April’s reading

These are the books I read all the way through.  The categories, In Death, and other books that I put to the 50 page test weren’t recorded.

It’s actually not a bad tally, given my preoccupation with packing and moving.

1.  Nightfall by Ellen Connor.  Post-apocalyptic romance.

2.  Third You Die by Kevin Conner.  Mystery, gay fiction.

3.  Does My Head Look Big in This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah.  YA, set in Australia, narrator is of Palestinian descent.  Enjoyed it.

4.  Once Bitten, Twice Shy by Robyn Donald.  Category.

5.  Fettered by Lyn Gala.  M/m, BDSM.  Ambivalent about the plot and the instalove, as well as the punctuation abuse.

6.  Beautiful Sacrifice by Elizabeth Lowell.  Romantic suspense.

7.  Far in the Wilds by Deanna Raybourn.  Novella teaser for her new post-War Africa-set book.  Okay but not enough to get me to read her again — the Lady Julia series went so far off the rails for me that I’m not sure I’ll ever  be willing to try her again.

8 – 10.  Darkly Dreaming Dexter, Dearly Devoted Dexter, and Dexter in the Dark by Jeff Lindsay.  Started well but tailed off for me.

11.  The Millionaire’s Virgin Mistress by Robyn Donald.  Category.  Meh.

12.  Steel’s Edge by Ilona Andrews.  Fantasy romance.  Liked it better than the previous Edge book.

13.  Innocent Mistress, Royal Wife by Robyn Donald.  Category.  This plot made absolutely no sense, even for a Presents.

14.  The Princess of Burundi by Kjell Ericksson.  Mystery.  DNF.  Too slow, set it aside.

15.  Unwanted by Kristina Ohlsson.  Enjoyed this debut mystery from a Swedish writer (new to me).

16.  Some Girls Bite by Chloe Neill.  Urban fantasy.  Meh.

17.  The Cubicle Next Door by Siri Mitchell.  Inspirational chick lit.  Re-read.

18.  Bad Attitude by K.A. Mitchell.  Contemporary m/m.  Liked it.

March’s reading

1.  Calculated in Death by JD Robb.  The first In Death ever that I did not pre-order or even buy.  Average, I guess?  The whodunnit was extremely predictable, and also there were some copyediting errors.

2.  Frost Burned by Patricia Briggs.  Please give Mercy more powers! She can fix/save/whatever everything! Also, some bad grammar. Poorly paced. Worked as part of series arc but as a stand alone story was disjointed and poorly planned.

3.  The Buchanan Letters by Neil Plakcy.  This is not a romance. And definitely not m/m. More lad lit-ish. Found the narrator to be naive; hard to believe he’s that good at analysis and research when he shows such poor judgment everywhere else.

4.  Family Man by Heidi Cullinan.  I remember appreciating that this book wasn’t rife with typos, but that’s about all that stood out about it.

5.  Mayan Moon by Eleni Carr.  This was a Silhouette Special Edition from the 80s, and the age showed — it was extremely dated re: sexual relationships, etc. Liked the setting. Liked that race/class/colonialism were not ignored.

6.  Craving Beauty by Nalini Singh.

7.  Love Lessons by Gina Wilkins.  So many stereotypes, so little time.

Both briefly mentioned here.

8.  Strange Fortune by Josh Lanyon.  Not a favorite Lanyon for me, more thoughts here.

9.  Murder in the Marais by Cara Black.  Liked this one, mentioned it here.

10.  The Abortionist’s Daughter by Elizabeth Hyde.   Mentioned here.

11.  Death of a Pirate King by Josh Lanyon.  Re-read.

The highlight of the month was an audiobook:  Paladin of Souls by Bujold.

February – a short month

February is a short month.  I’m going to blame the missing days for the very short reading list.

1.  Contract with Consequences by Miranda Lee.  Category.  This was a DNF, as mentioned earlier.

2.  A Share in Death by Deborah Crombie.  Mystery.  (B) This was Crombie’s debut, and I enjoyed it a great deal.  Part of my pleasure came from good editing and the sheer badness of my other recent reads; I’m not sure if it would have rated so well if I’d just finished a keeper.

3.  Laying Ghosts by James Buchanan.  Gay romance with procedural.  (B-)  Buchanan’s voice is so good and pleasing to my inner ear, but the editing for this book was awful to the point of distraction.

4.  How to Save A Life by Sloan Parker.  M/m.  DNF, although I can’t remember why now.  In fact, I can’t remember anything about this book.  Eh.

5.  The Last Day of Summer by JF Smith.  M/m contemporary.  Not recommended, as mentioned earlier.

6.  Wide Awake by Kade Boehe.  M/m contemporary.  (F)  This is a $0.99 self-published book, and it shows in every aspect.

