Sponsored by IN A HOLIDAZE, the sparkling holiday novel from Christina Lauren and Gallery Books.
Maelyn celebrates the holiday as always, with a boisterous mix of family and friends. At week’s end, everyone goes their separate ways, until Mae wakes up on the plane heading to vacation…again. Once she realizes she’s not going nuts, she starts trying things: like tossing out rock-hard brownies before her dad breaks a tooth…and finally acknowledging her feelings for Andrew, her best friend in the entire world. Will that finally stop this endless loop and let Mae start the rest of her life? In a Holidaze is the perfect holiday read for fans of Groundhog Day or Sliding Doors.
One full week into October and it’s the first time I’ve put on something dark and romantic and gothic with good music to enjoy. I suppose I’m not really in the mood for the creepy stuff, since it’s still 100 degrees in Arizona (uy). But hey, it’s the price I must pay for not having to have a whole separate wardrobe for cold weather.
Books! Let’s talk about books!
Over on Book Riot
Trisha went ahead and named the episode after an unfortunate stalling in my brain (lol).
Have you read any Georgette Heyer? This quiz will tell you where you should start.
For some reason my first instinct when I see this post title is to sing “shout hallelujah, come on get happy.”
It was Literary Friendship Day on Tuesday and I wrote about the amazingness that is friend groups in Black, multicultural, and interracial romance.
We collected our favorite books from the last few months. Not all romance, but definitely some worth checking out.
Deals
Block Shot by Kennedy Ryan
Are you ready to sob your heart out? The second and third books in Kennedy Ryan’s Hoops trilogy, Block Shot and Hook Shot, are both 1.99 at the moment. You don’t have to have read Long Shot to read the others, but characters from the first do occasionally appear, at least in passing. These are long, intense, heart-wrenching, angsty books, so if you need some catharsis, these are definitely worth checking out. They also all have content warnings legit up the wazoo (seriously, what is the origin of that? It’s not oisaeu because that makes no sense), so I would check those out on Goodreads or some other trusted review site. (Sadly, they’re not on Kennedy’s website.)
New Books
I finally managed to finish a book this past weekend, and it was glorious. I’m not surprised that it pulled me out of a slump, as I’d thought many times about reading it before its release and just hadn’t been ready. But boy am I glad I picked it up.
Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade
We all know I’m a member of the Olivia Dade fanclub, and her first publication with Avon is no disappointment. From the moment you see the cover, and read the dedication, to the second you read the final line of the acknowledgments, you are ensnared, enraptured, enthralled. April and Marcus are two fascinating characters, both with their own shit to deal with in their personal lives.
Marcus, unhappy with the direction the showrunners of the ongoing historical fantasy series he stars in have taken it, has taken to writing fanfiction and being an admin of a fan server for the show. He writes and betas stories for April, but neither knows who the other is. When a Twitter incident involving April, cosplay, and assholes leads to Marcus asking the young woman on a date, the two meet and she immediately sees past the Golden Retriever persona he’s created to detract people from the fact that he’s dyslexic. The two have true chemistry, but things get in the way. At first, at least.
This book is particularly fun if you’re in any kind of internet fandom, but I think you might still enjoy it if you’re not. I’ve seen some people say that the most off-putting element is the inclusion of interstitials between the alternating POV chapters—segments of fics, conversations on the boards, scripts from Marcus’s most ridiculous movies—but I absolutely loved them. But as with most things, YMMV.
CWs: fatphobia and fat shaming (on the internet and from family members); discussion of fatphobia; toxic parenting and emotional abuse; dyslexia; earthquake talk and simulation; estranged family member; ongoing deception (which is usually a hard limit for me but she made it work); discussion of suicide (by fictional character)
Okay, that’s probably enough about that. There were other books out this week, too!
Claimed On Halloween by Isla Chiu
Football and Ballet by Jason Collins (A m/m romance between a quarterback and a ballet dancer? Sign me up.)
After Hours Redemption by Kianna Alexander
The Place Between by Kit Oliver
Brass Carriages and Glass Hearts by Nancy Campbell Allen
Knight of Paradise Island by JL Campbell
If the Broom Fits: A Halloween Romance by Sarah Sutton
Teach Me Tonight by Natasha Washington
In a Holidaze by Christina Lauren
The Ippos King by Grace Draven
He Ain’t Your Ordinary Bae by Tay Mo’Nae
Type Dirty To Me by Roxanne D. Howard
Her Sweet Temptation by Nina Crespo
Cat’s Got Your Heart by Jem Zero
In Her Arms by Melissa Tereze
The Bookworm’s Guide to Dating by Emma Hart
Her Secret Song by Mary Connealy
The Solstice Kings by Kim Fielding
I only included one, but there are a lot of Christmas books out this week.
What are you reading this weekend?
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!