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This is a Good Book Thursday: The Tough Guy Week

This week I read James Herriot and Rex Stout and watched Elementary. Yeah, comfort stuff.

What did you read this week?

168 Responses

      1. I’m actually glad I saw it in the theater, even though that means you can’t hit pause to review the subtitles. It’s beautifully shot.

    2. Saw it yesterday at our local theater in Mariemont. I liked it but I liked the popcorn more. So 4 stars out of 5.

  2. I listened to Chocolate Wishes by Trisha Ashley. She is usually a comfort read for me but this one wasn’t my favorite. The balance was off, I think, with not enough time spent with the romantic lead for me to get invested.

    Then I started listening to the Penric and Desdemona novellas and the first three were nice little slice of life style adventures. Now number four turned rather dark and fire on me last night. Probably not the best time right before bed… Sometimes even implied torture can hit me hard.

    For reading, I had started something that was better written than expected and I was hopeful, but I became disconnected from it and decided to DNF. Not sure if it was me or the book. It’s been a long week and I have been struggling with my sleep patterns a bit. I was feeling nostalgic for my more youthful reading years when I was excited for every book I started, expecting them all to be good. Now I feel like I start new things expecting not to finish them. Did I get pickier or did the books get less good overall? Both?

    1. Talking about Penric, Lois McMaster Bujold has announced on her blog that she has just finished the draft of his 14th adventure. Since she self-publishes these, she is pretty quick in getting them out.

      She hasn’t got a title yet but she says tongue in cheek she isn’t calling it « Penric’s take your kids to work day goes wrong”. So it sounds like a fun one.

      I think for me, Penric’s adventures started becoming extra fun from Mira’s last dance, so you have to go past the torture bits to get to the good bits.

      2. I’m so glad there is a new one coming out. I love Penric. My only unhappiness about this series stems from the fact that not all of them are available in paper format. Not at a reasonable price anyway.

        1. I do hope Baen is planning to publish a 4th compilation – the first 9 tales are out, 3 per book that costs $8.99 in paperback (see here: https://www.baen.com/allbooks?q=Penric&dir=desc&order=relevance).
          They are getting far behind, if no.14 is forthcoming. I was hoping 10-12 would come out soon on paper, when no.13 came out as an e-book.

          Re: darkness of the stories, Physicians of Vilnoc is fairly dark, featuring a deadly epidemic, though it leads to some positive results. Pen makes a friend, who occasionally recurs in later stories.
          Knot of Shadows is the darkest; I’ve reread most of them multiple times but not this one. You can skip this one without missing important stuff and getting into trouble following the continuing saga. It’s mostly working out some hard theological consequences for how she’s set up the world.

          2. It turns out that I bought Knot of Shadows in 2022 and read it, but I have no clear recollection. Time for a reread, or at least enough of one to decide if it’s too depressing to reread, as some of you found.

    3. I just re-read the first Penric novella (ebook the first time, audio this time), and it kinda’ surprised me how short it was, because I distinctly remember it as a full-length novel! I think I’m conflating it with the next couple of novellas, which together are about the length of a novel.

      1. They are of varying length. The longest one, The assassins of Thasalon, is basically a novel. The first few are pretty short though.

    4. Okay you’ve convinced me. I’m going to start listening to the Penric series when I’m finished my current audio book. I’ve been tentative about it for years because although I adore the Vorkosigan sci fi series so much, I was bored by the Sharing Knife series and tapped out after a couple of books, convinced that Bujold didn’t know how to write fantasy.

      1. Tammy, you must read Paladin of Souls then. That is so good! One of my very favourite Bujolds.

      2. Of her fantasies, I also enjoyed Bujold’s early The Spirit Ring, a stand-alone that is perhaps a bit less innovative than most of her later fantasies.

        Myself, I didn’t think there was anything wrong per se with The Sharing Knife as fantasy, although the American frontier element there did not particularly attract me. In that respect, it was rather like Orson Scott Card’s Alvin Maker series.

        I’m trying to remember if Canada (or territory that on our timeline is Canada) got wiped out in the Sharing Knife backstory. I vaguely remember that something bad happened to the Great Lakes and I don’t recall mention of inhabited territory north of there. But it’s been a while since I read the series.

        1. I just found the series very boring – not something I ever thought I’d say about Bujold’s books.

          1. You only read the first two. My favourite is the last one 🙂

            I think Arkady is such a great character!

          2. Same here.
            Book 1 starts with a miscarriage. Coming from one myself, I just couldn’t feel how the heroine handled it. Also the age gap was too big for me.
            I might give it a try some day again, but there’re so many books and so little time.

          3. My comment was meant to follow Tsmmy’s. I stopped after the first book in the series.

          4. I think you could read the last one without necessarily reading the others if you have read the first one.
            The thing about the age discrepancy is that it will allow them to grow old together, so that makes it ok for me. Also Fawn is a pretty strong character, as seen through the series.

          5. Tammy, Not sure how you got from “boring” to “didn’t know how to write fantasy,” which latter is why I concentrated on the ways that Sharing Knife might be seen as different from most fantasy, such as the frontier-type setting, and why I mentioned Alvin Maker as another attempt at that combination.

  3. Great picks! My former library used to have book sales, and I once got most of the Nero Wolfe collection. Best. Day. Ever!

  4. Great reading choices!

    I’m reading my January 2026 release one last time along with my March release. I’m also reading It’s A Love Story by Annabel Monaghan and enjoying it. Not awesome but I’m still reading it. I just bought Jayne Castle’s new Harmony book and I picked up the new Nora Roberts so those are next. Although I may read the previous Jayne Castle because the new one involves the sister of that heroine.

  5. Before I say what I am reading I have a HUGE apology for both Jennifer and well, all of you really, I totally got the title wrong of one of your books Jennifer. For some reason I have been calling ‘The Cinderella Deal’ novel by an incorrect name. I don’t know how many people saw this and if I have insulted anyone by calling it ‘The Cinderella Man’ then I can only apologise from the bottom of my heart.

    I think, and this is a weak defence, but I think what led to this error was the cover of the book. I have a Lovestruck copy of the novel which I believe Bantam Books released back in 1996, and the front cover features a photograph of a man. Couple that with the excitement of it also being signed by yourself Jennifer I must’ve had a cog in my brain throw a wobbly, given the fact that I am also quite ditzy this is where my error occurred, so I can only apologise for my idiocy. Thoroughly love the storyline incidentally.

    As to what I am reading, well, I am now onto ‘Tell Me Lies’ nd enjoying Maddie Faradays trials and tribulations. Started that last night, and prior to that I read ‘Trust Me on This. Which again, was a fantastic novel, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Really loved the conclusion of that story. I should imagine that alongside ‘Tell Me Lies’ I will also read ‘Crazy For You’ and perhaps even start ‘Bet Me’ over the next few days – insomnia nights depending. For now though I eagerly await to find out what has happened to Maddie’s husband Brent and see if she renews her relationship with CL.

    Finally, a big thank you Jennifer for creating such wonderful characters and storylines. I have loved each and every one of your novels, and eagerly anticipate the release of the new one you and Bob are currently crafting.

    Happy reading everyone, and again, sorry for any confusion due to me being an absolute fool. Perhaps I should get my eyes checked?

    1. Isn’t there a film called “Cinderella Man”? Easy for your brain to mix up the titles.

    2. I make mistakes like that all the time. Also wasn’t there a movie a called the Cinderella Man? Can totally get that mix up.

    3. Around here, we are so used to autocorrect taking things into its grabby little hands that when someone apologizes for a mistake we go “That was you? Not autocorrect?”

  6. I read KJ Charles’ latest, Copper Script, part of the Two Guys Solving Cases and Falling in Love – has been a while since I read anything in that genre. Its an interesting pairing in post WWI between a cop and a handwriting graphologist. Shadowed, as she often does, by the war experience, it was case-solving, romance and redemption arc all in one. It was a terrific read and I’m impressed with the research that she always does.

    I read the Emily Tesh duology of novellas, Silver in the Wood and Drowned Country, thank you Lian for the recommendation. Both paranormals set in 19th century Britain and both worth the reading – although I think The Incandescent is up a level.

    For hockey lovers I dnf’d Our First Puck by Kat Obie – hockey and shape shifters and witches – I couldn’t get beyond the first chapter. For much more excitement, character development and sudden plot reveals watch the Oilers versus Panthers playoffs finals – if last night was any indication, we are in for an exciting series. Go Oilers! (I say from my comfortable spot on the bandwagon I’ve leapt onto.)

    1. Let’s go Oilers for sure 🙂

      I had to trouble shoot last night (date of kid’s return) so missed out on a lot of sleep and went to be with the Cats leading 2:1, had bad dreams about the game’s outcome.
      Prove of how addictive my passion is: hubby didn’t leave for work this morning before informing me about the Oiler’s win. And posted his whatsapp status far earlier than me.
      Fun fact: my Italian family branch is very amused that I’ve turned into such a rabid fan while I completely missed my cousin’s son’s active hockey career (U18 national team’s goalie).

    3. Glad you enjoyed the Emily Tesh novellas, Tammy. I have The Incandescent on hold that the library, but it’s going to be a bit of a wait. Thanks also for the recommendation of KJ Charles’ latest. I shall check it out.

      1. Tammy has convinced me to try The Incandescent, except it is so expensive for the ebook! Over 10 quid here is the UK. I only pay so much for an ebook if it is a new book from one of my most favourite authors and even then, I am slightly resentful to make such a dent in my book budget!

        1. Crossing my fingers that it will turn out to be a good investment for you and that I incur no resentment.

          1. I never resent people here for recommending books! I hope you’ll enjoy Paladin of Souls but if you don’t, it’s ok!

  7. VARIATION ON A THEME is up to chapter 65. It’s almost winter of ’85. There are marriage proposals in the offing.

    I finished season 2 of HOUSE. Did I call it addictive?

    I’m 3/4 through a rereading Bjorn Hasseler’s NESS series.

    Brenda Margriet’s SUSPECT ATTRACTION is open in my Kindle Ap. Interesting.

  8. Kaje Harper – Life Lessons. M/M between a teacher and a heretofore straight cop/widower. It also doubles as a bit of a police procedural and that is where it ran into trouble with me. I think I read it too soon after reading the latest Michael Connelly (“Nightshade”) and thus it did not make the cut. Half way through I DNF’d cause the writing was not my cup of tea — lots of exposition and unnecessary fluff. I’ll try others by her but maybe not any that double as police procedurals as well.

    The Love Haters by Katherine Center — M/F romance between a videographer and a Coast Guard swimmer rescuer. Both MCs were really nice people, the FMC has serious body issues, but the story just didn’t keep me interested; the stakes didn’t feel very high and I couldn’t stay interested in the heroine’s journey to improving her self-image. I ended up skimming to the end. I think if I’d been in the right mood I might have enjoyed it more.

    I then read V.L Locey and RJ Scott the first in the Harrisburg Railers series — M/M hockey romance between a player and an older coach who was also a friend how the younger MC’s brother. I quite enjoyed this one: there was lots of hockey and though the world created was unrealistic, the authors do warn you up front that it is a sort of idealized world. I was able to suspend my disbelief just enough and to go with the story. I’ll read more in this series — I’m wishing I’d taken advantage of the Amazon sale on these books last week.

    I reread Taylor Fitzpatrick’s “You Could Make a Life” — M/M hockey romance between players. This is a lovely story, and a reminder of why Taylor Fitzpatrick is at the top of the top five hockey authors.

    I am now reading KJ Charles’ “Copper Script” — another reminder of what good writing looks like. So far I’m really enjoying it.

    1. I’m pretty sure that Taylor Fitzpatrick book is either the first or one of the first MM hockey books. Haven’t been able to source anything earlier…

  9. Comfort is good 😊

    Best things I read last week were #13 & #14 in the Mercy Thompson urban fantasy series by Patricia Briggs, “Soul Taken” (2022) and “Winter Lost” (2024). I very much enjoy that the original slow burn between motor mechanic were-coyote Mercy and werewolf alpha Adam Hauptmann has transformed into this mature solid partnership that can take on anything thrown at them, from soul-stealing artifacts to vengeful vampire or ancient frost giants. Plus are real moments of joy and laughter amidst the drama. I am really looking forward to Asil’s book coming out later this year

    “The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse” by Charlie Mackesy (2019) is a quasi self-help book, which worked surprisingly well for me. The illustrations are sweet and a few of them are gorgeous. I feel like this is one I could dip into randomly when I’m feeling down and it would make me feel better.

    Also read “All Folked Up” by Penny Reid (2024), an m/f contemporary between a stripper turned club manager and an undercover cop, both with trust issues I thought were well handled. I’ve enjoyed all of Reid’s Green Valley series and this is no exception.

    And just finished “The Husbands” by Holly Gramazio (2024) – not sure what I think about that as yet.

    1. That is how I felt after reading The Husbands. It was such an interesting premise but I felt vaguely dissatisfied by the ending although I don’t know what the ending would have had to do to make me satisfied.

    2. Ooh, I should do a re-read of the Mercy Thompson series. See if I can get it in audio (and if I like the narrator).

    3. I definitely want to hear your thoughts about The Husbands, when you’ve marshalled them together.

      1. I think where I’m coming to is that it was a well done exploration of a what-if and I can see it would be an excellent conversation starter for a book club.

        However it doesn’t really feel story-structured. There’s no consideration by either text or protagonist of the how or the why of the time slip mechanism, and if there’s an arc there I’m struggling to identify it. Glad I read it, don’t think I’ll read it again.

