On the Shelf: December 2023

As much as I wanted to hit 200 books by December 31, I'm satisfied with a very respectable 187—23 of which I consumed in this last month of the year. Heck, I think I finished Rilzy Adams' fun and sexy novella, Boo Thang, in the last few hours of the year. As I'm sure you'll notice, I was pretty much still obsessed with historical romances on my way out the door—but the contemporaries I slipped in, like the aforementioned Adams, Trisha Das' Never Meant to Stay, and Kate Canterbary's Shucked, more than held their own. The Das book was actually a great lead-in for my viewing of Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani, Karan Johar's big-screen blockbuster that also deals with culture clashes within families, and I bet it would make a great movie too!

I'm also still on the hunt for good gothic romances, so A Dreadful Splendor, a 2022 release I missed, really hit that spot for me. It's a page-turner of a house-based mystery with a slow burn love story threaded throughout.

I'm putting together a separate post with my round-up of favorite 2023 romance releases, so stay tuned for that! 

The Reading Rundown
Boo Thang by Rilzy Adams (contemporary romance, erotic romance)
You're Not Supposed to Die Tonight by Kalynn Bayron (young adult horror, thriller)
Liar's Beach by Katie Cotugno (young adult thriller/suspense)
Shucked by Kate Canterbary (contemporary romance)
Never Meant to Stay by Trisha Das (contemporary romance)
Prince of Scandal by Nicola Davidson (erotic historical romance)
An Earl, His Valet, and Their Wife by Nicola Davidson (erotic historical romance, polyam romance)
What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall (thriller, suspense)
A Dreadful Splendor by B.R. Myers (historical mystery, gothic romance)
Keep You Both by Kathryn Nolan (contemporary polyam romance, erotic romance)
Charlotte Illes is Not a Detective by Katie Siegel (mystery, cozy mystery)
The Stranger I Wed by Harper St. George (out 4/23/24, historical romance)

Backlist titles and rereads: Yes, I am one of the last people on the planet to read Get a Life, Chloe Brown by Talia Hibbert—and what a joy it was! Hibbert's books always leave me with a smile on my face. Then I went even further back in time to Anne Mallory's Three Nights of Sin, One Night is Never Enough, and For the Earl's Pleasure. I may have read the first two before at some point, but the latter was new to me. And probably the best take on ghost sex I've read this year. lol. (I've read at least six books with non-corporeal copulation. Don't judge me.) As the month came to a close, I fit in a few more historical rereads from my own collection: No True Gentleman by Liz Carlyle, A Notorious Countess Confesses by Julie Anne Long, A Week to Be Wicked by Tessa Dare; Secrets of a Summer Night, It Happened One Autumn, and A Scandal in Spring by Lisa Kleypas. Since I was well entrenched in that space, and physically in the space of San Diego's Meet Cute Bookshop (such a great store!), I bought JAL's The Legend of Lyon Redmond, which I somehow never read before this.

Currently reading: Mickey Chambers Shakes it Up by Charish Reid.

On the TBR/wish list
Isabel and the Rogue by Liana de la Rosa
'Til Heist Do Us Part by Sara Desai
The House of Last Resort by Christopher Golden
Blood Betrayal by Ausma Zehanat Khan
The Curious Secrets of Yesterday by Namrata Patel