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This is a Good Book Thursday, September 12, 2024

What did you read this week?

194 Responses

  1. I reread Deception & Scandal by Amanda Quick. 2 standalones with characters & stories that I love.

    I also started a reread of Amaryllis by Jayne Castle.

    Having trouble getting into it because I am enjoying the debate & everything surrounding it.

    Also reading a cookbook titled Clean Eating; Bowls.

    Happy GBT fellow arghers!

    2. Love “Deception” – such great characters.

      I haven’t read “Scandal” in ages – was traveling and desperate for something new to read and exchanged it with another traveler for a book that turned out to be my first (and only) true crime book. I hope the other woman liked “Scandal” better than I liked true crime!

  2. I have ROCKY START open in the Kindle ap. Rereading it is a definite pleasure.

    I finished rereading VARIATION ON A THEME through book 4 and started book 5 from chapter 1. Book 5 is up to chapter 85, with 86 due out around 9AM. No other reading worth mentioning. Lots of video clips. Lots of TV episodes.

    I read a letter from the Circuit Court, a questionnaire about jury duty. I filled it out, and checked the box that said, “I’m old, and I decline to play.” (They specified “73” which I are.)

    In my “kitchen,” I have a spice rack dedicated to tea backs and sweeteners. All the current sweeteners there are little green bottles with white eyedroppers. I need to Marie Kondo the bottles, but under the shelf are a dozen empties that I haven’t tossed, because “little green bottle” and “eyedropper” are ca-yute! But I’m never going to finish the hazelnut or chocolate strawberry. No joy. These are tiny distractions from reading.

      1. My mum and her sisters, every single time they were together, the sister putting the kettle on would ask ‘tea, bag?’. Such sisterly love.

      2. I am so brain dead today. I tried to work out what autocontrary had messed with & it never occurred to me it was tea bags… time for bed 😦.

    2. Gary, Possibly the hazelnut and chocolate-strawberry would work better to sweeten something besides tea? Straight water? Some sort of dessert?

    3. I use Flower Essences, and they come in brown bottles with eyedroppers. I keep thinking there must be a use for those eyedroppers elsewhere.

    4. I read something questioning the usefulness of MK’s “does it spark joy?” & suggesting the better question would be – if I got poop on it would I clean it & keep it or throw it away. Lol!

      2. Maybe it’s just me, but I have cleaned poop of various species, vomit and other bodily fluids off of a lot of things. I think that I will stick with what sparks joy. At least that doesn’t give me flashbacks.

        1. I’ve got a ballpoint pen that fell into the toilet but that I grabbed out instantly. Very oddly, after washing it, I have no problem using the hand that I used to grab it, but the pen, even after washing, is sitting there.

  3. Hello all you Josh Lanyon / murder mystery readers, I have just reread the entire 8 (not too long) Daniel Owen series by Ripley Hayes and loved it just as much the second time. Set in Wales, really EXCELLENT characters who are lovely and flawed and real, very British (despite being set in Wales, ie if you watch British police mysteries you will feel at home), m/m romance arc and interesting character arcs through all 8 books. I think the books get stronger as you go, and please, please, read in order. They are on KU. Highly recommended!

    2. Oh yay! Thank you for the recommendation — exactly what I am in the mood for now! I went to download the first in the series (“Undermined”) before even responding to your post! Thanks!

      1. I refuse to get KU – I really have plenty of books to read without it, but I get FOMO something chronic!

        1. I don’t use it that much, but it staves off the urge to impulse buy a lot of books when I am in a bad mood. Now I put them on my wish list instead, so I figure I am still coming out ahead financially. Also, it allows me to try things that I would never consider buying. And I share my subscription with a friend, so I feel like it is worth it for me.

          1. I certainly didn’t need KU before retirement, but afterwards in some months my Kindle expenses were really impressive, and KU indeed saved me money. But nowadays, at least locally, my access to ebooks from libraries has improved, and I read of ways to subscribe for small fees even to some distant public libraries. So far I’m still keeping KU, but I would not recommend it unless someone has lots of reading time, and not always even then.

          2. I was hesitant at first, tried it a couple of years ago when not many titles were available and and not always the best ones. But I read my first Rachel Reid in KU (Role Model).
            Shortly afterwards, the number of books available on KU kind of exploded.
            So I subscribed and I use it A LOT.
            And as Lupe, I share my subscription (and almost all my ebooks in my kindle library) with kiddo #2 who likes similar books and couldn’t afford to buy all those ebooks herself.

            My budget for ebooks is not grand and KU gives me the opportunity to try and experiment with new authors. And get kiddo #2 any KU book she likes to try.

            The quality of books has greatly improved, too.

            And yes, I make an effort to not just stick with KU, but buy the books that I really fell in love with (ebook or paperback or audio or all of them, and I don’t necessarily get them from amazon either).

            Also, my storage for both physical books and ebooks is limited, so I try to get those that “spark joy” for keeping available (I will also stick with the sparking-joy-metapher, since I would not keep a book that has been pooped or vomited on).

          3. I agree with most of what Dodo says. But I also don’t pay for it every month – if I’m going to have a really busy work month, I don’t subscribe that month. And then if I’m going to read 8 books in a series by the same author then it definitely works out cheaper!

          5. The final straw for owning physical books was moving from my own rental to my dotter & son-in-law’s new home. Doing so was necessary for them to make the payments, but that’s another story. There was no room there for my books, which found new homes in public libraries. I am down to a foot of shelf with my remaining books.

            I have owned a Kindle since the first model, plus two Kindle Fires, a B&N eBook reader (EPUB), and aps on every computer or phone or tablet. I have over 1,200 eBooks in my libraries, including several hundred I’ve never read nor will – they came as parts of bundles. As an aside, I gifted the B&N tablet to my dotter and stuck with Kindle format. She did not use it as a book reader.

            It’s becoming clear to me that my grandchildren are not readers. They are surrounded by social media and games and entertainment that substitute for the desire to immerse oneself in the written word. So, if I am not to pass down my eLibrary, why am I still accumulating copies of eBooks? I think I have just justified KU for me. I can always buy the eBooks I really want.

          1. It makes sense for me too specially since as Dodo says, the number of books on KU has just grown so fast. Recently they had a deal where if I paid up front for a full year it brought down the price for KU by a few more dollars a month, so i just went ahead and did it. I’ve already saved almost the cost of the yearly subscription by the number of books I’ve been reading from KU. That, plus ebooks from the library for the books that are not on KU, and I’ve actually cut what were insane ebook costs.

    4. Do they get stronger? Because I read the first one and it was okay and I loved the Welsh context …but the romance went a bit fast and the whole book hadn’t quite caught my interest so would love your perspective.

      1. I do think they get better, but I’m also aware that I didn’t mind the speedy hfn in the first book, I liked the between the lines subtlety of them getting together, and I like the setting and characters a lot so I’m maybe willing to not notice some stuff? I do think it gets more real as the books progress.

