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writerproblem193So, before checking goodreads, I apparently left off these reviews at Understatement of the Year. That's somewhere between 20 and 30 books ago, so I'm going to catch up now. Oh god. How many is it. Oh christ it WAS thirty. Jesus. Oh god. Oh fuck. Well, here it is, the post! For the record, there aren't usually super specific spoilers for the books, but these aren't spoiler free reviews at ALL.
Unfit to Print by KJ Charles
Oh man this was read SO fucking long ago. I liked it! Novella, historical queer romance about porn bookstores, so right up my alley. I think this was first or at least early in the KJ Charles tear I went on earlier, I ended up quite liking most of her work.
Band Sinister by KJ Charles
This was my favourite of the KJ Charles I read, I was so, so enamoured with it. Hints of poly in the background, queer societies pretending not to be queer but being found family whenever anyone else isn't looking... so good. And some really cool character and consent stuff, exploring what people really want out of themselves and each other.
A Fashionable Indulgence by KJ Charles
I keep accidentally typing JK and then adding an R at the end. No. Bad. She's cancelled, ignore her. I really liked this one too, lots of nonsense with class differences and being angry at old wealthy relatives and playing roles of heterosexuality and acceptability, along with the same sort of "queer found family pretending to just be bros" which is such, such my jam.
Wanted, A Gentleman (and wanted, an author the followup short story) by KJ Charles
I don't remember as much about this one, I think it's one of her earlier works and it shows. Still fun though! Good horse details (in that they have to switch out horses a lot because they have stamina yes thank you).
Think of England (and song of a viking, the followup short story) by KJ Charles
This one was fun! I'm not usually a big fan of mysteries because I can't wrap my head around what's going on and I hate feeling dumb, but this one was a fairly straightforward one or at least kept focus on the mains and not the mystery. I really liked Daniel, characters who use their marginalization as a way to put other people off the scent of how competent they really are is close to my heart.
The Ruin of Gabriel Ashleigh by KJ Charles
This one is a short story and not a book, but I count all the short stories with entries on goodreads as books because of the sheer amount of fanfic I read, as a way to sort of even up the word count I've read with what I log on goodreads. Anyway, this one was lots of fun, the dance of "are you, are YOU, but are YOU" of queerness in historical settings always delights me. Or well, maybe not delight, but it gives me some set of emotions.
Proper English by KJ Charles
I forgot the sheer number of KJ Charles books that I horfed down since it was an age ago, but I sure did read most of them huh? Anyway, this is one of her only F/F ones I think, and it suffered a bit from the fact it was a mystery and I'm not a mystery person, but I liked it.
A Seditious Affair by KJ Charles
Holy shit this book sure started out with SOMETHING. A very good character book, balancing a lot of kink and hating each other and liking each other and different classes, etc etc. Seriously though the first chapter just dives STRAIGHT into it in a way I don't think I've ever seen a book do that before.
A Gentleman's Position by KJ Charles
I called what the ship was going to be in this book like WAY back in the first book of the series. Like WAY back. I saw .5 seconds of interaction between this guy and his valet and was like "oh they're definitely either banging or going to bang". I actually didn't watch Jeeves and Wooster until recently but looking back, I should go reread this book to see how much of it is serial numbers filed off Jeeves and Wooster, or at least, very much from that dynamic/conceit.
An Unseen Attraction by KJ Charles
This one I also quite enjoyed, and some of the manipulative shitty family stuff hit home. As with a lot of KJ Charles stuff, it hits the spot for quiet queer community. It's just been way too long since I actually read this, and I did a university course in between most of these books and now.
Mrs. Martin's Incomparable Adventures by Courtney Milan
A reread! It was just as delightful the second time around. Grumpy old lesbians, a very real sense that these two people really did like each other, and comeuppance for a very annoying dipshit of a nephew.
The Deepwater Bride by Tamsyn Muir
Oh SHIT this novella. This also is one I read more recently, and actually I read it twice. No, three times, I should update goodreads. Holy shit this was so good. The twist at the end that recontextualizes the rest of the story on rereading... Tamsyn is SO good at that, always. I had to go digging for it (found it in the Toronto library in an anthology) but it was so worth it. Oh man. SUCH a satisfying read.
An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole
A reread! I remembered not being as fond of this book as this authors others, and rereading it told me why. Don't get me wrong I love enemies to lovers stories, but this one IMHO leaned too much on "I'm so practical and I never do this and I hated you and we can't do this but you know actually lets bang". The things that held the mains apart were never sufficiently dealt with, at least in the way that I was reading it. Still a good book though!
A Hope Divided by Alyssa Cole
A reread, again. Now this is one of my favourites by her. The characters in this one IMHO much more genuinely liked each other and got along. Also, exchanging books and notes in books? Of course I like this one more, I am who I am.
False Memory by Meli Raine
This was one where I just was in the mood for ~suspense~ or something I guess so I grabbed one of the free books I've been collecting from bookbub and read it. It was very introspective and managed to end on a the START of the beginning of addressing the whole plot conceit that the book was based on (that MC got attacked but her attacker is still around and a friend of the family so she pretends to have amnesia oh no will anyone tell! Can she get justice!). I don't think I'll go and search out the next book, it felt very "we'll give you the first 'book' free except the first book is actually very short and meant to make you buy the whole series on kindle $$$$". Which to be fair, is probably exactly what it is.
Nationhood Interrupted by Sylvia McAdam Saysewahum
This was one of my textbooks in the class I took, and it was a very good and interesting read. It discusses Cree/nêhiyaw legal systems and how they could be revitalized to give justice in today's world.
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Another text for class! I listened to this as an audiobook, which I absolutely never do, but the author narrated it and Libby had it but a three week wait on the ebook. It was fascinating and engrossing and wonderful to listen to, and has some very good lessons that have stuck with me. Specifically the gift of strawberries chapter about the gift economy is something I'm trying to put into practice in my own life because it puts some vague thoughts I've had into sharp relief. Highly recommend!
Stormsong by CL Polk
I enjoyed this book, but I wanted to enjoy it more than I did. I went into it wanting a romance novel, and I got a second-world fantasy political thriller with a small romance plotline. IMHO, the romance plotline needed much more attention in the story. As well, I loved the first book in this series so much that I found it hard to love these new characters as much, especially with the old characters from the first book hanging around in the background. Like, you give me immortal/mortal romance with a soulbond and also beauty magic and then turn around and present me with reporter/politician? No no go back to the immortal/mortal soulbond you had me HOOKED. I think my frustration also lay in that I dislike "each book has a new POV" in series that have a lot of plot, especially if the romance is sidelined as much as it was in this one, but that's a personal taste thing. I will say though, I did enjoy the book a lot!
The AI Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole
I read this, not listened to it, though it was originally written to be a audio original sort of thing. I think it could have done with a little more length or I don't know, build up? Or something? More of a resolution follow through, I think. I enjoyed it though, even though it wasn't the exact kind of story I usually like. Mysteries strike again!
Mating the Huntress by Talia Hibbert
Shifter romances, especially ones with fated mates tm usually turn me off real fast, but Be The Serpent struck again and discussed this novella in glowing enough tones to make me want to read it. I'm glad I did! It happily skates by most of the dubcon elements that fated mates tm tends to have, and instead has just immediately devoted wolfboy and "I'm gonna kill you even if I'm horny, goddammit I am too horny to kill you, terrible, hey come make out with me" huntress.
The Faerie Gaurdian by Rachel Morgan
A reread, but a reread where I hadn't read the book since I was like, fourteen. I read this as a sacrifice to my good friend Satan (thus called because they made me read McHugh and also Gideon the Ninth) who wanted to know about faefucker tropes and I had of course, the time and knowledge required to give them a list of said tropes. This is a very 2010s YA book. It was tiring to read, but I know that I liked it at least a little as a teen. Oh well.
A Conspiracy of Truths by Alexandra Rowland
Another case of Be The Serpent getting to me, though this is a book by one of the hosts! It wasn't my kind of book (political etc and semi a mystery) but I feel like it really picked up in the last third or so when the narration tipped its hand and started admitting that this story was addressing someone, and very fondly. "I didn't know then that you were going to be doing x and y," stuff like that. I also adored the little stories set into it (the conceit being that the main is a oral historian/storykeeper) and they were often VERY to the point and mirrored the situation but that's what you have books and stories and political meddling storytellers FOR. The beginning of the book is definitely "oh god I'm just a BARD let me go back to FUCKING AROUND stop ARRESTING ME" which is fun, but I definitely enjoyed the latter bit more. Good book! Don't know how I feel about the sequel since it's from someone else's POV! Ahhh POV!
The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex by Tamsyn Muir
TAMSYN STRIKES AGAIN. Although I should say that I was pissed that I was reading this basically a few days ago and not in MAY. See, the thing is that Tor.com had a whole thing where it said it would totally send out PDFs of this in May as a fun bonus for readers. I submitted so many emails. So many of my friends submitted emails. BUPKIS. They finally released it on their website but I was bitter and put off reading it. The story was one I had to read twice to understand which usually would have me lighting it on fire but Tamsyn is just too good, rip. It was a mystery (again, I hate mysteries) and the clues that the mystery hinged on was necromancy worldbuilding that the reader had absolutely NO way of knowing, which was irritating. But also, very cool and interesting on a second read through. Curse you Tamsyn. Stop being so good at this.
Captive Prince trilogy by CS Pacat
Grouping these together because they really did feel like one story flowing through, especially the first and second books. These are complicated books to talk about — they have some truly wonderful character work but a lot of world elements that have me locking my gender studies degree in a box and sitting on it. These books are not even a little for everyone, you need to have a very specific willingness to deal with certain things to read them and enjoy them. For what they are though, which is some lovingly put together trash, they're good. Book one takes the brunt of that though, mostly as set up, and I don't know how well the other two books would stand up without the setup of the first book, but I'd almost be tempted to rec reading just books two and three because although there's some more background nasty stuff it's not front and centre like it is in book one.
So this may not have been thirty books exactly, but this post takes me from around fifty books to eighty so I'll count it as thirty. On my next list, if all goes well, will be Harrow. Can't wait for Tamsyn Muir to do it again and make me like a high stakes mystery epic, all of which are things I hate.
Unfit to Print by KJ Charles
Oh man this was read SO fucking long ago. I liked it! Novella, historical queer romance about porn bookstores, so right up my alley. I think this was first or at least early in the KJ Charles tear I went on earlier, I ended up quite liking most of her work.
Band Sinister by KJ Charles
This was my favourite of the KJ Charles I read, I was so, so enamoured with it. Hints of poly in the background, queer societies pretending not to be queer but being found family whenever anyone else isn't looking... so good. And some really cool character and consent stuff, exploring what people really want out of themselves and each other.
A Fashionable Indulgence by KJ Charles
I keep accidentally typing JK and then adding an R at the end. No. Bad. She's cancelled, ignore her. I really liked this one too, lots of nonsense with class differences and being angry at old wealthy relatives and playing roles of heterosexuality and acceptability, along with the same sort of "queer found family pretending to just be bros" which is such, such my jam.
Wanted, A Gentleman (and wanted, an author the followup short story) by KJ Charles
I don't remember as much about this one, I think it's one of her earlier works and it shows. Still fun though! Good horse details (in that they have to switch out horses a lot because they have stamina yes thank you).
Think of England (and song of a viking, the followup short story) by KJ Charles
This one was fun! I'm not usually a big fan of mysteries because I can't wrap my head around what's going on and I hate feeling dumb, but this one was a fairly straightforward one or at least kept focus on the mains and not the mystery. I really liked Daniel, characters who use their marginalization as a way to put other people off the scent of how competent they really are is close to my heart.
The Ruin of Gabriel Ashleigh by KJ Charles
This one is a short story and not a book, but I count all the short stories with entries on goodreads as books because of the sheer amount of fanfic I read, as a way to sort of even up the word count I've read with what I log on goodreads. Anyway, this one was lots of fun, the dance of "are you, are YOU, but are YOU" of queerness in historical settings always delights me. Or well, maybe not delight, but it gives me some set of emotions.
Proper English by KJ Charles
I forgot the sheer number of KJ Charles books that I horfed down since it was an age ago, but I sure did read most of them huh? Anyway, this is one of her only F/F ones I think, and it suffered a bit from the fact it was a mystery and I'm not a mystery person, but I liked it.
A Seditious Affair by KJ Charles
Holy shit this book sure started out with SOMETHING. A very good character book, balancing a lot of kink and hating each other and liking each other and different classes, etc etc. Seriously though the first chapter just dives STRAIGHT into it in a way I don't think I've ever seen a book do that before.
A Gentleman's Position by KJ Charles
I called what the ship was going to be in this book like WAY back in the first book of the series. Like WAY back. I saw .5 seconds of interaction between this guy and his valet and was like "oh they're definitely either banging or going to bang". I actually didn't watch Jeeves and Wooster until recently but looking back, I should go reread this book to see how much of it is serial numbers filed off Jeeves and Wooster, or at least, very much from that dynamic/conceit.
An Unseen Attraction by KJ Charles
This one I also quite enjoyed, and some of the manipulative shitty family stuff hit home. As with a lot of KJ Charles stuff, it hits the spot for quiet queer community. It's just been way too long since I actually read this, and I did a university course in between most of these books and now.
Mrs. Martin's Incomparable Adventures by Courtney Milan
A reread! It was just as delightful the second time around. Grumpy old lesbians, a very real sense that these two people really did like each other, and comeuppance for a very annoying dipshit of a nephew.
The Deepwater Bride by Tamsyn Muir
Oh SHIT this novella. This also is one I read more recently, and actually I read it twice. No, three times, I should update goodreads. Holy shit this was so good. The twist at the end that recontextualizes the rest of the story on rereading... Tamsyn is SO good at that, always. I had to go digging for it (found it in the Toronto library in an anthology) but it was so worth it. Oh man. SUCH a satisfying read.
An Extraordinary Union by Alyssa Cole
A reread! I remembered not being as fond of this book as this authors others, and rereading it told me why. Don't get me wrong I love enemies to lovers stories, but this one IMHO leaned too much on "I'm so practical and I never do this and I hated you and we can't do this but you know actually lets bang". The things that held the mains apart were never sufficiently dealt with, at least in the way that I was reading it. Still a good book though!
A Hope Divided by Alyssa Cole
A reread, again. Now this is one of my favourites by her. The characters in this one IMHO much more genuinely liked each other and got along. Also, exchanging books and notes in books? Of course I like this one more, I am who I am.
False Memory by Meli Raine
This was one where I just was in the mood for ~suspense~ or something I guess so I grabbed one of the free books I've been collecting from bookbub and read it. It was very introspective and managed to end on a the START of the beginning of addressing the whole plot conceit that the book was based on (that MC got attacked but her attacker is still around and a friend of the family so she pretends to have amnesia oh no will anyone tell! Can she get justice!). I don't think I'll go and search out the next book, it felt very "we'll give you the first 'book' free except the first book is actually very short and meant to make you buy the whole series on kindle $$$$". Which to be fair, is probably exactly what it is.
Nationhood Interrupted by Sylvia McAdam Saysewahum
This was one of my textbooks in the class I took, and it was a very good and interesting read. It discusses Cree/nêhiyaw legal systems and how they could be revitalized to give justice in today's world.
Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
Another text for class! I listened to this as an audiobook, which I absolutely never do, but the author narrated it and Libby had it but a three week wait on the ebook. It was fascinating and engrossing and wonderful to listen to, and has some very good lessons that have stuck with me. Specifically the gift of strawberries chapter about the gift economy is something I'm trying to put into practice in my own life because it puts some vague thoughts I've had into sharp relief. Highly recommend!
Stormsong by CL Polk
I enjoyed this book, but I wanted to enjoy it more than I did. I went into it wanting a romance novel, and I got a second-world fantasy political thriller with a small romance plotline. IMHO, the romance plotline needed much more attention in the story. As well, I loved the first book in this series so much that I found it hard to love these new characters as much, especially with the old characters from the first book hanging around in the background. Like, you give me immortal/mortal romance with a soulbond and also beauty magic and then turn around and present me with reporter/politician? No no go back to the immortal/mortal soulbond you had me HOOKED. I think my frustration also lay in that I dislike "each book has a new POV" in series that have a lot of plot, especially if the romance is sidelined as much as it was in this one, but that's a personal taste thing. I will say though, I did enjoy the book a lot!
The AI Who Loved Me by Alyssa Cole
I read this, not listened to it, though it was originally written to be a audio original sort of thing. I think it could have done with a little more length or I don't know, build up? Or something? More of a resolution follow through, I think. I enjoyed it though, even though it wasn't the exact kind of story I usually like. Mysteries strike again!
Mating the Huntress by Talia Hibbert
Shifter romances, especially ones with fated mates tm usually turn me off real fast, but Be The Serpent struck again and discussed this novella in glowing enough tones to make me want to read it. I'm glad I did! It happily skates by most of the dubcon elements that fated mates tm tends to have, and instead has just immediately devoted wolfboy and "I'm gonna kill you even if I'm horny, goddammit I am too horny to kill you, terrible, hey come make out with me" huntress.
The Faerie Gaurdian by Rachel Morgan
A reread, but a reread where I hadn't read the book since I was like, fourteen. I read this as a sacrifice to my good friend Satan (thus called because they made me read McHugh and also Gideon the Ninth) who wanted to know about faefucker tropes and I had of course, the time and knowledge required to give them a list of said tropes. This is a very 2010s YA book. It was tiring to read, but I know that I liked it at least a little as a teen. Oh well.
A Conspiracy of Truths by Alexandra Rowland
Another case of Be The Serpent getting to me, though this is a book by one of the hosts! It wasn't my kind of book (political etc and semi a mystery) but I feel like it really picked up in the last third or so when the narration tipped its hand and started admitting that this story was addressing someone, and very fondly. "I didn't know then that you were going to be doing x and y," stuff like that. I also adored the little stories set into it (the conceit being that the main is a oral historian/storykeeper) and they were often VERY to the point and mirrored the situation but that's what you have books and stories and political meddling storytellers FOR. The beginning of the book is definitely "oh god I'm just a BARD let me go back to FUCKING AROUND stop ARRESTING ME" which is fun, but I definitely enjoyed the latter bit more. Good book! Don't know how I feel about the sequel since it's from someone else's POV! Ahhh POV!
The Mysterious Study of Doctor Sex by Tamsyn Muir
TAMSYN STRIKES AGAIN. Although I should say that I was pissed that I was reading this basically a few days ago and not in MAY. See, the thing is that Tor.com had a whole thing where it said it would totally send out PDFs of this in May as a fun bonus for readers. I submitted so many emails. So many of my friends submitted emails. BUPKIS. They finally released it on their website but I was bitter and put off reading it. The story was one I had to read twice to understand which usually would have me lighting it on fire but Tamsyn is just too good, rip. It was a mystery (again, I hate mysteries) and the clues that the mystery hinged on was necromancy worldbuilding that the reader had absolutely NO way of knowing, which was irritating. But also, very cool and interesting on a second read through. Curse you Tamsyn. Stop being so good at this.
Captive Prince trilogy by CS Pacat
Grouping these together because they really did feel like one story flowing through, especially the first and second books. These are complicated books to talk about — they have some truly wonderful character work but a lot of world elements that have me locking my gender studies degree in a box and sitting on it. These books are not even a little for everyone, you need to have a very specific willingness to deal with certain things to read them and enjoy them. For what they are though, which is some lovingly put together trash, they're good. Book one takes the brunt of that though, mostly as set up, and I don't know how well the other two books would stand up without the setup of the first book, but I'd almost be tempted to rec reading just books two and three because although there's some more background nasty stuff it's not front and centre like it is in book one.
So this may not have been thirty books exactly, but this post takes me from around fifty books to eighty so I'll count it as thirty. On my next list, if all goes well, will be Harrow. Can't wait for Tamsyn Muir to do it again and make me like a high stakes mystery epic, all of which are things I hate.
