#also Goodreads is even more a pit than before

[batwynn]

I just signed in to Goodreads to make sure the digital version of something was on there properly and found someone who made an account on Goodreads just to leave bad reviews for my (cleaned up version of) Accidental MerDer comics and lmao it’s not?? A thing that affects me?? Or my sales? Or anything at all? What was the point?

The comic only exists in print form on Amazon for people who read it online who might want a hard copy. I’m not trying to reach a larger audience with Goodreads at all. I genuinely don’t know wtf because 😂

[gadgetgirl71]

The Ultimate Betrayal Kat Martin (Maximum Security #3) Publication date: December 29th 2020 Genres: Adult, Romance, Suspense

To prove her father’s innocence, she’ll have to turn a killer’s sights on herself

When her father is accused of espionage and treason, journalist Jessie Kegan has no doubt the man she looked up to her entire life is innocent. Worse yet, before Colonel Kegan can stand trial, he’s found dead of a heart attack…but Jessie knows it was murder. Forcing aside her grief, she’s determined to use her investigative resources to clear her father’s name. But going after the truth means Jessie soon finds herself in the crosshairs of a killer who wants that truth to stay buried with her father.

Protecting Jessie Kegan is a job bodyguard Brandon Garrett can’t refuse. Jessie isn’t just a client at Maximum Security—she’s the sister of his best friend, Danny, who was killed in Afghanistan. With dangerous enemies gunning for Jessie from every angle, keeping her safe will mean keeping her close, and Bran finds their mutual attraction growing, though being Danny’s sister puts Jessie out of bounds.

With their backs against the wall, Jessie and Bran will have to risk everything to expose her father’s killer—before his legacy dies with his daughter.

Goodreads / Amazon

—

EXCERPT:

They ordered-in Chinese and Bran turned the TV on in the living room, but neither of them were in the mood to watch. Jessie knew exactly what she was in the mood for. She hadn’t thought about sex this much in the last three years. Now, every time she looked at Bran, having sex with him was all she could think of.

Everything about him turned her on. The cadence of his voice, the way he laughed, the way he moved. Just watching him amble across the living room sent a curl of heat into the pit of her stomach.

What would it be like to kiss him? Run her hands over all the lean, hard muscles she had seen and couldn’t get out of her head? What would it be like if he made love to her?

Would she ruin it the way she had when she had tried before? Start thinking about Ray Cummings and the intimate way he had touched her? Conjure images of the rape he had planned to carry out the third night if she hadn’t managed to escape?

Fidgety and unable to relax, she headed for the pool, Bran reluctantly accompanying her. Exercising in the warm water was the perfect stress reliever. She glanced over to where he paced the deck at the opposite end of the pool, tall and lean-muscled, blue-eyed, and built. Nothing better than swimming–except for hours of erotic sex with the man of her fantasies.

It seemed so outrageous she found herself grinning as she stroked to the far end of the pool. She was still smiling when she came up out of the water, dripping and adjusting her swimsuit, just a few feet away from him.

“What’s so funny?” Bran asked, as grumpy tonight as he had been the night before.

She looked into his hard, handsome face and some little devil made her say it. “If you really want to know, I was thinking what it might be like to have wild, uninhibited sex with you.”

Hunger flashed in his eyes so quickly she took a step back. “Is that so,” he drawled, his gaze running over her, assessing every curve her orange-striped bikini displayed.

Her whole body flushed with heat as she realized she wasn’t the only one who’d been thinking about sex.

She swallowed. “I was imagining what it might be like, but I… I know if we tried, I’d screw it up. After Ray, I’ve got, you know, hang-ups.”

His gaze grew more intense. “What kind of hang-ups?”

She picked her towel up off the mesh table next to a lounge chair and quickly dried off, then slipped on her white terrycloth robe. Fortunately, the overhead lights began to flash, signaling it was time for the pool to close.

“Time to leave.” She started walking back to the room, wishing she’d kept her mouth shut. By the time Bran opened the door and checked inside to be sure it was safe, she was starting to relax.

“What hang-ups?” Bran he as he closed the door behind them.

Jessie’s stomach instantly knotted. What had possessed her to mention it? But Bran had opened up to her yesterday, which meant she owed him the same courtesy today.

Trying to appear nonchalant, she shrugged. “You know, kissing’s okay, but if a guy starts touching me, my mind flashes back to Ray Cummings and I-I start thinking about the way he touched me, where he touched me, and pretty soon sex is the last thing I want to happen.”

Bran’s jaw looked iron hard. “He rape you?”

She swallowed and shook her head. “On the third day, just before he got home, I managed to get loose. I couldn’t get out of the basement, so I searched for a weapon.” Her lips trembled as the memory became all too clear. “I found a wooden box and pried a board loose. The board had a nail in the end so I held it like a bat, and I-I waited till he came down the stairs.”

“Go on,” Bran said so softly she felt a chill.

“He always wore this black knit ski mask with a red ring around the mouth, which made him look even more terrifying. Knowing what he planned to do gave me courage. The minute he stepped off the bottom step, I swung the board as hard as I could and smashed him in the side of the head. As soon as he hit the floor, I starting whacking him over and over with the nail in the end of the board. He was unconscious and bleeding when I took off running.”

“Finish it,” Bran said when she paused, more a demand than a request.

Her voice trembled. “The woman in the house next door let me in and called the police. Ray was still unconscious when they got there. Turned out he was a serial rapist. He had abducted four other women and locked them up just like me. Eventually, he released them somewhere, but they couldn’t identify him or the place he had taken them. I was the only one who escaped.”

She was shaking. She didn’t realize she had tears in her eyes till Bran pulled her into his arms.

Author Bio:

Currently living outside Missoula, Montana, Kat Martin is the New York Times bestselling author of over sixty-five Historical and Contemporary Romantic Suspense novels. Before she started writing, Kat was a real estate broker. During that time, she met her husband, L. J. Martin, an author of Westerns and high-action Thrillers. Kat is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara where she majored in Anthropology and also studied History. She spends her winters in Arizona.

"I love to travel and especially like visiting the places where my books are set," Kat says. "I love history and enjoy spending time in museums and art galleries. My husband and I often stay in out-of-the-way inns and historical houses. It's fun and it gives a wonderful sense of a by-gone era."

To date, Kat has over seventeen million copies of her books in print. She is published in more than two dozen foreign countries, including Germany, France, Norway, Sweden, China, Korea, Bulgaria, Russia, England, South Africa, Italy, Spain, Argentina, Japan and Greece.

Kat is currently writing her next Romantic thriller.

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[readwithmichelle]

Books I Read in May

For the month of May, which was my first real month back to reading books for my own pleasure and not for classes, I read 4 books. Not a lot, I know, but I’m kind of a variable reader - sometimes I devour books in a matter of days, and others it takes me a few weeks. I suppose it depends on how much a book gripped me.  Anyway, for the month of May I read Six of Crows and Crooked Kingdom, both by Leigh Bardugo, as well as Among the Hollow by Roman Ankenbrandt, and American Pharoah by Joe Drape. 

