It’s June. And I’m once again recovering from a broken appendage, unable to hike or do any of the fun things one wants to do in the spring.

In short: I read a lot again.

Mysteries have always been comfort reads for me, and Agatha Christie’s Miss Marple series is the coziest most comforting read there is.

Andrea Camilleri died last year, so his Inspector Montalbano series is quickly drawing to a close. Although some of the most recent stories have been on the weaker side, I very much enjoyed The Safety Net the most recent English publication.

Slippery Creatures is a new series by K.J. Charles and I very much liked it. The Will Darling Adventures are set just after The Great War, which is a time period I really like reading about, since it balances between modern and what we traditionally think of as “historical”.

Of course this crappy time needs romance. I very much recommend Throwing Hearts by N.R. Walker, Love in 24 Frames by C.S. Poe, and the He’s Come Undone: A Romance Anthology by Emma Barry, Olivia Dade, Adriana Herrera, Ruby Lang, and Cat Sebastian. Especially Throwing Hearts because NR Walker writes the sweetest romances, with almost no angst at all AND this one had an sweet secondary romance.

I finally read a bunch of the new supernatural fantasy releases that came out in the past several months. There was a backlog because I kept putting off reading the most recent Jane Yellowrock because I knew it was going to be dark and a hard read, which meant I then put off the others. But I finally got through them and of the lot The Immortal Conquistador by Carrie Vaughn was fantastic. It’s the backstory of Rick the Vampire, and has one of my favorite short stories embedded in it. Smoke Bitten by Patricia Briggs is the latest Mercy Thompson book, and was also good and enjoyable.

I read Joanna Chambers Capital Wolves Duet with Gentleman Wolf and Master Wolf and really liked them. There have been a lot of shifter and werewolf books in the past decade or so and fated-mates is a trope I really dislike. This book does werewolves AND mates extremely well. And the last historical was Allie Therin’s Magic in Manhattan Spellbound and Starcrossed which was also set after The Great War and was an historical urban fantasy with a m/m romance where the boinking was fade-to-black.

Anyone got any amazing recommendations for me to escape the awfulness of the world right now?

Mystery, Police

The Safety Net (2017/2020) Andrea Camilleri (Inspector Montalbano) 8/10

Mystery, Cozy

Miss Marple
The Murder at the Vicarage (1930) Agatha Christie 7.5/10
The Body in the Library (1942) Agatha Christie 8/10
Miss Marple: The Complete Short Stories (1985) Agatha Christie 9/10
The Moving Finger (1943) Agatha Christie 7.5/10
A Murder Is Announced (1950) Agatha Christie 8/10
They Do It With Mirrors (1952) Agatha Christie 7.5/10
A Pocket Full of Rye (1953) Agatha Christie Rating: 8/10
Apple Cider Slaying (2019) Julie Anne Lindsey (A Cider Shop Mystery) 7.5/10
Murder in G Major (2016) Alexia Gordon (Gethsemane Brown Mysteries) 7/10
Too Big to Miss (2006) Sue Ann Jaffarian (An Odelia Grey Mystery) 7/10
The Secret, Book, & Scone Society (2017) Ellery Adams (Secret, Book, & Scone Society) 6/10

Graphic Novel

Heathen: Volume 2 (2019) Natasha Alterici, Rachel Deering 7.5/10

Mystery, LGBT

Slippery Creatures (2020) K.J. Charles (The Will Darling Adventures) 8/10
Principles of Spookology (2020) S.E. Harmon (The Spectral Files) 7.5/10

Romance, LGBT

Throwing Hearts (2020) N.R. Walker 8.5/10
Love in 24 Frames (2019) C.S. Poe 8/10
His Grandfather’s Watch (2015) N.R. Walker 7.5/10
Five Dates (2015) Amy Jo Cousins 7/10

Meet Cute Club (2020) Jack Harbon (Sweet Rose) 6.5/10

Romance

He’s Come Undone: A Romance Anthology (2020) Emma Barry, Olivia Dade, Adriana Herrera, Ruby Lang, and Cat Sebastian 8/10

Fantasy, Supernatural

The Immortal Conquistador (2020) Carrie Vaughn (Kitty Norville) 9/10
Smoke Bitten (2020) Patricia Briggs (Mercy Thompson) 8.5/10
Shattered Bonds (2019) Faith Hunter (Jane Yellowrock) 7.5/10
Capital Wolves Duet
Gentleman Wolf (2019) Joanna Chambers 8/10
Master Wolf (2020) Joanna Chambers 8.5/10
Magic in Manhattan
Spellbound (2019) Allie Therin 8/10
Starcrossed (2020) Allie Therin 8/10

And the stats!

Trade Paperback: 1
eBook: 26
Multiple Formats: 7
Re-read: 7

One comic this month, and all the re-reads I own in multiple formats.

Fantasy: 9
Mystery: 13
Romance: 11
Boinking: 8
Historical: 11
Comic: 1

Lots of mysteries. Lots of historicals. Lots of romance. Lots of fantasy. Lots of everything, really.

Male: 2
Female: 21
Initials: 4

Another bad year for male authors it looks like.

Male: 13
Female: 11
Ensemble: 3
White: 13
Minority: 7
Minority 2ndary: 7
Straight: 15
LGBTQ: 11
LGBTQ 2ndary: 1

I’m still reading a fair amount of M/M romance, so lots of male characters. Still lots of white characters, but a some minority representation here, and not too shabby as far as non-straight representation.

And that was May.