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glitteryvRe-reads. HUH
Nothing! I don't think I'll be revisiting anything else for the rest of the year (but who knows, right?)
I DNF'd
* Wooing the Witch Queen by Stephanie Burgis (Queens of Villainy #1, Fantasy Romance) - Saskia is an evil sorceress (and queen) who wants to hire a dark wizard to help her with her library. "Fabian" shows up looking all mysterious and whanot, so Saskia sends him to her library at once. One problem: "Fabian" is actually Felix and he's run away from a neighboring kingdom in order to avoid getting murdered by his uncle. It doesn't matter that he's got zero magical training, really. Cuz he's willing to serve his new queen however she wants. . .
I truly wished I'd liked this novel. :(((
Picked it up based on the premise (which sounded fun). Unfortch, for me, the more I read, the more annoyed I got by the both the writing style and tone. It was too precious and/or cutesy--something that became more pronounced by the fairy tale-esque story itself. Finally, even though the MCs are in their early-to-mid 20s, they behaved and talked like teens, IMO. Opted to bounce from it vs. continue reading something I was not enjoying.
My experience was so unpleasant that I'm not sure I'll read anything else by this author. *Hands*
* The Killer Wore Leader: A Mystery by Laura Antoniou (Mystery/Thriller) - A mid-size (3k attendees) kink convention gets v. dangerous after a much-loathed yet (weirdly) popular guy gets murdered. The detectives only have until the end of the convention to find out who killed that man and why . . .
I have two reasons why I dropped this book.
1. The author focused so much on the behind-the-scenes of a kink convention that the details reached granular level. Hearing abt event organizers working on fixing scheduling conflicts, volunteers running to and fro doing errands, and contestants discussing or thinking about their plans to win XYZ prize made for a v. boring read, NGL. Also, nearly everyone was whiny, grumpy or both.
2. This novel had around 15-20 ppl AND it's written in 3rd person omniscient POV. Normally, neither thing would bother me.
However, the way this book was set up had a chapter, frex, starting with Character A for 2 paragraphs, headjump to Characters B and D for one paragraph, and then go back to Character A for half a page before moving onto Character C. ALL WITHOUT ANY SECTION SEPARATORS! I mean, sure, there was an extra space in between one POV and the next one, but it did make for a v. chaotic reading experience. Particularly, AFTER the murder investigation began.
On top of that, there were certain characters (like Nancy, the journalist) who did get on my last nerve.
This is a book that needed a good 150 pages AND at least 5 characters edited out of the final version of the novel. It had an excess amount of minutia to the point of dulling out what should've been an interesting mystery.
* The Viscount's Silent Pugilist by Nicki Pascarella (The Silk Knuckles Saloon #2, Historical Romance) - Lady Genevive and Viscount Jonathan Davenport's paths cross in an unexpected way. She's on the run from her abusive father, he is entranced by a woman who can throw fists as easy as any fella . . .
I dropped this in Chapter 5 (out of 31).
Premise caught my eye. Writing was okay.
My two big problems had to do with the protags.
In Genevieve's case, she's got a v. traumatic backstory. Her current situation is pretty bad too. However, she has an extremely naive way of looking at the world. It was odd, NGL. On top of that, she adopts a stray dog that has a lot of personality which almost immediately made me think of Genevieve as a Disney princess.
Meanwhile, in order to explain why I was v. 🙄 abt Jonathan, I'm gonna summarize what happens in Chapter 1 of the book. I don't consider this a spoiler, but YMMV. Here we go:
Jonathan is heading to his carriage. He's got a lady companion. The plan is to go to her house and have some naked and fun sexytimes. There's a noise--which makes his companion worry that someone's hurting an animal. They both go to investigate. Only to find a small gang of homeless teens harassing/being violent toward a person who seems to be a 20-y.o man and his dog.
His companion keeps urging Jonathan to do something, but he's frozen up. It's not until she runs toward danger that Jonathan comes out of his trance. After getting rid of the teenager gang, the person they helped freaks out and runs away with the dog.
The planned sexytimes are postponed cuz Jonathan's in the middle of gay panic. For abt a page and a half, he's trying to suss out WHY, despite an entire life only being attracted to women, he's so taken by the 20 y.o. 'lad'. Eventually, he figures out it's a woman disguised as a guy and he's like "Oh, okay. That makes sense. Phew!" And then he decides to help her however he can.
FTR, he never says anything homophobic or gross during his freakout abt the 20-y.o. 'lad'. AND he does chastises himself for not reacting faster/sooner just because he didn't know it was a woman in peril.
