Lots of crappy weather this month, so I read a lot again. (We shall not mention the indoor projects I ignored for reading. Moving right along.)

Although I still haven’t settled on a final rating, I enjoyed Faith Hunter‘s latest Soulwood book, Circle of the Moon.

I read a LOT of LGBT books this month, and I particularly enjoyed Josh Lanyon;s All’s Fair series, which starts with Fair Game (but the last book is my favorite in that series).

I also really liked The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal by K.J. Charles which is a collection of short stories, and a prequel of sorts to the Green Man series. (Sort of) Plus the series Angel Martinez‘s Offbeat Crimes series, which had ALL the Michelle Catnip: supernatural police procedural. I really liked the world-building in that series.

So here’s what I read:

Fantasy, Supernatural

Circle of the Moon (2019) Faith Hunter (Rating: Undecided) (Soulwood)

Mystery, LGBT

All’s Fair
Fair Game (2010) Josh Lanyon (Rating: 7/10)
Fair Play (2014) Josh Lanyon (Rating: 8/10)
Fair Chance (2017) Josh Lanyon (Rating: 9/10)
Adrien English
Fatal Shadows (2000/2012) Josh Lanyon (Rating: 6.5/10)
A Dangerous Thing (2002/2012) Josh Lanyon (Rating: 7/10)
The Hell You Say (2011) Josh Lanyon (Rating: 7/10)
Death of a Pirate King (2011) Josh Lanyon (Rating: 8/10)
The Dark Tide (2011) Josh Lanyon (Rating: 8/10)
So This is Christmas (2016) Josh Lanyon (Rating: 7/10)
The Ghost Wore Yellow Socks (2011/2016) Josh Lanyon (Rating: 7/10)
The Ghost Had an Early Check-Out (2018) Josh Lanyon (Rating: 7.5/10)
Hazard and Somerset
Pretty Pretty Boys (2017) Gregory Ashe (Rating: 6/10)
Transposition (2018) Gregory Ashe (Rating: 6/10)
Paternity Case (2018) Gregory Ashe (Rating: 6/10)
Guilt by Association (2018) Gregory Ashe (Rating: 7.5/10)

Fantasy, Supernatural LGBT

The Secret Casebook of Simon Feximal (2013) K.J. Charles (Rating: 8/10)
Offbeat Crimes
Skim Blood and Savage Verse (2017) Angel Martinez (Rating: 6.5/10)
Feral Dust Bunnies (2017) Angel Martinez (Rating: 8.5/10)
All the World’s an Undead Stage (2018) Angel Martinez (Rating: 8/10)

Audio Books

Salsa Nocturna: Stories, Audio Edition (2012/2014) Daniel José Older, narrated by Daniel José Older (Rating: 9/10)
Stiletto, Audio Edition (2016) Daniel O’Malley narrated by Moira Quirk (Rating: 9.5/10)
Half-Resurrection Blues, Audio Edition (2015) Daniel José Older narrated by Daniel José Older (Rating: 8/10)

Mystery

Suffer Little Children (1995) Peter Tremayne (Sister Fidelma)
Unto Us a Son Is Given (2019) Donna Leon (Rating: 7/10) (Commissario Guido Brunetti)

Graphic Novel

Rivers of London Vol. 7: Action at a Distance (2018) Ben Aaronovitch, Andrew Cartmel, Brian Williamson (Rating: Grrrrr)

Romance, LGBT

Short Stories: 2007 – 2013 (2015) Josh Lanyon (Rating: 7.5/10)
Mrs. Martin’s Incomparable Adventure (2019) Courtney Milan (Rating: 7.5/10)

And here’s how the stats came out:

Trade Paperback: 1
eBook: 26
Audio: 3
Multiple Formats: 2
Re-read: 4

AN ACTUAL PAPER BOOK!

OK. It was a comic, but still! Paper!

Fantasy: 10
Mystery: 21
Romance: 21
Comic: 1
Boinking: 18
Anthology: 1

Lots of mysteries this month, and lots of romance. And a fair chunk of fantasy so… pretty much everything. Plus a lot of boinking.

Male: 9
Female: 8
Initials: 1
Male Pseudonym: 12
Anthology: 1

More male authors than in past months, but adding in female pseudonyms, it’s still predominantly female authors.

Male: 24
Female: 4
Ensemble: 1
White: 26
Minority: 6
Minority 2ndary: 6
Straight: 10
LGBTQ: 20
LGBTQ 2ndary: 3

So lots of male main characters this month, mostly cuz I read a lot of M/M stories. And lots and lots of white characters, although there was a little bit of diversity with secondary characters. But still, pretty white.

And those are the books of March.

What did you read recently that you loved?

Finally! A Saturday without rain and mud!

After scanning the regional weather, we headed south towardsNew River Gorge, but as always happens, I said, “Oh! Can we stop by Babcock?”

Since there weren’t that many people, and since the day was beautiful, we decided to take the Lake View Trail, which we hadn’t hiked before.

It was gorgeous.

Location: Babcock State Park
Trail: Lake View Trail
Distance: 1.7 miles
Elevation: 2404-2596 ft

Of course I took a picture of the grist mill.

