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This is a Good Book Thursday, March 6, 2025

This week I read The Honey Pot Plot AGAIN. Thanking Zoe, Krissie, and Deb for editing and beta-ing, but now I need to get this last pass out of here. When will it be published? Soon.

So what did you read this week?

159 Responses

  1. I’ve re-listened to Common Goal by Rachel Reid and finished The Wrangler and the Orphan by Jackie North. Also, I’ve realised why Common Goal is my least favourite of RR’s Game Changer series (age gap = the reason why those two keep apart). The North book was nice, but a bit long winded and it didn’t really grab me though it has a sense of community which is nice. Since most of her other books seem to be rather similar (MC with very bad childhood), I won’t continue. The Wrangler book was a stuff-your-kindle find – one nice way to check out new-to-me authors without having to subscribe to KU.

    Now I’m reading and listening to Rachel Reid’s new book – came out on March 4.

    Another second chance, Two ex-hockey players, minimal hockey content, melancholic vibe in the beginning, very slow burn. I’m at 67 % and like it a lot.

    Side note. Had cancelled my amazon-pre-order and got it from a German site but realized that I had pre-ordered it via audible as well and so far I haven’t found out if cancelling a pre-order is possible there. Makes me more hesitant towards audible. Have to save my audiobooks and cancel asap anyway.

    And: just got Sarina Bowen’s newsletter announcing another book in November, hockey player with figure skater (M/F). It’ll be another second chance romance. What is it with second chance stories at the moment??? Makes for far less exuberant love stories. Though I liked the ones just fine that I’ve read in the last couple of months.

    1. Ah, and thanks to an Eargasm promotion by NR Walker and colleagues, I got some free audiobooks and am listening to Frat Wars by Saxon James/Eden Finley but find it a bit insubstantial.
      Plus, I really do not like one of the narrators (matter of personal taste) – the main reason why I didn’t succumb to ordering the Irrisponsible Puckboy after I didn’t like Csendese’s narration of Egotistical Puckboy (though one might argue his over-the-top voice is quite fitting for the character of Ezra).

    2. Oh I have been waiting for that Sarina Bowen book with the figure skater.
      It was foreshadowed in another book (can’t remember which one) and I liked the player.

      The Rachel Reid is the only new book I have read this week too. Quite a difficult story but I did like it a lot.

      I am with you. Second chance stories are definitely not my favourite trope but as with all romance tropes, when it is done well, I’ll go with it. Just don’t give me a misunderstanding that could have been resolved with a 2 minutes conversation.

      1. Wow, the new Bowen book was forshadowed? I didn’t catch that – but I’m not up to date with all of her series. I’m soooo curious, LN. If you happen to remember, please do tell me/us which book it was foreshadowed in!

        1. I don’t know if it was this hockey player/figure skater second chance that was foreshadowed, but there is a hint of one in Stay (I think? The one with the company called Fetch and the hero has twins and a bitter ex) which was collab with Elle Kennedy. It felt like they never got around to writing the book they’d laid the groundwork for, so maybe Bowen finally ran with it on her own.

          Also, this seems to be a new Bowen team, so a new series! I usually like her books, but might wait for the library. $11.99 for an ebook. Ouch.

          1. Thanks for pointing me to STAY. I’ve read it but didn’t notice Chase or Zoe, I fear I read it on KU, so cannot check anymore.
            11 Euro is a steep price, my libary will likely not get the book but I can wait. The paperback is announced for 17,83 Euro (strange amount), also far too expensive.
            If it happens that we still not have come around to cancel audible, that might be an option…

          2. I just checked (12+ hours later!) and it was in Stay that they set up a new novel with the team man-ho and a figure skater, but they never wrote that book. The character had a different name, so I mean I guess Bowen just took that trope/plot bunny and wrote it after all these years.

          1. I can tell you as a self-pub author, I set the US price and then let them set the international prices based on that. And yeah, they’re usually weird numbers like 17,83 euros or 6.37 pounds or whatever

    3. I was noticing that there has been a lot of second chance hockey stories so far this year too, but it is a trope I like and generally means the characters are older and more interesting.

      1. Yes, having older protagonists is really a nice change. I’ve read the second chance books by Ari Baran, Sarina Bowen and now Rachel Reid (likely more, but those come to mind instantly): from mid to late 30s to early 40s ‘s. For all of them their professional life had a big impact on why they didn’t think they could be together. And all of them are mature enough to talk with each other now in contrast to when they were young and mostly didn’t know themselves well enough.
        Which I prefer to the very young couples in many many romances who meet in college and know they’ve found their forever-guy/girl.

        Realizing one has made a big mistake in your early 20s and doing something about it sounds sooo much more relatable.

        1. The president of my (high school) senior class and his wife (my age, obviously, so at least 71) had been dating since they were 14. I don’t know them well but they seem happy. I remind myself of them when I read stories like that.

          1. Wow, wonderful!

            I don’t say it’s impossoble to find ghd right lne at age 14, 20, or skmilarly young. It just feels a bit much/fairy tale like when in a series like eg Lusa Henry’s Alpha Tau (which I rather like I confess!) 4 couples find their HAE at the age of 18/21 and we see them as hot for each other years later (which might also happen).
            And then I have to remind myself that this is romance and not literary fiction and that I opt for the former for a reason as I much prefer a HEA to dread and tears.

          2. Dodo, they’re very boring people (at least they bore me) but apparently they don’t bore each other. I use them to remind myself that real life is at least as implausible as fiction.

        1. I lived a second chance romance so it’s one of my favorite tropes. Also love ice skater/hockey player. (thank you The Cutting Edge, lol.)

  2. I finished M.C.A. Hogarth’s Mindline. Thanks to Tammy and the others who recommended it! I had a hard time getting into the first book in the beginning, but you were right, they are addictive. One more of those to go, but my brain was fried by outside stresses so I haven’t started the last one or anything else.b

    The only audio book that I finished was Love, Laugh, Lich by Kate Prior. Book is a strong word. It was a novella, but better than expected. My expectations are usually pretty low when starting a new author for this kind of book. Short, very smutty monster romance, but not without a certain dark, dry humor. I will try the next one of hers, which is longer.

