free or cheap reads that I seem to have accumulated – I’m part way through Save the Date by Annabeth Albert and Wendy Qualls at the moment.
@WendyF: if you haven’t read NR Walker’s Missing Pieces duet—PIECES OF YOU & PIECES OF ME—I highly recommend it. It’s an m/m romance about a long-term couple whose lives are torn apart when one of them is involved in a terrible automobile accident that leaves him with both severe physical injuries and retrograde amnesia, so he doesn’t recognize his lover or remember their life together. Beautifully-written and poignant. After I read the books, I immediately put them on my Best of 2020 list. (I also enjoyed Walker’s TALLOWOOD, but I would classify that more as a murder-mystery with a romance subplot.)
@DiscoDollyDeb: It looks like there are 3 Missing Pieces books, one out this week? Although they look interesting, I think I’ll give them a miss as I deal with my elderly mother’s memory loss on a daily basis and need the escape!
I read Tallowwood when it was reviewed on here and enjoyed it.
@WendyF: Thanks for the tip—I didn’t realize there was a third Missing Pieces book planned, the second book seemed to end on a perfect note. But I see PIECES OF US is available on KU, so I’m off to download it right now.
I feel like I might have read these long ago…but I’m checking them out, too!
Tallowwood is terrific :) I’m going to pick up the Pieces series (I think book 3 has just come out?) as soon as I get a review-book-break! I loved her Dichotomy of Angels as well, and would recommend it if you haven’t read it yet.
I read Tallowwood – did you review it here? enjoyed it!
2nd & 3rd books in the American Dreamer series are terrific! I DNF’d the last book. Nothing about it worked for me. I’m checking out the NR Walker freebie – the author is hit and miss for me, but I’m always hopeful the next one will be my FAVORITE. :)
It’s going to be 96 degrees here today, ugh. It was 93 this weekend and I just about melted in the backyard when I went out.
I signed up for a trial of Kindle Unlimited and I have been running through a lot of their highest rated romance books. I really enjoyed Kele Moon’s two series (One spins off of another) Battered Hearts and Untamed Hearts. The first book “Defying The Odds” was a perfectly enjoyable romance, but nothing earth shaking or original but by the second book “Star Crossed” things really took off with a unique hero and heroine and a very intricate and original story. I find the stories are pretty varied with some doing a deep dive into the past of the characters and after the first book, I can say she really surprised me with how things went in the stories. They are not always predictable for sure.
My favorite so far has been “The Viper”. The hero and other supporting characters are Puerto Rican and the author seems to really know the culture well and appreciate it. (From the dedication it seems she married into the culture and credits her mother in law for much of her understanding of it and the language). The characters all know each other and people from the background of earlier books move to the forefront of the later ones. Several involve long simmering attractions. (There is a M/M romance in the background of several books that has been playing out for years that I wonder if she will move to the main roles in a future book. ) If you like thinking alpha males, angst and don’t mind some of the heroes have some truly tragic criminal backgrounds Kele Moon is an interesting author who can write some original and very very hot scenes.
By the way, Dabney, I don’t know if I’m the only one having these issues, but ever since AAR updated their commenting system, I’m having all kinds of trouble seeing the comments or even updating/refreshing the site in general. I use my iPhone and iPad interchangeably throughout the day, but sometimes if I comment using one device, I can’t see the comment when using the other device—and it seems as if the comments refresh randomly (if at all) on both devices. For example, on my iPad right now, when I open AAR, I’m getting yesterday’s home page: with the question about favorite poems and the reviews the reviews that were posted over the weekend. Obviously on my iPhone I’m getting today’s home page with today’s question and reviews. I’ve tried deleting my browser history and refreshing the page, but nothing seems to be working. Also, a lot of times, after I make a comment, it disappears. I don’t know if others can see it, but I can’t. These things don’t seem to be happening on any other sites I visit or comment on. Am I the only one having these issues? Any suggestions as to how I can resolve them? Thanks!
Ok—refreshing several times in a row seems to help. Sorry about the disruption, nothing to see here. Carry on.
