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This is a Good Book Thursday: Reading as Research

I’ve been reading romance this week, trying to figure out what’s going in the genre now, and I’ve come to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter, I can only write what I can write. I never did write to market (as in “What’s the hot trope now?”) but I did pay attention. Now, I don’t care. Which is good because Bob is still bombarding me with zombie ideas.

What did you read this week?

169 Responses

  1. Is there a dominant trope at the moment? I think anybody who follows this blog is not much concerned with trends.

    Honestly I think very often we are way ahead of any trend thanks to fellow Arghers wide range of interests.

    We’ve got the regency, the contemporary, the hockey, the sf, the fantasy and most importantly the tentacles covered 🙂

    2. And for the record, I’ll read anything you write, Jenny, and would be most delighted if you wrote tentacle hockey romance (why isn’t someone doing that??!) but have no expectations.

        1. What a brilliant idea! And surely they would be on the Seattle Kraken team who are already appropriately named. Now we just need to find someone to write this…

          4. I’m still worn out from researching the figure skating book and I really do loathe professional team sports organizations but, I mean, if we’re talking actual kraken goaltenders, something tells me the *realism* of it all isn’t exactly the point. 😀 So who knows!

  2. I have no idea what the current trends are. I do think that m/f hockey romance is having it’s heyday, but otherwise it feels all over the place.

    I listened to the Duke at Hazard by KJ Charles. It was good, if not her best work. It meandered in the middle a bit but the end was solid. And I listened to a podcast where Alexis Hall talked about genre and expectations, which was interesting.

    I tried a few things that aren’t worth mentioning here before settling into A Taste of Gold and Iron again. I used to have a better memory, I swear because while I remember liking it, I have very little recollection of the particulars. On the reread now I recognize the break in that figures so prominently in Running Close to the Wind. It’s interesting to be on the other side of that and I will probably have to listen to that book next.

    1. I liked ‘A Taste of Gold and Iron’ more than ‘Running Close to the Wind’ but enjoyed bother, they are quite different to each other in tone.

      2. The tone is so different! I didn’t even think of them in the same world. I preferred the lighter one, but yes, she hasn’t let me down yet although I haven’t been brave enough to try Tadek and the Princess.

        1. “Tadek and the Princess” is lovely, there’s such grace in it. Admittedly it lacks a romance, and having a hanky isn’t a bad idea 😉

          1. Gah. I don’t know if I am strong enough. I really liked Tadek as a character and want him to have a good life.

          2. If it helps it’s set after ‘A Taste of Gold and Iron’ with flashbacks, and I think it leaves Tadek in a good place.

      2. It’s The Meet Cute Bookpod on Spotify. I was looking for more audiobook options as my Amazon boycott continues and I have been very happy with what they have to offer.

        1. Luckliy it looks like its a proper podcast so available through any podcatcher, for those of us who don’t like Spotify 😉

  3. I went to a mastermind conference last October where the most successful authors shared their paths to glory, and the light that went off in my head was not what was intended. In the romance genre, we’re told to write to our genre, hold tightly to our brand, create covers that match the top 10 books in our niche, and to use the trending tropes, but what I saw at the conference was a group of authors who did their own thing–and it worked spectacularly. Do romance readers want the familiar? Sure. It’s comforting. But they’re also smart, and they go wild for something fresh and different within the context of those familiar tropes and storylines. As writers, the only thing that separates us is our own unique voices, and in today’s marketplace, writing a book that’s different, daring, and has our own twist, could be the thing that makes us break out from the midlist. Do your thing, Jenny!

  4. A few weeks ago, I listened to the audiobook of Fourth Wing (Rebecca Yarros). I was pleasantly surprised to think it was great (too often I’m disappointed after I hear that a book is great). I put the second audiobook in that series on hold. Last night, the library informed me that the second book was ready for me to borrow. Now I have to finish Bookshops and Bonedust, by Travis Baldree (which I’m enjoying), so I can complete Iron Flame within the three weeks I have it.

  5. I have no idea what the trend is, I read who I like. Which is why the Sanctuary Moon T-shirt made me so happy in Lavender’s Blue 🙂 I finished Everything is Tuberculosis by John Green and then re read some Georgette Hyer as I needed something light hearted and removed from reality like Regency England. lol

    1. Sadly I missed the Sanctuary Moon T Shirt reference, as I hadn’t read Murderbot when I read Lavender’s Blue,

    2. My goddaughter bought me a Sanctuary Moon T-shirt for Christmas. 1) isn’t she excellent?? 2) Everyone should have one of their own.

      1. Must try to find such a t-shirt.
        Not enough time for hubby’s upcoming b’day, but there’ll be another occasion.

        1. I got mine off of Tee Fury or Tee Public, I think. Not licensed by the author and there was a wide variety of designs from different artists. Of course that may have changed now that it is more mainstream.

          1. Thanks for the rec. These days, I’ll have to opt for a European vendor – anazon of course also has some nice Sailor moon shirts but I’ll stick to etsy etc. I feel really bad about not having cancelled audible yet

          2. Dodo, I haven’t cancelled Audible yet either. I have paid for a year and it doesn’t renew until September, so I have time to decide. The reason I am hesitating is that some the indie authors who I like go through the Zon to get their audiobooks made and I don’t know if they will be available elsewhere. I still want to support them. And I guess I am using the junk food approach. If 80% or 90% of your diet is healthy then a percentage of junk is allowable.

            I have been been doing really well supporting only small, used, local or blue businesses and there is no true ethical consumption in capitalism, so we can be a little gentle with ourselves.

          3. I got some great stuff last year off of ebay, but the postage might make the prices out of reach for you, Dodo. Yesterday I wore one titled Gnaws, with Cookie Monster subbing for the Great White.

  6. I don’t know what’s trending, but my FB&IG feeds are suggesting a lot of gargoyle / creature / alien, why choose, contemporary, and dark romance.
    A lot of it is written so poorly that it’s like reading porn written by someone in grade 8, which is disconcerting.
    Some of it is written well enough that you get sucked in by the first book, buy the series, and a couple books in you’re wondering why and how you thought it was good.