  10. I read some Connie Willis after the mention a previous week. Loved Crosstalk but having some trouble with Bellwether. Diverted to a bit of Murderbot, and I am curious if people are watching the new show. I have just seen the first episode and have no real opinion as of yet, but my partner snuck behind my back and binged the first four and loved them ( he really identifies with the main character🙄). Sigh

    1. Lisa, I haven’t come round to reading Murderbot yet, but made my husband watch the first 2 episodes with me. He’s hooked. He also loves his sci-fi.

      Now we have to find the time to continue watching, ideally with kiddo #1 who got interested thanks to Henrik Lundquist’s podcast featuring AS – great episode!!

      I really liked Aleksander Skarsgard’s murderbot. And I totally get why your partner binged it already.

      1. Haven’t read the last Murderbot novel. Nor watched the series. I am afraid it will not be good but you all have given me hope. Will watch with DH. He loves sci-fi. Maybe will get Murderbot to listen to on a big road trip in September. Will see if it is on audio. Haven’t paid attention.

        1. It is available in audio in the US, I know, even though I don’t do audio.

        2. The audio version is EXTRAORDINARY. Kevin R Free just totally nails everything. Very different from Skarsgard, who, from the limited snippets I’ve seen, also nails MB’s character.

    2. I have mixed feelings about the Murderbot show. I think if you’ve read and loved the books, it is a little disappointing, but I’m still eagerly awaiting the next installments. They’re only about 25-30 minutes long, so they go by quickly. I wonder how confused people are who haven’t read the books.

      1. So far, I’m not confused at all, Deborah. No preconceptions, no expectations 🙂

      2. I am not disappointed at all! My usual response to film versions of books I love is “Ugh.” I was willing to try this one, and the first episode convinced me they would do a good job, and as far as ep 4 they still are. Mensa and Ratthi are exactly right. Gurathin isn’t working for me so far, but not too badly. Murderbot spends too much time with the helmet open, but I can understand why, for a visual medium, and the feed overlays are wonderful. And I gloat at every clip from Sanctuary Moon.

        1. Yes I love the Sanctuary Moon clips which are one way the show is superior to the book.

          1. Oh, my mental clips of Sanctuary Moon were pretty good. Limited in scope, though.

      3. I think if you were hoping the show would be as good as the books then a little disappointed is an appropriate reaction. But if you’re like me and you were afraid they were going to completely screw it up then I think fairly pleased (so far) is a more appropriate reaction.

      4. I don’t find it at all disappointing – except each episode feels far too short and we’ll be done far too soon. For those who love the books but haven’t seen it, think of it as Murderbot the comedy. It leans far heavier into the humor than the books, but I think its awesome.

      5. I had wondered the same thing, so I put a few work colleagues onto it. They’re all enjoying it. (And I am too)

    3. I love Connie Willis’s Bellwether, but you might like The Road to Roswell more if you enjoyed Crosstalk? She has a wide range, and I feel like those two are more similar.

      I’m a huge Murderbot fan, and I’m enjoying the tv adaptation too, probably because I tend to treat all the versions of books as parallel universes rather than the same thing. (It’s how I think about the illustrations and audiobook narrations and tv options for my books too.) So, it isn’t the same Murderbot characters or story for me as the print or the audiobooks, but it’s fun to see what’s the same and what’s different. I love Mensah and Ratthi too!

      I don’t mind how short the episodes are — it kind of fits the novella format of the first book for me? And I hadn’t realized how rarely SF books by women are made into movies/shows, so I’m really thrilled it happened for Wells.

        1. Sure — I’m the Kelly Jones who writes funny middle grade novels, not the one who writes art history mysteries for adults. My best-known book is Unusual Chickens for the Exceptional Poultry Farmer, about a girl who starts taking care of chickens, only the chickens have superpowers. I wrote it in letters, it was illustrated by Katie Kath, and the audiobook was narrated by Kyla García — they’re both phenomenal! It was optioned for a tv show but never made.

          2. Thanks, Deborah! It was so fun to write, and to see versions of the story through someone else’s eyes and voice, too.

          6. I’m so glad, Hanneke! It’s certainly a book of my heart. Thanks for telling me.

          7. Ooh, I read that! I usually don’t read middle grade books because they don’t last long enough for me, but the library’s website gave it such a good review that I ordered it anyway. It was a hoot! I’ll have to call Becky, the mother of the only middle grader I know and see if they have a copy.

    4. Haven’t seen an entire show yet, but I’m so loving the trailer/snippets I’ve seen. Too cheap to pay for two months of Apple, so I’m waiting until there are only 5 weeks left (1 week free trial, 4 weeks paid) to watch.

      Also, it seems to be inspiring some amazing … I don’t even know what to call it, I guess “fan art,” but this seems to be in cooperation with Apple and the show’s production/actor(s). Just trust me, if you have Instagram, and go watch this bit of flash fiction in video format and featuring Skarsgard as MB: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DKU2nNpAKFy/?igsh=aGlqbmo4dzNqazc%3D

  11. Since it’s Pride month, my insta feed has been flooded by recommendations for books.
    Got a non-fiction about Ace that I’m dying to read asap. So I’ve spent quite some time reading samples and the more interesting titles I find, the less I manage to actually read. Big sigh.
    What did I read?
    Good Boy by Sarina Bowen and Elle Kennedy.
    Almost completed: Love in Tuscany by Maya Jean, Hannah Henry, JJ Mulder
    Still reading: Delicious by Annabeth Albert and many more.

    Good Boy: I know many don’t like this book – it’s a spin-off of Him/Us featuring Wesmie’s annoyingly loud teammate Blake and Jamie’s sister Jessie.
    It’s a simple enough story / romance about two commitment shy people having a hot tryst and then one (Blake) expects them to continue and the other (Jessie) wants to steer clear of him to finally focus on a career path. I didn’t expect much, but ended up liking those two a lot. I’m simple in my requirements, if I connect with the MCs and the story makes sense, chances are good I end up having a good time reading.

    Delicious, an anthology of novellas centered around food with contributions by some authors that I really like (eg Jax Calder). Somehow, the shorter format is not really for me: mostly I’d love to get MORE time with the MCs if I connect. But proceeds go to a good cause (LGBTQIA+ organisations in the UK).

    Love in Tuscany (proceeds go to NGOs supporting trans): I really like that it’s three stories with center piece (a wedding – the to-be-married fm couple is just scenery) that hold the story together. One novella is about the bride’s brother and the groom’s best man (hurt/comfort), one about the wedding photographers (second chance), the third about the bride’s colleague and the bartender serving at the wedding (still to be read, so no trope yet). The contributions are lovely, but as usual I’d have loved more story for each couples. HH’s feels more meaty, has more details (the job of wedding photographers is fascinating, I could have read a long book about them working the event). For a normal length book there probably would not have been enough conflict, so we might be better off with the novella.
    In short: such anthologies to me feel too much like a collection of appetizers, or like soft sketches when I’d love to get the full colour movie. Which is to say: it’s me, not the author’s fault.
    Also, Tuscany makes a nice backdrop – yet some details in the first story almost yanked me out – pasta as the main dish at a formal dinner? Red wine served cool? Well, it’s an American couple’s wedding week, so the kitchen might have catered to their wishes, it hasn’t follow Italian customs, right?