However, IDK why, but that whole first chapter made me v. BEC abt him. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
That said, I did pushed myself into reading a bit more. If only to see if I'd click with the story. Unfortch, the novel's tone really went down a fairy-talesque route.
Had an awesome time at first (but it all went downhill from there).
* Best Laid Plans by Roan Parrish (M/M Contemporary Romance) - After inheriting a house from a grandfather he never knew existed (and since there's literally nothing for him in Seattle), Rye takes his cat and drives to a small town in Wyoming in the hopes to finally have a place to settle down.
The house is a mess.
Stubbornly determined to get it fixed, Rye meets and quickly befriends Charlie, the owner of the only hardware store in town. The more time they spend together, the stronger their feelings for one another become . . .
THERE WILL BE FULL SPOILERS AHEAD
On the plus side, not only does this author really know her craft, but she had a fantastic editor. Reading this novel was a really pleasurable experience. Despite my gripes (in my criticism of the novel), it WAS nice to dive into a story without having to worry abt typos, overwriting, etc.
I liked (but not loved) the MCs. They complemented each other. I also enjoyed their intimate scenes (specially due to the extra layer of v. mild kink) and how both characters focused on consent and playfulness.
And the rest of the characters were OK. Some (like Marie) were a bit too quirky, but not to the point of obnoxiousness. Funnily enough, I liked the MCs from the first book a ton more in this novel than in their own. Maybe cuz, this time, the focus wasn't on them? Who knows!
OTOH, there were some negatives . . .
For starters, I was v. ???? abt the small group of teenagers that kept popping up. Maybe the author wanted to show how small of a town it was? I'm still v. ???? abt them as pertinent characters.
Also, the story broke the Fluff-O-Meter right around the 40% of the book. Every problem (regardless of how big or small it'd be) was resolved super quick. I was pretty much emotionally checked out a little past the halfway point.
Part of what caused this was knowing this author as someone who mostly writes angst-y romance. And yet! I do wonder how much influence did the editor and/or publisher put on the author to sweeten things up to this degree. Hmmm.
Finally, the timeline was SOMETHING ELSE. Particularly when it came to three moments in the story:
1. It's been a week and a half since Charlie and Rye met for the first time. Charlie agrees to help him fix the house, but that means that Rye will have to sleep elsewhere. Rye (who is v. low on funds) tries to figure out if he can sleep in his car or whatever when Charlie offers him his guest bedroom (rent-free). 🤨🤔
2. It's now abt 2-2 and half weeks in the timeline. Charlie drafts a rough estimate for fixing Rye's house. It comes up to $70k (not counting labor and other things. I'd say it's an extremely low figure, but whatevs.)
Rye freaks out cuz, again, he's got around $1k and how the hell can he pay for everything! Charlie suggests for the two of them to go to the bank. After talking things over with the bank person, the bank is willing to give Rye a loan . . . if he can get a co-signer.
Let me remind you that these two guys have ONLY known each other for no more than 2 and a half weeks!!!!
Charlie decides to co-sign the loan. 🙃🙃🙃
OK, lisssssssssssssssten, this is the kind of thing I can occasionally let slide in fiction and fiction ONLY. If anyone I knew IRL (a friend, relative, coworker, whoever) told me they were doing this, I'd sit down and have a SRS BIZNESS convo with them.
Rye does protest Charlie doing this, but he ultimately agrees with this cuz he's really got no other options to fix his house.
3. By now in the timeline, the guys have known each other for 2 months and change. They have their first "big" fight over something ridiculous. They leave Charlie's home to cool off. A few hours later, they meet up and talk things out. Again, they've known each other for TWO AND A HALF MONTHS AT THIS POINT...
Charlie mentions that Rye really knows himself to which Rye says that's true, but his life has been so tough he had no other choice. Rye also says "oh, (Charlie) you've got time to figure yourself out." He then goes on to reassure Charlie abt their relationship since he's "pretty sure" they're compatible and/or have similar valules :
My dudes DON'T KNOW EACH OTHER!!! Not enough to even consider themselves boyfriends (much less be co-signing a loan, Charlie!). They're, at best, at the INFATUATION stage of their relationship..
I got the feeling that the book was trying to tell me these two were TRUE LUV at the same it SHOWED ME THAT THE WHOLE ROMANCE TOOK PLACE OVER 2 MONTHS AND CHANGE.
If only there had been more space between Charlie and Rye getting to really know each other AND the beginning of their romance! Alas, there's only so much escapism I can roll with, I guess. 😅 Especially if there's no enough grittiness or angst to balance things out. I gave this novel a 2.1 out of 5.