    What was good recently:

    Jill Ramsrower’s Byrne Brothers series (Irish Mafia). Decent writing, the sex means something and doesn’t happen until it does. The endings go on forever though, and while the epilogues set up the next book they felt really unnecessary.

    Lights Out and Caught Up by Navessa Allen are as much fun as social media says they are. Loved these.

    1. I have suspicions that a lot of the new stuff out now is written in part or in total by AI, hence the poor quality. It definitely feels like it takes a lot more sifting to get the wheat from the chaff, but I do love a good monster or alien romance when done right 🙂

      1. 100%. I think I get sucked in by book 1, and maybe book 2, and then it’s so formulaic that when I complain about it even my husband says it’s probably AI…

        I’ve started reading the 2-star reviews because those usually point out the grammatical errors and comment on the writing itself.

        I bought the 5rh Byrne Brothers book first, and it’s only 2-star review was how grossed out the reader was by the brief (and super mild) FF scene of hugging and a kiss and why wasn’t there a trigger warning re? So I thought we’ll, if that’s all that’s “bad” about it, it might be okay, and it was actually good, so haha 2-star reviewer.

  7. I continued my Annick Trent ‘Old Bridge Inn’ series spree with ‘Beck and Call’, historical MM set in the late 1790s about two valets and with blackmail as a plot point. Enjoyed the history again, and liked the picture of the lives and work of valets. Not as good as ‘The Oak and the Ash’ but definitely worth a read.

    The I read ‘Sixpenny Octavo’ in the same series. This is an FF historical in the same period. Enjoyed the look at character’s lives (outside the gentry) one a clock maker and the other starts the book as a housemaid. Again the politics is very interesting and the romance was fine, but I didn’t find the characters as interesting (though one MC, Lucy, was very likable, the other Hannah, was less well drawn). Not sure if this is because I am less keen on FF or if it was just because it was an earlier book and the author got better later in the series. Still worth a read if you like historical politics and the London setting was well done, as were the implications of the politics and suspension of habeas corpus for ordinary people.

    I also read the first two in the Irish Foxglove ‘Starian’ series (MM Fantasy) as recommended by Tammy (Thanks!). I alternated between this and the Annick Trent series which made for quite a contrast!

    The first Starian ‘The Traitor’s Mercy’ is fun (but has a grim start) the world is well drawn and the characters very engaging (including a nice cast of minor characters) and the pace is fast. Note though, it is about 90% explicit BDSM smut. As it is set in a brothel this is essential to the plot and character development but if it is not your thing avoid the book, as there is a lot…

    The second in the series ‘The Duke’s Demon’ surprised me. I really liked it, probably more than the first which I had enjoyed. The two characters were interesting (three if you include the Demon) and the author did a great job of making a horrible character from the first book into someone you’d route for. The setting and minor characters also good. Still quite a lot of smut but nothing like as much as book 1.

    Finally, I read Josh Lanyon’s ‘Ghosted’ her most recent book (until tomorrow when a new one comes out). It is fairly standard JL, (MM, crime, similar character types to the usual) but I liked the set up and the backstory of the characters and the understanding of how they got to their situation. I was enjoying it very much but found the last 25% less interesting. The crime (and the romance) was wrapped up pretty quickly as if the author just wanted the book to end… Still a good read but not her best.

    On audio I finished ‘Sunrise on the Reaping’ Suzanne Collins, which is a Hunger Games prequel. I enjoyed it and thought it explained Hamitch’s character in the Hunger Games well. If you know the trilogy you know this is not going to have a HEA (hope that’s not a spoiler, but I think it would be worse to read this not knowing that). The reader was excellent.

    I’ve just cancelled my annual audible sub so had a mad buying spree to use up credits, and now I have a lot to look forward to. I’ll probably resubscribe at some time in the future, but for now I have plenty of books to get through and have Spotify and BorrowBox (library) options as well.

    1. That’s funny that you liked the second book in the Starian series even more than the first. You might like the third better than I did in that case. The fourth and fifth are great faves of mine, after the first. And the sex truly does develop the characters in almost every instance in their books.

      1. So far the third is not doing it for me. At all.

        I probably like the first and second equally but, for some reason, I just didn’t expect to like the second and I liked it more and more as it progressed.

          1. Good to know. I am wondering whether to skip the rest of the 3rd or slog through.

          2. You could just read the last chapter so that you’ve got the context for the next book.

  8. VARIATION ON A THEME is up to chapter 74. The big proposal scene finally happened.

    Rereading books 2 and 3 of the Vixen War Bride series.

  9. I can’t write to the market either. Most of the time my characters won’t even do some of the things I ask them to do! They laugh at me and say “Good luck with that!”

    I set aside It’s a Love Story by Annabel Monaghan but left the bookmark in it so maybe I will finish it someday just not now. I am now reading Cold Truth by Toni Anderson and loving it. I reluctantly set it down to do other things and can’t wait to get back to it.

    1. I’m sad to hear that It’s a Love Story is “put-downable” — its top of my TBR and I was hoping it would be a great summer escape.

    2. LOL, so true. Characters have their own minds. That’s one reason I gave up trying to write an outline first, because I know the characters will come up with something better.

  10. Best read this week is non-fiction and too niche for most of you: The Lost Paths: A History of How We Walk from Here to There by Jack Cornish. It’s about the routes our ancestors used in England and Wales, and why. He writes well and there’s lots of unusual social history – but it’s probably obscure if you don’t live here.

    1. That sounds fascinating – I think I’ve started on a bit of walking books glom (the first half of “The Invention of Nature”, “Grandma Gatewood’s Walk”, “Something Wild & Wonderful” …) so it sounds perfect to me!

      1. Well, there is another theme, which is people trying to reclaim historical rights of way that have been missed off modern maps – the author works for the Ramblers Association. But most is the history and him walking various paths.

  11. I read several in K.L. Noone’s Magician universe: Magician, The Twelfth Enchantment and Apprentice’s Luck, all gentle M/M fantasy. Suited my mood entirely.

    I also listened to two more in Bujold’s Penric series, also part of my mood (bad things happening outside the house; ignore and make good things happen inside).