    Enough with my bickering. The Oilers won game 1, so the day is good.

    1. I am a big Blake and Jessie fan. They are both good people. It’s probably my favourite of that series actually.

      1. Yes, they are!!
        I’d read Stay – Erikson’s story – first. Loved it. But some minor stuff bugged me there (their first s*x scene). Good Boy is pure joy – I even got why those two are so horny for each other lol.

        1. What I found highly interesting is that Jessie has to study at university and pay a buck load of money. Here, it’s a vocational training to become a nurse – one of my son’s buddies is about to start his training. It’s ca. 4 years of training at school and in the hospital. Which means you actually get paid (a stipend, not really a living wage) during training and don’t have to pay for your education.
          You don’t earn that much afterwards for really heavy work, but you don’t start your working life with a mountain of debt either.
          I’m curious though how things will change here as in many sectors of medicine a practical training gets delegated to university: e.g. we used to have a renowned midwifery school here – my kids were both born in the university clinic where the midwives-to-be were trained. After 240+ years of great tradition, the school was closed down and the training became a study program offered on of our big universities (at the state universities, the semester fees are still very reasonable).

    2. I enjoyed Good Boy too, though not quite as much as Him and Us. The characters were fun.

      I know I was less keen on the other spin off but I have forgotten what it was about.

      1. It’s just more at stake in and for Hom/Us. Far more intense while Good Boy is mostly fun.

        1. I think of Good Boy as a book that shows that a shallow guy can still really be a good guy and a good partner for a person who is deeper. Which I haven’t seen anywhere else. I can think of a book where an apparently shallow guy is actually quite deep but that’s different.

          1. I don’t read Blake as shallow. He certainly has a very high emotional quotient as demonstrated through his actions.

  12. I finished Gone with the Penguins. It was a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. The MC figures out a way to resolve her issues – and she also decides that her best option is to take a chance on life and all it entails. Secondary characters also grow and change in good ways.

    I then started “Mr Darcy Takes a Wife”, a continuation of Pride and Prejudice that was labeled as very racy, etc. However, the style is very reminiscent of Austen, so it has started off very slowly for me. I haven’t DNFed, but I did set it aside last night, because I really needed something with a bit more action. I got it with “Vixen in Velvet” by Loretta Chase. One page in and you’re already in the midst of both MCs, and there is definite chemistry.

  13. I just finished Katherine Center’s The Love-Hater, and I think it is my favorite of hers so far. As with many of her recent books, it’s romantic comedy with deeper themes, one of which is body positivity, which she handles really well–not preachy at all. Highly recommended.

    1. Sorry, didn’t have the book in front of me. The title is actually The Love Haters. The protagonists are great, and there are some fabulous quirky older characters. And a giant dog.

  14. I have been ready a lot of Celia Lake. She has lots of series in the same world and has published a lot more since I last read her stuff.

    My favourite are still Pastiche (a good intro into her world), Eclipse and Sailor’s Jewel but this time round I also loved new to me The Hare and the Oak, a late in life romance for two characters that popped up in Eclipse and Sailor’s Jewel (so better read these first).

    I really like the parallel fantasy world Celia Lake has created and the way she reveals its intricaties slowly. I also love her characters. They often have a disability or a chronic disease and I think she deals with that really well.

  15. Comfort all the way. I reread Strange Bedpersons, because I couldn’t remember exactly how Tess finally figured out the mystery. The disaster dinner at the restaurant, alone, is worth the reread.

    Then I moved on to The Cinderella Deal, which manages to string along a major attraction between the MCs until almost the last minute. It’s a great story about slowly building love. One jarring note always gets me: Bill comes for all of Daisy’s art work, and even takes photos of the CHERUBS on the bathroom walls. Much earlier, there was a lot of comment about the IVY Daisy and Lacey were painting on the bathroom walls, and then, later, Linc comments on the snake she added, amid the ivy, that watched him while he was brushing his teeth. I know this book was written a while ago, And it was probably too late to correct that error, but it still bugs me. It’s a minor thing in a really great story. BTW, my copy of the book has a picture of a dog holding a single red high-heeled shoe in its mouth on the cover.

  16. Jayne Castle(JAK) has a new Harmony book out this week It Takes a Psychic,so I’m rereading some of her other Harmony books. I read Illusion Town and Guild Boss,two more to go before I get to the new one.I love this series,I’ve been been buying and reading them since the beginning.

    1. The heroine of the new Harmony one is the sister of the heroine from the last one (People in Glass Houses) so I may reread that to refresh my memory before starting the new one.

  17. I’ve been reading historicals, as usual. First was In Place of Fear by Catriona McPherson. Scotland after WWII. Really interesting if you need to absorb Scots vocabulary for what you are writing. Also fascinating to see the suspicion with which people greeted the National Heath Service. Many didn’t believe it would all be free. I wonder if people would be as cynical if we had something of the sort here in the US. Anyway, a good story but sad in many ways. I liked her voice so am now trying the first in the Dandy Gilver series, After the Armistice Ball. I haven’t got far but I really enjoy the fact that I often have to re-read to figure out what’s going on. I like it when everything isn’t spelled out.

    Also, I’m reading a Regency, Miss Louisa’s Final Waltz by Sofi Laporte, where the heroine marries a costermonger, which sounds awfully unlikely, but actually it’s not as absurd as it seems at first glance, and it’s proving to be an entertaining story.

      1. I just bought another of hers. :~) (Because it’s double points day on Amazon–they really hooked me with that promo, and I’ve probably bought books I otherwise wouldn’t have, or at least bought them sooner).

  18. •Erin Connor, Unromance, 2025.  Sawyer Greene is a native  Chicagoan and successful genre-romance author.  Lately, however, she has been battling writer’s block, evidently as a result of a failed sapphic love affair (it is established early on that Sawyer is bisexual).  Mason West, originally also from Chicago, had moved to Hollywood to act, before returning to Chicago to take a leading role in a medical soap opera produced there.  A side benefit was a partly successful reconnection with his extended family, who appear as characters in the novel.  Like Sawyer, Mason is dealing with romantic problems, but of a different sort.  He keeps falling in love, or at least convincing himself he has fallen in love, and either picking the wrong women or pushing too hard too soon, so that every affair fails. Sawyer and Mason meet in a stuck elevator, neither realizing that the other is a celebrity (Mason a bigger one than Sawyer).  A rather clichéd start to a romance novel, the reader may think, but Connor lampshades it as such.  The first chapter is subtitled “The Meet Cute,” the second “Secretly Famous,” then “The One-Night Stand,” “Sworn Off Relationships,” “We’ve Got to Stop Meeting Like This,” and so forth.  To add another layer of meta-ness, this time not from the directly author but from the characters, Sawyer and Mason make an agreement to cure Mason of his romanticism by exposing him to every common genre-romance situation, with a guide with whom there is no chance of falling in love.  This is supposed also to help Sawyer overcome her block, though it is a bit less clear how.  The plan works about as well as one would expect in a romance novel, as Erin Connor herself observes in her chapter headings. 

