What have you been reading?
I’ve spent a lot of time on planes and airports lately. An upside of this has been more time to read. Yay!
I finally finished listening to Leigh Bardugo’s duo, Six of Crows and The Crooked Kingdom. I’d not read Bardugo before and, whoa, have I missed out. (I’m now listening to the Shadow and Bone trilogy.) Bardugo’s Grishaverse is one of the best worlds I’ve ever read. Her imagination rivals Rowling’s and her characters are indelible. I adored both books and am now determined to read everything in this series. It’s just so good.
I’d put down Louise Candlish’s Our House about 65% way through and am not sure why. On my most recent flight, I read the rest. I liked it, but not as much as I do The Heights. I found the ending of Our House remarkably abrupt. Like the kind of abrupt that I wondered if my eARC was missing pages. I’ll happily read more Candlish, however. Her mysteries, all which feature people caught in a cascade of poor decisions, are mesmerizing. There’s little violence in her book and you’ll find yourself filled with dread, even as you can’t stop reading, as you marvel at how horribly life can go for those who have bargained poorly with fate.
I also enjoyed Dervla McTiernan’s latest mystery, a stand-alone titled The Murder Rule. McTiernan, who grew up in Ireland and now resides in Perth, set this thriller in Charlottesville and Richmond, Virginia and I’m not sure why. To be fair, not everyone would be so irked by an airbnb host offering her guests sweet ice tea. In the South, tea is sweet. No one ever puts sweet before it—if you don’t want wince-inducting sugary ice tea, you’d order unsweetened tea. She also got several pieces of geography wrong. It’s a shame I noticed these lapses and was distracted because, overall, this is a gripping novel.
I loved both of Trish Dollar’s books—she’s really been the bright spot in my romance reading in the past month. I was less wowed by Samanthe Beck’s first two Captivity in Alaska books—she’s funny but her world and her characters don’t seem connected enough to, you know, reality, to work for me.
Lastly, I read the advanced release copy of Julie Anne Long’s You Were Made to Be Mine which comes out in June. The usual cast of characters from the Palace of Rogues are all here as are two new characters, a hardened 35 year old spy and a 21 year old on the run. I’ll be interested to see what readers think about it!
How about you? What have you read lately?
I will recommend Olympus Texas by Stacey Swann, which is a retelling of the Roman gods and goddesses in modern day small town Texas. She is a very good writer and it is fun guessing the plots based on my knowledge of mythology.
Have you read the Katee Robert ones? I’m wondering how these compare.
After looking at the Robert books, I think they are very different. This is a standalone novel and the plot is only based on mythology. Peter and June Briscoe are Jupiter and Juno, the parents of Thea, Hap, and March (Athena, Hephaestus and Mars), and while Peter is a local real estate magnate, so powerful, no one is immortal. He does have the wondering eye of Jupiter. The author is very clever about imagining what kinds of careers and personal lives the Pantheon might have had in our time.
Got it. Thanks!
I’ve been reading The Kaiju Preservation Society. it’s fun!
Hello,
I’m reading a non-romance novel, Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. I just love her voice. This is my third novel by her. I’ve also been trying to get back into romance. My library has a ton of stuff for me to try and I was gonna dip my toe back into Nora Roberts since it’s been forever. Any recs appreciated. I’ve been checking your database for reviews on mostly all of the romances I have lined up. Most of the authors I used to read no longer write romance or have disappeared. I learned just recently that Michelle Jerrot had died aka Michelle Albert last year which was a shock for me. You all have reviewed her books. She wrote “All Night Long” among others and mostly romantic suspense under Albert.
I am checking out everybody else’s favorite reads in the thread.
Song of Solomon is, along with the often banned The Bluest Eye, my favorite Morrison.
I am fascinated by social history of common, everyday life, so I am TOTALLY enjoying “How to Be a Tudor” by Goodman who had done work for the BBC where she researches what people ate, wore, etc. and then dresses, etc. as they did. I’d skip the intro when she talks about herself and how she got into this interest. I didn’t realize that, for example, in Tudor England only men wore buttons or a hat with a brim. When women began to do so, the clergy railed against this sin of dressing like a man. Women put their clothes together with ties and also with pins–that’s where “pin money” that husbands gave their wives came from. An aristocratic woman might be wearing 1,000 pins in an outfit!
Goodman also has “How to Be a Victorian” which I will listen to next.
Fascinating! Thanks.
I recently finished two fantastic novels centered on Native American protagonists and their communities. Both richly deserve their many accolades. First was The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich, who truly is a national treasure. Then I listened to Firekeeper’s Daughter and that was wonderful as well. Experiencing those communities for just a while, learning of their relationship with nature and their culture, seeing how they support one another in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles (and sometimes truly insurmountable obstacles) really opened my eyes and my heart more than they had ever been before. TW for sexual assault and drugs (there were probably others.) While there were heavy topics, they both ended hopefully.
The two romances I read recently were A Lot Like Adios by Alexis Daria (A-/B+) and Things We Never Got Over by Lucy Score (B.) Both had fake dating, and the second added Grumpy/Sunshine.
Now I’m listening to some old Lord Peter Wimsey BBC radio shows. They are adapted, of course, but so fun! The only problem is you need to turn the volume up and down a lot, and every episode ends with credits and begins with recap. Can’t they remaster these things to fix that?
Harbinger by Wen Spencer is due out tomorrow, and it’s been long enough since the last Elfhome book that I needed to refresh my memory, so most of my recent reading time went to rereading:
Tinker
Wolf Who Rules
Elfhome
Wood Sprites
Project Elfhome
I’m also still catching up on backlist from Claire Kingsley, and the 1632verse NESS books from Bjorn Hasseler.
I am rereading the Tinker series too. It is one of the few series I actually am willing to reread – and I am enjoying it a lot. The amount of care that went into the characters and mysteries unfolding is only apparent on rereading.
In other reading, Dani Collins and Tara Pammi‘s latest Harlequins were lovely. Looking forward to the Kelly Hunter mentioned below.
Read Honey & Pepper by AJ Demas and liked it a lot, though I loved Night in Boukos more, and Something Human is my favorite of her books.
I recently read Sherwood Smith Phoenix Feather fantasy China series and utterly loved it. She really does a certain type of cloak and dagger super well. Great worldbuilding, fascinating characters, flawless pacing, clever plotting.
And I reread Anne Bishop‘s Others in one go, all five books, and enjoyed them as one whole story. They are so very good, while the spin-off series seems too similar to me: in each book, crazy evil humans try to abuse good honest people who finally fight them off together with Others. I like the characters, but the books do not reach the perfection of the original 5.
I’ve been doing a lot of rereading in preparation for next-in-series releases. That includes a relisten of Jenn Burke’s NOT DEAD YET series in prep for the last book in the DUST AND ASHES spin-off series. There’s a bit of a cliffhanger at the end of book two in that series, so I want them all published before I start it.
I’m also relistening/reading to the first two books in C.S. Poe’s MAGIC AND STEAM series, THE ENGINEER and THE GANGSTER. THE DOCTOR comes out in early May.
I’ve reread or relistened to several of Rachel Reid’s GAME CHANGERS series in prep for the final book, THE LONG GAME.
Along the way I’ve been reading the Brian Prescott’s BETTER THAN YOU series, and listening to lots of Agatha Christie on audio. I listened to the first three Poirot books and am now on Miss Marple’s series. I’ve seen lots of TV and movie adaptations of Christie’s books, but have actually read very few. I’m taking advantage of the library having them on audio to correct that.
I have two books by Stella Riley lined up, THE MONTESORO LEGACY in print and book three of her Roundeads and Cavaliers series, THE KING”S FALCON on audio. That last one is 20 hours, so I’m trying to find a good time to start it.
