Open Thread for Readers for March 2022
Got a book you want to talk about? Frustrated with a book or series? In love with a new one? Found a buried treasure? An issue that keeps popping up in the books you are reading? Just want to chat about stuff in general?
Has anyone got any historical romances to recommend? I’ve been in the mood for something other than regency era or Victorian.
@Jayne: Aster Glenn Gray has some good ones. One of the reasons I like her so much is that she writes books set a variety of settings (World War II English countryside, 1870s America, 1910 Russia and France, 1950s America, post WW I England). Her next one will be about two hobos traveling together in the US during the Great Depression era. Out of what is out now, I would probably recommend starting with The Threefold Tie. It’s a novella so it should give you an idea of her writing. I liked Honeytrap just as much but I’m not sure the tinkering she did with the FBI/KGB aspects would work for you.
Besides that, although I haven’t read it, I recently stumbled on this Edwardian romance, which is the first in a series:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40887636-night-at-the-opera
The author has written some Christian romances and I don’t recognize the publisher, so I can’t determine if this is an inspie. I am not a fan of inspirational romances so I’m leery but I know you’ve read some so maybe it would work for you? The Edwardian opera milieu is certainly appealing and different.
I’m sure you’ve read most of the HRs I’ve read recently, but I do have a Britcom to recommend – A Dog Called Jack by Ivy Pembroke. Available on Hoopla. If you’re looking for a sweet, gentle book to bring a smile this one fits the bill. Sometimes I stumble upon real gems on Hoopla and this is defiantly one of those.
@Janine: I’m not much of a fan of ménage and I tried one Gray novella and didn’t finish it. But it started out with a lot of fanfic stuff and I do not like that at all so maybe I need to try one of her other stories.
The Henrie book sounds interesting. I read a book of hers years ago and liked it so I’ll look into this one. https://dearauthor.com/misc/contestsgiveaways/review-hope-at-dawn-by-stacy-henrie/
Has anyone noticed their reading tastes changing because of the pandemic? My tastes tend to change regularly no matter what, but I’ve noticed that I’m much more into books that are deliberately cozy than I used to be.
My latest example is Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree. The tag line is “A novel of high fantasy and low stakes” and It delivers exactly that. It’s cozy high fantasy about an orc / retired mercenary opening a coffee shop, with a lovely, if understated, slow burn ff romance. There is some plot – the orc, Viv, runs into trouble with a local mob boss and also with one of her former colleagues – but it’s mostly about her finding community and creating a home. It honestly reads a lot like a D&D quest to make friends and open a coffee shop. At another time, I might have found this too slow or too obvious but reading it now, two years into a global pandemic, I thought it was pretty damn satisfying.
@Jayne: I’ve enjoyed Cat Sebastian’s 20th C set historical series. The Cabots is a queer romance series set in late 50s, early 60s USA, featuring members of a Kennedy like family. Page & Sommers is set in post WWII Britain, in a small village. A country doctor and British spy fall in love and solve mysteries.
@Jayne
A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute
A City of Bells by Elizabeth Goudge
Jennie About to Be by Elisabeth Ogilvie
Crescent City by Belva Plain
Rivington Street by Meredith Tax
God is an Englishman by R.F.Delderfield
I suppose these historical fiction books are only lightly romantic, but I’ve enjoyed them all at one time or another.
@Jenreads: Thanks for the rec. I’ve added it on my Hoopla list.
@cleo: I don’t know if it’s actually a change in my reading tastes but I find that I’m much quicker at pulling the plug on something I think isn’t working for me.
My library has a lot of Cat Sebastian books I’ve been meaning to look into.
@LML: Thanks for the list. I’ll go and read the blurbs and see what might work for me.
@cleo: I just purchased LEGENDS AND LATTES and hope one day to actually read it. My reading tastes these days are all over the place and settling on one has been harder. I DNFd a book recently and that went against all my reading principles, if that’s a thing; but the struggle was real and not worth it.
