Susan here. What did we read in May, and what did we add to our TBR stacks? Here are some highlights and delights from the books on our shelves (and tables, and chairs, and in baskets, and stacked here, there...)!
Joanna:
Every once in a while I think how great it would be if I could write novellas or short stories without twisting myself into knots. So I’ve been looking at collections of short stories by authors I already know I like. One of them struck me in particular.
Small Magics by Ilona Andrews. This is five or six stories set in the Ilona Andrews universe. (Magic, warrior women, shape shifters, post-Apocalypse world, folks fighting with swords.) A couple YA stories, a couple little love stories.
Can I call them warm and funny when they’re full of monsters and bloodshed? I enjoyed this lot, anyway, and it might be just what you need if you don’t have time to sit down and concentrate for a long stretch.
Mary Jo:
Here's a pile of what I've been reading! By chance, two of my favorite authors had releases on May 7th and arrived at the same time. Yum! Did I have the self control to space the reads out? You're kidding, right?
Storm Cursed by Patricia Briggs: I adore Patricia Briggs' Mercedes Thompson books. Her characterization, worldbuilding, and plotting are amazing, and there's romance and humor woven in as well. Mercy Thompson is a coyote shape shifter and Volkswagen mechanic, and through no fault of her own, she is continuing getting drawn into lethal situations involving werewolves, vampires, and the fae. They are all immensely more powerful than she is, but she has the wiliness of a coyote and a genius for surviving. (Over the course of the books, she had mated and married the totally hot and wonderful alpha werewolf next door--and drives him crazy with her fearless refusal to not do the right thing.)
Tightrope by Amanda Quick. The historical pseudonym of Jayne Ann Krentz, this is the third in her Burning Cove series set in a fictional California town in the early 1930s. The glamorous little town is popular with movie stars and Hollywood movers and shakers. <G> Amalie Vaughn was a famous trapeze artist until a near escape from murder convinces her use her inheritance to buy a mansion in Burning Cover and turn it into a B&B. Then things start happening!
Also in my book pile is an advance reading copy of Seduction on a Snowy Night, a Christmas anthology I'm in with other Kensington authors Madeline Hunter and Sabrina Jeffries. The book will be released 9/24 (available for preorder now.)
The pile also include a research book, and leaning against the stack is my e-reader, though you can't see it. No shortage of books here!
Anne:
I, too read and loved STORM CURSED by Patricia Briggs. Pat and Mary Jo put me onto Patricia Briggs some time back, and since then I've read and reread her books. In fact, in preparation for the arrival of the new Mercy Thompson book, I reread all of that series, and enjoyed it as much the umpteenth time around. If you haven't read her, start with MOON CALLED.
I seem to be in a paranormal reading mood, because I've also been rereading various Sharon Shinn series — another author who Mary Jo put me onto after I'd noticed a stack of her books on Mary Jo's "keeper" bookshelves. Her stories are action filled, full of magic, with wonderful world-building and characters I really connect with. I have the "Archangel" series in paperback but the series I've most recently reread is the Twelve Houses. Start with MYSTIC AND RIDER.
I read mostly on my e-reader these days, so when Susan asked for photos of the books we'd been reading I was a bit stumped, but luckily I had all these in "real" on my bookshelf. And they're not even set up photos -- I didn't rearrange, I didn't even dust! And can you spot a few other favorite authors slipped in awaiting tidying? I've run out of shelf space -- again. Hence the e-reader.
I did read a new contemporary romance — ONE SUMMER IN PARIS by Sarah Morgan. It's more a women's fiction story, but there is romance as well. A US woman organizes a holiday in Paris for her 25th anniversary, only to be told that her husband wants a divorce. A teenage girl in England escapes family pressures by taking a job in a little Paris bookshop, even though she doesn't speak French. The two meet up, become unlikely friends and learn from each other. A slowish start but once they hit Paris it's wonderful.00
Nicola:
Nicola here and this month I’ve been mixing love and death by flitting between romance and cosy crime. I loved Annie West’s latest Harlequin Presents, Wedding Night Reunion in Greece, which is a classic runaway bride story. When Emma hears her new husband telling his best man that he has only married her for business reasons she leaves him standing at the wedding reception if not the altar and runs away to Corfu whilst she plots to arrange a divorce. Naturally her new husband, Christo, has other ideas and when he follows her there a battle of wills ensues. Christo starts off as a typical alpha hero and in some books I find that a bit too macho for my reading tastes but the author very skilfully sets up a story of real emotional conflict and depth as well as some fiery passion. Emma is more than a match for Christo’s determination and the happy ending is really satisfying.
Murder at the Old Vicarage by Jill McGown is an old book and there’s quite a lot of romance in that as well. I hadn’t come across this author or her “Lloyd and Hill” series before but they are very much in Midsomer Murders style and the plot was suitably complicated and the characters multi-dimensional with interesting human conflicts. It helped me pass a long train journey very well!