    I started other things, things that I should like, but I feel like my brain has the consistency of warm jello. It’s me, not the books. Will try again next week.

  3. I just finished reading an advanced copy of Jim C. Hines’ upcoming fantasy novel, Kitemaster. It’s amazing. Completely unique and riveting. I can’t wait until it comes out in May and everyone can read it. If you like fantasy with really cool world building, preorder this one!

    I’m also reading Katie Fforde’s With Love from London. I’m enjoying it, but it isn’t one of my favorites of hers. (Still well worth reading.)

  4. Main read of the week was a biggie from AO3. ‘Draco Malfoy and the Mortifying Ordeal of Being in Love’ by isthisselfcare. Big in all senses as it is 199k words and has millions of hits. It’s Harry Potter Dramione fanfic (Draco Hermione) and is one of the MF romances I have liked most in the last few years. Hermione is a good character, and it’s Draco’s POV which probably helps avoid some of the things I often dislike in MF. It is well written, fun and funny at times. Very slow burn, the author does well with UST over a long book. (Unresolved Sexual Tension- yes I had to look it up). I don’t think you would have to know much (anything?) about the original series and characters to read it. Some good action scenes but the emphasis is on the romance. https://archiveofourown.org/works/34500952

    I also liked ‘The Wrangler and the Orphan’ by Jackie North. Not exceptional but it has a nice Wyoming setting and good characters (MM). I enjoyed the horsey bits too. Thanks Dodo.

    On audio I listened to the final Murderbot (System Collapse). Sad to finish but I know I have them to look forward to again in future.

    Also enjoyed ‘Any Old Diamonds’ KJ Charles Victorian MM about jewellery theft (actually really about a lot of other things including betrayal). Again I picked it out late at night without much thought and was a bit concerned I’d end up mixing it up in my head with her ‘Will Darling’ series but they are very different. ‘Diamonds’ has a harder edge to it (appropriately enough!).

    1. Thanks for the Ao3 rec, Frozen. My searches and exploring on Ao3 haven’t unearthed anything I’d recommend but you are developing a track record of great finds so many, many thanks for that! I will download today. I am in need of something absorbing and different and this might just fit the bill.

      1. I hope you enjoy it. I think it is well done and will keep you going for a while anyway!

    3. I need to read The Mortifying Ordeal before it disappears from AO3. The traditional publishing version comes out this summer, I think. I’ve heard great things about so thank you for reminding me to get on that.

    4. I would say thank you for this lovely recommendation — I am enjoying it and finding it a much more satisfying conclusion to Hermione’s story than JK Rowling’s — but it has sucked all of my time since I started reading the first chapter, even the time that I should be devoting to other things. But I guess that is the sign of an engrossing read, so thank you!

  5. I picked up “The Last Letter” by Rebecca Yarros. The title references the letters that soldiers leave to be delivered in the event of their death. In this case, there are actually two last letters – for two GIs – that start and end the story. The first one sends the second GI to the dead soldier’s family, asking him to take care of his sister and her kids. (The soldier had gotten them started as pen pals, so it’s not like they weren’t familiar with each other’s situation). The second GI takes on this responsibility as a sacred trust. One MC has a hard time trusting, because of past experience. The other has issues with self-worth. There is guilt, love, sexual tension, fights, tragedy and eventually reconciliation. I shed some tears at the end, staying up way too late to finish the story. There is childhood cancer, so if that is a trigger, you may want to steer clear. Otherwise, I do recommend.

  6. I read some comfort reads plus I had fun reads thanks to recommendations from here. I thoroughly enjoyed How To Murder a Millionaire by Nancy Martin and bought 5 more in the series. I also read the first Murderbot and am working on the second and also bought 5 more in the series. Coming late to the Murderbot party but enjoying it.

  7. My husband began feeling really sick the last week of January; living in denial, we didn’t go to the emergency room until the beginning of February. Turns out he was in sepsis from a massive infection in the biliary duct system; at that point his pancreas was actually eating itself. Amazing what goes on in one’s insides. Anyway, emergency procedure removed puss, stones, and whatnot; then his gallbladder was removed. He was in the hospital for 6 days. That was 3 1/2 weeks ago. In that time my car’s engine bit the dust and so the car had a used one transplant. Also, I accompanied our disabled daughter to her specialist in Indianapolis (we live in MA). My husband canceled all the friends I’d lined up to take care of him and only saw his brother; they seldom get together and had a fantastic time. Anyway, over the latter part of February and continuing now, my husband’s health has improved tremendously.

    What does this have to do with Good Book Thursday?

    As he recuperated, I read aloud to him: The Curse of Chalion, Paladin of Souls, and The Hallowed Hunt. We both loved the experience. Spending a couple of hours a day reading meant neither of us could get much done. We just existed, comfortably, in the world of the 5 gods.

    Nothing like a good book.

    4. Lovely to hear about your enjoyment of books together and I am very glad your husband made a good recovery.

    5. What a scary health scare!! I hope your husband’s health continues to improve.
      And what a nice thing to do – reading aloud! And having a listener who actually listens (when my hubby and I tried this years ago, he always fell asleep almost instantly…).

    6. Glad your husband is doing better. How scary!

      and those are excellent books to recover with! Curse of Chalion is maybe my favorite fantasy novel ever. Although Paladin of Souls creeps higher up the list the older I get.

    8. What a scare this must have been! So relieved to read that your husband is on the mend. And the reading, it is fabulous, isn’t it? Some of my very best memories throughout my life have been people reading to me; teachers at school, my dad, my ex (one of the very few things that was pretty dang amazing about him). Since both Sven and I are too slow braille-readers to make it a fun read-out-loud-thing, we read audiobooks together. Experiencing a story together connects, and creates long-lasting memories to cherish. Well done, you two! Hopefully this will stay a thing you will do together from now on.

    9. “His pancreas was eating itself” is a phrase that will stay with me forever.

      I’m so glad to hear he’s better and that you applied good books to him.

