Mini-reviews of Irises in the Snow, A Hive of Secrets and Spells, Night of the Scoundrel, and We Met in December, which means an f/f fantasy-mystery, an m/m contemporary, an m/f historical and an m/f contemporary.

As you probably know, we don't review much erotica. But ever since I was handed one of her anthologies in my days at Heroes & Heartbreakers, I've followed Rachel Kramer-Bussel's work with Cleis Press. Kramer-Bussel's curation of these anthologies, particularly the Best Women's Erotica of the Year series, is what really makes them sing. The collections are diverse in both authorship and content and while most readers won't love every story, there's something for everyone in them--as with most anthologies. They're also loosely organized around a theme, this time it's "Outrageous."

In the Loose End series, Weatherspoon is writing HEAs for scene-stealing supporting characters from previous series, and while the romances between the MCs are absolutely central, I am loving the way Weatherspoon also centers the novels around the power of friendships and found families. This ever-present community of caring queer and POC friends, everywhere from the small town Xeni’s Aunt Sabel and Mason call home to Xeni’s Los Angeles, make it safe for Weatherspoon to explore heavy topics such as familial estrangement and biphobia..

The emotional intensity of Weatherspoon’s initial chapters, whether it is Claudia running for life straight in Shep’s arms in Haven, Liz fighting off an attacker in her home in Sanctuary or Sloan arriving home to discover her nanny has walked off the job and left her twin daughters alone at home with no notice in Rafe, powerfully introduce her heroines. We meet Xeni as she stands surrounded by near-strangers at her beloved aunt’s memorial desperately trying not to break down, and from that moment I loved her and wanted her to find her happy. And so it seems did her aunt who has arranged to do some matchmaking from beyond the grave.

Woohoo! Last month of the year! January's absurdly full of new books, so please consider this month a bit of a breather.

And now, for the books we're looking forward to picking up in December!

This post includes affiliate links.

In Hibbert’s first traditionally published romance, she continues to highlight prickly heroines and the sweet heroes who are determined to love them. Although I only had a mild appreciation of her novellas I found myself loving this novel wholeheartedly, more than living up to the anticipation and hype. The novel felt fully satisfying and complete, establishing, building up and then resolving a full story. Hibbert's use of situational humor and word play cushions the heavy themes she addresses in this story such as ableism, abandonment, domestic abuse and mortality.

Last year Veronica Scott gave Felicia Davin's Edge of Nowhere a glowing recommendation, so when we heard that the second in the Nowhere series was coming out this December? Yeah, we were interested. *eyeballs emoji*

At least half of the LiP team reads lots of young adult books, both fantasy and romance. So we--Andrea and Suzanne--decided to pull together a list of all the YA romance we're looking forward to in the first quarter of 2020! We'll have a list of YA fantasy with romance subplots (think Grishaverse, Margaret Rogerson, etc) up in a bit as well.

Since there are way too many books for one reasonably sized post, here's how we've structured the list:

• Books that we're excited to read will have a cover and a little bit about why we're excited to read them.
• Other books that we're aware of are at the end. They'll have links if you want to find out more! We've tried to include info about the pairing if we know it.
  
• This list is absolutely not any indication of quality. We haven't read these! Stay tuned throughout the year for reviews when we do.
• Books are listed in chronological order and include what we're aware of as of November 2019.
  
• Every book will have a link to its page on Amazon. Yes, we'd love for you to buy the books elsewhere but the reality is that 98% of our clicks are to Amazon. In a list this size, it's just too much time to generate four links for each book instead of one. These are affiliate links, meaning we earn 4% of whatever you buy after clicking. It doesn't cost you anything extra but we have to disclose this for the feds.

Without further ado, on to the books!

Here we are, in November, and I’m in denial. Have I thought about Thanksgiving dinner or my holiday gift purchasing? Of course not. Because it just doesn’t seem possible that somehow nearly a whole year blew past while I was busy doing...stuff, I guess. Who the heck knows anymore. I’m sure it involved The Day Job, continuing to finely tune my tea snobbery and books, because of course books.  Which brings us to the latest crop of unusual historicals that have caught my eye. Here’s what’s hitting my wishlist for November:

 

This post contains affiliate links.

Last year we shared all of Ninestar's queer holiday novellas, so let's do it again!

Behind These Doors is unlike any other historical romance I've read. Perhaps there are dozens of polyam feminist Edwardian romances out there, but I'm missing out if so.  It would be easy to say that the romantic arc follows Lucien and Aubrey, two men from different classes who begin a relationship in the book, but it's also a bit of a Marriage in Trouble romance, with a strained relationship between an existing triad. It's a complicated book, with lots of moving pieces and complex relationships, but Lucens handles it with nuance, grace, and gorgeous prose.