7.  Claimings, Tails, and Other Alien Artifacts by Lyn Gala.  M/m speculative fiction.  Sort of m/m?  With D/s.  (B-)  I bought this for the speculative aspect because the reviews made it clear that biologically the species are not compatible.  What I got was…interesting.  The biological aspect, yes, along with vastly different cultures, psychologies, and social structures.   The biology prompts the question, what is sex, especially when one of the pairing feels pleasure but does not orgasm because sex is for reproduction not pleasure.  There’s a lot to unpack.  But on the other hand, the relationship set up is very much like the white woman-Native American kidnapping romance — not original at all — and the lack of conscious consent at the outset made me very uncomfortable.

8.  Dirty Laundry by Heidi Cullinan.  M/m contemporary.  (B) This was a well-written book, nicely edited (such a relief).  And yet I didn’t love it and am probably never going to re-read it or make an effort to check out the other books of the series.

January’s reading

It’s a short-ish list for January reading:

1.  Komarr by Lois McMaster Bujold — audiobook and paper.  This book isn’t one of the Vorkosigan series that I re-read regularly.  It feels like filler with a lot of set up material for A Civil Campaign and Miles’ future rather than being focused on the plot at hand.  B

2.  It’s Not Shakespeare by Amy Lane.  M/m contemporary.  My response to this book was mixed:  I liked the style in some ways but was put off by reading the dialect used by the younger MC in print.  I’ve mentioned before that hearing dialect or coded speech doesn’t bother me, but seeing it in writing is like nails on a chalkboard.

3.  At His Majesty’s Request by Maisey Yates.  Category, brief write up here.

4.  I Spy Something Christmas by Josh Lanyon.  Holiday novella, m/m, part of a series.  It was okay, I guess?  I’ve forgotten the plot already.

5.  Silent Mercy by Lori G. Armstrong.  Holiday novella, part of a mystery/suspense series.  DNF.  I am finished with this series, mostly because I can’t buy into the new professional set up created by the author.  It’s all announced retrospectively, and it’s just…not consistent with the character as portrayed in the earlier books.

6.  Moonshifted by Cassie Alexander.  Urban fantasy, brief write up here.

 

More m/m DNFs as I clear out the books pending on my Kindle:

1.  Hairy Harry’s Car Seat by Sue Brown.  Very English in setting.  Gay for you.  Meh.

2.  Frat House Troopers by Xavier Mayne.  I’m supposed to believe that a professor of English wrote this mess? I thought it was going to be or supposed to be comic but it was just a mess. head hopping. Gay4U with no angst. Plot that makes little sense from a practical perspective.

3.  Color of Grace by A. M. Arthur.  Stopped about half-way through.  Bored, felt like the book was pointless and meandering.

4.  Sinner’s Gin by Rhys Ford.  Ditto.

5.  Second Chance Sam by Bren Christopher.  Ditto.

The last few reads and DNFs of 2012

Between work and the holiday, not much reading was done in the last couple weeks of December, and the few books I attempted were…less than edifying.

1.  Wish List by K.A. Mitchell.  Holiday novella that I liked well enough, although the underlying premise didn’t thrill me.  B-/C+

2.  O Come All Ye Kinky anthology, edited by Sarah Frantz.  BDSM themed, really enjoyed most of the stories (and I expect to post a review of sorts tonight!)  B+/B.

3.  Secret Light by Z.A. Maxfield.  A Hannukah novella set not long after WWII, I liked the setting of this book but was not engaged by the characters or the romance.  C

4.  The Boys and the Bees by Mari Donne.  DNF

5.  Rentboy by Fyn Alexander.  Weird POV shifts, creepy narrator, unbelievable plot, and so many other things wrong with this train wreck.  Unprotected sex with someone believed to be a sex worker because of True Love was the cherry on top of the ridiculousness sundae.  D

6.  Ethan, Who Loved Carter by Ryan Loveless.  Liked the idea of this book, bored by the execution.  DNF

7.  The Triathlete by Ascher Halden.  I’m trying to figure out if the publisher is a new e-press or just a vanity publisher.  This book could have been good…but it read (what I read of it, at least) like the very rough first draft.  If an editor of any sort was involved in its production, I would be shocked.  The pacing was horrendous, as were the POV and POV shifts.  Punctuation was misused pretty egregiously.  Let’s and lets are not interchangeable, nor are won’t and wont, but both were misused indiscriminately in the portion I read.  In the end, I gave up.  DNF

 

I think I’m going on an m/m hiatus for a while, because the stretched-thin plots, the overdone sex, the clumsy issue-handling, and the lack of editorial polish that I’m seeing in what’s out there are boring to me as a reader and offensive as a consumer.

