In non-books, we finally finished watching ‘Spinning Out,’ a 10-episode Netflix series about a bipolar figure skater. So much soap opera. Pretty good acting and writing, not much actual skating (but when there *was* skating, it appeared to be the actual actors doing it), a messy conclusion that leads one to suspect they thought they might get a second season. The only fun was supplied by Johnny Weir in a multi-episode cameo role. I think he’s lovely, funny, and an excellent skater so by ep. 4 what I mostly wanted out of this series was a supercut of Weir’s scenes.
On to the books! As always, I urge you to investigate any book that sounds remotely interesting - and buy direct if you can.
1. [re-read] ‘Restored’ by Joanna Chambers, MM Regency to GeoIV second-chance featuring a widowed duke and his former kept man. (Full disclosure, I have read all of Chambers’ books, some multiple times.)
2. ‘Liberated’ by Joanna Chambers, latest in the Enlightenment series, GeoIV, featuring that duke’s eldest son (who’s been told he can step aside and seek happiness, but has no idea how to do that) and a former schoolmate (who’s just inherited a manor in Wales and has no idea how to do that). Both solidly in the satisfying and will re-read rank, so 5 stars the pair despite minor editing issues. Author site HERE.
3. ‘Color of Sunshine’ by Lucia Laurence. MM contemporary set in Seattle, though the sense of place is not very present. We get one scene at Pike Place Market, otherwise it’s mostly in a coffee shop (could be anywhere) and apartments (could be anywhere). An unnecessary and loudly telegraphed Return of Evil Ex. My primary objection was the exhausting use of internal monologue in both POVs to anticipate, describe, and then postmortem every single scene in which something happens. I especially didn’t need this once they started having sex. The characters here are appealing, the attraction-to-romance arc is credible, and when a scene involves something actually happening, the writing is solid.
4. ‘Star Shipped’ by Cat Sebastian. 10 stars. Author site HERE.
5. ‘Less’ by Andrew Sean Greer. Pulitizer Prize winner featuring a middle-aged, not very successful novelist who sets out on a world tour by accepting every possible writing-related job offer in order to get away from California after receiving an invitation to his younger ex-lover’s wedding. Clever and literary but also funny, affectionate, and not afraid to give a bitch a happy ending. 5 stars.
6. ‘Less is Lost’ by Andrew Sean Greer. The sequel, in which a cross-the-US road trip involves multiple disasters of varying seriousness, the lovers are again separated and querying, a lot goes wrong for Arthur Less, and this time we don’t get much of a resolution. In the first book, we wanted Less and his lover to reunite and aside from that there weren’t any big problems to solve. In this book, there’s a big problem completely unsolved. I docked points for that. Author site HERE.
7. [re-read] my own MMM late-Regency novella ‘The Hunting Box.’
8. DNF at 19% ‘The Pirate’s Heart’ by Sally Malcolm, F/M, an early work reissued. Set 1716-1720, when a 15-yr-old woman would most definitely not have been considered a child. The 21-yr-old FMC has the emotional intelligence of a toddler and, for a “pirate captain,” a distressing ignorance of the world. The 29-yr-old MMC, also a pirate captain, is one of those with a Deep Grudge/Tragic Secret who internally monologues about how FMC doesn’t understand him while failing to communicate anything meaningful about himself. It’s not bad writing at all, just very Old Skool (if you are old enough to remember historical romances of the 1970s and 1980s, you’ll know what I mean) and thus not for me in this century. Malcolm’s more recent work is solidly in the “happy to re-read” category for me (I’ve read almost all of her books and re-read many of them). Author site HERE.