Sunday, February 2, 2025

On the Shelf: January 2025

The three frontlist books I read in January were all powerful in very different ways. I feel like Amazon's First Reads email tagged Sonali Dev's There's Something About Mira as a rom-com. Though it's funny at times, it's not a rom-com. It's very much a book about generational trauma and breaking cycles. I shed a few tears. Meanwhile, The Reformatory and All The Hearts You Eat made my breath catch and my heart pound—and inspired some shudders. Not just because of ghosts or vampires (and body horror), but because humans are worse than anything that goes in the bump in the night. Due and Piper's writing styles are very different, as are the stories themselves, but there's a devastating commonality at the core that feels even more relevant right now. Anti-Black racism and transphobia are evils that exist beyond the page. Those are the monsters we need to fight.

As for my backlist forays...whew. There are a lot of elements from older romance novels that just don't age well. Colonialism, casual racism, violence against women, underage heroines, etc. And yet I still reread a lot of those old problematic faves. I make allowances for elements in those books that I wouldn't accept in a book written today. I might have to unpack that in a longer blog post at some point. I also need to expound on Iris Johansen's utterly bonkers Wind Dancer series—after having a gummy and a glass of wine.


The Reading Rundown
There's Something About Mira by Sonali Dev (women's fiction, romance)
The Reformatory by Tananarive Due (horror)
All the Hearts You Eat by Hailey Piper (horror)

Backlist titles & rereads: I tried to keep sticking to rereads from my Kindle library in January and for the most part I succeeded—starting off with The Perils of Pleasure and Beauty and the Spy by Julie Anne Long, Tarnished and Gilded by Karina Cooper, and The Haunting of Maddy Clare by Simone St. James. A Woman Entangled by Cecilia Grant and Little Secrets by Megan Hart followed. But then my one-click finger slipped, thanks to Eileen Dreyer's hit-and-miss Drake's Rakes books: Barely a Lady, Never a Gentleman, Once a Rake, and Always a Temptress. I "punished" myself by rereading the trade paperback of my favorite Nora Roberts book: Honest Illusions. Then there was The Baron's Marriage Gamble by Theresa Romain, which was previously published as Season for Scandal, and another round with Ravishing the Heiress by Sherry Thomas. I pulled out the paperbacks again with The Wind Dancer and Storm Winds by Iris Johansen. Last, but not least, I checked out Don't Breathe a Word by Jennifer McMahon via Libby and finally got around to Six of Crows by Leigh Bardugo.

Currently reading: The Lotus Empire by Tasha Suri.

On the TBR
No Ordinary Love by Myah Ariel
The Butcher of the Forest by Premee Mohamed
Kills Well With Others by Deanna Raybourn
Ready to Score by Jodie Slaughter


Thursday, January 2, 2025

On the Shelf: December 2024

I'm sliding in the December reading list a day late. Since I did two other year-end posts, I think a little tardiness is acceptable. My count this past month is eligible to vote. Eighteen books! That brings my total for 2024 to 261. I kept making jokes throughout the year that reading this much was an unhealthy coping mechanism and that I might need an intervention, but it's actually the exact opposite. Joyfully consuming this many books meant my brain was open—that I had actual energy to read. There's been a steady climb as my mental health has improved due to the right combo of meds and therapy. I ended 2023 with 187 books. The year before that was 155. And 2021 was the absolute mental health pits, so I celebrated somehow getting to 100. I say it a lot—books save lives. But more than that, they keep us living.

To that end, I will cop to rereading Exit, Pursued by a Baron on Dec. 31 because I needed a mega-dose of comfort-via-angst. I'd read the book for the first time earlier in the year. I reached for it again because I needed it. Aydra Richards' fourth book in the series, A Deal With a Notorious Devil also hit the spot for me—as unerrringly as Chris's aim. How can you resist a book where the ne'er-do-well male lead chucks oranges at the heroine's unwanted suitors? I gobbled up two incredibly charming historical romances by new-to-me author Kat Sterling, too. You know how you buy more than one of a cute outfit in different colors? That's how I feel about finding a good author. I immediately want to read more of the same. I cannot wait to see what Richards and Sterling have in store for readers in 2025!

