Michelle Manus

michelle.m.manus

March 2021 Reading Roundup

Apparently I decided to make up for my lackluster reading in February by chain reading All The Things in March. Much of this was helped by my discovery of Lucy Score, and the addictive nature of her books. But more on that in actual reviews, below.

My New Lucy Score Obsession

Gosh, okay, so I heard Lucy Score on one of the podcasts I listen to, and she just seemed like such a cool, badass individual that I was like, sure, I’ll go check out her books even though there’s no swords or magic in them.

I’m not entirely sure this was a good thing to happen to me as I am now OBSESSED, but I am very happy about it. I read four of her books this month, so I’m just going to do an overall review of her writing style and then a quick 1-2 sentences on each book with links.

Overall: Her books are fucking hilarious. Seriously, I don’t know how she’s so consistently funny. I feel like humor is one of the hardest things to do well in a book, and to some degree authors just have it or don’t, and she definitely has it. If you want to laugh and feel better about life, go pick up one of her books. Probably any of them will do.

HEAT LEVEL WARNING: Lucy Score’s personal tagline is “Writing romances so steamy her family can’t look her in the eye.” If very explicit sex in books is not your thing, you’ll want to just skip right by these.

Mr. Fixer Upper: This was the first book I picked up by her and I just chose it at random. Romance between a producer on a reality home renovation show and one of the shows two stars. Does everything well. The love interests have great chemistry, and the book deals with sexism in the film industry. And, as promised, it’s hilarious.

The Christmas Fix: Sort of a sequel to Mr. Fixer Upper, it follows the second star of the reality home renovation show. Small town charm! A grumpy but adorable male love interest! Constant misunderstandings between the two main characters that lead to hilarity.

Rock Bottom Girl: If you’re feeling depressed about how your life turned out and feeling like you haven’t accomplished anything, let me give you this book about a 38-year-old having to recoup from recent job loss by going home to her small town and igniting an old high school flame. Definitely the funniest of the four I’ve read so far, which is saying something considering they’re all pretty funny. Also, JAKE WESTON IS SO HOT I MAY BE DEAD NOW. That’s all.

Forever Never: Okay, this is the only one I recommend with a caveat. And the caveat is totally personal and has nothing to do with the quality of the book. I loved the story line, the main characters, and the setting (small island community!). The caveat is this: I can handle a lot of sex in books. Like, A LOT. But this one, I think, actually hit the limit for me for number of sex scenes. So just bear that in mind. If you’ve ever thought to yourself, Gosh, I’ve never read a book that had enough sex scenes in it for me, then congratulations, THIS IS THE ONE FOR YOU.

Bitterburn by Ann Aguirre

Absolutely everything I could have wanted in a Beauty and the Beast retelling. Ann Aguirre continues to astonish me with her flexibility as an author. She writes everything so well, I am consumed with admiring jealousy. Seriously, she’s written science fiction, contemporary revenge thrillers, time travel, fantasy, contemporary romance, YA, and now fairy tale retellings, and they’re all just amazing.

This is a truly sweet, touching retelling, with a misunderstood beast and the woman who finds her place with him. The story has a gothic feel, with elegant prose and plenty of suspense.

Njal and Amarrah’s story is beautiful, and I love her determination to save him from a curse he didn’t deserve, when he’s absolutely positive there is no way for him to be saved (and he should have been right, but that’s not going to stop one very determined witch from getting her happily ever after…)

Amazon

Grave War by Kalayna Price

The long-awaited conclusion to the Alex Craft series is here, and it doesn’t disappoint!

I’ll admit, I didn’t see the end game of this series coming. Possibly because of the length of time between releases. I feel like, if I’d read all the books in one go, I might have had a better inkling of the big reveal. As it was, I still figured it out, like, two paragraphs before it was actually revealed, and that was very satisfying.

The Alex Craft books were already on my Urban Fantasy Recommendations page because they are just absolutely fantastic, and with the series now complete, I’m pleased to stand by the rec 100%.