It was . . . fine?
* Come Midnight by Alix Marren (F/F Office Romance) - Casey is the main engineer at a tech firm while Olivia is the company's CTO. After a work emergency has them trying to solve a problem the weekend before Christmas, sparks fly, and feelings begin to flourish . . .
Plot and writing were solid. Due to the MCs working in the tech department of the company, there was a lot of 'tech talk' as well as most of the conflicts being tech-related. BUT all of that was presented in a way that was easy to understand for the average reader.
Olivia and Cassie were interesting both together and separately.I could feel their chemistry. Their intimate scenes were hot too, heheh. Bonus points for the two MCs being in their early-to-mid 40s (I think one of them is 44, can't recall how old the other character is exactly.)
As for things that didn't work for me, I did think that the actual!romance part moved fast (considering that the timeline covers late December to February). Other than that, there wasn't anything objectively wrong with this novel. OTOH, though, this isn't a book I'll be thinking abt in 4 years time. I know the blurb makes it look like it'll be a Cinderella AU, but I feel that's a stretch. I gave this novel a 3 out of 5
* I'll Have What He's Having by Adib Khorram (Love on the Vine #1, M/M Contemporary Romance) - After his latest breakup, Farzan's plan is to have a few drinks at a local place. Due to a misunderstanding, David (the restaurant's sommelier) thinks Farzan is a famous food critic. They flirt their way into a one-night stand . . . or is it the first night of forever?
Picked up this book because I wanted to read the 2nd novel in the series (which features a different couple). I got the sense that both books were more connected than not. And I was right abt that.
The writing was v. crisp and descriptive (without becoming overwhelming). Every time there was a passage or two abt the meals Farzan or anyone else cooked, my mouth would water.
One MC is Iranian-American, the other one is Black. This author did a really good job in how he included both of their cultures in the story. There's a lot of queerness as well: not only gay men in the main cast, but also sapphic women and nonbinary folks. I did preferred the MCs together instead of individually, NGL. They had a lot of chemistry--which extended to the bedroom scenes.
Another thing I appreciated was that both MCs are 37 y.o. Although I didn't quite get WHY both of them thought that was such an Old Man's age. Sure, they're adults in the full sense of the word, but they also weren't near retirement age! IJS. XD
I do think this book could've had abt 100 pages edited out.
Gotta point out that I'm on the fence abt the realistic aspect of the sex scenes. OTOH, I appreciated that the author included scenes in which the MCs used adult toys, how they spoke abt consent and what they wanted to do at a particular time. OTOH, there were also one too many scenes of the MCs farting or making odd noises during sex. IDK, I got it was meant to be humorous, but at the same time I did cringed whenever one of the guys would (accidentally) burp in the other one's face just as they're abt to kiss. IJS.
Finally, this might be obvious given that one of the MCs is already a sommelier (who is studying to achieve the Master Sommelier rank), but there's A BUNCH OF TALK ABT WINE. More than you'd think at first. If, like me, you're not as interested in wine, it can feel overwhelming?
An average/middle-of-the-road M/M Contemporary Romance that is v. diverse and had a good writing rhythm. I wasn't wowed by the novel, but liked it enough to finish it. Certain aspects of the MCs did get on my nerves, but none of it had to do with the MCs being horrible ppl. I gave this one a 3 out of 5.
Good vibes all around
Sadly, none.
Current fic tally
Have picked up 151 fics, DNF'd 71. Still reading some longer fics. Have not had any issues.
Some thoughts
Been trying to finish the rest of the books on my KU list. While I'm glad that I've had the chance to check out a lot of stuff I'd been curious abt, now that I'm a little under a week from ending my semi-yearly KU run, I do 😬 at the amount of meh/mediocre/mid/simply NOT good books over there, LOL.
If anything, it's made me for eager to go back to my TBR and library books even more. So yays for tha! :DDDD
Last time
Have a Nalini Singh mystery (giving her a second try cuz the Psy-Changeling series was a No Go for me), a celeb memoir, and around 10 books from KU (mostly M/M & F/F romances and a mystery novel.) My goal is to finish all of these. Wish me luck!
Had to (temporarily) return the Singh book cuz I wanted to get done with the KU roster first. Opted to return the celeb memoir as well (which I'm planning to tackle for Non-Fiction Novemeber.) The rest of the novels I mentioned were the ones I wrote abt in the post.
Up next
Right now, I've got the 2nd M/M book by Khorram, a scary (?) F/F novel, a mature F/F romance, the Singh mystery, and two historical romances. So enough to keep my mood reading on track. :P
