"The Tyrant Baru Cormorant" by Seth Dickinson
Jul. 10th, 2025 05:39 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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! Spoilers for books 1 & 2 below !
Temple of Swoon by Jo Segura is $1.99! I think this is a standalone, but might be related to Segura’s debut Raiders of the Lost Heart.
Her mission: find the Lost City of the Moon in the Amazon rainforest.
His mission: protect the holy temple . . . and his heart.
While her mentor may be the world’s most badass archaeologist, the only thing bad about Dr. Miriam Jacobs are her corny jokes. But when Miri is charged with leading an unmapped expedition through the Amazon for the fabled Lost City of the Moon, she finally has her chance to prove to her colleagues that she’s capable—and hopefully prove it to herself, too.
Journalist Rafael Monfils has joined the archaeological team to chronicle their search for the lost city. Or at least, that’s what they think he’s doing. Rafa’s real goal? Make sure the team does not reach the Cidade da Lua, stopping the desecration of the holy city and protecting his mother’s legacy. All he needs to do is keep them on the wrong path.
If only the endearingly quirky Dr. Jacobs wasn’t so damn tenacious—each of Rafa’s tricks and purposeful wrong turns only seem to fuel her determination. Even worse, he’s charmed by her goofy attempts to channel Lara Croft as they traverse the dangerous Brazilian rainforest. But they’re not the only crew hunting for the lost city, and soon the untamed jungle—and their untamed hearts—might be the least of their worries…
Slightly Married by Mary Balogh is $2.99! This is the first book in the Bedwyn Saga, which is a favorite amongst romance readers. It also has a cover updated, which is…fine? I kind of miss the red and gold.
Meet the Bedwyns…six brothers and sisters—men and women of passion and privilege, daring and sensuality…Enter their dazzling world of high society and breathtaking seduction…where each will seek love, fight temptation, and court scandal…and where Aidan Bedwyn, the marriage-shy second son, discovers that matrimony may be the most seductive act of all.…
Like all the Bedwyn men, Aidan has a reputation for cool arrogance. But this proud nobleman also possesses a loyal, passionate heart—and it is this fierce loyalty that has brought Colonel Lord Aidan to Ringwood Manor to honor a dying soldier’s request. Having promised to comfort and protect the man’s sister, Aidan never expected to find a headstrong, fiercely independent woman who wants no part of his protection…nor did he expect the feelings this beguiling creature would ignite in his guarded heart. And when a relative threatens to turn Eve out of her home, Aidan gallantly makes her an offer she can’t refuse: marry him…if only to save her home. And now, as all of London breathlessly awaits the transformation of the new Lady Aidan Bedwyn, the strangest thing happens: With one touch, one searing embrace, Aidan and Eve’s “business arrangement” is about to be transformed…into something slightly surprising.
RECOMMENDED: The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch is $1.99! New cover! This is a gritty fantasy with an anti-hero protagonist. I loved this book and it’s a lot of fun. I also believe it was recommended by Sarah’s husband on a previous podcast episode. It’s a lot of fun, but definitely is heavy on violence and some gross stuff.
The Thorn of Camorr is said to be an unbeatable swordsman, a master thief, a ghost that walks through walls. Half the city believes him to be a legendary champion of the poor. The other half believe him to be a foolish myth. Nobody has it quite right.
Slightly built, unlucky in love, and barely competent with a sword, Locke Lamora is, much to his annoyance, the fabled Thorn. He certainly didn’t invite the rumors that swirl around his exploits, which are actually confidence games of the most intricate sort. And while Locke does indeed steal from the rich (who else, pray tell, would be worth stealing from?), the poor never see a penny of it. All of Locke’s gains are strictly for himself and his tight-knit band of thieves, the Gentlemen Bastards.
Locke and company are con artists in an age where con artistry, as we understand it, is a new and unknown style of crime. The less attention anyone pays to them, the better! But a deadly mystery has begun to haunt the ancient city of Camorr, and a clandestine war is threatening to tear the city’s underworld, the only home the Gentlemen Bastards have ever known, to bloody shreds. Caught up in a murderous game, Locke and his friends will find both their loyalty and their ingenuity tested to the breaking point as they struggle to stay alive…
The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society by C.M. Wagonner is $1.99! This is a described as a cozy fantasy mystery and I know we’ve mentioned this on the site before. Have any of you read this one?
A librarian with a knack for solving murders realizes there is something decidedly supernatural afoot in her little town in this cozy fantasy mystery.
Librarian Sherry Pinkwhistle keeps finding bodies—and solving murders. But she’s concerned by just how many killers she’s had to track down in her quaint village. None of her neighbors seem surprised by the rising body count…but Sherry is becoming convinced that whatever has been causing these deaths is unnatural. But when someone close to Sherry ends up dead, and her cat, Lord Thomas Crowell, becomes possessed by what seems to be an ancient demon, Sherry begins to think she’s going to need to become an exorcist as well as an amateur sleuth. With the help of her town’s new priest, and an assortment of friends who dub themselves the “Demon-Hunting Society,” Sherry will have to solve the murder and get rid of a demon. This riotous mix of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Murder, She Wrote is a lesson for demons and murderers.
Never mess with a librarian.
I’ll Have What He’s Having is a sweet m/m romance that is cosy and chill but marred by an excess of mopiness towards the end. The worst thing I can say about this book is that it made me super hungry and that the minute I finished it I forgot all about it. It was pleasant and solidly written (barring too much repetition) but not especially memorable.
Farzan is a great cook, a skill he learned from growing up in his Iranian-American parents’ restaurant in Kansas City. However, he’s had several careers and several relationships and he feels adrift. David is an African-American sommelier in a different restaurant. He is pouring (LOL I crack myself up) all of his energy into studying for his master sommelier exam. After a brief Big Misunderstanding, they sort things out and become Friends With Benefits which we all know is not going to last because anyone who happily watches the Muppet Movie together on a date is bound to be together.
Incidentally, my Sacramento Public Library Romance Book Club, which you are all invited to join, felt strongly that we were robbed by not getting a list of Muppet Movies and their recommended wine pairings.
This book has several things that I liked, starting with characters who are just slightly older than the norm. Both protagonists are thirty-seven, which means that they are starting to think about middle age and about making some life-changing decisions with no backsies. They are young enough to be still figuring things out but old enough to feel pressure about settling into a path. It gives their career decisions a heft that wouldn’t exist if they were in their twenties.
I loved the themes of food, culture, and family, as well as the humor. I love it when people don’t take things too seriously during sex. I enjoyed Farzan bringing David soup when David gets sick and running into David’s mom who is also bringing soup. The dynamic of mutual care and support between Farzan and David was lovely. The book starts with a Big Misunderstanding but they resolve it very quickly and are able to laugh about it. As much as I loathe the Big Mis trope, I thought that the characters handled this situation with humor and maturity and that warmed me to them considerably.
One of the biggest problems I had with this book was repetition. For instance, in one of my favorite scenes, Farzan farts the first time they have sex, and they laugh about it, but not in a mean way, and then carry on. It’s a very human moment and I loved it. But then the farting or burping at awkward times became a running joke and it stopped being funny. Farzan’s parents supported his coming out! That’s great to hear – once! Hearing it over and over again was just irritating. In another structural gaffe, there are odd side details about people who never reappear or who, in the case of one side character’s dog, never appear at all. The narrative could have used some tightening over all.
Furthermore, anything the reader is told in this book will be told many, many times. For example, I also felt that Farzan spent too long whining and feeling sorry for himself. Farzan and David begin their relationship with the understanding that if and when David passes his test he will be leaving, probably for Los Angeles (the story is set in Kansas City). It’s understandable that as he becomes more and more involved with David, Farzan feels increasingly determined not to hold David back and increasingly sad about it.
However, this ends up with Farzan wallowing in self-pity for an annoyingly long time without communicating with David, to the point where he tries the “break up with him for his own good” approach, an approach which I absolutely despise.
I wanted him to communicate more clearly with David and stop having unrealistic expectations for himself at work.
This was a lovely read that didn’t ask too much of my emotions. It was comforting but forgettable. I could read a chapter, wander off, and not think of it again for a month…but when I did get around to picking it up, I instantly remembered how warm and fuzzy it was. One more run through the editing process might have cleaned this book up considerably. Hopefully the coming sequel will level up.
This guest post comes from Jen! Jen is an over-educated wonk who likes reading and writing both cool real-life stories and cool made-up stories. To her surprise, she currently lives in Denver, but will always be a Californian at heart.
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If SBTB was a physical place, it might look a lot like the Spicy Librarian in Denver. It’s a store designed by people who adore the genre, have a dollop of humor, and believe in the power of romance to empower people to give up shame and organize. Also, there’s a secret door leading to a room of sex toys.
The sign on the sidewalk said, “Come Find your Fictional Boyfriend” and “Follow the Roses to the Entrance.” A trail of rose petal sidewalk decals leads you to an entrance that would be somewhat hidden except for the fact that the owners have installed a profusion of fake flowers and greenery around the door to make it an entrance.
The front table has another flower archway, which gives me strong Netflix Bridgerton vibes. Nestled inside of a collection of books I have definitely seen on SBTB is a sign that says “I buy my books from bookshops not billionaires.”
It was crowded on a Sunday morning, and taking photos without photographing other patrons was a challenge. There were mostly women, although a few uncomfortable-looking men followed partners around or hung out in one of the many cozy chairs. Some women were alone, strolling through the shelves. Others were with friends, chatting with each other about how much they loved this one book or how you could totally skip this one. One woman was sifting through the stand of “blind date with a book” packages while chatting on the phone. “Do you think Cathy would like this one?”
Each “blind date” is a wrapped mystery book with a label telling you the tropes. Included are stickers (like “this ghoul reads smut” with a ghost on it) and a tea bag.
Sections include an adorable kid’s section; Contemporary; Local; Historical; LGBTQ+; Dark; and Fantasy. Each section has been cheekily decorated. Above the Contemporary section is a flower-festooned bedspring; above the Historical section is a trunk spilling over with lacy old-timey underwear. The Fantasy section has a wallpaper of an enchanted-looking forest; the Dark section has a mirror with “Good Girls Read Dirty Books” scrawled on it in “lipstick.” Throughout the bookstore are lots of cozy corners with comfy armchairs and couches; the owner really took advantage of the oddly-shaped loft space. On a pink couch, a group of women were filling in a penis in a coloring book.
The owner is a former kindergarten teacher, and the bookstore site states that one of its missions is to “Empower women to feel less shame about their pleasure and their love for romance books.” As if that wasn’t cool enough, 5% of the proceeds go to the Purple Leash Project, an organization that is “dedicated to providing pet-friendly shelters and resources for survivors of domestic abuse.” The bulletin board in the store advertised book clubs (general, fantasy, and queer), a book swap and picnic, local author events, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, and reproductive healthcare access.
And of course, there is The Vault.
The door looks like a bookshelf with definitely-not-suggestive cherry and mushroom knickknacks and an “18+” sign. You pull the doorknob and ta-da! You’re in a secret sex toy section, with a small but curated collection. A sign on the wall assures you that you can ask for help from the staff without shame.
And “without shame” is what the Spicy Librarian is all about: it’s about loving this genre and yourself without shame and to build a community around it. So if you’re ever in Denver, be sure to follow the rose petals to this bookstore.
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Thank you for the trip report, Jen! If you’d like to write a trip report about your visit to a romance-focused bookstore, I would LOVE to hear from you.
Hello, everyone! How is your Wednesday doing?