I recently read Mr. Wrong Number by Lynn Painter and really enjoyed the humor, especially the banter and Olivia’s zany, bad luck mishaps. The first 3/4 was great but the last 1/4 wasn’t as fun. I wanted more story and less hearing about how hot they were for each other repeatedly. There were a couple of big misunderstandings that dragged on too long and I wanted more closure from the ending. I enjoyed the humor so much in the first part, I gave it 4 stars.
I also enjoyed Sadie on a Plate by Amanda Elliot. I like food shows so it was fun to see behind the scenes of a cooking competition and I liked both lead characters. There isn’t a ton of romance, but it’s sweet.
I am reading an ARC of You Were Made to Be Mine (6/28) by Julie Ann Long. After Dark with the Duke by Long, was one of my favorite romances of 2021 and You Were Made to Be Mine is a good follow up to it but it’s much darker. Both lead characters have experienced a lot of trauma in their past. I like the funny side story of finding a footman.
I’m having a break from reading romance and am reading my way through Mick Herron’s Slough House series.
I used to read a lot of spy thrillers in my 20s and 30s but moved away from them when I got fed up with how the female characters were written/were treated.
This series is very different – the main character is a slob and an arsehole to everyone, regardless of sex or race. I really enjoy the author’s humour.
It has just started on Appletv, but I don’t subscribe to that.
My best friend loves those books. The first one is on sale today!
Slow Horses
I loved these books. Each one was full of subversive humor and I laughed frequently. I had no idea that Slough House has been adapted for tv. Sadly, I don’t have Appletv.
The TV show has gotten good reviews.
The first two episodes are quite good. I’ve never read the books
I thoroughly enjoyed Kelly Hunter’s latest HP, RETURN OF THE OUTBACK BILLIONAIRE, which–while observing all the conventions of the Harlequin Presents template (fabulously wealthy hero, virginal heroine, angsty heartache, glamorous locales)–neatly circumvents them too: the hero is an ex-con, the heroine is just as rich as he is, and there’s no “big misunderstanding,” just two people connected by life and land and a very traumatic incident in the past. I think it’s Hunter’s best book since her brilliant MAGGIE’S RUN from a few years ago.
I started two gritty m/m series: Cordelia Kingsbridge’s Seven of Spades and John Wiltshire’s More Heat Than the Sun (both recs here, iirc). I’m really enjoying them, although I don’t know if I can do the entire nine books in the Wiltshire series (each one is really more a standalone, although the MCs are the same throughout), I’m definitely going to read all five in the Kingsbridge where the story of a serial killer threads through the entire storyline.
And speaking of gritty m/m, I read Aleksandr Voinov’s BURN THIS CITY, an enemies-to-lovers mafia romance where the MCs are from rival mob families and EVERY content/trigger warning applies. Despite the on-going violence (one MC is taken captive by the other, who intends to torture him until he gives up information about the death of the captor’s wife), I liked the way this cat-and-mouse game played out–especially when one of the MCs spends a good portion of the book tied to a chair. Well-written, but not for the faint-of-heart.
Other recent recommendations: Claire Kingsley’s REWRITING THE STARS (sixth and final book in the Bailey Brothers, a wonderful ending to a great series) and Serena Bell’s revised and republished SLEEPOVER.
What are the revisions in Sleepover?
I really don’t know because I didn’t read the original (published in 2018, I believe). However, there were references to the Wilder brothers and their company placed here and there throughout SLEEPOVER, so I’m guessing they were added as a cross-promotion to the Wilder Adventures series.
Got it. Thanks.
I loved Seven of Spades and read the series straight through.
I’m listening to the audio of More Heat Than the Sun as it has a great narration by Gary Furlong but I’m having a break after the second book. I love bits of these books – they are totally bonkers – but some bits I find unsettling. I’m sure that I’ll continue with them at some point though.
They were both recs from Caz.
:) I can only do a couple of Wiltshires at a time!
I loved Rewriting the Stars. Yes, it was super long but it didn’t skimp on the main character’s romance while catching us up on the previous books’ couples. Did you read the Bailey Brothers’ Series bonus epilogue? It was just perfection.