To My Muse is inspired by Cameron’s real-life brush with celebrity. Lily is a tech writer, but her real passion is romance writing. She has a successful self-publishing career that’s rarely discussed by her somewhat conservative Indian family, and her new fantasy series is taking off. The latest book’s main character is inspired by actor Tom Morrison, who is on a Western sci-fi TV show that sounds a lot like Westworld. One night Lily gets drunk, sends a copy of Feast of Lovers to Tom, and what happens next is on the level with a 90s rom-com movie. Lily breaks into Tom’s hotel room to try and get back the book and to dissuade a coworker from hitting on him, and Tom makes Lily his fake girlfriend. Tom is already impressed with Lily’s writing, having devoured her latest romance novel, and offers Lily a job adapting a biography into a screenplay. As they work, travel, and get to know each other, the whole fake relationship thing starts feeling more real by the second.
Veronica Scott gives us five, yes FIVE, top Sci-Fi Romance reads for June!
Whenever I stumble upon a romance with an asexual or a-spec character, I’m always a mix of “I need to read this to judge!” and “It’s probably a mess.” And because, more often than not, they are messy with the a-spec representation, these books are a challenge. Add to that seeing your sexuality as the primary conflict in a romance, which always stings a bit. I had been circling Perfect Rhythm for a few months, but jumped in when I saw the audiobook on Hoopla.
And Perfect Rhythm got asexuality mostly right, and it’s also a pretty good book. It’s not perfect, but it’s not the disaster I feared.
Sometimes when I read a historical romance (especially a Regency), I have to remember that some of these books are not based on reality.* In this alternate reality for regencies, there can be some notable suspension of disbelief (e.g., maids and governesses marry dukes, women are crimelords, earl’s sisters run off to join Scottish bandits). I really enjoyed Claiming the Highlander's Heart, it was the warm and fuzzy I needed, but it does demand you accept extreme behavior from a character you barely know in the first few pages, and that’s pretty much my only complaint.
I was so excited to see a commercial f/f romantic comedy that I pre-ordered When Katie Met Cassidy, Camille Perri's second novel. It was pitched as laugh-out-loud funny, romantic, sexy, and thought-provoking, so even though I was wary of the Gay-For-You premise, I had high expectations. One of the things that Gay-For-You often signals is that a character is actually bisexual (or bi and demi) and as a bisexual reader, I am always on the hunt for representation in fiction.
The book let me down.
This book was like a well-crafted cocktail - not too sweet, not too bitter, and left me with a warm feeling in my body. You've probably noticed by now that Margrethe and I tend not to have the best of luck with the subgenre of books called "lesfic," either because of bi-erasure, quality of writing/editing, egregious sexual assault, or racism. This book isn't any of that!
Holley Trent is prolific. She has so much PNR that I have a difficult time telling people where to start. That said, H. E. Trent, her SFR pen name, is pretty much just the Jekh Saga. So how about we start there?
