Scales of Gold (The House of Niccolò #4), Dorothy Dunnett

This is the most engaged I've been by a Niccolo book so far. I really enjoy Gelis and Diniz and Loppe (and Umar). Of course, having read Dunnett before, that meant I was waiting for something terrible to happen to at least one of them by the end of the book.

This is a travel story, and while I am still a little hazy on Nicholas and what he wants and why he does the things he does, I enjoyed the travel through Africa. I thought it was handled incredibly well, especially given when this book was written. African cultures were treated with the same respect and awe that Trebizond or Cyprus were in previous books, and while the characters occasionally judged the culture of Timbuktu it never felt like the book was. 

There is a section at the end, when they've all come back from years of living abroad, and find that the only people they can talk to about the journey is each other, which I related to intensely. I lived in Japan for a couple of years, and it's nearly impossible to explain what it was like to anyone who wasn't there. For those scenes I finally felt like I understood and enjoyed Nicholas, who otherwise is a cipher who leaves me cold in these books.

The end of this book is, frankly, bonkers. I won't have time to pick up the next book for a few weeks, but I'm definitely going to be thinking about it the entire time.

Grade: B
#63 in 2017

Barrel Proof (Agents Irish and Whiskey #3), Layla Reyne

This whole series feels like you've just tuned into season 3 of a TV show about crime and drama in the FBI. When we met Aidan in book one, he'd already lost his husband and partner, and there was a whole huge family and set of friends who showed up repeatedly to contribute to the plot. So it makes sense that in this book, the "season finale," most of those characters show up again. It makes the resolution of the plot a little bit crowded; instead of focusing on Jaime and Aidan's relationship, which falls apart for very good reason at the beginning of this book, it has a lot of plot to deal with. I was happy at how their conflict resolved, and very pleased they got together. It just felt more like a season finale of an ongoing show than the final resolution of a trilogy of books.

Grade:B
#62 in 2017

Spectred Isle (Green Men #1), KJ Charles

I am so glad this is the start of a series -- I liked both of the characters and this world so much. Set just after WWI, Saul is an archaeologist who lost his reputation and job in the war after making a very bad decision; Randolph is the mysterious stranger he can't stop running into. They meet at mysterious situation after mysterious situation. The only job Saul could get was working for a crazy old man who thinks magic is real, and Randolph turns out to be a man who fought in the magical battles of WWI. Both men are different, damaged people on the other side of WWI; both have lost nearly everyone they loved or cared about.

This is a magic action-adventure story, and also a historical romance. Randolph doesn't care what anyone thinks of him because he's from a wealthy, ancient family. Saul doesn't have that privilege. but their growing relationship is lovely, as is the promise of their future adventures together. It's exciting and scary and sexy and I'm excited for the rest of the series.

Grade:B
#61 in 2017

Single Malt, and Cask Strength (Agents Irish and Whiskey #1 and #2), Layla Rayne

The summer of reading tons of romance novels and Dunnett continues! I liked the first book so much! I love a romance novel that's also action-adventure, and this has lots of mystery and clues and sudden reveals of bad guys. Both protagonists were well-drawn and complex, and it made sense for them to want each other, and to have serious challenges getting together. Aidan's husband was killed mysteriously eight months earlier, and he's not over it yet. Jaime's handsome and charming and a little famous, and being in a relationship will be public and uncomfortable. As I finished this book I said out loud to myself, "How many of these are there? I'm going to read ALL of them."

There is a little telling instead of showing in the first couple of chapters, and a few too many uses of nicknames (something that bugs me a lot because romances seem to rely so heavily on it), but overall I liked this a lot, and I immediately bought the sequel, so...

I liked the second one even more. There are amazing tropes here. Aidan and Jaime have gotten together, but promised to keep it casual (and Aiden is sleeping with a bunch of other dudes, to remind himself not to get too attached to Jaime, which is breaking Jaime's heart a little). Jaime has to go undercover as himself; he was previously a basketball player, and the FBI asks him to be himself, as a coach, to bust an online gambling ring. Jaime misses his old life and of course runs into the ex-boyfriend who broke his heart, while Aidan is pretending to cozy up to a suspect. The pining is magnificent, as are the dark secrets. 

When I got to the end I immediately pre-ordered the third one, which luckily is coming out next month. This is just what I wanted on my summer vacation. 

Grade: B 

#59 and #60 in 2017

All I Have (A Farmers' Market Story #1)

This is very sweet. One thing I love about Nicole Helm's writing is that she gets the claustrophobia of growing up in a small town. Just like Mia, I was a smart, awkward girl in a very small farming town, who was consistently unable to make friends or figure out how to be "like everyone else." Actually, now that I think about it, I also came home and hooked up with a guy from school who was working on his family farm. We didn't end up madly in love and buying a farm together, but this book captures the despair of always being the person you were in high school. 

I wish this story were longer; I wish the fight at the end had been a little more complicated and harder to resolve. But this is a lovely read that is the best kind of wish fulfillment.

Grade: B

#58 in 2017

Heart of the Steal, Avon Gale and Roan Parrish

This is a really cute book, and I enjoyed it a lot. It's worth noting, I think, that it's NOT a book about an art thief and an FBI agent who fall in love in spite of their professions; it's mostly about an established relationship that struggles because the two protagonists have different moral compasses. Vaughn isn't an art thief, he's rich, and he's a little spoiled, and he doesn't see why Will, who works for the FBI, doesn't want him to use his clout to get Will everything he's ever wanted. I really like stories about vaguely amoral rich people who want to give their partners everything and destroy their enemies. It just wasn't the story I was expecting.

(Also I think the authors were more interested in one protagonist than the other, which bled through a little bit.)