I want to thank everyone who shared their positive thoughts and advice in the comments last week and those who sent notes to my inbox. It was all much appreciated and really helped my partner and I make arrangements. Linus is doing as well as can be and so far, has responded well to steroids. But it’s a day by day thing.
Since finding out about Linus’s diagnosis, I have been reading a lot. I powered through five books in a week. Unfortunately, I’d make the bad call of starting a new book at 10pm and finishing it by 1am. Not that any of the books were particularly amazing. I’m just a fast reader and it felt silly to stop when I could crush it in a couple hours. And LEST I BE ALONE WITH MY THOUGHTS!
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If you’re looking for ways to help communities impacted by the Texas floods, the local KSAT station has some suggestions.
Agatha of the She Wore Black podcast shared suggestions with her Patreon, and we’re passing them along as much as we can:
I’ll specifically link here to Kerr County Flood Relief, Austin Pets Alive and the Williamson County Animal Shelter. Though Austin and the surrounding towns (like mine) were also victims of major flooding, our animal shelters took in animals from Kerrville and Hunt that suffered the most losses. They are desperate for help.
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Libro.fm has a ton of audiobooks on sale at a great price!
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Dying at this post from Bookshop. If you want an alternative to buying books from Amazon, Bookshop is a great option. We have a “storefront” with reading suggestions taken from the site.
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Have you heard that BookExpo is returning next year?! While I may miss conventions, I do not miss the Javits center.
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If you’re still riding the glorious wave of K-Pop Demon Hunters, it looks like there is going to be a physical soundtrack release. We also have a guest review coming up!
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Don’t forget to share what cool or interesting things you’ve seen, read, or listened to this week! And if you have anything you think we’d like to post on a future Wednesday Links, send it my way!
Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood is $1.99! Hazelwood’s books don’t go on sale super often. This one released last summer and is the first book in a series of the same name.
A forbidden, secret affair proves that all’s fair in love and science.
Rue Siebert might not have it all, but she has enough: a few friends she can always count on, the financial stability she yearned for as a kid, and a successful career as a biotech engineer at Kline, one of the most promising start-ups in the field of food science. Her world is stable, pleasant, and hard-fought. Until a hostile takeover and its offensively attractive front man threatens to bring it all crumbling down.
Eli Killgore and his business partners want Kline, period. Eli has his own reasons for pushing this deal through—and he’s a man who gets what he wants. With one burning exception: Rue. The woman he can’t stop thinking about. The woman who’s off-limits to him.
Torn between loyalty and an undeniable attraction, Rue and Eli throw caution out the lab and the boardroom windows. Their affair is secret, no-strings-attached, and has a built-in deadline: the day one of their companies will prevail. But the heart is risky business—one that plays for keeps.
The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong is $3.99! We featured this in Cover Awe on Monday and it came out last November. For those who have read this, are there any romantic elements?
A wandering fortune teller finds an unexpected family in this warm and wonderful debut fantasy, perfect for readers of Travis Baldree and Sangu Mandanna.
Tao is an immigrant fortune teller, traveling between villages with just her trusty mule for company. She only tells “small” fortunes: whether it will hail next week; which boy the barmaid will kiss; when the cow will calve. She knows from bitter experience that big fortunes come with big consequences…
Even if it’s a lonely life, it’s better than the one she left behind. But a small fortune unexpectedly becomes something more when a (semi) reformed thief and an ex-mercenary recruit her into their desperate search for a lost child. Soon, they’re joined by a baker with a knead for adventure, and—of course—a slightly magical cat.
Tao sets down a new path with companions as big-hearted as her fortunes are small. But as she lowers her walls, the shadows of her past are closing in—and she’ll have to decide whether to risk everything to preserve the family she never thought she could have.
Nine Month Contract by Amy Daws is $2.99 and a Kindle Daily Deal! This is a grumpy/sunshine romance with a hero wanting to be a dad. I haven’t read this one, but I feel like not involving a surrogacy agency can lead to a lot of trouble. Last time this was on sale, commenters mention this one requires some suspension of disbelief.
Help Wanted: Grumpy mountain man seeks baby momma. Job is an incubator position only. Surrogate must be impervious to grunting as the form of communication and nosy brotherly neighbors. Rustic mountain range housing available upon request.
I wanted to pummel my irritating brothers when they posted their own version of a wanted ad to help me with my life.
But I can’t fault the results once the right woman lands in my lap.
Becoming a single father is not a decision I made lightly. In fact, it’s the biggest decision of my entire life.
Which is why when I interview Trista, I know she’s perfect.
She’s wild, she’s opinionated, she wears cowboy boots. Even my pet goat loves her…
She’s the exact type of person I was holding out for.
And to my great horror, I realize on our first night of attempting this baby-making dance—when the lights are low, the cheap wine is flowing and the home-insemination supplies are laid out on the kitchen counter—I want to do a lot more than just make her my surrogate.
I want to make her mine.
Perfect for fans of:
Grumpy/Sunshine
Small Town Romance
Age Gap
Curvy FMC
Meghan Quinn and Tessa Bailey
The Imposter Heiress by Annie Reed is $2.99! I mentioned this on Get Rec’d for people who like true crime but could do without the murder.
Before there was Anna Delvey or Elizabeth Holmes, there was Cassie Chadwick. The first woman–using criminal cunning, some confidence, and a bit of charm—to bring down a federal agent, a bank, and a city’s worth of men. Paroled felon. Rich doctor’s wife. Famous clairvoyant. The best con artists know how to reinvent themselves, time and time again. Cassie Chadwick, one of history’s most successful con artists, was a master of the trade. Over the course of fifteen years, she swept from town to town, assuming new identities and running new swindles at each railroad stop. In the dusk of the Gilded Age, years after the robber barons had amassed their fortunes, she was amassing her own.
Then came the Carnegie con. Using her wits and a series of forged documents, Cassie convinced prominent men from Cleveland to New York City that she was Andrew Carnegie’s illegitimate daughter. Blinded by the name of the most powerful man in the world, businessmen lined up to loan her hundreds of thousands of dollars at a time. The con made her impossibly rich. The crash shattered banks and bankers alike. Her sensational trial drew the eyes of a nation that couldn’t get enough of the woman, who newspapers called the Queen of Swindlers, the Duchess of Diamonds, the High Priestess of Fraudulent Finance. Indeed, when Charles Ponzi’s infamous scheme collapsed in 1920, reporters scoffed that “Ponzi is a piker compared to Cassie.”
Interspersing Cassie’s crimes with stories of an unsuspecting Andrew Carnegie, author Annie Reed spins an enthralling, page turning tale of true crime. Could the rumors be true? Can Cassie’s money last? Will she escape the electric chair?
Told with a gossip columnists’ charm and wit, THE IMPOSTER HEIRESS, is a rollicky trickster’s tale that will appeal to history buffs and true crime aficionados alike to bring one of the greatest swindlers of all time back into the public eye.
by Karen Dukess
June 10, 2025 · Gallery/Scout Press
Contemporary RomanceLGBTQIARomance
CW: One instance of homophobia, one discussion of racism, some tragic events around accidental death, challenging relationship with a parent
I don’t enjoy reading women’s fiction and this book is women’s fiction, so please keep that in mind when you read this review. I shall do my best to correct for my preferences, but it’s best to be upfront about these things.
So why on earth did I pick it up? Well, it was the premise you see. It totally sucked me in. I was so curious how this set up would unfold because this novel has a very good blurb – it accurately sums up what you’re about to read.
When thirty-four-year-old Cath loses her mostly absentee mother, she is ambivalent. With days of quiet, unassuming routine in Buffalo, New York, Cath consciously avoids the impulsive, thrill-seeking lifestyle that her mother once led. But when she’s forced to go through her mother’s things one afternoon, Cath is perplexed to find tickets for an upcoming “murder week” in England’s Peak. A whole town has come together to stage a fake murder mystery to attract tourism to their quaint hamlet. Baffled but helplessly intrigued by her mother’s secret purchase, Cath decides to go on the trip herself—and begins a journey she never could have anticipated.
Teaming up with her two cottage-mates, both ardent mystery lovers—Wyatt Green, forty, who works unhappily in his husband’s birding store, and Amity Clark, fifty, a divorced romance writer struggling with her novels—Cath sets about solving the “crime” and begins to unravel shocking truths about her mother along the way. Amidst a fling—or something more—with the handsome local maker of artisanal gin, Cath and her irresistibly charming fellow sleuths will find this week of fake murder may help them face up to a very real crossroads in their own lives.
Witty, wise, and deliciously escapist, Welcome to Murder Week is a fresh, inventive twist on the murder mystery and a touching portrayal of one daughter’s reckoning with her grief, her past—and her own budding sense of adventure.
I’ve never read a story that features a ‘murder week’ like this one does and I really enjoyed it. The mystery elements are really well-plotted and I found it very satisfying to read. One potential downside is that because the murder was fake, the mystery plot presented only an interesting puzzle to solve and not a source of tension. There were hints of competition with other teams, but as Cath and her housemates work on the mystery, the competition doesn’t really feature much at all.
The source of tension comes from elsewhere and that is, as alluded to in the blurb, unravelling ‘shocking truths’ about Cath’s mother. I won’t discuss them here as when the truth is revealed it is genuinely shocking. However, this particular plotline only emerges later, so for the first stretch, there is no tension to speak of.
The romantic subplot is kind of flat. I had an echo of butterflies in my tummy, but ultimately the romance did not deliver for me. Now is this a feature of the lower importance placed on romance in women’s fiction? Is my struggle with this particular book or with the genre? I can’t say for sure. But do not read this if you need a deep, abiding romantic connection at the end and a tension-filled journey to that HEA.
As this is women’s fiction, I feel it is only right that I indicate whether there is a HEA. Click for the reveal.
I can’t help but feel that there would have been much richer, more nuanced emotions if it were a romance. Alas, it is not. But again, that’s not the book’s fault. Lara, let it go!
Just one more point on the emotional side of things: the shocking truths, when they are revealed, are very shocking and because we don’t have that rich emotional depth in the build up to that reveal, Cath’s coping with the shock is kind of flat emotionally. There are tears, yes, but in a few paragraphs it’s all neatly tidied away and sorted. But could this be a feature and not a bug? It’s hard to say for sure. I was surprised at the heaviness of the reveal. It’s a tragic series of events (historical) but at the start of the story,
With the mystery element being pretty wholesome, the romance being a bit one-note, and the ‘shocking truths’ coming late in the story, much of this novel could be categorised as ‘low stakes’ with the entirety of it being described as ‘cosy’. It does not strain the nerves. This week, I wanted that intense tension; at other times, this cosy story would be exactly what I’m looking for.
Just a note on the comparisons drawn between the States and the UK. It comes up relatively often as Cath and her housemates are American and the action takes place mostly in a small English village. I can honestly not say either way if the stereotypes/characteristics discussed are true, annoying, false, offensive or just silly. I’m a Zimbabwean living in South Africa so I’m a hopeless judge of it.
Back to the grade though. At another time, this would have been great for me. I would advise picking this up only when it meets your current needs around tension and intrigue – also as long as you don’t mind the romance playing third fiddle. As a cosy bit of women’s fiction, it’s great.
RECOMMENDED: Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett is $2.99! We had a guest squee review of this one:
Chilling, packed with lore, and a slow burn, Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett is the type of book I’ve been looking for. Their adventure from faerie field research to two professors running like hell from a faerie nightmare kept me on the edge of my seat.
A curmudgeonly professor journeys to a small town in the far north to study faerie folklore and discovers dark fae magic, friendship, and love in the start of a heartwarming and enchanting new fantasy series.