I really hope to see more from this author in this author in the future.

Amazon | Kobo

Damage-A Ghost Squad Novel by Lilith Saintcrow

So Lilith Saintcrow writes predominantly things of the supernatural variety, so it actually took me a little ways into the novel to figure out that this was military/thriller suspense and not paranormal. Because I thought Ghost Squad might refer to actual ghosts, but apparently refers to the military unit. My bad for not researching.

I read anything she writes, however, because her writing is just SO GOOD, and Damage was no exception. This book deals with trauma in both the main characters (miscarriage & dissolution of a marriage for the female MC and PTSD for the male MC) but in a way that doesn’t beat you over the head with either, and feels very real and raw.

It’s a fast-paced, shorter read (57K). While technically a romance, it falls very light on the romance scale. No sex (I’m pretty sure there’s not even any kissing, if I recall correctly). So if you’re looking for a well-written, action-packed read, give this one a go.

Amazon | Kobo

Number of books I read this month that didn’t make it into the corral/I wouldn’t recommend: 2

What I’m Working On – March 2021 Edition

March has been the month of trying to have fun. As usual, I am failing miserably at the task, the primary problem being that, for all my thirty-one-and-a-half years, I still haven’t figured out How To Fun. I’m that obnoxious person that thinks “fun” is a word for a useful hobby, like home renovation, learning a new language, hiking until you want to die, learning vehicle repair skills, and on and on, ad infinitum. (I did all of these things for a long time and now I actively hate all of them. Well, okay, if it’s demo on home renovation I’m still down because sledgehammers are fun).

In my college years, I played Final Fantasy games because I finally had control of my finances and could buy a Playstation2 (don’t give up on your dreams, kids!), and I think that was the last time I had genuine fun without strong feelings of guilt attached to it. If I have free time, I feel like I should be working. If I’m not working in that free time, it causes me no end of anxiety. There’s probably a lesson in there somewhere about my childhood being a desperate bid for approval I never received, but whatever, that’s what wine is for *lifts glass in toast*.

Anyway, at some brilliant point in January I decided that the way to get around this need for “useful fun” was to write a Trash Novel. The Trash Novel was to be a simply-plotted novel I could tear my way through in record time, going overboard on tropes, cheesy dialogue, cliche heroes and heroines, and generally just not giving a fuck about whether the book was any good.

About 20k in, I became highly invested in the novel and now it’s an actual project *le sigh*. So I’m now 52k into Trash Novel 1 (spoiler alert, it’s a 7 book series) that will probably never see the publishing light of day under my actual name, because it is 75% pure smut that I am utterly thrilled about, but good heavens if my good ‘ole boy, bro-dominated workplace culture ever found it and attached it to me my work life would become so unbearable I’d probably have to quit my day job.

So. I’m on schedule to finish Trash Novel 1 at the end of the month. I finished Valkyrie’s Call at the end of February. It clocked in at 82.5k and I expect to add another 5-7k in revisions. In all likelihood it’ll clock in around 90k, finished product, which is about what Siren’s Song came in at. (Fun fact, if you’re weird like me and have an obsession with wanting to know what the word count of any book is, Kobo’s website will give you this info for any ebook they have for sale. It’s in the About This Book section. I love it so much).

Anyway, once Trash Novel 1 is finished, April is for deciding whether to dive into Aspect Society #3 or Nyx #3, and I just can’t make up my mind on which way to go. Because the editing process for the Nyx books tends to be longer, I suspect I should write it next, and bump Aspect #3 to later this fall. But then a lot of me also feels obligated to wrap up the Aspect trilogy because that series launched first.

That decision will probably be made as soon as I pick one, start writing, and immediately decide I wished I’d gone with the other one. This is how most of my life decisions get made.

And that’s a wrap, for March. I hope y’all are better at having fun than I am (like, seriously, seriously better). Drop a comment and tell me what you do for fun. I’m not going to lie and say I’ll do any of them (because, obvi, the anxiety of not working), but I will totally read them and envision strong feelings of fun and happiness. Maybe my characters will vicariously have fun for me with these activities you mention.

