The Roughest Draft by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka was a BotW in March last year – and they’ve got a new book out this week – actually today in the UK (it was Tuesday for the US version). And given that I was talking about second chance romances yesterday it’s quite apt that this is about a music superstar who ends up back on tour with her college boyfriend after she asks him to go public as the inspiration for her breakout hit. And I’m not going to lie, this has a strong sniff of Taylor Swift inspired plot to it – i mean check out the US cover – but hey there’s a bit of that about at the moment, and I’m trying to judge the books on the actual writing and content and I’ve liked the guys before! I’ll probably be picking this up as soon as it’s at a price I’m prepared to pay…
This whole post was inspired by the first book – which I’ve already mentioned on the blog so I’m breaking my own rules again, but hey, who cares!
Knowing Me, Knowing You by Jeevani Charika*
This is a second chance romance with a sciencey twist: Alex spent a perfect New Year’s Eve in a bar together five years ago – but for what we shall call Romance Reasons it went no further and now New Year’s Eve guy is the one who got away. Until he turns up in her lab as the man charged with trying to get the medical tech start up she works for out of trouble. There was a little bit of “a simple conversation have solved all this” air to some of the conflict in the novel. That said, it’s charming and because you have sections from both the hero and heroines point of view it’s pretty low stress for the reader (even if maybe not always for Alex!) and as a bonus if you’ve read the previous two books from Charika you get to see some of the characters from those again.
The Ex Hex by Erin Sterling
This one has magic and a curse – but actually turns out to be less dramatic and angsty than you would expect from a plot like that. Rhys comes back to his old town because the key lines are running out of magic – but once he gets there the curse Vivienne put on him when he broke her heart. This has banter and is really quite sweet – much less angst and violence than you usually get in paranormal romances.
Count Your Lucky Stars by Alexandria Bellefleur
This was a BotW back in 2022 (you can read that review here) but this is a second chance romance between two former high school best friends who meet again a decade after their friendship turned into something more for a week and then end up temporarily living together for some more of those Romance Reasons. This suffered a bit from Just Have A Conversation syndrome and One Too Many Conflicts, but it also has wit and warmth and is a lot of fun to read.
And that’s your lot for today, but I’ve realised I have a ton of second chance romances still on the tbr pile – so you never know, I may be back with this trope relatively soon!
Always an interesting choice for Book of the Week after a holiday week, but actually this time I’ve picked a book that has a bit of a beachy feel about it – in one strand of the story anyway. Sadly my book poor planning means I didn’t take a photo of it on the beach with me, but you’ll just have to trust me that I was reading it there. You also can’t see the sand I shook out of it while I was taking this photo back at home!
Anyway, to the book: The Golden Hour is a twin timeline story about two women in the first half of the twentieth century. The first (and main story) is Lulu who, newly widowed, heads to Nassau to try and get an interview with the Duke and Duchess of Windsor. It’s 1941, most of the world is at war and the ex-King has been made governor of the Caribbean island. Lulu’s pinning her future on getting an interview with the former Wallis Simpson, but as Lulu gets closer to her, she realises that all is not quite as it seems in the Windsor marriage and in their circle. At the centre of it all is Benedict Thorpe, a scientist who has a lot of charm and even more mystery around him. And then there is a murder. Meanwhile in the very early years of the twentieth century, Elfriede is at a Sanatorium in Switzerland recovering from what would now be known as post natal depression after the birth of her first baby, but while she’s there she meets someone who will change the course of her future.
This is not the first time that I have recommended a Beatriz Williams book – she’s written a bunch of novels by herself and also with Lauren Willig and Karen White, all of which are usually twin timeline type stories. She’s one of the authors that I’m always looking out for – and this book particularly appealed to me because it mentioned Windsors in the blurb and I have always been really interested in the abdication crisis and what happened next – as you’ll know from the fact that Gone with the Windsors is one of my favourite novels and Traitor King was one of my favourite books of 2021. And this is where I need to flag that David and Wallis are leas central to this story than the blurb would have you believe. Yes, they’re there and they’re involved in the story, but the 1940s end of the story is mostly about Lulu and what happens to her and what she gets involved in. But if you want some World War Two espionage and two strands of romance then this is for you. It got me all teary on the beach at the end – and that’s a good thing.
And if you want more books from Beatriz Williams, I would recommend Her Last Flight – which is about a female pilot who disappeared on an attempt to break a flying record or Along the Infinite Sea, which is the third of her linked Schuyler sisters novels but which also has a connection to The Golden Hour. And I should also mention The Lost Summers Newport which is one of those collaborations I mentioned earlier which was BotW back after my last holiday!
I had a paperback copy of this one that came from the to read pile, but you can also get in on Kindle and Kobo. It looks like physical copies might only be in the very biggest of bookstores – Waterstones Piccadilly claims to have click and collect, but none of the Foyles do.
Well that was a fun week. We’ve been on holiday – which was delightful but also involved more sightseeing and less sun lounger time than usual, so the reading list is not as long as a post holiday one can sometimes be. This week is looking incredibly busy too, so who knows what next week’s list will look like – it’s all a bit of a lottery really. But still – what more could I have asked for – a lovely sunny week off work and good books to read in it.
