Category: Kissing Books

It’s Monday, it’s April 20, and I hope you’re healthily and safely celebrating/medicating in states where it is not legally dangerous to do so. I’m not sure I’ll be able to recover after this week’s episode of Westworld, but I’ve got a lot of emotional backup to help. (Books. I’m talking about books. I have too many control issues for the other stuff.)

News and Useful Links

Donna Kauffman died on April 9 from pancreatic cancer.

Read an excerpt from Talia Hibbert’s upcoming novella, Guarding Temptation, which is an updated, expanded version of a novella previously published in a Rogue anthology.

Do you read on Radish? Katrina Jackson is now publishing a serial Persuasion retelling set in the political world.

Olivia Dade showed us a new cover for her book Teach Me, which is somehow a huge improvement on an already adorable cover.

And I was surprised to see a German romance novel, Your Perfect Year, on the Read The World page, a celebration of world literature put on by Amazon.

Deals

Nicole Falls is offering one of her books for free every day this week! Today (Monday, April 20) is Smitten. While it’s the second book in a series, it can stand alone, like most of Nicole’s books. In this one, Celena has determined after a ghosting that she is going to focus on other things in life. No romance, just focusing on her life. But when she meets Karim, in town helping out a relative, all that goes up in smoke. Check out what other of her books you can get for free this week.

Recs!

Earth Day is this week, so I figured I’d throw out some recommendations for romances featuring environmentally- or botanically-inclined protagonists.

Not Another Family Wedding
Jackie Lau

Natalie is a climatology professor doing her best to lighten her carbon footprint. When she has to return to her hometown for her sister’s wedding, she dreads every minute of it, not just for the potential blowups that could happen between family members, but the constant barrage of people asking when she would be getting married and having kids (the answer to the latter being never). She asks her best friend to come with her to the wedding as her date-slash-support-system, but things happen that lead to the possibility of their situation changing.

Grin and Beard It
Penny Reid

Sienna Diaz is on a shoot in the Great Smoky Mountains when she finds herself unable to get around…problems with maps, I guess? When Jethro Winston helps her out, they get along pretty quickly. They share a similar sense of humor, which is great since Sienna is a comedian. Jethro is a ranger in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and cares a lot about the preservation of the park and the people he works with. And also his family, who are all involved in the land in their own ways (lol).

A Taste of Her Own Medicine
Tasha L. Harrison

Fresh out of marriage, newly divorced Sonja decides to take an entrepreneurship class. Her instructor, Atlas, is not only a great teacher but also a great person—and wildly attractive, too. He thinks her business selling handcrafted soaps and lotions based on some family recipes has lots of potential. But you really want to read this for the interactions with Sonja and her family. These are witchy types who use very earth-based traditions, and they support each other in delightful, witchy ways.

Open House
Ruby Lang

Real estate agent Magda is surprised when the thing keeping her from finishing up her first big job is a community garden, grown on a lot that has been vacant for decades. When the long-lost owner finally decides to sell, it’s up to Magda and the potential buyer to convince the squatters to give up the ghost. But Tyson and his fellow gardeners aren’t giving up without a fight, and Tyson and Magda’s immediate chemistry aren’t going to let a little potential stop them from making cases on either side.

Do you have a favorite environmentalist in romance?

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!

Well, peeps, I have discovered that The Bachelor Presents: Listen To Your Heart is a thing and I’ve already informed my distinguished spouse that if The Voice doesn’t make it to Lives…we’re gonna have to watch it, even though I have not seen a single season of The Bachelor. But seriously: a musical dating show?! It’s like something straight out of a romance novel!

Over on Book Riot

Book Riot is maintaining all of the stories coming through related to the bookworld and COVID-19 in a single story stream.

Romance manga, you say? Give it to me!

Queer love and social justice go hand-in-hand.

Sometimes I love the families in romance just as much as (and sometimes more than) the central relationship. A person’s people can really make a difference, and here are some Natalya would totally join.

Deals

If you’ve been curious about Sorcerer to the Crown or The Terracotta Bride but want some experience with Zen Cho before making a series commitment, check out The Perilous Life of Jade Yeo, which is free right now. It’s a novella set in the 1920s (more 1920’s!), in which Jade writes fashion articles for the society pages. But she writes a scathing review of the wrong person, and there is tension.

New Books!

There are a few super intriguing books out this week, and I can’t wait to someday read them all! The only one I’ve started is actually a re-release, which the author sort of convinced herself to polish off and polish up.

Reawakening
Charlotte Stein

It’s the Zombie Apocalypse and June has been running for her life for two years. When she finds herself following Jamie up instead of out, she isn’t expecting to take a helicopter to an island, where the zombies can’t get to them. She, Jamie, and Blake enjoy a slice of long lost normalcy, even as June can’t stop dreaming up scenarios that find at least one of them naked. But as long as the zombies stay away, is there anything wrong with that?

As I mentioned, this is a republished title, so you might have come across it long ago. But I am a relatively newcomer to Charlotte Stein, so when she posted about possibly pulling out a menage zombie apocalypse story? I was ready.