Six of Crows was my first foray into Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse. I first heard of the book when I worked at a bookstore, and one of the assistant managers mentioned it as one of her very favorite books she had ever read. I frequently saw the duology when I was straightening shelves or recommending books to teenage readers. When it finally came time for me to leave the store for my next job, I ended up grabbing Six of Crows and buying it with the intention of reading it. I even managed to start it, but then I decided to go back to school, and all pleasure reading went out the window.  It would be another 2 YEARS before I picked Six of Crows back up. Initially I tried out the audiobook - which wasn’t bad but not really my cup, and then I bought it as an eBook as a bundle with it’s sequel. Once I dug in, I couldn’t stop. I devoured Six of Crows in the matter of about a week. I adored the writing - if there is one thing Leigh Bardugo is good at, it’s dialogue and the careful art of showing and not telling. It took me almost 100 pages to understand what the Grisha were and what the deal with this new fantasy world was, but despite that it very much reads as a standalone that does not need the presence of the Grisaverse trilogy behind it.  The story is mildly predictable, but the plot isn’t really what drives the story - it’s the characters. The internal motivations of Kaz, Inej, Wylan, Jesper, Nina, and Matthias are the cornerstone of this story, and they’re what make it a truly enjoyable read - not necessarily the story itself. I imagine, if you wanted a definition of a character driven story, this would be it. The characters - in particular Kaz and Inej gripped me pretty much immediately, and I was completely invested in them and what they had gone through. It also totally emotionally compromised me.  Rating: 5/5 Stars The same could be said of Crooked Kingdom, though this one felt a little bit less cohesive than Six of Crows, which had a clear goal. Crooked Kingdom has the Crows being pit against just about everyone in Kerch, and with everyone looking for a piece of them, the story felt a little all over the place for it. That said, we got more of that sweet, sweet character backstory and development, and I will not deny that I was completely incapacitated by Kaz and Inej’s moments together. I felt pleased to have continued with these characters, and it was a real page turner - I had intended to give myself a few days before starting Crooked Kingdom after finishing Six of Crows, but I HAD to know what happened next so I started it pretty much within an hour of finishing the first book.  When it comes to THAT scene, it was a bit more emotionally upsetting than I anticipated. The character involved was not one of my favorites, and I found them kind of problematic as a character. That didn’t stop me from tearing up. I feel, perhaps unlike many other fans of this book that it was a “justified” moment. I will go further into detail at another time about this specific scene with spoilers, but not in this recap.  Ultimately the story felt extremely satisfying. I was glad to see where it ended, and was so incensed about not getting to continue with certain characters that I pretty much threw my Kindle away from me in a fit of frustration. I desperately want to know where these characters end up, so if Leigh Bardugo could come out with a third book and make it a trilogy, I would be forever in her debt.  Rating: 5/5 Stars After that whirlwind I ended up deciding to read Among the Hollow by Roman Ankenbrandt. This is a debut work, and apparently didn’t really make a big splash when it was released. It has less than 50 reviews between Goodreads and Amazon where it was self-published. This one was a surprise for me. The reviews for it are exceptionally high, so I hoped that perhaps it would be a fun one - and it was. But it also was extremely refreshing. The setting is inspired by Ancient Byzantium - a setting that is exceptionally uncommon in my experience, and it features my very favorite kind of magic to use in stories - necromancy. If you know me, you know that I’m absolutely crazy about Garth Nix’s Old Kingdom Series. They’re some of my very favorite novels, so this was a no brainer for me. The interpretation of Necromancy ended up being the surprise. The magic system of how it works is very soft, but is present just enough that I do not feel as though I don’t understand it.  When it comes to the characters, our main cast is that of Sevila, and Aurel. Aurel is a spirit that contracts with Sevila to get their body back, and from there it’s a whirlwind. Perhaps one of my favorite aspects of this story is that Aurel desperately wants to do good things, but people are so scared of them as a spirit that they cannot. Sevila, who has the capability, has no desire to do good things, and the conflict between Aurel and Sevila over that is interesting. Of the two of them, however, Sevila is probably my favorite character - she is barely likable, and is a strong morally grey main character. Also, I love that she’s an unabashed lesbian who does not pretend to be something she is not. The book races towards it’s end very quickly, and my biggest gripe about the whole book is that it feels too short. At 299 pages on the eBook edition it is on the shorter end of books I have read. Perhaps I am greedy, and merely wanted to spend more time with the characters in that setting, but I strongly felt that some scenes could use some fleshing out, or new scenes could have been added between Sevila and Aurel. Ultimately, it is a very good debut book, and I hope this author publishes more in the future. At the end of the book there very much feels like there is more story to tell, more adventures to be had.  Rating: 5/5 Stars The final book I read for the month was American Pharoah by Joe Drape. This is a biography about the 2015 Triple Crown winning horse. A little background information if you will - I am an avid horse racing fan. I watch it regularly (have it set to record on Hulu!), and have watched the Triple Crown races every year since I was around 8 years old. I have had my heart broken by horse racing more times than I’ve been in relationships.  My relationship with the sport is still contentious at times. I don’t care for most of the breeding practices, and I don’t like that people with money throw it around to get essentially a commodity, not an animal. The Thoroughbred breed has suffered for it.  So when it came to reading this book, I was a little apprehensive - it claims to be an untold story. The story of American Pharoah is quite well known among horse racing fans - so what could be untold? Ultimately, it was the stories of his connections, and his early training years that were untold, I suppose.  The owners of American Pharoah, Zayat Stables - especially Ahmed Zayat don’t come out of this book looking particularly good. In fact he looks like a billionare with too much money to throw around and a “get rich quick” scheme to boot. Bob Baffert, legendary trainer as he is, is given a softer approach, but not by much. The book makes sure to mention his previous to 2015 doping scandals and the time he got scammed by a guy. This is compounded by hindsight too; Bob Baffert’s second Triple Crown Winner - Justify (2018 winner) - was revealed to have been doped (intentionally or not is irrelevant) in the race before the Kentucky Derby, and the scandal rocked the horse racing world quite heavily - it even ended up on the New York Times.  As the book says, there are very few saints in the Horse Racing industry.  On top of examining the human connections to this once in a life time horse, the book also examines the effect that the rich and elite have had on the industry - everything from purchasing habits to breeding trends - the most damning part of the book is how it details the pervading millionaire view of race horses as personal ATMs, how they don’t even know the names of the people who care for their horses, and worst perhaps of all, their desires have shaped the breed itself. Horses used to be raced upwards of 20 times in their lifetimes, and their conformation - or the way they are built - reflected their stamina and strength. Today’s Thoroughbreds barely race more than 10 times in their entire career, and much has been published examining the fragility of the breed in the wake of Eight Belles and Barbaro’s very public breakdowns on the track.  Even Seth Hancock - perhaps one of the most well known names in horse racing - has said “I don’t breed them like I used to” and that is because people want fast horses, not strong horses. This book drives that point home multiple times.  Ultimately, the book itself is a fast read, and enjoyable to boot, though it spends an uncomfortable amount of time giving the lurid details of Thoroughbred horse breeding. My biggest gripes with it is that it has a few grammatical errors and I found the passage about Bob Baffert being scammed a tad unnecessary.  Rating: 4/5 Stars For the Month of June I intend to finish a few books I started in May - The Graves are Walking by John Kelly, Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, and Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo. I also intend to (if I can get through the depressing but enlightening account of the Irish Potato Famine) read If We Were Villains by M.L. Rio, The Vine Witch by Luanne G. Smith, The Empress of Salt and Fortune by Nghi Vo, and The Last Temptations of Iago Wick by Jennifer Rainey. 

[maddie-grove]

Little Book Review: The Mistress

Author: Susan Wiggs.

Publication Date: 2000.

Genre: Historical romance.

Premise: It’s 1871 in Chicago, and beautiful lady’s maid Kathleen O’Leary is the willing subject of a bet between her mistress’s finishing-school classmates. Progressive Lucy thinks that, given the right outfit, Kathleen will pass as a fine lady at a high-society lecture, while snobbish Phoebe thinks the opposite. Kathleen, refined and self-educated, is just enjoying an evening off from domestic servitude, but two things make her night a little more interesting. First, handsome, wealthy Dylan Kennedy is paying her a lot of attention...but is he really what he seems? Second, the Great Chicago Fire is happening! 

Thoughts: Well, I’m glad I read this book last month. The depiction of a life-altering natural disaster, worsened by governmental indifference, that starts relatively slow and speeds up with horrific results...well, it’s very effectively written, even though it hits too close to home now. Susan Wiggs, in addition to being a great romance author, is awesome at action/adventure. (The Hostage, the first book in the Chicago Fire trilogy, is a prime example.) The two protagonists and their romance, though, didn’t reach the heights of The Hostage or The Firebrand (the trilogy’s final installment). 

I found this especially surprising because, based on the premise, The Mistress seemed the most promising and the least problematic. The Hostage is a kidnapping romance, and The Firebrand pits a feminist heroine against a placidly sexist hero; in contrast, The Mistress involves two working-class protagonists who (spoiler alert) trick each other into thinking they’re rich, bond during a disaster, and end up wedding in haste before discovering the truth. Not the soundest basis for marriage, maybe, but it’s a fairly egalitarian and peaceful start. The way it plays out, though, feels more retrograde than either of its companion novels, which develop their problematic heroes and use them to make valuable points about class, trauma, and/or feminism. Like Unmasked by the Marquess, The Mistress has the common “too good, too bad” problem. Kathleen is intelligent, brave, and loyal; her only flaws are that she (slightly, privately) looks down on her working-class Irish immigrant family, wants nice things, and engages in a deception that would’ve amounted to a harmless prank under any other circumstances. Dylan’s childhood as a homeless orphan elicit sympathy, and his more benign cons are clever enough to arouse admiration, but if you look past all that, he’s kind of a piece of shit. Believing Kathleen to be an heiress, he lies about his identity and plans to marry her for her money without a qualm. I think a romance hero can usually come back from something like this, and Dylan’s genuine desperation made him more sympathetic than your average cash-poor earl, but Dylan’s angry, near-remorseless rejection of Kathleen when he discovers her far more innocent deception squandered all my goodwill. (He rejects her in front of her family!) Meanwhile, Kathleen has to self-flagellate over her minor faults. I wasn’t so much offended as I was bored. It would’ve been a much more dynamic romance if he’d been a little nicer and she’d been a little meaner.

The novel’s not as bad as I’ve made it sound, though. The action sequences are great, the confidence-game plot that occupies the second half is a lot of fun, and I liked the secondary characters (especially Eugene Waxman, an escaped prisoner with a heart of gold). Making Kathleen the daughter of the Mrs. O’Leary and exploring the scapegoating of immigrants is also a good choice, although it’s not explored as much as it could be. Also, I can’t believe it took me this long to notice the influence of Titanic on the trilogy. It’s much stronger in The Hostage, with its cross-class romance and suicidal heroine trapped in a very wrong engagement, but I can also see it in the early party scene, the extended disaster sequences, and the Celtic themes of The Mistress.

Hot Goodreads Take: A common theme in negative reviews of this book is that Dylan sucks because he’s a conman. I agree that Dylan kind of sucks, and the ways that he sucks are intertwined with the kind of conman he is, but I probably would’ve still liked him if he’d had any standards and/or exhibited more than the most fleeting guilt for the way he used women. If a guy wants to fake his own death on Niagara Falls to bilk a bunch of tourists, I’m not exactly going to stand up and cheer, but I get it. Entangling an unsuspecting woman in a legally binding contract so you can screw her over...not so much.

[thesffcorner]

Artificial Conditions

Artificial Conditions is the second book in the Murderbot Diaries, an adult sci-fi series written by Martha Wells. It follows Murderbot, a SecUnit who has hacked her governing module and more or less gone rogue. After the events of the previous book, which saw Murderbot freed from her corporate contract, she is on her way to Ganaka Pit, which is where she hopes to find answers about her government module. I enjoyed the first book in this series; I found Murderbot funny and relatable as a character, and the world pretty entertaining, even if I thought the plot was pedestrian, and not very interesting. That’s why I took so long to read this; I was just not itching at the possibility to be back in this world. I am happy to report, that unlike what seems to be the general consensus, I actually really liked this book. If fact, I thought it was better than the first; I liked Murderbot as a character, I really liked ART, and I found the plot a lot more engaging. This book starts off really slow; for a 103 page novella, it took me about 30 pages before I really got into the plot and started caring about the action. Murderbot is a fun character, but there’s only so much one can do with her just watching TV and walking around a spaceport. I enjoy her most when she’s interacting with other characters, and her interacting with ART was hilarious. This novella really discussed some interesting themes on the merit of free will, and self-governance, and Murderbot constantly fighting against the overwhelming apathy and desire to isolate herself and just consume media was something I really related to. I also really liked the plot in this one; it’s more of a murder mystery/blackmail plot, and I especially liked the bit with the ComfortBot. I got a lot of Ghost in the Shell: Innocence and Altered Carbon vibes, and I love both of those films/shows. Overall it was a good sequel, and ART will definitely be missed. If you liked the first book, check this out; I don’t think you will be disappointed.

goodreads

[kiarazuri]

Cover Appreciation: The Fallen Isles Series by Jodi Meadows

Before Mira Minkoba is the Hopebearer. Since the day she was born, she’s been told she’s special. Important. Perfect. She’s known across the Fallen Isles not just for her beauty, but for the Mira Treaty named after her, a peace agreement which united the seven islands against their enemies on the mainland. But Mira has never felt as perfect as everyone says. She counts compulsively. She struggles with crippling anxiety. And she’s far too interested in dragons for a girl of her station. After Then Mira discovers an explosive secret that challenges everything she and the Treaty stand for. Betrayed by the very people she spent her life serving, Mira is sentenced to the Pit–the deadliest prison in the Fallen Isles. There, a cruel guard would do anything to discover the secret she would die to protect. No longer beholden to those who betrayed her, Mira must learn to survive on her own and unearth the dark truths about the Fallen Isles–and herself–before her very world begins to collapse.

