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It’s 1979. Olivia Murray, a secretary at a Los Angeles newspaper, is determined to become a photojournalist. When an opportunity arises to accompany her Kurdish boyfriend, Delan, to northern Iraq, she hopes to better understand Delan and capture an image that will land her a photographer job. Yet when she arrives in Delan’s hometown, Olivia is confronted with the reality of a town under constant threat. Then, when Olivia captures a shattering, tragic moment on film, it upends all their lives and proves that true bravery begins with an open heart. Read Take What You Can Carry by Gian Sardar.
It’s May y’all! And I know that I’m a day early but wanted to say May the Fourth Be With You! Hope all the Star Wars fans have a fun day planned of reveling in their fandom.
We made it through another month. I don’t know if I’ve just gotten used to spending a majority of my time on the inside, but this year seems to be moving at a faster pace than last year. Either way I’m glad that we’re here and we made it. Day by day, right?
I got my second dose last week and it went over well enough. Now, the actual injection hurt; like, it was worse than the first one, so I was expecting to get a lot of the side effects. Initially though, I was fine, apart from a sore arm. The next day started off well, but in the afternoon I was hit with a wave of exhaustion that hung with me until I went to bed. Since then, so far so good. The day itself was a bit of a challenging day for the teenager and me and, due to harsh words before I went out, I ended up treating myself to six bottles of wine while walking around the store waiting to see if I had a reaction.
From the World of Romance
I was scrolling through Twitter, as I often do, and discovered a new to me romance related topic floating in the ether. I couldn’t find the source of it though, and by the time it entered my Twitter-sphere it had morphed into numerous requests for more “steamy scenes” in YA.
Which gave me a huge pause, as the requests were coming from the adult fans and not the young adults themselves.
I love YA, and books from that category regularly enter my reading rotation. But, I am personally not comfortable with steamy scenes in my YA. There are very specific YA series and authors that I won’t read because I know they’re in there, and that I’m not going to like it. Now, I’m not naïve in believing that real life teens don’t participate in those types of activities. However, with the age I am and the decade I’m approaching, I’m also perfectly okay stating that I don’t want to read about it.
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This is not shaming anyone for liking anything in YA. There are a lot of damned good books coming out weekly in the category. I would’ve given my eyeteeth (whatever those are) to have some of these books as options when I was a young reader; the first thing that pops to mind is Elise Bryant’s Happily Ever Afters.
It’s not like steamy scenes are unavailable. I know that teenagers have physical relationships in real life, and that having those scenes in some books may make those stories feel more realistic. But there shouldn’t be a demand for these types scenes in YA books just for the sake of having them. And if there are, then the majority of the requests should be coming from young adults.
Around the Web in Romance
News came out this week that Netflix is (finally) adapting a Black romance novel. Hopefully this is a trend that will only increase.
Just in time for AAPI Heritage month, here is a list of some of the most anticipated books by Asian Authors headed our way. I can already hear my bank account sighing in resigned exasperation.
Here is Silvana again shining a light on a trope I didn’t know existed or that I enjoyed. On a personal note, kudos to people who can take care of me when I’m feeling sick. I realized when my allergies attacked me awhile back that I don’t turn into a helpless person when I’m feeling under the weather, but I do get really mean. I’m a tiny ball of sick rage, and I want everyone to feel my pain.
Also in more erotic horror news, this short story came out this week. It made me laugh since I used Jason as an example in one of the last newsletters and now look! I helped to put this out in the world! And, yes, I realize this was already on its way to being live when I wrote it but still…I got a bit of a giddy thrill out of this news.
New Releases & Deals
Here are some of the new releases headed our way this week.
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The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes by Xio Axelrod
The Lady Has a Past by Amanda Quick
Like Cats and Dogs by Kate McMurray
The Heartbreaker by Claire Contreras
As for deals, Finding Home Again by Brenda Jackson, The Rakess by Scarlett Peckham, Status Update by Annabeth Albert are all available for $1.99.
And that’s all for now. If you’re not already, feel free to give me a follow as @PScribe801 over on Twitter. See y’all Thursday.