  12. Best of the week for me was “Something Wild & Wonderful” by Anita Kelly (2023), an m/m contemporary of two very different MCs hiking the Pacific Crest Trail. Really rounded characters, one who makes friends wherever he goes and one is quiet and observant. One MMC has some difficult history, coming from a conservative church-going family (Russian Orthodox I think?) who did not react well to him coming out. Also some lovely letters along the way, which always works for me. Thanks very much Chacha1 for introducing me to a new author!

    “Can’t Escape Love” by Alyssa Cole (2019) is an m/f contemporary novella, featuring the twin sister from “A Duke By Default”’s FMC. Delightfully fannish, with the MCs transitioning from a para-social relationship to IRL, bonding over the FMC’s favorite TV show. First time I can recall seeing a wheelchair using FMC. Really enjoyable.

    “Spoiler Alert” by Olivia Dade (2020) was also a fannish m/f contemporary, with both MCs being fan-fic writers for a show, on which the MMC is an actor. There’s some angst as the MMC has a big secret – I thought it was well handled, and I really liked how happy the FMC was in her fat body, even if traumatized by her family’s reactions to it. Solidly enjoyable. Thanks to Christine Edinburgh for the recc.

    I’ve been slowly reading Naomi Novik’s “Buried Deep” and am up to “Blessings” (2018), which was a gorgeous funny tale of inviting faeries to a baby’s naming feast. Definitely the best short of the week, free at https://www.uncannymagazine.com/article/blessings/

    1. Chacha1 recommended Wild and Wonderful a while ago and it’s been sitting in my Kindle gathering dust. I’m going to reprioritize it based on your review.

  13. I read Thorn Hedge by T. Kingfisher and loved it. DNF a dreadful romance that I picked up from the new shelf at the library because it looked interesting. First person, where the protagonist actually talks to the reader plus cutesy FOOTNOTES (also to the reader). Gah. Didn’t make it through the first ten pages.

    And nothing on my TBR shelf is catching my interest, so I’m rereading Lavender’s Blue instead. Can’t go wrong there.

  14. Still rereading Amanda Quick.

    So far reread stand alones:
    Mischief, Reckless, Rendezvous, Wait Until Midnight, Garden Of Lies, Mistress, Dangerous, Scandal

    Now starting the Vanza series – halfway through book 1 – With This Ring.

    The Vanza series has a lot of Jenny style snark between heroines like Beatrice Poole & heroes like Leo the Earl of Monkcrest. And typical of all her heroines Beatrice is feisty & independent & in Beatrices case the author of horrid novels.

  15. Most of my reading the last couple of weeks has been birding field guides and bird behavior books — don’t worry I won’t list them! 🙂 But in case there are birders out there who want a laugh, The Birding Dictionary by Rosemary Mosco is a fun little book which provides definitions of terms birders use and which at times had me in stitches.
    I DNF’d a few really bad hockey romances which were badly written and seemed like an attempt by the author(s) to jump on the hockey romance bandwagon without knowing anything about hockey. I should have taken Tammy’s advice more to heart: stay away from titles that play on the word puck.
    Finally on audio I am re-listening to Josh Lanyon’s Secrets and Scrabble cosy mysteries. They are not my favorite but I did like the (pretty slow) m/m romance arc and am quite enjoying the “easy listening”.

    1. My nephew’s lovely girlfriend has taken up birding so maybe I’ll get that Dictionary for her birthday.

      Sorry about the bad pucking books.

      1. We got my dad Really Stupid Birds or something like that. All made up bird names that are somewhat cussy and inappropriate, with little snippets about why they are named that. A bit of a gag gift, but still fun.

    2. Birder here–I’ll go look for that!

      Another birding book came out this week–Bird Talk by Becca Rowland. She does full-color drawings of birds and then gives her take on their calls. For example, “If it sounds like a clown honking their horn, it’s a Trumpeter Swan.”

      She posts on IG as “Girl in White Glasses.” I’ve followed her for years. Her drawings and soumd interpretations are delightful!

      1. I will check out Bird Talk! Thanks for the rec both to the book and to “Girl in White Glasses” whom I started following today.

    3. Another birder here and I have a fictional birder book on my TBR. It’s called A Siege of Bitterns (A Birder Murder Mystery) by Steve Burrows. I haven’t read it yet but it’s the first of a series. The hero’s name is DI Jejeune which I found amusing.

      1. Oh the Steve Burrows series is fun! I specially remember Siege of Bitterns and it was a smart book. The “emotional” part of it was a little confusing cause I didn’t feel I had enough information to understand exactly what was going on, but it was interesting. I read a couple more in the series and then forgot to continue! Thanks for the reminder!

  16. •Andrew Wareham, The Half-Bred Heir, Book 1 of The Agricultural Lord Palfrey, 2024; The Land Makes the Lord, Book 2, 2024.

    Nathaniel Perry was the offspring of parents disowned on both sides, and, after their deaths, was dumped into the army while still a young teen as a way to get rid of him.  By his own efforts (taking great risks and with great good luck) he has raised himself from the enlisted ranks to the level of major.  Wounded but back in England after Waterloo, Perry finds that, to his grandparents’ very grudging acceptance, he is the last surviving legitimate male heir on both sides.  He inherits a fortune from his merchant maternal grandfather, and shortly thereafter, a rundown debt-ridden estate from the paternal one.  Perry, now Lord Palfrey,  quickly makes a successful marriage with a newly met cousin (this is not a romance series, more like a competence one) and sets about trying to drag the estate into the 19th century. He does not expect to make much of a profit, but he wants to rescue the family honor after his grandfather, pinchpenny on everything except racehorses, and to take care of his tenants. (Where “care,” however, often means not renewing their leases but instead supplying them with passage overseas and some start-up money.)  Palfrey’s seems plausible for an “advanced” but relatively humane landowner of the period.  There is no break at all between books 1 and 2 and only slightly more between book 2 and book 3, which I am still reading.