(Before She Ignites, Goodreads)

Now. I know I said in my Whims of Fae post that I don’t really like people-covers, but the Fallen Isles series is my #1 exception. I love these covers for a boatload of reasons but the main reason I love that there’s a person on the cover is REPRESENTATION. I can count on my hands the number of black women (photographed, not drawn)(tho I can also count the number of drawn black women on my hands too) I’ve seen on the covers of fantasy novels. And to see it where she is so explicitly the main character is magnificent. (There are some issues with the fact that this author is white because non-White authors have less chance to have people-covers and therefore possible #OwnVoices cover representation but for a more in-depth conversation on that you’d have to go to someone else. For now, I just want you to be aware that this author is white.)

Apart from the fact that these are people-covers with a gorgeous black woman with great hair, skin, and clothes, these covers are perfectly in sync and they balance each other really well.

I like how the dresses get more regal as it goes and how she goes from having flowers to a sword (even if that feminine-to-masculine symbolism is bullshit). The changing phases of the double moons could have both symbolic and literal connotations

An annoyance I have is how the second book has the model slightly turned while the other two have their faces and bodies facing the observer head-on. It’s just a small incongruity that bothers me.

I think what’s most annoying to me is how the titles change color. The first two don’t match her dress but then the third does and it’s weird and overcomes the cover in one color (purple). I think they should have stuck with one color but other than that I like them. Interestingly, the Owlcrate Exclusive Hardcover of As She Ignites had gold text that matched As She Ascends. (Sorry about the poor image quality, I took these images from Goodreads)

Also, personally I think the gold is better for the fire symbolism the word “Ignites” evokes. Though at the same time I really do like the blue-silver of the normal version.

A technical issue I have with the titles is how bad the transition from text to tail is on every single one. (It’s worst on As She Ascends)

I dunno what’s going on but it ain’t right. What’s with that circle on the S or that VERY NOTICEABLE change on the A? The R is the best but it’s not good. I haven’t seen these covers in-person (MUCH AS I’VE TRIED. I’ve been looking at the bookstore constantly). so maybe they aren’t that bad but there’s something extremely weird going on with the texture of the text to tail interaction.

(also why are the tails on 2 and 3 coming from the first letter while the tail on 1 comes from the last? continuity who? I think the tail should have been coming from behind her, honestly.)

And, Finally: These covers are so EXACTLY what I want for my Cinderella WIP IT HURTS

Black Woman

Greco-Roman Aesthetic

Fire Symbolism

Moon and Sun Symbolism and Cycles

DRAGONS

It’s perfect and it makes me sad that they’ll never be mine.

See ya next time!

- Kiara

[elfosterreviews]

The Rose and the Thistle

The Rose and the Thistle by Laura Frantz

Goodreads Blurb:

In 1715, Lady Blythe Hedley's father is declared an enemy of the British crown because of his Jacobite sympathies, forcing her to flee her home in northern England. Secreted to the tower of Wedderburn Castle in Scotland, Lady Blythe awaits who will ultimately be crowned king. But in a house with seven sons and numerous servants, her presence soon becomes known.

No sooner has Everard Hume lost his father, Lord Wedderburn, than Lady Hedley arrives with the clothes on her back and her mistress in tow. He has his own problems--a volatile brother with dangerous political leanings, an estate to manage, and a very young brother in need of comfort and direction in the wake of losing his father. It would be best for everyone if he could send this misfit heiress on her way as soon as possible.

Drawn into a whirlwind of intrigue, shifting alliances, and ambitions, Lady Blythe must be careful whom she trusts. Her fortune, her future, and her very life are at stake. Those who appear to be adversaries may turn out to be allies--and those who pretend friendship may be enemies.

 Review:

Where do I even start with this one? Five stars for certain, for historical accuracy alone, but also for a beautiful story and wonderful characters as well!

I’ve become a fan of Frantz’ work due to her immaculate attention to tiny historical details and her beautiful storytelling. Which is saying something when the majority of my reads tend to be on the…raunchier…side of things. So when I will sit down and laud praises on an author who favors clean, much less Christian work—well you know something impressive is at work.

At any rate, this book is another hit for Frantz!

I’m absolutely in love with Blythe (and Everard too, to be fair *cough* dreamboat *cough*) and she has to be my current favorite Frantz-heroine. Something about her quiet intelligence and inner strength appealed to me more than any of the other Frantz heroines I’ve encountered over the years. Her companion, Elodie, has also become a fast favorite. All of the characters in this book are so well written. They’re well written without being flawless and all the more realistic for it! And I have to mention, how much Orin holds a place in my heart here. Too precious. But the point is, that Frantz’ characters are a huge reason why this story is so successful and I love them.

Moving on to the story itself, I found both the political and personal plots very interesting, if a little slow to start with quite a bit packed into the end, but sometimes, that’s how the best stories go. I found Blythe and Everard’s romance to be incredibly sweet and well-paced. It’s a wonderful example of a beautiful slow-burn romance! I also loved Blythe’s interactions with Everard’s brothers, particularly Orin. Something about seeing people’s families fall in love with their soon to be significant other always makes me happy.

On to the historical aspects of the plot, I found myself overjoyed and in awe of Frantz’ work. I’m a historian by trade so seeing the little details like colored hair/wig powder at the French court (page 22) always endear a story to me. It shows how much research Frantz puts into these books and I love seeing accurate representations of historical times. But this time I found myself more impressed with the overall plot than the tiny details, and that’s unusual for me. Having this story center around the 1715 Rising I expected to have the usual main characters be Protestant British Hanoverian Royalists against the Catholic Scottish Jacobites, so it was very intriguing to see a Protestant Scottish Hanoverian Royalist pitted against Catholic British Jacobites. As a historian, I know there were supporters of both houses on both sides of the Britain-Scotland border, but literature tends to have more Scottish Jacobites than English and it was really fun to see the opposite so well done! I’ve said it before and I’m sure I’ll say it again, Frantz’ work is so well researched; she is a master of historical fiction. And she has certainly done herself justice here, once again!

  Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

[coffeebased]

It’s been a whole year since I posted last. Part of me wants to apologise for being gone so long, but mostly I’m just glad that I’m here.

Instead of doing a GIANT 2018 READING POST, I’m going to chop it up into three posts:

Favourite Books Read in 2018

2018 Reading Data and Goal-setting for 2019

2013-2018 Reading Data Trends

I was going to do a bigass one like I usually do but it just felt so daunting. Probably because I read 256 books in 2018 and it was pretty tempting to just close that Excel sheet and move on to an empty one for 2019. But what is the point of an unexamined life, anyway?

So this post is basically a listicle with summaries grabbed from Goodreads, as well as the complete list of the books I read in 2018. I really enjoyed all these books immensely and they’re all in my personal canon now.

My Top 10 Reads for 2018:

The Odyssey by Homer, translated by Emily Wilson

The first great adventure story in the Western canon, The Odyssey is a poem about violence and the aftermath of war; about wealth, poverty, and power; about marriage and family; about travelers, hospitality, and the yearning for home.In this fresh, authoritative version—the first English translation of The Odyssey by a woman—this stirring tale of shipwrecks, monsters, and magic comes alive in an entirely new way. Written in iambic pentameter verse and a vivid, contemporary idiom, this engrossing translation matches the number of lines in the Greek original, thus striding at Homer’s sprightly pace and singing with a voice that echoes Homer’s music.

Circe by Madeline Miller

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child—not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power—the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.

3. The World of the Five Gods by Lois McMaster Bujold

A man broken in body and spirit, Cazaril, has returned to the noble household he once served as page, and is named, to his great surprise, as the secretary-tutor to the beautiful, strong-willed sister of the impetuous boy who is next in line to rule.

It is an assignment Cazaril dreads, for it will ultimately lead him to the place he fears most, the royal court of Cardegoss, where the powerful enemies, who once placed him in chains, now occupy lofty positions. In addition to the traitorous intrigues of villains, Cazaril and the Royesse Iselle, are faced with a sinister curse that hangs like a sword over the entire blighted House of Chalion and all who stand in their circle. Only by employing the darkest, most forbidden of magics, can Cazaril hope to protect his royal charge—an act that will mark the loyal, damaged servant as a tool of the miraculous, and trap him, flesh and soul, in a maze of demonic paradox, damnation, and death

4. Noli Me Tangere by Jose Rizal, Translated by Harold Augenbraum

In more than a century since its appearance, José Rizal’s Noli Me Tangere has become widely known as the great novel of the Philippines. A passionate love story set against the ugly political backdrop of repression, torture, and murder, “The Noli,” as it is called in the Philippines, was the first major artistic manifestation of Asian resistance to European colonialism, and Rizal became a guiding conscience—and martyr—for the revolution that would subsequently rise up in the Spanish province.

5. America is Not The Heart by Elaine Castillo

Three generations of women from one immigrant family trying to reconcile the home they left behind with the life they’re building in America.

How many lives can one person lead in a single lifetime? When Hero de Vera arrives in America, disowned by her parents in the Philippines, she’s already on her third. Her uncle, Pol, who has offered her a fresh start and a place to stay in the Bay Area, knows not to ask about her past. And his younger wife, Paz, has learned enough about the might and secrecy of the De Vera family to keep her head down. Only their daughter Roni asks Hero why her hands seem to constantly ache.

Illuminating the violent political history of the Philippines in the 1980s and 1990s and the insular immigrant communities that spring up in the suburban United States with an uncanny ear for the unspoken intimacies and pain that get buried by the duties of everyday life and family ritual, Castillo delivers a powerful, increasingly relevant novel about the promise of the American dream and the unshakable power of the past. In a voice as immediate and startling as those of Junot Diaz and NoViolet Bulawayo, America Is Not the Heart is a sprawling, soulful telenovela of a debut novel. With exuberance, muscularity, and tenderness, here is a family saga; an origin story; a romance; a narrative of two nations and the people who leave home to grasp at another, sometimes turning back.

6. The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century by Kirk W. Johnson

A rollicking true-crime adventure and a thought-provoking exploration of the human drive to possess natural beauty for readers of The Stranger in the Woods, The Lost City of Z, and The Orchid Thief.

On a cool June evening in 2009, after performing a concert at London’s Royal Academy of Music, twenty-year-old American flautist Edwin Rist boarded a train for a suburban outpost of the British Museum of Natural History. Home to one of the largest ornithological collections in the world, the Tring museum was full of rare bird specimens whose gorgeous feathers were worth staggering amounts of money to the men who shared Edwin’s obsession: the Victorian art of salmon fly-tying. Once inside the museum, the champion fly-tier grabbed hundreds of bird skins–some collected 150 years earlier by a contemporary of Darwin’s, Alfred Russel Wallace, who’d risked everything to gather them–and escaped into the darkness.

Two years later, Kirk Wallace Johnson was waist high in a river in northern New Mexico when his fly-fishing guide told him about the heist. He was soon consumed by the strange case of the feather thief. What would possess a person to steal dead birds? Had Edwin paid the price for his crime? What became of the missing skins? In his search for answers, Johnson was catapulted into a years-long, worldwide investigation. The gripping story of a bizarre and shocking crime, and one man’s relentless pursuit of justice, The Feather Thief is also a fascinating exploration of obsession, and man’s destructive instinct to harvest the beauty of nature.

7. Educated: A Memoir by Tara Westover

An unforgettable memoir in the tradition of The Glass Castle about a young girl who, kept out of school, leaves her survivalist family and goes on to earn a PhD from Cambridge University

Tara Westover was 17 the first time she set foot in a classroom. Born to survivalists in the mountains of Idaho, she prepared for the end of the world by stockpiling home-canned peaches and sleeping with her “head-for-the-hills bag”. In the summer she stewed herbs for her mother, a midwife and healer, and in the winter she salvaged in her father’s junkyard.

Her father forbade hospitals, so Tara never saw a doctor or nurse. Gashes and concussions, even burns from explosions, were all treated at home with herbalism. The family was so isolated from mainstream society that there was no one to ensure the children received an education and no one to intervene when one of Tara’s older brothers became violent.

Then, lacking any formal education, Tara began to educate herself. She taught herself enough mathematics and grammar to be admitted to Brigham Young University, where she studied history, learning for the first time about important world events like the Holocaust and the civil rights movement. Her quest for knowledge transformed her, taking her over oceans and across continents, to Harvard and to Cambridge. Only then would she wonder if she’d traveled too far, if there was still a way home.

Educated is an account of the struggle for self-invention. It is a tale of fierce family loyalty and of the grief that comes with severing the closest of ties. With the acute insight that distinguishes all great writers, Westover has crafted a universal coming-of-age story that gets to the heart of what an education is and what it offers: the perspective to see one’s life through new eyes and the will to change it.

8. The Wicked + The Divine, Vol. 7 and 8 by Kieron Gillen, Stephanie Hans, André Lima Araújo, Matt Wilson, Kris Anka, Jen Bartel

In the past: awful stuff. In the present: awful stuff. But, increasingly, answers.

Modernist poets trapped in an Agatha Christie Murder Mystery. The Romantics gathering in Lake Geneva to resurrect the dead. What really happened during the fall of Rome. The Lucifer who was a nun, hearing Ananke’s Black Death confession. As we approach the end, we start to see the full picture. Also includes the delights of the WicDiv Christmas Annual and the Comedy special.

9. Mister Miracle by Tom King and Mitch Gerads

Mister Miracle is magical, dark, intimate and unlike anything you’ve read before.

Scott Free is the greatest escape artist who ever lived. So great, he escaped Granny Goodness’ gruesome orphanage and the dangers of Apokolips to travel across galaxies and set up a new life on Earth with his wife, Big Barda. Using the stage alter ego of Mister Miracle, he has made quite a career for himself showing off his acrobatic escape techniques. He even caught the attention of the Justice League, who has counted him among its ranks.

You might say Scott Free has everything–so why isn’t it enough? Mister Miracle has mastered every illusion, achieved every stunt, pulled off every trick–except one. He has never escaped death. Is it even possible? Our hero is going to have to kill himself if he wants to find out.

10. The Band, #1–2

Clay Cooper and his band were once the best of the best — the meanest, dirtiest, most feared crew of mercenaries this side of the Heartwyld.

Their glory days long past, the mercs have grown apart and grown old, fat, drunk – or a combination of the three. Then an ex-bandmate turns up at Clay’s door with a plea for help. His daughter Rose is trapped in a city besieged by an enemy one hundred thousand strong and hungry for blood. Rescuing Rose is the kind of mission that only the very brave or the very stupid would sign up for.

It’s time to get the band back together for one last tour across the Wyld.

PHEW. Did you guys read any of those books? Did you like them? Hit me up!

The books I read in 2018:

Okay, thank you for reading. Keep a weather eye out for the next post, hopefully very soon.

My Ten Favourite Books from 2018 It's been a whole year since I posted last. Part of me wants to apologise for being gone so long, but mostly I'm just glad that I'm here.

[theboywhocriedbooks]

Circe by Madeline Miller

[Goodreads]

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child—not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power—the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus. But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.

Thoughts:

I’ve read Miller’s The Song of Achilles and I really liked it but this one takes the cake for me. It might be my personal bias though. I love female characters, I love witches and I love retellings of greek myths so this book was a great fit for me. I hadn’t had much knowledge of Circe before reading this book but I think I was really surprised at how involved she was? There was just so much that she was connected to, which you can even see from just the wikipedia page on her. On top of that, a random thing I love about stories that focus on immortal beings is the passage of time is so arbitrary. I’m all here for men being turned into pigs so when Circe starting coming into her own that was great but still was upsetting at how that came about. I’m really happy with how this book turned out, it was a wild ass time and I was stuck to the pages the entire time. It was a bit slower paced but that was fine with me! Go check it out because I’m now going to go on about it in spoiler-y detail below:

I love Circe now. I’m a little surprised I hadn’t heard of her before this book and I’m really curious as to how Miller chose this figure to be the one she focuses on. I didn’t expect her to be related to the Minotaur or for her to be involved with Odysseus. This is mostly on me though and my lack of greek mythology knowledge. What I do like about Miller, and especially this book, is that she really takes these stories and makes them her own in a way that doesn’t veer too far away from the source material. I would like to look up or have someone with the knowledge see how much of this is based on the original myth and how much is her own workings. Either way I think it was such an great book. 

I loved Circe. She was that character that was like “I’m the least loved child of this powerful character but they wILL RUE THE DAYS THEY DOUBTED ME” and she proves to them that she’s a bit more powerful than they imagined. I’d want to complain about her father but I don’t think hating on male gods is going to be anything short of redundant so lets move past that and say at least he gave her an island? With living on an island alone comes the concerns of intruders and that does happen a few times. Men come to the island and one rapes her which leads to her cursing men to be pigs after that if she fears they will attempt the same. Again, I’m all for men being turned into pigs but I’m just sad she had to go through that.

I was looking at a review that mentioned this part of the story and was heavily criticizing it. The reviewer was saying that rape should not have been a big defining point for Circe’s character, that it was just lazy and gross writing. I’ve been attempting to think more critically about that. While I definitely agree with the statement, I’m just not sure it’s exactly relevant to this story? Even though I think turning men into pigs is great, I don’t really think it was such a defining moment for Circe? She was already a witch, she was already on the island alone and she was already doing her own thing. She might have been weary of men, and rightly so it appears, after that but I don’t think it held her back much aside from her making pig potion just to be safe. I’m definitely open to other peoples thoughts about this though, perhaps I’m missing something! 

I’m not sure if its in every book/work I’ve encountered Athena in but she’s not super my favorite, honestly. So seeing her be this sort of opposing force in this story was interesting. I understand her motive but I’m just like okay, next. I do enjoy seeing higher gods be played by lesser-powered people. Athena could not do a thing and I lived for it. As for Circe’s son, I wasn’t super wild about him or anything. I could appreciate the story but I was like okay back to your mom please. 

I loved the animals and the witchcraft. I loved the lion, that was a big stab in my heart but also beautiful. I loved seeing her turn that douche into a god and her cousin into a ghoul so that everyone would see her power. That came back to bite her (lol) but it was a great plot point. One of my favorite scenes was when she went down to the depths of the ocean to talk to the giant ancient string ray to get his poison tail. She was ready to sacrifice herself for her child and then she didn’t have too. Talk about a heartfelt moment to have with a big sting ray at the bottom of the ocean, am I right? 

I enjoyed seeing Circe interact with the other men in her life like Hermes, Odysseus or Daedalus. It was interesting to see because other men were turned into pigs but these ones she allowed to play a slighter larger role in her life. She experienced something with them and then they were gone. Then, however, Telemachus comes into the picture and there is this weird “I was with your dad and now I’m with you” mood there. Honestly, though, I was like get your gains girl. Might as well be happy when you can and with whom you can. This leads to her mortality, which was surprising but intriguing to see. She gave it up for this chance to live more than she could as an immortal and I’m always down with that storyline I guess. 

[xachynwrites]

personal reflections on reading and writing

just needed to sort through my thoughts and get this off my chest and I can't keep spamming twt all the time. Also, this is way too personal to put on blast to so many people.

I've had a lot of difficulty with reading stuff in the last few years. I've always thought it was an issue thanks to my BSc, where the sheer amount of academic texts to waddle through destroyed my ability to consume fiction work. On Goodreads, my Non-Fiction to Fiction ratio has remained at something like 3:1. I also don't read a lot.

But at some point 3 years ago when I got back into fandom I was somehow... somewhat.... able to read fics... again.

But also, not really.

The main point is that over the last year, despite my surprising and extremely unusual output rate re fics (as of early Nov 2021 I have published 24 full-length fics on AO3 or 95, 800 words. This is non-inclusive of twt-only vignettes that are less than 1.5k) I have probably read far, far less than that. Which is weird, because reading is, at least for me, easier than writing.

A while back, I got a comment that said something like they didn't usually resort to reading other people's fics and I think something about the boldness of that claim forced me to self-reflect. Because even though I (probably?) didn't feel that way it still kind of resonated with me, because I haven't been able to read other people's fics either. And I've spent absolute ages beating myself up over that because I do feel like I should read my fellow writer-friends' stuff (cause isn't that like, the point of fandom and fic-writing?), and I worried that there was a part of me that didn't because of some... deep snobbishness. That I don't doesn't make me feel like a douche, it's a reminder that I am in fact a douche.

But in the last week, I've managed to easily breeze through more than a dozen narumitsu fics before bed, and because of that, I think I finally understand this weird hang-up.

And, I THINK, it's because, if I read a fic that is feasibly within the boundaries of what I might write, my brain is completely incapable of taking a back seat and just enjoying it. Instead, every time I try to read a fic for a ship that I have written for/am writing for, I can't help but break down every other sentence, redline every interaction and just overly fixate on how the fic was written -- as opposed to just reading the fucking thing.

It's not out of some sense of superiority, I don't think? I hope not? And like, I think that to some extent, all writers do this? Because the best way to improve our own writing is to read and analyse how other people write.

But holy shit, there is that, and then there is whatever my brain is trying to do. And I think I know myself well enough to recognise that it comes from a really twisted place of competitiveness - that I have this really fucked up compulsion to be a better writer than my peers, and then have that taken to its absolute worst extreme.

Which is so fucking ridiculous, because

1. Writing is not a zero-sum game and the perception of wanting to pit my work against my friends' in and of itself reeks of that very sense of superiority.

2. I thought I was mature enough to have evolved beyond this kind of pettiness.

3. I also know damn well that I am NOT a better writer than my friends in any aspect. I know this. I KNOW THIS.

So, if anything, I am just giving myself a lot of grief for absolutely no reason.

It's also extremely laughable because the reason why I gave up on the goal of writing to eventually be published was because I wanted to pursue writing as a FUN hobby. That kind of toxic attitude is not fun.

So, wow. Big revelation to me, news flash, I suck not just as a person but also as a friend.

[teenageread]

Review: Just One Year

Synopsis:

When he opens his eyes, Willem doesn’t know where in the world he is—Prague or Dubrovnik or back in Amsterdam. All he knows is that he is once again alone, and that he needs to find a girl named Lulu. They shared one magical day in Paris, and something about that day—that girl—makes Willem wonder if they aren’t fated to be together. He travels all over the world, from Mexico to India, hoping to reconnect with her. But as months go by and Lulu remains elusive, Willem starts to question if the hand of fate is as strong as he’d thought. . . .

The romantic, emotional companion to Just One Day, this is a story of the choices we make and the accidents that happen—and the happiness we can find when the two intersect.

Plot:

Williem woke up not knowing where he was but knowing he had to get back to something. Fleeing the Paris hospital with his possible concussion, he knew it was too late to stop Lulu, who was probably already on a train back to London, not believing his note that told her he was coming back. After a quick visit to Celia’s apartment, Willem was back on his mission of returning home to Amsterdam. The reason why Willem had to go home was that he was receiving a boatload of cash. Like, actually, a boat worth. After his father passed, his mother sold their family home and moved to India, keeping an email chain with Willem whenever he decided to check-in. Wanting to make Holland a pit stop, Willem ends up staying due to a soon to be an expired passport that lands him in bed with his old girlfriend Ana to get him out of his depression caused by major blue balls - according to his friends. Yet it was not sex Willem was missing, but Lulu, and decided to take a boys trip to Mexico to find her at her family annuals December vacation. When that was a bust, Willem decided that maybe it was not meant to be, and decided to repair at least one relationship so that he is not completely alone in life. That relationship begins with his mom, which leaves Willem to travel to India and learn about his parents' romance, star in a Bollywood film, before he comes back to Amsterdam to make amends with his father’s city, star in a Shakespeare play, and plan for a life that would accommodate for Lulu when he finds her again. 

Thoughts: 

Gayle Forman tainted the name Lulu and Willem with this farfetched love story, and this second part did not really redeem the series. Where the first book had Lulu obsessing over her one night stand, Forman could have redeemed it by having Willem also obsessing over her - which they did not. For Willem, Forman had it as “the one that got away” that Willem would joke about with the boys at the pub for the next thirty years of his life and actually not care about. Willem occasionally thought about her, wishing it was her instead of the other girls (because yes in the year there was more than one girl) he was kissing and made half-hearted plans to find her. Compared this to Lulu, who was so fixated on Willem that she was almost flunking university. This great romance is truly one-sided. Ignoring everything about Lulu, Willem’s story was fine. It was amazing how many lucky coincidences fell upon him, how he travels and does not get kidnapped is a blessing, and him repairing his relationship with his mom was cute. It is just hard reading about Willem living his life, knowing that across the world Lulu is obsessing over him, and see Willem half-heartedly care about her. Maybe he does, and those times he thought about her were super deep, but then Forman has him flirting with Kate who is married, and it just all seems so phony. Overall, the poor rating is for the book as part of the series, Willem being a womanizer and not actually caring about Lulu, and for a cliff-hanger of an ending even though this is the last full book of the series. Not one of Forman’s better series, but if you like the first one, this one is also good, and if you like me and dislike the first one this book will not be its redemption. 

Read more reviews: Goodreads

Buy the book: Amazon

[becbibliophile]

So here they are the top 5 reads for 2019. This year was a hard one to narrow down but each of these books totally took me to new levels in reading that I hadn’t ever reached before or hadn’t for a while. There is a nice mix of angsty, fun and breathtaking reads. And I hope that each of you checks them out and if you haven’t read them yet, add them to your TBR right away!

#WomensLit #SecondChance #Family

The New York Times bestselling author of Rainy Day Friends and Lost and Found Sisters returns to Wildstone, California…

Brooke Lemon has always led the life she wanted, wild adventures—and mistakes—included, something her perfect sister, Mindy, never understood. So when Mindy shows up on Brooke’s doorstep in the throes of a break-down with her three little kids in tow, Brooke’s shocked.

Wanting to make amends, Brooke agrees to trade places, taking the kids back to Wildstone for a few days so Mindy can pick up the pieces and put herself back together. What Brooke doesn’t admit is she’s just as broken . . . Also how does one go home after seven years away? It doesn’t take long for Brooke to come face-to-face with her past, in the form of one tall, dark, sexy mistake. But Garrett’s no longer interested. Only his words don’t match his actions, leaving Brooke feeling things she’d shoved deep.

Soon the sisters begin to wonder: Are they lemons in life? In love? All they know is that neither seems to be able to run far enough to outpace her demons. And when secrets surface, they’ll have to learn that sometimes the one person who can help you the most is the one you never thought to ask.

GOODREADS | AMAZON | B&N | APPLE BOOKS | KOBO

MY THOUGHTS

First off, Jill Shalvis… I devour just about every book she releases. But for some reason, I had missed this series and so The Lemon Sisters was my first book (Book 3 in the series) that I had read.

As I dove into the book I was immediately taken by these sisters. My sister and I were so close as kids, then life going in different directions tore us apart as adults. I think a lot of sisters can relate to this. Maybe it was the emotions of my real-life situation that made me latch onto these sisters and I was totally emersed in their tale. The dual stories of the sister who has detached from the daily life of the sister that is struggling with being a mom, a wife, a businesswoman and wanting it all to go so smoothly. It just all hit home in a very real way to me. So much of the storyline spoke to me and even shouted at me. I laughed and cried and sighed along with the characters. I started the book and didn’t put it down for more than 5 minutes at a time before I had to get back to see what was going on with Mindy, Garrett, Brooke, and Linc… plus don’t forget about those adorable children too.

This is a book on second chances, both with sisters and the guy. It’s about repairing relationships. Learning to love yourself and be happy with the life given to you. It’s about new beginnings and putting the past in the past. It’s a book I won’t soon forget.

#SecondChance #BestFriendsSister #Forbidden

There’s two sides to every love story. The how you fell in love, and the how you fell apart.

This is ours.

The cardinal rule of friendship is you don’t mess with your friend’s sister. That goes double when she’s his little sister.

It was just supposed to be fun.

She wasn’t supposed to end up being the love of my life. And I definitely wasn’t supposed to break her heart.

Ainsley is a wedding dress designer. That should’ve been a warning that she’s a hopeless romantic. That should’ve clued me in that she believes love conquers all.

But there are some things that love can’t fix. I’m one of them.

She thinks love is the answer.

But love is the reason I let her go.

GOODREADS | AMAZON | B&N | APPLE BOOKS | KOBO

MY THOUGHTS

This book… THIS BOOK!!! I cried… I laughed… I cried again… It had all the emotions and boy did I ever fall for these characters! Hands down will be in my top 5 for 2019. (SEE I KNEW!)

I’ve been reading Prescott for a while and this book is by far her best yet. She has a great way of weaving the story and grabbing your attention, making you feel each of the excitement of the characters, the passion, the remorse, the love, the grief.

This is a journey of two people who fall madly in love. Its a secret though, since she is his best friend and business partner’s little sister. But the moment these two connect on the page, you know they are destined to be together. But when tragedy strikes, is love, JUST LOVE enough?

I felt so much reading this book. I had to put it down at times to get take in the moments – the emotional pulls, the heartache and then the healing.

Although the book has some light moments, for the most part, it’s a heavy book. I had a good cry reading it. And fell in love with the hope that love can conquer all. Read this book. You won’t be sorry.

#ROMCOM

Cowritten by USA Today best-selling author Tara Sivec and award-winning narrator Andi Arndt, a hysterically funny, heartfelt romance about starting over and taking chances.

Nothing good ever comes from drinking a box of wine alone. So when I decided to entertain my drunken self by setting up some hand-me-down podcasting equipment and reading the steamy parts from romance novels, I never thought anyone would actually listen. The fact that I admitted my huge crush on my sexy next-door neighbor made the whole thing even more mortifying. But sometimes life surprises you, and that’s how my podcast, Heidi’s Discount Erotica, was born.

Now I, Heidi Larsen, a sweet former kindergarten teacher in Waconia, Minnesota, lead a scandalous double life reading erotic novels to the listening world. And with each episode, I find myself embracing my new alter ego more and more. Now I’m starting to feel more comfortable in my own skin and do things I never would have dreamed of – like kissing my neighbor.

Look out, Waconia, because Heidi’s on the loose! She’s in your ears, in your hearts, and down your pants…wait, that didn’t sound as good as it did in my head. Well, you get the picture, don’tcha know!

GOODREADS | AMAZON | AUDIBLE | B&N | APPLE BOOKS | KOBO

MY THOUGHTS

This had to be one of the funniest books I’ve ever read/listened to! This book was EVERYTHING and I recommend it to everyone who is looking for a fun, witty, excitingly sexy book.

A former kindergarten teacher steps out of her comfort zone, taking a job at an audiobook company. She becomes best friends with one of the biggest movie stars out there along with his romance novelist wife. All while trying to get up enough guts to approach the super sexy new next-door neighbor, that she feels she’s too plain jane to catch his eye. All while starting a podcast to help her take her unsexy to super hot!

Once again, being from North Dakota, this book brought back all the memories. The accents alone took me there. I just could not stop laughing!!

That being said, if you get the chance (and are part of the romance package with Audibles it’s FREE to listen to) YOU MUST LISTEN TO THE AUDIOBOOK!!! I was laughing like a maniac and I’m sure I had quite a few people ready to call the police on me as I was driving, wiping away tears and spewing soda out of my nose from laughing so hard (PS – Don’t drink anything while listening if you don’t want this to happen).

Get this book!!! The End

#FakeRomance #SiblingRivalary 

FROM THE #1 ‘NEW YORK TIMES’ BESTSELLING AUTHOR COMES AN UNEXPECTED LOVE STORY OF FAMILY, SECRETS, AND THE MOST INTIMATE OF DECEPTIONS.

My estranged twin brother, Julian, was always the wonder boy – and soon-to-be CEO of our ruthless father’s corporation. My mother and me? Left behind. Now, years after tearing our family apart, my father dares to ask “me” for a favor? Pretend to be Julian while he fights to survive a tragic accident. It can save the company. Nobody will be the wiser. It’ll be our secret.

I can play Dad’s favorite. I’ll do anything for Julian. And for my mother, who’ll want for nothing.

But this double life comes with a beauty of a hitch: my very real feelings for Julian’s fiancée, Isobel. Not only am I betraying Julian, I’m deceiving a woman I love. She doesn’t suspect a thing. As lies compound, lines are crossed and loyalties tested, all I can ask myself is. . .what have I done?

Because sooner or later something’s got to give. There’s no way I’m giving up Isobel. But once the truth is exposed, it might not be my choice at all.

GOODREADS | AMAZON

MY THOUGHTS

I think this book is RVD’s best book to date. It was filled with so much angsty goodness and I immediately fell for our hero (or is he?) Bridge. I understood his need to do the things he did (I know vague much? But I can’t give any spoilers away!)

The story is about twin brothers, Bridge and Julian, who were torn apart in middle school by their parent’s divorce and pitted against each other by their father. Full of twists and turns. Secrets and lies. Throw in a fake relationship and angst and you’ve got yourself a winner! Julian and Bridge are as different as night and day which makes what happens even that more intriguing.

Just know that you will be sucked into the story from the first chapter and if you’re like me, once you start, you’ll be putting your life on hold until you finish the last page. (Remember bookmarks are for quitters!)

Each book with Rachel gets better and better and I think Stealing Her takes her fans back to her earlier works. And the best part is we get book two in the series (each book is a standalone) in February of 2020.

#RomanticSuspense #SmallTown #LawEnforcment #Celebrity #BrothersBestFriend

Ok, so there are really THREE books that made my number one this year. All by the same author and all from the same series. I had too hard of a time picking just one of the books – so here you have the entire series, from a new author that popped into the Romance scene in 2019. And I see nothing but bigger and better things heading her way. The Sutter Lake Series by Catherine Cowles is my top read for 2019.

Beautifully Broken Pieces – Book One

A woman who’s lost everything.

Taylor is looking for peace and quiet away from the memories of all she’s lost. A small mountain town where no one knows her seems like the perfect escape.

A man battling the ghosts of his past.

Walker loves his life just the way it is. His town, his family, his brothers in blue. Everything simple and easy—until a chance encounter changes it all.

When Taylor’s solitude is interrupted by the rugged cop, they find that the very thing they were avoiding might be just what they both need. As their iron wills clash and passion flares…a killer lurks.

And you never know who might be caught in the crosshairs.

GOODREADS | AMAZON | B&N | APPLE BOOKS | KOBO

Beautifully Broken Life – Book Two

She’s on the run…

Tessa has finally found a safe haven in Sutter Lake, hiding in plain sight—just as long as no one asks too many questions.

He can’t escape…

Liam knows better than anyone how one wrong word, a single whisper can ruin a life. After seeing the darker side of fame, he’s desperate to retreat and find his voice again.

Two people from opposite worlds, brought together by a connection neither expected.

But the forces they’re both running from still lurk in the shadows…

And you never know when they might strike.

GOODREADS | AMAZON | B&N | APPLE BOOKS | KOBO

Beautifully Broken Spirit – Book Three

She’s always been his safe place to land.

Jensen has shared a special bond with Tuck for as long as she can remember, their friendship a language that never needed words. But as life threw her one curveball after another, that secret language turned to stony silence.

He’s always been her protector.

Tuck has looked out for Jensen since the day she was born. As his best friend’s little sister, he’s tried to keep her firmly in the friend category. But she’s always been more.

All it takes is one moment of weakness to send Tuck’s fiercely guarded walls crumbling to the ground. As a new fire burns between them, someone watches. Someone who doesn’t like the new life Jensen’s building for herself.

And they’ll stop at nothing to keep her in the dark.

GOODREADS | AMAZON | B&N | APPLE BOOKS | KOBO

MY THOUGHTS

Set in the idyllic setting of Sutter Lakes, Oregon, these books are interconnected standalone novels full of suspense and romance. Each book I was immediately thrown into the life of our main heroines – who all are running in some way from their pasts and starting new in this small town. They are strong, independent and a lot of the times stubborn, in both the good and pain in the ass way, paired with men who support and connect with them in just about spiritual ways. And all are super sexy (Sherrif, Musician, Tracker) and make a girl swoon.

Sutter Lake is home to a herd of wild horses which also play a big part in each of the novels. After reading this series, I promptly begged my husband to look for a job in Oregon. Catherine makes you fall not only for her characters but also for the scenery which becomes a character within itself. I can vividly imagine where these men and women walk as everything is painted so clearly for the reader.

Catherine has definitely become my go-to author for romantic suspense. You get lost immediately upon cracking open the book and she takes you and her characters on a journey that keeps you riveted to the page and falling hook, line, and sinker into the storyline. She had a busy year publishing three books with the conclusion of the series being published in early February 2020. (Beautifully Broken Control). These books were everything to me. Catherine is my most recommended author for 2019. And so, my number one book(s) for 2019 is the Sutter Lake Series.

I hope that you were able to find some new authors and books to add to I’m sure your never-ending To Be Read List. Be sure to enter to win a $25 Amazon GC below and Happy New Year! 

XO-

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Top Reads of 2019 /Books 5-1 Here they are my TOP READS of 2019... @JillShalvis @PrescottLane1 @TaraSivec @andi_arndt @RachVD @CatherineCowles So here they are the top 5 reads for 2019. This year was a hard one to narrow down but each of these books totally took me to new levels in reading that I hadn't ever reached before or hadn't for a while.

[stacks-reviews]

Must Reads Part 14

This week we have a monster-slaying family, a floating city, a pet black hole, and more!

--Before She Ignites by Jodi Meadows “Before Mira Minkoba is the Hopebearer. Since the day she was born, she’s been told she’s special. Important. Perfect. She’s known across the Fallen Isles not just for her beauty, but for the Mira Treaty named after her, a peace agreement which united the seven islands against their enemies on the mainland. But Mira has never felt as perfect as everyone says. She counts compulsively. She struggles with crippling anxiety. And she’s far too interested in dragons for a girl of her station. After Then Mira discovers an explosive secret that challenges everything she and the Treaty stand for. Betrayed by the very people she spent her life serving, Mira is sentenced to the Pit - the deadliest prison in the Fallen Isles. There, a cruel guard would do anything to discover the secret she would die to protect. No longer beholden to those who betrayed her, Mira must learn to survive on her own and unearth the dark truths about the Fallen Isles - and herself - before her very world begins to collapse.”

The preview on Goodreads first shows Mira as she address the citizens of her home island about a recent earthquake and then she goes off to a walled area where dragons come and go as they please. The next chapters then cuts to her being lead into the Pit. As of this moment we do not know what she discovered that caused someone(s) to betray her. But I have heard there is something to do with some illegal dragon trafficking. Which sounds amazing for a few reasons. What small look we did get at the dragons in the first chapter is that there are a lot of different types and they don’t speak; unlike most other fantasy stories. I can really get behind a giant dragon rescue mission. It sounds promising but I have also heard that it time hopes quite a bit so there is some worry it could get confusing. But as long as they explain it at the top of the chapter, then it should be fine. And saw on some of the reviews that how Mira does her counting and how anxiety gets to her is portrayed in a real way in the book.

--The Care and Feeding of a Pet Black Hole by Michelle Cuevas “A girl’s friendship with a lonely black hole leads her to face her own sadness. When eleven-year-old Stella Rodriguez shows up at NASA to request that her recording be included in Carl Sagan’s Golden Record, something unexpected happens: A black hole follows her home, and sets out to live in her house as a pet. The black hole swallows everything he touches, which is challenging to say the least - but also turns out to be a convenient way to get rid of those items that Stella doesn’t want around. Soon the ugly sweaters her aunt has made for her all disappear within the black hole, as does the smelly class hamster she’s taking care of, and most important, all the reminders of her dead father that are just too painful to have around. It’s not until Stella, her younger brother, Cosmo, the family puppy, and even the bathroom tub all get swallowed up by the black hole that Stella comes to realize she has been letting her own grief consume her. And that’s not the only thing she realizes as she attempts to get back home.”

A short children’s book, a little under 200 pages. It sounds pretty cute and silly as various items are sucked into the black hole (I wonder what she’ll name it?). I did read the preview on Goodreads but half of it a list of all the chapters and such do I didn’t get to see much of it. It starts with Stella trying to get into NASA to see Carl Sagan when alarms start to go off. She leaves but as she does has a feeling like something is watching her. It ends with her getting back on a bus to go home and as she passes people on the bus, something of theirs goes missing. Mainly wallets. Aside from a cute story it sounds like a good reflection of how one deals with grief and depression and how that impacts you and everything around you.

--Children of the Whales Volume 1 by Abi Umeda (11/21/17) “In this post-apocalyptic fantasy, a sea of sand swallows everything but the past. In an endless sea of sand drifts the Mud Whale, a floating island city of clay and magic. In its chambers a small community clings to survival, most dying young from the very powers that sustain them. Chakuro is the Archivist for the Mud Whale, diligently chronicling the lives and deaths of his people. As one of the saimia wielders, whose life spans are cut short by their own magic, he knows his time is limited and is determined to leave a better record than his predecessors. But the steady pace of their isolated existence on the Mud Whale is abruptly shattered when a young girl who seems to know more about their home than they do...”

I heard about this manga earlier this year when it was picked up by Viz. I didn’t know much about it till now. I really want to try this series out. I like the look of the artwork on the cover and the story sounds really interesting. An anime based off the series is being made (is finished?) and will be on Netflix in the US in 2018.

--Confessions of an Imaginary Friend: A Memoir by Jacques Papier by Michelle Cuevas “Jacques Papier has the sneaking suspicion that everyone except his sister Fleur hates him. Teachers ignore him when his hand is raised in class, he is never chosen for sports teams, and his parents often need to be reminded to set a place for him at the dinner table. But he is shocked when he finally learns the truth: He is Fleur’s imaginary friend! When he convinces Fleur to set him free, he begins a surprising and touching, and always funny quest to find himself - to figure out who Jacques Papier truly is, and where he belongs.”