Grade: C
#57 in 2017

White Hot (Hidden Legacy #2), Ilona Andrews

It really, really bugged me at the end of the 1st book in this series, when our heroine, Nevada, told her family that Connor Rogan was a sociopath and a dangerous killer, and they replied "Ohhhh, when are you getting MAAAARRIED?" I know it's a romance novel trope to have a big interfering family, and it can be cute when it's done right. But when it ignores a character's very real concerns, and isn't rooted in anything but "he's hot" (they KNOW he's a murderer and maybe dangerous) it reads to me as disrespectful instead of cute. 

Guess what THIS book is also full of.

The politics and the backstory here take up a LOT of the action, and it's confusing and too much. Nevada is still a great narrator, but the rest of the book mostly feels like set up for the third book instead of a story. Rogan is ALWAYS described as "male" or "masculine" or "terrifying" or "looming" or "huge." Honestly, I was picturing Beast from Beauty and the Beast rather than a human man, and the attempt to humanize his behavior at the end of the book didn't work for me, either. I read it because I was hoping to enjoy it more than the first book,but I found it frustrating, unconvincing, and relatively boring. Oh, well.

Grade: D
#56 in 2017

Hello Forever, Sarina Bowen

This is a sweet piece of fluff from Sarina Bowen's back catalog about two guys who met (and kissed) at church camp as teens, then lost touch, and now have reconnected as adults working in the same college town. One is a basketball marketer, and it very much feels like a warm-up version of Him, one of my favorite romance novels ever.

There isn't a ton to this story -- I liked the conflict, because it was rooted in a real reason why one of the heroes couldn't just come out as gay, and why he was a secret virgin. I had a little trouble buying that their names were Cax and Axel, and by the end the drama, and bad guy, had ramped up to a level that wasn't really believable and didn't really make sense. But it was still a sweet story and a fun trope.

Grade: C
#55 in 2017

The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, Taylor Jenkins Reid

This book promises classic hollywood gossip (fictionalized) and I recognized some of the people and stories that served as the genesis of some of the anecdotes here. I love classic Hollywood stories. I wish I had liked this more. I didn't like the framing device of the young journalist and her life struggles -- I almost never like a framing device -- and it made it pretty obvious what the twist at the end would be. "Within a week I would hate Evelyn Hugo," says the narrator, so I was looking for a reason, and it was awfully obvious. I did like the reveal of who the true love of Evelyn Hugo's life was, but -- spoilers follow -- I was never really sold on why she and Celia loved each other. They were both pretty rotten people, and the book tells us how much they love each other but doesn't show us why this is a deathless romance. The seven husbands also weren't as juicy and gossipy as I wanted. For a similar story, but juicier and more shocking and enthralling to read, AND non-fiction, read Furious Love about Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Grade: C #54 in 2017

Race of Scorpions, Dorothy Dunnett

Gotta say, I did not love this book, and that's unusual for me and Dunnett. She remains my all-time favorite author, but on the whole I'm finding the House of Niccolo books to be really strange when it comes to sex. Every sex scene, or love interest, is completely transactional, and it's a little bit uncomfortable.

Spoilers follow -- I find it really disappointing that Katelina's entire story arc was about Nicholas, whether she wanted desperately to sleep with him, wanted desperately to kill him, or wanted desperately to sleep with him again. She lived her entire life (in these books) revolving around him, which I'm not sure he deserved. And then there's Primaflora, who of course is a high class prostitute, and who of course turns out to be evil and manipulative. Or there is David (in Trebizond) and Jacob (in Cyprus), both of whom want to sleep with Nicholas, and the books treat both of them like monsters for it. It's just uncomfortable to read, and I'm frankly uncomfortable with how often Nicholas sleeps with ladies who then die, or how much his "quest" is driven by needing revenge or sexual relief after yet another lady he slept with dies. It's very Christopher Nolan, and I don't like him, either. 


The plot of this book should have been right up my alley with the plotting and the betrayal and the sieges. But halfway through the book stops to be about how the sugar business runs again, and it's boring. I don't care about Nicholas's trade dealings, or playing the Genoese against the Venetians against the Portuguese. It's too complicated to be interesting, and it's too pedestrian to be the plot of a sprawling novel like this.

I also think this book is entirely too fond of elliptical conversations that imply vaguely about plotting that's going on, and I'm tired of meaningful exchanges and knowing looks that don't actually tell the reader what's going on. I'm going to take reading break before I try the next book, because Right now, despite the beautiful writing, I am not really enjoying this series.

Grade: C
#53 in 2017

The Ruin of a Rake, Cat Sebastian

Cat Sebastian might be my favorite new author. She writes wonderful historical m/m romances, that are satisfyingly of-their-time and also satisfyingly romantic, about people who like each other and need each other and make each other better. In this one we have a rake and a rogue who needs to improve his reputation after a novel is published about his exploits, so that he can keep seeing his beloved nephew (right now he's a "bad influence). And we have a stuffy very proper businessman who has struggled to make himself acceptable to high society without a title, who has built levels of polish and veneer between himself and the world so that he's protected. One offers to help the other repair his reputation, and once they have to spend time with each other they can not only hlep, but protect each other. It's absolutely lovely, and I liked it so much.

Grade: A
#52 in 2017

The Furthest Station (Peter Grant #5.7), Ben Aaronovitch

Always a pleasure to spend time with Peter. I wish it were longer, but I always wish novellas were longer. I liked the ghosts and the mystery -- now can we get back to the main plot? I am dying to know about [spoilers redacted].

Grade: A

#51 in 2017

Soho Dead, Greg Keen

This is a perfectly nice noir, if that's your thing. I like my noir mysteries to have something original about them, or really evocative language. This did neither. On the other hand it didn't go down endless rabbit holes where I forgot all the characters, either. If you want a classic noir this is certainly one.