Cambridge professor Emily Wilde is good at many things: She is the foremost expert on the study of faeries. She is a genius scholar and a meticulous researcher who is writing the world’s first encyclopaedia of faerie lore. But Emily Wilde is not good at people. She could never make small talk at a party–or even get invited to one. And she prefers the company of her books, her dog, Shadow, and the Fair Folk to other people.
So when she arrives in the hardscrabble village of Hrafnsvik, Emily has no intention of befriending the gruff townsfolk. Nor does she care to spend time with another new arrival: her dashing and insufferably handsome academic rival Wendell Bambleby, who manages to charm the townsfolk, get in the middle of Emily’s research, and utterly confound and frustrate her.
But as Emily gets closer and closer to uncovering the secrets of the Hidden Ones–the most elusive of all faeries–lurking in the shadowy forest outside the town, she also finds herself on the trail of another mystery: Who is Wendell Bambleby, and what does he really want? To find the answer, she’ll have to unlock the greatest mystery of all–her own heart.
The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren is $4.99! I don’t know if we’ve featured this one on sale before. It has an “oops, we’re still married” plot and an opposites attract, class differences romance.
Christina Lauren, returns with a delicious new romance between the buttoned-up heir of a grocery chain and his free-spirited artist ex as they fake their relationship in order to receive a massive inheritance.
Anna Green thought she was marrying Liam “West” Weston for access to subsidized family housing while at UCLA. She also thought she’d signed divorce papers when the graduation caps were tossed, and they both went on their merry ways.
Three years later, Anna is a starving artist living paycheck to paycheck while West is a Stanford professor. He may be one of four heirs to the Weston Foods conglomerate, but he has little interest in working for the heartless corporation his family built from the ground up. He is interested, however, in his one-hundred-million-dollar inheritance. There’s just one catch.
Due to an antiquated clause in his grandfather’s will, Liam won’t see a penny until he’s been happily married for five years. Just when Liam thinks he’s in the home stretch, pressure mounts from his family to see this mysterious spouse, and he has no choice but to turn to the one person he’s afraid to introduce to his one-percenter parents—his unpolished, not-so-ex-wife.
But in the presence of his family, Liam’s fears quickly shift from whether the feisty, foul-mouthed, paint-splattered Anna can play the part to whether the toxic world of wealth will corrupt someone as pure of heart as his surprisingly grounded and loyal wife. Liam will have to ask himself if the price tag on his flimsy cover story is worth losing true love that sprouted from a lie.
RECOMMENDED: That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon by Kimberly Lemming is $2.99! I love the new covers! Carrie reviewed this one and gave it a B:
This book was perfect entertainment for my stressed out brain, and I was definitely rooting for those two wacky kids to have their HEA.
Spice trader Cinnamon’s quiet life is turned upside down when she ends up on a quest with a fiery demon, in this irreverently quirky rom-com fantasy that is sweet, steamy, and funny as hell.
All she wanted to do was live her life in peace—maybe get a cat, expand the family spice farm. Really, anything that didn’t involve going on an adventure where an orc might rip her face off. But they say the goddess has favorites, and if so, Cin is clearly not one of them.
After Cin saves the demon Fallon in a wine-drunk stupor, Fallon reveals that all he really wants to do is kill an evil witch enslaving his people. And who can blame him? But now he’s dragging Cinnamon along for the ride whether she likes it or not. On the bright side, at least he keeps burning off his shirt.…
Change of Heart by Kate Canterbary is 99c! I believe this is a standalone contemporary romance. It was mentioned in Hide Your Wallet when it came out last summer.
Grey’s Anatomy meets a gender-swapped Wedding Crashers in this spicy rom-com about a one-night stand with The One, walking the tightrope of love and workplace ethics, and knowing which rules are worth breaking.
Every summer, superstar surgeon Whitney Aldritch crashes weddings with her best friend. The first one was an accident though after a decade of dropping in uninvited, they’re masters of their craft. They keep the rules simple and they never go to bed alone.
Then there’s Henry Hazlette, best man and the best one-night stand of Whit’s summer. She never imagined she’d see him again but now he’s one of her new surgical residents—and completely off-limits.
Whitney has staked her reputation on leading the hospital’s new ethics initiative. While Henry is under her supervision, they have to keep it professional. But it doesn’t help that she can’t turn around without running face-first into his offensively broad chest or rubbing up against him in crammed elevators. Also not the way he smiles at her like he can hear her every not-safe-for-work thought.
All they have to do is survive this residency—and the accidental tarot card readings that hit too close to home, a few uninvited houseguests, and the hospital’s hyperactive rumor mill—but only if they’re prepared to bend some rules as the feelings go from just for tonight to get it out of our systems to mine.
Hell for Hire by Rachel Aaron is 99c! This is book one in the Tear Down Heaven urban fantasy series. I really like this cover.
The Crew
A hulked-out wrath demon who eats gamer rage and loves cats, a shapeshifting lust demon who enjoys their food a bit too much, and a void demon who doesn’t see the point of any of this. They’re not the sort of mercenaries you’d hire on purpose, but Bex wouldn’t trust her life to anyone else.
Ever since the ancient Mesopotamian king Gilgamesh decided death wasn’t for him, killed the gods, and conquered the afterlife, times have been rough for a free demon. But the denizens of the Nine Hells aren’t the quitting sort, and Bex and her team have been choking a living out of the Eternal King’s lackeys for years. It’s not honest work, but when Heaven itself declares you a non-person, you smash-and-grab what you can get.
This next gig looks like more of the same…until Bex meets the client.
The Job
Adrian Blackwood is a witch with a problem. His family has skirted the edges of King Gilgamesh’s ire for centuries, but thanks to a decision he made as a child, Adrian is personally responsible for putting his entire coven in Heaven’s crosshairs.
Determined to set things right, Adrian drags his broom, caldron, and talking cat thousands of miles across the country to Seattle where he can fight the Eternal King’s warlocks without bringing the rest of his family into the fray. But witchcraft–like all crafts–takes time, and if the warlocks catch him before his spells are ready, he’s dead. So Adrian does what any professional witch would do and hires a team of mercenaries to keep the warlocks off his back. He didn’t expect to get demons, but when you’re already on the killing-edge of Heaven’s bad side, what’s a bit more fuel on the fire?
Sometimes you get more than you paid for.
Neither Adrian nor Bex knew what to expect when they signed their contract, but witch-plus-demon turns out to be a match made in the Hells. With this much chaos at their fingertips, even impossible dreams can come back into reach, because Bex wasn’t always a mercenary. She used to be the Eternal King’s biggest nightmare, and now that she’s got a witch in her corner, it’s time to put the old magics back on the field and show Adrian Blackwood just how much Hell he’s hired.
A Rivalry of Hearts by Tessonja Odette is 99c! This is book one in a series and I picked this one and book two up in hardcover. The covers are really adorable, but I hope they deliver on their promise of spiciness.
Two rival writers.
One prestigious publishing contract.
A bargain of hearts and desire.
They say never bargain with the fae. They also say don’t get drunk on fae wine. Yet romance author Edwina Danforth has managed a blunder with both on her first visit to the infamous faelands. Now she’s trapped in a magic-fueled bet she barely remembers with a man she’d be happier to forget. The terms? Whoever can bed the most lovers during their month-long dueling book tour wins a coveted publishing contract.
The win should be easy for Edwina. She’s known for penning scintillating tales of whirlwind romance. There’s just one problem: her imagination vastly exceeds her bedroom experience. But when failure means plummeting her career back into obscurity, losing isn’t an option.
Her handsome fae rival, William Haywood, poses an even greater challenge. Not only are his looks as aggravatingly perfect as his track record behind closed doors, but he has his own reasons for playing to win, and he won’t go down without a fight. Unless, of course, it’s a different kind of going down. In that case, he’s fair game.
Edwina and William clash in a rivalry of romance. But what happens when their objects of desire…turn out to be each other?
A Rivalry of Hearts is a spicy standalone adult fantasy romcom in the Fae Flings and Corset Strings series. Every book in this interconnected series is a complete story and ends with a HEA. If you like academic rivals, enemies to lovers, and quirky heroines, then you’ll love this sizzling tale.
The Fae Flings and Corset Strings series is set in the same world as The Fair Isle Trilogy and Entangled with Fae. Journey back to this beloved fae world or fall in love for the first time.
RECOMMENDED: The Switch by Beth O’Leary is $2.99! Catherine read this one and gave it an A:
It’s a very gentle, wholesome sort of book. I read it last week when I was sick, and it was really the perfect book to curl up with if one is under the weather.
Eileen is sick of being 79.
Leena’s tired of life in her twenties.
Maybe it’s time they swapped places…
When overachiever Leena Cotton is ordered to take a two-month sabbatical after blowing a big presentation at work, she escapes to her grandmother Eileen’s house for some overdue rest. Eileen is newly single and about to turn eighty. She’d like a second chance at love, but her tiny Yorkshire village doesn’t offer many eligible gentlemen.
Once Leena learns of Eileen’s romantic predicament, she proposes a solution: a two-month swap. Eileen can live in London and look for love. Meanwhile Leena will look after everything in rural Yorkshire. But with gossiping neighbours and difficult family dynamics to navigate up north, and trendy London flatmates and online dating to contend with in the city, stepping into one another’s shoes proves more difficult than either of them expected.
Leena learns that a long-distance relationship isn’t as romantic as she hoped it would be, and then there is the annoyingly perfect – and distractingly handsome – school teacher, who keeps showing up to outdo her efforts to impress the local villagers. Back in London, Eileen is a huge hit with her new neighbours, but is her perfect match nearer home than she first thought?
The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley is $4.99! This was mentioned in Hide Your Wallet and I’ve seen it namedropped in the comments, though readers caution that it isn’t really a romance. What are your thoughts?
A time travel romance, a speculative spy thriller, a workplace comedy, and an ingeniously constructed exploration of the nature of truth and power and the potential for love to change it Welcome to The Ministry of Time, the exhilarating debut novel by Kaliane Bradley.
In the near future, a civil servant is offered the salary of her dreams and is, shortly afterward, told what project she’ll be working on. A recently established government ministry is gathering “expats” from across history to establish whether time travel is feasible—for the body, but also for the fabric of space-time.
She is tasked with working as a “bridge”: living with, assisting, and monitoring the expat known as “1847” or Commander Graham Gore. As far as history is concerned, Commander Gore died on Sir John Franklin’s doomed 1845 expedition to the Arctic, so he’s a little disoriented to be living with an unmarried woman who regularly shows her calves, surrounded by outlandish concepts such as “washing machine,” “Spotify,” and “the collapse of the British Empire.” But he adjusts quickly; he is, after all, an explorer by trade. Soon, what the bridge initially thought would be, at best, a seriously uncomfortable housemate dynamic, evolves into something much more. Over the course of an unprecedented year, Gore and the bridge fall haphazardly, fervently in love, with consequences they never could have imagined.
Supported by a chaotic and charming cast of characters—including a 17th-century cinephile who can’t get enough of Tinder, a painfully shy World War I captain, and a former spy with an ever-changing series of cosmetic surgery alterations and a belligerent attitude to HR—the bridge will be forced to confront the past that shaped her choices, and the choices that will shape the future.
An exquisitely original and feverishly fun fusion of genres and ideas, The Ministry of Time asks the universal What happens if you put a disaffected millennial and a Victorian polar explorer in a house together?