    On the whole, I think that this time around the author got away with dressing up a clichéd plotline by adding meta elements, but that this is an approach that will work for me only once.  Her next novel will need more originality in substance if she is to keep me as a reader.

    I also wonder why Connor set the novel in Chicago.  The author, per her biography, lives on the Pacific Northwest, and does not seem to have had a lot of Chicago exposure, what with all these native Chicagoans referring to knit caps as “beanies.”  Most of the story is set downtown (in places easily reached on a tourist visit or researchable in guidebooks or online), and the bits beyond that, such as a visit to a generic IKEA in Schaumburg (a fairly distant suburb), betray no knowledge of local color.  The plot requires that the setting be a relatively large city somewhere fairly distant from Los Angeles, but I would have thought that Seattle, Portland, or across the border, Vancouver, BC,  probably would have been more familiar to the author and would have required no more suspension of disbelief.  Although Chicago was once the capital of radio soap opera, and several soaps filmed in LA were set in the Windy City, very few TV versions were filmed in Chicago, and none at all in recent years, with US soap opera nearly a dead genre.

    Still, characterization is good, and everybody that we are supposed to like is likeable.  There are not even any real villains, although, as often in romance novels, for differing reasons both Sawyer and Mason each could have had better childhoods and adolescences.  Recommended.

    One more review coming when proofread.

    1. Unromance is on my tbr and already bought pile. Good to know that it’s worthwhile (I got it for sale, so I clicked faster than usual).

  19. I read Jayne Ann Krentz new It Takes A Psychic. I very much enjoyed it.

    That put me in a JAK frame of mind so I started another series with Second Sight by Amanda Clark.

    Watching Sanditon. It’s ok.

  20. •Robert Jackson Bennett, A Drop of Corruption, 2025.  The fantasy-mystery sequel to The Tainted Cup.  Dinios Kol and Ana Dolabra have now served together for at least months, long enough to establish a working relationship.  (Dinos is
    approximately the Archie Goodwin to Ana Dolabra’s Nero Wolfe, except that the two serve in the Empire’s police equivalent, and Ana is even stranger than Nero.) Their latest case takes them to the kingdom of Yarrow, which is nominally independent of the Empire, but vital to the Empire’s interests, mostly because of an Imperial installation there.  (A partial analogy might be Kazakhstan shortly after the USSR collapse; it hosted the Baikonur spaceport and other facilities vital to Russia.)  Complicated political negotiations are in progress regarding the Empire’s future presence in Yarrow. If push came to shove, the Empire could take over militarily, but it might not have the political will to see to the end the guerilla war that surely would follow, given that the locals regard the king of Yarrow as  divine.  Ana and Dinios arrive to investigate the murder of an Imperial tax official, but things get much, much more complicated from there, until the survival of the Empire comes into question.  Among other difficulties, Ana seems, (to switch analogies), to have met her Moriarty.  The appealing character of Tira Malo (always called Malo, unlike first names for Ana and Din) makes her first appearance, but there is a hint that in future novels she may reappear as a romantic interest for Din. This is a much richer novel than I can suggest in a brief review, with many details here unexplored.  One could question whether the mystery plot is fully fair-play, but it comes close enough that Ana’s solution seems like something we should have thought of. This second novel is a bit darker than the first, but I recommend it.

    Bennett also appends an essay viewing with alarm fantasy’s fascination with, and admiration of, monarchies and other forms of autocracy.  He quotes Terry Pratchett to the same effect.  (David Brin, as I recall thinking more of space operas and the like in sf and science fantasy than of straight fantasy, had earlier made similar points.)  I think Bennett slightly confuses matters by adding admiration of aristocrats and princes to the condemnations, since autocrats often truly or falsely justify themselves precisely as counterweights to corrupt or overweening oligarchs.  However,  in general I think he makes good points.  In traditional high-fantasy social settings, good kings or queens may be the best one can plausibly manage, but a democracy with strong safeguards against tyranny of the majority and against mobocracy, whether a republic, a strictly ceremonial constitutional monarchy, or some more innovative sociopolitical order aiming at the same sort of goals, should be the ideal in fantasy with more advanced social settings.

    Finally, I note that Bennett gave the novel a rather odd dedication: “To the Spaniards—Mantente amable, mantente tonta.”  The part in Spanish is “Stay kind, stay silly,” per Google (but _tonta_ could also be a less friendly “stupid”). The verbs are familiar-singular despite the plural “Spaniards,” and the _tonta_ is feminine singular; _amable_ is singular but does not show gender.  Mysterious.  Google doesn’t show it as a famous quote. I suppose it could be addressed to two separate Spaniards, one of unspecified gender and kind, and one female and silly. Or Bennett made a mistake.  Ana Dolabra could figure it out with certainty.

    One more novel read but probably held over to next week.

    1. I have now placed a hold on The Tainted Cup (I am #23), which I had tagged when you reviewed it, but not requested. I liked Foundryside, but I failed to follow up looking for more by him.

    2. I think I had heard Ana and Din were supposed to be modeled on Sherlock and Watson but I can totally see the Nero/Archie parallel. Either way, I really like this series. Looking forward to more!

      1. For some reason, most reviews pushed Holmes/Watson, but Ana is much more nearly immobile than Holmes and relies almost entirely on Din as her legman, as Nero does on Archie. (I’m more of a Sherlock fan than a Wolfe one, but I’ve read enough of the latter to see the parallel. I do admit that Ana also has some Sherlockian habits and qualities.)

  21. Finished the masqueraders and powder and patch.
    Read Hex and Hexability by Kate Johnson. I enjoyed it so much. There is no sequel, but she has another in the same world I believe.
    Someone recommended to me The house on the cerulean sea by TJ Klune. I finished that last night. It’s a beautiful magical book, MM with magic, but it’s more about the magic than the romance and more about humanity than magic.
    I pre-ordered JAK’s It takes a psychic, and I can’t wait to start it. But now that I have been reminded that the last one was about her sister, I think I’ll reread that first. I also have one called the golden age of magic by Luanne G Smith which is an Amazon prime first reads for June. And sounded promising.
    I adored Rex Stout and in the 70s bought every book as it came out. My husband and I were both addicted.
    It’s really great having new books waiting for me.

