The Sumage Solution (2017) G. L. Carriger (San Andreas Shifters) Max is a sumage and, as far as his father was concerned, a complete failure. Instead of being a Surge, he’s a Placer, and instead of continuing the family line, he’s gay. So now he works for DURPS and lives in a small cottage. Biff […]
Best of Both Worlds (2017) N.R. Walker I had no idea what I was in he mood to read, so I thought I’d go with a novella. I read a few pages and thought this wasn’t the book I was in the mood for (it opened with trigger warnings for homophobia and violence) but I […]
Killing in C Sharp (2018) Alexia Gordon (Gethsemane Brown) Gethsemane Brown is mostly settled in to Dunmullach and teaching teenage boys, as well as the occasional foray into solving crime. Kent reached out and laid a hand on her arm. “Don’t be nervous.” Gethsemane patted Kent’s hand. “Don’t worry, I’m not.” She’d performed live all […]
A Gentleman’s Position (2016) K.J. Charles (Society of Gentlemen) Set in London in 1820 It’s not that this is a bad story, it’s just that I really don’t care that much for Richard, so it’s difficult for me to care about him having a HEA. David Cyprian I do like, but I really don’t understand […]
The Engineer (2020) C.S. Poe (Magic & Steam) Set in the American West in 1881. Gillian Hamilton is a Special Agent for the Federal Bureau of Magic and Steam–and a powerful magic user. He is sent out west to catch a renegade magic user, but runs into a completely different wanted man while on the […]
Knit Tight (2016) Annabeth Albert (Portland Heat) This is the fourth book in the Portland Heat series. Brady works as a barista at People’s Cup, and one of the busiest nights he works is Wednesday, when the local knitting group meets. It’s good for tips, which he needs, because he and his eighteen year-old sister […]
Behind These Doors (2018) Jude Lucens (Radical Proposals) St in England in 1906. Aubrey Fanshawe spends much of his free time with his best friends,Lord and Lady Hernedale. When an accidental meeting with Lucien Saxby turns into something more, Aubrey fears his trust will be betrayed. But when Saxby turns to him for him, things […]
The Great Influenza: The Story of the Deadliest Pandemic in History (2004/2009/2018) John M. Barry I started this immediately after finishing Gina Kolata‘s book on the flu. Interestingly, these books work well together. This book looks at things up to and during the outbreak, Kolata’s book is during and after the outbreak. This book covers […]
Five Dates (2015) Amy Jo Cousins Devin has been too busy for more than random hook-ups since he and his little sister were thrown out of their parents’ house: her for being a pregnant and him for being gay. Anger had mellowed into a general apathy and coldness after ten years, but little things could […]
Meet Cute Club (2020) Jack Harbon (Sweet Rose) Jordan Collins wants more than almost anything to keep his book club–the Meet Cute Club–going. His grandmother’s book club was his inspiration, and he wants to share his love of romance with his community. Unlike anyone normal, Jordan had opted to reread the entire eight-book series again, […]
Too Big to Miss (2006) Sue Ann Jaffarian (An Odelia Grey Mystery) Odelia Grey. is middle-aged, plus-sized, and single. She’s also a professional woman who is good at her job, and more importantly has good friends. We were almost identical in size. Both of us are about five foot one or so. Both tip the […]
Murder in G Major (2016) Alexia Gordon (Gethsemane Brown Mysteries) Gethsemane Brown is stuck in Ireland. The assistant conductor job she was promised fell through, her luggage was stolen, and she’s out of money. If she doesn’t want to return to her family with her tail between her legs, she has get a job until […]
Lady Mechanika, Vol. 5: La Belle Dame Sans Merci (2019) Joe Benitez, M. M. Chen, Martin Montiel This… did not end particularly well. It wasn’t a cliff-hanger, but it also wasn’t clean. Also, the next volume doesn’t exist right now, which doesn’t help. So Mr. Archibald Lewis, Lady Mechanicka’s friend and Fred’s uncle, is a […]
P.S. I Spook You (2019) S.E. Harmon (The Spectral Files) Couple of things to note, start with the fact this is self published, so parts of it are a little rough. Not typos or anything, but there story could have been tightened up in a few places where I got confused or felt like I […]
Gumption & Gumshoes (2013) Alex Kidwell August Mendez moved to the city in the hopes of following his dreams, and when he gets the opportunity he decides to try. A sense of freedom surged through me, that euphoric realization that I was staring at a whole weekend of nothing but cheese curls and old movies, […]
Dead in the Pond (2018) Dahlia Donovan (Grasmere Cottage Mystery) The first book ended with Valor and Bishan learning their beloved housemaster from Harrow–and a note that book two was going to end on a cliffhanger. So I bought book two AND book three, because I wasn’t going to be messing around when cliff hangers […]
Dead in the Garden (2018) Dahlia Donovan (Grasmere Cottage Mystery) This is a cozy mystery, set in England, and is both adorable and has an amazingly diverse cast of characters. Valor and Bishan are shocked and distressed to discover a dead body in their yard. But it becomes even more distressing when Bishan is arrested […]
