I read several new and new-to-me books this month–all the historical romances and supernatural fantasies were new-to-me and I even read the Jane Yellowrock new release almost immediately! Lots of hiking on the weekends, and being outside in the evenings, which cuts back on the reading, but I shan’t complain at all.

All of the historical romances had M/M elements, and all were boinking, but most of them were very good. I’d especially recommend the trio Hamilton’s Battalion which has three separate romances: a woman pretending to be a man to fight in the continental army, a M/M romance between an English Lord who deserted the British Army and an ex-slave fighting for the freedom of his brother-in-law, and a maid who works for Mrs Hamilton and the granddaughter of a revolutionary soldier.

If you’ve been reading the Jane Yellowrock books, you don’t need me to tell you to read the newest, but if you haven’t, this is a series that has managed to be very good over the course of a dozen books, and I could be content if the series ended here (it won’t). And the short story pair by Lish McBride made me want to re-read Hold Me Closer Necromancer, which is a YA I very much enjoyed at the time.

Historical Romance

Hamilton’s Battalion: A Trio of Romances (2017) Rose Lerner, Courtney Milan, Alyssa Cole (8/10)
Flight of Magpies (2014) K.J. Charles (8/10) (A Charm of Magpies)
Rag and Bone (2016) K.J. Charles (8/10)
It Takes Two to Tumble (2017) Cat Sebastian (7/10)

Fantasy, Supernatural

Dark Queen (2018) Faith Hunter (Jane Yellowrock)
Freaks & Other Family (2016) Lish McBride (8/10) (Necromancer)

Fantasy

Discworld
Mort (1987) Terry Pratchett (8/10)
Guards! Guards! (1989) Terry Pratchett (9.5/10)

Mystery

The Beat Goes On: The Complete Rebus Stories (2015) Ian Rankin (8.5/10) (Rebus)

Audio Books

Mercy Thompson
Moon Called, Audible Version (2006) Patricia Briggs narrated by Lorelei King (7.5/10)
Shifting Shadows: Stories from the World of Mercy Thompson, Audio Version (2014) Patricia Briggs narrated by Alexander Cendese and Lorelei King (9/10)
Stiletto, Audible Edition (2016) Daniel O’Malley narrated by Moira Quirk (9/10) (The Rook)
Voice of the Violin, Audible Version (1997/2003/2008) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli narrated by Grover Gardner (8/10) (Inspector Montalbano)

Now: The stats!

Thirteen books this one and a DNF. The DNF was one I quit with prejudice–it wasn’t even good enough to hate read, I had so many issues with it.

All my reading was ebooks, and I also managed four audio books this month (one was the travel book I listened to with Michael). Five of the books I own in multiple formats (ie paper and eBook or eBook and audio book) and seven were re-reads (I can only listen to audio books I’ve read before, so all audio books are re-reads.)

eBook : 9
Audio : 4
Multiple Formats : 5
Re-read : 7

Primarily fantasy and historical romance this month, with overlap between the two.

Fantasy : 9
Mystery : 2
Romance : 5
YA : 1

And male authors are falling behind this month, despite the effort of Terry Pratchett. I actually started a 3rd Terry Pratchett, but I might go onto the next, because the witches aren’t my favorite story arc.

Male : 5
Female : 8

And that’s the past month in books!