  22. Favourite book of the week was KJ Charles ‘A Seditious Affair’. I loved it, possibly my favourite KJ Charles ever! MM romance (with BDSM, but nothing too much) but mostly I loved the integration of politics and history into the plot. The two MCs (well drawn, complex characters) are on either side of the political debate, one working for the Home Office to counter sedition, the other writing ‘seditious’ materials. If you like politics and history this is a good one.

    I also read KJ Charles ‘Copper Script’ which is a nice 1920s MM romance which, among other things, takes a look at the Metropolitan Police in that era. Nice MCs, one of who has an amazing ability to read characters from their handwriting, the other works as a police detective. Good plot and background and nothing too heavy. Another recommendation.

    I read a nice, hockey adjacent short story from The Undiagnosable on AO3 ‘Dire Straits’ which takes place over the course of an evening. A sweet story with lovely MCs. I’ll track down the link and put it below.

    On audio I listened to a short crime novel ‘Accidental Death’ by Peter Grainger which is the first in a series set in Norfolk, England. The MC is, not unexpectedly, a police detective who doesn’t follow rules but does things his own way and of course, gets results and sees what others have missed. That is somewhat facetious, but I would recommend it. Nothing too grim, the setting is lovely and evocative, the characters are generally good and the plot interesting. The reader is good too.

    On audio I am also enjoying a favourite Georgett Heyer ‘Lady of Quality’. It is not regarded as one of her better ones, but I am very fond of it. There is an ‘older’ heroine, and excellent minor characters including her very irritating companion, and a younger couple. The repartee between the MCs is particularly fun, even by Heyer standards, and it is well read by Eve Matheson. I’m taking it slowly and savouring it.

    1. Forgot to say, ‘A Seditious Affair’ has a late regency setting. No. 2 in a series but I hadn’t read the others.

      1. Thanks a lot, FrozenPond, I had searched in AO3 but I seem to be hopelessly lost there.

    3. KJ Charles’ Society of Gentleman Series (of which A Seditious Affair is a part) is my absolute favorite series of hers. I loved each book in the series and they are on a reread loop.
      Thank you for the reminder to reread “Dire Straits” I remember loving it the first time around and will go back to reread.

        1. Silas is just such a good person.

          I can bear the BDSM even if it isn’t my cup, especially as it is such an important plot point.

          2. Now I’m sorely tempted.
            I’ve got more than enough books in my tbr library.
            Of which I’ve lost control.

            It’s amazing, the ebook price here ranges from 6 Euro to almost 10 Euro, argh. I really hope, KJ Charles gets her share of this and not only the booksellers.

  23. Glommed up Nucleus and Nemesis, books 2 and 3 of the Tom Wilde series of WW2 spy thrillers by Rory Clements. Have now got books 4-5-6 lined up. Tom Wilde is half Irish, half American, a professor of history at Cambridge, and the books run from 1936 to the post-war period. The villain in Nemesis was particularly creepy and frightening. Loved it!

    Have also started watching Department Q on Netflix, brilliant for any fans of Matthew Goode playing against his usually suave and cleanshaven type, but as always, great to watch as a very cranky cop.

    1. That’s good to hear, as I was given Nucleus a while back and haven’t got around to it. Must put it nearer the top of the pile. Do you think it matters if I start with No. 2 in the series?

      1. No – but there is an ongoing relationship between protagonist and his neighbour that gets going in the first book and evolves.

  24. Reread Death on the Nile since I’m in the play the book is based on.

    I’m currently reading The Grimoire Grammar School parent Teacher Association, which is a great concept–Muggles have their 5-year-old attacked and turned into a werewolf, so they have to give up their normie lives and move into a magical community so their child can go to school. The mom is trying her damndest to fit into a community she doesn’t fit, while her husband is (of course) mostly absent, and the “special needs child” analogies are many. The snobby atmosphere also triggers the parents’ own issues. As Donald Maass would say, tension on every page, regardless of the stakes.

    I also posted a ton of book reviews I wrote over the last few months, finally.

    1. My copy of Grimoire just came in. The premise sounded so good I decided to take a chance. So I’m glad to hear you are positive about it!

  25. I finished Arkady Martine’s Rose/House, that I was in the middle of last week. I enjoyed it, and could almost taste the dust of the desert, but it’s not nearly as good as A Memory Called Empire and A Desolation Called Peace.

    I DNFd Ali Hazelwood’s Deep End because I couldn’t take any more angst after the first few chapters. I used to be able to trudge through people’s emotional depths if it was well written, which this is, but nowadays I get my quota of emotional pain quite quickly.

    I bought (celebrating my new second job that hasn’t actually started yet) one of the early Murderbots I didn’t have, because, thanks to TV 🙂 the library’s hold list on the first four novellas is hundreds long.

    I have a couple of library books that I may or may not finish, because they had promising beginnings but the characters are starting to bore me. Same old, same old.

    I continue to read A Great Deal of news, and write to Congress about it.

    1. It belatedly occurs to me to wonder what I see as the difference between angst and depression. Earlier this week I said that I didn’t think Celehar’s depression in the Cemeteries of Ahalo series made the books themselves depressing. Yet characters who are experiencing a great deal of emotional pain are becoming unreadable for me. I think it likely that if Addison set a story in the time when Celehar’s lover was murdering his wife, and plunged us directly into his feelings then, I would find it difficult if not impossible to enjoy. Still puzzling over this.

      1. I have noticed that in many cases (not always), novels written by authors late in a long life seem a little too painless, with no real internal problems to overcome. And notoriously, authors very often mellow out from being very angsty in their 20s to something more temperate later on. (Brain Wave and The Broken Sword were early Poul Anderson works, for example.) And there is the “angry young man” stereotype. Possibly angst tends to seem less fun the older we get?

        1. Brain Wave put me off exploring Anderson for years. And that was when I was young and flexible! It is still sitting on my shelf (after fifty years) waiting for me to try it again. I can’t seem to decide I will never reread it and pass it on.

  26. Read Loretta Chase “bad” girls, both Your Scandalous Ways and Don’t Tempt Me. They were such fun just a romp read. Currently reading Shining Through Susan Isaacs.

  27. I got so infuriated at the Murderbot on TV that I went back and started another reread.

    I think I just don’t do well with adaptations? but if anyone wants to argue with me on this particular adaptation I will listen – I feel like a lot of the surface is very good, but they miss all the depths. Which is hard, because you need a narrator for Murderbot, and you need it to sound right – fretful, snarky, defensive and deeply worried for both its own safety and also the Preservation team’s safety (ultimately). Anyway. Eventually I couldn’t watch it, even though I like most of their casting choices and a lot of their scene and prop design.

    1. I usually do extremely badly with adaptations–I can’t think of one I have liked unless I saw it before I read it, and I will never ever watch any Jane Austen adaptation at all–but this one is excitingly all right.

