willaful

#WhatchaReading? On my third try, I finally finished The Wake Up Call. I liked it fairly well by the end, but I don't read Beth O'Leary for tropiness and this was all trope all the time. And I'm just not that fond of the "she's a childish pain in the ass and somehow he loves her for it" relationship dynamic. There was some nice tenderness and angst... the supposedly stoic MMC really gets punched in the gut, poor sweet baby.

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I went browsing for Hanukkah romances and found such interesting stuff from Harlequin I was unaware of. A book with a Japanese and Jewish MMC, another with an autistic FMC (both in their medical lines) and a Harlequin Presents with a plus size model on the cover! They have really upped their representation game, though I don't know if it's reflected in their actual authors.

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#WhatchaReading ? I finished Evvie Drake Starts Over and am so glad I gave it a chance. (I had read it was NOT a romance, which made me very nervous. 😂 But any book with such great banter between the leads and a happy ending is romance enough for me!)

Also read Let it Snow by three YA authors and... meh. It has not aged at all well, is kinda racist, and I only really liked Maureen Johnson's story anyway.

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#WhatchaReading ? I read the lovely Agents of Winter by Ada Marie Soto. Third in a series and you should really read them in order; also you want to read them all. 😁 (Unless you are very agin gentle and/or asexual romance.)

My review of the first book is here: https://willaful.wordpress.com/2022/01/16/snowinlovebingo-shorts/

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#WhatchaReading ? My last two romances were Lies and Lullabies and Love at First Spite and they were prefectly cromulent ways to pass the time but I don't have much to say about them. (Except the MMC has a rather unusual disability in LaFS. And it irked me that we don't see any decision process when the FMC gets pregnant in L&L.)

Also listening to Evvie Drake Starts Over, which is thoughtful and funny. Wonderful narration by Julia Whelan, as usual.

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#WhatchaReading ? I just finished Seeing Blind by Poppy Dale, a very sweet, sort of "shop around the corner" romance which is my catnip. Part epistolary, which is also my catnip. Kisses only. Kiss only, really. 😁

One character has prosopagnosia, which is a significant disability for him. Can't say if it's an accurate portrayal but it was very interesting.

Slightly disconcerting that it's set in Manhattan and CA but the author is quite obviously British. 😁

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I discovered I could use a Nora Roberts book for a challenge prompt, which is awesome... but now how do I pick from her 143,679 book backlist?!

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#WhatchaReading ? I just finished Dionysus in Wisconsin and I'd feel a little delicate about mentioning it since the author is on this instance, but fortunately I loved it. 😁 It's kind of like if Neil Gaiman and Cat Sebastian collaborated on a m/m historical fantasy romance. Magic, myths, high stakes, true love.

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#WhatchaReading ? I was somewhat disappointed in The Lady Unmasked by Aydra Richards.

https://willaful.wordpress.com/2023/11/09/the-lady-unmasked-by-aydra-richards/

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#WhatchaReading ? I finished Thrown to the Wolves, the third in Charlie Adhara's series, and it just gets better and better. Real change and growth for the characters.

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#WhatchaReading ? I'm reading Upside Down by N.R. Walker and am confused, because there is so much kvelling about its asexual rep. And so far, in a support group for asexual and aromantic people, the leader/MMC has only talked about people not wanting to have sex, which as I understand it isn't even true of all ace people and is certainly not true of all aromantic people. Perhaps more nuance will appear later in the book?

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#WhatchaReading ? I finished The Culmination of Everything by Christina Jones. (KU) Two grieving main characters, one highly grumpy. (Sensitive readers should check for trigger warnings.) It's got possibly the most non-commital ending I've ever encountered in a romance -- a true HFN -- but it works. I mostly liked it except for one very recurrent author tic.

Works for "Black Love" square of #FallInLoveBingo

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