April 2019 Book Roundup (Belated)
Jun. 4th, 2019 01:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rhysianaI have no idea if anyone is actually interested in these but me, but if I'm ever going to do an end of the year book recs post on my non-fandom-related public blog, it'll be useful to have these thoughts to look back on.
April was an odd month. I actually read quite a few books, but also a lot of fic for a fandom I'm not even in and have consumed none of the canon content for, so that was fun!
Let's start with the books:
The Reluctant Royals series by Alyssa Cole. I actually read the first of these last year, and then the most recent one in May when it came out, but I'm just going to review the whole series together because they are all collectively SO GOOD. The premise, as the series title indicates, is that each romance in the series features at least one member of the pairing being royalty in an unexpected way, but what makes the books stand out so much is how diverse and intersectional the cast is. Of all the pairings so far, exactly one person is straight-up white. (ETA: And he's explicitly bi/pan!)
The first book (A Princess in Theory) features a woman who grew up in the US foster care system and has been making her own way her whole life. She's now in grad school to become an epidemiologist, only to find out she's the lost princess ofWakanda Thesolo. The crown prince, noted international playboy, has just been trying to track her down so he can purge his romantic fantasies of the woman he was betrothed to as a toddler. Surprise! They fall in love instead. But not before the prince has to invite our heroine to Thesolo to cure an apparent plague outbreak, which (in a moment of vindictive pleasure for anyone who has dealt with academic politics) also gets our heroine the supervisory experience she needs for her degree, a thing people in her US lab seemed to be determined she not get. (Bonus: This book really does feel a lot like fanfiction dedicated to the concept of Wakanda.)
The second book (A Duke by Default) features the first woman's best friend, who recently figured out she's been living with undiagnosed ADHD her whole life, and is struggling to make that fit with how her parents have always compared her unfavorably to her overachieving (and physically disabled due to childhood illness) twin sister. In her latest effort to find direction in her life, she's taken an internship with a swordsmith in Scotland... who she discovers is the illegitimate son of a duke and a Chilean political refugee. He has no interest in the position, having never known who his biological father even was, but the current duke is such a bigot, he feels compelled to take it out of spite, which is a very relatable motive in today's political climate.
The third book (A Prince on Paper) features the playboy prince from the first book's best friend (who also showed up in the second book to help the character navigate matters of royal protocol) and the princess from the first book's cousin (daughter of the man who tried to poison the royal family). The guy is technically a prince, but as the stepson of the king, he's not in line for anything, so he took it upon himself to distract the paparazzi away from his younger brother after their mother died to give him the freedom to grow up. The woman has spent her whole life trying to live up to her controlling father's image of her perfect mother, who died giving birth. This book just about broke my heart, because both characters are such inveterate people-pleasers, and it's just so difficult for them to break the cycle and see it's hurting more than it's helping. (Bonus: canonically queer man who ends up in m/f relationship + nb side character!)
And then there are the between-the-books novellas! The first novella (Once Ghosted, Twice Shy) features the prince's long-suffering but ever dapper personal secretary and expands on the online dating romance she'd started in the background of the first book, but had her hopes apparently dashed. Finally, we meet her beautiful vintage-fashionista girlfriend, and get a great angst-with-a-happy-ending break-up/make-up story with a side of immigration politics.
The second novella gives us the story of the soon-to-be duchess's twin sister, who runs a successful website for geeky women (the use of which ties all of the female characters together throughout the series) but now finds she can't sleep without listening to the voice of her favorite puzzle-solving video tutorial makers. When she tracks him down, with the help of her internet research-savvy sister, it turns out he's in NYC to design the escape room at a con for her favorite anime... which he's not even a fan of! The horror. She must correct this. Nerd love ensues, with a side of accessibility and autism awareness.
The Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews. I've been following this series for... at least a decade now, and it finally came to a close. Annoyingly, this is a series where the publisher switched things to hardback editions midstream, so I started checking them out from the library while waiting for paperback editions, and then I forgot where I'd left off, because every single title is two words and starts with "Magic." So I went on a small book-buying binge to complete my set, finally, and just read all the ones I hadn't already owned as they came in, to refresh my memory. While the final book definitely didn't go where I expected it to, I think it made the end of the series even better. One of the things I've always loved about this series (apart from the worldbuilding, which is always an Ilona Andrews strength) is how much it feels like all the characters undergo real growth. This is a series that managed to have *both* an unexpected AND satisfying ending, because it was entirely in keeping with the characters and their relationships with each other.
(I also discovered there's now a spin-off trilogy featuring a character who was a completely despicable antagonist in most of the main series, the first book of which (Iron and Magic) technically slots between the last two Kate Daniels books, and I'm really kind of mad because it actually makes him likable? I'm glad I finished the Kate books first, because it gives a hint that Hugh's story must have redeeming qualities, so I was prepared, but goddammit I didn't want to actually like him. And now I do. Also his wife. Though I will say I don't think that book is quite as strong as the Kate books, due to being self-published, but I'm still going to read them, clearly.)
One Dance with a Duke by Tessa Dare. This is the first book in the Stud Club trilogy. An on-the-shelf spinster and habitual wallflower finds herself stepping in to claim a midnight dance with a mysterious duke who's been the talk of the Town all season in an effort to save her younger brother from his gambling debts. What she hopes will be a productive if somewhat socially awkward conversation during the course of a waltz turns into the possible ruin of her reputation when he first takes them, unaccompanied, to the balcony for some air, and then they're interrupted by the shocking news of a murder. Our heroine refuses to let a group of clearly uncouth gentlemen break the news to the deceased's sister, so she goes along and stays out all night... with obvious results. To be honest, this book is nothing new if you've read much Tessa Dare before, though it does have the addition of a murder mystery. Not my favorite of her books/series, but enjoyable enough to hold my attention to the end.
