Herewith, the week’s reading, with links. Buy direct if you can! And if you read something you really like, do tell the author. Even a rating without review helps. A review, a comment, a blog post … signs of appreciation can be the difference between a good writing day and one when facing the keyboard is just depressing.
1. ‘What is Wrong with You?’ by Paul Rudnick, not a romance but very much about love. Several main characters, but the core character is a 60 yr old NYC editor who’s not quite 2 yrs past losing his husband to ALS. The storyline is somewhat farcical as one might expect from Rudnick, but each character has important work to do in getting Core Guy from misery in chapter one to contentment at the end. Another character I love is the awesomely transgressive trash panda of a blogger Core Guy is currently editing. This could have been a much sadder book (and, from the afterword, was originally headed that way) but instead is funny and, essentially, sweet.
2. ‘The Devil to Pay’ by Katie Daysh. 2nd of the Nightingale & Courtney books. This one opens and closes with relationship scenes, but for the bulk of the book Nightingale is absent – because the ship he was traveling on is captured by Mediterranean pirates. The book is from Courtney’s POV this time and he has a ghastly time of it; multiple godawful seafaring disasters ensue. Suspense, plenty of action, plenty of feels, and a hopeful conclusion.
3. ‘Overdue Changes’ by Kaje Harper, a MM second-chance novella in sports context with realistic concerns and a side plot about a young artist who needs to be liberated from her controlling, hostile, rich father.
4. ‘Unruly’ by David Mitchell. A swift and entertaining history of 1500 years of absolute shitheaded fuckery perpetrated by people who wanted to rule England from the exit of the Romans to the exit of Elizabeth I. Seriously, they were all terrible. A buy link HERE.
+ ‘Jay Moriarty Violates the Official Secrets Act’ by Kit Walker, a highly effective series starter; a fun & savage rage against the machine novelette. Note, the title character is trans, which is a complete nonissue for every other character (as it should be).
5. ‘Men of Tokyo: Sudden Bliss (White Tigers Book 1)’ by Sedonia Guillone, that’s a hell of a lot of title for a short book. Erotic MM romance feat. a burned-out salaryman grieving his adored stepmother and being pressured to marry by his hostile/abusive father & an attendant at a love hotel who’s grieving his first love. There’s a lot of sex and it’s mostly pleasant to read, plenty of consent and caring, but the notion of ‘safe sex’ is nowhere, which – with one character being closeted and the other a sex worker – gives me the icks. (Why? Because when everything else in a story is realistic, pretending STDs of all kinds don’t exist throws me right out of it. It seemed to me these two would be exchanging every conceivable infection, which is not sexy.) The grief subplots and discoveries relating thereto are well handled; friends and allies likewise. Aside from the ick factor, the only jarring note was inconsistent style. Much of the language is somewhat formal, even ceremonial, which reads “right” to me based on my experience of Japanese people. Then there will be a passage that reads like a transcript from an American dating show. Overall, liked this book but am not really inclined to follow up.