This is a Good Book Thursday, August 10, 2023

~ Jenny

This week I read Rest in Pink for proofreading, and a book by one of my favorite authors that I gave up on in the middle and skipped to read the end. I don’t know if that’s my fault or hers, but I’m thinking my head is just in too many places and it’s mine.

What did you read all the way through this week?

100 thoughts on “This is a Good Book Thursday, August 10, 2023”

  1. This week has all been about Mariana Zapata. Basically I was in the mood for a slow burn romance or five. I reread my favourites which are not the sporty ones but the ones with ordinary people: Wait for it, Under Locke and Luna and the lie.

    These have all got extremely grumpy heroes so after those I also read Rhythm, Chords and Malykhin, which has a cinamonn roll for a hero for a change.

    The toilet humour is a bit much for me but I really like Zapata’s heroines so I can put up with it.

      1. I would love to go to Toronto but that’s not currently in the plans
        .
        We are going to France on Monday to see my mum and go to my niece’s wedding at the end of this month. That’s that for this summer. So maybe next year?

        1. Dang! For some reason I thought you were coming to Toronto this year. Clearly my imagination is working over time.

          1. I like your imagination! I would like to go to Toronto. I have not been to visit my brother in Montréal for many years now and I would love to see more of Canada.

          2. I swear I remember a whole conversation with you here about going to the McMichael Gallery and looking at Group of Seven paintings while you were in Toronto. My imagination is quite detailed on this.

  2. I have book I intended to read, Killing For Klimt, (A Megan Crespi Mystery Series Novel) by Alessanndra Comini. So far I haven’t even read the first word.

    Not the books fault, I got distracted. I binge watched Virgin River in preparation for a new season to come out.

    And I got so sick of the complete reliance on secrets as a plot driver.

    I decided to cure myself by rereading Ms Crusie’s book Tell Me Lies which blows that secrets shit all to hell.

    However I have it in the form of a Crusie bundle. On the way to TML I got caught up in the first book in the bundle, Welcome To Temptation.

    So far I’ve reread WTT, TML & Crazy For You. Next up is Fast Women and I’m not looking to leave Crusie land anytime soon.

    2. My Crusie regular rereads: Fast Women, Bet Me, Crazy for You, Manhunting and Welcome to Temptation.

  3. I joined my family on a holiday in Brisbane (for those of you who share time with small children, this is Bluey country). For a first time in Australia, it was very peaceful and I was able to break my long reading drought with both Lavender’s Blue and Bespoke and Bespelled by Karen Healey (a fun light novella about a witchy costume designer ). I’ve been audiobook only for so long that enjoying actual reading was a bit of a revelation.

  4. I’m listening to Faking It because I am trying to work myself up to painting again. And my reading book is Magic Tides by Ilona Andrews, which I have been saving for a rainy day. So far it is a lot of fun. I appreciate more of Curran’s perspective and the shorter length. It feels less dark than the rest of the Kate Daniels universe.

  5. I finished SE Harmon’s Spectral Files series and that was so good I’m going to move on to another of hers.

    I listened to The Library by Bella Osborne, recommended by a number of Arghers and enjoyed it. I wanted to hear more about the books the MC was reading but that’s a quibble. What really struck me was that if you liked Remarkably Bright Creatures I think you’d also like The Library – small community, older woman who’s lost a son who develops a friendship with a young man who’s lost a parent or two, bonding over a mutual passion – all that’s missing really is the narrating octopus.

    1. You’re the fifth person who has liked this book, according to my records. I must read it.

          2. Still – you track the actual people who recommend books you’re interested in. Whereas I keep lamely saying “I can’t remember who recommended this…”

        2. OCD is a wonderful thing!! I write my picks on note cards so they are shuffleable, and leave room for the names of people who like the book. You all have different tastes, but when there is a description, or a detailed reason why it was liked, that gives it extra weight.

  6. I finished the Frugal Wizard’s Handbook for Surviving Medieval England by Sanderson. It took me a while to get into it, and I think the small romance plot was a little hurried – going from distrust/distaste to deciding to spend a life together in the matter of a day. But the MC redeemed himself and there was a good part about believing in yourself. I don’t know if it is a reread, but I’m glad to have read it.