There are so many others, too:

Inked With a Kiss by Jennie Davids
Perfect Timing by T. Key and Monica Walters
Irresistible Chemistry by KT Bishop
Lucas by Elna Host (An epistolary novel set during and after the events of Pride and Prejudice, in which Charlotte Lucas gets her own real, queer HEA)
Not That Kind of Guy by Andie J. Christopher
Change of Momentum by Liana Brooks
The Spare by Miranda Dubner (I dunno why it’s always the younger English prince who ends up being queer, but we’ll take it)
Flavor of the Month by Georgia Beers
Were-Geeks Save Wisconsin by Kathy Lyons (WERE GEEKS)
The Last Place You Look by Aurora Rey
Provoke by Rachel Van Dyken
Cabin Fever by Stephanie Nicole Norris

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!

If you’re wondering, we’re in the second full week of April now, and the spring showers are apparently ready to join us. If you decide to wander out into the rain just to have something new and different to do, please do it carefully…and if you have to go out into the rain anyway because you’re essential or otherwise not able to stay home, be careful of the cabin-fevered wandering out into the rain.

News and Useful Links

It continues to be a quietish month in Romancelandia, news-wise, but there are a few things worth checking out.

If anyone ever says that the F-word in a historical romance is anachronistic, just point them to this document.

Girl Have You Met didn’t happen on April 4 in St. Louis, but they pulled together some live panels you can watch on the Girl, Have You Read Facebook page.

The Ripped Bodice introduced a new HEA pouch that they were planning to reveal at the LA Times Festival of Books. They’re super cute!

Love’s Sweet Arrow is already nearly sold out of this great t-shirt, but if they have your size, good on you!

The #dontrushchallenge continues to give back. Here’s one featuring romance authors of color, and another one done by members of RomanceClass (scroll for part two!).

Priscilla Oliveras’s Matched to Perfection trilogy got a makeover!

There’s still time to watch the National Theatre’s production of Jane Eyre on YouTube.

And while the free live stream of the Pride and Prejudice musical premiere is no longer available, you can rent or buy it. (PS there’s also apparently an Emma musical, too?)(PPS while we’re talking musical adaptations of classic books, I discovered, while discussing a musical version of The Count of Monte Cristo, that Frank Wildhorn, who wrote Count along with Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlet Pimpernel and apparently a bunch of other stuff, also wrote “Where Do Broken Hearts Go”?! Like, you know, the best Whitney Houston ballad in existence? I had to listen to it with Wildhorn brain and it totally tracks, but my brain is still broken.)

Deals

Best You Ever Had is 2.99 right now (and available to read with your Kindle Unlimited subscription). I am always drawn to Monica Walters’ covers, and this one drew my eye immediately. It also features an age-gap romance between an older man, who are at different places in their lives. When they decide to embark on a passionate relationship journey, they can’t decide if it’s too quick or just the right pace.

Recs!

In a moment of either complete mental disconnect or surprise library desire, I checked out three ebooks over the course of the same number of days. I got no reading done in any of those days, so I’m glad I managed to follow said checking-out with some surprise focus and the ability to get books back to people on the holds list for them before the three weeks was up.

(If you have access to a library that has a digital collection, definitely check it out. There are obviously going to be discrepancies based on whether they have a strong digital budget or whether they even have anyone buying new books during all of this, but it’s also a great time to explore some seriously deep cuts.)

The Flapper’s Fake Fiancé
Lauri Robinson

I was wandering through Harlequin’s new releases and was super intrigued by not only a flapper historical romance, but a fake-engagement flapper historical romance, and since the library didn’t already have it I requested they buy it for OverDrive…and then forgot to check that evening and ended up on the holds list. But the person ahead of me apparently devoured it that evening and there it was for me the next night!

Patsy and her two sisters live in Hollywoodland with their very traditional mother and wildly overbearing father. Even though they’ve all completed secretarial school, their only job is to clean their home and the homes across the other properties in the Hollywood Hills their father owns and is trying to sell to the rich and famous. But none of the sisters wants that life, and in a regular act of defiance they sneak out to hang at the speakeasies downtown, dancing their hearts out and enjoying a cocktail or two. Patsy, though, has another motive for sneaking out to the speakeasy she finds herself at alongside Lane Cox, owner of LA’s best newspaper: she wants to be a reporter and is seeking information about an escaped convict. When both the seasoned and novice reporter end up on the same trail, one thing leads to another and suddenly the rumor is that they’re engaged. And what better way to get Patsy out of the house to pursue her dream?

(CW: Aforementioned overbearing father, attempted arranged marriages, violence, drinking, attempted kidnapping, period-specific racism and use of the word “shanghaied”, excessive inclusion of the shimmy)

Sofia Khan is Not Obliged
Ayisha Malik

Hawked as a Muslim take on Bridget Jones, this one was recommended to all of us by Jenn Northington as an oddly meta retelling-of-a-retelling. It was also not in my library but I requested it and did manage to get it before anyone else had borrowed it. Go me!