Grade: C

#50 in 2017

Breakaway (Scoring Chances #1), Avon Gale

Another m/m hockey romance, which I enjoyed, mostly because I really liked Jared Shore. He's a grizzled old veteran of the minor minor leagues, who loves hockey but knows his time playing is almost up. He mets Lane, a hot young prospect, who convinces him to not only get into a relationship, but to try and have the best season of his life, remember what he loves about hockey.

What worked less for me was Lane, who was aggressively weird in a way that made reading his dialogue difficult and confusing sometimes. I fully expected the book to address it somehow, telling us that Lane was on the spectrum, which would have been fine and interesting, but mostly it was hard to follow the conversations, and instead of fun and quirky it was distracting. It's also weird that he'd never had any friends -- almost like an alien dropped into the story, rather than a character with a  background. (His resolution with his parents was also very easy after a whole book of angst.)

Grade: C
#49 in 2017

Empty Net (Scoring Chances #4), Avon Gale

I mean this is the most positive possible way: reading this m/m romance felt like reading fic.

This book was recommended to me because "Laurent is my type of character," which is true (and not the only time that's happened with a character named Laurent). Hockey romance isn't generally my thing, but it's a big enough subgenre that I've read a few, and this one is very enjoyable. Isaac Drake is an out-and-proud captain of a minor-minor hockey team, and then his arch enemy , who spit on him and called him slurs last season gets transferred to his team. Will they learn to work together? Will it turn out that his icy nightmare of a rival, Laurent St. Savoy, has dark secrets and is actually not THAT bad after all? Yeah, of course.

The drama is a little bit over the top (Laurent's backstory is VERY dark, he's dealing with an eating disorder, Isaac was kicked out of his house for being gay and struggles with telling Laurent that he used to do sex work to survive) but the emotional heart of the story is very real. There's a moment toward the end when Laurent is talking to a mental health professional, who tells him that he deserves kindness and love, and he doesn't know how to react, and I had that exact moment in therapy when I was in college.

I read this all in one night. If that particular enemies-to-lovers trope is your jam, you'll definitely enjoy this.

Grade: B
#48 in 2017

The Spring of the Ram, Dorothy Dunnett (The House of Niccolo #2)

I don't know what to say! I still don't love Nicholas like I loved Francis Crawford; I have a much harder time getting a read on his character. Dunnett writes brilliant description, and some of the dialogue here is very funny. I googled something and spoiled myself twice for this book, which took a little of the fun out, which isn't the book's fault. Catherine drove me nuts in a very believable way. I still feel vaguely like the book is implying things I'm not quite picking up on (there is a mysterious and sexy woman who says heavily loaded and implicative things -- this is a trope Dunnett loves). 

Clearly I enjoyed reading it, but I am at a loss to tell you why or why I didn't give it five stars without a few months of thinking about it, or spoiling everything.

Grade: B?
#47 in 2017

An Extraordinary Union (The Loyal League #1), Alyssa Cole

This is a great book. I didn't enjoy it as much as I think other people will because a couple of things about it bugged me, but it was truly enjoyable and wonderful to read a book about a topic I never thought would pop up in a romance novel, and to have it be historical and believable. This is the story of Elle, a free Black woman, who has agreed to go undercover as a slave during the Civil War to get information to help the Union and end the war. She meets Malcolm, who is a Pinkerton detective also undercover, on the same kind of mission. Oh, and importantly -- Malcolm is white. 

It's a fascinating story with no easy resolution. Elle is brilliant and beautiful and Malcolm loves her and respects her and treats her like a human being (whenever he can -- really only when they're alone). Elle loves him but she knows all the problems their relationship would face, even in the North. 

I was frustrated that Elle goes back and forth with Malcolm so many times. She has very, very good reasons not to trust him or want to be with him, and once she does, she seems to immediately change her mind, over and over. They also each get a turn being jealous over situations they know mean nothing to the other person. I was also a little frustrated that Malcolm is incredibly perfect from the very beginning. I can definitely see why the hero of this kind of book needs to be a man who is better than almost every other man; it's the only way it's justifiable that Elle will love him when there is so much to go against their union. But I have realized that as a reader, I always prefer selfish scoundrels or lying assholes who are reformed by love, to men who are fundamentally good and true from the beginning. It's just less interesting to me that way.

Grade: C
#46 in 2017

An Unnatural Vice (Sins of the Cities #2), KJ Charles

The last book in this series was not really my thing; this book VERY MUCH was. I love Justin. He is an amoral schemer who pretends to be a medium and talk to the dead. (Side note: one of my least favorite things in the world is watching someone cold read on television and make people cry. It infuriates me. I can't sit through a commercial for the Long Island Medium without storming out of the room.) Justin is fully aware that what he does is awful, and has nothing but contempt for people who believe in what he does. But it's what he's good at, and he's built up a little family of assistants he needs to look out for. Nathaniel, on the other hand, is a crusading lawyer, who despises what Justin does (but is ridiculously attracted to him). Nathaniel doesn't really get much of an arc in this book, most of the forward movement is Justin's, because Justin is being crushed under the weight of what he does, and what he wants to do, and the idea that maybe, just maybe, he could be someone better if he got the chance. ...Oh, and also the fact that people are trying to kill him for most of this book. Justin is the perfect kind of scoundrel; convinced he is bad through and through, that he doesn't want anything and he doesn't deserve anything, and fiercely unapologetic for the choices he's made. Nathaniel is sure that there's some good inside Justin, even if Justin refuses to see it or admit it. I loved the way they came together and I love this book.

Grade: A

#45 in 2017

On Point (Out of Uniform #3), Annabeth Albert

The last book in this series perfectly hit my favorite tropes, while this one was just enjoyable. Ben and Maddox have been best friends forever, secretly in love with each other forever, and then they have a threesome that makes this super awkward. They decide to try dating, but Ben has a lot of issues about believing that relationships can last, and Maddox just wants to settle down. 