  8. Detection Unlimited by Georgette Heyer. Not in the class with Envious Casca or No Wind of Blame, but fine.

    Thank you to the Arghers who recommended The Road to Roswell.

    I’m looking for another road trip novel that’s as good as Road to Roswell. We’re starting a cross-country trip on Monday that will take us to a train convention in Denver by way of a jeep ride in abandoned mining town country and a return that includes a stop for a threshing machine show in the midwest.

    I read aloud during the less scenic bits.

    1. I liked Side Trip by Kerry Lonsdale. Pretty light, but definitely entertaining.

  9. Books to movies. On Netflix recently I saw Happiness for Beginners and at the start Katherine Center was listed in the credits. I recognized that name from Argh, liked the movie and went and put in for the book at the library. In the meantime, while waiting I read Things You Save in a Fire also by her. I’ve had ups and downs with new books recently. I’ll stick with the ups. A week ago, I asked my library for Lavender’s Blue, and I’ll be darned they had it for me pretty quick, now I’m halfway through. I have the first fresh crisp copy in the library network trying so hard not to crease any page like it is the Holy Grail. Small towns can be such a pain where everybody knows your business and they all think they have a say in your life. Go Liz! Go Vince!

    1. I found the book version of Happiness for Beginners better than the movie, but that’s almost always true. Both were worth the time, IMO.

      1. The movie in my head is always better than the movie adaptation but if I reread after having seen a movie adaptation, I invariably picture the actors in my head.
        If you read Pride and Prejudice , I now see Keira Knightley and Colin Firth :).

  10. Bit of a mixed bag this week…

    Glommed a bit and quickly read Aster Glenn Gray’s The Larks Still Bravely Singing after my great experience with Tramps and Vagabonds. So. Written earlier and so not as sure a voice as the later works, but still dead on with historical detail. More of a HFN for our M/M MCs, two very young post-WWI veterans with bodily and mental harm.

    Also quickly read Sweet Death, Kind Death, which is about midway in the run of Amanda Cross’ Kate Fansler mysteries. I really adore these for all of the literary allusions and the ever-quoting professor Kate as she detects. At the same time, all of them are super light on actual mystery plot. it’s interesting to me how the MC deals with generational change, women’s rights, and the academic world. This would be the 50s/60/70s into the 80s. Anyone read these and have an opinion?

  11. I read The Starfish Sisters by Barbara O’Neal. Apparently all day Wed, because I thought today was Wed or??? Anyway, it was pretty amazing. Still processing.

  12. My To Do List. I’ve read through it several times a day trying to be ready for an upcoming trip. I’m packing new books to take believing that once I’m on the way, the brain will settle.

  13. I reread Lavender’s Blue, and found even more stuff I had missed. That is a very complex world full of little hints. Then, I wanted more Crusie, and remembered the cop in Getting Rid of Bradley, so I read that. There just are no bad Crusies. The dogs are a hoot in that book. The newest dog reminded me of the dog in The Cinderella Deal. I may read that next.

  14. Last week read Lavender’s Blue by Crusie, found that Bob Mayer had written 2 books in the Agnes and the Hitman world, just got them beginning of this week and devoured Shane and the Hitwoman, halfway through Phoebe and the Traitor. Cannot wait for the rest of the Liz/Vince world!

    1. I have intentions of doing exactly this as soon as I let myself spend hours reading. Currently, I’m at about 5-10 minutes right before bed and I suspect, I wouldn’t sleep if I started any of them.

  15. Book Lovers by Emily Henry, it was so good I then read Happy Place and Beach Read. Snappy dialogue, great characters and lovely romances. Cruisiesque in a word, highly recommend.

    1. Definite food for thought. I hope others comment because I am lost these days trying to determine how to be part of solutions and not adding to problems as a white writer in this very flawed society.