Sofia is a publicist. She is also a Muslim, and a Hijabi. When we first meet her, she’s just had a racist encounter on the Tube. And somehow that turns into the idea that she should write a book about Muslim dating. (It all makes sense, I promise.) This is a book that pulls from concepts in Pride and Prejudice and Bridget Jones’s Diary without trying to be either of those things. So if you’re looking for something with the exact beats of either, this isn’t going to be your book. But it was lots of fun, even though it took me three times as long to read as I thought it should have.

(Also, I’ve been told that if you want to keep the glowy HEA feeling of this one to avoid the sequel, but it’s up to you.)

(CW: racism, xenophobia, fatphobia, polygamy, difficulty getting pregnant, death of a parent, alcoholism, overbearing in-laws, smoking and use of British slang for cigarette that is also a homophobic slur)

My Beautiful Enemy
Sherry Thomas

Speaking of those deep cuts. I was wandering through the OverDrive home page for my library and noticed that both My Beautiful Enemy and The Hidden Blade were available to check out. After a surprised “How?” came out I spent a few minutes jibber jabbering with myself about whether I should check out both or just read My Beautiful Enemy, which can be read as a standalone. (The Hidden Blade was written as a prequel and they’re technically a duology, but The Hidden Blade doesn’t have an HEA while My Beautiful Enemy apparently does.) I only started reading it about an hour before I realized “I need to write tomorrow’s KB!” so I will hopefully slam the rest of it in the next couple of days.

Catherine Blade has come to England in search of a rare Chinese artifact that should never have left China. The natural daughter of a Chinese courtesan and a British national, she has awesome skills in the martial arts and can basically become anyone she wants. But her appearance in England is a great surprise to Leighton Atwood, the man she thought she’d killed in Chinese Turkestan nearly ten years before. The story is told in alternating periods—now, and then—so we are introduced to the two characters in the present while also learning about who they were in the past, and how they got to now.

Sherry Thomas’s writing is some of the most compelling stuff I’ve ever picked up, and I can’t wait to get back to it (which I’m going to do now).

(CW: Hidden identities, woman masquerading as man, violence, period-specific racism, emotional infidelity, there might be more)

Have you checked out your library’s digital collection? What have they got?

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!

Thursday is here, and we’ve got new books to talk about. If your plan doesn’t include observing Passover through Easter and/or alternating between watching The Ten Commandments and The Prince of Egypt and listening to the new cast recording of the stage play of the latter because your brain can’t process new words, then there’s plenty new for you to pick up.

Over on Book Riot

Book Riot is maintaining all of the stories coming through related to the bookworld and COVID-19 in a single story stream.

Isabelle matched Test Kitchen personalities with romances. Do you agree?

You know how I talked about fandom romances and wanting to read more? Here are the ones I’ve already read (some are YA, some adult).

Trisha was sick last week, so Jenn Northington joined me for a special Austen episode of When In Romance. (Note, the alternative title for this episode was “Scolding with his eyebrows” and that really does apply to nearly every Austen hero…even Hugh Grant—I mean, Edward Ferrars.)

Deals

I mentioned last time that Robyn Carr’s Virgin River was 1.99, but I didn’t realize you could get a bundle or two for not much more! The Virgin River Collection Volume 1 is 2.99, which gives you the first four books in the 20 book series.

And if you’re looking for something shorter, Lucy Eden bundled three of her books into A Trio of 90 Minute Escapes, all for 99 cents.

New Books!

It feels like the only thing I saw on Twitter all of Tuesday was people both celebrating and lamenting the fact that there were just so. Many. Books coming out this week. Not all of them were romance, but there is quite the roster of books out this week.

One of which I will be reading once I’ve submitted this newsletter:

To Have and to Hoax
Martha Waters

An estranged couple who perform the absolute most ridiculous stunts to get each other’s attention? Run it through my veins!

Married couple—Married couple! I said I wanted more marriages in trouble romances and had been in a dry historical rut, didn’t I? Didn’t I?!—Violet and James Audley are currently not really speaking to each other. But when a miscommunication leads Violet to think that James has been injured, she’s outraged (in part by her own reaction, probably) when she discovers he’s perfectly fine. So she pretends to have some kind of incurable illness to make him see how he likes it. And then the stunts continue on from there.

If you’ve followed long enough, you know I’m not really fond of romances where the protagonists deceive each other, so I’m actually afraid my squick-meter will go off for this one. But the premise (if you’re okay with feigning illness and potential gaslighting presented as comedy I guess?) is so wild and wildly intriguing that I’m super interested in how it’s done!

And then there’s the one that I’m still not sure whether to side-eye or throw grabby hands at:

Love in the Time of Corona
Rilzy Adams

Here it is, folks. We have a winner for first release (and she even managed to get the title!). Alyssa and her soon-to-be-ex (OMIGOD ANOTHER MARRIED COUPLE) are spite-sharing their apartment and discover they have to quarantine for two weeks. They are not in the same place, mentally, as far as where their relationship is—she’s bound to murder him herself, but he wants them to give the relationship a fighting chance. Either way, two weeks of constant, unrelenting contact will change the pair forever.

