This is the second installment in the Brown sisters series. I kicked off last year with reading about Chloe Brown so it made sense to start the year with reading about Dani. And, oof, this one is so good. Dani and Zafir are both so awesome. Dani is an academic and Zafir is a former rugby player and current security guard at the university. Zafir suffers from anxiety and also started a charity that helps teach kids how to deal with their emotions called Tackle it. Following an incident during a fire drill where Zafir is photographed carrying Dani out of the building that goes viral, they decide to fake a relationship in order to capitalize on the viral photograph to raise money for Tackle it.
I love a good fake to real story and Dani felt like a very real character to me, as a fellow academic. I recognized her focus and excitement for her topic (and that feeling other people just not understanding.) Actually, I identified with a lot of Dani’s behavior in the novel. It’s both nice (and mortifying) to be seen.
Anyway, the story was amazing, the characters were fantastic and the spice was very spicy. This was so good. I whole heartedly recommend it.
An Absolute gimme of a theme for today, Valentine’s Day, but I couldn’t miss an opportunity to highlight some of our favorite romance novels for this addition of Weekend Reads. While it has gained popularity in recent years, especially with the advent of Booktok, I still feel Romance is a culturally slighted genre. It often centers women’s stories and/or more mundane topics of daily life and these are important and worthy things to include in our fiction. Also, there is the possibility of a little smut that isn’t super gratuitous because it contributes to the narrative, something you might not get in another genre like fantasy or mystery. St. Valentine risked his life for love and in honor of him here are some, admittedly much lower stakes, romantic tales to delight you this weekend.
This is one that both Beth and I enjoyed! Marcus Caster-Rupp is an actor in a popular TV series by day and an avid reader and writer of fan fiction by night. He uses it to explore his character and work through his frustrations with the adaptation of the source material for the small screen. April Whittier is a geologist by day and a Cosplayer and fan fiction writer by night. When April posts a picture of herself, a plus-sized woman, in her cosplay on social media, she gets all kinds of hate from dumbasses who think the ultimate flex wiill be if they tag Marcus and he comes into the comments and also dunks on April. But then he asks her out. And he means it. Marcus then also discovers that April is his beta-reader and his very best friend in the fic writing world. Sparks fly but can they survive the publicity and secrets? If you haven’t read this but you like cosplaying and fan fiction, this one is for you. Even if you aren’t into those things, Marcus and April are such a cute pair that this one is also for you.
Part of the Dangerous Damsels series, you have witches, pirates, flying houses, romance, hijinks…what’s not to love? When Beth finished this, she lent me her copy and I’m embarrassed to say that it has been on my bedside table for probably a year and a half now. Perhaps it will get bumped up that TBR queue this weekend!
Rhiannon is the CEO of a successful dating app and Samson is a former football player. They met once, through the app, and had a marvelous time for what it was, but nothing ever came of it. But now they are meeting again because Rhiannon wants to buy another dating site to grow her business and Samson is the new spokesperson and company representative that attends industry events. Can they both move forward in their lives? Are they both really feeling the vibes? And what happens when a former business-partner turned competitor throws his hat into the dating site purchase ring?
These characters were both so likable, with their flaws and their strengths. I needed to know what happened next in their story. I enjoyed the arc of this novel and if you want some cheeky fun with some really touching serious moments in a contemporary setting, this one is for you!
We here at Stacks hope you have a lovely Valentine’s Day! What are you planning on reading this weekend? Are you starting something new or are you finishing something up? Let us know in the comments!
I will admit that I didn’t realize that this was a companion series to Tahir’s An Ember in the Ashes series. I wasn’t made about it. I enjoyed that series. I also didn’t realize it was a duology. I guess I should be grateful it is only two books. Heir takes place twenty years after the end of the previous series. It is told from the perspective of three people. Quil, the Heir to the Martial throne and nephew to the Empress. Aiz, an orphan with some anger issues from a Keger and Sirsha, an outcast hired to track down a killer.
A Few Spoilers for both series ahead.
Laia, Elias and Helene from the An Ember in the Ashes series all appear but as minor roles. This story is about their children or nephews. Quil is the son of former Emperor Marcus and Livia Aquillius and he doesn’t want to be Emperor for fear he will become like his father. Laia and Elias’ son Sufiyan is one of Quil’s closest friends. In a neighboring country, Keger attacks the Martials and Quil must escape to find Tas, his friend and spy to fight back. On the way, he meets Sirsha, a tracker who has been hired to find a killer who is plaguing the Empire. Their objectives align. Aiz is an orphan from Keger, a small country in the south with little connection to the rest of the world but obviously will collide with the other two. I do appreciate an angsty hero and a witty protagonist. Quil and Sirsha are such a great couple. Good Chemistry. About halfway through the book, it is revealed that one of the POVs is not happening in the same timeline as the other two but in an earlier time frame. As soon as I realized that, I knew exactly where the story was going. I wasn’t completely right but I did figure out who the murderer was based on the reveal and clues about this character that I have already learned. I didn’t mind it because the writing made the journey to get to that destination fun. I wanted to know how they turned. My one critique would be that I thought It was a little too long. It kind of dragged on a bit for me but left enough of a cliffhanger that I am looking forward to the next one.