FWIW, I have to refresh every time to see latest post. When posting from an iphone or ipad the ‘join discussion’ box changed and is really small and appears on far right of page in portrait mode. Hard to see or proof what I’m typing. It didn’t expand as I was typing a few days ago, but at least is now doing that as I type right now. When I posted using Chrome from my laptop everything was fine (i.e., larger normal reply to post box) except for need to refresh to see latest posts.
There’ve been all sorts of updates lately–I’m going to reboot the server and see if that helps.
Oddly enough everything has been working for me lately. (She says with fingers crossed not to jinx it).
We’ve had a mix of sun and overcast weather, hot and humid and normal for this time of year.
I am currently reading A Heart of Blood and Ashes by Milla Vane. I think I’m in the minority for this one. I’ve read almost half and though I’ll push through and read all of it, it’s turning out not to be my cup of tea. I don’t particularly care for the writing style or the relationship dynamics in this one.
On audio, I’m listening to The Mountain Sings by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, which is a family saga set in North Vietnam between the 1920s – 1970s.
Eggletina, I had a problem with the way that A Heart of Blood and Ashes is written too. The hero’s thoughts and dialogue were often grammatically scrambled, almost like Yoda’s, and my dyslexic brain could NOT process it. I suspect that the anastrophe was supposed to serve a world-building function, but I just found it tough to read.
OMG I had the exact same thought. Yoda’s voice was constantly there in my head and it made for a slightly disturbing albeit unintentionally hilarious reading experience. I think I cringed-read my way through all the love scenes!
During July, I did a reread of Zoe York’s Pine Harbour series. The books are set in a small Canadian town on the shore of Lake Huron; and in each romantic pairing at least one of the MCs is usually from one of the two main families in the area, most of whom work in first-responder, military, or construction jobs. Despite having a small-town vibe, the books do address some thornier issues: drug addiction, terminal illness, losing a spouse, PTSD, traumatic brain injury, family conflict. There’s angst, but it’s relatively low-key, and there’s a basic maturity and decency to the characters whether as friends, lovers, spouses, or relatives. There are eight books in the series and, while it helps to read them in order, each can be read as a stand-alone. A perfect blend of soothing tone with some serious subject matter. So I decided during August I would read some of the “spicier” books York publishes under her alternate pen name, Ainsley Booth. I love Booth’s Forbidden Bodyguards series, but I haven’t read her Frisky Beavers erotic romances (co-written with Sadie Haller). When I saw the entire series is now available on KU, I grabbed them. There are four novels—PRIME MINISTER, DOCTOR BAD BOY, FULL MOUNTIE, and MR. HAT TRICK—along with some associated novellas and short stories. They center on (fictional) Canadian political, cultural, and sports figures and are sexy with a bit of kink thrown in. Should be fun reads.
July heat? Pfft – we had our summer in April and May; it’s been mostly dreary and windy for pretty much the entirety of July in my part of the UK. Par for the course really – it was the offical end of the academic year last week, and it always seems that is the cue for the weather to turn crappy. The last few years, I’ve sweltered in hot classrooms in June and the moment school finishes – hello cold, rain and wind!
I’m currently reading an ARC by a debut author (Ella Stainton) and have just started listening to Dance to the Storm by Maggie Craig, an historical fiction/romance set in 18th Century Edinburgh. It’s a sequel to Gathering Storm, which came out over five years ago, so I had to remind myself of a few things, but I remember that book being a really good combination of mystery and romance with a superbly evoked setting (Ms. Craig is an historian as well as a novellist) so I have high hopes for this one.
After that, I’ll be getting stuck into the audio of KJ Charles’ Slippery Creatures while I wait for the sequel to come out in August.
It’s cool and rainy in England today. But not that cool! I worked up a real Sweaty Betty doing the cleaning this morning. I am titillating myself today (and yesterday) with the disclosures from the book about Harry and Meghan. Makes a switch from the rest of the doom and gloom in the newspapers and who doesn’t love a bit of gossip. Other than that I am, after meaning to for over a year, reading Seven Stones to Stand or Fall by Diana Gabaldon – a collection of novellas within the Outlander world whilst anxiously awaiting her 9th Outlander book.