Rating refresher! Categories are based on whether or not I recommend them to fellow readers - DNF (Did Not Finish), Pass, YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary), Read it Eventually, Read it Soon.
More mini-reviews! Reviews of
Mister Romance and
Professor Feelgood (same author and series),
Best Women's Erotica 7, The Longing of Lone Wolves and
The Spanish Love Deception. That's three f/m contemporaries, an erotica collection and an f/m fantasy/dystopian/fae shifter romance.
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This post is obviously incredibly late. I'd love to say that the April one will be more timely, but I'm not at all able to promise that.
One positive, however, is that I've been able to catch some of the books with delayed releases. This seems to be increasing again and I encourage you to check your pre-orders for updates.
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One of the best things about being geeky on the internet is when other geeks find you and want to share their geeky things. I got that happy little buzz when author Quiana Glide told me about her new romance novel, Cosplay Worthy, which features a comic book writer and one of his biggest fans. I'm pretty sure she wrote it for all of us who've attended a con just to hear that one writer speak. No, I will not share who I'm casting opposite me in this scenario.
Happy February! It's that time of year, so the virtual panels are everywhere and it's a glorious thing. Avoid the thinkpieces, embrace the presentations!
I want to specifically call attention to the virtual panel Milwaukee Public Library is holding on February 22:
"Celebrate the release of Black Love Matters - an incisive, intersectional essay anthology that celebrates and examines romance and romantic media through the lens of Black readers, writers, and cultural commentators - with special guests editor and librarian Jessica Pryde, best-selling author Beverly Jenkins, and host of Romance Ever After Allie Parker. Exploring the multifaceted ways love is seen-and the ways it isn't-this diverse array of Black voices collectively shines a light on the power of crafting happy endings for Black lovers. "
This is going to be so great and if you're able to attend, definitely sign up!
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It's 2022 and we're still in a pandemic. I'm tired and grumpy and I'm sure you are, too. But hey, we've got books!
Before we get to the list, I want to let you know I'm making a couple of changes to these posts. For one, I won't be compiling monthly lists over at Bookshop anymore. Folks aren't using them and it seems a misuse of my time. Second, I started making lists over at Amazon. Let me know what you'd like in the future!
I'm wishing you a year full of moments of joy and wonder, and the ability to hold onto those moments amidst the chaos.
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More mini-reviews! Within These Wicked Walls, Dirty Plays, If This Gets Out, Smash & Grab, The Belle and the Beard and Uncommonly Verdant. That's a YA f/m fantasy, two f/m contemporaries, a YA m/m contemporary, an m/m paranormal contemp, and whatever you want to call an f/m tree romance.
Rating refresher! Categories are based on whether or not I recommend them to fellow readers - DNF (Did Not Finish), Pass, YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary), Read it Eventually, Read it Soon.
Payback's a Witch is the book I was hoping for or at least expecting when the crop of witchy contemporary rom-coms was announced. (I reviewed The Ex Hex and Witch Please previously.) It's fun and witchy, with more world-building and more use of magic and a bit of danger. The sapphic romance at the heart of the book is also more compelling than the romances in the other two, so that's a big plus.
One last TBR post as we send off 2021!
The whole list is collected over at Amazon and Bookshop for your convenience.
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Happy mid-November! Here is a very late edition of my Top Off Your TBR list.
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I'm glad a couple of my reviewer friends read Julie Tieu's The Donut Trap before I did, because I went into this novel with the expectation that it's more a coming-of-age story than a romance. The romance between Jasmine and Alex is definitely a big part of the plot, but the novel is told from Jasmine's point of view and Alex is missing from chunks of the book. Instead, the relationship between Jasmine and her parents and Jasmine's overall post-college funk is the focus of the story and if you read it with the right expectations, it's a really solid debut.