I read a lot of good books this year. Like many of us, books were a much-needed respite from all the things going on in the world. So, I am forever grateful to all the authors who created the amazing worlds I visited this year.
In no particular order. Here are the books that I loved the most in 2024!
Yellowface by R.F. Kuang – This was such an excellent book. It was a tough read, I am not going to lie because I saw a little bit more of myself in the main character than I would care to admit but that’s a good thing. It’s good to be uncomfortable from time to time because that’s how you learn and ultimately grow. So yes, read this book. Especially if you are a liberally leaning white woman.
What the River Knows and Where the Library Hides by Isabel Ibanez – These were a fun series. It really is a mix of The Mummy (1999 version) and Death of the Nile. I loved the dynamic between the main character and her love interest. It was a mix of adventure, romance and mystery. What the River Knows was so much fun, I had to immediately read the sequel Where the Library Hides. It just hit all the right notes for me.
Long Live Evil by Sarah Rees Brennan – What if you could become a character in your favorite story? Sounds like fun, right? It is, at least to me. Rae may disagree as to where she ends up at the end of the book, but it is so much fun. A lot of humor and all the fantasy tropes that readers expect. I can’t wait for the sequel to come out.
Assistant to the Villain and Apprentice to the Villain by Hannah Nicole Maehrer – Both of these books were so funny. I think I picked this up on a whim because it sounded interesting, and I am so glad that I did. It is just the right kind of humor I like. It is so ridiculous I love it.
I’m Glad My Mom Died by Jennette McCurdy – The only non-fiction title on my list. Okay, it might have been the only non-fiction book I read this year, but I digress. Jennette’s story is heartbreaking because so much of the pain in her life was caused by her mother. How she handling it all now is admirable. I only wish the best for her.
The Familiar – Leigh Bardugo – Magic, mystery, betrayal. It is all here. I loved the atmosphere of the story. Leigh Bardugo is such a great writer. She paints such great portraits in her books. If you are looking for a standalone fantasy novel, You can’t go wrong with this one.
Spoiler Alert, All the Feels and Ship wrecked by Olivia Dade – I love them all. The Spoiler Alert trilogy follows three different couples from a TV show. All of them are relatable and easy to cheer for. I also love the fan fiction part of the stories.
Starter Villain by John Scalzi – Another hilarious book. I have never read John Scalzi before but I might have to after this. The absurdity of the books is amazing. Like I need this to be a movie or TV show because it would be awesome.
A Fire in the Sky by Sophie Jordan – I was introduced to Sophie Jordan from her first dragon books, so I was happy she’s back to writing dragons. There are some similarities to the last series, but I am not mad about it. It was a very fast read, and I didn’t want it to end. It’s a good thing the sequel is coming out next year.
Those were my favorite books of this year. After going through my list, I see a theme of comedic books. I obviously needed the laughs, and I am probably going to need the laughs next year. What were your favorite books of this year?
Vampires set in New Orleans in the 1870s. This should be fun. A friend from book club mailed this to me well over a year ago. I should definitely have already read it, but here we are.
I don’t often DNF a book. If I pick something up and make it past the first few pages, I’m usually in it for the long haul. I used to try to finish everything I picked up, but I abandoned that policy a while back. I do a lot of reading for work, so if I’m not enjoying the stuff I read outside of work, I don’t make myself finish it.
Well, it would have been a real slog to finish Barbarian Alien by Ruby Dixon. the tl;dr on this is that it was a lot of the same conversation over and over again in which a human woman clearly states what she wants and an alien man disregards it and is surprised when she doesn’t ‘behave’. 0/10, not even for the spicy bits. This one is not for me. Everything from here has spoilers for both Barbarian Alien and its predecessor Ice Planet Barbarians.
