Now that we’ve had the first big holiday weekend of the season checked off, it’s time to focus on summer reading selections.
Since romance is a popular category this time, I thought that I would highlight a trio of recent releases from my book mail(no chatty computer choices!) on this subject, starting with one that I am reading right now:
Moira MacDonald’s debut novel, Storybook Ending, is mainly in a Seattle bookshop called Read the Room(great store name btw!), where shy Alice decides to take a chance and leave an anonymous note for bookstore clerk Westley in an used paperback.
The only trouble is that the note winds up with Laura, a single mom stopping in to get a book club pick. She also assumes that the note is from Westley and starts a note by note conversation with who she thinks is a potential dating partner.
Alice follows suit and Westley has no clue about any of this, particularly as he’s being pleasantly distracted by a film company using the bookstore to make a high brow romcom and the movie folk even ask him to play a bit part.
So far, this book is a sheer delight, brimming with Nora Ephron energy and charming characters who would love to emotionally eavesdrop on-it’s being released today and definitely a must read for book lovers out there!:
Already available at a bookseller near you is The Wedding Menu by Letizia Lorini, which has a tasty second chance at love flavor to its fiction.
A year ago, Amelie thought her life and culinary career was in perfect balance until she ran into Ian, a guy who hates weddings, at a marital event. That chance encounter made enough of an impression on her that Amelie hopes to run into him again as she heads to his hometown for a cooking conference.
More than love is on the line as Amelie’s professional life is in need of a comeback but Ian happens to be part of the family that has a rivalry with her own kin. Can she redeem her formerly good business name and still have a heartfelt connection with Ian?
Lorini does have a new novel coming out this June(With a Cherry on Top) as well but who says you can’t double your reading pleasure with more than one sweetly spicy romance read? Especially when it is wedding season after all:
Speaking of spice, I just received a new edition of Sophie Jordan’s Marked by Moonlight , a novel with quite a bit of paranormal passion to it.
Claire Morgan was just a modest school teacher until a strange run-in with what she thought was a dog after dark , changed her life in more ways than one.
According to newcomer Gideon March, she’s been attacked by a werewolf and if the curse isn’t broken by the next full moon, his duty is to destroy her. However, the mutual attraction between them is a strong motivator to save Claire from this dire fate.
This is the first in a series and since I haven’t read Jordan before, it looks well worth a try. Paranormal romance and I have been on an extended break for awhile now so maybe it’s time for a page turning reunion:
Of course, there will be many new books to slowly sip down during the heat of summer in various fictional flavors but romance is pretty much the prime sweet treat there for sure.
Hopefully, we might get a suitable romantic movie as well but even if there’s not one playing nearby, there is bound to be a good book to quench that particular thirst on your shelves; maybe a classic iced tea of Jane Austen goodness for just such an entertainment emergency?:
With the first big holiday weekend of the season coming up, it’s only fitting that sign-ups for Seasons of Reading’s Sci-Fi Summer readathon have begun! Hosted by Michelle Miller of SOR, this reading challenge prefers to stay within the genre yet does include fantasy as well.
That works for me, since I am more of a fantasy reader but one of my selections for this event is science fiction adjacent at least:
Bride: Ali Hazelwood’s first foray into paranormal fiction has the title character being the daughter of a high ranking vampire who must seal a peace treaty by marrying an Alpha werewolf.
Misery Lark was content to live among humans in order to avoid the politics of her family . However, duty demands that she wed Lowe Moreland as part of the binding agreement between the two rival parties.
While Lowe may be a fearsome ruler, he’s not cold hearted, especially when it comes to Misery. He is suspicious of her motives and rightly so as she is willing to take this step as a means to a personal end. However, can their bond be more than just a matter of convenience?
I have read a couple of Hazelwood’s regular romances and do enjoy her writing style. It should be interesting to see how she does with this particular genre added to the mix, sort of like The Proposal meets Underworld: Rise of the Lycans there:
Exquisite Ruin: This dark fantasy tale by Adrianne May has a sorceress trapped inside a labyrinth with a demonic foe who she must rely on to escape.
