Open Thread for Readers for July 2026
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!
What July releases are you thinking about reading?
Heartstopper!!! How did a romance between two boys almost 50 years younger than me affect me so strongly?
Last month I was rereading the Murderbot Diaries series, and this month I’m rereading Naomi Novik’s Scholomance books. It started innocuously enough — something made me want to read my favorite scene from The Golden Enclaves (if you’ve read the books, can you guess what it is?). I got sucked in and read the rest of the book from that point out, and then started rereading A Deadly Education, a book I’ve read at least four times by now, probably more. I usually skip book two, but I am reading it now. Reading about El, a reluctant heroine who is snarky and funny and endearing once you get past her prickly exterior, is addictive. All this made me think of another question:
What are your most reread books?
@Jayne: July is sparse for me so far. Right now I’m looking forward to Silvia Moreno-Garcia’s book The Intrigue and nothing else.
I (finally) read Annabeth Albert’s SAILOR PROOF. This prompted me to start a currently one-item list called Romance Novels without Big Misunderstandings. I kept waiting to get ambushed, for the intelligent-yet-unsure MCs to throw it all away and go off in a huff. Reader, it didn’t happen. Sure, we had the I’m-not-good-enough-for-you anxiety and can-someone-really-love-me doubts, but they Didn’t Go There.
So is this book a unicorn? Are there others that avoid my biggest pet peeve and I’ve just not noticed? Worst case scenario, I’ll always have SAILOR PROOF.
In other news, I stumbled upon RED QUEEN by Juan Gómez-Jurado. Set in contemporary Spain, a disgraced detective inspector is forced to work for a clandestine group that prevents/solves crimes way off the books for super wealthy individuals or corporations. The translation was outstanding — by which I mean I didn’t struggle to understand — and the action was pretty much non-stop. Also dark and violent, but I was completely intrigued. The second book of three is BLACK WOLF. Apparently the author is quite famous and popular, so now I have lots of things to look forward to. Highly recommended.
@Janine: I’m looking forward to The Intrigue as well.
@Darlynne: I seem to come across plenty of contemporary romances that don’t include the Big Mis, just two people who make a connection, start a relationship and eventually decide that they want it to be permanent. Frankly, it’s often kind of boring, and I often skim to the end or just move on to another book once the romantic tension is resolved.
Not that I want pointless misunderstandings, and I haven’t read Sailor Proof which may be great, but I feel like most authors these days don’t know how to structure a romance that will keep the reader on edge to see if the characters can figure out their feelings. Or maybe it’s the readers who lack the patience for proper slow burn and complain if the characters aren’t decisive mind readers; I’ve seen a few reviews lately that reflect that attitude.
In any case, I don’t think it’s just me becoming jaded. It’s the books that are becoming humdrum.
@oceanjasper: I understand. There was plenty of tension between the MCs, because their chosen path would have enormous obstacles. Of course, we know the HEA is the point, but the struggle was real. What I appreciated so much was how they worked through it, mostly separated by deployments and a complete lack of communication.
This is a long way of saying how much I enjoyed their mature, hard work towards what they both hoped for and wanted.
@Darlynne: It’s not quite the same thing you’re asking for, but if I may recommend a friend’s book, Meredith Duran’s At Your Pleasure sets up a Big Mis in the prologue but just as you’re thinking this will be what the book is about, it gets cleared up (a lot earlier that readers familiar with that trope might expect) and a different conflict emerges instead. I can’t recall if historical romance is your bag, and this one has an unusual setting (England in 1715) but I mention it in case it is close enough to what you are looking for.
Red Queen sounds spectacular. I don’t usually read mysteries but that is a great setup for sleuthing, and the setting is also appealing. I might see if my library has it.
@oceanjasper: I could be misinterpreting but I took what Darlynne was saying to mean that she wanted books where it looks like a Big Mis would emerge but then doesn’t, and the characters handle that conflict differently.