And now, the fic! Why I got sucked into reading through a long list of McShep Stargate: Atlantis fics when I've never actually seen the show (though I'm at least familiar with SG1), I really don't know, but that was very clearly a super high-quality fandom, and I definitely enjoyed my deep dive into it. I started with this amazing list, and then read through the rest of the archives of Speranza, astolat, and Resonant.
April was an odd month. I actually read quite a few books, but also a lot of fic for a fandom I'm not even in and have consumed none of the canon content for, so that was fun!
Let's start with the books:
The Reluctant Royals series by Alyssa Cole. I actually read the first of these last year, and then the most recent one in May when it came out, but I'm just going to review the whole series together because they are all collectively SO GOOD. The premise, as the series title indicates, is that each romance in the series features at least one member of the pairing being royalty in an unexpected way, but what makes the books stand out so much is how diverse and intersectional the cast is. Of all the pairings so far, exactly one person is straight-up white. (ETA: And he's explicitly bi/pan!)
The first book (A Princess in Theory) features a woman who grew up in the US foster care system and has been making her own way her whole life. She's now in grad school to become an epidemiologist, only to find out she's the lost princess of
The second book (A Duke by Default) features the first woman's best friend, who recently figured out she's been living with undiagnosed ADHD her whole life, and is struggling to make that fit with how her parents have always compared her unfavorably to her overachieving (and physically disabled due to childhood illness) twin sister. In her latest effort to find direction in her life, she's taken an internship with a swordsmith in Scotland... who she discovers is the illegitimate son of a duke and a Chilean political refugee. He has no interest in the position, having never known who his biological father even was, but the current duke is such a bigot, he feels compelled to take it out of spite, which is a very relatable motive in today's political climate.
The third book (A Prince on Paper) features the playboy prince from the first book's best friend (who also showed up in the second book to help the character navigate matters of royal protocol) and the princess from the first book's cousin (daughter of the man who tried to poison the royal family). The guy is technically a prince, but as the stepson of the king, he's not in line for anything, so he took it upon himself to distract the paparazzi away from his younger brother after their mother died to give him the freedom to grow up. The woman has spent her whole life trying to live up to her controlling father's image of her perfect mother, who died giving birth. This book just about broke my heart, because both characters are such inveterate people-pleasers, and it's just so difficult for them to break the cycle and see it's hurting more than it's helping. (Bonus: canonically queer man who ends up in m/f relationship + nb side character!)
And then there are the between-the-books novellas! The first novella (Once Ghosted, Twice Shy) features the prince's long-suffering but ever dapper personal secretary and expands on the online dating romance she'd started in the background of the first book, but had her hopes apparently dashed. Finally, we meet her beautiful vintage-fashionista girlfriend, and get a great angst-with-a-happy-ending break-up/make-up story with a side of immigration politics.
The second novella gives us the story of the soon-to-be duchess's twin sister, who runs a successful website for geeky women (the use of which ties all of the female characters together throughout the series) but now finds she can't sleep without listening to the voice of her favorite puzzle-solving video tutorial makers. When she tracks him down, with the help of her internet research-savvy sister, it turns out he's in NYC to design the escape room at a con for her favorite anime... which he's not even a fan of! The horror. She must correct this. Nerd love ensues, with a side of accessibility and autism awareness.
The Kate Daniels series by Ilona Andrews. I've been following this series for... at least a decade now, and it finally came to a close. Annoyingly, this is a series where the publisher switched things to hardback editions midstream, so I started checking them out from the library while waiting for paperback editions, and then I forgot where I'd left off, because every single title is two words and starts with "Magic." So I went on a small book-buying binge to complete my set, finally, and just read all the ones I hadn't already owned as they came in, to refresh my memory. While the final book definitely didn't go where I expected it to, I think it made the end of the series even better. One of the things I've always loved about this series (apart from the worldbuilding, which is always an Ilona Andrews strength) is how much it feels like all the characters undergo real growth. This is a series that managed to have *both* an unexpected AND satisfying ending, because it was entirely in keeping with the characters and their relationships with each other.
(I also discovered there's now a spin-off trilogy featuring a character who was a completely despicable antagonist in most of the main series, the first book of which (Iron and Magic) technically slots between the last two Kate Daniels books, and I'm really kind of mad because it actually makes him likable? I'm glad I finished the Kate books first, because it gives a hint that Hugh's story must have redeeming qualities, so I was prepared, but goddammit I didn't want to actually like him. And now I do. Also his wife. Though I will say I don't think that book is quite as strong as the Kate books, due to being self-published, but I'm still going to read them, clearly.)
One Dance with a Duke by Tessa Dare. This is the first book in the Stud Club trilogy. An on-the-shelf spinster and habitual wallflower finds herself stepping in to claim a midnight dance with a mysterious duke who's been the talk of the Town all season in an effort to save her younger brother from his gambling debts. What she hopes will be a productive if somewhat socially awkward conversation during the course of a waltz turns into the possible ruin of her reputation when he first takes them, unaccompanied, to the balcony for some air, and then they're interrupted by the shocking news of a murder. Our heroine refuses to let a group of clearly uncouth gentlemen break the news to the deceased's sister, so she goes along and stays out all night... with obvious results. To be honest, this book is nothing new if you've read much Tessa Dare before, though it does have the addition of a murder mystery. Not my favorite of her books/series, but enjoyable enough to hold my attention to the end.
And now, the fic! Why I got sucked into reading through a long list of McShep Stargate: Atlantis fics when I've never actually seen the show (though I'm at least familiar with SG1), I really don't know, but that was very clearly a super high-quality fandom, and I definitely enjoyed my deep dive into it. I started with this amazing list, and then read through the rest of the archives of Speranza, astolat, and Resonant.