RECOMMENDED: Take a Hint, Dani Brown by Talia Hibbert is still $1.99! Maya squeed about this one and I agree with her assessment:
So I loved Take a Hint, Dani Brown. How much? I joined the Bad Decisions Book Club on the reread. Which started right after I had finished it the first time. Yes. I knew exactly where the book was going to go and I could not put it down. Honestly, I’m reading it a third time.
Talia Hibbert returns with another charming romantic comedy about a young woman who agrees to fake date her friend after a video of him “rescuing” her from their office building goes viral…
Danika Brown knows what she wants: professional success, academic renown, and an occasional roll in the hay to relieve all that career-driven tension. But romance? Been there, done that, burned the T-shirt. Romantic partners, whatever their gender, are a distraction at best and a drain at worst. So Dani asks the universe for the perfect friend-with-benefits—someone who knows the score and knows their way around the bedroom.
When brooding security guard Zafir Ansari rescues Dani from a workplace fire drill gone wrong, it’s an obvious sign: PhD student Dani and ex-rugby player Zaf are destined to sleep together. But before she can explain that fact, a video of the heroic rescue goes viral. Now half the internet is shipping #DrRugbae—and Zaf is begging Dani to play along. Turns out, his sports charity for kids could really use the publicity. Lying to help children? Who on earth would refuse?
Dani’s plan is simple: fake a relationship in public, seduce Zaf behind the scenes. The trouble is, grumpy Zaf’s secretly a hopeless romantic—and he’s determined to corrupt Dani’s stone-cold realism. Before long, he’s tackling her fears into the dirt. But the former sports star has issues of his own, and the walls around his heart are as thick as his… um, thighs.
Suddenly, the easy lay Dani dreamed of is more complex than her thesis. Has her wish backfired? Is her focus being tested? Or is the universe just waiting for her to take a hint?
Seducing a Stranger by Kerrigan Byrne is 99c at Amazon! This is book one in a series and tropes include opposites attract and a fake identity.
This Knight of the Crown is driven by a painful past and a patient fury… and his entire life is a lie.
Sir Carlton Morley is famously possessed of extraordinary will, singular focus, and a merciless sense of justice. As a man, he secured his fortune and his preeminence as Scotland Yard’s ruthless Chief Inspector. As a decorated soldier, he was legend for his unflinching trigger finger, his precision in battle, and his imperturbable strength. But as a boy, he was someone else. A twin, a thief, and a murderer, until tragedy reshaped him.
Now he stalks the night, in search of redemption and retribution, vowing to never give into temptation, as it’s just another form of weakness.
Until temptation lands—quite literally—in his lap, taking the form of Prudence Goode.
Prim and proper Pru is expected to live a life of drudgery, but before she succumbs to her fate, she craves just one night of desire. On the night she searches for it, she stumbles upon a man made of shadows, muscle and wrath… And decides he is the one.
When their firestorm of passion burns out of control, Morley discovers, too late, that he was right. The tempting woman has become his weakness.
A weakness his enemies can use against him.
Twice Shy by Sarah Hogle is $1.99! This was mentioned in a previous Hide Your Wallet. Aarya said it’s a “a fluffy, gentle hug of a book.” Sounds like that might appeal right now.
Can you find real love when you’ve always got your head in the clouds?
Maybell Parish has always been a dreamer and a hopeless romantic. But living in her own world has long been preferable to dealing with the disappointments of real life. So when Maybell inherits a charming house in the Smokies from her Great-Aunt Violet, she seizes the opportunity to make a fresh start.
Yet when she arrives, it seems her troubles have only just begun. Not only is the house falling apart around her, but she isn’t the only inheritor: she has to share everything with Wesley Koehler, the groundskeeper who’s as grouchy as he is gorgeous–and it turns out he has a very different vision for the property’s future.
Convincing the taciturn Wesley to stop avoiding her and compromise is a task more formidable than the other dying wishes Great-Aunt Violet left behind. But when Maybell uncovers something unexpectedly sweet beneath Wesley’s scowls, and as the two slowly begin to let their guard down, they might learn that sometimes the smallest steps outside one’s comfort zone can lead to the greatest rewards.
Portrait of a Thief by Grace D. Li is $1.99! This was mentioned previously on Get Rec’d. I’d describe this one as more fiction with some heisty, Ocean’s Eleven undertones.
Ocean’s Eleven meets The Farewell in Portrait of a Thief, a lush, lyrical heist novel inspired by the true story of Chinese art vanishing from Western museums; about diaspora, the colonization of art, and the complexity of the Chinese American identity.
History is told by the conquerors. Across the Western world, museums display the spoils of war, of conquest, of colonialism: priceless pieces of art looted from other countries, kept even now.
Will Chen plans to steal them back.
A senior at Harvard, Will fits comfortably in his carefully curated roles: a perfect student, an art history major and sometimes artist, the eldest son who has always been his parents’ American Dream. But when a mysterious Chinese benefactor reaches out with an impossible—and illegal—job offer, Will finds himself something else as well: the leader of a heist to steal back five priceless Chinese sculptures, looted from Beijing centuries ago.
His crew is every heist archetype one can imagine—or at least, the closest he can get. A con artist: Irene Chen, a public policy major at Duke who can talk her way out of anything. A thief: Daniel Liang, a premed student with steady hands just as capable of lockpicking as suturing. A getaway driver: Lily Wu, an engineering major who races cars in her free time. A hacker: Alex Huang, an MIT dropout turned Silicon Valley software engineer. Each member of his crew has their own complicated relationship with China and the identity they’ve cultivated as Chinese Americans, but when Will asks, none of them can turn him down.
Because if they succeed? They earn fifty million dollars—and a chance to make history. But if they fail, it will mean not just the loss of everything they’ve dreamed for themselves but yet another thwarted attempt to take back what colonialism has stolen.
Equal parts beautiful, thoughtful, and thrilling, Portrait of a Thief is a cultural heist and an examination of Chinese American identity, as well as a necessary critique of the lingering effects of colonialism.
RECOMMENDED: When Women Were Dragons by Kelly Barnhill is $2.99! Carrie read this one and gave it an A:
I adored this book. This was an astonishing, gripping, and inspiring read that I will return to again and again.
Learn about the Mass Dragoning of 1955 in which 300,000 women spontaneously transform into dragons…and change the world.
Alex Green is a young girl in a world much like ours. But this version of 1950’s America is characterized by a significant event: The Mass Dragoning of 1955, when hundreds of thousands of ordinary wives and mothers sprouted wings, scales and talons, left a trail of fiery destruction in their path, and took to the skies. Seemingly for good. Was it their choice? What will become of those left behind? Why did Alex’s beloved Aunt Marla transform but her mother did not? Alex doesn’t know. It’s taboo to speak of, even more so than her crush on Sonja, her schoolmate.
Forced into silence, Alex nevertheless must face the consequences of dragons: a mother more protective than ever; a father growing increasingly distant; the upsetting insistence that her aunt never even existed; and a new “sister” obsessed with dragons far beyond propriety. Through loss, rage, and self-discovery, this story follows Alex’s journey as she deals with the events leading up to and beyond the Mass Dragoning, and her connection with the phenomenon itself.
How to Fake It in Hollywood by Ava Wilder is $1.99! I picked this one up on a recommendation from a romance loving friend, Estelle! Estelle works in romance publishing and has been a guest on the podcast. Last time we featured this one on sale, the comments echoed how this was a great and harrowing depiction of grief and recovery.
A talented Hollywood starlet and a reclusive A-lister enter into a fake relationship . . . and discover that their feelings might be more than a PR stunt in this sexy debut for fans of Beach Read and The Unhoneymooners.
Grey Brooks is on a mission to keep her career afloat now that the end of her long-running teen soap has her (unsuccessfully) pounding the pavement again. With a life-changing role on the line, she’s finally desperate enough to agree to her publicist’s scheme . . . faking a love affair with a disgraced Hollywood heartthrob who needs the publicity, but for very different reasons.
Ethan Atkins just wants to be left alone. Between his high-profile divorce, his struggles with drinking, and his grief over the death of his longtime creative partner and best friend, he’s slowly let himself fade into the background. But if he ever wants to produce the last movie he and his partner wrote together, Ethan needs to clean up his reputation and step back into the spotlight. A gossip-inducing affair with a gorgeous actress might be just the ticket, even if it’s the last thing he wants to do.
Though their juicy public relationship is less than perfect behind the scenes, it doesn’t take long before Grey and Ethan’s sizzling chemistry starts to feel like more than just an act. But after decades in a ruthless industry that requires bulletproof emotional armor to survive, are they too used to faking it to open themselves up to the real thing?
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch is 99c! This was originally titled Midnight Riot and is the first book in an urban fantasy series set in London. Sarah did a review of the first three books in the series that she was reading along with her husband:
As a reader who loves immersive deep dives into different aspects of various cultures, and who loves puzzles and language, this is a lot of my catnip.
Constable Peter Grant dreams of being a detective in London’s Metropolitan Police. Too bad his superior plans to assign him to the Case Progression Unit, where the biggest threat he’ll face is a paper cut. But Peter’s prospects change in the aftermath of a puzzling murder, when he gains exclusive information from an eyewitness who happens to be a ghost. Peter’s ability to speak with the lingering dead brings him to the attention of Detective Chief Inspector Thomas Nightingale, who investigates crimes involving magic and other manifestations of the uncanny. Now, as a wave of brutal and bizarre murders engulfs the city, Peter is plunged into a world where gods and goddesses mingle with mortals and a long-dead evil is making a comeback on a rising tide of magic.
Funny You Should Ask by Elissa Sussman is $1.99! This one has been recommended on several podcasts we’ve done with other romance authors. Some readers think this one straddles the line between women’s fiction and contemporary romance. Any thoughts?
Then. Twenty-something writer Chani Horowitz is stuck. While her former MFA classmates are nabbing high-profile book deals, all she does is churn out puff pieces. Then she’s hired to write a profile of movie star Gabe Parker: her number one celebrity crush and the latest James Bond. All Chani wants to do is keep her cool and nail the piece. But what comes next proves to be life changing in ways she never saw coming, as the interview turns into a whirlwind weekend that has the tabloids buzzing—and Chani getting closer to Gabe than she had planned.
Now. Ten years later, after a brutal divorce and a healthy dose of therapy, Chani is back in Los Angeles as a successful writer with the career of her dreams. Except that no matter what new essay collection or online editorial she’s promoting, someone always asks about The Profile. It always comes back to Gabe. So when his PR team requests that they reunite for a second interview, she wants to say no. She wants to pretend that she’s forgotten about the time they spent together. But the truth is that Chani wants to know if those seventy-two hours were as memorable to Gabe as they were to her. And so . . . she says yes.
Alternating between their first meeting and their reunion a decade later, this deliciously irresistible novel will have you hanging on until the last word.
RECOMMENDED: Throne of the Fallen by Kerri Maniscalco is $4.99! I enjoyed this one and it reminded me a lot of sexy, early 2000s paranormal romances (which may or may not be your thing). I gave it a B+:
Throne of the Fallen is a “yes, and…” sort of book that you just have to lean into, which I happily did. It’s extremely cliched and tropey, and I’d eat this nonsense for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
The adult debut of #1 New York Times bestselling author Kerri Maniscalco, Throne of the Fallen is a seductive new standalone novel set within her fan-favorite Kingdom of the Wicked world, perfect for readers of fantasy, romance, and mystery alike.
Sinner. Villain. Ruthless.
These are wicked names the Prince of Envy welcomes. They remind him what he isn’t: a saint. And when a cryptic note arrives, signaling the beginning of a deadly game, he knows he’ll be called much worse before it ends. Riddles, hexed objects, anonymous players, nothing will stand in his way. With a powerful artifact and his own future at stake, Envy is determined to win, though none of his meticulous plans prepare him for her, the frustrating artist who ignites his sin—and passion—like no other…
Talented. Darling. Liar.