I agree that romance conflicts these days are more low key. Starting around the time Trump was first elected and then #metoo emerged, my taste took a turn toward softer (for lack of a better words) romances. I didn’t have the bandwidth for as much edginess. But now I’m starting to wish for deeper conflicts again, so I’m hoping more of those kind of books will come out.
One recent book I can think of where the conflict was quite serious was Into the Blue by Emma Brodie, which Jennie reviewed here. Definitely a significant conflict and one that takes years to resolve. The ending is a bit unusual though (I don’t want to spoil it).
@Darlynne: going to check out Red Queen thank you .
@oceanjasper: I am one of those readers who hate Big Misunderstanding ( as a rule – of course occasional exception always possible ) as a vehicle for conflict but I think that I hate a specific variety of Big misunderstanding- you know the one that could be resolved with one conversation? To me this is not a conflict – this is lazy writing . I do not mind a new couple in making realizing that they may have things that needed to be talked out . They are usually still new to each other as relationship develops to me it makes sense that they don’t know everything about each other and won’t always communicate perfectly especially in the beginning of the relationship but having for example one person walking out in the middle of conversation when the other one have not finished the sentence and the misunderstanding from that conversation lingers for the most of the book – I am not going to finish such a book :). This is why I also love we against the world type of conflict in the book – easy to let them see what each other made of without making them sound stupid . JMO.
I think what I like best in romance is the falling in love part, and that’s over all too soon in modern romance. Once the characters are a couple, whether they still have personal or external conflicts to work through, the thing I’m really reading the book for is already over. I like to feel that they’ve really earned their HEA, and I’ve earned it as a reader.
I read a lot of perfectly pleasant romances these days but none of them stay in my mind because they are utterly unmemorable.
@oceanjasper: with that I totally agree – I deal with it differently though . I just don’t read nearly as much romance as I used to and not because I am tired of the genre . I can’t find enough of what I love to read . This is why my recent read – Simon Jimenez’ book was so frustrating lol . It was what I love to read but author made some things in those book so hard to follow .
Although thinking a little bit more , I enjoy just as much an established couple dealing with the conflicts and staying together .
I really hate the Big Mis because it’s almost always a substitute for good characterization. It’s frequently paired with characters having personality transplants to accommodate the Big Mis. It’s laziness IMO.
I am also having trouble finding good books to read. I’m so, so tired of romcoms, and I know I’m limiting myself by mostly reading m/m these days, but at this stage of my life that’s what I’m wanting to read. I do sometimes like romcoms, but only if the writing’s good. What I’m really wanting lately is “us against the world” romances preferably with action that doesn’t fall over into thriller territory.
I’d normally be all over romantasy. I mean romance plus fantasy, what’s not to like, but apparently it’s been decreed that romantasy really means cozy fantasy which is really just romcom in a fantasy world. So I’m not finding much to interest me lately.
@MaryK: Romantasy books keep enticing me with their cute covers and blurbs but after disappointments, I’m starting to smack my hand with a ruler whenever I see one. “No, no, Jayne! Don’t even think about it.”
@MaryK: Do you ever read straight-up fantasy? Some are very romantic and not cozy.
Not really. Fantasy is usually too epic for my tastes. I don’t mind romance being a subplot if it’s a strong subplot and not just a few pages devoted to it in a 300+ page book. Fantasy also frequently doesn’t care if the characters survive much less end up happily.
@MaryK: I’ve read a number of fantasy novels where the romance is a strong subplot. I do agree the books are often long but that’s true of romantasy also. I had to give up on the Fourth Wing series (the most popular romantasy series I can think of) because I don’t do 500+ page books myself.
Your last point isn’t my experience. Maybe 5% or at most 10% of the fantasy novels I’ve read have had a character I cared about die in them and even then it’s not the main character. Thats not what I would call frequent. I read fantasy more than any other genre and can only think of one fantasy novel I’ve read where a main character died, and I quit that book immediately.
In general, fiction has become more commercial across the board in recent years, and that often means including the appeal of a happy ending in the book. Even literary novels often end on a note of hope these days, and aren’t almost all bleak like they used to be. Romance too is less angsty, as per Oceanjasper’s point above.
