An Extraordinary Union (by Alyssa Cole)

Read for the RHC categtory "a romance book that doesn’t have an illustrated cover." I'm not much of a romance reader, so this is one of the more difficult categories for me this year.  This book is about a free woman with an eidedic memory posing as a mute slave to spy for the Union, and a Pinkerton detective pretending to be a Confederate soldier, both loosely based on real people, against the backdrop of the Civil War.

Despite the setting, it doesn't have a sense of realism - really more of a frothy romance despite what you might expect. Alyssa Cole is a Black author and clearly she wanted to keep true ugliness out of it - of course many horrors are alluded to; still, how it plays out is absolutely a romance fantasy and not grounded in reality of the time and place. Ditto with the spy element - if you're fucking in the bushes and sleeping over at each other's places, and you are a white man and a Black (ostensibly enslaved) woman, you're pretty bad spies with zero sense of self-preservation!

I also am indifferent to sex scenes, which I know are the whole point of romance but, shrug, that's why I don't read them. A lot of people loved this novel though so maybe it's not them, it's me.  On to the next category!

Act Your Age, Eve Brown (by Talia Hibbert)

Read for the category "a genre book (SFF, horror, mystery, romance) by a disabled author."  Hibbert has fibromyalgia. Also this is an #OwnVoices book for autism, as Hibbert is queer and autistic. 

I'm not a huge romance reader but I did enjoy this one, the third in Hibbert's series about the Brown sisters.  The immature Eve Brown is cut off from her trust fund by her parents and decides to go get a job, hits her interviewer with her car, and somehow is still hired? And they have instant chemistry, great communication, and frankly some really contrived conflict before living happily ever after.

If you're a fan of contemporary romance, it is cute and I recommend it.

I Married My Best Friend to Shut My Parents Up (by Naoko Kodama)

Read for the "manga" category in the RHC.  It's a short manga about a girl who marries her best friend "to shut her parents up" and then ends up developing romantic feelings for her.

There are a lot of flashbacks, which made this choppy and confusing to read. (This may partly be because I'm not used to reading manga, but I had no issues with My Brother's Husband.)  There is some weird sexual harassment going on, flashbacks that don't pay off, a weird focus on the main character's giant boobs?

I mean, it's cute - the grumpy/sunshine dynamic is there and this could have been adorable. But it lacked pacing and depth, for me.

Thesis and Antithesis

No, that's not a book title, just a way of describing this pair of books. 

Brainwyrms (by Alison Rumfitt)

I read this for the Tournament of Books and only because a friend and I are trying to be shortlist completionists this year.  It was truly one of the most unpleasant reading experiences I have ever had. I wanted the cover away from my Kindle as quickly as possible.  It's a body horror novel about anti-trans sentiment in the UK, and I admire the audacity, but boy, was this ever gross. Just like... so gross. Not poorly written. But.... very very gross.

A Family Affair (by Harper Bliss)

I needed something completely different, so immediately bought (yes, I actually purchased this one) a lesbian romance that was advertised to me on Facebook, about a woman who has an affair with her sister-in-law.  (If you don't like reading about cheating or forbidden romance, this is not for you, although it is handled sensitively.) This had one of my pet peeves, which is dialogue that doesn't sound like words anyone would actually say.  One character describes another by saying: "Although a touch distant, she was very nice."  I mean can you imagine anyone saying "Although a touch distant" in an actual spoken sentence?  But still, it is exactly what I needed to read and I enjoyed it, cheesiness and all.

Yes & I Love You (by Roni Loren)

Read for the RHC category "romance with neurodivergent characters." (I actually started The Heart Principle for this category but DNF when the plot changed halfway through and I did not want to read about someone being gaslit by their horrible family for hundreds of pages.) 

Yes & I love you is about Hollyn, who has Tourette's, and her neurodivergence is meaningfully incorporated into the plot and handled extremely well. I'm not a huge romance reader but this was enjoyable - instead of constant miscommunication, the leads communicated openly and the obstacles were real, not manufactured by the plot.  