  4. Read “Miss Buncle’s Book” by DE Stevenson, which was rather sweet, recommended by KJ Charles as “gentle-but-with-an-edge”. I’m rather interested in the author’s biography as it would be interesting to see exactly how meta is that narrative.

    Continued Seanan McGuire’s October Daye series with “When Sorrows Come”. The title had me all primed for tragedy but thankfully none eventuated. Lots of fun.

    Best thing I read was “He Who Drowned the World” by Shelley Parker-Chan, second in her Radiant Emperor gender-queered retelling of the founding of Ming dynasty. As often with these Chinese history retellings, it was interesting and fairly grim if empathetic, but then the last section surprised me with these lovely moments of grace and stayed with me for days.

    1. I went on a bit of a DE Stevenson spree a while back and I have read most of them. Some are quite peculiar but lots are cosy and delightful.

    2. I’m also reading the October Daye series right now. I hadn’t read it since 2018 or so (somehow I got really behind!) so currently re-reading the books I’d previously read, then continuing with the new ones since then. Just amazed at what a distinctive, interesting world she’s envisioned. It’s so imaginative and different from other urban fantasy!

      1. She’s a great writer – and very prolific! I basically catch up on one series of hers and am then behind on another 😉

  5. Only managed to finish one story: Lisa Henry and Sarah Honey published all their bonus novellas to the Amazing Alpha Tau series in one volume plus one not-before-published novella that assembles all the couples for the wedding of one of the couples. The Amazing Alpha Tau Reunion Project. For her newsletter subscribers, Henry made the (very nicely narrated by Nick Russo) audiobook available for free: a good rounding up and not overly sweet.

    Since then I’m listening to Rachel Reid’s Game Changer series: started with Tough Guy, got Common Goal on audible (easier to set a time limit when I listen at night and might fall asleep) – I love both books. Both with slow burn, which I like a lot. Ilya and Shane make reappearances and coming from Heated Rivalry it’s such a pleasure to see esp. Ilya popp up and interact because I see him with a totally different lense than when I read book 5 out of order some years back.

    Also, I’m on the home stretch – finally – with Hot Target by Suzanne Brockmann. I really like that some of her MCs (esp. Robin) are such a mess. I love Cosmo Richter a LOT, but also the thightly knit group of Troubleshooter members. I haven’t read all the earlier books and won’t get to it, but it is fun nevertheless.

  6. I reread Rachel Reid’s Tough guy and Time to shine following last week’s discussion of these books. Unlike some other arghers, I like Time to shine very much. I find both Landon and Casey very endearing. It’s a bit of a comfort read for me.

    I also read B.W. Haggart’s Saving Time which was recommended last week. I have no idea how accurate it is both on current day Rangers and the Peninsula War but I found it enjoyable. I am not tempted though to read the other ones because they seem to be more conventional regencies. What I like about Saving Time is that we are out of the ballroom and there is lots of fascinating detail about army life.

    Wen Spencer’s Storm furies (Tinker book 6) has been out for a while but I only got round to reading it this week. I love that series but from book 4 onwards it has become incredibly complicated with lots of different viewpoints. Normally, multiple povs don’t really work for me but I really like all the characters (minor and major) so I am rolling with it and will buy the next one too.

    Finally, I have just started Victoria Goddard’s latest, the Bone Harp and I just wanted to mention it because the first chapter is so beautifully written.

    So, lots of good books this week, which is nice.

    1. Ha! I too went to reread Tough Guy after last weeks’ discussion. I will reread Time to Shine again to see if I like it better the second time around.

    2. I love Time to Shine. And I also love Cait Nary’s Lucky Bounce. There’s something sweet and fun and sexy about both of these so I tend to think of them together.

      1. Looking forward to getting to Lucky Bounce, soon. Will re-listen to Season’s Change again soon, too, although that stories hasn’t got the same sweetness, but the looming HEA is so rewarding.

      2. So do I! I only recently read Lucky Bounce as it had gotten buried in my tbr pile and I loved it. And I totally see how it is in the same vein as Time to Shine.

      3. Unfortunately neither Time to Shine or Lucky Bounce did it for me. They were fine but I didn’t love them. Both too sweet for me I think.

        1. I found Lucky Bounce rather self-conscious in style and slow; and I was frustrated the underlying dramas weren’t resolved/directly addressed. Not quite my cup of tea, somehow.

    3. LN, I’m with you regarding Time to Shine! I like the story very much and found it very comforting spending time with those two guys 🙂 <3
      I found that I just like Rachel Reids writing style very much, she's on my auto-buy list now (a very short list), so have preordered her next book already.

      1. I shouldn’t have said latest actually. It’s not that new . Apparently it was published in February. She has published a novella since then called The Glassblower.
        I can’t keep up with all the authors I like 🙂

  7. This week I read a mix of romance and mystery:

    Arnaldur Indridason – “The Darkness Knows” the first in a two-part Inspector Konrad series. This one was just as good as the other one I read by this author (“Jar City” different detective.) Moody Nordic Noir with interesting facts about life in Iceland and a police procedural that holds together. No one goes into abandoned buildings in the dark with no backup and only a flickering candle for light.

    I also read Donna Leon’s — “A Refiner’s Fire” her latest in the Inspector Brunetti series. Lots of fun to go back to Venice and the whole cast of characters again. The mystery was good too and kept me engaged.

    Annabel Monaghan “Same Time Next Summer” — M/F light fun second chance romance. I enjoyed the beach feel and dialogue was good. No Big Misunderstanding. I really like this author. Have put her other books on hold at the library.

    The Shutdown by Lily Chu — I know it was popular among a number of Arghers so it was probably that I was in the wrong frame of mind when I read it. I didn’t love it. Lots of workplace stuff and though it was good to see diversity issues dealt with, there was just too little romance and I just didn’t care about the company’s future enough to care about the outcome. Maybe I’ll have to try it again some time.

    Finally, because I’m very suggestible, last week’s GBT got me moving back to Rachel Reid re-reads. I reread Tough Guy and liked it more than the first time for all the reasons discussed last week. I also reread “Common Goals” which was fine but which I didn’t love — I did enjoy the short visits we get with Ilya though. I’m now re-reading Role Model and again, just loving Ilya’s cameos.

    2. Same for me on Common Goals, my least favourite of the series. Tough Guy was possibly my favourite.

      1. Frozen Pond,
        as I’m getting more used to listening to books instead of “reading” them I notice that for me some stories work better narrated in audiobook.
        I’d tried the reading sample of Common Goals and liked it a lot. It might have worked as written book in itself. But I might have read/interpreted the story differently and less tender than narrator Cooper North does. His interpretation made me grow fond of both MCs VERY fast.

        I can understand why readers might prefer other books in the series.
        When I first started Tough Guy, I couldn’t get into it as easily as now.
        This time round, I wonder why Fabian’s friends grated on my nerves when I really, really like them now.
        For me it comes down to reading a book at the right time.
        And maybe even in the right medium.