I really felt for Ben, although his flip out at the end felt a little ridiculous, since the book had been hinting about what Maddox was going to decide to do all the way through. I was happy they got together, I'm just not going to remember this book for very long.

Grade: B
#44 in 2017

Niccolo Rising, Dorothy Dunnett

This is a complicated book to review, because Dunnett's other series, the Lymond Chronicles, are my favorite books ever. And so as much as I liked this book, and as much as I told myself over and over not to compare it, of course I inevitably did compare it. It's also complicated because my Dunnett-reading friends haven't read this one yet, and as always there are twists and reveals I don't want to give away. (There great difficulty of getting people to read Dunnett for me, always, is that if you don't sell some of the upcoming plot, Game of Kings is so hard to get into. But there is no series that benefits more from a 100% cold read with no idea where it's going.)

Something I loved: the book is so beautifully written. The language is evocative and warm and describes life in Bruges (and Italy) so wonderfully that the atmosphere is immediate and enveloping. Dorothy's descriptions are so so so good.

Something I didn't love: a lot of this book involves people making very secret and sneaky trade deals. I teach about the alum trade in the Mediterranean Sea and I was still baffled about half the time, trying to keep the various Italian families and city-states straight. I finally worked out what was going on about 75% of the way through, when Felix did, but it meant that a lot of the book was meaningful meetings and people giving each other hints that I wasn't sure the significance of. (In fairness, as a reader of GoK you often have no idea what Lymond is up to or who he's making deals with, either, but there's enough of Will and Christian that it doesn't feel as overwhelming to me.)

Something I loved: Dorothy is so good at writing teenaged boys with a bad attitude. Felix is completely real in both his good points and his bad points, which makes him very frustrating to read about, even while you totally understand where he's coming from. I also loved (or hated, as appropriate) Katelina, and Simon, and Jordan, and Marian, all of whom felt like well-rounded real people. Oh, and Gelis. I'd read a whole book about Gelis.

Something I didn't love: From the very beginning, I felt like I had a grasp on who Francis Crawford was. Sure, his motivations were secret, but he was drunk and charming and sarcastic, with a bitter side and a noble side, and he was not to be trusted. I've read this book twice now and I'm still not entirely sure I get who Nicholas is. The descriptions of him in the first third of this book are baffling, and while I know that different characters see him differently, I never felt like Dorothy totally landed on an explanation of his behavior and attitude that I entirely understood. (No, not even at the end, when you learn a lot more about him.) The book cover describes him as a "good-natured dyer's apprentice who schemes and swashbuckles his way" through history. But that's not totally what happens. I could absolutely love a book about a nice guy who's secretly scheming, or a street-wise apprentice who's smart way above his station and fights his way to the top (which my kindle suggests is the plot). But without spoiling anything, that's not how he's described, especially at the beginning. I liked Nicholas. But I can't love him without understanding him better. Maybe in the next book??

Grade: B
#43 in 2017

The Thirty Years' War, C.V. Wedgwood

It feels silly to say that a book about the 30 Years War was a bit confusing and the endless list of battles was pointless; that is the essence of the 30 Years War and why it's so difficult to understand or teach. This book does a great job when it settles down to talk about social history, the impact of the battles the economics of the battles, or the people involved in the battles. I got a lot of great information about Richelieu and Gustavus Adolphus and I can finally remember which one was Frederick and which two were Ferdinand. But my eyes did glaze over at some of the endless chapters about battles that went nowhere and accomplished nothing.

Grade: B
#42 in 2017

A Curious Beginning, Deanna Raybourne

I couldn't decide how many stars to give this. It's not actively bad, offensive, or upsetting, but unless you love -- LOVE -- this narrator and her narrative voice, there's nothing in this book. I've read plenty of books about sassy Victorian spinsters and the mysterious dukes and adventures they have, but this also included a weird few chapters of interlude at the circus that go nowhere, and no sex. I just wasn't delighted enough with the main character (or intrigued enough by the mystery), and the mysterious angry-but-sad-inside duke was so cliche.  I read it, and to be honest I'd probably read the sequels if they fell into my lap. But the whole time I was reading it I was like "....sure? Fine? I GUESS????" Grade: C #41 in 2017

Story Genius: How to Use Brain Science to Go Beyond Outlining and Write a Riveting Novel (Before You Waste Three Years Writing 327 Pages That Go Nowhere), Lisa Cron

I think that ridiculous title is pretty indicative of how I felt about this book. There is good, solid advice in here, and a lot of the writing advice is very helpful. I've been plotting out a novel (because I can't watch the news or I'll lose my mind) and this was a good way to organize it and think about it. But the tone of the book was nails on a chalkboard for me. Other people may enjoy it. It's certainly upbeat and supportive. But it also felt like a manic pixie dream girl was trying to explain to me how how dreams are made, and I didn't find a lot of the sample writing sections very helpful. I didn't need most of the beginning to tell me that human brains like stories or why. I ended up skimming a lot of the end, rolling my eyes and sighing loudly.

Grade: usefulness is a B, tone is a D, let's even it out at a C
#40 in 2017

Fair Play/All's Fair, Josh Lanyon

I accidentally read book 3 before I read book 2, and honestly it didn't strike me as that weird. It was confusing. When I realized i was out of order I thought, "ohhhh, that's why their relationship is so different here," but other than that it wasn't too much. I liked three better than two, but that might be because of mistakenly reading three first.

Anyway, these books are pretty dark. People are murdered by serial killers, animals are injured, etc. I like the romance a lot (although there's a slightly odd undertone about one of the main characters being submissive and what that means for him). I enjoyed it a lot overall, though.

Grade: B
#38 and 39 in 2017

At Attention, Annabeth Albert

This book is so perfectly plotted just for me. You have a single dad raising twin daughters and trying to get over the trauma of losing the man who was the love of his life. And then you have the hot young guy who has always had a crush on him, who is the nanny just for the summer, trying to prove that he's an adult now, and responsible, and that it's okay to move on and find love again. I loved this book so much. Those are tropes I always enjoy, and this book very much hit the sweet spot of romance and plot for me.

Grade: A
#38 in 2017

Star Crossed (Fly Me To The Moon #5)

I really loved this. The ending felt the the tiniest bit rushed, but Geri and Bev are both so lovely, and a historical lesbian romance is such a rare and beautiful unicorn to find. Grade: B #37 in 2017

The Westing Game, Ellen Raskin

What a delight. I know I read it in late elementary school and loved it, but I didn't remember anything about it. It's sincerely great -- the diverse characters, the nuanced interactions, the really fun mystery. And a spunky pre-teen who solves the mystery an becomes a successful business woman. No wonder it stuck with me.

Grade: A
#36 in 2017

An Illicit Temptation, Jeannie Lin

This is a sequel to the last book. Adorable and lovely, but as always with a novella, I wish it were longer.

Grade: B

#35 in 2017

My Fair Concubine, Jeannie Lin

Just an absolute delight from start to finish. I always enjoy Jeannie Lin's books, and this one was hot affffffffff. I love a good historical romance, and it's so nice to spend some time in historical China instead of it always being Regency England. Grade: A #34 in 2017

Dangerous Ground (#1-6), Josh Lanyon

These books are aggressively fine. I couldn't keep straight which of the two heroes was which, except one of them kept getting shot and nearly murdered and the other one was mad about it. And one of them went to France and the other was mad about it. I liked them -- I mean, I read all six. But I would be lying if I said I remembered the plots very well. There's a pregnant woman they arrest, there's a bomb in catacombs in Paris, there's a bottle of alcohol with a snake in it... Anyway, I liked them, but they're all super short, and none of them really stuck with me.

Grade: Eh. B to C depending on the book.
#28-33 in 2017

The Road to Silver Plume, Tamara Allen

I was super excited about another government official and con man romance. It's one of my favorite tropes. But the book ended up being mostly about the history of the silver standard in America and why it was important to some people to keep silver circulating, while others didn't want it. Way more history and discussion of monetary policy than romance. It's strange, because usually I wish romance novels had more plot, but this one needed more romance and less history.

Grade: C
#27 in 2017

A Gentleman in Moscow, Amor Towles

This book is lovely, and wonderful for really feeeling like you're living through the changing history in Russia after the Revolution. For me, though, its light and lovely tone got tiresome after a while, and I wish it had been about 2/3 as long as it was. Grade: C #27 in 2017

Icecapade, Josh Lanyon

I looked at this on goodreads and said, "Did I read this?" Then I squinted at the description and said "ohhhh, yes! I read this!" An FBI agent and the diamond thief he slept with one time, who has since gone straight (???), meet up again. Basically just what you'd expect happens. It's very satisfying and pretty short -- I do always wish novellas were novels.

Grade: B
#26 in 2017

An Unseen Attraction (Sins of the Cities #1), KJ Charles

Ehhhhhhhh. This was not my favorite. I think I like Charles best when she's writing about thieves and rogues and law breakers; both heroes in this story are very sweet and kind and patient and understanding with each other, and it didn't grab me. I felt a little bit like I was being reminded how to be loving and understanding to people who might have different needs than mine, and while I like that sometimes, it felt a little underwhelming as the main romantic plot. (Also I had solved the mystery even before it was mentioned, about 20% into the book, so that didn't keep my attention either.) It's still a lovely book, and well written, but it wasn't for me. Grade: C #25 in 2017

Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World through Islamic Eyes, Tamim Ansary

This book is PHENOMENAL. Read it RIGHT NOW.

I would HIGHLY recommend it to anyone, especially if you've got any interest in current events (or history), but even if that's not normally your thing. The writing is exceptionally clear, and it covers topics you may have heard here and there, but puts them into context and makes sense of huge swaths of history normally dismissed in a sentence or two in Western history books. It also does a wonderful and even-handed job of explaining how the modern middle east came to be the way it is, and how the current world climate of distrust between the West and Muslim countries came to be the way it is. I got this copy from the library but have already purchased a paperback copy because I'll need to read it again and use it for reference. I have also already used it in all the world history classes I teach.

Grade: A
#24 in 2017

The Girl From Everywhere, Heidi Heilig

I really enjoyed this. It's a beautiful story, I liked how time travel was dealt with, I liked the setting -- Hawaii just before it became part of the United States -- and I liked the crew of the ship. My one complaint is that it felt like it was more the protagonist's father's story than her own. Everything hinges on decisions he makes, and how she'll react to it, rather than a decision that she's going to make. (In fact, at the end, she makes a decision to leave, since he can't seem to decide anything, then he changes his mind, so so does he. It still comes down to him.)

Grade: B
#23 in 2017

The Adrien English mysteries #1-6, Josh Lanyon

Fatal Shadows, A Dangerous Thing, The Hell You Say, Death of a Pirate King, The Dark Tide, and So This Is Christmas

I liked this a lot. It's got kind of an old-school flavor to it, with the (eventual) romantic interest being a guy who hates himself for being gay and maybe hates Adrien for it, too, and nearly every side character turning out to have a problem with Adrien being gay. But that's not unrealistic for ten years ago, so it didn't bother me. I love this kind of genre -- amateur sleuth gets involved with murders and the cops -- and my favorite thing is "genre I love, and it's gay." I actually liked this book a lot, but with a couple of caveats. The whole "Native Americans trying to scare away settlers with ghost stories -- could they be real???" subplot feels very worn out and mildly racist (I believe it was done with the best of intentions but I winced a couple of times). Also, it's rough reading a romantic interest who hates being gay and hates gay men, even if he's actually secretly pretty kind to Adrien. Not entirely unrealistic, just a little painful. Jake is a total dick in this book, and the plot is confusing. Adrien, honey, go find someone who actually likes you. I like his adopted extended family, though. Just lots and lots of characters all thrown into this story. (This is probably my fault for reading three books in two days, though.) FINALLY, Jake is forced to admit he really likes Adrien, and do something about it. Adrien believes for a hot second in this book that Jake will murder him to keep it secret that he's gay. I didn't, but it was still a very cathartic moment when Jake is finally like, "No, this is who I am, and I do actually have a line I won't cross to keep my life intact." Jake's self-hating homophobia in the series reads like it should be set in the early 80s, and Adrien's inability to shake Jake off and date someone else (he does date someone else, but he doesn't REALLY like him) is a little weird until Jake starts to get more emotionally mature in this book. But it is a very satisfying arc. Big finish! Jake and Adrien have to decide if they're going to get it together or not. Jake is finally on board with being out and dating another man. Will Adrien be able to get over everything that's happened and make this romance work???? (...I mean, spoiler, yes, he will.) And finally, the "meet the family" Christmas story, where Adrien and Jake get a very cute happily ever after. This series is so great, and the ending is so satisfying. #17-#22 in 2017 Grades: Eh, mostly Bs but the ending is so good it goes to an A

Wives, Fiancees, and Side-Chicks of Hotlanta, Sheree Whitfield

You're only reading this if you watch Real Housewives of Atlanta, which is fine. (Me, too.) But you don't even get any good gossip -- yeah, we know Nene used to be a "dancer." The writing is actively terrible, there are lots and lots of typos which no one seems to have noticed, there's no continuity between scenes, and people scream at each other for no good reason. Our heroine, Sasha, is beautiful, smart, classy, and determined -- but of course also totally ratchet and ready to "go there" if she has to, including shouting "Who gonna check me, boo???" at one point, and starting a clothing line called She By Sasha. If you've watched the show, those are not very subtle shout outs Sheree is giving herself -- she is the most beautiful, most classy, and most amazing, but also the most hood when she needs to be, apparently. Sheree is borderline bananas on the show, and this book has just reassured me that she is borderline bananas in real life, too.

Anyway, the epilogue is absolutely bonkers. I think it was an attempt at a Gone Girl twist, but it is nuts and makes no sense. I was thinking that Bob, Sheree's real-life ex, should be super flattered by the book, but after the epilogue I get why she warned him about it. After this season, I understand why she wrote him as a monster. He is definitely a horror show who doesn't understand why it's not funny to joke about that time he choked her, and she deserves any kind of revenge she can get, including literary. However, the reveal of his evil intentions here is bonkers. The whole book is bonkers. Read it if you want to read long insane passages to your friends, I guess. 

Grade: D
#16 in 2017

Fair Game (All's Fair #1), Josh Lanyon

I enjoyed this a lot. Kind of my dream book -- a genre I really like (bitter ex-FBI guy struggles to adjust to civilian life and also catch a serial killer) but gay. Which made it even better. Grade: B #15 in 2017

The Lawrence Browne Affair, Cat Sebastian

I loved this! I loved everything about it. I loved Lawrence's bluster and I loved Georgie's struggle to be a better person, and I loved that it was found family, and I had ALL THE FEELINGS while I read it. I'm recommending it to everyone I know, and I can't wait to reread it. This is my favorite new romance that I've read in a long time. Grade: A #14 in 2017

Song of Spider-Man: The Inside Story of the Most Controversial Musical in Broadway History, Glen Berger

There is a lot of good juicy gossip and interesting stories here. But the writing is frenetic, for lack of a better word. Lots of shouting, lots of italics, eight ellipses in just the short first chapter... It's overwhelming. It reads like Glen Berger wrote this book while on a Red Bull bender, desperate to tell you everything that happened. Nearly every chapter ends with a foreboding "We thought it was going well... Little did we know!!!!" that would be better used sparingly. But while that can all be sort of irritating, it's compulsively readable.

I spend all day telling students to think about bias in documents; intended audience, purpose, and point of view. This book goes out of its way to be grovelingly apologetic about how badly everything was screwed up in Spider-Man. Everything that goes wrong is because of Julie Taymor, because no one could listen, because the author was craven! was an idiot! was too stupid to see!!! It all gets to be a lot after a while. I would have liked him to stand behind the thing he spent years and years writing, instead of constantly trying to paint himself as an apologetic idiot, and Julie Taymor as a genius-monster. It's just so much editorializing that it left me wondering... but what would Julie say about all this?

Grade: B
#13 in 2017

The Soldier's Scoundrel, Cat Sebastian

This was wonderful. It reads just like any other regency romance, except in this one instead of fighting over a woman, the two male leads happen to fall in love. I loved Jack's extended scoundrel-y family, and I loved the B plot, about women helping each other out of untenable situations. Really just lovely.

#12 in 2017

Grade: A

Baked Fresh (Portland Heat #2), Annabeth Albert

I can read each of these books in about an hour, which isn't a complaint, but I'm not sure it's a compliment either. This is a cute book, but Vic and Robin are both so messed up, and the book needed to be about twice as long to deal with them. Vic's cousin and both recently died of heart attacks, so he got gastric bypass surgery and hasn't been with anyone since losing weight. He feels unlovable and awkward in his own body. Robin was out on the streets for a while after his family didn't take him coming out well, and he can't enjoy sex since it brings up bad memories of what he had to do to survive. They meet while both volunteering at a shelter, and when one of the kids overdoses, Robin takes it really personally. The book is a light and fluffy romance that really only hints at them dealing with all of these layers and layers of trauma and sadness.