There's also a throughline about improv (hence the title) and Hollyn using it to get our of her comfort zone (and also hook up with the hot improv instructor).  Recommended for romance fans!

What I Read On My Summer Vacation

Spoiler alert: it was 17 books, so buckle up. I'll include the tags in the little blurbs below so you don't have to wade through the one zillion tags I'm about to slap on this bad boy.

The Unstoppable Bridget Bloom (by Allison L. Bitz) young adult, romcom

Loved the character growth and focus more on being a better person than the romance elements. Felt organic, theater kids are the worst and the best. I loved how everyone was casually bisexual, with sexuality not even mentioned. Very Big Reveal-esque in its boarding school setting. One of my favorite of these 17 reads.

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute (by Talia Hibbert) young adult, romcom

Super great chemistry, rich characters and ADORABLE. My only two critiques: Katharine Breakspeare is a dumb/fake name, and this random dude Nick showed up as a winner at the end when it could have been any of a handful of other characters we actually knew.) But loved this read and hope Hibbert writes more YA!

Oscar Wars: A History of Hollywood in Gold, Sweat, and Tears (by Michael Schulman) nonfiction

Juicy and detailed, got more interesting (for me) as it moved into Oscars I remember watching. I'm a faithful Oscar viewer still ,although I don't make the effort to watch all the nominees that I used to. Ends kind of abruptly but look forward to an expanded edition in five or 10 years!

The Helpline by Katherine Collette women's contemporary, litficL

Like a lighter Eleanor Olifant which is always an absolute delight. I love reading about rigid, literal characters who find happiness with a ragtag group of people who don't give up on them. Germaine is so loveable! Definitely worth reading if you enjoyed Eleanor.

Darkhearts (by James L. Sutter) young adult

I'm a sucker for "turns out I'm gay for YOU" stories but this had a couple of issues.  The best friend was clearly a girl written by a dude (she was unrealistically crude, and in general the book was fairly crude with a lot of poop humor when I would prefer zero poop humor). The character development for our MC (who needed a LOT of it) was too abrupt and the ending really didn't work. But did I keep reading until the end? You bet I did.

The Smitten Kitchen (by Deb Perlman) nonfiction, rhc 2023, cookbook if I had a cookbook tag which I don't because why would I ever do this to myself again

The only reason I read this was for the Read Harder category "read a cookbook from cover to cover" and I kind of hated this challenge. I don't really cook, reading lists of ingredients is boring, and even though her writing is very good, she uses the word "dollop" 38 times, which is probably fine if you're dipping in and out of the cookbook like a normal person but got annoying for me. Just felt very pointless. I always love her recipes though!

Evelina (by Fanny Burney) classics, rhc 2023

The category was "read one of your favorite author's favorite books" and since part of my vacation was a Jane Austen pilgrimage, I decided to read one of Austen's favorites. It was actually a page turner, with some very horrible characters that are overly mean to our poor heroine, but I was glad in the third volume when that subsided and the plot got exciting. Reading about the London season and imagining all the ways Burney influenced Austen made this really fun to read. As opposed to the cookbook thing, I was really glad this challenge was on the list.

Check, Please! (by Ngozi Ukazu) comic, graphic novel, rhc 2023

For the category "read a completed webcomic." This is a webcomic about a college hockey player, with a very sweet grumpy-sunshine romance. Kind of missing conflict and comics will never be my favorite, but quite adorable and joyful. 

Cupid Calling (by Viano Oniomoh) romance, rhc 2023, world literature

Category is: "read an independently published book by a BIPOC author." This is a self-published M/M romance about two contestants on a Bachelorette-like show who meet and fall for each other in a slow-burn romance.  It's very high-quality considering it's self-published, would not have guessed that. Loved the characters, who are both British-Nigerian and have different, complex relationships with their cultures. Definitely includes some fanfic-like sex scenes at the end that are very explicit. But they were well done and fit the characters, so it was fine. My only quibble is that it's supposed to be a reality show made by an Ava Duverney type director but it's got the same format as basically every dating reality show, so talking about how this would be "different" kind of fell flat.