    10. Sometimes reading a book aloud to someone is the best way of getting them to read them! Many years ago, I read A Secret Garden aloud to my husband on a drive from New Hampshire to New York. He would never have read it on his own, but he very much enjoyed it read to him, and now when I tell him I want to make a secret garden for myself, he’s totally on board.
      I’m glad your husband is doing better! The Chalion series is another I don’t think I could get my husband to read on his own (although I got my son hooked on the Vorkosigan saga, and he went on to Chalion). He might like Patrick Rothfuss’ The Name of the Wind.

      1. Thank you all for your kind words and support!

        We had to cancel a trip to Italy where we were going to babysit our granddaughter while our son and daughter-in-law skiied. (They are there now, sharing baby duties.)

        But we’ve rescheduled for a week around April 17th when our granddaughter turns 1 year old. They live in Warsaw, Poland, and it will be spring. I can’t wait!

    5. Yes, I’ve got an email from the author. But I wanted to buy the paper book (I have the first one in paper format) and when I checked, it wasn’t available. Yet. 🙁 I’ll wait until it is available. I hope it will be soon.

  9. Unlike Dodo and LN, I did not like the new Rachel Reid book, The Shots You Take, as much as I was hoping to. As they’ve mentioned, it was a second chance romance – with flashbacks which I’m often a little impatient about. It was a sloowwwww burn, a little too slow imho. And since the MC’s are retired from hockey, there was none of it. The recent Sarina Bowen book, The Last Guy on Earth, was very similar in narrative – two former teammates, one gay and out, the other married and divorced from a woman. Here are words that I never thought would come out of my mouth: I thought the Bowen book was better.

    For tentacle friends, I read The Filled Vessel by CS Nascosta, a novella that I loved. An incubus hires a raven-demon dream invader to take over his own duties for a month, which includes visiting the sleep of a human woman who has summoned him. As well as the usual smutty parts, it actually becomes a journey on both sides, especially as the female MC develops confidence and aspiration in her daylight hours.

    And speaking of smut, I also read Eliot Grayson’s newest in the Twilight Mages series, Traitor’s Curse. Grayson is totally my jam and this book did not disappoint. The story of a duke trying to hold onto his duchy without being assassinated who makes a deal with his general to protect him – at a price. Some dubcon for sure. I read it cuddled up by a fire last weekend which is what I recommend for all readers.

    1. I liked the Reid book as a book about navigating grief and for the portrayal of life in a small town in Nova Scotia. It definitely isn’t a book about Hockey.

      I was disappointed not to get a guest appearance by Ilya :).

      1. Ilya can’t make an appearance everywhere 😉

        And yes, The Shots is not a book about hockey. And yes, it’s slow burn. Super slow burn. With a lot of UST (thanks, Frozen Pond!!) and one has to wait quite some time for it to be RST 🙂 So totally my jam lol.

      2. I held off on the Reid book as it is relatively expensive for me (~€10 for kindle) and I hadn’t been crazy about ‘Time to Shine’. I did read the sample though and liked the Nova Scotia setting but think I might need a break from ageing hockey players! I will wait until I feel compelled to get it and/or the price drops.

        1. The price at a German retailer was € 6,14, usually more than I want to spend for an ebook. But € 10 would have been a deal breaker for me, too.

      1. Yes, the first half is pretty gruelling.
        The anniversary of my dad’s death was last week so it made it harder for me to read.

  10. As usual, I haven’t read much, but I did finish rereading Do We Not Bleed? by Patricia Finney, and am impatiently waiting for my daughter to finish with the second in the series. (Alas, so far there are only two.)

    Also finished A Gentleman of Sinister Schemes by Grace Burrowes, which was very enjoyable, and not only that, I guessed what was going on!

    Now I’m reading one of the Hippolyta Napier mysteries by Lexie Conyngham – rural Scotland in the early 1800s. Slow pace, familiar characters, new frictions. A body will show up soon. I’m just as fine with a body on page one hundred as page one.

  11. Hannah Henry’s “Draft Bust” saved me from a serious DNF slide. I really enjoyed this M/M romance between a hockey player’s whose career is over due to injury and a reporter who is tasked with writing the hockey player’s biography/memoir. The story held together well and the slow build was soothing and plausible. It really helped me re-center. Thank you Tammy for that rec!
    I then reread “Manhunting” which I haven’t read for years. A really perfect M/F romance comfort read with the usual Crusie kick-ass heroine and great dialogue — a lovely story. It has put me in the mood for more in that genre so I am now rereading and loving —again— “Charlie All Night.”

      1. Mine too. I was thinking about a reread.

        One funny thing I remember about this book was that they kept referring to a closet which had access to another room. In my head a closet is a cupboard or a wardrobe, so I kept thinking they were having to climb into a wardrobe (à la Narnia) to get to the stairs to the other room which seemed very odd. Eventually I realised it was what we would call a ‘walk in wardrobe’ so it was actually a room.

        1. The terminology is usually closet over here unless it’s a free-standing cabinet (and probably imported or an heirloom), but I certainly would not expect a closet to have multiple entrances unless, as you say, it was something like a walk-in one in a mansion. Come to think of it, in their post-retirement home my parents did have an emergency exit from the bedroom located in their modest closet (I think involving a panel that you kicked out). But that just led directly outside.

    2. Great reading this week, Christina!
      I also loved Draft Bust (my first ever Hannah Henry title) and sassy Jenny heroines are ALWAYS a good idea. Must check out Charlie all Night again soon.

    3. I can’t help thinking of that book as “Twit Hunting” as Jake would have it. Enjoy your revisit to the night people.

  12. Any Old Diamond is one of my favorite KJC books! I sort of wish I could read it for the first time again, but then, rereading it the twist really is foreshadowed.

    I’m also working my way through Murderbot. Currently paused, waiting for the library to deliver book 5, though I might go ahead and buy it…

    1. I hadn’t thought how interesting it would be to reread ‘Any Old Diamonds’ knowing the twist!

      1. The first time I read it the twist made is quite nerve-racking t0 read as I couldn’t see how it could be resolved, even though obviously it would be.

        It was a more relaxed read for me when I reread it. I could enjoy the twist more if that makes sense.

        I am not good at all at spotting foreshadowing unless the author is heavy handed with it, which most certainly, KJ Charles isn’t.