As I’ve looked ahead at everything else this January, today I’m doing a quick run through what I’ve got tickets for so far this year – as always I do a lot of my buying last minute, but there are a few things that I’ve booked in advance as ever.
Let’s do the theatres first and this week coming I’m catching the very tail end of the run of Backstairs Billy in the West End. It’s a comedy about the Queen Mother and her “most loyal” servant and it has good reviews. Then in March I’m seeing a new version of The Time Machine which had a London run before Christmas and is now out on tour. Then there’s a big gap until July, which is when I’m off to see Imelda Staunton in Hello Dolly!
On the comedy front, there’s a couple in the box already – Rhod Gilbert in April and then Henning Wehn all the way in October. I’ve only got one music gig booked so far – Caravan Palace in April. We saw them in early 2020 in one is the last things we did before the world shut down so I’m looking forward to seeing them again. And finally – we’re off to the Athletics this year too. No not the Olympics, the last event before the Paris Games at the London Stadium in mid July.
And just writing this out has made me realise that I need to get booking some more stuff! There are some more things coming into the West End this year that I should really get the tickets in for.
I know. I said I wasn’t going to do this, but I’m justifying it because I’ve given you the non- series stuff last week – so this week I feel like I can give you the update on which of my favourite series have new books coming up this year…
Let’s go a bit chronologically because hey, I’m in charge. So in February we have the next in Jenn McKinlay’s Library Lovers series, which has reached number 15 with Fatal First Edition. And let’s keep authors together – so Fondant Fumble, the sixteenth in McKinklay’s Cupcake Bakery series is out early June. Keeping it mystery, but this time historical, we have a new Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes on the 13th – The Lantern’s Dance is book 18 in Laurie R King’s series. Also in February is the fifth and final book in Martha Waters’ Regency Vows series, To Woo and to Wed.
In March we have the next Veronica Speedwell – A Grave Robbery is book nine in the series and the blurb is promising Madame Tussaud’s meets Frankenstein but is also giving me strong thoughts of the Peter Wimsey short story with the very, very lifelike sculpture. If you know, you know. And before it comes out I need to read book 8 – which finally dropped to a price I was able to justify the other week. Also, while I’m talking about Deanna Raybourn, she’s announced a sequel to Killers of a Certain Age – but we have to wait until Spring 2025 for that I’m afraid!
I mentioned it last week but the next after that is the new Vinyl Detective novel, which is out in early April, so I’ll skip over that
No news on another Kate Shackleton, but Frances Brody does have a second book set in Brackerley Prison called Six Motives for Murder coming out in May, which really means I should get around to reading the first one which is in the pile in front of the pile. Also in May is another baseball-set story from Cat Sebastian. She’s not saying it’s a sequel to We Could Be So Good, just that You Should Be So Lucky is set in the same universe – so it probably should have gone in last week’s post – except that she only announced it on Tuesday this week. Hot off the press indeed – I’ve already preordered it.
Having mentioned one Sherlock Holmes inspired series; I should probably nod to the other, even though I also mentioned that last week Sherry Thomas’s Lady Sherlock number 9 is due in June – A Ruse of Shadows looks like it’s going back to Lord Ingram’s family for the main mystery.
I’ve only just read Birder, She Wrote and haven’t read Let It Crow! Let It Crow! Let It Crow! yet, but we already have the names and dates for this year’s two Meg Langslow’s from Donna Andrews: Between a Flock and a Hard Place is out in early August and Rockin’ Around the Chickadee arrives in mid-October. I continue to be in awe of whoever it is who keeps coming up with these title puns and long may they continue!
The fourth in Sarah MacLean’s Hell’s Belles series doesn’t even have name yet (or at least not that has been publicly announced!) but we do know it’s out in mid-September. And September also sees the long awaited Nightingale novella in the Rivers of London series. It’s called The Masquerades of Spring and you all know how much I’ve been looking forward to this – since Ben Aaronovitch mentioned it at an event for a previous book in the series.
I think that’s pretty much it – or at least all that I know about at the moment.
Happy Friday everyone, the good news is it’s time for the first series post of the year. The bad news is that I’m going to have to find another book to read for Ohio in next year’s 50 States Challenge – if I do it again next year, which is never a given despite the fact that 2024 is year five!
Anyway, today I’m talking about Emilie Richards’s Ministry is Murder series, about Aggie Sloan Wilcox, a minister’s wife in the small town of Emerald Springs, Ohio. Aggie isn’t a traditional minister’s wife – not just because she keeps stumbling across murders (although she does do that) but because she’s not going to make her husband’s job her full time job, no matter what the parishioners think – she’s got children to raise and being a minister doesn’t pay that well. But being a minister’s wife does mean than when she stumbles across bodies she has reason to be some what involved – especially if they’re parishioners!