What do you think? Are you ready for the quarantine romances, or is it still too soon?

And then there are the others that are out now!

Seduced by a Steele by Brenda Jackson (With those eyes, who wouldn’t be? Intense, I believe the word is.)
The Iron Crown by MA Grant
Her One Night Proposal by Katherine Garbera
Pop Star by Eden Finley
Her Royal Bodyguard by Margaux Fox (here’s a secret, the bodyguard is also a woman!)
Love Layover by Keitra Crooks (this is part of a standaloneable series called Adorable Little Romance and I love it just for that)
You Deserve Each Other by Sarah Hogle
You or No One by Oliver Bosman

What’s your book weekend look like?

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!

How’s everyone doing? I’ve decided I hate John Krasinski’s Some Good News because all it does is make me cry while I laugh, and that just doesn’t work for me. Like, how dare you, John. How dare.

(Who am I kidding, I will watch every single episode he produces because I love him.)

News and Useful Links

First, thank you to Jennifer and Norma for reaching out to remind me that Amazon has an Advanced Search! You can use it to search by publisher, so if you’re curious about that Entangled sale, it was recommended that you search using “Entangled: Scorched.” Also, the Barnes and Noble search is apparently pretty easy and straightforward.

We are all Beverly Jenkins. At least the part about the bookshelves.

Speaking of Ms. Bev, here’s a great interview with her on The Turn On.

This is just. THE BEST.

Some awesome folks are putting together a Social Distancing Book Fest on April 25 and while it covers a lot of genres, the romance game is going to be very strong.

The saddest of the sads. Employee of the Month Forever.

A bunch of authors are doing “pay what you can” style bundles:

• Holley Trent
• Rebekah Weatherspoon
• Kit Rocha
• Katrina Jackson

Have you seen more? Let me know!

We’ve seen romance covers as a lot of things, but Bowie? Now we have.

And also cakes. So many cakes.

Deals

If you’re looking to start a new series, might I suggest the Holmes Brothers series by Farrah Rochon? Deliver Me, the first book in the series, is free right now, and there are six more where that came from.

You can also get the devastatingly good Only For a Night by Naima Simone for free, or the whole Lick Series Boxed Set for 1.99.

To add to this pile of riches, Holley Trent has a boxed set called The Norseton Wolves Mate Call Collection, which is also currently free.

And while we’re talking boxed sets, can we talk about Talia Hibbert’s Hold Me Close: A Cinnamon Roll Boxed Set, which gathers all four Ravenswood books into one? It’s 4.99 for the whole thing. That’s so much feels, you all.

And if you were curious after the last episode of When In Romance and were thinking of trying it out, Virgin River by Robyn Carr is 1.99 right now.

Recs!

In usual fashion, I want to talk about a couple books I haven’t yet finished, but I will, dammit, I will. It’s so hard to read anything right now, and I’m upset that so many books I’m enjoying keep getting set aside.

If I Loved You Less
Tamsen Parker

If you’ve managed to already listen to this week’s When in Romance, you might have heard me talk about this book. If not, well, you’ll hear me talk about this book some more. As might be hinted from the title (or not, if you’re not an Austen fan), If I Loved You Less is a contemporary retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma. Here, Theo is a young surfer and homebody who is prepared to spend the rest of her days helping out her dad at the family surf shop and meddling in the locals’ business, including that of newcomer Laurel. Her oldest friend Kini tries to be the voice of reason, but there’s also something developing between the pair beyond their constant banter.

Theo as a person is an interesting character, and she might be pegged “unlikeable” to some readers—just like Emma, when you think about it. She’s still got a lot of space for growth by the place I’ve stopped for the time being, but I’m looking forward to seeing how she’ll reach the end.

Good Enough to Eat
Alison Grey and Jae

I read a Stucky fic a while ago in which Bucky was a vampire and Steve was a dragon, and I realized it had been a while since I’d read any vampires. This, after having spent nearly a decade reading just about every vampire I could get my hands on, startled me. I don’t know if I eventually tired of vampires or just wasn’t finding the good stuff. Or maybe people stopped writing it for a while. (There was a dip, but it never really went away.) Either way, I had noticed a void and while I didn’t start seeking them out, I made a note to keep my eye out for vampire romances.

A week or so ago, Jae posted that a book she’d written with a co-writer several years ago was now available on KU, and I saw an immediate chance: when had I actually read a lesbian vampire romance? The answer, my friends, was never. So I went ahead and added it to my borrowed list, even though I wasn’t sure from the description whether it was going to be funny or earnest. Why, you ask? Well, the hook is that a vampire decides to go to an AA meeting as a way to help stop her cravings after deciding to no longer drink from humans. So that could be played in either direction. It is very earnest. Which isn’t a bad thing, unless you are distinctly looking for funny. Otherwise, the protagonists are fascinating (one is, for all intents and purposes, a human who used to be something like a djinn, and the other writes vampire romances lol) and I’m still figuring out how the world works. There are a few little things that throw me off (ie, both protagonists live in New York and have cars, as do other people they encounter) but in general it’s an entertaining read. If you’re interested in a different kind of vampire, definitely check it out.