The Aosawa Murders (by Riku Onda) mystery, world literature, translated

This one is all about the atmosphere! Really enjoyed the structure of multiple points of view, and the mood overall.  And the ambiguity - except that it was a shade too ambiguous! I would have liked a little more (though not perfect) resolution at the end. Still, it's eerie and gothic in a specifically Japanese way and I enjoyed it a lot.

Northanger Abbey (by Jane Austen) classic, reread, on paper

I hadn't read Northanger Abbey since I was a teenager, so when I found an adorable pocket copy at the Jane Austen House, I had to get it! really loved having my solo meals in England while accompanied by some chapters from this delightful Austen novel. Oh, and I had apparently forgotten like 80% of the plot because I haven't seen any adaptations either! I'm clearly falling down on the job.

It Goes Like This (by Miel Moreland) young adult

About a fictional "girl band" called Moonlight Overthrow that has broken up and gets back together for a reunion show. Very well written, liked the complexity of the ending, but I did think that everyone treated Eva extremely poorly and did not do enough penance at the end of the book to make their rapprochement satisfying. Gina in particular was underdeveloped, which is especially unfortunate since she is the one Black character. Enjoyable, not amazing. And I strongly suspect this is a gender-swapped rewrite of some former One Direction fanfic.

Plus One (by Kelsey Rodkey) young adult, romcom

Has a main character that somehow gets less and less sympathetic as the book goes along, culminating in so much awfulness that I almost couldn't really get back on her side anymore by the end.  All very well written and I love a confidently plus-size main character. The supporting cast was absolutely fabulous. But oof, once again not enough penance at the end, and that makes it especially hard when it's the character you're supposed to be rooting for. 

Margo Zimmerman Gets the Girl (by Brianna R. Shrum and Sara Waxelbaum) young adult, romcom

Love the concept and the characters (which gave me Amelia Westlake vibes, one of my favorite sapphic ya romcoms ever) but the viewpoints of the two point of view characters were both not differentiated enough in the writing style (surprisingly, since there were two authors) and not cohesive enough in the characterization (Margo's character in particular.) Disappointing execution, ultimately.

A Line to Kill (by Anthony Horowitz) mystery, series

This is the third book in the Hawthorne series, which starts with The Sentence Is Death. I saw an ad for the fourth installment in the Tube and realized I had missed #3 so checked them both out! This was really good as always, I love Horowitz's metafictional and self deprecating take on Sherlock and Watson and it was a really good mystery. 

Going Bicoastal (by Dahlia Adler) young adult, romcom

One that I saved for the plane because I knew it would be good! Sliding Doors-esque, bisexual, and absolutely charming. Loved the cleverness of the structure and shoutouts to other YAs... including It Goes Like This! Dahlia Adler is as always, really great.

A Twist of the Knife (by Anthony Horowitz) mystery, series

The aforementioned fourth book in the Hawthorne series. I finished this on the train home, half-asleep due to jetlag, so my notes just say "breezy! not as tight as #3 but enjoyable mise en scène." Not even convinced I used mise en scène correctly but there you have it. 

Phew! There you have it, the 17 books I read on my six-week vacation.

Xcaret Books

Here are the books that I finished on my trip - fewer than usual, because my friends and I were doing a "pass and play" board game on the flights! 

And the Category is…Inside New York's Vogue, House, and Ballroom Community (by Ricky Tucker) 

For the Read Harder Challenge category "a nonfiction book about BIPOC and/or queer history."  This is the history of the ballroom community, as you can probably guess from the title. I enjoyed this, although I found it structurally disjointed.  I would have loved this as, for instance, an oral history in chronological order. Maybe with a glossary of terms. Instead it's kind of a mishmash. But a lot of good information about an important political movement. 