    2. Interesting article and thanks for linking. I’m not sure I agree with all her points, there being more than one axis of oppression, and people suspected of magical powers have been persecuted throughout history unless the possessor was charismatic and fit into cultural expectations (and usually was male). I appreciate that she looks at the ethics of power; any fictional magic system should definitely consider the morality of its use. It often bothers me when it’s played for laughs as if the only consent that matters is sexual. But then being unkind or cruel often seems to be taken as funny – not sure how that works.

      That said, any small town romance is probably going to elide the injustices of history for exactly the reasons Jenny Hamilton suggests, to create a nostalgic fantasy that supports the HEA. Maybe an individual book can’t and shouldn’t be expected to deal with all these issues but at a systematic level it’s obviously a problem. Is it enough simply to acknowledge those historic injustices? Do they need to be a major part of the plot? It would be good to have examples done well as I don’t think small-town is a sub-genre that’s going away. The Walrus article she links to is fascinating …

      In an earlier article, she highlights the Psy-Changeling series as presenting community level solutions, which was also interesting: https://www.tor.com/2022/10/05/dismantling-the-protagonist-problem-in-nalini-singhs-psy-changeling-series/

    3. Makes me think about my frequent Heyer and Wodehouse rereads. Talk about escapism to a really really white world! The supremacy of English culture and manners is assumed as a matter of course.

  17. In addition to Maybe This Time, I’m rereading Lee and Miller’s Salvage Right, which I finished Tuesday and immediately started over, and Diana Wynn Jones’ Tale of Time City, mainly for the butter-pies (how can an imaginary food have such a strong effect on the taste buds?) and trying to read The Authenticity Project which is whiplashing between enthralling and boring. Just started Love, theoretically which is good so far, but I fear it may sag in the middle.

  18. I’m having a good run, interleaved with a few dud samples. Lavender’s Blue was great. I went back to my new discovery, Abby Jimenez. My first of hers was Yours Truly, which actually follows Part of Your World, though that didn’t bother me. (I find she over-eggs things a bit, so I’ve not felt like following immediately with another by her.)

    So I then discovered another excellent series – thank you to whoever recommended it – the Tyack & Frayne mysteries by Harper Fox, centring on a m/m romance, and set in Cornwall. There are some plot holes, but the characters, relationships & setting are all excellent. I’ve read five (actually 1-4, plus a novella that’s 3.5). I’m stopping there for now. I have a feeling whoever recommended the series said it tailed off after a while, so I wanted to quit while the stories are still strong.

    I’m now back to Abby Jimenez, having started Life’s Too Short: really good so far.

  19. I have a week off from work this week, and after a few false starts attempting to book a trip away have stayed at home and read many books. The highlights:

    Lavender’s Blue. Loved it. Obviously.

    Unclaimed Baggage by Jen Doll. A YA novel about three teens who spend a summer working at a store which sells only items from airline luggage that was lost and never claimed. I really enjoyed Doll’s style of writing, it was engaging and she dealt with a lot of heavy subjects while rarely being preachy. I will read her other YA novel for sure.

    The Suite Spot by Trish Doller. Again, another author whose writing style just works for me and who covers weighty topics deftly. The supporting characters were charming, and I want to join the book club on the island very much.

    The American Heiress by Dorothy Eden. I whizzed through this in less than a day. I wouldn’t call it a thriller, but what else do you call it when the serving maid takes the place of her dead mistress and marries the mistress’s intended who just happens to be the lord of the manor? It had the potential to be predictable but a couple of the plot twists genuinely surprised me and I had to keep reading.

  20. I addition to Bespoke and Bespelled by Karen Healey mentioned above (fun, light, witchy romance novella), I read Malibu Burning by Lee Goldberg, a mystery about a former Deputy Marshall who gets hired by the L.A. County Sheriff’s department to be trained by a veteran arson investigator. Good, but not quite as good as his Eve Ronin mysteries.

    I also read the third book in Nathan Lowell’s SC Marva Collins trilogy. A satisfying conclusion I thought.

