Category: amreading

reading roundup: august

I’ve had a real ‘head in a book’ month this August. Partly because it’s been the school holidays and quite frankly I’ve needed the distraction; and partly because I have found so many lovely things to read.

Mainly by Moonlight by Josh Lanyon

What do you do when you fall in love with someone who doesn’t know that you’re a magician? In Cosmo Saville’s case, you panic a bit and your friends do more harm than good trying to help you.

I have always been a huge Josh Lanyon fan and it’s great to see her on form again with this new series. I’m looking forward to the next book.

Sword Dance by A. J. Demas

I really love A. J. Demas’s not-quite-Classical-Europe world. Her protagonists are always beautifully drawn with a realistic complexity that makes them easy to like; and if you don’t like them, you understand why.

As usual, there is lots and lots of plot alongside the romance. First of a trilogy!

A Little Light Mischief by Cat Sebastian

A lovely historical f/f novella that is part of Cat Sebastian’s Regency ‘Turner Series’.

Molly and Alice are both charming characters. We have met Molly before and although she’s a reformed from her career as a petty thief, she is still the same person we met previously. I am really pleased she gets a happy ending!

Why the Devil Stalks Death by L. J. Hayward

I really like this series. It’s full of wounded heroes and people who don’t communicate and sexual tension, which put it bang in the middle of my ballpark. I do like my romance with lots of plot!

One of the things that makes this a really engaging read is the timeline. We have alternating before/after chapters… and you aren’t quite sure what the before and the after are being built around when you start reading. I was irritated by this for about three chapters before getting completely sucked in and finishing it in one sitting. Hard recommend!

Quill Me Now by Jordan Castillo Price

I have only just discovered this series of novellas. It has a really interesting magic system based on writing your spells with special quill. This one was a freebie and I’ve now got the others on my TBR. It’s kind of paranormal cross with a cozy mystery, I guess?

I really liked it and I’m looking forward to finding out more about both how the magic works and the MCs adventures.

Stumptown Spirits by E. J. Russell

A contemporary paranormal romance, with wounded heroes (my favorite!) wrestling with both the supernatural and their own emotions.

I really like the folk-lore basis of this one, although I did get cross with Logan because honestly, wouldn’t it just be better to talk to your boyfriend instead of being all self-sacrificing and mysterious?

Nevertheless a five star read for me and I have just bought the sequel.

Spellbound by Allie Therin

Spellbound was on my TBR long before it came out, and it was certainly worth the wait. 1920’s New York is full of concealed magic. Our protagonists, Arthur and Rory, are both doing their best to keep their loved ones safe from it, initially without revealing what they know to each other.

I loved the historical setting- obviously the ’20s are my thing– and the love story weaves in and out of the paranormal mystery seamlessly. Another one that’s the first of a series to come!

And that’s it for this month. September kicks off to a start off with an interview with Kristen Noone next week!

reading roundup: July

I’ve been oxer-deep in reading this month and have seven books to share.

The Cricketer’s Arms, Garrick Jones

A gay romance/murder mystery set in 1950s Sydney. I loved this. I’ve probably said before that I think Garrick Jones’ historical detail is second to none. The combination of a murder mystery and romantic shenanigans is basically my ideal read. Hard recommend. I understand there is a sequel in the wind in the future.

Thrown to the Wolves, Charlie Adhara

The third in Charlie Adhara’s wolves series. Cooper finds out a lot more about wolf pack behaviour and Oliver Park’s slightly bonkers family. I have a complex relationship with shifter books – some I love and some don’t grab me at all. This trilogy falls in to the ‘love’ category!

Tournament of Shadows, S. A. Meade

I went looking for Tournament of Shadows because I met S. A. Meade at an Author Thing a couple of months ago.  Published in 2014, this ticks all my ‘historical detail’ boxes. Set in the mid-nineteenth century in what is now Uzbekistan, it follows two minor characters in the Great Game played between world powers during that period. It has gay romance, political intrigue and journeying through locations I knew nothing about and had to research. A definite re-read.

Hither Page, Cat Sebastian

Set just post-WW2 Hither Page features a shell-shocked country doctor and a spy who need to team up to solve a murder. Of course, they fall in love in the process. There is beautifully realized historical detail with vulnerable and emotionally wounded main protagonists and a richly sprinkling of well drawn supporting characters.  Also, lady assassins. *taps nose meaningfully*

Outbreak, Melissa Olson

This is the final book in the Nightshades trilogy which is a vampire power-struggle-cum-straight-romance with the FBI thrown in for good measure. Vampires have been hidden from humanity until very recently. Hector is still trying to manipulate both vampires and humans for his own nefarious, control-grabbing purposes and the Bureau of Preternatural Investigations is still trying to stop him. But the FBI are also investigating Lindy and Alex. It’s a really good end to the trilogy.

Rebellion, Naomi Aoki

Intricate historical detail about the Boxer uprising from Naomi Aoki in this gay romance set at the end of the nineteenth century in Singapore and China. Alfred falls in love with a Chinese soldier he meets in the public gardens. The tension in their love story is entwined with the rising of the political and eventually military tensions. Neither my historical period or my geographical area, I really, really enjoyed this. Recommend.