Best books read this year

It’s a little early, since I could (theoretically) read something that wows me between now and NYE…but given my schedule and to-do list, that seems unlikely at the moment.  One hundred ten books read this year, fewer than last year once again, continuing the downward trend.  Most of the ratings were clumped in the middle.  One thing that stands out is that none of the In Death or NR books I read this year made the list.  Another is that there are no genre romances from traditional or NY publishers on the list, which says something about my reading (but I’m not sure what).

Books I enjoyed the most:

• Tigerland by Sean Kennedy (2012) — yes, review is still half-written
• Midnight Riot, Moon Over Soho, and Whispers Under Ground by Ben Aaronovitch (2011, 2011, 2012 respectively)
• A Gentleman’s Game by Greg Rucka (2005)
• Crucible of Gold by Naomi Novik (2012)
• Irregulars: Stores by Nicole Kimberling, Josh Lanyon, Ginn Hale and Astrid Amara (2012)
• Fun Home by Alison Bechdel (2007)
• But My Boyfriend Is by K.A. Mitchell (2012)

Honorable Mentions:

• Broken Harbour by Tana French (2012)
• The Fault in Our Stars by John Green (2012)

(These last two were beautifully written and I appreciated them, but they aren’t books I’ll reread.)

Books that made me the cranky for a variety of reasons:

• Steamroller by Mary Calmes (2012)
• When in Doubt, Add Butter by Beth Harbison (2012)
• Bared to You by Sylvia Day (2012)
• Devils Punch by Ann Aguirre (2012)

November’s books/novellas/etc.

1.  Wight Mischief by JL Merrow.  Contemporary m/m gothic with mystery and paranormal threads.  Loved the sense of place in the book, not sold on the mystery, the villain, or the romance.  C

2.  In the Dark by Jordan Castillo Price.  M/m horror.  A PsyCop short.  Loved it.  My only complaint:  it’s too short! Want more!

3.  Room to Grow by Kate Sherwood.  Contemporary m/m.  I don’t remember what this book was about.  My notes at LibraryThing are:  what was the point of this book?  C-

4.  Leave Me Breathless by Cherrie Lynn.  Contemporary het romance.  A lot of people in my Twitter feed loved this book, but I was not engaged by either character, even though the hero should have appealed.  At best, the portion I read was stroke material.  Otherwise, meh.  DNF.

5.  Steamroller by Mary Calmes.  Contemporary m/m.  Or rather, an utter fairytale fantasy of m/m romance pretending to be a contemporary.  There’s so much wrong with this novella (IMO) that I don’t know where to start: the trope-riddled, paper-thin characters? the “tragedy” that made the conflictless HEA possible?  the utter inconsistency of the character building?  the love at first fuck?  the bareback because I trust you for what is ostensibly a one night stand?  It wasn’t a long book, but it managed to rile me up a lot. F

6.  Half Moon Chambers by Harper Fox.  Contemporary m/m police procedural.  Less angst than some of her other work, which I appreciated, but the narrator is TSTL and a glutton for punishment.  Didn’t really believe the romance or HEA/HFN, or the resolution of the procedural piece.  C+

7.  One Good Turn by Carla Kelly.  Traditional Regency…well, as traditional as Kelly gets.  Reread.  A/A-

8.  Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic by Alison Bechdel.  Graphic novel memoir.  I’m going to have to check out her other graphic novels and check out Dykes to Watch Out For.

 

Aside:  the longer I read fiction by and about gay characters, the less comfortable I am using m/m as a descriptor, especially when the book is outside the strict genre confines of romance.

 

Audiobooks:

Dragon Blood by Patricia Briggs, narrated by Joe Manganiello.  Still like his voice for the book, but was a little less pleased with this audiobook, in part because some of the pacing for punctuation sounded odd and also because I noticed a fair number of incorrect words/pronunciations.  Examples:  scrape for scrap, noise for nose, etc.

Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch, narrated by Kobna Holdbrook-Smith.  The voice and style of the narrator lived up to the very distinctive (and to me enjoyable) sense of place and person conveyed in writing by Aaronovitch.  Will be getting the rest of the series.  I’ve also recommended the series to my brother-in-law, a big SF/F and audiobook fan.

 

Still TBD:

• review of Tigerland
• review of another Kelly book
• read and review holiday anthology

(List posted on the theory that writing the tasks down will make me accomplish them faster.)

October reading

Wow, this is pathetic.  What did I do instead?  (Oh, right, I read more fan fiction. And work material.)

