Books I read in 2018, organized by category and then alphabetically by author:
Non-Fiction—Memoir, Autobiography, Biography:
There Are Worse Things I Could Do, Adrienne Barbeau
I enjoyed reading this much more than I expected to.
Monsoon Mansion: A Memoir, Cinelle Barnes
This memoir sometimes made me very uncomfortable. I wanted more of it, to understand how the author got from the events described in the story to where she is now.
You’ve Been So Lucky Already: A Memoir, Alethea Black
I loved this so much I chose to read it instead of sleep one night, and sleep is one of my favorite things. I wasn’t always clear on where in time the story was, but the rhythms the words made in my head were so great that I didn’t mind. I didn’t always agree with the author’s choices but her writing helped me understand why she went the way she did on some things.
Florencia: An Accidental Story, Douglas Bowman and John Mullen
I usually prefer third person narration, but when it’s a memoir and the people writing it are referring to themselves in the third person, I find it odd and off putting. Why distance themselves from the telling that way? The editing was also very distracting, with commas used in ways that should not be. Such as this sentence: “The sandy excuse for a road was uneven with exaggerated, furrows, and paths, undetectable and unmarked.” It was disappointing to only see one photo in here, when a lot of the book covered the efforts to assemble a team to document the experience in photo and video. The Amazon reviews for this are stellar. I’m not sure I read the same book. What these guys facilitated was great; the book telling about it is not.
Feast: True Love in and out of the Kitchen, Hannah Howard
Even when I wasn’t agreeing with or even understanding the author’s choices, I loved reading this memoir. There’s a rhythm to the writing that connected with me, a song being sung in my head as I read. There’s a lot going on here; some it felt very familiar to me, some of it very foreign.
A River in Darkness, Masaji Ishikawa, translated by Risa Kobayashi and Martin Brown
This was just grindingly sad. Not surprising given the subject matter.
Sweet Baby Lover, Jule Kucera
I have such mixed feelings about this book. Parts of it were touching. Parts of it were gross. Parts of it were super frustrating.
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened, Jenny Lawson
I don’t read her blog and almost gave up on this book early on, as it seemed so frenetic and performance-like, as if the author was very concerned about looking wacky. I pushed on and did get some laughs out of it, so that’s good.
Coach: Lessons on the Game of Life, Michael Lewis
I failed to notice before I downloaded this that it’s a essentially a short story. Not being a parent or part of any sports team more serious than intramural softball for one year in college, I had trouble relating, and this was too short a work to be able to give me the context I needed to really understand. It helped not at all that the photo captions were grouped together at the end and it turned out none had any particular connection to the story.
Not Tonight Josephine: A Road Trip Through Small Town America, George Mahood
A travel memoir written a few decades after the trip was taken. I’ve been to some of the towns they went to so those bits were interesting to me. I wish they’d done less beer drinking and more exploring (and hadn’t called Detroit a shithole), but they were 20-something dudes so I guess that’s to be expected. I found this a pleasant enough read that I might look into some of his other books.
The Tenth Island: Finding Joy, Beauty, and Unexpected Love in the Azores, Diana Marcum
I didn’t know anything about the Azores before I read this, and now I know a little, so that’s good. I wish there would have been a more cohesive story here, a better focus.
The Art of Trapeze: One Woman’s Journey of Soaring, Surrendering, and Awakening, Molly McCord
I liked the sections covering her time in Paris. I didn’t like the numerous flashbacks to other times in her life; I didn’t feel those were incorporated well. I really didn’t like the whole end section of new age philosophy. The trapeze metaphor that pops up periodically didn’t work for me, either.
Out of the Shoebox: An Autobiographical Mystery, Yaron Reshef
The story of a family in four parts. I felt they could have been stitched together better (though in the afterward, the author explains his reasoning behind putting the two middle sections where he did, which I appreciated). As a non-Jewish reader, I wished for more explanation of the Jewish terms (my Kindle dictionary was not much help).
Never Stop Walking: A Memoir of Finding Home Across the World, Christina Rickardsson, translated by Tara F. Chace
A powerful memoir by a woman who grew up in poverty in Brazil and was adopted by a Swedish couple. I wonder how many similar memoirs we’ll see in future from children separated from their parents at the U.S. border in recent months.