The trouble with scoundrels and blackguards is that they haven’t a modicum of honor, a fact Miss Camilla Antonius learns after one desperate mistake allows notorious rake—and satire sheet legend—Lord Phillip Vexley to blackmail her. And now it seems Vexley isn’t the only scoundrel interested in securing her unique talents as a painter. To avoid Vexley’s clutches and a ruinous scandal, Camilla is forced to enter a devil’s bargain with Waverly Green’s newest arrival, enigmatic Lord Ashford ‘Syn’ Synton, little expecting his game will awaken her true nature . . .
Together, Envy and Camilla must embark on a perilous journey through the Shifting Isles—from glittering demon courts to the sultry vampire realm, and encounters with exiled Fae—while trying to avoid the most dangerous trap of all: falling in love.
American Queen by Sierra Simone is 99c! This is the first book in the New Camelot Trilogy. This is a menage romance with BDSM, some darker elements, and a cliffhanger. Whenever this is featured on sale, there’s always some great discussion in the comments.
Warned as a girl to keep her kisses to herself, Greer Galloway disobeys twice–once on her sixteenth birthday as she’s kneeling in a pool of broken glass, and another time after a charming stranger named Embry Moore whisks her into the dazzling Chicago night. Both times she falls in love, and both times her heart is broken beyond repair. And so as an adult, she vows never to kiss–or to love again.
That’s until the Vice President of the United States shows up at the university where she teaches, and asks for one thing: for her to meet with the hero-turned-President Maxen Colchester. Maxen, the soldier who was her first kiss in that pool of broken glass.
And the other complication? The Vice President is none other than charming Embry Moore himself.
Soon, Greer finds herself caught between past and present, pleasure and pain–and two men who long for each other as much as they long for her. And as war and betrayal press ever closer, they tumble headlong into a passionate love affair that will change the world…
From the USA Today bestselling author of Priest comes a contemporary reimagining of the legend of King Arthur, Guinevere, and Lancelot–elegant, carnal, and unforgettable.
Fix Her Up by Tessa Bailey is $1.99! I used to be a huge Bailey fan, but this one didn’t do it for me, mainly because it had some tropes that aren’t my bag. If you enjoyed this one, feel free to leave a comment below!
New York Times bestseller Tessa Bailey launches a super sexy new series featuring the blue collar men who work for a HGTV-esque house flipping business.
After an injury ends Travis Ford’s major league baseball career, he returns home to start over. He just wants to hammer out his frustrations at his new construction gig and forget all about his glory days. But he can’t even walk through town without someone recapping his greatest hits. Or making a joke about his… bat. And then there’s Georgie, his buddy’s little sister, who is definitely not a kid anymore.
Georgette Castle has crushed on her older brother’s best friend for years. The grumpy, bear of a man working for her family’s house flipping business is a far cry from the charming sports star she used to know. But a moody scowl doesn’t scare her and Georgie’s determined to show Travis he’s more than a pretty face and a batting average, even if it means putting her feelings aside to be “just friends.”
Travis wants to brood in peace. But the girl he used to tease is now a funny, full-of-life woman who makes him feel whole again. And he wants her. So damn bad. Except Georgie’s off limits and he knows he can’t give her what she deserves. But she’s becoming the air he breathes and Travis can’t stay away, no matter how hard he tries…
The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields is $2.99! I remember a few of us being really excited for this one. The cover also looks beautiful, cozy, and perhaps slightly creepy. Did any of you read this one?
The Honey Witch of Innisfree can never find true love. That is her curse to bear. But when a young woman who doesn’t believe in magic arrives on her island, sparks fly in this deliciously sweet debut novel of magic, hope, and love overcoming all.
Twenty-one-year-old Marigold Claude has always preferred the company of the spirits of the meadow to any of the suitors who’ve tried to woo her. So when her grandmother whisks her away to the family cottage on the tiny Isle of Innisfree with an offer to train her as the next Honey Witch, she accepts immediately. But her newfound magic and independence come with a price: No one can fall in love with the Honey Witch.
When Lottie Burke, a notoriously grumpy skeptic who doesn’t believe in magic, shows up on her doorstep, Marigold can’t resist the challenge to prove to her that magic is real. But soon, Marigold begins to care for Lottie in ways she never expected. And when darker magic awakens and threatens to destroy her home, she must fight for much more than her new home—at the risk of losing her magic and her heart.
The Assassin and the Libertine by Lily Riley is 99c! This is an enemies to lovers romance. I remember picking this one up on a whim because of the setting and the main characters (an assassin and a vampire).
The fate of France itself is at stake if these sworn enemies cannot change their ways—and their hearts.
Daphne de Duras is a proper French duchess by day and fledgling assassin by night. Her latest mission is to dispatch justice and protect the French aristocracy by executing Étienne de Noailles, disgraced former noble, legendary rake, and vampire emissary to the court of King Louis XV.
But Étienne’s alleged crime—the gruesome murder of Madame de Pompadour, the King’s mistress and Daphne’s friend—doesn’t quite fit the dashing vampire’s nature. With his immortal days suddenly numbered, Étienne needs to convince his would-be executioner not only of his innocence, but that they should hunt the real killer together—a challenge almost as difficult as convincing himself that he isn’t falling for her.
Daphne reluctantly agrees to a temporary partnership when Étienne persuades her that something more sinister is afoot. He can, after all, help her find answers in places she’s unable to go alone. And despite her deep loathing for any and all vampires, she can’t help but start thinking of a few other places she’d like to go with him.
RECOMMENDED: One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston is $2.99! Carrie and Tara did a joint review of this one and gave it a Squee grade:
Tara: I cannot recommend One Last Stop enough. It’s funny, it’s sexy, and it gives me all the feels.
Carrie: So much this! The book is fun, sexy, serious and comical, and deeply intersectional.
From the New York Times bestselling author of Red, White & Royal Blue comes a new romantic comedy that will stop readers in their tracks…
Cynical twenty-three-year old August doesn’t believe in much. She doesn’t believe in psychics, or easily forged friendships, or finding the kind of love they make movies about. And she certainly doesn’t believe her ragtag band of new roommates, her night shifts at a 24-hour pancake diner, or her daily subway commute full of electrical outages are going to change that.
But then, there’s Jane. Beautiful, impossible Jane.
All hard edges with a soft smile and swoopy hair and saving August’s day when she needed it most. The person August looks forward to seeing on the train every day. The one who makes her forget about the cities she lived in that never seemed to fit, and her fear of what happens when she finally graduates, and even her cold-case obsessed mother who won’t quite let her go. And when August realizes her subway crush is impossible in more ways than one—namely, displaced in time from the 1970s—she thinks maybe it’s time to start believing.
Casey McQuiston’s One Last Stop is a sexy, big-hearted romance where the impossible becomes possible as August does everything in her power to save the girl lost in time.
A Fellowship of Bakers & Magic by J. Penner is 99c! This is book one in the Adenashire series, which is described as a cozy fantasy romance. I do wonder if this is a “no plot, just vibes” sort of book. Have you read this one?
A human, a dwarf and an elf walk into a bake-off…
In the heart of Adenashire, where elfish enchantments and dwarven delights rule, Arleta Starstone, a human confectionist works twice as hard perfecting her unique blend of baking and apothecary herbs.
So when an orc neighbor secretly enters her creations into the prestigious Elven Baking Battle, Arleta faces a dilemma.
Being magicless, her participation in the competition could draw more scowls than smiles. And if Arleta wants to prove her talent and establish her culinary reputation, this human will need more than just her pastry craft to sweeten the odds.
While competing, she’ll set off on a journey of mouthwatering pastries, self-discovery, heartwarming friendships and romance, while questioning whether winning the Baking Battle is the true prize.
Escape to for a delightful cozy fantasy where every twist is a treat and every turn a step closer to home.
This HaBO comes from Robyn, who is looking for this Harlequin:
I have been searching for a book I read a long time ago. I’m almost positive it was from one of those monthly shipments from Harlequin (I think it came with a pink wineglass). The basic story is pretty common – an estranged couple is forced back together. The husband is a traditional Greek billionaire and the woman was from England, I think. His family and friends hated her. They thought she didn’t speak Greek so they would talk about her in front of her. I don’t remember exactly who left who or why or exactly how he forced her to come back. I believe the original leaving was partly because his mom (or a sister or close family friend) was telling him lies about her, like she was cheating on him.
I vividly remember a scene where he follows her because he thinks she’s cheating on him. She’s carrying her camera. It ends up she’s doing what she did a lot in the past – going down to the wharf (something like that) to speak Greek with the “common” folk. He brings her to a fancy party and makes comments to her in Greek so everyone understands that she understands Greek and knew what they were saying about her.
That’s all I think I remember. I thought I had found the book in The Greek’s Marriage Bargain but it doesn’t have those scenes. Please help! It’s driving me crazy!
Okay, but I want to hear more about this monthly subscription. Did any of you participate?
Happy Tuesday, everyone!
Have I mentioned how many good releases are coming out this month? This week, we have more fantasy romances (they never end!), a mystery, contemporary romance, and a YA historical romance.
What’s on your TBR pile this week? Let us know in the comments!
Author: Elly Griffiths
Released: July 8, 2025 by Pamela Dorman Books
Genre: Mystery/Thriller, Time Travel
Series: Ali Dawson #1
Cold cases are a lot easier to solve when you can travel back in time to find new evidence—unless, that is, you get stuck in the nineteenth century.
Ali Dawson and her cold case team investigate crimes so old they’re frozen—or so their inside joke goes. Ali’s work seems like a safe desk job, but what her friends—and even her beloved son—don’t know is that her team has a secret: They can travel back in time to look for evidence.
So far Ali has made trips only to the recent past, so she’s surprised when she’s asked to investigate a murder that took place in 1850. The killing has been pinned on an aristocratic patron of the arts and antiquities, a member of a sinister group called “The Collectors.” She arrives in the Victorian era during a mini ice age to find another dead woman at her feet and far too many unanswered questions. But when her son is arrested, Ali attempts to return home only to find herself trapped in 1850.
Amanda: I haven’t been into mysteries lately, but this sounds interesting.
Author: S. Isabelle
Released: July 8, 2025 by Storytide
Genre: Historical: European, Romance, Young Adult
This wildly entertaining YA historical romance follows a young Black woman in 1860s England who yearns for a writing career and independence rather than love and marriage, but an unexpected inheritance forces her into London society and reunites her with the boy who broke her heart. Perfect for fans of The Gentleman’s Guide to Vice and Virtue and The Davenports.
Eighteen-year-old Stella Sedgwick is a lost cause. While 1860s England offers little opportunity beyond marriage for a sharp-tongued, dark-skinned girl, Stella dreams of a writing career and independence.
When her late mother’s former employer—the wealthy Thomas Fitzroy—summons Stella to London, he bequeaths her one of the family’s great estates on his deathbed. But such an inheritance will precipitate a legal battle, one that would be much easier if Stella were married. Suddenly thrust into lily-white London society with the goal of finding a husband, Stella also reunites with the Fitzroy heir Nathaniel, her childhood best friend, now somewhat of a stranger.
But London presents other opportunities, like picking up her mother’s old advice column, where “Fiona Flippant” anonymously guided readers through upper-class perils. It turns out the dresses and balls aren’t so bad, though the stares and insults sometimes feel impossible to navigate. Things only grow more complicated with the attention of handsome suitors and Stella’s increasingly tempestuous relationship with Nathaniel. As new opportunities arise and old secrets are uncovered, Stella must decide when to play by the rules, when to break them, and when to let herself follow her heart.
