On the Shelf: July/August 2021

I was lagging so badly at the end of July that I combined it and August into one post. And I don't want to add September! So, let's just cut to the chase. Here are the books I read in the past two months. 

The Reading Rundown
Kiss the Bride by Melissa Blue (contemporary romance)

Peter Darling by S.A. Chant (historical romance, m/m romance, trans Peter Pan retelling)
Beyond Scandal and Desire by Lorraine Heath (historical romance)*
When a Duke Loves a Woman by Lorraine Heath (historical romance)*
The Scoundrel in Her Bed by Lorraine Heath (historical romance)*
Naughty AF by Misha Horne (erotic romance, contemporary m/m romance)
The Hollow Places by T. Kingfisher (horror, science fiction)
A War of Swallowed Stars by Sangu Mandanna (science fiction, fantasy, Mahabharata retelling)
Reel by Kennedy Ryan (contemporary romance)
To Catch a Thief by Sloane Steele (contemporary romance, heist romance)
Twitch by Cate C. Wells (erotic romance, contemporary romance)
Forty by Cate C. Wells (erotic romance, contemporary romance)

Backlist adventures: Lady Be Good by Susan Elizabeth Phillips, and The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley. I also finished Night Hawk by Beverly Jenkins on the penultimate day of what the RomBkPod podcast has dubbed the annual Jenkins July!

Currently reading: The Hellion's Waltz by Olivia Waite. 

On the TBR/wish list
Well Matched by Jen DeLuca
Concrete Rose by Angie Thomas

* I want to add a little note about the Heath historicals. I read them back to back like I was inhaling a bag of potato chips, but they're incredibly gender essentialist. Even more so than what you'd usually expect from heterosexual romance novels. I actually didn't realize they were written recently until I checked the pub dates. Everything's "manly" and "womanly" and whatnot. The female protagonists losing their virginity is couched as "becoming a woman." (Like, wow, I didn't realize I needed to be dicked down to embrace my adulthood!) So if that kind of language gets to you, I'd avoid these.