  13. I reread A Nun in the Closet, by Dorothy Gilman. It’s dated, but also relevant, in a strange way. A cloister of nuns inherit a deserted mansion, and two of them go to investigate. A bleeding man shows up in a closet, other strangers start coming by, and there were “fireworks” in the dark. They decide to hide, and care for, the injured man, and they start calling him “Sister Ursula”. There are squatters in the woods, migrant workers, a man who collects everyone’s garbage and never speaks, a suitcase full of cash in the well, and lots of sugar in the pantry. The nuns are plucky innocents in the midst of nefarious goings on. It’s hilarious, in places.

    I read Swordheart, and really enjoyed it. There were a couple of places where the story went off track that frustrated me, but I loved how the relationship between the two MCs grew, and built in intensity. The idea of a soldier being bound to his sword, and actually existing inside it for centuries, is novel. The FMC learns to take charge of her life, and eventually gets help fighting the greedy, grasping, denigrating family who have taken over her inherited house. It has a disturbing sidetrack right before the end, but a nice HEA. Thanks Olga and Lian for the recommendation.

    2. I love that world. Swordheart is good but I really like the Paladin series set in the same world. (Currently 4 books, 7 planned).

      I’m glad her selling Swordheart too Bramble means we’ll finally be getting the other 2 sword books.

    3. I first read The Nun in the Closet as a teenager, and reread it recently; it is surprisingly on point wrt immigrants, I’m afraid. But it was good. If you liked it, you might also enjoy her others—The Tightrope Walker, a standalone, and The Clairvoyant Countess and its sequel. (She also wrote the Pollifax books, which I think are more well-known, but which I think she kept on writing longer than she should have.)

      1. Liz, I own all of her books, even the children’s books she wrote about America in its infancy. One of my favorites is Caravan, set in Africa. It’s about young woman stranded in the desert after her husband and others are murdered. Try it. Yes, I don’t own the last Pollifax book, which was not good, at all.

    4. I’m reading Swordheart right now and am enjoying it. It was nice to see Beartongue and Zale. Since I read the Paladins series first, this is revisiting them, even though I think they might have been introduced in this one. Someone with more knowledge of T. Kingfisher can set me straight if that’s not so.

      1. I think Swordheart did come first . I certainly read it before I read the first Paladin book and since that one I have read the rest of the Paladin books on release.
        However I think there are two other books in that world that came first : Clockwork Boys and the Wonder Engine. They are well written but not as funny or charming.

  14. I have been rereading all of Penny Reid. I find her comforting (and sexy), and her character development is good. Her later books are less well edited (I hate stopping in the middle of a paragraph and thinking–“that’s not what that means, or this is a homonym”–which rips me out of the mood, but otherwise very comforting in these stressful times.

  15. •Guy Consolmagno, SJ, and Christopher M. Graney, Vatican Observatory; When Science Goes Wrong: The Desire and Search for Truth, 2023.  I had become aware of Brother Guy Consolmagno, an MIT graduate who discovered a fairly late religious vocation and is now the director of the Vatican Observatory, from his long-time activity as a science-fiction fan. Sf does get a few mentions here, but it does not appertain much to the present nonfiction book, which  is framed as a response to misunderstandings about the nature of science revealed by the Covid pandemic.  The science-based advice changed through the course of the pandemic on the basis of new information.  We saw that many ill-informed people had taken science to be a source of eternal verities, and regarded the changes to be refutation of the whole enterprise. In what the authors describe as an attempt to correct this, the book describes science as a process, and presents instances when it has gone wrong but later has righted itself.  Consolmagno’s scientific field is the study of asteroids and meteorites.  His coauthor Christopher Graney is a layman, a retired community-college astronomy and physics teacher with only a master’s degree, who through his own efforts has made himself into a respected historian of science and is an adjunct scholar of the Vatican Observatory.

    I think the book’s framework is weak, probably introduced to give it an organizing principle.  Nobody who already strongly distrusts science is likely to read it in the first place.  Fortunately, I found most of the individual chapters to be interesting.  None of them seem previously to have been published in their present form, but Consolmagno and Graney each, as their Further Reading  section discloses, have published articles whose research seems to have been mined for the present book.  The first chapter is on changes to our conception of Earth’s place in the physical universe from Biblical times forward. Along the way it refutes the ignorant view that Westerners before the Enlightenment believed that Earth was located at an especially worthy spot in the universe. In the medieval Western view, the true center was Hell, and Earth was next to it, near the bottom of the cosmic order.  When we arrive at the present,  the authors note that a very recent change in conception came only recently, when astronomers learned that they had relied too heavily on the “principle of mediocrity ” and that our Solar System is in fact very unlike that of almost all the systems of other stars that we have been able to study.  (A change that sf authors are only belatedly taking into account.)  The second chapter describes a rather bizarre geographical theory that conceivably may lie behind the expression “the high seas.”  The third chapter reviews various mistaken proofs of why the Earth cannot be spinning and mistaken explanations of why those proofs were wrong.  The fourth chapter concerns various erroneous ideas about the moons of Jupiter, one of the mistakes being one embedded in both Consolmagno’s MIT master’s thesis and in Carl Sagan’s reaction to it.  The fifth chapter rather abruptly moves from astronomy to the eugenics movement, whose sorry history should be pretty well known by now by most well-read people.  Even so, an interesting detail that I had not known is that the textbook mentioning evolution that figured in the Scopes Monkey Trial of 1925, a work touted in later years as a beacon of enlightenment, enthusiastically endorses eugenics.  It explains that “if such [inferior] people were lower animals, we would probably kill them off to prevent them from spreading,” and that, since we  cannot, we should at least prevent them from breeding. A conclusion adds that lessons from how science goes wrong and is put right again can also have application to religious faith, but the authors, not being theologians, do not push this idea very far.  I would call the book good but not great, which for me is Consolmagno’s usual score as an author or coauthor.

    More from me coming later.

  16. The only book I’ve read this week is Getting Rid Of Bradley,it was under the Mills & Boone Temptation banner in the UK in 1995. This started my love of Jennifer Crusie books , the characters and dialogue in all her books are just wonderful and don’t date at all. For me as a reader it’s very exciting to see these new books becoming reality.

    1. Getting Rid of Bradley is one of my absolute favorites and I have read it many times. The first time I read it was for a book review and I remember likening it to Mr Toad’s Wild Ride.