    Unlike certain authors I have named previously, Wareham provides a plausible description of the weather in 1816, the notorious Year Without a Summer.  He does not, however, seem to understand the period’s laws on legitimacy (affecting others, not Palfrey).  As I gather from online sources, in England and Wales it was next to impossible to legitimatize a child not born in wedlock.  (It was possible in Scotland, I gather, if the parents belatedly wed. I haven’t seen mention of Ireland.)  It was likewise nearly impossible, conversely, to deny legitimacy to a child born to a married woman unless the husband immediately raised an objection and had proof of infidelity.  I imagine that in theory an act of Parliament or possibly a royal decree could legitimatize a child, but seemingly this was never done during the Regency.  (By contrast, in Russia in War and Peace, Pierre Bezukhov had been legitimatized by a decree of the Tsar.)  I noticed a few other minor errors and my experience with Wareham novels set in other eras leads me not to place complete trust in his historical accuracy, but I enjoyed these.

    (One more review coming.)

    1. Conflict of Honors, Local Custom and Scout’s Progress by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller are the best romances in the Korval series (there is no graphic sex – or tentacles). Your basic space opera. They are Georgette Heyer fans.

  17. I read the Thursday Murder Club and liked it, but it was sort of jumbled and messy as far as plot. I’m told the next one is better.

    And a couple of Murderbot rereads. And watching all of Murderbot up to the new episode….

    I’m trying to find good sci-fi romance now and not having a lot of luck. I have to go through my reads and remember the authors I did make a couple of years ago. Any suggestions?

    2. Haven’t read any great sf romances since Everina Maxwell “Winter’s Orbit” (2021), however I have plenty of older reccs if you haven’t read them.

      Seconding Tammy’s recc for Lois McMaster Bujold either duos “Shards of Honor” / “Barrayar” also published as “Cordelia’s Honor”, or “Komarr” / “A Civil Campaign” for Miles’ romance – both wonderful.

      Lyn Gala’s “Claimings, Tails, and Other Alien Artefacts” (2013) – queer, truly alien aliens, D/s [Also for Gala, her Desert World trilogy, or “Turbulence” / “Drift” (2013)]

      Sharon Lee & Steve Miller’s Liaden space opera series has lots of romance, I’d start with any of “Carpe Diem” (1989), “Local Custom” (2000), “Scout’s Progress” (2000) – m/f, cross-cultural, space opera.

      Carol Van Natta’s loosely connected Central Galactic Concordance series starting with “Overload Flux” (2014), m/f psychics in a dystopian universe. I particularly like her “Pet Trade” novella.

      Manna Francis’s Administration series – m/m in a totalitarian dystopia, yet somehow not depressing. Trigger warnings for everything. Start with “Mind Fuck” (2007)

      Robin D Owens’ Celta series is the other extreme, very fluffy sci-fi, with m/f psychic soulmates and cute psychically bonded pets. My favorites are “Heart Mate” (2001), “Heart Duel” (2004), “Heart Fate” (2008), “Heart Change” (2009).

      I found R. Lee Smith’s “The Last Hour of Gann” (2013) in a list of truly alien aliens (the same list as Claimings) and it definitely delivers. Bonkers, epic, m/f tale of crash-landing on an alien planet.

      The first two in JD Robb’s Eve Dallas series work as romance duo “Naked in Death” / “Glory in Death” m/f wish fulfillment favorites, near (AU) future New York City, cop & suspect

      Anna Hackett’s “At Star’s End” – fun m/f space archeologist vs treasure hunter
      Linnea Sinclair wrote a great set of m/f space opera romances – my favorites were “Games of Command” (2007) and “Gabriel’s Ghost” (2005).

      Michelle Diener’s Class 5 series is solidly enjoyable, m/f alien brides, plus sentient ships

      2. Yuri, Clarification: Assuming that AU expands to “alternate universe, ” which I had to look up, the Eve Dallas books are by now in an alternate universe only in that Robb was too precise about dates for things like the Urban Riots and (possibly, vague memory) the dates of the Big One destroying LA, DC getting statehood, or Irish reunification, and kept writing the series much longer than she apparently first planned. The first few are simply future-set. (The series is also internally inconsistent; the OTL United Nations comes back after having been replaced by a new organization and the Catholic Church is shown using the vernacular after having earlier officially reverted to Latin, among other things.)

        1. Hey Patrick, yup that’s what I meant. We’ve developed in quite a different way to how Roberts envisioned back in the 1990s – not only the major historical events that haven’t happened such as the Urban Wars which should be happening right now, leading to a total gun ban, but also interplanetary colonies seem unlikely by 2046 etc etc.

          1. Yuri, Or the all-female Supreme Court that is supposed to have outlawed capital punishment in the US by now. I think that even in most sf, much less ‘futuristic romantic suspense,’ which is what the publisher claims Robb is writing, the author has goals other than realistic anticipation.

      3. Ooh forgot Ilona Andrews’ Kinsmen universe “Silent Blade” (2009) and “Silver Shark” (2011) are both good, plus the short “A Mere Formality” (2011).

      4. Great list Yuri! I have read about half of these and love them so making a note of the others for the ever expanding wish list!

      5. Yuri, thank you for the reminder: The Last Hour of Gann blew me away and led me to read all her [R. Lee Smith] books. I think a reread is in store.

        1. Whereas I acquired a bunch of her books afterwards and then failed to read them 🙁

          What would you recommend next from her?

    4. Irrelevant if you really want genre romance with only a touch of sf, but: There are pretty heavy m/f romance subplots in both The Sky People and In the Courts of the Crimson Kings (see my review here of The Lords of Creation). The Lords novel itself has a bit of an f/f romance, but it’s pretty perfunctory. Stirling is rather fond of f/f romances and has a stronger one as a subplot in his earlier Island in a Sea of Time, among other places. In fact, come to think of it, most Stirling sf novels other than his latest have subplots with m/f or f/f romances, or both. (I can’t speak well to all his fantasy or his genre horror. And some of his sf, like the Draka series, is VERY gruesome, so read reviews before starting anything unfamiliar.)

    5. I like Ilona Andrews quite a bit, although the fight scenes get a bit too detailed and I usually skim them.

      The Innkeeper series is my favorite, a go to comfort-relisten with cozyish vibes but I also like the Hidden Legacy series. Don’t let the Harlequin covers fool you. They aren’t that spicy. A lot of political style maneuvering. Neither are hard core sci-fi, not much space travel and such.

      Do you read m/m? Hamlet Machine has a free webcomic called Starfighter on their website. It is spicy, cadets in space, with explicit images but I really enjoy the artist’s style and storytelling. And it is complete, so no waiting for the next installment.