    And I read the latest novella in Tansy Raynor Roberts’ Teacup Isles series, that started with Tea and Sympathetic Magic. That started with a house party in a faux regency period where almost all the ladies were trying to snare the last single Duke in the Teacup Isles by fair means or foul. The one is called Have Spirit, Will Duchess and is about the eventual winner of that competition, now Duchess of Storm, dealing with spirits of former relatives, including her late mother-in-law, and an assassination plot. It’s fun, like the rest of them.

    1. Are you the Argher who recommended Wizard’s Butler? If so, thanks. I got it on a rec here and enjoyed it.

  21. I listened to book 3 and started book 4 in the Countess of Harleigh series by Dianne Freeman. Book 3 is “A Lady’s Guide to Mischief and Murder” and book 4 is “A Fiancée’s Guide to First Wives.” They are cozy mysteries set in the late 1800’s. I do recommend reading/listening to the series in order as relationships progress through the series.

  22. Oh good. I’m in good company, since I’m reading a string of novels by the same author too, although in my case it’s Sophie Kinsella. The current book was Twenties Girl — a book that came out in 2009 and features a 20-something heroine who very reluctantly is dragged to the funeral of an ancient relative she never knew.

    The ghost of the great-aunt starts talking, and the MC is the only one who hears, then sees her ghost, who appears at the age of 23 as she was in her youth, which was a time of flappers, jazz, people dancing the Charleston in silk chemise dresses, shoes like Lupe’s, and shingled hair. So… get the multiple allusions in the title?

    The thing is, it ended up being very good. The MC is in a frustrating job where she can’t seem to find the secret to running her own business. Her family contains lots of uniquely frustrating people; her boyfriend has just broken up with her, and everything just seems HARD, right?

    Kinsella is really good at delineating the lives of people this age — that constantly vulnerable state of hopes and inadequacy, where other people all seem to be super successful yet you are living on a shoestring, never quite finding the key to success or happy-ever-afters. I remember that perspective so well, yet I’m more than three times this flapper’s age and don’t react like a twenty-something at all any more.

    But this book is plotted well, and involves a very believable romance that the MC doesn’t see happening until it actually is. And she comes to really like this ghostly relative and finds a way to get her two things she’s longed for during most of her 105 years, so it’s happy endings all round. Another VERY enjoyable Kinsella novel.

    And thanks to Hannah who started me out on this Kinsellathon. 🙂

    1. You are very welcome! I’m thrilled that you’ve found an author you enjoy. Your wonderful description has prompted me to hunt for my copy of Twenties Girl to re-read it… but so far, no joy. Off to the library I go!

    2. That is one of my favorite Kinsella books. I love the ghost and the MC, and the guy they both get attached to.

    3. I have that book and another of Sophie’s, Can You Keep a Secret ready to go after Lavender’s Blue.

  23. I read and really loved The Summer Skies, a new book by Jenny Colgan. She’s one of my favorite British authors, and I think this was her best book ever. Highly recommend.

  24. I read “Birder, She Wrote” – the latest Meg Langslow book by Donna Andrews. It doesn’t have the unusual food in this one like it did in the last book, unfortunately. But, the book was still pretty interesting.

    I re-read “A Tale of Time City” by Diana Wynne Jones, like another Argher. I was reminded of this book by reading a recent review of it. I still love it. I love the descriptions of the father having a blast while getting dressed by shouting, dancing and running around.

    I am now on a Diana Wynne Jones kick. However, I can’t believe that all of Jones’ books are not available on-line. For instance, an e-book of “Hexwood” can’t be found on neither Amazon nor Barnes & Noble. I wonder why.

    1. I remember having a lot of trouble finding her books as well! She’s such a great author that it’s really a shame.

    3. I found it on Overdrive through the library. Although Overdrive is getting worse so grab it while you can!

      1. Ditto, my library has discontinued the recommendations and wish list sections, what fun is that? So that now I have to do the old timey route of handing the librarian a piece of paper with what I would like. Ah, never mind that was how I got Lavender in less than a week.

        1. Its not the library – its Overdrive. Basically they’re pivoting from a library services company to a data company and to do that they’re driving everyone from the web service to the app by discontinuing services in the web version such as recommendations. Even worse the app isn’t great either.