Confessions of a Funeral Director, Caleb Wilde
I didn’t read the blog that was the genesis of this book, though I think I did hear the author on NPR once. I cried more than once reading this. I got uncomfortable with the religiosity in it more than once.
Non-Fiction—Everything Else:
The Couple, Mr. & Mrs. K
I came across this old paperback, the account of a couple who did a two-week course of sex therapy with Masters & Johnson, and breezed through it over a couple of days. It’s a document of its time (published in the early 1970s): sex workers are called whores, and one of the solutions to the couples’ problems is that the wife should not talk so much. It also has some inaccurate information about body parts (hint: the vagina is not the same as the vulva).
…But I’m Not a Racist: Tools for Well-Meaning Whites , Kathy Obear
Some good food for thought here, but too many links to the author’s website for information that I felt could/should have been in the text.
The Nordic Theory of Everything: In Search of a Better Life, Anu Partenen
This book made me feel I was meant to be Finnish. I would so fit in in a land that leans toward pessimism and understands that government provided health care, day care, schooling, and other social services are a source of individual freedom and independence, not a detriment to it. I’m sad that our country is going in a different direction right now, consolidating power and money and opportunity in the hands of a few.
From Mountains to Skyscrapers: The Journey of the Iu Mien, David Saechao
I got this book to learn about a people and a culture I hadn’t been exposed to, and I did get that, though in a rather dry, not very engaging format. The author has obviously done a lot of research and connects with this story on a personal level; I just didn’t connect with how he tells it. There are some editing errors that distracted me further (“whom” instead of “who” and similar substitutions, some missing words).
Fiction—Romance and Erotica:
A Touch of Midnight, Lara Adrian
I don’t remember why I stopped reading this series, or why I waited this long to read this novella which is a prequel to books I read quite a while back. It was like visiting an old neighborhood, familiar yet no longer a place I quite understood. I don’t think this stands alone, as it’s too short for much world building. I had some quibbles with a few things but again, maybe that’s due to it being too short to explain the things that bothered me (like what “delivery room” means in the context of a library building and if it’s where packages are received, why it’s decorated with elaborate murals).
Edge of Dawn, Lara Adrian
Having dipped back into the world of the Midnight Breed with the prequel novella, I picked up this 11th in the series, which features a female lead, the now-adult version of a character that was a child when she first showed up in the books. I didn’t feel the same spark with this as I did with the earlier books. Maybe it’s me.
The Thrill of It All, Lauren Blakely
Oh joy, a cliffhanger. I stopped reading this several chapters in, left it for months, and came back to it to find it hadn’t improved in the interim. Things happen that make no sense (unless you’re in a melodrama).
Love at Furst Sight, Terry Bolryder
Pleasant enough. Had some quibbles with language (when don’t I?) like “deadlocks” instead of “deadbolts”.
The Year We Hid Away, Sarina Bowen
It was okay.
Thin Love, Eden Butler
(read as part of the Tasted and Tempted collection)
I don’t know if I was just in the right mood or what, but I liked this book more than other romances I’ve read recently, even though there’s a lot of unhealthy behavior. I even cried a few times.
Homeward Bound, Golden Czermak
(read as part of the Tasted and Tempted collection)
This was a slog. So much so I finally gave up and didn’t finish. I found a secondary character more interesting than the two leads. The world building left key questions unanswered (such as, if it’s so easy to defeat vampires with light, why not got directly to that instead of messing around with hand to hand combat first). The sex scenes were not sexy. Witness this sentence from when two characters got together: “As he continued to press on, the exhilaration of the night became too hard and she overflowed onto the covers.” She what? Peed? Squirted? Something else?
Born of Persuasion, Jessica Dotta
I’m not sure about this one. Overall I think it was well written, yet the ending is unsatisfying. Throughout, there’s lots of foreshadowing, but not all the things foreshadowed happen in this first book in the series. At the end of the copy I read, there’s a teaser for the next book; in that, there’s a framing device that I really wish had been in this book.
Robby Riverton: Mail Order Bride, Eli Easton
This was a fun read. There was some peril but it felt like it was of the melodrama variety so I didn’t feel too stressed about it.
