Hello! And welcome back to our new seires in which we suggest things you may want to pick up this weekend, if you’re looking for your next read! This week’s theme is Enermies!
The first in a series, Carry On the Fan Fiction that the Cath is writing in Fangirl. The tale is sort of Enemies to Lovers fan fiction for a novel series that is a little Harry Potter-esque. These books are fun!
Sydney is a covert operative and Winter is the biggest pop star in the world. After being invited to play at a birthday party for the daughter of a man the CIA has their eyes on. Sydney must play the role of Winter’s bodyguard in order to infiltrate and get the evidence she needs to take the bad guy down. Of course, Sydney and Winter don’t like each other. But can they work together to survive?
Kit is a retried highwayman just trying to live his life. Percy is the son of a Duke who is up to some shit. Can Percy convince Kit to help him pull off a marvelous heist? Or will Percy just get both of them into a world of trouble and hurt? I loved this book and it’s follow up so much! There’s enemies-to-lovers vibes, there’s some spice, there are excellent supporting characters. It’s all so good.
This has been a wild year of reading for me! I have done so much of it for fun! During COVID, I lost a bit of my desire to pick up books. There is still a bit of that resistance there, but with a combination of some great series, letting my whims take me, excellent recommendations from people in my life, and audiobooks, Ive managed to get back to being a reader! Alright! Let’s do this!
I didn’t read a lot of non-fiction for fun and, funnily, they were all memoirs. Readme.txt by Chelsea Manning and Consent by Jill Ciment were excellent, and they have both brought up important topics that need to be considered and discussed, but Nanette gets the nod here for a combination of also touching on important topics that need to be considered and discussed, emotional resonance and Gadsby’s audio narration. This one had me in tears, both from happiness and sadness. It was a great read.
I don’t know I can really say this was on a whim. I put it in my library want list on a whim ages ago and when my library finally got it, I was first in line. This is a story of sisterhood and family. It is also the story of growing up Asian-American and navigating multiple sets of cultural expectations while also trying to figure out who you are. Some of the story felt so relatable and some of it felt like a brand new experience for me. I love how stories can be both mirrors and windows. Anyway, this was at times thoughtful, funny, and sad and I loved the growth journey the characters went on.
Y’all this book was so good, seamlessly interweaving multiple tales of motherhood and family highlighting different kinds of conflicts that arise from differences in income, ethnicity, and race. I couldn’t put it down and I needed to know what happened next! The characters were well-written, the plot contained surprises. I really loved this one.
The Starless Sea is stories within stories within stories. I loved Zachary, the main character. He was thoughtful and interesting and I was happy to have him as a companion on this journey of so many twists and turns. Putting it over the top in this category is the multiple excellent narrations, including a performance from one of my favorite audiobook readers, Bahni Turpin.
This romance novel was a delight! I tore through it and finished it in time to pick up its sequel at the same independent bookshop I bought it at, The Ripped Bodice! 10/10. bookshop and 10/10 novel I took too long getting to. I liked the characters, I liked the intrigue, I liked the spice, I liked the ending. This was wonderful!
Best Series (Plural) I started this Year: Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novik, and This Poison Heart by Kalynn Bayron
Part sci/fi and Part fantasy, these books have mystery, sword play, and fiery heroines that are delightful.
An Alternative history with dragons! Temeraire was described to me as the best baby boy of characters before I read it and I couldn’t agree more. I want nothing but the best for this sweet dragon and his handler Laurence, who find themselves in the middle of a war between England and Napoleon’s France. The only reason I haven’t gotten to the rest of the series is that the other books in my library hold queue keep getting in my way.
I was so taken in by Briseis and her moms and the mystery at the heart of these books that having to wait for the second one to come available at the library was torture. Briseis is a wonderful heroine and these books interweave myth with the modern in a really fun way.
I read a lot of books this year that featured houses. A House with Good Bones, The House Across the Lake , and Nothing But Blackened Teeth just to pick a few. But Cañas’s gothic novel set after Mexico’s war for independence scratched all the itches for the gothic horror genre. Beatriz is an interesting narrator, although not as naive as you’d expect and that was a nice twist. I enjoyed this immensely and would definitely recommend it.
This has been a great year for reading and I already have things queued up for the new year (including reviews of things I started this year, but haven’t posted yet!) Beth and I hope you have a Happy New Year and we hope to see you in 2025 for more from our endless stacks!
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.
Y’allllll, this was so good! The characters were interesting, the romance was spicy! I didn’t want to put it down! And! I got to do something I don’t often get to do! And that is enjoy a book so much while I am visiting my sister that I finish it and then leave it with her!
Okay, so this is the story of Kit Webb, retired Highway man and current coffee shop owner/manager and Percy, Lord Holland. Percy has a secret that he’s decided he doesn’t want to keep, but first he needs Kit’s help with a robbery. Of course, Kit is not at all interested. So, Percy decides the only thing for it is to annoy Kit into helping him by turning up at his coffee shop over and over. There is word play. There is sword play. There are feels. There is adventure. I loved this so much. Can I gush about it some more? Okay, I will. The conclusion was so sweet, I made Beth go to a bookstore to pick up the second in the series because I couldn’t put it down.
So, if you like sassy word play, not-really-enemies to lovers, adventure, and sweet, sweet romance, I recommend this.
2 Women, So Many Books 