Owl and the Japanese Circus, Kristi Charish

The first in the Owl series. Owl is an archaeologist-thief in a world where magic is real and digging up ancient artifacts can get you killed. Obviously the authorities suppress all this knowledge from the general public. Owl doesn’t do supernatural jobs, but this time she gets sucked in to something that she can’t avoid. There are dragons, vampires and (straight) romance. I have got second one in the series on my TBR list but haven’t got to it yet. I thought this was brilliant – really good world-building.

That’s all! Next week, an interview with Nell Iris.

reading round-up: June

I’ve read lots and lots of lovely books this month, including:

Detour by Reesa Herberth and Michelle Moore

I go through phases where I don’t read contemporary romance at all; and when I do. they have to have *something* there to hold my interest. This did, all the way through. Two people with pretty severe issues, working them out with each other whilst driving across the US. Sweet, thoughtful, tender. It was lovely.

The Consuming Fire by John Scalzi

Second in the Interdependency series. Really interesting universe, fantastic plot, as always amazing characterisation. I particularly like the sweary bi morally-grey, unashamedly sexy Kiva Lagos.

5th Gender by G. L. Carriger

Really sweet gay tentacle-haired purple skinned chap in exile from his home planet falls for human detective on a space station. They solve a murder on a space ship. Lovely romance, but the draw is the world-building. Brilliant.

Secret Warriors by Taylor Downing

I read this as research for my post-WW1 work, looking for references to Trench Code. It didn’t have much in it about that, but it’s an absolutely fascinating look at the behind-the-scenes skullduggery of the First World War. I found the bits about propaganda most interesting.

Catalysts by Kris Ripper

I’m re-reading this whole series – it’s so GOOD. Poly, kinky, queer. Angst. Tenderness. People being people. I love it.

Hard recommend.

The Seventh of December by Garrick Jones

An astonishingly detailed and historically accurate love story between two men in WW2.

SOE, MI6, the Blitz, parachuting in to France, unarmed combat, virtuoso violin playing, blackmail involving Princes of the Realm, sexy Yanks and chaps dancing together in evening dress.

I understand it’s the first in a series and I am now biting my nails waiting for more.

That’s all for this month!

research rabbit-holes for june

The last few weeks’ research rabbit-holes have been pretty varied. I’m still flailing around in the Himalayas and in eighteenth century India for Flowers of Time and on top of that I’m still fact-checking for Inheritance of Shadows.  This is the stack of reading I took away on holiday last week.

It turns out that Rob in Inheritance needs to know about Trench Code, which I didn’t even know was a thing until I started researching codes used by the British in World War One. I’m reading Secret Warriors by Taylor Downing to get some background on Rob’s career in Signals. Or… was he involved with something more Intelligence-led? I’m also reading A Country Twelvemonth by Fred Archer to give me a chronological background to the farming year in the 1920s and I may give Cider with Rosie by Laurie Lee another read – I haven’t touched it since it was one of the set texts for my O-levels in 1986. Although I enjoyed it before then, deconstructing it for an exam completely soured me to it.

The pile also includes a couple of books about Kew and Marian North, who was a Victorian plant collector and illustrator. Edie in Flowers of Time is inspired by her, although Edie predates Marian by a century.

Tabs open in my browser this morning include Keeping Clean in the Eighteenth Century, Ladakh, the index to Lady’s Magazine, a google search for images of deserted forts of the Himalayas, a page about the monastery of Phugtal Gompta, the abstract of an article about eighteenth century circulating libraries, and (still) the article about the eighteenth century seed trade, because I keep going back to it to absorb a bit more.

That’s it for this time!

reading roundup: May

A quick round-up of some of my reads this month, in no particular order. These have mostly gone up on Instagram over the course of the month… you can find me there as CogentHippo.

Under the Radar by Lillian Francis

A slow burn love affair between submariners in WW2. Fantastic historical detail that helps give the the characters depth and breadth. Funny, touching and heart-wrenching with spy-stuff tension, set against the backdrop of life in a cramped submarine. I loved it.

Ashore by Isabelle Adler (Staying Afloat #2)

Poor Matt is so oblivious to his own feelings and those of his lover, Ryce. And there’s no time to discuss anything because Val has been kidnapped and the baddies are threatening to cut off bits of him to motivate everyone else. This is a well-paced space-romp with a background love story that is tender and believable. I’m looking forward to book three.

Finders by Melissa Scott

I love the normative queerness of all Melissa Scott’s writing and this is no exception. It features a three-way poly relationship between salvage operators scrounging the ruins of an inexplicable civilization for the bits and bobs that will keep their remnant tech working. The crew find that there is more going on than they know about and the suspense is set against the low-key renegotiating of their relationship. I really enjoyed it.

Ribbons Among the Rajahs by Patrick Wheeler

This one was a disappointment. I’m researching pre-Raj British women in India and the surrounds for my work in progress and I had high hopes that this would give me some decent background. However, although there’s lots of good detail and well researched, accurate history in there, it’s a) often from the point of view of the men that the women ‘belonged to’ and b) bloody hell, there’s some racist and sexist crap in there. Cosmic fail, have not finished.

She-Merchants, Buccaneers & Gentlewomen by Katie Hickman

Again, research for my WIP about British women in pre-Raj India. This one is much better written. Hickman’s usual meticulous research and women-centered narrative made this a much easier read for me. I also loved her Daughters of Britannia.

Deadline by Stephanie Ahn

Loved this. Lesbian, masochistic witch in New York, trying to sort her life out after a minor misjudgment (cough) that ruined her career and nearly killed her. Also with cute alligator-moles, demons and a sadistic succubus.

More to come next month!