        Similarly with Commong Goals. Right now is the perfect time for reading about insecure guys like Eric on his self-discovery journey.
        His skewed perception of himself is something I probably would not have found interesting some time back.
        Now it’s something I can relate to vividly.
        Same with his need to keep in control see e.g. his stance towards alcohol.
        And his need to reliquish control in other cirmustances.

    3. Christina, I’m waiting for the two Indridason books I ordered to come. I liked Annabel Monaghan’s third book, Summer Romance, the best.

      I have The Stand-In by Lily Chu on my TBR but haven’t gotten to it yet.

      1. I hope you like the Indridason books as much as I did – if nothing else it will be a little taste of Iceland before you go. I just ordered Summer Romance and am really looking forward to it. There’s a nice tone to Annabel Monaghan’s books — snarky yet with “feels”.

    4. Yeah I liked the part of Common Goal where Scott Hunter shows up at Ilya’s door and tells him that he decided to try showing up unannounced since Ilya seemed to enjoy doing it so often.

          2. Christina and Tammy,

            The Long Game already sits in my physical and ebook library and I’ve already decided that I will get the audio one as well (yes, with books by authors I adore I can get overbord a bit).

            Right now I’m listening to both Tough Guy (ebook + whispersync) and Common Goal (only audio). It works as in my mind those two stories – while TG takes place before CG – can co-exist.

            TLG won’t.

            So I’m holding out until I’ve finished all the previous books.
            Yes, Role Model about Troy will have to be read or more likely listened to still. I’m on a Rachel Reid roll it seems.
            By now even my IG profile is a sticker pic of the Bosten Bears no. 81…
            Even though I was NEVER prone to find (a) Russian charming – sorry, Patrick.

            After I’ll be through with the series, I see me going seriously cold turkey on RR’s Game Changers universe.

          3. Dodo, Don’t worry, I don’t often find Russia or Russians charming, although they (but not their governments) not infrequently have other favorable qualities. I was, however, once struck to read an article written by an American woman living in post-Soviet Russia (at a time when Putin was in power but had not yet shown the full extent of his evilness). She said she found Russian men gallant and charming in contrast to American men, and that she was living with one such Russian man. If memory serves, I later read an article she write about her rush to extract money from her Western bank account before the sanctions took effect, but that was the last I heard of her. I hope that she and (if he was worth anything) her Russian partner got out of the country while the getting was good.

          4. Patrick,
            that’s interesting about the woman and her view of Russian men as gallant.

            I don’t have a clue about Russian men vs American men, not much exposure to the former, more so with the latter, but my US-colleagues are mostly “Europeanized” already.

            Russian (and Ukranian which I cannot distiguish from Russian) sounds either very whiny or harsh to my ears (yep, says the German…).
            Yet one huge exception comes to mind: my daughter’s piano teacher has the most gorgeous Russian accent in German and her Russian sounds also soft and wonderful. She’s from Nishni Nowgorod, not far from Moskow (Нижний Новгород). I could listen to her endlessly.

          5. Having spent a fair bit of time in Russia, I can tell you I don’t find their culture charming in the least. However, I do have Russian friends who are delightful.

          6. Dodo,

            Back in the Soviet days when I was in the USSR, Russians that I met on the street were always trying to guess my nationality. I was far taller than most Russians (although the advantage was less than over folks from Central Asia, whether from genes or because the Central Asians, in a warmer climate, ate more fresh food with more vitamins). I also in those days (even in grad-student clothes) dressed differently (I gather the clothing difference has mostly disappeared nowadays), and I clearly spoke with an accent. But evidently it was a different accent from most Americans, and the first guess was usually that I was a German.

            Ukrainians have an h in their language. (Textbooks say it’s voiced, unlike English h’s, but I can’t really hear the difference.) Standard Russian doesn’t, although there is a southern accent where most Gs become Hs, as in Ukrainian. But a lot of the time, from a distance, unless I pay close attention, I can’t distinguish Ukrainian from Russian either. In print it’s easy, since in Cyrillic Ukrainian has an i with a dot, as in the Roman alphabet, while Russian abolished that letter in a spelling reform after the Revolution. (The Cyrillic letter that looks like a capital H is an N, so ignore that.)

          7. Should have added that when I say h sound, I mean h as in English or German, not Kh (German Ch), which both Russian and Ukrainian have.

    5. I didn’t like ‘The Takedown ‘. In fact I didn’t finish it even though I was about 70% in. I was just too bored and also didn’t care about the company.
      I liked The Stand In and The Comeback. Have just started to listen to the latest. I’m cautious after The Takedown, but will give it a bit more time

  9. The best book I have read ever in my (long) life: “Hagitude: Reimagining the Second Half of Life,” by Sharon Blackie. Blackie is a psychologist (Jungian) and mythologist and lives in England. As the title implies, it is a book about people (mostly women) who reach about 50 and are begining to live the second half of their lives.

    The book is filled with humor, insight, and an amazing and very, very large context. Also personal stories and stories from other women. Every woman should read it. Every!

  10. I listened to the fourth book in the Rivers of London series – holy twist Bat Girls! I’m sure you all saw it coming but as usual, me not so much. Anyway, am now onto the fifth.

    I also read Jess Everlee’s The Gentleman’s Book of Vices – an MM romance set in Victorian London where a bookseller is secretly also a writer of erotica admired by the other MC who is intent on marrying a woman to help him out of his financial challenges. I liked this book and I spent a lot of time wondering why I didn’t like it more and why I wasn’t more invested in the characters. Should have checked all my boxes – historical, MM, well written, clear characters and…I kept thinking KJ Charles would have done it so much better but I have no idea why. Style? Not sure but I’m puzzled.

    1. It is amazing and mysterious, isn’t it, how one author can grab you no matter what they write and another leaves you cold? I had a similar experience last week with a book about a librarian rescuing books from a magical library under siege. She has a fun talking plant friend and there is a gentle romance along with a lot of cozy slice of life stuff, and I just COULD NOT bring myself to pick it back up. I think that it was trying too hard and came off as less than genuine. Anyway, style is everything.

      2. That book had everything going for it for me but it also didn’t quite click. I think it was that the main character worried and worried and worried. It wasn’t so much that there was actual conflict but instead there was a lot of potential conflict, imagined conflict, possible conflict.

        1. I didn’t even get that far… Just to the part where she got to her house and couldn’t bring myself to pick it back up. Glad to know that I didn’t miss anything by not continuing.

    2. I enjoyed this while I was reading it, but it didn’t leave a real lasting impression on me. I think part of it was because it did check a lot of boxes and therefore was very similar to a lot of the other things I was reading. Maybe you need to try something different as a palate cleanser.

    3. I felt the same way about the Everlee (and its follow-up). Well constructed, decent world-building, plot setup containing some catnip … but just didn’t *feel* it.

    4. I even had to push myself to finish it. I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one…but still baffled.

    1. I realize that our icons don’t change to match our posts, but yours certainly looks like a person wandering around bereft.

