Open Thread for Readers for March 2023
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!
When a book is free from Amazon, is the author charged when it is downloaded? Often I’ll download a free book which I might decide to read. I do not want my casual downloads to be at the expense of the author.
And a question: why isn’t there a protocol for ebooks to show publishing information (including prior physical editions), have an ISBN, edition, etc.
@LML: Good questions. Maybe an author will answer them? I don’t know the answers, but as for your second question, those are generally all listed at Goodreads and often have the number of pages and the original publication date including if translated the first date in the original language.
@LML: Avery Cockburn, who writes contemporary Scottish M/M romance, mentioned that one of her books was free on Amazon. She said she has no control over pricing, but she gets paid anyway and seemed pleased on both accounts. I suppose it depends on whatever arrangement is made between author and retailer or author and whoever. As for your other question, I have no idea.
One thing I will say is that libraries are getting absolutely hammered by publishers when digital books are borrowed. The cost to libraries is usurious; worse is that some publishers insist that libraries pay full price again after a certain number of loans. This is why I will read every borrowed book to the bitter end, just to assuage my guilt about how much it costs to let me read something for free.
Current peeve: While “fisting” is a verb, it has a very specific meaning and context. Please, authors, stop fisting someone’s hair or clothing. This is disturbing.
I’m sure I’ll think of something more to complain about. That’s it for now. :)
My Amazon Prime video keeps telling me that DAISY JONES AND THE SIX is now available to stream. Interestingly, I was never moved to read the book even though I have really l liked the books of Taylor Jenkins Reid that I have read. I liked THE SEVEN HUSBANDS OF EVELYN HUGO — maybe not as much as it was hyped, but I did enjoy it. And I thought her little novella EVIDENCE OF THE AFFAIR was clever and amusing. I have CARRIE SOTO IS BACK on my TBR.
One by product of the Daisy Jones promo is that it prompted me to go back and read a favorite that has a similar storyline. TILL THE STARS FALL by Kathleen Gilles Seidel is also about a famous rock band that famously imploded and no one knew why. It is told in flashbacks and in a very VH1 Behind the music fashion complete with interview snippets from roadies, journalists, groupies, fans and other band members. Held up real well in re-read. Might actually prompt to be really read the TJR book.
And then that prompted me to go down a Kathleen Gilles Seidel rabbit hole. I really like her brand of regular folks romances. DON’T FORGET TO SMILE takes place in a mid-western blue collar lumber town and that features a bar owner with a pageant background. And then there is the blending family romance SUMMER’s END where the heroine was an Olympic figure skater. The messy family dynamics are my catnip!
@Darlynne, although I am mono-lingual and live outside of the U.S., I will not borrow ebooks from the library for the reasons you mentioned.
I adore Seidel’s AGAIN, a contemporary that takes place on the literal set of a Regency romance soap opera. Some of the details are outdated, but the characters are lovely and Seidel cleverly integrates what is happening in the plot of the soap opera with the lives of the actors. I especially like how Alec’s insights into the mind of the Duke allow him insights into how to play the character but also how he wants to live his own life. One of the few books that actually was better when I reread it than it was the first time.
@Susan/DC:
I read Again again last year. On my first read (when it was originally published), I enjoyed the main romance more than the soap opera. In 2022, I liked the soap opera more now that a regency soap opera doesn’t seem so far fetched.
@TinaNoir: I loved Seidel in her heyday and have reviews of most of her books here on the site. My favorites include Summer’s End, Again, and Don’t Forget to Smile. Till the Stars Fall is beautifully written in many ways but I didn’t like the way it ended (the stereotyping involved in Danny’s issues) and also it felt melancholy to me. I mean, her books usually are melancholy to a degree, by TTSF was particularly so.
Have you read her short categories? Some of those are very good too. She was one of the absolute best authors of contemporary romances in her day. I love how she gave her characters such depth and complexity while at the same time keeping them down to earth and drama-free.
I read two of her books in her recent trilogy (about the snowboarders). The first was pretty good but the second did not work well for me.
@Susan/DC: I think my favorite part in Again is how Jenny realizes that Alec is patterning his portrayal of the duke on Brian, and how that gives her an insight into Brian that she wouldn’t otherwise have. And especially how she then starts to write her scripts based on that understanding, and give them to Brian and Alec, and how that affects things further. So complex and clever.
@Jenreads: It’s been a long time since I read Again. My review is from 2015, and I think that was the last time I read it. I loved that book though it’s got a couple of problematic aspects. I agree though, that the regency soap was a big stumbling block for me when I first read it in the early to mid 2000s, and is now less of a plot hole, ironically.
Our Seidel reviews can be found here: https://dearauthor.com/?s=Seidel
I don’t see a review of the one with the characters who get married as teens (an MOC) because reasons (she later becomes a country singer), and I thought I reviewed it. But maybe not.
@TinaNoir: I read one book by TJR, One True Loves, and it convinced me that she’s not for me. Too much like women’s fiction and I got tired of the underscoring of so many of the points. Authors, use a little subtlety and leave readers a bit of room to interpret!
