Open Thread for Readers for August 2025
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? Post about it here!
In a contemporary book, how much pop culture do you want to see in it?
Yesterday I finished my fourth book by E.L. Massey. These all have young lead characters from seventeen through early twenties and contain one or two ice hockey players. All also contain LGBT or allied characters. I quite enjoyed them. Thank you, Cleo, for mentioning them elsewhere.
@Jayne: I don’t have strong feelings about pop culture references in contemporary novels. What bothers me is when books are set in mid to late 20th century and the author decides to throw in every possible pop culture reference so the reader knows the author did some Googling (or talked to their parents/grandparents). For example, the 1970s MC is listening to Donna Summer on their 8-track cassette in their Datsun 240Z car, comes home, and drinks a Tab while watching “Happy Days” on TV.
@SusanS: LOL – well that description took me back. You’re right. There are ways of layering this stuff into a book so it adds authentic feeling without making it sound like a term paper.
This past month, finally! I have been on something of a reading tear. It has been so long where I have struggled to find two books in a row that I liked that ‘reading slump’ was more of a feature than a bug.
I was in the mood for lighter fare, but definitely not contemporary rom-com romance .
Somehow I came upon THE MASQUERADERS by Georgette Heyer. It was one of a small group of hers that I’ve never read because the blurb just never worked for me. But I read it and really enjoyed it. I really like the clever plotting and how all the various scheming came together in the end. And I enjoyed how I see-sawed over whether ‘The Gentleman’ was telling the truth or was pulling off a great long con.
And then came Helen Harper’s second book in her Waifs and Strays series, THE DARK HISS OF MAGIC which was a fun little paranormal cozy mystery with humor.
And then I decided *that* was the lane I wanted to read in, so I tried to find more like that and happened upon Heather G. Harris’ The Portlock Paranormal Detective series — which is about a paranormal town in Alaska — complete with quirky inhabitants and all sorts of paranormals ranging from werewolves to mermaid to vampires to demigods etc. The main character is a forced turned Vampire named Bunny who flees to Portlock and is hired by the PNR version of a sheriff’s office where she becomes a detective in training. There are ‘cases of the week’ in each book, but also there are multiple continuant plot threads, including why and who wanted Bunny to get turned. There is humor and a strong romance that gets really going at about book 3. I am up to book 5 and my library has them all in audio so I am rolling along.
I did break up those to read Sarah Maclean’s THESE SUMMER STORMS. I LOVE soapy family drama and I love more when a will drops a surprise bomb on a family. I really should have loved this. But I did not. I was on the struggle bus the entire book. It just didn’t land the emotional or revelatory punches in places I needed it to. So that was a bit of a dud for me.
I also read ATONEMENT SKY by Nalini Singh and that worked for me. Even though it, hysterically, has the same romantic barrier to HEA that almost ALL of the books in this series has (one of the protagonists has a biological death sentence hanging over their head) even that worked well in this one. And it ended with potentially a solution to a long standing problem for some characters.
@Jayne: Regarding pop culture references in contemporary books — If it is a pop culture reference that has some longevity and is broadly recognizable and is used cleverly I don’t mind. For instance, if you have your protagonists (jokingly) arguing over whether there was room on the door for both Jack and Rose then I can work with that. Or I read one book where there characters are African American and there is mention of a ‘Gordon Gartrell shirt’ (which came up recently as a pop culture reference with the passing of Malcolm Jamal Warner) something like that feels both funny and clever to me. And I immediately get it.
But I have found I rarely like it when current real-time pop culture references make it into books. Mainly because I notice that they are less pop culture references and more social media memes/trends. And those don’t tend to age well, are not broadly recognizable, and tend to die rally fast. I mean, saying ‘very mindful, very demure’ was fun for about a minute. But now people think it is played out. And it just sounds out of touch.
@TinaNoir: I love THE MASQUERADERS. Leticia is a bit of a silly widgeon though. I think Robin’s going to be fishing her out of fountains a lot.
I read of lovely review of Lee Welch’s MR COLLINS IN LOVE on another site and, though I usually stay far away from Pride and Prejudice-inspired material, decided to try this one and I’m so glad I did. I’m trying to choose a superlative (delightful, enchanting, charming, miraculous) – let’s just say I thought it was excellent. Lovers of KJ Charles, come on over. In this story, Mr. Collins is not a simpering, pompous fool, but a man beset by crippling social anxiety and awkwardness. He keeps notes on people’s behaviour, trying to figure out why they act the way they do. Witty repartee baffles him and the only way he can cope is by imagining he’s someone else. The man has no friends except for one childhood boy who ran away to sea when Mr. Collins went to school. This friend returns about a month before the events in Pride and Prejudice, and what follows is a most tender love story. The title page declares this “A Pride and Prejudice inspired m/m romance” but to me it works better as a story of queer love and acceptance. Don’t come to this story expecting a lot of sexy times. It’s not really about that, although there is some intimacy between them. In this story, the buzzing of bees in the garden and the planting of potatoes are every bit as transcendent as what may or may not transpire down by the grotto. And the writing is gorgeous.
I was sad the book wasn’t longer. We’re in William Collins’ head the whole time, and although we understood enough of his friendship with Jem to believe their love story, I would have liked to have learned even more about Jem. He was a gardener’s son, an illiterate man with a cleft lip. William accepted him but the rest of the world didn’t. The author could have added 50 more pages, easy as kidney pie.