  12. Jonathan Bardon, _A Short History of Ireland in 240 episodes_.  BBC Audio, 2008 (I listened to a library softcopy).  This history, originally a radio series, runs from the Ice Age to the start of WWII.  There also exists a print book (unseen), _A History of Ireland in 250 Episodes_, 2008.  I’m curious about the extra 10 episodes there, but have not yet resolved the question.  I had been looking off and on for a comprehensive history of Ireland, and Bardon’s is by far the best I have come across, although it has limitations from its episodic structure and its 1939 cutoff.  Ireland has endured, as a rule, a sad history for the whole period between the Viking raids and (even beyond the audiobook’s cutoff) the Good Friday Agreement—sometimes because of (abundant) foreign invasion and oppression and sometimes because of (equally abundant) internal strife, treachery, and sheer incompetence.  I could list some of the interesting things I learned here (some, notably, to the credit of the British), but I am sure that many others would slip my mind because of how long it took me to finish the audiobook.  I repeatedly had to go back onto waiting lists because of other library patrons competing for limited copies. The radio series was a production of BBC Ulster, which might lead to suspicion that it would slant interpretation toward the Protestant or Unionist viewpoint, but in fact it seems commendably even-handed.  Two hundred forty episodes for all of Irish history clearly requires a selective approach, and even my casual knowledge of Irish history supplies a few interesting items that Bardon skipped over, but that is inevitable.  Recommended.

    On the recommation of people here, I read the first two of Mary Lancaster’s Petteril Regency detective series, _Petteril’s  Thief_ and _Petteril’s Corpse_.  I found them entertaining, with sympathetic characters and a decent plot, but (except for the discounted first book) not particularly good value for money, and, alas, to be found neither in KU nor in any of the public libraries where I’m registered. I may return to the series when I’m in more of a splurging mood, or if it turns up cheaper later.  (I  would guess the various works to be of novella or barely short-novel length, which makes their per-page cost comparable to that of the ebook versions of many new hardcover books from major publishers.)

    Folks here also recommended the St. Cyr books by C.S. Harris, another Regency detective series, and this time one I could borrow from the library.  Harris takes some getting used to, since her language is a bit anachronistic and she takes considerable liberties with London geography and British political history, although no more than authors might do in, say, a present-day-set political novel.  I was also thrown out of the story by an Anglican “Saint Jude’s Foundling Home,” since I doubted that (and could offhand find no evidence online that) the Catholic devotion to the long-ignored apostle had entered Anglicanism until after the Oxford Movement in the 1830s.  The plot also struck me as a bit over-complicated.  But I found the novel readable enough to finish and to convince me to borrow the next one, When God’s Die. 

    In which latter, alas, I quickly found more inaccuracy and anachronism.  Per the Wikipedia and other sources, the term “Upper Ten Thousand” was coined in 1844 to denote New York City’s elite.  It had nothing to do with the Regency English aristocracy. I am disappointed that New American Library (owned by the British Penguin Group, no less) failed to catch something that obvious. But the plot is interesting,  so I’m pressing on.  Later:  Again alas, before posting this, I found even more blatant gaffes, including an exaggeration of a historical death toll BY A HUNDREDFOLD, but I’ll save the rest of the second book for next time.

  13. Well, I FINALLY finished “The Ministry of Time” by Kaliane Bradley, which someone here recommended originally.

    And what an amazing, weird, multi-layered tour de force it turned out to be! It meandered along at first, with an improbable set of events that keep getting more improbable as the explanations unfold.

    But the endings! I had absolutely NO idea what a crazy untwisting of things I hadn’t recognized as twisted when I first encountered them would happen in this book. Things were very formal, very scientific at first, but they just got weirder and more weird than I expected as it went on. Who WERE these people? Who the heck was this Brigadier people kept mentioning? Who was actually in charge?

    The author was extremely literate and adept at building this world, and I can barely imagine what she’s going to create next, but I’m probably in for it.

    Once my head stops pondering and shaking, that is….

    1. It’s notable how much reader reactions vary. As you may recall, I bailed out partway through, finding the novel not “literate” but “literary” in a negative or at least not-for-me sense, and not “adept” but timey-wimey (term borrowed from Doctor Who, and one that I see as more negative than the Who showrunners do). I repeat my recommendation that an earlier and more straightforward and coherent book on a very similar theme is Brenda Clough’s Revise the World.

  14. This week I read Field Notes on Love by Jennifer E Smith which was recommended here previously. A wonderful story of two 18 year old strangers meeting to travel by train and falling in love. No sex (a Young Adult novel) but just a great story well told.

    Read Deep Tide by Laura Griffin (book 4 in series). Enjoyed this episode a really good story involving the sister of previous characters and an undercover FBI agent. All the previous characters were present (except the couple from book 3 which I did not enjoy nearly as much). Starts at the wedding of the couple from book 1. Much better than book 3.

    Then read The Bright Spot by Jill Shalvis. Enjoyable tale about a failing farm and the ‘family’ that runs it (misfits and oddballs – everyone of them adorable). There are rescue animals and a “suit” there to help them get out of financial difficulty (fish out of water trope). It was all fun and chaotic and I enjoyed the company of the characters. Supposed to be a series but can see no connection between the novels.

    Liar’s Point by Laura Griffin (book 5 of the series) was a brilliant edition (though there is still one brother who doesn’t have a book so I am hoping it is not the end of the series). Great story of a slow burn romance that has been bubbling along undercover and unspoken of in all of the previous books. The mystery is a good one too and I really enjoyed this series because it was so well written and there was good continuity between the books – best read as a series though 1-5.

    No Other Duke will Do by Grace Burrows was a great story about a Duke in financially embarrassed, and a pair of spinster sisters invited to his castle by his sister (who is looking to marry her brother off, not knowing the extent of his difficulties). The Duke on the other hand is looking to marry his sister off. The ensuing house party is fun and the man trying to ruin the Duke arrives uninvited and causes all sorts of shenanigans. The family (Duke, sister and younger brother) are well drawn and the romance well done. Good fun. Part of a series but I hadn’t read the previous as they were not in the library – made for quite a lot of exposition at the start but still okay to read as a stand alone. Might be interesting to read the next one and find out how she redeems the ‘baddie’ in the next in the series.

    1. That was the first Grace Burrows book I read, and I loved it. I reread it at least once a year. All the books in that series are excellent, and the relationships are multi-leveled. The inclusion of a mentally challenged brother just added more interest.

    2. Thanks for the Laura Griffin rec. I am almost finished with The Last Close Call, which is the only one my library had the was available. I will be reading more of her.

  15. Preparing for a trip, I picked up used copies of Death of a Dude (Rex Stout), The Woman in White (Wilkie Collins), and the Hedgehog book recommended here. Couldn’t wait: have finished the Nero Woolf and started The Woman in White (a reread, but it will last me through the trip). My husband is halfway through the Hedgehog book. So what for waiting until we leave?