Shana: This has one of the most beautiful covers I’ve seen all year and I can’t wait to read it.
Author: Brigitte Knightley
Released: July 8, 2025 by Ace
Genre: Fantasy/Fairy Tale Romance, Historical: European, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Dearly Beloathed #1
Loyalties are tested in this enemies-to-lovers romantasy set in an alternate England following an assassin and a healer forced to work together to cure a fatal disease, all while resisting the urge to kill each other—or worse, fall in love.
When Osric Mordaunt, member of the Fyren Order of assassins, falls ill, he realises he needs the expertise of a very specific healer. As fate would have it, that healer belongs to an enemy faction, the Haelan Order.
Aurienne Fairhrim and her fellow Haelan are inundated by sick children suffering from an outbreak of a long-forgotten Pox. Unable to get the funding needed to launch an immunisation programme, the Haelan Order is desperate for money – so desperate that, when Osric breaks into their headquarters to bribe Aurienne to heal him, she is forced to accept.
As Osric and Aurienne work together to solve not only his illness but the mysterious reoccurrence of the Pox, they find themselves ardently denying an attraction which only fuels the tension between them.
Amanda: Dramione book #1 this month. This is such a slow burn.
Author: Julie Soto
Released: July 8, 2025 by Forever
Genre: Fantasy/Fairy Tale Romance, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: The Evermore Trilogy #1
New York Times bestselling author Julie Soto crafts a lush and dark romantic fantasy that’s filled with intrigue, magic, and an irresistible enemies-to-lovers romance.
The war is over, the dark forces have won, and the hero who was supposed to save them is dead.
Captured as her castle is overrun by the enemy, the world as Briony Rosewood knows it is changed forever. Evil has won, and her people face imminent servitude, imprisonment, or death.
Stripped of her Magic and her freedom, Briony and the other survivors are quickly sold off to the highest bidders in an auction—and as Evermore’s princess, she fetches the highest price. After a fierce bidding war, she’s sold to none other than Toven Hearst, scion of a family known for their cruelty.
Yet despite the horrors of her new world and the role she must learn to play within it, all is not lost. Help—and hope—may yet arise in the most unlikely of places…
Amanda: The second of two Dramione books coming out. I’m in heaven.
Author: Maggie Rapier
Released: July 8, 2025 by Ace
Genre: Fantasy/Fairy Tale Romance, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: The Magpie and the Wolf Duology #1
Every legend has a beginning.
With their freedom on the line, a young woman and a rakish pirate take their fate into their own hands as they attempt to find a lost mythical isle with the power to save their entire world.
Saoirse yearns to be powerless. Cursed from childhood with a volatile magic, she’s managed to imprison it within, living under constant terror that one day it will break free. And it does, changing everything.
Horrified at her loss of control, Saoirse’s parents offer her hand to the cold and ruthless Stone King. Knowing she’ll never survive such a cruel man, Saoirse realizes there is only one path forward…she must break her curse.
On the eve of her wedding, Saoirse seeks out the legendary Wolf of the Wild—Faolan, a feral, silver-tongued pirate. He swears to help rid her of the deadly magic, if she’ll use it to locate a lost mythical isle first. Crafted by the slaughtered gods, it’s the only land that could absorb her power.
But Saoirse knows better than to trust a pirate’s word. With the wrath of her disgraced father and scorned betrothed chasing them, Saoirse adds one last condition to protect if Faolan wants her on his ship, he’ll have to marry her first.
“A tale rife with longing, extraordinary tenderness and delicious tension. A glorious escape for the heart and imagination.”—Roshani Chokshi, New York Times bestselling author of Last Tale of the Flower Bride
Elyse: Pirates!
Lara: I will read this book for that gorgeous cover alone. The pirates are a bonus.
Author: Sarah MacLean
Released: July 8, 2025 by Ballantine Books
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Literary Fiction, Romance
New York Times bestselling author Sarah MacLean’s first foray into contemporary fiction, with a sharp, sexy novel about a wealthy New England family’s long-overdue reckoning with hidden desires, destructive secrets…and one week that threatens to tear them apart
Alice isn’t like the other Storm siblings. While the rest stayed to battle for their parents’ approval, attention, and untold billions, she left, building her own life beyond the family’s name and influence. Nothing could induce her to come back, except the shocking death of her larger-than-life father. Now back on the family’s private island off the Rhode Island coast, she plans to keep her head down, pay the last of her respects, and leave the minute the funeral is over.
Unfortunately, her father had other plans. The eccentric, manipulative patriarch left his widow and their grown children a final challenge–an inheritance game designed to humiliate, devastate, and unravel the Storm family in ways both petty and life-altering. The rules of the game are clear: stay on the island for one week, complete the tasks, receive the inheritance.
One week on Storm Island is an impossible task for Alice. Every corner of the sprawling old house is bursting dysfunctional chaos: Her older sister’s secret love affair. Her brother’s incessant mansplaining. Her sister-in-law’s unapologetic greed. Her younger sister’s obsession with “vibes”. Her mother’s penchant for stirring up competition between her children. And all under the stern, watchful gaze of Jack Dean, her father’s enigmatic, unfairly good-looking, second-in-command. It will be a miracle if Alice manages to escape the week unscathed.
A story about the transformative power of grief, love, and family, this luscious novel is at once deliciously clever and surprisingly tender, exploring past secrets, present truths, and futures forged in the wake of wild summer storms.
Sarah MacLean’s contemporary fiction with a dose of romance.
Author: Elissa Sussman
Released: July 8, 2025 by Dell
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Romance
From the bestselling author of Funny You Should Ask comes an inspiring romance novel about honoring the past, living in the present, and loving for the future.
In her small Montana hometown, Lauren Parker has assumed a few different roles: teenage hellraiser; sister of superstar Gabe Parker; and most recently, tragically widowed single mother. She’s never cared much about labels or what people thought about her, but dealing with her grief has slowly revealed that she’s become adrift in her own life.
Then she meets the devilishly handsome actor Ben Walsh on the set of her brother’s new movie. They have instant chemistry, and Lauren realizes that it has been far too long since someone has really and truly seen her. Her rebellious spirit spurs her to dive headfirst into her desire, but when a sexy encounter becomes something more, Lauren finds herself balancing old roles and new possibilities.
There’s still plenty to contend with: small-town rumors, the complications of Ben’s fame, and her daughter’s unpredictable moods. An unexpected fling seemed simple at the time—so when did everything with Ben get so complicated? And is there enough room in her life for the woman Lauren wants to be? Alternating between Lauren’s past with Spencer and her present with Ben, Totally and Completely Fine illuminates what it means to find a life-changing love and be true to oneself in the process.
Elyse: These characters appeared in Funny You Should Ask which I absolutely loved.
Author: Megan Bannen
Released: July 8, 2025 by Orbit
Genre: Paranormal, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Hart and Mercy #3
From the author of The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy comes a new heartwarming fantasy rom-com with an opposites-attract twist set in the delightful, donut- and dragon-filled world of Tanria.
Immortal demigod Rosie Fox has been patrolling Tanria for decades, but lately, the job has been losing its luster. When Rosie dies (again) by electrocution (again) after poking around inside a portal choked with shadowy thorns, she feels stuck in the rut that is her unending life.
The portal’s uptight creator, Adam Lee, must come in person to repair the damage. But when all the portals break down at once, Rosie and Adam wind up trapped inside the Mist. And the reticent inventor in his bespoke menswear seems to know a lot more about what’s happening than he lets on.
Maybe two people who have found themselves stuck in this thorny, tangled life together can find a way to unstick each other … just when their time on this earth seems to be running out.
Book three in the much loved Hart and Mercy series.
Author: Scarlett St. Clair
Released: July 8, 2025 by Bloom Books
Genre: Fantasy/Fairy Tale Romance, Romance, Science Fiction/Fantasy
Series: Blood of Lilith #1
The first in an all-new fantasy series from #1 New York Times bestselling author Scarlett St. Clair. In this biting, feminist retelling of Lilith’s story, Lilith will rise from the ashes of her former life to destroy the ancient power that stole everything she loves.
She is the beginning and the end.
She is peace and chaos.
She is terror knocking at the gates.
Estranged from her powerful family, Lilith Leviathan finds refuge in Nineveh, a district in the city of Eden devoted to sin. There, she uses her magic to steal for a living, attracting the attention of the five governing families as well as the church, which expects women to remain pious and silent. When Lilith comes into possession of a beautiful blade, she thinks all her worries are over…until her usual buyer dies while inspecting it.
Frantic, Lilith turns to the only man who can help Zahariev, head of the Zareth family and ruler of Nineveh. His currency is information, and his power is extortion, though he’s always had a soft spot for Lilith. But when the dagger appears, he isn’t sure he can protect her from what’s to come.
Together, they embark on a mission to discover the true power running their world. As their lives intertwine, Lilith realizes Zahariev is more than just a friend, but their devotion to each other is a threat—to the truth, to the church, and to those who want to tear it all down.
Amanda: Look at that cover!
A Bride for the Prizefighter by Alice Coldbreath is $2.99! This is book one in the Victorian Prizefighters series. I’ve heard such good things about Coldbreath’s romance. Would you recommend starting here?
Mina’s well-ordered life is thrown into disarray when her father drops a bombshell on his deathbed: she has a brother she never knew of. Not only that, he is on his way to rescue her from the collapse of their school under a mountain of debts.
A wild journey across country later, Mina finds herself thrown at the feet of the brutish William Nye, prize-fighter and owner of a disreputable inn, The Merry Harlot. Respectable Mina is appalled to find herself obliged to wed this surly stranger!
Forced to draw on reserves of inner strength she never knew she possessed, Mina uncovers perilous secrets and bravely carves herself a new life at the side of this man, as she proves herself a more than worthy partner for the prize-fighter.
The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes by Xio Axelrod is $1.99! This came out in the spring and has second chance romance elements and characters involved in the music industry. This one had a lot of buzz. Did you read it?
Her name’s Antonia “Toni” Bennette (yeah, she’s heard all the jokes before) and she’s not a rock star. Neither are the Lillys—not yet. But the difference between being famous and being almost famous can be a single wrong note…or the start of something that’ll change your life forever.
Growing up in dive bars up and down the East Coast, Toni Bennette’s guitar was her only companion…until she met Sebastian Quick. Seb was a little older, a lot wiser, and before long he was Toni’s way out, promising they’d escape their stifling small town together. Then Seb turned eighteen and split without looking back.
Now, Toni’s all grown up and making a name for herself in Philadelphia’s indie scene. When a friend suggests she try out for a hot new up-and-coming band, Toni decides to take a chance. Strong, feminist, and fierce as fire, Toni B. and the Lillys are the perfect match…except Seb’s now moonlighting as their manager. Whatever. Toni can handle it. No problem. Or it wouldn’t be if Seb didn’t still hold a piece of her heart…not to mention the key to her future.
The Duke Has Done It Again by Jane Ashford is $1.99! This is the sixth book in The Duke’s Estates series and is an enemies to lovers romance.
How can they stay rivals when they’re falling in love?
As children of the two most prominent families in town, Gavin Keighley and Rose Denholme have been enemies their whole lives. When the Duke and Duchess of Tereford come to town to get their estate in order, they invite Gavin, Rose, and their families for a visit to settle the feud once and for all. But as jealousy takes root, the entire town begins to compete for the attention of the duke and duchess, forcing Gavin and Rose to choose between fighting for their family interests or fighting for the love that’s blossoming between them.