Losing an Edge, Catherine Gayle
(read as part of the Tasted and Tempted collection)
Didn’t realize until I finished this that it’s book 13 in a series (or maybe book 8; Amazon and Goodreads differ); didn’t feel that way reading it.
A Thousand Letters, Staci Hart
Not my kind of book. Wanted to shake both of the main characters many times. Yes, they’re young, but not so young they should still be acting the way they are.
The Prince & The Player, Tia Louise
(read as part of the Tasted and Tempted collection)
This was ridiculous, and not in a good way. Not really a complete story, either, though not a crazy cliffhanger like some series resort to.
TRUTHS: Art of Eros Series Book 1, Kenzie Macallan
Maybe too much description of hotel suites and meals; that space could have been used to further develop the main relationship, which felt rushed to me, especially with everything else going on in the story. There were some distracting editing issues; perhaps these have been corrected in later versions.
Addicted to You, Krista Ritchie and Becca Ritchie
I started this, then put it aside for a while, then picked it back up and got sucked in. Still over dramatic for my taste as New Adult often seems to be.
Delicate Ink, Carrie Ann Ryan
(read as part of the Tasted and Tempted collection)
There were things I really liked about this; the kink was handled well though it wasn’t a part of the story for long. There were things I didn’t; many subplots—some that seemed like they belonged in other books entirely—and some unnecessary drama. I liked it enough that I might check out more of the series.
Incandescent, River Savage
(read as part of the Tasted and Tempted collection)
Set in and around a motorcycle club that’s evolved beyond their criminal past; I think how they did that would have made a more compelling story than the one the book tells. This has an alternating first person narrative that misses showing some scenes and instead tells about them after the fact (not always doing them justice).
His, Jenika Snow
(read as part of the Tasted and Tempted collection)
This has a content warning up front. If this story had been written with better developed characters, it could have lived up to that warning, but it did not. There are creepy, awful situations here, but the writing didn’t make me feel or believe them.
The Birthday Surprise, Amelia Stone
Not a whole book but a short story sent out by the author to her mailing list. I liked it.
Crazy in Love, Amelia Stone
This is a side story to the author’s book Desire; now I want to go back and re-read that one to see how this fits in. The shorter length of this one leaves less time for character and relationship development, and I found I missed that compared to Desire. It’s still good, I just wish there were more of it. Being me, of course I have a some nits to pick with a couple of plot points, including wondering why the main character doesn’t have a credit card to use for a hotel room. Yet to balance that, there was a bit of explanation provided for something I would have otherwise questioned that made me quite happy.
Birthday Party in Paradise, Amelia Stone
This year’s short story sent out by the author to her mailing list. As with last year’s (which I read earlier this year just to be confusing), I liked it.
Lover’s Game, Amelia Stone
The best of this author’s books so far (and I think the longest, which may be related). Of course I had a few quibbles as I read because I’m me, but I pretty much forgot those when the ending made me cry in a good way.
Better When It Hurts, Sky Warren
(read as part of the Tasted and Tempted collection)
Too bleak for me. Also explained things that didn’t need it and failed to explain some things that did.
Friends with Partial Benefits, Luke Young
This book has been on my Kindle for years; I think I got it for free, and that’s good, because it’s not a great book. There is a lot of telling rather than showing, some consent violations, and some misogyny thrown in for seasoning. There were a few scenes that worked for me, so that’s something. And now I can delete it from my Kindle, so that’s something, too.
Friends With Full Benefits, Luke Young
Why did I read another installment of the series I didn’t like the first one of? Well, I thought it might get better, and it was already on my Kindle. It didn’t get better. I wish I’d read the note I wrote on Goodreads about this one back in February of 2015, when I started and then abandoned it: “I gave up on this fairly early in. I didn’t read the first book in the series, so perhaps that’s why I felt no connection to any of the characters in the first few chapters. This reads like a porn movie, complete with stilted language and unrealistic events, but I didn’t find it hot, so I’m out.”
Friends With More Benefits, Luke Young
Okay, now this was really dumb for me to read. Yes, this third book in the series was already on my Kindle, but I should have deleted it when book 2 was no better than book 1.