    3. I like Sofie Kelly but I actually prefer her Sofie Ryan books (Second Chance Cat mysteries). Although I admit that I’ve lost a little impetus on them because I listen to them on audio, and I miss Marguerite Gavin, who was replaced in the newer books. :\

  17. This week I read ‘Think of England’ (KJ Charles MM historical) which I enjoyed and then ‘Proper English’ ((KJ Charles FF historical). Lots of FF haven’t really worked for me, but I liked this one though probably preferred Think of England.

    Then I hopped straight into Charlie Adhara’s ‘Big Bad Wolf’ series which has been highly recommended here. I have now read the first three and of course love them 😊

    For my book club I read ‘Wild Houses’ by Colin Barrett. This one has been Booker longlisted and has a rural Ireland setting. I liked it well enough. Not sure if it will make the shortlist.

    2. I think “Think of England” is KJ Charles’ very best book. I can’t even count how often I’ve reread it. I think it was my first of hers.
      So glad you liked the Big Bad Wolf series too! It might be time for me to reread them cause I really enjoyed them. I particularly like the problems that occur cause the werewolves don’t remember what they’ve done the next day. 🙂 I see that there is a duology called “Pack of Lies” — Tammy have you read that one? Thoughts?

      1. Only the first in the dulogy has been published – it was also great – but the next one is not scheduled to come out until 2026. Whimper.

        1. I second. I enjoyed the first one. I actually read it first because sometimes I can be a bit wary of committing to a whole series and I thought it was a standalone. It feature’s Park’s ex, who I really enjoyed as a character.

        2. Aha. That is why I have marked “wait” next to that title on my list. I HATE waiting for sequels. 2026? Oy.

          1. Yes, 2026. Which makes me suspect she hasn’t actually written it yet. Maybe some writer’s block? I can’t deal with another permanent cliff hanger!

          2. It’s a HFN, if I remember correctly? Not too cliffhangery. With a sort of old-fashioned house party mystery vibe? I wasn’t too bothered by the incompleteness.

    3. I love Charlie Adhara and the somewhat slow burn of that relationship. I may have to listen to those next.

        1. I started book one last night and something inside me sighed with relief. It’s so comforting to revisit something I know that I love.

  18. It seems like everything new I’ve read has been 4 stars lately: good, but not fantastic.

    I just finished Forget Me Not about a wedding planner and a florist who used to sleep together, but broke up and how they’ve grown up since then. Lots of things I loved about it, but I wasn’t sure they worked everything out by the end. I did like how half the book is her telling the present day and the other half is him telling the chronological story of the past, which also suits their characters.

    I just started TJ Klune’s Somewhere Beyond the Sea, which is taking the sweet resolution of Cerulean Sea and putting it in jeopardy by facing up to the corrupt magic-hating government.

    I also am listening to a book for my book group and thinking of turning it faster because I didn’t like the previous book I read by this author and it’s already on my nerves.

    1. I just read Forget Me Not while I wait for her latest to reach me on the hold list. I liked it, but as the niece of a florist I kept wanting more detail. Flowers just poofed into place.

  19. I’m reading Donna Andrews’ new mystery, Between a Flock and a Hard Place. I am continually impressed by her ability to write new books in such a long-standing series, and still have them all be great.

    1. I love this series. Her characters have some really fun relatives. when they all get together I start to suspect the house has rubber walls that expand to hold everyone.

  20. I finished Same Time Next Summer and then read Summer Romance, both by Annabel Monaghan. I enjoyed them both but Summer Romance the best of the three I’ve read by her. No misunderstandings in the second two. Looking forward to more releases by her.

    I’m rereading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society for our newly formed book club. Several of the women on the street meet once a week to watch videos of yoga, pilates and tai chi and attempt to follow along. We decided we’d also like to meet once a month for a book club.

    Like Judy/Clever Cherry, I’ve spent a lot of time watching the hoopla surrounding the debate. It’s nice to not have to be afraid to turn on the news these days. But I will be glad when it’s all over.

  21. I’ve been re-reading the Seanan McGuire October Daye series (and catching up on the new ones). Big fan of her books. They’re so different from anything other urban fantasy I’ve read.

    Took a time-out from that to read the new JD Robb book. It was one of her quieter books, and I admit I was not as excited about it as I am about many of her books. But Nora Roberts/JD Robb is sort of the “comfort food” of reading for me so I enjoyed it. I also breezed through a re-read of one of the Roberts books from a few years ago, “Nightwork”, which I know I read when it came out but didn’t remember well. Just as a break from the heavier Toby Daye books!

    Also listened to the new Graphic Audio production of Magic Rises by Ilona Andrews. Andrews is the one of the best author (teams) working in urban fantasy, and their books work great in the Graphic Audio (“a movie in your mind”) format. Magic Rises isn’t as “fun” as some of the other Kate Daniels books (Kate does less wise-cracking, and there’s a really painful subplot with her partner) but I think the plot is more memorable and interesting so it’s still one of my favorites in the series.

    Now I’ve started listening to “Beach Read” by Emily Henry, which is a welcome funny break from some of the heavier stuff I’ve been reading. It’s narrated by the inestimable Julia Whelan, one of the best narrators working in the audio book business (and also the author of a couple great books herself!).

    I tried to read “Mother-Daughter Murder Night” by Nina Simon in there somewhere, which was on the Amazon Best Mysteries list, but it was kind of depressing me early on so I decided I wasn’t in the mood and DNF’d it.

    1. McGuire’s a great writer – and so prolific! I basically catch up on one series of hers and am then behind on another 😉

    1. I’m reminded of a motto in one of William Kienzele’s clerical mysteries: Keep your habits and your habits will keep you. The instance in the novel was a little extreme, but it’s still good advice, and I try with mixed success to follow it.

  23. Just a shout out to the hockey readers here:
    It’s book birthday of Hannah Henry’s Home Ice Disadvantage (Delay of Game Book 6) and she’s always offering the birthday book for free for a short period of time (Sept. 12-13).
    I’ve grabbed it as I am a greedy little ebook hoarder who does not know when she will ever find the time to read all those books. But with this topic, the book at least has a chance to be unearthed soon-ish.

      1. Dodo, I’m confused by what’s in this link – I don’t see a novella at all – I’m not on instagram so that might be the issue – but I couldn’t find it on Amazon either? help!

        1. It’s also on Ari’s homepage: https://www.aribaran.com/extra-content
          It’s password-protected, but if they put the password on Instagram, it’s not really a secret, is it?
          I guess they’ll send the pw via newsletter, too.