I forgot to add – when I’m not sure if a book will have a happy ending, these days I just ask an AI.
When I say “epic,” I don’t mean “long.” I mean wide-ranging, high stakes plots with larger than life characters and possibly many POVs. For example, I like Hailey Turner’s writing, but have only read some of her work because the plots usually ramp up to world ending stakes against Unimaginable Evil. That’s just too much tension for me.
I admit I think the last straight Fantasy I tried was The Lies of Locke Lamora (some considerable time after it was published) which I was really enjoying until things started happening that made me go “whoa” and check the ending; and, yeah, what I thought was happening did happen. It was a bestselling, acclaimed fantasy, and I have taken it as representative of the genre.
A while back, on the Ilona Andrews blog, they had a discussion about epic fantasy vs slice of life fantasy which of course I can’t find now. I did find this https://ilona-andrews.com/blog/tears-of-the-wolf-by-elisabeth-wheatley/. Lengthy quote: “A lot of the current romantasy focuses on the sexy side of the relationship and the highlights of the world, the magic fireworks, the high drama, the wars. …
And then there is romantic fantasy that focuses not just on the characters but on how they fit into the world. It has texture. Here love doesn’t strike like a bolt of lightning the moment the characters meet. Rather it grows one kind, considerate moment at a time. The more you read, the more alive and human the characters feel. … It’s an interesting pocket of the genre. I don’t know what to call it. It’s a romance at the core, wrapped in a fantasy where dinners still have to be cooked and livestock must be fed and sheared. Slice of life romantic fantasy?”
@MaryK: Ah, I see what you mean re “epic.” It is hard to find fantasy that doesn’t have high stakes where a land hangs in the balance. i can think of plenty of books to recommend but once you remove that from consideration then the field thins out quite a bit. That said, if you have some flexibiltiy with regard to that aspect, I can recommend some romantic ones where there is only one POV.
I quit The Lies of Locke Lamora early myself because I usually can’t stand con artists. And just in general the tone of the book made me feel it wasn’t for me.
(On a side tangent, I think IA remove posts from their blog a fair bit. I’ve tried to hunt for a few I really liked without success.)
@Janine: I could not finish The Lies of Lock Lamora myself, I think I quit at about thirty percent. The main character annoyed me too damn much.
@Janine: I’ll take recs if you have them. I don’t HAVE to have romance if it’s got a strong buddy relationship. I was reading Locke Lamora because it was described somewhere as a “bromance.”
I don’t mind more than one POV, but if it gets to be more than three, I’ll usually pass. For reference on the “epic” aspect, I didn’t finish the Kate Daniels series, the plot just felt too big (though I have thought about trying again); but I liked Iron and Magic, and I liked Hidden Legacy. Even though HL had high stakes, the focus on the relationship was enough to ground me in the plot.
SPOILER for The Lies of Lock Lamora –
He gathers a band of misfits, sort of like the TV show Leverage, and by the end they’re all dead except his ride-or-die buddy, even the kids.
@MaryK: Well, that makes me really glad I quit The Lies of Locke Lamora early.
Okay, here are some recs:
The Summer War by Naomi Novik – This ~200 page novella / novel was the first one that popped into my mind. The main plot is actually about a half sibling friendship — they get to know and love each other while working together to save their other sibling. It’s only got one POV and is heartwarming. There is a romance subplot but the main plot is about the familial relationship.
https://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/overall-b-reviews/joint-review-the-summer-war-by-naomi-novik/
Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno Garcia – this one is hard to describe, it takes place in early 20th century Mexico and features a romance between a servant girl who is a kind of Cinderella figure (put upon by the richer relatives she works for, and tired of being at their beck and call), and the Mayan God of Death, whom she accidentally frees from a trap. They embark on a journey together to win him back his kingdom and end a condition that is slowly draining her of life. No one dies and it is romantic but there’s no HEA so make of that what you will.
https://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/overall-a-reviews/a-minus-reviews/review-gods-of-jade-and-shadow-by-silvia-moreno-garcia/
(Also, while I haven’t read it yet, I’ve heard that the author’s book The Beautiful Ones is actually a romance, just in a fantasy setting, so that might be worth checking out as well.)
