Fair warning: Unlike basically every other Annabeth Albert book, the military plays a very small role in Arctic Sun. Griffin's got a bit of a limp due to an injury from his time in the military, and we're told that he has surgery scars and burn scars on his back and shoulders when River notices them, but there's no discussion or conversation about it. 

If the month of March had a definition it would be “tease.”  Growing up in the Midwest, March meant warmer temperatures, the snow finally starting to melt, digging out my summer clothes when the temperature hit 60°F - only to have that cruel witch Mother Nature dump a March 31 blizzard to remind us who was boss.  Oh, many an Easter it was where my pretty new dress was hidden under outerwear that made me look like I was going on an Antarctic expedition. You know what I’m talking about, amirite?!  So why not plan for an impending final last-gasp snow day now by pursuing some new unusual historical offerings?  Here’s what caught my eye for March.

Hoooooo boy this week was A Lot. Let's get into it.

The bonkers adventures of the McKilligan sisters continue in the second book of Laurenston’s Honey Badger Chronicles. Stevie, the baby sister of the chaotic trio and a musical and scientific prodigy, is struggling. Her meds aren’t working to control her panic disorder anymore, her good-for-nothing father and her dangerous uncles seem headed toward a confrontation, and at the same time The Group needs her help to figure out who is targeting shifter hybrids.

Justin did not expect any answers to the advert he - or rather one of his friends - put out to find a wife. He has enough money to live comfortably but he isn’t really rich, his home - Greyfriar’s Abbey - is far away from any big cities where anybody might find entertainment and he has no title to make up for these failings. When someone does reply he expects an elderly spinster who bolts when she sees his face that has been scarred in the war. But when he meets Helena Reynolds in person she’s young, beautiful…and tells him she can’t get married quickly enough.

More than half of us here at Love in Panels read audiobooks, and it occurred to me the other day that perhaps we're doing our readers a disservice by recommending a book on audio without sharing the resources that we use to access them. So here's a list of sources through which audiobooks can be accessed in the US, as well as their relative costs and ways to save $.

Erotic historical romance isn't exactly rare, but in my reading experience, it's harder to execute well than contemporary erotic romance. Writers have to consider things like the social and physical repercussions of sex for women, for example, and make all of it sexy. In all historical romance, I like to put on my rosy book goggles and pretend that sexually transmitted diseases don't exist in sex clubs in a time without antibiotics. And that a pregnancy wouldn't spell the end of a woman's career, marital, and social prospects. Y'know, all the things that no one wants to think about while reading a story in which sex drives the romantic plot.

 I feel oddly spoiled that I have had a really good streak with books so far this year. And Tempest just continued the pattern with its beautifully strong and complicated main characters and heartfelt love story. And now, I'm suffering from a good book hangover and off to read a mystery just so that I don’t lose that good romance buzz.

This edition will be short and not all that comprehensive because a really terrible thing happened this week and honestly, it's hard to talk romance when white supremacy and nationalism are rising on a global scale. Still, here are a few things from this week.

One of the very first ways I connected to Romancelandia was through romance podcasts. I was an avid podcast listener in those days, so it was natural to look for a romance podcast to listen to. I listened to dozens of episodes of Sarah Wendell & Jane Litte’s DBSA podcast, when I was a baby romance reader, hearing about new books, learning about publishing and being introduced to romance fandom.

Although I’ve filled up a lot of free time I used to listen to podcasts with audiobooks since then, my interest in romance podcasts has not diminished. It has been fabulous to see the number of romance related podcasts grow, almost exponentially over the past few years, even if I can’t keep up with all them anymore.