The Reading Rundown
The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year by Ally Carter (contemporary romance, mystery)
Return to Wyldcliffe Heights by Carol Goodman (gothic, mystery)
Make Room For Love by Darcy Liao (contemporary queer romance, f/f romance)
A Deal With a Notorious Devil by Aydra Richards (historical romance)
Exit, Pursued By a Baron by Aydra Richards (historical romance)
Tiny Threads by Lilliam Rivera (horror)
His by Opening Day by Kat Sterling (historical romance)
Snowed in With the Scoundrel by Kat Sterling (historical romance)

Backlist titles & rereads: I started December off with an old favorite—A Lady Awakened by Cecilia Grant and ended up circling back to Grant's A Christmas Gone Perfectly Wrong a few weeks later. I was in the mood for something dark and bonkers, which meant a revisiting of Ritual Sins by Anne Stuart. I then climbed into my Kindle library to refresh my memories of Evernight, Soulbound, and Forevermore by Kristen Callihan. Soon enough, I returned to new-to-me titles—like The Viscount's Inconvenient Temptation and The Earl's Holiday Wager by Theresa Romain (which were previously published as Season for Temptation and Season for Surrender) and The Werewolf of Whitechapel by Suzannah Rowntree. I wrapped up my year in backlist books with something that wasn't romance—gasp!Red Widow by Alma Katsu.

Currently reading: If I Told You, I'd Have to Kiss You by Mae Marvel and The Perils of Pleasure by Julie Anne Long.

On the TBR/ wish list
No Ordinary Love by Myah Ariel
Ready to Score by Jodie Slaughter
The Lotus Empire by Tasha Suri

Wednesday, January 1, 2025

Suleikha's Top 20 Romance Books of 2024

Here I am bringing another romance reading year to a close. How to pick 20 favorite 2024 releases when I read 261 books overall was no easy task—especially since most of what I read came from authors' backlists. (That means books that aren't recent. For my own purposes, I count anything from the last three years as new.) So, I'm bending my own "2024 releases only" rule to include two books that dropped in 2023: Will They or Won't They? by Ava Wilder and Aydra Richards' Exit, Pursued By a Baron. The latter knocked my socks off so thoroughly that I reread it on Dec. 31, so I feel like that needs acknowledging. To that end, I also have to do a special call-out of Judith Ivory's The Proposition. I finally got around to this classic title from 1999 in February and then devoured it all over again in August. I'm advocating for it to be the historical romance that gets recommended to everybody as the must-read of the genre, because I think Mick and Winnie deserve it. (Sorry, Lord of Scoundrels.)

But let's get back to 2024! You may notice that the bulk of this list consists of a) historical romances and b) self-published titles. You may also notice that there is no romantasy on the list when that subgenre dominated romance publishing this year. These things just speak to my personal tastes and should not be seen as a commentary on what traditional publishers and their authors are getting up to! (Some of my best friends are trad-pubbed. lol.)

1. 
Well Bred by Adriana Anders

2. It Had to Be You by Eliza Jane Brazier

3. One Kiss to Desire by Grace Callaway

4. Isabel and the Rogue by Liana De la Rosa

5. Haunted Ever After by Jen DeLuca

6. 'Til Heist Do Us Part by Sara Desai

7. The Lady's Last Mistake by Cara Devlin

8. Right Where We Left Us by Jen Devon

9. 
Say You'll Be Mine by Naina Kumar

10. The Finest Print by Erin Langston

11. Make Room For Love by Darcy Liao

12. The Pairing by Casey McQuiston

13. Exit, Pursued By a Baron by Aydra Richards

14. Lady Diana's Lost Lord by Aydra Richards


15. 
One More Shot by Anise Starre

16. Wild Life by Opal Wei

17. A Legend in the Baking by Jamie Wesley

18. Will They or Won't They by Ava Wilder

19. A Love Song For Ricki Wilde by Tia Williams

20. Do Me a Favor by Cathy Yardley



You can check out my 2023 list here.