That said one book I want to recommend a romance that is sort of in a TJR vein, only far better, is The View was Exhausting by Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta. It’s a multicultural romance that deals with life in the limelight in a really interesting way and is really well-written, with great characters and a relationship that feels meaningful, raw and intense, yet really supportive. Plus the heroine reads like an actual actress and not one of those faux actresses that abound in romance, who are neither image conscious nor ambitious. This heroine is both, and the book points out she has to be, especially as a woman of color in Hollywood. It’s a great setup for fake dating. Not a favorite trope of mine but so well done here. I keep thinking of it as a smarter, better version of a Taylor Jenkins Reid book. Although to be fair to Reid, I only read that one…
@Janine: I tried that snowboarding book of Seidel’s and yikes, it was bad. These are some of the notes I scribbled down – “I used to love Kathleen Gilles Seidel’s books. I don’t love this one. Don’t get me wrong, she can still write beautifully but here there are pages of nothing. So much tell and very little show. The story creeps along at a sluggish snail pace as we get told, told, told what is happening in excruciating detail. And none of it really moves the story forward. In one scene, the power goes off due to a bad winter storm and we get pages of the steps involved in how the heroine turned the generator on. It was mind numbing. It was like reading nicely written stereo instructions.”
@LML: It’s a dilemma for sure. Not all digital books are over-priced or have renewal requirements, but we have no way of knowing. It’s an outrage, really.
Oooh, oooh! I have a book to hype. I broke my kneecap last week (it’s a clean break, no surgery, little pain, just 6 weeks with my leg completely mobilized followed by 6 weeks of PT). Searching for something that would keep my attention, I found this gem on a list of recently released queer romances. It was perfect!
Shipwrecked: Being a tale of true love, magic, and goats (Sea Goblins, #1) by Juniper Butterworth
Here’s my GR review:
4.5 stars – B+/A-
Goblin-core meets cozy fantasy! This Sapphic fantasy romance between two goblins (a pirate and a principle goatherd) is adorable! Also deeply weird. The world building and character development is charming. And with more emotional depth than I was expecting from a low-stakes fantasy novella about goblins falling in love.
It’s also sexier than I was expecting from the cover and blurb – there’s hot goblin sex and a little unexpected tentacle sex with a magical sea creature. And both sex scenes absolutely drive character development.
I then glommed all of this author’s other books under the same pen name – namely a fantasy series called Goblins and Cheese featuring queer, poly romances. The first one, The Changeling, was a little awkwardly written but I enjoyed the other two a lot and I think the first one is worth reading for the other two.
Here’s my GR review of The Dragon Under the Hill (Goblins & Cheese, #3) by Juniper Butterworth
4.5 stars B+/A-
Emotionally satisfying (and weird) queer fantasy with a poly m/f/nb romance between a wizard, a goatherd / priest and a dragon obsessed with the finer things like ribbons, tea and toasted cheese (same dragon, same).
I think this works as cozy fantasy, although there are some high stakes and our heroes do go on big adventures. But the adventures are started by rescuing a baby goat, not a quest to save the kingdom. And the story is very much focused on 3 people / magical beings getting to know each other and falling in love and not on a sweeping fantasy epic. Plus, magical cheese.
This is also the 3rd in a series. I recommend reading the whole series in order (even though I read them completely out of order). The first book in the series is not as good as the next ones, but is worth reading to set up the rest of the series.
@Darlynne: You are correct about libraries and digital publishers, and that’s awful. However on the flip side I think at least they use the number of people using the service to apply for grants and get more funding. And we do pay for those libraries out of our tax dollars. It might be worth finding out which publishers make them pay again after X number of loans–I know McMillan is one and probably their subsidiaries (which include Tor)–and then just boycott those to an extent (at least not checking them out unless you’re positive you want to read them). I admit though that this is one area of my life where I’m not so frugal. I used to go the physical library more often but Covid has changed my borrowing habits.
@Jayne: I remember that scene! That was book two in the Stand Tall series, The Last Snowfall. The first book (The Last Summer) was better but because of book two, I never read the third one. I really should give it a shot. But you’re right, that scene was mind numbing and as I said in the review, all that wordcount could have been used to develop the characters at the level her earlier books do. There was also so much about the hero’s friend’s dog, and later, the hero’s friend’s wife. Between them they kind of took over the book.
Cleo, are the dragon and the tentacle thingie shifters, or are they actually animals? Human / animal sex (even when they are imaginary animals) doesn’t work for me. Actually I think even shifters in animal form (unless it’s two dragons, like in one of Shana Abe’s drakon series) doesn’t work for me either, so the tentacle one definitely isn’t for me.
I’m excited to try this author now, cleo! Thanks!
@Janine: The squidfella / tentacle thingie is not a shifter.
The dragon is a magical being who does take human form occasionally but I wouldn’t call them a shifter. The sex scenes with the dragon aren’t particularly graphic or descriptive but still probably aren’t for you.
@cleo: Hmmm. I may try it even if not a big fan of tentacles thank you :)
@Darlynne: I get what you mean but assuming you are referring to the sexual meaning, Merriam-Webster disagrees.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/fist
@Sirius: the tentacle part is not graphic! And easily skimmed.
Let me know what you think if you do try it – I’m very curious to see if anyone else is as charmed by this book as I am.
Sending healing thoughts your way, Cleo!
@Janine: Thanks. Merriam and I will continue to disagree. Only one example of “fisted” as a verb was given and used correctly; the rest, strangely, were adjectives. Ham-fisted. Fist or elbow bumps only. I read the article quickly and may have missed some points, but I will cling to my opinion right or wrong. :)
@Darlynne: I’m not into this use of the word fisting either, it tends to throw me out. I looked it up out of curiosity.
@cleo: will do!
@Kareni: Thank you!