    2. I couldn’t watch the first season of Good Omens for similar reasons (and then the whole Neil Gaiman thing happened, so not gonna watch the rest either). I don’t know why at least the snippets of MB that I’ve seen haven’t provoked the same reaction. Perhaps because they’re just snippets, not whole episodes.

  28. I’ve been on vacation, so I’ve read a number of books while away. No One Was Supposed to Die at This Wedding by Catherine Mack is book 2 of her series and a non-stop murder mystery involving film people on Catalina Island in a storm. It’s very meta with the 1st person author giving footnotes, rather like Benjamin Stevenson’s Everyone on This Train Is a Suspect.

    Another meta, author/narrator book I finished is Anthony Horowitz’s The Sentence Is Death, book 2 in his Hawthorne series. No footnotes but plenty of author commentary. A good, twisty mystery and effective sequel with a few more insights into Hawthorne’s character.

    I really enjoyed the novella George and Francis Roll the Dice, part of the Countess of Harleigh series. Love those characters.

    Homicide in the Indian Hills is the most recent book in the Jane Wunderly series and set in India in the time when India was stirring toward independence. Jane and Redvers make a great investigative team and the exotic setting only enhances the enjoyment.

    Wooing the Witch Queen surpassed my expectations with a wonderful beta hero and a take-no-prisoners ‘wicked’ queen. Delightful fantasy and book one in a series.

    Also enjoyed The Grey Mask, a Miss Silver mystery by Patricia Wentworth, one of the golden age mystery writers. This one is fast-paced and full of intrigue involving criminals who code name themselves with numbers and one absolutely frivolous 18-yr-old potential heiress and damsel in distress. It’s a good thing Miss Silver, the elderly Miss Marple-like PI has been called in to help her would-be rescuers. I’m glad I discovered the Miss Silver mysteries, as they are complex and fast-paced with interesting characters.

    1. I’m glad you enjoyed Wooing the Witch Queen too! Stephanie Bugis is an auto-buy for me.

  29. I read “Anji Kills a King” by Evan Leikam and I don’t know. I think if I was a younger reader, I may have liked this book more. The viewpoint character – Anji – is actually rather bland and follows well-known tropes to a tee. She’s sarcastic and brave and foolish, a typical American teenager. I think I would have liked it better if the viewpoint character was the other main protoganist – The Hawk. The story is about the aftermath of Anji killing her king in a fit of anger. She is caught by The Hawk – one of a band of the most feared bounty hunters in her realm and it seems that The Hawk has her own plans since she’s alone without the rest of the band.

    I read “The Knight and the Moth” by Rachel Gillig. It’s a story about a surviving member of a group of seers who goes off with a mysterious knight and his companions to find out what happened to her sister seers. She attempted to read the future of the mysterious knight and found she couldn’t just before her sister seers started disappearing. I liked the story and the characters, but did not like the ending. It felt forced as if the author had been told that the publisher wanted a series, not a standalone story. I don’t know if I want to continue with the story since I really did not like that ending.

    I reread “Hunter’s Redoubt” by Michelle West in preparation for her upcoming release of “The Wild Road”, which has been released to her Patreon supporters so I’m reading it now.

    I also need to re-read “Shards of Glass” by the same author since she just released “Heir of Light” which is its sequel. This series is set in the Cast In . . . universe and is about students at the Academia.

  30. Lots of new stuff this week.

    1. ‘Second Story’ by Con Riley, M/M set around her Cornish school. I really do love the way Con writes about teaching and trauma. This book was a bit short for the amount of conflict she’s trying to resolve; goes almost directly from Big Crisis to HEA epilogue. The sex scenes were appropriate for character development but lacked balance / ballast by working-things-out-out-of-bed scenes. 4 stars.

    2. [re-read] ‘A Nun in the Closet’ by Dorothy Gilman, in which two Benedictine nuns go to investigate a property their order has inherited and become embroiled with mobsters, racists, and the well-educated hippies working alongside migrant bean-pickers. A whimsical and light treatment of fairly heavy subject matter, with one of the most appealing truly religious characters I’ve ever read.

    3. ‘Becoming Ted’ by Matt Cain, a midlife crisis semi-comedy. M/M but the romance is not central. This is more about the 43 year old heir to a seaside ice cream business recovering from sudden defection of his husband via finding his bliss as a drag queen. A lot of truth-telling ensues, which is good for *all* the characters. The love interest is less developed but he also has a growth arc involving reconnecting with his long-lost father. Two things I didn’t like: present tense (this is rarely a positive for me) and cutesy speech tags like “cheeps” and “chirps.” Rounded up to 4 stars.

    4. ‘In Perfect Time’ by K.L. Noone, M/M short, a lovely little Cinderella homage bedtime story featuring a children’s TV host and a musician who meet at a terrible, fancy party. 5 stars.

    4.5 [re-read] my own recent novella ‘Falling,’ low-heat MMMF, about a badly injured movie star figuring out his next act.

    5. ‘Copper Script’ by KJ Charles. There are very few KJC books that I don’t re-read often; I’m just so blown away by her plotting and vivid characters. This one is still on my kindle because I’m bound to read it again any second now. Loved it.

    6. ‘Nearlywed’ by Nicolas DiDomizio. Rounded up to 5 stars for this low-heat M/M contemporary featuring an established couple, set at an “earlymoon” resort in the Connecticut town where MC1 (the POV character) grew up, in which they almost break up over longstanding issues that come to a head. The conflicts are thoroughly explored, considered, and negotiated because these two truly love each other (and we can see why). Some funny stuff, a number of important side characters who all feel like real people, and a credible happy ending.

    7. ‘The Royal Rogue’ by Sarah Honey, M/M alt-historical involving a palace guard and a feckless (or so it seems) duke, 2nd in line to the throne, who is actually the king’s very successful spy. Fun, rounded up to 5 for this one too.

    8. ‘Pole Position’ by Rebecca J. Caffery. M/M set in the world of motorsports (Grand Prix racing, whatever that is). Enemies to lovers. Picked it up for 99 cents which, not to be bitchy, was the right price. Read the whole thing but gave it 3 stars for inconsistent and uneven character development, unconvincing romance arc, and poor balance between conflict on the page and resolution off. It felt like the author shoehorned a few tropes into the racing frame rather than taking two characters – who were well drawn at the beginning – and writing what they actually would have done in that situation, absent tropism. Also obviously setting up a sequel about a character in whom I was not very interested.

  31. Another reread. A Week at the Shore by Barbara Delinsky. Looking through my nook library for something I haven’t read. Strange times. Need comfort reads. Or the lovely bits in books, not the whole novel reread.