Here is the rest of my TBR pile… And then there’s the Kindle…
Andrea:
My reading this month including two very different and interesting—and quirky— books that I enjoyed very much. I had read that Anthony Horowitz, creator of Foyle’s War and Midsomer Murders, is also a mystery writer, so I really wanted to try him, as I’m a huge fan of Foyle’s War. So I checked out The Word Is Murder—and found it to be a delightful showcase of both his intricate plotting skills and his sly sense of humor. It’s written in first person and he’s one of the main protagonists—he’s the real-life Anthony Horowitz dealing with filming glitches for Foyle’s War, meetings with his agent and other mundane daily activities. But he also, much against his better judgment, has accepted the book deal to shadow a brilliant “real” detective and write about how he solves cases . . . and that’s where the fun begins. (As it says on Amazon, he writes a fictional account of himself as Watson to a modern-day Holmes) Horowitz doesn’t really like the detective (or so he claims, though one sees a grudging partnership developing) and takes it as a personal challenge to solve the suspicious death to which his subject is assigned.
It’s a very twisty mystery, involving parent-child relationships, and the complexities of guilt as well as the pressures of expectations. And then there is the personal friction between Horowitz and the detective . . . He writes so cleverly that I found myself checking and re-checking that yes, this was a novel, not a non-fiction narrative. All in all, I found it very engaging.
The other new-to-me author was Casey McQuiston, and her debut book, Red, White and Royal Blue, a contemporary—and very modern—romance between an English prince (younger brother of the heir to the British throne) and the son of the first woman president of the U.S.—which has been getting a lot of buzz. It’s wonderfully well-written, with sharp, funny dialogue, and a richly developed cast of characters that create a beautiful story about love, friendship, family, and how one navigates the complexities of life while trying to decide who you are meant to be and what will make you happy.
Pat:
I've been scrubbing the bottom of the barrel this month. My e-readers are full of books by favorite authors I've already talked about, so I dug up something a little different. BURIED FOR PLEASURE, a Gervase Fen Mystery, by Edmund Crispin is an old mystery, set in England just after WWII. Gervase Fen is a charming Oxford professor known for having solved a few mysteries. In this book, he is bored and has decided to run for office—one week before the local elections. He manages to become wrapped up in several murders, save a mysterious young woman, meet a poltergeist, and simultaneously grow bored with running for office. His resignation from his campaign is nothing short of hilarious and shows politics hasn’t changed a great deal over the last century. The humor is very dry, but one can almost see a Monty Python skit as the rector flings pebbles back at the poltergeist and essentially tells it to go on about its business and leave him alone. There are passages of whimsical description easily skipped, but the workings of Fen’s mind is a sight to behold. A leisurely read when one wants a different cuppa tea.
Susan:
My eyes have been bigger than my reading capacity this month. I've read some, browsed more, tucking into a few chapters of this and that, piling up books I want to finish soon. I've been on a nonfiction history kick again, reading for research (19th century and medieval Scotland both). And I've been indulging my love of ancient history, starting with When Women Ruled the World by Kara Cooney, a fascinating study of six Egyptian queens, and the complex society that both accepted and undermined female rulership. Then I moved on to Ten Caesars: Roman Emperors from Augustus to Constantine by Barry Strauss. A new release, this look at Roman history through its caesars is highly readable, detailed and insightful, with a deft, light touch. It's good and compelling nonfiction. This also coincided with an urge to return to Lindsey Davis' brilliant historical mystery series featuring Marcus Didius Falco, ancient Roman gumshoe and one of the smartest, most enjoyable, most wry--and secretly tenderhearted--sleuths in all of historical mystery. I read some of the series years ago, when I was dealing with babies and little guys and writing my own novels, so I never managed to finish it. Last month I read The Silver Pigs again (which ranks high on my list of all-time favorite mysteries), went on to Shadows in Bronze, then Venus in Copper, and I'm into The Iron Hand of Mars just now.
Here's a photo of my current reading/wish list--I've just started Christina Lauren's My Favorite Half-Night Stand, and it's breezy, sassy, and intelligently done--it's pulling me in, that writing team always does! I'm still working my way through Lethal White by Robert Galbraith. Much as I like this series and Cormoran Strike and Robin, I'm finding this one a slow, hefty, but very intriguing read, and I'm determined to find time to plow through--I want to know what's going to happen. You'll also notice a slim kid's book in the stack--What the Ladybug Heard by Julia Donaldson is one of my granddaughter's favorites at my house. It's utterly charming, catchy, and fun, as the ladybug knows how to catch a thief--if only the other animals will listen!
What are your reading highlights and delights in May? We'd love to know!