You don’t have to be familiar with Pride & Prejudice to enjoy this book. It’s a world unto itself. Thank you, Lee Welch.
@Jayne and SusanS: I feel differnetly about pop culture in contemporaries than in books with 20th century settings. I do like some pop culture references in the latter, but I think I prefer culture to pop culture. Or stuff in between, like avocado colored refrigerators or professions and technologies that are no longer around.
With contemporaries there’s a different problem which is that references can be dated. Years ago I took a course with then Carina editor Angela James and I remember her giving the example of an author saying the hero looked like Mel Gibson. Well, he was hot in his day, but now that we know he’s a domestic abuser as well as an antisemite, not so much!
@Janine: Maybe I’m just not reading books which describe the MCs as looking like famous people anymore but it seems like this has died down a little. It used to be that every third book I read flat out said the hero looked like “latest hot, sexy actor” or heroine resembled “such and such a celebrity.” Or authors switched description things up and just described their MCs in detail so that readers would know exactly which famous person the character was supposed to look like. I hated both ways of doing that. Perhaps the change is due to the increased use of social media which shows us the feet of clay that many of these famous people have.
@Jayne: I don’t mind some pop culture references (I mean, would a twenty-something heroine not look at Instagram/TikTok or listen to, idk, Taylor Swift?), but if the book turns into one long “checking this or that on the phone”, it’s a big turn-off. On the other hand, if writers who didn’t live through a recent era insist on making pop culture references to it, they better be sure they’re accurate. A few years ago, Tessa Bailey had a heroine who collected vinyl records; the heroine was thrilled to find “a 45-rpm of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours.” Sorry, honey, take it from someone who was there: “Rumours” is the title of an LP, it is not the name of a single song—so it was never a 45-rpm record. That took me right out of the story.
So many great recommendations, but first:
THE PHALLUS IN NATURE by Augusta Reilly is outstanding and I’m only halfway through (https://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/overall-a-reviews/a-minus-reviews/review-the-phallus-in-nature-by-augusta-reilly/). Thank you, Jayne!
The writing, the completely unhinged (in good and bad ways) characters, the linguistic expertise so clearly in evidence; I am in love and have now purchased all the author’s books I can find (I don’t like you, Amazon, but my affection for this first book is stronger than all of us).
@TinaNoir: Portlock Paranormal Detectives series? What a day this has been already. Thank you for mentioning this series, I am off to see what I can get my hands on.
@Janine:
I read a book once where, I kid you not, every single major character looked like a hot (naturally) famous person. I mean that was the least of the book’s issue’s but it was sooo egregious.
@Eliza:
That sounds absolutely lovely and I’m going to seek it out.
@TinaNoir: Whoa.
@ Kareni – yay! I’m so glad the E. L Massey series worked for you. I’ll have to tell my SIL – she recommended them to me at a family reunion. I was deeply skeptical about yet another hockey romance series but I needed a book for the flight home – and then I inhaled the whole series in a week.
@Jayne – I agree with @TinaNoir. I prefer limited pop culture references that fit the story / characters.
I don’t know if the style of name dropping brands has faded or if I just don’t read those books anymore, but I find that particularly annoying.
I’m currently re-reading the Murderbot Diaries, after watching (and mostly enjoying but not loving) the Apple+ show. Just finished book two and it was a delight! – pleased to find that I still love this series.
I read Annick Trent’s latest historical- By Marsh and by Moor and I really enjoyed it. It’s also about the press gangs, interestingly enough. I really liked her earlier historical series and I think this might be her best work I’ve read so far. Grittier than her earlier series.
Gay romance between two working men looking for a fresh start. It’s rare to find one, let alone, two working class heroes in a Regency set romance and I enjoyed learning about their worlds.
It’s told mostly from the POV of Jed, who just escaped from the Royal Navy, five years after being captured by the press gangs. He just wants to get home, back to his village, with his family and his horse, and resume his life delivering goods across the moors and marshes of Somerset. He’s aided by Solomon, who finds him washed ashore after his escape. The two are headed in the same direction and agree to travel together. Solomon’s willingness to help a stranger (and obvious deserter) required a suspension of disbelief but I’m glad I went with it and it did fit with what we learn of his character later in the book
There’s a lot going on with the plot – there’s the danger of the press gang capturing both of them, Jeb’s quest to reclaim his old life, plus the reason Solomon left his position as head ostler in a coaching house in London. I think the romance sometimes took a back seat to all of the suspense but I enjoyed the story and the characters enough that I didn’t mind much. And based on the author’s blog, I have hopes for a more solid HEA at the end of the trilogy.
@cleo – press gangs! Not less gangs. By Marsh and by Moor, like Mr Collins in Love, is about the press gangs.
@Cleo: Thanks for the info on the new Trent book. I’ve read and enjoyed two of her f/f historical books and just haven’t got to the two m/m books in that series.
@Jayne – of her two mm in the previous series, I really loved The Oak and the Ash. It and Sixpenny Octavo were my faves. I didn’t like Beck and Call – the romance was pretty weak, although it does give context for the rest of the series.
@Cleo: Going to try one of those thank you and thank you Jayne.