  32. Read Grace Burrowes’s latest Lord Julian installment, A Gentleman of Questionable Judgement. Unfortunately, unlike most other books in this series, I didn’t enjoy it. It was too slow and had too much of horse racing and cheating on a horse race. Not much else. Besides, Julian’s betrothed, Hyperia, was stringing him along, AGAIN. That woman needs to have her head examined. If she didn’t want to marry him, she shouldn’t have agreed to his proposal. But she did. She keeps saying to him: “I love you,” and then plays hard to get. Julian has enough trouble as it is, as the result of his horrific war experiences, and Hyperia shouldn’t add to his trouble, shouldn’t dangle her agreement to his offer like a toy in front of his eyes. Say YES, or say NO, woman, but don’t tease the poor tormented guy indefinitely. What she does to Julian is cruel. I was so angry at her, it spoiled my possible pleasure of reading this novel.
    Another mystery I read last week was written by an author new to me. Someone on this forum recommended Naomi Kuttner’s The Retired Assassin’s Guide to Country Gardening, and I want to thank that person. I enjoyed it – against my expectations, I must add. I don’t often read mysteries, but this one worked for me. It reminded me of Jenny and Bob’s ROCKY START series. Like there, in this novel, one of the lead character is a retired assassin Dante, formerly an MI6 operative. After 20 years of killing people all around the globe, Dante settles in a small town in New Zealand for a quiet, post-assassinations life, but his retirement is interrupted by a murder. Someone else committed it, for a change, but Dante’s young gardener Charlie is the prime suspect. Dante feels the urge to help Charlie clear his name. Mayhem ensues, with lots of tension occasionally relieved by lighthearted or humorous interludes. And there were ghosts there too. And a cat. Truly a story for everyone. I’m thinking of buying the second book of this series.

      1. I read it too – awesome found family and I screamed when I found out the sequel doesn’t get released for months! Highly recommend. The analogy isn’t perfect but imagine Miss Marple as a retired assassin trying to be normal in a little seaside village.

  33. If anyone’s interested: the TV adaptation of Heated Rivalry by Rachel Reid is done by the same guy who brought Letterkenny and Shoresy on the screen, Jacob Tierney:
    see the article in the hollywoodreporter https://tinyurl.com/yve9hjc3

      1. I’m following Ilya’s (sorry, Connor’s) insta account now and RR and the cast are winning me over… saw a clip with both main actors in hockey gear being happy about something and then Shane kisses Ilya on the side of his head LOL. The vibe/energy is definitely there, sigh.

  34. I really enjoyed Direct Descendent by Tanya Huff — pretty sure I’ve seen it mentioned here, so thank you all! It’s set in a small town that’s made an arrangement with dark forces to stay solvent, and I do love a small-town book that understands what’s great and also terrible about small town life. Horror, but with a light, funny tone, and also a sapphic romance, so… Lovecraft meets Lana Harper’s Payback’s a Witch, as written by the Road to Roswell version of Connie Willis, maybe?

  35. Haven’t been reading anything that I haven’t mentioned a million times before (rereads of well-known titles), except for my own Helen Binney novella that now has a placeholder at Amazon if anyone wants to check out the cover copy (no cover art yet; that’s for later this month). https://www.amazon.com/Delusion-Death-Helen-Binney-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B0FBDSTB28/

    Stumbled across an interesting tv series on Acorn from a few years ago, SAFE HOUSE, with Christopher Eccleston. Really liked the performances and most of the plot, but at the very end they wrapped up a subplot with an ambiguous ending that left me totally confused, feeling, “Okay, well everyone lives happily ever after, I guess, but how? And why?” Still, I gave the second season (of only two, and I can see why) a try, and it had the same bizarrely unsatisfying happy ending too. It suffered from not having Christopher Eccleston in the lead (same setup, but different crime and different leads), and it’s not really the actor’s fault — hardly anyone looks good when compared to Christopher Eccleston either — it takes a David Tennant to carry that off! And Tennant played a very different personality from Eccleston’s Doctor, while the lead in SAFE HOUSE was playing essentially the same personality as his predecessor.

    1. If I can watch Eccleston, I don’t think I will care about plot failure. I will make a note for when I have more bandwidth. (Literal bandwidth–I’m saving it all for Murderbot right now, as my rural satellite high-speed has limits.)

      1. Most of it is good, just ends abruptly. Definitely recommend for Eccleston fans. And they do wrap up the main plot well, so it’s not a total betrayal of the story, just … unsatisfying for the secondary plot thread. At least for me.

  36. I reread Winter’s Orbit, which held up beautifully to a second reading. It’s a really delightful story, with that slow unwinding of the truth about Taam, and the slow growth of trust between the two main characters.

    Then I re-read The Larks Still Bravely Singing, an MM romance set just after the First World War between two amputees. It wasn’t bad, but I doubt if I’ll read it again. First time round I didn’t pick up the anachronisms, but this time they really jumped out at me – the use of ‘bored of’, which sets my teeth on edge and which I’m pretty sure is a fairly recent language use, and the two lovers rejoicing in the fact that they now have a queen bed.

    Now I’m reading Zen Cho’s The Friend Zone Experiment, which is absolutely delightful. A good, meaty story behind the love story, and excellent reasons why these two apparently can’t be together.

    1. “bored of” is one of the ones that turns me into a prescriptivist, where I am mostly descriptivist.

      Zen Cho is unreliable for me–love some, some are meh–but the library has it available so I’m about to find out.

  37. I found the world of K. J. Charles’s Copper Script too grim despite the excellent characters. I cheered myself up by rereading A Nobeleman’s Guide to Seducing a Scoundrel. I’m now enjoying Courtney Milan’s The Duchess War.

    1. Now I want to re-read some Milan — thanks for reminding me about that series!

  38. We are unevacuated!!! We are very glad to be home with our dogs and our stuff and our own bed.

    4. The town that had to evacuate and leave behind their pets are they back to home and been reunited with their pets? I just felt horrible reading about that.

      1. You’re talking about La Ronge, Saskatchewan? If so, there have been volunteers working to rescue the pets.

  40. I read a Mary Balogh book where the heroine was a prostitute at the end the duke beat up her pimp in front of all his aristocratic friends and because he loved her everyone in society would accept her. I read slot of fiction, but no just no.

  41. I accidentally started the recording of “to Say Nothing of the Dog,” Connie Willis, and just had to continue to the end. One of my favorites or hers.

    I listened to Emily Henry’s newest, Great Big Beautiful Life, with less pleasure than I expected. I think that the man was not introduced thoroughly enough for me to get past his cranky beginning, and then bingo, he was great. The sex scenes were also way too long for me; nice in life but boring on the page, I kept hitting the “forward” button. However, I’ll probably listen again, because I like her books in general, and I may have been in a mood.

    1. I had trouble warming up to this Henry too, which is disappointing because I’ve liked her other books. I think it struck me as too women’s lit (you know, deeply meaningful and not enough fun).

  42. This week I read the work in progress manuscript my friend wrote (and is pitching next week!) and watched Sinners.

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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