We went onto New River Gorge for a hike there, and decided to take the Bridge View Trail, which… was a view of the underside of the bridge. Which is fine, but not what I was thinking (I was thinking a view like Long Point, but from the other side.)

Location: New River Gorge
Trail: Bridge View Trail
Distance: 1.6 miles
Elevation: 1587-1852 feet (519 feet climb)

It was steep (with switchbacks) and rocky, with steps made from the area stones.

Not one of my favorite hikes, but I was outside in the woods, so that made it better than many other things.

Rain rain rain rain rain means lots of reading for me. Which is fine, but I’d rather have been hiking.

So I read some good books last month, and also a couple not so good, including a did not finish and a book I finished mostly out of spite. But the lets talk about the good!

I reread a couple historical mystery series that I loved, and I can highly recommend: The Thief-Takers Series by Alissa Johnson has private inquiry agents and a family of thieves and ends with a heroine with a neurological disorder. The Regency London Series by Michelle Diener is another series I love, and the middle book has a young woman hiding as a French chef.

I read a new K.J. Charles book, Any Old Diamonds which of course I enjoyed. Note: MM boinking here, but it’s also a heist book.

And I found a MM mystery author, Josh Lanyon, who I am enjoying. The first book in the series I wasn’t quite sure about, but by the second book I was all on board. (I just started a new series by her.)

As far as audio books, I’m having a hard time finding a cleaning/exercise book, so went back to The Rook, Audio Edition by Daniel O’Malley narrated by Susan Duerden, which I utterly adore, and which is so unlike anything else it doesn’t get mixed into whatever else I’m reading.

Historical Mystery

The Heretic’s Apprentice (1989) Ellis Peters (Rating: 8.5/10) (Brother Cadfael)
Dark Angel (1994) Tracy Grant (Rating: 8.5/10) (Lescaut Quartet)
The Thief-Takers Series
A Talent for Trickery (2015) Alissa Johnson (Rating: 8.5/10)
A Gift for Guile (2016) Alissa Johnson (Rating: 8.5/10)
A Dangerous Deceit (2017) Alissa Johnson (Rating: 8.5/10)
Regency London Series
The Emperor’s Conspiracy (2012) Michelle Diener (Rating: 8/10)
Banquet of Lies (2013) Michelle Diener (Rating: 9.5/10)
A Dangerous Madness (2014) Michelle Diener (Rating: 8.5/10)
Lady Arianna Hadley Mystery
Sweet Revenge (2011) Andrea Penrose (Rating: 6.5/10)
The Cocoa Conspiracy (2014) Andrea Penrose (Rating: 5.5/10)
Recipe For Treason (2014) Andrea Penrose (Rating: 4/10)

Mystery

The Overnight Kidnapper (2015/2019) Andrea Camilleri translated by Stephen Sartarelli (Rating: 7/10) (Inspector Montalbano)

Audio Books

The Rook, Audio Edition (2012) Daniel O’Malley narrated by Susan Duerden (Rating: 9.5/10) (The Rook)

Historical Romance

The Duke I Tempted (2018) Scarlett Peckham
DNF: The Curse of Lord Stanstead (2015) Mia Marlowe (DNF)

Supernatural Mystery (LGBT)

Offbeat Crimes
Lime Gelatin and Other Monsters (2016) Angel Martinez (Rating: 7/10)
The Pill Bugs of Time (2016) Angel Martinez

Romantic (LGBT) Mystery

Murder Takes the High Road (2018) Josh Lanyon (Rating: 7/10)
Holmes & Moriarity
Somebody Killed His Editor (2009/2016) Josh Lanyon (Rating: 7.5/10)
All She Wrote (2010/2017) Josh Lanyon (Rating: 8/10)
The Boy with the Painful Tattoo (2014/2018) Josh Lanyon (Rating: 7/10)
In Other Words… Murder (2018) Josh Lanyon (Rating: 8/10)

Romance, LGBT

Any Old Diamonds (2019) K.J. Charles (Rating: 8/10)
Another Place in Time (2014) by Tamara Allen, Joanna Chambers, K.J. Charles, Kaje Harper, Jordan L. Hawk , Aleksandr Voinov (Rating: 7/10)
Hexbreaker (2016) Jordan L. Hawk (Rating: 5/10)
Mr. Winterbourne’s Christmas (2018) Joanna Chambers (Rating: 6/10)

OK, the breakdown. Multiple re-reads (but some new releases as well) and almost everything was an ebook.

eBook: 24
Audio: 1
Multiple Formats: 1
Re-read: 7

Lots of romance and mystery and boinking this month.

Fantasy: 5
Mystery: 17
Romance: 22
Boinking: 15
Anthology: 1

Not many male authors this month, although there were several male pseudonyms.

Male: 2
Female: 15
Initials: 1
Male Pseudonym: 6
Anthology: 1

Now for the new categories I made last month. Lots of male leads (due to the MM romances) and lots of LGBTQ, but not many minority characters. Some of that has to do with reading historicals, but I’ll note that KJ Charles often has minority characters in her historicals, so it can be done, it’s just not necessarily easy.

Male: 13
Female: 1
Ensemble: 10
White: 24
Minority: 1
Minority 2ndary: 2
Straight: 14
LGBTQ: 11
LGBTQ 2ndary:

And that’s February in books.

Did you read anything last month you’d really recommend?