Well lovers. It’s been a week. Things have happened, and outsiders have been confused by romance twitter talking about judges and hearing transcripts.
News and Useful Links
Since we last talked, we were waiting on a hearing in which a judge would hear a request for injunction against authors wishing to use “cocky” in titles moving forward. The injunction wasn’t granted, and the transcript (thanks, Courtney Milan!) is quite the read.
We’re giving away $500 to spend at the bookstore of your choice! Click here, or on the image below to enter:
RWA (Romance Writers of America) has put out a comprehensive statement about all the diversity issues they’ve been looking into this year, and I’m looking forward to seeing where they go from here. (They also have a statement on their efforts during the continuing ridiculousness that is cockygate.)
The Lambda Literary Awards were recently announced, and winners included one of my faves of this year, Yolanda Wallace’s Tailor-Made.
There’s been some weirdness going on with Kindle Unlimited that I don’t completely get, but Tessa Dare has a good thread about book stuffing, the biggest thing affecting KU and reviews. Amazon has also put some interesting restrictions on reviews so that you can’t post more than five unverified purchase reviews—meaning people who get ARCs from authors (bloggers and other regular reviewers) AND people who don’t reach a certain point in KU books will be limited in their capabilities to review on Amazon. I don’t do that anyway, but I can see this impacting readers and authors to a pretty good extent.
It may be June now, but can we look back on the magic that was #rombklove and remember it when we need it?
Deals
The Hating Game by Sally Thorne is 1.99. If you haven’t gotten to it yet, now is as good a time as ever.
Sarah Morgan’s Sleepless in Manhattan is 1.99 as well. If you’re looking for a series to try out, that’s got plenty of books to enjoy.
Chinelo Okparanta’s Under the Udala Trees is romance adjacent, but I know a lot of romance lovers who love it too. And it’s 2.99 right now.
Imaginary Men by Anjali Banerjee is 2.99 too!
Over on Book Riot
Need some military romance? Here are 50 for you to try?
We’re down for more choose-your-own-adventure romance.
I prefer experiencing the whole book at once, but if you like reading excerpts, here’s how to find them.
Trisha and I did some talking.
And of course, we’re still having that giveaway! 500 bucks, on us!
Recs!
It’s National Pride Month, and while I read queer romance all the time, I’m making an effort to try to read books by new queer authors (and I’m making a concerted effort to read only queer books this month). Looking for a place to start? Here are a couple I’ve read or am reading so far.
A Seditious Affair
KJ Charles
I started reading this book on my phone while I was in line waiting to pick up a Stocksund chair at Ikea, and perhaps that was why I stopped reading 10 percent in and took months to return to it. It’s got some heft; even as an ebook I could feel the weight of everything happening, all the layers. But once I was done I could see how it might end up on enough people’s favorite list to end up on All About Romance’s top ten of all time list. This book is intense, and emotional, and I wasn’t sure I knew where my heart was when I turned the last page. It wasn’t in my throat, or my stomach, as it had been for the final pages. It had just stopped beating, in need of rest, I guess. But damn, this book.
The second book in the Society of Gentlemen series, this books takes place at the end of the Regency and centers Silas and Dominic, who only know each other as “The Tory” and “The Brute” when they meet on Wednesdays at a clandestine location. They only find out for certain who the other is when Dominic arrives with his Home Office colleagues to raid Silas’s bookshop in search of evidence that Silas is the seditionist writer Jack Cade.
I know.
So there’s a lot to unpack here, including the fact that they have spent the past year using Wednesdays not only to get some kinky loving, but also to talk about life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. So yeah. Feels. On to the next, A Gentleman’s Position, which features two people I did not enjoy hanging out with until pretty much the end.
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It’s a bit early in the month, so I’m still working on it, but here are some I’m currently reading or will be reading:
Love Bi the Way by Bhaavna Arora (that cover, tho!)
Let’s Talk About Love by Claire Kann (published as YA but I would consider it crossover, as the protagonist is in college)
Syncopation by Anna Zabo
Month of Sundays by Yolanda Wallace
Gays of Our Lives by Kris Ripper (and maybe The Butch and the Beautiful, the second Queers of La Vista book)
21 Questions by Mason Dixon (pen name of Yolanda Wallace)
Pansies by Alexis Hall (which I have out from the library, so I had better get on that)
Jordan’s Pryde by Giovanna Reaves (did you hear me talking about this book in the RT episode of When In Romance? It was so weird but I took it as a sign.)
Sated by Rebekah Weatherspoon
We’ll see what happens.
New and Upcoming Releases
Shatterproof by Xen (rerelease/rewrite)
What Happens in Summer by Caridad Pineiro
The One You Can’t Forget by Roni Loren
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Huang
The Bashful Bride by Vanessa Riley
Inside Darkness by Hudson Lin (June 11)
The Varlet and the Voyeur by Penny Reid and LH Cosway (June 11)
Switch and Bait by Ricki Schultz (June 12)
As usual, catch me on Twitter @jessisreading or Instagram @jess_is_reading, or send me an email at jessica@riotnewmedia.com if you’ve got feedback or just want to say hi!
Death Notice
Still Lives
Social Creature
The Good Son
Lagos Noir
White Bodies
Jennifer Brown’s powerhouse debut novel 
