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.
For various reasons, January was a bit of a rough month for me, so I didn’t get as much reading done as I’d intended. I’m always on a quest to find new authors I can add to my Must-Read list, and I started a lot of books I ended up having to admit I just couldn’t finish. However, I did find one awesome new author, so let me start with her:
Temporary Wife Temptation (Heirs of Hansol) by Jayci Lee
This was one of those books where, after furiously reading it as fast as possible, I was delighted to discover the two remaining books in the trilogy were already out, and I chain-read them as well. As I mentioned, January was a rough month for me, and I desperately needed a book where I loved the characters and the romance, but the stakes weren’t so high I was going to be ugly-crying in my room at any point.
This was that book. The main characters, Garrett and Natalie, have amazing chemistry, and felt like developed, fully realized characters, which can be difficult to do in the shorter book-lengths allotted to Harlequin imprints. I also usually find it difficult to buy the fake-marriage plot, but again, this author really knocked it out of the park with creating a believable plot, and characters whose motivations and personalities were such that I could see them making the choices they did.
If you’re looking for a quick, easy read with sizzling romance, great writing, and not too much heartbreak before we get to HEA, I highly recommend this book, and the entire Heirs of Hansol series.
I guess I should also point out–considering pretty much everything I read is fantasy or some sub-genre thereof–that this is a contemporary romance series. Usually I don’t get on too well with books set in everyday reality but, *shrugs shoulders,* if the book is good, the book is good.
Blood Heir by Ilona Andrews
All right, January was an Ilona Andrews release month, so you had to know this would be on here! As usual, I am already resisting the urge to immediately reread the entire book. I did not resist the urge to reread a few key scenes, which I may, or may not, have done multiple times already.
Okay. So if you’ve read the Kate Daniels series (in which case you probably know everything I’m about to say) this book is set in the Kate Daniels universe, and follows Kate’s adopted daughter, Julie, as she returns to Atlanta to try and stop a prophecy. If you haven’t read the Kate Daniels books, you absolutely can start with Blood Heir as an entry point into the universe, but as it takes place several years after the end of the other series, it will by necessity spoil certain series plot-lines of the Kate Daniels books. I do honestly feel like it doesn’t spoil too much, so if you’re thinking of entering the universe, I’d say go ahead and start here if you want to.
SO MANY GOOD THINGS IN THIS BOOK. When you have characters as badass as Kate and Curran were in the original series, it can be difficult to move on to new characters and make them just as exciting, but as usual, Ilona Andrews does not disappoint. I think one of the funnest things about this book was that, for reasons you will discover upon reading, Julie no longer looks like she used to, so when she returns to Atlanta, none of her old acquaintances recognize her, and it’s necessary for her to keep it that way. I am a sucker for characters interacting with people they know without those people knowing who they are (I don’t know why, but that trope really does it for me).
Julie has also leveled up magically since the KD books, as have certain other side characters I will not mention because I don’t want to spoil anything if you’re a KD reader. I’m now curious about who would win in a fight between Kate Daniels and Julie (theoretically, as obviously they are family and would not fight) and I’m not sure what the outcome would be. Before I read this book I would have said Kate, but I am no longer so sure.
I could ramble on all day about how much I loved this book but I will just stop here and say read it if you want to be happy. That’s it, that’s the review.
Vengeance in Death by JD Robb (In Death Book Six)
So at this point, it is no secret that JD Robb is the Queen of Romance herself, Nora Roberts, but if you’re unfamiliar with this particular series, it is basically futuristic sci-fi/romance/mystery. I’d never looked at it before because I didn’t realize it had the sci-fi element, and I don’t read a lot of general mystery, but at any rate, twitter informed me of the sci-fi part and I was like, sure, why not?
The In Death series follows homicide detective Eve Dallas, who in book one gets together with mysterious, hunky Irish billionaire Roarke who, by this book, still has no other name. Is Roarke his first name? His last name? WE DON’T KNOW. The series is up to 50+ books and counting, so it could be a long time before we find out, if we ever do.
So, when a series is this long-running I generally expect a lot of repetition, and I mean that in the best way possible. Murder mysteries tend to be very formulaic, and if I choose to embark on a lengthy series of such a nature, I am mostly there for the ambience, the familiar characters and witty repertoire, and I really couldn’t care less about who did it.
All of which is to say, I am legitimately wondering if Roarke is going to be implicated for, or at least tangentially connected to, every murder in the entire series and Eve spends fifty some-odd books proving his innocence again and again and let me tell you, I totally hope that’s the case. It’s a plot-line that will somehow never get old for me, and like, it’s Nora Roberts so I trust her and all that jazz. PLEASE NO ONE RUIN IT FOR ME. I would like to spend the next forty books or so wondering about it.
So, given how many books there are in this series I am not going to review every time I read one, as you’d all get very bored of me saying, “Another fantastic edition to the series in which Eve almost dies, but solves the murder and makes hot, passionate love to Roarke, whom she clears of all wrongdoing,” but I did want to throw it in the mix in case you, like me, were unaware of the sci-fi element to this particular series, and that sort of thing is your jam.
Number of books I read this month that didn’t make it into the corral: 1