          I think they think that because they have dominated the US market that people will have to put up with it but there are other services such as Borrowbox, Freading and Cloud, which aren’t as good as the old Overdrive but so much better than the new version.

  25. Finally managed to read something this month

    Killers of a certain age by Deanna Raybourne, I liked it, it was a good idea, shame the alternating chapters for flashbacks interrupted the flow of the story for me.

    Counterfeit Madam by Pat McIntosh was recommended by someone on Argh (thank you) a good mystery with a well written world, the vocabulary is interesting

    1. Kay, that whole Pat McIntosh series is so good. I think she does a brilliant job of illuminating the era in a very convincing way. Another series I must reread!

  26. Someone here mentioned Georgette Heyer’s The Quiet Gentleman as one of their favourites a while ago, so I read it and discovered that I’d never read it before. Higher stakes than is usual for Heyer, so lots of nailbiting (while knowing that it’s all going to turn out all right in the end), and hugely enjoyable.

    The Heretic Royal is the third book in GA Aiken’s Scarred Earth trilogy, after The Blacksmith Queen and The Princess Knight. The first two books are a romp, enormously bloodthirsty in a very funny way, so I was really looking forward to the third book. And it was such a disappointment! Constant head hopping – fourteen points of view in the first two chapters. And lots of snarky banter that moved the plot not one iota, and seemed to be there just to prove how good the author is at snarky banter. I gave up after three chapters.

    Yours Truly by Abby Jimenez was a palate cleanser. Light and funny with two oblivious protagonists, both of them convinced that the other person is not in love with them.

    Non-fiction: A Libertarian Walks into a Bear, the sometimes funny, sometimes tragic account of a group of libertarians who tried to set up a ‘free’ town in New Hampshire.

    1. Fourteen points of view in the first two chapters! That might be a bit much even for me, who normally loves multiple POVs. I couldn’t get into the Blacksmith Queen, for reasons I have now forgotten. I just know it started out delightful–and then I got bored for some reason.

      1. And absolutely no reason that I could see for all those shifts in POV. She could have done it with maybe five or six, and made for a much tighter book.

        It’s so weird when a very experienced author makes these sort of mistakes. The lack of plot was another big one.

  27. Lots of reading in the past week.
    First, I re-read Jayne Castle’s Sweetwater & the Witch. I read it in hardcover when it first came out last year (got it from the library), but this time, I bought the mass market paperback as soon as it was issued. A swift and satisfying read.
    Mimi Matthews’s The Lost Letter was a great Victorian romance. The hero, Sebastian, is a former officer, wounded and disfigured in the wars, although his scars are not only on his skin. His soul is affected too. The heroine, Sylvia, is a former society girl who works as a governess after her gamester father lost everything in a game of cards and blew his brains out. They first met three years ago and fell in love, but then life tossed them apart. Both suffered. Both are trying to rebuild their lives as best they can. Now, they have a shaky chance to reunite. I almost cried a couple times while I read this short novel. Well done, Mimi Matthews!
    Teri Wilson’s Once Upon a Royal Summer was a charming contemporary romance. A bit more sugary than I prefer, but still enjoyable, fluffy like a cotton candy. An amusement park princess from Florida meets a real prince of a tiny European ‘principality’, and of course, they fall in love. Both protagonists are so sweet, they don’t even pretend to be real. But then, I like Disney cartoons too. You could almost hear the theme music of their waltz together. Flowers and butterflies dancing. Fireworks sparkling. Oh, it is so nice to dream …
    Stella Riley’s latest, The Shadow Earl was a historical romance. Nothing to write home about, but I enjoyed it all the same. I’m going to read more of her stories. I already bought another of her novels from Amazon. The only problem I had with her narrative: it could’ve used a better editor. Much better. As it was, the writing was borderline amateur. But the story was engaging, and the characters sympathetic, so my overall impression was mostly positive.

    1. You should read her earlier stuff. In particular, the mesalliance and the civil war novels. Those are better in my opinion.