  17. Has anyone read Kills Well With Others by Deanna Raybourn or The River Has Roots by Amal El-Mohtar yet, both out this week? I’m impatiently waiting for my library holds.

    Kills Well With Others has the characters from Killers of a Certain Age, which I enjoyed. And Ursula Vernon (T. Kingfisher) has been telling everyone to read The River Has Roots (and Amal El-Mohtar co-wrote This Is How You Lose The Time War, which I found very interesting and was glad I read, though it wasn’t a book of my heart.)

    1. I loved Killers of a Certain Age! I didn’t realize Kills Well with Others was out already. And I was going to read more of my TBR before buying more. What a conundrum.

  18. I read then ended up skimming through a recent time loop novel with a romance at it’s center that just ended up making me mad. The hero forgets the heroine and then she spends 20 YEARS ALONE so she can fix the thing that caused the time loop. Did not like.

    I’m also still working on book 2 of Memoirs of Lady Trent. Everyone being sick last week didn’t leave much time for reading.

    1. I read that book and was similarly frustrated by it! And the ending was not quite the reassurance of an HEA that I was hoping for!

      At least she had the dog.

  19. •David Weber and Chris Kennedy, To Challenge Heaven, 2023 (I listened to the Macmillan Audio CD version).  This is the third book in a series, but I came in at this point with no difficulty.  The general setup is at least as old as Garrett P. Serviss’s Edison’s Conquest of Mars (1898):  In an earlier volume, after taking terrific losses, Earth had beaten off an alien invasion and, using captured equipment and data, has quickly mastered, and has even improved, the aliens’ technology.  (Another well-worn sf trope is that humans are more innovative than any alien species.)  A human fleet now sets off to remove the threat. In the 1898 Serviss novel, this had meant genocide, but sf had (usually) become more civilized from the mid-20th century onward.  In the present work (as usual), the plan is to leverage superior human technology to assume overlordship over the invaders without having to kill most of them, in this case by exploiting the aliens’ instinctive psychology.  Various nuances in the setup make the narrative more stimulating and entertaining than it sounds in outline.  Also, because Earth had already figured out that the invading race had been put up to their misdeed by manipulators farther up the line, we are set up for more books in the series.

    The present book is a pretty standard David Weber novel, an excellent space opera for those times when one just wants a fairly undemanding entertainment.  Weber nowadays, when writing on his own, seems always to produce a doorstop book, but his collaborators help to keep him to a reasonable length.  The voice actor for the audiobook version, Martyn Swain, is outstanding, arguably better than the rather shopworn plot deserves.   He stands in utter contrast to Ralph Lister, narrator of the previous book in the series, Into the Light.  I have, moving backwards, just started that one, and Lister’s narration may yet induce me to bail out—although I do seem to be getting more inured to it as I continue..  (Lister, incomprehensibly, has a long, successful track record as an audiobook narrator.)

    One more from me coming a bit later today.

    1. “In the 1898 Serviss novel, this had meant genocide, but sf had (usually) become more civilized from the mid-20th century onward.”

      I immediately remembered THE PUPPET MASTERS by Heinlein. The ending definitely implied genocide.

      1. Gary, True, but there is the gray area that no one knows if the slugs are intelligent on their own or just warp their hosts’ brains so they will work to produce more slugs. The narrator is apparently willing to kill off their hosts on Titan if absolutely necessary, but hopes instead just exterminate the slugs and save the hosts (as the virus has done on Earth). I was thinking more of Ken MacLeod’s Fast Folk, killed off in whatever book of the Cassini Division series it happened in. Although even there evidently there is an argument that the Folk are not self-aware, just faking it. But I’m pretty sure there are a few straight, unambiguous, deliberate exterminations of intelligent species viewed favorably by the author even post-1950.

        1. I’d try to make a case for Poul Anderson having Flandry commit genocide on the telepathic bird people, but Aycharaych was supposedly the last of that species alive when he nuked his home world to ashes. Also, it was revenge for killing Flandry’s One True Love.

          A Knight of Ghosts and Shadows

  20. I’m reading the latest (I think) Jayne Ann Krentz, Shattering Dawn. A solid entry in the JAK pantheon.

    Last week, I finished the Sam Clair mystery series by Judith Flanders about a London publisher who gets caught up in murder—can happily recommend the whole series, although the final entry was a little weaker than the rest for me. Really enjoyed them. The author seems to have written a number of non-fiction books about the Victorian era, also, if I’m remembering correctly.

    1. We need to descend en masse on Ms. Flanders and offer her lots of money to write another Sam Clair!

      1. When I emailed her to ask whether the last book, A Howl of Wolves might be published in the UK in paperback or ebook form, as it was in the US, she said, ‘I’m afraid I have no expectation of either —the publisher just gave up on the series, and so that’s the end result. I wish there was something I could suggest, but the publication element is, as always, entirely out of the author’s control.’ Which sounded to me as if she’s given up in them too.

        2. I don’t know this author at all, but from my own experience, if a publisher has given up on a book but won’t give the rights back, you’re stuck until 35 years (I think) after the original pub date, at which point they have to give them back (I think). There’s really nothing she can do.

        3. UK law may well differ, but in the US the situation seems to vary by contract, with (from what I’ve read about such cases) some contracts saying that if a publisher does not keep a book in print, then the rights can be reverted. I gather that e-print and print on demand has allowed publishers to play dog in the manger even with those terms, though. I also gather that *some* publishers are civilized about reverting rights.

        4. I just checked, and at least on the first few pages, all of the used copies of A Howl of Wolves offered online seem to be hardcover. I did notice that one is from Better World Books Ltd in Scotland (with an added heavy delivery fee for the US). So if you still need the book, Jane, it’s probably obtainable in the UK for a reasonable price and hopefully a more reasonable delivery fee.

          1. I’ve been keeping an eye out in secondhand bookshops, but I’m not bothered enough to order it – the reviews were a bit mixed, and I’m happy with the first three.

            When I was dealing with contracts, back in the 1980s, rights would revert, as you say, if the publisher didn’t keep the book in print – i.e., do a reprint within a certain amount of time. Every so often, an author/agent would ask for the rights back, and we’d have to decide whether we wanted to reprint.