Graceling by Kristin Cashore (YA fantasy) has a central romance that ends with the characters together, but they don’t get married. I’m totally okay with that. I want to say there’s only one POV but I’m not positive because it’s been ages since I read it. It’s the first book in a series about five kingdoms where people with mismatched eyes have special abilities that are called graces. The main characters are both gracelings and bond on a mission to rescue the guy’s sister (and her young daughter) from the evil king she’s married to. SPOILER – the sister dies but I think she’s only in one or scene, so she’s not a character the reader comes to know and care about. The daughter is rescued and has her own book later in the series.
The Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner. This is my favorite fantasy series. It is nominally YA but only the first book reads like it. That said, the romance doesn’t begin until halfway through book two. I usually recommend starting with book one but it reads youngish and the first half is slow (though the book is short), so if it really doesn’t grab you, move on to #2. I only advise this because I know a few people who couldn’t get through the first book but love the rest of the series, which is very different from it. I would also suggest avoiding the back cover blurb for book two (The Queen of Attolia) because it spoils a lot. There is a political plot dealing with the continent but the romance is unusual and very romantic, so it may work for you.
Each book in this series has a differnet POV structure. The first book (The Thief) is written in first person and has one POV, the second has multiple POVs, the third is one POV (new character) in third person, the fourth is also first person, one POV (character from an earlier book, but this is the first time we get their POV) but a big chunk of it is written in the form of a letter etc. There are six books all in all. I think all but the second and sixth have only one POV, but I could be wrong. I’ve reread the first three a bunch of times. The later ones are also good but not as romantic. #5 is a buddy story with subtle romantic elements. I recommend that you avoid a novella that is at the end of an anthology called Moira’s Pen. It takes place a couple of generations later, by which time the characters we knew and loved are gone, and there’s a full-on happy ending to everything in book six, so the novella is not really needed.
Uprooted by Naomi Novik – this one might or might not work for you, I’m not sure. There’s a significant romantic subplot and only one POV but the saving the world plot is the main one and it does get dark. It’s about a country girl who is given to a wizard (he takes a girl from her village every ten years, I think — she’s sure it will be her best friend but then her picks her). She becomes his apprentice and discovers that she has magical abilities herself. The world plot is about an encroaching wood and gets pretty dark. I would recommend starting with The Summer War to get the flavor of the author’s writing and then only if you like it, read this one.
Jennie reviewed it – https://dearauthor.com/book-reviews/overall-a-reviews/a-minus-reviews/review-uprooted-by-naomi-novik/
The Folk of the Air trilogy by Holly Black (The Cruel Prince, The Wicked King, Queen of Nothing) is terrific but the romance doesn’t really take off until book two. The characters are young (18) but it feels adult in many ways, especially after book one. The first three quarters of book one the heroine is falling for someone else, who turns out not to be good for her. I don’t want to spoil too much but it’s the rare trilogy where each book is stronger and more romantic than the last. Plot wise, this series is set in the world of the Fae where Jude, a human girl who was adopted in, wants to prove herself as good as any of them. The eponymous prince, Cardan, is someone she runs afoul of in the process. There’s a lot of tension between them but like I said, it doesn’t become romantic until later on. It’s totally worth the investment IMO. There is a world plot but it’s thoroughly intertwined with the romance. As in Hidden Legacy, the romance is central once it takes off, so I think it could work for you. Only Jude’s POV is given.
I think I’ll stop here. Let me know what you think if you read (or have read) any of them.
I thought of another one that might work for you – Realm of Ash by Tasha Suri. I gave it a B/B+ so it’s not a massive favorite like some of the others I mention here, but it’s good. As far as I recall there’s only one POV. I’m not sure how you would feel about the world plot vs the romance, but both are pretty prominent. It’s only very loosely connected to Suri’s other book, Empire of Sand, and can be read on its own. Empire of Sand is very good itself, but gets a lot darker. Both books have HFN endings, but they are hard won.