Oh, and Robin says he doesn't want a boyfriend, which Vic takes as a challenge to try and get him to be his boyfriend, which is kind of weird to me.

Grade: C
#11 in 2017

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet, Becky Chambers

I was psyched to read this book, and so disappointed by the end. Maybe if I had realized it was a book that didn't have a plot I'd have looked at it differently from the beginning, but the first chapter teases a tense space escape story about a mysterious woman who has changed her identity and fled to the far reaches of space, and then the book is.... just a picaresque series of scenes on various planets, learning about various alien species and cultures. And that's it.

I just... I needed something to happen, or for actions to have some consequences, or for the exposition to stop. It reminded me a lot of reading Rosemary and Rue, where every chapter seemed to introduce a new type of faerie. Every couple of chapters goes deep into some alien civilization, all the way to the end of the book. But unless it's setting up a bigger plot, I find myself skimming and uninterested.

And there was no larger plot or conflict. They land on a planet; they meet people; they leave. Any time there's something that seems like it might be bad or tense, it's immediately resolved. They land on a planet that has periodic swarms of giant bugs; they are all safely inside when it happens. One of their crew is arrested for being a clone; they find a legal loophole to save him. A ship full of land mines docks up with them; they find the mines and diffuse them. And this all happens quickly, just like that.

It's not the book's fault that I also happen to really dislike the archetype of the wacky, adorable female engineer who's so CRAZY and ADORABLE and scatter-brained, but it drives me nuts, and I don't find it charming.

For space adventures that are exciting, feature lots of weird aliens, are creepily atmospheric, and compulsively readable, I HIGHLY recommend the Paradox books by Rachel Bach. Read that, not this.

Grade: C
#10 in 2017

Served Hot (Portland Heat #1)

Books from 1st person POV aren't always my favorite. This book felt very short and very light; Robby is an adorable guy who serves coffee from a cart, and his favorite customer, David, is his big crush. David has a pretty traumatic backstory, where his long-time partner never acknowledged him or wanted to come out, and then died, which is how everyone in his small town found out. So David doesn't really know how to be in a relationship, and Robby is willing to wait, but they never talk about it, which makes them both feel bad, and then they work it out and it's fine. The book needed to be way longer or deal with the issues it raised more, or something.

Grade: C
#9 in 2017

Status Update, Annabeth Albert

I really liked this. Noah is a little awkward and shy and definitely in the closet because his family is religious and so is the university he teaches at. Adrian, on the other hand, is his family's screw up, despite being pretty successful. Adrian gets stranded, Noah has to give him a ride to his sister's wedding, and they both make each other happier and better, and it was lovely. I wish there had been a little bit more of the happy ending at the end, but the book was warm and fuzzy and lovely.

Grade: B
#8 in 2017

Unfinished Business, Nora Roberts

This was a DNF for me. The heroine is a world-famous pianist who's come home to her small town to find out why her mother never called or wrote her after she left to tour the world with her father. It's instantly obvious that her father returned all the letters and blocked all the calls, so the heroine being furious that her mother cheated on her dad makes little to no sense. I wasn't interested in the heroine romanticizing small towns (I'm from one. They aren't great.) and the hero kept kissing and touching the heroine after she said not to. Definitely not my thing.

Grade: DNF

The Talented Mr. Rivers, HelenKay Dimon

The first book in this series was totally insane but a lot of fun to read. Unfortunately, this one wasn't. It feels like the characters make the same realizations about each other over and over again, have the same arguments, and never get to any satisfying conclusions about each other. In the first scene Hunter is insists that no one will EVER shoot Will when he's around; he has this discussion maybe twenty times over the course of the book. Sometimes it's in the context of saying he's not in love with Will, sometimes it's wondering if the mission is more important than Will, sometimes it's being mad the CIA wants to shoot Will. But someone always threatens Will, and Hunter always freaks out and slams them into a wall and announces NO ONE SHOOTS WILL, and then he's always surprised to hear himself say it. It's really frustrating. Also, the sexual tension between Hunter and Will has no arc. Hunter is an undercover agent, pretending to be a bodyguard, hoping Will isn't evil like the rest of his family. At the beginning they want desperately to bang but have never discussed it. They they do sleep together, announce loudly that they can't trust each other, sleep together again, realize they can't trust each other, sleep together, feel betrayed by each other, sleep together, wonder if maybe they have feelings for each other... It's weird. This is the kind of romance where the characters insist the sexual tension is so overwhelming that they physically can't stop themselves from fucking over and over, but since it doesn't really ever grow or change it just gets boring. Oh, ALSO also: the first sex scene goes on and on for a while. By which I mean about halfway through a paragraph actually begins: "The sex continued." NEVER IN MY LIFE. NOT EVEN IN FIC. WHAT. Will was pretty sympathetic and enjoyable but he had no real arc; instead of wondering if he might be evil like his family we're told pretty early that he's not, and there's a vague idea that he needs to take responsibility and grow up, but he spends almost the entire book in a safe house just sitting around thinking about how much he hates being cooped up. He agrees to be bait at the end, and it's supposed to be a huge thing, but... he also agreed to that at the beginning, more or less. He doesn't learn anything, he just tells us the same stories about how much his family sucks over and over. This book is so FRUSTRATING. Hunter, on the other hand, was the kind of alpha-male who is boring and angry about everything all the time. I know a lot of people enjoy that, but it's not my thing. Too many scenes of threatening to murder everyone, or slamming people against walls, or simmering with rage. Yeah, he had some backstory, but he was also a jerk. A book about undercover agents banging the guy they're supposed to be keeping safe from his homicidal family shouldn't be boring. Grade: D #7 in 2017

Off Base (Out of Uniform #1), Annabeth Albert

I really enjoyed this book. Zack is a SEAL from a very religious family who doesn't want anyone to guess that he's gay but does a relatively terrible job of pretending not to be. He ends up with a friend of a friend as a roommate -- Pike, who is out and loud about it. Of course they fall in love and start a clandestine relationship, and of course this hurts Pike's feelings terribly, being treated like a dirty secret. But Zack's struggle feels sympathetic, too; if he comes out he's going to lose his family, and there are guys in his SEAL unit who aren't going to be cool about it. (There are, of course, others who will, and who keep sort of hinting Hey Zack, if there's SOMETHING you want to TELL US it would be FINE, but Zack is shy and keeps missing it.)