Checking Out Love (2015) R. Cooper Jeremy Song is a graduate student who is not always good at focusing but very good about being exciting. The problem with being one of those people fascinated by everything was that he annoyed those humans around him who didn’t think it was fun to learn and question and […]
For Better or Worse (2017) R. Cooper Everyone in town things Javier has a secret lover–because a guy that handsome and fit couldn’t possibly be single. His mother and his aunts called him “choosy.” His sister and cousins thought he was full of himself for not wanting to go out with their friends. The people […]
Color of You (2017) C.S. Poe Bowen Merlin has moved to Lancaster NH to take a job for the county, as the music teacher and director for the high and middle schools. It’s a big change, to have moved from NYC, but he is excited about the change. And then he dumps hot apple cider […]
Mating the Huntress (2018) Talia Hibbert Luke Anthony is a werewolf. Chastity Adofo comes from a family of Huntresses, although she herself is forbidden to hunt. twenty-five years ago, on the day of Chastity’s birth, some batty old oracle had rocked up to the delivery room and told her parents— in typically dramatic fashion— that […]
Mooncakes (2019) Suzanne Walker, Wendy Xu Nova Huang lives with her grandmothers and helps out at their store. She’s also an apprentice witch who hasn’t yet left home for an apprenticeship. Tam Lang was Nova’s childhood friend whose family never stayed in once place for long, but she’s back now because there’s something unpleasant in […]
Check, Please!: # Hockey (2018) Ngozi Ukazu Eric Bittle was a junior figure skating champion, but now he’s a Freshman in college and on the Samwell University hockey team–but not quite sure he’s ready for checking. Also, he has a crush on one of his teammates–the star and captain, Jack Zimmerman. It’s a cute story, […]
Candy Hearts (2020) Erin McLellan (So Over the Holidays) Benji Holiday is over Valentine’s day, and so has accepted his sister’s invitation to join her friends for a Valentine’s weekend, but when he shows up, he discovers that the party was delayed due to a power outage. William O’Dare is hosting the annual Valentine’s day […]
The King’s Bishop (1996) Candace Robb Set in England in 1367. We see that Owen still struggles with his allegiance to Thoresby. “Why did you accept the posts if you meant to go into a rage whenever he called upon you?” Owen met Lucie’s eye and said simply, “It seemed an honour at the time.” […]
The Pill Bugs of Time (2016) Angel Martinez What do I love about this story? “Should get an Odo bucket,” Vikash murmured. “A what?” Kyle chuckled into his coffee. “Seriously, Carr? You never watched Deep Space Nine? My problem with this story is that I really hate time-travel stories. Time travel, dystopia, hard SF. REALLY […]
The Night Raven (2018) Sarah Painter (Crow Investigations) Lydia Crow has returned to London for a bit, after a case she was investigating turned uglier than expected. But she liked being on her own, and doesn’t want drawn back into the family, yet she turns to Uncle Charlie for a place to stay, which draws […]
American Love Story (2019) Adriana Herrera This story is about three things: Patrice and Easton, boinking, and this sentence. A black man had to always think about the space he was in. Two of the three things about this book I really really liked. The third, as is well known, is not my thing. There […]
The Bellingham Mystery Series Volume 1 (2015) Nicole Kimberling This is a collection of three novellas: Primal Red, Evergreen, and Black Cat Red. Primal Red Peter Fontaine is an investigative journalist for The Bellinghamster, or just The Hamster, the free local paper in Belligham, WA. In addition to writing articles, Peter was in charge of […]
Baked Fresh (2015) Annabeth Albert Vic Degrassi is a baker with plans for the future–and he’s a man who does what he sets out to. After losing his job, he went to culinary school. After losing his cousin and best friend, he got surgery and lost 111 pounds and became fit. His next goal: a […]
A Dangerous Thing (2002) Josh Lanyon The second Adrien English book finds Adrien tired of dealing with Jake being firmly in the closet, so he heads off to his grandmother’s ranch–only to discover a disappearing dead body. He also can’t find the caretaker of his property–who seems to be taking liberties with Adrien’s absence. You’re […]
Somebody Killed His Editor (2009) Josh Lanyon Christopher Holmes is–to put it mildly–self-absorbed. He’s a mystery author on a down-slide, trying to recover his career. He’s also trying to get over his husband running off with another man. The last thing he wants is to spend a weekend at a writing conference but his agent […]
American Dreamer (2019) Adriana Herrera Nesto Vasquez is chasing his dream. He’s moving his food truck from NYC up to Ithaca (where is mother and sister live) to see if he can make a go of it there. All he wants is to focus on making a success of his business; he didn’t expect the […]
