Meant to post this yesterday, but there was holiday-related socialization to be done! As usual, I’ll provide a few links amongst what follows, and as a reminder - buy direct if you can!
1. ‘Bright Lights, Big Christmas’ by Mary Kay Andrews. Chick lit starring a mid-30s woman recently laid off from her marketing job, home in western North Carolina to regroup, dragooned into going to NYC with her brother for the Christmas tree season … the brother runs the family tree farm with father who’s been sidelined by illness. Brother is a prize jerk of a redneck and is unfortunately on the page much more than the guy MC falls for via insta-love. Didn’t connect with the MC here, was more interested in another character, but the book did achieve some feels.
2. a trio of shorts. ‘Enemies to Lovers’ by Aster Glenn Gray, a hilarious, sweet, & sexy FF romp. Highly recommended.
Then: ‘Gift of the Goddess’ by Kaje Harper, not a romp! MM fantasy actioner involving stalking, killing, and rape. A good story but dark subject matter.
Then: ‘Two of a Kind’ by R. Cooper, a sweet fantasy-ish bedtime story featuring a socially awkward apprentice apothecary and the underutilized youngest son of a rich merchant family. Author site HERE.
3. ‘The Shots You Take’ by Rachel Reid. Both MCs in this one are fortysomething pro hockey retirees. One retired early in career due to alcoholism and depression. The other retired after 20 years and is tipped for the Hall of Fame. They had a thing for a while but the one who stayed in the game always denied what their thing was, and the other one holds a deep-seated grudge. Stages of reconciliation, quite a lot of good communication, apologies where owed. Would have put this in the “will reread” category if not for the jump cut from just barely together and star player not even out yet to 5 years later and happily married. I do not like skipping over the part of the relationship where they actually develop a relationship vs just untangling their past.
4. ‘Wickedly Dangerous: A Baba Yaga Novel’ by Deborah Blake. This genre/subgenre is not 100% my jam but Deb and I are both fans of Jenny Crusie and I was curious. This is a standalone urban fantasy falling somewhere between cozy and suspense. I wanted to see the MCs working together a bit more, really liked all the rescuing, and there is a dragon dog. Author site HERE.
5. ‘The Single Life: A MM+ Why Choose Romance’ by Will Forrest. Chock full of many kinds of sex involving multiple partners of various genders and orientations within multiple relationships. The story – and there is one! – concerns a central character who’s lost home and job due to messy, bad breakup with a very shitty ex. Author site HERE.
6. [re-read] my own MM novella ‘My Holiday Star.’
7. Another trio of shorts. ‘A Fair Trade’ by Ellie Thomas, my favorite of hers to date. Georgian setting (1785-95-ish) MM novelette feat. a 20 yr old sex worker and a thirtysomething solicitor trying to solve the murder of a clerk from Lincoln’s Inns who was a client of MC1. Author site HERE.
Then: ‘Tea and Conversations’ by Nell Iris, another novelette, this one two longtime friends negotiating new terms to their relationship on a stormy night.
Then: ‘Peppermint Bark’ by Kim Fielding, Portland-set MM starring a grad student, his furry godmother, a magical wood, a lonely teacher, and a mask that turns POV guy from a human comforted by pup play into an actual dog. Strange but sweet.
8. ‘His Leading Man’ by Ashlyn Kane. A sweet, low-conflict Hollywood romance featuring a young but established movie star and the screenwriter-plus-costar of his new indie project.
9. And now for something completely different. ‘Monty Python’s Tunisian Holiday: My Life with Brian, a Memoir’ by Kim “Howard” Johnson, who was John Cleese’s personal assistant for a while after this interlude and who’s written several other books about the Pythons. Entertaining and chock full of juicy making-of.
10. ‘The Alignments’ by E.H. Lupton, a novella-length addition to her Wisconsin Gothic series, would be hard to follow if you haven’t read the others. The heroes are in Brittany for a December honeymoon and find themselves helping to solve a locked-room mysterious death involving blood magic. Author site HERE.
11. ‘Winter Cowboy’ by Kaje Harper. Related to her recent ‘Cowboy Dreams’ but stands alone well. 18 yr old Colorado ranch worker fleeing violent law-enforcement father gets stranded near a Sierra Nevada ranch right before a snowstorm and is given work and lodging by an older ranch hand. Attraction plus respect equals sharing (and starting to heal) trauma. It’ll be nice to re-read these two cowboy books as a double feature someday. Author site HERE.