Blood by Dr. Jen Gunter is $3.99! This was mentioned in Hide Your Wallet in January. Dr. Gunter’s non-fiction titles have been featured and recommended previously.
If you’re curious about this book, please check triggers. The author has a more comprehensive list on her website.
Hooked is a dark, contemporary mafia romance with lots of winks and nods to Peter Pan. It’s the first book in the Never After series, which is a reimagining of known fairytales and House of Mouse movies, but with villains as the love interests.
This is your common revenge story of a man wanting revenge against the heroine’s father and woos her as part of his quest for vengeance.
To sum up, Hook’s parents were assassinated by Peter…
Hook was then sent to live with his pedophilic uncle until he turned eighteen. And then he murders him. As one does. Hook’s plan is to use Peter’s daughter Wendy to lure Peter out and kill him. If you’re curious about whether Hook fantasizes about having sex with Wendy on top of her dad’s dead body, the answer is a resounding yes.
As a teen, Hook is taken in by a local crime boss, where they run protection rackets, drug smuggling operations, and the like.
Wendy has her own issues with her father, namely that he’s pretty negligent and neglectful of her and her brother following the death of their mother. He’s also involved in criminal activity that she is blissfully unaware of.
For some reason, I have declared 2025 my dark romance era. I’ve been curious about the subgenre for awhile, though it’s been hard to weed through all of the offerings and I feel like I can make book decisions more easily when I can peruse in a physical store. Shoutout to Lovestruck Books for having a beefy dark romance section.
I found this to be a super compelling read, honestly. I blew through this bad boy in about 5 hours across two days. I loved all the Easter eggs to the source material
The romance unfolded at a great (and sexy) pace for most of the book and there’s an interesting crime mystery happening in the background.
There’s a mole in the midst of Hook and his boss Ru’s operations, while they’re simultaneously trying to broker a deal with Peter and his airline company to further their drug operations. No one knows that Hook has any former connections to Peter and Peter doesn’t remember Hook since he was a child when they last met, so there’s a tension with his subterfuge with Ru, Wendy, and Peter.
It taps well into my enjoyment of high stakes secrets. Sarah and I have talked at length about how we vary on the angst scale. A friends to lovers romance doesn’t often grab my interest because I think the obstacles are too low. Wooing a woman and brokering an illegal business deal for the purpose of killing a well-known businessman with a highly successful airline company? Thank you, sir. I will have another.
The attraction between Hook and Wendy is cute and flirtatious (you know, until he reveals his master plan and things get wild). He’s British and throws around “darling” a lot (also another Peter Pan nod). It gave me some Astarion from Baldur’s Gate 3 vibes. For the Astarion girlies out there, if you know, you know.
I wouldn’t necessarily call it a morality chain trope, as Hook expresses no desire to be “good” for the sake of Wendy, but more so that falling in love with Wendy feels like the first “good” thing he’s allowed himself to experience.
Wendy is wealthy, has lived a sheltered life under the thumb of her rich father, and has assumed the typical role of eldest daughter where she has to parent her younger brother. Her decisions are driven by wanting to establish her own agency. She gets a job despite not needing one. She goes to bars with coworkers to establish deeper friendships. She strikes up a flirtation with a mysterious Brit (Hook).
Sometimes in similar plots, there’s a heaping helping of insta-love or a love interest that skews more toward passive rather than an active participant in a relationship. Perhaps, for me, the bar is on the floor, but Wendy at least wasn’t a wet noodle. I’ll take that as a win.
Everything fell apart with about a quarter left in the book. I felt like I was enduring twist whiplash with big reveal after big reveal, plus there was an uptick in sex scenes that I mostly skimmed. The twists mostly made sense, but there were just too many in rapid succession to really let them sit and simmer.
There’s a point of no return in Hook and Wendy’s relationship that I wasn’t fully on board with. Hook’s boss, Ru, is killed while attending a business deal. Hook was supposed to attend, but says he’ll be late. He’s supporting Wendy as she drops her brother off to a boarding school.
Upon discovering Ru’s dead body at the meeting place, he assumes Wendy had something to do with it. He accuses Wendy of distracting him to keep him from attending the deal so that Ru could be murdered.
But like dude…you offered to go with her. She didn’t ask.
He then kidnaps her and reveals his desire to use her as a pawn to kill her dad and then possibly kill her.
I felt Hook’s connection between going with Wendy coinciding with Ru’s murder didn’t make sense to me. It was too big of a logical leap.
There were also a couple things that don’t appeal to me personally as a reader.
There is a baby epilogue, which I don’t ever enjoy in my romances. There was also a scene where the heroine professes her love, post-facial. I’m not referring to a self-care spa facial (though hey, if the other kind is your version of self-care, we listen and we don’t judge). That said, Hook massaging his baby batter into Wendy’s face as she reveals that she’s fallen in love with him was certainly a creative choice.
Since we’re all friends here, I’ll share that I find sex facials to be not my cup of tea from purely a logistical standpoint. It’s going to sting if it’s in your eyes. God forbid you wear contacts or glasses. Lump this into the same bucket for my hatred of red velvet: it’s a very passionate NO from me.
I will note that in the book Wendy is a Massachusetts transplant from Florida (same, girl) and that threw me for a second. It’s set in a fictional town in an environment that certainly doesn’t bring to mind any of my experiences in the Bay State. There’s not a single mention of the screeching Green Line, ghost buses, or lack of blinker usage. If you’re a stickler for a detailed sense of place especially in an area where you may live, be warned that the setting is very loose set dressing.
However, I kept thinking about this book while working, waiting to finally be on my commute home or have some time on my lunch break to start reading again. I made the grievous error of buying a special edition of this book and, while there are plenty of books out in the series, the special edition of book two, Scarred, isn’t out until August. Yes, I’ve preordered it.
Considering I’ve been in a reading lull lately, Hooked gets major points for reigniting the desire to pull a Bad Decisions Book Club. It was really dirty (a compliment) and mostly fun, and I think it was a good start to my foray into newer dark romance releases this year.
Welcome back to Cover Awe!
Cover illustration by Cynthia Sheppard
Amanda: Love the eye contact on this one!
Sarah: This cover is an incredible balance of stillness between their faces and movement with all the fabric. The composition is flawless.
Lara: I’m rather taken with the bouffant hair. I feel it adds to the cover rather nicely.
Cover illustration by Alexis Lampley
Sarah: Oooh my!
Elyse: The dress spacesuit is chef’s kiss.
Sarah: She looks like she’s wearing a bearded iris and floating in front of a soap bubble. I love it.
Lara: Those colours are blissful.
Cover illustration by Devin Elle Kurtz
Sarah: Well that just glows in fascinating ways.
Amanda: This creates such a lovely sense of place.
Sarah: The use of shadow and fire is exquisite. I love how the cat and the main character are limned in firelight.
Lara: I love the details like the whisp of steam coming off the teacup.
Cover design by Dar Albert of Wicked Smart Designs
Amanda: I love how soft everything is and how the color and texture of her dress blends in with the flowers.
Sarah: That is a really interesting merge of a few trends! Flowers, soft focus, mostly similar color palate. The softness is so alluring.
Elyse: She looks like Alba Baptista.
Ghost Quartet is a band: Dave Malloy on keyboard, Brent Arnold on cello, Gelsey Bell and Brittain Ashford on various instruments, and everyone providing vocals. Ghost Quartet is a song cycle, a concert album performed semi-staged, a mash-up of "Snow White, Rose Red," The One Thousand and One Nights, the Noh play Matsukaze, "Cruel Sister", "The Fall of the House of Usher", the front page photo of a fatal train accident, and a grab bag of Twilight Zone episodes. The ghost of Thelonious Monk is sometimes invoked, but does not appear; whisky is often invoked, and, if you see the show live, will most certainly appear. "I'm confused/And more than a little frightened," says (one incarnation of) the (more-or-less) protagonist. "It's okay, my dear," her sister/lover/mother/daughter/deuteragonist reassures her, "this is a circular story."
Once upon a time two sisters fell in love with an astronomer who lived in a tree. He seduced Rose, the younger, then stole her work ("for a prestigious astronomy journal"), and then abandoned her for her sister, Pearl. Rose asked a bear to maul the astronomer in revenge, but the bear first demanded a pot of honey, a piece of stardust, a secret baptism, and a photograph of a ghost. (The music is a direct quote of the list of spell ingredients from Into the Woods.) Rose searches for all these ingredients through multiple lifetimes; and that's the plot.
Except it is much less comprehensible than that. The songs are nested in each other like Scheherazade's stories; you can follow from one song to the next, but retracing the connections in memory is impossible; this is less a narrative than a maze. Surreal timelines crash together in atonal cacophany; one moment Dave Malloy, or a nameless astronomer played by Dave Malloy, or Dave Malloy playing Dave Malloy is trying to solve epistemology and another moment the entire house of Usher, or all the actors, are telling you about their favorite whiskies. The climax is a subway accident we have glimpsed before, in aftermath, in full, circling around it, a trauma and a terror that cannot be faced directly; the crash is the fall of a house is the failure to act is the failure to look is the failure to look away.
There are two recordings available. Ghost Quartet, recorded in a studio, has cleaner audio, but Live at the McKitterick includes more of the interstitial scenes and feels more like the performance.
In Greenwood Cemetery, there were three slightly raised stages separated by batches of folding chairs, one for Dave Malloy, one for Brent Arnold, and one for Gelsey Bell and Brittain Ashford, with a flat patch of grass in the center across which they sang to each other, and into which they sometimes moved; you could sit in the chairs, or on cushions in front of the first row, or with cheaper tickets you could sit in the grass on the very low hills above the staging area, among the monuments and gravestones, and, presumably, among more ghosts. The show started a little before sunset; I saw a hawk fly over, and I could hear birds singing along when the humans sang a capella. It was in the middle of Brooklyn, so even after dark I couldn't see stars; but fireflies sparked everywhere.
Welcome back to Get Rec’d!
For this edition, I will warn that there are a couple titles related to tech and politics. One is fiction and the other is non-fiction. That may not be everyone’s bag right now. I also have a new mystery with a twist and Sarah popped in with a recommendation.
What recommendations have your received lately? Let us know in the comments!
I’m personally really curious about this one and how the interactive elements work out.
“Follow leads, find clues, and interrogate suspects in this intricately crafted page-turner! Will you make the right calls and catch the culprit, or will they slip through your fingers?” —G. T. Karber, author of Murdle
One murder. Six suspects. One truth for YOU to uncover.
YOU are the lead detective and it’s your job to investigate the most mysterious crime of your career.
There’s been a murder at Elysium, a wellness retreat set in an English country manor. You arrive to find the body of a local businessman on the lawn – with a rose placed in his mouth. It appears he was stabbed with a gardening fork and fell to his death from the balcony above. You quickly realize that balcony can only be accessed through a locked door, the key is missing, and everyone in Elysium is now a suspect… Who did it and why? It’s up to you to figure it out.
YOU gather the evidence and examine the clues.
YOU choose who to interview next, and who to accuse as your prime suspect.
But remember that every decision YOU make has consequences – and some of them will prove fatal…
Do you have what it takes? Can YOU solve the murder? Put your sleuthing skills to the test!
This is a book I can’t stop thinking about and does a great job explaining the pervasiveness of AI.
Shortlisted for the Women’s Prize for Non-Fiction
Named one of the best books of the year by Publishers Weekly.