(CW: Discussion of alcoholism, 12-step program, prayer, description of death of an animal by car, gaslighting)

So, I guess this is the “Lesbians With Blue Covers” edition of the newsletter. Take it as you’d like.

What are you reading this week? 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!

It’s Thursday. It’s been less than a week. How are you all doing? Hanging in there? Reading at all? I keep starting books and setting them aside, but I will finish the book I’m working on because it’s delightful and I won’t let my own brain keep me down.

Over on Book Riot

Book Riot is maintaining all of the stories coming through related to the bookworld and COVID-19 in a single story stream.

Romance tropes, get your romance tropes here.

Have you put all of these spring romances on your list?

I love a good reality TV romance. Have you read any of these?

And you could win a copy of Red, White & Royal Blue between now and April 30.

Deals

There are no sports right now except roomba curling and marble racing, but sports romances are forever. If you haven’t started reading Rachel Reid’s steamy and delicious hockey series, Game Changer is 1.99 right now. I accidentally skipped over this one and went straight to Heated Rivalry (which is 4.99, still a good deal), but the first Amazon review’s title is “fluffalufagus” so I’m very much down to check it out. I have to include a CW for a closeted protagonist who isn’t ready to bring his new relationship out into the open, though.

New Books!

Man, it’s a good week to be stuck inside. I have been working very hard to make sure I work my full day instead of sneaking in snatches of this week’s new releases.

American Sweethearts
Adriana Herrera

The fourth and final book in the Dreamer series, this is the first one that features a couple of different genders. Juan Pablo, or JuanPa, has loved Pris for a long time. About as long as they’ve been friends. But they’ve tried and failed at being in a relationship, and neither sees it happening for real. But when they end up together in paradise, the passion and potential are both there. There’s just the question of where they can go from there.

An Heiress to Remember
Maya Rodale

In a story older than Macy’s and Gimble’s, two Gilded-Age department store owners butt heads…and other things. Beatrice is doing her best to turn things around for her family’s bankrupt department store, looking to turn it into the Place To Go in Manhattan, but Wes will do anything to make his department store empire the best, including buy Beatrice’s family business in an act of vengeance. But when the two meet again after their possible love was ripped away from them at a young age, they find themselves fighting by day and…well. You know.

Others that should be on your radar:

Keeping Miss Kalila by Tara Frejas
Lord Holt Takes a Bride by Vivienne Lorret
Controlled Chaos by Christina C. Jones
Badger to the Bone by Shelly Laurenston
The Essence of Perfection by Nita Brooks
Bears Behaving Badly by MaryJanice Davidson (whole new series!)
Hostile Pursuit by Juno Rushdan (Her Harlequin debut!)
The Flapper’s Fake Fiance by Lauri Robinson (What?! Roaring twenties fake engagement story?!)
Fire in his Chaos by Ruby Dixon
Dear Enemy by Kristen Callihan
Been There Done That by Hope Ellis
Queen of Barrakesch by Delaney Diamond
Move Your Body by Stephanie Nicole Norris (Part of a new collection by a lot of awesome names called Carnivale Collection)

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!

I’ve been trying to come up with some kind of weekly greeting besides “Happy Monday” but I think many of you are probably happy to have the assurance that it is, in fact, Monday. So, yeah. Welcome to a new work week, or just a new week, if you’re doing other things.

News and Useful Links

If you’ve been as attached to your phone as I’ve been these past several days, you might have seen some conversation around book piracy on Twitter. Essentially, the Internet Archive, who does some legitimately good things with out of print and public domain books, has created a “National Emergency Library,” which allows people to borrow any of their 1.4 million copyrighted books without waitlists. This would be fine and dandy if they, like a real library, had purchased licenses for that kind of use, and the publishers had given permission. Also, if they’d offered real ebooks instead of scanned copies of library and/or personal copies of books. To make it worse, the site got a good number of publicity for it, including from NPR, and so people who have no idea how any of this works don’t even realize they’re pirating books. Several romance authors, including Beverly Jenkins, have been working to get their books removed, but it sounds like a long, arduous process. I hope this gets resolved soon and quickly.

On March 23, which was somehow both seven days and ten million years ago, RWA announced the winners of their special election. I haven’t heard much since about how the new president and board members will go about the business of turning the ship, but we’ve all been a little busy.

While it happened over the weekend, you might want to check out the available recordings from the VirtualJaneCon that Drunk Austen put on (lightning fast!). There are some super interesting topics if you’re into that sort of thing.

If your catharsis is through reading what your favorite fictional characters are doing right now, check out Meg Cabot’s Corona Princess Diaries on her blog.

Jen is offering personal book recommendations to people who donate to 57th Street Books. Many of us have bookstores that are special to us, so if we can support someone’s favorite, why not?

I recently got to do a guest rec in Lucy Eden’s newsletter, Notes From Paradise, and I gotta tell you I love what she does every month. I subscribe to a lot of author newsletters, and love how different they all are.

Do you follow WOC in Romance on Twitter? The weekly new release thread is worth it.

Deals

If you’re looking for some grumpy-sunshine neighbor action (and have already read Talia Hibbert’s A Girl Like Her—and if you haven’t, get a move on!) Laura Jardine’s Tempting Her Neighbor is free right now. The second book in the duology, Seducing His True Love, is 3.99, so you could get the whole series for as little as four dollars. This is an Entangled/Macmillan title, and I’ve heard that a lot of their first in series are free right now, but I haven’t been able to figure out the best way of finding them without going painstakingly through each book as a title search. Seriously, if anyone knows a way to search Amazon by publisher, I’d love to see it! The closest I’ve gotten is pricing all romance books low to high, but every single book that’s in KU is in the low end of the bracket so it’s pretty useless.

Recs!

Including a new Danielle Allen book last week reminded me that I hadn’t yet read a book of hers that has been regularly hitting my radar every couple of months since the summer of 2018 when it came out. The cover was definitely the talk of the town around its release, and every so often someone mentions the content. And now, I’ve finally picked it up.

Sweatpants Season
Danielle Allen

Akila is the dictionary model for Competent. She’s a skilled writer with a double degree in creative writing and journalism, and girl can turn a phrase. Her name is out there and she’s set to get her dream job at a magazine run by her idol. But she hasn’t dated in months, and part of it is the misogyny inherent in dating culture as seen in the very popular podcast featuring a group of men who call themselves The Lost Boys. When she meets English teacher Carlos in the photography workshop they’ve both joined in order to take their work to the next level, he’s basically perfect—until she discovers that he’s a member of said Lost Boys. Her life is further upended when she and Carlos end up working on a special project…now if only she can think of something besides what he looks like wearing sweatpants.

I’m going to say explicitly that I’m only partway through this book and while I’m absolutely loving Akila and the writing, I have a feeling I know where this is going (and read a few reviews to confirm). Because of her feelings on how The Lost Boys objectify women and give blanket permission for other men to do the same, she is going to do something regarding “sweatpants season” as a commentary on toxic masculinity and the male gaze. It’s gonna be serious, and probably cause some top-tier conflict between the protagonists. So if that’s not your jam, hold off on this one for a while.

Otherwise, I’ve been reading a lot of what’s called “Fandom YA” because it’s got that level of feel-good familiarity that we all could use right now. There’s something about being surrounded by fake dorks who you’d be following around in awe because they’re so much more comfortable in their fandoms than you were at that age. But I’d love to read more in adult romance that hits the same notes, something like Cathy Yardley’s Fandom Hearts series (One True Pairing is my ultimate fandom/fake relationship/found family romance). So if you have recommendations, send them my way!

You can do that by finding me on Twitter @jessisreading or Instagram @jess_is_reading, or sending me an email at wheninromance@bookriot.com. Feel free to get in touch if you’ve got feedback, bookrecs, or just want to say hi!

Happy Thursday, folks. Since I’m writing this on Tuesday, I’m hoping we haven’t already fallen into all out revolution by now.

Over on Book Riot

Book Riot is maintaining all of the stories coming through related to the book world and COVID-19 in a single story stream.

Listen to some birds and Trisha and me talking about the Ripped Bodice diversity report, and also the Netflix adaptation of Virgin River.

I didn’t take this quiz multiple times because I couldn’t decide between the great indie romances it offered. Not at all.

Have you checked out Scribd? It’s been a few years since I gave up my membership, but they had hella romances. And you can try it out without all the usual hoops and loopholes of a normal free trial.

And speaking of free things, LibraryThing is now free to use with an unlimited number of books.

Deals

Harlequin is having a 50 percent off sale of their March ebooks, so if you’ve been thinking about getting some books, now’s your chance! Try out a Harlequin Desire like Reese Ryan’s Secret Heir Seduction, or something from a line you might not usually try, like Medical Romances or Love Inspired. Check out everything that’s part of the sale.

New Books!

Thursday also means we talk about new books, and this time I’ve even, well, started? A couple of them.

Grown-Up Pose
Sonya Lalli

Anu is in a time of exploration. She’s almost divorced, has a new boyfriend, and is ready to take the time to try new things and explore what her life can be outside of being married to the first boy she kissed. She’s got her friends and family, who are both supportive and overbearing in their own ways, and is working out what she wants instead of what they want for her. And then there’s her relationship with her husband, Neil.

This book leans a little more into contemporary fiction than romance, but it’s definitely something romance readers might enjoy picking up.

Others that are out this week:

Fool in Love by Danielle Allen

The Honey-Don’t List by Christina Lauren (The complete claustrophobia of this situation will feel like a total alternate reality with everything going on, but it might also be a relief).

Gaming Grace by Piper J. Drake

Beguiling Benjamin by Robin Covington

Tenderness by Xan West

If I Never Met You by Mhairi McFarlane

All The Lines to Cross by Ashish Rastogi

The Sinner by JR Ward (BDB Book eighteen how is that even possible?!)

