The Devil Comes Courting, Courtney Milan, het romance. I'm considering a plan where I read a romance novel every time I have to covid-test one of the kids. (Kid was negative.) The couple in this one was an easy sell for me: the heroine is terrible at names, the hero realizes this, and smoothly starts covering for her. Talk about your wish- ( Read more... )

One Last Stop, Casey McQuiston. I stayed up too late finishing this which should tell you something right there. New-adult f/f romance that with one big exception felt like it had been written exactly to my tastes, details behind cut. ( Read more... )

Winter's Orbit, Everina Maxwell. This is an arranged-marriage romance novel that happens to be set In Space; I like a good SF romance and thought it was a fun read. The Space Plot had a nice mix of mystery-solving and action bits, and I liked the vaguely Vingean worldbuilding, with a small space empire hoping to maintain galactic-bureaucracy ( Read more... )

Cemetery Boys, Aiden Thomas. This was awesome! YA about a trans witch boy who summons a dead boy and then can't get rid of him. Excellent pacing and really nice construction - without getting too spoilery about it, this is the story of two people trapped in transitional states who are able to help each other out of them. (Spoilers: PLUS KISSING ( Read more... )

The Midnight Bargain, C.L. Polk, 2020, standalone unrelated to Witchmark series. I feel like this should have been catnip for me but it wasn't. Het Regency romance with magic, women are locked out of magic because magic and pregnancy don't mix, protag wants magic but needs to marry for her family finances, can a solution be found. Some neat bits ( Read more... )

I have had such a hard time lately finishing books (and I don't even list here the books I give up on, of which there have been a couple recently, which is unusual for me, a compulsive book-finisher) but I had no trouble at all breezing through Courtney Milan's latest, The Duke Who Didn't, so maybe part of the problem has been a run of bad luck/bad ( Read more... )

I managed to Read A Book, a feat that has been beyond me for a couple of weeks. Boyfriend Material, Alexis Hall, fake-dating contemp romance currently popular on the internet. Didn't quite land for me for a couple of reasons - the pairing was very much a Sweaterboy/Absolute Nightmare dynamic, but the Nightmare was just such an asshole a couple ( Read more... )

Proper English, KJ Charles. Think of England was one of my favorite romance novels of recent years (discussed here). This is a prequel about how an established secondary couple in that one got together, and, like the first one, a country house mystery, this time with less action and more deduction. I was a little disappointed by how little ( Read more... )

The Lady's Guide to Celestial Mechanics, Olivia Waite. Widely recced and justifiably so, this was truly lovely (and hot). Science and art and being part of a larger world of women and I loved the progression of their relationship. The science is not as good as the science in Countess Conspiracy but it had some good moments.

The Ruin of a Rake, ( Read more... )

Flight of Magpies, KJ Charles. Conclusion of the Charm of Magpies trilogy, good magic action and established-relationship conflict.

Fence vol 4: Rivals, CS Pacat, Johanna the Mad, Joana Lafuente. I'm so excited to be getting more of this comic. Really hope it keeps running all the way to a big conclusion. Multiple points of giant open-mouthed ( Read more... )