Sadare wakes up with no memory other than knowing of her powers and that Daesra, the deadly immortal who appears to be her only companion in this strange place has been an enemy at best. Since it will take both of their skill sets to defeat the menace at the center of the maze , their best option is to work together.
This alliance between Sadare and Daestra soon becomes more than a practical matter and may possibly lead to a more intense emotional bond. Will that new found intimacy be a help or a hindrance in their ultimate quest for survival?
I was gifted this book from the publisher some time ago and decided to save it for this occasion as this story sounds like a magical movie delight:
Death of the Author: This is definitely my sci-fi centric pick as Nnedi Okorafor’s novel focuses on a writer that changes more than one realm of reality with her words.
Frustrated with her life and career (both of which hit considerable setbacks), Zelu decides to forego her usual style of literary fiction and writes a science fiction epic called Rusted Robots, which highlights a war between the forces of artificial intelligence and androids.
The success of the book stuns her but what happens as a result of her work is beyond anything that Zelu has ever imagined. It appears that the story within this story may be the ultimate narrator of what is meant to be.
I’ve heard nothing but praise for Okorafor’s work and this book certainly seems like a good place to start. A story setup like this is catnip to bookish folk and hopefully leads the way to newer worlds of imagination:
If you’re interested in joining in on Sci-Fi Summer, there is a link in the opening paragraph of this post to the signup SOR post. My thanks to Michelle Miller for giving us a great excuse to explore strange new worlds on page, starting on June 1!
I do hope that during this summer(which is going to be challenging in more ways than one, according to the headlines these days) we can find a common bond through the arts to help us all stick together and gain some perspective on what’s to come before the year comes to a close.
Also, we do deserve to take a break from our everyday concerns and whether that is with a good book or an amazing movie(doesn’t the upcoming Superman film look awesome?!) or even a super snarky superhero show, yes, it’s the best vacation to take right now, if you ask me:
I know, I know, that I’m supposed to be taking a book buying break this month(to be fair, I did skip BOTM this time around!) but upon serving this pair of merfolk themed books from Aardvark this May, I just had to have them on board my shelves.
When the Tides held the Moon by Venessa Vida Kelley is enchanting on so many levels, starting not only with the gorgeous cover art but the numerous black and white illustrations throughout the book, all created by the author. However, this volume is much more than a pretty set of pictures.
The story is set in New York of 1910 where orphaned Benny Caldera is given the chance to display his impressive blacksmith skills by making a special ironworks cage for the sideshow proprietor of Luna Park at Coney Island.
This leads Benny to a job at Luna Park, the first break he’s gotten since arriving to New York. However, the occupant of that cage, a merman named Rio, becomes more than just one of the main attractions for tourists to gawk at.
A deep emotional bond forms between Benny and Rio, bringing forth plans for the two of them to escape together but how can that be done safely and what would their ultimate future be?
I do like the Shape of Water vibes that this book is sending out, plus the period piece energy that creates ripples in the pop culture pond with this storytelling stone skimming across the literary surface to make creatively wonderful waves:
To that, I added Upon a Starlit Tide by Kell Woods. Another amazing cover, so beautiful to behold!
This time, we go to Brittany , France in 1878, where the daughter of a wealthy ship merchant is truly longing to be under the sea.
Lucinde finds her older sisters’ husband hunting a dull business and is more interested in learning the ways of sailing from her friend Samuel(who also happens to be an English smuggler). When she rescues a drowning man, however, Luce finds herself being lead towards those tedious ballrooms by this new acquaintance.
However, she still feels called to the sea and perhaps there’s a bit of magic that can make those aquatic longings come true. Is Lucinde destined to be a lady of the land or a maiden voyager of the fathoms below?