Titles of books, those that IMO are ostensibly about women in peril, have irritated me beyond belief. I’m not singly out a specific author, but some examples: SHE CAN RUN; DON’T SAY A WORD; DON’T TELL A SOUL; THE GIRL IN CABIN RANDOM NUMBER; DROWN HER SORROWS; HE KNOWS WHERE YOU LIVE. I understand the intent–woman, possibly child in danger–and clearly the titles are working because I don’t want to be anywhere near them. I’ve ranted about the ubiquitous use of “girl” for years and this creeping doom in titles chaps the back of my lap even more. I am over women being prey in fiction. /rant
Having said that, I do not judge any reader’s choice of genres or authors. As I get older, I understand my boundaries a lot more. Thanks for the space to say it.
@Jayne: Yeah, I skipped the fandom one because I don’t like the fandom trope either. Also the cover of that book was horrible!
I don’t know if I would describe The Threefold Tie as being a menage novel; that implies erotica to me. This is definitely *not* erotica. There is a threesome sex scene but only one and only at the end of the book. It’s much more of a story of whether a friendship between three people can be reconfigured into what was then called “a complex marriage” and she draws on the Oneida community to show that the idea of a marriage of more than two people already existed even if it was considered outrageous (one of the things the characters grapple with a bit).
If that doesn’t work for you then maybe try Briarley? It’s not my favorite but it is good and her most popular and it takes place during World War II but in a way that feels very fresh.
@Cleo, my thought was “nope, reading tastes haven’t changed because of pandemic” but later I read @Darlynne’s comment and realized that I DNF PDQ these days. For decades and decades I finished every book I started, including horrors like Turgenev’s The Torrents of Spring and Waugh’s Vile Bodies. [shudder]
I’ve always been in such a hurry to get to the next book that I’ve never kept a list of books I’ve read. But as I looked over the list of books I own to find a suggestion for @Jayne, I noticed a sizable shift in the style of my reading through the years.
@Jayne: It looks like the Henrie is on Kindle Unlimited, which I know you have.
@cleo: My tastes are also shifting toward lighter, or at least kinder books. I still like a book with a lot of emotion but I want that emotion to be based in something the characters are battling within themselves or in the effect of a societal circumstance and not in suspicion, excessive anger or OTT angst.
@Jayne and @Darlynne: IMO finishing books that just aren’t working for us is a way of treating ourselves well.
cleo – “Has anyone noticed their reading tastes changing because of the pandemic?”
I’m reading more fantastical stories. I’ve always liked paranormal romance, but I’m leaning way into that now as well as low stakes fantasy and anything with no relation to my life, like sports, rockstar, and royal romances. Cozy mystery is also working for me, but I’m picky about it.
@Janine: Yeah that cover was … not good.
@Jayne: I used to love Jo Beverly’s Georgian set romances. Have you ever read those ?
@ Jayne – One of the funniest, yet believable and well researched book that I have read is The Adventures of Alianore Audley by Brian Wainwright. It definitely helps to have an understanding of the historical period (the War of the Roses), however for me, an American reader with a rudimentary knowledge of English history, it was absolutely wonderful. There is romance and a HEA and Alianore is a unique and pragmatic heroine who I loved reading about. Although it has been years since I read this book, I remember it with great fondness. The book is available on KU. Highly recommend.
@Mary Beth: Yes, I love this one! You can also see how my reviewing has expanded over the years since we first started. ☺
https://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/overall-b-reviews/b-plus-reviews/the-adventures-of-alianore-audley-by-brian-wainwright/
@Layla: Yes, I loved those, too. Much more than I liked her regencies. Her medievals were lovely as well.
https://dearauthor.com/book-author/jo-beverley-2/
@Jayne: Wow, May 2006! DA had just launched the month before. I think I hadn’t even discovered the site yet then!
@Janine: Vintage Dear Author.