          Description:
          WHAT A WEDDING DATE is a 22k short story set in the Penalty Box universe, five years after Home Ice Advantage. The link to access it is in my bio, Happy reading! 🧡

      2. Yay! Thanks Dodo! I’ve downloaded the Ari Baran story as well as the Hannah Henry one. I have read some of hers but I can’t remember them cause I went through them so fast. Will have to go back and check them out again — do you consider them reread-worthy?
        I remain hockey obsessed and continue to amuse my family because I’m doing triage of upcoming travel depending on whether there might be a local hockey game at the time of my scheduled trip(s). Other markets are considerably cheaper than the Washington, D.C. area…

        1. Christina, you’re a gem!! I would sooo like to attend a proper NHL fame, but missed out on tickets for when ghe Sabres come to Munich.
          Well, I guess I won’t see my team obliterated by the US team then…
          Maybe we can get kiddo tickets for a Canucks game seeing as she’s in the vicinity. And one of my fav Oilers is now a Canuck, so …

    2. That Hannah Henry is a good one, not her best, and she’s not a top shelf author but totally my jam anyway.

      And thanks for the Ari Baran find!

      1. Same here. My favourite by far is Draft Bust by her.
        I’m not always in the mood for the more crisp style, but all of those I’ve read so far are solid.
        And she comes across as a very nice person in her newsletters.

  24. I read one segment, and was in the middle of the second segment, of The Benevolent Society of Ill-Mannered Ladies, by Alison Goodman, recommended by Jinx, Maine Betty, and Susan McClelland. Then I stalled out. I may go back to it, but I became obsessed with remembering all the “Blues” in Lavender’s Blue, and started a reread of that series. Jenny and Bob’s books are so rewarding.

    I ordered Rocky Start in the paperback, because I needed a place to store the diagram of the Oddities shop, and I want paper copies of all Jenny’s books, just because.

    1. Jan Kinswoman — I also want paper copies of all Jenny’s books – that is what my zombie apocalypse shelf is for: just in case the apocalypse brings about a vanishing of the electronic version. The shelf houses a very select group of authors and Jenny is one of them!

  25. I read The Belle of Begrave Square, a delightful take-off on the Beauty-and-the-beast trope. Sweet and funny, and perfect for book lovers and fiction writers since there’s so much about books and story-telling involved.

    I also finished Dreadful, a clever spoof of dark wizard books. It reminded me a lot of Starter Villain, same fish-out-of-water satirical vibe, except in this case Gav can’t remember his backstory instead of the hero in Starter Villain having unexpectedly inherited his uncle’s Despicable Me-type criminal empire. Lots of smiles to be had, especially due to the goblins.

    2. Is Dreadful by Kaitlin Rosakis (sp?)? I found two by that title on Amazon. It sounds like something I might like.

  26. I have been reading A Free Man of Color, the first Benjamin January, and I know I like it, but…but I am having the hardest time committing to it. I am reading it on Kindle and I wonder if that is not part of the problem (the rest of the problem being kids/dog/cat/life, so admittedly I am easily distracted). I am also reading the last Harry Potter aloud from an old hardback copy and I find myself wanting to read ahead, which is dumb because I am reading to a ten-year-old who would very much notice and also: I already know what happens!
    But for some reason maybe I retain better with paper? Not sure, but it is something for me to think about

    1. I read it from the library on paper, and I really liked it. I’m not sure if the medium had much to do with it—these days I seem to read online unless there’s a reason to do otherwise. (Most often, a print library copy and no library e-copy; sometimes, particularly for nonfiction, an overpriced ebook and cheaper used print copies available. ) The series eventually lost steam for me (it drifted more into woo-woo and I think January’s character developed in some implausible directions), but I did enjoy the next several volumes. I’m now behind, so for all I know Hambly has course-corrected more recently.

    3. Bah! In my last comment I meant ” not less than Central Asians” but “less between me and Central Asians,” as was probably clear from context. I don’t know why my brain did that!

  27. Once again, I used an unclear “it.” Reference in my comment above throughout is to the Hambly. I read most of the Harry Potters, but I never did get to the last couple, although I’ve had their plots revealed to me. I should put them on my TBR list.

  28. I have a questionnable for Jenny!

    There has been a massive rise in queer and other LGBTQ+ romance fiction over the last decade, but there seems to be a particular crossover between those of us who love Jenny’s books with those who read and recommend m/m on GBT

    Why do you think this is?

    For me as an m/m reader, I had too frequently felt upset by the portrayal of women (by women writers) in m/f romance. It began to feel risky to read new m/f – will this be OK or annoying? But Jenny’s books don’t have that. Your women are always awesome, and even when they’re not, they’re explicable. But maybe there’s more to it than that? Or maybe there isn’t really a correlation at all.

    1. I can only speak for myself, but this is definitely part of it. I enjoy very problematic tropes and situations for my characters and I can’t handle it in a lot of m/f pairings. I have too much baggage.

      But, I can read alien and monster romance and I think that it is because there is usually a barrier to the HEA besides drama. When both main characters are gay, that is still enough of an issue that it takes the place of the Big Misunderstanding or third act Grand Gesture. Or when one character is human and the other is a minotaur and they have to navigate culture norms to be together. And a language barrier between the human woman and male alien usually makes for very careful communication and learning about each other. All of these cut down on the drama in the actual relationship and the characters have to fight harder to choose to be together earlier. No will they or won’t they as part of the plot. And that is more of what I like at this point in my life.

      Also tentacles. Always tentacles. Because.

      1. Also, I think that a lot of m/m and monster romance authors like the authors that I like. Alexis Hall loves Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer, for example. KJ Charles too, I believe. Maybe m/m offers more access to these types of storylines?

        Jenny certainly shines because she ignores modern gender tropes and her characters ring true. I love Tilda, who saves everyone without worrying about being bossy or likable. She has work to do and by God, she is going to get it done.

    2. About MM: I don’t have to be in the heroine’s shoes.
      There’s a freedom to it. I can slip into the fictional life of someone I’m not and realize with how many things I can connect – in the current book e.g. no/or very minimal drinking because I hate losing control – no backstory, I just prefer it that way; the approach to aging. In another the love for the finer points about coffee. I guess the “distance” makes me notice more. I don’t feel old, but with many conventional, contemporary mf stories, I don’t have a good connection to the FMCs. Age gap? Culture gap? I don’t care for the female stuff too much. I love heroines that are no nonsense, but too often, those then have to be larger than life in accomplishments (or figure). It’s easier and nicer knowing there’s a “barrier” and feeling it dissolve than stepping into shoes that get uncomfortable fast.
      In short: I prefer escapism and a fantasy element that is not “fantasy” (the genre) but closely related to real life. Same with my current love for hockey: far away enough from my real life yet not fantasy and down to earth enough. And mm because, yep, fantasy element, enough conflict in itself, no stereotypical tiny blond slim WAG next to the buff jock. They may be often accomplished professionals in themselves but gosh, they look soooo much like clones!

      So, for me it’s freedom, escapism, unabashed joy of (mostly) shedding the baggage I bring and no need to compare myself to any of the MCs.

    3. I think queer romance and particularly m/m is becoming normal. Its apparently 4% of the print romance market and the fastest growing, and much higher in e-book. So I think get any group of romance readers making reccs and those reccs are probably going to include m/m. I don’t spend enough time in other romance communities to know if its a higher proportion on arghink than elsewhere, but when I used to spend more time on AAR 10-15 years ago there were plenty of queer reccs.