1.  Mourning Heaven by Amy Lane.  M/m contemporary.  This book was an utter train wreck. F

2.  Easy by Tamara Webber.  New adult.  The Big Mis required a huge suspension of disbelief for me, and was pretty easily guessed at early on, which made me question the judgment/smarts of the heroine.  Who also felt a little Mary Sue-ish.  The MCs felt like 30 year olds inserted into the lives of 19/21 year olds.  Liked the book until the end, did not care for the final scene or epilogue.  C

3.  The Hot Floor by Josephine Myles.  M/m contemporary.  One of very few menages I’ve read that actually works.  B

4.  Tigerland by Sean Kennedy.  M/m contemporary, sequel to Tigers & Devils.  Absolute keeper.  If I can ever get past my urge to cut and paste pages and pages of quotes, I’ll write a review.  Mostly:  Simon’s voice!  A-

5.  A Rookie Move by Sam Morgan.  M/m contemporary.  Not well edited. Clunky writing. Big Mis, communication problems. MCs acted more like teenagers than adults. Thin characterization. Even though both POVs are used through out the book, at the important point one was dropped in order to create the Big Mis and conflict (failed).  C-/D+

6.  Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by J.K. Rowling.  Re-read.

Audiobooks:

• The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold
• A Civil Campaign by Lois McMaster Bujold
• Fair Game by Josh Lanyon
• The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde (in progress)

September reads

1.  Silent One by Kari Jo Spear.  DNF.  This had potential as a hybrid science fiction m/m, but the narration was painful and the pacing was clunky.

2-4.  Midnight Riot, Whispers Under Ground, Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch.  Urban fantasy.  I love this series.  As I’ve mentioned before, it’s got such a specific sense of place.  One thing I haven’t mentioned about Constable Peter Grant (narrator), which I really appreciate, is that he’s conscious of race and class differences in the UK which is so often not mentioned in the UK-set contemporary fiction I’ve read.  I even like that Aaronovitch makes Grant’s style casual and sometimes a little wobbly on the grammar.  Those aren’t typos or missed copy edits — when he misuses “me and her” vs. “she and I”, he’s conscious that he’s breaking the rule and argues with his governor about archaic grammar rules.  Rule acknowledged and intentionally broken.  Love it.  Which is totally contrary of me, since normally misuse of the I/me in combination for a plural pronoun irritates me.

5.  The Likeness by Tana French.  Police procedural/mystery.  Beautifully written, not a keeper.

6.  Delusion in Death by JD Robb.  Not bad but also not the best installment.

7.  Blue Blood by Susan McBride.  DNF.  Mystery.

8.  The Preacher by Camilla Lackberg.  Mystery.

9.  Chaser by Rick Reed.  M/m.  This book seriously disappointed me and pissed me off.

10.  The Edge of Nowhere by Elizabeth George.  YA mystery w/ paranormal thread and romance thread.

11.  Pressure Head by J.L. Merrow.  M/m mystery.  Eh.  So over amateur sleuths, especially those that are TSTL at the end.

12.  Campus Visit by Stella Huerto.  M/m.

13.  A Younger Man by Cameron Dane.  M/m.

Those last two were…not good.  Trope-filled and unoriginal.  The Dane book in particular was painful; it needed to be chopped in half at least.

August’s reading

Gunmetal Magic by Ilona Andrews.  Urban fantasy, spin-off of the Kate Daniels series, set in the same world.  Liked the different perspective on the Kate Daniels world, although I don’t like Andrea as narrator as much as I like Kate.  I am not sure I buy her transformation, to be honest.  In a more general observation about both series, I have a lot of questions about the world building, in part because the use of technology seems to be increasing in comparison to the early Kate books.  Is that a function of character? Or slight bending of original set up to serve plot?  I’ve noted in earlier comments that there is some wonky grammar and writing, which kind of surprises me given the editor of this series.

Lord John and the Private Matter by Diana Gabaldon.  Historical mystery.  DNF.  I liked Lord John Grey as narrator, but the whole plot felt Byzantine.  Also, bored and put off by the mooning over Jamie Fraser, whose appeal utterly escapes me as a reader.

The Last Run by Greg Rucka.  Spy thriller.  Third Tara Chace novel, and what appears to be the last with her as an active operative.  Enjoyed it.

When in Doubt, Add Butter by Beth Harbison.  Disappointing, trite, and predictable. Guessed the love interest at the outset, because it was clear that this was really just chick lit with a heroine who is more WF-aged (37). The heroine felt more like a 21 year old than an 37 year old, with a lack of plan for her professional life and disastrous personal life.  Not impressed at all.

Kill You Twice by Chelsea Cain.  Mystery/thriller/procedural.  As I mentioned earlier, not a bad book but the end of the series for me.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling.  YA fantasy, reread.

He Speaks Dead by Adrienne Wilder.  Urban fantasy, gay fiction.  (I hesitate to call it a romance.)  Mentioned earlier here.

But My Boyfriend Is by K.A. Mitchell.  M/m contemporary romance.  Liked it.

Broken Harbor by Tana French.  Mystery/procedural.  Beautifully written but I feel ambivalent about the plot.  Trying to articulate why, which may end up being posted.