It’s Been a Pleasure, Noni Blake (by Claire Christian) 

Another RHC book, this time "a romance with bisexual representation." Noni goes through a bad breakup and decides to take a sabbatical for work and go back to sleep with the ones that got away. It's very sex-positive and body positive, pretty light, but has interesting things to say about deciding what you want in life and going for it.  Enjoyable. 

Friday I’m in Love (by Camryn Garrett) 

My favorite Garrett YA novel so far. I enjoyed how it's essentially a Sapphic romance about Black joy, but also deals in a real way with issues of class and generational trauma that don't have easy answers. Loved our main character and the crackling chemistry with her love interest. Really an excellent YA.

The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida (by Shehan Karunatilaka) 

This is a Tournament of Books selection but also qualifies as "a historical fiction book set in an Eastern country" since it is set in the late '80s in Sri Lanka. I learned a lot about the history of this country and the civil war.  The narrator is a ghost who is in the "in between" and trying to solve his own murder. Beautifully written, as you might expect from something that won the Booker Prize last year. I wouldn't be surprised to see this win the ToB (I mean you never know, it could be out in the first round, but nonetheless it would be a deserving winner.) Really fabulous.

Weekend Reads and Deep Thoughts

I think I got all the tags for this diverse assortment of reads, which I finished over the weekend. 

Happily Ever Island (by Crystal Cestari) 

Okay, this would have been an instant-DNF if not for the Disney angle; the writing is very tell, don't show and reads extremely young for a romance between alleged college-age adults. The chemistry of the romance pairings isn't amazing (the two leads could have fallen in love, making for a better developed romance, but instead they each have their own underdeveloped love interest).  The suspension of disbelief required for this magical Disney island is off the charts (none of it makes any sense, this review by Abigail on Goodreads nails it). The book is produced by Disney and is straight-up propaganda. But did I finish the whole thing and enjoy all the Disneyness of it all? I absolutely did. But this is for Disney mega-fans only.

Husband Material (by Alexis Hall) 

The sequel to Boyfriend Material and has the same Bridget Jones type of vibe. It shamelessly borrows the structure of Four Weddings and a Funeral, although the throughline isn't as well-established. But still laugh-out-loud funny and an enjoyable read.  

Sad Cypress (by Agatha Christie) 

A Christie that is very good, not mind-blowing, but extremely solid. The characters are compelling, the solution is satisfying.  The racism, while unfortunately present as it is in most of Christie's books, is at least minimal.  (Can they do a "cut back on the racism" edit of these books already?) Recommended for Christie fans.

70. Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction (editor Joshua Whitehead) 

A Read Harder pick for "an anthology featuring diverse voices."  I bought this from the publisher on paper to support the editor and authors. My favorite parts were actually the editor's note at the beginning and the final two stories! The editor's note from Joshua Whitehead has been in my head since I read it, for two reasons.  

Firstly, he interrogates the typical notion of post-apocalyptic fiction by asserting that for indigenous people, we have already been living in a post-apocalyptic dystopia. And I was like oh my god, of course we have. I realized how deeply my colonialist mindset had been embedded. Of course this is the dystopia. And not just in the "post-Trump-era" way that white people think of it, but in the post-colonial, post-slavery, post-indiginous genocide, post-smallpox and Columbus way. We've been in the dystopia all along. (Whitehead focuses the stories in this anthology on post-apocalyptic hope for native communities, and this is why.)

Secondly, there are a lot of queer stories here, and Whitehead brings up Annie on My Mind as the first queer YA with a happy ending. It was published in 1985, when I was 10 years old. I probably discovered it when I was 13 or so.  And in every other book I read, the protagonists were white and straight and cis.  No wonder I devour queer YA now.  No wonder it took me so long to realize I was bisexual, as I had absolutely no framework to think about it before that. And my child at age 10-13 will be growing up with a world of representation that we didn't have a generation ago. It's really amazing to me.

Anyway, that one paragraph in the introduction made the book worth it, but the stories are also enjoyable all the way through, and I recommend checking it out!

Recent Reads

And 75% of it wasn't even YA! 