Actually came across this title while re-looking up the description to The Care and Feeding of a Pet Black Hole. It sounds really cute and also a bit sad. Who can’t relate to feeling a little invisible now and again? Jacques won’t be the only imaginary friend in the story, it is another imaginary friend that lets him in on the truth. 

--Odd & True by Cat Winters “Trudchen grew up hearing Odette’s stories of their monster-slaying mother and a magician’s curse. But now that Tru’s older, she’s starting to wonder if her older sister’s tales were just comforting lies, especially because there’s nothing fantastic about her own life - permanently disabled and in constant pain from childhood polio. In 1909, after a two-year absence, Od reappears with a suitcase supposedly full of weapons and a promise to rescue Tru from the monsters on their way to attack her. But it’s Od who seems haunted by something. And when the sisters’ search for their mother leads them to a face-off with the Leeds Devil, a nightmarish beast that’s wreaking havoc in the Mid-Atlantic states, Tru discovers the peculiar possibility that she and her sister - despite their dark pasts and ordinary appearances - might indeed, have magic after all.”

So we have a monster-slaying family in 1909 that used to live in a castle, monster-slaying mother might have disappeared or been captured, a father who definitely has disappeared because of the magician, evil magician is their uncle (not a spoiler, it was in the first chapter on the preview), and a heroine who is going to have do most of her fighting with a cane or while she’s in a wheelchair. Sounds like a good time. And I wasn’t going to mention it at first but I changed my mind: It sounds like a time and gender-bent version of Supernatural. I would like to try it out.

[a2lezread]

April LezRead: Poetry, Real Queer America, and Life's A Bitch, 4/27, 4-6pm

It's National Poetry Month and we have a little something for everyone. As always, whether you read some, all, or none, you're welcome to join us for this month's discussion. Check out what's on the agenda below. #Lezreadandshare #treasuredpoems #goodreads --- Share A Treasured Poem --- We know that many lezreaders love poetry. In recognition of National Poetry Month, we invite each attendee to bring a treasured poem to share. The poem can be one you've written, or one that you treasure by an LGBTQIA writer. --- Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States, by Samatha Allen --- Ten years ago, Samantha Allen was a suit-and-tie-wearing Mormon missionary. Now she's a senior Daily Beast reporter happily married to another woman. A lot in her life has changed, but what hasn't changed is her deep love of Red State America, and of queer people who stay in so-called "flyover country" rather than moving to the liberal coasts. In Real Queer America, Allen takes us on a cross-country road-trip stretching all the way from Provo, Utah to the Rio Grande Valley to the Bible Belt to the Deep South. Her motto for the trip: "Something gay every day." Making pit stops at drag shows, political rallies, and hubs of queer life across the heartland, she introduces us to scores of extraordinary LGBT people working for change, from the first openly transgender mayor in Texas history to the manager of the only queer night club in Bloomington, Indiana, and many more. Capturing profound cultural shifts underway in unexpected places and revealing a national network of chosen family fighting for a better world, Real Queer America is a treasure trove of uplifting stories and a much-needed source of hope and inspiration in these divided times. Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40274696-real-queer-america --- Life's a Bitch: The Complete Bitchy Bitch Stories, by Roberta Gregory --- Naughty Bits, the longest-running solo comic by a female alternative cartoonist, came to an end in 2004 after a 14-year, 40-issue run. Beloved for the expressive scrawl of Gregory's line and her take-no-prisoners satirical approach, it was particularly notable for introducing the world to Bitchy Bitch—a woman who is eternally, magnificently, and for the most part, quite justifiably pissed off at the world around her! This extra-thick volume collects the entire first half of the Bitchy Bitch saga, and it ranges widely in her eventful life. There are stories about Bitchy's travails as a little girl (when she was just "Bitsy Bitch"), including that greatest horror of all, the holidays; a long sequence about her hippie free-love days in the '70s (and the harrowing abortion that followed); tales of her miserable days as an office drone surrounded by dunces, lechers, and the occasional ultra-Christian maniac; and the hilarious full-length graphic novel "Bitchy Takes a Vacation," where a tropical getaway turns into a fiasco (romanic and otherwise) of epic proportions. The book will also feature a brand new full-length story that chronicles the (never before shown) death of Bitchy's tempestuous father (well, she had to get that temper from somewhere), as Gregory once again finds the humor in even the grimmest situation. If anger is an energy, as Johnny Rotten once said, then Life's a Bitch is a 240-page slab of caffeinated fury... but laugh-out-loud funny! Source: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/598276.Life_s_a_Bitch --- About LezRead: LezRead is Ann Arbor’s premier book club for queer women. We meet on the fourth Saturday of the month from 4-6PM at the Jim Toy Community Center (319 Braun Court, Ann Arbor, MI). * Sometimes we chat for an hour at JTCC; sometimes we chat for 2. Sometimes we have snacks at the Aut Bar for the second hour; sometimes we relax in the courtyard. * Don’t forget that we take up a small collection for use of the Community Center. If you can, please bring a small cash donation. * New members welcome! Email kerenem@jimtoycenter.org to join the private Facebook group.

[bookgeekconfessions]

White Hot (Hidden Legacy #2) by Ilona Andrews

5 Stars Reviewed by Naomi 

(I know the cover is ugly. I don’t know why the cover is ugly. Don’t talk to me about the cover being ugly. DON’T JUDGE A BOOK BY IT’S COVER)

Offical Synopsis: Nevada Baylor has a unique and secret skill—she knows when people are lying—and she's used that magic (along with plain, hard work) to keep her colorful and close-knit family's detective agency afloat. But her new case pits her against the shadowy forces that almost destroyed the city of Houston once before, bringing Nevada back into contact with Connor "Mad" Rogan. Rogan is a billionaire Prime—the highest rank of magic user—and as unreadable as ever, despite Nevada's "talent." But there's no hiding the sparks between them. Now that the stakes are even higher, both professionally and personally, and their foes are unimaginably powerful, Rogan and Nevada will find that nothing burns like ice . . . 

Fantasy has become a bit of a copy game. A series like ‘A Song of Ice and Fire’  rises and suddenly there are dozens of books about lost princesses and dragons. That's what makes a series like Hidden Legacy a great find. It's unique and unlike anything currently on the market and to top it off, it's a lot of fun.

Nevada Baylor is a Truth Seeker, a kind of magic so rare that if one of the power houses of Houston or the government ever discovered her they would do anything to force her into their employ. All of her life her magic and the magic of her family members has been hidden, but when a little girl goes missing Nevada risks it all to save her. This leads Nevada to an investigation into mysterious murders and back on the path of Mad Rogan the most dangerous (and sexiest) man in Houston.

Ignore the hideous book cover, because White Hot lives up to its name. It's action packed, steamy and filled to the brim with emotion and humor. Ilona Andrews takes their flare for world building, creating unique magical communities and writing interesting well-balanced characters and puts it to this novel to their best effect.

It's funny. It's romantic. It's steamy. It's action packed...basically, it's everything. I’ve had the ARC for months and reread it every few weeks with the same level of glee.

Urban Fantasy is a genre overflowing with private investigators and detectives from different walks of life and different levels of experience. Usually, I find their detective skills to be lackluster. It's a bunch of stumbling around in the dark until the villain turns on the light and reveals themselves. Nevada is a true investigator. She goes out and finds clues, interviews people, follows leads and goes undercover when the need arises, all while fielding attacks from unknown murderers.

The villains in this installment are the epitome of evil. They have no concern for the casualties of war. They endanger children and use every avenue available to them in order to win. What's intense about these villains is that what they want to win isn't simply power, but also chaos. They want to break the very foundation of the world as they know it and that drive for anarchy makes them even more dangerous and terrifying.

Nevada is the best kind of heroine. She's smart, capable and powerful, but she knows how to ask for help and she does the right thing without being sacrificial. In a time where being a hero often means giving up everything and destroying your life, Nevada clings to her happiness and the safety of her family above all else. It makes her dynamic, complex and just a joy to read about. She also knows how to juggle her love life. She doesn't fall into Rogan and lose herself or follow his lead. She is her own person and if he wants her he'll have to prove it. Which isn't easy for him as one of the most powerful men on the planet.  He hasn't had to prove himself in years. He's already done it, but power and love are not the same things.

Ilona Andrews knows how to write the kind of romance that burrows into your brain and makes you believe in love in difficult times. It's not long monologues with flowery declarations designed to make us swoon, it's straight to the point honesty that still manages the desired effect. Rogan and Nevada's relationship got off to a rocky start in Burn For Me, but what started with animosity and distrust, evolved into a professional partnership which evolved into the stirrings of love. Unfortunately, Rogan is not your average man and Nevada refuses to settle for anything less than equal partnership and caring, so their relationship is not exactly a sure thing.

If you're a fan of Ilona Andrews you've been waiting for White Hot for years. You watched the publication date get pushed and pushed, you checked their website/blog for updates and inwardly (or if you're like me and have a platform, outwardly) you raged. I'm not one for cliches like 'worth the wait,' because I am an impatient human being and will never forgive Ilona Andrews if they starve me of their stories for this long again, but what I will go on record and say is... Ilona Andrews doesn't disappoint.

There's something about this writing team that sets off all the pleasure sensors in my brain. It's almost like a drug. Reading their books sends me into a deep euphoria, then the book ends and I topple into withdrawal. This book is the most fun I've had reading in months. Books like White Hot are why I read fantasy, it's why I spend so much time in magical worlds as opposed to my real one.

Read this book. You will not regret it.

Recommended for readers of urban fantasy, fans of Ilona Andrews and anyone who read a Burn For Me and had to endure the long wait. You won't be disappointed and the next book comes out in only a few short months!!

For more author website and goodreads page. 

[mermaidsirennikita]

May 2017 Book Roundup

This month was so-so; some releases were good, some weren’t.  But Renee Ahdieh dropped a new book and that’s always a good thing!  I do feel like I read a few books that I normally wouldn’t have (The Love Interest, because I never read male protagonist books) for better or for worse.  Right now I’m working on Angie Thomas’s “The Hate U Give”, so that’ll get reviewed at the end of the month!