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!

Well. It’s a Monday, which means Kissing Books. That’s all I can really say about it.

News and Useful Links

It’s been a relatively quiet week, but there are a few things of note to bring us a little joy and/or to make us think about things.

Earlier this month, Corey wrote about their favorite romances with Jewish rep.

If you’ve ever read a romance novel and thought “no real man could ever be that clueless” then have I got news for you. And while I read this whole thing with hearts in my eyes, there are definitely some good conversations that have come out of it:

• Yes, it’s great that people want to see a story like this in book form, but they should not overlook QTPOC when yelling about who they want to write it
• There are certain power dynamics we should always be thinking about when reading or writing romance, especially if there’s a trans or gnc person involved
• Also, it’s always great to say “I wish an author would write something like that” but don’t phrase it like they’re actually going to do it on your say so?

Romance novel couples as songs from Crazy Ex Girlfriend? Yes, please!

Or if you prefer, pets as romance covers!

If you don’t subscribe to Alyssa Cole’s Girls With Glasses newsletter? Well, you should. Also, Capybaras.

Adriana Herrera’s coming out with some telenovela-style romances and I’m here for it.

And there are going to be more Bromance Book Club books.

Also, to bring some color into your lives, how about some covers? Alexa Martin shared hers for her upcoming fourth book, Snapped, while Reese Ryan shared hers for the fourth book in the Bourbon Brothers series, Reunion of Rivals. 

Do you subscribe to (one of) the other Kissing Books, Carly Lane’s weekly newsletter? Check out this week’s, and join in on the fun!

Deals

For the next six days (until 3/29) Piper Vaughn has made their self-pub works 99 cents each! If you only know them from the hockey series they’re currently writing with Avon Gale for Carina, you’ve got lots of fun to look forward to. You could try Permanent Ink, which features an age gap and tattoos, or Bookmarked, which has a bookseller protagonist. They’ve written mermaids and musicians, kink and no kink. There’s lots to choose from; try one or two out.

Recs!

This past weekend was a special Social Distancing 24in48 Readathon, and while I did not hit 24 hours because I believe in sleep (and you know, my phone was right there), I made it through quite a few books, even a couple that weren’t romance. (I missed reading comics!) But after starting out with a book from my Kindle Unlimited collection, which I have been strangely curating and probably not using to the best of its abilities since I also buy books, get ARCs, and borrow things from the library, I thought this would be a great time to clean out my KU shelf a bit (since I can only have ten out at a time and have to keep adding things to my wishlist when I see them). Here are the books I finished:

Finders Keepers
NR Walker

I think I’ve mentioned this book as a desired read, and now I’ve actually read it! Set on the Gold Coast of Australia, it features Griffin, a young man who’s new to the area, and a dog he finds at a trailhead. When he finds the owner via the dog’s collar, he agrees to hold onto the dog, Wicket (HIS NAME IS WICKET) until the owner, Dane, gets back from a work conference. The two start exchanging texts, including lots of photos of the Ewok/dog, which turn into phone conversations, which turns into something more.

A Good Luck F*ck
Nicole Falls

Nicole Falls never fails to make me laugh! This brief book, which she wrote sometime in the past couple weeks, starts with Clover, who has inherited the running of the family bar from her grandfather, lamenting a local partner canceling a pub crawl because of the impending pandemic. When she takes advantage of the probable lack of business to do some much needed updates to the bar, she recruits long-time friend Nic—who she has had a bit of a crush on since they were kids—to help out. Nic, who has definitely been into her, even if he hasn’t realized it.

CW for a lighter approach to the COVID-19 situation. If you’d rather read about a universe in which the pandemic isn’t happening and never did, skip this one.

Sleeper
Kayley Loring

Shane can’t sleep. Like, really, can’t sleep. He’s had insomnia forever, which doesn’t really work for him when he’s been left alone with his rambunctious twin kindergarteners for three months. His ex-wife is off shooting a period movie somewhere and his nanny has just quit to get married. After somehow managing to get the buggers off to school, he decides to find a new nanny, even if his ex has told him not to hire anyone new without her say so. In comes Willa, younger sister to his oldest friend who is now in LA looking for work in the perfume industry. But she does have nanny experience. Also, she’s had a crush on him since she was twelve, but works hard to hide it. What could possibly go wrong? Especially when he actually falls asleep when she’s nearby?

(Note, I didn’t actually finish this one because I decided early on that I wasn’t into the “she’s my friend’s younger sister and therefore off limits” rhetoric, but the writing was entertaining and so were the people! Check it out at your leisure.)

How to Talk to Nice English Girls
Gretchen Evans

This is another of those of which I read a few pages when I downloaded it and determined to come back to it. It was still a bit of a slow starter, but once the story really started, I was all in. Set in the early 1920s, it tells the story of Marian, a younger sister who knows she will grow to become the spinster lady managing her parents’ household, and Katherine, the outspoken American daughter of her father’s business partner. Marian is giving the task of “looking after” Katherine while she and her father are visiting England, in the hopes that she will influence her for the better. Obviously…that doesn’t happen.