Boyfriend Material (by Alexis Hall)

An adult M/M romance that I absolutely loved. Romance isn't actually my favorite genre but this was just hilarious, hot, funny - did I mention funny? Just thoroughly enjoyable with a great central couple. Plus, the sequel comes out next month! Highly recommended for romance fans.

Flying Solo (by Linda Holmes)

I loved Linda's first book, Evvie Drake Starts Over. This didn't quite hit the same heights for me, mostly   the pacing didn't work for me.  But the characters are great, and the main character's independence made for a nice subversion of the "hometown career girl discovers she belongs in her hometown with her childhood love" trope.

Follow Your Arrow (by Jessica Verdi)

Weak, but had a good ending that directly confronted biphobia and not being "bisexual enough" if you're with a man.  The main character did have some good growth over the course of the book but she was just insufferable at the beginning with her fixation on social media.  Plus she has a supposedly traumatic breakup and is in love with someone else in like a week? The timeline felt very compressed and clunky. I just stuck it out out of bisexual loyalty, I think.

Sea of Tranquility (by Emily St. John Mandel) 

This is one of the choices for Camp ToB this year (which is taking place on Discord for some reason, so I'm barely following it).  I didn't love Station Eleven as much as seemingly everyone else in the world, so I was not expecting this: I loved this novel. I adored it. I guarantee this will end up on my top 5 of the year and maybe even #1.  It's reminiscent of Cloud Atlas (jumps through time, a cyclical structure) but somehow Mandel pulls off a novel with the scope and impact of Cloud Atlas in like 300 pages? This blew me away.

Cleveland Book Bonanza

We just took a trip to Cleveland and between layovers, flights, being snowed in, and a general very relaxed pace visiting grandma, I finished nine books. So settle in and let me try to remember what they were all about. 

Best Travel Writing of 2021 (by Jason Wilson, ed. Padma Lakshmi) 

For the Read Harder category “Best _ Writing of the year book for a topic and year of your choice.”  I put a bunch on library hold in different genres and years and went with what was available first. I'm guessing that the pickings were slim for travel writing of 2021. I've been thinking a lot about the reasons why I love travel and why conversely I have hated not being able to travel during the pandemic, and was hoping this volume would explore that. It touches it on it a bit in one essay but mostly, not really. There are some real standouts here (particularly The People of Las Vegas by Amanda Fortini) but also some real clunkers. Not an essential anthology.

Cards on the Table (by Agatha Christie) 

Waiting for Death on the Nile to be available from the library (having seen two adaptations of it recently) and in the meantime downloaded others that I don't think I've read that I saw on "best of Agatha Christie" lists.  This is decidedly middle of the road though, in my opinion. Read on a plane, which was basically the perfect place to read this. The other Christie I read (see below) is much better. 

Being Mary Bennett (by J.C. Peterson)

One of my favorites of these books! Very funny, charming, and just enough winks to Pride and Prejudice to make it fun. I loved Marnie, our main character and the groundedness of this with authentic problems and an avoidance of the "if he would only just let me explain" thing that muddies up so many formulaic plots. Truly a standout YA romcom and if this is your thing, I highly recommend.

She Gets the Girl (by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick) 

Another winner, an alternating point of view romance between two girls who are both college freshmen. Good chemistry between the leads and I loved the backstories and complex issues each of them had.  The better of the two alternating point of view romances on this list, although this one was the PG-13 version while the other was more NC-17.

The Candy House (by Jennifer Egan)

Wow, literary fiction! What a novelty! I loved A Visit from the Goon Squad and this sequel(ish) novel is right up there with it. However you felt about Goon Squad will accurately predict how you will feel about Candy House. Which is not to say it's not full of originality and spark because of course it is. I really enjoyed it and was left wanting more of multiple plots and characters. Who knows, maybe Egan will revisit this world again!

The Body in the Library (by Agatha Christie) 

As mentioned, this was more like it. This would even make a good Kenneth Branagh film! Of course it's a Miss Marple and I was never a Miss Marple fan (actually I'm not even really a huge Poirot fan, I just like Christie's plots) but true to form I enjoyed the plot and the characters here.