Fiction—Everything Else:
Girl on a Wire, Gwenda Bond
I really liked this, with the exception of one plot point. I understand why it was done the way it was but wish it could have been less dramatic. But the setting and the characters and the magic and the mystery all worked for me other than that.
The Storyteller’s Secret, Sejal Badani
I guessed the secret fairly early on. That didn’t prevent me from reading the rest of the book or weeping my way through the conclusion.
Suburban Holidays, Patrick Cleary
I don’t remember the last time I read any plays; this collection of holiday-themed ones is fun. I did find myself getting distracted by wondering how some parts of these were staged.
Miramont’s Ghost, Elizabeth Hall
I rather wish I had read spoilers for this, as then I wouldn’t have put myself through reading this tale. There were parts I liked, mostly the settings, and the protagonist as a young girl, but overall there was so much angst and abuse for so little payoff.
So Over You, Gwen Hayes
This is a tough one. A lot of it is fun teen romance/angst stuff. Then there’s the root of the heroine’s issues, and that’s no fun whatsoever. Might even be triggering to some. (I read this in the So Totally collection.)
Totally Tubular, Gwen Hayes
Time travel and teens? Probably not the book for me. I did enjoy reading it, though, up until the end, when I wanted more of an explanation. I pretty much always want more of an explanation, though. (I read this in the So Totally collection.)
Trail of Thread, Linda Hubalek
I never connected with any of the characters, despite quilting being mentioned regularly.
Yellow Crocus, Laila Ibrahim
This is a novel, not an academic treatise. So the slavery here is somewhat romanticized, with a heroine who is a proxy for the well-meaning white reader.
Go: A Coming of Age Novel, Kazuki Kaneshiro, translated by Takami Nieda
The best part of this for me was the view into the racism in Japanese culture. It dovetailed with A River in Darkness for me, but was emotionally easier to read as I knew it was fiction.
Ticker, Lisa Mantchev
Like The Thrill of It All, I took a break reading this for quite some time, but unlike it, this one did grab me more the second go round.
The Night Circus, Erin Morgenstern
Why did I wait so long to read this? I loved it. It’s strange in just the right way for me.
Nightblade, Garrett Robinson
I would have loved this book as a kid. As a grownup, I like it fine but wish for more adult themes. It’s not a standalone … one needs to read on in the series to (I assume) get the answers to some mysteries that remain at the end of this volume.
Mystic, Garrett Robinson
I hoped the plot would advance more in this second installment of the series and that we’d learn much more about the mysterious dagger the protagonist carries.
Fatal Puzzle, Catherine Shepherd, translated by Julia Knobloch
I wanted more loose ends tied up here. I have questions that the author doesn’t seem to have considered.
The Vampire Hunter’s Daughter: The Complete Collection, Jennifer Malone Wright
This was not good. There was clunky dialog, characters that weren’t engaging, plot that made no sense, and so on.
Books I read in 2019, organized by category and then alphabetically by author:
Non-Fiction—Memoir, Autobiography, Biography:
Saturday Night Widows, Becky Aikman
I somehow thought this was fiction when I started reading. It is not. When I realized it was a true story, I wondered about how the author had gotten permission from the other ladies to share their stories after the fact. Some Googling after I finished leads me to believe the group was formed with writing a book about it in mind from the start, which is not my favorite sort of thing to read. I had some trouble keeping track of which woman was which, whether because none were especially relatable to me or something else, I’m not sure.
The Size of Everything, Erin Cole and Jenna McCarthy
This memoir can be very hard to read … not because of the writing, but because so many adults failed these children. Kudos to Erin Cole for surviving and eventually thriving as an adult herself.
The Lie: A Memoir of Two Marriages, Catfishing, & Coming Out, William Dameron
The catfishing mentioned in the subtitle was a very minor part of this book; I would have liked to hear more. There’s a lot of pain to go around here.
Don’t Go There: From Chernobyl to North Korea, Adam Fletcher
I spent much of this book annoyed by the author, an annoyance born of envy, as I wished I’d been able to support myself running websites and being able to take so many trips when I was his age instead of having an office job with never enough vacation days. By the end, he seemed more mature and annoyed me less.