      1. The Inkeeper series is internally science-fictional with a little arm-waving, but Andrews later linked it into a metaverse with fantasy works, which I could have done without. It’s the least fraught of any Andrews series that I have read and I liked it.

    8. A trilogy. Sold together as MILES IN LOVE by Baen books, it contains Bujold’s KOMARR, her A CIVIL CAMPAIGN, and her WINTERFAIR GIFTS. Weirdly enough, I just reread them and forgot to mention them in a GBT post. Also, I meant to mention them now because the word “feckless” popped into my head whilst on the border of wakefulness, as in “Madame Vorsoisson, may I make known to you my feckless cousin Ivan.” I wondered if “feckful” was a word, and it is, but nobody uses it.

      Alternately, you might enjoy the hexalogy series THE VIXEN WAR BRIDE which I am currently rereading. The romance part is slow, stretched over the entire series.

        2. Mirriam Webster:

          feckful
          adjective
          feck·​ful ˈfekfəl
          1
          chiefly Scottish : efficient, effective
          2
          chiefly Scottish
          a
          : sturdy, trusty
          b
          : powerful, vigorous

          This may explain the etymology of ‘fecked’ as well. I’ve read stories where a Scotsman tells someone they are fecked or should get fecked.

    9. Some of Lindsay Buroker’s books are SF/romance, although it’s slow-burn stuff over the course of several books. She writes steamier stuff under a pseudonym, I believe, and those may be standalone, but I haven’t read them.

      I liked this series: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FWOW72W?tag=tortfighandde-20 I believe there’s a spin-off that’s more YA, and I’m not much of a YA reader, so I didn’t get into it.

      2. You reminded me I really liked the SF Romance she wrote as Ruby Lionsdrake, particularly the Mandrake Company series!

    10. I enjoyed Kit Rocha’s M/F Mercenary Librarians series, starting with Deal with the Devil. Postapocalyptic Atlanta-area Earth, with clones, supersoldiers, and other SF tech, but also really great found families and people working hard to make communities that help each other.

      I also enjoyed Constance Fay’s M/F Uncharted Hearts series, starting with Calamity. Scrappy team on a small spaceship who have to work with the scion of a wealthy, influential family; again, great found family, side characters, and people trying to do the right thing in tough circumstances.

    11. Constance Fay’s series Uncharted Hearts starts with Calamity.
      Jennifer Estep’s Galactic Bond series starts with Only Bad Options
      Beth Revis’s Chaotic Orbits starts with Full Speed to a Crash Landing
      The Star-Crossed Empire by Maya Darjani
      A Dagger of Lightning by Meredith R Lyons

  18. Oh, Jenny, just do your thing. Your writing is great, no matter what the topic is.

    Last week, I was immersed in Burney, Ohio, and the saga of the Porters and the Blues. I loved all the mind-bending reveals along the way. Veronica dachshund was a kick! The Tees were great. Cash is a textbook narcissist, and could be the current president, except for the thick, dark hair, and being 30 years younger. The negotiating about living spaces was intriguing, and I want to live in the tiny house over the ravine. Lavender’s Blue, Rest in Pink, and One in Vermillion are great reading.

  19. •S.M. Stirling, The Lords of Creation, 2025.

    Stirling belatedly returns to the series begun with The Sky People, 2006 and In the Courts of the Crimson Kings, 2008.  These had the original, if decidedly off-the-wall, premise that in an alternate universe, some incredibly advanced Elder Race, dubbed the Lords of Creation by awestruck Terrans, had terraformed Venus and Mars 200 million years ago.  Then, over millions of years, they repeatedly introduced Terran flora and fauna to there, including humans and other hominids, so that the neighboring planets ended up looking in broad terms as they did in much science fiction from, say, the 1880s into the 1960s.  Thus we find dinosaurs and cave people on jungle Venus; and deserts, canals, and a highly advanced but declining civilization on Mars.  As the second novel closed, a portal to a Dyson sphere had just appeared in an ocean on Earth, as the AIs left by the Elder Race decided to launch the second phase of the experiment.  Now, the third novel begins the exploration of the Dyson sphere.  Stirling uses his favorite transportation, a dirigible, here with a nuclear reactor as the only known power source practical in the huge distances. 

    Technically, of course, the structure involved is not a Dyson sphere at all (in the book it is called a Freeman sphere, but the attribution is explicitly to the same description by Freeman Dyson as on our timeline).  Instead, like the “ALS” in Alastair Reynolds’s  Century Rain (2004) which I discussed a few weeks ago, the sphere has a fake Sun evidently attached to a far wall.  But this sphere is about 1 AU (93 million miles) in diameter,  and the Terrans have no idea what it may hold in its far reaches.  Relatively near the portal entrance, besides wilderness with wildlife much like that of Venus, there proves to be a colony descended from French soldiers and camp followers kidnapped in the early 18th century, and another colony of Britons kidnapped in the mid-19th.  Massive complications ensue.

    Possibly Stirling was stuck with the novel’s title a long time ago from an obsolete outline, since, as written, the novel tells us next to nothing new about the Lords of Creation. (There is a sort of fudge to justify the title.)  The only new information is that they, or their AIs operating independently, were still transplanting Terrans into the 19th century, and had all along been transplanting life forms to the Dyson sphere as well as to Venus and Mars.  

    The novel is written so as to be completely consistent with its predecessors.  The explorers of the sphere, for instance, had been training to serve on Venus or Mars long before the portal to the sphere opened.  But we see little new originality. Far more novels have been written about Dyson spheres and similar huge structures than about our sister planets having been terraformed 200 million years ago.  The novel tells a reasonably interesting adventure story and leaves open the possibility of more to come.  I nevertheless think is is a step down from from earlier work in the series. I also have severe doubts about Stirling’s (or his characters’) explanation of how the sphere can simulate gravity (so that “down” is the inner surface of the shell) using spin gravity rather than the arm-waving superscience artificial gravity posited by most authors depicting Dyson spheres rather than mere Ringworlds.  But what the heck, it’s still S.M. Stirling writing sf rather than fantasy, and in his adventure mode rather than his shock-and-horror mode, so I’ll consider my purchase money well spent. 

