Open Thread for Readers for June 2016
Misc / Need A Rec!book-pimp / Open Thread / Promotion14 Comments
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?
I’ve been re-reading a lot of books lately – Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling series and Shelly Laurenston’s The Unleashing, and now reading The Undoing, which is awesome.
I’ve been stocking up my e-reader for the summer, mostly with contemporaries. I just bought Rachel Goodman’s From Scratch and Phyllis Bourne’s Between a Rock and a Hot Mess (because the title made me laugh and the description won me over). I’ve also bought Emma Barry & Genevieve Turner’s Earth Bound after reading a great review that said the heroine is a strong, intelligent Computer Scientist. That sold me instantly.
My next purchase to come is Jeanette Murray’s Santa Fe Bobcats series (football-based sports romance). Every time I see a review or a reference to these books, I wonder why I haven’t read them already. They sound like exactly the type of books I would love.
THE STORIED LIFE OF A.J. FIKREY by Gabrielle Zevin. It is a wonderful book about a bookseller on an island in Massachusetts. It is also available on Kindle Unlimited. I just bought the hardcover for a friend who doesn’t do e reader. It’s hard for me to describe but check it out, I promise you won’t be disappointed.
I just finished The Duke of Olympia Meets His Match by Juliana Gray, which Jayne recommended in a review earlier this week. It has a 74 year old duke as a hero, and an American heroine in her fifties. They have a spy caper romance aboard an ocean liner in 1893. So if you’re looking for something fresh and different in historical romance, give this a shot. I had so much fun reading it and agree with Jayne’s grade of A-.
I’ve really enjoyed Simone St. James’s _Lost Among the Living_. It offers a wonderful combination of historical romance, mystery, ghost story, and Gothic elements. She has quickly become one of my favorite writers. Also, Jo Goodman’s _The Devil You Know_ is very good. I think it only received a B here but I found it much stronger than that.
I liked parts of Christine Feehan’s Fire Bound, but had some issues with other parts. Not sure I will read the next Sea Haven spin off series once the Sisters of the Heart books wrap up. The whole motorcycle club subplot is just not for me. I will always love the early Drake Sisters books though :(
Just finishing up my complete Psy/Changeling series reread and anxiously awaiting Allegiance of Honor.
@Sara Rider – I read The Unleashing and The Undoing this month and I really enjoyed them. I liked the second book more – she’s my kind of heroine – an introvert who likes people but hates small talk.
In other reading news, I finally read Marie Sexton’s Trailer Trash and I thought it was excellent. One of her best. M/M YA set in 1986 small town Wyoming. I had no idea how she was going to pull off a believable happy ending but she did. I especially liked the parents – they start out absent or clueless, but a couple really come through when they need to.
I read two of Amelia Gormley’s Saugatuck books – Risk Aware and Saugatuck Summer. I read Risk Aware first, not realizing that it was published after Saugatuck Summer but takes place about 4 or 5 years earlier. I liked Risk Aware more – SS felt too much like an issues book for me. But RA is good – mm bdsm romance with a masochistic hemophiliac hero. Probably not for everyone but I enjoyed it.
And I discovered Sera Trevor – an mm author who has a few free stories published through the mmromance group series. Her stories are good – I’d pay for them. The Troll Whisperer is a contemporary about a guy who falls for someone he trolled online and I surprised myself by really enjoying it – I’m a sucker for believable personal growth. Her other two free stories are fantasy and also good.
I was so disliked The Storied Life of A.J.Fikrey that I had to go outside and stomp around at 12:30 a.m. (when I finished reading the book) to blow off steam while I considered ways and means of finding the publishing company person who wrote the book’s description to send them my complaint about incomplete plot descriptionsand misleading emotional content.
Isn’t it strange how differently two people can feel about one book?
@cleo:
I so agree that Jace is an awesome heroine. I love reading about introverts.
I’ve been hearing lots of good things about Trailer Trash – I may have to add it to my list!
I just read “The Bad Assassin” by S Doyle – it’s on Kindle unlimited and it’s amazing. I knew I was in for a fun ride by the end of the first chapter when I found myself clapping with glee saying “I LOVE HER” about the heroine. It’s a Romantic Suspense and I would say with a side of Romantic Comedy.
It reminded me of Stylo Fantome’s Mercenaries series with a sassy, bad assed heroine and an Alpha Male Bad/Good guy.
S Doyle is a pseudonym for Stephanie Doyle who has a range of books with Harlequin that I’ll be checking out, but sincerely hope there are more like this from her.
Forgot The Lion and The Crow by Eli Easton – m/m medieval historical. I really liked this one – the hea may not work for everyone (it involves some subterfuge) but it really worked for me.
I’ve finally gotten around to picking up “The Duchess Wars” by Courtney Milan and oh boy, am I in love. Cannot wait to continue on in this series! Lately I’ve also been wanting to find virgin heroes, and coincidentally, this book has that – score on all fronts.
I’m currently reading and really enjoying The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi. It’s a YA fantasy with a POC heroine, and it’s very riveting so far. It feels fresh and different to me, and the voice is spectacular. I hope it holds up, but so far, I think it’s just really, really, really good.
At the end of the month, I’m looking forward to: Lisa Kleypas’ Marrying Winterbourne and Elizabeth Hoyt’s Duke of Sin. (I’ve caught up on Hoyt’s series a few months ago, and I’m excited to read Valentine–who has a Lymond/Laurent air about him. I hope he hasn’t been declawed too much as a hero and is still wily and sly as ever.) I also want to try Julie Anne Long’s Hot in Hellcat Canyon to see how her contemporary voice is.
@Sharon – I also love Simone St. James and am just starting the latest _Lost Among the Living_. Have you tried listening to the audio versions of her books? She’s had several different narrators, but I’ve enjoyed all of them immensely so far. I haven’t purchased the audio version of “Lost” yet, it has another new narrator and I’m not sure I’ll like it from the sample offered at Amazon. I’ll mull it over for a bit and then depending upon how much I enjoy “Lost” I may buy the digital version and add the audio to it.
@Andrea2: @Andrea2 – I haven’t listened to the audio books as I’m more of a visual reader, but I have heard great things about them. Hope you enjoy _Lost Among the Living_. I thought it was beautifully haunting and it has stuck with me for weeks now.