A riveting story of what it means to be human in a world changed by artificial intelligence, revealing the perils and inequities of our growing reliance on automated decision-making
On the surface, a British poet, an UberEats courier in Pittsburgh, an Indian doctor, and a Chinese activist in exile have nothing in common. But they are in fact linked by a profound common experience—unexpected encounters with artificial intelligence. In Code Dependent, Murgia shows how automated systems are reshaping our lives all over the world, from technology that marks children as future criminals, to an app that is helping to give diagnoses to a remote tribal community.
AI has already infiltrated our day-to-day, through language-generating chatbots like ChatGPT and social media. But it’s also affecting us in more insidious ways. It touches everything from our interpersonal relationships, to our kids’ education, work, finances, public services, and even our human rights.
By highlighting the voices of ordinary people in places far removed from the cozy enclave of Silicon Valley, Code Dependent explores the impact of a set of powerful, flawed, and often-exploitative technologies on individuals, communities, and our wider society. Murgia exposes how AI can strip away our collective and individual sense of agency, and shatter our illusion of free will.
The ways in which algorithms and their effects are governed over the coming years will profoundly impact us all. Yet we can’t agree on a common path forward. We cannot decide what preferences and morals we want to encode in these entities—or what controls we may want to impose on them. And thus, we are collectively relinquishing our moral authority to machines.
In Code Dependent, Murgia not only sheds light on this chilling phenomenon, but also charts a path of resistance. AI is already changing what it means to be human, in ways large and small, and Murgia reveals what could happen if we fail to reclaim our humanity.
This was a recommendation Sarah wanted to pass on!
Sarah: Book some of y’all might like. It’s stories about bad ass nuns
Veteran reporter Jo Piazza profiles ten extraordinary nuns and the causes to which they have dedicated their lives—from an eighty-three-year-old Ironman champion to a brave sister who rescues victims of human trafficking
Meet Sister Simone Campbell, who traversed the United States challenging a Republican budget that threatened to severely undermine the well-being of poor Americans; Sister Megan Rice, who is willing to spend the rest of her life in prison if it helps eliminate nuclear weapons; and the inimitable Sister Jeannine Gramick, who is fighting for acceptance of gays and lesbians in the Catholic Church. During a time when American nuns are under attack from the very institution to which they pledge, these sisters offer inspiring, provocative counterstories that are sure to spark debate.
Overthrowing our popular perception of nuns as killjoy schoolmarms content to live in the annals of nostalgia, Piazza defines them instead as the most vigorous catalysts of change in an otherwise constricting patriarchy.
If you’re the kind of reader who likes to read sci-fi as a reflection of what our future may look like, one of my friends believes this book gets the most right in terms of where our country could be headed.
Read Infomocracy, the first book in Campbell Award finalist Malka Older’s groundbreaking cyberpunk political thriller series The Centenal Cycle, a finalist for the Hugo Award for Best Series, and the novel NPR called “Kinetic and gripping.”
• A Locus Award Finalist for Best First Novel
• The book The Huffington Post called “one of the greatest literary debuts in recent history”
• One of Kirkus’ “Best Fiction of 2016”
• One of The Washington Post’s “Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of 2016”
• One of Book Riot’s “Best Books of 2016 So Far”
It’s been twenty years and two election cycles since Information, a powerful search engine monopoly, pioneered the switch from warring nation-states to global micro-democracy. The corporate coalition party Heritage has won the last two elections. With another election on the horizon, the Supermajority is in tight contention, and everything’s on the line.
With power comes corruption. For Ken, this is his chance to do right by the idealistic Policy1st party and get a steady job in the big leagues. For Domaine, the election represents another staging ground in his ongoing struggle against the pax democratica. For Mishima, a dangerous Information operative, the whole situation is a puzzle: how do you keep the wheels running on the biggest political experiment of all time, when so many have so much to gain?
Infomocracy is Malka Older’s debut novel.
For this month’s After Dark at the Movies, I’m writing about The Damned, a folk horror film about 19th century Icelandic fishers who find themselves in desperate straits and faced with the consequences of a terrible choice. I found it interesting that the small crew included two women – an older woman who cooks for the crew and a younger woman who manages the site and the crew, and whose gender never seems to be an issue when it comes to exerting authority and leadership.
This movie sent me down an internet rabbit hole where I found that women were an integral part of Iceland’s fishing industry for centuries.
Iceland women show up in ancient sagas as seafarers. Gudrid the Far Traveller, who was probably born around 985, voyaged over much of Europe and visited Greenland, Vinland, Norway, and Rome. Aud the Deep-Minded lived even earlier, and shows up in several sagas as a woman who captained her own boat on a journey from Scotland to Iceland.
Many Icelandic women achieved legendary status. Thurídur Einarsdóttir was famous for never losing a single crew member and for having a side business as a private detective.
Anna Björnsdóttir kept fishing even while pregnant.
Rósamunda Sigmundsdóttir is famous for wearing red skirts to attract seals.
Halldóra Clubfoot filled her boat with exclusively female rowers and beat men in countless rowing challenges.
Icelandic fishing in the 18th and 19th centuries was not particularly segregated by gender.
In a review of Sea Women of Iceland, Jane Nadel-Klein states:
Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, it seems, fishing provided some relief and women played key roles as crew and even as boat captains.
Roberta Kwok wrote an essay about this same book in which she quotes the author:
Willson’s team combed through historical archives and publications to gather examples ranging from a female captain who led crews made up entirely of women, to expectant mothers who rowed late into pregnancy.
The sea “wasn’t a male space,” says Willson, a cultural anthropologist at the University of Washington in Seattle and a former seawoman. “It was not a feminist act in any way for them to go to sea.” It was just part of everyday life.
As the articles linked below describe in detail, women eventually became less involved on boats but deeply integral to fish processing which bolstered Iceland’s economy from 1903 to the 1969. Síldarstúlkur, also known as herring girls, poured into coastal towns to process fish directly from the boats. These young women changed Iceland’s economic world and found independence financially and socially.
While the herring girls enjoyed financial independence and a lively social life in dock towns that exploded into large cities, their work was difficult. The herring girls worked long hours, called at any time of day and night whenever a boat came in. The conditions were miserable and many started very young. One woman describes starting at work on the docks alongside her mother on her seventh birthday and being “an independent herring girl” by age eleven. The herring girls were passionate and savvy labor organizers who fought in strikes and demonstrations for pay equity and better working conditions.
Elizabeth Heath relates how this independence helped advance women’s suffrage and other rights for women in Iceland:
Herring girls’ organizing efforts took place around the same time that women won suffrage in Iceland. The country’s first women’s rights organization formed in 1894 and collected signatures on voting rights petitions. By 1907, 11,000 women and men—more than 12 percent of the population—had signed on. In 1915, women over 40 were granted the right to vote, and in 1920, the country introduced suffrage for all citizens ages 18 and up.
Later she relates:
In 1968, the Arctic Ocean herring fishery collapsed as a direct result of overfishing. The once-plentiful Atlantic herring was on the verge of extinction, and Iceland’s economy took a sharp tumble. Siglufjörður and dozens of towns like it emptied out. Fish processing plants were abandoned, boats sat idle in harbors and docks no longer hosted lively gatherings. But even as many herring girls returned to domestic duties, their impact on Icelandic politics and society continued to resonate.
Today only a small percentage of Icelandic women work on boats, but even the pervasive sexism in the industry has never driven them away altogether.
I fell into this topic because of my interest in The Damned, set in the 1800s. Sea Fever is another excellent independent horror movie. Set in 2017, it features an Irish fishing crew captained by a woman. The tiny crew includes another woman as well as a female biologist.
Real life fishing captain Linda Greenlaw became famous following the 2000 film adaptation of the nonfiction book A Perfect Storm by Sebastian Junger. She published her own memoir, The Hungry Ocean in 1999 and has published several subsequent nonfiction books as well as novels.
Back in Iceland, the 2025 documentary Strengur (also released as Tightlines) tells of young women learning to be fishing guides on Iceland’s rivers. Perhaps the depiction of women at sea and in the other roles within the fishing industry will bring women new recognition and opportunities within a changing social and environmental world.
Iceland’s Forgotten Fisherwomen
Seawomen of Iceland: Survival on the Edge by Margaret Willson (a review by Jane Nadel-Klein)
How Iceland’s Herring Girls Helped Bring Equality to the Island Nation
Women of the Seas: A Brief History
by Emily Bleeker
October 22, 2024 · Lake Union Publishing
Contemporary RomanceErotica/Erotic RomanceRomance
This guest review comes from Lisa! A longtime romance aficionado and frequent commenter to SBTB, Lisa is a queer Latine critic with a sharp tongue and lots of opinions. She frequently reviews at All About Romance and Women Write About Comics, where she’s on staff, and you can catch her at @thatbouviergirl on Twitter. There, she shares good reviews, bracing industry opinions and thoughtful commentary when she’s not on her grind looking for the next good freelance job.
…
When I picked up When We Chased The Light, I had no idea it’s a continuation of Bleeker’s previous New York Times bestseller When We Were Enemies. That’s not the author’s fault, but Lake Union has to know this is going to cut into buys from confused newbies to the series, who have no idea that the first chunk of Vivian’s story happens in the previous book. How did she become an Italian translator at a POW camp? Previous book. How did she become a USO dancer? Previous book. How she met the secret love of her life, Father Antonio Trombello? Previous book. I won’t count that against this volume but it’s going to be quite a struggle if the reader hasn’t picked up the first volume.
Post-World War II, all-American sweetheart Vivian Snow became a major Hollywood icon. Living with the fact that her soldier husband has been declared MIA after going AWOL, she focuses on her career, leaving her daughter to be raised by her much put-upon sister. Vivian would do anything to be famous, unaware of the turbulence her romantic life bestows upon her future-actress daughter. Rumors that she had her abusive hubby bumped off during his disappearance do not help.
All the while, Vivian holds on to a close relationship with Father Trombello. Whispers of an affair linger in the air, but have never been proven. Did the priest break his vows? The truth lies in postcards sent between them – set to be auctioned off by Christies as part of Vivian’s estate.
I definitely recommend reading the first book, well, first. But once you do, the continuing adventures of Vivian are fascinating to follow. She’s a staunch, interesting character who rather reminds me of the “Marvelous” Midge Maisel, only minus the sense of humor. Vivian could’ve used more laughs in her life.
The book is overall a solid piece of fiction, if too focused on all of the men who abuse Vivian in a huge variety of ways. After awhile, the total lack of decent men in her life leaves one yearning for some kind of divine intervention to defrock Father Trombello. Then it becomes generational trauma, with Vivian’s little girl becoming a great actress with a messy series of relationships. The misogynistic mess that was Old Hollywood is enervating but also feels quite real.
When We Chased the Light should involve pre-reading its opening volume, but it’s a fairly decent overall experience even with its flaws.
I've been trying very hard to cheerful!post this week because I'm frequently struggling to breathe, as one does these days. You all know how it is. I was planning on posting from the perfect 4 July book (The Westing Game). But when I looked at the exact words of the quotation, it felt much too on the nose:
The sun has set on your Uncle Sam. Happy birthday, Crow. And to all of my heirs, a very happy Fourth of July.
So, okay, I thinks to myself. I'll quote my other favorite Fourth of July bit from the end. But when I looked it up, uh. That didn't feel any less apropos to the moment?
Turtle?"
"I'm right here, Sandy." She took his hand.
"Turtle, tell Crow to pray for me."
His hands turned cold, not smooth, not waxy, just very, very cold.
Turtle turned to the window. The sun was rising out of Lake Michigan. It was tomorrow. It was the Fourth of July.
Ah, well. Ready for a nice game of chess?