Light from Uncommon Stars (by Ryka Aoki) 

I've heard great things about this Hugo award nominee. The main plots include: a transgender runaway who is a violin prodigy; her teacher, looking for a seventh violin player to damn to hell; a motley crew of aliens who run a donut shop in Southern California. It's got fun and quirky elements but also sexual violence and darkness. I was invested in Katrina's story throughout but thought the whole space refugee thing was wildly undeveloped, the "I damned six people to eternal torment" glossed over (?), and overall I thought despite a ton of potential it didn't stick the landing.

Remember Me Gone (by Stacy Stokes) 

A great premise (a girl whose family has the power to erase memories thinks she might be missing her own memories) that should have been amazing but the writing doesn't match up to it.  Once we discover  what is really happening in the town, a lot of plot holes emerge. Entertaining enough to read on the plane - this time, on the flight home.

Love and Other Disasters (by Anita Kelley) 

A woman and a non-binary person compete in a Top Chef-style cooking competition and fall in love.  I enjoyed the central characters and their chemistry, but the competition felt like an afterthought and a lot was unrealistic. (The contestants aren't sequestered? They get cell phones the whole time? They go sightseeing because they have weekends off? No to all of this.) The description of the other contestants and food are also glossed over. So it was cute but not as textured as it could have been.

Phew! Those were all my reads and my brain might need a break now. 

* * *

Bonus book:

Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (by Jesse Andrews)

This was my brain break book. Much funnier and more original than I was expecting, although very dated in some ways in its handling of the Black characters. Overall I enjoyed it though, it was a quick and fresh read.  

Two Emotional YAs

I was out of town for work and didn't have the bandwidth to read literary fiction or sci-fi, so young adult it was, of course. Both of these made me cry. 

Message Not Found (by Dante Medema) 

A girl who loses her best friend in an accident makes an AI she can text to try and uncover the real reason why her friend died.  It's a bit slow, and the twist is fairly obvious, but it's emotional and moving as it deals with our main character processing grief and other complicated feelings about her friend. 

When You Get the Chance (by Emma Lord) 

As an adopted person and musical theater fan, this was 100% for me.  Our main character is Millie (a much more endearing version of Rachel from Glee) who digs up clues in her father's Livejournal from 2003 (!) as to who the mother is who abandoned her as a child. She narrows it down to three suspects so of course the musical theater references, which come hard and fast, include plenty of Mamma Mia ones. I thought Lord did a great job of building the "who is the mother?" suspense while also dealing with Mille's complicated journey of self-discovery.  The ending wraps up way too neatly but by then I was - yes, you guessed it - crying, so I went along for the ride.  Loved this one!

Wrong Number, Right Woman (by Jae)

Another romance, but a much better one. This is a slow burn romance between two women, one of whom starts out the novel assuming she is straight. It starts off as a text relationship and grows into a friendship with chemistry and then.... dot dot dot. It ends up being extremely cute, with minimal conflict, but did I mention cute af. 

I do think it is overlong and the pacing could be picked up at points (for me, after they get together and there's really no conflict, it's like a 200 page epilogue). But still enjoyed the read. I also enjoyed that our characters were not like book marketers or architects; one designs bird toys and the other works at a supermarket. It's nicely grounded. Jae has written over 20 F/F romances, and I would definitely pick up another one sometime.

This was for the Read Harder category "a romance where at least one of the protagonists is over 40" since one of our leads, Denny, is 41. 

The Princess Trap (by Talia Hibbert)

I'm not a huge romance fan anyway and this wasn't my favorite. At first it just read like PWP (aka "porn with plot") with a lot of sex and an extremely thin plot and flat characters. Then BAM, we throw in some child abuse and domestic violence? Like on one page there's a sex scene that we were all expecting from 50 Shades of Grey and then the next page bam, childhood abuse flashback. In what had been, to that point, a very light read. Okaaaaaayyyy.  

And now that I look at the Read Harder list, which is supposedly why I read this book, and am hesitating to pencil this in. I think this was recommended in the Goodreads group as "Read a book in any genre by a POC that’s about joy and not trauma" but there is definitely trauma.  The trauma is not experienced by the POC though; our main character is a Black woman who is worshipped by everyone she meets and she has no real flaws or issues, and she enjoys a lot of sex. So I guess this still counts for the spirit of the challenge. 

All the Feels (by Olivia Dade)

As I was creating a new book spreadsheet for 2022, I saw that the first book I read in 2021 was Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade. By sheer coincidence, the first book I read this year was All the Feels, its sequel. (I know this is, at best, mildly interesting. But still pleasing to me.) 

This book takes two side characters and makes them the focus of their own romance, taking place at roughly the same time as the events of Spoiler Alert.

I enjoyed it although had some quibbles. The "conflict" that leads to our characters separating is patently absurd and there's something off about the chemistry, although I did really like our lead characters, their banter, and their flaws.  Not as good as Spoiler Alert but I will probably keep reading the series. I'm not a huge romance fan but I do enjoy Dade's unapologetic plus-size heroines!

One Rom, one Romcom

Finished two quick reads this weekend, one romance and one romcom.

Love, Comment, Subscribe (by Cathy Yardley) 

Romance isn't my favorite genre, but I enjoyed the social media hook on this one and so I selected it as my free book for September. (In case I haven't mentioned it before, Amazon gives Prime members one free book per month, which is a fun little perk.) Childhood friends Lily Wang (type A beauty influencer) and Tobin Bui (happy-go-lucky prankster) are social media influencers and end up back in each others' orbit when they start collaborating on videos for their respective channels. I find all the explicit sex somewhat awkward (especially with fanfiction tropes, why the "blown pupils" every time, why)  but these are believable characters with realistic conflict and plenty of chemistry; if you like romance, you could do worse.

Better Than the Movies (by Lynn Painter) 

A young adult romantic comedy that's in part about romantic comedies, which our main character loves (in part because her late mother loved them).  Due to a bet over a parking spot, her neighbor (again with the childhood friend, this time the boy next door) tries to set her up with happily ever after after another childhood friend comes back to town.  The "best friend" character feels quite sidelined but that's my only nitpick. Overall the main characters are delightful, their banter is hilarious and cute, and Elizabeth's inner conflict stemming from the death of her mother is handled sensitively. And of course the meta-layer is delightful as I love both romcoms and meta-ness. This is a definite thumbs up from me. (And of these two books, this is definitely the one I wish I owned so I could read it again sometime.)

Written in the Stars (by Alexandria Bellefleur)

I wanted to like this more than I did. The characters are charming and I love that this is a F/F romance (with bisexual rep) but the plot didn't quite work for me.  Supposedly this is about fake dating (and I love that trope) but they drop that ruse really fast.  Basically everything you think will be an obstacle for our couple isn't; when we finally do get to the "oh no everything has gone wrong" moment, it doesn't quite ring true.  Also I wasn't surprised when fanfiction came up as a topic because the sex scenes were full of tropes from fanfic.  

Anyway maybe I'm not a big enough romance fan; I know a lot of people loved this. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Their Troublesome Crush (by Xan West)

I'm so sorry to read that Xan West has passed away. This is #ownvoices rep like never before! The main characters are metamours (meaning they are both polyamorous, in a relationship with the same third person) and I have to pull all the representation from the description or I'll miss something: Ernest is a Jewish autistic demiromantic queer fat trans man submissive, and Nora is a Jewish disabled queer fat femme cis woman switch.  

Mostly this is like a geeky queer kink scene come to life, complete with Ernest singing showtunes. Xan West was an autistic queer fat Jewish genderqueer writer, so represented themselves in lots of dimensions. I would have loved to continue reading the series if it had continued.  Sorry to those of you who knew Xan; may their memory (and their writings) be a blessing.