This just sounds lovely and this book is described as a combination of Cinderella and The Little Mermaid, which sound as perfect a pairing as champagne and caviar:
Continuing with my subscription book boxes, it’s clear that I need to use an on-again/off-again strategy. Next month, I will skip Aardvark and use Book of the Month (both clubs allow you to skip and/or pause, plus save your credit for next time) and so on . Orders may vary but I do like the varieties offered by each club as long as I can make it work within my budget.
As for these two merpeople titles, it’s a fine example of artists making outstanding new takes on time honored traditional tales, giving us all new story songs to sing:
While we are still at the start of May, I do have some last month book business to finish up, beginning with what remains of my birthday book haul.
Thanks to Book of the Month Club, I was able to gift myself the Legendborn trilogy by Tracy Deonn( book one was my free BOTM birthday bonus!).
Bree Matthews is still recovering from the death of her mother when at her new school for gifted students, she witnesses a supernatural attack on campus, followed by a “Merlin” mage attempting to wipe that memory from her mind.
As it turns out, Bree has magical powers of her own unleashed by this encounter and to learn more about these new skills (and how this connects to her mother’s demise), she joins up with the title group but not without keeping a cautious eye open.
Along with a former Legendborn named Nick, she discovers that this secret society has ancestors from King Arthur’s court and that a major otherworldly threat is preparing to do battle in a fight that could endanger the world. Should Bree go to war with this looming menace or take on the group that has plenty of dangerous secrets of their own?
I have heard so many great things about this series and plan to dive into Legendborn(along with Bloodmarked and Oathbound) as soon as summer arrives. A magical realm with a strong young woman lead and a twist on Arthurian lore? Yes, please, indeed!:
I did get a non book club read as one of my birthday presents; Hannah Nicole Maehrer’s Assistant to the Villain.
Evie Sage never expected to be working for one of the most notorious bad guys in the realm but in order to take care of her sickly relatives, this dubious opportunity was too good to pass up.
Bad enough that she finds her evil doing boss to be rather attractive, Evie soon realizes that perhaps there’s something much more dangerous than this particular criminal empire she’s employed by that wants to set them all up in a scheme to overthrow the status quo.
Can Evie warn her nefarious boss in time or should she really do that? Then again, a great job like this is tough to find…
This is the first in a trilogy and hopefully, I will get the other entries in the near future. I do find hench women to be engaging characters and this does sound like a real pop culture ride to enjoy:
A few days later my birthday, I made a library visit and was able to find exactly what I wanted on the shelves.
Due to a recent BookTuber video, I decided to pick up Louise Erdrich’s The Sentence , which is set at a bookstore much like the one the author owns.
Tookie, a new hire, is having enough trouble as it is restarting her life without the presence of a new ghost haunting the book shop. The spirit in question, Flora, died while browsing and persists in believing that Tookie is her best friend, despite their only connection being customer and seller.
As Tookie does her best to figure out what will help Flora move on to the next world, real life events crop up that change many lives outside of the bookshop. Yet, that bookish hub still has the power to assist both the living and the dead to deal with what’s to come.
It’s been awhile such I’ve read Erdrich and as a former indie bookseller myself, this novel feels like the perfect way to reconnect with her work:
I also picked up a short story collection, Out There Screaming, edited by filmmaker Jordan Peele.
This anthology has a number of horror stories written by such writers as Tannarive Due, Nnedi Okorafor and Rebecca Roanhorse that cover such things as a cop who keeps seeing literal eyes everywhere upon him, a young couple traveling down South only to have their bus strand them in a dangerous place after dark and a young woman seeking revenge against the unholy creature that killed her parents.
I don’t read short stories often but this book offers me a chance to check out a good number of authors that I have heard plenty about but haven’t gotten to yet all at once.
Not to mention that Jordan Peele has become one of the new vanguards of this genre and his recommendations for solid storytelling would be foolish to ignore:
So, old book business done for now. Despite taking a book buying break, I did weaken and ordered a new Aardvark box(just two titles this time!). In my defense, once I showcase these books here, you may understand why I couldn’t resist.