    Recommended,  although the series should be started from the beginning; the other titles are back in print and e-print.

  20. I’ve been rereading, since my life between day job and DH health is too stressful to read anything that could bring unpleasant surprises. Rereading is such a great way to appreciate author’s subtleties and details. I finished the In Dead series again and was struck by how fun it is despite having a very clear formula for many scenes—always a well done description of NYC as Eve drives to work for example. A lot of the Vorkosigan series, including Captain Votpatril’s Alliance. I think I recall a comment here, maybe by Patrick, that the ImpSec building has windows in this book and it annoyed him since it didn’t in prior books? I can report that in fact it has no windows here either and the ImpSec agents escape through doors and the roof. Now I’m rereading Beauty Like the Night by Joanna Bourne. It’s amazing how early she reveals who Peter really is—and yet convinces us that those around Peter completely miss it.

    1. I find the In Death novels weirdly soothing? I know what is going to happen, and I know that the core characters are ultimately safe – despite any imminent peril, so it is really just a matter of justice being served. Bad guys get punished, our good guys thrive…it’s nice to know it will happen these days, even if only in fiction!

      1. Exactly. And every book has a scene where Eve asks about a weird English phrase and those are great.

    3. Two book club books:

      The Great Believers, which I liked more than most people in book club- I think maybe because they are all quite a bit younger than me? Very thought-provoking and reflective and evocative.

      I Who Have Never Known Men, which I definitely did not enjoy reading but am glad to have read. A strange little book, in which nothing really happens but it manages to be deceptively layered.

  21. I read the latest Lord Petteril mystery. Good reading as always–the kind of characters one wants to revisit regularly. Apart from that, I’ve been on vacation, which in theory should be great reading time, but I mostly hung out and slept.

  22. And I for one am glad you write what you write! Picked up Anyone But You again last night, tired of the mystery I was reading, and was glad I did.
    I’m finding many DNFs, but did enjoy an Agatha Christie. I’ve just begun reading the Hercule Poirot series.

  23. Alien romance. You can do anything with an alien. The possibilities are limitless. What is romance to an alien anyway? Maybe its making you their snack?

    2. Tentacles. Lots and lots of tentacles. And usually a language and/or cultural barrier. That is what I am usually looking for.

    3. Is that “Alien Romance” like a human in love with an alien (Vixen War Bride Series) or love between two or more aliens (“The Gods Themselves” by Asimov)? I also recall several human/robot/android romances.

      “My Stepmother is an Alien” 1988

  24. Debbie, No, the opposite! The ImpSec Building had windows earlier but they are gone here. Miles explicitly looks out one in Memory, I think, and there are indirect indicators of windows elsewhere.

      1. Huh. I reread Memory too and it has lots of references to windowless rooms there and a search for window didn’t turn up any scene using that word about an ImpSec window. There are scenes with Miles looking out windows at Vorkosigan house and of course the scene you are thinking of may not use the word window. But I always thought it was a windowless building.

  25. I read a wonderful book called “The Retired Assassins Guide to Country Gardening” by Naomi Kuttner. It made me laugh, and I loved the characters. I was so disappointed when I realized her next book doesn’t come out until mid-December.

    2. I’m reading that one right now and loving it! So much fun. I love Dante’s thoughts as the retired assassin considers bowling shoes, for instance, in the context of his former profession. Reminds me a bit of the Thursday Murder Club. Love the New Zealand small town setting, rather like Brokenwood.

  26. I listened to a couple of books I’ve already read (CU series by James/Finley) – I noticed them to be included in my audible without me having to use credits a plus! I don’t like one of the narrators of their narrator combo, but the other I like quite a bit. CU was my intro to hockey. It’s not too heavy on the sports aspect.

    10 ways to actually fall in love: himbo/idiots to lovers. Kind of unrealistic how clueless the one MC starts out, but has a lot going on for it, yet a VERY sappy last fifth with all the former MCs of this series crowding the story made it a less fun book.

    Binged Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere on my flight to Vancouver. I’m really a slow reader = I’m still 60 pages short of finishing up. No hockey!!! Who’d knew lol.

    Have started Emmery Fox’s title 3 in the series: Unrecognizable Player. Ca 30 % in – ebook easier to read on the skytrain than the Gaiman volume. What dies it say of the book that I got of the wrong station and had to wander around Vancouver to find the Expo line?? Well, kiddo would (did) just roll her eyes about clueless mama…
    Today I hope to go on a bts tour in Roger Arena. Would prefer Bell Centre, oops, wrong city.

  27. As you know I am slowly working my way through your past novels, and it has been slow this week, not sure if it’s the heat or my medication but I’ve been sleeping a lot, which slows my reading down, however, I am now on The Unfortunate Missy Fortunes, only just started it, so getting to know the characters again, been many years since I last read this, so it’s all new again. Some characters in your books have been imprinted on my memory, some not so much, but thats good because it feels like I’m reading it for the first time again. I think in the next few months I will have read all of them and be up to date, which is good because I have a real backlog of other books to read now.

    1. I have never read The Unfortunate Miss Fortunes, but I’ve wanted to for years. Unfortunately that one has, as far as I have been able to find out, never been releasedin audio. I guess at some point I’ll just have to read it as an e-book with my computer-speech…. 🙁

  28. I’ve always written what I felt compelled to write, mostly romance, mostly fantasy, mostly with suspense. Hard to fit into a genre, but I think romantasy is finally catching up to me.

    For reading this week, I finished It Takes a Psychic and totally loved the dust bunny. In the end notes, Jayne Castle acknowledges how the dust bunnies have taken over the series and energized it.

    Currently reading The Retired Assassin’s Guide to Country Gardening and loving it. Reminds me of Thursday Murder Club and Dante is sort of like Murderbot in how he approaches non-assassin life.

    Finished a Lady Hardcastle, Death by the Seaside, and enjoyed that immensely. This is a pre-WWI fun series with a female duo featuring a former spy and her circus-trained maid. Lots of humor involved in solving complex crimes.