          2. UK tried to order it… never got delivered, got a refund and gave up since I couldn’t find it in the libraries

  21. 1 & 2: Started off the week with a re-read of ‘Crow’s Fate’ by Kim Fielding, her strong entry in the Carnival of Mysteries multi-author series; this book is a round-up to 5 stars for me. Then moved on to ‘Rook’s Time,’ a sequel, which should not be read as a romance. It’s the same characters. In book 1, they deal with one MC’s history & family trauma, in book 2, it’s the other MC, and it’s accomplished via time travel with a sort of multiverse episode in the last third. A lot of conflict which is basically the same conflict as the first book: this hideously dangerous effort is my problem, not yours; yes but I love you so stop pushing me away. Unusually for me and KF, this one was a round-up to 4, because not only is it not a romance, it concludes with the MCs behaving really quite badly to MC2’s long-lost brother. Yes, he is the one who created the torturous multiverse episode, but in the end they’ve secured their timeline by dragging him out of his (Victorian London) (without consent) and then *abandoning* him on the Olympic peninsula near where MC1’s mysterious fae-adjacent relatives live. Now, I wouldn’t be surprised if KF has in mind a sequel dealing with the brother’s story, but as a resolution to the MCs’ long and winding love story, it left a pretty sour taste.

    3. [re-read] my own M/M novel ‘Giving It Up,’ the one about an actor who comes out in midlife knowing it will likely torpedo his career.

    4. ‘Stages’ by Albert Poland, memoir by a longtime Off Broadway general manager, disappointing in that I learned almost nothing of what a theater G.M. actually does. Chatty and disorganized, with not much about his personal life (gay and lived through the AIDS crisis with many losses, that’s as much as I could glean). Some appalling anecdotes of shitty behavior by theater people, notably Sam Shepard, who comes off as a total toxic dick.

    5. ‘The Broposal’ by Sonora Reyes, M/M contemporary set in New Mexico feat 23 yr old best friends / roommates, one of whom is a Dreamer and the other a Mexican American citizen; it’s a marriage of convenience plot which deals exhaustively with many of the real strangle points of immigration in America. Everything bad happens. There’s a happy ending, and the fact that it all feels like too much is kind of the point. This is a situation where a guy can slip and fall on the job (in a restaurant), break his ankle, and have no recourse for healthcare except an Ace bandage and some crutches from WalMart. 🙁

    6. [re-read] my own M/M novel ‘Drama Queen,’ the one about an actor who gets his big break just as he’s starting a new romance and his much-loved parent figure is dying.

    6.5 [re-read] my own M/M novella ‘My Holiday Star,’ which features a character from previous.

    7. Two M/M novellas by Sean Ashcroft: ‘The Wedding Date,’ extremely tropey and not the strongest by this author; ‘Cocky,’ a more solid 4 stars for this one, which features a journalist and the recently-out hockey player (I know! there’s hardly any hockey and what there is feels distinctly inauthentic, not that I care) the journalist is assigned to interview. The romance is credible, conflicts speedily dispensed with, and none of them are between the MCs, who go from initial fake dating scenario to oh, I actually really dig you, let’s call this real dating without any of that tiresome internal monologue we see too much of.

    7.5 [re-read] my own M/M novella ‘Screw Your Courage,’ the one about a private school teacher coming out of the closet at work.

  22. I just finished the Deep End by Ali Hazelwood and enjoyed it despite not being a fan of the main characters’ type of sex. Still, the relationship was good for both of them, and the book showed how each character grew and became commited. Also, having had a daughter who was on the dive team and a son who swam, I could relate to that aspect.

    Reading now Pony Confidential, and so far loving Dr. Rat. Just got Kills Well With Others from the library today, so that will be next.

    Enjoyed Shattering Dawn by Krentz, and I devoured SEP’s Heroes Are My Weakness for the second time.

  23. Kindle tells me that I am 58% through the Books of Jacob by Olga Tokarczuk. About 400 pages to go. It is really good! But loooooong. Started it mid-January, hoping to finish by the end of this month…

    1. I have that on my tbr – will be interested in what you think when you’re done!

      I miss the old Kindle menu that indicated the length of the book – it is so easy to start something much much longer than you expected on the newer Kindles.

  24. •Grace Burrowes, A Gentleman of Sinister Schemes, 2025.  Lord Julian is implored to find a would-be murderer before an attempt succeeds.  Pretty much the usual business for the Lord Julian series, although I thought that the notorious sagging middle problem shows up here, and that toward the end Julian takes an action because the plot outline demands it rather than because (as his character has been established) he really would have.  Also, Burrowes still cannot be bothered to take ten minutes to consult the excellent research on the Regency easily available online these days. Fortunately,  none of her annoying mistakes about matters including the Church of England and (unrelatedly) the then-current legal definition of illegitimacy have derailed the plot this time, although they do throw the reader out of the story.  On another front, I wonder if Burrowes had expected to end the Lord Julian series by now.  Perhaps, in view of the series’s commercial success, she is now stretching out the Harry subplot longer than she originally intended.  Just when is it going to to dawn on Julian that (1) his brother Harry obviously rode to meet the French as either a traitor or a double agent, and (2) we haven’t seen a body?  By genre logic (although, granted, not by logic internal to the novel), surely either he is still alive, or at least he had remained alive long after he was presumed dead.  Can’t we get to that resolution so that Julian can stop his tedious bemoaning of his brother’s “death”?  Overall, this time the novel’s virtues just barely offset its defects, but at this rate Burrowes may yet lose me as a reader.

    1. I forgot to add that I did also finish my book club book, but I decided to hold that until after the club meeting. I’m even well into the following month’s, which grabbed my interest much more quickly. Both are sf mysteries, I think both nominated by the same person.

    2. My hold on Sinister Schemes has a long way to go, but I will keep my eye out for C of E errors.

      Since I have been nearly certain from the first that Harry is still alive, I sigh patiently waiting some resolution. Yes, I rather think this series is going on longer than she really meant it to. Still enjoying it, though.

      1. A common mystery trope would be to have Harry’s freshly killed corpse turn up now, long after his presumed death, prompting an investigation into what he had been doing all this time. It might be more interesting if he’s still alive, however.

      2. I’m still enjoying the series as well. And figure that news of Harry’s death is exaggerated.
        The anachronisms don’t bother me as much as other readers, I suppose.

        1. Some of it’s anachronisms, some of it is assuming that things worked in Regency England as it does or did in the US (Boots and Saddles was never a British cavalry call, the Brits eat lamb for Easter, not ham, per online articles), and some of it is just plain wrong (the person with a “living” in his gift did not pay the clergyman and could not fire him at will, and many other easily researched blunders I could name). These things do seem to throw me out of the story more than they do most people here.

          1. That kind of error bothers me because it is My Period (in literary history.) Such errors in late Victorian through WWII do not throw me as far out of the story.

          2. I gave up on Grace Burrowes years ago due to her farcical errors. I’ve no time for such extreme laziness.

      3. Mary Anne,

        I don’t have any formal education in the period, but as noted, I was reading Heyer in the late 1960s, and Austen before that in HS. And since then Patrick O’Brian, and a lot of Regency romances and Regency historical mysteries and Regency fantasies. Most of those authors worked harder than Burrowes to get things right, and by now I have a lot of background by osmosis. And more recently, a lot of Austen enthusiasts and general Regency enthusiasts have put a lot of easy to find info on the internet. And have written related nonfiction books.

        Like you, I just (almost always) trust the author when it comes to areas I know little about, like some clerical mysteries with Protestant clerics or their wives as crimesolvers, or novels where Judaism is important, or ones set in times and places that I know little about. Or many, many other things, such as most crafts, hobbies, and professions. In fact, painlessly learning is one of the joys of reading genre novels, which is why I think is is important not to misinform readers. (Within reason, of course.)

        1. I stopped trying to write historical fiction and turned to SFF when, in junior high, I realized I didn’t know how to figure out the phase of the moon on a certain date in 1812. I was sure it was possible but in 1966 I didn’t have the skills.

  25. I’m still enjoying my Alexis Hall binge. I finished the Arden St Ives / billionaire trilogy and followed it with Boyfriend Material. Just started Husband Material. Enjoying them all very much.

  26. I’ve been reading Cat Sebastian’s “You Should Be So Lucky” verrrry slowly. Part of that is due to my intermittant dizziness, but I think a lot more is due to an effort to portray the fears and consequences of being outed at that time. But after reading a third of the book I wanted to say, “Just kiss the guy, already or at least confirm to each other that you’re both gay.”

  27. The word opera (VARIATION ON A THEME Book 6 by Grey Wolf) has moved through three more chapter up to 24. Two-a-week now resumes.

    TRAILER PARK ELVES 1 AND 2

    A Note on Cosmology
    Please be aware, this is a LitRPG story, and the main character has a distinct class, with game-like mechanics and progression. It is a romance-and-humor-focused story, but we keep the LitRPG/ Progression relevant throughout. We’ve put the game elements in their own chapters whenever possible.
    Dalton, Michael; Lance, Adam. Trailer Park Elves 1 and 2: “A Humorous LitRPG Slice-of-Life Adventure.”

    From the above, you can see that I’ve read book 1 and started book 2. Deep background. Magical folks have rules, and the less desirable rule breakers end up exiled to Trailer Parks. Colton the Human has been… sort of kidnapped into being the Manager of such a location, and he’s completing quests and going up levels unexpectedly fast. But there are dark creatures and an evil plot…

    When it comes to un-numbered or innumerable re-reads, I’m afraid one of my top candidates is the “Wearing the Cape” series and I am in the middle of WEARING THE CAPE by Marion George Harmon. Book 1, though George numbers them differently than I do. It’s a Superhero story.

  28. I have not read much that is not news this week. (I clocked in at three hours of news this morning, which is about three times my usual amount on a day-off morning.) I had also written to all my members of Congress on two different issues before eight-thirty this morning. And here I am reading blogs and not fiction.

    Consequently, I have not finished anything this week. I have not DNFd anything either. I’m still clambering across the sagging middle of three library books I complained about last time, and I’m reading quite a few rereads, none of them finished yet. At least I’m enjoying them.

    1. LOL “clambering across the sagging middle” – love that.

      Also in awe of your letter writing energy. Just in awe.

      1. My letters are getting boiled down to one sentence now, but I’m getting steady boilerplate replies, so I’m keeping the staff occupied.

        1. I also have been calling and reading news way too much. But it’s that or have a blowup.

  29. Re-read all Murderbot books. Such an intense pleasure! Except for the latest one, System Collapse, of course. I didn’t like it the first time and I didn’t like it on the re-read either.
    Sofi Laporte’s Lady Emily’s Matchmaking Mishap was a new read for me, a funny and light regency, totally absurd and unbelievable. It is #5 in the series. Don’t look for any historical truth there, but if you want a jovial, irreverent romp, this book will deliver. The ending was a bit pat, like in fairy tales, but the story and the characters worked – if you disregard the ‘unbelievable’ part.