      Like other people said, sometimes I just don’t want to risk reading about gender politics so I’ll choose m/m, but most of the time I don’t think about it. I’ve noted plenty of m/f as well as m/m reccs from this board. That said, the love for hockey romances certainly increases the m/m proportion on Argh!

  29. I DNFed a bunch of samples. Some were ok, and if I was holding a whole book I would have kept going, but not intriguing enough to go buy. I also ditched a book by an author I have liked, but I think this was an earlier one, and I just found the heroine annoying. Since known author I didn’t do a sample first, and should have. At least it was cheap.

    Reading CS Harris St Cyr books, as I discovered I had skipped one… so re-read one before, now reading skipped volume. I shouldn’t read them so close together, because I find them rather grim. Solving this by reading light weight things every 4 chapters or so.

    Keeping aside a few things I think will be good “plane” books. Good enough to pass the time, not so good that I feel I am wasting them by reading them in less than ideal environment. It’s a thing.

  30. I’ve been on holiday. I read Rocky Start, and then got my husband to read it. The next thing I know, he’s reading Agnes and the Hitman.

    2. I gave my now husband Agnes and the Hitman when we were first dating and he asked for recommendations to try to get to know me better. He was very impressed with the sex scenes. 😛

    3. On long driving trips I play the MP3 version of Agnes and the Hitman to pass the time. My husband naps a lot in the car, but, I know he is pretending to sleep and secretly listening.

      Reread it every year and get quite sad about the grandpa.

  31. I read Soto’s Forget Me Not and enjoyed it and hope that the new one I have on hold will be good. I read T. Kingfisher’s A Sorceress Comes to Call, and was enthralled by it but it won’t be a frequent reread. I read Murder at the White Palace and was relieved that Sparks and Bainbridge made it to the end of another book. I cannot reread them. For some reason the tension is even higher when I already know what happens.

    1. And I just DNFd Finlay Donovan is Killing It at 8%, after reading the end and deciding I didn’t care how we got from here to there. It’s a book that just fell completely flat for me.

  32. And speaking of Two Guys Solving Cases and Falling in Love…the new Nicky James is out today in her Shadowy Solutions series and on KU. I’m really enjoying these two new characters and their long arc romance.

  33. I read “Displeasure Island: A Mystery” by Alice Bell which is the sequel to “Grave Expectations”. Basher manages to persuade Alex and Claire – with the assistance of Sophie – to take a out-of-season vacation to a new resort on a remote island in Ireland where rumors of a hidden pirate treasure abound. Shenanigans occur and Claire’s powers are explored a bit more.

    I tried to read “Under Your Spell: A Novel” by Laura Wood and I just could not connect to the story. It reminded me too much of “Bet Me”. But, she wrote well and had spots of humor so I don’t mind trying another story from her.

    I’m in the middle of reading “The Dead Cat Tail Assassins” by P. Djeli Clark in which Eveen who is dead and was brought back to life by a goddess of dead assassins fails to complete an assignment – which, of course, causes lots and lots of problems. I’m having a little problem with the story though, because I THINK I know the solution to Eveeen’s problem with her society for failing the assignment. But it’s so obvious, I can’t believe no one else has figured it out. So, do I trust the author to know what he’s doing and that there’s a reason why no one is bringing up the obvious solution? Or, is the author going to gaslight me and say his characters are actually that stupid?

    1. Looks like we’re reading buddies this week, Ha Nguyen! I read Displeasure Island by Alice Bell and The Dead Cat Tail Assassins by P Djeli Clark too, and enjoyed both.

      Something I really like about both Alice Bell’s ghostly mystery series and the SF Midsolar Murders series by Mur Lafferty is that they follow young women who are dealing with real trauma, and are kind of hot messes, but are trying so hard to do the right thing anyway. As much as I love competence porn books, it’s refreshing to see protagonists screw up or fail to read the room and keep trying.

      Eveen in The Dead Cat Tail Assassins is way more competent though, and I don’t think you’ll be mad at the ending. Like his Egypt books (which I ADORE), I found this one twistier than I expected, but just as smart and well-constructed. (And a couple of the late book characters gave me some fun Rivers of London vibes, for those who love that series too — though this is absolutely its own thing.)

      I’m interested to hear what you think if you finish it, though!

  34. Posting here rather than under the old topic where this started: Dodo, I realize that only by coincidence would the capitalization for that example probably come out the same—”Rolls as if from the Baker,”—but it would, at least by Chicago Style rules. But there turn out to be contradictory rules depending on which of many style guides one follows, and there are even websites offering to capitalize titles or headlines once you select a style guide to follow. I googled “capitalization rules for headlines” and got a huge variety of possible aids, including the one below. The AP style guide, for instance, says that prepositions of four or more letters should be capitalized, important or not. Most but not all style guides do specify capitalizing the last word in a title, which I don’t think I had explicitly seen before (that I recall). As I said, I knew that German, like most languages other than English, follows “sentence capitalization” rules for titles.

    https://capitalizemytitle.com/

  35. Another week, another half-dozen books.

    1. ‘I’m Afraid You’ve Got Dragons’ by Peter S. Beagle. Enjoyable fantasy adventure that is not nearly as light as the whimsical title would suggest. I liked it a lot but identified perhaps too strongly with the POV character stuck doing a job he hates. (Me: not the current job, but several past jobs. Hated.)

    2. ‘The Death Bringer’ by J. Scott Coatsworth. Concluding volume in a 4-book SF/F epic, in which an existential threat is resolved by coexistence, which made me happy. So many of these epics resolve their conflicts through complete subjugation or genocide.

    3. ‘Hi Honey, I’m Homo!’ by Matt Baume. Subtitle: Sitcoms, Specials, and the Queering of American Culture. A Stonewall Honor book that examines TV, in context, from Bewitched to Modern Family. I’ve seen not much of the TV he covers, but thought it was a great resource and extremely readable.

    4. ‘Olivetti’ by Allie Millington. A charming & whimsical yet deeply emotional story about a troubled family who’ve stopped communicating and are brought back together by the mother’s old typewriter, which starts talking to the 12 yr old son who’s fixated on dictionaries in his search for meaning. 5 enthusiastic stars.

    4.5 took a break to [re-read] my own novelettes ‘This Time’ and ‘In Tune.’

    5. ‘For Us, The Living’ by Robert Heinlein. His first and long-unpublished novel (1938) which demonstrates how fully formed his worldview was before he ever sold a short story. If you don’t like his worldview, you wouldn’t like it. If you do (anticapitalist libertarian free love with gender equality), it’s an interesting mix of lectures along the way to correction of a 1938 Navy pilot’s chauvinistic assumptions and behaviors after he wakes up, having experienced death in a car crash, in a new body in 2086.