      1. I should add that my favourite of the civil war novels are the Black Madonna, Garland of Straw (Colonel Brandon… swoon) and A Splendid Defiance.
        The others are good but these are great in my opinion.

  28. I can’t believe how many of my favorite authors have new books this summer, like gosh, Jenny Crusie! Also Donna Andrews, Connie Willis, Ann Leckie, Martha Wells. It’s quite a lot. I’m trying to pace myself.

    I’ve been listening to the 1st and 2nd Countess of Harleigh mystery series, which I’m enjoying quite a bit. They’re set somewhere in the 1890s, and I keep thinking of the changes and freedom from strict convention that a just around the corner.

    I listened to Birder, She Wrote, this weekend, always nice to visit Meg Langslow.

  29. I’ve been reading two books of short stories. The first is a reread, Chalet School World by Helen Barber. The original Chalet School books are very good on the minutiae of family and school life and the fanfic has continued in this vein, so it’s generally very soothing reading. Occasionally I start to find it cloying.
    The second book is called Marple and consists of 12 stories by different, well known authors such as Val McDermid and Mate Mosse. I’m sticking with it although I can’t see Joan Hickson (the quintessential Miss Marple IMHO) in any of them. There’s also an over reliance on her nephew Raymond turning up to whisk her somewhere more exotic than St Mary Mead, and some unbalanced stories where 3/4 is set up followed by Miss Marple leaping to a conclusion.

    1. I love the Chalet School but haven’t read any of the fill-in books. Are there any that you would recommend above the others?

  30. 1. Lavender’s Blue, of course. Loved it! Scheduled for a reread later this month, just before Rest in Pink comes out. Bob and Jenny, you guys rock!

    2. The serial. Variation on a Theme Book 4 will run to 159 chapters and 141 comes out tomorrow. Word Opera. I’m also rereading Book 3

    3. Metis’s Wisdom (StarWings Book 4) by Goodlett and Huff. SF with a new and different method of space travel. I’d say “waiting impatiently” for the next book, but I know it will be a year or two.

    4. 1638: The Sovereign States by Flint, Goodlett, and Huff. Another offering in the Ring of Fire Universe. This one was scheduled before Eric Flint died. The thing is, I bought this as part of a Webscription/Monthly Bundle, more specifically, the September bundle of 8 books for $20.00. If you follow that link today, you’ll see “Partial (3/4 Ebook now; full Ebook available 09/05/23).” (Actually, only 50% was available when I downloaded.) What that means is that I’ve read 15 chapters of 30 plus a character list. I loved what I’ve read. I bought the whole bundle to get this book.

    5. Wickedly Wonderful is open in the Kindle Ap. Marvelous series, Deb!

    I’m also watching Netflix. A lot. Too much.

  31. Not a big reading week for me due to all that camper maintenance I mentioned on Working Wed. (The fan works now! Woo!) But I did read Maisey Yates’ Wild Night Cowboy and loved it, read a good chunk of The Ten Thousand Doors of January and got all stressed out and stopped reading because I was too worried about the heroine (although obviously she lives to narrate the tale) and then the 2nd book of Spring’s Arcana arrived, The Salt-Black Tree and now I must find out what happens because book one left off on a real cliffhanger.

  32. ye reading week: Tyack & Frayne novella #9 by Harper Fox, ‘Once Upon a Western Shore,’ in which magic is very close to the surface and sinister military types have their eyes on our heroes’ telekinetic daughter. The last three books in this series are all one title and the description looks kind of ‘eh?’ so I’m going to wait until I have an uninterrupted, preferably long, weekend to glom them all.

    new contemporary M/M novella by Frances Fox, aka A.L. Lester, ‘Reluctant Rockstar.’ I liked this a lot. One MC is mid-thirties, the other 7 or so years younger but mature and settled. They are very good for each other.

    Turn of the last century capers: ‘The Exploits of Arsene Lupin’ by Maurice Leblanc, a story collection about a gentleman thief / master of disguise. If you like the Gilded Age style of adventure & mystery writing, you’d probably love these. I was entertained!

    Nonfiction: ‘Here for It’ by R. Eric Brown, which I also liked a lot. Essay collection, mostly autobiographical, part of my own voices cultural education program. Funny, literate, creative person.

    There was also a thing I want to rant about, as discreetly as possible. Suffice to say it’s a M/M contemporary set in the world of Major League Baseball, which is apparently a very, very shitty world. The life of a MLB player is apparently both insecure and very, very boring. The issues of the MCs were unnecessarily tedious and were concluded, not resolved, by a) deus ex machina + b) epilogue in which we see them being happy together but still closeted which was literally the biggest obstacle in their path. WTAF. Got it on sale, along with next in series, which I will not be reading.

  33. I really like The Teen Thousand Doors of January.

    I know what you mean about having to stop reading a too stressful book. It took me a whole year to get back to Olivia Butler’s Kindred by which point I had to start over completely. It was worth it even if it was a hard read. But I needed that break.

  34. I read both “Stargazy Pie” and “Bee Sting Cake” by Victoria Goddard which was a lovely fantasy romp. There’s village intrigue and murky family history, a mysterious bookseller and a damsel more likely to cause distress than suffer from it. Lots of fun and a really nice focus on friendship. In the second book there are the Woods as well, which I loved.

    I’ve also been enjoying “Africa Risen”, a thoroughly intriguing anthology featuring African and African diaspora speculative fiction. I like short stories but I really can’t read more than a couple at a time without losing track, so it takes me a while to get through an anthology.

    Also I tried Jodi Taylor for the first time, picking up “The Nothing Girl” which I really enjoyed, sweet & funny. It really didn’t feel contemporary despite mentions of the internet and the magical element is confined to an invisible horse friend, so I’m really not sure how to describe it to others – feels like there should be a word for it. Thanks to Colognegrrl for the recc!

    1. I spent too much time finishing reading the book I talked too much about last week. Still very conflicted about it.
      Have also come across the mess around a player and an overenthusiastic booktoker, who got into hockey through said book. Sadly she adapted the coarse language and went overboard towards real people. Bad experience all around.
      I’m not on ticktok nor booktok but find it very difficult if real people – not actors or models portraying characters – get mashed up with characters.
      An author using placeholders to get inspired and create a distinct protagonist is something else imho – I usually love those casting games. Am I weird?

      Since then too many interesting books have dropped on KU: I started Queried sick (must have been rec’d here) and like the (so far, 25 % in) lack of smut a lot. Very nice protags. Very down to earth.

      Only, I got tempted away by Locked in Silence by Sloane Kennedy about a musician down on his luck back at home in Minnesota and his former crush, once the golden boy, now mute and an outcast after a freak accident.
      Very soothing story, rather strong healing vibes – loved it. The scars around Dallas’ throat and his lack of voice are familiar (tho my voice is almost back, 2 months after surgery). A big plus: wildlife sanctuary!!!

      Tbr: The new Fearne Hill is out since yesterday, I still haven’t found the time to binge Heartstopper and Red white and royal blue MUST BE WATCHED today/tonight.
      Alone, sigh, as child no 2 (keen on RWRB) refrained from watching wirh mum and is willing to wait so she can watch it with her buddy.
      At least kid no 1 prefers me when it comes to watching the Wrexham docu made my Mclhenny(?)/Reynolds. Yay!

      3. I’m putting Locked in Silence on my wish list – this also looks like a book Chacha1 would like…

        1. I read it last night – would have liked more character and less plot but still…I downloaded the next one in the series…so ignore me.

  35. I read everything in the Trixie Towers series by Scarlett Dawn except Caspian’s book. It’s fast, fun, crazy & dark. Great writing. I also read Surrender by Amanda Quick. Solid historical, pretty good, liked both the leads, the legend & mystery parts were great.

    I think both were mentioned here but I dont remember who it was. Thank you 🙂 for the great reads.

  36. I just got an email from Amazon that the initial Murderbot diary, Compulsory, previously published in “Wired” Magazine, is available in Kindle edition for 99 cents. It’s short – essentially flash fiction – but if you haven’t read it, or you are a completist (like me), there it is. I 1-clicked it into my Library.

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