CN for period thoughts on external perceptions of same-gender relationships, but nothing directed at either protagonist.

Single AF
Sherelle Green

Meeka is single. Super single. Not just dealing with a dry spell; she hasn’t had any kind of emotional or sexual contact with a man in years. It doesn’t help that she’s started measuring anyone she might even potentially date up against Tone, the colleague and friend-of-a-friend who she’s developed a vaguely antagonistic professional relationship with. When they’re partnered on a project at the online TV network they work for, they start to discover more about each other…and maybe will finally make this attraction something more.

This isn’t so much a content warning as a…well, a content warning? There is a lot of use of “crazy” in the vernacular of contemporary language, and some of Meeka’s past extreme actions in relationships are played for laughs. These include several invasions of privacy on her part and some uh…light gaslighting on someone else’s part. A lot of it leads to more serious conversations about what Meeka has done and what she has and hasn’t deserved.

I’ve been adding a few books as I have finished and returned others, so we’ll see where the wind takes me next!

What are you reading?

(Are you reading? I’ll tell you, before the weekend started, I hadn’t been able to focus much on any book for very long. Even across the weekend, books that should have only taken a couple hours took at least twice as long as my focus wandered. This has been a rough time for all of us, so don’t be hard on yourself if you’ve been having trouble reading while the world is going to shit. Take your time, find something you love, and try to enjoy it. Or just take some time to reset. We all need it every once in a while, especially under deep stress.)

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!

How’s everyone’s Thursday? I’m still working from work, but am still basically just watching Disney and the CW at home when I have the chance. Let’s talk about some new releases, because goodness knows we need to celebrate something.

Over on Book Riot

With the mass closing of libraries across the country (the world) for the sake of social distancing, you’ll be glad to know that Macmillan has lifted their embargo on the purchase of new ebooks in their publishing stable. Never could get an ebook of The Widow of Rose House from the library? Blame the embargo. But they figured it out, after lots of money lost, and we’ll have a few more books to choose from (and fight over).

Reading all the paper books you’ve got at home? Check out these gorgeous bookmarks before you start dog-earing those pages.

What? Ambience room videos?

You’ve still got the rest of the month to enter to win a 50 dollar Barnes and Noble gift card!

And we’re keeping a story stream of all the COVID-19 related news as it pertains to books, reading, and other bookish things. We’ll continue to update it regularly.

Deals

A lot of authors have been making a book or two free in this situation (and some are highlighting books they have free all the time). Some notable ones (as of Tuesday, March 17):

I Think I Might Love You and the other two books in the Love Sisters trilogy by Christina C. Jones
The Wright Collection by Christina C. Jones
Layover by Katrina Jackson
The Ultimate Pi Day Party by Jackie Lau
Beyond Shame by Kit Rocha
Once Upon a Bride by Jenny Holiday

New Releases!

The House in the Cerulean Sea
TJ Klune

I have loved every word of TJ Klune’s that I’ve read, and I’m excited to explore this new universe of his. In this fantasy, Linus is sent to the far reaches to investigate six youths who may or may not bring about the end times? But as he gets to know the youngins and their enigmatic caretaker, Arthur, he has more questions to ask about life, family, and—yes—the end of the world.

Reborn Yesterday
Tessa Bailey

I’m gonna be honest: I didn’t care what the book was about, because the cover was all that mattered. And then I actually read the description and was all in. A paranormal romantic comedy?!? Sign me the eff up. So a vampire wakes up on a funeral director’s embalming table, and they hit it off. Unfortunately, he’s gonna have to wipe her memory of their meeting, because humans aren’t supposed to know about vampires. But he doesn’t, and things go on from there. I have missed vampires, I’m gonna tell you. I look forward to seeing where Tessa Bailey goes with this one!

Three Months To Forever
Hudson Lin

If there was something I discovered a few years ago, it was that Hudson Lin is all about that drama. So when I saw that she’d done some sprucing up of an old title, I knew I had to check it out. When Ben goes on temporary assignment in Hong Kong, he’s down for some adventure, and it comes in the body of Sai, a local who loves the food and city but hates his work. The two become very close very quickly, but each have their own crap to deal with—especially Ben, whose crap is thousands of miles away in Toronto. But it’s a romance, so I’m set on them figuring it out in time.

Others I’m looking forward to checking out:

A Good Luck F*ck by Nicole Falls (OH. EMM. JEE. That title. That COVER.)
Matzah-Ball Surprise by Laura Brown
The Virgin King by John Michael Curlovich
In Bed with the Earl by Christi Caldwell
Love’s Languageby D. Rose
Beef Cake by Jiffy Kate
Hostile Pursuit by Juno Rushdan
Three’s a Crowd by Cynthia Dane and Hildred Billings
Wishes for Tomorrow by Brenda Jackson (Kindle re-release)
Our Desires by Ivy Laika
Hush of Storm & Sorrow by L. Penelope

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!