Even so, taking up positive energy in an increasingly negative world is challenging but necessary to counteract the imbalance out there. Books can bring us together, which is why fighting to persevere public libraries is important and spreading the good word about books can be a healthy emotional need for us all.
Plus, it’s spring and enjoying yourself every now and then is part of that season of that, so keep a good book in hand and a song in your heart:
Happy First of May to all and to not only celebrate the conclusion of the Spring Into Horror readathon (hosted by Michelle Miller at Seasons of Reading) but the announcement of the Tony Award nominations today, my wrap-up for this challenge will be musical styled!
Since my TBR for this event was mystery themed, Stephanie Barron’s Jane and the Final Mystery seemed a suitable place to start. This last entry in the Jane Austen Mysteries has the famed writer doing battle with her decreasing health as well as seeking out the truth regarding a bizarre drowning at a local college.
Jane’s nephew Edward was a recent student there and connected by friendship to the young man accused of doing away with one of his tormenting colleagues. While most of the evidence is sketchy at best, it is not long before an injustice is about to take place. Can Jane discover the truth before another life is unfortunately taken?
As with all of the books in this excellent series, Barron makes Austen come alive on the page and her detective skills are as sharp as her legendary wit. It is sad to see these books arrive at an end but this was an engaging mystery series that paid loving tribute to Jane Austen, giving her such wonderful adventures that place her up there with Sherlock Holmes or James Bond(the latter inspiring my musical choice here):
I chose for the second act a modern take on The Wives of Henry Vlll, An Inconvenient Wife by Karen E. Olson.
Kate Parker has just become wife number six to billionaire Hank Tudor, whose previous bride Kaitlyn Howard has gone missing and may be the headless body found on Tudor property.
Wanting to believe the best of her new husband, Kate teams up with Anna, former wife no. four, to find out what did really happen. Many secrets and lies abound, especially from first wife Catherine who barely leaves her house yet plots in vain for Hank to come back as her husband. Can the truth be told without Kate sharing the same deadly fate as her predecessor?
This book is particularly fun if you’re into the saga of the Tudor Queens as Olson definitely did her homework and then some(even minor players in the original history such as Jane Stafford and Margaret Pole pop up here).
It’s an interesting blend of Wolf Hall meets Succession with a touch of Sx the Musical as one of the most vibrant characters is Nan aka Anne Boleyn, who has been missing for years but her secret diary makes her an active participant indeed:
For the finale, I went with a last minute replacement (sorry Ruth Ware but I needed a shorter read!) that was quite a lovely surprise, Count My Lies by Sophie Stava.
This debut novel introduces us to Sloane, a lonely young woman who has to restart her life after a series of self delusional falsehoods land her in trouble.
A fateful meeting in a local park brings Sloane into a family life as the nanny to a seemingly perfect couple , Jay and Violet with their adorable daughter Harper. However, things are truly not what they seem in more ways than one. I shall say no more because it’s best to not be spoiled about the plot for full enjoyment.
This was a fun book that did keep me guessing; just when I thought it was going to zig one way, it zagged in a completely different direction! Stava is definitely a suspense writer worth keeping an eye on, that’s for sure.
Also, if and when they turn this story into a movie, Taylor Swift must be on the soundtrack as her music is a key character component here(maybe a Broadway musical version as well?):
Thanks again to Michelle Miller for another great excuse to read and I hope that rest of my readathon companions had as much page turning joy as I did here.
Already preparing for June’s Sci-Fi Summer(granted, I mainly choose fantasy but I do have a sci-fi adjacent pick this time around) along with the Tony Awards, which take place then. I don’t go to the theater but do love seeing the musical numbers on the show.
Also, I’m rooting for Death Becomes Her : The Musical which has ten nominations, including Best Actress (a double category for the two leading ladies!), Best Original Score and Best Direction. As a fan of the cult classic movie that starred Meryl Streep, Goldie Hawn and Bruce Willis, I love this whole concept and hope it gets to take the bow that it deserves:
