On the Shelf: July 2026

July was really a reread month for me, which means I needed comfort and familiarity. When I'm struggling with my mental health "meeting" new characters is a lot of work. Luckily, the latest installment of the Veronica Speedwell series was a welcome visit with old friends, Veronica and Stoker. (I'm actually not cool enough to be their friend. Veronica would hate me.) And I eventually did rally and get to know several intriguing fictional strangers. Some of whom the general reading audience won't meet for a while—like the denizens of Beth Revis's Dragons of the Deep. OMG. I don't want to say too much this far in advance. Remind me to squee in late September or October. I will, however, rave now about Namrata Patel's The Truth About Isha. I've known Namrata for years and enjoyed every book of hers that I've read. This one hit close to home, because Alya is a protagonist who lives in her head. Insular, self-protective, prone to fantasy over reality. (Just tag me directly next time, Nam. lol.) The titular truth about Isha forces her out of her shell, but it's not all "Hooray, she's an extrovert now!" It's a rough ride for Alya, painful and poignant, but I'm glad I accompanied her on it.

The Reading Rundown
The Trouble With Anna by Rachel Griffiths (historical romance)
[Redacted] by TK (out 9/10, suspense, for professional review purposes) Shadows & Light by C.M. Nascosta (paranormal romance, novella)
The Truth About Isha by Namrata Patel (out 11/17, mainstream/women's fiction)
A Ghastly Catastrophe by Deanna Raybourn (historical mystery)
Dragons of the Deep by Beth Revis (out 1/26/27, romantasy, fantasy romance)
The Book Witch by Meg Shaffer (contemporary fantasy, magical realism)
Nowhere Burning by Catriona Ward (suspense, horror)

Backlist titles & rereads: Claiming the Courtesan by Anna Campbell was first up, and I wrote 75 percent of a thinky newsletter about it. I may not get to 100. I did keep going with historical romances, of course. Like Yours Until Dawn by Teresa Medeiros, His Forgotten Bride by Aydra Richards, and three of The Game of Dukes books by Grace Callaway. I didn't get to four because I had a hankering for paranormal high jinks. So I tore through all six of the Blue Blood Conspiracy books by Bec McMaster and Desire in the Blood by Zoey Draven. All of those titles were rereads! The only new-to-me book was Amanda Quick's Dangerous from 1993. (Quick's Surrender was one of the first historical romances I ever read.)

Currently reading: Heir by Sabaa Tahir and A Curse of Beasts and Magic by Jeaniene Frost.

On the TBR/wish list
Well Versed by Jen DeLuca
One For the Road by Eliot Fletcher
Captive Traitor King by Brigid Kemmerer
The Lines We Cross by Ausma Zehanat Khan
Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher
Empire by Sabaa Tahir
Nobody's Baby by Olivia Waite

On the Shelf: June 2026

It looks like my final count for June was 25 books—and what an amazing reading month it was! Kennedy Ryan's Score was worth the wait and worth the hype, gutting me quite neatly with Verity's journey. I'm not bipolar, I have other mental health issues, but I related so hard to her struggles. Every time I see someone with similar problems fall in love, it gives me hope. That's what a good romance does. It ends with hope, not just happiness. So, as if the smash-hit from Ryan wasn't enough, I also got knocked over by Kate Clayborn's The Paris Match and Shirlene Obuobi's paranormal romance Die For Me. Both books were so exquisitely written that my own abilities felt inadequate in comparison. And they're very different stories! Two clashing personalities trying to fix a destination wedding disaster vs. a driven cardiologist being swept away by a mysterious younger man. If you've been missing classic paranormals with vampire romance vibes, you need to meet Sean and Julian. They also kinda reminded me of Tia Williams's A Love Song For Ricki Wilde.

Before I dive into the lists, I also want to shout out An Ordinary Sort of Evil for delivering on the romance front. Kelley Armstrong is one of my favorite authors and I've followed her around different genres and subgenres. Her historical mystery series is slow-burn and so fun. This latest book had confessions of feelings!!! I was kicking my feet and slapping my couch in glee.

The Reading Rundown
Witch of the Wolves by Kaylee Archer (paranormal romance, historical romantasy-ish)
An Ordinary Sort of Evil by Kelley Armstrong (historical mystery)
Wild, Wild Cowboy by Elizabeth Bright (contemporary romance)
The Paris Match by Kate Clayborn (contemporary romance)
How Simi Got Her Groom Back by Sonali Dev (mainstream fiction, women's fiction)
Seduced By the Werewolf Highwaymen by Eva Leigh (out 7/7, paranormal romance, polyam/why choose romance, novella)
Die For Me by Shirlene Obuobi (out 7/16, paranormal romance)
Score by Kennedy Ryan (contemporary romance)
[Redacted] by TK (suspense, gothic-ish, for professional review purposes)

Backlist titles & rereads: A bunch of old Harlequin Intrigues were on sale in ebook form, so my first two reads of June were Heart of the Night and Echoes in the Dark by Gayle Wilson. I bought Wilson's Only a Whisper in paperback years ago, and it's definitely the strongest of the three—and still a fave—so, naturally, I had to reread it! (And, FWIW, it holds up. Except for the author's constant focus on the Colombian MMC's dark skin. Extra weird because the cover model is a white dude. lol.) Of course I had to get in my monthly dose of historicals, so I kicked off with a reread of The Ground She Walks Upon by Meagan McKinney and then the new-to-me I've Got My Duke to Keep Me Warm and A Good Rogue is Hard to Find by Kelly Bowen. The former was really good, featuring a pair who was a team from the jump and not automatically at odds—and had no duke actually involved (which I do not mind at ALL). Urban fantasy was my next stop, with rereads of Chaotic by Kelley Armstrong and Anne Bishop's Lake Silence and my first visit to Jeaniene Frost's Night Huntress series. I read the first four books in a row and then the spin-off First Drop of Crimson. I closed out the month by settling back into familiar territory, revisiting Simply Insatiable by Kate Pearce, Warrior Princess Assassin by Brigid Kemmerer, and Some Like it Wild by Teresa Medeiros.

Currently reading: Claiming the Courtesan by Anna Campbell.

On the TBR/wish list
Well Versed by Jen DeLuca
One For the Road by Eliot Fletcher
A Curse of Beasts and Magic by Jeaniene Frost
Captive Traitor King by Brigid Kemmerer
The Lines We Cross by Ausma Zehanat Khan
Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher
Nobody's Baby by Olivia Waite

On the Shelf: May 2026

I read a whopping 29 stories in May—or 25, if you count a bunch of novellas in a multiauthor anthology as one title. Most of that debatable number is made up of rereads of old favorites. Whether it was the intimate contemporary communities built by Molly O'Keefe and Alisha Rai, or the lush, richly-drawn Tang Dynasty China of Jeannie Lin's historical romances, or the dark and compelling alternate evolution of Earth in Anne Bishop's Others series, I found immense comfort in the journeys. It's like going to visit friends without ever leaving the house!

That's not to say I didn't enjoy meeting some new people this past month. Because Elizabeth May's dark romantasy The Wolf and the Crown of Blood was a great time. I am always here for a stabby female protagonist whose stabbiness is encouraged by her love interest. Plus, it was entirely possible that Evander would stab Bryony right back at any given opportunity. That was part of the tension of the book that I really appreciated. It was genuinely enemies-to-lovers with a believable emotional payoff. "Morally grey" as a descriptor has become almost a cliché, but May's god-kings actually embody it and take it a step further—in terms of their moral makeup being built different than that of humans. And so there's conflict inherent in how to reconcile different value systems as they fall in love. (This is something Anne Bishop does exquisitely in The Others books.) I can't wait for Theo and Bastien's book. They have a very different dynamic than Evander and Bryony's, and I'm excited to see where it goes.

The Reading Rundown
The Storm by Rachel Hawkins (suspense)
[Redacted] by TK (suspense/crime, horror, for professional review purposes)
The Wolf and the Crown of Blood by Elizabeth May (romantasy, dark fantasy)
Enemy of My Enemy by Alex Segura (suspense, noir, Marvel Comics tie-in)
The Starter Ex by Mia Sosa (contemporary romance)

Backlist titles & rereads: I tore through rereads of Molly O'Keefe's Everything I Left Unsaid, The Truth About Him, Burn Down the Night, and Wait for It. Then it was on to Alisha Rai's Forbidden Hearts trilogy, Hate to Want You, Wrong to Need You, and Hurts to Love You. I kept going with the beloved backlists and immersed myself in The Lotus Palace and The Jade Temptress, by Jeannie Lin— two of my most favorite historical romances. Naturally, I had to read three more stories in the series after that. Somewhere in there, I also fit in return trips to The Obsession, by Lin writing as Liliana Lee, and Sarah Mayberry's Her Best Worst Mistake. During my Lotus Palace residency, I realized that The Liar's Dice was somehow the only story I'd read in the Gambled Away anthology—which also features novellas by Rose Lerner, Isabel Cooper, Molly O'Keefe, and Joanna Bourne. I promptly fixed that oversight. I ended the month with another series reread—the five books in Anne Bishop's Others series. I closed out the month with Cold as Ice by Anne Stuart and another go-round of My Season of Scandal by Julie Anne Long. Oh, how I love Keating and Kirke!

On the TBR/wish list
Witch of the Wolves by Kaylee Archer
An Ordinary Sort of Evil by Kelley Armstrong
The Paris Match by Kate Clayborn
Well Versed by Jen DeLuca
How Simi Got Her Groom Back by Sonali Dev
Captive Traitor King by Brigid Kemmerer
The Lines We Cross by Ausma Zehanat Khan
Wolf Worm by T. Kingfisher
Score by Kennedy Ryan
Nobody's Baby by Olivia Waite