Sympathy: MM Romance with a Hint of Magic (2009) Jordan Castillo Price This is a M/M romance short story. Apparently, broken characters are my catnip. It’s been two years since the accident. Anthony Potosi has had to learn to walk again, and to attempt to regain at least some of what that loss took from […]
Murder on Amsterdam Avenue (2015) Victoria Thompson Set in New York city in the late 1800s–probably 1898 Sarah Brandt and Frank Malloy are waiting for the remodeling of Frank’s house to be finished so they can finally get married. In the meantime, she is spending time with her parents, and because of her new change […]
Sapphire Flames (2019) Ilona Andrews Nevada’s arc ended with Wildfire. Catalina’s story started there, then moved on with the novella Diamond Fire, and this is her first novella. It’s…. fine. I liked spending time with Catalina and her family. I appreciated that Nevada was being kept out of the way and gave up control of […]
Legion: The Many Lives of Stephen Leeds (2018) Brandon Sanderson I am super conflicted. I absolutely adored the first two Legion novellas. They were quite different from anything else, and they were action packed and lots of fun. This third novella was a problem for me from the start. First and foremost, it was released […]
For Better or Worse (2017) R. Cooper There are several things that make this story interesting. First, Javier is a gray ace / demisexual. Second, a great deal of the story takes place in the heads of the two men. Thirdly, the problems between the two (specifically their lack of a relationship) is due to […]
Bone to Pick (2017) TA Moore I don’t know what I wanna read. I think a mystery. How about re-reading this one where I loved the dog? Cloister Witte is ex-military and currently a sheriff K9 deputy. Cloister lives for Bon, his dog. “I buy you shit, Bon,” he told her. “Good shit, but you’d […]
A Murdered Peace (2018) Candace Robb Set in England in 1400 The Epiphany Uprising has seemingly secured King Henry the Usurper, and Lady Margery has appealed to Kate for safety after her husband was murdered by a mob. Berend, Kate’s cook, has also disappeared and Kate doesn’t know whether either of her friends were involved […]
The Naming of the Beasts, Audio Book (2009) Mike Carey narrated by Michael Kramer This is the final book of the Felix Castor series. It also switches back to Michael Kramer as the narrator, which was very jarring. The previous book switched to a narrator I really liked, which made Michael Kramer’s narrator fall even […]
A Dangerous Collaboration (2019) Deanna Raybourn Set in England in 1888 My opinion of Deanna Raybourn’s books, is that they are perfectly fine. There is nothing wrong with them, but I don’t love them the way one would expect me to, considering they are historical mysteries with a strong female lead. So I requested this […]
Seance on a Summer’s Night (2018) Josh Lanyon Artemus Bancroft has returned to Green Lanterns, the home where his aunt raised him after his parents died, but he’s not quite sure why he’s there, aside from a cryptic request. Come as soon as you can, Artie, Aunt Halcyone had written. The situation has spiraled out […]
Girl’s Guide to Witchcraft (2006/2015) Mindy Klasky (Jane Madison) Jane Madison is a research librarian at a private library, which has been struggling to make ends meet (by such ventures as selling expensive fancy coffees), but things seem to have gotten worse when her boss tells her that her salary is being cut by 25%–but […]
High Stakes Trial (2019) Mindy Klasky Sarah has been indicted for the murder of the judge for whom she worked, and her boss has disappeared off the face of the earth, leaving her with a temporary security head who uses dog breeds as curses. Sarah has been seeing Chris, the head of the local sphinxes […]
Wolfsong (2016) TJ Klune (Green Creek) Ox was twelve when his daddy told him that Ox wasn’t worth anything and people would never understand him. Ox was sixteen when he met the boy on the road. Joe talked and talked and talked, but Ox found out later the boy hadn’t spoken in almost two years. […]
Bone to Pick (2017) TA Moore (Digging Up Bones) Cloister Witte is a K9 deputy. He also has a problem with authority and recurring nightmares from his childhood. He was tanned the color of whiskey, and his hair was wet and honey streaked, dripping onto his shoulders. Ink scrawled up over his ribs, but the […]
Reasonable Doubt (2018) Gregory Ashe Ugh again with the editing issues. Somers freaks out when he discovers a twelve minute phone call that Hazard will make a couple chapters later. Years ago my husband and I watched Fight Club and Snatch, and after that we joked about only watching a movie if Brad Pitt got […]
Unto Us a Son Is Given (2019) Donna Leon Brunetti’s father-in-law is worried about a friend, and asks Guido to see if his concerns are justified. ‘Gonzalo’s my best friend. We were at boarding school together.’ He looked across at Brunetti and said, unable to restrain his surprise, ‘My God, it was more than sixty […]
The Ghost Wore Yellow Socks (2011/2016) Josh Lanyon First off, I had a really hard time figuring out just when this book was set. It was first published in 2011, but re-written in 2016, but was definitely not set in 2016. The characters all seem to rely upon land lines and Don’t Ask Don’t Tell […]