    6. ‘Sequins, Scandals, and Salchows: Figure Skating in the 1980s’ by Ryan Stevens, who runs the Skateguard blog. This is more an almanac than a narrative, but a good resource for those interested in the topic. Divided into competitive seasons from 1979-80 to 1989-90, subdivided into personalities, entertainment, competitions, & evolution of the sport. With special attention paid to the HIV/AIDS epidemic and consequent loss of dozens of male skaters. 🙁

    1. On _For Us_: I don’t like LARGE parts of Heinlein’s worldview as expounded here (and in his later work). But since I nonetheless enjoyed much of what he wrote up until he went completely off the rails (with everything after Moon Is a Harsh Mistress), I enjoyed reading this too. As I described here earlier, I nominated For Us for my book club, with fair warning, and it got voted in. Even prewarned, more attendees disliked it than liked. I think the person whose viewpoint (as I judged) was most like RAH’s was among the dislikes, and the person besides me who liked it the most was another individual who had strong reservations about the worldview. Literary likes and dislikes are a mysterious thing.

      I have the Beagle book tagged, but haven’t gotten to it yet.

    2. I am totally with you on the Beagle. The title and the cover had me expecting YA fluff, not the darker and very adult tale I received, which is silly because he doesn’t write fluff or humor. It was beautiful, as always, but I don’t think that this one is going to be a reread for me.

      I had to DNF his second short story in the Last Unicorn continuation. There was a rape scene and I just couldn’t do it.

  36. I do have been rereading Jane Anne Krentz/Jayne Castle.
    Finished zinnia and orchid, and went on to a Krentz book Untouchable. I must’ve read it before but I didn’t remember it. I might take a look at that Jill Shalvis book. Otherwise I think I’ll start rereading Judith McNaught’s remember when. It was on sale this week.
    I listened to the debate on my way home from a callback. I got home before the end, but watch the rest of it on my phone pretty darn funny.

  37. Oodles of Ann Cleeves mysteries and two funny books by Alexis Hall: Boyfriend Material and Husband Material.

  38. I have been binging on Mary Lancaster. Her SEASON OF SCANDAL was a series of historical romance novels. It consisted of four novels:
    #1 Pursued by the Rake
    #2 Abandoned to the Prodigal
    #3 Married to the Rogue
    #4 Unmasked by Her Lover
    These novels are not a re-read material, but they are light and amusing diversions. A villain created a scandal that implicated four young ladies from aristocratic families. For his evil reasons, he wanted them all to suffer. Each novel of the series follows a different girl, as she deals with her problems and vanquishes the blackguard. And falls in love, of course. There was a bit of sameness in all the stories, a formula, but I enjoyed reading them nonetheless. I really like this writer.

  39. I’m looking for a book by Elizabeth Bear called Machine. My library doesn’t carry it yet.. Is anyone familiar with her books? I’d be interested to know what fellow arghers think of her novels.

    1. I’ve read Ancestral Night and Machine from Elizabeth Bear’s White Space series. (Machine is the second, but they’re loosely related and could be read out of order in my opinion.) I find her SF space operas well-researched and also interestingly inventive, and also character-focused. Sometimes her characters have to make harder choices than I’d like, so there are some tragic moments that hit pretty hard. Does that help? Let me know if you have a particular question.

      Machine is narrated by Adjoa Andoh (aka Lady Danbury from the Bridgertons show), who’s one of my fav narrators, so I’ve been meaning to listen to it as a re-read. (I love her narration for Ann Leckie’s Ancillary series and Translation State!) Thanks for the reminder!

    2. I really like those two Bear books, would love to see another in that universe. BTW, one of them really seems to draw inspiration from the James White Sector General series.

    3. I liked Machine, though it was bit different for her. I’m not sure I could be called an Elizabeth Bear ‘fan’, but I like some of the stuff she’s written, and at least found the rest interesting.

      1. I’ve been aware of Elizabeth Bear for a long time but haven’t read much by her. However, I was a big fan of James White’s Sector General series, and it sounds like Machine is in that neighborhood, so it’s now on my TBR list.

    4. What I’ve read of Elizabeth Bear has been good to excellent, particularly “Ancestral Night” and her Lotus Kingdoms trilogy (fantasy: two travelers get caught up in a game of Queens).

      I thought “Machine” was good, one of the alien hospital sub-genre, and I think it stands alone pretty well. She’s on my must-read-more-of-this-author list.

  40. I finished reading Kasey Michaels “This Must Be Love” around 2:30 am today. I like her sense of humor. Jane’s cousin ropes her into attending a political function as an escort to John to try and get the scoop as to whether a particular senator is going to run for the presidency. John is a college professor and a NYT best-selling author who writes under a pseudonym and wants to take the senator down for crushing his mom’s dreams. Jane runs a day care and requires her cousin, Molly, to cover for her. (That goes poorly and becomes the sequel). Shenanigans ensue as does a minimally detailed “fling” between Jane and John. It reminded me of Jenny’s “Trust Me On This.” It has a copyright of 2003, so it had me questioning a few things, like Jane didn’t have a cell phone until Molly got her one. There was use of a paper map. And so forth. All appropriate, but when the map showed up, I checked the copyright. The cell phone had me thinking, when did the iPhone come out…? 2012, okay. Anyway, I’m going to read the sequel. Turns I out I own, 13 of Kasey Michaels books, so I’m finally reading them.

    1. Around the turn of the millennium, Kasey Michaels wrote a humorous romcom novel series, starting with Maggie Needs an Alibi, about a female Regency author whose love- ’em-and-leave-’em hero is wished into existence by the author’s legions of swooning women readers, and who pops into reality in her small NYC apartment. I enjoyed those but I lost touch with her work. I see that she passed away last year. I gather that her later work has no fantasy element?

      1. Ambiguity! Regency author as author of books set in the Regency, not as in an author living then. As was probably clear from later context.

  41. I am reading a series by Jana DeLeon. It’s the “Miss Fortune mystery series” set in a small town on the Louisiana Bayou. It is truly funny and the series is still being written. In addition, the author has allowed other writers to add parallel books based on the series and characters. Give it a try.

    2. Oh I really enjoyed this one! Although I did eventually get a bit bored because it felt repetitive without much real development. But each book is such a fun and wild romp!

      1. Yes, I agree with you. Some series are like that. The author has found a winning formula and they stick to it and the characters don’t evolve and grow, a shame really.

  42. I accidentally got hooked by a Korean fantasy series that is on Netflix: The Mystic Pop Up Bar. This is the story of several people who try to help others via dream journeys. It’s so goofy in spots but so heartfelt in others.

    1. I enjoyed that one! The vignettes were fun, but it was grounded enough in the main characters’ stories for me to be invested in the show as a whole

  43. I have two books from the library, but I don’t feel like reading either of them.

    I’m going to relax with a Georgette Heyer I haven’t read in awhile. They are a Sure Thing.

    🙂

About the Author

Jennifer Crusie is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author and co-author of twenty-three novels, one book of literary criticism, miscellaneous articles, essays, novellas, and short stories, and the editor of three essay anthologies. She lives in a cottage in Pennsylvania, where she often stares at the ceiling and counts her blessings.

Find out more about Jenny’s published works by visiting JennyCrusie.com

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