China Rich Girlfriend by Kevin Kwan.  4/5.  This sequel to “Crazy Rich Asians” is set two years after the events of the first book, kicking off with the preparations for Rachel’s wedding to Nick.  Of course, her future mother-in-law isn’t to be kept out of the process despite Nick cutting her out of his life, and swoops in at the last minute with the identity of Rachel’s long-lost father.  Meanwhile, Nick’s cousin Astrid is struggling with her marriage still (and her friendship with ex-fiance Charlie), actress-turned-billionaire’s-wife Kitty Pong is trying to fit in to Hong Kong society, and... lots of other drama.  “China Rich Girlfriend” is similarly fun and super gossipy, in the same way that “Crazy Rich Asians” was.  I enjoyed the antics of Kitty, and loved seeing Rachel get to know her family, especially her brother.  Plus, it was refreshingly clear once again that Nick Young, while deserving a firstname lastname introduction, is not a Christian Grey type--he’s a sweet, realistically goofy guy who happens to be hot and rich.  I wish he and Rachel were a *bit* more interesting, but they’re very likable.  What took this book back a bit is that while I appreciate Kwan not wanting to duplicate his first book is the lack of Singapore high society adventures.  I miss Nick’s crazy family, especially his mother Eleanor, whose appearances in this novel were woefully short.  Eleanor is the BOMB DOT COM.  The mainland stuff just wasn’t as fun.  With that being said, I was super invested in Astrid’s storyline, which aside from whatever Eleanor is doing is my favorite part of these books.  So frustrating.  So romantic.  While I didn’t love this quite as much as “Crazy Rich Asians”, I’m still left waiting excitedly for the next book.

The Hundredth Queen by Emily R. King. 3/5.  This fantasy novel takes place in a world in which the rajahs are each allowed a maximum of one hundredth ranis (queens), which they pick from these convent-like places in which young girls are reared to be both wives and warriors.  Kalinda, or Kali, is chosen as Rajah Tarek’s hundredth and final queen, which means that she’s obligated to fight his courtesans, many of which hope to kill her in a chance to take her place as the last queen.  Complicating an already difficult situation are the motives of Kali’s future husband and her desire for a captain in his service.  Among other things, of course.  This book had an interesting premise, but a lot of things became a lot more predictable than they should have been.  I liked moments of women supporting each other, but they were dragged down by stereotypes--like the older queen envying the younger one and being basically all-around kind of evil.  The villains in general were fairly flat, and Kali’s relationship with Deven, the captain in question, just kind of happened out of nowhere.  It’s unfortunate because I don’t mind a forbidden romance cliche if it’s done well, in fact I tend to love it--but Deven and Kali seemed really fucking stupid the entire time. With that being said, it was an entertaining read when I didn’t think about things, and the concept was interesting.  That being said, I feel like the fact that the author used Hindi words versus making up shit for her fantasy world was distracted as fuck--this book isn’t set in India, but it still refers to saris and ranis and much more.  Why?

Into the Water by Paula Hawkins.  2/5.  Single mom Nel shows up dead in the nearby river, living behind her teenage daughter and a sister she hadn’t spoken to for years.  Nel had been obsessed with the pool in which her body was found--a pool with a history of suicides, including that of Katie, her daughter’s best friend. At first, Nel’s death is brushed off as a suicide--but as time passes, it becomes clear that she knew much more than it initially seemed.  Ugh, I wanted to like this so badly because I did enjoy “The Girl on the Train”.  But... what?  I didn’t so much mind that the mystery here was much more obvious than that of TGOTT--or that the themes were just... less about human flaws and reliability, and more about very obvious domestic drama.  There was a bit of a twist at the end, but not much.  All of this I would have cared about more had there been fewer POVs.  Who is the lead?  Nel’s sister, Jules, who has a dark past we keep flashing back to?  Her daughter, the troubled Lena?  But there are a lot of other characters we keep flashing to, and I didn’t care about half of them, and... There was very little suspense.  Not entertaining.

The Love Interest by Cale Dietrich.  3/5.  Caden--a name given to him only recently--has been raised to be a Love Interest.  His task?  To seduce his Chosen and--for the rest of their lives, ideally--manipulate her and sell her secrets to his “owners”.  The problem: a Chosen always has two people competing for his or her affections, a Good and a Bad.  Caden is a Good--the boy next door--and Dylan is a Bad--the quintessential damaged bad boy.  The two are sent to pair with Juliet, a super smart girl whose potential means she’s up for manipulation.  Whoever she doesn’t choose will be killed; and the issue is that Caden is beginning to fall for Dylan, rather than Juliet.  Look, gay prettyboy spies is on paper a great idea.  And there are some charming things about this book.  The conceit of the good boy being pitted against the bad is interesting, and I liked the struggle the boys had.  But it was all a bit young and underdeveloped for me.  Someone will love this book, I just didn’t.

Ramona Blue by Julie Murphy.  4/5.  Teenage Ramona has been living with her father and her sister in a FEMA trailer since Hurricane Katrina.  Now her sister is pregnant, and she feels obligated to stay after high school to help with the baby--even (or especially) after their flaky mom returns.  To add to all the complications, she’s in an on/off sort of thing with a girl who’s closeted, while Ramona, who has always identified as a lesbian, is not.  THEN, her childhood friend Freddie returns to town.  Freddie is a boy; Ramona has never liked boys.  But she might like Freddie.  This book got some shitty ratings by people on Goodreads without it being read; I won’t lie, years ago I once gave a book a one star rating on there because the author was (and still is) a shitty person.  But now I wouldn’t--I just wouldn’t read the book.  I feel like it’s super dicey to review something you haven’t read/seen, and the reason why people have been low-rating this book is because they think that Freddie is turning Ramona “straight”.  No.  The entire relationship is about how complex sexuality is; not all people identify as straight their whole lives until they meet someone of the same sex that they like.  Some people really do identify as gay for a long time and then meet someone of the opposite sex; it happened to a close friend of mine.  My close friend identifies not as straight now, but bi.  There aren’t really labels put on Ramona’s sexuality as she figures it out because she is really JUST figuring it out.  She might not ever like any guy besides Freddie.  She certainly doesn’t stop liking girls.  I feel like Murphy handled the issue really well, and at any rate Freddie and Ramona’s relationship isn’t the point of the story.  The point is the poverty Ramona lives within, and her struggle between her loyalties to her family and her desire to be somewhere else and do something more.  It’s a really lovely story, and I recommend it.

Flame in the Mist by Renee Ahdieh.   5/5.  This Mulan retelling (a retelling in a loose sense but a retelling nonetheless) is set in Heian Japan, and centers on Hattori Mariko, a girl on her way to marry the emperor’s son.  During her journey, she’s ambushed by the fearsome Black Clan, with her guards and servants murdered.  Disguising herself as a boy, she finds the Black Clan and decides to infiltrate their ranks to figure out why she was targeted--and perhaps put off her marriage for a bit longer.  As Mariko is drawn into the world of the Black Clan--and becomes entangled with the mysterious Okami--her twin brother, Kenshin, pursues her relentlessly.  I really love Renee Ahdieh, and I especially appreciate the fact that she writes historical fantasy that isn’t given a European setting.  At first, I sort of doubted the Japanese angle for a retelling of a Chinese story, but it worked here.  Mariko is a strong, unyielding, an flawed heroine who certainly spends a lot of time lying to herself, which I appreciated.  One of the things I loved about this book was how much Mariko learned about her own privilege as a noblewoman, and the reality of the world versus what she’d been brought up in.  (Also, she gets a great callout from another woman in a scene, and it’s just fantastic.)  There is definitely a romance present, but it’s a slowburn in the best way.  Okami is super hot, and Mariko is definitely physically drawn to him before emotions get in the way, which I love.  There are fantastical elements as well, but they’re well-done and honestly, a lot of the story read as a historical adventure to me.  I loved it.

Hold Back the Stars by Katie Khan.  1/5.  (Wow, what a drop.)  Carys and Max are trapped in space with ninety minutes of oxygen left, after which they’ll die.  As they desperately try to find a way out of their situation, they relive their love story and all that went wrong (and right) with it.  I feel like this is one of those “quirky” books where the protagonists are in an outlandish situation but you fall in love with their very real romance.  And I’m not totally against this when it’s done right, but Carys and Max were insufferable, their world didn’t make sense, and I zoned out very quickly.

The Girl in 6E by A.R. Torre.  4/5.  Deanna Madden makes her living as a cam girl, having cyber-sex with men and women for money; she also hasn’t left her apartment in three years, due to her intense need to kill.  Lately, she’s been more tempted to interact with other human beings than ever, in part due to her attraction to UPS guy Jeremy--but she knows exactly how much of a threat she is to society.  But when a client begins showing particularly deviant behaviors, Deanna is drawn out--for better or for worse.  I’m really bad at describing this book, because a good 70% of it is a creeping sense of dread, Deanna working with her clients (and shrink) and the looming threat of the antagonist.  The actual antagonist is nothing amazing.  The strength of the story is Deanna and her struggle between wanting to kill and wanting to protect people--along with the cam subculture.  The author did their research, and you can really tell.  The book is incredibly fast-paced and vivid.  It’s an awesome thriller.  The only reason why it doesn’t get a 4/5 is that I felt that Jeremy wasn’t super compelling, but I didn’t dislike him.

Scribe of Siena by Melanie Winawer.  2/5.  Neurosurgeon Beatrice heads to Siena after the death of her brother, a historian intent on uncovering the secrets of a fourteenth century plague.  There, she discovers the journals of Gabriele, a fresco painter, and upon being sent back in time falls in love with him.  There were subplots, of course, but the main core of the story was Beatrice and Gabriele’s love story, and it was super weak.  He just wasn’t my type of guy--and honestly, he was so ridiculously idealized that he became bland.  For that matter, it didn’t feel like the author did much research about the period; I didn’t feel like Gabriele was a painter of the time, and I took issue with how easily Beatrice fit into fourteenth century society.  Not a winner.

Rich People Problems by Kevin Kwan.  4/5.  The final entry in the Crazy Rich Asians trilogy has the Young clan swarming back to Singapore after matriarch Su Yi has a heart attack.  Nick is left hoping that he’ll reconcile with his grandmother before she dies. At the same time, Astrid is having issues with her divorce and her relationship with Charlie; Kitty Bing, now married to an even richer billionaire, is still struggling to become accepted by upper class society while battling her stepdaughter, Colette; and the villainous Eddie is still social climbing while trying to get as much as he can from his grandmother on her deathbed.  This series is so enjoyable, and while Rich People Problems still wasn’t quite as good as Crazy Rich Asians, I feel like it returned to the roots of the series: Young family drama in Singapore.  I loved learning more about Su Yi, and I admire Kevin Kwan’s ability to let go of the more settled core couple a bit--Nick and Rachel--in favor of tying up the still high key drama happening in the lives of Astrid and Kitty.  This is a very satisfying conclusion, and it was at turns hilarious and heartwarming.