Casee: Wow, July has been a busy month for me. First I was in Alaska. Last week I was camping, and next week we are visiting family. As you can imagine, I have had almost zero time to read. Which bums me out because if you read our June Monthly Reads post, you saw that I didn’t read one book in June. I wasn’t in a slump exactly, I just didn’t have time. Summer is crazy for us.
I am actually reading a book, if you can believe it. I’m reading The Darkest Promise by Gena Showalter. I love this series and have read it since the beginning. I really liked it when she was putting out two books a year. Alas, she’s down to one per year.
Holly: I can’t believe how quickly this summer is passing. My daughter goes back to school in just over two weeks. Crazy.
Things have been hectic (a theme for me lately) and I barely had time to think, much less read this week. I reread Storm’s Heart, Serpent’s Kiss and Oracle’s Moon by Thea Harrison. I didn’t intend to reread the entire series, but after a conversation with Tracy about Storm’s Heart and the new spin-off series, it looks like I’m headed in that direction.
Rowena: This week was pretty laid back for me, which has been fun since the last few months have been crazy busy. In a couple of weeks, my family will be descending upon Las Vegas for our final family vacation of the summer so I plan to get a lot of reading done before then.
This week, I read The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare, which was freaking good. I thoroughly enjoyed that one and then I read The Imperfectly Perfect Match by Kendra C. Highley, which was fun. I also re-read Beyond the Highland Mist by Karen Marie Moning for book club this coming Monday. Now, I’m reading Love in the Friend Zone by Molly E. Lee. So far, so good.
What are you reading this week? Any new favorites or books that drove you crazy? Share!
I read my first Jayne Castle book, After Dark, this week. I really enjoyed it and will be checking out the rest of the series. I also read First Step Forward by Liora Blake which was enjoyable but a it forgettable.
I’m about to reread Burn For Me by Ilona Andrews since I barely remember it before moving on to White Hot and then I plan to pick up Wildfire next week.
Some recent reads which I enjoyed ~
— the contemporary romance: Until It Fades: A Novel by K.A. Tucker
— The Cathedral of Cliffdale (Guardians of Summerfeld Book 1) by Melissa Delport which is a currently free fantasy on Amazon. I read it because one of the Amazon reviewers compared it to Anne Bishop’s The Others series. Besides having shape shifters and vampires, I didn’t see the resemblance!
— the contemporary romance Summer Stock by Vanessa North which is a male/male romance.
— the contemporary novella Saving Silas by SJ Himes. I’ve read a couple of shape shifter novels by this author, so it was interesting to read one of her pieces without a paranormal element.
Continued
— My favorites of the week (and month) were Lyn Gala’s Claimings, Tails, and Other Alien Artifacts; Assimilation, Love, and Other Human Oddities; and Affiliations, Aliens & Other Profitable Pursuits. I hope that there is a book four on the horizon, as I’d like to read more about these characters. This is a male/male science fiction romance series.
— I also read the prelude to the above series by Lyn Gala which is available free on the LooseId website.
— my book group read a mystery this month, Clear and Convincing Proof (Barbara Holloway Novels) by Kate Wilhelm
— The First Word by Isley Robson was a pleasant read, but it’s likely not a book I’ll be re-reading.
Continued once more
— If you are interested in reading a ghost story that is not scary, I’ll recommend Ghost Gifts (A Ghost Gifts Novel Book 1) by Laura Spinella. I’m eager to read the next book in the series which comes out in October.
Haha, Holly I read Storm’s Heart this week too! I haven’t read many of the Elder Races books, just a couple, but I’m so into the spinoff series that I want to go back and read the originals. So far, they just aren’t grabbing me as much as the Moonshadow books are, but I’m still enjoying them. And in other long running series I am far behind in, I am slowly but surely working through the Psy Changeling series. This week I read Hostage to Pleasure, which was so great, maybe my favorite so far? Hard to tell because they’re all good. I also read How to Tame a Beast from Kerrelyn Sparks. It’s a little inconsistent in parts but I loved the world. Can you tell I’m on a historical paranormal kick? I read one more too, The Curse of Lord Stanstead by Mia Marlowe. It was not great, which was too bad because I was hoping for a new series I could read.
And finally, I started New York Actually from Sarah Morgan, and it is NOT grabbing me at all, which makes me so sad. I usually love Morgan’s books, but I’ve tried to pick this one up a few times now and so far, it’s not interesting me. I hope I can get up the motivation to read it eventually.
Storm’s Heart and Serpent’s Kiss are not as good as the others in the series, imo. Oracle’s Moon (book 4) and Dragon Bound are by far my favorites, but after Oracle’s Moon they’re all pretty decent and easy to fall into. I suggest continuing on and see how you feel after Oracle’s Moon.
Ooh, good advice! Storm’s Heart was fine and it’s not like I hated it, but I didn’t really connect with Tiago or Niniane that much I guess. Thanks for the tip! 🙂
Right now I’m reading “Mr. Fixer Upper” by Lucy Score, and liking it so far.
Some of my recent faves (this last week):
“After All” by Karina Halle – I gave it four stars
“Beautiful Beast” – by Aubrey Irons – five stars (I LOVE THIS BOOK)
“Writing Mr. Right” by T.K. Leigh – four stars
Up this week, I have two ARCs to read.
“Your Fierce Love” by Layla Hagen – one of my fave series’
“Mr Right-Now” by Lila Monroe – which is a Rom-Com, a total weakness of mine.
I’m betting they’re both great, authors I love, so I can’t complain!
I managed to get my hands on Wildfire and inhaled it this weekend. So darned good! Why aren’t there more writers like Ilona and Gordon? Now I’m suffering from a major book hangover. I think I need to read some nonfiction, because if I try to read any romance or UF in the next few days, I’ll just be unsatisfied.