They’re cozy mysteries – so relatively blood and gore-less, and the murdered person is usually someone you don’t like (or like less the more you know about them) and although the church and the church community is the setting for them, they’re not overly religious or preachy – I mean there’s no bible quotes popping up left right and centre. They’re really easy to read and very soothing in their way – despite the murders!
There are five books in there series and I wish there were more, because I think there could have been more plots – the house flipping strand, kid schools, rival churches all could have been exploited more. But as the last one came out in 2010, clearly I’m hoping in vain! Still Emilie Richards has written a lot of other books, so hopefully there’s something else in her catalogue that I’ll enjoy.
I bought the four I have secondhand – because that seemed to be the only way to get them. I read the first one as an ebook, but I can’t find them anywhere to buy anymore so not quite sure what the deal with that is. But if you spot them out and about they’re worth a look.
You all know how much I love a fake relationship romance so I had to mention that this is out today. Say You’ll be my Jaan is Naina Kumar’s debut and it’s been blurbed by former BotW authors Nisha Sharma, Linda Holmes and Sarah Adler as well as the Colleen Hoover one on the cover. This is the blurb:
Meghna has tried everything to find her jaan: blind dates, the dreaded apps, even attempting conversations with strangers. Everything except arranged marriage.
Then Seth, her best friend and the-one-who-got-away, asks her to be his “best man” and suddenly her parent’s taste doesn’t seem so bad. Which is how she meets the cranky but handsome Karthik, who knows marriage is not for him.
They’re the perfect match – if not the one their parents think they are making – and a deal is struck. They’ll announce their engagement: Karthik will be excused from his mother’s set-ups and Meghna will have a date for the wedding from her nightmares.
But how can you fake it and get away with it, when you’re not faking it at all?
Doesn’t that sound right up my street? I know. I’m looking forward to reading it!
For today’s Recommendsday I’m taking the opportunity to talk about a couple of books from last years read the USA that I hadnt got to yet!
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead
This is the story of an aviatrix in the first half of the twentieth century but intercut with the story of the Hollywood actress who is playing her in a biopic. Given my reputation with award winning bond, it may not surprise you that this was a slog for the first half. It has took me literal months to read this despite having bought it on Kindle to try and get it finished because I wasn’t prepared to lug the paperback around everywhere with me. The early stages of Marion’s story are so depressing and such hard work it made it hard for me to spend too much time with it at once. But once we got to the Second World War it really came alive and I read the last couple of hundred pages in a few days and the end was more satisfying than I had feared it would be.
Wild Dances by William Lee Adams
So this one is a little unusual because I know the author. William is one of the preeminent Eurovision bloggers but also someone u work with in my day job. This is his memoir about growing up in Georgia with a profoundly disabled mother and an undiagnosed bipolar mother, and that’s only the half of it. William discovered learning as his escape and it took him to Harvard and then eventually to the UK. It is a brilliantly written and almost heartbreaking in places, but I know that because I know William I might be biased. Anyway, even though it’s sold as how Eurovision helped him, it’s actually about much more than that, and if you know him as a Eurovision figure, don’t go into this expecting lots of ESC info because it’s mostly about William and his life from childhood onwards.
When in Rome by Sarah Adams
This is another famous person and normal person romance – in this case a slightly Taylor Swift- y popstar and a small town baker. This was my first Sarah Adams and I quite liked it although it was more New Adult than I was expecting I think, but I can’t quite put my finger on why. I liked the small town vibe, I liked famous people and normal people romances (go read Nora Goes Off Script if you haven’t already, it’s wonderful) and I liked the twist of it being the heroine that’s famous and the guy that’s normal. But something just didn’t click to tip it over into great for me. Hey ho.
And there you are, three more books and we’re done. If I was going to put links to all the other books from Fiftyt States that I’ve already talked about I’ve been linking all day, so I’m just going to point you at the wrap up post which had them all there’s for you already.
Making a bit of a change this week, and I’ve got some Japanese fiction in translation for you. I do like to mix it up a little when I can, and today is one of those weeks where I can!
Our hero is Rintaro, a high school student whose beloved grandfather had just died and left him his second hand bookshop. The trouble is, Rintaro is also going to have to close it down because his aunt is his new guardian and wants him to move in with her. Rintaro is shy and would rather be reading books in the shop than talking to other people or going to school. Then a talking cat appears in the bookshop and tells him he needs his help to save books. What happens next sees Rintaro and Tiger entering different labyrinths to try and free the books.
This is about a teenager and a cat and the friends he makes along the way as he tries to rescue books from people who are misusing and mistreating them. Rintaro has to debate the value of books and reading against people who are diminishing them. That might sound a little heavy but it’s actually a charming story about how a love of books and reading can help you in difficult times and is important in a world where things are changing fast. It’s not a massively long book but I read it in one sitting and was very sad it was over so fast. A treat for the bookish and something a little bit different.
My copy was part of my NetGalley back log, so it has been out for a while now. I’m not sure how easy it will be to get a physical copy – I don’t think I’ve seen it in Foyles’s books in translation section – or at least not with the cover. But it is on Kindle and Kobo and in audiobook.
Verity Reads Books (lots of them) 