Take care out there.

Contact Form Failure

In true-to-Michelle fashion, I seem to have experienced a failure of technology. If you’ve used the Contact form on the website in the last couple weeks, know that I did not receive your message, which really bums me out.

I’ve deleted the form for now (or perhaps forever?) and put my email address on the About Me page. If you’ve sent me a message recently, please do resend it to: michelle@michellemanus.com

I promise, I do actually want to hear from you.

February 2021 Reading Roundup

Welcome back to another edition of the Reading Roundup, where I herd all of the books I read this month into a corral and rate them on things like attractiveness, form, substance, and generally just how fun they were to hang out with.

I don’t say mean things about books, so if read something I wouldn’t recommend, I don’t list it. For transparency’s sake, I will disclose the number of books I read that didn’t make it into the corral at the end of the post.

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

This is one of those books that is just absolutely up there on another level. The writing, the world, the magic, and the characters are all amazing. It is also a very difficult book to read. I am not usually one to relay trigger warnings on books. That said, The Poppy War draws heavily on ancient Chinese history, specifically the Second Sino-Japanese War, and she pulls heavily from some of the worst atrocities that occurred in that war.

I want to note that absolutely nothing is gratuitous/for titillation factor. I feel the author brings attention to and attempts to deal with this unpleasant history, and work through the horrors and lasting impacts of war and war crimes. But if you are triggered at all by war/torture/rape/mutilation and a host of other things that are oft-overlooked facets of human history and aggression, I would not read this. I do not personally have these triggers but, even so, the hardest part of this novel to get through still makes me a little sick when I think about it. Mostly because I recognize that these are things that actually happened, that human beings actually did to each other.

This book is an absolutely stunning accomplishment. But go into it with fortitude if you aren’t used to reading this kind of thing.

Amazon | Kobo

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

If you love fairytale retellings, Naomi Novik’s Spinning SIlver is among the best of the best, in my opinion. And I feel like we rarely get Rumplestiltskin retellings (though maybe there are a host of them out there and I am missing them?).

This book pulled me in entirely, one of those where I chain-read it in a day and was then sad that it was gone. If you want something that will absolutely make you forget the world exists, I can’t recommend this enough. And if you love it and you haven’t read Novik’s Uprooted, do yourself a favor and go read that, too.

Amazon | Kobo

Would I Lie to the Duke by Eva Leigh

I am absolutely loving Leigh’s Union of the Rakes series. I read the first book back in December, and this one absolutely lived up to my expectations. It was funny, charming, and as I’ve come to expect from Leigh, the heroines are smart and clever, and the men respect them.

The male love interest, Noel, is possibly the sweetest fictional duke I’ve ever read, and believably so. Jess, the heroine, is a clever woman with a head for finances and investments, who is trying to save her family’s soap making business after a fire destroyed their workspace. She poses as a Lady to try and secure investors, but ends up falling in love with Noel. Noel is accustomed to people using him to get what they want, and thinks he’s finally found someone guileless in Jess, who sees him for the person he truly is beneath the title of duke.

If Jess doesn’t go through with her plan, she’ll lose her business and her family will be torn apart. But if she does go through with it, she’ll hurt a man who doesn’t deserve it, and lose the love she’s just found. I loved every moment of this book. The next in the series, Waiting for a Scot Like You, just released, and I have it next in line to read.

Amazon | Kobo

Number of books I read this month that didn’t make it into the corral: 3. It was that kind of reading month.

Guardian of Chaos Cover Reveal

I got the final cover back today for Guardian of Chaos and it’s so pretty I CAN’T EVEN. I literally don’t have intelligent words to throw around today, so I’m just going to leave you here with the pretty image to look at. Bask in its glory, for it and the novel shall soon be released into the world. By soon, I mean March. It will probably be released in March. April at the latest. Enjoy!