The happy ending is very satisfying, and Zack's resolution feels pretty realistic and hopeful. (Pike, who is offered a job as a professor straight out of grad school, feels less so to me, but that's maybe because I have lots of friends who have really struggled finding work in academia.)

The beginning is super abrupt and picks up feeling almost like I had missed something. I know it's a spin off from another book, but I've rarely felt so disoriented at the beginning of a book. Once it flashes forward, though, it settles down.

And I have already pre-ordered the next one in this series, which looks amaaaazing.

Grade: B
#6 in 2017

Wanted, A Gentleman, KJ Charles

I loved this book! It's one of my favorite by Charles ever (although nothing will ever knock Think of England out of the top spot, I don't think). It's a romance between Theo Swann, who is a fairly shady guy who runs a newspaper in historical London where people put ads to find romance (or at least someone), and Martin St. Vincent, a former slave who's been freed and has made good as a gentleman. Or at least as good as he can. A young woman who is a friend of Martin's runs off with a jerk she met through Theo's newspaper, and Martin makes Theo help him get her back.

Both Martin and Theo are deeply sympathetic and interesting characters, both are struggling in different ways, and both make each other better. If I had a complaint it would be that the third act twist is telegraphed really obviously, and I would have liked it one percent better if I had been surprised. But overall the whole book is a delight and it's going on my "reread on a bad day" list.

Grade: A
#5 in 2017

His Bloody Project, Graeme Macrae Burnet

I got 1/3 into it and didn't feel compelled to finish. I'm a history teacher, I spend plenty of time with unreliable narrators and real primary sources, and this didn't feel clever enough or original enough to keep me reading. Maybe there is an amazing twist in the back half, but I don't care enough to find out. The narrator felt like the worst kind of cliche, driven to murder by a mother who died and a sister who was raped, and he's so special and smart even though he didn't go on in school. True crime would have been more interesting, or a narrator I hadn't read about before. DNF

The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, Natasha Pulley

I liked so much of this book so much. I loved the setting and the writing and Thaniel and Mori, and I loved the vaguely steampunk sci-fi premise (which I won't spoil). Until about 80% in I thought this was going to be one of my favorite books of the year, maybe ever, rivaling my love of Cloud Atlas. (Big portions of this read like a much more accessible Ten Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet.) It's wonderful.

But god I hated that the only major female character a) hates other women for not being as smart and scientific as she is and b) mainly exists to try and ruin the men's lives and be wrong about things. It's an old plot trope, the jealous woman trying to destroy the romance, and it really spoiled the book for me. I can't recommend a book where the only woman is a plot device and a monster.

Grade: C
#4 in 2017

The Midnight Assassin: Panic, Scandal, and the Hunt for America's First Serial Killer, Skip Hollandsworth

This book is fine, but it reads like it wants badly to be The Devil in the White City. It's never gripping enough, the murders are never horrifying enough, and the fact that no one was ever caught or even really suspected leads the author to speculate wildly with no conclusions. The writing is a little bit weak. The sheriff realizes his deputy is "about as deep as one of those tacks on the board," -- no, he didn't. It's not as bad as the thing I hate most in historical non-fiction; made up conversations between characters. But man, it's not great, either. The author wants so badly for this to be fascinating and keeps dragging Jack the Ripper into the story for comparison (he was only a couple of years later) but frankly, I wasn't convinced by the evidence presented that the "Midnight Assassin" killings were all done by the same person, let alone by a serial killer, and certainly not by Jack the Ripper. Just go read The Devil in the White City (and then try to sleep, ever again). Grade: C #3 in 2017

The Summer Palace, C.S. Pacat

This was... not what I was hoping for. The Captive Prince series ends abruptly, with lots of loose ends; I was hoping for a happy, loving coda where they do at least a little bit of explaining how the hell they plan to change the culture of both countries they rule and combine their rule and there is almost none of that. And the dynamic between Damen and Laurent, the very best part of the series (which occasionally makes no sense, but I let it go because Damen! and Laurent!! are in love!!) doesn't feel right. Laurent is too toothless, too sweet and syrupy and tenderly helpless, Damen enjoys Laurent being sweet too much. The whole series is based around the idea that Damen loves Laurent for his sharp angles, his ruthless plotting, his cunning brain. Giving us an epilogue where Laurent is none of those things and Damen thinks it's really sexy is weird for both of them. Gotta be honest -- there's post-series fic I think is much better.

Grade: C
#2 in 2017

The Disaster Artist: My Life Inside The Room, the Greatest Bad Movie Ever Made, Greg Sestero, Tom Bissell

I read 95 books last year! That's not bad. :D

Super interesting -- this sheds a lot of light on The Room and Tommy Wiseau. There's something slightly weird about the narration, since the author posits himself as Tommy's only real friend, maybe in the whole world, and the proceeds to tell us a) all the terrible things Tommy has said or done and b) all the ways he was dependent on Tommy. It doesn't totally feel like both of those things can be true. Plus the whole thing is slightly odd, because Tommy is an unreliable narrator about everything, so we have layers of unreliable narrators telling us this story. Still, it's funny and oddly touching at the end.

Grade: B

#1 in 2017