Sponsored by Tor Books.
Nina is an information broker with a mission—she and her team of mercenary librarians use their knowledge to help the hopeless in a crumbling America. Knox is the bitter, battle-weary captain of a squad of supersoldiers who went AWOL to avoid slaughtering innocents. But now their lives are on the line. They’re on a deadly collision course, and the passion that flares between them only makes it more dangerous. They could take on the world…or destroy each other.
It’s the last Kissing Books of July, and I hope the rest of the year goes in a nice waterslide-speed downfall. Black Lives still matter, COVID-19 is still real, and billionaires are still ridiculous.
Romance novels are great, though! So let’s talk about them.
Over on Book Riot
Look, I know very little about Enneagram. People have been asking me my number for years, and just from these brief descriptions of romance novels by Enneagram number, I’m guessing I’m a two. And of course, I want to read all about it.
Trisha and I did something a little different this week.
How much do you know about ebook production and monetization? Cause it’s fascinating.
There are apparently different ways to organize your books by color.
Not all of these are romance, but they’re all good stories about pansexual characters.
Deals
Word is a few of Beverly Jenkins’ books are marked down on Amazon, including Jewel, which I haven’t recommended before. This one is a friends to fake married to real married story, in which a man who has turned his life around since his appearance in Vivid must be married in order to complete a business venture…and he asks his friend Jewel to pretend just for a night. But then, things happen, and they have to continue the marriage, and you know. Stuff happens. Y’all know how I feel about Beverly Jenkins, fake relationships, and married people who have to fix their marriage (in this case because they hadn’t intended to get married), so this is one I’ll be picking up real soon.
New Books
I’d intended to read at least one of the new releases this week, because there are so many great ones. But in true 2020-Jess fashion, that didn’t happen. But I’m in line to pick up one tonight, and it might be Deal with the Devil, just because I haven’t picked up a spec-fic romance in a long time.
Things Hoped For
Chencia C. Higgins
Look. I went to preorder this book like six times, only to be reminded by Amazon that I had already ordered it so chill out, okay?
This is the fourth book in a series, but like most romance series, you can read this one and then fill in any weird relationship gaps by going back to the beginning later. Here, Trisha relocates to Houston on a whim, only to have a chance encounter with Xenobia, a musician who is getting more and more popular by the minute. Neither has really thought they could have a true relationship, but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for them, as long as life doesn’t get in the way. I’m excited for this one for multiple reasons: y’all know how much I love music romances, and anything that has a social media element? Definitely. Also, this is the first romance I will have picked up with a stud protagonist. And it’s soft. I love soft. So yeah, saving this for after the near-future crumbling America story that is Kit Rocha’s new book.
And then we’ve got this treasure trove of other books out this week:
Would I Lie to the Duke by Eva Leigh (Eva has been celebrating its release by posting Theo James GIFs so…)
The Scottish Boy by Alex de Campi
The Way You Tempt Me by Elle Wright
The Care and Feeding of Waspish Widows by Olivia Waite (Look, this cover has some weird photoshop stuff happening but I am excited for the bees)
Marry Me Twice by Monica Walters
Hairpin Curves by Elia Winters (More Carina Adores, yay!)
Lotus Flower Bomb by Kenya Goree-Bell
King of Durabia by Naleighna Kai (I have no idea what these books are like but I am hella intrigued)
What are you reading? (Or hoping to eventually read if you could just pick the damn thing up?)
As usual, catch me on Twitter @jessisreading or Instagram @jess_is_reading, or send me an email at wheninromance@bookriot.com if you’ve got feedback, bookrecs, or just want to say hi!