On the Shelf: April 2024

Look who finally got to all her ARCs! Tackling my treasure trove of upcoming front-list titles in April didn't quite get me to 100 books read this year so far—I'm sitting at 95—but I'm betting I'll hit it by the second week of this month, if not earlier. I actually deliberately backed off of finishing my last few books, because I've been concerned about the rate at which I'm going. At what point does media consumption go from healthy coping mechanism to unhealthy? I don't know. What I do know is that at least I'm coping with some very good stories written by extremely talented authors! 

Sara Desai's follow-up to last year's heist romance, To Have and To Heist, did not disappoint! Most of the "rom-coms" coming out these days are neither roms nor coms, but 'Til Heist Do Us Part is delightfully, deliciously, both. I want these two books to be turned into a movie or limited streaming series so badly, because the banter and hijinks are pitch perfect. Haunted Ever After, by Jen DeLuca, also brings a fair amount of comedy with the romance, but it's the ghostly components and the coastal Florida setting that really ground Cassie and Nick's love story. The book also left me wanting to try Cassie's favorite Publix sub. We do not have Publix in the Midwest. Sadness!

The Reading Rundown
Haunted Ever After by Jen DeLuca (out 8/13, contemporary romance)
'Til Heist Do Us Part by Sara Desai (out 8/20, contemporary romance, rom-com)
Untamed Shore by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (noir, historical suspense/mystery)
The Curious Secrets of Yesterday by Namrata Patel (out 6/1, women's fiction, mainstream fiction)
Pardon My Frenchie by Farrah Rochon (out 6/4, contemporary romance)
Murder Road by Simone St. James (horror, suspense, mystery)

Backlist titles & rereads: I started out with rereads of some dark romance antecedents: Shadow Lover by Anne Stuart and Riding Dirty and Shooting Dirty by Jill Sorenson. Then I dove into the three VIP books by Kristen Callihan that I hadn't yet read. Alas, Idol and Managed weren't for me. Exposed was my fave of the lot. And of course I had my obligatory serving of emotional support historicals. Comfort rereads of A Lady's Lesson in Scandal by Meredith Duran, Lady X's Cowboy by Zoe Archer, and What a Scoundrel Wants by Carrie Lofty. A stop on the Callaway Express with The Lady Who Came in From the Cold. Private Arrangements by Sherry Thomas. Some Like it Wicked, Some Like it Wild, After Midnight, The Vampire Who Loved Me, and Yours Until Dawn by Teresa Medeiros. I was kinda bummed because that last one in the Medeiros marathon fizzled out for me. I picked up a much-touted BDSM romance from more than a decade ago as a palate cleanser: Cherise Sinclair's Club Shadowlands. 

Currently reading: The Pairing by Casey McQuiston and Truly, Madly, Deeply by Alexandria Bellefleur. 

On the TBR/wish list
Death in the Spires by KJ Charles
Blood Betrayal by Ausma Zehanat Khan
A Love Song for Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams