Book Riot’s excellent “True Story” newsletter, which focuses on nonfiction, recently linked to a piece called “I’m Breaking Up with 3-Star Reads,” about the decision to stop pushing through the just-okay books and to focus instead on finding books to truly love. As a relentless optimizer myself (I know, I know, it’s capitalism trying to brainwash me, I know I’m sorry), I was allured by the author’s plan to optimize their reading by DNFing books as soon as they realized those books wouldn’t be four- or five-star reads. I have led (or attempted to lead) many a DNF-shy friend down…
1 CommentTag: romance
The mercenary librarians are back in The Devil You Know, and they’re just as librarian as before! If possible even more librarian, insofar as there are multiple scenes of scanning books so the books will be shareable to a wider group of people. Y’all may remember me screeching and carrying on about the first book in this series, Deal with the Devil, and how gosh-darn fun it was despite being about a dystopian future in which a few scrappy and independent-minded escapees of government torture banded together to carve out a small space for happiness and community. Well, this is…
Leave a CommentLet me begin by saying that I highly recommend both of the books I’m going to talk about in this post, Olivia Dade’s contemporary romance novel All the Feels and Freya Marske’s fantasy romance A Marvellous Light with two Ls because she’s Australian. That’s a little tl;dr for anyone who might just want to know “but should I read these books” rather than receiving a disquisition on what I feel is good about fanfic. Can’t imagine anyone feels that way, but it takes all kinds to make a world. Both of these books are out now, and you should buy…
Leave a CommentHappy Monday, friends! The Ex Talk, Rachel Solomon Here’s a twist on fake dating I’ve never seen before: Fake exes. In order to save their small public radio station, Shay Goldstein has to team up with the pretentious hotshot at her work, a man named Dominic Yun who’s beloved of their sexist boss and can’t stop talking about his master’s degree in journalism. They’ll be working on a podcast called The Ex Talk, where two exes discuss the world of relationships and dating, as well as their own unsuccessful relationship. Except Dominic and Shay have never dated; they’ve barely even…
Leave a CommentAaaaaaaaand romance continues to get all its romance kissing cooties all over the genre of science fiction. Glorious! Long may it reign! Winter’s Orbit is about the rakish prince Kiem, who gets tapped to be part of an arranged marriage with his cousin’s widower, Jainan. Though neither of the two men is particularly interested in getting married, the alliances among their world’s nations depends on their engagement. But soon it comes to light that Jainan’s late husband, Taam, may not have died accidentally; and worse than that, Jainan may be a suspect in Taam’s death. Let’s start with the romance!…
Leave a Commenttl;dr: TEN THOUSAND STARS Are you salty as fuck about how Game of Thrones ended? Have you spent time surfing the “Pegging” tag on AO3? (sorry Mom that I am talking about pegging on the internet again) Do you yearn for more fat romance heroines? Cease your peregrinations, your search is at an end! Olivia Dade is here for her you with her latest novel Spoiler Alert, which is all about a fat fanfiction-writing geologist who goes on a date with the star of the biggest fantasy show of our time (who secretly also writes fanfiction). It’s not Game of…
Leave a CommentWhat what? What’s that you say? I READ SOME BOOKS? Yes, wow, we are all correctly very impressed by this news. I read some books! In this economy! As two hurricanes barrel down on me at one and the same time! Wow! (I also read Not the Girl You Marry and definitely want to read more by Andie Christopher, but I did not immediately write down my thoughts on it and now I remember nothing about it.) Bringing Down the Duke, Evie Dunmore Annabelle Archer can stay at Oxford under a few, conflicting conditions. To be permitted to study outside…
Leave a CommentWe each spend these quarantimes dowsing for happiness, waving our rods hither and yon in the ever-more-vain hope that happiness will appear just beneath the surface. There is a happiness drought, and we are denounced as frauds for believing we can find it. But there is hope! Kit Rocha’s Deal with the Devil is here, and it has all the happiness (and waving rods1) you could desire! In the aftermath of enormous solar flares and governmental collapse, Nina and her team of mercenary librarians have carved out a home for themselves. They share knowledge and stories with their community and…
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