  30. I finished “His Majesty’s Dragon” by Naomi Novic and really enjoyed it. Temeraire is ADORABLE. Crying also happened, I think you who have read it might guess where in the story. I really liked Lawrence’s development and how close he grew to Temeraire in particular and how loving of dragons in general. When the time is right, I will read the next one.
    Started on “Winter Solstice” by Rosamunde Pilcher, which a lot of you have recommended. Sadly, I had to put it aside for now after just having started on Sam’s piece. I think it’s gonna be right for me, but not for right now. Bit sad about it, but I know it’ll be waiting for me when I’m ready to read it.
    Browsed the new books of the Swedish talking-book library and ran across “Skandar and the Unicorn Thief” by A. F. Steadman – a middlegrade fantasy where lots of kids want to become unicorn riders, but the unicorns here aren’t fluffy and cute. Instead, they hatch from eggs, are violent and competitive and bloodthirsty, but also loyal, loving and quirky. Bonded to a unicorn, its rider can use elemental magic and they both become a force to be reckoned with, but an unbonded, wild unicorn becomes a creature of nightmares; immortal but forever dying, rotting and half-ghostly, and ever so lonely and grieving. The hero is refused to try for a position as rider; however, a mysterious rider shows up on his doorstep telling him the unicorn island needs him because evil stuff is going on, and smuggles him there anyway. True to its genre, there’s a big bad villain in the mix, and a lot of friendship-empowerment happens, and there’s secrets and big plans and small victories and some pretty neat insults uttered by one of the MC’s friends. I had a great time reading this book, and have seen there are at least two more. More great reading might happen!
    Just before hopping on here, I finished Deborah Blake’s “Everyday Witch A to Z” and thoroughly enjoyed it. Thanks for the laughs, Deborah! I’m thinking that maybe if I read more of Deborah’s books, giving witchcraft a go might feel less intimidating and more as a source of comfort and power. We’ll see.
    Speaking of audiobooks: Does anybody know a great Not-Audible-place to get downloadable audiobooks? I am not a huge fan of reading on my phone, and most Swedish book-webshops these days also require you to use their app to read the books you purchase. Either that, or you are tied to a subscription with x hours, and still forced to use a phone-app. I took a look at Chirp, but it is not supported in either Sweden, Netherlands or UK, and I’m not sure if it would allow me to select the U.S. unless I have an address there. Any ideas of where else to look? One big reason why I ended up on Audible eons ago was because the books I wanted to read were only available there, plus if I really didn’t like a book, I was allowed to return it. But what with the way the world is turning now, I don’t really feel comfortable filling the billonaire’s pockets. Hope to find somewhere else to buy books.
    And gotta find the next read before bed. Hmmmmmm.

    1. In the US, I use Libro.fm for audiobooks. It supports independent bookstores and has audiobook recommendations from booksellers, which I enjoy. I don’t know if it’s available in Sweden, though.

      Kobo might be another option to try?

      1. Thanks, I’ll have a look at Libro.fm and see what happens!
        Isn’t Kobo also tied to using an app on phone or tablet? I know it’s a thing here, but thought it also required either it’s own e-reader, or an app.

      1. Yes. Despicable guy. He did not deserve the love and devotion he got. I wish him lego-pieces under his bare feet in the dark and cracker-crumbs in his underpants forever. And everything he drinks will, regardless of what it started as, be lukewarm Lipton Yellow Label that has steeped for 3 hours in a dirty mug previously containing coffee. And wherever he goes he’ll always have a slight whiff of rotten-egg-farts in his nose. And his left sock will always be just slightly wet. And…

    3. I’m one of the fans of Winter Solstice. I most often reread during the manic period between Thanksgiving and New Year because it’s slower pacing and gentle unfolding are soothing to frazzled me.

  31. Libro.fm does have an option to download audio files and listen that way, if it’s an option in your country. (Go to Support, then Help Center, then Download Guide for all the listening options.)

    I’ve never used Kobo for audiobooks, so I’m not sure about that, sorry!

  32. The ancient Greeks considered love a mental illness that led to suicide, homicide, betrayal, war, all sorts of fun. “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.” Eros (or Cupid, as the Romans called him) used a bow and arrow for good reason, and just look at Paris and Helen and the Trojan War if you don’t believe me. They didn’t have a single love story that ended well. My AP Western Civ teacher loved giving us eye-openers like that to show how differently other people thought about stuff we take for granted, and it always seemed to me that the Greeks knew what they were talking about. To them, Cupid would have been one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, if he’d needed a horse.

    WEARING THE CAPE Book 1 Chapter 27, Marion G. Harmon

    Beware of Greeks bearing opinions.

    1. In defense of the classical-period Greeks, if not their ancestors, many Greek comedies seem to have involved arranging happy endings for young lovers. The same was definitely true of the Roman comedies imitating them. Also, when the Greeks more or less invented the novel some (possibly most) of the plots were adventure stories with happy endings for lovers.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Greek_novel?wprov=sfla1

      1. All might be true but does not advance Harmon’s plot. It contains a love story, but is NOT a romance. I shed tears before the book is done.

  33. I loved Ali Hazrlwood’s new book, Deep Dive. Couldn’t put it down. BDSM is not my favourite theme but Hazelwood normalizes it within the context of the plot. The female and make MC’s are into it and there’s never any sense of judgement. They enter into a consensual relationship that involves navigating ex’s, collegiate and Olympic athletic competitions and their respective life goals. The male MC remains a but opaque until the end but the female MC is complicated and sympathetic.

    I’m a fan of Tessa Bailey’s but I did not care for Dream Girl Drama. DNF. The female MC is insipid and too clueless to be believable and the male MC is overbearing and sexist in the way he treats his gf – for example, he badgers her into deleting the phone numbers of all the other men she knows from her phone. Yuck. Not her best effort.

  34. Reading too much political stuff and mainly cozies as an antidote. Also really enjoyed The Duke at Hazard. Will definitely check out the next Ciji and the Curator book after I finish a Charlotte MacLeod Peter Shandy reread. Although it’s been so long I’m not sure if it qualifies as a reread.

  35. Read Ari Baran’s “Delay of the Game” and enjoyed it a lot and ended it with a big smile on my face, but seriously guys talk to each other!

    Also read Nghi Vo’s 2024 novella “The City of Glass” about an angel and a demon and a city with lyrical and beautiful imagery. But I spent the whole novella waiting for an explanation for why the angels destroyed the city at the beginning, which wasn’t forthcoming. I think it was just a plot catalyst, angels as natural disaster, so I think I might like it better on re-read.

    Best thing I read this week was another 2024 novella, ‘The Tusks of Extinction” by Ray Nayler – somehow both profound and heavy-handed, but I loved the mammoths on the steppes of Siberia. I also hadn’t realized that Nayler has a background in wildlife conservation, which I think helps ground the story. Will move “The Mountain in the Sea” up my tbr.

    Otherwise mostly still happily reading Teen Wolf fanfic 😉

  36. Just had to drop back in and say the M/M figure-skating book has been informally accepted and we’re looking at a June release. 🙂

      1. (I’m in the middle of Carlos Gardel right now. It does NOT have a sagging middle; that’s not why I’m being so slow.)

  37. Note to all Ngaio Marsh fans: Chirp is selling almost all Marsh audiobooks for $2.99 at the moment.

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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