Get a Life, Chloe Brown (by Talia Hibbert)

This qualifies as a "fat-positive romance" for the Read Harder Challenge, but since I've already fulfilled that category, it also fits in "Read a book featuring a beloved pet where the pet doesn’t die." (The main character also has fibromyalgia, which is represented really well, which is where I thought this would slot in, but apparently I misremembered one of the categories.) 

This book is funny and charming and sexy; actually, maybe a little too sexy. There is a lot of very explicit sex and it somehow felt like a bit too much, too soon. But I loved the alternating points of view, the authentic emotional journeys each character was on, and the matter-of-fact and very positive handling of both body size and disability. 

You'd have to be really okay with a whole lot of non-euphemistic sex scenes, but if that's you, it's very worth reading. Also, the pet doesn't die!

Romances and Romcoms

 My last book of 2020 and my first two reads of 2021 all qualify as romances or romcoms, so we'll bundle them together!

First was Beach Read by Emily Henry, which had some funny moments but was more emotionally complex than you might expect. The main characters are both writers, and they decide to trade genres for a summer; she will write litfic and he will write romance.  She is also dealing with the source of her writer's block: after the death of her seemingly perfect father, she discovers that he had a secret lover on the side and questions everything she once believed about romance. There are real emotional stakes here along with the romance.

Secondly, I'm not putting it on my official list, but one of the RHC categories for 2021 is "a fanfic" so I did read a Villaineve fic called for hire. It had a fun plot and captured the characters well! There is also a whole lot of sex, which should shock nobody.

And speaking of a whole lot of sex, the final read was Spoiler Alert by Olivia Dade, about two fanfic writers.  One is a proudly fat woman and the other is secretly the star of the show he writes fanfic about. It's very inside baseball about the fanfic world, and very wish fulfillment fantasy too. (Not one but two male leads on the show write fanfic about it? Mmm okay.) (The running jokes about pegging were hilarious though.) (Yeah this book is definitely very explicit.) 

I abandoned a book recently because of a very similar premise; in this case the fanfic setting and the plus-sized heroine kept me reading, but I did get similarly frustrated by the fact that one character just needs to tell the other character the truth and then the situation is resolved. [Spoiler] The fact that he didn't tell her before they had sex meant it was unforgivable to me. I loved the character of Marcus but it was such a betrayal of trust. [End spoiler]  I also do not think the fatness was handled as realistically as it could have been but maybe I'm just not as self-actualized as these characters. 

I am also trying to read some litfic for the Tournament of Books but I keep stalling out on Deacon King Kong. Obama liked it and so did all the peeps on Goodreads, so I will keep trying!

Two RHC Books

Two quick reads that both qualified for the RHC this year: a debut novel by a queer author, and a sci-fi novella. Except I see I've already checked off sci-fi novella.  I'm bad at keeping track this year!

At any rate, I read two books and here are my thoughts:

London Calling (by Clare Lydon)

I enjoyed Before You Say I Do,  so I decided to check out Lydon's debut. This is about Jess, a woman living in Australia who gets cheated on and then moves back to London, and then has some lesbian adventures. This had the same problem for me as Before You Say I Do, minus the strength of having a strong plot. Namely, the two main characters fall for each other seemingly because they're both very attractive, and then that's kind of it. It definitely feels like infactuation rather than love, so the emotional stakes are missing. And then there's also no real plot to speak of. Add in a slur for transgender people and some editing mistakes, and it isn't something I'd recommend. It is a light read, and not terrible, but very forgettable.

All Systems Red (by Martha Wells)

Hearing great things about this series and as a sci-fi fan, I had this in mind for the RHC from day one and then I kept checking it out from the library and then forgetting to actually read it. As soon as I started it this time around I realized why: it opens with scenery description.  You know me and scenery description. But I pressed on and found a delightful story about Murderbot, a sentient, humanoid security robot whose "governor module" breaks and thus finds itself with free will.  I will definitely continue with this series because it is, indeed, really good.