rhysiana

Gotta get the May books out of the way before June is over so I can then post about the June books... I covered all the fantasy books I technically read in May in my April post because I was trying not to break up series reviews, so this is all going to be romance novels of various flavors.

Let's start with some historical lesbians!

Proper English by KJ Charles. ( Read more... )

How to Talk to Nice English Girls by Gretchen Evans. ( Read more... )

And now a m/f historical that's still queer: A Duke in Disguise by Cat Sebastian. ( Read more... )

Plus a straight m/f historical: The Duchess Deal by Tessa Dare. ( Read more... )

Now for some contemporary stuff:

Not Another Family Wedding by Jackie Lau. ( Read more... )

Play It Again by Aidan Wayne. (tl;dr: Adorable intersectional m/m!) ( Read more... )

I was right to distrust my 10-books-a-month pattern there, because indeed, it did not hold. This month I only read 4 books, in large part because I got hugely distracted by fic from fandoms I'm not even in.

First, the books:

Unmasked by the Marquess, by Cat Sebastian. ( Thoughts )

That Ain't Witchcraft (InCryptid series), by Seanan McGuire. ( Thoughts )

Mrs. Martin's Incomparable Adventure, by Courtney Milan. ( Thoughts )

The Fixer (Games People Play 1), by HelenKay Dimon. ( Thoughts )

Now for the fic. Funny story: Back when Inception first came out, we managed to catch the trailer for it at every single movie we saw for months. Plus it was on TV constantly. And it pissed. me. off. I refused to see it. Two years later, M came home with the DVD, borrowed from a coworker, and I still wasn't interested. He ended up watching it while I was out of the house doing something else. It'd been a good 8-9 years without seeing the movie, and I'd never felt the loss. I understood as much as I needed to about it to get pop culture references, and that was fine.

But then. Then. I saw a piece of adorable Sterek fanart, and the artist said the slogan on Stiles' t-shirt was from a fic by an author whose name I vaguely recognized (gyzym), so I clicked the link... and it was not to a Teen Wolf fic like I expected, but instead to an Arthur/Eames straight up coffeeshop AU, and it was adorable. Just perfect. The dialogue! I've Got Nothing to Do Today But Smile (The Only Living Boy in New York)

So then I had to watch the movie. (Which I did while M was leading his GURPS campaign, so he wouldn't know I'd finally broken.) And then I was prepared to read the whole glorious canon-compliant domestic series. The backstory building here! The way they both end up meeting the other's family! (The way they both fell for a person who looks on the outside like all the things they were trying to get away from!) Wherever You Will Be (That's Where I'll Call Home)

And then, just for kicks, the Hollywood film industry AU. we were once cinema gods in the night

Also, as a final bonus, this same author has written a Hawaii Five-0 McDanno fic so perfect I don't feel the need to read any others. Curving Like the Ocean Toward You

Apparently this is the year I start tracking my reading again! I used to do it regularly, but then I fell down the hole of reading predominantly fic and it didn't seem like the readers of my real-life non-fandom blog would appreciate fic recs properly, so it all just fell by the wayside. But! I've actually been reading other things again so far this year!

( A quick rundown of what I read in January: )