The Secret Race, Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle
I’m not a bike racing fan, but still felt reading this was a good use of my time to learn how screwed up things were (are?) in that world.
Walden on Wheels: On the Open Road from Debt to Freedom, Ken Ilgunas
I read memoirs to see into other people’s lives. I am too attached to creature comforts and too scared to be people like this author. Could this author have done what he did if he were a woman? Probably not, given how the world works right now.
To Pixar and Beyond: My Unlikely Journey with Steve Jobs to Make Entertainment History, Lawrence Levy
This is a business memoir which would not seem to be the kind of thing that would make me cry, yet there I was, weeping away at a particularly momentous time in Pixar’s history.
Future Perfect: A Skeptic’s Search for an Honest Mystic, Victoria Loustalot
I admit I got this mainly because I saw a review from a Trump supporter who was offended by it. I connected strongly with parts of this memoir. As I read about the author’s explorations and interviews with psychics and mystics and others, interspersed with tales of her love life, I came across a few ideas that struck me as worth further contemplation. It’s a shame that the Trump supporter who wrote that review I saw didn’t finish the book, because there are some thoughts on empathy here that that person could benefit from if they were able to open their heart and mind.
The Egg and I, Betty MacDonald
I read this whole book without realizing this is where Ma and Pa Kettle come from. Not that I have much to do with Ma and Pa Kettle but those characters were something I remember older relatives talking about when I was young. This book hasn’t necessarily aged well, what with the casual racism, but it was still interesting to see the life of a farm wife in the 1920s.
Rock Needs River: A Memoir About a Very Open Adoption, Vanessa McGrady
There is a lot of backstory before the adoption of the subtitle happens. I would really like the biological parents to write their side of this story, too; there are bits of it here, but filtered through the author’s privilege. I hope the author’s relationship with her daughter goes better than any of her relationships with men did.
Hippie Woman Wild: A Memoir of Life & Love on an Oregon Commune, Carol Schlanger
The version I read had enough proofreading errors that I found them distracting enough to mention here. I was in grade school when my mom went through her “hippie” period; we never lived on a commune but did go to a cooperative school where there were no classes or much adult supervision, so some of this book did resonate with me more than it might have otherwise. I very much appreciated the afterword with updates on many of the people in the story.
Man Fast: A Memoir , Natasha Scripture
There are some nuggets here that made me think. That she worked remotely through her adventures made it seem less self-indulgent than similar quests I’ve read about.
A Well-Read Woman: The Life, Loves, and Legacy of Ruth Rappaport, Kate Stewart
It took me a while to get through this … I would have thought the story of a woman who escaped Nazi Germany as teen and worked in Vietnam during the war (among other things) would be more exciting in the telling. Maybe because the author never met the subject there was some distance there?
Prognosis: A Memoir of My Brain, Sarah Vallance
No sugar coating here in this telling of the author’s path back from a traumatic brain injury. There is an event here that was upsetting to me as a dog lover (the author is also a dog lover) but I kept reading.
The Warner Boys: Our Family’s Story of Autism and Hope, Curt Warner and Ana Warner and Dave Boling
Conversational. Can’t imagine some of the things this family went through, and they had more resources than many families do.
Educated: A Memoir, Tara Westover
This was powerful and heartbreaking. Living as I do in the mountains of Idaho, with Redoubters and other survivalists rearing their ugly heads in some of our local Facebook groups, this resonated even deeper than it might otherwise.
The Boy Between Worlds: A Biography, Annejet van der Zilj, translated by Kristen Gehrman
Note that the photo section in the middle of the book contains spoilers for later events in this true story. I found this well written and well researched and I learned some things about WWII.
Non-Fiction—Everything Else:
The Sadist, the Hitman and the Murder of Jane Bashara, George Hunter and Lynn Rosenthal
I guess my reading of the Swedish true crime book led this one to show up on my recommendation list. Even though this crime took place in metro Detroit when I was living there, I don’t remember hearing anything about it. Guess it wasn’t on NPR. A sad and infuriating story. There’s some repetition in the telling here that detracts from the unfolding of the tale.
The Dark Heart: A True Story of Greed, Murder, and an Unlikely Investigator, Joakim Palmkvist, translated by Agnes Broomé
I appreciated the detail about how the Swedish justice system works. I didn’t appreciate the repetition of some parts of the story; they didn’t seem to add to the dramatic effect but rather made me feel the author didn’t trust the reader to remember things. I am confused by the author’s bio, which says he’s living under a protected identity, yet has a photo and lists the city where he lives. How does that work?
Fiction—Romance, Erotica, and Urban Fantasy:
Fate’s Edge, Ilona Andrews
I enjoyed returning to this world. I had sort of forgotten who some of these characters were, but that didn’t keep me from enjoying the story. I had a few plot quibbles, but when don’t I.
Steel’s Edge, Ilona Andrews
Figured I’d go ahead and read the last in this series while the world was fresh in my mind. I liked it.
Clean Sweep, Ilona Andrews
Just picked up this series from a favorite author. I liked it. I did spend most of the book thinking one of the heroes was married (having confused him for another character) and therefore not a possibility for a romantic interest (barring discussion of polyamory, of which there was none).
Throttle Me, Chelle Bliss
(read as part of the Tasted and Tempted collection)
I could have sworn I read a later book in the series that this book kicks off, but remembered nothing about these characters from that book, so that was confusing. Apparently there are two series about siblings running a tattoo shop, and the other one was also in this same collection.
Broken Toy, Tymber Dalton
This BDSM series is so much more realistic and so much healthier for all the characters involved than 50 Shades.
A Clean Sweep, Tymber Dalton
It amused me that this installment of a favorite series had pretty much the same title as the book I’d just read (Clean Sweep by Ilona Andrews). This is the rare book that kept me up late reading. I liked the setup more than the main relationship, probably because the former hit close to home while the latter did not.
Rest for the Wicked, Cate Dean
The Girl, Lola St. Vil
Twin Souls, K. A. Poe
Darkangel, Christina Pope
I read these as part of the Paranormal 13 collection, which I’m slowly working my way through. I decided I needed to get these logged before I forgot what I thought about them, but too late; they’ve already slipped from my memory, which seems odd, as when I got to the book about the mermaids that seemed familiar … I looked back at my logs and found I’d read it on its own in 2014. So maybe my shorter term memory is failing, which is a scary thought. So I’m getting these titles in here now, and maybe I’ll go back and refresh my memory and make comments later but probably not. I do intend to get the rest of the books into the log in a more timely manner.
Wolves, C. Gockel
I liked the human main characters, could have done with a bit more world building on the non-human side of things, and somehow missed the “Part 1” in the subtitle and so was frustrated by the non-ending. It was this that made me decide to not continue reading the Paranormal 13 collection; too many cliffhangers.
Blood Bond: 1
Blood Bond: 2
Blood Bond: 3, Helen Hardt
Read these in the Unchained: Blood Bond Saga, Part 1 collection. It’s my fault for not researching this better before I read it: it’s a serial, not a series. The same things happen over and over and the main plot barely moves forward. Numerous hints are dropped about ominous goings on but none of them really pay off in the course of these three installments. The hero is traumatized and deals with that in the least productive way possible, hurting other people along the way. The heroine is apparently under the influence of forces beyond her control because no reasonable woman I know would invite the hero into her life in the way she does. I don’t plan to read on.
The Mistress of Pemberley: An Erotic Pride & Prejudice Sequel, Delaney Jane, Chera Zade, and A Lady
I found myself wishing these authors had left Jane Austen’s characters alone. Sure, write a kinky erotic novel set in Victorian England, but make up your own characters.
I Think I Might Love You, Christina C. Jones
Picked this up because I’m trying to expand my horizons when it come to authors. This was a quick fun read.
Storm, Nina Levine
(read as part of the Tasted and Tempted collection)
Having read two now, I’ve decided that MC novels are not for me. Especially not ones like this, where the MC guys kill folks with no legal repercussions and treat their women in ways I don’t care to see. This particular one did some stuff at the end that I found manipulative to the reader.
Rescue Me,
Going Commando,
From Ashes,
Shattered Pieces,
Inked in Vegas,
Flash Me, K. M. Neuhold
Read all of these in March as parts of the Heathens Ink Box Set. Note that in the box set, there are extras which are not placed in chronological order, so some contain spoilers for books one won’t have read yet if one is just reading the box set in the order in which it’s presented. The world of Heathens Ink is very inclusive, though if you like female characters alongside the gay male ones, there are very few of those. The editing here could be way better; there are lots of stray commas, missing commas, unnecessary apostrophes, homonym errors (breaks vs. brakes, for instance), and some logic problems (such as a character who doesn’t know another’s last name despite having spent a fair bit of time reading his Facebook posts). I can’t say these were pleasant reads, as there’s a fair bit of hard content (a mass shooting, a suicide attempt, kids kicked out of their homes for being gay/trans/pregnant), but they are good enough that I did finish reading the whole box set. I’m undecided about seeking out more from the author; I’m feeling some ick about a straight woman writing gay male romance. Of course writers can create characters that aren’t like them, but this series gave me some whiffs of fetishization of the gay male, and that doesn’t feel good. Quite possibly this is a me problem, not a content problem, but there it is.
A Mate for the Beta, E. A. Price
A lot packed into this novella between the romance and the murder mystery. Neither is really given enough space to unfold at a realistic pace, but that’s not unusual for this type of fiction.
In the Unlikely Event, L.J. Shen
I couldn’t really find a way into this. I liked some of the quirkiness of how it was written, but the characters and the plot were just not something I could connect with.
The Birthday Bitch, Amelia Stone
The 2019 story the author sent out as a birthday present to her mailing list. Fun, light, good read.
Twice the Growl, Milly Taiden
Quick read. Could have used more world building and character development. Some quirks of phrasing that struck me as odd: “chunk of hair”, “swallowed a gulp”, “sucked down a gulp”, “air tripped in her chest”.
Best Bondage Erotica, edited by Alison Tyler (P)
I didn’t feel especially engaged by any of the stories; maybe I need I need to be invested in a relationship between characters first and there wasn’t a chance to do that with the length of these offerings.
The King, J. R. Ward
Every so often I’ll go back to this series and find that it hasn’t gone back to the simpler stories I appreciated in the earlier days. Now there are so many subplots competing with each other that I have trouble focusing on any of them. I did enjoy seeing the changes in the structure of vampire government in this one, so that’s something.
Miss Dalrymple’s Virtue, Margaret Westhaven (P)
This 1988 Harlequin Regency Romance came to me courtesy of cleaning out a relative’s library. There was something comforting about knowing pretty much how it would unfold, with no tedious sex scenes to get through.
Fiction—Everything Else:
A Transcontinental Affair: A Novel, Jodi Daynard
(I appreciate when a book reminds me in the title if it’s fiction or non-.) I chose this based on the outraged reviews by some narrow-minded folks on Amazon; generally if it upsets bigots, it’s a book for me, and that was indeed true in this case. I’m not sure how realistic the ending was but it gave me happy thoughts and I need those so I’m good with it.
The Frame-Up, Meghan Scott Miller
I was on board with female geek lead character. Wish it hadn’t been first person narration. Wish there hadn’t been a couple of huge coincidences to move the plot forward. Yet I enjoyed reading it enough that I’m considering getting the sequel when it comes out in July.
Convenience Store Woman, Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori
I liked this a lot. I didn’t like everything that happened, probably because I liked the main character so much that I felt bad when things didn’t work out for her the way I wanted. The ending left me with hope, though, which I much appreciated.
I’m Fine and Neither Are You, Camille Pagán
Seemed realistic. Having worked in Ann Arbor for a while (though A2 is not named), there was a familiarity to the setting I found comfortable.
The Vine Witch, Luanne G. Smith
Really enjoyed this one: the setting, the characters, the world building, the magic. It felt complete, not begging for a sequel, but I’m glad there is one coming (not ’til June 2020, which seems a long way away).
Randomize, Andy Weir
The Last Conversation, Paul Tremblay
You Have Arrived at Your Destination, Amor Towles
Emergency Skin, N.K. Jemison
Summer Frost, Blake Crouch
Ark, Veronica Roth
Read these bundled together as the Forward collection. I should have written about them as I finished them as now they’re all jumbled in my head.
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