These books are notorious on booktok and in romance circles. They have some pretty massive consent issues and there is sexual assault in them (if no longer on the page, it is certainly implied). In the first book, the heroine Georgie wakes up in a spaceship following an abduction. She and the other women have been taken from their homes and are going god knows where. They are the spares, and they know this because they aren’t in special hibernation tanks. Their spaceship crashes on an inhospitable frozen planet and after rebelling against their captors, they have to find food or help or both. Georgie is up for the task. On the planet, she meets Vektal an alien who is big and strong and immediately in love with her. All the aliens in Vektal’s tribe have a parasite,a khui, that helps them survive on the frozen planet. The khui also tells them who their perfect mate is. Isn’t that sweet? It’s like imprinting from Twilight only instead of it being something magical, it is a parasite! Anyway, the first book was fine because Georgie was pretty awesome, we get introduced to some of the ecosystems and wildlife on the planet and, despite how shitty it was she had been kidnapped and then left on a frozen world with a poisonous atmosphere, Vektal was pretty good about boundaries and she got to make her own choices. All problems aside, it was fluffy alien romance with some spice in it. It certainly isn’t the first time a ‘perfect pairing’ or ‘soulmate’ or something similar has been used as a conceit (see the Twilight reference above. Or, The Art of Seducing a Naked Werewolf or this nightmare of a book Dark Guardian.)
Barbarian Alien follows a different woman who was kidnapped, Liz. It starts where the first book ends, with the women being rescued by the aliens. They are then taken on a hunt so that they, too, can get parasites and survive on the planet. I might be misremembering this from the end of the first book, because it has been a while since I picked it up, but I thought it had been decided that the women got to choose whether or not they were going to take the parasite or accept a quick death on the ice planet. Well, Liz, who is also pretty awesome, tries to back out of getting a parasite but Raahosh, an alien whose parasite has already let him know she’s his lady, can’t bear the thought of her dying without one, so he forces it on her. Then, because he knows he’s in the wrong! He kidnaps her away to a secret cave so she can’t tell people what he’s done. He reasons that once she’s pregnant, they’ll be sufficiently far enough along in the mating process that no one would dare try to separate them.
So, Liz is a bow hunter, but she’s super precious to Raahosh and she can’t possibly hunt, she might get hurt! So, he keeps her confined in his cave. And she keeps refusing his advances because of course she would. She also says, repeatedly, I don’t care what the parasite says, I get a choice. And I don’t choose this! But Vektal told the alien dudes that they had to respect the human mating rituals and this is all part of the fun human mating ritual, right?
So, our leading lady has been kidnapped by aliens, crash landed on a different alien planet, had a parasite forced on her because *soul mates* or whatever, has been kidnapped again and separated from all the other humans, and for reasons Raahosh speaks English, but he doesn’t tell her that, just listens to her talking to herself and wonders at how chatty she is. I mean, he doesn’t really listen or engage with what she says and when she finds out he speaks English his statements can be pretty much boiled down to, “We’re mated, why are you fighting the inevitable?”
Because she said no. She doesn’t want this. This book is not for me. But! silver lining! That means the third book is also not for me, so I can unhaul it! This annoys me, however, because my mom bought me these books because I asked for them. They’re in perfect condition. Ugh. That makes me sad.
So, those two books are headed to the unhaul pile. And I need a palette cleanser.
This is not the feel-good sci-fi I was looking for. But it was at the top of the TBR pile. Look at me! Reading books out of a literal TBR pile! I’m so proud.
I know I gushed about the previous book in this series, but I have come to gush about this one, too. Y’all, this was so cute!
This book begins more or less at the climax of The Queer Principles of Kitt Webb. So, a few spoilers ahead. The tl;dr is that this is a little spicy with light sub-dom vibes, with good character development, humor, and hijinks. If you’re looking for something light and fun with a happy ending, this is for you.
This book starts with the answers to some questions. First, Where was Rob during the robbery? And where did Marian go when she disappeared at the end of Kitt Webb? We begin with Marian, post-robbery, taking the duke home and then skedaddling. She doesn’t know if the duke will live, so she also doesn’t know if she’ll be blamed for her part in any of the crimes. So, she does the sensible thing. She collects her blackmailer from where she left him and runs off with him to the countryside to her father’s. Once they arrive, she finds her father’s dementia has worsened and that his landlord is an absolute scoundrel and a thief. Having just righted one wrong with the duke, she obviously can’t stand by and let Sir John Fanshawe get away with his thieving ways. For one, it is not economical. They agreed on a price and he has gone back on his agreement making the house unaffordable. For another, he has stolen are manuscripts she translated. How dare he raise the rent and also take her work and the original Greek writings on vellum. From the title, we might expect that this is the main part of the plot, but it’s really just a side piece. A majority of the novel is two prickly people not sure that they want companionship, marriage, family, or regular work, falling in love and realizing that they want each other and that they can figure out the rest. I don’t know, maybe it is everything being topsy turvy in the world, but it was really lovely finishing up this series about found family.
The spiciness level is a two. Yes, there is sex and yes it’s great! It really fits the characters and isn’t your run-of-the-mill hetero pound fest. It’s thoughtful and a little sub-dom. It made the book a nice follow up to Kitt Webb.
So, if you’re looking for found family, angry women serving justice, light sub-dom vibes, and good humor, I cannot recognize this book enough.
2 Women, So Many Books 