  29. I’ve been reading ‘The girl with the make-believe husband” by Julia Quinn. It’s a pre-Bridgerton, mostly set in Revolutionary War New York. The make-believe isn’t fantasy, it’s that she tells someone she is married to the man while he’s lying in the hospital in a coma – otherwise she would have had to leave. He wakes up, and despite memory loss, he believes her. The web keeps spiraling around them both. I’m interested in how she’s going to resolve this.

    1. Sounds a lot like the movie “While You Were Sleeping’, with Sandra Bullock and Bill Pullman, et al.

      1. The Libby writeup for the Quinn (taken from the publisher?) actually uses the phrase “while you were sleeping,” thus comparing it to the movie (although in the book the write-up strongly suggests that she gets the sleeper, not his brother).

  30. I also read The Retired Assassin’s Guide to Country Gardening. Which starts out looking like the retired assassin is the main character but it turns out to be more of an ensemble cast and an odd murder mystery with some paranormal elements, set in New Zealand. I’m looking forward to the sequel as well.

  31. I hope the romancing will not happen WITH the zombies in these novels. . . I don’t think I can read that. . .
    I finished my reread of the third and last part of the Farseer-trilogy by Robin Hobb: “Assassin’s Quest”. She’s a great writer, but it’s so daaark. And sad. Now that I’ve read these books as a teenager, a mid-20’s AND a mid 30’s, I’m happy to find they’ve aged well and I along with them, and also how I perceive the characters differently for every reread. Life-experience really does things to your brain.
    Yesterday I started on “Water Moon” by Samantha Sotto Yambao. It has an interesting start to it, and I’m curious to where it’s going…
    … BUT then I read the WW-post and SORRY Water Moon, but Rocky Start has to come first. All three of them. So, I’m reading Rs1 and knitting on the blue cat.
    Sidetrack: I’m thinking that unless another obvious name presents itself for a beastie I make (regardless of what it’s made from – yarn, fabric, clay, mosaics, whatever), perhaps I could/should name it after a character in whatever I’m reading at the time of creating/finishing. Sometimes names pop up by themselves, and sometimes they don’t. Then that could be a good solution, I think. Plushies in particular need names.

    1. William is the cat in Rocky Start, and a Maine Coon cat is a big cat. I think they are naturally tailless, though.

      1. Manx, I think are the breed without tails. Maine Coons are huge and overly fluffy.

      2. I was considering William indeed, if something doesn’t pop up, BUT I don’t think this kitty is turbo-fluffy enough. It’s more fussy than fluffy. It doesn’t have to be named after an animal, of course, so plenty to choose from. 🙂
        Manx are the tailless ones, indeed. I got to pet one once. It was very strange to let your hand run along the back of it and then… it just ended. It had a little “star” of fur going all directions where the tail of other cats are. Such cute and strange kitties. I remember waaay back when for the Harry Potter-fanclub you could get your patronus (protective creature of collected happy memories and feelings) figured out on their website, and mine is allegedly a Manx. I don’t know enough about them to know whether that reflects me as a person, but at least I know what it looks like. 🙂

        1. I adopted a bob tailed calico named Grace Kelly. If I had been thinking, I would have named her Bells.

  32. Mary Lancaster’s Petteril’s Baby is #8 in the historical mystery series about Lord Petteril and his young wife April. A few days ago, this novella, newly published, dropped into my kindle. I knew it would happen, of course, for I pre-ordered it. In preparation for reading it, I had to refresh my memory about Lord Petteril and his adventures, so I re-read the entire series first, before reading this one. It was a worthy addition to the series.
    One morning, Petteril April have a surprise left on the doorsteps to their London house – a baby. They are trying to find out whose baby it is, and as always, their investigation leads them to some complications. The story reads like a light diversion. It also feels like the end of the series – a series that I enjoyed wholeheartedly.

  33. I have been reading the Sarah J Mass the court series. I am on book two. I am enjoying it thorly but I am listening to Rocky Start. I so enjoy and love how you and Bob write together. I can’t wait for you next book but I will reread and listen to all your older one as I enjoy them so much and I feel good after reading and listening. I enjoy Sarah’s books too but I don’t come away with a good feeling which will limit me on how much I will read them. Probably only once….

  34. Thanks to someone here telling me of its existence, I read Cici and the Curator Search for Treasure, which was delightful, and it was really nice to be back with Cici, Romeo and the giant dogs. So then I had to reread Cici and the Curator, which is one of my favourite comfort reads.

    Most unexpected read of the week was The Stranger Times by CK McConnell. A woman struggling to get by after her divorce from a cheating husband takes a job at a trashy newspaper that reports obviously fake supernatural events (‘Pub toilet possessed by the devil’, that sort of thing). The newspaper is chaotic, the editor is a foul mouthed drunk. But when someone dies, they realise that some of the stories they previously dismissed as nonsense are in fact terrifyingly real.

    It took me a while to get into it, because there are a number of different points of view, but it was well worth persisting. A daft and wonderful book.

  35. totally aside, my thirteenth and fourteenth AeroGarden Aerovoirs arrived today and have been placed in service to my hydroponic gardens.

    I used to name all the reservoirs after sea nymphs or water goddesses. I think I ran out of names four or so back. I may have to do some more research. Isn’t that what this GBT is about?

  36. I have two weeks’ reading to report; if I didn’t know how tolerant you all are, I would give only the highlights, but you get everything. 😉

    1. ‘The Lord’s Gambit’ by Neil S. Plakcy, M/M Victorian that I really wanted to rate higher but can only say: I read it all. It had a happy ending. 3 stars.

    2. ‘Some Winter’s Evening’ by Erin Langston. Long novella/short novel, F/M set in 1821 feat. a nursery governess and a barrister who have a posting-inn encounter then meet awkward at the barrister’s sister’s house where the governess is starting work (oops); both characters are great, 5 stars.

    3. ‘Harvest Season’ by Annick Trent. 1790s F/F novelette about a west country barmaid and a Welsh migrant worker who team up to notify some weavers at risk of arrest for organizing. Hopeful ending. 4 stars.

    4. ‘The Devil Drives: A Life of Sir Richard Burton’ by Fawn M. Brodie. Oof, what a mess that guy was. Another big fat book into the library donation bag.

    5. ‘The Devil Earl’ by Deborah Simmons. Billed as a Regency Romp and really quite entertaining in a Band Sinister-meets-Northanger Abbey way. Salted equally with anachronistic thought & behavior and Heyer-esque Regency cliches but stars a smart, hard-working, sex-positive, successful novelist FMC and the neighboring earl with a bad reputation who can’t resist her. 4 stars.

    6. ‘Lazarus, Home from the War’ by E.H. Lupton. In her Old Time Religion world. M/M starring a Russian American ex-pilot and a Jewish neurologist whose heritage holds the key to a perilous magical mystery. 5 stars.

    7. ‘My Perfect Screwup’ by Ryan Taylor & Joshua Harwood. M/M student / professor scenario with way too many and too graphic sex scenes, plus arrested development on both sides, plus refusing to hear explanations while blaming someone for the action you refuse to let them explain about. 3 generous stars (I was on a plane, any entertainment was better than none).

    8. ‘Cowboy Dreams’ by Kaje Harper, a novelette in which MC1 is a city hotelier come to the back of beyond to do something with the ranch he’s inherited, and MC2 is a cowboy he hooks up with then partners with. As usual with this author, I like the character development a lot. 5 stars, rounded up only because I wanted more book.

    9. ‘Master of Ceremonies’ by Joel Grey, memoir, goes quite deeply into the personal but also has much to say about his profession and his development as a performing artist.

    10. ‘Sonny Boy’ by Al Pacino, memoir, quite frank about his personal messiness, but plenty of artistic revelation here.

    11. ‘Homecoming for Beginners’ by Ashlyn Kane, M/M, 5 stars. MC1 is a Chicago paramedic with anxiety who inherits his rejecting father’s mansion (+ money) in small-town Connecticut; MC2 is the small-town golden boy who’d just been hired as a live-in general aide by the father. MC2 has recently separated from the military as sole surviving parent of 8-yr-old boy. There are many complications, all feasible. Slow-burn, falling in love before anything physical happens, 30ish men trying to rebuild their lives and help each other along the way.

    12. ‘The King’s Delight’ by Sarah Henry. M/M alt-hist Tales of Lilleforth book 1; the king and his royal groom /bodyguard start a hot affair, fall in love, survive assassination attempts, avoid unwanted betrothals, and live HEA. 4 stars.

    13-16. re-reads of KJ Charles (Spectred Isle, Band Sinister, and Copper Script), my own F/M novella ‘No More Words,’ and K.L. Noone’s short ‘In Perfect Time.’

    1. Cháchal, just curious why you rate some and not others—I thought maybe fiction/ non fiction but at the end there was unrated fiction.

      1. I tend not to rate re-reads (those are generally re-reads *because* they’re 4.5 stars or higher!). The nonfiction here, well … the Burton biography was written in 1967 and betrays all the common social and academic prejudices of the time. The two showbiz memoirs would be of interest to anyone who liked those performers or to someone researching Broadway, but likely not to anyone else. 🙂

    2. I really enjoyed Homecoming for Beginners. Have now reread it a couple of times.

  37. Other than rereads, I only read two books of note. The God and the Gwisin (sequel to The God and the Gumiho) by Sophie Kim. A fantasy based on Korean mythology where a trickster god searches for his reincarnated soul mate and finally finds her again on a cruise ship for the dead. But then there is a murder or two to solve and the world to save again and other hijinks. Think a mystical Death on the Nile. The Rushworth Family Plot by Claudia Gray, part of a series set in Jane Austen’s world, where various Austen characters from different Austen books mingle and Jonathan Darcy and Juliet Tilney solve murder mysteries and fall in love.

  38. I DNF a mystery/romance beyond the first chapter. The female protag smiled three times in three pages, the first time “lightly smiled.” Who does that? Still would not be happy with “slightly smiled.”

  39. I finished The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson yesterday. The best book I’ve read all year. Astonishingly good epic fantasy with great characters, brilliant writing, snarky and fun, lots of twists and turns.
    Also finished Advocate by Daniel M Ford, third in the Warden series. I do hope there’ll be more.

  40. In the last week, I really enjoyed A Right Shambles in York by Kim M Watt. It’s the fourth in a series of police getting sucked into magic (shades of Rivers of London) set in my neck of the woods. She writes a cracking finale IMHO.
    Started The Retired Assasin’s Guide to Country Gardening. It’s set in New Zealand and so far is coming across as a Crisis-Mayer .com Thursday Murder Club blend. It’s a bit slow, the only reason I haven’t skipped to the end is because it’s on my Kindle.
    And today I read my first Ann Cleeves mystery, the third in the Two Rivers series. I’m not totally in love with her writing but I did like the enduring characters.

  41. I like to listen to radio plays on BBC Sounds. Lately they’ve been broadcasting old plays that they didn’t keep the recordings of, but which were taped by radio enthusiasts. This means the sound quality can be a bit iffy, but the plays tend to be good. I just listened to Black Light by Michael Gilbert from 1972. I mention it because Jenny is a fan of Michael Gilbert’s, and might like to listen to it. It’s available for another 27 days.

    https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002dzmp

  42. I finished the good and the green. And in the end, I liked it. I went onto the villains apprentice, which I just finished and I’m now reading the sequel. I really love this series unfortunately, the third one won’t be out till August. I gave my sister the house on the cerulean Sea by TJ Klune. and she adored it. I didn’t realize that the sequel, somewhere beyond the sea is only available right now as an e-book. I’ve read it. She’ll probably wait till it comes out in paperback. I cannot wait to give her the very secret Society of irregular witches. I noted Venetia by Georgette Heyer was on sale this week on Kindle. I already have it happy reading.

  43. Devoted most of my writing time today to administrivia and to writing up one book so it can go back to the library. I’ve finished others but they’re not yet written up.

    My planned Thursday grocery run turned into a Friday prescription pickup plus three most-wanted grocery items, which the pharmacy clerk kindly rang up to spare me a second wait in line. Too tired for a second full grocery run in the same week. I did park at the far end of the far lot and thereby got a bit of a walk in during my pharmacy run. I think my stamina is up a bit, but it’s slow progress and the hot weather makes comparison difficult. Dental checkup next week. My most problematic teeth are already extracted, so I hope the bad news is over!

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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